Ann Sloan's ½ Iron race report

WARNING it took over 1400 miles in over 175 hours to get to this report and this week, so it’s a long one…..but why would that surprise any of you?!?! I write this for me so I can read this in a year, two years or when I am 65 and can still smile and remember what a GREAT day this was and what an achievement. Thanks to Cheryl for all the fabulous training – I was as prepared as I could possibly be for this race!!!!
Thanks to Patty from Raise the Bar, for advice, all the swim training and the Friday swim without a wetsuit as well as all the support!

Tuesday(7/31) was a busy day at work before leaving on vacation, of course to most this isn’t a vacation….doing a ½ Ironman Triathlon. To those of you unfamiliar with the world of triathlons, a ½ Ironman Triathlon is a 1.2 mile swim followed by a 56 mile bike ride, then finished off with a 13.1 mile run…all in the course of a day. Reality didn’t really hit me until around noon. Once noon hit, I received a ‘good luck message’ from my sister, a phone call from Lisa (a great running partner and soon to be training for her first ½ iron), an email from a fellow triathlete – Seujan (who is an Ironwoman and my hero) and a good luck note from my co-workers…then I got antsy and excited….finally the day was over with things still to be done, they will just have to wait until I return.

Wednesday and Thursday, not much to report as we had the LONG drive to California. Less than 30 miles from the race the thermometer on the car said it was 105 degrees!! Holy cow…oh my, please get cooler!!! Each mile that passed, I looked at the temp gauge. Finally, it was at least down to 80 at our hotel. Whew…….

Friday was a BUSY day!!! It was a day to DRIVE the bike/run course and was race packet pick up day and run transition drop off and potato cook off day J.

Steve and I met Paula and Diana ((Paula’s high school bud)) and we drove the Bike course. First we drove, via map quest instructions, to the start of the race at Johnson’s Beach in Guerneville. Twisty turning roads…not really sure this was the way I really wanted to go for race day….finally 30 minutes later we got to the beach. Several folks were in the water testing it out…Paula and I just watched and wondered where the buoys were and where transition was going to be….nothing was set up as of 11AM on Friday….hummm….what was this going to look like at 5:30 AM tomorrow? The water was nice and calm……but didn’t appear very wide. Oh well…it’s straight!

Bathroom stop for the girls and then we piled back in the car to start our 56 mile trek to view the bike course. Well the first 5 miles were flat…then right turn down and then UP….and a few hills….Paula was not feeling the love on the course. I wasn’t totally feeling it but kept thinking, it’s not that bad right?!? From the drive it didn’t seem like we had too many spots where we could just GOOOOO. It was really up and down, but it was really scenic.

Finally we got to Windsor High….the stopping point for the bike. Then we attempted to drive the run course. Saw a few hills and got lost …. Hoping we were NOT climbing all those hills we saw….ugg. By that time I had seen enough and couldn’t really process the run course anyway.

We graciously thanked Steve for driving us all around….glad we drove it. For the most part I still had my typical positive attitude. J I was ready and I knew it.

It was also the day to cook my riding meal….potatoes! Yes, I needed to cook my potatoes. Steve didn’t think they would be good cooking them before we left so we brought our camp stove to CA with us and I set out to cook my potatoes.

After cooking my race food, it was off to check in. Got my number, t-shirt and water bottle. Also, went shopping and got a souvenir jacket and shirt. J Gotta have some souvenirs. Coordinated with Paula and Diana about getting to the race. Steve was going to be our chauffeur. We were going to meet at 6:00 AM, so we wouldn’t be pushed for time…(reminders of Chelan where we were almost LATE)

Went to the pre-race meeting to find out all about the race and learn yet again that folks just don’t listen….how many times does the director have to say….ask RACE questions, not personal questions like – do you think it’s too cool to go without a jacket on the ride?!?!

We had to drop off our running gear at the transition area. This was clearly a challenge for ‘control freak’ Ann. I brought a little cooler with my frozen “family of 4” water bottles and a wet washcloth. Packed them with two ice packs and also put my gu and hammer electrolytes in the front pocket. In case I was spacey (which of course I was) I put a reminder tag on the zipper of the ice cooler to ‘remember the GU!’. Also, included my shoes and socks in my bag.

Here are Cheryl’s - Barb’s Race Training Girls! -
Sharon, Brandi, Jennifer, Paula and me. – Ready for the RACE!

Met up with Steve’s parents for dinner at Applebee’s, where I promptly announced that I turned into a pumpkin at 9 pm. Had my glass of wine at the hotel and snooze I went. J

RACE DAY!!!!

Well it was finally here! After 5 months of training…..over 1400 miles covered in over 170 hours. WOW!! I am READY!

The alarm went off at 5:30AM and I got up and put on my jog bra and RTB(raise the bar) team shorts and had Steve lather me up with sunscreen. My casper white shoulders and back needed to be protected!! Made my three PB and honey sandwiches. Ate one and put the other two in my bag. Made sure to put a gu in my RTB race tank to eat before the swim, so I wouldn’t be STARVING after the swim. (Thanks Patty) It was kind of weird, I wasn’t my usual bundle of nerves. Only went to the bathroom once before leaving the hotel.…. LOL>

Met Paula in the lobby of the hotel….loaded our bikes on the car and headed to STARBUCKS for my pre-race Green Tea Latte (Yea!!!).

We went a more direct route to the race start this day….101 down River road. Got there in about the same time, but a much more calming road. Paula and I didn’t talk too much in the car…..I think we were both in our own worlds, or not awake yet. We got there super early….like around 6:30……but no stress…..and it gave time for Steve to go back to town and get his parents and STILL be back for the start.
Ann and Paula headed for transition with smiles on our faces…..

Set up my transition area with my signature bucket to sit on. Also had a rug to dry my feet on and water to wash my feet…we were going to be transitioning in dirt/gravel. Laid out my helmet, shoes, sunglasses, gloves, camel back. Looked at it several times and felt I was ready. Rehearsed in my head……then had a good wait…..went down to the water and watched the IRONMEN swim their “laps”. Ate my second pb and honey about 7:30 and went to the bathroom before the line got too bad.
Steve and his parents showed up – gave them all a hug…kissed Steve of course. By that time I had my wetsuit on and was ready to go. Look familiar?!? Yea – my next cover shot…LOL


In the corral I go and then ……we are off…….and I am swimming….and swimming and swimming…..Am I to the turn around YET?!? Oh my there goes a person from the next wave…oh my how slow am I going and where is that DAMN turn around. Nope, not this buoy, maybe the next one…nope, that’s not the turn around….where is it….FINALLY…balloons on a big orange buoy….I take a peak at my watch…24 minutes….thank god! It’s not an hour like it felt like. While swimming in a STRAIGHT river might be great for those that don’t go straight, it’s nerve racking for me because I do swim straight. So it just seems to go on forever! Oh well….home stretch! I make the turn for home …and off I go…I am trying to push a bit and stay with some swimmers who are going past me…..make sure I take care of the ‘bathroom’ business along the way. Since I do swim straight I wasn’t doing much sighting on where I was going, but there were two bridges so I was concerned about running head first into the pylons, so I did look for those. As I was sighting on the last bridge, I saw one of the kayaker’s slamming their oar at one of the swimmers in front of me. Not sure if the swimmer ever realized she was heading right towards a log sticking up! I did and thanked the volunteer! J Yep, didn’t want my race day to end by running into a log or a bridge. LOL>

Continued on and saw the white finish banner in the distance…..also to my surprise I saw my other beacon …… Steve. J That made me smile, made me happy and push a bit more. He was standing watch for me away from all the other spectators…..where I could easily see him…..not sure if he knew that by standing there I’d be able to pick him out…either way it was cool!
Finally, I was done….and of course smiling with my thumbs up. YES, I do this for FUN and photo ops, not necessarily for the speed record…..

T1 – I was pleased with the swim.. I was right on my target of 45 minutes! Yahoo!! Now to the bike. Found my bike. Took off the wetsuit, rinsed my feet put on my shoes, helmet, camel back, gloves and glasses. Stuffed everything into my bucket and handed it over the fence to Steve for safekeeping. Ok all set and don’t I look ready to go?!?!

I walked my bike out of transition and then up the hill. No way was I going to try and climb the little steep hill out of transition. I had heard rumors of others not making it. I was having a good day so far….no need to change that!!!

The BIKE:
GREAT…..I really felt good on the bike on this day. The road was rough and I was always fearful that something was going to rattle off or break….don’t know why but I just had this weird feeling, which luckily never came to fruition. The bike ride was ups and downs and through many, many vineyards. I passed a few people and a few people passed me. I never really looked at my watch except to eat. Ate my potatoes, had one quarter piece of pb and honey, a few pieces of payday bar. I drank a bottle of this ‘gu stuff’ mixed with a salt tablet and h2o. Also drank ½ bottle of nuun. Passed the aid station at mile 13 felt great….was ready to go to the bathroom at the aid station at 26, but there was a line of about 5 people….so decided I didn’t need to go that bad. BUT I would stop at 40 before the ‘hill’ at 46!! While it was beautiful scenery at one point did get bored and unfortunately had read a post about singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall and guess what popped into my head…yes, I was out in California Wine country signing 99 bottles of beer on the wall. Ya, know that’s actually a hard song to sing since you have to pay attention to what number you are on…..and when you are kind of tired that’s a bit hard. I made it to 80 and gave up!

Many of the pieces of the ride were familiar based on our drive the prior day so I was happy to have done the pre-look. I stopped at mile 40 for a bathroom break before the hill climb….saw Paula zoom by…and cheered her on as I popped into the porta pottie….no real line here. Other than one woman who said she was procrastinating before the hill….of course she was in front of me…I wanted to say …fine you can wait for me as I do need to pee and I am not procrastinating! Luckily she wasn’t too slow.

I was back on the bike in about 4 minutes or so and feeling really good. We hit the hill and had one gal behind me yelling go go go!! And Go we went. Seujan had said I would climb this hill and say – is that all you got?!? Humm, I wasn’t saying that on this day. I wasn’t swearing or even ready to walk, but I did use ALL my gears and was very happy when it was over. Granted it wasn’t any worse that what we trained on, but it was at mile 45 or so and it was warm…but I was up it!!! There was one more little hill where I saw Diana pointing us to turn. Then it was all flat to the next transition. I tried to eat another potato and spit half of it out. Note to self….need to eat some other food. Was sick of potatoes by mile 52…I had other food but nothing was sounding good…..
There was Windsor high school……YEA I was done….and again, Steve was there! He yelled…good job 3:30 hours!! I felt GREAT and very happy with the ride.

T2 – Well, this is where I definitely need to improve and practice. I can’t believe how unorganized I was and how slow I could be. After the race, Steve said even his mom was saying I need to hurry. I guess I wasn’t thinking very clearly. I am used to everything being organized and this was chaos. While the cooler was a good idea, my water bottles had issues after freezing. I didn’t get the top screwed on to one too good, so all the water was in the cooler instead of the bottle! Then some were actually still a bit frozen. Attempted to put nuun tablets in two of the bottles which still were intact…. On the good side, my legs were getting cooled off by my leaking bottles. Basically this was all a BUST…Thank god there are aid stations every mile. THE BEST thing was the COLD wash cloth…yes, I did spend too much time in transition, but let me tell you one thing I wouldn’t change is having that COLD WET wash cloth to wipe down my face with!! THAT WAS PURE HEAVEN!!!!
Lessons learned – practice taking everything out of a bag and getting it all on me - QUICKLY!



FINALLY I AM GONE after an awfully embarrassing 12 minutes 49 seconds – and I didn’t even go to the bathroom, comb my hair or apply make up!!! Cheryl will be rolling her eyes!!!
I guess if that’s the biggest thing I need to work on – I’ll take it!!! LOL I can fix that.


The RUN:
Well I felt GREAT the first mile, I think that was all adrenaline from the awesome bike ride and maybe due to the long break I had – 12 minutes… why wouldn’t the first mile feel great. I was excited…I was going to finish, not that there was a question! My first mile I did in about 11 minutes 30 seconds. Then the heat caught up with me about mile one and we hit the rolling running course. Walked through the aid station as planned and it just got down right HOT. Many people were walking…I didn’t really feel like walking as I still felt pretty good. No cramps, just feeling the heat. The miles ticked slowly by. I walked up most of the hills, looking at my heart rate monitor and saying to myself, it’s just not worth killing myself. Take the chance on the hills to eat my gu and get up the hill. I ran every opportunity that was flat or shade. I have never been on a run where I was SOOOO happy to see the green Gatorade cups on the ground. As soon as I saw them it was my cue to walk! LOL. Since my ‘family of four’ had all graduated and left me an empty nester, I drank water and Gatorade at the rest stops…many of the stations had ice. This is where women definitely have it better than the men. Jog bras are GREAT to capture and hold ICE CUBES! At every station that had ice, I opened up my shirt and down the hatch…..porno alert……the ice congregated at the front, so as I was running along picture me rubbing my chest trying to move that ice around…yes, the scenes you see in an ironman/1/2 ironman race!! To on coming runners looking at me I said…..No, I am not playing with myself, I am moving my ice around to keep cool!!! I cheered runners on and I saw this one guy who was running an Ironman (26.2 miles) and cheered him on. He passed me I think 3-4 times! Every time I smiled and gave him a ‘good job’ he smiled back. I think I looked forward to seeing him every so often. He was one of the few Iron people that actually didn’t have the stone face, which I can totally understand…..cause I was THANKING my lucky stars I was only doing 13.1 miles……. I was re-thinking that Ironman goal on this day, let me tell you. On my last lap I told him good luck and that this was the last time I’d see him to cheer him…off he ran with a smile on his face or a grimace, not sure which…..I saw Paula about mile 7 or so and cheered her on…..later I saw Sharon and said her plan of 13 minute miles we laughed about last weekend was right on target. Saw Brandi and Jennifer too. GO GIRLS… Finally I headed in for the turnaround….got my Vineman wristband indicating I had done one lap…..out I went for the final lap (4.2 miles)…..My shoes were squishy due to all the sprays by water hoses and sprinklers…this was the last run for these babies. I kept thinking, this is like running in the Seattle rain, hoping that my thoughts of running in the rain would cool me off a bit.
I had given up on my watch (the distance thing wasn’t working) and to be honest, miss data head really didn’t care how fast or slow I was going, I just wanted to finish and since I knew I would…I didn’t care when…..until I got to mile 11 and looked at my watch….I thought to myself, which was hard to do by this time, if I run harder than I am I can meet my 7:30 goal!!! Ok, that did it…FOCUS>>>>> I am going to get that time! Run, run, run and that I did! Here I come down the street to the finish line……I get into the finish area and I am going to do it….
OVERALL:
Swim plan – 45 minutes – DID 45 minutes! SWEET!
Bike plan – 3:30 – Did 3:33 – bathroom stop! SWEET!
Run plan – 2:38 – Did 2:46 – HEAT and rollers!

Overall plan – 7 hours 30 minutes – did 7:24 with a smile!!!

Thanks to my supporting husband Steve for all the great photos! Plus being such a great athletic supporter – I know I could probably have done this without him, but I AM SO GLAD I DIDN’T HAVE TO!!!! He was there, along with his parents, at every transition and at the finish.



After race cooling AHHHHHHHHHHHHH:
Steve commented to me after the race…he said, it’s amazing to me that you come across the finish line smiling every time…I responded the day I don’t smile doing this, I’ll probably stop doing it….though I have been blessed in having good races, so hopefully if there is a day I am not smiling, I can at least pick out parts of the race which will make me smile and keep doing this wonderful sport! J

I look back on this day and think there is really nothing I could / would have done differently. Except of course T2…but that’s my fault! Cheryl’s training was great and I felt totally prepared. THANKS CHERYL!

Things I (we) learned
Ø Steve (athletic supporters) need to body glide feet. Steve got a couple of blisters from all the walking he had to do.

Ø After reading some of the Troika reports – know that I had a GREAT day and not every race day may be as beautiful. I am very lucky and happy.

Ø Practice transitions if they are at different spots. Be prepared to put stuff on in a ‘grab bag’ manner.

Ø Do better at eating different things.

Ø It was great to do a race plan. I didn’t really pay attention to the plan during the race for times…other than that last push. I was really glad that the last few miles of the run I could push to that goal.

Ø EAT something after the race. I drank some OJ and my yummy DARIGOLD chocolate milk that was transported from Washington and brought to me by Steve. BUT I didn’t eat anything until much later.

Hope you enjoyed my epic novel of my race.
ARE YOU READY for your next goal??!??!
Are you inspired??!?!
Or just tired?

Whatever the case, thanks for reading….

Ann
½ Ironman – Barb’s race – Aug 4, 2007