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IMSG 2012 Race Report

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Swim – 1:05:30

 

For the swim, I positioned myself to the left of the center and what I thought was a few people back. The kayaks couldn’t hold people behind the start line. When the kayaks moved back so did the group right next to the left bouy. There was confusion too because some people thought the race had started. When the gun finally went off I had room to swim. There was very little contact for a mass start of an ironman. Usually I am being grabbed, kicked or knocked around, but not this time. It was like this until the first turn, then the waves came crashing down on us and chop everywhere. I focused on staying calm. I was worried about Stephanie Stevens because I know she isn’t a strong open water swimmer. I just hoped she was safe and not panicking Everytime I passed a yellow bouy I was relieved to know that I was staying on course and not getting blown off to the right like a lot of other people. A couple of times I starting swimming breaststroke so I could see the next bouy. Breathing was difficult with the waves but I managed to not swallow any water. Didn’t see any kayaks or boats once I made the first turn and encountered the waves. It wasn’t until after the race that I found out how bad it really was out there on the swim. Shortly before the last bouy I started kicking a little harder and picked up the pace. I was so ready to be done and get on dry land. Seeing the last red bouy was a welcomed sight. I knew that I didn’t have much further to go. Coming up the ramp I was shocked to see the time on the clock. I was sure my time would be much slower.

 

T1 – 2:55

The wetsuit strippers were great. I didn’t have a chance to pull my wetsuit to my waist so they helped me with that before I could lay down and get the rest of it off. Volunteers handed me my bag and then into the changing test. I saw Steph right away. She assured me she was okay but had to be pulled not too far into the swim. Got my gear on quickly with the help of the volunteers. Gave Steph a hug before heading out. 

 

Bike – 7:05:14

 

Usually the bike portion leaving Sand Hollow and heading into St. George is calm and fast. You can get some good speed and it’s a nice warm-up before you start “the loop”. Not today. As soon as you made the first right turn, we were head into 40 mph gusting wind. Sand and dust was blowing everywhere. Because I have a good swim there is always people passing me on the bike. It is always tempting to ride harder. People were passing me like I was standing still. I told myself to stay in my box, we still have a long way to go. Once we made the turn onto Hwy 91 the wind was in our face and to our side. When we turned into the canyon to Gunlock it was a severe headwind. I was pedaling but going nowhere. There were times when I was only going 5 mph. Because of the wind I made the decision to ride a little harder and bump up the watts. I needed to be more aggressive on this ride if I wanted to be competitive.  I was willing to take a chance.  I had a 3 hr concentrated bottle of infinite between my aero bars. My garmin was set to go off every 15min to remind me to take my nutrition.  Beep. Beep. Beep. I went about an hour and a half were I didn’t feel comfortable taking one of my hands off my aero bars to drink my nutrition. I just had water with electrolyte tabs from my speedfil. This was taking forever. Just keep pedaling and stay aero. At the aid station before the wall I had to stop to go to the bathroom. I have yet to master peeing on the bike. Gulped down most of my nutrition before getting back on the bike. I didn’t know if I would go through another long section without being able to take in nutrition due to the wind. Right before SG I changed to 28-11. It made going up both “the wall” and the other steep hill right before easy. I had no problem spinning up the hills. The ride from Veyo back into town was blissful. I continued to pedal even with the tailwind. This wasn’t the time to coast. I needed to take advantage of the tailwind and make up some time. I am not a good descender but I was able to reach speeds of 47 mph. I was passing people! I felt great starting the 2nd loop even though I rode harder than planned the 1st loop. The winds died down the 2nd loop.  "The wall" the second time was just as easy. Again, after the turn at Veyo we had a tailwind. Same thing as the first loop, no time to rest, time to go fast. Made it up the last climb on the bike and down into transition.

 

T2 – 5:35

I handed by bike off to a volunteer and got my run bag. Stopped to use the bathroom before heading into the changing tent. Made sure I got some sunscreen and then it was time to run. T2 was slower than normal.

 

Run – 4:14:27

Felt good starting the run. Had to really slow down. After a couple miles I got into a good pace so I stopped looking at my garmin after every mile. I am good at running consistent miles based on feel and don’t like looking at my garmin. Every so often I would look at it to just check my ave. pace. Coming down Main St. at the end of the first lap, I saw Steph. She said 1st place was 4 min ahead. I thought there was only one Kona slot for my AG. I decided to pick up the pace. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I was on a mission. At the end of lap 2, I was 1 min back. One more lap to go. I can do this! Mission accomplished at mile 20. Now what to do? I thought of Al Truscott in AZ and his epic pass to take the lead in his AG. There was no way I was going to be able to pass without her seeing me. What to do? If I passed her, I knew I couldn’t maintain that pace and put some distance between us. She looked good. I decided to just run behind her and see what happened. By mile 22 I was done! Couldn’t keep going at the same pace. Only 4 miles to go. This can’t be happening. I am so close. I could see it slipping away. I had a mental breakdown and struggled the next 2 miles. By mile 24 I had had enough. I was ready to go. I wanted to finish strong. It took about a ½ mile to get back up to pace, by then I had made it to the top of the diagonal. Now it was downhill the rest of the way. It felt so good to run down the finish chute. The crowd was cheering, kids sticking their hand out for a high five and Mike Reilly calling out my name. This is what its all about. I was done. I was finished. I was exhausted. 12:33:41.

 

No regrets. I raced the race I needed to, to put myself in a position to win my AG. Sometimes you have to take chances and put it all on the line. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I gave it everything that I had. No regrets.

 

After finishing I felt fine for a little while then I needed to sit down, get a drink and take a couple of salt tabs. I started to get tingly in my arms so I went to medical to lay down on a cot outside. Tried some chicken broth but my stomach didn’t like it.  I eventually threw it up. My blood pressure was low so they moved me inside the tent. Arms and legs are now tingly and my hands are starting to get numb. They tried to start an IV but they were unsuccessful. Instead of trying the other arm, I said I would drink more chicken broth. It tasted awful but they made me drink it. I was getting nauseated so they gave me some zofran.   Started to feel a little better so they had me up walking with some help. My stomach didn’t like that so I threw up some more. Someone suggested orange slices and that sounded good. After a couple of orange slice and some grapes I started feeling much better. My stomach tolerated the food. They released me with instructions to drink plenty of fluids. Steph went to get the car and picked me up. She is awesome. Time to go back to the condo and sleep.

 

Sunday morning we got up, packed and loaded our cars before heading to the Dixie Center. I just wanted to make sure there was only one AG slot. When I looked at the paper, I couldn’t believe it. There were 2 slots. I did it. 

 

I am so glad I decided to do the race this year. I initially wanted to do this race but when they changed the run course I decided to wait until 2013 hope they would change the run back to the original course. Instead we signed up for IMCA. I didn’t have a good race at IMAZ. I wanted redemption and didn’t want to wait until IMCA in August. In Dec I signed up. I talked Steph into doing this race with me and then we got Carrie Larson to sign up too. I am so glad I didn’t wait. This was an epic race! And, I got my redemption. 

 

Congratulations to the team!  It was great meeting everyone. It was especially good to see familiar faces on the run. Thank you EN!

 

The duration and distance is a little off because I didn’t press stop when I got off the bike so I had to create a new range.

45 yr old, 115lbs, 64”

My current FTP is 195

 

    Duration:               7:05:11

    Work:                     3548 kJ

    TSS:                       396.8 (intensity factor 0.753)

    Norm Power:          147

    VI:                           1.05

    Pw:HR:                   6.57%

    Pa:HR:                   -30.01%

    Distance:              111.886 mi

    Elevation Gain:     6030 ft

    Elevation Loss:      6304 ft

    Grade:                    -0.0 % (-280 ft)

 

                                   Min       Max      Avg

    Power:                    0           316       140       watts

    Heart Rate:           106       159       135       bpm

    Cadence:               15         120       75         rpm

    Speed:                    0           47.6      15.8      mph

    Pace                       1:16      0:00      3:48      min/mi

    Altitude:                  2760     4674     3478     ft

    Crank Torque:       0           549       163       lb-in

    Temperature:         64.4      93.2      77.7      Fahrenheit

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