Ironman 2010 Journey

Ironman takes up 5 whole days of excitement. I have started with the Thursday before Ironman and will end with race day. If you want to just read about race day, please scroll down to Sunday, July 25. I hope you enjoy reading about my journey...

Thursday, July 22, 2010

We began Ironman weekend with a pre-race massage to work on my lower back which had decided to start to spasm on Sunday. I had been to the Lake Placid Massage place every week now and then twice this week to help me deal with all of the pain that I had been feeling during workouts and was hopeful that Tim could make all of my muscle soreness a little less pronounced – he had done wonders on my calf when that was spasming on me. After the massages we went SHOPPING!!!! Since we had done Ironman in 2009, Joe and I felt that we could purchase things ahead of time this year so that we weren’t left with the weird sizes the day after and didn’t get what we wanted. After shopping, it was time for us to go and check in. This is where I realized that this was going to be a completely different experience from last year. Not only was race management different and had forgotten Joe when they assigned bib numbers but it was set-up differently in the gym for registration. There was also no anxiety, there was no worry in me, I had been here and done this before and knew what was to come. After we were done, we walked up Main St and had some lunch at the Crepe place then headed back down to the oval to see if they had Bakers Breakfast Cookies, put in our Ford Motivational Mile sayings, and then out to our cars to go for a bike ride. This was a test ride, again. My bike seat had been changed out 2 weeks before Ironman day because it was unbearable to ride on and I needed to make the change and then on the 1st ride with a new seat, my aerobar pad broke and I had to get a new set of aerobars as well. All of this change had allowed me to have positioning issues with IT band pain and back pain. Melinda and I were going to do a nice easy 16 mile ride. We road down the last 7 hills of the course, down River Road, and then back up the hills to the car. I hadn’t really been climbing much in the past 2 ½ weeks so this felt great to do in preparation for Sunday. My IT band was still really sore on the ride though but my back was finally blissfully pain free. I was still so worried about the bike due to this pain that we went to the local bike shop and asked them to give us any suggestions. All they could suggest at this point was to lower the seat a little more and hope my body held up on race day. At this point, we just loaded up our bikes in the car and went home to get some dinner and then head to bed early to get some much needed rest.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Woke up and stretched for the millionth time this week to loosen up the IT band and lower back. The IT band was so tight that night that I couldn’t sleep as I wanted but at least my lower back wasn’t the reason I wasn’t sleeping this time. Ate some breakfast and headed into Lake Placid to go for a swim in Mirror Lake with Melinda. It was a gray, kind-of rainy, cool sort of day. When we arrived in Lake Placid, we noticed the second change in the race – they were no longer being sponsored by Gatorade which had run a bag check last year and gave out free stuff, they were sponsored by PowerAde now and they were not running the bag checks this year. Also, none of the buoys were out yet for race day. This was the first time we noticed how many athletes were in town for the race – there was one person after another going out to swim the course and all you saw in the water were swimming arms (a beautiful site if you ask me). We got into our wetsuits just as the drizzle started and headed out into the water for a nice easy swim. The entire way it was pretty choppy – I thought of how this was good practice for race day! People were passing left and right while I was meandering through my 1.2 mile swim and again, I embraced the experience for more mental preparation for race day. When we were done I noticed that it was the fastest I had swam the loop in the entire training for Ironman which was surprising as I was really taking it easy. We headed for home after the swim to eat lunch and then go out for a short bike to test the slightly lowered seat position. The bike didn’t go as I would have expected but I figured on race day I would just suck it up and gut it out if my back or IT band was bothering me – I didn’t train this hard to let one little thing put me out of becoming an Ironman. My dad cleaned and lubed my bike, checked out my tires, and then we stored it away for the next morning. That evening we went to the athlete’s banquet which was so exciting and motivational. I love seeing all of the other athletes. As a no-longer Iron-virgin, we new what was coming and enjoyed listening to the stories of the biggest losers, the Everyday heroes, and the voice of Mike Riley!!! We skipped the “mandatory” athletes meeting as that brings on greater stress for me and I already know not to draft, how to signal to the lifeguard that I am in trouble, and the cutoff times (oh, boy do I know the cutoff times). Home we went to my parents and our first visitor Erin and to pack all of our special needs bags and transition bags.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Woke up after having a very sleep-less night. All I kept thinking about was that I was missing things in my transition bags. Had some breakfast and started packing the car to bring our bikes to the transition area. I went over my transition bags again checking my checklists for the 3rd or 4th times, looking at my pictures to see that I had everything in the bags. We packed up the car and headed up to Lake Placid with Erin and all of our stuff. We rode the course so that Erin could get a view of the hills on the course and appreciate what we were going to be doing on race day. All I kept thinking was “Wow, that was a long car ride, and I have to do that plus more on race day!” We went into our transition area, I found my spot for my bike and racked it, put on my bento box, and aero water bottle then went to put my bags in their area. Because Joe was not given a number until Thursday, his bike was in the first bike rack when you entered the oval and his bags were on a table on the side of the racks for the bags – this is another weird thing about this new race organization – they allowed in 450 more athletes this year without making the proper adjustments/investments to accommodate all of these people. Lake Placid was a mad house at this point, so we walked up Main Street for a couple of minutes then headed back to Keene Valley to wait for some more guests and get ready for the early bedtime. After greeting Alynn and Sam at the camp, eating pasta for dinner, making cytomax carbo-pro cocktails, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, we were headed to bed by 8:45 pm.

Sunday, July 25, 2010 – Race day

Waking up at 4 am is not my favorite thing in the world to do but since I didn’t really sleep last night, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I turned to Joe as soon as the alarm went off and said “In 20 hrs we will be Ironmen all over again and this will all be over!” It was cool and gray outside with a little light rain. We ate breakfast – surprisingly I actually wasn’t nauseous while eating, just excited for the day to be over so that I could sit and relax tomorrow. (Is that what this was supposed to feel like the 2nd time around?) We were out of the house by 4:50 am and headed into Lake Placid. When we got there we were lucky to have other people willing to bring our special needs bags up Mirror Lake Drive for us so that all we needed to do was go to transition, setup our bikes with our fluids, and hit the porta-potties. As I am waiting with Joe, we hear our names being screamed from above the oval from Sam and Erin who had spotted us already. Body marking was next and went off without a hitch even though one of the athletes was yelling at the volunteer who was going to put a smiley face on her left calf and she thought this was appalling. I lost Joe for the first time during this stage and it happened multiple times over the next 30 min when I would run into people I knew and he would keep walking not realizing I had stopped to say good luck to someone. We met with our family and friends in front of the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery, put on our wetsuits and waited for Melinda to join us but her wetsuit zipper had come off and people were trying to figure out a solution to this problem. We left Melinda and Christine with a “good luck” and went out in search of the medical tent to hand in my inhaler, then into the water where we waited patiently.

Swim – It hit me as we were standing there that I was really freaked out. I hadn’t really thought of race day jitters because I felt sure of myself before the race but here they were. I wanted to cry, puke, scream – something to help release the anxiety. Then the cannon went off, Joe said goodbye to me. I waited a minute then started swimming. Almost immediately I was passing people just bobbing. Then I was thrust into a chaotic realm of arms and legs flailing with choppy waves hitting me in the face when I was trying to breathe. It was obvious that there were 450 more people in the water this year than last year. I was always running into people who I was faster than and then having to come to a complete stop to find a way around them as every time I tried to make a lateral move someone was there too. I would follow someone who appeared to be on the line and going in a straight line for a while until I would get blocked in and then have to find someone else to follow along but couldn’t see anyone because of the waves. I was swimming dodging the arms and legs until I got a nice swift heel to the right goggle – wow that hurt but I remained calm and kept going. I was getting face-fulls of water every 3rd breathe so I swallowed my fill of lake water along the way. I finished the 1st loop to Mike Riley calling out my name and was excited how easy that felt. The first loop was 46 min (perfect for me) and I figured I would have some room on my second loop but then I looked up and realized how many people were around me and knew that wasn’t going to happen so I just started swimming again. This time around it was just as crowded and violent as the first time around but I came out unscathed in 1 hr 35 min – not exactly what I wanted but it will do. I knew I was slower than last year and I immediately knew I needed to just let it go and move on with my day.

T1- The wetsuit strippers took off my wetsuit for me, I ran through transition and heard my name from Daci (I got really excited since I was her mentor for running this spring and thought it was great that she got to see me doing what I love now) then heard my family yelling for me. Bike shoes on, helmet on, sunscreen on, sunglasses on, food in my bike shirt pouch, and I was out yelling my number “2447, 2447, 2447” like we were told but no one showed up to give me my bike and I had past my rack so I went back, retrieved my bike and then headed out while eating sharkies. As it turns out, I guess most people had to get their own bike this year – not sure why but there didn’t seem like there were enough volunteers. The T1 time was 8 min 50 sec, which was better than last year by 1 min 42 secs.

Bike – My goal after the swim was to take in 1 full bottle of Cytomax/Carbo-pro within the first 30 min of the bike so that I could hydrate and get calories in after the swim. I was going up the 1st hill out of Lake Placid and heard my name – it was Jenn and Andrew yelling for me. I even felt so good at this point that I joked with them about being at mile 60 already since the 60th mile marker was on this hill. I flew down the Keene hills – most people were up on their brakes but since I train on these hills, I know them so well. My max speed for the day was a 46.6 mph!!! I got to the flats in Keene/Jay and knew I was pushing too hard. I kept telling myself to back off but my body was feeling ok and I was afraid of not finishing within the time frame. My IT band was feeling pretty good though. I had a great cadence going because this was part of the strategy to keep the IT band feeling good and I think it helped on the first lap but then came the 2nd lap. I finished the first lap in 4 hrs 10 min which was right around my planned time. The 2nd lap started with a PB&J sandwich and then me feeling extremely sick to my stomach. The hills out of Lake Placid felt easy, I bombed down the hill just like the first time but this time I had a wind at my back!! Then I realized how tired my legs felt and my stomach wasn’t taking nutrition the way it should have. I headed back up trying to do the math and not doing it very well thinking I was not going to make the time cut off only to realize I had an hour more than I thought to do 20 miles. I was doing well getting back into town when my left calf started to hurt and then my left foot plantar fascia started to cramp and I couldn’t put weight on that part of my foot. I started to worry about running now – I had pushed too hard and now had two problems as well as not having taken in enough calories. I chugged my last bottle of cyto to get in some calories. Finished the 2nd bike loop in 4 hrs 24 min which gives me a final bike time of 8 hrs 35 min which is exactly the same as last year – so much for all those extra bike miles and preparation on the course and my PR for the day. But at least I made it back to go out on the run. I always said that I didn’t train for a marathon not to get off the bike.

T2 – Changed shorts, shoes and headed out. Foot felt immediately better once I was off the bike so I felt a little more energized. My T2 time was 5 min 5 sec, which was faster than last year by 13 secs.

Run – “Holy crap I don’t want to run and I think I am going to puke” is my 1st thought once I start to run. My upper right ab is cramping already (it has been a problem for the past 6 weeks). I get all the way down to River Road and walk the 1st aid station to get something caloric in me and immediately wanted to reject it. I kept running thinking I wanted to run all of River Road then walk up the hill then run to the next hill then walk up the hill then get to the turn around. I am monitoring my miles times and know it is too fast but when I am trying to control my pace and think about my body, I want to throw up. So, I just keep plugging along. I see Joe walking on River Road and feel a little settled to know he is ok and still moving since I haven’t seen him since he started the swim. I get back into town to find none of my cheering squad out and think “Oh, Joe must be finishing.” I keep thinking about how awful I feel and what I can tolerate – I am willing to try anything to make this feeling of nausea go away. My plantar fascia is throbbing at this point. I start walking and running more at the half way point. Surprisingly, I ran a 2 hr 20 min ½ marathon feeling like crap (I had run a 2 hr 21 min ½ marathon in Lake Placid back in June so this was amazing). I am feeling so bad that I see this guy standing on the side of the road and damn he looks like Michael Phelps, it can’t be. Now I think I am delusional as well. (He was actually there though – not delusional but I really didn’t feel well) The PowerAde flavor changes from aid station to aid station were making me sick. Chicken broth was almost a disaster. Cola is giving me a little energy boost but initially makes me want to vomit. Every time I try to run I think I am going to puke or poop my pants but the thought of stopping and using a bathroom has me freaked out because I keep thinking I won’t make the midnight cutoff and the medics are looming and I don’t want them to tell me I can’t keep going if I start to puke. I just keep telling myself to keep moving forward and that is what I did. Everything hurt, my feet were moving inside of my shoes for some weird reason and I felt like I was being stabbed every time I stepped on them, I felt so horrible – just keep moving forward. I knew so many people out there though and felt the need to make it look like I was ok – cheering them on, smiling, whatever, all while feeling horrible. The rising moon was so beautiful though that it allows for a moment of bliss before I feel sick again. I smiled when my motivational statement from my husband appeared again “Smile. You are there!” I kept thinking that I just needed to get this thing over with so I would run, feel like I was going to puke, then walk again. I stopped taking anything from aid stations at mile 18 since I think I am going to be sick. I find my dad walking down to get me. We talk about how bad I feel and how I need one more shot at this damn race because obviously I don’t have it down (training, nutrition, racing) and I am really stubborn that I feel like I need to conquer this thing. I start running the 1st part of the out and back to the finish and then have to walk but once I hit that timing mat I start running. I just want to be done!!! The pain is gone in my feet, my stomach is not protesting as much, and I am almost done. I am passing people left and right and then I enter the oval and I smile. I see my husband, my father, and high five with all of the people. It is the most amazing feeling to finish with that many people waiting and cheering for you. I enjoy the moment and see my time and can’t believe it, how did that happen – 16 hrs 9 min a 15 min PR over last year. It was all worth it at that moment!!! 140.6 miles done, again, thank goodness!!

The aftermath – I felt sick for the next 4 days – eating and then feeling really nauseous again. My weight isn’t stabilizing yet and I am having trouble sleeping due to some residual muscle pain. I never want to see PowerAde or Gu Blocks again. I also can’t help feel like this wasn’t the day I had planned for and am slightly disappointed in myself. I wish I had been able to start training heavier miles earlier but last years Ironman left me injured for about 7 months after and I see this as me making excuses for myself – I have to accept this and move forward. I PRed, that should be great but my bike, which I worked so hard on, was exactly the same. I worked really hard on nutrition and still failed at that. I look forward to the next time to make sure I figure this out!! For now, I am resting and recovering and working on being happy with my PR and learning from all the rest. Ironman Lake Placid 2012, here I come!