Longhorn Half Ironman Race Reportn - Warning 4 pages long in Word :)

Race Report for Galveston Half Ironman
1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run
April 5, 2009


What a race. Rewind a few months. I signed up for Ironman Couer d’Alene with Sabrina and Steve and the past few months of training leading up to this Half Ironman have been mentally and physically exhausting. The roller coaster of emotions have been extreme, and I’ve said this time after time, but this IS the most mentally exhausting thing I’ve ever attempted in my 5-6 years of marathons and triathlons. Weekends have been filled with crying and mentally, I was starting to come to the conclusion that I’ve bitten off more than I could chew with trying to complete a full Ironman.

I went into this race knowing that I was going to race it. If I couldn’t cut it on the bike for a half on FLAT FLAT ground, there’s no way I could attempt to make the bike cutoff in Idaho in June for the full. Most of my teammates went into this race as a training day, because this isn’t our A race, but I knew in my heart, I needed to leave it out there as a gauge to myself on where I stood physically.

Adrian and I drove the motorhome down on Friday morning. Garmin cadence sensors wreaked havoc on Adrian’s mental state the entire afternoon before our race. I used mine, but mainly only during spin class and after long rides to see where my cadence average was. Adrian depended on his to gauge his output. He switched between our two cadence sensors, THREE (yes, we have four between the two of us) Garmin’s. Nothing seemed to work. It would work, then it wouldn’t. We ate our leftover spaghetti, headed to bed at a decent hour and were ready to race.

We woke up at 5am, thanks to our new pup, Riley. Made it to transition with more than enough time to spare. Got to talk with tons of T3’er’s, tons of friends, and before we knew it, we were down in our wetsuits waiting for our swim waves to go.

Swim: 41:34 at a 2:09 pace
I don’t like the saltwater, just tastes nasty. The water was cold, but this was my first triathlon to swim in a real wetsuit, so the temperature didn’t bother me. I’m used to swimming at Barton Springs without a wetsuit, so I was fine. Got to chat it up with the girls in the water, and the gun went off. I found a rhythm pretty fast, but I had done NO sighting practice and this was my downfall. Every single time I looked up I was swimming inside the buoys. I was constantly having to correct my path. I realized about half way, that my swimming form was crap. I found myself trying to go back to the windmill action, and slowed down my stroke to get the form back. Swim seemed long, but I’m super happy with my time. My previous swim PR was 45 minutes, so I’ll take the new PR. I know I can improve which makes me happy.

T1: 2:39
I couldn’t unzip the wetsuit, so that ate up about 20 seconds of time trying to tug on it. The wetsuit strippers were awesome!! I jogged the whole way, even rushed so fast, that I made the decision to screw the socks.

Bike: 3:09:51 – 17.7mph
HOLY CRAP! My previous long rides have always been UNDER 14 miles per hour. I only had ONE ride where I averaged 13.1 mph. In order to not get thrown off the IM bike course, I need to ride 13.4. This has been my struggle the entire training season. I started off and felt comfortable. My Garmin would read 15, 16, 17.. and I was ecstatic. I was passing people, which is sooooo not the norm for me, and I was feeling good. About 30 minutes into the ride, my groin was cramping up. I’ve NEVER had this problem, but it was very weird. The more I pedaled, I could just feel it getting more tense and tense, and had to stop pedaling to relax. Very weird, and it made me very nervous this early into the bike, that this was happening. Thankfully, I just spun through it and it went away. I’m not sure what the cause was or why it happened. I counted my cadence with my stop watch, and I was right at 100. I made a make or break decision and decided to go a few gears harder and do a slower cadence. I wanted and needed to be faster. By the time I had gotten to the first turn around section, I started counting off the pro’s and fast guys. 1…2….3….4…21…22…23… I was looking for Adrian. He was in 45th place, and I hollered as loud as I could to the other side of the road. He was on his way back and I was just getting to the end. Ride was great. I had my Garmin on pace, so I never knew my average, which made it even better. Ignorance is bliss, and I think mentally, this is better for myself. My overall goal was to average 14mph. I would have crapped my pants for 15, and the fact that I did 17.7 means I should still be cleaning myself up! I’m super happy. Extremely happy.

T2: 2:07
I took a little more time here to put the socks on for running. I always get such bad blisters, I didn’t’ want anything to hold me back. I need to get some tri shoelaces, as well.

Run: 2:01:56 – 9:18m
This is my strong sport. I’m by no means fast when compared to others that just run, but this is where my heart lies. Mentally, I know I can’t fail here. My first mile was an 8:39, wow. The weird part was that I didn’t even feel like I was running that fast. I just tried to hold a decent pace the entire time. I started going back and forth with another T3’er and that was perfect for the first half. I think her name was Jill. I looked up her time, and she averaged 8:38’s for the entire run, so I think it was her. She was perfect. I tried to stay as close as I could to her. I’d pass her occasionally at a water stop, and she’s reel me back in. We played cat and mouse for the entire first 6 miles. She slowly inched away and once I got to the halfway point, I started calculating my finishing time. I quickly realized that if I didn’t crater, held the pace I was doing, I could finish sub 6:00. This was so incredibly CRAZY! I told Adrian I’d be happy with anything in the 7:00’s, ecstatic if I could break 7:00, but breaking 6:00 or coming anywhere close to a fast 6:00 was just incomprehensible, until this moment. Jill had already gotten out of eyesight, but thankfully I had my Dee out there cheering for me. She would run with me for a few seconds, until I got paranoid that I’d get a penalty while she was talking up a storm with me. You have to remember, this girl is FAST, and she was just hooting and hollering while jogging with me. She made all the difference in the world, cause she was never in the same place twice, so I never knew when to expect her, and she kept my attention from the pain cause I was constantly looking for them fine legs!!

Adrian has a motto when he races, and I used it when I started my 3rd loop. It’s only a 10k, I can do this in my sleep. It’s only an hour of my time. I started remembering soulbusters from Team Rogue training, remembered all the hard long runs, and when it came down to it, it was only 6-7 miles to go. I can do this in my sleep. Running is my thing, I can do this. I finished my 3rd loop, and was really dreading not seeing Adrian out there for me. We had agreed it would take me 7 hours, so he was going to go back to the motorhome to let the boys out, and be at the finish. We both hadn’t planned for me to finish in 6, so I was bummed he wouldn’t be there. Lo and behold, I started my last loop and there he was. Screaming his head off. I love this man, he inspires me in more ways than I can ever comprehend. He truly makes me want to be a better athlete. I got a little spunk when I saw him, and I turned the corner and realized I was going to have to dig deep to keep my pace under 10:00 min miles. The out and backs, the turns, the loops within loops were starting to get to me. It was now only 3 miles to go. 30 minutes of running, I reached in and dug! My hands/finger always do this weird crampy thing at the ends of marathons or really long runs. Never knew why, but after10-15 minutes of shaking and massaging them out they’re fine. I realized when I was on my last loop, they started early. No problem, just kept on running.

I remember seeing the 11 mile marker and I said outloud, “2.1 miles, 2.1 miles, I can do this. This is MY race, this is my day. Don’t blow it in the last 2.1 miles.” I got to see my other husband Steve and he gave me some encouraging words. He was “training” and I was racing, so this was abnormal to pass him. Every time I looked down at my Garmin, the pace was slower and slower, but I felt like I was pushing harder and harder. The bonk factor, ugh. I just kept talking to myself over and over. I can do this, I can do this, this is my day, my race. If you can imagine this with my hands doing the crampy thing, I’m sure I looked special. The last mile I had, Maggie had caught up to me, and she pulled me the rest of the way. She said to take it home and go strong! I couldn’t have made it through that last mile without her encouraging words. It was awesome. I was 110% out of my comfort zone. I sprinted with everything I had left and heard and saw Adrian screaming at the top of his lungs for me. I did it J

Finish Time: 5:58:08

Medical Tent Story
Once I crossed the finish line, I was panting, which is normal. My hands were in full crampy style, which I was used to, but I was spent. I bent over to catch my breath, and the tingly sensation in my hands got worse. I walked over to the chip return, and just couldn’t catch my breath and then everything started tingling. If I moved, I thought my entire legs were going to cramp, so I just stood there bent over trying to regain some composure. Adrian came to my rescue, and got underneath my right shoulder and started making me walk to the medical tent. I kept wanting to relax, but the longer we waited the more woozie I felt and the tingling spread. Logan came over and helped since Adrian was starting to cramp himself. He finished in 4:52, and found out later, he also required an IV after the race for the first time, so he didn’t have the strength to hold my butt up. They got me to a cot, and my legs were cramped up, feet were, and my face was full on tingly, so much that I couldn’t open my mouth. They gave me an IV and said I was dehydrated and hyperventilating. They told me to control my breathing. They wrapped me in blankets, Adrian later got me some heating packs, and it just took time for my body to get back to normal. Lots of T3’er’s checked on me, and Adrian rubbed and loved on me the entire time. Great stuff. I’d go back and do it all over again.

Lessons Learned
- I can push a little further when I think I’ve pushed as far as I can
- Don’t forget the Endurolytes in my transition bag
- Drink more water on the run course, even if it means walking for a second to get it down
- Control my breathing when I feel the tingly sensation
- Remember that good race karma comes back to you. I think I cheered for more people that were passing me and lapping me than I did for other teammates. It came around full circle.