Christy Beal IMCHOO race report
Overall 14:19:43
Swim (2.4 miles) 56:49
T1 8:39
Bike (116 miles) 7:22:32
T2 6:59
Run (26.2 miles) 5:44:44
I spent all summer, and part of the spring getting ready for
this race. In May I ran the Newport Marathon in Oregon and learned some good
nutrition lessons, mostly that I had been seriously underestimating my calorie
needs on the run. I spent most of my Saturdays and Sundays this summer on long
bike rides practicing nutrition and long rides. I signed up for a ton of local
supported rides in MD, NJ, PA, and Delaware to practice on rolling hills. The
more I rode, the harder the rides seemed to get. By the beginning of September
I was very frustrated, every ride seemed slower and more difficult. I rode a 50
mile ride in central Jersey that was hilly and hot, and I was really
struggling. I averaged 13 miles an hour on that ride. If that was as fast as I
could go I would never make the cutoff for the bike portion.
Two weeks before the race, I took my bike for its
traditional cleaning and tune-up pre-race. When my shiny clean bike was
returned the guy at the shop told me that my front tire was rubbing on the
breaks, for what looked like a long time, and that he had fixed that for me. I
don't think he could have given me better news.
The week before the race I came down with a horrible cold,
spent all day Saturday 9/20 laying on the couch and feeling miserable. The rest
of the week prior to the race I started feeling better, but I was still stuffed
up when we were getting ready to get on the plane to Nashville. I was sure that
being sick so close to the race would make it much more difficult. I retrospect I think it forced me to rest, and
may have actually helped. Our plane was delayed a for a few hours, but we made
it to Nashville by Thursday night. We missed out on having dinner at Opryland,
but at least we had a nice dinner and a great hotel room. When we woke up on
Friday morning ,the news was reporting that the Chicago airport was shut down
due to a fire and flights we backed up or cancelled all over the country. We
were so lucky that we left a day early.
After breakfast we drove down to Chattanooga and checked in,
went to the athlete meeting, and retrieved the bike from TriBike Transport.
Getting in and out of town was easy.
Morning of...
We got up at 4AM and left Niobe asleep. After
stopping for two egg sandwiches at the Waffle House we drove to Transition. I
mixed up my 4 hour bike bottles, checked my tires, and dropped off my special
needs bags. At previous races I have been too nervous to eat or really soak in
the morning, but I was feeling fine and happy. Third time's the charm, at least
I knew exactly what to expect.
We took the shuttle bus to the start 2.4 miles
upstream and got in line.
Swim 56:49 2.4miles (18 minute PR, but I bet a lot
of that has to do with the current)
I know that we waited for over two hours in line,
but time flew by and soon the sky was becoming light. I was close to the front,
so I figured that I bought myself as much time as possible. After the pros went
off we waited about 10 minutes and then the line started to move very fast. We
walked through an arch, down the dock and I just stepped right into the water
without hesitating. The clock read 7:36.
During the swim, I think I bumped into a total of
two people. Felt like clear water the entire way. I was trying to save some
energy and was keeping my heart rate way down. I think I swam too far towards
midstream for a bit, but I moved closer back to shore as we got closer to the
bridges. At one point I passed a buoy marked 1 and I thought that it was the
one mile marker, so I looked at my watch. I had been swimming for 32 minutes.
This was not good, that is slow for me, so I started putting some effort into
my strokes. Next time I looked up I could see the bridge near the exit. In no
time I was at the turn buoy and I could hear Mike Reilly announcing the
swimmers names. As I climbed out, I looked at my watch and it read 8:33, I did
the math and my time seemed impossible. I looked at my watch again, did the
math again. That comes out to about 57 minutes. The buoy marked #1 must not
have been the mile marker.
I thought to myself "I am having the best
race of my life"
Bike 7:22:32
116 miles (31 minute PR, even with 4 extra miles, if I take those 4
miles off, this is a 53 minute PR
)
Ran, really ran, to transition, and changed my clothes. (As
a side note, I have clearly overcome my fear of public nudity. ) Ran to the
sunscreen line. I love the sunscreen line, at Chattanooga you stood still while
4 or 5 women sprayed and rubbed sunscreen all over you. Then I ran for my bike, yelling my number,
no walking for me this time.
The mount line was crowded, but I found a clear spot and got
going. Immediately started eating and
drinking. My drink tasted funny, but I figured it was because my mouth was full
of river water.
35 miles into the
ride I was 20 minutes ahead of where I expected to be even in a best case
scenario. I was holding my watts around 103, and trucking along in my big ring. Lots of big groups of cyclists passed me, but I kept pedaling along on my own.
My stomach really started to hurt at about 40miles, enough that I was having trouble pushing the pedals, turns
out that the drink was funny, it was only supposed to sit out for four hours
and it had been about 4 hours by the time I started to drink it. I threw it out
and started drinking water and Perform, but the damage was done. My stomach
really hurt.
I started to have fantasies about my husband.
I imagined he would
be at Chickamauga at special needs. I would jump off my bike and run to hug
him, and as I was hugging him, I would whisper in his ear...
" In the name of all that is holy, please go buy me
some Gas-X"
I would then ride off, and he would drive to the closest
drug store, buy Gas-X and return to the race course. At my next loop through town I would see him,
waving and cheering on the side of the road.
Once again, I would leap off the bike and run to him. And my
Knight in Shining armor would kiss me, a big romantic kiss. During the kiss he
would pass me one glorious Gas-X pill. You know, the way you do that sexy thing
with mints when you are first dating?
Ahhh romance.
In reality I never saw John or any of my family, I was so
far ahead of what I told them that they assumed the tracker was messed up and
they got to Chickamauga after I had already passed through. My stomach cramped
for the rest of the bike, and although my average pace slowed I was still ahead
of my best possible day estimate. I avoided the tacks and oil that was spread
on the course, but I saw dozens of flat tires during the day, I was lucky to
not have a puncture. My Garmin says that
there was 3500 feet of climbing, but it did not feel like that much, for much of
the ride I was in my big gear.
My VI overall was high 1.1, but my average power was low. I
lost a bit of power after my stomach started to hurt, so I ended up with an
average power of just under 100 for the race, I was shooting for 103. My legs
felt great all day, I got very sore at about mile 35, which seems to be normal
for me, I am always sore from about 30 to 40 miles and then the soreness goes
away and I feel fine until the end of the ride. I was only got sore again at
about mile 100. I stopped twice to use the porta-potties, but that only used up
about 4 minutes total. In previous races I have spend more than 25 minutes at
rest stops.
At 112 miles I was exactly 7 hours into my bike, this was my
dream time. Perfect! The last four miles really stank, only because they were
extra, I think I would have been fine if I did not know that this bit was
longer than a normal Ironman. As I got into transition, I jumped off the bike
and my legs were still strong. I ran into T2, changed into my run outfit and
ran back out of the tent, I did not sit down in the little chairs. In previous
years I lost a lot of time sitting in the run tent with tired legs. Oddly this
time, I was running.
Once again I thought to myself "I am having the best
race of my life"
And again, "Long day, don't jinx it, still have a
marathon to go"
Run 5:44:44 26.2 miles (this is a 34 minute PR,
that is more that 1 minute per mile faster)
I had been very scared of the run course. I was advertised
as having 1400 feet of climbing ,that is more climbing than my normal 50 mile long
bike ride in South Jersey. My plan was to run the flats and down-hill portions
and to walk aid stations and up-hill. I am not a strong runner, my marathon PR
is 4:58 but I have definitely gotten much stronger, and more confident over
this year.
At the first mile, I was jogging and talking to a guy that was also having a great day, I think we spent about five minutes excitedly pointing out to each other that we had more that 8 hours to finish, the sun was shining and we were both looking awesome! We were both grinning like idiots and passing walkers as we left transition. The first two miles hurt, then the pain went away. At mile 5
I was still running. I figured that this could not last, I was going to start
really hurting soon and then, as before, I would just be walking. The rain
started, it was a nice little drizzle. I like running in the rain.
The rain
became heavy, the sky was totally dark, water dripped off of my bangs washing
sunscreen into my eyes. I kept trying to convince myself that I still liked the
rain. Three more miles passed before I decided that I genuinely did not like
the rain anymore. My feet were making squishy sounds, I was soaked through and
the hills were coming. But I was still running.
The hills were ridiculous, I walked as fast as I could up
them, and ran down them, which was my plan, I know that I was not prepared for so much climbing and I had to do it twice. My overall pace was about the same as it had been on
the flats, since the downhill portions were so steep. My stomach pain went away about 10 miles into
the run. At mile 13 I was still running.
Around mile
15 I was still feeling good. I had been excited at the half-marathon point when I
did not get a little glowing necklace, I thought this meant I looked too fast
to need one. They gave me one at the next rest stop. PFFFTH, Oh well.
The run course, even in the rain, was totally filled with
spectators. I have never been in a race with so much energy. There must have
been thousands of people watching the run. There is a lonely bit on the river
trail, but the part through town was wonderful. All the people screaming
"Christy! Christy! Run sweetheart!, You got this girl! Looking
great!" really does make you feel energized. Once the rain stopped more
folks came out. There were people having parties on their front lawns, playing
music, cheering on the runners, handing out beers in tiny cups, and screaming
encouragement from porches.
I started to feel pretty rough at mile 18. I had now been
running for four hours, but normally I feel rough for the whole thing, so I was
excited to finally hit the "tough part at 18" the coaches talk about,
felt like I was really racing. One of the aid station workers gave me a tube of
salt. Within another mile I started to feel completely better, and by
completely I mean like I had just started the run. I don't know if it was the
salt, or a placebo effect, but either way I was still running at mile 20. Walked
up the hills fast, ran down the hills in control. I wanted to be able to run
that last mile.
I thought to myself "I am having the best race of my
life"
And then, "Yes, yes I am"
At mile 24 I was the only one running. I was running and
getting faster, no need to save my energy now, I really was having the best
race of my life, and it was OK to think that now. My feet did not hurt, my legs were tired, but not screaming, I ran by so many walkers that
I stopped counting. This is the first time at an Ironman that I was running and
passing tons of people. I figured if I really ran I was going to make the
finish line at 10 PM, this was the fastest Ironman of my life. I will probably
never be really fast, but I am OK with that, I just wanted to run the marathon
at an even pace. Here is was at mile 25 and I was still running.
In the last mile I ran over the wooden bridge, passing several
pairs of walkers. I fixed my hair while running, I put my glow necklace behind
me as I ran down the hill. One woman told me I looked like I just started. I
told her I felt great and that I was having the best race of my life. The last
two miles were my fastest of the run.
I could hear Mike Reilly announcing, I could see the lights.
I ran even faster. When I entered the shoot it was blinding. I high-fived
everyone, I heard my family yelling but the lights were so bright I could not
see them.
Someone yelled
"Welcome home Runner 5".
My husband yelled "Raise the gates!'"
Mike Reilly yelled "Christy Beal, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN
After the race I still felt amazing, I found my family, ate
my little piece of pizza, and then we were going to go out for beers, I was so
excited, I was really going to have nice beers and conversation after the race
like a strong athlete! My husband and my parents wanted me to shower (for some
reason) prior to going out so we went back to the hotel.
As soon as that hot water hit me I was done. I was so tired.
John went out and bought us a beer and I drank it in my fluffy pajamas in the
hotel room.
A 1 hour and 24 minute PR, no blisters, no injuries, and
finished smiling. PR'ed in every sport, and my transition times too. Ran an even pace for the marathon and my last two
miles were the fastest of the day.
I had the best race of my life.
This is a video of me crossing the finish line I could not figure out
how to get the sound to work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LYrme_wMhQ&list=UUUUpb_UC-bXs2CdhLbUPLDg
Comments
Wow! great report and great race results! Welcome to the family Ironman!
SS
I thought a lot about what you said here, I think that this is very good advice for me. I tend to think I cannot do it because I think that I am not much of an athlete, and I have no background in athletics. Objectively this is clearly not true. My negative talk may be doing more than anything to hurt me. I need to work on that, and think on it, some more.
Yes I was getting some great results and strong legs from my perpetum, the sweet stuff on the course makes my stomach churn, but I had not ever started with it sitting in transition for hours. I need to rework that.