Ironman Number Three! (IMTX)

I tried going into this race with no expectations, but with lots of hard work, it's hard to not envision how you want the day to unfold.  With a finishing time of 10:47, it wasn't what I wanted (or expected), but since I took an hour of my previous Ironman PR, I guess I can't (or shouldn't) complain too much.

I started the journey on Tuesday morning as I left my house at 2:30 to start the trek to The Woodlands, TX.  I prefer to drive in the morning before the sun comes up.  There are less cars on the road and I can pull onto the shoulder at anytime to drain my bladder without getting off the highway.  It's also a nice way to break up the driving since I stop and work along the way.  The drive took me a day and a half and I just cruised along, working at Panera during work hours.

My friend Sue arrived the next morning so I picked her up from the airport and we checked into the host hotel. I had never stayed at a host hotel for a race, but it was awesome!  Being able to walk everywhere and not worrying about driving was super cool, especially right before and after the race.  We got unpacked and I picked up Kristen in the evening.  Traffic in Houston sucks!

The next morning things started to get interesting.  We woke up, did the practice swim and headed out on a short bike ride.  During the bike I started to feel a little nauseous and had a pretty bad headache.  I figured a coffee would make it pass, but it just got worse as the day went on.  We tried to grab lunch, but I was too sick to eat and I could hardly get anything down.  I started to stress, wondering what was wrong!  I spent a lot of time over the toilet trying to throw up and laying in the shower in pain.  As the time to checkin a bike was coming to an end, Sue and I decided we better get it done.  As we walked out the door, I felt the urge of a number 2 (sorry for the detail!), so I ran back in and took care of business.  As we walked our bikes to transition, I all of a sudden started feeling better!!!! I guess I just had to go!  By the time our bikes were dropped off, I was in a much better state both physically and mentally. Since I could finally eat, the night ended with some delicious dinner (and excellent service) from Grotto and an early bed time.

Race morning I was up three hours before the start and feeling good.  We had Kristen drive us to drop off our nutrition on the bikes and we headed to the swim start.  I had never done a self seated rolling start, but it was awesome.  Everyone lines up where they think they will finish the swim and we leisurely walked into the water (crossing the timing mat) and started our swim.  I passed a few people for the first couple minutes, but for the most part I didn't come in contact with other swimmers, even at the turns.  The course was very nicely laid out and the water was murky, but not gross.  I loved that it was not a wetsuit swim and the water was a great temperature. I was worried about swimming in the narrow canal towards the end since I heard it turns into a madhouse, but it was not crowded at all.  I can imagine the swimmers who were middle of the packers would have had an interesting time on that part, but being a little faster really made all the difference.  I felt like I was swimming at a good pace, but at one point, I looked over and a guy was doing the backstroke next to me.  I ended up with a 1:05:49 swim, which wasn't too bad, but I expected faster.

Transition went fairly smooth, I grabbed my bag, headed into the tent and got ready for the bike.  I decided to carry my shoes to the transition exit since the ground was extremely muddy due to rain.  I grabbed my bike and as I exited transition, they had kiddy pools to clean your feet.  Since I ran in ankle deep mud, I rinsed my feet and put on my shoes while a volunteer held my bike for me.  Then I was off and feeling fantastic! 3:16

On this given day, the first half of the bike had a nice tail wind and the second half had a head wind.  This made for an interesting bike.  I felt amazing for the first half (which made sense!).  When I get to 56 miles, I was shocked that my bike time was less than any of my Half IM bike splits.  I figured this would make for a challenging ride back to T2....and it was.  It wasn't until mile 70 that I felt a little off, and that continued through about 90 and then I felt ok (but not great) the rest of the ride.  4:56

My nutrition on the bike was a little off.  I felt like the calorie count was good, following my normal 1/5 bar each 8:30, finishing off 5 bars.  Then one squeeze of gel from the flask each time the timer went off for the rest of the ride.  I had three bottles with my Skratch/Nuun mix, but I ran out pretty quick and think I got low on electrolytes.  I grabbed a water bottle at each aid station and had finished it before I got to the next. The water was going right through me. I peed more than 20 times, but lost count around 16.  I'm pretty sure this was a sign that I was not absorbing the water.  I'll reevaluate my bike nutrition before I race a Full again.

Coming through T2, I got super muddy again so I was pretty dirty to start the run.  I was planning on taping up one of my feet due to some arch issues I had been having, but it was so wet I couldn't get the tape to stick even after drying my feet (oh well!). I got my nutrition (gel flask), put on my shoes and I knew something was not right the second I started running. 4:55

When I started the run, I felt very slow.  Usually, when I get off the bike, I can't control myself and I run too fast, but I was not feeling right.  I was hoping after a while I would start to get in a groove and feel better, but that never happened...it just got worse.  The course is three loops.  I ran the first loop and then started having to make mental agreements to keep myself running.  I decided for the second lap I would walk all the aid stations and run the rest.  I stuck to this plan, but it was hard.  The third lap is when it got really bad.  I decided I would try to walk one minute at the front of each mile, walk the aid stations and run the rest.  I was cramping so bad and feeling awful so I was happy to 'run' as much as I did.  Before this, I had never cramped on a run, but I think it was related to peeing so much on the bike and draining myself of electrolytes.  The running I did was not fast, but I kept at it as much as I could.  Final (awful) run time: 4:36.

Overall Time: 10:47:02

I would love to do a Full IM and race to my potential one of these days.  So I guess I'll have to do another one... (even though I am not excited about it at all!)










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