I was pretty excited to race IM Boulder this year as it was my first non-Hawaii Ironman race since 2003 and was held right in my backyard. I knew there would be tons of friends both racing and cheering which makes any race a joy. Plus, my husband Dean was also racing and I love sharing race day with him. Preparation for the race was good, but I felt just a tad underprepared, having missed my two most key bike and run workouts leading up to race day. I figured that was a good thing, as it's better to be a little undertrained than overtrained!
I was not too excited about the wetsuit ruling, as I LOVE my wetsuit buoyancy and I knew it would prolong my swim by a fair bit. Once I got going though, I thought, "boy... I would be roasting right now in my wetsuit!" I was happy to see the swim was 2.6 miles instead of 2.4 on my Garmin, since I had my slowest Ironman swim time ever (1:11).
On to my favorite leg...the bike. It was just as fun as I anticipated! I rode parts of the course in training on a few occasions and loved it just as much on race day. It was a beautiful day on a perfect course...albeit a wee bit hotter than I would like. I had a goal for wattage that was 5-10 watts below my goal watts for Hawaii and I pulled into T2 right smack in the middle of that goal (177W) which gave me the 2nd fastest female bike split of the day! I stuck with my nutrition plan for the most part, but thought I didn't drink quite as much as I should have. While sitting in T2 getting ready to run, I realized I was parched and craving water. Uh oh!
After some great help by the amazing volunteers, I was off on the run with my first ever bicycle escort for "2nd place female"! Wow...that was pretty cool! The crowds were over the top awesome and when they saw that I was the 2nd place female, they screamed their lungs out. That was so much fun!!! The crowds and the volunteers really make this event special! I actually felt amazing at the start of the run as the dehydration hadn't really set in yet. I cruised along, just waiting for my fellow competitor, Heather Gollnick (5-time Ironman Champion as a pro) to pass me. I was actually really wanting her to catch me early on so I could ease up and cruise through the rest of the marathon without traumatizing my body too much. Heather had assured me on more than one occasion that she had no interest in the Kona slot, and that was my primary purpose for this race. I had no interest in getting 1st place, but had lots on interest in the Kona slot. The miles kept going by and Heather was not gaining on me...ugh! By mile 12, the dehydration from the bike caused my gut to start wreaking havoc. I started running porta potty to porta potty, and the dehydration worsened as a result. I was passed by another young gal and switched to the "3rd place female" bike escort until mile 18 when Heather finally caught and passed me while I was in a porta potty : ). In the out-and-back section, Heather looked like she was flying and I was starting to get dizzy. By mile 20, the dizziness was really strong and I had to walk for a solid 5 miles before it subsided enough to run again. After getting passed by Stacia (2nd place in my AG), who was super awesome and checked in with me to make sure I was okay, I rallied for the final 1.5 miles downhill to get to the line in 3rd.
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| A concerned John Lawyer during my dizzy walk sufferfest! |
Thanks to everyone who screamed for all of us crazy athletes on the course, to my wonderful husband Dean who shares my passion for Ironman, and to the volunteers and friends all over the course! What a great (and painful) day!! Next up....Kona....baby!!!
