Ironman 70.3 Racine Race Report

We all survived and finished. That really was the only goal going into the race yesterday. I finished in 7:03, had bike troubles and serious cramping on the run for 10 miles. Travis finished with me and his time was 6:58. We weren't speedy but we made it!

The weather was decent. Mid 70's at the start and upper 80's during the run. It was pretty humid though.

The wave Kris and I were in started at 8:08. We were at transition at 5:30am so it was a long morning. The water was a chilly 68 degrees and of course when I put my face in I started hyperventilating a bit. I calmed down the longer I stayed in the water though. The water was clear which is something I'm not used to so that was nice too. I had butterflies in my stomach and my heart started racing a bit when the gun went off. I started at the back on the right and got into a little groove fairly quickly.

The swim was pretty uneventful until I was getting close to the last buoy before heading to shore. By then several people in the. Ext wave and a few from the wave after had caught up to me and it became more like the "washing machine" they tell you about. I had someone swimming up my legs continuously. I made it to shore and through the swim finish arch in 42 minutes. I was more than ok with that time.

The highlight of T1 was the nice man who pulled off my wetsuit. I've never had assistance getting out of my suit before and let me say, it was AWESOME!!!!

I took my time in T1 and headed out on the bike after 6 minutes or so. Then I started cursing. My freaking bike computer would not work. No mph, no timer, nothing. The only thing that worked was cadence. I stopped at around 5 miles and tried to fix it with no luck. I was racing by feel only which isn't a bad thing to do sometimes but it would have been good to pace myself during a ride that was that long. A ride that would be followed up with a half marathon! Oh well. I knew right then that when I told Travis about it he would take the computer off and smash it. Rightly so. It has been a pain in the arse since I got it.

The bike course is not enjoyable. It is rough as a cob. Even drinking is difficult. At mile 15 my aerobars had come loose. Not just slightly loose but all the way to where they were turning all of the way out. I thought about leaving them and riding in my drops the rest of the way but 40+ miles in the drops is a long way. I pulled over and spent minutes tightening the darn things.

Travis passed me shortly after.

I tried to stay at a moderate pace.

I tried to eat and drink. More on that later.

I finished the bike in 3:17 and headed to T2. I came upon Travis there. I got my run gear on, let the race volunteers slather some sunscreen on me and then hit the porta potty. I peed a lot. I thought I must have been drinking enough to that point. I was wrong.

Travis waited for me and we headed out on the run. The first mile was ok. I think we did 9:19 pace. That is too fast. We walked through the first aid station and grabbed some perform and ice water which I poured over my head. Mile 2 was ok. I made us walk for a minute after 5 minutes then we ran to the next aid station. Again I had perform and ice water. The next mile I made us walk again after about five minutes but here is where the wheels started to come off. I started to feel like I couldn't breathe. Travis calmed me down and then we jogged some more. I started to feel some small cramps in my quads just above my knees. We made it through the first 3.4 miles in around 36 minutes. I kept telling Travis he could go on. He didn't. At first I think I was running too fast to try to not disappoint him but then the cramping started and it was somewhat out of my control.

My jog five minutes, walk one minute plan gradually deteriorated to at the end where I couldn't even jog 20 steps consecutively without my legs seizing up. I almost fell down 3 times. I'm sad that I didn't perform better and that I didn't finish in under 7 hours. I am so thankful for my awesome hubby. He didn't have to stay with me. I would have been ok. But he did stay. We talked about things while we walked. I had a good time even though I could barely walk. I really, really, really love that man.

I tried to run across the finish but my legs did not really let me. That will be an interesting finish line picture. A lady came over to too to me and asked me to follow her to the med tent. I did. They wrapped ice bags around my legs and neck. They gave me water. They said there was a ton of people who ran almost the whole race while cramping. They thought it was due to the humidity.

We he some snacks and packed up our stuff. The shower at the hotel felt awesome. Then we met some friends for a little celebratory food and drink. I slept like crap. I miss my kids.

Now let's talk about nutrition here is what my day looked like:

Dinner the night before:
Olive garden linguini alla marinara. 2 breadsticks and a salad. We had 1 beer at the hotel and I ate a banana before I popped and Ibuprofen and hit the hay. I slept good

Race day
Breakfast: 1 cinnamon raisin bagel with approx 1T Jif Natural PB, a little coffee and some water

Pre-race: approx 10 oz perform and 1/2 banana

Bike: 20 oz perform in the first hour, 2 margarita shot blocks at hour 1, 20 oz perform during the second hour, 1/2 banana at approx 1.5 hours in, 2 margarita shot blocks at hour 2, 20 oz of water during the remaining ride and 2-3 shot blocks.

Run: I had perform at all but one aid station and water at about half of them. I tried soda once but it was horrible! I had a few potato chips at mile 7 and a GU Rocktane at mile 10.

Moral of the story.....I didn't drink enough. If I ever do this again I need to figure that out. I also need to do some longer runs after long rides. It's been so hot this summer and I've been so pressed for time that the longest run after a bike was 3.1 miles. That won't cut it.

All in all, I'm glad I did it but I don't really feel the itch to do another. We will see.