In the days leading up to leaving for Austin I was consumed by the preparation. This is the first race I’ve ever done where the transitions were in two different places and I was nervous about forgetting something essential. Thanks to my trusty checklist and my cat’s gentle nudges, I didn’t forget a thing.
I arrived in Austin on Thursday morning and was picked up from the airport by my oldest daughter, Leah, who lives in Austin. The hotel room wasn’t ready yet so we walked across the street to a restaurant which served beer (my number 1 priority), then went back to the hotel to await our friends Jill and Ahti. This race was Ahti’s 40th birthday present to Jill. Some gift, huh? It was what she really, really wanted. Really! We spent the rest of the day getting groceries for the weekend, sightseeing and having dinner at a taco bar downtown. Friday we went to the expo center just to check it out, but once we got there decided to go ahead and check-in since the lines weren’t that long and we still had a couple of hours to kill before picking Lou up from the airport. The check-in process went very smoothly and fairly quickly considering how many steps there were to the process. Once we had gone through the last step we ran the gauntlet of products on our way out the door. Fortunately we didn’t have much time left to pick up Lou or I’m certain I would have bought something I didn’t really “need.” The brand pride fever is easy to catch. We picked Lou up, took him back to the room to change, then went to Barton Springs for an easy 3 mile walk while we waited for Leah’s boyfriend, Dan, to arrive from Arlington. That evening, we had dinner at the Salt Lick BBQ. We were there early so there wasn’t the crowd that normally assembles on a weekend night, although the Sheriff’s Department was there to ensure the peace was kept (and the BYOB drinking managed). The priority on Saturday was to set up our transitions then rest and properly pre-hydrate and pre-fuel our bodies for the next day’s test of endurance. The two and clean (nothing on the ground) transition approach to this race took a little more thought to plan than the typical one transition approach, but the three bags we were given to told our gear did make it a little easier. We left the run gear bag at T2, which was set up at the expo center. We tied our bags to the rail where our numbers were located and memorized landmarks so that we could easily find it when we rode in the next day, picked Frank (my bike) up from the transport company, then drove over to TI. Jill picked her bike up from the truck which drove it up from Albuquerque. We were delighted to discover we were only an aisle apart on the end closest to the “bike out.” When we satisfied ourselves that all was well we went back to the hotel to put our feet up for the rest of the day. Our support crew did a great job of taking care of us so we wouldn’t have to exert ourselves and could get to bed early for a restful night’s sleep.
Race morning! Jill said she’s comfortable getting to the venue with not much time to spare before the gun goes off, but not me. I like to get there as early as possible so I don’t have to wait in long lines and have time to visualize the race and calm my nerves. We arrived at the expo center at 5:00am, which is when the shuttles starting taking people to TI. Parking at TI is closed on race day since the three loop run is routed through it. We got body marked, took our wet suit, goggles, water bottles, and bike nutrition to our bikes, set everything up, visualized our swim-in, swim-out, bike-out transitions, then applied our sunscreen and waited for Mother Nature to do what she was going to do with our breakfasts.
Time to swim! We were kicked out of transition at 7:15, and I went into the water at 7:40, behind the pros and the young men and in front of about 12 other waves. Jill went into the water 10 minutes after me. I knew she would pass me at some point because 1) she’s faster than me by almost half my time; and 2) we figured out the night before when we expected to finish each leg. The swim is the part that makes me most nervous because I have never experienced a race where I didn’t get swam over by the elites in the three waves behind me. This might explain why I swam .11 miles further than needed, but still finished just two minutes later than what I estimated. Jill came in a few minutes earlier than estimated. The strippers very helpfully pulled my wetsuit off without also pulling off my timer and Garmin watch. Jill didn’t need a stripper. She just whipped hers right off and kept on going.
The bike ride! This was my favorite part of the race. Again, I knew Jill would come in ahead of me by 40 minutes or more, but I expected a 3:30 finish. I was just guessing at this time based on other courses I had done. The race reports I had read from previous years said this course was “hilly” but when I looked at the Garmin files the elevation gain was much less than what either of us are used to riding in NM and MA. A few days before race day they announced a new portion of the course, which we later learned added at least 20 minutes on to the finisher times from the previous year. People were complaining all day that the new course was hillier and rougher than ever, and they weren’t pleased. The first half of the ride I was averaging 20mph, which is super fast for me. I thought, “Holy cow! Lou’s going to freak when my time pops up at mile 26.” At this rate, I was going to finish at least 30 minutes earlier than predicted. The second half of the race killed that dream. I kept waiting for the hills to end. They never did. In fact, I finished 5 minutes slower than predicted and Jill came in pretty much on target. Throughout the race, though, I felt great and pleased that I stuck with my plan to eat every 15 minutes and drink a bottle per hour. It was a beautiful course with enthusiastic spectators. There were quite a few flats from the stickers in T1 (which is why I brought 2 tubes), but since we were warned ahead of time about this problem we carried our bikes from TI to the start line. There were also quite a few lost water bottles that were necessary to dodge: both the reuseable and single-use kind. Instead of exchanging my reuseable for a single-use I sacrificed a few minutes to stop at mile 35 to quickly refill and at mile 45 to dump one over my head.
The run. Oh, the run. My challenge sport. I had planned to finish in 2:30 because I knew with my bum foot (plantar faciitis) I’d have to do the run/walk method. I was shooting for a ratio of 7:3, which I had done successfully throughout training. Instead, I finished in just over 3 hours. The heat. Oh,damn! The heat! It was 89 degrees with humidity around 60%. Enough said. BUT! I didn’t give up. I didn’t stop running. I just ran slower, and for shorter distances between the walking. I wasn’t going to be a quitter. Come hell or high water I was going to FINISH this race! If nothing else, I am determined. Even faced with the knowledge that I was going to have to run past that awful decaying animal smell SIX TIMES on the three loop course, I just stuck my nose in the sweaty palm of my hand and kept on going. Jill did the same. She had hoped for a faster pace, but the heat got to her, too. Still, she finished about an hour before me and I was so proud to see her standing there cheering me on at the end of my second loop.
This is what it sounds like to be a finisher at an Ironman event.
This is what it looks like later that night, when the adrenaline wears off and you’ve been sufficiently fed and talked out.
Now that the dust has completely settled and a few days have passed, I still want to try my hand (legs?) at a full Ironman one day. Before that happens, I want to PR my first half Ironman (Pumpkinman) and maybe add a second half Ironman (Lake Havasu City) into my race season. Jill said she’s game for another one, too. First, though, I need to address my foot. I most assuredly do NOT want to go through another whole season in constant pain. No more running until its gone for good. Meanwhile, I got an email today that Pumpkinman registration is now open for next year. That’s a whole 11 months away. Plenty of time to get all better AND start my swim and bike base training. Right?
A special word about our Support and our Cheer Crew: We could not have done every thing we did without the people who stand behind us, holding our bags, waiting for hours to catch a glimpse and a photo of us, cooking our pre-race meals, spending the days before, during and after talking about pretty much nothing else, taking care of all the practical things we don’t have the mental energy for, buying us race day mementos, loving us enough to sacrifice time together to train because they know how much this means to us, wishing the best for us, fearing for our safety when they see others limping across the finish line or getting wheel-chaired away or not seeing us when they expect to see us, the money we spend on gear and race fees and special wicking fabrics and nutritional requirements, hugging and kissing us when we’re sweaty and stinky, telling us with words and looks and sometimes tears how proud they are of us and happy that we’ve achieved the thing we set out to do. When I’m on that course, whether training or racing, I think about my husband and the people waiting for me at the finish line and all I want is for them to be proud of me and to pass along to them the courage to take on a challenge of their own. Thank you, Lou, for loving me so well. Thank you, Jill, for joining me on this journey. Thank you, Ahti, for Jill’s birthday present. Thank you, Leah, for taking all that time off to spend with your Mamma. Thank you, Dan, for sacrificing a weekend with your love to spend watching her mother. Thank you, Robin and Karen, for sitting in that line of traffic to be there in time to see me run my last lap and finish.