June 24, 2012
The journey started a year ago when I made the commitment and
signed up for Coeur d’Alene Ironman the day after the 2011 event wrapped
up. I had trained a lot with the Landis
team in AZ who were all a bunch of hard core Ironmen and women and I knew back
then that I would eventually have to give this event a try. At the time life changed and I had a big move
from AZ to OR in 2009 and put the triathlon training on hold once I arrived in
the NW and dove big time into the ultra running community. Now after doing several 100 mile, 24 hour,
100k, 50 mile, 50k, and quadzillas and triples I was loving my running and also
ready to incorporate more!
After signing up for the event I continued to work on my
base training with running and getting on the bike some as well as in the
pool. I knew I would have to really be
strategic about the work outs that I needed to do in order to fit in all of the
volume that I would need to do. I was
able to get my hands on a pretty complete plan from Troy, a great friend at work
and Kona Ironman, and this was the tool that I then based my training life on
from January to June. I carried around
the paper print out of this packet of training and as you can see below highlighted,
modified, and tracked what I was doing.
It felt great to highlight all the work outs for a day, but also felt
terrible to miss a work out here and there, but the plan kept me honest with
myself.
At the start of the full time training and jumping on the
plan, I really felt boundless; I enjoyed the mix of new work outs. I realized how much I really do love to swim,
and getting in the pool was very much like my running for my arms and
back. I enjoyed the alone time in the
pool to think and train and swim. I
really loved the early cold mornings back in January through March when it
seemed as though everyone at my gym was hibernating from the pool and I had the
entire thing to myself at 5am. Those
were very invigorating work outs for my mind and body.
The bike started out with a lot of indoor cycling because OR
in January is COLD!!! I couldn’t stand
it though on the weekends so I determined that no matter how cold it was I was
going to head out and ride. Well I
learned the hard way on my first ride outdoors on the weekend in January was
that I was woefully unprepared! I headed
out to do a nice and easy 50 mile loop from my house. I then got lost in the back country of
Hillsboro/Forrest Grove, ended up in Yamhill and by the time I realized how
lost I was I was about 40 miles away from my home. With hands and feet completely frozen to the
point of not being able to move them anymore, I made the call for help once I
got to a nice warm post office. Jash, my
fiancé, was in school all day that Saturday, and although I knew he would leave
class in a second to come get me, I was hoping that I would not have to pull
him out of school for this minor issue.
I was completely mortified and didn’t want to call anyone. It took a lot to dial up my amazing friend
Ned, who at the time was at a coffee shop getting some weekend work done. He was super busy himself so I then felt even
more horrible, but he dropped what he was doing and came out to get me. Never making me feel bad and just being such
a wonderful friend that I am so lucky to have.
Ned you know if you ever need anything – at any time- ever- give me a
holla.
I also had other issues on the bike, like the time I went
out to AZ in February and wanted to get a long ride in with my old riding group. Anthony (A-Dog), the guy who I have to credit
as the one that got me into Triathlons in the first place, taught me how to
swim and bike correctly, and was the best training partner I have ever had, he
of course set me up with one of his bikes and arranged for me to join his
regular Saturday ride. We were doing a
loop, but I didn’t realize that when we said we were going to the lake that we
actually were only going to the lake exit on the freeway and turning around. So I went to the lake. Whoops that was a bit too far and on a
totally creepy small road with lots of big vehicles pulling big boats driving
really fast!! Anthony had hurt his ribs
and shoulder the day before our ride so he had to turn back early. He called wondering where I was and then when
he realized how far I had gone and drove out to meet me so that I didn’t end up
with an 80 mile bike ride the day before I was running a marathon. A Dog is just wonderful!! I would not have become an IronMel if it was
not for him! And the marathon the next
day went just great!
So training was going, I was getting in my work outs and
getting stronger and feeling pretty good.
I also was still able to keep up my streak of running at least a
marathon or ultra a month though all of the training which was extremely
important to me!! It is now running 44
months strong! My May race was the CDA
marathon and I think this was very important for my training and mentally
really prepared me for the event. We
went out and pre rode the IM bike course before the marathon and I was able to
see and feel the big mountains we would be climbing and get that first freak
out of how much speed you pick up on the descents (over 40MPH) over with before
race day. I was also able to check out
the swim course and run course which gave me a feel for planning on race
day. It really boosted my confidence
going into the event.
Finally race week was upon us and I was ready to get out and
get going. I arrived Friday for athlete
check in and it was HOT and sunny out in beautiful CDA. I went back into town for the athlete dinner
and “meeting” but after arriving on time and waiting in a massive line.
I got to the front of the line only to find out they were
out of any of the vegie option pasta. So
my dinner consisted of an iceberg lettuce salad and a bread stick. The tent was also over capacity and there was
no seating left, so I went out to the back side of it and ate alone in peace
overlooking the water and sunset. We
were supposed to be there until 8:30pm listening to goodness knows what but
after I ate and started hearing the promotional speakers and movies I did not
feel that standing for 3 hours to listen to it would be a good use of my
time. So I took off to go find some real
food but was not impressed thus far of the lack of coordination on feeding and
providing places to sit for an event they had an exact count for and have been
doing for 10 years in CDA.
Saturday we had to check our bike and gear in, which I had
plenty of time the night before to put together, a bonus of leaving the “mandatory”
event. Jash and mom arrived late Friday
night so we spent Saturday morning sleeping in and relaxing. We drove into town with all my gear and got
everything checked in, besides my bike food which we were told to not leave
with the bike as the squirles have been known to get into it and eat it. I put on the wet suit and went for a trial
swim and was excited to feel the water had warmed up to about 59 degrees. The only issue I found was my wetsuit really irritated
the stud in the back of my neck.
So we looked all around IM village, but no one was selling
KT tape. But we did have a chance to
play with some photo ops while we were searching.
I realized we needed to eat lunch so we moved our adventures
back to the car and all of the yummy food that I had packed for us and had a
car picnic for lunch.
After lunch we found some KT tape and headed back to our hotel. We lounged around for the afternoon before we
went out to dinner at The White House Grill in Post Falls (thank you John for
this recommendation). Dinner was delish
and we talked about the day to come as well as just general great dinner
convo. I was relaxed with my family and
just having a wonderful time. I was not
worried about the next day, I was very excited and ready to do my best, stick
to my plan and go with the flow. I
wanted to remember to soak up the experience.
I went to bed early that night and slept well until about
3:30am when thunder, lightning and some very hard rain woke me up. I looked out my hotel room window to verify
and we were getting dumped on. Luckily I
was in Spokane Valley and this kind of weather just missed CDA.
We were on the road at 5am driving in to get ready for the
7am start of the race. Body marking, bike
tires checked, bike loaded with food and drink, and everything was in
place. I went over to the shore to sit
front row with mom and Jash and watch the start of the pros go off and then
hustled over to get onshore for our start.
The back up on the side walk leading over to the beach was infuriating
and you really at this point felt like a herd of cattle. It
took 20 minutes just to get on the beach and I grabbed a spot next to the first
lifeguard chair and started to make my final adjustments to my cap, goggles,
and booties (thank you Amber!) I
realized as I looked around that I was nowhere near the outer edge of the swim,
but I looked to my right and saw how far everyone was spread out that way that I
thought I would just chance it by starting smack dab in the middle of the
swim.
The gun went off and we dashed to the water. The water was cold, but not unexpected, the
people EVERYWHERE was another story. I
was doing ok though, I just kept moving and trying to slow my breathing down to
get back to my regular 1-2-3 breath 1-2-3 breath swim pattern when I heard
someone screaming for help. My first instinct
was to pop up and start swimming towards him, but I realized that I would get
run over in trying to swim backwards in this herd and also that there were
about 15 kayakers that were already on their way over to help. So back to the swim I went realizing that I
was totally fine. I could do this and I
just let go of my thoughts and started to flow with the people around me. People were still hitting and elbowing me,
but I just remembered that no one was trying to do anything on purpose, we were
all just trying to get to the same place at our own pace.
I did ok on my sighting for the first ½ of the first lap,
but as I rounded the second red buoy I realized that there was this lady that
had been close to me most of the swim and she was swimming pretty dead on
straight. So I let go of my sighting and
just swam slightly behind and to the right of her. At first checking pretty often that she was
on track, but then just letting her pave most of the way and I followed
along. We lost each other as we got out
of the water the first time and did the beach run and back in the water and I
tried again to find a good slighter, but ended up totally off course and had to
correct, get back to people and then ran right back into my swimming
buddy. I called her blueberry in my head
because her wetsuit had these great blue stripes down the side which made her
easy to find and because of the little sheep blueberry that we have back at
Jash’s dad’s farm. Blueberry the sheep
stands between you and the baby boy sheep Timmy all of the time and I felt like
this lady was my Blueberry sheep that I had to keep between me and the buoys at
all times! The water was much more
choppy for the second loop and I ended up drinking a lot of it because I would
come up to breath and catch a wave in the face and inhale water only. I started to get the feel for the waters movement
though shortly into the second loop and was able to time my breathing a bit
better.
Coming out of the water I looked up to see 90 minutes listed
on the clock and was thrilled!!! I was
50 minutes ahead of the cutoff and feeling like I swam my pace pretty easy and
not completely exhausted. As we climbed
up the beach I told Blueberry thank you so much for swimming so straight and
even! She said thank you and smiled and
we wished each other a great race from there.
I jumped up to the first empty handed wet suit stripper I could find and
was out of the thing in seconds and off and running to get my transition
bag. I jumped into the changing tent and
found the first chair that I could which I lucked out and was one right by the
door that someone was just leaving. I
dumped my bag and started getting ready putting on my bike clothes. I was thrilled that I remembered to turn on
my watch first so it caught a signal while I was changing. I also looked around and saw that some women
were not doing well at all coming out of that cold water. They were shaking and looking very much in
pain. I guess I am glad that I am a NW
girl now that has adapted to the cold somewhat because I was actually kinda hot
coming out of the water with that wetsuit on and swimming so vigorously. I tossed my bag to a volunteer and ran out
the door drinking the full bottle of water I had packed in the T1 bag before I
got to my bike.
I started the bike and started to do a mental check list of
myself. I had remembered to get all my
gear on. I drank my water. Stomach felt ok even with all the lake
water. I had on arm warmers and felt relatively
comfortable tempter wise. I heard Jash
and mom yell for me in my first mile and I waved back to them though I never
saw them. I was feeling good, but as soon
as we got to lake shore a gust of wind blew my left contact out of my eye. I caught it on my eyelashes and promptly
popped it in my mouth while I thought of what to do next. I decided to take my right glove off while
riding and as soon as we slowed down on the first up hill in a few miles I
would attempt to put the contact back in.
This plan actually worked, although I am not sure how, and I needed up
not losing any time while I tried to mess with it. For the rest of the race I did a lot more
blinking and closed my eyes when I could when the wind picked up, especially
for the cross winds that seemed to sneak under the sides of my Oakley’s.
For the rest of the ride I focused on eating and drinking at
regular intervals and riding my own race.
I really liked how the bike aid stations worked and thought that the volunteers
handing the water and Gu’s were great at getting those to you while your rode
by an didn’t have to slow down too much.
Although I did watch an older guy not slow enough, get off balance and
ride right into another volunteer then crash over his own handle bars. I think the rider and the volunteer were both
pretty hurt on that one and I tried to remember that as I went to though the
rest of the race and focused on not doing anything that would end my race or
harm myself!
The bike course had a very strong head wind on HWY 99 as we
rode out, but once we arrived at the turn around the tail wind really pushed us
back home. The climbs were pretty big
and the descents were scary to me, especially the downhill on the way back
where they only gave you the bike lane and the gugugugugugugu road things (the
ones that make sure you say in your lane and don’t drive off the mountain) did
not look friendly. On the second loop
while I was on my way back finishing and just a few miles out. A rider behind me did not seem to like this
no passing zone so as we were going downhill at about 40 MPH she rode the
gugugugugugu’s in front of me and her back water bottle went flying out and
straight at me landing only inches in front of my front tire. This was the dumbest thing I had seen all
race and I would have got her number and reported her if I was not so focused
on escaping death.
I finished the bike strong in just a little over 7 hours and
felt good, I didn’t go so hard that my legs were dead, but I was pushing
it. I wondered how my legs would feel
for the run. Back in the changing tent I
completely ditched all my bike clothes and was into the running gear- I do not
know how all of these triathletes run in those spandex get up’s but sorry they
are NOT for me. Back in my regular
running gear with my hand bottle I was in my element and ready to rock and
roll!! I saw Jash and mom as I came out
of T2 and leaned over the fence to give Jash a kiss. I was running pretty good, but the afternoon
was getting hot so I was taking ice at each aid station and keeping it in my
hat and sports bra to cool my core temp.
I was not able to eat anymore so I was taking Gu after Gu and although I
really was sick of them, I could feel the energy they were giving me for the
run. I did the double out and back and
said hi to Antony and Jerry – really the only 2 on the course I knew back from
my AZ tri club. It was a treat to say hi
to them out there. I also talked with
other runners as there was not much else to do with no music. Most everyone was nice.
I got to my final 6 miles back from the last turn around and
was ready to take it home. I knew I
would be done and I wanted to beat the sunset and finish with the sun in the
sky. I ran with everything I had for
those last 6 miles (which was only a 10 min mile) but after that bike and swim
I felt like I was flying! I got to the
end and the finish shoot was so crowded with spectators and so loud I just
focused on that finish line as it was really overwhelming and actually for me
not very pleasant of a finish. I guess I
am just used to the low key ultra finishes and this was just a bit much after
being out on the course for 13+ hours. I
just was thinking cross the finish line and then I don’t have to have these people
screaming at me anymore. Listen here and
you can see what I mean:
So I did and ran my
marathon in just over 4:40 which I am pretty happy about!
I grabbed 2 slices of cheap pizza and met Jash and mom
outside of the finisher’s area and we went to go sit on the grass by the shore
and watch the sunset and enjoyed realizing that I just finished in 13:46:47!!
Overall I am happy that I did this event although it is
something that I will probably not go back and do again. The experience that was valuable to me was
the intense training leading up to it and getting into the unknown again after
doing many ultras it was a new feeling that I really did enjoy. The people I met were very nice, but the
overall IM style is really just not for me.
I guess their tag line should have told me that: “swim 2.4, bike 112,
run 26.2. Brag for the rest of your
life!” I don’t do events for bragging
rights I do endurance sports for the physical and mental challenges and to push
myself to different levels. I am sure
that is why many other people do IM as well, but the overall feel of the entire
weekend about being told over and over that we were so amazing for just being
there and making such a fuss over everything was just a bit much for me. I like to show up do my thing and go home and
be done, not be forced to be at this kind of event for days on end and pay what
I deem is an exorbitant amount for entry fees.
Well that and there is just WAY too much spandex involved in this sport! Low key events like ultra running are really
more my style and I think for the long run I will stick to those, but I respect
everyone that loves IM as a sport as well- it was not easy and I am proud to be
an IronMel.
