Kryvicky's IMTX Race Report - A Long Post for a Short Race
PRE RACE WEEK
Drove down to The Woodlands Tuesday and Wednesday. Arrived late enough for a quick dinner and then bed. Big week ahead of me!
Woke up Thursday AM, had breakfast and then made way down to Ironman Villiage. Checked in, got my swag on, visited our partner vendors and then hit the athlete briefing. Afterwards, walked down to T Zone and checked out the swim out and the transition areas.
Walked across the street for a nice lunch then back out to our hotel for legs up and rest for the rest of the evening.
Friday woke up early, drove to the swim start site and then did a quick 770m practice swim in my wetsuit and new New Wave goggles to check them out for durability in open water. All felt good - aside from the first 400m my arms felt tired and sluggish as they always do at the start of a swim. Mike noted that others were stretching before hand and that race morning he would help me stretch too to see if that helps.
After the swim headed to Ironman village for a chiro adjustment and a massage then walked my bike and gear bags to T zone to check it all in. Done and done - headed back to hotel for legs up for the rest of the day by 1pm. RECORD for me!
RACE DAY
We got up at 3am to make the trek to find a parking spot at the finish line, before walking to T1 toi put in all of my bottles, air up the tires, and do final race check on my gear bags. Added nutrition to bags and loaded up my bento box with my bike "go" stuff so that all I had to deal with in T1 was helmet - ON, shoes - ON and belt with spare kit/tools - ON then out the door to my bike. I learned to remove as many moving pices as possible - all else is in my bento and ready for me to manage when I can get to it while riding - i.e. arm coolers sun screen, etc.
Walked down to swim start and checked in my SN bags - put on wetsuit and then since we were not allowed to get into the water, dumped ice water all over me and into my suit to get the initial HOLY HECK sock over with. This worked out fabulously! I highly recommend if your swim start has no swimming warm up allowed that you bring a few bottles of ice water to get everything acclimated to the water. It made the start SO MUCH nicer. Mike stretched me out and let me tell you - it helped !
Seeded myself at the 1:41-1;50 group as my estimated finish time would be around 1:40-1:45. Got n the water and no shock - I was already acclimated thanks to that ice water beforehand. Got to grooving on the swim and it was heaven - my arms felt amazing, I had no one along side me nearly the entire swim and since it was basically a straight shot mile to the Turn1 Bouy, I was able to keep out of the main group of swimmers and just kept on with my own pace until the turns. it Turn 1 and 2 easily then on the way back - look at that! Orange bouys, we are now past the 1.2 mile marker! I start thinking about execution of transition - mentally going through the exact motions until I have done that enough that I went back to thinking about my swim form. EVF, push the water, nice glide, easy breathing, slow is easy, easy is fast... I felt so boss out there. It was the simw of a lifetime in feeling just on the mark. My legs started to cramps as can happen in long swims, so I would swim for a bit with my leg extended and my foot contracted so that it would stop the cramping. Nothing major, happens often to me.
I get all the way back to the start where we turn to the Canal when things started to get a little... wonky we will say. The sun was in my eyes and while my goggles are heavily mirrored, they are not super tinted. Ooops. This caused me to at least once or twice flip up my goggles to get a better view of the canal ahead of me. Once in the canal that is when my vision started to fade into white. I was going along then all of a sudden it became impossible to see anything - I heard people along the canal but could not see them. A few undred meters more and the blinding glare was met with searing pain in ny right eye. I could not for the life of me open it any longer - my left eye was starting to hurt as well but I could at least see vague blurrs and outlines if nothing else. I finally made it to the swim exit - only having nearly missed it. If you have seen this swim exit you know how impossible it is to miss it - but I nearly did.
I get hoisted out of the water, thinking that my goggles were filled with water and to blame for my eye issues, I tear them off only to realize... it is worse. I cannot see for real.
Pure panic and shock hits me... what am I to do? I planned for 3 things to go wrong in each leg and each Transition just to be prepared... I prepared for cramping, heat issues, wind issues, all sorts of mechanical issues from battery dead in Di2, to chain issues to flats... I planned for dropped or lost nutrition - I planned for goggles being knocked off my face and for back issues and leg cramps on the swim.. I never NEVER planned for what came next.
How could I have?
This is where I get gutted. I am 100% OK with a crappy day. Bad days begit good data. We learn from what went well and what went wrong so that we can do better next time. But what do we learn from a freak accident?
I get into medical and they get to work - severe corneal abrasion. I cut my eye from corner to corner clean across the cornea.
Crap.
The medic on site was an eye doctor (yay!) so he put on a contact bandaid and numbed my eye. After getting clearance and some of my vision returning to where I could see colors again and start to see facial details, I decided to get on the bike with medical's blessing.
I run to my bike - hubby is standing at the fenceline right there and I run right over to him in tears. I collapse into his arms and just start sobbing...w which hurt my eyes. I explained what happened and he started to sob with me. THis is NOT how today was suppose to go. In spite of my doubts in the weeks ahead of this I WAS READY. I WAS GOING TO FINISH. How dare this be how I get taken out! I went through hell to get here - fighting severe depression, a cancer scare, a critical heart issue, being sick for months... I went through it and fought my way out every single time JUST so I could be here at the start line. And THIS is how it ends?
NO.
I was feeling better and my eyes were still not OK but I could make out what I needed to in order to ride. I grabbed my bike and I headed out on the road.
Quickly I realized that my left eye was in fact not OK. I was assessing the situation and seeing how fast I could go before the wind beneath my visor caused pain and tearing when I ran straight into a Construction barrel. I never saw it. I knew then, my day had to be done.
I turned around at mile 5, which was just past the barrel incident and called for a medic. Long story short - I handed in my chip and was SAG wagoned back to Tzone where I was met with my husband and medics. The medics in transition checked over my left eye and discovered that I had a double corneal abrasion. I somehow on the swim managed to completely end my day by scratching both corneas.
I was GUTTED. GUTTED. I know that I have been saying "Oh I will be chasing cut offs" and "oh this is a training day" but that was my nerves. I WAS READY. I had it in me. And now my day was over with before it even felt like it started. The above picture of me on my bike is my official finishers picture... this was taken moments before I pulled myself. This was where my day ended.
After some additional bouts of sobbing and frustration at my medical situation, Mike and I headed back to the finish line for bottomless mimosas (the cure for any bad day) and to hang with some friends from my local bike shop in Michigan who made the trek to support athletes or to just cheer us all on. Afterwards, Mike and I watched the pros come in and then headed back to our hotel for some eye close time. We realized that our hotel was RIGHT at the 60/100 mile turn around and so we spent a few hours cheering on the final bike participants. This made my day complete - I felt happy and made peace with how my day ended. In a short breath I went from Ironman Athlete to Ironman Fan and Cheer Squad leader.
Overall I DNF'd at IMTX but within that experience I redefined the DNF. I Did Not Fail.
My goals for race day where to arrive at the start line happy and healthy (DONE!) Execute per my plan and make smart decisions all day long - even if the smart decision was to quit -(DONE!) and then to be a cheerleader and lift others up who were struggling along the way by finding friends to whole day on course, which would help me as well (DONE - only from the side lines but still a big fat check mark here).
I achieved all of my goals regardless of if I had achieved a finisher's medal.
Onwards and upwards - I am returning in 2020 to IMTX to finish what I started, but first I am heading back to IMFL to crush my old IMFL PR. Time to get to work after a little mental break and fun with fitness.
Comments
Wow, what a crazy story! So, did the googles cause the issue or was it some sort of eye strain?
Sorry your day didn't go as planned, but that's a pretty impressive story! Maybe I'll see you next year in Texas. Good luck and keep having fun!
Tom
Thank you @Tom Glynn - That is the worst part, I honestly have no clue how it happened. To abrade both corneas is pretty tricky - so either when I popped up my goggles I subconciously wiped my eyes trying to get a better view and caused the scraches there, or possibly but less likely since these goggles will not fog I wonder if the water reacted to the coating and that caused the abrasions however the MD said it was a cut, not just etching, so I am leaning more towards somehow I managed to get grit into my goggles and then embed it into my eyes without realizing it.
May I suggest googles for next year :)
@Jenniferlyn Kryvicky sorry to hear about your bad luck, I’m very happy to “see you “ shrug it off (see what I did there?), what a great attitude, onward and upwards. How are the eyes now? No lasting damage?
Tough day but you are already back on the horse with IMFL and IMTX in the plans. Hopefully everything has healed up.
@Jenniferlyn Kryvicky I'm not sure I would have handled that situation as gracefully as you did. Way to face the challenge and make the most of a bad day! I wish you all the best and have fun crushing IMFL!!
Crazy! Sorry to hear that happen to you. I would still be wondering how that happened. I would think it would hurt immediately to cut the eyes. Can chemical reaction cause that? I guess I would change goggles.
Great attitude and way to KMF! Thanks for the report
Shit. Nice attitude moving forwards.