I will start from the beginning. I had eggs and corn tortillas for breakfast. The swim went well. My good buddy Michael Lovato told me that my song of choice, “Black Betty” would be playing when I came out of the water. Unfortunately, I swam 5 minutes slower than expected, so I missed it. I swam less in the month leading up to the race in favor of running more. I probably wont make that mistake again, because that just leads to my Timex teammate, Denny, swimming my face off. Never good.
In my first two Ironmans, my plan for the bike was to ride as hard as I could for as long as I could. This time around I played it safe, possibly too safe now that I look back on it, but I got off the bike feeling like a million bucks. So, I was ready to run. My guts felt good, my legs felt good, my hair looked good, I was ready to roll. I ran a 6.35 first mile…I dont know, I just got excited. So, I used my banked time to stop at the loo, pee, and give myself a talking to. From there I ran a controlled first half, coming through in 1.45- perfect. My goal was to run 3.35, so I was on track despite the arch incident. Arch incident? you ask. I was running under a huge inflatable “FORD” arch at 9 miles when I saw an ambulance coming. The ambulance was too tall for the arch and hit the top of it. The arch popped and collapsed on me. Then I heard people shouting “get her out of there!” and I was like, “yeah, get me out of here!” I swam out of the collapsed arch and carried on. At mile 14 I picked up the pace, and for the next 7 miles I felt like I was flying. I came through 21 miles thinking it would be possible to run 3.20. Then, at 23 miles I remember looking at my watch and thinking “I could blow up and still run under 3.30″
And then…the lights went out. My stomach was so distended I wondered if I would be left with permanent stretch marks. I shuffled a mile, walked a mile, and then was given my very own volunteer to stumble the last mile with. That last mile took 40 minutes. 4-0. Actually it was more than a mile, because I turned around and walked backwards on the course in my disoriented state- that is how a person wins themself a volunteer escort, I suppose
I set all sorts of PRs after the race, a temp of 95 degrees, a blood pressure reading of 50/39 and 3 IVs…not exactly the PRs I was going for, but its Ironman, you take what it gives you. It was awesome to see my Timex teammate Tamara demolishing the women’s field, and our Team Manager Extraordinaire Tristan holding down the Timex biz.