Let's try this again, shall we?

So...I left off with me heading into my first Ironman at Ironman Florida in Panama City.  I have obviously survived since I'm writing again, but nonetheless someone may be interested in a quick snippet of how things went.

The Expo/Check in:  We showed up a day early to beat the crazy crowds that would be coming the next day and it was well worth it.  We could check out the booths, not feel rushed, and not feel like I was about to be trampled or carried away.  I am probably going to say this a million times, but the volunteers were AMAZING.  I loved every single one of them, they were super sweet, patient, and on top of anything you needed.  Check-in worked smoothly, and since we weren't stuck in a line with 2,000 of our closest friends, it went quickly too.

Highlight of my trip, pic with my favorite triathlete Mirinda Carfrae

We went to the welcome dinner, and I highly recommend going.  The speeches were nice, presentations were useful, and the food was nice.  If you want a lot of food then you may want to bring your own, or plan on eating sometime other than the welcome dinner.

Red and I decided to do a practice swim since we had never actually swam in the ocean before, playing around yes, actually swimming, no.  We were treated with a sight of a stingray "flying".  I had no idea that stingrays could jump out of the water.  We watched it jump in and out of the water for about 5 minutes, I was thoroughly amused but then immediately went all Shark Week and thought it was running from a predator.  Yep.  Smart.  We also went for a practice ride just to loosen up, and I flatted.  I had not had a flat on my new bike the entire year, but at least it was not during the race, it was the day before the race, that my tire decided to test my tire changing skills.  I fixed it and we went back to relaxing.

Meanwhile, we stayed in a fantastic hotel/condo/whatever-amazing-view-room-awesomeness-you-call-it.  I could seriously move there in a heart beat.

Gear the night before for 2 Ironman participants, LOTS of planning and organizing!

Race Day:
Swim:

The swim was...interesting...the waves were super tall which is not good when you're super small.  Red and I waited on the beach together during the explanation of the course, again, and the National Anthem.  We started walking into the waves together and then we split up.  Red was managing the waves MUCH better than I was so we agreed to not slow each other down and off he went.  Once I was through the waves though I passed him and subsequently passed him.  I felt fine the whole swim and just went to la-la land and tried to swim straight.  Swim: 1:23:33 (I need to improve A LOT), next year

My neck the next day, my wet suit was very hungry during the swim, didn't bother me during the race though.

T1
Nothing super remarkable happened in T1 except I learned what to wear under my wetsuit to make changing happen faster.  T1 took forever.

Bike:
This took FOREVER.  I have yet again learned the hard way that I need to drink A LOT more during my biking.  I felt fine during it, I was just tired at the end and well over being on my bike.  I thought things were going well the first half because I had to pee and was feeling good. Then I thought I had waited too long to pee because I wasn't feel that great, when in all reality I did not realize it was now 83 degrees and I had not consumed NEARLY enough fluids.  I was fairly on track with my eating, but then that tanked because I wasn't drinking, I was overheating, but still having fun, go figure.  I realized I was too warm and started taking 2 water bottles from each aid station, one to wear and one to drink.  I did great wearing a water bottle, but I would drink the second one about 1/4 of the way then forget about it until the next aid station where I chucked nearly a full water bottle.  The volunteers were, again, AWESOME.  I called out for water coming into an aid station and I missed a guy who was waiting for me.  I knew I needed the water so I started to slow down, I didn't need to slow too much because I looked over and the guy was in a dead sprint trying to get to me so I didn't have to stop/wait/slowdown, ridiculous!  I was fully capable of getting off my bike to get water, but he was SPRINTING trying to get my water, fantastic!  After that I wondered where Red was because I had expected him to catch me at the half way point and he never did, we saw each other for a hot second, but that was it.  It turned out that he didn't catch me because his foot was cramping so he was doing a lot of pedal-stop-unclip-rub foot-repeat.  I finally came into T2 super happy to be off the bike.  Bike time: 6:41:09, ugh.

T2:
Nothing super exciting except for the volunteers all telling me I looked super strong and ready to run.  They were either talking to an imaginary person next to me, trying to give me false confidence, or are blind, because I was far from "ready to kill the run".  I didn't feel terrible anymore, but "killing a run" was not on my agenda anymore.  Oh well.  Still super awesome and efficient volunteers!

Run: (There's a reason it's called a Death March)

Yep, considering it took me longer to "run" 26.2 miles than it did for me to bike 112 miles, that should tell you something.  I felt fairly decent the first 6ish miles, but then it all went down hill fast.  My quads felt like cement and beaten to a pulp, I didn't realize how grumpy my back felt until I went to bend over, and I was SEVERELY dehydrated.  I started trying to drink some coke and water on the course, but that made me feel worse, or so I thought at the time.  Basically I thought I was in survival mode and I was really in idiot mode, ugh.  I tried to enjoy the people along the course, and they really put a ton of energy into the race, but once you get to a certain point you just either want to curl up in a ball and die, or just cry, or just move on and get to the next mile.  The first option sounded the most appealing, the second option almost happened, but the third option is what I stuck with in the end.  I was able to see Mirinda Carfrae finish her race as I was beginning my marathon portion, which that was really cool to me, then I saw a couple people who's blogs I follow, also cool, then it was less cool and more "just finish".  I was hugged by a pleather suited cat woman carrying a riding crop, a far too tall man on roller skates wearing only a speedo, and a weird old man wearing a speedo, shirt collar and shirt cuffs, all cheering me on.  I had people whom I had never met nor had any idea who there were all telling me how proud they were and how all of the athletes were inspirational.  I felt far from inspirational, I felt like death, but I am also positive it was all of the spectators on the course cheering for the ENTIRE DAY that helped get everyone through.  One guy almost knocked me down he patted me on the back so hard, but they all made us laugh and smile which was exactly what I needed.  I ran into Red's family and his mom walked a mile or so with me during the marathon to keep me company, then she went back to wait on Red and keep him company since he was still behind me.  The cool part about the run course was that I could see Red a few times and find out how he was doing.  We were both hurting but he can walk SUPER FAST.  I have short midget legs that only move so fast, and he was attempting to catch me with his super long strides.  I made it to the finish, before Red, got my stuff and hung out with his mom until Red crossed the finish line a half hour after me :D  We were super happy to be done, healthy, and uninjured.  I had a ton of fun, then we got in line for our pictures and I become much less fine very quickly.  Remember how dehydrated I was earlier?  Yeah, I didn't magically get re-hydrated and ended up dry heaving, nearly passing out, and being threatened with an IV from the local doc.  Oops.  No IV though!  Yeah!

We headed back to our condo place for the night and showered, and showered, and showered, then sat down and refused to move for the next foreseeable future.  

My favorite recovery spot!

So that's my race report!  My goal is to not take so long to post the next time, and maybe use this blog as a better way to keep me accountable in my training for 2013.

For 2013 I have a slew of races that I want to do and after yesterday's 5k I would say that there is A LOT of room for improvement!  If I stick with my training plan though I may actually improve, who would have thunk it! :P

Happy 2013!  Stay safe!