A's race report: IM UT 2010

Where to start? After all, this is an ironman race report, and an ironman is a fairly epic day. Then again, it is also just a race (sorry, just started to read Three Cups of Tea and it is hard to take a silly race to seriously with that as a counter reference). Anyways...... I'll make this a race report to me, again, so I can continue the learning process.

This race I have had trouble sleeping, and only got one good, solid, over-7-hour night of sleep in the 5 nights before the race. I was feeling fresh and fairly rested, but was slightly unnerved by this unusual turn of events. It is something I'd like to prevent in the future, and may even consider OTC sleeping pills if it happens again. Normally, once my head hits the pillow, I'm sweetly dreaming nearly instantly.

Race Morning:
Anyways, when the alarm went off at 3:30, I was not as fast to rise as I might be with better sleep, but soon I was dressing in my chosen race apparel, sloshing on the first layer of sunscreen, and donning my warm, warm, warm warm-ups while downing some instant oatmeal, coffee, and apple juice. I pocketed a large banana and a peanut butter packet, and grabbed my transition bag, which was already loaded for the 4 drop-offs I needed to make: special needs bike, special needs run, T2, and stuff for T1. Luckily, I also remembered to stuff my wetsuit in there the night before, it had almost been left neatly hanging in the closet.

We got onto our school bus, got a seat together near the front, then were moving out into the dark morning on the ride out to Sand Hallow State Park. I was a bit wound up and the chatter of the other passengers was making me a bit nervous, but soon the bright lights of the transition area came into view and we were unloading into the cold morning air. Bathroom, air in tires, bottles/fuel on bike, more sunscreen (including sharing some with a QT2 girl and Beth) and it was time to shimmy into the wetsuit and drop off the morning clothes bag. Then we joined the other racers and moved towards the beach.

As soon as we were able (shortly after the pro start) E and I waded into the chilly water and swam a few strokes away from shore. It was cold, but we soon adjusted and swam some more to further acclimatize and warm up. By the time we had 5 minutes to go, we moved to the second row of starters, all the way out to the left, by the blue kayak. All was well until the guy next to me decided to tread water using a breast-stroke kick and clobbered me with every whip of his feet, I moved left and avoided him. Then the cannon fired and we were off.

The swim: 1:06:14
The course was a counter-clockwise rectangle. My swim was uneventful for the first two sides of the course, but then I seemed to want to veer right (outside of the race course) on the 3rd side. There was also a light chop here coming from the front/right side during this section. By the time I was nearing the island we swam around I had to pee, but try as I might that did not seem likely to happen. Then, as I rounded the island and was leaving it for shore, I was finally able to find some relief, and warmth in my suit, as my bladder relaxed enough to empty itself.

T1: 6:29
Up the carpeted boat ramp, through the wet suit peelers, grabbed my bag, and fast baby steps on my Popsicle feet into the women's change tent. It was already crowded! I glanced at my watch somewhere in between setting out my socks, shoes (already wearing their toe covers), helmet, and glasses and saw 1:11. SLOW! Oh, well, time to try and force the tight knee and arm warmers onto my wet skin and get moving. I got a volunteer to help in the tug of war with my clothing and she even helped me don my full-fingered gloves before I stuffed my feet into my bike shoes, clipped on my number belt, and tossed the aerohelmet and sunglasses onto my head. Then I was running toward my bike. The volunteer there to grab it for me was not ready, but since I was the first bike on the rack, right by the isle, I just grabbed it myself and kept moving. After the mount line I tried a flying mount (practiced all fall during cyclocross) but only managed to knock off my rear water bottle, which I needed for later on. I retrieved the potential escapee, mounted successfully, and rode onward.

The bike: 6:25:38
I got on the bike and started to motor. I felt good, but very chilly in my still-wet race top and shorts. I was safely and legally passing lots of people, and trying to get in some liquids. Soon I found my rhythm and we were out of the park and onto the roads into Hurricane. I tried to settle in and find a strong steady pace since were were in for a nice hard bike ride and I wanted a chance at a good run afterwards. E passed me while we were on the frontage road to I-15 at about mile 20 of the bike (right before starting to climb up Red rocks Parkway). This was earlier than expected, but I had a slower-than-normal swim, so I tried to not let it get in my head and just tried to keep him in sight along with a girl from my age group that had just passed me and was keeping speed with him. They slowly pulled away from me, though, and soon I could not spot E's race suit up ahead. She would come back to me, he did not. Onward we motored.

I was fueling well and my the aid station in Santa Clara I was dropping bottles and picking up water to fill my front bottle and mix into the rotation with my concentrated nuun-carbopro solution. By the time we were passing the village on the Indian reservation I had to pee again, and luckily there is a downhill right after that where I was able to do so.

The remainder of the first loop and the entire second loop were not too eventful. I survived the 4 cattle guard crossings in each loop, picked up a bottle, or two, of water at all but one aid station each loop, took in the right amount of calories every 30 min, got warmer, got chilly, got warmer again, did not grab my special needs bag, and bombed that lovely downhill as fast as I could. We did not race on the disc wheels, and that was likely a good call with the crosswinds on the decent, but the rest of the course could have gone either way, nothing was very, very steep or excessively bumpy (I did not like the bumpy patched sections, but they were no worse than CO-36 between Boulder and Lyons). The most interesting parts were 1) when an older male racer passed me going uphill and exclaimed "you make the scenery even better," 2) climbing the steep, but short, hill after Gunlock and having another racer say "this must be the wall" to which I replied "Oh no, no, no, just wait, the wall is loooonger," and 3) looking at my Garmin at one point and trying to do math which had me figuring on being lucky to break 8 hours on the bike (I biked slow, but not THAT slow).

T2: 3:33
The end came quicker than I expected and I ended up leaving my shoes on my feet and running with them into the change tent. My volunteer was awesome. I tried to pick up my bag of gear as I was running through the isles of transition bags, but she already had it and carried it for me into the change area. I forgot to take off the knee warmers before tying my shoes but was able to bunch them up and get them off in one quick motion. I decided to run in my training shoes (Nike Lunar Glides) and to tie the normal laces rather than using elastic race laces because they fit better and don't move that way. I grabbed my visor, fresh sunglasses, fuel belt with one concentrated bottle of carbopro-nuun, and ditched the heart rate monitor and strap since they weren't reading and since I didn't want them for the run. Then I was off and running.

The run: 3:58:36
I had some goals for the run: run the whole thing (no walking), nutrition (and no potty stops), and set a PR. I did all 3! I also wanted to run between 3:30 and 3:40, that did not happen this time, but I gained some major confidence which will roll with me into the next race where I hope to tackle this last goal. I started out thinking of light feet and finding a rhythm for the first 2 miles. Then I just kept plugging away. At the turn around on the first loop, I felt good, and just focused on holding steady back into town and running, not shuffling. I was hot most of the first loop and grabbed plenty of ice-cold sponges at every aid station and drank a cup or two of water at each, too.

At the ~11 mile mark, as I was heading into the Ford Inspirational Mile for the first time up in the golf course parking lot, Sully (Eric Sullivan) passed me on his way to the finish (and an AG overall win) and proclaimed "today, we are LIONS!" With that thought in my head, I soldiered on, strong and fierce.

As I moved through special needs at ~12.9 miles, I grabbed another fuel belt bottle and left the extra clothes. At the halfway point, you swing intoxicatingly close to the finish line as you run a circle around a round-about in the road, then you head back out for lap 2. All was proceeding as planned, and a quick glance at the watch told me that if I held the same pace, I'd break 4 h and PR for the run. With that happy thought, I found my focus and began to slay the final lap of my marathon and my ironman. It hurt. A lot. There were times when my sloshy stomach slowed me a bit, but as soon as I could, I picked it back up. And my body, and mind, let me do it this time. I started to get COLD and stopped taking sponges. I considered the chicken broth, just for warmth, but passed that up in fear of botching my still-working-just-fine-thank-you-very-much nutrition. I passed a lot of people out there, and was passed myself by faster racers, too. I saw E, Beth, many of the women's pro field, Sandy Cranny, and offered encouragement and cheers where I could. And I focused. I knew I was moving much slower than I had hoped for, but I was moving, and did not stop once, not one step, to walk and let my tummy settle. I ended up taking in 2-3 salt pills between miles 18 and 23 as I noticed some crusty residue on my clothes, and I felt good, just tired and sore up until mile 24, then I was getting really cold, tingly, and my arms got stiff and my hands stopped working.

Just before mile 24 I grabbed a cup of Gatorade, then nothing more for nutrition until after the finish line. The turn and hill up to the loop in the golf course parking lot was not too bad the last time through, but the decent back to Diagonal Road and the long straight away to Main Street were PAINFUL. I was progressing to zombie status and knew I needed to get to that finish as fast as possible. I was glad Diagonal road was all a gentle downhill and I tried to pick up my feet and float down hill as fast as I could. The turn onto Main Street was blissfully sweet as the finish line was now in sight and the grade became steeper, almost letting the road propel me there with no more effort required. As I headed into the finish chute, I pumped my fist twice in triumph of a race executed as planned. What JOY!

Total: 11:40:30
After crossing the finish line, all I wanted was a massage. My lower calves were trashed and my back was uber-tight. My catchers asked for my t-shirt size and I said "small" which has worked 5 times before, but this time they were giving out synthetic-fabric shirts that are sized smaller than the normal cotton ones and a small is really, really, really small. I think it is women-specific in cut, so I should probably have a large. This one might be going to my nearly 2-year-old niece for dress-up, as it won't fit on any adult I know. Then I walked on towards massage and food. I got on the massage list and grabbed two pieces to cold pizza (I thought it would be hot, it was not, ugg). Then I spotted E and I melted. The day was done. I was tired to the core (and wondering how all my gear was getting back to our hotel, a mere 3 -4 blocks away).

We eventually made it to the hotel, dropped our stuff off (and made a mini-tornado in our room, at least that is what the evidence suggested), showered, and headed to Nielsens for Frozen custard Concretes before they closed. Best. Post-race. Food. EVER. Especially the chocolate-almond concrete (like a DQ blizzard, but WAY better). Then we headed back to the hotel and I napped lightly while E puffy-panted in the NormaTec MVP.

He told me I was 7th in my age group, less than 12 min out of third, and I started to get sad. Could I have gone harder? Should I have biked faster? Could I have "given it" more on the run? Luckily, I have one more chance to go for it at Lake Placid in July.

It has been over a week now and my recovery is going well. I bounced back faster than average for every-day-feeling-good kind of activities, but still detect an endurance cap on my run and cycle fitness. My swim is going well (maybe even faster than before the race?) and the run/bike are coming around, I just feel no need (nor have any need) to go very fast right now, at least for another few days.

And that, my friends, summarizes my race pretty well, right down to the after-effects of elation, then self doubt, then motivation to go "no holds barred" and give it my all at Lake Placid in a few (10.5, but who's counting) weeks.

Finally, St. George was a great town, with great people, for an Ironman. We have planned to take a break from Ironman for a bit after 2010, but both agreed that we would be willing to race here again. It was fair, hard course, and we both felt that we have some unfinished business with the course and want another chance at the challenge it offers.