Ironman Coeur d'Alene 70.3 - A girl can dream

My first 70.3 and it was a most amazing day!! Woke up on time, had some breakfast, checked and double checked my gear to make sure I had everything then woke up my hubby would be taking me down to the athlete village to start the race. When we arrived, it suddenly hit me what I was about to do. I kind of lost my shit. Saw Marty at the body marking and just started crying from the flood of emotions - fear, excitement, disbelief. Marty hugged me tightly and helped me get my breathing under control. Headed into transition to get my spot all ready. Laid everything out then grabbed my wetsuit and went to find my husband. 

After he helped me get my wetsuit on, I got into the lake for a short warm up. At one point, I turned over to face the sky and floated in the water while laughing and yelling out "holy shit, I'm doing a 1/2 Ironman". The atmosphere was so charged, the weather was perfect and the lake was smooth as glass. It truly was the calm before the storm. That would change once several thousand athletes were in the water, churning things up. I lined up in the appropriate corral - 36 to 45 minutes and put myself towards the back. I was hoping for a 42-43 min swim but would be happy with a 45 min swim.

I caught a glimpse of my husband who mouthed to me "I believe in you". That was enough to start more tears. This was it. I put my goggles on and headed down to the beach. The rolling start was simply amazing. 3-4 of us in the water at a time and I didn't even feel anyone near me for the first few hundred meters. I was trying to keep myself calm and not think about what was swimming in the water with me (yes, I have HUGE issues with open water and can totally panic if I'm not in a good place). At one point, I opened my eyes in the hopes I could follow the feet in front of me, saw a fish and that was it. No more opening my eyes underwater. Nope. I was breathing to the right because the sun was coming over the mountains to the left and it was hard to see. I've never been in the water with that many people at once and it created quite a bit of chop. I was hoping I wouldn't get seasick...lol. Hit the red buoy which mean the first turn. That meant I would be getting to the orange buoys soon!!! Orange buoys started at the 1/2 way point. Yes!! I was in a groove and moving pretty swiftly. I was pretty sure I'd be hitting my goal pace of 42-43 minutes. I rounded the last turn and was on my way back to shore. The course is a very long rectangle so I still had a fair amount to swim. As I was cruising along, I was suddenly with massive charlie horses in both calves. OMG. The pain literally took my breath away. I tried to keep making forward progress while feeling like I was going to drown. I can see why people drown from cramping. Seriously. I thought about calling a kayak over then decided I would just focus on something other than the pain in my calves and let my legs drag behind me. It slowed me down considerably but I was still moving forward. As I got to shore, I wasn't sure if I would be able to stand up. My calves were in a lot of pain. I was a little disoriented then saw they had wetsuit strippers. YES!!! I told them about my calves, they helped me lay down while peeling off my wetsuit. After they helped me up, I hobbled up to transition to get dried off and get ready for the bike. By this time, the cramping had stopped and my calves were just feeling sore. Hopefully, this wouldn't be a problem on the bike. Swim time was just over 46 minutes so I didn't hit my goals but this would later not be an issue for me.

Grabbed my bike off the rack, headed out of T1, got slathered with sunscreen and I was on my way. I knew the first 14-16 miles of the bike were not super hilly but I also knew I had 40 miles of hills at the end of the course so I paced myself pretty well in that first bit. I could have gone faster but I was pretty happy with my 16mph or so pace. I saw lots of athletes on the side of the road with flats and prayed I could get through this without  one. I cruised through that first section feeling awesome and when we hit town again, the energy was amazing. The crowds were lining the streets and I had a huge grin on my face. This was fun!! We turned onto 95 and having driven the course, I knew where the hills would start. Hit the first hill and just kept a nice, steady spin going in my easiest gear. I've done worse than this in training; I've got this. At that point, I saw the lead men hauling ass down the mountain. Andy Potts blew past me at an incredible speed as did the other two. Beautiful to watch and it made me excited to come down that at the end. After making it up Cougar Gulch, I knew I only had 2 more major hills to contend with. I was doing some calculations and had already figured out if I could keep my pace to where it was, I was going to get a sub 4hr bike. Woohoo!!! Made it up Mica and thought to myself "was that all?". 

This was a good sign that I wasn't feeling like dying. Nutrition was going well; I was sipping regularly from my Speedfil and taking in little bits of water from the bottle on my aero bars. After hitting the turn around at Setters Rd, we hit some headwinds. That kind of sucked but again, nothing I haven't trained in. It did keep me from hitting some good speed on the downhills; I think the fastest time clocked was around 39mph. The last long climb was......long. But after hitting that and heading back down the hills, I looked at my bike computer and realized I was not only going to get a sub 4hr bike, but I was going to kill my A goal. I came hauling ass into town; my last 5 mile split on the bike was almost 20mph. That is really fast for me. Bike time was 3:46:38 which was over 13 minutes faster than my A goal of 3:59.

The run. Oh dear lord, the run. I had to take a few extra minutes  in T2 to collect myself. It was already in the high 80's, I was dripping sweat and the idea of having to go out in the sun and run 13 miles really did not appeal to me. I wanted to lay in the shade at transition and take a nap. LOL. But I got up and headed out, stopping to kiss my husband and see my kids. I knew from my Garmin that I had over 3 1/2 hours to get the run portion done before the cutoff time. This was a relief. I knew I could WALK a half marathon that time; I've done it before. I decided to keep it to 12:45 pace and was doing okay. I stopped at every aid station to shove ice in my bra and under my hat. A huge thank you to whoever suggested a hat over a visor! As I hit each mile marker, I did the math. I was actually going to get a sub 8hr 1/2 Ironman finish time. Holy shit. That was more than I allowed myself to dream for my first 70.3 and a tough course in the heat at that. I am NOT a warm weather runner so this was huge to me. I kept trucking along, chatting with other athletes, encouraging those who looked like they were struggling and thanking the volunteers. The folks with the bagpipes meant the world to me; I'm part Scottish and it made me feel as though my nana was there on the course with me. I loved the run course - despite the heat, the locals were all out with their sprinklers and hoses spraying us down. The little kids were out there with high fives and shouting out "you're doing awesome". I danced with the kiddos and played in the sprinklers those last few miles.  When I hit the park and it splits off into the 1st  lap and 2nd lap, I was never so happy to go left and be on my way to the finish. There was kid holding a sign that said "remember your why". That brought more tears and smiles. My run time was 2:50:10 which was my B goal.

I headed down that last street before the turn to Sherman. Stopped to walk slowly for a minute while gathering my thoughts. I could not believe I was about to finish my first 1/2 Ironman. Me. The girl who used to be 65lbs heavier. The girl, who 9 years ago this month was in rehab for drugs and alcohol. And here I was, in the home stretch of a 70.3 and feeling pretty darn good. I came down Sherman and spotted Marty. I pulled off my red volunteer wristband, handed it to her with a smile and gave her a huge hug. Sometimes, that one volunteer can make all the difference in your race. Marty was that person for me on the course. I went another block and saw my best friend, my partner, the love of my life standing there on the course. He gave me a huge hug then told me to go get my medal. I hit that red carpet and all I remember is screaming for joy as I came into the finish. My goals for this race were: A-7:59, B-8:15, C-8:30. My finish time? 7:40:34. I'm still in disbelief that I conquered CDA70.3 in that heat and finished with a time beyond what I thought I was capable of.