Ironman Arizona 2010 Race Recap
Tempe AZ, Wednesday before the race, we arrive – I’m in my Ugg boots, being teased for wearing them, its 80 degrees outside - but I wanted them just in case it was cold in the morning or at night here!
Day 1: Went for a 1-hour run – knees felt really good, I can tell the warm weather has an effect on them. Lungs feel pretty good, can tell a difference in climate, but I think I like it. Headed to the expo to check in. Folks are getting body-marked – its Thursday, seems a little early for me, so I skip it. Headed to the Ironman store and picked up a couple of items, but not too much – anything can still happen, don’t want to jinx myself! Picked up my bike from tri-bike transport. Relax for the evening.
Day 2: Went for a 1-hour bike with David, Jason, and John. We rode part of the bike course, and so glad we did, I’m feeling better and better about this race. The ride is relatively flat, the weather is unbeatable – 70, and hardly a breeze. Please stay this way! We headed down to the expo again. Neil signed up for the 5K race on Saturday morning, as did Risa, John’s girlfriend – it will be fun to cheer them on Saturday morning for that! We hopped in David’s car and drove the rest of the bike course – there’s a bit more to it. It’s uphill most of the way out, but then downhill on the way back. Perfect – how fun it will be to ride downhill all the way back on each loop! The weather is beginning to forecast a little rain – please hold out until after the race, this weather is so beautiful…
Saturday, day before the race: Neil and Risa’s 5K! We watched and cheered, had a great time. Pre-race swim warm up – they only allowed us to swim this day for two hours. Water temp is 61, its cold, but I’ve swam in this before – I’ll live. Double-capped my head and had a pretty okay half hour swim. I can do this. Time to load up the transition bags, get the bikes, and check them in to transition! I laid all my stuff out on the floor before loading up my bags… dry socks, jacket in case of rain, long sleeves just in case, a stocking cap just in case, bag balm, nutrition, Kinesio-tape, sunglasses, hat, Aleve, salt pills…and glow sticks. I think I have it all – and if I don’t, I’m not sure I can carry much more! Checked the bike and the gear bags, this is happening. Neil body-marked me at the pool with a sharpie, body-marking onsite had actually closed, no biggie. Headed to pick up my family from the airport and get some dinner - ate as much as I possibly could. Hit the grocery store looking for Uncrustables, they were sold out. Auntie LaRae said she’d make me a pb&j for race day, even cut the crust off J Okay, we’re in business – gathered up a few last minute preparatory items, wrote out a time-map for my family, estimating my split times, and time to get to bed!
Race Day: Rise and shine at 4am. Forecast is rain, and man its cold out. Thank goodness I have my Uggs! I plan to wear them until they make me take them off. Choked down some eggs and bacon, and we’re on the road. Starbucks by our condo wasn’t open yet, and actually I’m not disappointed, I don’t want my morning coffee (?!) - Anything more in my stomach sounds nauseating. Wow, I’m nervous. The only thing that calmed me down was the look on others’ faces as I got to the transition area – they all felt the same way – thank God. I put my pb&j in my bike transition bag, checked my special needs bags, loaded up my sports drink in my water bottles, ripped the tops off all of my shot blok packages, and put one last bit of air in my bike tires. Ready. Oh man, I might barf still. Coffee, let’s get coffee. I had to sit with my head down on a table while Neil waited in line for coffee, I was so nervous I couldn’t stand still long. Headed back to transition. I put my wetsuit on. And my Uggs J I didn’t take them off until I had to check my morning bag – and I still kept my socks on until we had to get to the water. Soon enough, they were herding us to the water.
SWIM: I was determined to start in the back, I didn’t want to be in the middle of the mess. I am a middle of the pack swimmer and I know it. So I waited to get into the water until the race officials were yelling at us. “Get in the water! Let’s go folks! You’ve got 5 minutes to swim 100 yards to the starting line!!” Okay, in we go! The drop into the water really is a jump, and all of a sudden I realized how funny it was that 2500 of us were jumping into Tempe Town Lake – I looked over at a guy next to me in the water and said, “Wow, it’s kind of like Titanic, huh?” He wasn’t as amused as I was. Boy everyone is wound tight. As we approached the start, the crowd is roaring, the announcers saying “Who’s going to be an Ironman today?!!” the athletes cheering… The cannon goes – we’re off! The swim wasn’t as bad as I had pictured. I’m so glad I started in the back – I swam, pictured myself in the pool at home, just tried to keep it steady. One disadvantage from the back is I never really found a good draft, but it did allow me to just have my own swim. Every once in a while I would come upon a “flailer” – I’d widen my stance, put my elbows out, and claim my space. It seems each time we approached a bridge or a buoy, the crowd would thicken a bit, but I kept telling myself to get it over with and don’t fight it. There were plenty of times where I had someone on top of me, below me, kick me in the face (I’m missing a tiny piece of my front tooth), and I swam a lot with one eye because my goggles got shifted, but overall? Pretty okay swim, not as bad as I had pictured. I was out of the water at 1:26 – I had predicted 1:20 to 1:30. Frozen to the bone, thank goodness for volunteers – they helped me get my arm-warmers on, and everything in order for the bike – off we go, pb&j in hand, thank you Auntie LaRae!
BIKE: My third favorite part of the sport. I really wanted to keep my heart rate in check, in the 130’s, so I was watching it the whole time. I was going 18-20mph without a ton of effort – even had to ride a little harder at times because my heart rate would dip into the 120’s – can that be right? Oh man, the wind is pushing us uphill isn’t it. Yes. As soon as we hit the turnaround, we saw why everyone didn’t look to be “flying” downhill on our way out. The headwind was so strong, I couldn’t keep 15mph, riding downhill, without a struggle. Yikes, this is going to be a long ride. But I can do it – its Ironman, anything can happen, here’s what we’ve been dealt. I kept an eye on my heart rate and nutrition the entire ride – kind of impressed myself actually – no cramps! The second loop was the toughest – as we rode uphill I noticed people struggling even more on the downhill. On the way back we had an opportunity to get into our first special needs bag – I didn’t really need anything in there, but took a power bar out – and used the restroom, I had held it until then because I only wanted to stop once. Back on the road.. So, so windy, dust storms.. On the way downhill on this loop I wondered what the mph gusts were – there was a point where I couldn’t get down on my aero bars, because I feared I couldn’t hold my bike straight the wind was blowing so hard. I was in one of my smallest gears pedaling away and going 12mph.. downhill! Oh man, one more loop. So the last loop I decided to push it a bit. I knew I had obviously lost my chance of having the race of my lifetime as far as time goes, but I wanted to see how hard I could push the last bike loop, within reason, let’s see what my body can do. I pushed my heart rate into the low 140’s and cruised up the hill pretty well. I noticed the wind had died down a little from loop 2, and found some folks to legally draft – if it was illegal, I was willing to risk the penalty at this point. Flew in on my bike knowing I gave it all I had in that last loop – felt good. Off to the run after transition, Snickers bar in hand (Neil had snuck into my T2 bag)!
RUN: I really thought I could do the run, mentally. But my knees had been hassling me over the last month of training, so I was skeptical I may end up walking quite a bit. Keep it slow, pick it up in the end if you have it in you… My watch bezel was locked at the start though. ??Huh? Something must have been pressed in my transition bag. I don’t even know how to unlock it! Took me the first mile to figure that out and I was finally off to my calculated pace. The KT tape I placed under my knees immediately fell off – whatever, I tossed it in a trash can. I knew I wanted to start at around an 11 minute mile, if I was going to pull off 26.2. I was running just over that. I had to stop at honey buckets WAY more than I ever have in a race – I think it was so chilly that all my fluid intake was actually too much, and my body was actually digesting food – I cut back on the water / sports drink about a third of the way into the run, going with only broth for the last half – oh man, that broth was like heaven.. At mile 10 or so I realized that my knees were going to hold up – yes I’m sore, but I’m not feeling injured! I felt I could pick it up a little – and did, for a short while. Nope, 11 minute miles it is. Again, I didn’t need anything out of my special needs bag, just took out the glow bracelets Neil bought for us, so my family could see me. And slowly, surely, the run happened.. I think I was beaming for the last half mile into the finishers’ shoot – it’s over, it’s really over!! Sarah Lynch, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!! I can still hear it ringing in my head, and I’m still beaming.. What a great, amazing, fulfilling day. Many, many special thanks to my family, friends, and so many great people I am surrounded by. I am lucky.
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