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:
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!
