WHEW! Sooooooooooooo glad the race day has come and gone. On to eating and sleeping!
So on race day, I got up at 4:15 a.m. to eat and get ready to head down to the start line. By the time I got there around 5:15, it was pure mayhem already. Athletes and spectators everywhere! I got bodymarked and headed to transition to pump the bike tires up and put the remaining items in my bags. As soon as I think I'm done, I realize my sunglasses are missing. SHIT. After a quick hello to my the Tri-Turtle Lisa B., I head out of transition to find my athletic supporters to figure out the sunglass situation. 112 miles on a bike with no sunglasses is going to be brutal. Kevin runs back to the car to see if they are there, but no luck. So he hands his to a nice volunteer in transition to put in my "swim to bike" bag. (We discovered the next day that he actually had MINE lol - no wonder I couldn't find them lol)
We all funnell down to the beach start, and somehow I find myself in the 3rd row back in the middle of the pack. Probably not a smart decision, but I survived lol Lisa B. describes the mass swim start of 2500 people as "underwater cage fighting". True statement. I was hit, smacked, swum over, pulled back, bruised up, the entire 2.4 miles. I am willing to bet I drank a gallon of water along the way. I also had issues with my goggles leaking, so had to stop probably 12 times throughout the swim to empty them out. The swim was 2 laps, meaning we actually got out of the water, ran about 30 feet and got right back in for another fun-filled lap of "underwater cage-fighting" lol My first lap was 42 minutes, which meant the 2nd lap was 47 minutes. Oh well...I was still 45 seconds faster than my goal of 1:30:00, so I'll take it. The water was a chilly 58 degrees, but it didn't seem to phase me. Alot of others weren't so lucky - one pro took a few steps into the lake and came right back out. She said the water was too cold and she was calling it quits for the day. A few of my friends spent over 30 minutes in the heated "yurts" after their swims, and trying to avoid hypothermia. At one point in the 2nd lap, a boat came by and created a bunch of huge waves, which prompted all of us to pop our heads up at the exact same moment. One guy yelled "Tsunami!!!" It was quite comical. Try swimming while laughing - it doesn't work well.
Transition 1 was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that I forgot to pack a towel in my bag, so had nothing to dry off with. Thank god they had rolls of paper towels in the women's changing tent. I had to get a volunteer to help me roll my sports bra down in the back because my hands were so cold and I was wet! So I finally head out of T1 ready to bike and am greeted by my athletic supporters - my friend Robin, my boyfriend, Kevin, my sister, Sonja, her husband, Jamie, their two kids, Tori and Jaden, my daughters, Brenda and Rachel, Brenda's boyfriend, Andrew, and Rachel's kids, Cadence and Hunter. It was awesome!!
The bike course was beautiful, but so freakin' hilly! Whoever said there were "rollers" was LYING. We also did 2 loops on this course, so actually passed the spectators 4 times. It was still a little chilly, so I started out with my jacket on. It got ditched after the first big hill. The crowd support was awesome both in downtown CdA and in the town of Hayden. After the first loop, I was totally dreading having to go back to those hills again. Around mile 60, my bike wouldn't shift into low gears, so would just spin and I couldn't get any speed up, but I was still moving and not really hindered too badly. My nutrition was good - I stayed on track with my Erin Baker's cookies (Thank you MeeMaw!!!), and grabbed my PB&J sandwich at the special needs stop around mile 60. Planned bike time was 7 hours, but with the hills and bike issues, I ended up at 7:38.
T2 was pretty uneventful as well. The bike catchers took my bike in an instant and I never saw it again (which was good, because I was soooooooooo done with it!). I decided not to change my clothes to make up some time, and it worked out just fine. Again, I was greeted by my athletic supporters as I headed out on the run - so glad they were there! It was nice to see familiar faces. I warned them that this run was going to take a while.
The run course was also two loops of 13.1 miles each and took us out of town along the lakeshore pathway and then back into town. There was one MONSTER hill before the turnaround. I probably socialized more than I should have, but it made the run much more fun and interesting. The 2nd lap, I ran quite a bit more than I did the first one and was actually feeling pretty good. I planned on a 6 hour run, and ended up at 5:56. Can't ask for more than that! The run support was great - one rest stop had volunteers dressed up as characters from the Wizard of Oz, another had them dressed as pirates and wenches. For some reason they hadn't put the rum in the coke they were handing out though, so I told them I couldn't drink it. As darkness fell, they handed the remaining racers glow in the dark necklaces.
The day went suprisingly smooth for me. I never felt overwhelmed, over-tired, that I wouldn't finish, never had any stomach issues, and really had a great time. It's true, the training is the hardest part, and race day is a piece of cake. Well, maybe not that easy, but it didn't hurt nearly as much as I expected. I still stand by my "First and Last Ironman" statement. If the training wasn't so time consuming, I might consider it. But I need to have more in my life than just train, train, train.
For now, I'm going to enjoy catching up on my eating and sleeping!
Thanks to all my supporters - Kevin, Robin, Brenda, Rachel, Cadence, Andrew, Sonja, Jamie, Tori and Jaden! It meant so much to have all my loved ones there to witness this! Our team had lots of other supporters out there as well, including my coach, Kristen.
Now, to figure out what's next on the bucket list...
