My first Ironman

I was standing on the beach with over two thousand other triathletes. I was trying to find my friends Lorena and Jeanette, but in the sea of triathlon clones it became impossible. We all looked the same in our black wet-suits and swim caps. I wasn’t nervous, I was excited, but I really needed one last hug from my friends.

Lorena and I go way back. We've done so many insane things together, this was just the latest one. Jeanette, a former trainee of mine now tough cookie coach, was my training partner and close friend. The three of us had signed up for Ironman Florida exactly one year ago. However, today, only Lorena and I would be participating. Jeanette was there for support, motivation and most importantly inspiration. Last May she was diagnosed with colon cancer and for the past 6 months while we trained for Ironman, she was doing her own Ironman undergoing radiation, chemotherapy, and two surgeries. After Jeanette was diagnosed with cancer I lost motivation. I'd lost my training partner for the most crucial part of Ironman training. But I decided to do it for both of us, even if it meant long hours of training by myself. Then, during a lonely bike ride, I got hit by a bottle some idiots threw at me from their speeding car, I nearly lost control of my bike. I was so upset! I was just a mommy trying to stay in shape! (OK, and finish an Ironman.) Things got tough after that ride, but my awesome friends came to the rescue taking turns riding loops with me to keep me company during my long rides .

I never found my friends, but ran into Jennifer Fritzshing an experienced Ironman triathlete from San Antonio who I like and admire. She gave me the hug I needed. Now I was ready. The gun went off and I just followed my fellow triathletes into the ocean. I had heard so many stories about the mass start at Ironman (the human washing machine), but nothing prepared me for that experience. I’ve been doing triathlons for 8 years and feel very comfortable dealing with crowds in the water, but this was something else. It was so crowded that at one point I was swimming on top of two guys, literally. I felt like I was riding a whale! Then, inevitable, it was my turn to be swum over, and that was not fun. But I just focused on my technique and on not letting anyone get me out of my zone. Before the end of the first loop the back of my neck started to sting, I figured the edge of my wetsuit was chaffing me and I remembered I had forgotten to put on some body glide!

I finished the first loop in 35 minutes, which was way under my time goal! The second loop was a lot less crowded but it was a mess at the turn-around buoy. At one point I got punched very hard on the jaw and it hurt so much that I wanted to cry, but didn’t, I just kept swimming. I drank about a gallon of salt water too. The back of my neck was on fire by this point, it hurt every time I turned by head to take a breath and lift my head to look for the shore. The salt water was stinging like hell. I was ready to get out. 1:13 read the clock. I would have been happy with a 1:30, so this was a huge bonus. I heard my name, it was Jeanette! I was so happy to finally see her! I waved as I ran by.

I was blown away by the volunteers in the transition area. First, they stripped my wet-suit off in a second, then I was handed my transition bag. A volunteer in the changing tent spread all my stuff in front of me and lined it all up so I would not forget anything. Coming out of the tent, I was offered sunscreen and someone handed me by bike. I felt like a race-car driver going through a pit stop. Awesome!

Off I went on my bike. The wind was blowing pretty hard for the first 10-15 miles. I heard my name called. This time it was Amy Anderson, my triathlon guardian angel. Every time I see her at a race I have a great race. She motivates and inspires me with the most awesome cheers. She was one of the reasons I was there in the first place! She once told me after finishing her first Ironman “You are going to love it!” So here I was a year later.

Everyone seemed to be passing me, but I kept saying to myself “Let them pass you, this is your race, don’t hammer the bike, you still have a marathon to run”. In my plan I was going to ride an average of 17mph. But everyone was flying, and it felt so good to go fast, so I would let myself go for a bit but then think about the run and hold back.

My alarm went off every 15 min. to remind me to eat and drink. I felt like a little robot just doing what I was programmed to do, not making any last minute decisions, not taking any chances, just sticking to the plan. I was very tempted to stick with Lorena when she passed me on the bike, and I did for maybe 20 miles, but then I thought “this can come back to haunt you on the run” even though it was just slightly faster than my pace, it was the kind of spur of the moment decisions I did not allow myself to make. “Stick to the plan.” I enjoyed the ride, the beautiful scenery, the great weather. I even started singing at the top of my lungs at one point. 6:23 was my bike split, (just under 18mph)once again under my goal.

My second transition was not a fast one. They took my bike and I changed, but then I realized I did not have any Advil in my transition bag and remembered I had some in my bike. Finding my bike slowed my transition down, but I was still well under the 10 min. that I had allocated per transition and I needed that Advil.

For months I had stared at charts and graphs calculating my best, worst case and most-likely scenario. I had a pretty good idea of what my swim and bike time would be, but the run was a huge variable. I had no idea what it would feel like to run a marathon after a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike ride. So the best calculation I could come up with was a finishing time between 13-15 hours depending purely on the marathon.

The first few steps on the run were very painful. My toes were completely numb. The balls of my feet were throbbing and in pain from pedaling. During mile two I got in to a rhythm and noticed I was passing a lot of people, they all looked so tired! But some were probably on their second loop, I wondered what I would look like during my second loop. Once again I heard my name called, Amy cheering from the side lines. “Thanks Amy, I feel great!” I felt like I was flying! Of course I wasn’t, but everything is relative. I was doing about 9:30 min. miles. That was a minute faster than planned, so I slowed down to a 10 min. mile and walked a few seconds through the water stops while I drank water and took my PoweGels according to race plan. I kept seeing Lorena, she was looking great! We kept telling each other how good and strong we looked.

I got to run the first lap with daylight, something I had not expected, so I got to see the beautiful park we ran through at miles 4-7. I got to see the sunset too, gorgeous. At the 1/2 Marathon mark, I finally saw Jeanette again. I told her I felt great. I also saw Jesse, Lorena's husband, he gave me a huge hug and told me (in a tone of disbelief) that I looked great!

During the second lap it got dark. I wore my glow stick on my hat and drank chicken broth at every other stop (that slowed me about 30 seconds per mile since the broth was hot and I had to blow on it before I could drink it). I still felt really good and started to wonder “when do I bonk?”, “when do I start feeling bad?” I kept waiting for that moment when I would want to just stop and walk. But it never came. I kept my pace and never once felt like walking.

Once I got to mile 20 I knew I was going to make it in under 13 hours. Then the count-down started; 6, 5, 4, 3 miles to go! I could hear the finish line and see the lights in the distance. I started to let myself go emotionally, but immediately started to wheeze, “No, don’t cry yet, or you’ll have an asthma attack! Two more miles,” I picked up the pace. I skipped the last water stop all together. Now I was flying. I saw Amy about a ¼ mile from the finish line she hadn’t seen me so I called her name. What I wanted to say was “look at me, I’m going to be an Ironman and I feel great!” but all that came out was “Amy!” I think by the way I said it she knew what I meant. I wanted to enjoy every moment; I had a few seconds left of this year-long journey. I looked for Jeanette but couldn't find her. I gave high fives to every person that stuck his hand out. I was so happy not just to be finishing my first Ironman, but to have done it in way under 13 hours and to be feeling so unbelievably good! I looked up at the clock, 12:40.

The rest of the evening was like a weird Quentin Tarantino movie. Instead of going out to dinner to celebrate our accomplishment, I ended up riding in an ambulance with my friend Lorena to the emergency room (she couldn’t see out of one eye). We pretended she did not speak English and I was her translator so I could be with her in the room. She was wearing her medal over her hospital gown. Every patient I saw in the ER that night was a triathlete. It made appreciate even more how good I had felt and was still feeling. My night was not over. I got terribly lost driving back to the hospital to pick up Lorena after having picked up our stuff from the race site and dropped Jeanette off at the hotel. My brain was just not functioning well. I was tired and still hadn’t eaten anything! We ended up at the Waffle House at 2am. We must have been quite a sight, Lorena with a patch over her eye, and the two of us limping and moving VERY slowly, but proudly sporting our Ironman finisher medals! We laughed so much that night! Just thinking how pathetic we must look to the rest of the world but we knew we were Ironwomen!

I would like to thank…

PowerBar for keeping me fueled!

Franny Austin, my massage therapist, for keeping me healthy

Dr. Thompson, for curing my bronchitis just in time for Ironman

360 Cycleworks, for taking such great care of my beautiful tri-bike

Steve, Ruth and Caroline, for the kick-butt long-runs

My cycling buddies (Jake, David, Mike, and Ben for our awesome century; Lorrie, Jeanette, Christine, Nora, Lulu, Kara for the countless loops around south mopac and 360/620 loops)

All my tri-buddies for making it so much fun! (Buffalo Springs, Keller Tri-Camp, etc. you know who you are! MGW!

My Tough Cookie Coaches (Susan, Lorrie, Jeanette, Ardith, Whitney) for helping me coach - making it easier for me to train

To my trainees for your support and good wishes

To Lorrie, I can’t do it all without you, you rock!

To Jeanette for all your support, motivation, inspiration can’t wait to train together again!

To Lorena for agreeing to do Ironman Florida with me, I knew I could count on you! And boy did we have fun! Another “first” together!

To my Dad for wanting my mom to come and follow me in a cab during Ironman

To my Mom for not doing it (it think it would have gotten me disqualified and it would have really annoyed the rest of the field…)

To Carolina for being a second mother to my kids

To Marc for your unconditional support and understanding

To my boys Jacob, Marco and Max - I promise not to train for another Ironman until Max goes to school!

Tzatzil and Lorena with Ironman legend Paula Newby-Frasier