Ironman Florida 2003 Race Recap

Seems we all booked ourselves on that 6AM flight out of Newark, just different days. Ridiculously early, but at least this year I had shipped my bike and didn’t have to drag that through the airport. Checked in and got on flight with no major incidents, but I did give my head a good whack on a counter as I rearranged some stuff in my bags to fix the weight upon check-in. That was an omen of things to come. Changed planes in Memphis, had an opportunity to grab some free tickets, but I was not willing to spend nine hours in Memphis. My husband and I got on the full flight to Panama City Beach and arrived uneventfully (but my head hurt!) along with all our luggage. Things were looking up from last year already. We picked up our rental car and off we went. First building we checked into was having major construction done, so our entire condo was vibrating and the noise was deafening. Sorry, not acceptable so we requested a room change, which we got.

The water was rough – the swim had been cancelled that morning – red flags. Not a good sign for me. My husband headed to the pool. I unpacked. Brian had already put my bike together, so I figured I’d get in my short ride for the day. Comfortable ride, until I was back in front of my hotel – a car started to turn in front of me, I swerved off the road. The next thing I knew I hit the pavement – hard. Lots of blood, road rash and even more of a headache now. Got myself out of the road, started walking toward the hotel – my hands elbow, shin and knee are a mess but nothing seemed broken. I hope my bike is okay. From the room I start cleaning myself up, call my husband and ask him to come up to the room. Primary concern now – get to Inside Out Sport so they can make sure I have not done any damage to my bike. Off to the expo, they take the bike and suggest I find some first aid. I decide to do the Family Fun Run. If I can’t run 5k easy, what am I going to do on Saturday. I am able to run conversational 10 minute miles and catch up with some friends on the course that I haven’t seen in a while. So far so good. Everyone that I see asks “Oh my god, what happened? Is your bike okay?” Off to Walmart for food and some medical supplies. A woman standing next to me drops a family size glass jar of spaghetti sauce. Misses my foot, glass flies everywhere. My husband suggests I lock myself in a room till Saturday morning. I suggest to my friends they steer clear of me till after the race. I am dangerous.

Thursday morning – wake up with my wrist throbbing and swollen. Take my rings off and hope for the best. This subsides by the end of the day. Water has calmed down, but now there are tons of jellyfish. I do the morning swim but decide I will just practice entry and exit, don’t need jellyfish bites, plus my elbow and palms look like chum. Water stings something awful. A friend suggests massive amounts of Vaseline. That seems to help. I pick my bike up, nothing serious wrong with it. Return to the hotel to a phone call asking if we will switch condos on Friday. There has been a booking mix-up. I agree, for a free nights stay and a free dinner. A group of us head out for dinner at Olive Garden. It’s a bit of a drive but it’s a pre-race tradition. Turns but Bella Comerford is there. I take that as a good sign. She’s also at “our” Waffle House for a post-race breakfast on Sunday.

Friday morning – swim clinic with Andrea Fisher and Jamie Cleveland. More swim strategy, very helpful for Saturday. Return to hotel, pack up and move. My husband Bryan is relaxing on the terrace, I’m preparing my special needs bags. Another couple comes walking into our condo with all their bags and stuff. The hotel screwed up, checked us out and them in. Apologies and offer of a second night’s free stay. Accepted, but annoyed. I get in my short, pre-race bike run and feel okay. Drop stuff off at race start and head to Brian Shea’s condo for a wonderful, home cooked pre-race dinner of chicken, tomatoes, peas, cashews and rice. We discuss Brian’s pre-race predictions. He has me pegged at 11:50, himself at 9:30. I just want to break 12 hours this year (last year was 12:01) and bike sub-6 hours again (last year 5:59). I want to be top five in my age group (last year I was 6th, top 5 get an award). He wants to qualify for Hawaii. I want him to accomplish this more that I want sub 12 hours for myself. I’ve already bought him a congratulatory gift, I am so confident in his ability.

Saturday morning I wake up at 4AM, usual breakfast of oatmeal, banana, coffee and a metabol/cytomax/carbo pro “Ironman Cocktail”. Off to the race start about 5AM. I sip on another Ironman Cocktail as I do all my pre-race preparations. Before I know it, we are at the start. Based on Doug telling me there is a current heading East, I line up all the way to the left about mid-group. This is very aggressive for me, and ended up being a good position, although I should have moved up further. I never found anyone to draft off who was faster than me. Lots of equal ability swimmers, which gave me a chance to rest. Swim out was uneventful. When we turned left and then back in to shore it was pretty choppy but the first loop was 35 minutes, so far so good. Second loop was more of the same, but I kept wondering about the guy off to my right swimming with the snorkel. (I’m not kidding!) Seemed even choppier this time, but I am happy with my swim.
Time: 1:13:55 (931st overall, 12th in my age group)

Quick (for me) transition and I’m off on the bike.
Time: 5:30

Seems there is a cross wind as we head east and west (the bulk of the ride) and a head wind as we ride north (first) but it means a tail wind for the short stretch heading south on the return. I feel comfortable on the bike and pass quite a few women in my age group. I have to work fairly hard to avoid drafting, I see some groups go by me that seem to be working together, but no worse that usual. I don’t see anyone in my age group involved, so I don’t spend a lot of time stressing over it. I do pass back a comment to the two losers who jumped on my tail at one point about being pitiful to need a 47 year old woman to pull their 30 something year old male bodies around. They dropped off. Great songs stuck in my head, Springsteen’s “Trapped” and “The Rising” and Eminem’s “Cleaning Out My Closet”. I know I was singing out loud for a while. That kept most people clear. I’m tone deaf! I keep my drink intake at a minimum for the first ½ hour till my body settles in, then work my way through one cytomax/carbo pro bottle, one cytomax/metabolol/carbo pro bottle, lots of water, ½ a power bar and ½ a gel flask of leppin squeezies. I feel good. I pass a woman in my age group who tells me there are only three 45-49 year old women in front of me. Wow. She must be wrong (she wasn’t). Pulling into special needs I realize if things continue this way, I definitely have a sub six working, but where I think I am can’t possibly be right (about 5:45 by my calculations). Grab fresh nutrition, leave the spare tubes, tire, gas cartridge, etc. At this point there are two other women in my age group near me and the three of us jockey back and forth. I decide to keep one of them who I know to be a good cyclist in my view for as long as I can. I work hard at this throughout the ride, and end up finishing ahead of her. I pass Doug somewhere in the second half of the ride. He is on the side of the road holding a wheel. I realize I have everything I need and prepare to stop. (Not happy, though – I assume correctly that the two women are close by). Then . . . I remember. Doug rides tubular 650s. I ride 700 clinchers. I continue on.
Time: 5:43:33 (828th overall, 6th in the age group, 19.6 average)

Uneventful transition, quick for me. But, there are some women in my age group around. I waste no time.
Time: 5:14

Feeling going out on the run – physically I’m good. But, I’m scared. I’m way over my head here. Can I hold it together? My husband and my friend Gary yell that I am 6th in the age group. I know I’m way ahead of schedule. Nothing to do but go for it. I pass Jamie Cleveland and a group from Timex on the side of the road, Jamie cheers me on – tells me I look awesome. Right – this was shortly after where my wonderful sun screen run picture was taken. Hey, thanks for not telling me how silly I looked, although a group of fit looking guys with big pink feather boas on is kind of goofy, too. I pass my friend Chig at mile one – “you go girl” with that Tennessee accent. He asks about my swim – was I chumming for sharks again today? Funny. Okay, sip on another Ironman Cocktail. I’m running low to mid nine minute miles. Realize there is a woman in my age group that is just hanging behind me. I try to drop her. No luck and I don’t want to put it all out yet. I come upon Brian Shea who is on his way back in. He looks awesome. I tell him I had a 5:43 bike so he doesn’t think he is behind schedule. Moments later I get a pat on the back and a guy tells me “great job, heard you had an awesome bike”. I’ve quickly looked down at his race number. It’s Steve Larsen. Wow. It pays to have a big mouth. This gives me a rush of adrenalin and I continue on at the same pace. Lots of ice, water, sponges, vanilla gu. I pray for the sun to go down. It’s hot and I feel like my insides are getting sunburned. I make a very quick stop at special needs, all I grab is my other drink bottle, that woman in my age group is still right there. Damn. My husband tells me I’m 5th. More of the same on the way out. Why won’t that sun go down? Jamie and those guys are still there with the pink feather boas. They tell me I look awesome. I believe them. Chig tells me I look awesome. I believe him, too. Babe seems to be everywhere, cheering me on. How did you get around the course so fast? Jamie comes by me again, I think on a mountain bike and urges me on. I’m waiting for my wheels to fall of, but I’m still in that mid to high nine minute range. At some point on this out leg, the woman behind me passes me. I try to stay with her, but lose sight of her at an aid station. I see her ahead of me at the turnaround, but I never pass her again. It’s dark, thank god. I just keep on going, and now I’m doing some marathon math. This is a scary proposition at best and what I am coming up with can’t be true. Am I really in the 11:30 vicinity? Okay, nothing to do but keep going. Same nutrition this leg – my Ironman cocktail, water, ice, sponges, vanilla gu. I ditch the water bottle at mile 22 and go all out. No matter how many times I do the math, I’m still sub 11:30 and I still feel good (good is a relative term). Okay, hauling all out now. I’ve seen Doug a few times, but I’m not really talking. I’ve also passed another woman in my age group, which I think puts me in 5th. A spectator tells me to look at the eclipse off my right shoulder, but this entails turning my head and I don’t have the strength. My neck hurts, my back hurts, my toes are killing me. I keep running. I know I’ve passed a lot of people. Brian figures out later that I have passed over 200 people on the run. I pass Chig again. He tells me I’m working an 11:30 finish. By now I know I’m working an 11:28 finish, maybe even 11:27, but I don’t have the strength to answer. I see Jamie and those pink boa guys. They just scream, or maybe I can’t hear any more. I’m in the finish chute and I continue what is now an all-out sprint.
Run Time: 4:19:52 (631st overall, 5th age group, 9:52 pace)
Finish Time: 11:28:03
5th out of 34 45-49 year old women, 85th of 409 women, 646th of 1995 overall. 33 minute Ironman pr . . . but who’s counting ;-)

I need help from the finish line crew for a little while. My husband is there beaming, and then so is Jamie and his gang. I know I left it all out there today. I walk around, find Brian who tells me he’s gone 9:31 and is 7th. We don’t know if there are six or seven slots, so the torturous wait for the rolldown begins for him. But, they post the next sheet and I discover I am 5th. I had more than surpassed my goals. I gather up my stuff, get a massage and head back to the hotel. To my husband Bryan, Gary, Babe, Andrea, Scottie and Sabrina, Jamie and Andrea, Chig – thank you all. You guys are the best. I had such an awesome group of cheerleaders. Brian, Chris, Dan, Doug, George and Luis – we had an even greater group out there on the course. Everyone back home watching on line – thanks for the energy. You guys all kept me going more than you know. Janus and everyone who contributed to my fundraising campaign, thanks for believing in me again. I raised over $3,500 and hope for an additional $750 donation to the UFA Scholarship Fund from Janus.

I can’t wait for the awards ceremony the next night. I can’t believe I’ll be on that stage (as my daughter continues to remind me – I’m a dork but I think it’s cool!) I enjoy my fifteen minutes of fame, and I’m in the same group as Joe Bonness – he was first 45-49 year old. Wow. Celebration back at our hotel that night. Brian qualified for Hawaii, I was top five and have a plaque, a black Ironman Florida piggy bank and a pair of socks for my efforts. We enjoy the next day at the pool then head out to the airport. No luck getting bumped this time.

Postscript: Some minor tooth pain explodes into a full blown toothache on the flight home. By Tuesday morning I resemble a chipmunk. Off to the dentist to discover that my body has been fighting an infection for quite some time. It gave up on Sunday and exploded. I have begun a root canal. Great way to spend my r&r time!

I think I should retire. I don’t know how I can ever top this.