IMAZ: Go Denise! Go Laura!

[Running Mommy]

Just back from dinner. The wind on the west side has died down- surely the same on the east side. But it has heated up big time!
I'm sure Laura is feeling the 92 degree temps right now!
Send some cooling butterflies her way!
She's also had a HUGE life change in the last year, so I'm very proud of her for sticking with it! She was sick on Friday and didn't even make the pre race dinner. She's one tough cookie that's for sure! Lot's tougher than I was today!!

[KnottedYet]

Lot's tougher than I was today!!

I wouldn't make that judgement. I think it takes a great deal of toughness to accept that someone crashed into you and messed up your bike, and take oneself out of the race.

I'd've either endangered myself and everyone around me by continuing on a damaged bike, or cussed and screamed at the dude and ruined his day, too, or sat in the middle of the road and cried my eyes out. (or all three)

Takes serious toughness to handle the situation with the grace that you did!

[Alex]

Oh my goodness! You could fry an egg on the asphalt of the marathon course. People are hurtin' out there! Lots of walkers just trying to keep moving forward.

The weather was just brutal today. My car thermometer got up to 98 degrees, and the pavement just radiated heat. And the wind! Yow! I don't know if it's worse than last year, but it was bad bad bad.

Congrats to everyone who stepped to the line!!!!!!!

Alex

[KnottedYet]

IMAZ site is up again. Laura finished first run segment with 13:42 /mile.
9:56:20 total at that point.

Go, Laura, go!

(but walk while it's so hot, ok? Save your energy to zoom for when it cools down)

[Running Mommy]

Well to be fair, I had already decided I was going to drop out. That was just the clincher.

Here is the hourly observations of the wind today from wunderground. Explains why lot's of people did a negative split on the third loop.

http://www.wunderground.com/history/...q_statename=NA

Ok, so anyone want a short (HA!) little dnf race report?
Well here goes anyway. I need to get this out there...

So as many of you know I was ready to pull the plug a few weeks ago. I did a whopping ONE 100 mile ride, ONE 2.4 mile swim, and ONE 15 mile run. That is a mere fraction of what I usually do in training. I HATE the wind, and do everything to avoid riding in it- tho I know that race day can be very windy.
This spring has been very windy, so going into this week I had my fingers crossed, but was expecting it to be windy. Not that I had trained for it! No that would have been the SMART thing to do.

But that is until this past week. Up to today all of the weather reports called for HOT temps with winds from the east at 5-10 mph. That's cake for out here, so I really wasnt worried. Yesterday when I went down to the practice swim it was windy, so I got a bit worried, but again the reports were for NO WIND. And god knows I looked at all the reports.

This past week was busy and stressful. I was not really nervous about the race, I was more dreading it. I knew it was gonna hurt because I was so under trained. Everyone was excited for the race, so I tried to get into the spirit, but deep down I wasn't feeling it. I did enjoy the expo and practice swims, but I didn't feel the Ironman love I usually do. Again, I tried to talk myself into it, and I think I was excited early in the week. It was exciting to share the Ironman spirit with my new friends (Adrian the British gent, and Michelle and Chris- as well as my customers). But I have to say that I never really envisioned myself running across the finish line. It's almost like I had a feeling it wasn't going to happen.
Yesterday afternoon I went into a molt trying to rest up and hydrate for today. I spent the day alone at home and did lots of thinking. One thing that I asked myself is if I really wanted it. And the sad thing is, I didn't really feel like I did. But again, I tried to put the negative out of my mind and talk myself into it. I was hoping for a miracle I guess. Like my friend Albert said "on any given sunday"...
Fast forward to this morning. I got up at 4am, had a bowl of cereal, and got my things together. We drove down to the race course in silence. Again I was trying to psyche myself up, but I just didn't even want to get in the water. At the site I went about my pre race busy work. Checked my tires, put my infinit in my never reach pod, booted up the gps, filled my bento with food, dropped off special needs bag, filled my camelbak with water, added sunglasses to T1 bag, eyeglasses to T2 bag, and got body marked. By then it was time to don the human rubber band. After that I went over to sit and wait. It was then that I saw Laura. I called her name and we chatted. She had been sick on Friday and didn't seem very optimistic. HA neither did I. I then ran into a couple of guys that are friends/customers and told them I was dreading it. They tried to talk me out of it, but again- I wasn't feeling it.
6:45 the pros went off and it was time for me to jump in. It took me a minute but finally I made the plunge. I slowly doggy paddled over to the bridge and made sure I had no one behind me. The national anthem played, and before I knew it the cannon went off. being in the back, and being slow, I had clear water almost immediately. I put my head down and swam. I got into a nice groove and seemed to be going at a decent (for me) clip, and then I got closer to the rural road bridge. This is near the turn around, but not as near as I'd like. It seemed like all of the sudden I was swimming backwards! The chop was awful and it seemed FOREVER to get to the turn bouy. I was actually thinking of quitting in this stretch. I finally hit the turn, swam a bit more, and then took another left turn heading back. Here I checked my watch and it said 8:00. YIPES! I was about 8 minutes behind. I spent the next few minutes in a panic thinking I might miss the cut off. I was trying to just swim, but I had to go back under that choppy bridge. As I was going under the bridge I had a guy swim into the side of me and kick me in the right thigh. UGH! Where did he come from?? All the way out I had a personal kayak escort, so I figured I was near dead last in the water.
Finally I got it together and told myself to just SWIM. I concentrated on my form and I think I made up some time here. But I was drifting to the left and kept having to change course to get on the right side of the bouy.
I was almost to the mill ave. bridge (start line of the swim) when a guy came out of nowhere. He came up on the side and whacked me hard in the left cheek bone up by my eye. I screamed OUCH! And my personal kayak came to check on me. But I just put my head down and swam. As I went under the last bridge and was heading home my kayak escort told me to have a good race. I managed a "thank you" and kept going. I took the last turn heading for the stairs. This little jaunt took FOREVER! I finally made it to the stairs and the clock read 2:01 and some change. UGH! I thought.
I went to the strippers and they had my suit off in seconds. I then managed a trot up to the change tents. My friend Lynn was there and handed me my bag. A nice girl helped me change, and I was out of there. As usual my bike was the last one on the rack, but I wasn't worried. I hadn't noticed the wind yet. I saw my friend Michelle, and at the mount line my friend that owns a tri shop was there to cheer. As I pedaled out I saw Tony, but just gave him a quick "hey". My heart rate was soaring, and I was kind of whoozy from the swim. I exited the park and hit the stretch out known as Rio Salado. This is usually a fast flat FUN section. Not today. I was immediately hit with a major head wind and then a horrid gust with some blowing sand.
It was here that I went into freak out mode. I needed to bring my heart rate down and settle in, but I was battling a major wind. I looked at my GPS and I was going 11 mph!!
As I was heading out I started thinking about what I wanted to do, and I knew it didn't include battling the wind today. I spent the next two miles talking to myself about it as I tried to battle the wind. I initially told myself I would do one loop (38 miles) and then call it a day. But as I turned up the beeline hwy it got BAD, and I knew I would be battling this "bad" for ten miles. I looked at the folks coming down, and they didn't look that happy either. Hilary Biscay (a pro) passed me, but she wasn't even going that fast. At this point I was making myself decide what to do. I didn't want to regret my decision, but it really wasn't a hard one for me today. I was following a guy that was only going about 7 mph. I decided to try to pass him, because his pace just seemed too slow. As I was passing him he swerved to the left and I knew he was going to hit me. I somehow unclipped on the left and then the right just as his wheel was coming into contact with mine. I was able to hop off, and I let go of my bike, so he just kind of fell on top of my front wheel. I asked if he was ok. He said "yeah, sorry. That gust got me". I told him I was calling it a day anyway, and he looked at me like I was nuts. I told him this was my third year in a row, and after last year I had no desire to fight the wind again. He said "well I'm going to keep going". I told him good luck, and off he went. I spun my wheel and it had a bit of a wobble, but I got back on. I rode another half mile or so and saw a sag wagon picking someone up. I stopped and asked him if I sagged in would he be able to call my husband. He said yes and asked if I wanted to think about it. I told him no, I was done. They have to ask you three times just to make sure. I got in with a girl who was sick. She'd had the stomach flu the day before and was just drained. She was near tears, and I felt really sorry for her. The sag voly handed me a cell and I called Tony. He sounded a bit shocked and asked why I was quitting. I then rode in chatting w/ mr. sag. He said I had a great attitude about it all. I really had no regrets, so it was ok. I just felt sorry for my sag mate Stephanie. She was bummed. Tony met me at the sag station. He agreed that it was windy, and didn't blame me at all. We went around and picked up my bags, and then headed for home. The way I figure it is I could have suffered through the wind, but I would have been chasing the cut off again, and my run training was not up to par, so if I didn't have the bike to cushion my marathon time, I wouldn't have made it by midnight. So why make my family suffer out there for nothing. And why suffer myself? I wasn't having fun. And it's suppose to be hard- but it's also suppose to be fun. And this year, my heart just wasnt into it.
So there you have it. One big dnf report for only 12 miles!
2006 I made it with 7 minutes to spare, last year I made it 132 miles, vomiting my way through the run before calling it a day, this year I made it 12 miles, but I'm ok. I made it once, and that can never be taken away from me.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for all your love!
Denise

[salsabike]

Thank you for that report, Denise. You are still an Ironman and I remain more impressed than I can say by that.

[Trek420]

Denise, you are an Ironman!

Isn't there a video or something?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGFx4xWnnnI

[Running Mommy]

I'm getting worried about her! We should have had a second run segment by now. My coach is also not showing a third run segment- and running is his thing! He does 20 milers as warm ups!
AND he lives in La Quinta, so he knows heat and wind.

As a testiment to how tough it was out there, my english friend came in at 11:24. That's more than an hour off his predicted time! He was trying to Kona-fy, and was gunning for a sub ten- 10:14 time. And let me tell you, this guy was READY! He was serious business and looked uber fit! I feel for him. The wheels came off in earnest on the run. OY!

[Grog]

Don't quite worry yet. A friend of mine (547) shows no third segment run time, but finished.

Hang in there Laura!!

[tprevost]

I'm getting worried about her! We should have had a second run segment by now. My coach is also not showing a third run segment- and running is his thing! He does 20 milers as warm ups!
AND he lives in La Quinta, so he knows heat and wind.

As a testiment to how tough it was out there, my english friend came in at 11:24. That's more than an hour off his predicted time! He was trying to Kona-fy, and was gunning for a sub ten- 10:14 time. And let me tell you, this guy was READY! He was serious business and looked uber fit! I feel for him. The wheels came off in earnest on the run. OY!

Don't worry Denise, the times beyond the 2nd run segment are not right.... or not listed...

who's your coach? Is it Alan?