Go time. Everyone was just running and either jumping or diving in, and it was crazy. There was no way I was going to risk losing my goggles diving so I just jumped in and it was fine. I calmed my nerves by just concentrating on following Trey’s feet but there was a good bit of contact for a TT start, and I lost them shortly. I few times I was pushed under and pulled by the ankles. This really irritates me and I started to stop to kick the offender in the head before I was like “what am I doing??”

My plan was to swim hard-ish to the turnaround then lengthen out my strokes and get into a groove for the last 3000. I really worked hard to find a good draft but it never happened for very long. Everyone I found was either too fast or too slow.. or someone else wanted to fight for their feet.
I really really liked this swim course. I am a horrible navigator and have a lot of anxiety about going the wrong way. This swim reminded me of Chattanooga.. it was impossible to get lost. Chattanooga was also in the back of my mind because of the respiratory problems I have had that started on the swim there. I was careful to keep my breathing under control and felt like I could take a full breath. I kept repeating to myself “it will settle” which is my coach’s mantra for the beginning of the swim when you are taking it out hard and waiting for things to get under control
I really wanted to have a good swim because I knew that it would set me up for the rest of the day. I knew if I got out above 1:15, I would be bummed and would need to have a major attitude adjustment to get back on course.
I still am not the most confident swimmer… the distance between the turnaround and the first bridge seemed to take a long time. I had thoughts of “can I Really swim this far?” This was irrational considering the length of my normal weekday swims, but I bet I will always wonder that during IM swims.
When I got close to the final red buoy, I worked hard for the final few hundred meters. When I got out I could see a “5” on the clock. Was it 1:05 or 15… there was no possible way in my mind it could be 1:05. But it was!! I was soo happy I was about to cry. This may sound silly, but it was literally the high point of my day besides crossing the finish line. All my frustration with swimming… all the thousands of meters I swam alone at the pool… was finally paying off!!
Last year I would never have even dreamed about doing a non-wetsuit-legal swim or had the nerve to swim 5k or any of that. This year I Enjoyed my IM swim and crushed my goal! I wouldn’t have changed a THING about it… this was absolutely a best-case scenario for me.
The End.

Just kidding… haha. I didn’t see my parents or John and knew that they probably weren’t even expecting or looking for me yet. I was so elated about getting out of the water alive and swimming faster than expected that I missed the row with my bags and had to run back.. whoops!!

I had calculated 200 different ways exactly what watts I thought I could do, what I could do plus run well, and what would give me sub 11. I took into consideration my coach’s advice as well as the ever trustworthy qt2systems calculator. I finally decided on (what I thought was) a very conservative number for the first loop, then reassess for the second loop. This number range was designed to get me somewhere in the 5:52-6:05 range.

About an hour and a half in, I had a few thoughts about how long this was going to take and how bored and tired I was. Alarm bells started going off… it was way too soon to be thinking that!! I immediately started going over what I needed to do differently. Did I need salt? Caffeine? I got out my salt pills and immediately dropped most of the bag’s worth on the ground. Whoops!
I felt really bad by the two hour mark. The “low” I felt was much too low to be appropriate for 10 in the morning during an Ironman. This is something I need to figure out, because I still am not sure exactly what went wrong. I was feeling a little dizzy and lightheaded despite eating and drinking. Maybe I drank too much water on the swim and was getting slightly hyponatremic. Not sure. My chest felt slightly tight, so I stopped to use my inhaler. As an aside, I recently took and failed (or aced, depending on how you look at it!) a pulmonary challenge test designed to identify asthma. Although I tested positive, I am not fully convinced I have it, so I’m not always great about having my inhaler on hand. I am SOO glad I decided at the last minute to put it in my bento box!!
Soon after that, special needs appeared for the second time and I was able to get my salt and then used my inhaler again. I felt much better after that combination so I’m not sure which it was that got me back on on track.
My legs started coming back to life just in time for my piriformis to seize up at hour four. This is a new thing that has been bugging me since my bike wreck. I have been going to PT a lot but my piriformis really starts bugging me in aero. It is fine mostly if I am sitting up. The bad part was the course started flattening out right when it started hurting so I couldn’t take advantage of the flat ride back to town. I could get in aero if I wasn’t pedaling at all, so I was mostly climbing, coasting, or sitting up into the wind like a doofus.
The whole time this was happening I was watching my goal slip away and I knew it was over. I hated thinking about friends tracking me at home and thinking “oohhh not gonna happen for her today!” I also had some doubt about my ability to run a good marathon simply because my body had been acting wacky thus far.
Overall, I kept to my planned watts with no issues, BUT those watts didn’t get me very far with the inefficient way I was riding! I have come a long way on the bike this year, so I was bummed that I didn’t get it done. I spent the last bit trying to get over that disappointment so I could at least have a good run.
The best part of the bike, by far, was seeing my dad twice out at La Grange. He is the one who got me into running and stuff like that and has always been super supportive of me. In fact, my best memories from my marathon and other ironman were seeing my dad a bunch of times on the course, and him running the final miles of my marathon with me. Thanks Dad!

Coming off the bike, I was happy to see John, Jared, Todd, Ron, Amy, Angela (my gf from college who had a baby a week ago, yet came to see me!!!), Mike, my mom and the other supporters. Although I was having doubts mentally, they really lifted my spirits.
I saw that the race clock was at about 7:27:xx. I remember before the race telling John “If I get off on the run before 7:25ish, I have a shot!” Well I was a few minutes late and I knew the chance was gone. I decided not to look at pace and just try to jog easily below my ventilator threshold.
Up, over the bridge and back. It was HOT! Hotter than I had realized before. I tried to jog in the lines of shade created by the bridge. My tummy didn’t feel right. I was burping a lot and started to dry heave. The first out-and-back, about two miles in, and I knew it was all going to come up.
I believe Ron got an amazing shot of this. I mean, it was like, literally, everything I’d had that day. But I felt SOO much better! After that my nutrition plan went out the window and I settled into coke and water at every aid station.

My primary concern with the marathon was my calf. It has been so much better this year, but last year at Wisconsin, I ended up running beside the road on a dirt path, in medians, basically any patch of grass or dirt I could. That was the only reason I could keep running really… the little bugger doesn’t like running long on hard surfaces. When previewing the Loo course, I knew there was nothing to be had but cement.
So the whole time I was just praying and hoping the calf would cooperate. I wasn’t trying to be aggressive at all because of this issue. My plan was to just keep moving forward to mile 23 then “gun it” as my coach says.
Time went on and I actually started feeling better. I had fun cheering on the other ATCers that I would see on the out and backs. I started to feel more and more peppy… I saw Giorgia one time, who was looking great, and she seemed taken aback by my cheerful chattering. I was even singing with the Ford team girls who were dancing and yelling… very strange!
At one point I heard a motorcycle behind me and it was just idling along there. I started to wonder if I was going to get some kind of penalty. What could I possibly be doing wrong? Then I saw it was the media vehicle filming Nina Kraft, who was about to pass me on her second loop. I moved out of the way, but was probably in the shot for a good bit. She wasn’t moving along as good as she usually was. Look for me on the IM broadcast… my three seconds of fame.. haha!
Another high point was seeing all the ATCers along the way, both the racers and the ones who came to cheer. I had told my dad that if I was doing well to keep giving me splits on how I was doing in my age group, and if not to just not tell me. I told him to expect me like 20th on the swim, 15th on the bike, then I’d see how many places I could make up from there. Well it turned out to be the complete opposite… I was 15th on the swim, down to 20th on the bike… so there was way too many spots to have a shot at running into rolldown territory. Anyways, I noticed that my dad was giving me splits at first, then stopped, so I figured I just didn’t have enough real estate left.

As time went on I felt like maybe I was safe with my calf, and it wasn’t going to tear or seize up. At mile 23 I decided to just go for it and ran the last three pretty fast. I was feeling kindof choked up and like I might hyperventilate, but I just wanted to make it to the finish (preferably before 11:10)

I was able to run quite steadily the whole time… although the splits on the IM don’t say so.. but those are always off. Actually those dang splits messed me up bc it looked like I was really slowing down so John ended up missing my finish! I ran 8:20s minus my puke stop and a porta-potty stop until it was time to “gun it.” Since my calf held up okay I think I can afford to be more aggressive next time. Yes, next time. I said “never again” on the bike and I was tempted to throw it into the river, but of course I’m going to keep going!!

Afterwards I reconvened w/John, parents, and friends and got some food and a massage. After getting my stuff and showering, we went to have dinner and watched the last finishers come in. All in all, I was SO impressed by how well the ATCers did. Most of them came in before their expected finish times. This seriously needs to be utilized as an ATC marketing tool.

Excited to do it all again at FL… if I can get this hip thing figured out. Hopefully faster 