Kathy Nelson's IMWI Race Report
Ironman Wisconsin Race Report
September 12, 2010
Race day early morning- Woke @ 1 am. At 2 am got up and gingerly made my path in the dark to the hotel refrigerator, where I retrieved my perpetuem smoothie, ½ banana and peanut butter bread. Quietly I walked to the bathroom in search of some light. Once inside, I slowly, very slowly consumed the prepared repast. “Who eats at 2 am?” I was thinking, certainly not me-ever! But, today was different, an epic day which called for an irregular meal time!
Upon finishing I planned to return to bed and sleep a little longer. Laid there with eyes wide open dreaming of the day to come…finally got up at 3:45, very ready to roll! I took my time dressing, gathered the rest of the bags and was out the door by 4:30. As Sheryl and I were walking to her van, my oldest son, Joel, pulled up in his car. He had traveled all night to be @ the finish line by 7 am! That alone made the start of a great day very sweet!
Sheryl’s husband, Archie, drove us to Monona Terrace. We dropped off our SNBs and walked to body marking. It was still dark out and chilly, so the bright lights were a welcome sight to get the energy flowing! My turn came to get marked. I dropped my bags, the gal did her marking, went to pick up my bags and they were gone! That produced an anxiety rush I will not soon forget!! The panic did not last long because someone had picked them up by mistake and returned them pronto. Whew! Sheryl commented, “Ok, that is the worst thing that will happen today!” She was almost right.
Into transition we went to pump tires, put fuel in Arundel and water in aerolite. We met up with some of the EN Chica’s for pictures, and then chilled inside until 6:15. I put on my wetsuit and made my way down the helix to the swim start. By now the sun was coming up and the excitement was filling the air! Betsy Dally, an EN teammate noticed I still had my morning clothes bag in my hand. She suggested I may want to ditch that! I turned around and headed back to the boxes, gave it to a volunteer and was off again. About 10 yards past the morning clothes drop off, I realized I still had my flip flops on, so turned around again and went back. The volunteer remembered me and took care of it!
We were then herded across the timing mat and into the water. A volunteer noticed my wetsuit did not cover my chip and suggested a safety pin to keep it secured to my ankle. I kind of shrugged off his suggestion and did not take the pin because I had put extra Velcro on the strap, thinking this would secure it enough. Well, this brainiac was treading water @ about 6:45 and reached down to tighten my chip strap and the Velcro came off!! So, against the tide of swimmers, I made my way back to the start to eagerly request a pin from the same volunteer. Strap pinned so it would never come off, I swam back out into the fray. Glad I did go back because I am sure with all the thrashing, kicking and pulling, that strap would have come off!
I positioned myself in the middle of the pack. Gun went off @ 7 am just as the sun was coming over Lake Monona. It was going to be a beautiful day in Madison! Swim was crazy! Like swimming with 2700 plus piranha! I feel fortunate nothing much eventful happened to me during the 2.4 mile swim. It did take the first lap to shake free of the thrashing fray, but by the second lap, I found some open water. I told my family to expect me around 1:20-1:30. I came out of the water @ 1.20.20!
T1 took me 12:05:43…way too long!
I really enjoyed the 112 mile IMWI bike course! Highlights of the course: high fiving and yelling with my family as I road by and seeing the EN gang at Midtown! I ended up losing my aerolite straw and my Arundel fuel bottle. That proved to not be a good thing later on, as I ended up being dehydrated on the run. I told my family to expect me between 7 and 7.5 hours. Bike time= 7.06.49.
T2 took me 8.27. Nemo, an EN teammate, came in right behind me and was in and out in a flash! I was thinking, “wow, how did she do that so fast?!” I can for sure work on shortening the transition times.
The run was a bear! As I anticipated it would be. My box was going to be counting every mile down from 26. Well, that worked for first 6 miles, and then by mile 7 or 8, I started to feel dehydrated and sick. My mouth felt like cotton, I stopped urinating and was developing chills. So, from mile 8 to about 16, I walked a lot! I knew that if I didn’t start hydrating soon, I would be in big trouble. Started drinking broth, water and as much ice as I could carry. I picked up some caffeine in my RNB and that seemed to give me a boost! Finally by mile 16 or so, I began to feel better. The sun was setting and the heat of the day disappeared! I started running again. By mile 18 got my body back and only stopped to get water and broth at aide stations. My son Jonah came out to run with me at mile 22! He was worried about me, but I assured him I was feeling much better and that I would make it! I told my family to expect my run time to be between 5 and 6 hours. Run time= 5.51.25! Total first IM time was 14.39.04!
What an amazing experience! I will never forget it. Thanks for reading and sharing this epic moment in my life.
Comments
Kathy, congratulations on becoming an IRONMAN truly an awesome accomplishment. You should be very proud of yourself for hanging tough under some difficult conditions, way to adjust and perservere !!
Kathy,
congrats on a GREAT day. we bumped into each other a couple times that day, and you definitely looked good at every point. I even remember you kinda kicking my ass for walking on the "run" - alleged run, that is
. THANKS for that
what an experience.
you ROCK
Nice Job Kathy! Go out and have some fun!!! For kicks and giggles, what are the three things you are most proud of from your efforts/race and what are the three things that surprised you the most about yourself, others or the race? Remember though, the priority is to go out and have some fun!!! You have earned it! Another reminder....KATHY NELSON!!! You are an IRONMAN!
@ Rich-
3 proud moments:
1. The swim start in the middle of the fray--not afraid and swimming agressively like the rest! The swim start was actually one of my pre-race fears! CONQUERED!!!!
2. Not being afraid of the descents on bike course!
3. Figuring out my hydration problem on the run, fixing it and finishing the last 8 miles running! I passed a ton of people out there in those last miles....such an awesome feeling for me!!
Awesome, Kathy, just awesome! What a smooth day!
Kathy, I was really pulling for you out there. You did great and have so much to be proud of. I was very glad to have another MN peep doing the race, it was fun getting to know you through the forums, Liberty (ok, only a high five
), the camp, and Thursday night dinner. I'm curious what your plans for next year are, have you thought at all about it? I already cannot wait for IMWI, I'll go spectate and try to return the support I got from so many ENers.
Bob- Thanks for kind words!
Hasan-Love ur smile and attitude! Thanks you for all the fun
Josh- U made my day many time over! Thank you for the encouragement and humor....meant a lot
Beth- Awesome run chica!!!!
David- I was pulling for you too!! Let's c 2011 might look like this: Door County Half in July; Marine Corps Marathon in Oct; some fun oly's and sprints; for sure heading back to IMWI for the pink party @ midtown and mile 18!!! How bout u?
Kathy - I am thinking Liberty again, maybe a 24 hr ultra which is at Lake Nokomis (by my house), I may do an inline marathon (I plan to get to the Rollerdome a bunch this winter), the IMWI camp, maybe the IM St. George camp. I would love to do a couple Oly races too for fun. Also I may try to do the Tour de Tonka again and may shoot for HHH. I'll try to balance doing things for fun but also having a goal which motivates me to train. There is no way I miss IMWI 2011.
That pic says you just needed a litle family to make you feel better! Wow, chills are not good, not easy to "recover" from. So glad you bounced back and finished like an Ironman, like an Ironman! Congratulations on a super, super day!
Kathy - what a great story, so glad you had such a positive experience! Great to see you afterwards, although I was deeply mired in my pity party. It's Thursday and I'm sort of getting over it. You are awesome and I am so glad to have met you through this process.
Cheers!
Linda and Heather- thanks ladies, proud to be an EN chica with u two! We will meet again
Finally downloaded the stats man and here they are:
Tss=363.9 (ouch)
IF= .715 (spot on)
NP= 100 (for this lil peep good very good...target was 98!)
VI= 1.19 (kind of sloppy, but with hills ok that is my one excuse)
Cadence= 79 (like this to be higher, but trained this way...so doh no surprise here)
All in all pleased
always room for improvment...that is the fun part about training and execution!
Excellent Kathy! Way to go! All three of those are GREAT victories! Take those victories and capitalize on them on future races! Now I'm curious....is there any correlation to the concepts identified in the 4 keys and how you achieved your three proud moments?
It was really nice to see you on the course. I know you were hurting, but you always had a smile.
Heck yay....the BOX! Did what I could to control what was mine and let the rest go
Kate- yay!!! EN Chica's to hit Washington D.C. 2011!!!
Kit- thanks for the encouragment out there!
Eric- thanks and maybe we will end up in LP in 2012
Michele- doing this again....oh yay, for sure!!! would not miss it for the world!
nicely done Kathy! way to stick it out and finish strong! looking forward to seeing you at some races around here next year.
Kris- great to meet you as well! I must say u def toasted me on the bike : 
fun chatting a bit, then u took off and saw you looking very solid on the run!!
Mary- wow chica...u rocked that IM and almost went to Kona!! We should meet up sometime and train together. Thoug I'm prolly too slow for you, but it might be fun to try!! You doing the OS?
Congratulations Kathy on reaching all of your goal times during the race! A couple moments stick out. You ran past us in the dark around mile 19. You had your long sleeve top on so I couldn't see the EN kit. I looked down and saw WTGU on your leg and yelled it out. You raised your arms in resolve and ran on your way. The next time I saw you was in the chute and you ran over to high five me! You looked great going in for the finish. Very nicely done on a tough day. Way to push through to the end.
I haven't commented on this???? You know my favorite picture??? The one of your four boys cheering while you were looking at them while riding by on the bike!!!! Such a great picture. You need to frame that! I love it! Great job. Next time Capn Crunch girlfriend.
Oh...and I now have my own clipboard!
Carie- Oh yay!
Matt- I have nicknamed u "snake man"...so when I saw u out on the course, it seemed like a lot of places, that name came to mind each time...made me smile! Great to see u and meet u out there....thanks so much for coming out! It meant a lot to me and all the chica's.!
Nemo- Loved following u all day! Funny how our predictions were spot on
Yep, we will race again.....LP 2012!
Sheryl- Thanks you!! Yep, love that pic too...my boys energized me out there all day! Ok we are set for a Capn Crunch date...when IMLP 2012? or u taking 2012 off?
Ha! Hope that name doesn't stick! It was nice to meet you too. Now you can pass along to others next year that there are no snakes in Lake Monona!