Where were we? Oh right, In installment 3 of the longest race report ever (I'm almost done, folks, you can only milk it so far). So far, we had a pretty solid, snakey swim, a decent bike, and now it was time to RUN!
Weird fact - even though the run is my forte, I have never been able to pull together a solid Ironman effort. Jury is still out why - I suspect that for the first 3, I sucked so bad on the bike that I had nothing left. As for Des Moines, well, I'm gonna just blame it on the weather - though Texas wasn't a ton cooler!
No mind, I dismounted my bike and had to sweet talk a vollie to take it (guys, I didnt pee on it, I swear, and thats a problem!) With that done, I sailed into T2 and grabbed my bag, dumping it out to run prep. I was graced with a vollie to help (YES!!) and I put her to work slathering me with sunscreen. I had decided to ditch the jersey for the run and do my sports bra and tri shorts, which had plenty of pockets for gels. Again, I was efficient, but the lack of peeing on the bike caught up with me and I had to double back to the porta potties by the bikes for a pit stop. T2 time - 7 minutes, for an elapsed time of 7:20. My real goal for the race was an 11:30 - I tried to break 12 last year, and that was acceptable, but I felt pretty confident with my training that if I could execute well, that an 11:30 was possible. Goal for the marathon - 4:00 (well, 3:59:59 LOL).
My instructions out of the gate were to start mid 8s and stay in zone 1. I saw Greg, who told me I was in 34th place in my AG and 39 minutes behind 10th place. I spent a good ten minutes convincing myself I misheard him - WTF was this? With the Kona spread, I knew there would be anywhere from 14-16 slots in my age group, and wanted to run into 10th place if I could. I knew I would be coming out of the bike further down, but I was not expecting this far down.... Apparently the elite world had shown up to race - and it was go time! Pre race, I had four scenarios in my head about this Kona goal....
A quick tutorial - when trying to Boston qualify, for the marathon, you need to run a time based on your age - mine was 3:39. It doesn't matter the weather, terrain, etc., the time is the goal. So going into Philly, I knew exactly what I needed to do. Snow, rain, tsunami - cross the line in 3:39 or better. Check.
For Kona, its all based on who shows up. There are a certain number of slots allocated to each age group, and if you finish within those slots, you get to go. For IMTX the last few years, a sub 12 would have done it with the slots they allocated for 2023 - which was a championship race. Championship is usually a loose term - you don't need to qualify to race TX - but apparently, every elite woman had the same thought I had - and raced Texas! (I later found out there were 3 former pros, the 40-44 AG winner for Kona 2022, number two ranked 40-44 amateur in the US and a few more bad ass women that have won 70.3s in my AG). So, it was crazy competitive - and if I wanted in, I would have to give it my all!
My four scenarios were this - I would have a fabulous PR and Kona Qualify (YAY!), I would have a fabulous PR and NOT Kona Qualify (this would be great but also a little let down), I would have a non PR and Kona Qualify (again, some weird feels here) or the worst - a poor race and no KQ.
I was prepared to handle any scenario and the be all end all was to just do my best and run my own race, leaving no regrets out there. If I thought too hard about it, 39 minutes for a 26.2 mile run was ridiculous to overcome. And at mile 3, as I digested this, I hit a low spot. My first two miles were low 8s, and the 3rd mile, the sun hit and my emotions hit. It was not good. I was tired. Why was I trying? Who cared about this - if I ran a 4:10, I would beat my goal. If I ran a 4:40 (my de rigeur) I would still go sub 12. That was good enough.
HOLD THE FUCK UP Rae. This was NOT what we came to do. And again, I thought of my coach, who reminded me that I had NO idea what people ahead of me were doing, or what kind of race they were having. Why was I making assumptions? Do I throw in the towel? NO! I did a body scan and realized I was a little tired so I took the marathon fix it - coke. Yep, a few sips of caffeine did the trick
(and I continued doing this every other mile for the rest of the race). I also turned off my run time and put my watch on HR - with the goal to stay in zone 1 until mile 23, and not get caught up in the minutiae of pace. This works two ways - I wanted to not overcook, but also a rational metric to assure myself that if I was tired but my HR was in the right spot, it was mental. And on we went.
The rest of lap one was smooth sailing, miles clocked between 8:30-8:45 and Greg told me I had moved up to 27th and that everyone ahead of me was running high 9s. Sweet. I didn't get too much in my head about the math, I just kept at what I was doing - half mile run, quick walk break up the hill, half mile run, quick aid station ice and water and every other a half gel and coke. Perfect. As I passed several people, I had no idea who was in my AG (man do I miss body marking!) so I just kept my pace steady and reminded myself what the goal was. About mile 12, I passed a bunch of residential neighborhoods with the best crowds - a lot of people told me I looked great and that my form and stride were awesome (I love it when people lie to me 9 hours into an event!) Hit mile 13.1 in 1:54 and change and felt good about this 11:30 goal - I was tired but not dead in the slightest, and the combo I had of run/walk and nutrition was working well, so we keep at it!
I had another slight moment around mile 15, when I saw Greg and he told me I was still about 20 minutes back, but that I was in 23rd place. At this point in time I passed Kyle, who was having a tough day due to an injury flare up, but still smiling. I saw Greg again at mile 16 and stopped for a hello, and a minute later Kyle ran by and yelled OMG Rae Run! So we ran together for a bit. I was still feeling good but laughing a bit about how I was having a banner day - but that it wouldn't even matter because every fast woman 40-44 had showed up. I again tuned into my coach's words - How bad do you want this? Pretty damned bad. And with 10 miles to go, I knew I was gonna give it hell and go down swinging with all I had. At the start of lap 3, I was in 21st place and Greg told me everyone ahead of me was blowing up and to GO! True words? who knew but they worked.
The rest of lap 3 was kind of a blur - as I moved on to mile 20, I knew I could go 11:15. Totally surreal. I still felt strong, though! By mile 22, I knew I could go under 11:15...OMG. With 5k to go, I wound up and just gave it all I had, and the last two miles were kind of a blur (in a sexy, sub 8 way LOL). I changed my watch to overall time and saw 11:10 as a thing....and then the actual finish line (which was off of an uphill because of those sadistic Texas f*ckers).
....I was totally and completely beyond comprehension. I ran through the finish, my hands pumped, and post race completely collapsed in a fit of sheer disbelief. My total run time was a 3:50, with a 1:56 second half (HOLY SHIT, almost freaking even split an IRONMAN MARATHON), and a 54 freaking minute run PR for a total time of 11:10 - an hour and 8 minute Ironman PR, baby!
And ironically, 18th place in my AG, out of 87. Wow. I knew in my heart there would not be a Kona spot for me, but like one of my goals - the feeling was still unreal. I had absolutely shattered any goal I had, and was completely and utterly comforted in the fact that I 100% laid it all out there with everything I had.
And that, was Ironman Texas. Since this post is, of course, getting long, I'll save the post race shenanigans and lessons learned for part 4 of this years long saga. Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment