Jennie, you are an Ironman!

It's more than two weeks out, and I'm finally getting around to a race report.  What have I been doing for the past two weeks?  Happy hours!  It's hard work rehydrating from 14 hours of continuous exercise.  Some of you have been patiently awaiting this race report though, especially those of you considering IM Texas next year.  So here's more detail than you'd ever want about my Ironman Texas race day.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

I woke up at 4:00 am and ate the most massive breakfast ever:  oatmeal, almond butter, bananas, bagels, honey, yogurt, coffee, and lots of water.  1000+ calories.   Jody and I left our hotel at 5:15.  I dropped off my nutrition and gear at the transition area and then headed to the swim start, which was about a mile away.  I was very grateful for the ride there, as most athletes walked the 1+ mile from transition to the swim.  I was already planning to do 140.6 miles that day.  I had no interest in making it 141. 

At about 6:30, we arrived at the incredible scene of the swim start: nervous people pacing all over the shore of Lake Woodlands, standing in line for the port-a-lets, praying, jamming to reggae, freaking out because they couldn't find their goggles.  It was a deepwater start, so they let us get in the water about 6:45.  I put on my cap and goggles, said goodbye to Jody for the day, and dove into the water. I placed myself squarely in the middle of the swimmers, behind the sharks but close enough to the front where I wouldn't be swimming around people for the entire race.  And I treaded water for about 10 minutes waiting for the cannon to fire.  This was one of the most awesome experiences of the day.  Purple (women) and green (men) swim caps surrounded me, and spectators covered the shores and bridge behind us.  I thought this would be the most anxious part of my day, but in fact, it was the moment when it finally hit me - I'm going to do this.  And I'm going to finish!   It was a feeling of peaceful excitement and awe.

At two minutes until 7:00, hundreds of athletes waited on shore to get in the water.  The announcer kept saying, "we start at 7, whether you're in the water or not," and he didn't lie.  The gun fired and the mass of 2200 green and purple caps started moving eastward across Lake Woodlands.  Here's a YouTube video of what it looked like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egZcFVWN5nc&feature=related

I got knocked around a little bit, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.  The water was murky.  I couldn't see past my elbow, but I've swam in worse.  Before I knew it, I was rounding the first buoy.  I started to get a dull headache that lasted through the rest of the swim, maybe due to my goggles being too tight?  The final 800 meters of the swim course were through a narrow canal.  It got a little crowded in there, and one of the two straps of my goggles was knocked off, but I managed to fix it without losing them.  I kicked hard the last 100 meters, swam around the final buoy and made my way up the stairs out of the water and into transition.   Swim time: 1:20.  All my hard work in the pool and at Barton Springs paid off!  That was about as fast as I ever expected to swim 2.4 miles. 

I grabbed my bike gear bag and rushed into the changing tent.  A fabulous volunteer was waiting there for me.  She gave me water, sat me down, and dumped the contents of my bag on the ground.  Then she put my socks on for me and handed me all my gear.  She even noticed I was chaffing under my arms from the wetsuit and covered those areas with vaseline.  I can give all the credit for my fast transition time to her.  And she made me laugh, saying, "I can't believe you just swam in that water.  I live on the lake, but I would never think about swimming in it.  You go girl!"  Major props go to The Woodlands ladies for their truly incredible support all day in this race!

As I exited transition on the bike, I heard a crowd of T3ers cheering, giving me a great boost of energy to start the ride.  On my bike, I had three water bottles each with 450 calories of Carbo Pro and 200 calories EFS, plus one aero bottle with just water.  I took in water at every stop but had enough calories in the bottles to last me for the whole ride.  I did the first half of the 112 miles in well under 3 hours at a 19.9 mph pace, but unfortunately, I suffered from some bad karma on the second half.  At about mile 75, when I was riding up a hill, I started thumping.  I had a flat, and although I can change flats easily on my own wheels, I'd borrowed Coach Mo's race wheels and had never practiced changing them - rookie mistake #1 of the day.  I spent about 10 minutes trying to get the tire off and a great deal more time changing the tube out.  But I cut my losses and hopped back on the bike, hoping to recover some of the lost time.  Then I started hearing this chirping sound, and I noticed that my legs were on fire and people were passing me a lot more often than before.  I finally realized, much later than I should have, that my wheel was rubbing against the side of my bike frame, slowing me down considerably and making me work that much harder - rookie mistake #2.  I popped off the bike again, fixed it, and went on my way.  I don't know how much time I lost in these two debacles, but I think I could have had a sub-6 hour ride without them.  That said, I was still very pleased with the way I rode.  And I was INCREDIBLY happy to get off my bike after 112 miles!  Bike time: 6:24.  Not too shabby.

The volunteers in T2 were again amazing, slathering sunscreen all over me as I changed shoes and took in some water.  I carried two flasks of EFS gel with me on the run, each with 400 calories.  I expected this to be most of my nutrition but was prepared to take in PowerBar gels at some point along the way.  Right as I started the run, I came upon Michelle, Chris, Sarah and Sam Smith.  Michelle has been my long-time running buddy, and she convinced her whole family - including a 3 year-old and a 1 year-old - to spend the day out in The Woodlands cheering me on.  It was so cool to have them there right at the beginning of the run.  3 year-old Sarah had a big high five ready and an adorable sign that she'd made. 

Coming out of T2, I surprised myself by feeling good enough to run.  About three weeks before the race, I'd started having some major foot pain.  I initially thought it was a stress fracture but had a chiropractor tell me it was a fallen arch and that it would be okay on race day.  Then, when it didn't feel any better the week before the race, I went to an ortopedic surgeon just to make sure that it wasn't broken.  She told me it was a Morton's neuroma (basically an enlarged nerve), gave me a metatarsal pad to wear, and confirmed that I would be fine to do the race but that I might be in a lot of pain.  Probably because of the massive amount of endorphins, I felt no pain coming out of transition.  I was able to run about 1.5 miles at a decent clip.  And then it hit me - not the foot pain, but the heat.  It was 3:00 pm in Houston, in May.  It was 94 degrees, 90% humidity, with a blazing sun overhead.  I started to get a little light-headed, so I walked... and walked.  A T3 friend passed me at about mile 3, so I started running again, trying to stay within a few feet of him.  Then I heard people calling my name.  A fabulous group of friends - Katie, Maggie, Laura, Kristin, Johnny, Amy and Allison - had camped out on a median and were cheering loudly.  I couldn't let them see me walk!  So I kept running, and they gave me the adrenalin to continue a while longer. 

At some point, I started walking again.  The heat continued to affect me, and the endorphins weren't able to mask the foot pain quite as well as at the beginning.  Part of the course was on covered trails through a neighborhood, so when I reached the shaded portions, I made myself run.  And good thing I did, because after about 50 meters of running, I came upon my other support group - my parents, my fabulous sister-in-law Brandi, the Smiths, Avery Woods and Erik Schuchmann, and my dear friend Samantha Brantley.  They were all on a hillside cheering loudly.  I started to run faster, which is great because all the pictures make it look like I'm running really hard, when in fact, I walked 2/3 of the marathon.  Coach Mo was also right there with them, and he ran alongside me for a minute and gave me some great encouragement.  "You're doing great.  You don't have to run any faster.  Just keep up this pace."  Well, that didn't happen, but I did continue to press on.  

At the start of the second lap, I noticed an altogether different foot pain - blisters.  The ortho that I'd seen earlier in the week had given me some orthotics that greatly relieved the pain in my foot, but I had to buy a new pair of shoes to wear them.  I hadn't had a chance to break them in - rookie mistake #3.  I also hadn't practiced running and dumping water on my head without getting my shoes wet - rookie mistake #4.  Combined, these caused massive blisters along the forefronts of both of my feet, and by the midway point, they made running incredibly painful.  So I walked a lot more.  I passed my cheering squads twice more, running because of the adrenalin they supplied.  But soon after I lost sight of them, I walked again.  Then the sun started to go down, and I was ready to finish.  I ran by my parents on the hillside with about 3 miles to go, and I just kept running.  My last 3 miles were the fastest three of my entire race.   The finish line chute was a good 200 meters, lined with people cheering so loudly.  Music blared, lights flashed.  Many friends were along the course yelling my name.  I saw Katie, Amy, Laura and Maggie before the finish and high-fived them.  I heard my Dad yell "Go Jennie" right as I crossed the line.  Jody found me right after I got my medal and gave me a huge, emotional hug. 

Finish time:  14:00:20.  (9:00 pm)  

It was truly an awesome experience, unlike any other.  Those of you that are thinking about doing your first one, I say absolutely, go for it!  Those of you thinking about doing your second, I say absolutely, you're crazy.  But I might be crazy too... in a different decade.  For now, I'm going to focus on healing my feet and spending some quality time with all these wonderful people that made my race experience so amazing.  Thank you guys for being such a huge part of it!

Breakfast of Champions

Here it is, folks, race day!  I'm trying to force down my 1000 calories:

Oatmeal - 250 cal
Justin's Maple Almond Butter - 200 cal (Best nut butter on the planet, by the way!)
Wallaby key lime yogurt - 150 cal (Best yogurt...)
banana - 120 cal
WF mini bagels (2) - 200 cal
honey on the bagels - 75 cal
(plus some terrible hotel coffee that tastes like the grinds are on their third go round)

Not exactly a gourmet brunch, but I'll look forward to that next weekend!

I slept pretty well last night, and I'm feeling good and excited about what the day will bring.   Let's do this!

T3 Toes and Training Buddies

Since Sunday was supposed to be a rest day on our training schedule, my T3 girls and I decided to go get T3 blue pedicures for the race.  The women doing the pedicures were horrified at our many calluses but managed to do a fine job on our feet:

For those of you coming to watch the race, keep on the lookout for these awesome ladies.  I've told them to be ready for cheering from strangers!

Paulina and Teresa

Jessica

These gals are all going to rock the race this weekend and have been fantastic training friends and much more along this 6-month journey!  

There's a whole slew of other T3ers that I don't have pictures of - Tammie, Chris, Kevin, Jennifer, Mallory, Matt, Bill, Chelsea, Buddy, Clay, Cole, Dustin, Lenora, Mary and I'm sure a few others that I'm missing.  They will be wearing T3 jerseys, and their names will be on their bib numbers.  They'd love to hear you cheer for them too.   Matt's a pro and one of the head coaches of T3.  He's racing for hard-earned money and points to qualify for a professional's spot at Kona.  He'll be close to finished by the time I start the run, but you might get to see him on his last lap if you're there when I expect to start.  Other folks to watch for are Chelsea and Cole, both of whom are likely candidates to qualify for Kona in their respective age groups.  Chelsea is one of 5 women under 25 competing, and if she's having a good day, she'll be on fire.   She may not acknowledge your cheers because she'll be working so hard, but I guarantee she'll appreciate them.  Cole, on the other hand, will probably be smiling the whole race and giving high 5s.  Up until 2 weeks ago he had dreads down to his waist.  Our coach finally convinced him to shave them off so that he wouldn't overheat.  He runs like a mad man and is great fun to watch.

Managing Expectations

If I go back and read my first blog entry, it says:

"My hope is that with consistent training and mental stamina the tortoise within me can finish, which for me will be a big, fat WIN."

I've had to remind myself of those last words recently.  Despite the lack of a stress fracture in my foot, it has been very slow to heal.  I can walk on it okay, but my first effort at running on it night before last was not a success.  I didn't make it to the end of my street before I had to stop and walk due to the pain.  (Snippet, however, was very grateful for the slower pace.)  My sports doc warned me that I should be prepared to run/walk this race and to erase any time goals I'd set.  Yesterday's experience has me convinced that there's a very good chance I will walk the entire 26.2 miles, and it's possible that I may have to drop out at some point due to the pain.  That is not how I foresaw this race.  I've logged a lot of long miles with the plan of crossing the finish line running.  At this point I just hope that my foot holds up for walking that far, and I'm not at all convinced that it will. 

The time goal that I had set for myself was to finish in under 13 hours.  My swim and bike are largely unaffected by the foot problem, so I should still be able to finish those with no problem.  Knowing that I won't be running, I'm going to hammer the bike as hard as I can.  A reasonable estimate is a 1:30 swim, exiting the water around 8:30 a.m., and a 6:30 bike, which would put me on the run by 3:00 p.m.  If I'm having a really good day, I'll do the swim in 1:15 and the bike in closer to 6.  Either way, that leaves me with 9 hours to finish the "run." 

I'm trying to keep my chin up, but this has been an emotional roller coaster.  I'm pretty much a basketcase.  I embarrassingly started tearing up at the pool this morning when my friend Stella asked me how my foot was.  I couldn't even talk to my coach for fear that I'd start bawling.  But this injury puts the whole thing into perspective.  Why do I do these triathlons?  Sure, the racing is a blast, and of course I like to have as fast a time as possible.  But I started doing them because I wanted a goal to keep me healthy and in shape.  I'm in the best shape of my life.  And walking the 26.2 rather than running - or walking only part of the 26.2 - is not going to take that way from me.  The truth is, I was going to walk some anyway.  How much, I'm not sure, but if the 70.3 last month was any indication, it would be more than just the water stops.  So now I'll be walking the whole thing.  My time will be slower, but the good news is that for those of you coming to cheer me on, you'll get to see me for that much longer when I pass you by!  

Spotting the Blue Streak

Well, it may be more like a blue slug than a blue streak, but "slug" wasn't as catchy.   For those of you coming to The Woodlands next Saturday, I thought I'd post a pic of what I'll be wearing on the run so that you can be on the lookout:

Let's hope that the smile and thumbs up are part of the running attire too.  Just as an FYI, there will be 24 of us wearing the blue T3 jerseys.  All are friends, and I'm sure all would love to hear a "GO T3" when they pass.  Our names should be printed on the bib numbers too, so there will ample cheering opportunities. 

#184

Bib numbers are posted!  I'll be wearing #184 on race day.  Along with the postings comes some interesting information that I thought I'd share:

• 2686 participants are registered for IM Texas.
• 90 of those are women in my age group, females age 30-34.
• The female age group with the largest number of participants is age 40-44.
• 11 physically-challenged athletes are registered to race.  (They are, by far, the most inspirational athletes to watch!)
• 80 professionals are registered.

Two Dirty Words

The triathlon world has its own language.  Transition is a place, not a phrase.  A brick is a workout, not a building material.  A draft is not a wind, but an illegal means to improve a bike split.  And a bike split does not mean that your bike broke in two.  It's the amount of time it takes you to complete the bike portion of a triathlon. 

We also have our own dirty words, specifically an "s" word and an "f" word.  Stress.  Fracture.

Last week, I started to notice some significant pain in my right foot arch.  I chalked it up to wearing heels a couple days in a row and ignored it.  Then on Sunday, my friends Michelle and Brandi joined me for my long run, which was supposed to be 12 miles.  The arch pain was there from the beginning but was very mild.  Around mile 7, the top of my foot started to hurt badly too.  I stopped running, and then I really started to feel the pain.  We were about as far from my house as we could be, and none of us had a phone.  We borrowed a friendly guy's cell and called Michelle's husband Chris to come get us.  He graciously plopped his kids in their truck and drove over to pick us up.  Thank you, Chris!!! 

Meanwhile, I started to panic.  I couldn't put weight on my right foot without a sharp pain shooting through the top of my foot.  Brandi has run a number of marathons and indicated that the symptoms I was having were similar to the ones she had when she was diagnosed with a stress fracture.  $#@*!

I got home and immediately called T3 Coach Maurice.  He recommended an asap visit to a sports doctor and also recommended 10-minute ice sessions at least 4 times/day plus a lot of ibuprofen.  He also was incredibly reassuring, convincing me that even if this was a stress fracture, I could *probably* still race the whole thing as long as I rested completely between now and race day.  I believed him . . . for about 5 minutes.  Then I went crying to Jody and told him it was all over, that this thing that has consumed me for the past six months was not going to happen.  It was a complete and total pity party, and despite my irrational sobbing and dramatization, Jody was wonderfully supportive.  He reminded me of what I often say to him - no sense worrying about things you can't control, or in this case, something you're not even sure exists.  So I tried to keep my chin up and not think about it, which was easier said than done. 

Fast forward to my appointment with Dr. Sellers this morning.  After about 20 minutes of tests for stress fractures, he confirmed that I DO NOT have one!  Amen!  He did determine that I have a collapsed arch and pointed out a number of differences between my uninjured foot and injured foot.  Then he spent about 30 minutes manipulating the foot to get my mobility back.  It's not perfect this evening, but it is better than before.  At least one cause of this problem is apparently some sort of imbalance in my hips and legs.   I've had a number of problems with my right leg over the past few years, and Dr. Sellers proved today that my right leg is much weaker than my left.  He had me use resistance bands to see how far I could lift each leg, and my left leg is about 20% stronger than my right.  Until this imbalance is corrected, he said I would continue to have problems with the right leg and foot.  So, I've got some butt-burning exercises to do 3 times a day, plus more ice and ibuprofen, plus some rest until the bruising on my foot heals.  But all in all, the prognosis is good, and I should be well, if not perfect, on race day.  Crisis averted, although not without a whole slew of dirty words that would be crystal clear even to the most novice triathlete.