IRONMAN #6 done. This one was supposed to be Mt. Tremblant in August, but like everything else in 2020 and 2021, there was a change in plans. Canada said no to that race and based on elbow surgery 5 months and 12 days ago, that turned out to be a blessing. More time and less hills led me to transfer to Ironman Maryland.
Got to Cambridge Thursday with David, my son Kyle and his girlfriend Romney. Kyle was participating in the race too; more about him later.
Stayed at an amazing Airbnb in Oxford, about 30 minutes north of Cambridge where the race site was. Spent Thursday checking in and getting settled. Didn’t check out my bike until Friday. My bike had been perfect. Should have checked it first thing when I got there because I found a “clacking” noise. Spent several hours Friday trying to resolve. Thank goodness for teammates and friends. Started talking to people on social media and chat and found the cause. Bought what we thought we needed to fix the issue (smooth bike stem rattling after had to change the tube/tire due to a piece of glass found on Thursday night). Told to tape the stem. Rode the bike before checking in but still heard the click. Too late – no time left – had to check it.
No practice swim for this one. Not that I didn’t have time or want to. Serious jellyfish issue at this one. Hundreds and hundreds of jellyfish. So many they made the swim wetsuit legal even though the water temp was 1 degree too high. Figured no sense getting stung in advance of the race. I’d just deal with it race day.
Had an amazing dinner in Oxford at a charming Inn and went to bed worried about the bike clacking and the jellyfish. Somehow slept well however and woke up at 3:15 am. Everything went very fast after that. Found myself at the swim start. So weird to be the experienced Ironman looking into the eyes of first-timers frightened and looking for reassurance. Gave them what advice I could, hugged them and prayed with them. And in we went. Had not planned to wear my long sleeve wetsuit, but thank you jellyfish – that was the only thing to do. I had put vaseline on exposed skin, but it didn’t matter. Sting, sting, sting. First one was across my mouth. I stopped and tried to wipe it off. Realized it was not there any more. Couldn’t “see” these things, you just felt them hitting you. Like random floating snot. I can’t even count how many times I got stung. Some hurt and some didn’t. This was a two loop square course. Jellyfish terrible on legs 1 and 2 but almost none on leg 3. Once I started second loop, got nailed again. Really bad one on the back of my neck that lasted for two days. At second loop went to check my pace on my Garmin and discovered it was gone. Decided not to panic…….. Nothing to do but get through this and get on the bike.
Even though I had no idea what my time was due to losing my watch, I felt good about getting this swim done. Had swam strong and the water was a nice temp and it was a beautiful day.
Made it to T1 and found a spot on the ground to get ready – no chairs left in the tent. Started talking to a girl about how I had lost my Garmin and she said then my swim hadn’t happened because I couldn’t upload it to Strava which made me laugh. I was in and out pretty quick but it was a long walk to the bike transition area. Ate a Strupel waffle on the way. Saw David as I headed out. Was a super pleasant, beautiful day. I realized when I saw the time of day on my bike computer, I had probably had a good swim. Turns out it was 1:35 – exactly my goal. That’s about the same as my best IM swim time and swimming has been the hardest thing to come back from after the elbow break so very happy with that swim.
Headed out of town and then on a little out and back from about 20 miles before getting to the 2 loops of the main part of this course. I was flying at 19 mph. I had never been in so much traffic in an Ironman race – usually back of the pack. It was windy but nothing to crazy or hard. Very flat course. Mostly smooth surface. Realized the clacking noise had gone away – YAY!!!!! Finished first loop and got to special needs. David and Romney were there to cheer for me. Quickly got off, went to the restroom, got my bag and refilled my nutrition. Grabbed my PB&J and headed back out for loop 2 while eating it. My total stop time for this whole bike was just 12 minutes. I used to get off 3 or 4 times and have over 30 minutes of stop time so huge improvement here. I do stop to refill my bullet, something to work on for future races (filling it while riding). My nutrition on this ride was PERFECT. 200 calories of Tailwind, 3 gel blocks and 1 GU per hour for 6 hours. I burned 2400 calories on this ride and took in nearly that. I have never executed my nutrition perfectly before so super happy. I also had SO MUCH FUN on this ride. Talking to the other athletes, enjoying the beautiful scenary! Average mph was 17.3. IMAZ 2017 bike average mph was 12.5. I’ve come a long way in 4 years. Bike PR by 21 minutes. Never felt hot on the bike, we had some clouds and even when the sun came out near the end of the ride, still pleasant. Bike split was 6:40 – exactly my goal.
Got in and headed to T2. I knew at this point an IM PR was very possible, but now all about a good run.
About 3 weeks ago, I had started having issues with my hamstrings pulling on my lower back. Tried everything I could think of to resolve. Accupuncture. Needling. Massage. Rolling. Even stopped running for a little bit. Thought I might be OK, but around mile 4, there it was. Felt the hamstrings tightening. It was also hot (80s) and my heart rate was 160. Knew I needed to get my heart rate down. This was not the situation I wanted to be in. I don’t ever walk/run – I run. My choices were to stop or find a strategy to finish. I had plenty of time. I got off the bike at 3:30 pm which gave me some 9 hours to get the 26.2 done. When I first started running, everyone was running. I saw Kyle and we actually ran together for a little while although he was one loop ahead of me (3.5 loop course). I told him I was going to have to stop and walk for a bit and he should go, go, go. I decided to start walking .25 mile/running .25 mile. I did it religiously for 20 miles. I also kept taking in my gels and GUs and either water or Gatoraid at the aid stations. My stomach never got upset. My back just hurt. As the sun started to set, I knew my PR wasn’t happening. Saw David and blurted out “I’m sorry” and almost started crying. We kissed and he encouraged me. This probably sounds dumb. I was going to finish – but it was not the way I had planned to, what I had trained for. The “A” side of the loop was near the finish line and very crowded with spectators. Even though I wanted to run by all those people, I knew I had to just stay on my walk/run schedule or risk hurting my back to the point where I would have to stop. As it got darker, more and more people were walking. During the walk periods, I was meeting and talking to people, which is always very cool. Saw Kyle as he was at mile 23 and he was so excited that he was almost done and was going to be an Ironman. I was happy for him beyond belief. But I was trying to figure out how I was going to get through the next 11 miles and finish this thing. Kept eating, kept drinking and kept moving forward. To say you are in a dark place in these kind of moments is an understatement. You train hard, you do everything you can to prepare, and your body fails you. Should I stop so I don’t permanently injure myself? Doesn’t feel “that” bad. But when I tried to run .5 mile instead of a .25 chunk, back got tighter. So I did what I could do. Came into town back at the “busy” part of the course. Just one mile left. But still could only walk/run. Finally made it to the red carpet around 10 pm. I was finished. My run was about the same length as my bike. Worst IM run ever. But I finished. I didn’t stop. I didn’t quit.
I vowed after my first IM race in Arizona, I would make my weakness my strength. That weakness was my bike. At this race, my bike was my strength. This is not lost on me and is absolutely the silver-lining of this race.
So swim was on target, transitions were OK (very spread out set up), perfect nutrition, no GI issues at all. Just a really terrible run. Terrible, terrible terrible. Somehow not my worst IM overall time however. This one was 15 hours 15 minutes.
I think only having 4 months to train after the surgery was just too much in too little time and body didn’t want to cooperate. But now taking the rest of the year off to concentrate on strength training to tune up these hamstrings, core and hips. Focus on swim stroke improvement and train for the Napa marathon in March 2022.
Now to Kyle. I started running 8 years ago as a way to deal with the pain of watching Kyle’s struggle. Somehow that turned into triathlon and becoming an IM. My life has completely changed. I’ve made friends I never would have made, learned things about myself I never would have and found strength I didn’t know I had. That’s a gift Kyle gave me.
Kyle found his own way out of his struggles. He decided he wanted to do an IM and got busy training. It was very accidental we both would up at this race together. When I transferred to this race, I thought Kyle had transferred from cancelled TX2020 to Wisconsin. I didn’t want to distract from his 1st IM when I figured out what had happened, so asked him if he wanted me to switch race, but he didn’t. We ended up doing some long rides and runs together for this one. So impressed by his determination and resolve. He and his beautiful girlfriend stayed with us at Airbnb. Sharing the weekend with Kyle after everything we’ve been through was truly a miracle. Somehow it feels like we have come full circle. I let him go and he came back whole and better. I pray for him and the many more beautiful moments he will have in his life. I know this is a very special memory for him and every mother can only wish for their children to earn and have these kind of experiences.
So out of tragedy and sadness and despair came GREAT JOY. And that is the big picture here.
Small picture and not as important, frustrated my body didn’t let me do what I do all the time: RUN. I’m a runner. I’m not the best runner, but I’m a good runner. And I’m going to have a good IM run, where I run the whole thing, some day. I’m going to figure this out and put it all together and do what is is I want to do. Because Kyle has showed me that Anything is Possible. And I know what you need to do to make your weakness your strength.
A lot of things went right on Saturday. And I learned a lot of things from what didn’t go right.
But one thing for sure, I would like to never swim with jellyfish again thank you very much.
ironcheryl2018 