Anyway, back to training racing by. A week ago today, I started to get very, very nervous for a few reasons. My FIRST Half-Ironman (70.3) race was less than a week away! Holy Cow! I hadn't had an open water swim yet, due to the mild weather in KY of late, and I had only started really running again 2 weeks prior due to an injury. I felt completely unprepared. My awesome coach though was determined to get me and my teammate Jenny in the water, so on Tuesday we met Dee without wetsuits and she took us over to Paramont Quarry. To say the least the water was pretty cold. We swam for about 40 minutes, we think about 1 mile and hopped out. Dee's hands and lips were blue, and I felt incredibly dizzy and nauseous due to a combo of the cold and lack of orientation. I think, I may have made that up :) We were convinced that that would be the coldest swim of the season. HA! we were sooo wrong. The week flew by. I had a great swim Friday, and I felt ready to tackle my first 70.3 race!
We traveled down early Saturday with hopes that the weather report that we'd been tracking all week long would be very wrong. 100% rain chances and high only of 55 degrees :( BOO Maybe it would rain after the race or after the bike. It's ok if rains, but hopefully not during the race. As we arrived in Knoxville, it started raining, cold rain. I checked in, grabbed my swag bag and headed over to the Lady Vols boathouse to check out the river and listen to a Pro-Triathlete talk about the swim and give tips. He also informed us that the river was reading 58 degrees when testing!!! HA like I said we were wrong about that coldest swim of the season. Not only was it 58 degrees, but it was nearing flood stage, and the current looked pretty strong. Not calming to someone that has only swam once in open water. I could have had a practice swim, but I knew if it was super cold, or I had a bad swim I wouldn't get in for the actual race the next morning so I skipped and decided to check my bike in. After the clinic we brought our bikes over checked them in for the night. Thank goodness for a covered transition. I was afraid my bike was going to sit out in rain all night, but transition was in the parking garage next to the football stadium! Brilliant! Later we had dinner with our good friends Megan and Ken at Tupelo Honey, a great local restaurant. We even got to watch the running of the Derby! Finally it was time to go back to the room and prepare for race morning! I went up to check in with my teammates, Mike, Sean, and Tim. We were all convinced that the swim portion would be cancelled due to the forecasted rain all night and the cold temps. I borrowed some rainx from Mike for mine and Meg's sunglasses to help with the rain on the bike and then headed downstairs. Usually, I don't sleep very well before races, but I laid down and was out like a light.
Before I knew it, it was 4:30AM, and the alarm was blaring. I drug myself out of bed and started eating immediately. I had an hour before we left to go over to transition. I had to eat, fill my bike water bottles with my nutrition, go to the bathroom :), and get dressed. My goal was to eat around 850-900 calories. A majority being in liquid form. A piece of gluten free bread with 2 TBS almond butter, and my own smoothie concoction coming in around 580 calories. An hour later it was time to head to transition. The butterflies began. We arrived at transition. I started setting up all my gear, and then yanked and pulled my wetsuit on. Took some group pictures and headed down to the dock. At this point I could feel the anxiety all over. I had no idea what to expect. I watched Mike, Tim, and Sean go off in their wave. Then the next, then it was my turn. I'd spent the last 10 minutes trying to keep the rain out of the inside of my goggles and keep them from fogging. It was a losing battle. It was time for me to jump in the water and swim to the yellow bout, and I couldn't see out of my goggles! I contemplated turning around and saying to heck with it, but I slid in, felt the icicles travel up my body and swam over to where everyone else was treading water. I still couldn't really see anything, especially not a buoy to swim to. I tried to keep to the back of the pack and as close to the shoreline as I could at first. The gun went off, and it was go time. I took off too. I tried to free style, but immediately realized I couldn't. I'm assuming it was from the water being so cold, or maybe anxiety, but when I put my face in to freestyle I couldn't breathe. I'd come up and I was wheezing, like my airway was shutting off. I flipped over on my back hoping it was just nerves and decided to back stroke it for a while. I back stroked for 10 minutes flipped over swam freestyle for probably 30 seconds, and again wheezing. I still couldn't really see anything. I realized I either had to call it quits or back stroke the whole swim. Neither felt like a great answer. I flipped back over on my back and took off. The funny thing is, since I'm not a great swimmer, I'm not that much slower at back stroke, probably 30 seconds or so slower per 100m. Eventually, I was pretty sure I was the only swimmer left from my wave, until I got nailed in the eye by a swimmer who was also backstroking. I decided I needed to probably sight a little bit more. Finally after what seemed like forever, I made it to the red buoy about 500m up the river. Getting around it was tricky, it kept moving! :) Back down river was much faster since I was swimming with the current, still on my back. I did flip over and tried to freestyle it. I was even pretty calm at this point, but still had the wheezes, so I flipped back over. At this point I just wanted to get out of the water. My anxiety was gone, but I was so cold, then all of a sudden I was probably 300m from the end I had a sudden wave of nausea run through. I thought I was going to vomit in the water. I tried to hold it together, but had to tread for a second. I realized I needed to swim to the dock fast. My goggles weren't helping and were giving me a headache so I pulled them off and tried to swim faster to the dock. I finally made it! Volunteers helped me scale the dock. I didn't drown! I was an ice cube, but I didn't drown! I headed off to transition. Dried myself off as much as I could. Threw on a dry bike jersey and set off in the rain. My swim time was 56 min. I was more than happy with that. My T1 time was 10:38.
Now biking is by far my favorite leg, but on race day it was right up there on the level of anxiety as the swim. It was raining non-stop, and I'd never ridden my tri bike conditions like that. Plus the hills in Knoxville were BIG, and technical. Meaning a few of the hills coming down weren't straight down, they curved! Skinny tires, wind and rain. The whole ride I kept saying, "you can't wreck! You're getting married in 3 weeks, and you will not wear a cast to your wedding." It helped. At the top of each hill I pumped the breaks all the way down. There was 4,000 in elevation gain. The rain maybe wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't also so cold. 55 doesn't sound cold, but on a bike going 22-24mph it is. I finally made it through the bike portion. VERY slowly, but safe. Even in the rough conditions took me 3:30 for the course! T2 time was around 5 minutes. It was onto the run. I told myself I needed to take it slow in the beginning and not push it hard. I wanted to last til the end. My shoe laces kept coming untied, and a need for a port-o-potty several times kept me on track. My GI system didn't bother all day which I was so happy with, but I had to pee practically all day. Not sure, if I just wasn't sweating or what. Ha, I'll spare you those details. The run course was in a pretty low lying area. Keeping my shoes dry wasn't even an option. I felt like I was trail running or doing an adventure race. A lot of the run course was flooded. We went across two little bridges that had been taken over. I had no choice but to walk through the ankle deep water. I came to another section that looked like it would be way up my shin, so I chose to climb the bank a bit and carefully bypass it. I realized that wasn't the best choice, beacuse I then had to proceed to slide down of the bank on my bum :) lesson learned. Around mile 4 we headed into a really pretty neighborhood. What wasn't pretty was the up and down of the hills in the neighborhood. The run course gained 1,300 ft in elevation, and I'm pretty sure it was all in these 4 miles. Despite the hills, I felt really good at this point. I saw Mike, Sean, and Tim as they were turning around. I realized around mile 7-8 if I kept the pace I had, I might make it back to the finish in under or right at 7 hours. I couldn't believe it so I dug deep for some motivation. I've had lots of help in that category lately, I always think of my Granny, Tony, and Ava that I'm racing in honor of. I think about all they had to endure while battling cancer, and I realize no matter how crappy the weather or much my body hurts, I really have no idea how bad it could be. I always think of those that wish they could be running or racing, like my Dad, and others that have been paralyzed or injured in some way. I wore my yellow and blue Boston ribbon for the race to help push me. Finally, I saw the highway, and finally I knew I was almost out of the mean neighborhood with the huge hills! Then I spotted some really awesome supporter cheering on the runners ahead of me. I realized it was Meg! She started running towards me and I kicked in a little too. She kept telling me she was proud of me, and gave me a good luck kiss. Only 4 more to go! I couldn't believe it. Seeing her gave me a good burst of energy. I took off ready to get out of the rain. Back through the low lying area. This time the area I scaled, I couldn't so I had to go through the water. It went past the halfway part of my shin! It was nuts. With 3 miles to go I saw a couple of supporters sitting under a picnic area. I looked again, and it was two of my UT Rugby friends from college that had come out! Another burst of energy. I held a really good pace to the end. The last .5 mile I was ready to be finished. Finally I saw the finish line, and I ran as fast as I could towards it, which wasn't very fast, but it felt like it was! I ran the 13.1 miles in 2:21. Only 4-5 minutes slower than the flat course I ran the weekend before! My finish time was 7 hours and 5 minutes! I was ecstatic. My original goal tie was 7 hours and 30 min, but now I realize that if the weather had been nice I could have made it under 7 easy.
I learned a lot, and that was the whole point of the day. To help prepare me for Ironman. I know what I need to work on, and I can't wait to get started. Today was a rest day, but I'm back at it tomorrow. The next 4 months are going to be great, crazy and full of long training days. But I'll think about that later. My next big thing is getting hitched, and I can't wait! :) Bring it on May 25!!! :) :)
Thanks for the great pictures Megan Patterson before the swim and before the finish line!!
