Well I did it! After a year plus of training I finally did it and it feels great.
I went into IMC knowing I could finish but not knowing how fast I would be able to go.
PRE-RACE:
We arrived in Penticton the Tuesday before the race and got settled into our rental house. I arrived with my husband, 5 kids and Mom and Dad so it was a full house but we were all pretty comfortable. I spent the week relaxing with the family and doing minimal workouts with the team. All in all we had 16 people on our team racing and the level of support we got from each other and our coach, Jill Fry was awesome.
The night before the race I ate 2 pieces of pizza and some bread and went to bed by 9 pm. Surprisingly I slept really well the night before.
Race Morning:
Up at 3:30 a.m.
coffee
vitamins
2 pastries
3 eggs
water
2 thermolytes
5 a.m. Got to the race site, dropped off the bags, got body marked, entered transition and loaded up my bike for the day. Saw lots of people from the team which made me feel relaxed. At 6:10 I put on the wet suit and headed across the timing mat and onto the beach. I saw Coach Jill and my family and teammates and was so excited to race!
Swim 1:27:21
I started to the back and to the far left as my coach had told me to and she was so very right! I had a great swim with minimal contact. I stayed slow and relaxed the whole way. After rounding the first houseboat I veered a little off course but got back into the fray soon enough. I was hoping for a time closer to 1:22 but I exited the swim smiling and relaxed so good enough!
T-1 5:14
Tried to get through this quickly but still took 5 min. to get through all the steps. Had the wet suit ripped off and had to find my bag, into the tent and took the time to change the wet shorts into dry tri shorts. Sunscreen on and off I went.
Bike 6:50:41
Took off down main street like a flash but within a few blocks reined it in to my planned 17-18 m.p.h. Had a lovely tailwind out to the lake and spun easily up McClean Creek Road. Had another decent tailwind through Oliver all the way to Oysoyoos an I held the heart rate in check and took advantage of the free speed. I was taking in my salt, liquid and calories all on schedule and felt great. I spun up Richter pass and started hitting a bit of wind on the rollers. The out and back was really tough with another head wind but I was following my plan and knew mentally to expect this. I hit special needs, loaded up and was off again within 2 min. The climb up to Yellow was slow and steady and I continued to feel strong. Up to the top with all the people lining the streets cheering..how incredible was that? Awesome! Just like that I was screaming down the hill and hit a new personal best of 49.8! I noticed on the downhill that the smoke from the local wildfires was getting pretty thick where I was and the smell and the smoke inhalation started to make me nauseous. Turned left to head back into town and felt like I was cycling through glue. I big headwind hit me here and it was a long tough slog into town. This took a lot of my mental energy and sucked it all away. I was really hoping and on track for a 6:30 split and was really distraught to see the time slipping away as I could barely hold onto 13 or 14 m.p.h. on what should have been a fast section. Back into town and pulled into T-2 where I saw Greg working the bike dismount(Hey Greg!! I still owe you a beer!)
T-2 4:24
Happy with this transition. Bike was thrown to a volunteer, bag handed to me and a wonderful volunteer had me sit, dumped out my bag and helped me get ready for the run. I was still feeling queasy but not too bad.
Run 5:44:56
It all comes down to the run doesn't it? This was where the wheels came off. I felt my race at this point was going great. My bike was a bit slow but other than that I was having a good race. I was having the race that I had planned for and trained for. I felt good heading out. Ran past the team tent, past Coach Jill and Zot, past the kids and several friends. I was so excited that it was down to the run and I was going to finish strong. I made it to mile 2 and took in the planned nutrition. One cup of water, one cup of pepsi, ice in the sports bra and 2 cold sponges squeezed over my head. About 1/2 mile later my stomach rolled and I barely made it to the side of the road to projectile vomit. I continued like this for miles. At mile 4 I ceased taking in any liquids at all and started to walk more than I ran. This continued until mile 10 or 11 when I finally started to feel a bit better. I continued to run/walk until the turn around at which point I made the decision to walk the hills and run the downhills. This worked out ok. I basically would run until my stomach started to roll and then walk until it settled.There were so many people crashed out on the side of the road and ambulances racing by. It was like a battlefield. I have since found out about 9 percent of the field DNF'd for various reasons. Not sure if this is typical or not but there were a lot of bodies scattered about for sure! I saw tons of people I knew on the course which was great. It made me so happy to hear some yell, "Hey JFT!!!" I started to pick up the pace a little as my mood improved. I was heading in and was still seeing a ton of people heading out on the run. The last few miles were TOUGH! The nausea was returning and I was just trying to keep it together. I was feeling crappy but so elated because I knew the finish line was within reach, I pulled into town and the crowds were insane! The final turn to head to the Sicoumous was actually great for me. All of those people just screaming your name....unbelievable! Saw coach again along with my family and I knew I just needed to suck it up and get there. Down the chute with huge smile on my face and just like that it was over.
Final Finish Time 14:12:34
Age Group Place 112/159
Post race: So I was lucky enough to cross into the finish area on my own 2 feet. I had my warm space blanket, my medal and I was good to go. Met up with John Marquis from my team who is about the nicest man on the planet. He had just finished his IMC volunteer shift and was hanging out with me I asked him if it was ok to sit in the grass and he said sure. We sat and talked for awhile and I asked if it was ok to lie down and I think he said ok. That is about when I passed out I guess I got into a wheelchair and I remember hurling copious amounts of vomit first on myself and probably John (Sorry John, I guess I owe you a beer too!!!) and then into a ziploc. My blood pressure was taken and registered a whopping 73/60 and that was my golden ticket to an iv. I had 2 liters put in and was finally able to sip enough gatorade to be allowed out of the med tent 90 min. later. I was so cold it was unbelievable!
My best friend and husband greeted me with a warm sweatshirt and whisked me back to the hot tub at the rental house. I think I made it 15 min before I passed out for the night!
THANKS!!!!
Many many thanks go to my husband who was single parent for so many weekends while I rode and ran, my kids who were/are my biggest cheerleaders, my best friend who would drive any distance to see me race and support me, my team mates who patiently answered all of my iron newbie questions and talked me down off the ledge when needed, my other tri buddies who kept me showing up to long runs and swims, my chiropractor who "fixed" me repeatedly and finally to my coach, Jill Fry. Jill has been an inspiration to me from the first day I met her. She is an incredible athlete and talented coach who never hesitated to answer any questions that I had thoroughly and completely. She developed a plan to get me to IMC happy and injury free and she carried me with kid gloves this entire year. She brought me to the start line ready to race and left me with enough enthusiasm to sign up for 2010. So thanks coach Jill!!! You are my hero!!
I can't wait for Ironman #2!!
