itri
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Copied from my blog with very minor revisions, since it would take WAY too long to type it all out again. :p
This past weekend, I raced in my first half-ironman, the Harvest Moon Long Course at Aurora Reservoir. I'd done a pretty good job of keeping myself in denial that it was so close, but by the time Friday and packet pick-up rolled around, I was doing a pretty good job of freaking out. Surprisingly, I slept ok Friday night. Well, maybe there was some Tylenol PM involved.
I arrived at the Reservoir Saturday morning apparently at entirely the wrong time...there was a loooong line of cars waiting to get in. From what I understand, people who got there earlier and later didn't have any wait at all, but I sat there for about 20 minutes before being able to park. I got my bike down off the rack and went to pump up my tires. Got the front one pumped up, and then my pump decided to eat the end off the valve stem of my tube. Doh. Yeah, you kind of need that or the tube won't hold air. I grabbed a spare tube out of the back of the car and the rest of my stuff, figuring I would figure it out and/or find someone to help me in transition. I found a decent spot, plopped my stuff down, and went off to get my timing chip and body marking. Fortunately, on my way back, I ran into my friend Hillary's husband, Ben, who was doing the duathlon and knows a lot about bikes, so I commandeered him to help me change my tire. We got it changed, went to pump it up, and the freaking pump ate the end off the valve stem again! Luckily, Ben had a spare tube and a floor pump, so he grabbed those and changed the tire for me AGAIN.
So, by this time, it's less than half an hour till the race starts and I am totally unprepared. The good thing about this was that it didn't give me time to freak out too much! By the time I got my stuff laid out, it was time to head down to the water. I met up with a friend that was doing the race as well, and we walked down to the beach and got our wetsuits on and warmed up a bit. Before I knew it, it was time to go.
The swim was much better than I anticipated. This race was small enough, and the waves spaced out far enough that there really wasn't much crazy stuff going on. I tried to set a pace that was comfortable, but where I was still working hard. The first buoy was a LONG way out. It took forever to get to it! Out by the turnaround and on the way back in, the waves started picking up a bit, resulting in a few inadvertent mouthfuls of water. Before I knew it, I was done with the swim, and heading up the beach to transition.
T1 felt like it took forever, but my time really wasn't that bad. The water temperature was warmer than the air at that point, and it was COLD. There was a relay team on the rack next to me, waiting for their swimmer, and they were nice enough to help me put on my arm warmers since I was shaking and I couldn't get them on my wet arms. I grabbed a lunabar and headed out for the bike.
I stuffed the lunabar down while trying not to crash, since I had forgotten to eat all my breakfast with all the tire drama pre-race. The first half of the bike was a lot of fun. It was fast, and I felt really good, so I pushed hard, maybe faster than I should have. We did a short out and back and then went into a BIG loop. There was a car of people who were leapfrogging the course cheering for their friend, who was not far behind me. I joked with them, and they kind of adopted me for the rest of the race, which was fun. They even offered me a donut at one point, which I probably would have taken if it had been a jelly donut instead of powdered. The bike course was really not very interesting, out in the middle of nowhere, practically in Kansas. With the weather and the clouds, we couldn't even see the mountains, so it was just farmland with lots of big long rolling hills. My legs started feeling a bit tired around mile 30, and little did I know that the worst was yet to come. Around mile 42 or so, there was a BIG hill that completely wiped me out, but there was still 15 miles or so back to the finish, pretty much all uphill. Ouch. I did a lot of out-of-the-saddle climbing just to try to keep moving forward. I knew the last part of the course was uphill, but didn't think it would be as bad as it was! My adopted friends, as well as Hillary and ShannonD were at the bottom of the hill outside of transition, cheering away.
T2 was pretty uneventful. The relay team was there, having just sent their runner out, so I chatted with them while I got changed over. I got to say hi to Shannon on my way out of transition, and got a quick hug, and I was off.
My legs felt really good to start the run, but I tried to keep things under control, since I knew I had a long way to go. It was slightly disheartening to see guys coming in to the finish as I was heading out, knowing that they were done and I still had 13 miles to run! My friend Sonja had written in her ironman race report about keeping a smile on her face the whole race and how good it made her felt, so I was going to try to do the same thing. It was amazing, I felt good, I loved smiling at people (lots of people coming back in on the out and back course), exchanged lots of comments with people, it was fun! I passed my friend Cody on his way back in around 3.5 miles and then saw Ben around 4.5. I hit the turnaround, still feeling pretty good. It started drizzling just a little around that point, which actually felt a little nice. But then it really started raining around 8. Which wasn't so fun. I kept smiling, though! By this point, there wasn't much traffic out on the course (all the normal people had already finished!) so it was getting harder to stay motivated and positive. I was still feeling pretty decent, though, which lasted till probably around 11.5, at which point my legs decided that they were DONE. The last mile had a lot more walking than I had hoped for, and my smile definitely slipped a bit.
I came around the last corner into the finish area, and I could see XH with DS, and my smile came back! I ran over and grabbed DS's hand, and he ran across the finish line with me. He did AWESOME! X was pretty far out from the finish line, so it was a long way for little legs to go. Hillary was there, as well as Amy and Becky (my #1 fan!) and they were all cheering like crazy. To be honest, the finish is a little blurry. I remember hearing some comments about how cute DS was, and vaguely remember the announcer saying my name, and that's about it. I got across the finish, and scooped DS up for a big hug, and then my friends were there, hugging me. Amazingly, I don't think I even cried!
The weird thing has been how anti-climactic it's all been. I didn't really expect to get hit this hard by the blahs afterward, and I really thought the high would last longer! By Sunday afternoon, I was in the middle of a major post-race letdown, with a big feeling of "now what?" I'm thinking about signing up for the Denver half-marathon next month (after seriously contemplating signing up for a half-marathon THIS weekend, I've since gotten over that little bit of insanity), and then who knows...
Results:
Swim 44:48
T1 3:42
Bike 3:38:06 (15.4 mph)
T2 3:19
Run 2:32:13 (11:38 pace)
Overall 7:02:06
I was expecting much closer to 8 hours, so to be just over 7 is awesome. I think the swim may have been a bit short, or maybe I just kicked butt. :-p The bike was about 20 minutes faster than I was expecting, and my run was just about what I thought. I'm really happy with how it went, but if I had to do it over, I would try to get my run distance up a bit further beforehand, so maybe I wouldn't crash between 11 and 12. And I think I probably will do it again, just not too soon.
A huge thanks to ShannonD for coming out and cheering, it was so awesome to see her! My friend Amy came out on a pretty crappy weather day, just over two weeks after a double mastectomy. To cheer for me. That's pretty humbling. I wish I had a picture, but I had "For Amy" marked on my arm, and thought of her frequently during the time I was out on the course (and there was a LOT of time to think!). 7 measly hours on a race course is nothing compared to what she's going through, but she's doing it with strength and courage and grace, and she inspires me on a daily basis.
This past weekend, I raced in my first half-ironman, the Harvest Moon Long Course at Aurora Reservoir. I'd done a pretty good job of keeping myself in denial that it was so close, but by the time Friday and packet pick-up rolled around, I was doing a pretty good job of freaking out. Surprisingly, I slept ok Friday night. Well, maybe there was some Tylenol PM involved.
I arrived at the Reservoir Saturday morning apparently at entirely the wrong time...there was a loooong line of cars waiting to get in. From what I understand, people who got there earlier and later didn't have any wait at all, but I sat there for about 20 minutes before being able to park. I got my bike down off the rack and went to pump up my tires. Got the front one pumped up, and then my pump decided to eat the end off the valve stem of my tube. Doh. Yeah, you kind of need that or the tube won't hold air. I grabbed a spare tube out of the back of the car and the rest of my stuff, figuring I would figure it out and/or find someone to help me in transition. I found a decent spot, plopped my stuff down, and went off to get my timing chip and body marking. Fortunately, on my way back, I ran into my friend Hillary's husband, Ben, who was doing the duathlon and knows a lot about bikes, so I commandeered him to help me change my tire. We got it changed, went to pump it up, and the freaking pump ate the end off the valve stem again! Luckily, Ben had a spare tube and a floor pump, so he grabbed those and changed the tire for me AGAIN.
So, by this time, it's less than half an hour till the race starts and I am totally unprepared. The good thing about this was that it didn't give me time to freak out too much! By the time I got my stuff laid out, it was time to head down to the water. I met up with a friend that was doing the race as well, and we walked down to the beach and got our wetsuits on and warmed up a bit. Before I knew it, it was time to go.
The swim was much better than I anticipated. This race was small enough, and the waves spaced out far enough that there really wasn't much crazy stuff going on. I tried to set a pace that was comfortable, but where I was still working hard. The first buoy was a LONG way out. It took forever to get to it! Out by the turnaround and on the way back in, the waves started picking up a bit, resulting in a few inadvertent mouthfuls of water. Before I knew it, I was done with the swim, and heading up the beach to transition.
T1 felt like it took forever, but my time really wasn't that bad. The water temperature was warmer than the air at that point, and it was COLD. There was a relay team on the rack next to me, waiting for their swimmer, and they were nice enough to help me put on my arm warmers since I was shaking and I couldn't get them on my wet arms. I grabbed a lunabar and headed out for the bike.
I stuffed the lunabar down while trying not to crash, since I had forgotten to eat all my breakfast with all the tire drama pre-race. The first half of the bike was a lot of fun. It was fast, and I felt really good, so I pushed hard, maybe faster than I should have. We did a short out and back and then went into a BIG loop. There was a car of people who were leapfrogging the course cheering for their friend, who was not far behind me. I joked with them, and they kind of adopted me for the rest of the race, which was fun. They even offered me a donut at one point, which I probably would have taken if it had been a jelly donut instead of powdered.
The bike course was really not very interesting, out in the middle of nowhere, practically in Kansas. With the weather and the clouds, we couldn't even see the mountains, so it was just farmland with lots of big long rolling hills. My legs started feeling a bit tired around mile 30, and little did I know that the worst was yet to come. Around mile 42 or so, there was a BIG hill that completely wiped me out, but there was still 15 miles or so back to the finish, pretty much all uphill. Ouch. I did a lot of out-of-the-saddle climbing just to try to keep moving forward. I knew the last part of the course was uphill, but didn't think it would be as bad as it was! My adopted friends, as well as Hillary and ShannonD were at the bottom of the hill outside of transition, cheering away.T2 was pretty uneventful. The relay team was there, having just sent their runner out, so I chatted with them while I got changed over. I got to say hi to Shannon on my way out of transition, and got a quick hug, and I was off.
My legs felt really good to start the run, but I tried to keep things under control, since I knew I had a long way to go. It was slightly disheartening to see guys coming in to the finish as I was heading out, knowing that they were done and I still had 13 miles to run! My friend Sonja had written in her ironman race report about keeping a smile on her face the whole race and how good it made her felt, so I was going to try to do the same thing. It was amazing, I felt good, I loved smiling at people (lots of people coming back in on the out and back course), exchanged lots of comments with people, it was fun! I passed my friend Cody on his way back in around 3.5 miles and then saw Ben around 4.5. I hit the turnaround, still feeling pretty good. It started drizzling just a little around that point, which actually felt a little nice. But then it really started raining around 8. Which wasn't so fun. I kept smiling, though! By this point, there wasn't much traffic out on the course (all the normal people had already finished!) so it was getting harder to stay motivated and positive. I was still feeling pretty decent, though, which lasted till probably around 11.5, at which point my legs decided that they were DONE. The last mile had a lot more walking than I had hoped for, and my smile definitely slipped a bit.
I came around the last corner into the finish area, and I could see XH with DS, and my smile came back! I ran over and grabbed DS's hand, and he ran across the finish line with me. He did AWESOME! X was pretty far out from the finish line, so it was a long way for little legs to go. Hillary was there, as well as Amy and Becky (my #1 fan!) and they were all cheering like crazy. To be honest, the finish is a little blurry. I remember hearing some comments about how cute DS was, and vaguely remember the announcer saying my name, and that's about it. I got across the finish, and scooped DS up for a big hug, and then my friends were there, hugging me. Amazingly, I don't think I even cried!
The weird thing has been how anti-climactic it's all been. I didn't really expect to get hit this hard by the blahs afterward, and I really thought the high would last longer! By Sunday afternoon, I was in the middle of a major post-race letdown, with a big feeling of "now what?" I'm thinking about signing up for the Denver half-marathon next month (after seriously contemplating signing up for a half-marathon THIS weekend, I've since gotten over that little bit of insanity), and then who knows...
Results:
Swim 44:48
T1 3:42
Bike 3:38:06 (15.4 mph)
T2 3:19
Run 2:32:13 (11:38 pace)
Overall 7:02:06
I was expecting much closer to 8 hours, so to be just over 7 is awesome. I think the swim may have been a bit short, or maybe I just kicked butt. :-p The bike was about 20 minutes faster than I was expecting, and my run was just about what I thought. I'm really happy with how it went, but if I had to do it over, I would try to get my run distance up a bit further beforehand, so maybe I wouldn't crash between 11 and 12. And I think I probably will do it again, just not too soon.
A huge thanks to ShannonD for coming out and cheering, it was so awesome to see her! My friend Amy came out on a pretty crappy weather day, just over two weeks after a double mastectomy. To cheer for me. That's pretty humbling. I wish I had a picture, but I had "For Amy" marked on my arm, and thought of her frequently during the time I was out on the course (and there was a LOT of time to think!). 7 measly hours on a race course is nothing compared to what she's going through, but she's doing it with strength and courage and grace, and she inspires me on a daily basis.
