Click here for more pictures!Wow. What a day. I wish I could bottle up the awesome high you get during an
Ironman to make it last just a little bit longer.
Pre-RaceTeam
Woodhead (my parents, Dr. Doug and Linda, Jon, and myself) did not arrive in
CDA until about 1am Friday morning. You just don't realize (at least I don't...) how far across the country northern Idaho is from Houston! It takes a long time to get there no matter how you do it.
Friday morning I did a quick swim before standing in line 1.5 hours to register. Note to self: get in line before 9:45am or after noon to register (opens at 10am). I got in line around 10:15 and stood in the cold windy rain for way too long - I guess it was good practice for braving similar elements that were to come on race day!
Saturday was actually a fairly pretty day - the calm before the storm. Jill, Jon, and I did a quick 30 minute spin along the lake before our group met for a big group picture. After that I did a quick 15 minute jog and called myself done. I spent the rest of Saturday afternoon mostly horizontal and then headed to dinner with a few others from Houston and their families. We waited far longer than anticipated, but everyone had a good attitude about it and the food was pretty darn good when we finally did get to eat.
Race MorningI checked the weather for about the 100
th time in the past two days and it was actually starting to look a bit better, as in the rain was not forecast to hit until later in the day. The wind was still
pretty bad though. Jon took Michelle and me to the start around 5:30am and it was cold and windy already. Fun fun.
Packing and repacking my transition and special needs bags took a lot of brain power...and some hope and prayer. We knew the weather was going to get bad, but did not know how bad and when. I did not know how cold I would be on the bike and how cold I would be on the run. If I put a jacket in my bike bag and did not use it, I could not get to it for the run, and vice
versa. I basically put several options in each bag which ended up being a good choice.
I got my wetsuit on and said goodbye to Team
Woodhead around 6:30 or 6:40 and headed over to the swim start. Wow. I felt like I was back in Houston. The walkways by the lake are very narrow and they had to funnel 2200 athletes through a narrow entry to ensure everyone went over the timing mat. It took over 10 minutes to get through the "people traffic" to finally get down on the beach. That was a pretty stressful event that I was not anticipating. When I did get down there, I saw Luke, Holly, and Michelle which was awesome. We all bid each other good luck and prepared for hell.
SwimGoal Time - 1:10-1:20
I knew going into it that
CDA seemed to be a generally slower swim course than others, including
IMAZ. I swam 1:12 at
IMAZ last year and had told myself all along that I did not necessarily expect to swim faster than that at
CDA. I think I am stronger than I was at
IMAZ, but I did not want to set my expectations too high. I lined up 3-4 people back about 1/3 of the way to the right of the buoys. There was actually plenty of room to get to that spot and people seemed pretty spread out.
Then the cannon went off.
Oh Holy Hell is all I have to say. It was awful, then okay after a few minutes and I thought maybe I was in the clear - wrong. I told myself to make it to the first turn buoy and that things would be okay after that. I did not know if I could even make it to the first buoy. This was by far the worst swim I have ever done and I was seriously considering never doing a two loop course again while I was out there. It was absolutely awful - no other way to describe it. The water was very choppy too. I swallowed more than my fair share of the lake. When I did get free from arms or legs, I was getting slapped in the face with yet another wave. After the second turn and heading back to shore, things got a tiny bit better, but not much.
I swam until my hands hit bottom and wondered what standing up and trying to run was going to be like. Fortunately it went just fine. I heard Jon call out my name but did not try to find him. I waved but apparently waved in the complete opposite direction of where he was. I saw 35:xx on my watch and was pleased.
As soon as I started swimming again for loop two, I realized that loop was actually a bit longer in distance than the first, so I could not expect to necessarily swim the same time again. The traffic did not really get much better. The turn buoy was awful again and the waves were much bigger this time. They just got bigger and bigger the further away from shore I got. I made the final turn and headed home, hoping for a push from the current and/or wind, but did not feel like I was getting either. I started to go over in my head the things I needed on my bike. I told myself to be sure to grab the gloves I had packed and shove them in my pocket. I knew I would not need them at first but that I would regret not having them later if it started to rain or got colder.
I finally touched the bottom again with my hands and headed for the transition area. I was not super happy with my time, but also did not dwell on it in the least. It could have easily been way slower so I just left it at that.
Loop 1 - 35:58
Loop 2 - 39:29
Total - 1:15:27 (21/79 age group)
Transition 1Goal - 6:00
The wetsuit strippers went to town and I quickly headed into the tent. I was trying my hardest to think smart about anything and everything I had packed that I might need for the next seven hours, but it is hard to think straight after the swim. I put my bike shoes on as a volunteer helped me go through my bag. She pulled out socks then. Ugh. I thought for a few seconds and then shrugged and pulled my shoes back off as she put the socks on. I usually do not ride with socks, so I am certainly not in the habit of putting them on, especially in a race, but they were special "Cancer Sucks" socks and it was also 50 something degrees outside...not wearing them was not an option. After getting that settled, the volunteer helped put on my arm warmers/bolero thingy (essentially a shrug-type top, or a one-piece set of arm warmers that covers your shoulders too). It was a bit hard to get on wet, but still probably easier than single arm warmers would have been. I threw on my helmet and sunglasses (not knowing how long I'd need them) and went on my way. Jon was standing at the end of my bike row yelling his head off and I saw the rest of Team
Woodhead just on the other side of the fence.
T1 - 4:31 (I'm proud of that, especially with the sock debacle!)
BikeGoal time - 7:00/16.0 mph
The bike is a
two loop course that first does an out-and-back along the lake, then comes back into town before heading north to Hayden and around the lake up there, then back to town and you do it all over again. On the first ~15 mile out-and-back, I had trouble finding my legs. I did not know if I was going slightly uphill or into the wind, but I tried not to worry too much about it.
After just a few miles I felt better and was ready to rock and roll. I was watching the people coming back and of course counting the time to see where everyone was in relation to everyone else. Math is good for me to do during races, it keeps my mind occupied. I saw Jill first, and once I hit the turn around I realized she was ~22 minutes ahead of me. I knew that meant she had had a good swim - I also knew that because there were not many women around her. The part along the lake was fun and fast with two decent climbs if I remember correctly. I looked for people the entire time and saw most of our crew. I saw Shellie on my way back into town and she had a new helmet on! I was looking for red/white/blue and she had on silver! I'm glad she called my name out because I might not have recognized her otherwise. Everyone also had on way more clothes than we are used to seeing, so we did not necessarily know how to recognize each other.
Back into town and I was having an awesome time. I saw and heard much of my crew and other support from Houston. I headed towards Hayden feeling great, but full of nervous anticipation of just how bad those hills were going to feel. I had driven the course Friday and Jon's "ooh,
oooh, wow" commentary on each hill did not help, but driving and riding are still way different things so I still did not totally know what to expect. I did know where the first big climb would be and sure enough it came...and came...and came. The crowd and volunteers on the hills were awesome though. The first climb actually was not that bad at all, but that was just the beginning of a good 20+ miles of unrelenting climbs (at least for this
flatlander). I made it up each hill though and was still feeling good. There were signs on every significant climb that said "Legs of Zeus." I grew to loathe those signs because some came at the bottom of a climb where I did not really know how bad it would be, but when I saw the sign I knew it was going to be a
doozie. Once I headed south back into town I was pleased with my average mph and continued to do the math to figure out what I had to do to break 7:00 on the bike. I saw my crew again in town and was grinning ear-to-ear. My legs had started to hurt a little bit, but not that bad. I had no idea what the next 56 miles would bring though.
Special needs was at the turn around on the lake, so about seven miles into the second loop. I only had to briefly touch my foot down and grab my second bottle of
infinit out of my bag and I was off again. My average mph did not even drop so I considered that a huge success! I was up to 16.8 mph average by the time I was at mile 70 back in town. I was pleased with that but very aware that would drop and not completely recover once I hit the hills for the second time. Hell started right around mile 80 with the first big climb on English
Pointe. Ugh. You could not have wiped the smile off my face up until that point, but then the hills got bigger and bigger and kept coming. The wind was also pretty bad by this point and seemed to be quite unpredictable. It never came from just one direction. I kept telling myself to just hang on until mile 96 or so (whenever the hills stopped) and that I would be good. My average had dropped to 16.0 by the time I got out of the hills. My spirits plummeted faster than my pace. I thought my pace and spirits would both go back up a bit once I was on flat land heading back into town, but neither did. I began to wonder how in the world I was going to run a marathon after this and how in the world I was going to change my attitude. I did the last little out-and-back on Northwest and was happy to see that I was going to break my 7:00 goal, but only by a few seconds.
Nutrition-wise, the bike was about as easy as it gets. The weather did not demand anything special at all. I drank so much less water than at
IMAZ last year, but the temperature was nearly double there what it was in
CDA. I had 200 calories/hour of
inifinit on my bike but probably only ended up taking in 1000-1100 calories of the 1400 I was supposed to take. I never felt bad, so I think it was just about perfect. I had to make a serious effort to take in what I did though - at several points I looked down at the bottle and realized I was pretty far behind. I stopped taking in any calories about 20 minutes from the finish of my bike (tip from nutritionist
Penny at our last
HRTC meeting), and that seemed to work pretty well.
Time - 6:59:23/16.02 mph
Transition 2Goal- 6:00
I had been preparing myself during the last few minutes of my bike to remember where to rack my bike when I was off it. I did not think one way or the other about the possibility of someone else racking my bike for me - I wanted to be prepared in case I had to do it myself (at that point I honestly did not remember that I had not had to rack it in previous
Ironmans). I came towards the end and there was a wall of at least 10 volunteers telling me to "keep coming" right up to the line. It was such a different scene than most triathlons where they are all yelling at you to get off way before the line. You can tell these guys are prepared to literally catch you if need be, but I was good to go on my own. Not .2 seconds after I swung my leg over the back of the bike, they had it and were taking it off one way and pushing me off to run the other. For some reason, that reception at T2 totally turned my attitude around - that and maybe the feel of solid ground under my feet. I ran through the bag lines on the basketball court and grabbed my T2 bag. I took off the black sleeves I had on and grabbed the pink ones and tied them around my waist. I kept the gloves in my back pocket, still unsure of what was to come. No matter what I always do long runs in my
injinji toe socks, which take a while to put on, but they seemed to go on pretty fast. I also put body glide on my feet knowing they were likely to get soaked. I switched watches, grabbed my
garmin,
infinit flask, and visor and headed on my way. It seemed like it took a while and I did not keep track of how long it took, so I was shocked when I saw my time.
T2 - 3:35
The Run Goal- 5:30
I am not sure words can describe this run, but you know I will still try. Forrest Gump may be one of the best ways to describe it, mostly for the Forrest Gump running, but also for the Forrest Gump rain. Literally, once my feet hit the ground, they just started running, and did not stop (well, they stopped for my walk breaks, but I am sure Forrest had walk breaks too, they just did not make the movie). The run course takes you on a quick out and back on the west side of transition that is about 2 miles long, then a longer out-and-back through downtown and then along the lake for another 11 miles, and you do this twice. This course was perfect for me because I love seeing other racers and also perfect for spectators because they could stay pretty much in one spot and see you several times (Team Woodhead did not totally figure this out, but they were close...and also wet and cold).
I saw Jon and my family very early on - maybe a few hundred yards into the run. Jon was yelling like crazy telling me how beautiful I looked (don't think I've ever heard that during a r
ace!) then asked very excitedly "how do you feel?" I am not sure I answered that because I was thinking "well, I feel great right now, and my garmin says I'm running 9:30 pace, but then again I have another 26.1 miles to go so I shouldn't get too excited right now." I did the first little turn around and saw my family again on my way back into town, just a few minutes after seeing them the first time. This time I still felt good and with a whole 1+ miles under my belt I told Jon I was going to try my hardest to finish the first loop before he had to go to his finish line volunteer post at 6pm. He said not to worry about him but I said I needed a goal like that and I took off. I had previously plugged my "best case scenario" in a calculator and it said I would be finishing the first loop at 6:04, so I had figured all along I would not see Jon again after mile two. I knew the rest of Team Woodhead would still be out there so it was not like there would not be anyone, but I think that 6:04 time had been imprinted in my head more than I knew it. Subconsciously a goal had been brewing there for a while. I had also been telling myself for quite a while going into this race that no matter what happened on the swim and the bike that I was to actually run this time, run like I know how to run. I told myself no excuses whatsoever for not running a 5:30 or faster. I knew I could do it but that I had to just actually make it happen.
Running through town was awesome - spectators everywhere! I did hear people finishing 
already, which is always lovely, but this time it really just got me more excited about my own finish, which I knew would come soon enough; I just had to be patient. I had seen Lisa and Tim on the first short out-and-back and would proceed to see at least 10-15 more people I knew on the second part of the first loop. I cheered for some who had no idea who I was. The "conversation" was something along the lines of me yelling "Go whoever" when they were running towards me, then them giving me a look like "who in the world are you?" then me doing a flyby introduction. These proved to be beneficial because they all "knew" me on the second loop and we were old friends cheering for each other! I saw Maggie and Jane at some point in the middle of town - they were absolutely awesome support during the day. I saw Jill on her way back into town and I do not remember at all what she said, but I remember thinking I need to "own it" as in own the ability I do have and make the most of it, as in not be afraid to push it and see what I really do have. The miles continued to tick away and I was still under a 10:30 pace when I hit the turn around on the lake. I did not consider running up that hill, one because it was a big hill and two because it was so slanted I probably would have tripped over my own two feet trying to run. I did time it and it was only a whopping three minute walk to the top, so no big deal at all. The way back down was lots of fun. I continued to shock myself mile after mile that I continued to feel strong. I decided from the start I was going to do 4/1 intervals (run 4 minutes/walk 1 minute). I could have run much longer at the start, probably aid station to aid station (~1 mile), but looking back, starting the intervals from the start was absolutely the right thing to do. Miranda passed me on one of my walk breaks on the lake and said something along the lines of pick it back up, or that I was okay, or something like that. I yelled back as she ran on that I was 100% fine, having the race of my life, and that the walking was all part of the plan! There is no telling how many times I said "I'm having the race of my life" during that run to both friends and strangers alike.
As I came back into town I had to run in the "2nd loop" lane instead of the "finish" lane, but I was still feeling awesome and was having too much fun to be done at that point anyway. I was 
able to finish the first loop at around 5:45pm - plenty of time to spare for Jon to get to the finish line at 6. I had been going over in my head what I was going to say to him when I got there starting around mile 10..."you won't have to volunteer late after all" or something along those lines. Then I would tell myself not to jinx myself like that and that I should keep my mouth shut. I went back and forth on that whole thought. By the time I saw him I was well into my 14th mile and realized I had 3:15 to cover less than 13 miles and still finish before 9pm. I could walk the rest of the way and make it. Wow. So of course the first thing out of my mouth when I saw him was that he was not going to have to volunteer past the 9pm end of his shift. I saw my parents right after that and shouted out to them "I will be done in less than three hours!" As soon as I said that I thought "wait, who in the world was that just just talking and I have no idea if I will really be less than three hours...3:15, yes, but 3?" They said that they were wet and cold and I felt sooooo bad. Had I been running any slower I probably would have been miserable as well.
By this point I had completely finished the 400 calories of infinit I had in a gu flask that I honestly did not expect to finish during the entire run. I was hungry for the first time during the day, but I took it as a welcomed sign that my body was working right and that I was just hungry, which can easily be fixed, not sick or anything else. Special needs was on the way back of the short out-and-back and I picked up my 2nd flask of infinit (this time with only ~200 calories) and a baggie with three uh-oh Oreos in it. I had not had solid food all day and had not really wanted it, but I knew 2 oreos would be over 100 calories which was probaby perfect for then. I ate one right away and then ate another right in the middle of town. I didn't just shove them in my mouth - I took the time to take it apart and lick the chocolate out and eat one half at a time...with a complete audience. I was still grinning ear-to-ear and happy as could be eating my cookies with about 129 miles under my belt for the day. When I turned past Sherman I started seeing more and more people heading toward the finish line. The first person I saw who I knew was Jason (skied at A&M when I skied at UT, lives in Sugar Land now...very small world!). He was just 2 turns from the finish line and I was about jumping up and down and running and screaming all at the same time. He totally and completely rocked that course and it was his first IM and his first tri was only last summer. I knew he would be under 11:30 but I later found out he finished in 11:22. Wow. I saw Fred not too long after and was still beaming. He was beaming too and ran over and gave me a hug in the middle of the course. I did not even need a lift at that point, but that left me almost off my feet. I was just so happy about everything. People were smashing goals/PRs, etc and I was one of them. I saw Tri To Be Funny on her way to an 11:46 finish right around where I saw Fred. I had seen her on the bike too, when she flew by me on one of the huge climbs. She looked strong the entire day. I saw Jill not too far behind Fred and knew she was on her way to a PR too. She told me then "you are kicking total butt" and I think I agreed with her. By this time I was doing 2/1 intervals and still feeling great. I switched just after the half way point out of fear of the unknown more than anything else. I still felt good, but was in totally uncharted territory for myself. My first half split (right around 2:20) was faster than I had ever run in a half ironman. I knew I could walk it in and still break 14 hours, but in the back of my head I kept wondering when the wheels were going to fall off. I knew 2/1's would be a smart way to hopefully delay a complete breakdown if one was to come.
By this point it had been raining for quite a while. I had pulled out the gloves that had been in my back pocket for 10 hours and put them to use. I was still not cold though. I was in what seemed to be the lucky minority there though. Several were down to walking wrapped in space blankets, shivernig and looking downright miserable. Others had made quite the fashion out of the space blankets, and while walking or looking much slower than anticipated, they still looked pretty happy. Everyone out there was beyond nice. By that point you felt like you knew everyone out there because you had seen the ones you were near over and over again on the turn arounds.
At some point I was yelling across at someone I knew and two guys walking in front of me just turned around and said "yup, we were waiting for this, we knew it would not be long." It was hilarious. They were two brothers who also grew up in Beaumont doing their first Ironman. I thought it was so awesome that they were getting to do this race together. I asked them if they wanted to come along on my little 2/1 jaunt and they said "nope." I listed off my array of drugs I had with me and asked if they wanted any of that and they simply said "too late." It was hilarious. They both had great attitudes and were still having lots of fun, but had apparently decided they were done with the whole running thing. That whole little scenario reminded me greatly of my little experience at IMAZ with Shellie last year!
I found myself back at the turn around with less than 5.5 miles to go. Wow. I talked to a guy a bit on the hill and we started talking about PR's etc and I said I was going to break mine regardless of what happened on the last few miles. I had been thinking on the way out along the lake that maybe I could even try for 13:40, to take a full hour off the last one, but I did not put much heart into that, it was more of a thought than anything else. I was just going to take whatever the final miles had to give. But then while I was talking to this guy on the hill, he said "oh, you totally have 13:30 in the bag." I had not even considered 13:30...not in a million years leading up to CDA and certainly not at any point during that day. He said he was going to try to beat his PR of 13:15 but that it was going to be tough. I told him I thought he could do it and he went on his way, but not without leaving the idea of 13:30 firmly planted in my head. I roughly figured I needed to average 12:30 min/mile on the last 5.5 miles to come in under 13:30. My average pace was still around 11:30 or so, so 12:30s seemed completely feasible, but at the same time I'd been out there almost 12.5 hours and was still waiting for the wheels to fall off. I set that as a "would be awesome" time in my head and went for it, but told myself not to be devastated if it did not happen because I would still be getting a huge PR.
I did not see the mile 22 marker and began to get a bit nervous, but was reassured at mile 23 when I was still on track. I saw Shellie sometime just after that and I think she was just about as happy as I was. Just before mile 24 my stomach started talking to me for the first time all day...well talking might be a mild term. It was screaming Pit Stop! I laughed at the thought of 
missing 13:30 by two minutes because I was in the porta potty, but I had no choice. I think I lost about 3 minutes, but no big deal at all. I was still on pace for 13:30. But then I never saw the mile 25 marker. I was getting scarily close to 13:30 but did not know how much further I had to run. One runner said he thought he had seen the number painted on the ground, as in the marker was no longer there, and I really hoped he was right. The volunteers were getting more and more fired up the closer I got. Once I was on Front street, I knew I had two turns to make and then I would be on Sherman heading to the finish. A right and a left and I was there. Wow. What a beautiful sight. Five blocks downhill of nothing but awesomeness. The first guy I remember seeing Sherman was cheering me on saying "just a little bit to go" then said "wow, look at that smile!" It made me smile even harder. I was having a hard time breathing because I was crying at the same time (about the 10th time that happened on the run course that day). Each block almost came too fast as I just wanted to soak up all that I could. I passed under the Ironman arch and into the finisher's chute high fiving people all along the way. I saw the clock and knew I had broken 13:30 and then ran straight into Jon's arms.
Run time- 5:06:07 (11:41 min/mile)
Overall time - 13:29:03 (38/79 age group)
I felt great when I finished. Jon almost killed me whe he hugged me though because he held me so tight and I was having a hard time breathing, but other than that things were 
good. I got my loot and took my pictures and then saw Team Woodhead and Jill. Poor Team Woodhead was wet and freezing so I officially released them from their duties for the day. I went to find all my bags and change into whatever dry clothes I had. Unfortunately several of the layers I could have used were soaking wet from sitting in the rain all day. After that I headed straight for pizza and then back to the finish line. We watched Tim, Shellie, and Holly all come in very close to each other. After that I was once again soaking wet and had Jill and her friend drop me back at the hotel. I felt awful for not staying out there longer. Jon said he'd stay until everyone we knew was in - bless him for that!
The Rest of the Story
CDA is an incredible place. It is beautiful with breathtaking views, but even more beautiful is the reception it had towards all of us and our families. Local businesses bent over backwards to help us out and make us feel welcome and I cannot even begin to say enough about the volunteers. IMCDA has over 3000 whereas IMAZ and IMFL have around 1000-1200. There were volunteers on every corner of the bike course the entire time I was out there. They remembered you by face on the run course and were sure to comment your second time through as if you were old friends.
Team Woodhead - I continually thought over and over throughout the weekend how I could not do this without them. I mean that. The day that Team Woodhead cannot come to support me will probably be the day that I'm done with this crazy thing for a while, maybe forever.
Ooh - one last dorky note: the weather. The average temp for the day was a whopping 54 degrees. It was down below 50 when it was raining on my run. During the bike, the winds got as high as 20mph sustained with 27mph gusts. So this year it was ~48 degrees on my run. Last year at IMAZ, it was over double that, at 97 degrees, on the run. Team Woodhead is forecasting snow for IMFL if I decide to race there!
