The week started out kinda interesting as Genevieve our sweet little two year old woke up the monday before the race with a cold...needless to say I quickly packed my gear and escaped to Penticton to quarantine myself...and pass the time focusing on all things important, like how I was going to place my race # on my helmet... alas race morning arrived and the day shawn bright and much warmer and less windy that the previous day, a relief to everyone, I met a few training partners at the entrance to the swim and proceeded to the fence line were my parents and sister had arranged to meet me, they where actually up and left ahead of me in the morning to get to there place! I started in the usual place just left of the markers and awaited the start. not super nervous this time around as I knew I just had to stay calm and hold my position in the water, I cant say I remember how the race started was it the cannon this year? well anyways off we all went, I had a great swim focussing on finding feet to swim on and sighting the markers, the swim went by quickly.. 1:09 on my watch! I was very pleased, I made my way quickly threw transition and to the bike, I had the worst parking spot right at the back of the lot in the grass, well at least all the people in my age group where in the same spot!... out I went onto the bike, up main street, feeling pumped but staying in my zones... man it felt way to easy...fast forward out to osoyoos, I had been issued a penalty for talking to the person next to me! and he rode up beside me! crazy, I had a tough time shaking that one, I was really pissed off, the climb up richter went well as I was focussed on riding relatively easy, threw the rollers and into the out and back I was feeling OK but had difficulty putting the calories in, I just didn't feel like eating or drinking, my stomach was kind of queasy, an all to familiar feeling...at the advice of the nutritionist, AKA karen B. I had planed to pull back on my nutrition and drink water if this happened but it was pretty cold in spots (I wasn't that thirsty)...really cold heading up Yellow lake burrrr.. thankfully I had worn a bike jersey arm warmers and brought news paper to stuff down my shirt, don’t you love it when the weather man gets it right!
poor Tara Lee had to stand there in the freezing cold rain and watch us all go by!!!
dropping down into town from yellow lake I could actually feel the temperature change 10 degrees warmer,I had never felt that before.
I made my way thew transition and headed out on the run feeling pretty great really aside from the fact that my feet where still blocks of ice, I had had what I thought was a very conservative bike, probably 20 min slower than I planed... the 50 km gusting wind in spots didn't help....did anyone happen to notice the draft packs!!!!...I digress.
I probably was running easily 8 min mile pace which I thought I could hold easing off to an 830 pace, yeah that didn't work out so well I ended up easing off to about a 10:30 pace ouch! The hamstrings where really tight as where the hips as I came to the turnaround at OK falls, at this point I was just happy to keep moving forward, I was finally able to get going again at about mile 18 as I was able to get food in , I was actually hungry for the first time!! I tried a orange slice at one of the aid stations and wow heaven! I must have eaten a couple of oranges on my way into town, happy to be running into town now at a decent pace, I focused on seeing my family at the finish line. The run down lakeshore was euphoric...the real reason I do Ironman, a flood of emotion came over me, happiness, pride, relief and a great sense of accomplishment... my 14th Ironman...wow. I felt great at the finish line grabbing my transition bag and even jumping the 7 foot fence to see my family! thats the funny and frustrating thing about Iroman, on paper you may be able to do a 10:30 conservatively but race day is a completely different story, it all really just has to come together.
Thanks to CMS coaching I was well prepared, they provided me with the perfect program for me, I did the work and made the sacrifices, in the end I showed up on race day confident relaxed and perfectly tapered, another great Ironman experience! I’m not sure when or where lucky
#15 will be...!
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