IMAZ Race Report:This is the year I stop saying This is the year!!! 51:39 PR over IMFL 2012 11:55:18
WARNING: Long report! 
I arrived in AZ on Tuesday, rented a car and drove the start of the bike course to the Beeline from Tempe before heading to Marie and Eric's in North Scottsdale, my home base for the next week. Marie and I had a great dinner out and I got the full tour of the amazing finished outdoor space at their place. Wednesday she and Eric were out of town for work so I had the house to myself! It's gorgeous there! Got my special needs stuff and bags somewhat ready and had a little run with strides in town. Got groceries and relaxed in the hot tub before heading to bed. Thursday was a cluster you know what! The stooped started with throwing up so hard (beet juice supplement didn't agree with me!) I gave myself a black eye, continuing to getting “lost “ finding the community pool (yes, I was using the map app on my phone!), no towel (GAH) when I got there, to being much slower getting the bikes and checking in than expected (seeing lots of peeps from MI when at the athlete village which lead to riding the Beeline later than expected and losing light on the way back. Then back (in traffic) to Cath's hotel to drop my bike, change and head to the Team dinner, which we were late for. I had to leave when everyone was introducing themselves to pick up Steve and Curt from the Airport, whom I was late for. Grrrrr! Basically I had my shoulders in my ears from stress all day! We got to Marie’s and relaxed a bit. Phew! Friday was back to athlete village (about an hour away) so the guys could get their bikes and we could run. It was a hassle driving back and forth and arranging for lodging for our bikes, but it was great to be away from it all when at Marie’s. Saturday we got there to swim, drop gear bags, the bikes and our things in Pam’s room at the host hotel as we were staying there race night. I raced back to get the car keys I’d left in that overnight bag and thank goodness I found my 910x and garmin 500 in the bag. BUT I left my hone with Steve and we got separated for 30' very stressful minutes. Finally after mooching the parking attendants phone and connecting, we were ready to go. We had a great dinner with Marie and Eric, celebrated Curt’s B-day and watched the Kona broadcast. Our friend Daniel was in it twice, and of course I cried! Marie came in my room while I was finishing up, I shared with her my motivation pictures and we talked race times, strategy and goals. She really got me focused on T1 and 2 and not to waste time there...which saved me from missing my Big Fat Hairy Goal of going sub 12. Then to bed and a decent nights sleep. The wake up and regular race prep when fine and we were out the door at 4:30 to make it to the venue by 5:18. We got dropped by the venue and went straight to the bikes to get set up. The passing of the bike pump was my connection to many of my friends racing from MI. EN’er and my bad assed training partner Cathleen White was all business! Her hubby was doing what ever we needed…sherpa hero! My friends that were first timers had that look…you know the one..the one that the day that they’ve worked so hard for was really REALLY here!!! I got interviewed (and made the recap!) by an IM camera dude, and before you know it, I was hugging up Cathleen just before we jumped into Tempe Town Lake to swim to our spot that was described in the race webinar by Coach…crying a bit in my goggles and trying to focus on being grateful for the day about to unfold!
The Swim: 1:16:51 Goal 1:10-1:13
Not having had the opportunity to pre-swim here, was a problem for me. There was a short swim on Saturday which basically served as a "Yes, your booties and neo cap are perfect for this water temp" swim with a chance to practice the weird bleacher exit and that was it.
Since swimming is usually my strong suit I did not put the effort into being as detailed as the bike and run in my race prep. I figured (incorrectly!) that since it was a single loop without an exit like IMFL and IMLP I would be able to swim as fast as IMFL with a bit less training, capitalizing on the non stop draft and no land time. WRONG! My pace for the distance was correct for my 1:10-1:12 swim I was thinking I'd get, but my sighting was TERRIBLE! Lesson learned!
I got beat up pretty good this race...it seemed I was out of the main draft, but getting clobbered anyhow! More dudes felt me up in that swim than my whole four years in college lol! I got calf, foot and hamstring cramps at different times in the race...the hammy cramps are scary, but I knew from my crappy experience in Spain during ITU Worlds last summer it would not affect the bike or run, so I just slowed, and relaxed till they stopped. The repeated beat downs meant tensing up and repeated cramps though. Not fun. As is my norm in IM swims, I got the obligatory kick in my face so hard that I lifted my head up and yelled "F*CK!" Gotta love mass starts! 
The other challenging bit to this swim in particular (other than no race rehearsal) is the exit. The exit is a set of sunken bleachers that I was told would have volunteers helping you out of...kind of swim up and they haul you out. Nope. I swim up (a cluster as you'd imagine) and the volunteer says "hop up...use the rail"...so I try and hoist my arse up and miss...back into the drink. Try again..fumble fumble crawl and finally got up. I need to take this part of the race just as seriously as the rest of it. I was a bit fluffy on my swims leading into the race as well as not planning a more detailed race plan for this leg. Next IM will not be a personal worst swim time!
T1: 7:00
Well, my hostess and Kona Crush Marie gave me a stern talking to about my transition times. I listened. And visualized on the ride from Scottsdale to the race site. It seems to have worked! I hustled and got in and out quickly with the help of some awesome volunteers. They helped sunblock me, put my jersey on and handed me my glasses and helmet. They rocked!
The Bike: 5:51:04 Goal Watts: 138, NP Watts 130 VI 1.03
We had just about PERFECT weather. Chilly early, and minimal winds. The first lap there was a great tailwind on the downhill after the turnaround. The wind and congestion on the course was higher on the second lap. Third lap the wind was a bit higher, but still not bad at all.
My goal was to be steady eddy on the entire course, staying super aero and consistent with my power output. Because of the nature of the three loops it was much more congested than I felt comfy with and my power was not nearly as steady as I had hoped it would be. It wasn't horrible, but could have been better. I got off the bike twice to pee (darn it! still can't go on the bike!)
My other goal was to put out gut issues if they flared up. And of course they did. I trained from 8/13 on to use perform and power bars. No issues during training, but a little in the last two race rehearsals. I was prepared with Immodium and I had to take it quite early in the bike. Most of my cramping was reduced and I was able to ride as I wanted about 45 minutes after that. I had taped a couple gels to the bike in case the power bars were not going well, and I'm glad I did. I used them at mile 80 and as my last feeding before getting off the bike. The caffeine was a nice boost too. I think I will take the Immodium pre race from now on and practice that next season. I was short of my watts goal and left a bit of time on the table I think. And I need to learn how to PEE ON THE BIKE ALREADY lol!
T2: 2:01
THE best volunteers ever! I even switched out socks (which I should not have...I didn't pee on the bike after all!) One gal put my race belt on, one gal sprayed me with sunblock and put my visor on me while I got socks and shoes on....I grabbed a biogel, a face wipe and split. I don't usually ride with socks, so that was out of my norm to have um on. I switched them out and probably shouldn’t have. Seriously, this is LIGHTNING fast for me lol!
The Run: 4:38:22 Goal run of 4:45:xx
HOLY SH*T! I did it! I finally had the run I've been dreaming of and working on since IMFL 2010! I ran from aid to aid, NO WALKING IN BETWEEN! Whooo Hooooo! My garmin got bumped about 2.1 miles in, so I had to reboot the watch to get splits. I was not sure where I was chasing my time goal of sub 12. I just kept on staying steady, and taking in my nutrition as planned. I ran up that darn Curry hill both times, and LOVED it! I kept waiting for the wheels to come off, but they never did. My buddy Trish smacked my butt at mile 20 in my first IM and I promised her that was her mile...I even smacked myself on the fanny! The big fat full orange moon rising was a blessing to see. Just gorgeous! Being cheered by Brian (who was all over the course...my adoptive sherpa extrodinare!), all my friends and their families and Marie and Eric was great!
Eric told me to hit my time I had to run 10:20s at about mile 10 and I figured there was no way. I just stuck to my plan: perform every aid, salt every aid, a gu every 3rd or 4th mile and get stepping’! Mile 18(iish) comes and I see Coach Rich and shout to him “I’m still running! It’s a Christmas Miracle!” It’s time to get racey…sort of lol. I knew my one thing…it was all about having the run I’d worked all season for. I have never felt so CONFIDENT in my run. I was running strong for me and I had my one thing…”NO REGRETS”. I had taken Immodium early on the run when my gut gave me issues…triage applied. I started drinking coke at mile 20 for the caffine and extra tummy settling. I laughed when I saw at mile 23? aid port o pot the sign that said “RUN NOW, POOP LATER!” and so I ran! I had ITB pain just after Curry hill and I put my biofreeze on it and told myself NO REGRETS MARSHALL!
In mile 24 a gal in my ag passed me...I was like...ah NO. I passed her back, looking for her shadow as I passed under lights and finally checking over my shoulder to see where she was. She was far enough behind that I could get one more dose of coke at the last aid. Then it was about 1.3 to finish. Some guys said we were one small hill away from the shoot...I started to run harder, having no idea where I was on the clock. Then I saw Marie and Eric going absolutely NUTS...screaming YOUR GOING TO MAKE YOUR TIME!!! I had no idea how close I was to 12 hours so I put down the hammer (lol...9 minutes miles...felt like 6:30s!) and low and behold...I see the clock...11:55:xx!!!!!!! HOLY SH*T! I did it! This is the first long distance race I did not get passed by people on the run (overall). I PASSED 146 runners, and one girl in my AG, moving from 9th off the bike to 8th OA, also a first. Super happy with my run and beating my big fat hairy goal. Landing 8th in my AG was awesome too! I've never placed higher than 31 in an IM. Even if I didn't age up this year, I'd have been 14th in 45-49. Color me HAPPY!
Post race I was hoping to catch up with Team EN at Rula Bula, but by the time Curt, Steve and I all were clean, food service had stopped, so we ended up at a brewery down the street for eats. I sure wish I could have toasted you all there and celebrated with you!
Comments
Way to go Trish! Sounds like you got the EN execution down! So happy you had such a great day. Your awesome run was definitely a result of being steady on the bike.
I'm guessing though, you have it in you to push a little harder while riding a little smoother and still run like a leopard! From the goal vs actual NP power, I'm calculating you rode more 65% than 70% and and the VI 1.03 for AZ is a tad high ( of course that does include having to stop to pee (my problem too!)) 1.01-1,02 would be Ninja smooth. Do those things and I think you'd be under 5:40 and still run fast! Free money!
As for the the gut issues: have you tried using gels on the ride? I had lots of gut problems using power bars, and switched to gels no solids: I've never had upset since. Just an idea.
It was great to meet you briefly, hope we get to race together again!