- Qualified for Kona
- SWIM: huge PR (1:05:40)
- BIKE: went sub-5:30 on a challenging course
- RUN: started and finished healthy, and faster than last year
- OVERALL: Had a 1 second Ironman race PR (for real!)
- PLACING: 2nd overall female, 1st in F30-34 age group
Ryan and I were able to meet up with one of my friends/teammates from high school, Caitlin, and did some pretty cool things. Her fiancé is an Olympian (biathlon) so took us to the ski jumps and we got to tube down them. Totally unplanned (originally just going for the views) but SO.MUCH.FUN. And, it made me think the Keene Descent couldn’t nearly be as scary as tubing down a ski jump (it was true).
Our night ended with a fabulous dinner with Caitlin and Leif at the Great Adirondack Steak and Seafood Company (super expensive but super delicious). Talking with them totally took my mind off of my nerves and I almost forgot I was doing this Ironman thing the next day (thanks, guys!).
Goals: swim a 1:07, be within 1-minute between laps
Actual: swam 1:05:40 (WHAT?!?!), 32:03 first lap/33:37 second lap
As frustrated as I was during the swim, I can’t even be mad. I totally crushed my goal and surprised the heck out of everyone!
The swim in Mirror Lake is awesome. There’s a cable that is up year round and most people follow that during the swim. Last year, I was able to swim just on the inside of it without having too many people around me. I figured I’d attempt the same approach this year.
As I started the loop, there was a bit of congestion, but I had planned for that. By the time I got to the 5th of the 8 yellow buoys heading out, I was swimming more relaxed and could take more strokes before breathing without having to worry about running into people. After more congestion during the two turn buoys, I was able to find my groove again for the first 6 (of 8) orange buoys on the way back. I was passing people like crazy, which was great but also annoying as I felt like I was constantly being hit. In fact, my watch got bumped (note to anyone doing this race: if you swim on the inner part of the cable, wear your watch on your RIGHT hand so that no one bumps it)…more on that in a bit. Right before hitting the final red turn buoy, I felt like I was in a whirlpool of people, just getting pushed and shoved all over the place. When I finally got out of the water, I tried to check my watch but the screen was on something different, showing “31:50 Transition 1,” so I didn’t know what my actual first loop swim time was. Dang.
Seriously.
Some guy hit me REALLY hard in the face and knocked my goggles, so I stopped for a second to adjust but got a HUGE mouthful of water, followed by trying to gasp for air, but getting another mouthful of water… queue anxiety attack. I saw a kayak out of the corner of my eye and prayed that I wouldn’t have to end my day right then and there. Luckily, I caught my breath, adjusted, and continued on.
As I exited the water, I still didn’t know my actual time since my watch was still on that weird, locked “Transition 1” screen. I had to hit the porta-potty, so decided I’d check my watch real quick then.
Goal: sub 5-minutes (what I did last year)
Actual: 4:59…bam!
After getting my wetsuit stripped off, I RAN through transition. It’s funny because the crowd gets SUPER into it when they see people booking it through transition (not the norm, apparently). I grabbed my bike bag (containing my shoes and helmet), hit the porta-potty, saw my overall time of 1:08 on my watch, and decided I must have swam a 1:06. SWEET.
Goal: sub 5:32 (last year 5:37), secret goal: break 5:30
Actual: 5:29:29, 20.4mph average
This year’s bike was SO different from last year, which I can really only attribute to being 4 minutes faster in the swim. There were SO many more people (mainly guys) around me, but I didn’t really start to notice or care until further along in the course once I had taken care of nutrition needs.
I knew a few people racing and know their strengths, so kind of used my distance away from them as a gauge for how my race was going. Jana (who I started the swim with) is comparable to me in the swim, but a killer cyclist so I knew I’d be having a good race if I could even keep her in my sights for the first loop. The first time I saw her was on the new out-and-back section, and she was looking strong per usual. The first 30ish miles of the bike are much faster than the second 26 due to the descents, so I knew I needed to use the fast portion to my advantage. Since I’m a numbers person, I try and break up the race and see how my pace is doing throughout. I ended up splitting a high 1:13 for the first 28 miles, but knew I’d have to double that and add on to really gauge where my first 56-miles would be at.
I knew once the downhill portions of the course were over, I could use the area in Upper Jay to Ausable (a little more flat/incline plus an out-and-back) to try and get away from all of the people I felt like were surrounding me. Again, this was totally different from last year where I felt like I was solo most of the time.
Right before we started our out-and-back, a bunch of guys came by me, some riding 2-3 abreast. They hooked onto a few other guys that were right by Jana. EGO teammate Lauren came by around this time as well, so all of the sudden I felt like I was on a group ride (which freaks me out. Seriously. I can’t even ride with Ryan because I am just so uncomfortable/nervous riding with others).
I let the guys get past me, but then my legs just felt like I was spinning, so I had a decision to make. I decided to try and go around all of these people so that I could ride my own race.
I made it around them, just to immediately have a guy re-pass me. Good thing he understands rules (insert eye roll emoji). Within 30-seconds, everyone I had just passed was now in front of me. One guy called out, “How many matches did you have to burn for that?” and I took a mental note of what he was wearing as I sure as heck wasn’t going to let some jerk like that beat me in this race. (Don't worry, I beat him)
Once again, I eased up a bit so that I wasn’t in the group, but again was just spinning my legs! I was SO frustrated at this point. Jana had even yelled to the guys something about drafting and they STILL kept riding together. Listen, I get it. I can’t imagine any guy being happy about being passed by a girl, but rules are rules. According to USAT rules, once you’re passed on the bike you have to drop back. NONE of these guys were following the rules, and here I was following the rules and losing time!
I probably shouldn’t have let my frustration get the best of me, but I did. I chose to push hard and try and blow by the group… and failed once again. Now, at this point, we were starting to see people coming in our direction from the out-and-back, and they were yelling comments like, “break up the pack!” and “enough with the drafting!” so I finally just gave up and stayed back, knowing that eventually the group would break up with the upcoming hills.
I guarantee my bike could have been even faster if I had not made these two attempts to drop this pack, but for whatever reason, in the moment I truly thought I could break away. Lesson learned (and let me tell you, my quads are paying for it still!!!!).
I saw Caitlin and Leif at probably the perfect time. I was finally cooled off with my frustration, but also losing a little focus. Seeing them got me all excited and pumped up for another harder stretch of the course.
I knew Ryan would be around the Three Bears portion of the course (three hills: Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and Papa Bear) so that kept me going for a good 5-mile stretch where I just felt awful. He was telling me I was looking strong, and all I wanted to tell him was that I much prefer being a spectator than an athlete and that maybe I would just watch him in Kona instead because I was just dying. But, I just cheesed it up for the camera instead.
I told myself to focus on the bike and that maybe the climbing just aggravated my calves. But it was getting hard to ignore the throbbing. I tried playing different songs in my head to put my focus somewhere else and that seemed to work pretty well. But I definitely was still slightly panicking in the back of my mind.
Just after exiting the new addition to the course (by the Olympic ski jumps), a familiar face passed me. Dan, a former fellow Illinois triathlete competing in his FIRST ever Ironman, asked how my day was going and was just so nice. We played back and forth a few times, and I thanked him for keeping me honest with my efforts. [He had a GREAT Ironman debut!]
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. In fact, I questioned a few times if I was even on course since I was surrounded by NOONE a few times. SO different from the clusters on the first loop, but SO nice to not have to worry about others being around me!
Since I generally stay the same while others tend to lose ground during the second half of the bike, I always try and make it a goal to not get passed by anyone. I almost succeeded: one guy (who was in a porta potty) passed me on the second loop, so I don’t really consider that a “pass” since he was really already ahead of me. I did have a few guys try and re-pass me on this second loop after I would pass them, so that was annoying, but I didn’t allow myself to go crazy like the first loop and burn too much energy trying to pass them again (I did pass them, just not right away like they did to me!).
Goal: sub-4 since that’s what I was last year
Actual: 2:16
I was pretty happy to be off of the bike and ready to run, knowing I was not going into this race with any issues that would leave my run as a total unknown.
However, when I got off of the bike, my left hip felt kind of pinched….so much so that I was apparently limping. Once I got into the women’s changing tent, one of the medical people came over to ask if I was okay as she saw I was limping. Oops.
Goal: sub-3:20
Actual: 3:20:20. SO close.
Going into Lake Placid last year, the goal was simply to finish the race with running as that should be good enough to grab that Kona slot. Luckily, my body 100% cooperated with that plan last year, so I was hoping for some of the same this year.
Once you go out of transition, you get two nice little downhills…and I was flying! Eventually, the downhill goes up again, but this is where I saw Danna and Justin Herrick (Danna’s PT brain has helped me quite a bit, they are both phenomenal athletes themselves and I can’t wait to see them in Kona!!!). They were going CRAZY for me, so how could I not power up the little hill?!
When I looked at my watch for my first mile split and saw 6:39, I almost stopped running. This was like what I used to do back in the early Ironman days when I was running 3:0x’s off the bike. Holy cow!!
The second mile split is a touch misleading as it also is more through populated areas with crazy awesome cheers to get you pumped up. 6:49, and I knew the next mile would go even faster.
Mile 3 has a rather large downhill, so I knew I’d have a pretty quick split. 6:42. Right before mile 3, I got myself into the 1st place position in my age group. This was a huge sigh of relief because we were here with one goal: get Jac to qualify for Kona. After getting 2nd in the age group in Cozumel, and then not even starting Texas, this was really the last shot I had at making Ryan and my 5-year-Kona-wedding-anniversary plan a reality. No pressure.
Would it be cool to have a lead cyclist ride with me (top 3 have lead cyclists riding next to them)? Uh, totally.
BUT, I’ve also learned a LOT being injured and know that my main priority is simply getting to October 15th (race day is October 14th) with no injuries or flare ups. Pushing myself harder when it’s not totally necessary is more of a risk, so as much as I wanted to really impress Ryan, I knew I had to be smart. Plus, Amy Farrell (winner, also a teacher, and probably the nicest person on the planet) was just CRUSHING it and was already 3-miles ahead of me once I started the run.
I told myself I could stop at the bathroom at mile 7. I’d be just under an hour in at this point, so could allow myself 2 bathroom breaks during this marathon (again, mind games work wonders for me!). The nice thing about the double-loop run course is that there are a few smaller out-and-backs so you can see where others are.
Mile 4 – 7:06, Mile 5 – 7:03, Mile 6 – 7:28, Mile 7 – 7:25.
Mile 8 – 8:10 (bathroom), Mile 9 – 7:30, Mile 10 – 7:57.
I saw Lauren’s family just before Mile 11 and they told me she was doing great and looking strong (later, I found out she had crashed around mile 60 of the bike, so to end up finishing 4th in the age group after that… this chick is tough!!). I went up that same big downhill from the beginning MUCH slower despite the many cheers.
Mile 11 – 8:09, Mile 12 – 8:06.
Mile 13 – 7:26, Mile 14 – 7:38, Mile 15 – 7:37, Mile 16 – 7:38.
Those four miles went by pretty quickly since they were mostly downhill again. I grabbed more Hot Shot to make it a grand total of 4 for the day, which was completely unplanned but worked well. Sometimes, when you’re in the moment in a race, you just have to take risks and try new things. I’m lucky I have a pretty strong stomach!
I told myself I would watch for the lead bikers at the turnaround on River Road and make my choice then. Mid-7:30s were still feeling comfortable so if I could stay within that pace but move my position up, that wouldn’t be risking any damage on the body.
My left hip tightness that I had felt off of the bike had returned, but nothing I hoped a little stretching couldn’t solve.
Mentally, though, my mind was unhappy:
“OMG, if you qualify for Kona, you have to do this uncomfortable thing again in less than 3 months.”
“Maybe being a spectator for Ryan is just better.”
“Seriously this is the longest marathon ever.”
My 3rd place lead biker was awesome. Since some of the sections on the course are a bit tight, she was always yelling, “Lead runner, coming up on your left!” to get others to move over to the right. And she knew a ton of spectators so I felt like I was a celebrity riding with her!
Mile 22 – 7:57, Mile 23 – 8:00, Mile 24 – 8:22, Mile 25 – 8:05, Mile 26 – 7:28.
Just after the hard mile 24, we turned onto an out-and-back where our original group house was last year. My eyes filled with tears thinking of all of the fun we had last year, and I think that’s pretty obvious in my splits.
The last mile was surreal. My lead biker told me to push it and I could be the 2nd place female (basically, the girl currently in 2nd had started slightly in front of me in the water, so wasn’t actually as far in front of me as she looked). This was more of a downhill section anyway, my adrenaline and emotions were super high, so I just went for it. With a ridiculous grin on my face the whole time.
EGO, Sammy's Bikes, Ice Friction, Alto and PowerBar: thank you for continuing to support me and helping get me through this race in the best possible way.
Ryan: coach, husband, mechanic, mentor, love of my life. I am so incredibly blessed to be on this journey with you.
Thank you for all of the support, encouragement, messages, and prayers throughout this journey and especially on race day. Time for a few days to recover before getting ready for our last BIG race of the year!