It is the day after the race and we are at an Internet cafe in Devonport (across the way from Aukland) after eating way too much yummy pizza and salad, as well as touring our way through the beers of New Zealand.
The Report:
Ruth woke me up at 3:30 and mentioned that I had to be awake in 10 minutes...so of course I got up and made some coffee watched a bit of TV while trying to wake up. The night before, it had occurred to me that I would not be able to visit my T2 bag like I had been able to at Canada so I had a bit of pressure to get my running water bottles to my bag before the race started. I went to breakfast with the group and then was shuttled up to the start line where Ruth met me. I had walked to the T2 area and was told by a nice volunteer that I could take my running water bottles with me to T1 and they would transport them to T2 and be in my bag when I needed them. Whew!
For some reason, I was not terribly nervous. Perhaps because I had only been preparing for this for 6 weeks, unlike Canada where I had been preparing for 6 years....so the pressure was not as great. And the weather was a DREAM. Barely a breeze and just the right temperature. The race started with a ceremony from members of the Maori who came in their boat and did a dance/chant on the beach to send us off. VERY COOL.
SWIM (1:19:24):
My swim was fine -- not terribly fast but I did work on sighting a lot and came out of it feeling strong and psyched for the next event. In T1 (00:9:55), I decided against my arm warmers (the sun was out already) and just put a newspaper under my jersey. I did eat a half a power bar while changing and when I came out to get my bike, I noticed how few bikes were left. But I did not let that frazzle me.
BIKE (7:34:38):
And off I went with a nice send-off from Ruth and some people from Stretton's. My lack of cyling shape was immediately apparent and I was dropped very quickly leaving me with a lot of the course to myself. It was cool seeing the lead guys on their way back from their first loop as I headed out -- the helicopter following them the entire way.
Within the first hour, I had a hard lesson on how important it should have been to train in aero position. There were few hills on the route, but I would have been much more efficient if I could have ridden most of it in my aero bars -- like almost everyone else. I was VERY good with my nutrition, alternating between my Rasberrylicious Power Shake and Water/Power Bar bike every 15 minutes. I felt really strong descending back into town, getting my first lap done arm band (very happily) and going for my second lap even though my lower back was really starting to complain.
By the second loop, my back hurt so badly that I had to stand and stretch every few minutes. It was terrible. I tried to do all sorts of visualizations like pulling the pain out behind me and telling myself to focus on making nice fast circles with my legs and keeping my cadence up. But I was not prepared for how painful it would be. I put a lot mentally into getting through the pain and pulled out all my mantras. At one point, I launched into my mantra and a cow interrupted me with a big MOO :)
At the beginning of the second loop, I was leap-frogging a bit with another athlete named Sharyn. Her race number was just one away from mine and we had a really nice chat. She is a Kiwi, but had traveled to the race from London where she was working and living. During the last quarter of the bike leg, I was getting passed by some amazons in my age group who dropped my ass without mercy. A couple of times I tried to chase them down but made myself pull back reminding myself that I was NOT in the right cycling shape -- they were probably at the end of their summer while I was still in winter, and that this was my NUTRITION race. And so it went for the last painful stretch. Force myself to eat, stand and stretch, visualize pain leaving my back, keep it my race my pace. I went through all my shake, 1.5 power bars and a lot of the race supplied powerade. I just could not stomach the peanut butter and jelly sandwich and was also worried about how the whole grain bread would rest on my stomach.
I was extremely grateful to get to T2 (00:10:54) and get off the bike. If a nice volunteer had not grabbed it for me, I would have given it a bit of a kick out of frustration for making me suffer so. I took a few extra minutes in T2 as I was a bit goofy at that point and one of the volunteers kept asking me if I was all right.
RUN (5:00:28):
Finally I made my way out and climbed the scaffolding they erected across the road to start the run. The run was a double-loop but we had to run by the finish line about three (cruel) times because there was a little extra in the beginning. When I was leaving for the run, I learned that the winners were already done. Sharyn and I caught up with each other during the beginning of the run and chatted a bit more. We ran by her (extended family) fan club and then by Ruth who was taking yet another picture.
I stuck to my nutrition and pacing very well the first half. 14 minutes run. 1 minute walk alternating energy drink with my (Happy Hour) Margarita Clif Blocks. I felt strong and was smiling. Even when I passed by Ruth, who had cycled a ahead to a point on road and was partying with some accountants from Strettons. I passed her taking another picture, a BEER tucked under her arm. I yelled incredulously "is that a BEER?!?" and she laughed as well as many others there. And for a moment, I wished I was her and then I realized that I was actually glad I was doing the event, and I know that she probably would have wanted to be doing this rather than drinking too.
I made it back into town to run by the finish line (for the second time) to hear the announcer saying every few moments "insertnamehere...you are an Ironman" and I went right by to get my second lap arm band. I so wanted to be finished and did not want to run 13.1 more miles. The second loop was where it got very very hard. The sun set and my 14 min. run, 1 min. walk turned into more 7 run, 2 walk and then any other excuse I could think of to walk. I was happy that I felt much stronger than I had at this point in Canada but it still was purely mental grit at this point.
When I passed Ruth the second time, I asked her to walk with me for a bit while I did and we chatted. She was off to take a shower and then meet me at the finish line. About 4 miles away from the finish, I had barely stomached my last cliff blok. I forced myself to pull it out and put it in my mouth reminding myself that it was Happy Hour. When I tasted it, I wanted to spit it out but made myself swallow promising that would be the last one. I then switched to flat coke and squeezed some orange slices into my mouth for orange juice.
FINISH (14:15:20):
When I had a little over two miles to go, I passed the Korean flag on the street (the street was lined with country flags for the event) and decided to call on my ancestors to get me through to the end. Even though I had no idea who they were, they had given me the genes to decide to do something like this so they had better help me finish. I ran the remaining way to the finish, my lungs and back cramping up but I finished 45 minutes faster than my Canada time and was very happy how well I had stuck to my plan.
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