IMMD Race Report - Sarah McDonough
Sarah’s IMMD Race Report
Forward: This was my first iron distance race. This past May I did Kinetic70.3 at Lake Anna in VA (6:26). Prior to that I did one sprint and one Olympic distance about 11 years ago. I have been a competitive runner since I was a child and ran mid-distance in college. However, I really decided to do an ironman on a bit of a whim. It was a bucket list item for me ever since I watched my first triathlon when I was nine years old but this was not something I worked my way up to. I had not ever ridden a bike in any meaningful way prior to last November – 11 years ago I trained on a stationary bike and rode my mountain bike in the races ( I know…really??). I played water polo in college but had very limited open water swimming experience but considered myself a confident but not fast swimmer. I have run two marathons and came into training with a decent general fitness base. Overall my approach to athletics has been more grit than grace.
Race training: I began with the January OS and followed that, then the 70.3 plan and then the IM plan relatively diligently through race day. I did adjust the plan to take Sundays off, the main cost of which was a little less bike volume. I completed about 85-90% of scheduled workouts in working to balance work, family, and training. The reschedule of the race definitely through a wrench in things but I took advantage of the opportunity to get in another long 5 hour bike ride on the trainer which paid dividends this past week – more on that later. I also got in 2 more 15 + mile runs.
Race Day: Those who read my race plan know that I stated I like to play things a little fast and loose and plan for the unexpected – this both served me well and cost me minutes on race day.
Not getting to MD until Friday at mid-day left me feeling pretty rushed, the admin of checking in, dropping bike and bags, etc. all in one day left me feeling much more rushed and disorganized than I anticipated. Sleep is really important to me and I was targeting a7:30 bed time which I didn’t think was going to be a problem but admin took MUCH longer than I anticipated and with the weather I felt much less certain of what I was putting in my transition bags than I had been initially. But I got it all done and still got in bed by 8:30 and slept through to 4:30. I had a cup of coffee, waffle w/PB, banana.
I arrived at transition at about 5:15, added a few things to my transition bags, pumped my tires (lent my pump to another competitor who promptly gave it away to someone else and never got it back!), and mounted my nutrition on the bike (infinite in aero bottle and one bottle on down tube as well as pretzels, granola bars, and fig newtons). The cold really wasn’t bothering me but I went ahead and put on my wetsuit just to get it done and put a sweatshirt and down vest over the top. I was really quite snuggly. Once all my admin was done, which again took longer than I expected, I put on some good music and went to watch the sunrise – caught a few stares by singing and dancing but it got my mind off the anticipation of the swim. By the time they starting announcing the swim “stuff” I was pretty zen and just taking things as they came, it really didn’t bother me, I just wanted to get started.
Swim: 1:04:12
I seeded at in the 1:30 – 1:45 group. I don’t really know why I changed my plan away from seeding in the 1:20 group – rookie nerves I guess. In hindsight I should have stuck with where I knew I belonged as I got bogged down slower swimmers right from the start. However, I settled into a nice easy stroke and felt no panic etc. with the significant contact, in fact I was enjoying being able to mix it up. This was a big improvement from my HIM when I nearly panicked completely during the first 10 min of the swim. Not having any idea about the course was a little challenging and I had a hard time finding someone to latch onto who stayed on course. However, before I knew it the first lap was over and then the second lap flew by. I wasn’t cold at all, in fact a little warm and really wished I could just swim the last 800 m, especially since I was right on pace and felt like I was just hitting my rhythm when the swim was over. All in all I felt really good about the swim. It hadn’t cost me anything and the fact that it went well was a huge confidence boost heading into the bike
T1: 19:51
Mass confusion and crowding. I lost a lot of time here but I don’t know that on this day I would have done anything differently. I chose to wear a swim suit under my wet suit and do a full change before the bike (since nearly every other woman I saw did the same thing I felt validated in this decision) however putting on sports bras, bike shorts, arm warmers, compression sleeves, socks over damp skin not easy! Thank goodness for the AMAZING volunteer who helped so many ladies change. I also opted for leg warmers, gloves, hat, and wind breaker – I did not want to take any chances that I would be shivering at the start of the bike. I also made a quick stop at the port-o pottie on the way to the bike. All in all it was too long but it was what it was on that day. If I could go back I would do things differently but that is just hindsight and lessons going forward.
Bike: 6:59 moving time, 7:18 elapsed time
A tale of wind…not a tail wind! Yes, it was windy. However, overall I feel as though I followed the ride the bike you should not the bike you could mantra to a T. I kept my watts and RPM and heart rate exactly within my planned range. I also followed my nutrition exactly. Avg. watts = 108, Avg MP = 123. Avg HR = 148, Max = 163. The cooler temps led to some added admin time on the bike as I stopped at the first aid station to strip off leg warmers, hat, gloves, and wind breaker. I also went through nearly two hours of planned infinit in the first hour so I had to mix my “emergency” bottle at the first aid station as well. The side effect of consuming my of my nutrition in liquid form was that I was sweating it out and hence made 7 pee stops along the way – yes I contemplated peeing on the bike but since I clearly wasn’t going to win I couldn’t get behind sitting in pee pants over a few minutes. Throughout the bike I felt like I kept getting passed and was very close to the back of the pack. However, I just kept reminding myself to stay in my box and that I would see all of these people on the run. The winds were brutal but I just tried to stay aero and kept spinning and watching watts. About 10 miles from special needs I started to worry about making the cutoff, which previously had never occurred to me so I decided to I need to pick things up a bit. I dashed through special needs, crammed everything into my pockets, got my extra inifinite, and ate 5 chocolate coffee beans. Fortunately between the pick me up of special needs and the brief tailwind I was able to get things moving a bit and then felt sure I had given myself an adequate cushion no matter what the winds would bring. While I couldn’t believe how much the winds had picked up on the second loop and how long it was taking to get back to transition I did start passing people toward the end of the bike which boosted my confidence that I had ridden smart and had not depleted my energy. Overall on the bike I felt good, I got down the vast majority of my nutrition – went heavier on the first loop then started to feel a bit nauseous and backed off mid-way through the second loop and sipped water. In the last 20 miles I made a concerted effort to get down at least one more bottle of infinit and one granola bar in preparation for the run.
T2: ~ 14 min (accidently paused the garmin)
This is where I really did a poor job of planning/time management. For some reason I decided I needed to out on compression socks instead of just using regular socks with the compression sleeves I already had on – I don’t really know why. But, that cost me at least 5-7 minutes. I also changed shorts which was not really necessary but I don’t think that was a game changer. Happily I left my arm warmers on and changed from my bike jersey to a tank top and brought along a long sleeved short shirt that I never wore. I think I made a quick pee stop before leaving transition – don’t quite remember!
Run:4:23- AVG pace 10:08
I have read a lot of accounts on Facebook and Slowtwitch about how cold it was, this was not a problem for me, I was as comfortable as I could have been throughout the run. Also, the winds did not bother me nearly as much on the run as they did on the bike. I carried my own water bottle with 2 nuun tablets. I aslo carried scratch and stinger gummies. My plan was to bypass aid stations and do my own thing as I had on the bike. I also planned to run 1 mile, walk 1 min to eat 2 gummies and drink. I followed this plan through mile 4 or 5 at which point when I walked my left knee totally locked up thanks to a tight IT band. The pain felt like a nail was being driven horizontially through my knee, stepping down literally brought tears to my eyes. For about 2 minutes I was heart broken at thinking I was going to have to walk the rest of the marathon. Then I thought back to a previous marathon when this happened and I changed my gait a bit and it loosened up. So, I decided I would run for 2 minutes regardless of the level of pain and hope that it would subside, if it didn’t I would have to develop a plan B. Fortunatley it loosened up at which point I realized walking was off the table so I did not walk a single step for the rest of the marathon. In all honesty this was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. Once I embraced that I was simply not going to walk and I started really rolling by people it was so empowering because it just reminded me how well I had executed the bike, with every person I passed and every mile that went by I felt affirmed in my plan and that it was working and that just propelled my forward. At mile 13 I finished my “on board” nutrition and started taking some pepsi – again drinking it without breaking stride so it was a bit messy. I also took some broth at 15 and 18 and had a volunteer add water to my bottle (while I jogged in place) so that I could have another bottle of nuun. I fully expected to reach a dark place on the marathon or to hit the wall – happily this didn’t happen. I felt stronger and stronger as the race went on and was almost disappointed that I had run out of distance when I hit mile 23. The one thing I had not anticipated was the degree of total darkness, partly because it didn’t occur to me and because when the race was supposed to be two weeks ago I thought I would be finishing on the dark side of twilight. Running in the dark was a very solitary experience . During the run I found myself thinking of the book Ironwar when it talks about how Mark Allen just emptied his mind during the run and I really tried to dissociate from thoughts outside of the present moment and found it very effective compared to my past marathon experiences. While it wasn’t my fastest marathon ever, I was within a half hour of my fastest time for a stand alone marathon.
Overall: 13:23
32nd /~72AG, 192 Gender, 836 overall. Crossing the finish line was an incredible experience. It was an amazing life experience that I really can’t compare to anything else I have done. Overall I feel exceedingly pleased with my race execution, especially the run. I also learned a lot about what I would do differently in the future but wouldn’t really change anything given the various challenges of this race. I think I probably under exerted on the bike a bit and can become a better cyclist this winter but it allowed me to run a marathon right in the middle of what I was hoping to do. In terms of the shortened swim there is certainly a part of me that wishes my first IM didn’t have an asterisk of any kind but I also truly believe that this race was an iron effort and don’t feel an asterisk. I didn’t expect to ever want to do another IM but I had such an amazing time that I am sure I will do another in the next couple of years.
Thanks to everyone for supporting me on the journey, I learned so much from this team and look forward to learning a lot more.
Comments
way to go...you did such a great job training and then executing your first Ironman. Very solid performance and your run time is awesome. Again, Great job!
Your times are almost identical to my first IM back in 2011 at Lake Placid...
Also I have heard running the IM marathon that is within a 1/2 hour of your standalone is perfect, means you executed the bike perfectly. Which is awesome. I am at an hour slower than my standalone! And I think it's what keeps me wanting to do more, I want to get that 4:15 LOL!
That is a great job in what sounds like super windy, cold and eventually dark conditions.
"...So, I decided I would run for 2 minutes regardless of the level of pain and hope that it would subside, if it didn’t I would have to develop a plan B. Fortunatley it loosened up at which point I realized walking was off the table so I did not walk a single step for the rest of the marathon. In all honesty this was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. Once I embraced that I was simply not going to walk and I started really rolling by people it was so empowering..."
Wow! "More grit than grace" indeed. You are one strong woman.