The Big Day - June 22, 2008

My goals for this race:
1. Finish under 14 hours. Mike (from Team Vardo) decided that I should have a daylight finish since my Wisconsin race ended well into the night, with a finishing time of 16:30. I think he wanted me to have a better finisher's photo! I had a couple things going for me on finishing in the daylight. First, Idaho is darn near in Canada, so the daylight sticks around a lot longer in the summertime. Second, June 22 is only a day off of being the longest day of the year!
2. I wanted to swim under 1:30, bike under 7:00, and run under 5:00. The remaining 30 minutes were my buffer for transitions and anything else that might come up.
3. Nutrition was a big goal for me, too. I didn't even come close in Wisconsin to staying on top of my nutrition program, and I thought that made a big difference in how poorly that day turned out.
4. My final goal was to remain present throughout the race. Wisconsin was such a blur with the cold, the fatigue, and the stress of it all. I wanted to remember every detail - good or bad. I wanted to have the kind of race that, looking back, I could know that I put myself out there and performed like I haven't in the past.

Pre-Race:
My body was still tuned to Central Daylight Savings Time, so the 4:00am wake-up alarm was not a shock to my system. I had actually slept pretty well; the ice cream in my tummy made me happy all night long. The usual pre-race nerves weren't present, but neither had they been all week, so all was good. I felt very calm, collected, and controlled with every movement. Breakfast was the usual PB & honey on whole wheat bagel. Given the magnitude of the caloric requirement of the event, I ate the whole thing rather than just my usual half.

I turned on the Weather Channel for another update. Things still looked good - partly sunny with a high of 76 and 10-15mph winds out of the south. Perfect. Roehr mixed up four bottles of Perpetuem with calories for 2 hours in each. My plan was to only use 3.5 of them, and have the rest as a back-up. I got dressed and gathered up my special needs bags, my Perpetuem, a couple bottles of water for my bike, a pre-race gel, and some sipping water for the rest of the morning. We loaded up the car and headed down toward the lake.

We parked pretty easily and went first to body marking. Meghan, Teresa, and Leigh were a three-man body-marking team. Then it was off to transition. Roehr was smart enough to wear her volunteer shirt, so she came into transition with me. It had rained the night before, and there were puddles on all the transition bags, but thankfully nothing in my bags was wet. I put the nutrition in my swim-to-bike bag, then we headed to my bike. The plastic bags I'd put on the seat and front had pretty much done their jobs, so I reset the computer, made sure it was in the correct gear; the last need was a little air for the tires. I gave the IronMaiden a quick little pep talk, then we went in search of the special needs drop-offs.

We walked west along the lakefront to bike and run special needs. I didn't put much of anything in the bags this time - just a Snickers Marathon bar and some Pepto and Tums in case of emergency, in each. By this time it was only about 5:30-ish, and I didn't have to meet Mike until 6:30, and I wanted to get off my feet and just chill for a while. We found a great little spot on the wall at the far end of the beach, away from all the chaos of the morning. Roehr and I just talked and watched the swim course take shape. There were tons of kayaks in a rainbow of colors - it was a really cool sight to see them all on the lake as the sun came up over the hills to the east.

Soon, the pros were making their way onto the beach to begin their warm-ups. I glanced over to my left and saw an athlete getting into her wetsuit. It took me a moment to figure out that I'd been sitting next to Desiree Ficker for about 15 minutes! Roehr went into stealth mode, and managed to snap a couple pictures of her getting ready.

Lori walked by at about 6am, and joined us on the wall. She took a few more pictures and I just enjoyed the whole thing - relaxing, hanging out with friends and family, keeping things in perspective. It is a good way to start an event like the Ironman. The morning was still pretty chilly - about 55-60 degrees, so the longer we sat, the colder we got. I was not feeling very excited about getting in the cold lake already freezing! A little before 6:30, we started walking down to meet Mike. It was very crowded along the lakefront, but I managed to spot him without any trouble. I shoved myself into Jenny's wetsuit, lathered on the BodyGlide, gave lots of hugs to everyone, and then Mike and I flowed into the mass of black moving toward the lake. The Swim:
Mike and I wanted to start together, so we found a little spot of real estate on which we could await the start. We took a quick dip in the lake to get the initial shock of the temperature out of the way. I think the official temperature ended up being 59.5 degrees - it had warmed up a few degrees since my arrival. Mike and I shared a few words and I told him to take a look around at the last little bit of peace he was going to see for the next hour or better. As we looked around, I was amazed at how few people were standing near us. We had lined up roughly in the middle, but we were about 3-4 rows deep with no one behind us. As I looked to my left and to my right, there were stacks of people crowded all the way up to the wall, but no one very close. I guess no one wanted to start in the middle, so they all took the advise of starting to the outside! Not a problem for me! The National Anthem was sung, we watched the pros come around to start their second lap, Mike Reilly had a few more encouraging words for us, then the cannon started the race! Between the cold water and the 2000 other athletes, this was the most violent swim start I've been a part of. At least in other large races, you can put your head down and swim. But here everyone was doing the swim 3 strokes and sit-up routine. This went on for at least 600 yards. No one was in any sort of rhythm. The blast of the cold water, the stress of the start and the race, plus all the arms and legs were too much for many people to handle. I was ready to swim, I just couldn't swim away and through all the bodies to find any clear water. The other variable that I always seem to forget about is the male to female ratio. This race was 70:30, and it's tough being a sub-130# female getting the crap kicked out of you by men twice your size for over an hour.

While things had spaced out a bit by the first turn, they just piled back up at the corner. It wasn't too far to the second turn, and finally after that I found some open water. The sun was peeking in and out of the clouds which was good and bad - the sun really helped with warmth, but it was much easier to sight without the sun blasting in your eyes. By now, I was good in the temperature department and was swimming at a pretty good pace. I kept hearing Jenny's words ringing in my ears about my swim stroke, so I spent a little time making sure all was good with the technique.

Soon enough, I was ready to get out of the water at the 1.2-mile mark. My legs weren't really excited about having to walk/run out of the water, but we got it done. As I eased back into the water for lap two, I noticed that not only was the water not cold, it almost felt warm! About 25 yards into the second lap, I took a shot to my left eye. I think it was a fist, but it could have been a foot, too. It shoved my goggles into the eye, so I had to sit up (which also gave me a chance to say a couple of choice words) to adjust. Not really a big deal, but painful for a little bit. Everything else about lap two was good. I had no idea of my time, but I knew that my swim fitness felt great.

I climbed out of the water and walked up to the transition area. I heard people cheering for me, but couldn't always tell who it was. I also overheard someone mention something about 1:20 (as in elapsed race time), so I figured I swam near that time. I grabbed my bag from a volunteer (who I later found out was Allyson, Kris' sister, but apparently I didn't look up at that point) and ran to the women's change tent.

Outside was my mom directing traffic into the tent. I stopped and gave her a quick hug and kiss (she looked very relieved to see me non-hypothermic) and went inside. I saw Roehr was helping someone else, but I sat down nearby. I was still feeling pretty focused, so became very direct with the volunteer as to what I wanted and in what order. I got all my nutrition loaded in my bike jersey (and somehow got my arm warmers on) and headed out the door, telling Roehr my time as I left. Immediately outside the tent were the sunscreen applicators. I could see Erin had opted to be near the men's tent exit (smart girl, Erin!!), so a couple of other women tended to me (how come they didn't have male sunscreen guys at our tent??). They didn't do a very good job, but, as I later found out, I shouldn't have worried about myself; it was Mike that came out with the second degree sunburns from the day (with lots of finger streaks from the applicators...).

The Bike:
The sun was shining and I had a great swim. Transition had gone well, too; it was almost all too perfect. The bike course starts with a short-ish out and back along the lake, about 16 miles round-trip. Then we head north toward Hayden Lake, and the hills start there. There are just a couple hills after the turnaround, then it is pretty flat back toward transition, with just another tiny (1-2 mile) out and back before you can start the second lap (or head into transition).

I carry my nutrition in a Bento Box on the bike. It is big enough to hold two 2-hour flasks, so the other two flasks go in my jersey pockets. There is a little velcro top that secures the flasks into the box. My plan was to just have a sip or two of water for the first 20 minutes, then start in on the Perpetuem, one shot every 20 minutes. I took my first shot right before the first uphill. The road was a little rough coming down the back side of the hill, and I had a little chuckle to myself about all the yellow meshy aero bottle thingys that had bounced out of the water bottles of other people. There was lots of stuff littering the road - CO2 cartridges, water bottles, gels, etc. I hit the turnaround and was headed back to town when I was ready for shot number two. I looked down into my Bento Box only to realize that I, too, had been a victim of the road! Apparently, I hadn't sufficiently secured the top and had bounced one of my nutrition bottles out with everyone else's! Next time, I won't laugh quite as hard. It's that whole karma thing...

As we make our way back towards transition before heading out on the big loop, I was riding along, still kicking myself for losing a very valuable bottle of nutrition, I suddenly hear a "whoomp, whoomp, whoomp" noise coming from my bike. Just as I realize it is something hitting my brake pads on each revolution of the wheel, I brace myself for the upcoming pop of the tube. BANG! It sounds like a shotgun, but I was thankfully on a flat, residential street, and not screaming down some huge hill at 35mph! I pull over and methodically start to pull out my tools and go over the steps in my mind. Part of me was bummed that this had happened, but the other part of me was still focused on the task at hand and was thankful that I'd changed a bunch of tubes and tires this spring, so I knew the drill. Also good for me, was that it was the front wheel, so it is a lot easier to deal with.

I grabbed a section of grass in some dude's yard and the tire comes off easier than usual - I should have known that was a bad sign. I pulled out the old tube and grab a new one. Not wanting to forget any important details, I grabbed the tire to check out what cause the hole. It was wishful thinking to hope there was a thorn or nail in the tire. Instead I saw that the bead had blown on the tire. It is totally shredded. Not good. I was carrying two tubes, but no tires. I decided to replace the tube and see if I can limp it back to transition (only a couple miles away) and hopefully get a new tire there. I put a little CO2 in the new one and it bulges right out of the hole, like I expected. So I deflated the tube some, put the wheel back on the bike, and started walking. This was not what I wanted to be doing at 9am on race day.

I was looking for a tech support van to magically appear, but none ever did. I waved down a race support motorcycle who did a u-turn to get to me. He asked me what I needed and if he could call anyone for me. I didn't know of anyone I could call who could help me, so I just asked him to see if he could find a tech van. He rode away, and other riders started to ask if I needed help. I got lots of pity looks when I said I needed a tire, not a tube. After a block or two of walking in my cycling shoes (turned out that the mile-plus hike we did in the Arizona desert in our cycling shoes actually paid off!!), the spectators started to come to my aid. One lady said her neighbor had a bunch of bikes and maybe he could help. Her daughter ran over to the guy's house and, sure enough, his front yard was littered with about 30 bikes, mostly cruisers and kids' bikes. He came out of the house looking rather irritated, but asked what size I needed. He said he didn't have one, so the walk began again.

This was the first time that I actually started thinking that my day might be over. All the training, the fitness, the excitement might be for nothing. I was seriously bummed. After another block or two, another spectator asked what I needed. He thought he probably had one, so I pulled over. [Excitement!!] Soon, he comes out of his garage with a front wheel. We pull the tire off the rim, and get it on my wheel. Upon closer examination, we realize this tire is a piece of junk, too - really old and starting to disintegrate - probably not gonna last me the whole race either. [Disappointment...] He yells across the lawn to his neighbor, and soon this guy comes trotting out of his garage with another wheel. [Excitement, again!!] It looks good. Definitely not a race tire, by any stretch of the imagination (even had a Schrader valve), but who am I to complain!

As all this is going on, I see out of the corner of my eye, one of the race officials heading my way. [A touch scared at this point...] He wants to know what is going on, and if I need some help. I basically tell him that I need a tire, and I need him to just look the other way (literally) while I allow these nice young men to put a new tire on my wheel for me. [Please don't DQ me for this!!] He says it's no problem and away he goes! We got the tube deflated on the neighbor's wheel so we could switch the tire, and suddenly we realized it will just be faster to give me the whole wheel. It is at this point that I ask these guys what kind of beer they like, since I'm pretty sure I owe them a giant pile of whatever they ask for! Their only request is that the beer is cold. I can do that! I glance up at the address on the house so I am sure to remember where to bring the beer - 1209 Mullan. I handed them my old wheel as collateral, got back on the bike and started again!

I think the entire ordeal cost me around 20 minutes and a lot of heartburn, but I rode away with a huge smile on my face and a ruined day saved! The only other casualty of the long pit stop was that I somehow bumped the computer sensors on the bike and had no other information besides cadence for the rest of the ride. This is sort of ironic, since my computer crapped out during Wisconsin, too. Truth be told, I really do most of my riding based on cadence and heart rate (on my watch) anyway, so it was no real loss, but I was kind of looking forward to having more information this time. Still, I was so thankful to be riding I didn't much care!

I had to refocus myself, now that I was back in the race. The game plan had been to go really easy on lap one, then get crazy (or as crazy as I can get at my speed...) on lap two. This little detour meant that I was already way off my goal pace and the total time goal might be gone, too. I brought myself back to the real world, where I still had about 120 miles left in my day. I got my heart rate and cadence where I wanted to be - at the "easy" pace I had initially wanted. Still, I was picking people off like crazy.

The downhill sections of the race were a blast and the scenery was amazing, especially out by Hayden Lake. But what goes up must come down, so the uphills were amazing, but in a different and not so good way. The first major hill was probably the worst of them all, and I honestly didn't know if I would need to test out walking in the cycling shoes again when the second lap came around. However, not long after that climb was a great group of loud Team Klein-Vardo supporters in their awesome red shirts - so easy to see! They were cheering like crazy for everybody, but turned it up a notch or two when they spotted me! The hills rolled on for about another 20 miles and I saw Roehr and my parents and Lori at various points out on the course. I told Roehr about the flat and the address of the guys that I owed beer.

I made it a point to offer some encouragement to those riding around me. We shared some brief chats during passes, and I think it really helps to have all those positive vibes going in the midst of something that can be rather painful. I also made it a point to smile whenever I saw my friends and family. I think that helped me get past the rough start. The ride back into town was flat, but into a headwind. I was still feeling great at this point and even smiled as I headed back out on my second loop. I remembered how terrible I felt at Wisconsin when I started lap two. I really wanted out of that race at that point. I really was having a good time at CDA! Special needs is not at the halfway mark in CDA, it is more like 62 or 64 miles - the turnaround for the first little out-and-back. As we headed back out, we rode down Mullan again, and as I passed 1209 Mullan, I gave a little shout out to the guys who helped, "Thanks for the wheel!!" They all went crazy! I even heard one guy say, "Is she still out there??" They were yelling for me as long as I could hear them. I did decide to stop at special needs to pick up one of the Snickers Marathon bars, as I'd lost one flask of nutrition early on. Mentally it was good to know that I was beyond halfway when I stopped for SN.

I rode past 1209 Mullan on the way back and gathered a little more energy from the saviors of my race. Once on the road headed north for the second lap, we had the wind at our backs. I could see that many of the racers were felling a little cooked at this point (exactly what I had felt in Wisconsin at the same stage of the race). Feeling great, I tucked down into aero position and went to work. As my old track coach used to tell us, "You've got to make hay while the sun is shining!" The sun was shining on me, and I again started passing people like it was my job. I survived the hills on the second lap, and all the fans that were there on lap one remained! I began to experience some higher highs and lower lows later in the ride. I would have a burst of feeling great followed by feeling like I could barely turn the cranks. But knowing that I was almost done made it go by more quickly. I ran through the first two bottles of nutrition in 4 hours - right on target. The third flask was one that I picked up at the expo (I know, nothing new on race day, whatever...) and it was not a good one, but I had to use it because of the lost one I had bounced one out of the bike. The valve wouldn't stay open and the sides were too rigid to squeeze any of the nutrition out of, even if you could get the valve to stay open! So bottle three was quite a task to get into my system. I basically had to get into aero position, unscrew the lid and pour the Perpetuem into my mouth. It got all over everything including my face. I probably looked like a 2-year old trying to eat oatmeal. Plus that stuff is so sticky, it's like super glue and won't wash off. After two attempts with that, I dug into the Snickers bar and then part of a banana from an aid station. That was enough calories to get me back to transition.

The Run:
I returned my bike and found my bag without any problems. Again, I was very direct with the volunteer in the change tent, and things went smoothly. I changed my whole outfit and filled up my shirt with gels and tied a long-sleeved shirt around my waist. I walked out of the change tent with my hat and a half eaten Snickers bar (the rest of the one from the bike) in my hands, but my hair was pretty laughable - the swim and 7+ hours in a bike helmet didn't do me any favors! But I sure didn't want to sit in transition and try to make a ponytail out of the wasp's net that was atop my head! Of course, as soon as I get out on the course, I see Kris, and I yell at her not to take my picture! I must have looked even worse than I thought because my comment drew quite a laugh from the rest of the crowd! I somehow managed to get the hair tamed down and into my hat, then I started to think about running.

The run is similar to the bike in that it has a short out-and-back followed by a longer out-and-back, then repeat. I started with a little easy trot to see how everything felt. It was not so good. Almost immediately, we came to an aid station, so I tried a couple pretzels and some water. That was tough going down, but I was able to start with my run plan. The plan was to walk the aid stations and any big hills. I figured I could talk myself into running the 0.9 miles betwen each aid station. In the early miles, I stretched the aid stations out just so I could walk a little more. Nutrition-wise the plan was a gel at every third mile and water or Gatorade at each of the other miles. During miles one through eight, things were not good in my world. I was plodding along, thinking I was in for another really long day. But I was moving. And managing to have some gels (and I was really glad I grabbed those couple of caffienated ones at the store on Saturday!!). I saw lots red-shirted fans along the route, but everytime I opened my mouth to speak, the words either didn't come out or they came out in extra-slow-motion. Lori was volunteering at a run aid station but still wearing her red Team Klein-Vardo shirt, so she was easy to spot! It was so good to have fans all over the place!

As I was coming back down the big hill at the turnaround, I finally saw Mike as he was coming up. He looked great and he ended up passing me before either of us had reached the bottom of the hill. He was headed in for the finish! I continued the walk-run program and gradually walked less and less (I think the caffeine was starting to kick in!). The trip back into town was kind of a blur, but again I was okay with the fact that I had to take the "To Lap 2" turn instead of the "To Finish Line" turn. I knew I only had 13 miles to go! And believe me, that was something I could embrace!

I'd been doing a lot of math in my head, trying to figure out my finish time. Everytime, I knew it was gonna be close. The overwhelming desire to finish in under 14 hours kept me moving. Each step after mile 13 is great, because you know you are one step closer to the finish line. Things started to feel better and, although this may sound a little strange, I gave myself permission to run. I think that I had been holding back from running because I knew that in this long race, I would only get more and more fatigued and less likely to run. By giving myself permission to run, I (obviously) covered a lot more ground faster, and for some reason, it made me feel better.

While the running was going pretty well, my stomach had pretty much had enough. I think my last gel was at mile 14 or so, and that was all she wrote. Even the thought of trying to swallow another one of those made my stomach unhappy. I kept up with the Gatorade (about an ounce or two) at each aid station, but nothing substantial. I walked up the last hill to the final turnaround at mile 20.75, then I knew it was just a straight shot to the finish line. While most people hit the wall at mile 20, I suddenly came alive! My walking breaks became shorter, and my pace started to pick up. With 3.2 miles to go, the clock read 13:24 - I just needed three sub-12-minute miles to meet my goal! I saw Roehr and Kris one last time at their corner, then I was headed for home.

My legs were tired, but still able to do their thing. When I took the final "To Finish Line" turn I was stoked. I had been going back and forth with some girl in a pink jersey for most of the last half of the race. I'm betting I really made her mad when I went sprinting (as much as one can sprint the last 0.6 miles of 140.6) past her towards the finish line. I was actually quite a dork as I made it down to the end... I was high-fiving everyone in sight and just generally acting very excited! I could see the clock at the end of the street, and I still had a few minutes to spare! I ended up at 13:57:22. I was stoked! Even with the bike malfunction, I made it! I got my medal and finisher's hat and shirt, had my picture taken, then was let go out of the back of the finish area. Just after I stepped out, they brought someone else out on a stretcher. I was glad to be upright! We had lots of hugs, pictures, and even a couple of phone calls before I was ready to head to the massage tent. On my way there, I stopped off at the post-race food table to see if I could get anything into my belly. The cheese pizza looked really good, but after two really tiny bites, I decided that was a losing battle.

The massage tent was hyper-heated and felt great, but the chick that gave me the "massage" was not all there. She barely touched me and when she did, it was more like the slight squeeze you might give to an avocado to check on it's ripeness than a massage. After about 6 minutes of that, I was outta there. Roehr met me with some dry warm clothes and a chocolate milk, and we headed back to Mike and Teresa's to rehash the day.

Totals for the day:
Swim: 1:19:32
T1: 8:52
Bike: 7:19:05
T2: 5:35
Run: 5:04:20
Total time: 13:57:22

Total calories consumed (estimated): 2000
Total calories burned (estimated): 8000