Race Report: Ironman Racine 70.3

First: here’s how this is going to break down: The first post will be the actual race report (I won’t make you wait for the good stuff). The second post will be pictures (Britney took a TON of pictures and I still need to sort through them). The third post will be about the rest of the weekend (aka Saturday, since this was a destination race).

Second: I’m just going to write this, I’m not going to proof read it, probably since it may be long. So forgive any grammatical or spelling errors. Britney and Mom, if you spot any…don’t tell me.

On with the show!

First, I just want to thank you guys for your awesome support during training and leading up to this race. Everyone has been fantastic and I’m proud to be part of this blogging community!

Pre-Race:

Up at 3:30, left the house at 4:20 to drive down to Racine, the girls in tow. My bike was already there, which was nice…much easier to deal with race morning. We got to the beach and I set up transition and then hung out. Although I tried to get there at a reasonable hour, I overshot travel time and we arrived around 5:30…leave us with 2 hours before my wave went. The girls (aka my better half, her sister and my sister) were actually awake and enjoying the people watching.

After heading back to the van to grab my wetsuit and drop off some stuff, we meandered our way to the swim start, a mile up the road. The sunrise was beautiful on the already stunning lake view, so we couldn’t complain about the walk at all. Not to mention, it was pleasantly warm already, which worried me.

We watched the pros head out then hung around the start while my wave was getting ready to go. The entire time, I was hanging out with the girls and was surprisingly calm about the race…no nervous butterflies like pervious races. I think I was more relaxed about this race because the only expectation was to finish and not to PR or podium.

Fun side note: I bumped into a resident of mine (I was a Resident Advisor in college) who did IMWI in 2008 and is doing Louisville next month…she also qualified for Clearwater at Racine…Go Parker!

The Swim: 39:50 (Goal time: 45:00)

My wave consisted of W18-29 AND M18-24 and there still weren’t many of us. Interesting difference from the shorter races. Anyway, the horn went and I waited until the pack raced in until I walked towards the first few buoys, I was in no rush. I found some open water and settled in. The water was 65* but actually felt really nice. I just kept swimming and kept my head down for most of it. I experienced a few waves (not real waves for sure), which was new, but while I suck at running, I’m strong at swimming so they didn’t throw me off too much. A while later, I started seeing the beach below us (the water was CLEAR) and started dolphin diving to reach the shore.

T1:

There was quite a long run up the beach to reach transition but I found my land legs fairly quickly and was able to get my bike stuff together and head out. Nothing spectacular, but the hill outside of transition was just mean!

The Bike: 3:18 (Goal time: 3:45)

I’m just gonna quick toot my own horn: as happy as I am with this split, I road conservatively the entire time. I wanted to respect the distance and the looming half mary ahead of me so never did I push it on the ride. On the flats I cruised at 19mph when I know I could have gotten up to 22 mph comfortably. Up hills, I sat up and just spun up them, going 8 or 9 mph. I was passed by virtually everyone, but I was ok with that. My main concern was riding my own race and keeping my head and legs in the game.

I also needed to pay attention to my nutrition, the plan was 2 bottles of my bike infinit and 1 bottle of my run infinit with water in between. If I could grade myself, I’d give myself a B-, I still had stuff left over but felt really good throughout the ride. I took in lots of water as well (taking in water is never a concern with I race).

The crappiest part of the ride: the road conditions. The wind was good, the course was flat with small hills but the roads looked like Michael Jackson’s famous zipper jacket…bottles and cages were everywhere! I felt bad for people who lost nice bottles or precious nutrition. My stuff stayed put, which was good.

I continued to surprise myself throughout the bike as my head was clearly in the game. I was going to enjoy this race, and that was what I was doing. There was no pressure and I just continued to tick away the miles on the longest ride I’ve ever been on in my life (no joke.). I just let the random thoughts float through my head and the 3 hour ride actually went fairly quickly. Probably because I wasn’t as bored as I get on training rides.

T2:

Um…it rained. Just while I was in T2, and then it stopped before I was even half a mile into the run. I hit the porta potties and was on my way.

I wasn’t too happy about the downhill going into transition, had to keep my shoes on, which made for an awkward dismount (I prefer the flying dismount).

The Run: 2:50 (Goal time: 2:45)

Oh. My. God. I died on the run. 13.1 times. Kid you not. I started running and knew by mile 2 it was not going to be a pretty run. I felt myself overheating and couldn’t cool down (a problem all of us had with 95* temps). I took water and ice at every aid station as well as pretzels and Perform to keep it in. My hips gave out by mile 4 (meaning they turned from 24 year old hips to 84 year old hips) and every step hurt. A lot. This was the leg that I was drastically undertrained on, and it was going to suck.

I did a lot of walking and a lot of shuffling. I did a lot of thinking and a lot of face wincing. I did a lot drinking and I did a lot of sweating.

I can honestly say that I’ve never been in that type of misery before, where it was purely physical. My head was still in the game. I did the math getting off the bike and knew that I could break 7 hours and really break 7 hours if I ran moderately well. But my body just wouldn’t listen. Walking hurt, running hurt, waddling hurt but I knew that if I stopped I wouldn't start again so on I marched.

I was so excited to see the girls at the end of the first loop (it was a two loop run) I almost cried. They walked with me for a while, giving me all the love I needed at that moment. I think I worried Kelsey (Britney’s sister) when I saw her (I saw her first), I think she thought I was going to call it quits, but I told her that I was going to finish, it was just going to take a bit longer. I chatted with Britney and Emily for a while before heading off to the second loop.

This is where my Monaghan stubbornness set in. I did more math and figured that if I could run 9 miles before my watch hit 6 hours, then I could run 4 miles under an hour and still break 7 hours. I kept thinking of the girls waiting for me at the finish line, and how my parents were following me online. I kept thinking I owed it to myself, even if I was undertrained. I kept thinking of all of you and how awesome you are. I wanted to make everyone proud of me. I wanted to show my sister to look up to me for something, even if she never races a triathlon. I wanted to prove to my parents that my brother wasn’t the only athlete in the family. I wanted to be worthy of Britney’s love. I wanted to show myself that I deserved to ‘hang out' with all my rockstar blogger friends who I look up to. So ‘ashuffling I went. Despite the pain in my hips and not being able to cool down, I kept walking and shuffling and amazingly kept my pace around 13:00, which was enough to get me to the finish at 6:55:16, almost 35 minutes off my goal time.

Post-Race:

Wow. Just wow. I hit the finish line and just about collapsed. I got my medal, hat and shirt and had to ward off several medical personnel, explaining that I was just tired and I’d be ok. I found the girls and chilled out by a tree when the post-race drunk feeling hit me. I’ve never actually been drunk or even had a drink of alcohol, but I felt drunk. My head was light and I felt like a newborn calf, wobbling, although I looked fairly stable. I laid down and Britney stretched my legs while I talked with the girls.

While I was laying down, I decided I needed to buy a race shirt before the merchandise tent closed, so we had to quick buzz to the tent, where we purchased a shirt and I promptly collapsed for the first time, as soon as we left the tent. I guess I got up to fast.

After laying down for a while, Britney and I headed to transition to clear out my stuff and headed back up the hill towards the van, when collapse number two came. Several athletes passing by offered help and support but I waved them off…again. I knew I was alright, relatively speaking. Had I gone to the med tent, I’m not even sure what they would have done. I know I wasn’t dehydrated, my hips hurt and I was just really tired. 

We made it to the van, and got every thing packed. I collapsed, again, in the back while we hit the road. Half an hour later, I moved to the front seat since I wasn’t feeling well, where I subsequently threw up. All liquids. (Told ya I wasn’t dehydrated, I bet all of you thought I was dehydrated). My self-diagnosed problem: not enough food. I need food, a lot of food, I’m a big lady. And I had very little solid food during the race, although I had plenty of calories. Don’t worry, a chocolate extreme blizzard from DQ fixed that problem!

Needless to say, after throwing up, I felt much better and we were able to resume our ride home without incident. Overall, I had an awesome day and I had so much fun during the race (although not so much on the run). The time didn’t move as slow as I thought it would, which was a morale booster. The spectators were phenomenal…many were out with their hoses spraying us down as we ran by, which was a blessing every time.

I just had such a great time this weekend, as well as a great race and it just solidified that although I may have a physically bad race, or particular leg of the race, mentally I want to race, and I want to race long…meaning a full iron distance. Yesterday, no matter how I would have finished, it was a key race because mentally I was in it and I was in it deep. Even when the thought of walking the entire half mary crossed my mind, I was ok with it because I was going to do what I set out to do, and that was finishing and I was going to walk away happy with 2 of the 3 legs. So get ready for the training ride next season because an Iron distance will be in my sights!

So, there you have it. I’ll be back later this week with pictures and details from the rest of the weekend hanging with the girls! Thanks for reading!