Disclaimer: This post is extremely long... sorry!
Race Report | Ironman Wisconsin 9.13.09
BACKGROUND STORY:
Early on… It was a tough year… back in December I found out I’d been running on a stress fracture in my right tibia while training to run the Phoenix marathon. The unfortunate part of this story is that I was really making progress. I’d never done speed or tempo work and it was paying off. I set PRs in most, if not all, the runs I did regardless of the pain - and in various distances. I was well on my way to improving my run. Oops. All right, snag number one… no biggie, I’d take a couple months off, let it heal and get back out there. Docs scared me with stories of the hard to heal injury and told me I had to take 3 mos off… no running or impact but I could swim and bike all I wanted. I took off 5. I became pretty strong on the bike and swim and when I started running again, I was optimistic. Then the leg started to hurt again. Not so much in the bone but lower on the inside near the ankle/shin. I was told that my fracture was coming back so I stopped running again. I found this really strange but did not want to risk another 5+ months off or another full blown injury this far into the season. I do think this broke my spirit a little. Where I had felt really strong before (on the other two disciplines) I started to feel weak and frustrated… I started to lose confidence. About a month out I started the attempt to build the run again. I ran twice a week for fairly short distances (run/walking and got up to an hour in length) and did some long walks on the weekends. I think this helped me a great deal heading into the race. The big test came 2 weeks out when I ran the Madison Mini Marathon (13 miles) – unfortunately I got very sick the night before but luckily felt well enough to run in the morning. I did not set any record speeds, and my legs were definitely hurting near the end, but I did manage to run the 13… I was very happy with that and for the first time really believed that Sept. 13th might not be so bad.
Hitch 2… on the Monday morning before the race, Labor Day, after a solid last training weekend I was out cleaning up after my dogs. They were wrestling and having a great time. I should have been more cautious of their morning energy but hindsight is 20/20 right? While I was looking the other direction, the whirling dervish of fur came barreling into the outside of my left knee and I immediately felt my knee go out and the next thing I knew I was on the ground. I was holding my knee (and my breath) as I waited to feel the extent of the damage. It was not good, but not disastrous… I immediately went in, took Advil and iced it. This started the week of complete rest, elevation, ice and Advil. I didn’t do anything on it until Thursday when I tried the swim. Friday I tried the bike – the run would wait until game time. It didn’t feel great but it was worth a shot… oh but we weren’t done with the bad luck yet…
To top it off… last but not least, I got sick… REALLY sick. I’m always nervous so I’m sure some of my nausea those 2 weeks leading up could be related to that but I could not pawn off the insane sinus pain and migraines to the nerves. I tried everything and no drug or sinus cleanse was touching it. My ears were plugged, I was nauseous, dizzy and in some serious pain. Miserable and scary leading into the one day you’ve been shooting for all year…
GAME DAY
Pre-race:
Woke up feeling nervous but ok… took the sinus meds and crossed my fingers. Managed to eat most of what I’d planned on (two pieces of gluten free toast with peanut butter and jelly on each and 2 eggs – didn’t get the cereal down…), gathered my things and headed to the venue. The nerves were getting the better of me and the nervous energy of my other 2500 co-participants was definitely not helping me. Luckily, I usually relax once the gun goes off. I did not take my gel 15 minutes prior to the start due to lack of water and hindsight tells me that will be a priority for next year. The weather was slated to be gorgeous – sunny, high around 81 with light/variable wind. This would be interesting on a few different points – first, we had been training in insane winds all season and on a windy day, that bike course is BRUTAL! Second, it had been a very very mild summer. I’m not sure that I trained in weather any warmer than 80 degrees more than a handful of times. This could cause some issues but that was yet to be determined… all I knew at the time was that the water was glass. Always a great sign for an Ironman swim…
Swim | 1:11
(34/132 div. place, 1:53 pace)
Entered the water not long before “go time.” I like it that way, less time to float around, use energy and get even more nervous. I was happy to see that my anti-fog drops were doing the trick. Earlier in training my goggles were fogging and I found myself getting panicky in the water, which was a new feeling for me. I’m usually pretty calm and confident in training. Anyway – I lined up on the inside of the buoy line a little bit back from the front. Made a deal with the guy behind me that I would do my best to not kick him if he tried to not swim over the top of me. With that, the gun sounded and the day began. I was happy with the swim for the most part – I was able to find open water more frequently than I had in the past, however I also found myself stuck behind swimmers that were quite a bit slower than myself. I felt like I was swimming very steady but not pushing myself to any crazy limits, I still felt relaxed. I had some issues (as did everyone!) with the corners. They were chaotic, slow and pretty brutal which I believe slowed me down quite a bit relative to how I felt I was swimming and my final time. I did take in two pretty large gulps of Lake Monona but for the most part got out of the swim fairly unharmed. And yes… it was a PR.
T1 | 9:51
My goal was to improve this time. My transition times are a little ridiculous. The strippers were awesome this year – by far the fastest that wetsuit has ever come off me. Loved it! Unfortunately I took 5 steps to run up the helix and realized that it wasn’t going to happen. Again, “save it for the run” so I switched to a quick walk up the helix and into the gear bag room. For the first time I got into a fairly empty changing room, took a seat and allowed a fabulous volunteer to help me out. Everything went smoothly – I wore my bike shorts under the wetsuit for the first time this year and I think that worked out very well. I had been nervous that it would change how I felt in the water because little tweaks can mess with my back, but all was good. I was out the door, into the porta potty and out in a fairly quick time (for me). My bike was located fairly close in the row to transition which was not ideal for the fact that you have a longer distance to run with your bike. While I was jogging down the lot I realized that it was a) a pretty long distance, b) my heart rate was insanely high and c) I didn’t seem to have a lot of energy. I saw my super supportive family cheering me on I was off. It was going to be a good day…
Bike | 6:26:50
(26/132 div. place, 17.4 pace)
It didn’t take me long to realize that something was very off once I was on the bike. I was spinning easy to make sure my knee was warmed up and my stomach was acclimated. What I wasn’t prepared for was the immediate feeling of nausea and dizziness, the complete lack of energy and a sky-high heart rate that would not come down regardless of what I did. Coasting down hills, which would normally drop my HR to the low teens (ie: 113), was dropping to 165 if I was lucky. I took in calories much earlier than originally planned to see if that would help, and it did to a point but unfortunately it set the stage for the day. This was the first time I actually questioned whether I would have to drop out of a race and I was not even to Whalen Rd. yet – which is not far into the course. I continued to push the calories early on and they helped me through the feeling of weakness but the off feeling I had over all did not go away. I was very very lucky for the light winds, and my legs felt awesome for the first loop. In training my quads had felt like they were going to blow not even 20 miles into a ride but today they felt completely untouched. That was very exciting… maybe I would always take the week of the race off completely! Ha! Although I was riding well, I still felt very ill. I seemed to be handling the power gels ok so I continued to push those and I believe I went though 5 of them and a special k bar on the first loop (as well as some salt and a couple waterbottles). I got to the special needs bag and forced down the pbj uncrustable knowing that it was substantial calories and sodium and hoping it would bring me back. The rest of the food I pocketed incase my stomach came around but I was again going to put my faith in the gels. The first time around I had a gel flask of vanilla power gels, the second one that I picked up in SNeeds was carboom which I found that I did not like as much, however I did want the caffeine. I wound up becoming a fan of the green apple power gels (which had 1x caffeine in them) and took them whenever I could. The problem I ran into on the second loop (other than my dropped chain going into the Mt. Horeb hill) was leg cramping. I went through all my salt tabs as well as additional gels (200mg of sodium) but couldn’t stop them. I was still able to ride but it did slow me down considerably due to not being able to push as hard as I was hoping to and having to slow down in order to dig out more tabs and gels. The beautiful and frustrating thing about the bike was that it was THE day to light up that course… I’ve never seen it so calm and my legs felt great. I was disappointed to see how many people were drafting though. There were packs everywhere, which was frustrating from my end because I was not able to get by 7 people at a time… I never saw a race official or a photographer. Bummer cause I had been practicing my “focused” look J. Despite the issues, it was still a PR of about 15 minutes. Should have been more but I’ll take it J.
T2 | 11:22
This one went ok, but was slow because I just couldn’t leave J. Got through everything I needed to as usual – again, the volunteer helping me was amazing! I did a complete outfit change, bodyglide and hat. Unfortunately mistake number one was that I put my shoes on before I saw the knee brace. Decided that was a definite necessity so I took off my shoe, put the brace on and put the shoe back on. Oops. Then, the doc chick kinda freaked us out though saying that it was 81 but had a heat index of 96… ouch. No wonder I was cramping on the bike! Anyway, I made the decision to take the waterbottle out with me in order to ease my way into things… Yeah, well as I’m leaving a woman offers me water which reminds me I forgot to grab the bottle – damn. Back I go… grab the bottle put some water in it and start to head out again. STOP! There’s something poking you in your shoe… that will cause some serious issues later – fix it while you have chairs! So back in I go, take off my shoe, find it’s in my sock, fix it, put everything back on and off I go… yup… 11:22. Sucky. I grabbed my Garmin 405 and the pace chart on my way out as well. A quick stop in the porta potty and on to leg 3… only 26.2 to go. Only…
Run | 4:55:49
(51/132 div. place, 11:18 pace)
Started out walking. Saw that I was coming out of T2 around 2:57 so I decided to set my Garmin runner (aka: Brad) for 16 min ahead of my pace chart. I would need to stay with or ahead of Brad in order to get me in before 13 hours. If I didn’t hit that then I knew I’d have 15 more minutes to get in before 13:15. I continued walking around the square until I reached the downhill. I had yet to try out the knee and I was more than a little nervous. Set off in a jog and realized that I was ok – it was hot as hell but my knee was ok. Off I went. I am not sure I was even to a mile before I felt a cramping right below my sports bra line. It was definitely not pleasant and unfortunately never went away. I did try a couple times to get rid of it – took some charcoal and later some gas x but neither helped. I did my best to run in between aid stations and found myself walking most of the inclines as I really didn’t feel well but was determined to move forward as quickly as possible. I took Gatorade at every aid station and made sure that there was water in my waterbottle (which I wound up carrying the entire marathon!) then would pour the ice cubes in my sports bra and squeeze two sponges over my head. When they got around to offering chicken broth I took in some of that too… it was keeping me going but never helped with the cramping. I did take in about 3 or 4 gels and some more salt tabs throughout the run but I was nervous to take them since the nausea never really went away. When I got down past octopus carwash on the second loop I saw my friend Dean who said “we need to get you in under 13.” I think at that point I snickered and responded “I wish… I just don’t have it” I was just over 8 miles out at that point and already digging deeper than my reserves went. Although I had decided at the turn around that I was going to do everything that I could to run as much as possible I saw my hopes of sub 13 quickly going downhill. State Street was tough because my fam was no longer there… It was quickly getting tougher. I really enjoy lakeshore path so I was doing my best to run there as long as possible… at least until the next aid station. That worked for the most part but again I looked at my watch and thought I was screwed for the sub 13. I saw Dean again, who’s wife Michele was right behind me. From here I really owe a lot of my remaining race to Michele. She passed me and consistently ran till the end. When I was running I was moving a little faster than she was so I would catch up, but inevitably would slow to a walk and she would pass again. I knew I had to stick with her. As I was heading out to picnic point and heard all these other people who were heading back talking about finishing just under 13 which caused me to panic a little. I saw Dean again and he said I could do it and had 45 minutes – it was 7:15. I managed to run to the next aid station and continued from there… walking as minimally as I could handle and only allowing myself to walk for a 30 count when I did. My quads were beyond shot. Again, Michele kept me going… at about 24.5 miles my friend Brad found me and said you’re going to have to push. I think my respond was “push what” but I knew he was right. A little bit up the road someone yelled out that it was 7:44. Shoot. I was approaching mile 25 and I knew that I could walk a 14 min mile if I needed to but it was pretty much all uphill and what if her watch was off? I kept running and I honestly don’t know how I did it. I broke down into a walk at the aid station on the other side of the square, counted my 30 and forced the finish. I made it down the shoot to see 12:54… on a year where I thought all was lost, questioned whether I would be able to compete, let alone run, going into that weekend - I had managed to PR and ultimately achieve my goal of finishing with a 12 at the front of my time. I had done it. It was painful and certainly not pretty but it was a lot to ask on a bad year so I’ll take it.
