A journey of 12 hours begins with 32 weeks. Of training. What a great journey! I have to say that this time I am not sad that the training is over. I am sad that the race is over; racing is so much fun (if you have trained)! But training for a spring ironman is something I do not plan to do again. Late summer and fall races for me.
Here are the pictures. All that is left of 32 weeks of sacrifice leading to an amazing day in The Woodlands, Texas.
Race morning. 5 am. Ready to head over to transition to stock our bikes with a bottle of delicious perpetuem. Danna and I both used 8 scoops in one bottle and packed a gu and a snicker's bar.
Nancy and Sara
Danna and I were blessed to be supported by Pops, Nana, Pete, Kara, Zach and Trey! They all sacrificed their weekends to come be with us. Thanks, guys. It means so much! And as always, I owe Grandma Charlotte a HUGE thank you for driving down to Burleson and picking up the girls so Pete could come down to be with me. There is no way I could ever do this without the support of so many people.
Trey and Danna
Danna makes sure everything is set to go for 112 miles in the pre-dawn hours
Always gotta throw in a picture of old dog Trey :)
I tried to upload these in order but blogger does not always cooperate, so some of the pre-race pictures are out of order. Here we are entering the water. It was not a wet suit legal swim, meaning that the water was above the temperature allowed to wear a wet suit and qualify for the world championships. You can choose to wear one and know that you cannot qualify for any awards. Most of us don't have to worry about that anyway and a wet suit really helps a lot with buoyancy and makes you feel a little safer when you do the water wrestling that is an ironman swim. Danna and I chose not to wear wet suits because we were afraid that we would get too hot. My good friend Nancy loaned me her speed suit! Sweet!
This bridge offered a great place to watch the swim start. It was so neat to have such amazing crowd support.
Danna waves hi to Pops
spectators lined the lake shore
And we're off! There's no turning back now!
sorry, another one out of order.
This was by far the most difficult swim I have ever experienced. I added 17 minutes to my swim time from Cozumel! I can't even call it a swim. It was a wrestling match in the lake. I did breast stroke until the last half mile because I could not break out of the crowd. It was frustrating at first but then I realized that we were all having to deal with it, so I just did my thing and waited out the LONG 1:16 battle. I was appreciating the fact that even though I had been kicked in the gut and drug under by huge guys wearing wet suits and climbed on top of and swallowed half the lake, I had not been kicked or punched in the face. And then, POW, a nice heal right in the chin brought my head up out of the water (this was about 1/3 of the way through the swim) and I immediately recognized the purple swim suit and blue goggles. Thanks, Danna! :)total swim time 1:16. My slowest ironman swim by 6 minutes. Glad it's over.
Trey watches the swim start
Danna's swim experience was the same as mine. Here she exits the water with a swim time of 1:19
This race was a one loop course for the 112 mile bike. I realized while I was out there enjoying the beautiful ride, smooth roads, mostly cloudy sky, not too windy (12-15 mph is better than 25!) that I absolutely love one loop ironman bikes! It went by so fast. I had a perfect bike experience. I enjoyed myself so much. Looking back I think I could have pushed harder, but it is so hard to know. I am glad that I was able to have fun on a ride that is so long. I did not have any problems along the way, what a great ride!Here I am coming in to the bike finish with a total bike time of 5:49 19.21mph average
out of order swim pic
There were some really funny signs out on the bike course. Some of my favorites: "Welcome to Ironman. Now you are broke." "112 because 110 would just be wimpy" "Making all of these signs was really hard work, too!" "I see crazy people"
And here comes Danna! Total bike time of 6:06 18.3 mph average! WooHoo!
Time to run. Just 26.2 one mile jogs to go. It was a 3 loop run which means that we had crowd support the entire time. It was a life saver. I had a great run because I felt good. I was able to take in all of my nutrition (a gu and 2 electrolyte tablets every 3rd aid station). My run plan was to walk at each aid station and try to run between them. I was successful except for one unscheduled walk at the beginning of the 3rd loop. My stomach got very upset so I walk an entire mile at a slow pace (added a good 15 minutes to my run time) but then I felt find and was able to enjoy the rest of my run. Also added a good 10 minutes waiting in line at a port-o-potty about half way through the run. I hated to sit and wait so long but it was, um, necessary. Overall my run experience was awesome!
One funny sign on the run: "140.6 because 140.7 would be CRAZY!"
Danna comes around during loop one of her run
Our loyal supporters, Kara and Nana
Here I am coming around to finish loop 2. Only one more loop to go!
Pete cheers me on as I pass by
Danna comes around finishing loop 2
I made it! Coming down the chute after a 4:45 marathon run. I teared up a little. Not sure why. It is just such an amazing feeling and hearing all of the people screaming for me choked me up.
Here comes Danna! 6:00 ironman marathon!
Danna's finish. 13:42
So tired. So excited.
My sister is an Ironman!
When it's all over I am always left with overwhelming feelings of gratitude. I am the luckiest woman in the world. I have a husband who loves me and supports me and trains me to great success. I have children who graciously let me be selfish during long weekend training. Soren wrote me a letter wishing me luck and telling me how proud she is of me, how much she loves me and how she looks up to me. I will treasure it always, thank you Soren! My family has made this possible and I can never thank you enough for your love and support. It is a blessed life.
THANKS FOR THE AWESOME PICTURES, POPS!
