IMFL, 11:02, 9th place W40-44
This isn't a full race report, and I'm not sure I'll get to one. I really just wanted to say THANKS to Rich, Patrick, and all of my fellow teammates who raced IMFL this weekend. I had the race of my life, and I know I did as well as I did because I joined EN and stuck through it during a difficult year. Last winter I struggled with poorly controlled asthma, was recovering from a back injury most of the spring, modified a lot of the workouts, but managed to get to 3.75 watts/kg and a 42 VDOT by race day.
Race day was epic! I thought about the 4 keys and stayed in my box all day despite a crazy start. That was my first ocean swim. I was yelled at and shoved by a fellow athlete during the swim, ended up with a bruised eye and cut lip, and got shoved, yelled at and nearly pushed down on my way to T1. Holy crazy angry mass of people! I did the Dukes of Hazard leap over a water bottle on the bike course, suffered from pretty significant positional reflux and lost a lot of nutrition down the front of my jersey, but I think I came pretty close to my target watts on the bike. I made the mistake of drinking water on the run course, got hyponatremic and nauseated, and ran the last 10 miles on coke and broth. I had horrible blisters, was really worried I was going to heave my guts out in front of RnP at the entrance to the park. I only walked a couple aid stations, sucked it up and gutted it out, and the timing people told me I went from 11th to 9th place in the last 4 miles. Yeah! I left it all out there, I'm proud of my successes, irritated with my mistakes, and am delightfully and completely thrashed. I can barely walk, and giggle cried my way around the Atlanta airport yesterday.
It was really great meeting so many teammates at the dinner, and I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to know very many of you before the race. What a great group of people you all are! Thanks for the cheers on the course! I had hoped to do a real tri geek race report complete with watts and numbers and all that jazz, but I'm just not going to get to it. I'm off to the operating room today to have a biopsy that I've delayed for 5 weeks, and after that I'll hit the ground running getting back to my life as wife and mom of 4. It's not likely that this lump is cancer, but I have a strong family history and my doctor has a low threshold for carving things out of me. It helps to keep things in perspective, and I'm thankful for each day, good or bad.
I'd like to say a special thanks to EN teammates Dan Gilliatt and William Jenks. They brought me into EN, answered a million questions, and have been very helpful. Dan talked me through my my powertap purchase, walked me through WKO, rode with me during my first FTP test, and has answered a million questions over the last year. He works several jobs with crazy hours, and so I know time is precious to him. Thank you just doesn't seem like enough.
Comments
Super race, Sarah!
was great meeting you at the dinner.
BTW, how'd the chicken broth work out? I had a buddy who told me that it cured his ails. I wonder if I should have tried that early in the run.
Anyways, great job out there!
and prayers for the biopsy results.
Very nice. Way to meet all the challenges.
I wish folks would calm the blank down on the swim.
Best in moving on post race.
Wow Sarah, amazing race! Great mental tough throughout the day!!!
I wish I had seen you in person after the race to congratulate you on your finish - all the best in the coming days. Thoughts and prayers for a good outcome, and please keep us posted.
Good luck in the coming days, your team will be sending you Mojo from around the world...
The swim was a freakin nightmare if you ask me...
@Chris, that chicken broth saved me. I ended up with water only at a couple aid stations on the bike due to crowding and poor hand offs. I didn't have enough salt tabs to make up the deficit, as I had underestimated the heat and humidity. And I don't recall making any rational decision to do this, but I starting sucking down water on the run course. I know better than that, I only remember thinking I didn't want any more perform and felt nauseated and fairly confused. I'm lucky I figured it out when I did. I grabbed two cups of broth at 3 different aid stations, and the nausea resolved by mile 24.
@ Sarah - congrats on the good outcome of your surgery, and an awesome race. I've never met you, but as I was following the team on the EN race tracker, I was asking myself "Who is Sarah Cooper? Holy Cow!! She is hammering this race". Your split times sure didn't indicate you had any rough patches, so way to fight thru it. Well done and glad you'll be around for another season.
Sarah, what a positive race you had. I suspect you've got a lot more in you if you want to stay in IM; you could build your run into a super weapon, given the strength of your biking. You were only 7 minutes out of fifth place. That's very doable. Figure out what it takes, then, next stop, the podium.