So this is the first time I’ve written an actual “race report” and its a hard one.
How do I write that overall I was upset with things? I mean everyone keeps on me about how awesome I did and how amazing it was for day 99 .. and I keep thinking SHIT have i got a TON of of work inorder to be able to do an ironman next year. I will say I wouldn’t have finished without the help of my guide that I met that morning. He thought on his toes and probably could have pushed me a bit more in some areas. I started off the day with a piece of toast and some greek yogurt and had trouble getting that to go down. I started the day at a pain level of about 7.5 or an 8 out of 10. It was a rough day… i never found my groove in the swim. The water was shallow and in many a spots you could stand up in it.. it was about 68 degrees from what I heard. The cold was welcoming in many ways I knew that the colder it was the colder my temp would stay for longer. But I ended up doing lots of side stroke and the shunt tubing was moving and I cramped up as a result. In practice I had not had to swim much on my side because we know that makes the tubing more of an issue. Ben had it arranged that at the point the courses overlap that we would basically double back since it would be the same distance. The fear of being kicked in the head was at times overwhelming. Had that happened it would have been game over for sure. We started in the water absolutely last and came out not last. LOL but it was rough.
Some how we spent about 3 minutes in T1 … that’s long for me. But we go to bike and I start out strong… like 17 miles and hour on a mountain bike strong and kept that pace for about 5 miles even and then all hell broke loose with my head. It was to the point my head was swelling and I couldn’t get my helmet to adjust any bigger so we slowed down and it took me just over an hour to bike 14 miles. I didn’t take in even 8 oz of water at this point. Ben tried to remind me to drink stuff but I just couldn’t seem to focus at some points. Few times I almost went off the road. I also had a few points where my right arm went pins and needles numb and the shunt tubing again moved and I had some cramping.
It was a bit slower than I had hoped. Generally T2 is a quick less than a minute transition for me because I don’t clip in at this point so no shoe change. Today it ended up taking forever for me and I’m not sure why (well other than a potty break I needed and to run cold water over my head and hands) the run (walk really).
So the walk with a few short jogs was bad. I was joined by 2 friends… the one wanted to chat. Which was good but I needed to have my focus going. To the point he and a friend in England skyped during part. It was nice but I couldn’t hear her and she was talking to me but yeah it was just hard. Then had to stop for a picture at the turn around for them. I just needed to race and be focused. I almost lost my stomach a few times and the few short jogs HURT my head and caused cramping. I carried ice packs in my hands and at the water station we got more ice cubes for me to have and put down my neck and that. I don’t know that I drank much more water n the course either. Some of the time Ben was like yeah we did that don’t you remember and honestly I don’t frown emoticon
We came into the finish line and for a while I didn’t see it even when Ben did… but after getting the medal and some water and walking over to the tent.. I started to crash. I mean room spinning and I was going down hard and fast. So into the ice bath they had for the Half ironman people I went. I was in the ice for a good 5+ minutes to get things under control. 🙁
However, in reviewing my old PR for a sprint tri .. I was reminded that on that course I missed the second loop of the bike. So I did PR the race. If i had done the second bike loop before it would have added a good 60 minutes to my time(the course was HARD and my bike had issues and I had to walk lots of it)… so today my time was technically just under a minute longer BUT I did 2x the bike distance.
I’m frustrated and scared at how much in some ways this has shaken my confidence about my long term plan. I know I should be proud…I was on day 99 out of surgeries but its still hard to realize that as much as I train come race day so much is so out of my hands. I also realized I need to work on the buddy thing. Ben was great.. I seriously couldn’t have asked for a better buddy for the first time racing with a guide/buddy and him never doing it before. But I had trouble talking to him because I didn’t want to scare him with how I was feeling at certain points. And at other points I needed him to sort of keep me more focused in my race and let others move along. But I think I shouldn’t have to rely on someone to do that for me. If I can get my run back to an actual run rather than a mostly slow walk that will really help. I just don’t know where to go at this point with things… not sure it was a smart idea to have raced so soon. But then I think I needed to know I could still do it. And prove to myself that it was still in me. I needed to see how I would react. I know I need more open water swim time rather than in a pool so much if I can. But that was mostly due to not being allowed to swim in open water till incisions were more healed. I can come up with a million and one excuses for things the fact is I need more training and a better plan going forward.
