LEADING UP TO RACE
DAY
There’s so much to share I almost don’t know where to
start. The Ironman journey was nearly a
year in the making. Once I signed up in
the fall of 2014, I kicked off training in January 2015. I didn’t have the funds to hire a coach, so I
opted to go it alone when it came to training.
I gathered training plans from my roll teammate Dawn (a 7 time Ironman
finisher), one from the Ironman site, one from Aaron Schrein (my former run
club coach), and I kind of combined them all together – then promptly stopped looking
at them. Yes, I admit, I had no training
plan. Well, I had a plan – I just didn’t
pay much attention to it. Because I work
in fitness, my weeks were filled with teaching and attending classes, so I
hoped that would do most of the work for me.
Luckily it all worked, but there were some initial nerves going into
this event! I didn’t have the miles
under my belt that many others did, and I was relying on very different
training – shorter bursts of intervals, strength training, and lots of short/fast
rides rather than long rides. I also
didn’t swim much at all. A lot of things
could go wrong. ::sigh::
Now to the event weekend…….I met my roll: racing teammates Gena,
Michelle, Matt, and Siobhan at the Briggs’ residence on Thursday morning before
the race. We loaded our gear up into two
different cars and made the way to Chattanooga. Easy trip in, and we were at
the rental house in Lookout Mountain, GA around 7pm. The house was absolutely beautiful, and we
had plenty of space. I was initially
worried that being away from downtown Chattanooga would be a problem, but in
the end, I think having that refuge away from the madness was integral in
keeping stress levels low. We all did
great together in the house, and staying there will hold a special place in my
IMCHOO memories.
Friday was check in – in the rain. Shopping – in the rain. Everything – in the
rain. It rained from Thursday through
Saturday night without little letup.
That’s okay – as we hoped it would increase the flow of the river and
drop temps to make the swim wetsuit legal.
It just made for a damp several days.
We had some meals out – burritos at Mojo Burrito on Thursday night,
lunch at a riverfront restaurant on Friday, and I went with Dawn and Paul to a
street fair hosted by Outside magazine on Friday night, too, after the Central
Ohio IMCHOO get together. Dawn and I
split a funnel cake and both ended up sick that evening due to undercooked
batter. AWESOME (not good to wake up at
2am with serious GI issues less than 24 hours before race start).
Saturday, Dawn and I were feeling better (thank goodness),
and we made our way down to Ironman Village for some random reason (Saturday
morning is a blur to me – what the hell did we do that day??), then we headed
back up the mountain. My dear friend
from grad school, Lauren, and another friend, Brian, drove in from Atlanta to
wish me well. I had a nice crying spell
in the backyard of the rental house as I hugged my longtime friend who I so
dearly miss. Dawn and I decided to get
our bags together and drop off bikes down at the Village, so we double checked
all the bag contents and headed back down the mountain. We went through the check in process to drop
off bikes and bags, then I split off to hang out with Lauren and Brian a bit to
show them the Ironman sites and explain the ridiculosity of the whole
event. After wandering a bit, Lauren and
Brian took me back to the house and said their goodbyes to allow me some time
to rest. It was hard to say bye to Lauren, but I was so touched that she and
Brian made the trip out to see me.
That evening we had a team dinner at the house – simple and
lovely. Pasta, sauce, salad and garlic
bread (and wine). I felt so grateful to
be going through this experience with so many friends. Being around them all really helped ease my
nerves and make this “individual event” feel somewhat like a team endeavor!!
Before bed, we put our race tattoos and I was in bed by about 9pm. Before trying to sleep, I read through all the
letters, cards, texts and facebook messages from friends far and wide. To say I was overcome by the amount of
support is an understatement. I felt
like I had the support of SO many people going into IMCHOO – how did I get so
lucky? Amazingly enough, sleep came easily, and I was out pretty quickly.
RACE MORNING
The alarm was ringing at 4:15am, and I was ready to go. I sat up pretty quickly and grabbed my manual
breastpump I brought with me. Mira is
still nursing, and I wanted to do all I could to preserve my supply even being
away for a few days. Therefore, I REALLY
had to make sure I pumped before 15+ hours of an athletic event. I pumped about ten minutes then rolled out of
bed, got dressed, grabbed coffee, grabbed bike bottles, went to the bathroom,
and I had some toast with peanut butter for breakfast. I got my morning clothes bag in hand, and we
all loaded up and headed out shortly after 5am.
We dropped off Special Needs bags, checked our bikes, then boarded the
bus for the swim start together – all 5 of us.
I am so glad we had each other.
Having those ladies there for the start was huge in keeping nerves
low. We waited for a while in the start
line, but honestly time seemed to go by fast.
Before we knew it, the line had been split into wetsuit vs non wetsuit
(the water temp was high enough to not make wetsuits “legal”), so we donned our
suits and stayed to the right. The line
started moving, and within a half an hour, we were walking barefoot through the
muck on our way to the dock. As I
started towards the dock, a volunteer slapped the back of my shoulder and said
“Get ready for the best swim of your life” and I thought “heck yeah – let’s do
it.” All five roll: ladies all made our
way to the dock, and I clamped my nose with two fingers and took a flying leap
into the river as I said “weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”.
GAME. ON.
SWIM – 2.4 miles
The water temp was great.
I don’t recall needing any time to adapt to the water temp – it just
felt comfortable right away – especially in the wetsuit. Open water swimming (let’s be honest –
swimming in general) is not my favorite, so it always takes a bit to get warmed
up. I knew the swim would be three main
parts – getting to the island, swimming the length of the island, then three
bridges. Divide it into thirds, and just
swim that part. In the beginning, I
would sight ahead and say “make it just past the yellow kayak, then you can
rest; now, the blue; now, the green.”
Eventually, I was making the goals further away – the boat on the left,
oh hey – THE ISLAND! Before I knew it, I
had found a good rhythm. I breathed to
the right every other stroke, and I had my own swim space. I had a dude that kept smacking me for a
while, but after I stopped to breaststroke for a bit, he moved away. Traffic started to get heavier as we made our
way around the island, so I had to jockey for space a bit. I kept my pacing though and just kept
swimming. All of a sudden, I looked up
and saw a bridge! Already to part
3! Three bridges, then exit left. It felt like it took a while to get to bridge
one, then to bridge two, but there I was finally at bridge 3 and I knew the
exit was coming. I saw that red buoy and
the stairs. It didn’t feel like I had
been in the water long at all. I knew
coming in that I had an awesome swim. Indeed, I had! I highly recommend this
swim for folks not that crazy about open water swims – having the current helps
weaker swimmers, and the water quality and visibility seemed pretty
reasonable. Great experience and a
confidence booster for future OWS!
TIME: 1 hour 7 minutes
for 2.4 miles (1:44/100m)
T1: Swim to Bike
Because the swim was so fast for so many, the changing tent
was packed when I got in there with my T1 bag.
I had heard volunteer support was great in the tents, but because there
were so many people, I didn’t have anyone to help me. No worries – I got this. Until I put on my bib shorts backwards and
had a leg through an arm hole.
BREATHE. Slow down, sit down, get
your clothes on right. I looked up and
saw Michelle D, one of my teammates, in the tent too. I knew Michelle was a strong swimmer this
year, so I was pumped to be in the tent the same time as her! I got her attention and said hi! A volunteer
rushed over and asked if I needed help.
By then, I was starting to get my shit together. Finally got my bibs on,
left my sports bra on from the swim, and I put on my roll: cycling jersey. Grabbed my glasses, put on my helmet and
shoes, and I was off.
TIME: 10:53
BIKE – 116 miles
Here’s my basic thoughts on the bike course – absolutely
beautiful, kind of hilly but not bad (riding in Granville is great to prep for
mildly hilly rides like this), and absolutely beautiful. Did I say that already? Amazingly enough – even though the bike
course takes the majority of time in the race – I don’t have a ton to share
here! I was warned by others to not take
the first loop too fast. I had also
heard the mantra “If you have a fast bike, you will have a crap run.” I knew I could shine more on the run, so I
decided to conserve a bit for that. I
never went all out, but I tried to keep the speed in the 15mph+ zone as much as
possible. I wanted a 16mph average on
the bike overall, so that was the only goal I kept in mind.
It seemed like time was in a vacuum a bit on the ride. I looked at my computer once and was shocked
to see I had already been on the bike for almost 3 hours. It didn’t feel like that at all. I felt good, and I was really enjoying
myself. Between HEED for my drink, BASE
Salts every 10-12 miles, and a Shot Block every 10-12 miles, I felt nutrition
was spot on. When I hit special needs in
Chickimagua, I didn’t really want to stop, but I did so I could grab my
sandwich and down a few Pringles. I also
chugged half a bottle of Coke. I went
out pretty quickly because I felt good and just wanted to keep rolling. The climb out of Chickimagua seemed like it
would never end, and I was glad to get started on the second loop.
Around Mile 90, I started to get excited because I thought
90 seemed close to 100, and 100 seemed close to 116. Then I started to do the math and realized
that 26 miles still meant about an hour and a half on the bike. SIGH.
I was ready to be done riding at that point. I never wanted to stop – I was just “over”
riding. The last 10 miles seemed to take
FOREVER. When I finally rolled up on the
dismount line, I was super excited to hand over my bike. It was time to hit the
strong part of my race – the run.
TIME: 7:37:50,
15.2mph, 116 miles
T2: Bike to Run
By this time, the field had spread, so there was plenty of
space in the changing tent, and a volunteer grabbed my bag and sat down on the
ground ready to help me get ready. I
changed out of my jersey and bib shorts into my roll: tri shorts and my VO2 tri
top. There’s no such thing as modesty in
the changing tent – which is a bit odd and awesome at the same time. Ha! I
had a pic of Mira on a luggage tag from Bryn in my bag, and I gave it a big
kiss for some power. Got on my race
belt, the volunteer lubed up my underarms with Vaseline, got my shoes on, visor
and sunglasses, and I was out. I was
excited to run my first marathon!
TIME: 7:58
RUN – 26.2 miles
I had never run a marathon before, so I wasn’t quite sure
what to expect. The longest run in
training was 17 miles, and that run was a bust due to crap nutrition and
hydration. I planned to make this part
of the race a success – I knew I had plenty of time to finish before midnight,
so I wanted to make the marathon as pleasant an experience as possible.
The first six miles went by FAST. I walked every aid station and a bit in
between. I started off counting my steps
– for every 500 I ran, I got to walk 100 steps.
For every extra 100 steps over 500 I ran, I gave myself an extra 100
steps to walk. This worked REALLY well getting
over the mental hurdle of thinking about running a marathon in those early
miles. I realized I was feeling pretty
good, so I just stopped counting the steps and just ran. It felt good, so why
the hell not? I saw Dawn at Mile 4 and her foot was killing her. I had a bag of Advil on me, so I gave her a
few in hopes it would help her pain!
Around mile 10 or so, I had a big cup of soda, and I think
the bubbles started to make me a bit gassy.
My stomach felt distended, so I decided I should probably back off on
the soda even if it tasted delish. I saw Gena coming back into town as I was
hitting the super hilly part of the course, and she looked great. I gave up any hope of catching her, so I just
kept with running my own race. I was
eating orange slices at each stop, sometimes some chips or pretzels, Gatorade
at one station, then water at the next. I
saw Lynne as I was headed back into town from my first loop and she seemed
worried about time – I hoped she was doing okay. The half way point was on me, and I was at
special needs. I grabbed my bag and
realized I needed nothing in it – not the jacket, the bandaids, the wipes – I
was feeling great. I stashed a couple
bandaids in my pocket just in case, but I was on my second loop pretty fast.
On the second loop I got to see the big blood/harvest moon
that was out – that was lovely. I kept
running in any flat place I could – I now knew the back 4 miles of the loop
were hilly as hell, so if it looked reasonably flat anywhere else, my feet
better be moving quick. I realized, too,
that I may actually be able to meet my super secret time goal of 15 hours – at
this point I knew I would finish, so now I wanted to finish faster.
Several people had told me to prepare for “the wall” to hit
around mile 21. I remember passing the
“Mile 21” sign and actually looking around and preparing for this wall to jump
out and smack me. It never did. Sure, I was tired and my legs were getting
achy – but dammit, this is Ironman! It’s
supposed to hurt a bit, right? I walked
the uphills, ran the downhills, and I was eating ice in between aid stations
(and using BASE Salts every couple aid stations). My stomach had recovered from the soda, and I
was feeling pretty damn good.
At Mile 24, I ran into Jeanne Bauer, and we hugged and
talked quickly about our experience so far.
We ran a bit together, then Jeanne sent me on my way – she wanted to
walk, and I kept with the run. I knew we
were SO close, and I was ready to be done.
As I hit the boardwalk bridge, I could hear the announcer saying names
and the crowd was cheering. The
spectators on the bridge were so encouraging – they were clapping and saying
“you look great! Stay strong! You are going to be an Ironman!” I had a huge
smile those last two miles. So much so that
my cheeks hurt afterwards. As I rounded
into town, I thought of Mira and how much I missed her. This is the longest I had ever been apart
from her, and I wanted to see my baby girl.
I started to well up with tears but pushed them back – this was a celebration.
I hoped she would be proud of me once
she got bigger and knew about this accomplishment.
It was then I realized I was about to enter the finishers
chute – it was a lot longer than I thought it would be. There was a dude in front of me, but I put on
the speed and sprinted ahead of him. I
now had the whole chute to myself. I
high fived a couple folks, then I hit the middle of the chute, put my arms up
and sprinted in. I heard “Michelle
Newman Brady – YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!” I was just thrilled. So thrilled. I’m an Ironman. Wow.
Who knew that was even possible?
The day was just amazing - I never wanted to stop the whole
day. Never wanted to give up. Sure, I got tired and I was ready to be off
the bike at mile 90. But I never had a
moment of “oh gosh please let this be over.”
I felt strong the majority of the race, and my unorganized training
actually served me really, really well.
Ironman Chattanooga was an amazing, awesome experience.
TIME: 5:25:13,
12:24/mile
FINAL TIME: 14:28:59
After the finish, I went straight to our team tent, hugged
Gena, hugged our team Sherpas, then sat in a chair. Paul had a massage stick, and I went to work
on my legs right away. It hurt, but I
think it aided in my recovery. We started
figuring out where Michelle, Dawn, and Lynne were on the course so we could see
them come in. It’s a bit of a blur after
that – I stood at the edge of the chute and got to see all of my fellow
ladyrollers finish. We hugged, we took
pictures. It was ridiculously cool. And
surreal.
I slept that night with the medal next to me. When I woke up in the morning, it almost
seemed like a dream. A really great
dream. Not sure if and when I will do
another. This experience was so great, I
don’t know how I could top it. I’ll take
some time over the next year to get faster at other distances. I’ll probably come back to Ironman at some
point, but if I don’t that’s okay too.
The experience I had was amazing, so it should hopefully last for a
while!!
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