Ironman Florida Race Report

Well, hello everybody. It has been ages since I have posted something. Not many interesting things around these parts; especially since I hit the taper. The workouts just became things to "get through"; and my level of tiredness was skyrocketing. But everyone said that was normal. So I went along with it.

The last couple of weeks pre-ironman were hard. Especially from a focus perspective. It was SO close to the race; but yet so far away. Know what I mean? You are on the final straightaway; but utterly scared of injury or illness. You had made it this far; and the worst thing would be to fall sick; or hurt yourself during taper. So I made sure I was extremely cautious.

About 2 days before we left for Panama City Beach (PCB); I went through my transition bag list and actually packed them. And I am going to tell you; they were organized! You see, I had a system. I had bags within the bags. A big gallon bag with all the things I knew I was going to put on for sure; a bag with my nutrition, and the things I could need or would leave in transition I just left lose in the bag. And it worked wonders. Didn't necessarily have speedy transitions; but I am sure I had faster transitions than a lot of people.

We started our trek own south on Wednesday at the crack of stupid. We left before 6 am; because I wanted to make sure I could hit registration on Wednesday instead of Thursday. We drove; and made it there right on time. I remembered things from last year and I had Todd park the car close to where I thought transition/finish/check in/store would be. Turns out this year they had moved most of the stuff another 1/4 mile down the road. So we walked; and walked.

Once there I registered without a problem; while Megan and Todd hit the Janus inspiration station to make signs. Megan went to town! She is a little creative bee. Coach had warned me about not looking at the scale when they weighted me in because it would likely be that I put on a couple of lbs.; and sure enough I did ( i blamed it on the 10 hours of driving, having my shoes on and water retention). It didn't bother me as much as I had anticipated. After that one of the wonderful volunteers explained to me all there was to know about the stuff contained in my athlete bag; where to put my numbers, what to do with my chip; etc. I left the registration tent, found the family and headed to the IM store; where I proceeded to buy a bike jersey and a couple of visors. You might say; I should have waited, but I wanted to make sure I got the things I wanted; and waiting until after the race was a bit of a gamble.

The rest of the day went without a hitch. We checked in to the hotel, and went to enjoy the beach.

Thursday rolled around and I met my friend Melinda for the gatorade swim. I wanted to make sure I swam in the ocean to remind my body of the feeling. The swim was LONG. Even though the sea seemed calm there was definitely a current; that made swimming toward shore pretty hard. Right then I knew, Saturday's swim would be slower than I would like. And I made peace with it. The rest of the day was spent at the beach, at the pool, in the hot tub. Just hanging around with the family.

Friday came pretty soon, and it brought along my in-laws. I was SO grateful for them coming! On race day Todd would need all the help he could get to take care of Megan and spectating my race. My day was pretty boring, I sat and laid down a lot. Then it was time for gear check in. I had my bags all packed and ready to go, so I just rolled into transition and dropped everything off. Then it was time for more sitting and laying down. I became a pro at it. Friday night I got almost no sleep. The bed did not feel comfortable; and my head would not quiet down. Eventually 4 am came along and I was ready to get up.

I got up, had breakfast, got dressed; braided my hair and at about 5 am we headed out. On our way to the start line we got a phone call... The alarm system company; letting us know there was a burglary alarm in our house back home. Trust me when I tell you, that even though it was not a pleasant piece of news to receive (turned out to be a false alarm); it kept my mind off the race for a while and as a consequence I did not get as worried as I normally do. Bonus!

Once the special needs bags were dropped off and the bike set up; all there was left to do was hydrate and wait. So I did. With about 30 minutes to the start, I donned my wetsuit and headed to the beach. And then I saw the crowds. Holy shit! I kissed Todd goodbye and went over the timing mat to take my place at the beach.

As I was standing there, looking around,, getting more nervous by the minute; I saw Megan and my in-laws, they had made it to the swim start! And I just LOVED being able to kiss my little girl before the start of the race. That made a WORLD of difference on my mindset. Next thing I know; they are singing the national anthem; Mike Reilly is telling us we will be Ironmen by the end of the day; and then the cannon goes off.

THE SWIM

I had positioned myself on the outside of the field, far from the buoys and towards the back of the pack. Being that swimming is not my strong point, and that I tend to panic in the water; I decided that little to no human contact would be essential to my swim. After about 1-2 minutes of slowly making my way into the water; I started swimming. There were people all around me; and I honestly felt calm and collected. Yes; I saw arms flailing and got more than one mouthful of water, but I felt like the group was "pulling" me. I did not feel like I was working hard. The water was not calm as it had been the days leading up to the race. There was quite a bit of chop, and I did my best to navigate my way in it. The first turn buoy was interesting to say the least. I don't think people get the easy physics concept that 2 bodies can't occupy the same space at the same time; so I saw a lot of "fighting".. Which reminds me of seeing people wearing snorkels... Hmmmm, strange. Anyhow; i tried to stay out of the "fuss" as much as possible. I got hit a few times; scratched some others; but managed to generally keep moving forward. Little by little I got closer and closer to shore and I was able to hear Mike Reilly's voice cheering people in. And I smiled, underwater. Heck! I was doing IRONMAN. I ran up the beach, crossed the timing mat after my first loop and headed back out to the water, for another dose of salt water. I tried to spot my family, but had no luck. Off I went. The second lap was harder, slower and choppier. There weren't as many people to draft off of, and you could really feel the water pulling; yet the first turn buoy was chaotic again. This time I actually got sandwiched between 2 guys; who pulled me under water. Now, on a regular day, ,that would have scared the living daylights out of me; but not this time. I was PISSED. I got my head out of the water; hit the guys and shouted a very loud "FUCK YOU!". Then I continued to swim. Slowly but surely I made my way to shore. I hit the sand and started peeling my wetsuit off. I had survived the swim; and I knew I could finish the race.

T1

I tired to be as fast as I could here; but a couple of inefficiencies by the organizers; coupled with a very crowded t1 tent, and some not very quick volunteers made for an interesting experience. My transition bag system worked pretty well, except that the volunteer could bot understand what I was saying. I changed, headed out and waited for about 2 minutes to get sunscreen applied. I knew I was not racing for placement; so I had not problems waiting to get my skin properly protected.

THE BIKE

After I got on my bike I immediately started drinking. I still had salt water taste in my mouth and that made me thirsty. About 1/2 mile from the start of the bike, the course went past our condo; so I got to see and wave to my family. I would not see them for another 6 hours. After that I started executing my plan. I took it easy the first hour; but we had a tailwind; which helped me go quite fast. I was just taking it all in. Pedaling; drinking; eating my nutrition; being passed by people; passing people. I was having a blast. Then we turned on to the headwind; which would stay would us for the better part of the bike; and I saw my speed drop. I was still staying in my zones; maybe a bit under where I should have been. I just wanted to make sure I did not blow myself up. My nutrition plan was mostly working. Most of my calories came from EFS liquid shots; with about 75 calories and hour coming from Carbo pro. The 75 calories of carbo pro started giving me stomach issues; so I stopped taking it. I never felt low on energy; but I did feel my stomach get hungry. After we had passed the roughest part of the course (the out and back section was a false flat; with a headwind and horrible pavement, at about mile 70) I decided to try bananas to make up for the calories I was behind on. They totally hit the spot! They made me feel "refreshed" and I took a couple of them over the next 20-30 miles. I kept pedaling; stretching my back and my neck every so often; and just moving forwards.

I did have a couple of snafu's along the course. I stopped to use the porta john handed my bike to a volunteers; and she promptly dropped it, breaking my bike computer (so I rode more than half of the course without cadence and speed data). About 10 minutes after that as we are going on one of the few uphills in the course; I made the rookie mistake of switching gears too fast and I dropped chain. As I got off my bike I told myself "Breathe" ( I took a deep breath) "now fix it"; so I did. It took me a mere 30 seconds and I was back on my bike.

The last 5 miles were the longest ever. You hit front beach road and you know you are close to transition; but it still takes forever to get there. Not to mention the beautiful tailwind we had at the beginning of the bike was now a headwind; and a pretty bad one at that. Eventually I took the last turn towards transition. Took my feet off my shoes; waved to my family and rolled in.

T2

This transition was faster than the first one, but still not as efficient as it could have been. I had another whole outfit change, and also took time to apply sunscreen; as well as hit the porta potty on the way out.

THE RUN

As I had rolled in to T2 I took a couple of tums; as I always have stomach issues when I transition to the run. I don't think they had much of an effect. Upon exiting transition we took a left turn and ran to a turn around point for about 200 meters. At the turn around is where my family was waiting for me to see me. As I get closer and closer, Megan sees me and she took a straight line to run to me in the middle of the course. Luckily no one was coming so we didn't block anyones way. I got the best hug and kiss; and the biggest "awwwwww" from the crowd. It was awesome! After a few I love you's I headed out to run. At this point I was still feeling pretty good; trying to hold back my pace, making sure I did not go out too hard. By the time I reached mile 1 I was already walking. My stomach was completely clogged, I had a rock sitting on it; and I felt nauseated and disgusted by anything I tried to eat or drink made me want to gag. I hated having to slow down to a walk; but Liz and I had gone through this scenario many times before. So I knew what to do: Walk like I had someplace to go; and not give anything up. And I did, I walked, and tried jogging, then running... until my stomach could not take it anymore; so then I would walk again; and repeat the cycle. I hit a couple of low points here; where I was so mad with myself and my stomach. Never once I thought of giving up though; but I did think I would have to walk the entire marathon. I was looking sort of pitiful; and then a spectator told me something that renewed my hopes; she said: you have all the time in the world to let your race come back to you. And that was exactly what i needed. It took me almost 3 hours to finish the first 1/2 of the run course; but by the time I hit the turn around point in front of the finish line; my stomach had calmed down enough so I was able to run a bit more. And I did. And I started passing people, and I started drinking, and eating. And my run came back to me. And I felt AWESOME. I was doing Ironman, and I had the race in the bag. I was not going fast; but I was running and I was smiling again. And that my friends was key. The miles slowly went by. And I never hit the "wall". Yes, my legs hurt and I could feel the overall fatigue; but at no point i thought I could not continue. My mission on that day was to stop at nothing but the finish line. And that was exactly what I did. Upon seeing the sign for mile marker 25; I set a little challenge for myself: to make the last mile my fastest. There would be no stopping, there would be no walking the aid station. Just a steady effort to the finish. I pushed, and I passed people and I heard comments: " Great form" "You look awesome" "Strong finish". And I believed them all. I took them all in, and made sure to feel proud about it. I ran my way through the residential neighborhood, and took thee last couple of turns. The closer I got, the louder I heard the cheering and Mike Reilly's voice.. The last left turn; the home stretch. The lights, the people, the noise. Completely surreal.

The chute gets really narrow right before the turn around; and I was "stuck" behind a girl. I could have attempted to pass her, but I did not want to trip and fall; or make her trip and fall. So I slowed down and let her go. This race was not about placing. This race was about getting there and enjoying the experience. We took the last turn into the finisher's chute and I just cannot believe my eyes. Here I am about to become an Ironman. Little 'ol me; an IRONMAN.

I cannot contain my smile any longer; I just want to raise my hands and celebrate the accomplishment. As I am approaching the line I heard Mire Reilly say "Danni K. you are an Ironman"; arms up, smile big. The line, the volunteers. And then, I was done.

My entire year of work had came to fruition and I had the race of a lifetime. Could not have asked for a better day.

Conclusions coming soon....

Augusta 70.3 RR or How I fell in love with triathlon all over again

I know it has been a while since I have blogged. IM training, family life and work have kept me busy. As my training hours ramped up I tried to spend as much “free” time with my family as possible; putting less essential things in the back burner big time; with blogging being one of those activities. Also; after the last “disaster” race I had back in May I realized I had become too dependant on what blog world thought of me and my training and decided to take a step back. That proved to be a very smart decision.

Last weekend I raced Augusta 70.3. It was my third half ironman but my first “Ironman brand” race. I had never been part of a race of this magnitude. The transition area was HUGE and slightly intimidating.

Molly and I arrived on Friday evening; me by car, Molly by plane. I picked her up from the Augusta airport and we headed to the hotel. We chatted all the way to the hotel and then some; but soon thereafter it was time to get some sleep. Friday was the “most important” night of sleep according to Coach. I slept really well. Woke up without an alarm on Saturday and we headed to the river for some swimming. The current was quite strong and we were swimming upriver… Let’s just say we did not cover a lot of distance. Out of the water, walk back to the hotel, and off on a quick spin. Once the pre-race brick was done; we tried and tried to find some food. Downtown Augusta is not as cute as I thought it would be. Most of the storefronts were closed and there was nobody on the street with the exception of the athletes in town. We finally found some food (and coffee) at the host hotel and headed to the pre-race meeting and athlete check in. All I am going to say is that I expected this to be better organized. We stood in lines for at least 40 minutes; and we all know that the day before a race that is not super smart. We went through the expo and I scored a VERY nice TYR tri top for 50% off (I wore it on race day). After all that mess we went out to drive the bike course. The elevation chart posted on the website makes it look a lot hillier than it actually is. We also saw a LOT of people riding the entire bike course the day before the race. Not us!

The rest of the afternoon went by fast. Lunch, a quick trip to starbucks for some real coffee, and back to the hotel to put my feet up. Around 6 pm we headed to transition to drop off my bike and then we met up with Wes, DeeDee, Kevin and Kathy for dinner at Carrabbas. Again, not the smoothest operation around…. We waited close to 2 hours to be seated and then about another 30 minutes to put our food orders in. At this point; my head had kind of checked out already; but the company was AWESOME. While we were at dinner it started raining, quite hard actually; and for a slight bit I worried about my bike. Minutes later I realized; there was nothing I could do, so I let it go. We said our goodnights and Molly and I headed back to the hotel. I got all my nutrition ready and went to bed.

Race morning started at 5am. Woke up, ate my breakfast; drank the horrendous hotel coffee and started getting ready. I got dressed, body marked myself, Molly helped me with the sunscreen and I left. I walked to the host hotel to catch the shuttle to transition; and once I was on it I started chatting with people. I know most of you already know but the triathlon community is awesome. ‘Nuff said.

When I got to transition I set up pretty quickly. The space between the bikes was awfully small and I did not like that fact one bit. That paired with the fact that all the people from your same wave were set up next to each other made for a pretty tight set up. Coming out of the water to T1 would certainly be interesting. Anyhow; I think I have become really efficient at setting up my transition as I have learnt from past experiences what I tend to do and in what order. After setting up I headed to use the “facilities”. The line was long. Once I made sure I had done everything I needed to do in transition I headed to the swim start. Since it was 1.2 miles away they had shuttle buses; but those lines were long and out of control, so I walked. Molly was going to wait for me at the start and take my morning gear bag so I wore my spare sneakers. At this point, I was getting slightly nervous, your typical butterflies; but at the same time I felt calm. I knew going into this race that this was not a performance about time; but about executing my IM plan and making sure it worked. Upon arrival to the swim start I was delighted to see they had A LOT more porta potties J I picked up my chip and started my search for Molly. I found DeeDee really easily and we made a back up plan for my gear in case I did not see Molly. Shortly thereafter I found my Sherpa Extraordinaire. We hung out, watched the pros go off and too soon it was time for me to get ready. Wetsuit on, body glide applied, swim cap, goggles… Off to stand with the rest of the pink caps. When my wave was called we walked to the pier from where we were to start and since I was towards the end of the line I had to stay on the pier until everybody went off.

The swim

The horn went off and as people started moving away from the pier I lowered myself into the water, found some space and started swimming. I was unusually calm. There really wasn’t anything to sight off so I followed the other pink caps. I did my best to swim as straight as possible and I think I managed. There was one thing that surprised me about this swim (other than my swim time); I never freaked out, I never thought “what am I doing?” which is a common occurrence for me. I think knowing that this was NOT my BIG race helped me stay calm and focused on having a good swim and having fun rather than worrying about time. I never looked at my watch; but the swim still seemed long. You all know the water and I are not exactly friends; but I am learning to embrace our relationship J At one point I did think that I was going to have another sub par minute swim because I felt like I was not really going “faster” (there was all this hype about how much faster you’d go because of the current; and we did indeed swim faster -a lot faster- but when swimming I really couldn’t feel the current’s assistance). I just swam, and swam and swam. Eventually the swim exit came into view and I picked up my pace. As we were getting closer to the exit someone tried to grab my legs and swim over me. NOT COOL. I kicked hard so that whomever was trying to swim over me would at least get a kick in the face J You don’t mess with me on swim exit!

T1

The run to T1 was long; but I had my legs with me. I am not sure how fast I ran, but I felt calm and able to push it. They had wetsuit peelers and that was awesome. Only bad thing is that my feet were full of grass and I had no way of cleaning them. Like I said before, transition was packed tightly; and when I got to my area; both the ladies to my left and right were there as well. Not much space to move around. I got my gear and headed out.

The bike

Molly and I had driven the course the day before and it did not look as hilly as the elevation chart showed it. I left transition; clipped in and off I went. I took it extremely easy for the first .25 mile because there were A LOT of bikes on a very small space. Once we hit the open road I got aero and started pedaling at the cadence I would hold the entire bike leg… Above 85 (this was my strategy and my goal). The first part of the course seemed really fast; I was going at about 20.5 mph and I did not feel like I was working hard at all. I really tried to bring my HR down; but my watch kept showing me zone 4 (I had set my watch to show me the zones that I had pre-programmed and not the actual HR number). The funny thing is that I did NOT feel like I was riding Z4. My breathing was easy, my legs were not burning and it felt relatively “easy” to go. I decided to go by feel rather than worry about HR. I followed my nutrition plan as I am going to do for IM (goal #2 for this race) and luckily I never got tired of my “food”. I found the bike course extremely enjoyable, and honestly just had a FUN time out there. People passed me, I passed people. I was not concerned about placement at all. As coach instructed me, I spun up the hills and made sure my HR did not go too much out of control (the key to letting my stomach digest my food to ensure a good run). I felt strong the entire time. On previous races I normally hit a “low” point at around mile 48 where I want to be done and my legs are toast; my cadence drops significantly and I slug my way back to transition. During this race, that never happened. I kept getting myself mentally ready to fight through it; but the low never came. I think the nutrition plan might have been responsible for it; I think I was more consistently fueled and my energy levels remained more constant than in previous races. I was just having a lot of fun; and I think that was key. I had my best bike split on a ½ IM.

T2

Rolling into T2 I could not believe my bike split ☺ I was HAPPY. I jogged/walked my way to my rack being very careful not to step on the potholes on the way or lose footing. I put my bike back on the rack, changed shoes, grabbed my nutrition and left.

The run

I started the run feeling really good. My legs were there for the most part; definitely better than on previous races. The run for me is usually a mental challenge. I get overwhelmed by the distance I have yet to cover and I start slipping slowly. Knowing this, I started working on that right away. I kept repeating my mantras and just focusing on myself and my own race. I ran the first 2 miles non stop (maybe slightly faster than I should have.. but I can’t really judge my pace off the bike as it always feels like I am running slow and it turns out I am not) then my stomach got a little bothersome. Some burps, a little bit of reflux. I took water at the aid stations, mixed a couple of walk breaks here and there and little by little my stomach started to settle. Here is when I started seeing Molly at regular intervals on the race. She was AWESOME! Giving me encouraging words, taking pictures, relaying messages from coach. THE WORKS. Totally rocked the spectathlete, Sherpa duties during this race. I hit the 7 mile marker a little slower than I wanted; but after that my stomach finally felt better and I was able to run more. I could still not tell how fast I was running; but I kept running as long as I felt good. I would run about 8/9 minutes and then take a 30 second walk break to “relax” my stomach (harder efforts make my stomach tense up… weird, I know). I was so unattached to a time goal that I was just focused on feeling good and nailing my IM strategy. I had a smile on my face the entire time. Yes I was sore, I had a huge blister on one of my toes on the left foot but I felt AWESOME. Never ONCE did I question what I was doing on the race course. On the contrary; I was inundated with the feeling of loving this sport and being SO lucky to be able to do this. The spectators were awesome and hearing people cheer for you made you want to go harder/faster. With about one mile to go I allowed myself to look at the total elapsed time and could not believe my eyes! I was on pace to break 6 hours!

Crossing that finish line was awesome. For the first time I allowed myself to “celebrate” as I was crossing the line. I had finished the race and I felt like I could have kept going. I glanced at my watch; did a double take and started laughing. I had not set out to beat the clock; or even set a PR. Coach and I took a look at how my training has been going; what bumps in the road I have encountered and we agreed that a sub 6 was probably not achievable this time around. Especially because I was not racing at my HIM pace; but more like practicing my IM pace. And there I was; sub 6 and feeling awesome. Completely speechless.

I walked out of the finish chute; found Molly and headed towards the food/drinks. I had asked her to bring my recovery drink so I could take it right away; and I think that helped my recovery tremendously. We hung out to see Wes finish and then it was time for me to get my stuff and get on the road.

I learnt a lot of lessons during this race. The biggest ones: when I “let go” I can achieve big things; and it is definitely all in my head. Here it is to hoping I will be able to remember these lessons on November 7th.

Training camp: coach ELF style!

Yesterday was day one of Camp ELF. Andrea, Cat and I made it to Chicago after lunch and after getting acquainted we headed out to do our first training session. We are not talking smal potatoes here... It was a 2 mile open water swim; where we got to meet Jen H. as well.

The lake was a good size and with the exception of Cat who was doing a combination of swim/run/swim, we swam around it. Each loop was about a mile, so we headed for 2 loops. Immediately after we started I lost sight of everybody. Jen and Liz are very fast swimmers and there was no way in the world I would be able to keep up with them. So, truth be told I didn't even bother.

Sighting was a bit difficult mostly because the landmarks were unfamiliar and the lake was new to me; so I did my best to try to follow other swimming caps. The first loop was uneventful; I swam and swam and swam and eventually made it back to the beach. The second loop felt much longer than the first one but I made it around. I had a few moments where my left calf/foot cramped up and I managed to push through. I was happy to finish up though. This was mostly a confidence builder for me. I set out just to swim the 2 miles; without concern about times, to gain peace of mind that I could finish the Ironman swim. And you know what? I can. I totally can swim the 2.4 miles; and I think I might be able to pull in a pretty decent time as well. Only time will tell.

After swimming we all headed to Noodles for dinner. It was delicious; and it really hit the spot. Conversation was awesome too; but we were all pretty shot. Long day of travel and workouts; we were ready to hit the sack.
I slept pretty well; and the morning came all too quickly. I was greeted by the one and only BOSS; and I do have to say he is the cutest Chihuahua I have ever seen. Not your typical loud, obnoxious Chihuahua; but this sweet little thing!

Everybody got up and after a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee (of course) we headed to the track to get our running videotaped and critiqued. One by one; we ran, got taped and then carefully listened to what Liz had to say about our form. It was very interenting to see the different running forms and to watch Liz run. Oh my gosh! Her body is able to move in ways that I am not sure I will ever be able to. There is no "bounce" to her running. It is pure forward motion. I am hoping someday I'll get there. We did a couple of timed sets; before and after run critique. It will take some getting used to the new way; but it should be more efficient.

We headed back to the house for some lunch; and since Cat and I were borrowing Liz's bikes we got fitted to them. Man she has some nice machinery! We chilled for a while and then it was time to head out to swim. Again. This time it was about form and stroke efficiency. We all got some excellent pointers and I was able to discover my lats. That is a whole new source for swimming power right there. Truth be told, it is harder to swim with my lats and it will take a while to build endurance. Anything to get better and faster, right?

Next on the list was a spin through the Arboretum. I loved that we were able to just ride there. I am always having to get in my car, drive somewhere and THEN ride. But here, we just got on the bikes and started pedaling. Awesome. The place was gorgeous. Mostly shaded (a nice break from all the sun we were exposed to), with a lot of turns and some little climbs thrown in for good fun. We rode for an hour and then left Liz to finish up her 2 hour ride.

After everyone showered and cleaned up, Andrea and Liz made this awesome chicken dinner with curry and coconut milk. VERY YUMMY. Add some veggies and brown rice and you have the perfect athlete's meal.

Right now we are just chillin'. Boss is by my side murdering Squeaky Carrot, Andrea is watching The Office, Cat is Facebooking and Liz is writing schedules. Pretty soon I think I will be crashing hard and hitting the bed and it's onle 8:15. The day has been long but super fun. The company is great and that makes training that much more fun. We have been bad about taking pictures, but I am taking the camera during our ride tomorrow. Hopefully something good will turn out.