Ironman = Pain

I am an Ironman.   And I am still in pain!

Thank you so much to everyone who supported me.  It helped me stay focused to know so many people were cheering me on, both in the blogosphere and at the race site.   Special thanks to my family who were there cheering me on and helping me at the finish line when I was completely drained.  And to Ginger who came out to cheer me on and take pictures!  Alot of folks shouted my name out on the run course and I didn’t even know who you were. I hope you had a great race!     And to a blog reader named  Neil – I hope you finished well!

I did not quite make my 12 hour goal,  but I feel really great about my race.   I made my desired pace on each leg of the race, but I wasted alot of time in Transitions.   Plus I got a drafting penalty due to a moment of inattention not dropping back quickly enough.

The run was extremely painful.   At mile 7 it felt like there was stone in my shoe.  I took it off and there was no stone – just a hard lump on the ball of my foot.  I saw Ginger at mile 8 and she said I probably got a bone bruise during the long run on cement in bare feet from the swim to T1.   She said don’t worry about it, that Ironman was supposed to be painful.     It took every ounce of mental toughness in me, and then some, to keep running through that pain.   It was like 3 hours of  ‘Suffer Section‘.  I kept trying different things to get through it. When one thing stopped working, I’d try another.    At some point, I wondered how @GoSonja would have handled it.  Then I thought I will just imagine she is running and not me.    So, that is how I got through the last 13 miles, by imagining she was doing the running.  It worked.  Thank you Sonja!

I think the pain during the run made me forget about hydration.   I was drinking every mile when my Garmin beeped at me.  But it must not have been enough.  A few minutes after crossing the finish line, I felt dizzy.  I tried drinking some Pepsi.  That made it worse.   I asked my husband to take me to the medical tent, where I spent 90 minutes being treated for dehydration.

I had planned on my final tweet of the day being my favorite quote, “When you like suffering.  When you like the pain in your legs and all your body, it means you are good.”    But when I finished the race, I did not like all the pain I had  suffered from mile 8 onward.  I hated it.  But I was still good. 🙂

Official results are up at the Setup site (not the B2B site)…

Swim: 01:00:27
T1 + Bike: 06:16:30′
T2: 00:13:26 19
Run: 04:34:07
Drafting penalty: 00:06:00
Total Time: 12:10:28

I went to the awards cruise…and got 1st Age group 🙂 Two women my age were faster (including the one I wanted to beat), but they got in top masters. That’s fine by me!   After the race, I wanted to congratulate the woman I was chasing down all day. I saw her both times in the changing tent.    But I only just saw her as I was staggering to the medical tent, and was not coherent enough to stop and talk.   I don’t think she reads my blog, but in case she does, CONGRATS – you were amazing out there!

Picture of me getting my award: