My leg had been bothering me pretty consistently the entire week before Steelhead. Great, I thought. I broke one of my runs in half so I could ice my leg 1/2 way through. Ran on the treadmill for my bricks, not pretty but I got through them. My mini brick came Saturday morning & I ran 5 of the 10 minutes, then walked. Ouch! I was not happy and the thought of potentially having to run/walk or even walk the 1/2 marathon portion was getting to me. All I could think about was this was my 1st 70.3...I can't walk. Then I'd think about Madison in 3 weeks and think "I cannot risk hurting the leg even further". Ugh...this was NOT in my plan for this weekend.
My friend Jamie Van Vuren and I left early Saturday morning. Arrived at Jean Klock Park and were surprised at how far we had to walk to athlete check-in, bike check-in, etc. It seemed to be a mile walk and we ended up walking back and forth 3 times. Checked in, checked in the bikes, hooked up with my friend Pam and then the 3 of us hit the water. I was told it was 72 degrees on Saturday and it felt great! I needed to test out the full sleeve wetsuit that I'd be wearing, I had worn it once before a few years ago but needed to get reacquainted :) Many thanks again to Kim Lind for letting me borrow it, again!!
Jamie, Pam and I then met our friend Chrissy and the 4 of us had a nice dinner at a little Italian place. Yummy food and I had my traditional beer before race day. We got everything ready and went to bed early. Funny how all the "good luck" texts always come in while I'm trying to sleep...LOL. I loved them all and didn't really care since I don't typically sleep the night before a race anyways. And we had gone to bed EARLY!
Got to the race site shortly before 5:30am Sunday morning. Yes, I'm an early bird at races...it just takes me a while to figure out where to put things, etc. And I like to allow extra time for "what ifs". In Muncie this year, I got a flat pumping up my tire race morning. Plus I was supposed to run 15-20 min to warm up but after jogging slowly to the bike tech guys (this time I was having THEM pump up the tires), I quickly realized I was going to skip the warm up because yes, my leg was still hurting. We later walked the mile to swim start and again, got in the water. This time it was 67 degrees but surprisingly, felt good!
7:10am rolled around and it was GO TIME for me! My wave started with not only the women in my AG but also with the 50-54 year old men so was a bit nervous about that. Went out mid pack with some of the women. It's a beach start so everyone was running into the water. I was finally ready to swim and everyone in front of me was still walking. UGH Finally settled into my swim and quickly realized my goggles were fogged. Left them and swam like that the entire 1.2 miles. I was still able to see the buoys so didn't want to waste time trying to fix them. I loved the swim!! Those who know me will understand how strange it is for me to say that. But really, it's about 150m out then straight down with the current and about another 150m to the beach. I was counting buoys and was pleasantly surprised when I looked up expecting to see buoy #6 and it said #7. SWEET!! Finally finished and walked up the sand to T1. Deep sand, by the way.
I had decided I was going to preserve my legs for the run, so walked during both transitions. I'm not a sand person and my feet were covered in it, so I spent a little extra time trying to brush it off my feet before I put my socks on. Then walked with the bike down the LONG transition row to bike start. Of course, first thing I notice on my bike is my cadence isn't working I look down and yep, the sensor had slipped down the pedal. I quickly hopped off the bike, fixed it and hopped back on and off I went. The bike had gently rolling hills. Nothing big but enough so at times, you knew you were climbing. I struggled in the beginning to get to my goal pace but finally got up there. Those darn rolling hills kept screwing it up though! And there were 2 stretches of relatively bumpy roads. I did NOT like that...bump bump bump for what seemed like at least 5 miles. I seriously kept looking down at my tires to make sure they hadn't gone flat! Overall the bike felt good. I had a negative split on the bike and fell just a wee bit short of my goal pace. But since the bike computer was off a bit, it showed I did nail it, so as far as I'm concerned, goal achieved!! And I prayed just a bit that my legs would hold up for the run. Thanks to Lynn, Ted and Tim for cheering me on during the bike. Always great to see friendly faces while racing, and hearing your name being screamed out!
Coming into T2 I was feeling good and ready to run. Again, walked in T2 and in what's quickly becoming a habit, stopped at the Porty potty before heading out on the run. And here we go...run time. I was shocked. I started running and felt OK. Not 100% but NOT the pain I had been feeling all week, and even that morning. After mile 1 or 2 I was still running slightly faster than I had wanted to. Normally I would've been OK with it but because I was unsure if my leg was going to cooperate, I wanted to take it easy. I still had a goal pace but I had room to slow down. I did walk through the aid stations. I still have not mastered drinking while running so if I intend on drinking more than the water, I need to walk while doing so. The weather was great, cool, not very sunny and at times, cloudy. Lots of turns on the run and 3 big hills (all of which I ran, by the way). I still say to myself Coach Joe's hill mantra...Hills are my friends, they make me faster and stronger. That and Jamie's tips on running hills and up I went on all 3 :) Again, I ran from gel to gel, which was every 3 miles. Saw a few friends on the run...Jorge, Uncle Phil twice, Dave. Gave all of them a shout out and one by one, picked off the miles. We had to cross a timing mat twice on the run and I did notice my "beep" sounded different than the others...little did I know this was a clue to timing trouble ahead! But my leg was holding up, I had slowed down and for the 2nd half pretty much kept the same pace. I did tell myself once I hit mile 11 or 12 I can pick it up if I want to. I think I waited until mile 12 so I could finish strong. Why does the last mile always seem soooooo long? Finally the finishers chute...and then there was Lynn, Ted & Tim again, cheering me on as I finished. FINALLY...I practically had tears in my eyes I was so happy!
Overall, I loved this race! I was most excited (believe it or not) about the swim. The weather was perfect. I had a good, steady bike. My leg held up on the run. I bettered my run goal. I am happy with my time! Now...3 weeks later I get to do it all over again, only twice the distance ;)
PS - the timing omen I mentioned resulted in the finish line mat not recognizing my chip as I crossed the finish line. So on Ironman.com it appeared at though I got to mile 9.6 on the run and then never finished. Um yeah, caused a lot of inquiries to me as to what happened. This has been fixed and my time posted ;)
Thanks for your perspective. I hope to do this race next year.
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