The Big Day

Well, the big day has come and gone. There's so much to say about it that I don't even know where to begin. But one thing is for sure: I'm glad I finished.

It was a day of many, many ups and downs. There was even a little drama the night before. We went to be, as planned, by 10:00 and I was tired enough that I went right to sleep. But at 11:00 PM, I was pulled out of a deep slumber to the sound of very loud music - UGH!

At first, I thought it was the alarm clock. I was completely disoriented. Then I realized it was live music coming from the nightclub next door. Don't they realize that the IRONMAN is TOMORROW????

Guitar, drums, whaling vocals pierced the quiet night. Great. Just what I need. A year of training goes down the drain in an instant (everything always seems worse in the middle of night, doesn't it?).

I tossed and turned and realized I wouldn't be able to sleep. I shut the windows and turned on the ceiling fan. Still, the music was there. I finally decided to go into Kevin's room, since he had two double beds and sleep in there, since his room was on the other side of the building.

I debated doing that for about a half hour and finally couldn't stand it...knocked on his door (waking him up, of course) and being the kind person that he is, he said yes I could sleep in the other bed.

His room was much lighter and there was all the street noise to contend with but it was better than blaring rock music. I crawled into bed covering my eyes with a pillow and as I drifted off to sleep, someone's car alarm went off. HONK....HONK.....HONK...HONK...HONK...oh great! Now I'm wide awake. Long story short, I didn't go to sleep until about 2:00 AM. Kurt woke me at 4:10.

We're up, caffeinated, and on our way to the race start. I was so sleepy that I couldn't feel any anxiety. I was numb.

Got to the transition area, got body marked, tires pumped up, and in the porta-potty line. Its a good thing I can do all of that in my sleep because I basically did.

We put our wetsuits on and walked out to the beach. Now, I'm finally starting to get excited. The sight of 2200 people in wetsuits on the beach was pretty cool.

I waded out into the water to see how it felt - it was perfect. Not too cold or too warm. I wasn't that nervous and i kept thinking that I should be. We heard the gun go off for the professionals but couldn't see them. We sang the national anthem, waited 10 mins, and off we went. Woo hoo!!!!

I placed myself midway in the pack, over to the right, like Jim told me to. It worked fine. I could sight easily from there and had a few less people to contend with.

There were, however, much bigger waves than the days prior to the race and huge swells. But I didn't care. I just started swimming.

The entire swim was amazing. I felt strong and fast. I did not expect to feel that way! The water felt fantastic and even though I was whacked in the face numerous times, I didn't care, I just kept going.

The first lap was easier than I expected. I came out of the water and my watch said 35 mins - YAY!!! I had hoped that I could do the swim under 1:45 (secretly hoping for a sub-1:30 swim) and so far, so good.

The 2nd lap was no less crazy. Lots of combat swimming and there were times I had to re-position myself due to the congestion. When we turned left around the first buoy, the swells were so big that it felt like I was on a rollar coaster. It was fun!

I made it around the buoys pretty well but ended up in the middle of the course. Had to swim back out to the course. That worried me; I don't want to lose time having to backtrack but I also wanted to come out of the water in the right place too.

I ended up with a 1:18 swim! I was pumped! Marshall did a 1:16 so we were both doing well at that point (emphasis on "that point").

The crowds were cheering us on as we ran up the beach to the transition area. The strippers were the pulling off wetsuits. Wow - that was so cool! They got my wet suit off in seconds - woo hoo!

Onto the transition tent...I was moving so fast I wasn't thinking and forgot to drink my ensure-like drink. Darn! Bike clothes, gloves, sleeves, helmet, and shoes went on in a flash and out to my bike.

Headed out on my bike and felt pretty good. As expected, many people flew by me right away. I don't have tri bike or racing wheels and I knew it would slow me down but as I found out, it made a huge difference....more on that later.

The first part of the bike course was easy and it seemed like we had a tail wind. I kept my pace around 17 mph and was hoping to maintain that the whole way (or at least average at 17 mph). Then we turned north (I think it was north - hard to know without mountains in the west!) and had a pretty significant headwind for 30 - 40 miles. My pace dropped to 14 - 15 mph. Darn! I felt reasonably good but the wind was tough. It wasn't horrible but enough to slow the pace.

We went on the same highway for a long time. Can't remember now how many miles but I was really ready to turn off that highway. When we finally did, the wind was much better but by then, my legs were feeling it.

I stopped at a few aid stations to use the restroom and then at the midway point for my special needs bag. Felt reasonably good. I was able to maintain 18 - 20 mph for awhile with the tailwind for awhile so was hoping to make up for the slow part.

By mile 70, my feet were starting to hurt. I had had problems with my feet before on long rides but it had subsided so I never went to get new shoes or move the cleats. The real problems started at mile 80. My feet (specifically the balls of my feet) were on fire. They hurt so bad I had to continually click out of my pedals and dangle my feet (one at a time) for awhile. That slowed me way down. The last 30 miles were awful - the pain was excruciating. I could hardly pedal.

By the time I got back into town, I was in tears. My legs were very tired but I could handle that - it was all in my feet. I spinned slowly back to the transition. I thought I would never get there. I had tried so hard to make a 6:30 bike time but ended up with a 7:10 bike. My psyche took a major hit at that point.

I gingerly got off my bike and took a few steps. The pain was horrible. I must have looked bad because I heard a volunteer call for a medical person. Two guys led me to a chair and although I'm embarrassed to admit this, I was crying - the pain was that bad. They massaged my feet and that really helped. I told them I was OK and hobbled over to the changing area, wondering how in the world I was going to run 26 miles.

Gotta get to the airport....to be continued....