Hi Ladies! Thanks so much for your words of encouragement, not just this weekend, but the whole time. I didn't get a chance to check in, but I knew you ladies would be there for me. For the weekend, my husband and I stayed with a friend just north of the course, to be a little closer and so I didn't have to drive myself.
The entire experience was a little surreal. I didn't expect to chase cutoffs, but I knew I'd be relatively slow.
I waited to check-in as long as possible to avoid "are you ready? are you excited? are you are you are you?" questions at work - I didn't know they give you an armband, but now I'm glad I waited until Friday afternoon, nobody asked about my band until my friend's baby shower, where I actually told a few people from work and we talked a little about it. Check-in was a very "I'm really doing to do this" sort of moment. I took a picture of me with my band that I wanted to post for you guys, but didn't get the chance. ;) I also bought a neoprene cap just in case the water was too chilly for comfort (no booties though). I went to the Mandatory Meeting on Friday night, which helped change "gears" from work to IM mode.
For Ironman Coeur d'Alene, everything is spread across the city park, right on the lake. It's a great view, and while I've been there, rode through there, watched the fireworks there, stayed in the resort, I have a new respect for it, that's for sure.
Saturday was bike check-in and gear drop-off. I wanted to swim in the lake, too, to see if I needed to scrounge the booties or something. We packed everything into the car, since we were staying with a friend - all the bags, my food, bike, clothes, you name it... boy it takes a lot of gear to be Iron. I left everything food-wise off my bike, knowing I'd have access the next day, but did pack my swim to bike and bike to run bags and drop those off. Put on my wetsuit for a swim in the lake... bbbbrrrrr! I don't like how the Neoprene cap cuts me off from the world noise-wise, but it does help as an insulating layer. I wore my Nemo cap (http://www.headcovers.com/11286/tyr-...cone-swim-cap/) and got a lot of attention (we took some good pictures of that, too). ;) After the swim, we took it easy for the rest of the day. Mixed up the goop, ate some pasta for dinner early and headed to bed (I was falling asleep anyway, since I spent the week trying to go to bed early).
Weather was predicting t-storms and rain overnight, and a perfect 70-some degrees and some clouds on Sunday. We didn't get a lot of sunny training days, but at least it wasn't the 85 degrees from a few days ago!
I can recall for you every 30 minutes between 2:00 AM and 4:30 AM. I slept well, but lightly. Got up, ate two bowls of cereal with bananas (same cereal I'd eaten for countless rides/runs before), and got dressed to go. They wanted people in transition by 5:45, and we were there probably right around then. Put all the food on my bike, and got marked. Put my wetsuit on and got to the beach around 6:45. Since the lake was so high, the beach was actually cut off, and people were spread for a loooooooong way. I was going to dip my toes in beforehand, and now I know to do it much earlier. Before I knew it, the starting gun went off. I held back for a few seconds to let people go in front of me, then plodded in. Wow, what an experience! So many people to run over, so many chances to get off course. I swam about as fast as I expected to, all things considered - I could have been faster, and my second lap probably was. Cold temps, crowded, adrenaline, eh. The swim is two loops. Kind of nice, kind of a bummer. Would almost be nicer if they made it a triangle or something. Water temp was officially 59.5 degrees - a few higher than they expected.
For swim to bike transition I didn't really care about time, hence my 13 minutes of stuff. The wetsuit pullers did a great job of yanking off my suit, and I grabbed my stuff to head to the tent. Everyone is super helpful. They took the stuff out of my bag, made sure I was okay, and gave it to me in a certain order. Some ladies were changing all of their clothes top to bottom, but I didn't really feel like that was necessary - I guess it might be more comfortable to put on completely dry clothes for the bike (or run). After my transition, I saw my husband with a sign that said "Go Nicole and Lucy" - he snapped a great picture of the look on my face when I spotted him. ;)
And we're off on our bikes... whew, it's a long course (duh). I did well on my nutrition, eating just about every 15 minutes. I felt good, but at the end, I was done being on my bike. The CdA bike course is hilly, I passed a lot of people uphill who had more guts than I did going downhill or more oomph on the flats. Again, the course is two loops, and I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I did feel better on recovery on the second loop, but the hills felt bigger ;) Some of them go on and on... bah! At about mile 90-100, I knew I would finish. The worst was behind me, I had finished the swim in about 1:40 and the bike in about 7 hours so I had extra time for the run that I didn't think I'd need. Lucy did great - I saw people with flats and various problems, glad that wasn't us!
Bike to run transition was fairly uneventful, but looking back, I knew something was up as soon as I sat down after the bike. My tummy felt just "okay" but not "right." I sat for a minute and they gave me a cool paper towel to wipe off my face. I did change my socks into dry ones even though I thought I would be okay. I left on my bike jersey, since it was fairly comfortable. Packed some gels in the back and headed out. Stopped for a pit stop where they put more sunblock on me while I waited in line. Now here's where we get to find out why my marathon was 7 hours... ;)
I started the run feeling okay. My plan was to run 5 minutes, walk 2, until I could run 10, walk 2, or run aid station to aid station and walk through them. The run is really relatively flat, except for one big hill at the turnaround and some minor ones inbetween. Again, two loops. After the first couple of walk 5 run 2s, I felt not quite right in the tummy. I didn't feel like I was going to get sick, but my digestive system was ready to push everything out. I hit up the porta potties at the next 3 or 4 aid stations, walking inbetween. Eventually emptied the entire contents of everything. (Sorry, I know that's TMI, but ... it happens? ;)). I was hoping to get to the point where I could run after all that stuff was out of my system, but it just didn't happen. I'd start running, feel like my stomach was cramping, and go back to walking. Those first few miles I felt like if I kept running, I would pass out and it would all be over - better to walk and finish than to push and not. Walk walk walkkkkk, walk walkk, walk. Bah! I was so frustrated, but so determined to finish. I wanted to run a 5 hour marathon, and I really think I could have - my muscles had it in them, but my gut did not.
But... I FINISHED! YES! I ran/jogged the last quarter mile and crossed that gosh darn finish line an IRON WOMAN! Hooray! :D :D :D Too bad they didn't have any size small t-shirts left though.
The spectators for this race are seriously awesome. The race is well supported, there are a TON of people, not just on the "iron team" but locals as well, that stand out there for hours and cheer people on. It's amazing the difference such support makes. There were still tons of people there to cheer on us late finishers... and I even got to "break the tape" ;)
My pictures aren't very stellar, I like the bike ones the best. My husband insisted on buying them, i guess he's a super Iron Spouse. He also bought the digitals, I guess so he could do something clever and share them with family - that should mean I can upload them for you to see, too.
Since I had such a crappy run, I signed up for next year. Yes, that sentence would only make sense if you were absolutely crazy. I plan on losing some weight (I actually gained weight training for this one, but I think I gained a lot of muscle and didn't lose enough fat), focusing more on switching up my nutrition and thoroughly testing, and including more longer bricks after my long rides to help find bugs in the system.
A guy at work signed up, too, we'll see... he can run a 3:30 marathon, but has no cycling background. I'm concerned the bike course will defeat him and he underestimates the difficulty. We'll see.
And congratulations mommelisa, I hope you had a better day than I... :)
