Finished. That’s what I get to say, I finished!  Or really I FINISHED! And Guido has been teasing me cause I keep smiling like I had a good time.  And I did. So, here comes Ironman Whistler in August.

I was pretty nervous before the race, my training did not seem enough to carry me through a 6 hour event, but since both Guido and my coach laughed at my questions and assured me it was, off we went to Galveston.

It was different before the race, because normally these weekends are all about Guido and his race. This was about me, and my race.

Swim start

During the swim, I started fast, and then went a bit faster. It’s hard to know what fast means in an open water swim. Without a wall every 25 meters I lost track of speed. Then settled in, and just focused on breathing. I was a bit nervous about getting clobbered, so I stayed to the right of the field. At times pretty far to the right …. Maybe I need to work on sighting a bit more. 🙂  I remember turning the first corner at ~600m and catching up to some people from the wave ahead of mine. Then I started to focus on hand entry and catch, and in the zone, I didn’t notice I had swam the whole 1000meter long stretch. Another quick turn, a short bit to the beach, and I was done with the swim! I saw my cheer squad standing there cheering for me as I stumbled out of the water, and towards transition. I was definitely smiling, it had been a great swim!

Only 1 mile left

T1 involved lots of walking barefoot on concrete. Then: shoes, glasses, food, helmet, bike and on for the ride.  I started a bit slow, and ramped up over the first 5 miles. I was having trouble telling which way the wind was coming from. I remember watching the mile markers tick up, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, the turn around!  Was I already half way done? I don’t remember too much of the ride back. I got confused a bit on nutrition and had one too few gels on the bike, but plenty of perform. I’m not sure where miles 30-45 went, but finally time dragged on forever right at the end. It seemingly took forever to hit mile 50. But then a short bit later, I was driving through the airport runway in the last mile of the ride and I was done with the bike. I started crying as I got to T2, I was excited to be finished with part 2. I think I had been most worried about all things that might go wrong during a 3h ride.

Shoes, take off the helmet, grab the gels, and race belt, I was confident in my naïve belief that I could handle the run! I saw my cheer squad at the start, and stopped to wave at my supporters, and steal a kiss :P. I liked the three lap course, It was great to see my crazy cheer squad out there every mile with me. 🙂 It was also great to see each mile marker as I ran past them, and to have motivation for the ones coming up. My internal, and external monologue was great:

Lap 1: Mile 1, done! Mile 12 I will get there. Steady on, coach said low Zone3 … not high zone 3
Lap 2:  where is mile 5? Mile 2, I definitely had that. Mile 7 Halfway! Mile 10 I see you staring at me.
Lap 3: Am I already here? Mile 1 that seems so long ago! Mile 11 Just 2 more to go, quads don’t die on me yet.  Mile 13 I CAN DO THIS.

The finish was great, I loved it. And everyone was there to cheer, and tell me how crazy I was, and to get super gross sweaty hugs. 🙂

Thanks Mom, Dad, Katie, Brett, Guido, Mark & Teresa !!!

Placed 31^st in my age group: look for bib 547

http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/ironman-70.3/texas/results.aspx#axzz2Q7qZ6n5c