Well well well.... I finally did it. This past weekend I competed in the Ironman 70.3 Racine half Ironman triathlon. There were some high moments and some low moments. I will do my best to describe them for you in the paragraphs to follow.
3:45 am Race Morning- I woke up because I had to go to the bathroom. My alarm wasn't set till 4:30 am. At that point there was no going back to sleep. So, 4:30 came and we got dressed, ate some breakfast we were on the road by 4:50 am. We arrived to Racine about 5:20 am, found a parking spot and headed to transition. We got our transition area set up and headed to the swim start which was 1 mile down the beach.
We arrived to the swim start about 10 minutes to the opening gun. We put our wetsuits on and got in the water for a little warm up and just to get used to the water. Water temp was 68 degrees- chilly, but nice while swimming. We had about 50 minutes till my swim wave started and an over an hour till Matthew's wave started. Before I knew it it was time to make my way to the start. 8 months of training came down to this moment on this day. HOOOONK went the horn and we were off. I stayed to the back of my wave so I would not run into people or vice versa. Initially I did not do well. Within the first 15 seconds I swallowed a hug gulp of water and couldn't breath. I settled my self down by taking more breaths and was fine. After that I felt pretty good, especially as I started to pass the slower people in the wave in front of us. A few minutes later though some discouragement came. The fast people from the wave behind me caught me... and passed me. About 30 minutes later we made it to the final red buoy and turned back toward the beach. I could see the Swim In sign. I had made it. My swim time was 44:19- right where I wanted to be. Overall, the swim was as good as it could have been. It was just how I trained for it.
I got out of the water, saw my time and felt really great. I knew I was right where I wanted to be. I entered the transition area and had my wetsuit stripped by some nice volunteers. Time to use the bathroom, put on bike shoes and go. Adrienne was waiting by the Bike Out tunnel and I shouted "I love you" to which some older man replied "I love you too!" People are funny. That was when the good feelings stopped for the day. The very first thing you do on the bike is clip in and climb a really steep hill at the same time. Well, I couldn't get one of my shoes clipped in on the hill so someone just said "run it up the hill, you'll be faster" so that's what I did. I should have taken this as an omen for the rest of the day. It was all uphill from there.
The only part that felt good on the bike was the first 5 miles. The next 51 were absolutely miserable. The big difference between Wisconsin and Illinois- hills. And these weren't even hills- they were mountains :(. What hurt the most during the bike was not my back or my legs- it was my feet. At mile 25 I had to stop and pull out the "shims" my bike guy put in my shoes a few weeks back. I think a combination of shoes and putting so much pressure on my feet from climbing is what made my feet hurt so bad. At one point they actually fell asleep. I was about mile 30 where I really saw my speed beginning to dip down below my training speed. This is where a lot of the discouragement set in. I was doing the math and there was no way I was going to be able to finish the bike in the 3 hrs I was hoping and training for. The only thing that could have gone worse on the bike was a flat tire. Unfortunately, I saw one lady changing a flat with only 2 miles left to go on the bike. I finished the bike in 3:21:33- 21:33 slower than my desired time, and that was really discouraging. The one area where I felt I was really solid and had put in the most time training was on the bike. To have a split like that was very discouraging. But it is what it is. There's nothing I can do about race day circumstances or mountains (well, really big hills) on the course. I can only train my hardest with the roads I have available to me and hope that it is good enough and that's what I did.
So, I entered transition, changed my shoes and was off. I saw Adrienne as I was leaving transition. A quick kiss and I was off... until I realized I had no more energy left. The tank was empty. The Ironman company did a great job with aid stations along the run route. They had water, ice, cola and gatorade. They also offered pretzels and chips and fruit. I ate and drank as I could and ran as I could. I saw Matthew on my way back for the second loop and he was on his way out. He caught me as we were starting the second loop. This is the point where the race people are just mean. Right where the second loop starts is the finish line. I was 100 yards from the finish line and yet 6.5 more miles to go. It was at this time I was Adrienne and she walked and talked with me a little while. Finishing was never in doubt- the time just became a major factor and somewhat of a disapointment.
As we made the second loop I met Dave. Dave is a Psychologist from Park Ridge. The two of us walked and ran together the rest of the way. We talked about our families and our jobs and pretty much anything to keep our minds off the fact we had 6+ miles to go. Then we met Rema who was from Downers Grove and walked and ran with her for all the way to the Finish Line. As we approached we could hear everyone's name being called. I encouraged Dave and Rema to go ahead of me. I wanted a few minutes by myself to take it all in and reflect on what I had accomplished.
My run time was slower than a Sunday stroll. I "ran" a half marathon in 3:34:43 with an overall time of 7:51:33. Am I disapointed in my time- yeah, probably. Am I going to let that overshadow the accomplishment- going to try not to. Look, some days you start out and know its going to be a great day. Others you know its going to be rough. An example of this is Craig Alexander, the reigning Ironman World Champion who also raced in Racine on Sunday. He did not win. He finished 9th. It wasn't his day. It's days like these where you learn so much about yourself. You push yourself to the utter limit and then say "go farther".
The entire experience has been so tremendous. Whether its getting up at 5:30am to train or staying out till 10pm swimming at the Y. I've lost 25 lbs, ran a marathon and completed a half Ironman triathlon in the last 8 months. At this point there's only one question remaining.
Am I going to do it again?
Absolutely.
