Living in a Fairy Tale--Almost

I have been putting off writing my IMChoo race recap because honestly I feel like I'm in the middle of a dream. There's been a slight fear that sitting down to write this will be what wakes me up. 

So far so good...

Let me start this by going all the way back to IMChoo 2015. I trained "hard" for that race (although now that I'm reading my recap, apparently not quite enough for the swim!). I had a time goal (sub 13) and I executed well enough to beat my goal by 9 minutes. 

And then the wheels FELL OFF....I started having weird symptoms and then in March of the next year I got the Autoimmune Encephalopathy diagnosis. I treated with VERY high dose IV steroids for just over a year. I gained about 30-35 pounds and lost pretty much all my fitness. I went from being able to swim a "comfortable" 1:55/100 to not being able to swim...from being able to do my speed work in the low 8:00 paces to not being able to walk a 20 minute mile...from lifting heavy weights to not being able to hold up a dress on a hanger! (Not to mention the neurological issues.)

Fast forward 5 years...last year I did the Memphis 70.3 on October 1st. I had been swimming, but pretty much ALL with fins and just drills. That was a wetsuit swim and it was HORRIBLE. I kept telling myself I never had to swim again just to get through it. I really TRIED to swim more but I didn't swim AT ALL from February to July, and had only 10 swims (with fins and a snorkel) until race day. (More about this in a minute.) 

The one thing I did do fairly consistently was my long ride. I started in April with a short, easy, 50 minute ride and went up to 112 miles on Labor Day, plus teaching A LOT of spin bike classes. I also did my "long" runs on a hilly route...but my longest run was 13.1 (a half marathon 2 weeks prior to the race).

Another thing I did even more consistently was STRENGTH TRAIN!! My good friend, owner/operator of Iron Tribe Fitness, Ironman himself, and co-host to Fit Fat Dad Podcast, offered to program a twice-per-week plan for me specifically designed to improve my running/biking and swimming. Uh, yes please!! I started in January and went strong until IM training wore me out to the point my strength workouts were suffering (basically the end of July). I saw significant gains that translated into not only a much stronger performance, less injury and less overall fatigue! I can't recommend Iron Tribe (Prime*) Fitness highly enough! (*Prime is a specific "flavor" of Iron Tribe. It's not the "regular" ITF workouts, which are great...it's a personalized plan built for an individual's specific goals.

My MAIN goal for Choo 23 was to get to the start line feeling at least somewhat trained and healthy.

CHECK and CHECK.

I was only VERY slightly concerned about the swim. Back in January I found out that, apparently, chlorine can displace iodine in the thyroid! Well my thyroid numbers have been bad since before I had the brain disease. So my doctor suggested I take a break from swimming. At the same time I also switched thyroid hormone brands. My numbers improved at my next blood draw! Was it from not swimming or from the change in meds?? Well, I decided it was better to not swim than to find out! I ended up only having 10 swims total from July until race day. I just kept thinking "it's a down river swim...it's going to be fine" (spoiler alert-I was right!)

One other big change this time around is that I have been teaching Aqua Fitness classes (from the pool deck) for a little over a year now. I LOVE IT!! I get a decent workout teaching on deck and I LOVE the people (mostly ladies and a few men) who take the classes I teach three days a week. I truly believe teaching these classes has helped my overall fitness level improve.

RACE WEEKEND

When I originally signed up to do the race I thought we were going to have a whole house full of friends there but it ended up only being one friend who stayed with us. Honestly I was fine with that...it wasn't my first and I wasn't going out for a PR...and I truly wasn't 100% sure I would finish. We rented the CUTEST AirBnB and drove up on Friday for packet pick-up.

Ironman Village was like a ghost town!!! It was the strangest thing. There were VERY few vendors and very few athletes (only about 1500 registered compared to pre-covid days of 2500-3000. It felt like I was picking up a packet for a local 5k except you don't get a big backpack full of race bags or a wristband at a local 5k!

I picked up all my stuff, checked in at the AirBnB and we headed just out of town to see other friends of ours (AKA Thunder and Lightning!). I LOVE these friends! They are both HILARIOUS and their house is like a museum with a botanical garden yard! They fixed us these YUMMY drinks with flavored balsamic vinegar, sugar-free syrup and fresh basil! It might sound gross...but read that again...YUMMY!! So yummy that we had to go buy WAY too many sugar-free syrups and flavored vinegars to bring home!!! After that we went to dinner at a DELICIOUS vegan restaurant, Cashew. Now, I'm not a full on vegan like my amazing daughter, but I don't like to eat very heavily before a race, I try not to eat dairy, and I LOVE good vegan food. This place was ALL that and more! It was so good I got a full meal to put in the fridge to eat Sunday after my race was over.

Early to bed Friday night and up Saturday for an easy shake out run. The adorable house was JUST off the course on the North Shore so my friend who came up with us and I walked down Barton to get to Coolidge Park to explore a little there.

I'm not going to lie--I had forgotten what Barton looked like and when I saw it again I was a little intimidated (I'll come back to this when I talk about the run). My run was slow and chopped up but I felt shockingly good. We showered and headed out to check in my bike and my transition bags. I went to the athlete briefing which is where I think I heard they had SIXTY roll down slot for women!! SIXTY...and there were only like 250 women registered!!! We shopped at the little local market before going to do a little more shopping at the balsamic vinegar place! I got back to the house to prep for race day and got to bed early.

I never sleep well before a race so I was up WELL before my 3:30 alarm. I took my meds, ate my breakfast, took my shower (pre-race ritual), got dressed and we headed out MUCH earlier than usual. 

I had written out a VERY solid plan for the day so there was no thinking...just doing. Bottles of concentrated Infinite (I had a custom blend) on my wing and one serving in my bullet. Computer on the bullet. Tires pumped (I had NOT planned to slice my finger open on that stupid pump!). Race belt with gels in the run bag. And within a few short minutes, we were on the bus that would take me to the start. Again that feeling that it was the sleepiest, quietest IM start ever. I've been to the two I've done plus Dwayne's, and 2 others with friends...this one was SO QUIET and calm. Even down at the start area. We talked about how close to the actual start I was compared to 2015 and compared to Dwayne's start in 2016. 

SWIM

Before long people started gathering in pace areas. I lined up with 1:30-2:00 (that seemed like a VERY big time frame but I didn't make the signs...). I chatted with everyone around me and started getting VERY excited to start the race. I had decided several days prior that if it was wetsuit legal (and it was, barely) I would wear my lava pants (AKA floaty pants) because I feel MUCH better in them than I do in either my full wetsuit or my sleeveless. The air temp was about 50 which was a little cooler than I had expected but the water temp was right at 76 so I knew it would feel good getting in. Right at 7:30 they sang the National Anthem (I LOVE how the crowd gets SILENT in a wave as people realize what is happening!)...and the first ones were off...we SLOWLY made our way to the dock. Right about the time Dwayne moved out of the way to head down the river walk and I got to the path that leads to the dock we heard the announcement that the first swimmer was ALREADY out of the water!!! I knew without a doubt it would be a fast swim! Before long it was my turn...they had us getting in 2 at a time with about 5 seconds between each pair--another BIG indicator the river current was SUPER FAST.... and then it was the moment of truth...BEEP time to jump in.

Usually when I jump in I take a couple of seconds to just RELAX but that day as soon as I jumped in I felt better than I have felt jumping in to swim in a LONG time. And like magic, or like a real swimmer, I started to swim SO EASILY it actually shocked me. It felt completely natural! I took my first site for the buoy...200 meters away...okay, here we go...when took my second look I could NOT believe how CLOSE that buoy was. I second guessed the placement. They said they were 200 meters apart but maybe number 1 was closer? And it seemed like it was my third look I was swimming beside it!! ((I'm sure it was more than just the third, but that's how fast it felt...and I had on my "timer goggles"...I got to that buoy in 1:31!!!!!!!! WHAT? I thought I might be swimming kayak to kayak but I was about 600 or so in before I even thought about anything other than "holy crap this is FAST"....I really started regretting not swimming more because I knew I wouldn't be as fast as I was the first year, but the current was MUCH faster.

I did "stop" a few times to take everything in and just catch my breath bit...and then 1/2 way (the buoys change color from yellow to orange) I had a complete brain fart and hit the "lap" button on my watch so I would have a "split time" to compare front to back half.....DOH...the lap button told my triathlon watch I was in T1!! So I quickly hit STOP....and then I realized after a few more yards that the watch would autosave before long so I just hit resume and knew my data would be completely wrong for the swim and T1... JEEZE. But all that helped to take my mind off the swimming! Before I realized it I was at Ross's Landing. I knew there were 11 big upright things but I was moving fast enough I didn't even care to count!

My goggles have a timer function...but because I had taken "rest" breaks it didn't keep a solid time. That combined with my brain fart watch issue I had NO IDEA what my time was. All I knew when I got out of the water was that I felt FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!!! I got out whooping! and started running. I was surprised Dwayne wasn't there but I saw him as I was running up the little hill--whooping the whole time. I asked someone "what time of day is it?" because I knew I got in at 8:05....they said "9" about the time Dwayne yelled "YOU WERE UNDER AN HOUR!!" That made me WHOOP even louder!!!! (I heard him say "can you imagine being married to THAT?!")

Swim time was 56:15 (it was 1:10:07 in 2015!).

T1

I ran through the bags calling out my number so a volunteer could grab my bag for me...and ran into transition. I put on my helmet and stuffed my glasses in my top. I ran barefoot to my bike, and realized I was VERY far behind most everyone! SO MANY BIKES were already gone!! That's okay...I knew my swim would be "slow"...and it was still under an hour! I threw my shoes on, grabbed the bike off the rack and ran out... I knew I "should" have put on sunscreen but I didn't want to take time to dry off and it wouldn't stick to wet skin. Last time they had people putting it on us, they weren't there this time.

T1 time 6:34 (it was 7:05 last time...I didn't know I already had about a 15 minute head start from my "perfect day in 2015!!)

BIKE

As I started riding I realized my nutrition plan was probably NOT the best. I had ordered a custom blend from Infinite based on all the data I had gathered about myself (this is already too long so I won't go into this here)...but on my last long ride I realized I had a little too much protein in it. I meant to change it but they shipped the next bag before I did so I just went with it anyway. Well...it was also MUCH cooler race day than it had been which would mean I had too many electrolytes as well. I SHOULD HAVE "called an audible" and just went with the Gatorade Endurance on the course. I had several long rides with that before I switched to Infinite. But it didn't have the calories I really wanted so I decided to stick with my plan. The whole first loop it seemed like a SOLID plan....drink 1 serving of Infinite every 15 miles which should have been every hour and should have coincided with aid stations.

That first loop was glorious. I knew I wasn't going as fast as I did last time but I was much faster than I had been in training.

This is mainly because, not to brag...but...I KNOW how to use my gears to take advantage of rolling hills. I passed SO MANY PEOPLE who would coast down the hill and then wait until they started going up before they started peddling again...and then they would grind away in a hard gear up the next hill. What you want to do is PEDAL down the hill gaining "free" speed (less effort for watts and momentum)...pedal through the bottom of the hill and shift into an easier gear to go up the next hill with lower effort...pedal over the top and get in a harder gear to do it all over again. 

I can't express how much I LOVE that course. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I got to see Dwayne and the friend who came with us at the "usual" spot....I "easily" got up the worst hill on the course before it turns to head back up...and then the GLORIOUSLY FAST ROLLERS....BEAUTIFUL countryside...I saw Dwayne and my friend again...and then my local friends were in their hometown of Chickamauga SCREAMING for me as I whizzed by!! I felt like a million bucks! I did forget how slow it is coming out of Chickamauga...but I almost didn't even care I was so happy. And then it's like a switch flipped. My stomach turned inside out. I NEEDED to throw up but couldn't. I wanted to but couldn't. I tried to go to the bathroom three times...every time I would get passed by all those people I had passed earlier. 

I have never wanted to quit a race that bad in my life! I saw Dwayne and my friend and they cheered and I whooped but really I wanted to pull over and tell them I was done.

But I kept thinking about the roll down. I had no idea how many old ladies were out there with me. How many of them were struggling? How many slots out of that 60 would be for my age group? I am not a quitter....even if I'm slow. So I kept going. I got back up the one "bad" hill, but not even the fastest part of the course could cheer me up. Oh, I forgot to mention, the leaders passed me at mile 60! Then I got to the "regular spot" where I should have seen my people but they weren't there. I started telling myself I would quit at Chickamauga if my other friends were there. 

But what about the roll down??? And I'm not a quitter even if I'm slow.

When I got back to Chickamauga I knew it would be dead quiet. Special needs is on the first loop...and I was so far behind everyone there were only a few spectators....and then I saw my people!! They were cheering and screaming... I couldn't quit. They were working HARD to cheer me on!! And by that point I only had 16 miles...just bit over an hour. 4 X 15 minutes.... 6 x 10 minutes... 12 X 5 minutes...15 X 4 minutes....give or take so I kept peddling and tried to go to the bathroom one more time...and heard what sounded like a hundred people pass me.

As I was riding back into town I was asking myself WHY...why didn't I just quit and go to dinner. I didn't WANT to run a marathon. No one would care if I quit. 

Except me, I knew I'd regret it...and JUST MAYBE I could get a roll down slot. There were VERY FEW women at the race. When I got off the time I felt completely defeated and DONE. But I kept moving forward. Dwayne videoed the WHOLE THING. I'm so glad he did. I think I'll remember that feeling the rest of my life....and I will also remember everything that was about to happen...

Bike time was 7:50:38 (last time it was 6:30:03...so much for that head start...).

T2

I got my bag and plodded into T2. And a WONDERFUL angel from Heaven flittered over to help me. She emptied my bag and started asking me what I needed....and I just stared at her. She said "do you want me to tell you what you need?" which made me laugh. I think her name was Rae. I loved her! Before the race I got 2 Starbucks gift card to put in my T1 and T2 bags. I didn't have any help in T1 but I was so glad to have that card to give her for her help! She REALLY changed the rest of my day!! I got my socks and shoes on, grabbed of my Oliver Farms hat (my friend's parents own this farm...her dad passed earlier this year and her mom is kicking cancer's butt right now...and she is currently in KONA about to race the World Championship there! She's a 13 time Ironman, about to be 14, I hoped that hat would give me extra juju!) and my headlamp and headed out....

T2 time 7:15 (last time was 4:59...all things considered I'm happy with that)

RUN

As I headed out I saw Dwayne and I handed him my head lamp. I knew I was going to be out at night. I didn't use one last time but I felt like I would be much slower so I wanted it. We had a conversation earlier that I would keep it in my bag and carry it because I did NOT want him to hand me anything because that would DQ me for getting outside assistance...and "what if I were to actually get a roll down slot!?"  But in the moment I handed it to him I didn't care. I didn't want to carry it and I felt like my chances at that point were close to zero so he might as well hold it and give it to me later....I told him Ironman is DUMB (which he also go on video)...and I started running. 

I had the most solid nutrition plan I've had for the run on any long distance tri...water and Gatorde Endurance at every aid station, except every 3rd mile I would take a Gu or Maurten gel with water...until mile 20 and then it would be Red Bull every mile. I decided I would stick with this plan even though my stomach was NOT happy.

I had forgotten just how long you have to run along the highway. It feels like 84,943.7 miles and it's SOUL SUCKING. I tried to shuffle my feet but I really didn't feel good. But I "KNEW" I had "plenty" of time to finish. I kept working out the math but I kept coming up with the understanding that I had about 7 hours to finish the marathon. I KNEW I could do that. But what about that roll down...every time I thought about it I would run. My running paces were 9:15-10:00 but I was walking a fair amount until I made the turn to get on the riverwalk. About mile 5 I stopped at a port-o-potty which helped a bit. When I came out my watch went dead.

At that moment I knew I'd have to DO MY VERY BEST (this my favorite line from Facing the Giants) because I wasn't going to know how I was doing time-wise. I had to make hay while the sun was shining. So I picked it up.

All of a sudden Dwayne came up in a panic "ARE YOU OKAY?!" He was so frantic it scared me. I had forgotten that my watch has LTE on it so he was live tracking me even though I didn't have my phone! When my watch died it showed that I stopped it...and then I had not crossed the next mat when the algorithm expected me to be there since I stopped in the potty. He had actually scared a race official into coming to search for me!! I told him about my stomach but that I was feeling MUCH better now that I was off that dumb bike! (Also on video.) But I said this as I ran away from him. As I ran about 79.8% of the time I was dreaming about getting a roll down slot.

The World Championship race used to be in Kona. Both men and women would race all on the same day together. Pre-Covid they were trying to get more women at the race so there were more slots for women but you basically had to get 1st or 2nd in your age group to get one. Last year they had so many participants at Kona (trying to play catch up from the Covid canceled years) that they split the 2 races-men's and women's....and the Island just couldn't handle that volume. So they decided to make Nice, France an additional WC race...with the men racing there this year and the women next year. (Women in Kona this year, men next year.) So they are filling the race in Nice with women only. There are FAR fewer total women racing so they have A LOT more slots per race to give. What if I somehow managed to get one of those slots??

I running more...allowing myself to walk "trash can to trash can" (something Coach Martha taught me for IMLT)...run every mile but walk the aid stations. I also walked "uphills". But when I got out to the North Shore -which is very hilly I knew I couldn't walk EVERY hill so I just did a run/walk by feel. 

I really forgot A LOT of that run course from when I did it in 2015. Most of it seemed brand new to me. No doubt I was already in cognitive decline during that race. Although I had not trained as hard as I did in 2015, I had done pretty much every long run on a very hilly course to prepare so I kept doing MY VERY BEST. And I stuck to my nutrition plan. When I got back across the pedestrian bridge I expected to see Dwayne. It was getting dark. I needed my head lamp. The highway was fine, but the River Walk was going to be VERY dark. I told myself I had to just run close to people who had headlamps but 90% of the people were walking so I was passing most people with very few passing me. I was right, it was pretty dark, but I realized it wasn't TOO dark.

I didn't see him until I came off the River Walk, just before what I call the "stinger hill"-it's short and fairly steep. And when I asked him for my lamp he said he didn't realize I would want it because I had told him not to give it to me!! DOH! Oh well...at that point I only had about 6 miles to go! 

Not only was he there with the friend who came with us, but my "local" friends came out and brought one of their dogs!! That was SUCH a treat!! But I had to potty again...and the potties were RIPE by then. One friend said "that will be your motivation to get out fast!" She was right...I got out and started running again.... and they headed for the finish line as I headed back over the bridge to the North Shore. I basically put my blinders on and ran every step I felt like I could....when I got to the top of the pedestrian bridge coming back I told myself NO MORE WALKING....and tried to run as hard as I felt like I could....

When I got to the finish chute I could hear my friends SCREAMING for me but I was so very focused on trying to eek out the last little bit of effort I had left to get to that finish line that I didn't stop to high five or anything. There was a person who had their hand out right before I crossed the line so I high fived him (her? I don't even know!)...and I crossed the line feeling AMAZING!!! I had NO idea what my time was but I knew I felt incredible and I felt like it had to be about 15 hours which was better than my first one. Another friend from Huntsville who was volunteering gave me my medal, finisher hat and shirt. I got a picture and then started looking for my people.

As we were heading to the car Dwayne said something about my finish time being so good...and said it was 14:3?....I basically accused him of making it up...so he pulled out his phone to show me my time

Run time was 5:35:45 (2015 was 4:59:46)

Total time was 14:36:24, 28/46 in my age group. Ironically I came in 28th last time too (but out of 144 last time!)

I woke up the next morning early and told Dwayne I wanted a finisher jacket and shirt so we went down to get it. The breakfast was going to be at like 9 with roll down after awards. I told him and my friend "it will be like winning the lottery because it's like .00001% chance I'll get a slot, but it's NOT ZERO so I want to be there JUST IN CASE."

The way roll-down works is that they have so many slots (60), and they are divided up based on the nnumber of participants inn each age group. I knew my group had 46 women but no idea how many slots we'd have.

They did awards and all 1-5 in my group were there to get their award....and I guessed they'd take their slots. She started calling slots for women...65-69 age group 2 slots.... 60-64 3 slots (not everyone took one so that slot rolled to the 40-44 group) 55-59 5 slots...and then my turn 50-54...ELEVEN slots. I started counting down as Dwayne read names down the list....but I lost track....3 names to go...someone took one...2 names to go...no answer...1 name before mine-she took it...I thought that was the last one-I was holding my breath and she called "Dana...." She had wanted you to say "Oui Oui" if you wanted your slot but I jumped out of my chair screaming....as if I had won the lottery! NO ONE could mistake that I was absolutely taking my WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROLL DOWN SLOT!!! Thankfully I had prepared Dwayne for the cost and that it had to be paid right then!!!

I'm going to the IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN NICE FRANCE next year 9/22!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLY CRAP!! I'm still in shock!!

Thanks for sticking around to hear the whole thing...I bet you feel like you did an Ironman now don't you!!??

I'm hoping to document all my training as I go...it's already started with a swim today....and I'm getting a new bike this week!!!! (Thanks to my husband who is just as excited for me as I am!!!)