Ironman US
Championships NYC/NJ
August 11, 2012
Race Report
Ironman #8 is now
in the books! And like all the others,
it was a tough day out there! They
really do not get any easier. I was
going into this one wanting to PB and break 12:30. My eventual goal is to do one sub 12 but did
not think that I was quite there yet. It
was an almost though! I wanted to PB so bad I was almost worried I would go out
too hard on the bike or start the run too fast.
I knew I had to remain smart out there and I think I did a pretty good
job of doing that. My other worry
heading into this race were my injuries I was dealing with. Nothing too serious but could have played a
factor on race day. I have plantar
fasciitis in my left foot and a pulled hamstring/piriformis issue in my right
leg. Going into this I was more worried about
my hamstring and piriformis because it hurts immediately when I start running
and at times can get so bad that it leaves me limping. Happy to report that my foot was no issue at
all and my hamstring/piriformis did hurt but I managed to ignore it or by that
point other body parts and fatigue were setting in so it was not a focus! Haha!
The logistics
heading into this race seemed like a bit of a nightmare. We had to take ferries to and from bike and
gear bag drop off, transition in the morning, to the swim start, and then back
to transition to pick up our bike and gear.
At the end, everything went very smoothly and I actually enjoyed taking
the ferries! It made this race a unique
experience.
Swim: 3.8km, 46:57
The swim almost
did not happen. A sewer line broke a
couple of days before the race just upstream of where we were to swim. The city was doing a controlled dumping of
the sewage into the Hudson River but managed to repair the leak in sufficient
time for us to get the all clear to swim.
The official word of the swim going on as scheduled happened at about
5:30pm the evening before. That was
close!!! We had to wake up insanely
early in the morning, 2:30am, to catch the 4am ferry to get us across the river
to transition. I had my usual pre race
Boost, oatmeal, and coffee for breakfast.
Did everything I needed to do when we got to transition and we
eventually got on the last ferry to take us to the barge for the swim
start. I wished the guys luck and pretty
much jumped the approx 4ft into the water right away for the time trial start. This was wetsuit legal for the age groupers
and I was content with that due to possible sewage in the water, lol! I felt awesome in the water and was just
flying. I swam on my own and did not
have to deal with any contact whatsoever!
I passed tons of people and the current was definitely in our
favour. I actually misjudged how quickly
I was moving when I was approaching the buoys that I actually hit a couple of them head on!
Lol! I just focused on a smooth stroke
and not swallowing any water! Got to the
swim exit and the water was soooo dark you saw absolutely nothing but just
black. So I just did a head up crawl
until I was close enough and could not swim any further because of the other
swimmers. Stood up into a gross muddy
bottom and I was thankfully pulled out by a volunteer onto the steps to get out
of there. I will never replicate this
swim time again unless I get another current assisted race! That was pretty awesome! Ran through transition, grabbed my bags, got
my bike gear on with no assistance, and ran to the sun screeners and out to
grab Limey for the bike!
Bike: 180km,
6:26:01
The bike ride
started immediately with an 8% grade hill for a few kilometres. I was in my lowest gear and tried to spin but
adrenaline got the best of me and probably went a bit harder then I should
have. No big deal. Got onto the Palisades Parkway where most of
the two loop bike course was being held and just started pedalling trying to
remain comfortable. I wore my heart rate
monitor just to make sure I was pushing hard enough and not be too lazy out
there. The course was fair, not too easy
or too hard with its fair share of climbs.
I had my watch beep at me every 20min to remind me to eat and I think I
did a decent job of keeping my nutrition up.
The first loop of the bike was really congested and became dangerous at
times. I saw a lot of crashes and flats
out there. And then the unbelievable
happened to me: I was called for drafting! What?!? Me?!?! I got the red
card! I didn’t even know if I had to
stop right there or wait until I got to the penalty tent. I was in the process of passing two people
who were themselves drafting going up a hill.
When I caught up to them, I moved to their left so I can pass. A motorbike came up behind me as I was
passing and I moved a little over to give them room to pass me because that is
what I thought they wanted to do. Since
it was an out and back cyclists were coming at both directions so there really
was not that much room for the motorbike and the cyclists. Anyway, I worked at passing these two
cyclists and when I passed them I moved to the right and then that was when the
motorbike came beside me and flashed the red card! I was speechless! Then I was pissed! So many other people were drafting all around
me and they call me as I was going up a hill!
I was not even on someone’s wheel!
So I continued on pretty mad about this and then I saw a really bad
crash! Things then went into perspective
for me and I let the red card go. Soon
after I was almost taken out by a guy who while we were going downhill he was
about to pass me and I heard a pop. He
flatted and lost control of the bike and was going down. I hit my brakes as he skidded right in front
of me and I just missed him as I manage to get through a narrow opening between
the curb and him! I checked to see if he
was ok and he said he was so I continued on but I was shaking at this
point! That was pretty scary! And then I saw another bad crash right after
that with three or four people on the ground and from that point I just wanted
to finish the bike ride in one piece!
Got to penalty tent and I was on pace for about a 6hr ride! I was pretty stoked about that. Paid my 4min penalty, then straight to special
needs to replenish my nutrition, and then off I went for the second loop. I was a bit more cautious here because I did
not want to be called for anything else and I did not want to crash. Limey is pretty bright and flashy and I am
sure they could spot me right away and this was in my mind the whole time. Well, the wind picked up on the second loop
and we had a pretty good head wind. Any
thoughts of riding a 6hr bike ride were gone!
It also down poured for a couple of minutes but no big deal. I just went into my aerobars and tried to
remain strong for the remainder of the ride, maybe even hammered it a little
too much! Lol! The last bit felt like an
eternity going down the switchbacks but I was happy to see the end of the bike!
Run: 42.2km,
4:40:30
I got through
transition unaided again and onto the run course. The same hill we had to climb on the bike was
the same hill we had to run to get to the first half of the run course which
was two loops. Any gain we had on the
swim with the current was negated with this run course. This was probably one of the toughest runs on
the Ironman circuit. There was no
shortage of hills in the Palisades. To
add to this was the heat and humidity.
My plan was to start running at a 6:30min/km pace and try to stay there
or pick it up at the end. Well, I
managed to keep this pace but the hills got the best of me and I could no
longer maintain that pace. My hamstring
and piriformis were really hurting me too but I just tried to ignore it. Then I realized something bad, my salt and
gels I had put in my jersey pockets fell out!
Oh oh! I need the salt! I am a heavy sweater and need the
electrolytes to keep me from cramping. I
luckily held onto two of my gels because they did not fit as well as the
Redbull shot in my hands. So I decided
to wait until I hit about 11 or 12km before I took the Redbull because it was
half way before I hit special needs where I had an emergency stash of salt and
gels and another Redbull shot. So I
became very dependent on the aid stations which were luckily providing Gu gels
which is what I like! So I was taking
Ironman Perform, water, and I even started with the coke pretty early at every
aid station. I just wanted to make sure
I was taking in enough salt! I even felt
hungry so I had a couple of pieces of banana during the first half of the run. I stayed true to the no walking between the
aid stations and actually did not walk at any aid station until I got to
special needs. Grabbed the 4 salt pills
I had there, I was hoping I packed more but did not. I took three of them right away and continued
running. Everyone around me was walking
so I felt like I was in pretty good shape as I managed to continue
running. I took my second Redbull shot
just before the George Washington Bridge which was just passed the half way
point of the marathon. Got to the GWB
and completely forgot about the stairs! Lol!
Crap! We had to go up and down
two flights of stairs to get to the top of the bridge. Running across it was pretty cool! The views were spectacular as we were running
towards NYC but the wind was brutal. I
had to keep my head down to keep my hat from flying off. Finally got to the other side and again we
had to run up and down two flights of stairs.
I got a welcome to NY cheer and “Empire State of Mind” was playing in my
head. The crowds here were great and it
sure picked me up a bit. But then they
were gone and the run got hard again! Haha!
There were some evil steep downhills which destroyed one of my toenails
and some good winds as we approach Riverside Park. I was just so focused here that not much was
bothering me. I was hurting but I just
made sure I kept running. My adductor
almost started cramping on me but it let up, thankfully! I was passing lots of other athletes because
they were walking. I was determined to
keep moving but kept myself comfortable until I hit 32km. I decided that at 32km I was going to push it
and give it all I got. Until then I was
to eat, drink, and be merry! ;) Got to
the 32km mark and then I tried to run faster.
I was successful at bringing my pace down to about 6-6:25min/km and I
maintained that! There were more stairs
and hills in Riverside Park! What?!
Really?! I forgot about the heads up I was given about the hills here! Ugh!
But because I was moving I was getting a lot of cheers and that
definitely helped! I was walking at some
of the aid stations on the 2nd half of the run but not all of them. Then with maybe 3 or 4km left there was one
steep hill. I tried running it but was
not moving very fast and I justified to myself that I earned this walk since I
did not walk all the aid stations! Lol!
Got to the top and started running again! There were only about 2-3km left and I was
just looking ahead to see if I could see the finish line! Finally I caught a glimpse of the blue
finishing arch and I thought to myself “thank God!” I was running right behind a couple of guys
for a little as I couldn’t pass them because it was pretty congested with
spectators and it being an out and back portion. Once it cleared up a bit, I was content to
stay behind them but one of the guys turned around and told me to go! He had to tell me twice as I was a bit confused
and then I went. I ran the last bit with
everything I had left. I had no idea of
my total time and wish I did because maybe I would have pushed earlier a little
bit more. Crossed the line with my arms
up and happy with my performance for the day!
Finish:
12:01:22!!!!!
I crossed the
line 16th in my age group, 86th female, and 638th overall out of 2146 starters!!!! A new PB!!!!
Woohoo!!!!! If I knew I was that
close to 12hrs I may have pushed earlier but I had no clue. Actually, I crossed the line, stopped my
watch, and I started to cramp big time. I think it was actually much hotter and humid
than I thought as a lot of people were saying it was a very hot and humid
day. My catcher told me he was going to
walk with me for a bit but that was short lived as he then had to hold me up as
I was going down. Then a 2nd
catcher was on the other side of me holding me up. From here things were a blur. I was told to keep walking but I could
not. They were pretty much carrying
me. A 3rd catcher was also
there directing and making room for me to get to medical. I somehow got my finishers shirt and hat but
not sure how that happened. I remember a
volunteer wanting to take my timing chip but the guys told them pretty sternly not
yet! Someone offered a wheelchair but
they told them that they were ok without it.
I got carried into the med tent and they tried to weigh me but I could
barely stand up, plus I was wearing soaking wet running shoes and a heavy
medal. They got that I lost three pounds
but I am sure it was probably more. No
triage for me, they took me straight in and I remember one of the catchers
telling the med staff that I was cramping really bad. They laid me down on a cot and they were
trying to get info from me to make sure I was still with it. I was able to answer questions for the first
bit. Then I was hyperventilating and
everything felt like pins and needles.
They were covering me with baggies of ice while taking off my shoes and
hat. My HR was about 140bpm and my BP
was 138/88 which is high for me. Then I
pretty much passed out. Well, my eyes
were closed and I couldn’t respond to them but I was aware sort of as to what
was going on. They were massaging one of
my legs that was cramping and putting salt under my tongue. When my breathing got a little more under
control they tried to sit me up and then stand up. Nope!
I almost passed out on them again and then my right adductor cramped up
really bad. So they laid me back down
and called for a PT to massage out the cramp.
The cramp was hurting so bad that I was crying with no tears! Ha! At the same time they decided to take blood
to see if I needed an IV. I got more
salt under my tongue and they were trying to get me to drink more water. Then both my legs cramped up and I had two
people trying to massage out my legs while at the same time they were trying to get an IV.
The blood results came and they started the IV fluid right away. Then I started shivering as I was feeling
really cold and they put a silver blanket on me. That followed with a big wool blanket and
then they picked me up and moved me away from the fans. My second BP reading was 102/58 or something
like that and they started a 2nd IV fluid bag. A third BP reading dropped even further to
96/56. When my BP went to 109/60 they
tried to sit me up again but of course I cramped up again. At least my eyes were open now and I was a
little more aware. So they sat me up in
a chair, the PT was massaging out my cramps, and a 3rd IV bag was
started. After almost three hours in the
med tent they let me go. I saw my friends and when they congratulated me I almost collapsed on them as I started cramping
again! This was the first time I found
out my finishing time! So now my friends were holding me up and volunteers were asking if I needed the med tent. Our response was that I just got out of
there! Lol! Finally I was slowly getting
better and was able to walk a bit more; and then we took the ferry to
transition to claim our stuff and to head back home!
What a
day!!!! I am super happy with my
performance but if I did not get that drafting penalty I would have been sub
12hrs for sure!!!! I have many people to
thank including my friends and family! Special thanks to my parents for everything, my training/tri buddies for the encouragement and company on long rides, to my chiropractor for all the great treatments and getting me
relatively pain free to the start line, and to my coach/friend for getting me fit and race ready for this event!
Next goal: Sub 12!
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