Triathlon is a funny sport.
It is a lot like math (which is probably why I, a math teacher, love it
so much). In math, 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 of
course. But 1 lb. + 1 oz. + 1 ton
doesn’t equal 3 of anything. Neither do
1 minute + 1 second + 1 hour. It’s all about
the units… or, in the case of triathlons, the three sports. What I am trying to get at here is that being
a strong swimmer, a great cyclist, and an awesome runner does not equal up to
being an excellent triathlete. Sure, the
ground has been laid. But as I learned
during my first sprint triathlon last year, triathlon is simply not the sum of
its parts.
This past weekend I competed in the inaugural Ironman 70.3
Ohio. Way back in summer 2015, it was
announced that Ironman was bringing a race here to central Ohio. The buzz was huge; everyone who could swim,
bike and run (and even those who couldn’t do all of these things) was psyched
for the chance to compete in an Ironman race in our own backyard. I was very quickly swept up into the
excitement, and not shockingly was one of the first to register for the race
during the early registration period.
After my injury was diagnosed back in April, I did some
Google-ing to determine how long I would be laid up. The situation definitely appeared to be
mostly doom and gloom… most of what I read said that I’d be lucky to running
again in 3-4 months. I never, ever gave
up hope, though. Once I was given
permission to walk without crutches, I started to envision myself completing
the race by walking the half-marathon portion.
Then, as I started to do run/walk intervals, I thought that maybe I
could do intervals at the race. I signed
up for a sprint triathlon in July to test out how this would go, and was
pleasantly surprised to find out that I loved the intervals, and didn’t feel
embarrassed at all because so many others were intervalling as well!
I wasn’t super happy with how the swim and the bike went at
the race, though, and knew that I needed some guidance in my training if I was
going to be successful at finishing my first half-Ironman. I went to a 4-part triathlon clinic offered
through Fleet Feet, and ended up hiring one of the coaches leading the clinic
to get me to the starting line of my race.
Betsy of Excel at All Three is a super-strong age group triathlete, and
I had faith in the workouts that she gave me.
Thus, after 6 weeks of following the plans that she laid out, I arrived
ready to actually give it my all at Ironman 70.3 Ohio.
The weather-stalking was in full force prior to the
race. Central Ohio has been hit lately
by tons of storms, and riding in the rain was the one thing that I was very
fearful of doing... not to mention that the race could possibly be shortened or
canceled if there were thunderstorms. As
the day approached, though, the forecast improved to the point of being almost
perfect! High of 74 degrees, partly
sunny… YES PLEASE! You don’t get days
like this in central Ohio in August.
Crazy enough, there was an actual tornado that touched down in Delaware
(the site of the race) the evening before the race happened! It was maybe 200 yards away from where the
2000+ bikes were racked. We are talking
$6 million in bike porn here… so yeah, let’s just call it LUCK that nothing was
touched.
On to the actual recap, though! I woke up at 3:40 AM to eat (2 eggs, 2 pieces
of toast with peanut butter and a banana), get my bottles of nutrition and
water packed and head out the door. My
training partner Megan’s husband Kyle was dropping her off at the race, and I
decided that bumming a ride with them would be much more fun than trying to
find a place to park myself. We arrived
in Delaware shortly after 5 AM at T2 (Transition 2) so that we could set up our
things for the run. This was a
split-transition race, so after we laid out our race belts and shoes, we had to
head over to the beach where T1 (Transition 1) was located—along with our
unscathed bikes. Megan and I ran into my
friend Christine, whose husband was going to drive her to T1. She offered us a ride, so instead of hopping
on a shuttle bus, we accepted and were at Delaware State Park in 10
minutes. Then came the fun part—setting
up T1. Checking our bikes, adding air to
the tires (thankful for the borrowed pump from an athlete racked a few spots
down from me!), lubing up the chain (Jen Peck was the one who helped me here!),
and getting everything all set for when we would exit the water for the bike
portion of the race. I had a great time
finding friends and taking selfies!
In
between selfies I ate a Clif bar and drank a bottle of water. I saw my coach Betsy at around 6:45 AM and
she suggested that I get my warm-up swim in, just in case the swimming area was
closed early for warm-ups. The water was
a warm 79 degrees—definitely NOT wetsuit-legal, and it felt great upon
entry. I felt really good during my
warm-up. It was my first time in the open water in about 4 weeks, due to the
bout of crypto that I contracted from either a pool or Buck Creek. I love the open water and was happy to be
back in again!
I warmed up for about 20 minutes, watching the first few
waves of swimmers start their races, and then got out and tried to keep warm
before my own wave started at 8 AM (the air temperature was a good 10+ degrees
cooler than the water!).
Megan and I
decided on one last trip to the port-o-potties, and we saw a few more friends
while in line.
Seeing friends at races always
makes me feel more at ease! The lines
took forever, and I got a bit antsy while waiting. I finally made it to the front at around 7:45,
and then I ran my morning gear bag over to the drop area. I headed down to the beach, as, it was almost
go time! I saw my friend Melissa again as we waited in line (we were in the same wave) and chatted about nothing important as we waited for our turn. In no time at all, wave 16 was told to head out
to the water (it was an in-water start), and in just 4 minutes, the airhorn
blew to signal us to GO!
It still unnerves me at the start of a race when others swim
as well as me, or even faster than me. I am so used to training
with friends who are not as strong of a swimmer as I am, that it just surprises
me when others begin their races by flying by me. I was able to tell myself to relax, that it
was all good. I quickly found some still water in front of me and got going on my race. I planned on taking the first 500 yards or so
out relatively easily, but I was not surprised when I quickly caught the wave
in front of me. I knew that for most of
the swim, I’d be passing people, so I was mentally prepare to not let this
bother me… at least not too much. I won’t
lie; I did spend a lot of energy trying to get around people who were treading
water or swimming breaststroke. As we
headed around the first buoy, we were greeted by an unwelcome friend: Mr.
Sun. He’d decided to make an appearance,
and we were swimming head-on into the glare.
NOT FUN. I had a lot of trouble
sighting. It was then that I noticed that
a fellow blue-cap swimmer was keeping pace with me. She had rainbow-mirrored goggles, and I
decided that I would try to stick with her, as the pace was comfortably
hard. I dubbed her “Rainbow Fish” and
saw her several times during the remainder of the race. It comforted me to see her having to swim
around other weaker swimmers as well. I
would think in my head, “She’s not bothered by them. I won’t be either. Just find a way around or through.”
It was during this longer stretch of the race (from turn 1
to turn 2 it was around 800 yards) that my right eye started to burn really
badly. It was quite painful and I
quickly realized what was wrong: I must have not rinsed out all of the lens
defogger that I had used the night before.
OW! My eye teared up over and
over again. It took all of my will power
to not stop and take off my goggles to rub it.
I tried to keep my mind off of it by focusing on “Rainbow Fish” and the
swimmers we were passing. This seemed to
work, and thankfully once I got out of the water, the burning sensation
stopped.
I was super happy to round the 2nd and final buoy
(about 1400 yards into the race) and head into the home stretch. A) Because I no longer had to sight into the
sun, and B) because that meant the swim was almost over! I love to swim, but I was tired of using my
arms and ready to move on to the bike. “Rainbow
Fish” turned on her jets in the final 100 yards, which was a bummer as I wanted
to run out of the water next to her and tell her how great it was to swim “together”…
even though she probably didn’t even notice me during the swim. My split according to the IM website was a
37:25. I was hoping for anything sub-40, so I was pretty happy with this,
especially after my eye issue and all of the passing that I had to do. I have no idea how many women were in my age
group (35-39), but I was 10th overall in my division on the swim
part and 62nd overall female.
Pretty cool! I ran up the beach
and headed towards T1, trying to jog but not hurt myself on the uneven ground
as I did so.
I was able to find my bike
easily (yay!) and my transition time was pretty strong (3:56). I exited transition and headed out on the
roads of Delaware to begin my 56 mile trek through 3 counties.
I felt very relaxed at the start of the bike, even though my
heart rate said otherwise. Betsy said to
hold off on eating for the first 5 minutes or so, and I decided to wait until
my heartrate went down a bit more.
Around mile 3, I decided I needed a drink of water, however. I reached down to pull out my throw-away
bottle, and heard a crack. OMG… my water
bottle cage had broken! I looked down
and realized that it was NOT a good thing.
One side of the cage was completely broken off. I would never be able to
put a bottle back in there, as it would fall out immediately. My mind went into
overdrive. I needed water, not only for
hydration, but to wash down my gels. I
needed my other bottle (which was in my second cage), as it contained 400
calories of liquid nutrition that I was also counting on. Meanwhile, I was riding holding onto my throw-away
bottle. I knew I couldn’t do that for
long; I wasn’t able to shift or break while holding it. What to do???
I made a decision after about 30 seconds to dump the bottle
of water with the next group of supporters who I saw. I prayed that a course referee wouldn’t see
me, as it would likely be a penalty for littering outside of the aid station
areas. I knew that I couldn’t ride
another 9 miles to the first aid station holding my bottle, so I really had no
other choice. I then began contemplating
how I would get through the remainder of the race with one 24-oz bottle of
Tailwind and 4 gels… but no water. I had
planned on stopping once for water, at the second aid station (around mile 32),
where I would throw my first bottle of water and get a new one. That plan needed to change, of course. I decided that I would ride slowly through
aid station #1 at around mile 12-13, grabbing a bottle of water and chasing down
my first gel that I would take right before got the aid station. Then, I would rely on my bottle of Tailwind
to get me through the next 20 miles, drinking it for both hydration as well as
nutrition. At aid station 2 (around mile
32), I would throw my beloved green Glass City Marathon water bottle (received
at the finish of my first marathon in 2014), exchanging it for a bottle of
water. I would do one more exchange at
the final aid station (around mile 49), getting a final bottle of water.
I had to come to terms with the fact that I would be
throwing my special bottle away, never to see it again. Luckily, I had a good long time to get used
to this idea! The first 20 miles of the
race sped by as they do on every ride.
The roads were pretty awful… tons of potholes, very very shaky. I passed
many many water bottles, as well as saddle bags and other bike paraphenelia
that likely had fallen from fellow cyclists’ bikes during the bumpy ride we
were all on. I heard “on your left” at
least 50 times, and was passed at least 50 times without hearing a word (why
can’t people follow the rules???). I
told every single person who passed me during the first half of the race how
great they were doing. I said the same
thing to everyone who I passed—all 10 of them LOL. Seriously, I was not doing a lot of passing,
but I reminded myself that I had probably passed about 100 people during the
swim, and to just stay within myself on the ride. I felt so good and I wanted to push the pace
a bit, but I knew that wouldn’t be wise, so I concentrated on keeping my heart
rate low and riding comfortably.
Fueling went well (gel at mile 12, mile 32, and then one
more at around mile 45). I was getting
thirsty, though, but had to conserve water between aid stations. It was around mile 30 or so I believe that
the headwinds started. It didn’t seem to
matter which way we turned… the wind was there.
Sometimes it felt like it would push me over, it was so strong! I commiserated with everyone who I rode by,
or who passed me, including my physical therapist Kathy (loved seeing her on
the course!) and my friend Macy. They
are badass triathletes who had started 24 minutes after me. It actually inspires me to see such fast
females, as it gives me something to aspire to in the future.
As if the wind wasn’t bad enough, the hills started with
about 10-12 miles left in the race.
There were some rollers, which I don’t mind. A couple of steeper hills as well, but I felt
super-strong on them. In fact, I passed
people… and even two cars who were on the course (they were SLOWLY tailing the
cyclists and I didn’t want to slow down for them!). The wind and the hills made for a difficult
final section, and I was more than ready for the bike portion of the race to
end. I was also very apprehensive about
the run. My legs felt pretty good, but running
after biking was always so hard for me.
The sun was shining, and despite the relatively cool August day, I was
hot. I knew that the run course was
hilly as well, but I had no choice but to dismount after my ride and head into
T2. My bike split ended up being a
3:11:46 (average speed 17.5 mph). The
first 32 miles were 17.0 mph and the final 24 miles were 18.1 mph. I was thrilled with this, as my “A” goal on
the bike was 3:15. 46th in my
division, 249th female. Yes,
the bike is where I need to put in the most work for sure, but this split was
definitely a good one for me. My average
heart rate on the bike was 150, which was a good 10 bpm above where Betsy
wanted it to be… but most of that was due to the initial 15 minutes of the
ride, as well as the final hilly part. I
tried to not stress about it during the ride, riding more based on how I felt
(which was very relaxed).
T2 is a fast transition, as you just have to slip your bike
shoes off and your run shoes on. What made
it slow was how far my bike was from the transition entrance—I am awful at
running in my bike shoes, so I basically just walked it. I didn’t want to wipe out in front of
everyone! Other than that, my transition
was quick (2:44) and I was soon heading out onto the run course. I bypassed the
sunscreen station, knowing that I might later regret that decision, but not
wanting to spend any extra time in transition.
The first couple of miles of the run were as awful as they
always are. Legs are heavy and leaden,
but body just goes automatically. It’s
actually funny that most triathletes run their fastest in the first 10 minutes
off the bike, even though these miles feel the slowest. I saw my friend Stuart about 2 miles into the
race—poor guy was all locked up and not feeling great. My goal was to run the race and walk the aid
stations, so I kept on going after a few encouraging words. I was living aid station to aid station. I
was so happy to walk when I would encounter one! The course was a 1 mile trek out, then two
5.5 mile loops, then a 1 mile trek back to the stadium for the finish. The first half of the loop was in the sun and
had some small hills. The second half was more shaded, but had one or two huge
hills to climb. It was at around mile 5
that I started to chat with a fellow triathlete, Mike. He was just what the doctor ordered, and made
the next 1.5 miles zoom by. I was bummed
when I lost him at an aid station, but soon found my sweet friends cheering me
on! Amy and Teagan, and then Tamara and
Allison with their kiddos. SO MUCH
HAPPINESS! I felt good and was running strong. Every aid station, I would pour two cups of
water over my head and drink two. Then I
would shove a handful of ice down my top and another down my pants. This was how I made it. The ice and walking at each aid station would
lower my heart rate down to 145-150. It
would slowly go up as I ran to the next station (up to 155-160), where I’d
repeat the process.
The second loop was disheartening. The sun… the hills… I was so over the
race. By the time I saw my friends again
cheering on the second loop (Beth, Marion and Dani, and then Amanda at aid
station #4), I was ready to be done.
I
was never so happy to see the arrow directing me to the left towards the
stadium as I finished loop #2. It was
shortly thereafter that I heard my name yelled by an all-too-familiar voice—my husband! I had just ran by him and our four
children! It was the first time any of
them had ever seen me race. I knew he was going to try to make it for my
finish, but I wasn’t sure where I’d see him.
I was overjoyed and considered running backwards to give them kisses…
but by that time, I had realized that I was going to be incredibly close to
going under 6 hours. What the what??? My pie-in-the-sky goal had been
sub-6:15. I trucked on, and with about
0.5 miles left, a female runner passed me and I told myself to not let her
go. But then I told myself I really didn’t
care, that I wanted to be done and didn’t even care about my time. I finally saw the stadium, entered the track
(stupid UPHILL to get there), and thought it was finally over.
Nope!
I had to run a half-lap around the track to the finish! I looked at my watch and checked the official
race clock hanging over the finisher’s arch.
They both aligned… 5:59… I decided I’d better book it to make this
happen! I found a gear I didn’t know
that I had (sub-7 min mile for the final minute of the race!) and sprinted past
the woman who had passed me. I heard my
friends screaming my name from the stands, and as I crossed the finish line, I
fell into my friend Tracey’s arms. No
cool finisher’s pose for me… I was exhausted and so very much DONE! Official time: 5:59:32. Insane. Just insane.
I knew my training partner Megan would be right behind me.
She’d started 24 minutes behind me, but is a much faster cyclist and runner
than I am. She ended up coming through about
7 minutes later, blowing her own goal of sub-6 hours out of the water as well with
a 5:41. I embraced her and we had our
picture taken together. So much
awesomeness!
I finally found Joe, the
kids, and all of my sweet friends. Lot
of sweaty hugs, big smiles, and pictures!
I grabbed a hamburger (I was sooooo hungry) and picked up my bike. The trek to Joe’s car was never-ending. I
think it was maybe a mile, but it took us at least 30 minutes. I was incredibly tired, and the kids were
not happy about the walk either. Heaven
was finally sitting down in the car and taking my shoes off.
Many people have post-race blues after a big race. They want to immediately sign up for another
race. Me… I am so freaking happy that I
did this. I am riding the wave of
accomplishment and not willing to give it up!
I haven’t been able to compete in a race that I have trained for in over
TWO YEARS. Being able to not only finish
the half Ironman, but to demolish every goal I had for myself… I can’t put into
words what that means to me. So no, I’ve
got no blues. I am loving every single second of “not training” going on right
now. I started back to work the day
after the race, and DOMS set in hard on Monday and Tuesday. It’s Thursday now and I finally feel pretty
good again. I am starting to think a
bit more about when I *might* want to actually go for a ride again, or meet some
friends for a run. This fall brings the
OSU 4-miler with Joey again, as well as pacing the Hot Chocolate 15K for Beast
Pacing (my first race as an official pacer!).
I have zero plans to run any races this winter/spring. Part of me wants to run in my beloved
15-miler in Granville in February, but part of me has no interest in the
training involved for that.
I have a vision of my fall/winter/spring training going
something like this: swimming a few days
a week (maybe with a Master’s team), cycling a couple of days a week and
getting some great intervals in on the trainer, running a few days a week with
my friends just for fun (nothing longer than 4-5 miles on weekdays and 8-9
miles on weekends). This sounds just
perfect to me. I want to set myself up for a super-strong summer in 2017, and I
want to be ready for Ironman 70.3 Ohio round two next year!!!
