Monday, April 10, 2006
WHAT WAS IT LIKE?Ok, so results aside, the IM experience was terrific. I expected to see a lot more human carnage than I did (or maybe I was just too zoned out to notice.) The volunteers were spectacular and the paper today said there 3500 of them. WOW.
SWIM - The water was a perfect 72 degrees. The race announcer made a joke that the water temp was 45 degrees and the newspaper printed it! hahaa! (BTW - 45 degree water would kill you after just few minutes.) I had a few butterflies when the cannon went off, but I was so consumed by thoughts of the bike that I wasn't concerned at all about the swim. I think I was too relaxed about it. I fell in with a pack of folks who were slow, and a few of them were backstroking, sidestroking, breaststroking... all of which are not common practice in triathlon. Anyway, I was 10 minutes slower than what I thought my slowest pace would be. Oh, well. I was 40 minutes ahead of the swim cutoff, so it was all good.
BIKE - My bike split was just over 8 hours. This was HUGE for me, as you all know, because I was terrified I wouldn't. The course was three 37-mile loops. When I got past the final turnaround point I had a good feeling about my chances to make it. I was at mile 84, headed down a long, fast downhill and I saw the sweep vehicles headed toward the turnaround point. WOOO HOO! They weren't coming after me!
The ride went pretty well. My left knee began to twinge a little at about the 3 hr point. I've been in that situation before, so I went into contingency mode and took care of my leg for a couple of hours. My experiment with eating the cooked yams was a big success. I needed real food after so much sports drink, cookies, gels, gummy bloks, etc. My Fig Newtons and bananas melted in the heat, so my eating consisted of scooping fingerfuls of gloop out of a baggie and stuffing it in my mouth. Of course, it ended up all over my face and my handlebars. Ha! I drank four bottles of sports drink + electrolytes and 3 bottles of water. I only mention it because you get into serious, serious trouble if you get dehydrated.
It was hot and a bit windy out on the course. Thankfully we only had a headwind going uphill once. The heat started to subside around 3 pm, so the run course wasn't hot when I got moving.
RUN - The run started great. I was so jazzed about simply being out there I was powering. When I rolled in to the place where I jumped off my bike to go get my clothes for the run there were 20 people all cheering for me by name - loudly cheering. It's a terrific feeling and I was cheering back and whooping it up. One of Coach Colleen's pals was screaming her head off for me.
The course was 3 8-mile loops that were so confusing you wouldn't believe it. It was like a scavenger hunt around town. There was an aid station every mile on the course. The aid stations were elaborate. They all had porta potties (unusual at big races) and each one had tables set up for ice, water, gatorade, food snacks (bananas, oranges, pretzels), chicken broth (for salt you need), and cups of flat soda (for sugar to boost your blood sugar level.) At the first 6 stations I took a piece of banana, an orange slice and soda. The sugar boost was such a lifesaver.
