Ironman Arizona - TriathlonFull Ironman

When the gun went off, everyone went crazy trying to jockey for position. I was swam over, kicked, punched, and everything else I expected from an Ironman mass swim start. I never really got into a groove because everytime I would start swimming well, I would swim into someone or get knocked around. I lost my goggles twice and never found open water.

On the way out, the sun had just risen over the horizon and we were swimming directly into it so it was difficult to sight. As a result, I just followed the pack in front of me and we ended up veering about 50 yards to the left of the buoys and had to be corralled back in by the kayak volunteers.

Around the halfway mark, everyone seemed to spread out a little bit so I didn't get banged around as much. I thought it would be really easy to draft with so many people, but that didn't really work out haha.

With all the confusion in the water, the finish came quicker than expected. Before I knew it, I looked up and I was just 200 yards or so from the swim finish.

Sight and draft better.

Exiting the swim was the most terrifying experience of my life. After being in the murky water for nearly 1.5 hours, the exit was a sensory overload. Within 30 seconds, I had been yanked up the 10 stair swim exit, had my wetsuit stripped down to my waist, tripped over someone, fallen down and got pushed down by 2 volunteers to have my wetsuit totally stripped off. All while being a little disoriented and having throngs of people cheer and yell wildly just inches away from me. It was insane.

After that, I ran to the bike gear bags and had some trouble locating my stuff. Grabbed it and went into the changing tent where there were NO seats. I stood and unpacked my bag, but I couldn't feel my hands because of the cold swim. It took me a good long while to get on my cycling clothes and stuff my pockets with gels and my flat kit.

Pack my bag in a more convenient fashion. I just had everything randomly thrown in there.

Good ride! I stopped once every lap to give my mom a hug near transition, and I also stopped 20+ times to pee. Literally. I had a bad experience with dehydration at BSLT 70.3 and I didn't want a repeat, so I overdrank this time.

My entire goal on the bike was, literally, to use as little effort as possible. I just wanted to get the distance done and I wasn't concerned with time at all. As you could have guessed by my overall pace haha.

With that said, my bike went well. There was a stiff headwind on the way out during the first loop, but then I cruised it back in. Everything went fine on the loop, and I was busy enjoying the experience and checking out the themed aid stations.

On the second loop, the winds turned into a crosswind that stayed for the rest of the ride. Everything was still going well.

I was pretty tired on the third loop. The way out was pretty rough and there weren't many people left on the bike. It was pretty sad haha. At the turnaround I had a little tailwind that helped me get back home.

Train. :)

There was a bike catcher there who I gladly handed my bike to, then went and grabbed my run bag and changed. I don't know what took me 7 minutes. Maybe I blacked out or something.

Not much.

1st loop: walked the aid stations
2nd loop: 10 minute run, 5 minute walk combo
3rd loop: 5 minute survival shuffle, 10 minute walk combo

This run was brutal. From my first step, my legs were cramped. I ate as much as I could grab at every single aid station during the whole run haha. The course was really nice.

On the first loop, I was doing alright. It hurt, but I expected that so I knew how to deal with it. I just kept a steady pace, albeit slow, and again simply enjoyed the fact that I was in an Ironman.

On the second loop, I altered my run/walk strategy because the aid stations were sporadically placed and it was tough to get into a rhythm trying to walk them. It worked out alright, and it was pretty easy to maintain my 10 minute run intervals. At my special needs bag, I pulled out a long sleeve tech shirt since it was dark and getting chilly.

When I got to the third loop, I wasn't really sure how I was going to make it haha. I felt like someone had steamrolled my body from the waist down. Every part hurt and I kept stumbling in the dark. 9 miles might have been another full marathon!

Quitting never entered my mind. After all that been involved in getting to that point, quitting wasn't even a possibility. I did wonder if my body would allow me to make it to the finish line though. The only way I wouldn't finish is if my body collapsed and the volunteers were scraping me off the sidewalk.

I kept thinking of a sign I saw that an athlete's family member had made that said "Today, conquer the world, tomorrow, rest." That became my motto for the last 9 miles. I kept thinking of that and all my friends and family that had traveled to the race to give me support.

Without my support crew out there and all those people who cared enough about me to show up, it would have been 10x harder to finish this race. They all gave me the motivation and courage I needed to finish strong (relatively, anyway haha) and I can't thank them enough.

Next thing I knew, I was turning down the finish chute and was blinded by bright lights and camera flashes. I'll remember that for a long time.

Nothing.

As soon as I crossed the finish line, I collapsed. I have a habit of doing that. They took my picture and volunteers walked me to the "time-out" chair until I could walk again haha.


The fact that the race was 140.6 miles.


I didn't do a whole lot of training for this race, and my only goal was 16:59:59. I'm really happy that I completed it. For the next one, I plan on training more and nailing nutrition so I don't make 40 bathroom stops over the course of the day, and hopefully knock a couple hours off my overall time.
:)