Tommy's Race Report and Weekend Recap

I have never had a guest blogger before, but since I have been too lazy to finish my race report and Tommy wrote a fabulous one, here we go!

Below is Tommy's race report and recap of the few days prior. It's long, but I find it entertaining (and not just because I raced and because I love him), so I think you should read it too.

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From the desk of TommyB:

First of all, I would like to warn everyone about the length of this race report. It was written for me (and Christy) as well as a number of different audiences who are interested in different details so please feel free to read through it all or skip to the “interesting” sections. Enjoy!

After over a year of anticipation, training, sacrifice, and hard work, it was finally time to get down to business and pack for Ironman Cozumel. Christy and I were fully tapered and ready to go. We were lucky that James and Francis lent us their bike boxes to get our bikes there. We have never packed our bikes before, but we downloaded some directions from the internet and were ready to give it a try. We zip-tied towels around every piece of carbon, threw a couple extra towels in there to protect the wheels and felt really good about our packing job of both bikes. Now the box itself weighs 30 lbs, the bike is close to 20, and keeping the total weight around 50 lbs is the goal for avoiding extra baggage charges. I put it on the scale and am shocked to see 67 pounds! We stuffed 17 pounds of towels into the bike box! After talking to a number of people, it turns out we should rely more on the box to protect the bike and bubble wrap turns out to be much lighter than towels – go figure. We get the boxes down around 54 lbs and decide to go with it, probably could have cut it back a little more but better safe than sorry.

Thanksgiving morning comes and we pack the car for the airport. My poor Honda Fit doesn't know what hit it. I lay the seats down and stuff in 2 bike boxes, a large suitcase, a normal-size carry-on, and 2 large backpacks and it is packed to the gills! This is our first time flying to a race (particularly an Ironman) and we want to be prepared though. That and we are spending a week in Cozumel afterward. Somehow we get all of our stuff to the airport and luckily they only charge us for the bike box and not the overweight fee. Oh and a tip for everyone else, you can't carry-on a pedal wrench per TSA regulations. Not wanting to leave it at the airport, Christy had to go back through the bag check and security lines to check in another bag. How frustrating!

Half of the people on the full flight to Cozumel are also headed down for the race and it took them an extra hour to load all of the bike boxes on the plane. Then the same ordeal when we arrive in Cozumel. Our bikes happened to be pretty much the last ones off of the plane, and we realized everyone had to run their bags through the one x-ray machine open in customs. Since we were last in line, we sat down and read books for about 45 minutes while everyone else stood in line.

Finally we get through customs and the next adventure is the shuttle to the hotel. They can fit 3 bike boxes in the back of a van and they were strapping one to the roof to try to fully load the vans. When given that option, we decided to take the next one since strapping it to the top didn't sound all that appealing. We take the next one and they end up kicking the door shut on my carry-on to try and get it all to fit in there. Which normally isn't that big of a deal but my helmet is in there! And who knows how easy it is to find a new bike helmet in Cozumel if you need one. Side note: Many people reading this will wonder why I am being so apprehensive and get so stressed out over all of these little things – if you know me, that's not my style. I can't explain it, I guess it's the first Ironman training and how much you prepare and sacrifice and put into it, wanting everything to be perfect. Plus our bikes aren't cheap and carbon can break (although as we would later find out a P2 without race wheels was probably one of the cheapest bikes used in the race!) Regardless, I owe Christy a big apology and a thank you for putting up with me lately...

We arrive at our all-inclusive hotel (the Wyndham – Sabor, the adults-only part of the resort) and settle in. The resort is amazing and the island is so beautiful! The beaches are white and beautiful and the water is clear with so many colors of blue! (Why can't Galveston look like this?!?!?) They certainly picked a great destination to have a new Ironman race. We take a cab with another Ironman couple into town for packet pick-up. As far as race expo's go, this one is not all that impressive – about the size of the Lonestar Half if I had to compare it to something. We get our numbers and these nice IMCOZ jackets and are done in about 5 minutes. We also each bought a hat/visor and a shirt...we were a little disappointed at the variety and amount of IMCOZ gear available as we were fully prepared to buy a whole wardrobe of gear, haha. But I can understand them going a little conservative for a first-year race. (On Monday after the race, a lady offered me $50 for a $25 shirt because they ran out...tempting but I didn't give in.) So yes, we did buy all of our stuff before the race which is bad luck, but the people who waited until Monday missed out. And none of it said “finisher” so I though it wasn't too risky. :) Somehow it still didn't feel “real” yet. It hadn't hit me...

We have some drinks and then our own little Thanksgiving dinner and then attempt to put our bikes together. After 2 hours of cursing and frustration, mine gets assembled and appears to work, but we can't get the gears to shift on Christy's bike. So it looks like a trip back to town to get the bike fixed at the expo on Friday will be necessary. Ugh.

Friday morning, the weather is much like it was on Thursday, VERY windy! The swim practice at the race site is canceled for the second day in a row and people are getting concerned. Luckily the forecast for Saturday and Sunday is a lot better. We decide to swim some at the resort anyway with a bunch of other people amidst the huge waves and whitecaps. We swim out against the current for about 15 minutes and swallow tons of saltwater..it wasn't pretty. The best description I heard was “it was like swimming on a treadmill.” The good news it that it only took 5 minutes to swim back!

Next step was to get Christy's bike in order. There was a pretty good sized racing team staying at the hotel with all kinds of support for their athletes, one of which was bike inspection/tune-ups. Since cab fare to and from town was about 30 bucks, we decided to offer the guy the $30 to check out our bikes – and he took it! Turns out Christy's rear derailleur was bent a little in transit and he was able to fix it easily. He also showed us that the threads where it screws in are a little crooked which may explain some of the trouble she has had with shifting since we got the bike. Hopefully Cervelo/Bicycle World will help us get this fixed when we get back without costing us too much money. But the bikes are ready to go in just half an hour! Best money we spent so far on the island!

Then we decided to rent a car to drive the course since a 39 mile bike ride was a little long for a pre-race warmup in our opinion. Due to the number of people on the island, rental cars are scarce. The only car available is a “Mexican Ferrari” as affectionately described by the rental guys. Turns out this is a 30-year old red convertible bug, manual transmission and the gears barely shift. You have to see the pictures...we really tend to have some bad luck with rentals. We had to go back in and ask the guy how to get it in reverse. But it works and we are on our way.

We head towards the southern tip of the island and the roads are pretty good and there is protection from the winds until you get out of the hotel zone. Then the road gets really nice for a while until you get past the southern tip. We stop there at the Reggae Bar for a beer and some awesome shrimp quesadillas. The eastern side of the island is uninhabited but beautiful – but there is no protection from the strong winds. Great scenery, but we can already tell it will be the hardest part of the course.

As we head further up the coast, the road changes and gets rough for about a 10 mile stretch. It's not the chip-seal that we know from back home because the chips are much smaller, but it's comparable. There are great bars every couple of miles and I fully recommend taking a cab around the island one day if you ever come to Cozumel. A couple miles before you make the turn towards town, the road gets nice again and we stop at another bar for a beer. Couldn't resist!

The stretch of road heading west towards downtown is awesome and we were looking forward to this part of the ride on Sunday. The roads in town were also very smooth. We stopped in town at a huge store (like a Wal-Mart) to load up on water/gatorade/pre-race foods then headed south back to our hotel. The roads on the western side of the island (towards the swim start and our hotel) were also nice. There were a number of speed bumps but they were working on them and they promised everyone that they would all be gone by Sunday. All in all, it seemed like a good bike course with a very tough 10-12 mile stretch mixed in there – that we would have to do 3 times.

We then went for a little 20 minute run to keep the legs loose and feel what it was like to run in the heat again. We thought training in Houston would be great preparation for Cozumel, but the beautiful fall weather at home the month before the race may have de-acclimated us from the heat a little bit. Still, we felt good although my ankle was still bothering me. Long story short, I hurt it somehow by doing a faceplant over my aerobars a month before the race at a 100-mile ride NW of Fort Worth that Christy has affectionately renamed from the Springtown Spin to the Springtown Suck. Seriously the worst organized bike ride we have ever done. But my ankle has been hurting whenever I run ever since – strangely not while I run but only after. I ran the 25K in Houston a few weeks ago and it felt fine, but I couldn't walk right for 5 days afterward. So I'm thinking it will still be okay for the race...

Then Team Blain starts to arrive at the hotel! Christy's family (Chris, Candy, Cathy, and Brett) are the first ones to join the party and it's great to see them! While we are talking to them during the check-in process, somehow they score a free upgrade to the Aura section of the hotel where the high-rollers stay (premium liquor, no additional charges for steak and lobster, etc.) They come back to hang with us at the Sabor area and I guess the hotel staff felt bad for how that all worked out with them getting the two rooms upgraded right in front of us, so they come up to Christy and offer us the opportunity to move to Aura as well. Christy says “Only if you upgrade the 4 other rooms of our friends who are arriving this weekend.” And so it was done – as it turned out the place was almost a ghost town so we had the place pretty much to ourselves...which was probably best for everyone because of how loud (and fun) our group was the rest of the week!

While the upgrade sounds fun in theory, in reality it was a minor pain in the butt for us. We had already unpacked and laid out a lot of our race gear, bikes, a week of clothes, toiletries, dirty clothes, etc. in our current room. So we had to pack it all up and move to the next place – very intimidating but luckily it wasn't a far move. We crammed it all into bags, turned in our old hotel room keys, and walked our bikes and backpacks over to the other front desk (the bell boy was going to get the rest of it), only to find out our rooms were not ready. Now we don't have a room at all AND we have to leave to go back to town for a mandatory pre-race meeting. So we end up having to stuff our bikes and bags into an unlocked closet in the lobby area and leave.

Apparently this it too much for me to handle, haha. As we walk back to our hoopdee rental car, I am fuming about how frustrating traveling with our bikes has been, and if somebody takes them we can't race, and all the other little things that have happened, blah blah blah. This other triathlete asks us a question about the meeting and we offer him a ride and I continue to rant while he is there in the backseat. Christy thinks I have lost it at this point. Somehow she is able to calm me down and get my brain screwed back on straight...I really don't know how she does it but she is amazing.

The race director had a good way of making sure people came to the “mandatory” pre-race meeting. Pretty much all big races have a mandatory meeting to discuss the rules, the course, etc. that most people seem to skip. Well they decided to only give out race bags to people who showed up for the meeting...pretty tricky. The meeting itself was pretty useless – all they did was read the athlete guide to us and said the room was too difficult for any questions so we had to ask them in person afterward. There must be no fire codes in Mexico because we sat in this huge room with chairs for 1500 people, one aisle on the left side, and one door located in the back that opens into a small little crowded hallway. Luckily there were no issues, we picked up our race bags and headed back to the hotel. It still didn't feel like an Ironman yet...although Christy did see Bree Wee (one of her favorite pros) while we were there but she was too chicken to talk to her!

We had a nice dinner at the Italian restaurant with the family that night and went out for a little 40 minute bike ride the next morning. Both of us felt awesome, the taper must have really worked! We felt rested, strong and ready to do it! The only race-prep agenda items for Saturday were packing and labeling our race bags and dropping them off at the transition area with our bikes. A quick explanation for some – most Ironman races (and some other races) don't let you set up a “transition area” with all of your gear next to your bike as you may normally be familiar with. So after each leg, you pick up your bag of gear for the next sport, go into a changing tent and take care of whatever you need to do, then put everything else back into the bag so you can get it again after the race. There are also “special needs” bags that you can optionally pick up around the halfway point on the bike and on the run. Basically you can fill these with any food/drinks/lube/other items you may want later in the race. And there is a pre-race bag where you give them any clothes you wore to the race site that you don't plan to swim in or want to wear after the race.

We spent a couple hours packing and labeling our race bags – it seemed to take forever to check and double-check the lists but better safe than sorry. Following some great advice from our HRTC friends who had previously raced Ironmans, we put some tape on our bags to make them stand out. (I picked up some green masking tape from the paint section at Lowe's.) Talking to Christy later, she said the only way she ever found her bag was because of the tape. I was luckier, as it seemed #702 was at the front of a row of bags whenever I needed one...still the tape was nice. (Another tip for those considering doing this race – learn how to describe your bag in Spanish!) The whole time, I am hobbling across the room on my sore ankle, wondering what this will mean for me tomorrow for race day. I just keep telling myself everything will be ok.

Once our bags are packed, we head to the beach for a couple of hours to kill some time before we have to check everything in. (Seriously you need to consider IMCOZ, if you like beaches the place is awesome, especially if you are bringing friends and family – a great vacation destination.) We run into most of the Houston contingent of Team Blain at the restaurant – Thomas, Janelle, Francis, and Matt had just arrived! It is great to see them and hang out for a while...go team. We leave to go over to Chakanaab and they let us know everyone will be hanging out at the rooftop bar when we get back.

We walk over to the main entrance for the Wyndham where they are shuttling people back and forth to the race site. The race assigned time slots to groups of bib numbers which told us when we could arrive. Luckily they weren't really enforcing this because ours were a couple hours apart...we just went in between our times and everything was ok. And surprise! They are bodymarking us as we walk in there. Now it feels real. Somehow I guess having your race number written all over your body, looking at all of the amazing bikes lined up around the sprawling transition area, and seeing the entire 2.4 mile swim course all laid out just makes a race feel “real”. We are finally here in Cozumel and are going to attempt to become Ironmen tomorrow! I get lucky as my bike is a long the shortest route from the changing tent to the exit, while Christy has to run a whole extra loop within the transition area. Sorry baby! We also checked out the awesome transition area that was set up for the pros with individual bike racks and saw one bike with a custom pink paint job that could even make Kathleen jealous! (We took a pic for you.) We say goodbye to our bikes, bike gear, and run gear and head back to the hotel.

Christy is getting a little emotional, so we decide to skip our dinner reservations at the Italian place, order room service, and only visit with Team Blain for as long as she can handle it. When we get up to the rooftop bar, it's like a private party for just our family and friends. Amanda and Jon made it in from Dallas and everyone is there (other than Ly and Chris who flew in during the race on Sunday). Everyone is offering support and encouragement and we have a drink with them before heading back to the room for dinner and to get some rest and to focus. I was so jealous we couldn't spend the evening with everyone! Anyway, that's what the rest of the week was for. So we ate a little pasta in our room, set every alarm and wake up call we could, then went to bed early.

The next morning we wake up at 4am (early but a time we had grown very familiar with over the past year) and eat some peanut butter and bread for pre-race breakfast. We usually toast it but with no toaster available, the nutritional value is all the same so it works. We take the first shuttle over there and get to transition before it opens at 5:30. After loading up all of our bike nutrition, borrowing bike pumps from other triathletes, and figuring out where to leave our pre-race and special needs bags, we head over to the swim start area.

The swim course is a long rectangle running parallel to the shore. The long edges of the rectangle are about 1.2 miles long and the short edges are about 25 yards each. The huge dock at Chakanaab Park is near the middle of this rectangle and you start from the northwest corner of it (swimming north against the current) and finish on the southern side of it close to the shore. The dock is probably over 150 yards long and you have to run across it from south to north as part of T1. Team Blain is already there in their awesome lime green shirts and they are easy to spot in the crowd. Thomas and Francis have picked out a great place for shooting pictures and video. It's great to be able to stand there right by our support team while we wait for the race to start. We also run into Bobbi once again and wish her good luck – we met Bobbi at a sprint tri this year in Gruene, and somehow she and Christy had consecutive race numbers. They assigned them in the order we registered so they must have signed up at the same time...what are the odds.

I would have to say that the weather we had for race day was “ideal” or as good as you can expect for a race in Cozumel. Yeah, it was humid but it was in the mid-upper 60's in the morning and I doubt it got over 80 all day. Wind forecast said 8 mph which we were excited about – but we found out later that that is the forecast for the airport/downtown and has nothing to do with what happens on the windy side of the island. We even got some cloud cover on the run and a little 10 min light mist of rain at some point later in the day during the run. But the water was relatively calm for the start with some slight rolling waves.

All of the nervous energy and excitement causes time to pass quickly and before we know it the pro race is about to begin. I take an Accel Gel when they start and then there are 15 minutes to walk the other 1700 or so of us down to the edge of the pier, get us down a ladder, into the water, and set up to start. It ended up being a little stressful. We made it to the end as they were announcing there were 4 minutes remaining until 7am and that everyone needed to hurry. Christy was very emotional (it happens to her at the beginning of all races – so I feel a little better leaving her but it was still so hard). I tell her she can do it and that I would see her in a little while on the run course.

I try to seed myself well in the last remaining minute before the start. About 5-10 people back a little outside of the center of the pack. I didn't hear any official countdown (it was hard to understand the people on the microphone once in the water) but a bunch of people started swimming and I decided to go with them. The race was on! I work hard to establish a good pace/position and find some people swimming the same pace. It works pretty well and overall the swim start turns out to be less painful than I had imagined over the past however-many months. Much less having to stop and breaststroke while getting caught in a crowd and not all that much carnage overall as compared to other races. Maybe it was because of the clarity of the water and you could see people coming at you and adjust...not sure. I did get jacked in the left goggle and it filled with water though. I decided it was better to just press on instead of trying to fix it and getting run over and losing my position.

After the first turnaround, things were pretty spread out and I was able to get into a good rhythm, going with the current for over a mile also helped. :) I knew I was a stronger swimmer than the times I produced in previous half-iron races and was hoping for a good showing here. I just have trouble swimming in a straight line in open water. The visibility here was awesome, we could see starfish, stingrays, and basically everything down there at a depth of 50 feet if I had to guess. Between swimming straighter and a swim lesson from my dad's friend Kent that we had in July over in Ft. Morgan, AL, I felt pretty strong going into the race. Time flew by and before I knew it, we were turning around again to head back to the dock. I checked my watch and saw that a one-hour swim leg was possible depending on the current. What the heck?!?! I felt great but eased off the throttle a bit just in case I was going too hard. I found some feet that were moving a little slower and cruised in...apparently missing a good bit of scenery while concentrating on drafting (there was a huge crucifix statue and a big M-dot logo that were apparently on the bottom during that last stretch.) I check my watch as I climb the stairs and it shows 1:01:13 – much better than I had hoped for. From talking to everyone afterwards it sounded like most people had a really good swim out there.

I run down the long dock to the transition area and wave to team Blain – I think they were also surprised to see me. I pick up my bike gear bag which is conveniently the first one on the rack and head to the changing tent. What a madhouse! It was waaay too small and everyone was crowded at the front. Since I didn't plan on actually changing clothes, I go back outside and sit down on the ground to put on my bike shoes. Several other guys follow my lead. A couple minutes later I am on my bike and starting out the 112 mile journey.

The bike course is basically a 3 loop course although you stop downtown on the last loop and T2 is there instead of going all the way back down to Chakanaab Park. I settle into an easy but fast pace since we are headed south (with the wind). And the nutrition plan begins – I basically drink water the whole time and take in about 100-120 calories and an electrolyte pill (E-cap) every half hour. There is a lot of passing going on during the first loop and lots of race officials out there on motorbikes. The aid stations are about every 6 miles so there was not shortage of support or fluids. One issue we noticed beforehand was that all of the Gatorade bottles we saw on the island were too skinny to fit in a bike bottle holder – they promised us at the race meeting that the ones at the aid stations would fit...no such luck. It didn't matter all that much to me though since Gatorade isn't really a big part of my nutrition/hydration plan. I was worried for Christy though.

The other thing I noticed at the aid station was that they gave out water in those small water bottles that don't fill up your aero-bottle the whole way. Not a big deal, but they were the exact same ones that they gave us at registration. We tried them during the week and noticed that it's almost impossible to get water out of them. I ended up unscrewing the top and trying to pour it into my aero-bottle, which proved difficult through the windy sections. The next day, our friend Dave (who PR'd by an hour, won his age group, and qualified for Kona – way to go Dave!) told us he just bit off the stopper in the middle and was able to easily pour them in. I had no idea you could do that, but it's a great tip for future races!

I was glad we drove the course so we knew exactly what to expect...as I made the turn to the windy side of the island, I instantly knew we were facing on that side were much more than the 8mph winds per the forecast. I'd say maybe 12-15mph with gusts to 25. Much less wind than we had on Bike Around the Bay, but enough wind to catch some spray from the ocean when the waves crashed on the rocks – which were about 40-50 yards from the road. Seeing everyone get blown around on the gusts made me realize why the race officials did not allow disk wheels. On a really windy day it could be bad. Every time we made the turn toward town onto the smooth road and out of the wind it was a very welcome change.

Riding through downtown was just awesome. The roads were very smooth and people lined the roads for miles cheering on all of the riders. I would yell out “woo-hoo” or “gracias” as I passed by...it was a lot of fun. Only thing I would say is to be careful on the turns because there are some bumps/manhole covers, etc. that could cause a fall.

This was also the first race where I noticed some pretty bad and intentional drafting. I read some reports about IMFL in the past where people complained about it but I was like – it's no big deal, some people will cheat. Well trust me, when you see it, the drafting really does piss you off! As I finished up my first loop, I passed a big guy tucked in behind this small woman letting her pull him around the course. I slowed down and gave the guy a hard time about it – I hope he was embarrassed. Then back on the windy side, I entered this guy's draft zone and as I made the move to pass, there was a freakin' paceline on my left. Are you kidding me? About 8 riders all in a line, and I am blocked in. It probably took me about a minute to break loose and I am sure I didn't make any friends with them when I later caught and passed them. Man it would have been nice to draft someone through the wind. Whatever...I think one of them may have gotten caught and regardless it helped break up some of the painful monotony of the bike ride and the evil wind.

I made it through the first two loops averaging over 20 mph and thought it would be really cool to keep the 20 mph average all the way through. But I thought better of it and backed off for the third loop to save my legs for the run, it was probably best because the winds shifted and picked up, making the windy section even longer. But I was very pleased with my bike leg overall, nutrition went as planned, my legs were a little tired but there was plenty left in the tank for the run. As I made the final turn towards T2 (almost missed it, they set up some “finish chute” cones that were not there on the first couple laps), I saw Team Blain there getting loud and crazy...man it was great to see them again! Final bike time (5:43:55 – 19.54 mph), very pleased and feeling good so far.

T2 was pretty painless. Our bags were lined up right there at the finish next to the changing tent which was about the same size as the one at T1 but people were much more spaced out. I changed socks and lubed up my feet for the run and was out onto the run course. One more wave to Team Blain and off I went! The run course starts downtown and heads north towards the airport along the coast for a little over 4.3 miles, then you double back towards downtown and do it 3 times. So basically you are doing 3 out and backs, crossing the same stretch of road 6 times.

My plan was to start out at around a 9 minute mile and see how long it lasted. I knew I usually come out running a little fast, so I checked a few minutes in, saw I was running about an 8:30 and backed off. My first couple miles were right around 9 minutes, right on track. But then I started to notice some sloshing in my stomach and burping whenever I swallowed anything – gel, Gatorade, water, nothing seemed to be digesting. Not good. I felt like puking could help but decided against it and tried to keep everything down. I slowed down and did a lot of walking to try to kick-start the system, but it didn't seem to work. As I made the first turnaround, I realized that I was about to find out what the Ironman was all about. It was going to be a long evening.

The good news was I thought I should be seeing Christy soon...I hoped she was having a great race! Sure enough, about halfway back I saw her coming down the other side of the road. We exchanged a few words and a big hug and a kiss! (The hug was a big deal – I think it was the first time she ever touched me while I was sweaty, no really.) Man I am so lucky to be able to do these races with her, it makes everything just that much more fun. From the months of early morning training to the final race-day payoff, my wife and best friend is the one person who helped me get through it all!! She looks great and the energy from seeing her helps me cruise through the next couple of miles (at my 12ish minute pace).

The crowd thickens as I get closer to downtown and the motivation really helps. Our names are on the front of our bibs so we get some personalized cheering which helps. I respond with a “gracias” or a fist pump and then more people respond. I guess there are too many people who just run by “in the zone” and they like the acknowledgment. It's how I have fun in races too, so I forget about the pain and the crowd carries me all the way to the end of the loop. The turnaround is like a Mardi Gras parade, people are stacked several rows deep and there is a very loud marching band. I take a glimpse of the finishing chute and head back to start loop 2. How disheartening...the only thing worse is when you start the 3rd loop, haha. Looped courses are great because you know exactly what you have in store for you, but bad because you see things like the marker for mile 6 next to the one for mile 24 and you realize how far away you really are.

It's a fleeting thought of depression though because then I see Team Blain in full force wearing their lime green shirts. I stop and give them all high-fives all around! What an amazing support crew. Later on I would check the tape and see how green I looked, but they didn't let me know it. I left completely motivated for another loop. Thanks everyone for coming down to support us! I can't even begin to tell you how much it helped!

It was over the next few miles that I realized my stomach would not recover. I was going to have to complete the marathon on no food or drink whatsoever. The support was great, a ton of kids passing out food, Gatorade, cold water, ice, and other stuff every kilometer, but I couldn't utilize it. My legs felt good but my body just rejected everything. I would jog until I felt queasy then back off and walk for a while. I realize that I haven't passed a single person on the run and that the people flying by me, especially the ones headed back toward town, are the pros and age group winners cashing in on their Kona dreams. Another woman passes me, empties her gut on the side of the road as I walk by, then passes me again. Man these people are so hardcore!

I see Christy again in a couple miles, looks like we are averaging the same pace – and she still looks great and seems to be having fun! How awesome! Over the next couple miles, I see a couple first aid stations with people laid out on cots getting fluids and realize how close I am to being in that place myself. I recall a race report from Melanie in HRTC who raced Ironman Florida a few weeks ago. She had a similar day to the one I was having and ended up going to the medical tent at mile 24 of the marathon. At this point, I told myself I would make sure not to push myself past that threshold – I have 17 hours to complete the race, which meant that I still had like 7 hours left. I could do 14 miles in 7 hours as long as I could still maintain my senses and put one foot in front of the other.

I pass the halfway point and totally forget about the special needs bag, I was so out of it. I see a guy with a bag and I ask him where he got it, he points back in the other direction. No way I am doing MORE than 26.2 today, so I push forward. It's not like I could have eaten anything in the bag anyway. I see Christy again and forget to warn her about missing the bags. Then the mosquitoes hit! A warning to anyone doing this race or even visiting Cozumel around Thanksgiving. The mosquitoes are evil – but only for about 30 minutes right at sunset. So pack the bug spray into your Run or T2 bag...you will need it.

Next thing I remember, I am back in downtown riding the energy of the crowd. At the end of the second/start of the third loop, I see Team Blain again and I stop to talk to them. I made sure to tell Thomas and Francis - our head video/photo guys - that I am going to wait for Christy when I get back in town so that we can finish together. All along I wanted to finish the race as fast as I could but also wished that we could finish this amazing Ironman journey hand in hand. Since it seemed like I'd only have to wait about 30 minutes for her because she was having such a great race, I opted for Plan B. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure they weren't waiting too long at the finish line and could time it based on Christy's pace.

A couple miles down the road, I see Christy coming with her glow stick – great, she found the special needs bag. She tells me that the Red Bull we packed in there was magical so I start looking forward to it. I could have used some wings at that point. Pretty soon after that, I was d-o-n-e. I can walk a pretty mean 15 minute mile normally, but at the end of the race that day the pace made me dizzy and I started stumbling. So I backed it down to about an 18 minute pace which seemed to work. Another try at the fast walking with the same results and I decided to walk it in at whatever slow pace I could handle. The goal was to finish after all. (Thanks again Melanie if you are reading this – sharing your experiences really helped me put things in perspective and get through this!)

I found the special needs bag with the Red Bull and glow stick. I tried the Red Bull but it was not any good – I didn't know why I thought it would be my cure but whatever. The glow stick provided me with some amusement during the walk to the finish though! I saw Christy again and realized she was now only 2 miles behind me! I did a little math and wondered if she would catch me or beat me...it would be close. Funny thing I didn't realize until the next day, my ankle that had been hurting me leading up to the race – didn't hurt all day or at all the week after the race.

The final walk through town was great, people cheering and me whooping them up even more. They wanted me to run to the finish (and I did too) but I knew that was not possible. I finally see Team Blain right before the finish chute. I thank everyone and when they see me they realize that I don't look too good. I stand by them and hold onto the railing to wait for Christy. Pretty soon a race official comes over to check on me but I tell him I am just waiting a few minutes for my wife so he lets me do it. I only waited for about 10 minutes before I see Christy heading towards the finishing chute. Man she looks like a million bucks! She is very happy to see me and grabs my hand and we run towards the finish line! (I'm thinking – why do we have to run baby, it's right there...) We hold our hands up together at the finish and we have finally done it – we are Ironmen! With a final time of 12:55:54! (My marathon time was 6:01:11 – so the Houston marathon would have given me a DNF – but who cares!)

Then Christy realizes I am not doing well so she immediately starts taking care of me (what a wonderful wife)! The guy at the medical tent asks me if I need to go in and what are my symptoms. I tell him that I am dizzy, nauseated, and dehydrated – and he refuses to let me in. Apparently there are a lot of people in there and they are saving beds for people who are worse off? Man I really could have used some fluids. A thought for anyone else in that position in the future – if you finish the race and need fluids that badly, don't answer their questions, just start to and then collapse on the ground. That would have worked better. :) Anyway, after a little sitting and trying to recover, Christy helps me through the finisher's area and we collect our bags, bikes, etc. Team Blain helps us get back to the hotel in one piece thankfully – still supporting us even after a whole day on their feet. Thanks again guys, you were awesome!

We try to sleep, but end up waking up every few hours. So weird. Christy logs on around 2AM and realizes that the official race site doesn't have her finishing yet. We check Facebook and email and realize that tons of people have been tracking us back home – and I have lots of congratulations messages and notes asking if Christy finished the last leg of the run (while Christy has no messages)! I am still pretty broken so Christy tries to let everyone know that she is still alive and finished the race. By the next morning I think we hadeventually gotten the word out...

I just want to thank all of our family, friends, and those who trained with us back home for following us and supporting us during the race and giving us advice throughout our journey! It really does make us feel loved to know that so many people were supporting us the whole time! We did it! And a special thanks to Jenn who watched Donny the whole time we were in Cozumel. We are sooo sorry about your curtains! I hate him. :)

We spent the rest of the week reminiscing and spending time with our friends and family on the beaches of Cozumel at the Wyndham. It sucked leaving the beaches and coming back to snow in Houston – pretty surreal. It really is an awesome place for a race and a vacation and I would recommend it to anyone. Let us know if you have any questions.

A week later, I am still a little sick and having trouble eating – probably from pushing my body too far (hopefully not the swine flu!). Another Ironman is not in my plans for the future, but I won't write it off for good. It really does take a lot out of you, but it is such a rewarding journey that I would recommend to anyone who considers it. You CAN do it!!!

Ironman Lessons Learned:

• There are so many training plans out there (seems like everyone we trained with was following a different one) that will all get you across the finish line. We somewhat followed ours but tailored it to what worked for us and what we felt like doing each week – organized bike rides, Houston Fit ATP workouts, HRTC group rides, etc.
• Make training fun! After all this is why we maintain this lifestyle and we are lucky enough to be able to do triathlons...if something sounds like fun, change your plan and go for it!
• We gave up a lot to do Ironman training, but not as much as we expected. For booze-lovers like us, you can still have drinks with dinner almost every night and go to happy hours, you just can't stay up late or get wasted to where it impacts your workouts. And somehow we made to to all of our friends' out of town weddings this year!
• We religiously went to bed early every night and worked out early in the mornings – this gave us complete control over our schedules. Rarely did we do a second workout in the afternoon. Most multi-sport workouts just included transition runs. We did a lot of these (most were just 2-3 miles). The longest we ever ran after a long bike ride was 6 miles after the Bike Around the Bay which was an awesome training ride (also helped to build confidence with the wind)..
• Swim as much as it takes so that you feel comfortable completing 2.4 miles without pushing too hard. Then focus on biking and running. It will help you more in the long run. I swam a lot more than Christy – mainly due to other injuries, but still only once or twice a week mostly focusing on technique. I did a LOT of biking.
• You can't carry-on a pedal wrench. You can't carry-on athletic tape or electrical tape (we had to leave these in Mexico, must have checked them on the way there). You can't fly at all with CO2 cartridges – buy them at the race expo and leave them there.
• I have no idea how you can balance the Ironman lifestyle when your spouse/partner doesn't race or when you have kids. I am so lucky that Christy does this with me and I am not sure how we could do it with little ones. The few times when we didn't work out together on the weekends were trying on our relationship. I really respect and admire everyone else who can somehow manage through these issues!
• I have no need to fly to a race with my bike again. Taking it apart, putting it together, hauling the huge box around, and the expense of traveling with it just isn't worth it. I think we will just pick races we can drive to or get one of those companies that transports your bike there in one piece to take it. The expense of the service is worth the hassle of what it would take to fly with your bike (and probably comparable on cost anyway). Continental charged us $100 per bike each way. Luckily they didn't hit us with another $50 each way for the boxes being over 50 lbs – I heard some people say they had to pay that too.
• What would I do different if I had to do it over again...not sure. Common logic would say that I went too hard on the bike so my body couldn't handle it on the run – not my legs, my stomach. But I felt great and did hold back some on the bike, and I feel like I earned how fast I went through training. And my average heart rate on the bike was 148. So I dunno, I think I will just chalk it up to being one of those things that can happen on an Ironman and it being my first attempt at the distance. You can't take anything for granted at an Ironman.

12:55:56

Christy and Tommy Blain - YOU are Ironmen!!

WE DID IT!! I can't believe it's over...but thank goodness it is!! We hurt all over, in places I didn't know existed, but we are done!!

I will recap soon, but real quick:

The swim was awesome and fast for both of us. The sea life was amazing and visibility was 100%. It doesn't get much better than that.

The bike was great for Tommy and eh for me. My bike computer didn't work, so my hopes of breaking 6 hours was tough to gauge and my nutrition didn't go well. I stopped eating around mile 60 because things just didn't feel right. The wind was PAINFUL on the rough side of the island (about 20 miles) - cross wind, headwind, just ouch. But we survived!!

The run was great for Christy and eh for Tommy. Tommy's nurtition on the run just didn't work out and he was unable to keep anything down...which means no fuel for the muscles. I had a rough first 4 miles, but after that was able to get into a groove of walking every other aid station (2K apart). I settled in for the long haul and felt pretty good until the last 4 miles (but hey, it's the last 4 miles...who cares!!?). I was gaining on Tommy and so he waited for me at the finish for 5-10 minutes so we could finish together.

I'm so glad I did it - it was an amazing experience. I'm not sure another Ironman is in my future...but hello 12:55:56!!

HOLY CRAP!!

And congrats to DAVE who TOTALLY rocked it and probably qualified for Kona and to Bobby who did amazing!!

[Theme from JAWS]

I hope I don't get eaten on the swim, but I figure I can swim faster than at least one person, so i should be safe. Or that's what I keep telling my mom when she freaks out.

In other news, we leave tomorrow. ICANTWAIT. You can track both Tommy and I online at www.ironman.com. My number is 1580 and Tommy is 702. If there is streaming finish line video, and you choose to watch it, I will likely be wearing a lime green singlet - GO TEAM BLAIN!

We just got an adorable little netbook to take with us on the trip, so I plan on updating my blog regularly. The netbook is so cute. We named her Eva. Seriously. I would cuddle with this thing if I could.

But if you don't hear from me, hope for the best, prepare for the worst and pray like the dickens that we can survive this thing!

TEAM BLAIN!

4: Number of days till IRONMAN COZUMEL!
2,364: Number of miles ridden on Rocky
476: Number of miles run
35: Number of miles swum
40: Number of hours spent in the gym doing something other than swimming, biking or running
1: Number of half Ironmans I completed
1: Number of half Ironmans that I showed up for, but chickened out due to weather
2: Number of weddings that seriously screwed up my training schedule, but I got drunk anyway, because hey, that’s what friends do.
120: Number of dollars I give the maid to clean my house so that I can be sane
5: The number of century rides completed
5: Number of trips to Dallas
2: Number of times I rode my bike in Dallas
2: Number of times I swore I would never ride my bike in Dallas ever again
0: Number of times I plan on traveling with my bike ever again (after this weekend of course)
3: Number of martinis required to help me sleep well
7: Number of times cupcakes were brought to ATP
3: Number of bike crashes where blood was drawn
1: Number of bike crashes that were serious (really only Tommy)
Eleventy Billion: Number of sports bras required to complete a training week without doing laundry
9: Number of days I get to spend in Cozumel!
12: Number of friends coming to play in Cozumel with me!
1,000,000: Number of dollars spent at Costco on granola bars, Gatorade and wine
1: Number of scheduled workouts missed
2: Number of glasses of wine required the night before a race
8: Number of ounces of cheese I plan on putting on my pre-race mac and cheese tomorrow night
17: Number of slices of pizza I plan on eating tonight at Collina’s
4: Number of hours of sleep I normally get
2: Number of naps I take on the weekends
75: Number of pounds my bike box currently weighs
50: Number of pounds my bike box is allowed to weigh
92: Number of curse words uttered while trying to pack my bike in previously mentioned bike box
37: Number of movies watched before work while biking
Infinity: Number of ways I am thankful for all my friends and family who have been on this journey with me – especially Tommy!!

OMG. 5 DAYS.

It’s here. Ironman Cozumel is finally here.

Tommy signed up for this race in October of 2008. I signed up the next month because I realized that I like to be the center of attention and clearly I can’t let him hog all the glory! (well, that and I wouldn’t let him ride 100 miles alone!) So, together, we have been training for this race for over a year…some of that has been mental, some physical.

We started this triathlon journey with a miserable Olympic distance tri in Austin – The Cactus Challenge – in April of 2007. Little did we know that it would come this far. That race was terrifying. It was freezing and we had no idea what we were doing because we didn’t know a single other person who had done a tri! We survived and the rest is history. We did our first half ironman distance race in October of last year on absolutely no training – the hurricane, a house with no AC, moving twice, etc, well, you get the idea. Training just didn’t happen. Once again, we survived and had the time of our lives (our times were terrible, but that’s what happens when you never actually get on your bike). We were hooked.

We made a plan to start training after the Houston Marathon (once again that we hadn’t trained for…there seems to be a trend). We took two weeks easy before beginning a training program on February 1 to get us in shape to begin the REAL training on June 15 - 24 weeks out from race day.

So, for almost a year now, we have been waking up at 4:15am at least 6 days a week. Our social lives have dwindled, but not as much as I thought they would. (We are animals, what can I say?!) We go to bed 9PM most nights, wake up, work out, go to work, run errands, come home, spend 1.5 hours together making and eating dinner…and then it’s bedtime again. I don’t know how couples train for this when only one person is doing it. It’s hard when we are both training, but at least we get to spend those 7 hours on the bike together. It’s not necessarily quality time, but it is fun and it’s better than nothing!

On June 15 – 24 weeks out from race day - the real training began. It was easy at times, really hard at times, exhausting, exciting and fun all at the same time.

The hardest part for me was trying to find time to sleep…since I can only sleep in 3 hour shifts (and only one shift per night), getting enough rest was challenging. I am exhausted a lot, but have been able to suffer through it most of the time…I DO think this is the main reason I almost always injured. Nothing I can do about it though…I keep telling myself to just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

But despite the time commitment we had made to each other and the race, we were able to find the time to play with our friends and family because, let’s be honest, they are the ones who have supported us through this!! We learned a lot of things through this training process – and if the saying “The training is the hard part, the race is the easy stuff” is true, I’m golden!

Race day is finally here. The race we have worked towards for over a year is finally here. Our bags are packed and ready to go. We have done all that we can do…at this point, it’s all about execution.

Since June 15, I have biked 2,364 miles, I have run 475 miles, and I have swum 35 miles. That’s about 240 hours of working out…or 10 whole days. If you add in all the time I spent at the gym, that’s another 40 hours (a whole work week!). I am ready. I have put in the time and the effort. The big day is here!!

And that bring me to the goals section of this document. Writing down goals is hard because once you write them down, you can’t come back later and deny you ever said it. Once I write it down, it’s real and I’m committed.

My overall race goals are:
1. To not die.
2. To finish.
3. To finish in under 17 hours.
4. To finish in under 17 hours and still be standing.
5. To finish in under 17 hours and still be standing and smiling.

In ideal conditions, assuming I execute my plan perfectly, I am capable of finishing in 13 hours. I don’t think this is likely, but it’s possible. So, breaking 13 hours would be a super bonus, breaking 14 hours would be awesome and just breaking 15 is kind of where I expect to actually finish. Slight (only very, very, very slight) disappointment starts to set in at 15 hours. Once again, number 1 goal is to not die…number 2 goal is to finish. The time doesn’t really matter.

I have no idea how I will do on the swim and truthfully, I don’t care. I haven’t invested any time into it, so I don’t expect to do all that well. I’m capable of a 1:20 swim, but I predict that it will look more like 1:45ish. It all depends on if I can get away from the crowd enough to enjoy it, but stay close enough to draft! If I can’t get into my groove, I’m screwed….and that’s when it will look more like 1:45!

On the other hand, the bike is my baby. I have invested SO MUCH time into my biking in the last year that I will be really disappointed if I don’t do well. I really want to break 6 hours – which is an attainable, yet lofty goal. I have biked that average speed on most of my long rides, but you just never know how race day will go. And the wind on the island is mucho intimidating. This all being said, I am very willing to forego my running goals to break 6 hours on the bike…it’s very important to me. I can do it. It’s all going to come down to execution!

And last but not least, we have the run. Oh, the run. It’s my favorite, yet worst sport. I love it, yet I suck at it. My fastest stand alone marathon is 4:43…yeah, I’m that slow. But this year I have gotten MUCHO faster at the running. I think I am very capable of a 4:15 stand alone in January (I could probably break 4 hours but it would kill me and that would break Goal #1). This being said, I have no freaking clue how fast I can run a marathon off the bike. Not even a vague idea. No clue. Nada. I’m guessing that at this point, I will have killed myself to break 6 hours on the bike and will have little to no juice left in the tank. Ha. (let’s hope not). But if all goes according to plan, I will finish my bike in 6 hours and feel great (like I have after all my other long rides) and start running at an easy 10 min pace. I plan to take 1 minute walk breaks at every other water station (they are about ½ mile apart). If I can keep this up (which I can’t, since no one maintains the same speed at an Ironman marathon), I could finish in 4:42ish, which would PR my marathon time at an Ironman which would just be badass. If I’m making realistic goals though, I’d like to break 6 hours on the marathon…and really, anything under 7 hours would make me pleased as punch.

Realistically though, if I swim in 1:30, bike in 6:30, and spend 20 minutes in transition, that leaves me 8 hours and 40 minutes to walk a marathon. So, I know that I can do it! I can finish this race! I will hear Mike Reilly say, “Christy Blain, you are an Ironman” by the end of the week! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S FINALLY HERE!

And then afterwards, Tommy and I will sit on the beach with the people that we love – for without them, and the support, friendship and love they have given us over the last year (and our lives), we wouldn’t have made it this far. The hard part is over. The race is the easy part. And then comes the fun part!!

A special thanks to:Our families and friends who will be a part of Team Blain in Cozumel – Chris, Candy, Cathy, Brett, Amanda, Jon, Janelle, Thomas, Francis, Matt, Ly and Chris.
HoustonFIT ATP – you guys made 5am workouts bearable!
HRTC – our triathlon club – it was nice to know that we weren’t the only crazies out there!
All of our friends and family who have supported us…I know you are ALL sick of hearing about triathlon (I’m tired of talking about it! NOT!). It’s almost over, I promise! (NOT!)

Week 22 - 64.84

In the water: 2.24 miles - 1 hour 22 minutes.
On Rocky: 45 miles - 2 hours 45 minutes.
In my Asics: 17.6 miles - 2 hours 56 minutes
On the bosu ball: 2 hours

Total Mileage - 64.84 miles - 7 hours and 3 minutes

And this is what they call taking the taper to an all new level. Ooops. I may or may not have had a little too much fun on Saturday night (not that I remember it) and I was far too hungover to suffer through a 4 hour bike ride...so what should have been a 120 mile week was only 65. Ooops?? I'd feel guilty except that it was a taper week and frankly, it's the first workout I've missed since June...I think it will be okay. I hope. In my painful hangover state, I forced myself to suffer through an hour on the trainer (while watching The Godfather!)...and it was awful. I was on the easiest gear, cadence of about 4rpms, my heartrate was through the roof and I didn't look down at the clock until I thought I was going to die and it had only been 2 minutes. Yeah. It was bad.

In other news, the decrease in training volume is apparently the key to my weight loss. I have lost 3 pounds this week and I worked out less than half of what I normally do (and eaten out a lot). I no longer subscribe to the calories in, calories out theory. My skinny jeans even fit me last night!!

Seriously.

This is my last week before race week and so far so good! I'm miraculously skinny, I feel tired but overall pretty good, the packing has begun, and I am ready for this thing to be over! The only thing between me and my first Ironman is one 8 mile run, one 50 mile bike ride, and a hop, skip and a jump to Cozumel!

50 Rules for Athletes.

1. If I can do it, anyone can. No, seriously.

2. Never run in the rain without lathering yourself in lube.

3. Buy shoes regularly and don't skimp.

4. You think you can run safely with headphones on, but you can't. Trust me. And you make the trail unsafe for everyone. Be one with nature, ditch the music.

5. Retractable dog leashes are the devil. Control your pet. And no, I probably do not want to pet your filthy animal.

6. If I am biking and yell "on your left", that means I am approaching you from behind, on your left. This typically means that moving to your right is your next move. Go ahead, try it.

7. After a hard workout, take an easy day…or two.

8. Never take a shoe recommendation from a chronically injured runner.

9. Lots of running can make you a great runner. Lots of biking can make you a great biker. Lots of swimming can make you a great swimmer. Lots of ellipticalling will make you a great ellipticaller. It burns the calories, but doesn’t help you run faster!

10. Everyone is fast enough to place in a race. You just have to find a race small enough…or slash the other girls tires.

11. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Run the tangents!

12. You don’t HAVE to do that really hard race, you GET to. The medal is your badge of honor.

13. Running while you are sick and tired will just make you sick and tired of running.

14. You know it’s been a perfect workout if when you finish that last set of intervals, you COULD do another one, but you don’t.

15. If you train with a hangover, you can race with hangover.

16. We train to race. If there isn’t an ultimate goal in mind, what’s the point? Pick a race, set a goal, make a plan and execute.

17. Always double knot your shoelaces. Even better, get speed laces that don’t require tying.

18. Never wait in line for a port-a-potty. Learn to squat, whip it out, or pee your pants…but don’t waste 5 minutes waiting in line.

19. Always say hello to a passing cyclist or runner. A simple wave is all you need…acknowledge their presence.

20. Find your inspiration.

21. Spend your time on your weakness, but don’t forget your strength.

22. Athletes are not machines – you can’t go full steam ahead every day.

23. When running in a group and you encounter a mad dog, you don’t need to outrun the dog, just the slowest person in the group. This is a lesson in pacing.

24. Cheer for your teammates.

25. Enjoy the crowd…that’s what makes this different than your training runs.

26. You can’t listen to music while running and expect to stay focused.

27. Find a group that you trust and enjoy and train with them. They will keep you accountable and make it fun.

28. Be aware for your surroundings. If you run in the dark, in the ghetto, alone, with headphones, you are asking for it. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.

29. Push yourself harder than you ever though possible…just to prove that you can.

30. Leave it all on the race course. When you cross that finish line, you should know that you went as hard and as fast as you possibly could.

31. Never try anything new on race day – no new clothes, no new food, nothing.

32. Take your dog with you when you can – he will love it and love you more for it.

33. Run no more than 2 abreast. And that does not mean 2 abreast with 5 feet in between you. That means almost shoulder to shoulder. You’re slow and I can’t get around you when you take up the whole trail.

34. Control your pet.

35. I can tell if you are doing fartleks off me, so please pick something else to measure your distance.

36. If you wear the same clothes the gym every day, they smell and then no one can use the machines anywhere in a 30’ radius of you. Learn to use the washing machine and buy some more t-shirts.

37. Waking up early never gets easier. Ever. But if you have a goal, it at least seems worth it…most of the time.

38. Someone needs to convince races to start giving our finishers SHORTS instead of shirts. I have more shirts than I can shake a stick at, but only about 3 pairs of shorts (see #36).

39. If you don’t have the support of your family and friends, you will fail. Surround yourself with people who support you.

40. Take the time to do an easy workout with a friend to catch up. You will still burn the calories…and it’s better for you than beer.

41. If you normally drink the night before a training run, drink the night before a race. You don’t want to shock your body!

42. Increase your core strength. Not only to get a 6 pack, but it helps prevent injury.

43. Don’t ever give up. You can finish. You may not win, but you can always finish. Put your mind to it, go for it, get down and break a sweat.

44. Don’t bother taking your bike to DFW, TX for a bike ride. It’s not worth it.

45. Running anywhere other than Houston, TX is hilly…but that’s just because we are wimps. Make the hills your ally.

46. If the doctor can’t fix you, find another doctor.

47. Always drive the race course beforehand. Even if it takes 3 hours.

48. Listen to the advice of your friends. You don’t have to DO the advice, but it’s always good to hear the opinions.

49. 90 rpms WILL make you faster.

50. Don’t die until you cross that finish line.

It Could Happen to Anyone.

The Ironman is a hard race. That's why we do it. Anything can happen on race day. Your biggest dreams or your biggest fears can be realized. I'm physically ready. I've done what I can do to prepare for this race. But no amount of preparation can prepare your mind or body for what I am actually going to experience.

Below is Melanie's account of her first Ironman experience, and my biggest fear:

138.6 - race report


What a beautiful day! "Happy Ironman!". Zipping up wetsuits getting ready! Big hugs, smiles, and lot of nerves. So many of us are first timers - we are experiencing every emotion possible. The veterans' faces show a look that they fully know what lies ahead. It's time! Gret and I lock arms and walk together to the start. The national anthem brings us both to tears.
This is the moment I have trained for all year. I hug Jim in his rubbery wetsuit, and kiss him goodbye. He heads to the front of the pack. The music is playing "Put your hands up in the air!". We're dancing and shaking and smiling. The cannon fires. Surrounded by thousands of people we wade out until it's deep enough to swim. It's much less violent than I imagined. I'm so blissful I don't care when I get kicked in the face, swam over, and bounced around by the waves. The buoys went fast. At the turn we all stopped because there were so many people we didn't have space to swim. The sun was shining bright and it was hard to see. People were talking and yelling crazy things. I just followed the sea of humanity. Another turn buoy, and I stopped sighting for a while. I was taking on alot of salt water. I didn't need to breathe much, and I figured the less I opened my mouth the better. I was pretty mesmorized by the sea life beneath me. The next time I sighted I couldn't believe what I saw! The beach was lined with thousands of people. I'm doing it!!! Ironman!!!
I reached the sandbar which I knew about, ran across it, and still fell right off of it into the water. I came up giggling like a little girl. Loop #2 went by so fast. I could feel the chafe on my neck, but I hardly cared. I didn't want the swim to end.
T1 I saw my family for the first time that day. I nearly ran into a fence waving and blowing kisses at them. The tent was crazy---scarry naked people and total chaos. Said hello to Gret and I was out!
Outside my pretty bike was waiting for me. I thanked the volunteer and before I knew it I was passing Ron Jon Surf Shop. Over the bridge, and trying to keep my heart rate under control. I'm fueling and drinking water. My aero drink is already empty I'm soooo thirsty and all I can think about is peeing. I had already pee'd 3 times during the swim (not normal!). I rode along calm and relaxed. It seemed like 2000 people passed me, and lots of packs. I was really agitated by the amount of cheaters! I kept telling myself stick to my heart rate. It's hard for me to not chase, react, or race. I kept reminding myself of the run!
There were times I was going 14mph into the wind. At 2 1/2 hours I stopped to pee my eyes were swimming.
So I sat in the port o potty - no hovering about it - it was the most awesome feeling. Peeeee!!! Meanwhile there is a race going on outside. I look at my watch I've been off my bike for 4 minutes! Back on the bike I feel like a million bucks. My watch is beeping every 15 minutes. I'm drinking my perpetuem like clockwork. Right before 3 hours I stop at special needs. I don't have any water to mix with my perpetuem. Hmmm. How did that happen? At the next aid station I mix my drink while riding. I'm quite impressed that I pulled that off! Next I saw Jana and Kevin which was awesome. It was a perfect spot because the out and back stretch of bumpy road was the worst part of the course.
At 5 hours I stopped again to pee. Somewhere in there was a turn with a nice tail wind 22mph and effortless. Ah! Some fun! At 5 1/2 hours into the bike I started feeling nauseated, and I wanted to be off the bike! The heart rate zone went out the window and I stopped drinking. Surprisingly my legs felt perfect!
T2 - I hand off my bike like a pro. I enter the change tent for a totally different experience. Two girls tell me to sit down. They empty my bag and line up my stuff. I Vaseline my feet and put on my shoes. They put my fuel belt on me, hand me my visor, and point to the exit. I'm running! I start fueling again the first sip is disgusting. I can't really process much around me. There are people everywhere cheering, loving the dots, yelling chick-fil-a, and men in bikinis. I see Kevin and Jana again. I want to stop and tell them about the nausea and ask them what I could do to fix it, but instead I smiled really big, waved, and kept on running. I saw my family, said hello, and flew by them. I felt guilty the next entire loop for not stopping to hug and kiss my boys. My pace was smokin fast and I didn't even know it until mile 3. I got to the park and my nausea was growing. I finished my first 1 hour bottle of gel and water. I had adjusted my pace and was right on. The next hour was a jog with a few ice chips and no real calories. I was worried, but still smiling. I knew I couldn't take anything in and I was going to run out of gas. My stomach was sloshing. The neighborhood was starting to suck! Back to the hotel, I hugged all my boys, stopped in my room for a potty break, and smiled for Jim Damm's camera. On to loop 2 I saw Jana and Kevin, got my special needs bag. I'm still running taking in almost nothing. At mile 18 I see Jim and I tell him I'm sick. He looks rough too, but he's on his way home! I round the corner pass the aid station and puke for the first time. I'm walkin! Mentally I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get through this. Heading into the park it's dark and an older man wearing all white approaches me from behind and says "you can walk faster than that!". I agreed. We walked together and he told me we could go all the way to California at this pace on body fat alone. I looked up when he said that with some hope. Then he looked at me and said you don't have any body fat though do you? He was quite drill sargeant like, but in a nice way. He was really on my ass telling me to walk faster. A few minutes later he said "it's time for you to run" and he gave me a shove! I started running and believed at that moment I was back in the game. He disappeared into the darkness (was he real?). I ran for several more minutes until my body demanded that I stop and walk again.
I went along doing a run/walk and I saw a girl sitting in the grass with her head down. I walk over to her and reach my arms out and say let me help you up. Walk with me. She says she cant that she's throwing up and I said me too. She said she was on her first loop, and my heart sank. She told me to go on so I did. I made it to mile 20 and I saw all the signs people had made. They were everywhere and way too much stimulation. I threw up all over the signs. A ton! Some people came to see if I was ok, and told me to wait there so I sat down and then laid on my side. They gave me a bottle of water and a medic asked me lots of questions. I got them right, but they looked like they were going to pull me off the course. Then the girl from the park walked up and told them I was coming with her. I lit up! We walked together. She told me she wasn't going to finish today, but I was. She waited for me everytime I puked. At one point we sat on a park bench feeling highly intoxicated. Everything was spinning. She dry heaved a couple times and we walked some more. The aid stations were killing us: the noise, the mess, the smell, and the people. I can't remember how many times I threw up after an aid station. Raymund passed me and gave me a jacket. I was shaking all over. Someone in a tri on the run jersey stopped to check on me too. As he was walking away he said "I know you Dots don't give up!". That got me going again. Then someone gave me a space blanket, and that was the end of me. We stopped and sat down many times and eventually I started laying down and closing my eyes. I instantly fell asleep in the fetal position once. My friend woke me and said we have to keep moving. I got up again walked 20 feet and laid down flat on my back with my arms out to my side in the middle of someone's driveway. I was at mile 24 and I was done. The medics rolled up and asked "Are you sure?". Yes I am sure. It was heartbreaking, but I don't regret it. They helped me into the cart. I was shaking uncontrollably. One of the medics sat next to me holding me tight so I wouldn't fall out. I felt relieved this misery was going to end soon. They drove me to an intersection where we waited for a truck. I moved to the truck and then we were on our way to the med tent. It felt like nearly half an hour since they picked me up. How long could it take to drive 2 miles? "Pull over!". I'm throwing up violently on the side of the road once more with the guy driving the truck holding me up off the ground. Finally, we made it to the med tent. They offered me all kinds of food and drinks. I kept saying no. Then they told me I had to pick something. I had 2 sips of sprite and then I was asleep. They woke me every 5 minutes for more sprite until I started to dry heave. Then they gave me an IV. Soon after the IV my blood pressure was back to normal and my heart rate lowered considerably. That's when they told me my original vital signs. Oh my! Not good! I'm thinking this sport is f-in ridiculous. I'm laying there listening to Mike Reilly say "You are an Ironman!" over and over again. I want to cry, but I just close my eyes. One of the doctors tells me to lift up my head again. I'm thinking oh no more sprite, but instead he puts something around my neck. I look down and it's a finisher's medal. I take it off and chunk it! Someone else comes over and says there is someone outside wearing dots like me, and asks if it is my husband. Yes! He's demanding to see me. They send him to the tent exit to wait. They remove my IV, and I feel like a new person. I'm walking! Now I could finish, but my chip has been removed, and I'm a DNF! I see Jim and he wraps his arms around me and I fall apart. I look down at my watch it says 14:19:38 and I push stop. We talk to Johnny, Jason, and Gret for a minute. I see Heidi posing for a finisher picture with Kyle. We walk a couple blocks to the car, go back to the room, shower, and crash. I didn't see any of my friends cross the finish line, and there was no post race party. I'm sad, and my body aches all over like I did an Ironman, but it was only 138.6.

The Woot Diet.

I love Woot. I've only purchased one thing off this website, but the stories they create daily to sell their items are super entertaining. Well, today, the story really hit home.

They are selling "The Perfect Pushup" thing. Whatever. It's lame. I'm not buying it. But dear lord, if the following weight loss theory were possible, I would be skinny as a rail.

From Woot on 11/11/09:

Hey all you fat, pathetic sacks of apathy and sloth! Do you have the energy and vitality that you wish you had? Are you happy with your physiques? Well, of course you aren’t! I mean, look at you. You’re disgusting. How in the world do you get your socks on?

No, it doesn’t matter. I was just wondering out loud. The point is: My name’s Amy and I’m here to help you unlock the secret to a new, fit, fabulous body!

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking inside that massive, neckless head of yours: You’re thinking that I’m going to give you a complicated set of rules for what you can eat, and the difficult exercises you’ll have to do, and you’ll be so overwhelmed that you’ll have no hope of ever following through with my program, and you’ll fail, and you’ll collapse in a blubbering, blubbery heap on your poor, overburdened sofa with a bucket of Ben & Jerry’s, and curse the day you ever met me. WRONG!

My patent-pending weight-loss technique is simple. It’s just two easy steps.

First: You travel backward in time. The beauty of this part is that you don’t have to do it right away—you can get to it whenever it’s convenient for you. Next: You prevent the discovery (or invention, however you want to put it) of cheese.

That second part’s going to be a little harder, I admit. But at least you’ll have the advantage of being received as a god by the ancients, probably. What are the chances a bunch of Sumerian goatherds ever even imagined a man could achieve your girth? Or the ancient Picts, or the early Harappans, or whoever it was that came up with cheese? I don’t know where cheese originated. What do I look like, an anthropologist? DO THESE LOOK LIKE ANTHROPOLOGIST ABS TO YOU? NUH-UNH.

So you’ll maybe have to do some hunting around to find the dawn of the Cheese Age. But once you do, and you prevent it from ever being developed, and you return to your own time, just think how easy it’s going to be to avoid temptation! Imagine! No, I mean right now, imagine. Close your eyes and picture it. Are they closed? I can’t tell, the way they’re kind of squinty all the time from your face-fat anyway.

Think of it! There’ll be no more macaroni and cheese—just macaroni! Which is actually pretty good for you. And you won’t even know what you’re missing. No one will. It never existed.

What’s that? Far-fetched, you say? Implausible, you say? Riddled with paradoxes, you say?

OK, fine, be that way. You can trim down and tone up the old-fashioned way, with diet and exercise. It works, no doubt about it. It’s proven. But I’m warning you: That way involves pull-ups.

Silly.

My dog is the silliest funniest dog ever. This video is terrible, but if you skip about 20 seconds into it, you get to the funny stuff.


And then this one is just hysterical and I almost peed my pants watching it. For the 1,000th time.

PR!

It was definitely a weekend of good workouts, which I may or may not have mentioned before...

But the best part happened just now, when I realized that not only did I PR the 25K race, but also, for the first time, when viewing my results, you do not have to scroll down at all. I finished close enough to the top of my age group to fit on the same page as them. Yeah. That's a first. GO ME!

2005 HSMA Classical 25K - 2:50:29, average pace of 10:58
2006 HSMA Classical 25K - 2:32:39, average pace of 9:49
2009 HMSA Classical 25K - 2:26:12, average pace of 9:24

Getting faster!! I think a 4:30 marathon is in the air this year kids!

Quitting Isn't an Option

My little sister is signed up for her debut marathon and I paid for her entry fee with the guideline that she would toe the starting line regardless. I don't care if the freaking world implodes...she is running that dam marathon.

Well, the thing is in a month and she has been sick and missed a few weeks and they were supposed to do their 20 mile run this Saturday. She freaked out...because hey, 20 miles would make anyone shit a brick, eh? Seriously.

I had been having a very rough week myself. My training HAD been going AMAZING, butthe last few weeks have been eh, and I was afraid I had peaked too soon. So when Cathy sends me the email that she is about to bail, I lose my cool and write her a nasty email back.

But then I deleted it and wrote a "motivational" email in hopes that that would actually get my message across. What I didn't realize was how badly I needed to write that email for myself. I needed to hear all those things. I KNEW them, I had just forgotten them. I benefitted as much from that email as I think she did (she ended up running 20 with her group the next day!!).

Here is what I sent her:

You are doing it. And it's gonna suck. But the good news is that it will still be your fastest marathon...the first race is always a PR (personal record)! And Tommy and I will be there to help. You aren't doing it alone. You have a great support network of experienced marathoners (me and Tommy and all our friends!) and your training group. It's hard when you are the only one of your friends doing it, but dude, you are way more badarse than them.

You're doing the marathon.

The marathon is like (or what I hear people say about) giving birth. During it, you want to kill people for making you do this...yet it is strangely and morbidly awesome. And then afterwards, all you remember is the joy of being done and the love you have for that bundle in your arms (in giving birth it's a baby and in a race it's a medal and t-shirt...they are about the same). You forget the pain and sign up for another.

The pain is what makes it worth it. The pain is what makes it so awesome. Because you got off the couch and worked to acheive something that not everyone can. You ran a marathon. And crossing that finish line, in whatever crippled state you cross it in, is worth it. It's worth every minute of pain you endured to get there.

It's gonna suck. At mile 21, it's really gonna suck. It sucks for the winners and they don't even have jobs...all they do is train all day long (and they finish in 2 hours - assholes). The beauty of the marathon is that there is plenty of time to really enjoy it and plenty of time to have some really dark moments...but the thrill of the spectators and the 10,000 other people running will pull you out of it. But dude, you just ran 26.2 miles...my first marathon was easily one of the most awesome 4 hours and 53 minutes of my life. And I promise you, no matter how fast or slow you try to run it, there ain't no way in hell that you will be first, and there ain't no way in hell that you will be last. Trust me.

A wise man once told me, "In marathons, the only difference between the walkers and the runners is that walkers know when they are going to walk." Everyone walks during a marathon. A lot of people walk the whole darn thing. Just take a conservative approach and try run/walking...run for 5 minutes and walk for 1. I promise you that you can do this. It's gonna hurt like hell, but everyone needs a few battle wounds, right?

So, in my closing arguments, I have attached a couple of things. One is a video entitled "Why do you run?" My favorite part is about 2:20 in where the two lead women in the Ironman collapse and crawl across the finish. And also, I have attached a document that my friend wrote - it is his personal recap of the New York City Marathon from last weekend.

So, HTFU. You're running a marathon on December 13. Better start running.

Week 21 - 149 Miles

In the water: 1.37 miles - 43 minutes.
On Rocky: 120 miles - 6 hours 15 minutes.
In my Asics: 28 miles - 4 hours 18 minutes
On the bosu ball: 1 hour

Total Mileage - 149.38 miles - 11 hours and 14 minutes

OMG. I had the best training weekend EVER. I was starting to lose faith that I could actually bike 112 miles and then run a marathon because my last few weekends had gone so poorly, but finally, FINALLY this past weekend I had an amazing ride and an amazing run.

I kind of took it easy all week - my swim on Tuesday just sucked, I was violently ill on Wednesday so I took the day off, Thursday biking was okay and I took Friday off because I always take Fridays off...so I was primed and rested for the weekend.

My little sister, Cathy, had tried to bail on her marathon debut on Friday afternoon, and I wrote (what I would consider) an inspirational email to her...which was actually a selfish act because I needed to write that email more than she needed to read it. This is all hard...and that's why we do it. I needed that pumped into my brain.

Anyways, I NEEDED Saturday's ride to go well...and it did. We rocked it. I led the entire way with Tommy well behind me (not because he couldnt keep up but because he didn't want to draft)...and we averaged 18.8 mph for 90 miles. That ain't bad my friends. The way out was absolutely no wind, averaging about 20mph and the way back was totally into the wind and we averaged about 17.5mph. It was a fabulous ride. It was just what I needed. My confidence in my biking is back. Thank goodness!

And then I thought my run today would suck because the ride went so well yesterday...well, a 25K in 2 hours and 26 minutes ain't bad my friends! I felt like a million bucks.

I'm ready.

I'm ready for the Ironman. 3 weeks of taper and it's here. I can't believe it. FINALLY. My time is almost here.

Congrats to all the Florida finishers! You guys all did great - Cassie, Kathleen, Johnny, Ingrid, Chad, Kim - hooray! I'm GREEN with envy. Sooooo jealous.

Engineers.

Can’t live with ‘em…don’t want to live without ‘em! Because, let’s be honest, life would suck without a SkyMall magazine and without engineers, who else could possibly come up with a design for an Ultrasonic Dog Deterrent or this (that I totally already own - thanks D&G)? Yeah. No one. That’s right. Life would suck without engineers. And the SkyMall magazine.

But alas, I am no longer an engineer…so I’m pretty much disposable at this point. I got this great new career, although I have no idea what to put on forms when they ask for my occupation. Regardless, I still come from an engineering mindset and upbringing. I am great at math, I like to do logic puzzles and I am type A all the way.

Type A personalities are a problem in a lot of situations…mostly social situations, as Type A’s aren’t known for their sense of humor and ability to have more than 1 nanosecond of fun, but also in situations where, for example, one might decide one wants a tattoo.

Yeah, that’s right. I’m considering a tattoo. Well, for the record, I am 95% sure I am getting a tattoo…now it’s just design and location, location, location.

And when and engineer decides they want a tattoo, the big guns come out…and I don’t mean biceps. I have done my research.

I intend to complete an Ironman triathlon in approximately (exactly) 24 days and after that time, I intend to get the Ironman tattoo. Yes, I know it’s a brand name, and yes, I know it’s free advertising, and yes, I don’t give a flying flip. If Pizza Hut comes out with a bad ass race, I’ll get a slice of cheese on my butt cheek. Until then, just the Mdot please and thanks. I’m thinking of thin black outline of the Mdot, about the size of a nickel.

I have a couple of criteria in selecting my tattoo location.
• It needs to be in a place that will not get stretch marks should I ever become large and in charge.
• It needs to be at least moderately concealed for work and if/when I decide to get dressed up.
• It needs to be visible most other times (what’s the point of a tattoo that no one ever sees?).

This has led me to 3 possible options, with one front runner:
1. The inside of my wrist (probably the right wrist as my left is usually covered by a watch)
2. Behind my ear – I wear my hair down 98% of the time
3. On the top of my foot

My wrist is the front runner and in true engineer fashion, I am doing my research. I have fake tattoos of various sizes that I am wearing to help me decide if I really do want this thing.

Because that’s what happens when engineers decide to get tattoos.

So far today, I have gotten several incredulous stares…

What are your thoughts?? To tat or not to tat?

Week 20 - 155 Miles

In the water: 0. Oops. Maybe THAT's why my legs are wasted.
On Rocky: 130 miles - 6 hours 50 minutes.
In my Asics: 25.1 miles - 4 hours 18 minutes
On the bosu ball: 2 hour

Total Mileage - 155.1 miles - 11 hours and 8 minutes

Well, it's finally the month of the race...I WAS feeling super ready and super strong and super prepared. And now, well, not I kind of feel like crap. My legs feel like lead, my shoulder hurts from my wreck, my bike fit feels funky all of the sudden...basically, I think I peaked too soon. Not sure how that will play into my final week of training, but oh well. I think I'm gonna push this week like normal, relax this weekend (do the distance, but do it slow) and then give myself a break next week.

Although, however much my workouts this weekend sucked, I FINALLY got caught up on some sleep. Thursday night, we went to bed early and slept in (till 6:30 - wowzas!!), Friday night we karaoked late, but slept in till like 10am (holy crap, where did that come from?!?) and Sunday we went to bed a reasonable hour, missed our alarm and slept till 7am. Seriously, who ARE these people?? All in all, I feel semi-rested for the first time in at least a year which is nice. and to top it off, I had an amazing weekend with friends...karaoke in a tutu, a gorgeous mid morning run, followed by delicious mexican on the porch of Cafe Adobe with my BFF's, a wonderful evening at home with Tommy, a gorgeous bike ride topped off with beers at Onion Creek with Jenn. My weekend couldn't have been any better!!

More on the karaoke and my tutu later...

ONE MONTH.

Holy crap. I can't believe the Ironman is only a month away.

I am going through the full range of emotions. I am everything from exhilarated to exhausted.

Tommy and I signed up for this race over a year ago, right after we did our first half Ironman distance at Longhorn. Longhorn was a race that we not even close to being prepared for...we hadn't trained and we didn't really know anyone else who was doing tri's, so we didn't have anyone to talk to about it. But we went out there with blind excitement and had the time of our lives (not the best race of our lives, but an incredible time). Afterwards, I was hooked...and the only race left to sign up for Cozumel (darn!). So Cozumel it was.

So for one year, I have been training for this race. After Longhorn, we focused on the marathon in January and then after the marathon we took two weeks off (not off off, but like, not as MUCH exercising...do athletes ever actually take time off off?) and the training began at the beginning of February. Then the REAL training began in June. But for 9 months, we have been pushing ourselves to the limit. Waking up at 4am most days of the week and working out before work. Sleeping in is snoozing till 7AM. I have my arm band from Longhorn on my dashboard as a reminder to keep with it. It WILL all be worth it.

We are at a level of fitness that I would have never actually thought possible. I ran 20 miles before work last week and was fine. I mean, my knees hurt a little, but my legs were fine. I wasn't any more tired than normal and I wasn't sore. Not even a little sore. That's not normal.

I haven't actually lost any weight (not a single pound) or gone down a pants size (nope, still a 10, mother effers) and all my clothes fit exactly the same...but I promise you that beneath this layer of fat, I can totally kick your ass. Ha. Just trust me. But my biggest fear on the weight thing is that if I can only MAINTAIN my weight with this level of activity, I'm going to blow up like a blimp when I stop working out (as much)...and then of course, if I have more energy, I'm more likely to go out to dinner sometimes, which means more calories...it's a downward spiral and it does not bode well for me.

I am so ready for this race to be here. Most of our friends are done (or almost done) with their racing seasons...and we still have a month left. There are days when I feel ready and I feel excited and I feel like I know what the last year has been about. But ultimately, I know I am ready for it to be here...even if I am not physically ready to race. I need this. This is what it's about...the ultimate race in a gorgeous locale surrounded by all the people we love and mounds and mounds of Meixcan cheese. I couldn't ask for a better support team. (although, I'm pretty sure they are coming for the crystal clear water and not so much to see me, but that's okay!)

Mostly I'm tired of the pile of laundry that I can't keep up with, the dust collecting on all my furniture, the half completed chores, the lack of social time, the lack of sleep, the lack of Mexican food...mostly, I'm ready to have my life back. I just buy more sports bras when I run out. Not surprisingly, I run out of sports bras before I run out of underwear (most of my workout shorts have panties in them). I hate missing birthdays and Sunday Fundays...or Tuesday Fundays.

2 more hard weeks left, and then it's the easy stuff...only 10 mile runs and 60 mile bikes on the weekends...and then it's home free!!

I

Fires - http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6692152.html

HTFU.

I went to the foot doctor today, whom I really liked BTW, and he told me quote, un-quote, "to HTFU". That's when I knew he was the doctor for me.

HTFU, for you non-triathletes, stands for Harden the F Up. And my doctor said it to me. Niiiice.

Anyways, basically, he did xrays and checked out my foot (duh). There were no visible signs of a fracture, but yet again, there is still a chance of a fracture in the future. Mostly he thinks that my big toe bone is inflammed because it overlaps the second toe bone. He said there is probably no way it will get better without rest, but that he didn't figure I would actually rest, so I better HTFU. And when it starts to hurt at mile 6 of the marathon, I better HTFU. So, it looks like I'll be HTFUing for the next few weeks.

If it still hurts after the race, he said he would recommend an MRI to check for fracture again, but there isn't much point in doing that right now since I'm not gonna stop running anyway.

So HTFU it is. I'll be laying off the speedwork and the extreme mileage, but otherwise, I'll be training as normal.

Viva la HTFU.

Week 19 - 133 Miles

In the water: 4.3 miles - 2 hours 35 minutes.
On Rocky: 110 miles - 6 hours 45 minutes
In my Asics: 19 miles - 3 hours 23 minutes
On the bosu ball: 1 hour

Total Mileage - 133.3 miles - 12 hours and 43 minutes

Well, this week definitely did not go the way it was supposed to, but all in all it wasn't a terrible week. I feel guilty about its lack of mileage, but there wasn't anything that could have been done about it, due to the Springtown Suck, so oh well. And I got some pretty amazing swims in, so I really can't complain!

I think we were just pooped from the last 4 weeks of hard...so we are going to take it semi-easy this week and then pick it up for one last ditch effort next week. THEN the taper will finally begin. Finally.

Hopefully Tommy can heal properly and quickly and all well be well with the world. Fingers crossed!

Springtown Suck, er, I mean, Spin.

My thoughts from our ride on Saturday were. “Well, the wind is a nice touch”, and that was just about the only “nice” thing I can say about the ride.

Tommy and I went to the Greater DFW area for the weekend to go to a friends wedding in Wichita Falls. We went to my parent’s house on Friday night to drop off the dog, see them for a bit and then hit up an organized Century Ride that I will affectionately call the Springtown Suck.

The Springtown Suck was intended to be our last century before the big dance, but since it sucked so bad, we didn’t finish and now we still have another long ride to complete. But in good news, I did get to take my first ride in the sag wagon. YAYY.

First of all, the roads in the Fort Worth metroplex suck. They suck a lot. I have never ridden on roads that suck as much as these roads sucked. I must be some spoiled brat about my roads, but seriously, we just don’t ride on roads that bad…ever. There are potholes, chip seal, no shoulders, awful drviers, fish tailing 18 wheelers, gravel, roadkill, you name, these roads have it…the one thing they DON’T have however is someone to actually design roads that don’t suck.

Secondly, the course was hilly. Really hilly. And we all know I suck at hills. And I wasn’t in the mood for hills. And I had run 19 miles the day before. And I was tired. And the roads sucked. And mostly, crappy roads just zap the energy right out of you…between that, the hills and the lovely headwind (that I swear we biked directly into the entire time), I was done. D.O.N.E. Done.

Of course, the roads, the hills and the wind are not the ride organizers fault…so this ride was not dubbed the Springtown Suck for reasons beyond their control. (Although, as a cyclist, I would take an activist approach to get those roads repaired, but that’s just me!).

The Springtown Spin was dubbed the Springtown Suck because it was the most terribly organized ride I have EVER been on.

We stopped at the 23 mile mark to pee, grab a snack, and refill water bottles. And thank goodness we stopped there, because the next aid station wasn’t until mile 53. And then at that aid station, they were out of water, Gatorade and snacks. They didn’t have enough snacks for the people on the 100 mile route. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

I brought about 90 ounces of water with me on the ride, I would have brought more, but that’s all I can fit on my bike. But after about 50 miles, I was out. Completely out of water. I brought enough snacks to get me through the day, but I usually like to eat the cookies and tasty treats provided at an organized ride, because “Hey, I paid for cookies, I wanna eat cookies”. But there weren’t any snacks at all. Sooo, I’m still not certain what my entry fee paid for. Because it couldn’t have been for the police officers “directing traffic…because those guys barely got out of their car, nevermind actually stopping traffic for us.

After the wonderful aid station at mile 53ish, we got back on our bikes, pissed off at this crappy ride…fully expecting to have to stop at a gas station to buy our own Gatorade and snacks. But we didn’t find an gas stations. Finally, we got to an aid station at about Mile 65. They had water refills, but no snacks…because when you ride 100 miles, all you really need is water. Electrolyte replacement is a myth.

And then things got really good.

I passed the station without stopping, but Tommy stopped. I passed him, but slowed down into an asphalt parking lot…or I thought it was asphalt. Turns out it was 3 inches of gravel. I wiped out. Awesome. Luckily, I wasn’t going very fast. I hurt my shoulder and got some road rash on my leg (ugh!), but all in all, I am totally fine. I won’t be swimming any time soon, but I’m okay. However, after the first 65 miles of terrible riding, I was done. I was tired, I was semi-hurt and I just didn’t want to ride anymore. So I just sat there.

I guess Tommy thought I was really hurt because he rode over to me really fast, hit the gravel and flew over his handle bars. It’s a good thing he has a head though because his face was there to break his fall. He landed face first into the gravel, scratched up his face, messed up his shoulder and forearm really bad, and road rash all over his knee. He looked like he lost a really long fight.

The best part about the Springtown Suck though, is that none of the volunteers at the aid station bothered to get up to see if we were okay. And then when I asked if we could get sagged, she laughed at me and asked what I would do with my bike. Are you freaking kidding me? He just flew over his handlebars. Use your brain.

We still had a little bit of water left and we were able to at least get most of the dirt out of our wounds on our own, and then convince the girls to call someone to pick us up. Well, the finally did call someone, but they told them to go to the wrong place…so we waited for about 45 minutes before anyone came looking for us.

The medic finally showed up with his kit of bandaids, which was helpful since you know we were scratched for head to toe. We convinced him to give us a ride back to the start (he didn’t really want to) and that was that.

Worst ride ever.

I will never ride in the DFW metroplex ever again. If I ever move to Dallas, I will give up cycling. I have now biked 140ish miles and all 140 sucked.

Springtown Spin can suck it.

Drowned Rat.

The good news is that my longest run of the season is done. The bad news is that my foot is killing me now.

Ugh.

Our training schedule says we should never run more than 2.5 hours, but since that would mean that I would never run more than about 15 miles (because I am slower than molasses), I threw that crap out that window. So, we have done mostly 10-12 miles every weekend, a few 15 milers, and then we planned to 19 this weekend. Ideally, we would do 19-20 a couple of times, but life and injuries have prevented that. Oh well.

And then Vince decided that this weekend was the best weekend in world to get married. Sweet.

Ugh.

So that meant we could either go the wedding, not drink (much), come home early and run 20 miles the morning after...and then drive home to Houston. OR we could do our run during the week, ride on Saturday before the wedding and be able to play a little bit that night...and of course, still plan on running on Sunday, just not 20 miles.

We opted to scheduled a 20 mile run for Thursday before work so we could play. Big surprise. Ouch.

Of the Mother Nature has it out to get me and planned a wonderful slew of storms for yesterday morning. Thanks biatch.

Our alarm went off at 3:30 (because that's how early I have to wake up to run 20 miles and still get to work by 9ish) and it was pouring. We checked the radar and there was a big red blob over our house (I could have told you that by looking out the window, but I digress)...we decided to wait it out thirty minutes, and see if the red section had passed. It did, and we headed out to the park.

We were ready to run at 4:30AM, alone at the park...seriously, it was a ghost town. We saw one chick (we saw her twice, she ran far), but that was it...for those non-Houstonians out there, the park is packed 24/7. There are always always always people there. It was creepy to see it so barren.

I wore a trash bag for the first loop, but quickly realized that was a pointless effort. We dodged puddles for about 0.25 miles and then realized that was pointless too. It was just going to be wet. Really really really wet. We ran one loop at the park, then headed out towards the Heights trail. Heights was a mud pit, so we ran up our old street (where we discovered our house had been demolished...siiigh) to 20th and a water stop.

Oh, and I peed my pants. Ha. It was much easier than peeing on the bike and the rain helped me feel clean again. I mean, I was soaked to the bone. What difference does a little pee make? Not much I discovered.

I actually peed my pants 3 times during this run. I'm so gross. I wouldn't be friends with me if you paid me. Totally awesome though. Watch our Cozumel! If peeing your pants is cool, then consider me Senor Miles Davis!

From 20th, we headed towards the White Oak Bayou trail and that's when the lightening started. Ugh. I'm totally down with running in the rain (I'm lying, I would never run in the rain if I hadn't carbo loaded like a champ and didn't want to waste the calories), but lightening is just unsafe. And of course, at this point, we are at the furthest point in our run and have no choice but the continue running in the rain back to the park. TC Jester was a mud pit, but there was no avoiding it, so we slogged through it...slowly and painfully. Those 2 miles really hurt our splits!

We finally got back to the park, without being struck by lightening, and planned to do two more loops. I started getting grouchy, so we only did about 1.5 loops before Tommy threatened to divorce me and I quit, but that was 19 miles, so eh...that's good enough for me.

The rain stopped long enough for us to each foam roller and stretch a little.

My shoes were STILL wet this morning. I am chaffed in places I didn't know I could chafe (mostly places I didn't put Body Glide/Chois Butter because I didn't know I could chafe there...duh), but I didn't get a single blister (what? I was surprised too.). My quads are a little sore today, but nothing outrageous...I definitely wished I had a one story house, but it wasn't that bad. Mostly my foot is hurting a lot.

So, 100 mile ride tomorrow, then another hard week next week and we are D.O.N.E. Finally!!

Cursed.

Three and a half years ago, I met the love of my life...he is my BFF and he looks dam good without a shirt on, so I married him. It was pretty much that simple. That's the key to a good marriage kids, find a hot one and make him buy you jewelry. Done and done.

However, someone upstairs must be having a hay day because everyplace that has been important to our relationship is gone.

We met at Little Woodrows on West Alabama. Demolished.

We fell in love while I lived in this crappy white house with Natalie. Un-liveable and for sale (foreclosure!).

We got engaged at Brennan's. Burned down.

We got married at the Majestic Metro. Burned. (still standing, but burned).

And today on our run, we discovered that the first house we lived in together was demolished.

I wouldn't be friends with us if I were you.

Holy Smokes.

The fires in my neighborhood are starting to get out of control...and they are moving closer which I am not really a fan of. Inner city livin' is cool, but seriously, I have the worst luck. This latest fire is approximately 1 block from my house...I saw the firetrucks heading there on my way to the gym. Sveeet. Hopefully his next target will be the crack house down the street.

Am I the only one who thinks that chewing gum while going to the bathroom is gross?

How do we feel about singing in the shower? In public places? There is a lady who sings in the shower at the YMCA and it drives me up the wall. UP THE WALL. This is not your house lady. Save the Jesus songs for another day. (Why does it make me so crazy? I have no idea.)

Today I swam next to an old dude who did Kona. He told me I was a good swimmer but that I would be a lot faster if I could flip turn. I flippin' hate flip turns. But yeah, I would be faster. Ugh. I still have water in my ears. 4000m = DONE. That guy swam Kona is 1:22...I think I found my swim goal! 1:22, here I come!

A picture from my high school reunion. Mums are awesome. And do NOT look like cow bells.

I can't decide what to be for Halloween. Ugh. What do we think the odds of me being able to fit into my old tutu's are? Zilch? Probably. Gonna try anyway. That'll be depressing.

I'm planning on running 21 miles before work tomorrow. Shoot me. Hello 3am!

And the Don. He be cool. His leg is still hurting him so he is very pitiful lately.

Francis should be Jon Gosselin for Halloween. Seriously. Haha. OMG.

My new job is hard. There are lots of things to memorize and I can't take notes fast enough. Brain is hurting. I hear that it gets easier. Waiting for that day...

Week 18 - 172 Miles

In the water: 3.2 miles - 1 hour 46 minutes.
On Rocky: 147 miles - 9 hours 0 minutes
In my Asics: 22 miles - 3 hours 40 minutes
On the bosu ball: 2 hours

Total Mileage - 172.2 miles - 14 hours and 26 minutes

Despite the significant decrease in overall mileage this week, this was probably the hardest week I've had yet. My workouts were just hard, not because they were intense, but because my body was rejecting me everytime I put one foot in front of the other. It was screaming for me to stop. I was emotionally and physically drained. And I may or may not have tried to do a little too much in the evenings, which I'm sure didn't help. I got free tickets to U2 - what am I gonna do? Say no? Pa-sha!

But I learned my lesson! I will not be having any outings during the week for the next two weeks..sorry pals!

By Thursday evening, I was able to turn my mood and body around - I squeezed in a wonderful 4 mile run that I desperately needed and it turned my frown upside down! Saturday I did a nice easy 12 miler with my friend, grabbed a delicious breakfast at The Breakfast Klub with LauraB, and hit up Lake 288 for a freezing hour and half swim. I almost pussed out during the swim, but knew that Tommy would make fun of me, so I HTFUed and finished it up. It was rough. FYI - egg sandwiches and swimming = not so much.

Sunday we met a pretty large group at the Bronco Burrito in Pearland for a 115 mile ride. Surprisingly, I was able to keep up with the lead pack fo rthe first 80 miles...now this may be because they were waiting for me, but regardless, I felt pretty awesome to be the only chick in a group of guys. And there was never a line for the bathroom! HOORAY! At mile 80, the wheels started to fall off though...but I got some delcious cookies (remind me to put cookies in special needs bag, they get me through pain everytime) and we were able to finish relatively strong. The wind was brutal, but we averaged about 18.5mph while riding (not including stopped time).

But the best part was heading to Kemah for a tasty seafood lunch on the boardwalk...it was a gorgeous day and even though we were smelly, it reminded me, once again, how grateful I am that Tommy and I can train together. It was the perfect day.

Only two more hard weeks left and then it's home free. We are planning on running 21 miles before work on Thursday...hopefully my foot can hold out!! And then a century ride in Springtown...then the wedding of Vince and Ruthie - hello open bar after burning 3000 calories! Danger danger! Mental note, find a designated driver...

Dreaming.

I still can't believe the Ironman is so close.

I am at a point in my training where I am exhausted, drained, tired, missing friends, missing sleeping in, and trying to decide if all the sacrifice is worth it. There are days when I can say without a doubt that this is all worth it - the times when Tommy and I meet our friends for workouts or when we are alone and just enjoy the quality time together. And then there are times that I think, "Why the hell am I up at 4AM to ride my bike before work when I could have gone to dinner with friends and slept until a normal hour?" - and it's on those days that it's helpful for me to read things like this.

It puts it all in perspective. We do this because it's hard. We do this because it pushes ourselves to the limit - both in training and on race day. We do this because ultimately we love being out there, in the elements, doing what we love with people who love it too...and may the best man win. You never know what the day may bring...no matter what you do, how hard you train, how fast you go...you may not finish. The joy in finishing is knowing that anything could have happened.

I still maintain that I WILL NOT be signing up for next year, but I know that if I can cross that finish line still standing, it will be one of the hardest things I have ever had to pass up.

47 days until I become an Ironman. 3 more hard weeks and then the taper begins...

My peoples.

I got a new follower today!! Let's all say "hi" to Nukem!!

Hi Nukem!

I am now up to a solid 6 followers. I think I am well on my way to quitting my day job, eh?

I've been blogging for 4 years and I have 6 followers. Pretty awesome by anyone's standards.

Hip hip hooray for Nukem. Thanks for joining this exclusive club. Please send your yearly club dues to me. You know where I live.

Week 17 - 257 Miles

In the water: 2.17 miles - 1 hour 12 minutes.
On Rocky: 243 miles - 12 hours 46 minutes
In my Asics: 11.5 miles - 1 hours 55 minutes
On the bosu ball: 2 hours

Total Mileage - 256.67 miles - 15 hours and 53 minutes

7 weeks of training left...only 3 more hard weeks and then we are home free!!

I took it easy on my foot this week and didn't do much running. I did a lot of ellipticalling (which I counted at running), some aqua jogging (which counted as running) and then I did a little actual running...I determined that I love running and I couldn't kick the habit entirely.

My mileage was HUGE this week due to the lack of running and the massive amount of biking. Ooops. My quads hurt a little. Okay, they hurt a lot.

Bike Around the Bay was awesome. We were not the fastest group (they were sooo fast), but we were the second fastest group...and therefore we had our own police escorts. I've never felt like such a stud. Seriously. That is probably the closest I will ever come to knowing what it's like to win a race. It was incredible. OMG. IT WAS AWESOME! I will definitely be doing this ride again in the future - I will be hoping for much ebtter weather though! The wind, cold and rain were brutal!!

After Day 1, our new friend Mandy went for a 20 mile run...we felt like slackers because we only did 6. And THAT my friends is how much training for an Ironman can skew your reality.

I also got in the pool and swam 2 miles - I've still got it! I knew I could still do it, but because it had been so long, I was starting to doubt myself...but nope, I can still swim forever. Thank goodness. I do not want to have to start swimming regularly.

Looking forward to this week! Tonight is the Beerathlon!! I am going to start easing running back into my schedule and see how it goes...I figure a beer drinking relay is just the ticket!!

Leaping Lizards.

Every year in elementary school, Ms. Raiden, the evil PE teacher extraordinaire, started a jump rope team. I, big surprise, never made the team. This failure still haunts me. I loved loved loved jumping rope. Nowadays, I can barely make it 2 minutes before I am on the ground gasping my last breath, but back then, it was easy.

These girls, however, ALL made the jump rope team and pretty much rock my world. I promise you that this 8 minute video is worth every single second.

If I ever see Ms. Raiden on the street, I'm pretty sure I would take her down. I'd probably take down Ms. Pain the art teacher too. She was a big pain in the you know what (yeah, we said that joke a lot back then).

Seriously. 8 minutes of video. Worth it.

(On another note, Kona is tomorrow! Can't wait to watch some race coverage!)

Week 16 - 153 Miles

In the water: 0.75 miles - 33 minutes.
On Rocky: 135 miles - 6 hours 45 minutes
In my Asics: 18 miles - 3 hours 3 minutes
On the bosu ball: 3 hours

Total Mileage - 153.75 miles - 10 hours and 21 minutes

I took it easy on my foot and didn't do any running on Saturday...what's interesting is that I still hit 18 miles for the week. I did a lot of walking (and counted that as running), but I still can't believe the number of miles. Oh well!

This week I am taking off running entirely and doing Bike Around the Bay this weekend. I may attempt a short run after Day 1 (70ish miles) and see how it goes, but I won't be pushing it at all. I'm afraid of losing my speed, but I'm more afraid of breaking my foot...sooooo, we will see.

We are officially 55 days until showtime. I can't believe it. I can't believe how close it is. My friends are making shirts. They look amazing. I'm working on my farmers tan and my invisible 6 pack.

I CAN'T WAIT!!