Another Ironman has come and gone. Yes, I've got the post-IM blues, but something odd happened this year - I got the pre-IM blues too. Not really sure why, but likely just sad to see the training year coming to a close and none of my training partners will be going long next year, so kind of the end of an era for me. I guess training for IM Lake Placid '05 will be interesting...
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/TriFilly/IMCanada04/photo#s5118320776668172290
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/TriFilly/IMCanada04/photo#s5118320776668172290
Anyway, on the race report.
A group of six of us out of Dallas had signed up for this race together last year (thanks to Todd & Mary flying up). It was to be Brian's first IM (he's already signed up for IMCDA next year too). Since signing up, Mary & Brian moved to Denver, Kym got a new job, Cari had hip surgery and Todd became gainfully employed (thank God)... But, we all still made it to Canada, ready to race and had rented two houses for our stay. One house for Todd, Brian, Mary, Cari (and her Ironman Sherpa Hubby - JP) & me and the other house for Kym and her family. My parents were also to be there as my Ironman Sherpas, but about a month before the race, my father become ill w. numb feet and loss of balance and what was then diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder (transverse myelitis) and they decided that a four day drive out of the country wasn't the best decision. Needless to say, I was disappointed, but never questioned that they made the right choice.
So, Todd and I head out of Dallas on Wednesday afternoon for our flights to Seattle and then into Kelowna. Since we both flew on miles, we'd upgraded to First Class... By the time we boarded our Kelowna flight - we were both smashed - woo hoo! Way to start out the vacation on the right foot! Got through immigration, picked up the car & arrived at our Kelona hotel around midnight local time. Due to our prior alcohol consumption, we determined that this was the perfect time to order a couple patty-melts w. fries. Finally crawled into bed about 2 AM (that's 4 AM Dallas time)....
Needless to say, we did NOT make the 7AM swim w. the TRI-DRS group on Thursday morning. Outta the hotel, stopped by Wal-mart for road-trip necessities (water, Pringles, Twizzlers, Gatorade) and headed to Penticton to check into the houses. Picked up the house keys, put bikes together, went to packet pick-up and settled in while we waited on the rest of the gang to show up. Todd drove me out to Yellow Lake to get me good and freaked out about the hills, but it wasn't THAT bad. The rest of the gang arrived safely that afternoon, Todd & I went to Earl's for the TRI-DRS dinner and by the time we got home, the rest had all their bikes assembled and ready to roll that night before bed. Hooking up w. all the TRI-DRSers was great - there at least 30 of us? Finally got to meet many of the infamous members (Mike Peerless included) and Mike Plumb and TriChickie and Haim, and David Jones and Sheila and Eric and Lee and Art and a bunch of others that I didn't get to see the rest of the trip, so was REALLY glad we hooked up that night at dinner. Special thanks to Lee for the CD and notes in T1 & T2 bags and also to Tony for the kind words in the card.
Side-note: I have to mention my packet pick-up experience. I love the volunteers, but.... As I get weighed in (all IM participants get weighed, not just the Clydes), my volunteer doesn't have a pen to write my weight on my card and tells me to see Herb, at the table. I tell Herb my weight, he writes it down, looks me dead in the eye and says "You need to lose weight!" I told him that I was well aware of that fact, but there was little I could do about it between now and Sunday. You could have knocked me over w. a feather. Granted, I am an Athena, but that was just plain RUDE! Despite my Herb experience, the rest of the volunteers and spectators for this race were awesome!
Friday, we swim early and then go for a ride on the run course to check the working condition of the bikes - all good. Decide to skip the pasta dinner and have our own little bar-b-cue at the house. Couple glasses of red wine w. my steak, two Tylenol PMs and I got a great night's sleep.
Saturday, another early swim and then ride our bikes to town to check them in w. IronSherpa JP in the van carrying our T1 and T2 bags. Worked out great. IronSherpa JP decided to rent a scooter for the race, so we picked that up after getting our bikes & bags checked in. We also put up signs and chalked the run and bike courses. It was a long day, but a good chance for me to view the courses and also seeing that chalk and those signs during the race really did give me a pick-me-up! (For those of you who were there - the yellow signs were ours). Arrived back at the house just in time for our pasta dinner. Ate, checked the special needs bags for the zillionth time and hit the sack. Woke up during the night to the sound of rain... Beat myself up (mentally) for about an hour when I realized that I'd double bagged my T2 bag, but not my T1 bag, so my bike shoes & helmet would likely be soaked. Eventually, fell back to sleep until about 4 and then got on w. the day...
Sunday - I ate my two packets of pre-race oatmeal (despite Todd's repeated attempts to get me to throw it up all over the family room floor - which was MUCH closer to actually occurring than he ever realized). The five of us racing loaded up into the two mini-vans and JP headed off on the scooter. Key move, when we rented the scooter, we found out we could park there - woohoo - didn't leave the house until 5:15 or so and had a decent parking spot! Body marked, dropped off special needs bags, checked T1 & T2 bags - both were dry - yea, pumped tires, applied sunscreen, drank a bit of Gatorade, into wetsuit, ate PB&J and hit the beach! Bob Mina was SO right, the bagpipes, Oh Canada, the cannon - it was awesome! What a FABULOUS day for a race - exactly the weather I ordered!! Announcer is telling stragglers to get to the water (apparently some were still on Lakeshore Drive) and BOOM - the cannon goes off. Cari, Todd, Kym, Brian, Mary and I start wading into the water and eventually start to swim. I did very little swimming in my training (much to Coach Debi's chagrin), as I am a natural swimmer and figured w.out much practice, would still be out of the water in 1:20 or so. I never found any feet to draft of, but no complaints, since I had open water almost the whole time. Didn't work too hard during the swim and out of the water in 1:17 - right on plan! (Ave. HR 118).
T1 - Mary hit the change tent just after me, so we chatted and therefore my T1 time was just a bit longer (5:41) than my goal of under 5:00 - but worth it to see a friendly face.
Bike - I head out and before McLean Creek both Mike Peerless and Mary pass me. I keep reminding myself to restrain myself until after Richter. Going into Oliver, I see a guy who's crashed (rumor had it he hit a deer, but that was false) and the ambulance is headed towards him. Poor guy... IronSherpa JP (on the scooter) just about got me a penalty here for motor-pacing, but I yelled at him to GO! Thankfully, the officials zipping up behind us heard me yelling at him. I knew that it would be way too easy to push it in this section and then end up regretting it later - so I took it easy, ate my PB&J and waited to reach Richter. Richter was long, but because I'm a wuss on hills and had my 27 cassette on, it was manageable. The post-Richter downhills (Honk-honk Clydesdale coming thru), were well worth the climb up it. Ate my second PB&J, stopped for a porta-potty and hit the out and back for special needs. I had hoped to catch Mary and Cari here, but see them coming out just as I'm heading into the turnaround (probably 1/2 - 1 mile difference). I skip my special needs bag as I don't need anything (but my seat would have liked a break off that saddle). Eventually, I catch Mary (before the bear fruit stand I think) and then get Cari right before going up Yellow Lake. The crowds along Yellow Lake were the huge and loud and the best I've had in a race and I really appreciated it. I maybe could have made it up this with a 25, but sure was glad to have my 27 to bail to! Again, the post-Yellow Lake downhills were fast and although my life flashed before my eyes a few times, I came out of it w.out crashing! Bike: 6:09:33 (18.2 MPH, Ave. HR 133).
T2 - Uneventful. Changed shoes, grabbed hat, gu and salt tabs. 4:52
Run - Felt good for first mile - a little too good as split was 8:25 - WAY too fast for me! Settled in to a more reasonable 10-11 min/mile pace and just kept on moving. Stopped about mile 6, took a volunteer's chair to remove shoes & socks, dusted sand/grass off feet, shook out socks and totally vaselined my feet. BEST move I made on the run. Continued w. my plan of run to each water stop until I hit the hills near the turnaround. Those were bigger hills than I'd trained for - so did quite a bit of walking here. I recall Al calling my name about mile 12, but didn't know who it was at the time - thanks Al!! Just before I got to special needs saw another prior Dallasite, David Crawford - IM Virgin coming at me - he was having a great race - especially for his first IM! Skipped special needs and saw Cari coming about 1/2 mile back after the turnaround and Mary not too far behind her. Yikes - I'd better get moving. I stuck mainly to plan of running from water stop to water stop (except for walking the uphills) and every time I stopped, I'd work out my ankle (sore from about mile 9 on) look back down the road to see if Cari and/or Mary were in sight yet. Really good motivators :) I saw Todd, Brian and Kym out there too - all looking good and happy to be in the last leg of the race. Once I hit Main Street, IronSherpa JP told me I had a decent lead on Cari & Mary. I asked if that meant I could walk in the last three miles - he didn't think so. Finally hit the tease of Lakeshore (w. the finish a block away in the direction I am NOT going)... Crowds were great, weather was great, definitely a personal high for that last mile. Gave a high five both Cari and Mary as we were going in opposite directions & it was only then that I knew I'd be the first one in our group to cross the line. Run: 4:50 (11:04 min/mile, Ave. HR 140).
Total Time: 12:27:23 (PR by 47 minutes over IMCDA last year)
Athena: 2/18 (Cari took third).
AG: 41/134
I met my primary goal of a bettering my time from IMCDA and my secondary goal of under 13 hours and even my tertiary goal of beating Cari (she beat me last year at IMCDA). This was a great race and I will likely do it again someday. The venue is beautiful with the whole town really supportive of the entire event. Thank you to all who have trained with and supported me - I spent a lot of time on a long race day thinking of you. I also spent a lot of time that day appreciating the scenery, the fans and how lucky I am to be able to participate in an event of this magnitude. I am definitely stronger and hopefully a better person because of it.
Katie
PS - You have a lot of endurance potential if you read this whole thing :)
