Ironman Arizona 2008 RACE!! part 1

Let's see where did we leave off?

Oh yeah, Dan heading for the mosh pit...and me having a good feeling about the day ahead =)

BAM! gun goes off, it's time to swim! This is it...Hopefully less than 12 hours til I can stop moving!

I was pleasantly surprise with home much room I had- I wasn't getting clobbered, I was doing just fine. No choking to death for me today. Swim felt fine. I relaxed, and didn't really think too much for the first 15-20 minutes. I just went with the flow and kind of tuned out. Once we got in the shade of the next bridge I realized that YES, this water is COLD. But hey, all I have to do is swim to the bridge, under the bridge, swim a little more, turn around, and head home. got it. For the rest of the swim I was cold. On the way back I got roughed up a bit since the buoys were all zig-zagged so the path wasn't exactly predictable, but whatever. My hands started going a little bit numb, but nothing like IM CDA where I swear I lost function in my wrists. I was very happy to be confident in finishing the swim (I'm always nervous about that since I don't swim too much!)

I didn't see a clock when I got out of the water, and I wasn't wearing a watch yet since my mom's garmin was in my transition bag, so I didn't know what my time was, but I predicted it was under 1:33. I saw my mom cheering like crazy for me when I got out of the water so that made me happy =)

***Actual swim time: 1:24***PR by 6 minutes (I didn't know it until after the race though) 7th in AG


For this race, I was unusually scared about being frozen when getting out of the water and onto the bike (probably since it didn't have a HOT TUB in T1 like IM CDA!!!) So I opted for the full change-a-roo...I just wore a swimsuit for the swim, then changed into completely dry clothes for the bike. I did the best I could, even with help of an amazing volunteer, but it is QUITE DIFFICULT to put on spandex when you are wet! I anticipated this, and put some more of my handy vegetable oil in my T1 bag...Gosh I hope all the fat didn't penetrate through my pores, layers of skin, subcutaneous fat, and make it to my bloodstream! haha.

I wore the same outfit that I did for CDA...and the zebra arm warmers made a comeback, you know IT's ON when the zebra arm warmers make an appearance...I also decided to go with a pink/green theme for this race...I got a new pink helmet (Thanks Koren!) and lime green bar end tape. I think it's cute.

HEY TRI-SHARKS - WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT A NEW AWARD...BEST DRESSED? haha
(not that I would win it, I think it would get some funny nominations though...a la Tuma at Evergreen...)

I'm pretty sure I had the slowest T1 time in my age group...9 minutes and change...whoooops....

Ironman Arizona 2008 Race Morning!

I'm living in the past a little here...I'll catch up eventually =)

RACE MORNING!

Wake up was planned for 4:30AM since I didn't get to bed until about 10PM, but I woke up with a vengeance at 4AM. It's time. =)

My mom was just as excited about the day as I was- she had her spectating plan down to a tee, and she would be volunteering as a catcher at the finish line from 8PM-12AM.

First order of business was breakfast. A big ol' waffle with raisins, cinnamon, brown sugar, and syrup on it. Filling and delicious.

We took our time with showers, breakfasts, getting ready, and we were out the door a little before 5AM. The next order of business was quite exciting: caffeine!!! We stopped at the QT and I got a cappuccino/coffee mix. Dan and I severely limited our caffeine intake the last 6 weeks (decaf coffee only, caffeine-free pop, etc.) so it would have a greater effect for race day =)

I think we arrived on site a little before 5:30. The place was buzzing with excitement- love it! First things first, checked on my bike, put my nutrition (cookies!) in the bento, pedialyte in a water bottle, powerbar electrolyte water in the aero drink and other water bottle. Didn't actually bring water to mix the stuff with, so I had to find somebody that had extra. Next, put the rest of my stuff in my transition bags, doubled and tripled transition and special needs bags...Ran into the love of my life at the transition bag section, and we were both happy to have a big cup of real coffee in hand!

Next: potty time. It was pretty late at this point, like 6:10AM, and I still hadn't put on my wetsuit (quite the process) nor had I got my bike tires repumped up from last night (Dan and I couldn't find our "crackpipe" so we had to have someone from the race site pump them up). While I was standing in line for the potty, I gave the SN bags to my mom so she could drop them off. At 6:28, I was finally able to put my wetsuit on and got bodymarked. Didn't get to repump the tires...oh well. Hopefully they'll be fine. Hung out by my mom while I greased myself up with vegetable oil (gross!! I know!! But I ran out of my wetsuit slicker stuff-I underestimated how much of that I use to squeeze into the whale suit- and the QT didn't have any spray cooking oil! ha!). Hugged my mom goodbye and planned on seeing her either at T1 or at Gilbert Rd. on the bike.

Time to go! Met up with Dan and we headed off to the start. I got my wetsuit on pretty good, I gave my throat enough room so I was pretty sure I wasn't going to choke to death. I really should have done that wetsuit contest the day before and tried to win a new one! I was actually pretty calm before this race, usually I'm in tears of some sort. I was not looking forward to the cold water, but come on, I survived CDA, so I can do this!

The grand entrance into the lake involved a good old fashioned cannonball. I jumped in first, Dan was still stalling by adjusting his cap/goggles/etc...it was getting down to it, and a little crowded...I almost lost him for a minute, but we found each other =) We did the warmup swim to the bridge together, kissed good luck, and he swam off into the poundage section while I stayed back.

It was a beautiful morning...I had a good feeling about this day.