IM Canada-Race Report

Going into an Ironman race week with a cold was not part of my plan. I picked up a cold at work the Friday previous to race week. (FYI-when you work in a clinic-STAY HOME when you're sick). I figured it would be gone by the next weekend and maybe it was the forced rest that I needed pre-race. Between lots of zinc lozenges, cold snap, emergen-C, and acupuncture I was sure to be OK right?

We left for Penticton Thursday morning. Getting into Seattle about 9:30 am and making the 6 hour drive up to Penticton. We got settled into our room and headed out for a quick run (20 minutes). Man, it felt good to stretch the legs out. We made a quick run to the grocery store, ate some pasta, and were in the sack by 9pm.

Looking forward to the weekend it didn't seem like we had that much planned before Sunday but somehow the days quickly filled up. Friday we got up early and went for a swim. We had heard rumors that the lake was "freezing" and that all the athletes that had arrived earlier in the week and bought out all the neoprene caps and booties in town. I was a little worried but happily surprised to find it comfortable. It was cold when you first got in but after 3-4 minutes of swimming it was perfect. It was definitely a swimmers lake. After our swim we were off to the breakfast buffet and went to pick up our bikes from TriBike Transport (best service ever btw!). Last stop- the expo to register. We decided to head out on our bikes for a bit (1 hour). I wanted to see some of the run course so we headed out of town and road about half the course. It was windy and I was hopeful that it wouldn't be like this on Sunday. The tail wind home was fun though! Quick run off the bike and it was time to lay around until the welcome dinner and athlete meeting that evening. Another early night to bed, knowing that I wouldn't sleep well Saturday night.

My cold was nearly gone but I could feel it in my chest. It felt tight and I was worried maybe I would start coughing or it would truly move into my chest and become a bigger issue.

Saturday was a packed day yet again. Another early morning swim and this time it was COLD! I ran in to avoid the slow painful entry and my face, hands, and feet were numb for the first 5 minutes. Finally, after a few minutes of racing Kevin, I was warm and found it to be a great temperature for racing. Breakfast, then a debate about whether or not to drive the bike course. I was exhausted and definitely wanted to get in a nap, I wasn't sure we'd have time for both since we had to drop off our transition gear and bikes by 3:45. We went back to the room and Kevin explained every twist, turn, and detail of the bike course for me. It was a great help and now after riding it was thankful he'd done this race 9 times before because he got it right on! Thanks babe! I took my nap then got up, went for a quick run (20 minutes) while Kevin napped, and came back to get my gear together for drop off. We dropped our stuff off at OK Park, spent some time to walk through transitions and how it would look tomorrow. Now back to the hotel for a little more R&R. We wanted an early dinner so we met Kevin's mom and brother downtown about 4:30. We had a large dinner of pizza, salad, and salmon. I was nothing but envious as Kevin's mom enjoyed a glass of red wine with her meal. It's been a long summer with few drinks and a strict diet. Man, was I anxious for Sunday night to be here so I could have my fair share of these delicious treats. Little did I know....

We hit the sack about 9pm and to my surprise I slept really well. Well, until about 2am. I still didn't feel 100% from my cold but I was doing better and just figured things would fall into place or not, it was out of my control at this point. Up at 3:30am I downed a Boost, some oatmeal, a banana, and lots of juice! We did our business and headed out the door about 4:45 to get to Starbucks by 5am. We were the first at Starbucks and I was eager to get the caffeine pumping through my veins-Ah liquid heaven!

Body marking was quick, fast pump of the tires, filling water bottles, and then WAIT! Why we get there at 5am I'm not sure because there's only about 15 minutes of "things" to do and then you just get to sit and wait and be nervous. Well, if you include 45 minutes in the port-0-potty lines I guess the time fills up quickly. I was so nervous, I've never felt nerves like that in my life. I hadn't been to nervous until now. I think the nerves were messing up my stomach and I was thinking: "this is going to be a fun day if my stomach doesn't settle down". Time passed quickly, we lathered on the sunscreen, pulled on the wetsuits, and made our way to the beach.

We had decided not to warm up because the water was cold and we didn't want to warm up then stand around wet for 15 minutes. I did allot of stretches and arm circles and prayed that was enough for my shoulders to stay limber and not get tired. We positioned ourselves up front, aligned with the buoys. My plan was to hit it out of the gate and try to get away from the madness then be able to settle in because hopefully majority of the pack would be behind. The canon went off and it was time to see if all that training would pay off!

The swim was like nothing I have ever experienced. I've never done a mass start like that. It's usually my age group, which is often times a smaller group. Starting with 2500 people and surrounded by a bunch of age group men was a little gnarly. I was tossed around for a bit but luckily no major blows to the face or ribs and I was settling into my pace a feeling really good. From shore the buoys seemed to go forever (oh wait, they did). Before I knew it I was turning right around the first corner. 450m to the next turn and we were headed back to shore. There were divers on the bottom of the lake looking up giving thumbs up, that was pretty rad! I felt great and was pushing the pace but not too hard. I picked up the pace on the final stretch. About 900m from shore I got boxed in between 4-5 guys. I was in the middle, occasionally getting clobbered by the guy on my right. I was trying to stay on the guys feet in front of me. I was frustrated because I couldn't get out of this little trap I found myself in but I stayed calm and just focused on the dude in front me. Thinking back I think this helped me more because I was getting sucked along being stuck in the middle of these strong swimmers. Finally, I could see the bottom and made my way up the beach. When I ran into the T1 there was no one around me. People were yelling "on your butt, on your butt". So I was on my butt and off my wet suit came. Total swim time of 1:00 (yes! my goal was a one hour swim!!)

T1 time of 2:46.

The bike started off good. I felt great. I don't have a computer on my bike so I wasn't aware of my pace, which was probably best. Everyone had given me advice on how to ride the bike. Most said that I would no doubt feel great heading out so that I had to hold back even while all the age group men passed me in massive packs sucking wheels (which they did). It would be easy to start too hard, especially on this course because the first 1/4 of the race was flat and fast. I settled into a pace that felt good. There was a short climb a few miles in which I went right up feeling strong then settled into the flat road. Not until we got to Richter Pass did I feel like I was really working. Kevin passed me a few miles before Richter. I was hoping that I had beat him out of the water by a minute or two because I knew he'd pass me on the bike and I wanted to know he was OK and see him. Had he beat me I wouldn't have seen him until the out and back about 100k knowing that I wouldn't ever catch him on the bike. About 15 miles in I had to pee so bad. I was trying to make myself go. I've never had a problem letting loose in my wetsuit but something didn't feel right about just letting it fly on the bike. I continued to hydrate and the feeling only intensified but I still couldn't go. I just tried to ignore it and it worked for a bit. Spectators had signs at along the course that read "if you peed on the bike smile", man how I wish I could smile! Climbing up Richter Pass I felt good. It was easy to settle into a steady rhythm, thanks to allot of training up to Ward this summer. After Richter the course got more challenging, there was a long stretch of rollers. I was dreading these because it's hard to find a rhythm and I had heard this was the hardest section of the course. My stomach was cramping up on me. It wasn't bothering me bad enough to slow me down but I was worried that if I couldn't work it out I would have a tough time on the run. To my surprise I didn't find this section difficult and it was over before I knew it-AND I finally had to pee bad enough that there was nothing I could do to stop it. Man, did that feel good. Don't worry, I made sure no one was behind me!

Side note about peeing on the bike: Kevin was climbing up Yellow and a gal passed him right about the top and said "ah finally, now the fun can begin!" she pulled ahead about 10feet and just let loose peeing all over the place and unfortunately got Kevin pretty good. Hahahah, hey atleast she warned him!

From here we went out and back a good ways, hitting special needs at 120k. On my way there I saw Kevin which was a nice distraction for a minute. I made a quick stop at special needs to get another gel flask and some real food I had stashed in there. (Fig newtons and gold fish never tasted so good in my life!). Kevin has always said this section was the longest for him and hard mentally because you're going back the way you came and then back again. At the turn off from here it was flat for a bit and my stomach was still cramping so I tried to sit up and work it out but it still wasn't working. Finally, I reached the climb up to Yellow Lake which I was worried would really slow me down. Up to this point I was tracking a sub 6 hour bike (which was my goal). I didn't want to lose the time. Since it's at about 140k into the bike I wasn't sure how I would feel. I was tired for sure but feeling good mentally and knowing that at the top of this climb it was downhill all the way home for about 20k. I couldn't get to the top of the hill fast enough. There was a massive crowd of people and their cheers and signs definitely gave me the boost I needed to ride it in. Thanks to Cisco suggesting I do a 100 mile ride then climb to Jamestown at the end I think I handled this part OK. Handling a long steady climb after 100 miles isn't easy and since I had an idea of what this would feel like it wasn't so bad. At the top there was a few kind of sketchy descents but I handled them OK and was soon back on Main St headed into T2. Total bike 5:58.


In and out of T2 in 2:01 minutes.

I'm not sure when my cramping stopped because as soon as I was on the run I felt great and had forgotten all about it. Thinking back now, I can't place when I started feeling better. Oh well. Kevin had always told me that the first 5-6 miles of the run felt great because you were so ready to be off your bike and then after that it can get really tough. I had seen Kevin running out when I was coming in on my bike so I knew he wasn't that far ahead. I caught up to him about mile 4 and ran with him for a minute, it was really special to be here sharing this with him so I savored the moment. He pushed me ahead knowing that I could run faster. Around mile 6 and 7 I was waiting for it to get harder and I continued to feel really strong. I had settled into a pace that was comfortable, not too hard but not too easy. I didn't want to go out too hard and have to walk all the way home. My goal was to run the entire marathon unless I absolutely HAD to walk! The time was flying by and miles ticking off. I felt great (and I'm not just saying that). We had a stiff head wind on the way out which actually felt good because it kept me cool and I was thinking how great the tail wind home would be that maybe it would help me get home faster. A few miles before the half way mark we hit some decent size hills which actually felt good to me, it was change of pace on my legs and I enjoyed them (crazy I know). There was a few long descents and I was dreading coming up them on the way home. At the turn around they were there ready with my special needs bag but I had only put a new gel flask in it and didn't feel I needed it so I passed it up and kept running. I was still feeling strong and just told my self that I was so close, it had been a long day but I only had 13.1 miles left and that I could keep it up. What's 2 more hours after already going 9? I saw Kevin a few miles later, he looked good and encouraged me to keep the pace because I was "up there" in my age group. Those words helped. I was tracking steady 9:30 minute miles and I still felt OK, no need to slow down. Calculating that if I kept this pace all the way home I would be in WAY sooner than my goal got me fired up. The wind had stopped and some light drizzle had begun. We got jipped out of the tail wind home but the rain felt good. The steep hills were definitely not easy and by about mile 16 my quads were getting tight. It wasn't painful but they were definitely tightening up and fatiguing. The miles continued to ticked by one by one though. By mile 20 the rain was really coming down. I definitely expected to hit a wall by mile 18 or 20, as this is usually what happens during my stand-alone marathons and today I had already swam 2.4 miles and rode 112 but I felt strong. I kept remembering all the hard workouts Mike (Ricci) had put me through during the summer on our Tuesday night workouts. He worked me harder than I've ever worked, specifically for the run, which is where I usually fall off during triathlon. He always encouraged us to focus on running the last 10k of the marathon faster and at least being able to stay strong those last 6.2 miles when everyone else is struggling. At about mile 22 I was ready to be done. I wasn't slowing down and I wasn't hurting that bad I was just ready to be done. Getting closer to town was awesome. The crowds were huge, even in the pouring rain and it was the motivation I needed to carry me to the finish line. The out and back on Lakeshore Drive was a little hard but I knew once I turned that final corner it was a straight shot to the finish and I was stoked! Total run time 4:09

I finished my first IM in 11:13!!!! My ultimate goal was to finish and finish healthy! Second, I wanted to finish under 12 hours. So the fact that I finished 47 minutes faster than that was incredible. Other goals: Swim 1 hour-done! Ride Sub 6-done! Run the whole marathon-done!

Kevin's mom had volunteered as a catcher so to see her at the finish line was special!

Dare I say that the run was "easy" but it truly was not as hard as anticipated. I haven't run that many stand-alone marathons but out of all that I have done this was my most comfortable marathon of them all, which is nuts and hard for me to comprehend considering everything that came first. The whole day was much "easier" than I had set myself up for. I definitely am not discounting it because it was hard but all in all the day fell into place and I executed it exactly how I wanted. I honestly can't think of one thing I would do differently. Kevin commented afterward: "you may not want to do IM every year but it's definitely your distance."

I ended up 8th in my age group out of 70. Kevin was pushing me to go to roll down and I was thinking there was no way I would get a slot. It wasn't my goal anyways. I reluctantly went. There was originally 2 slots in my age group but Sister Madonna Buder didn't make the 17 hour cut off so we got the slot from Women 77+. The first 2 girls didn't show so roll down began with 3rd & 4th place taking slots. 5, 6, & 7 didn't take slots so guess what? I'M GOING TO KONA!!! At first, I'm embarrassed to admit, I wasn't sure I would take the slot. Some people try for years to get a slot to Kona and I got one on my first try, I was thinking "am I crazy if I don't take this?" It's so soon and I wasn't sure I could recover in time but Kevin threatened to break up with me (not really) if I didn't take the slot so I took it and am Kona bound in 6 weeks!

I'm still in shock. Going into this race I thought I might do an IM every other year but probably not every year, little did I know that I would be doing another one in just 7 weeks. Kona is going to be tough, given that I'm not very experienced at this IM thing and it's a tough/hot day but my goal is not to "race" it but go and enjoy the experience.

Thanks you all for the support and encouragement this year and for sending me your positive energy on race day. I felt it for sure!

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