I haven't really slept - can't get comfortable. And I have no desire to be outside in the cold and wind the rest of my trip here unless it warms up. But that's about all the negative things I can say about the big day - the rest went just as planned, just as I had hoped.
So to recap –
Saturday November 6th, my 45th birthday, we (my friend Crystal and I) got up at 4am, took too many pictures of me getting ready (like it was my wedding day or something) and got a cab down to the corner of Front Beach ave (as close as we could get race morning) with my special needs bags. It always feels like a pilgrimage walking silently in the dark with hundreds of others to the lights and noise up ahead – almost tribal. The morning was frigid, mid 30’sF, so after walking all my bags to transition, filling up my water bottle on the bike, etc., most of us huddled indoors until almost 6:30am pulling on our wetsuits and clearing our heads.
As I walked over the swim timing mat with 1000 others, they were playing one of my favorite songs - Snow Patrol - 'If I lay Here... would you just lay with me and just forget the world...' That brought tears. I lost Crystal going through the mat, only had six min before the start to look for her, gave up after three and got my head in order. (That meant I was leaving my $3.99 yellow crocs on the beach but Crystal has a touching picture of finding them after we all were on the swim – that picture brings tears too. She took such great care of me throughout the day.) Staring out over the water, I was strangely calm, it seemed, true to Vin's words, that the harder part was getting to the starting line. All the training and testing (racing) and more training. Now came the easier part. I know how to swim, bike and run. This was longer, but not really different. And I had so much pent up energy from my taper, I really couldn't wait to begin.
No warm-up swim since the air temp was 37F but the water itself was warm (72F) and soft, chaotic with bodies and then with waves. I started in the middle of the middle (right-left, front-back) and I sighted every stroke until the second buoy and the water opened up enough to not have to look forward to watch out for arms and feet. Goggles got knocked to the side once, but not violently, and I got one foot in the face, again, not too bad. I was never pushed under and never got an unexpected mouthful of water that wasn't from a wave so I was happy. The Zendurance concept of merging with the water and the Total Immersion clinics of being soft while moving forward are what came back to me during the swim. The water was 70's off shore and cooled 7-10 degrees as we came in. When I stepped out of the water after the first lap it was 42 minutes. I was happy with the time and looking forward to the next lap, wishing the whole race could be as soft and warm but knowing the easy part was ending soon.
Coming out of the water was frigid and being a slow swimmer, the wet suit stripping area was covered with sand (from the thousand before me). I had to half strip then lay down on ice cold sand to get my wetsuit stripped off in seconds. Luckily, the fresh water showers were warm enough, the folks in the changing tent wonderful. I haven’t been as thoroughly dressed by someone else since I was five years old! Before the race everyone was freaked about the low temperatures, possibly high 30's at the bike start. I was not all that convinced I had enough warm gear to put on, still in shorts(electric blue), but the bright yellow compression sleeves and socks kept my legs and feet warm, the long sleeve bright yellow compression shirt, blue arm warmers and my orange shell kept my core warm. But I think the yellow neck scarf was key to keeping out the wind and providing constant warmth around my neck and head.
It was pretty windy, face-on, the first 17miles, and although I could keep the speed over 15mph, when we turned onto a new highway and it was effortless to go over 20mph, only then could I feel how much wind there was. A healthy headwind was there for ~1/3 of the bike in our face, as much at our back and milder for the rest. My average bike time doesn't show it, I bet I was between 20-30min on rest stops, but I was 17-22mph for most of the ride. The new race wheels are great and I'm very happy I had them. So many rest stops, and so long, because every 20 miles I had to pee. It was way too cold to even consider pissing the bike. It was only after mile 40 I took off my shell and it was still pretty cold with the headwind. When I saw, with 32 miles to go that I could make under 7 hours, I bargained that if I didn't waste my legs, if the wind was with me, and I didn't start missing the nutrition, etc. I could go for it. It all fell into place and I was ~7min under the time estimate at mile 80! That was nice.
A full change of clothes for the run to keep the chill off. I kept my bike shell in case it was too cold in the wind but never put it on. At the half on the run I switched it out for the red USA shirt which was perfect. I was thrilled to be starting the run before 4pm, started off with a decent pace that I kept throughout the running portions. I was going for the 9&2’s (run/walk Galloway method)) or 8&2’s, etc. but wound up timing it with the water stops. Since there were so many and I did want to stay as close to 9min miles as possible, I'd skip one here and there and was doing ~0.7 to 1.5 mile runs with 2-4 min rests between. I passed hundreds on the run and felt strong throughout. Coming back into town at the half marathon point just after sunset, I still felt good. I told myself that past 13.1 it was my treat - walk the whole damn second loop if I wanted to, run the whole damn thing - whatever I felt like. But I found I didn't want to stop! In the end it certainly wasn't faster than Galloway, but I ran 2-2.5 miles at a time, stopped for nutrition for less than a minute usually. My running pace was slower, but I enjoyed just letting myself go - just Go! I was still a bit careful before mile 22 because I was expecting to hit some wall, possibly, at some point - but nothing too worrying. My stomach needed to be babied that last 4 miles, everything made it hurt and now, in the post race to wee hours I've discovered it was a huge amount of gas working its way through. Too many gels in one day I suspect. The last mile was a pretty decent pace, just enough to make me want the finishing sprint and to put on a good strong show for the finish line. I thought I'd be more emotional - but I was just happy! Soooo happy!
Post race was still frigid. Crystal took me to the massage tent, grabbed my dry clothes, got food and a beer from the VIP tent (she’s always making friends, very important friends). She had an amazing day in the medical tent; treating hypothermia on the swim exit, broken bones on the bike and a few dehydration cases on the run. Mostly the very, very skinny athletes – no buffers inside. One guy passed out on the run at mile 24, pzainful. I saw a few zombies like that, mostly as I was still on my first loop and they were stumbling through the end of their second. I'm happy I never felt even close to that.
Crystal relayed congrats from Kim, Vin and Woody who she texted after I crossed the finishing line. I got four texts and two voicemails from people who watched me cross the finish line on TV - my mom and stepfather, my sister and her family in California, Annette and Tracey, Kim and Vin, my friend Nathan in South Carolina and Russ and Neil from Pfizer. I would love to have been able to watch that myself. I guess I'll just have to wait for the photos. When I called home Harry was thrilled but had not followed the race at all. He was impressed with my marathon time (4:37) after 9 hours of race already and amazed I didn't have cramping issues - he thinks there might be something to Cross Fit after all...
It will be another whole post to tell you all the thoughts that got me through - from the blog entries I was writing in my head on the swim (on how similar you wedding day, the birth of your first child and your first Ironman are), the question of who it was behind me tickling my feet through almost half of the second lap of the swim (every 6 strokes or so - I can't believe someone was drafting off of me!), imagining my coaches shaking their head every time I came out of a porta john (about 5X on the bike and 6X on the run - at least I know I was hydrated!) to calculating my times throughout and NOT having to readjust them much hours later, and finally, as I approached the finish line with the thought - I am 45 years young today and dammit, I am an IronMan! Then there’s Jack Chen, the blind guy who was racing with us today, I saw him on the podium Thursday night after the moving video of Ford Ironman’s Hero – Jack Chen. He had sight until age 16, although legally blind, then in a series of botched eye operations, he lost both eyes. I caught him with my camera Friday at Tri-bike transport as I was getting my bike and then I saw him throughout the race. We passed each other 4-5 times on the bike and twice on the run. Each time I called out to him, he was having a great time - he finished in 13:45 - just amazing.
Pascale Buchter of TriNet led the Connecticut pack with 10:52 (amazing), then Tim Watson from Pfizer with 10:57, he was beyond thrilled - the race of his life he said, then Tyler McCauley of New Haven Fitness not far behind with 11:01. (I hope he didn’t want 10:59.) Add in my 13:30 for a first IM (Tim & Tyler too) and that’s not bad at all.
Sleeping has been the last thing my mind and body want to do. I'm a bit uncomfortable, but mostly just wired. At least I can write!
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