My Story: Road to Becoming an Ironman

10 years ago I did my first triathlon. I have been a swimmer since the days my dad would babysit us by throwing us in the pool with a lifejacket on, a runner since college and biking? No experience whatsoever. We signed up for a relay for the Sprint CB&I triathlon in the Woodlands. J.R. would do the swim, Justin the bike and me, the run. It was an awesome experience and I was determined to do one solo. I just needed to buy a bike. I went into Bike Barn with my early working paychecks and purchased my first road bike with hopes of doing a triathlon and maybe the MS 150 one day. And here I am now 10 years later completing a half ironman after several sprint triathlons, 10 half marathons and 1 full marathon. 

Training

In January I decided to take the plunge and sign up for a half ironman this year (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run). It was time. It was something I've had in the back of my mind for years. It was just a matter of when. Around May of 2014 I started running regularly with a group in Shreveport. These gals got me motivated to run religiously and not just once in awhile. It had been years since I could maintain a 10 minute mile and 6 months in I was there. I was back in shape after having babies.

I was on a roll. 2:11 in a half marathon, then 2:05. I was at my peak. This was it. Time to sign up for the half ironman now! I looked at the options - New Orleans or Galveston. They were only a week apart. Then there was Boulder and Austin. Those cities were tempting since I could make a vacay out of it. However, I settled on comfort in good ol' Galveston. 3 months to train would be good. I looked up training schedules and found one that would be a commitment of 5-10 hours a week. I rationalized that I could work out in the mornings while the kids were sleeping and on my lunch breaks. Justin was in the midst of studying for his Step 3 so I didn't want any of this to interfere with that either.

I stared at the registration screen for awhile hesitating to push the "confirm registration" button. All these doubts in my head. Could I pull this off? Would I have time to train? My god, that's a whole lot of biking and I have to run a half marathon after it? Should I pay for this insurance in case I back out? This isn't something I can wing so am I really going to be able to train for it? Oh, F it. CLICK! The next morning I told Justin that I did it. I signed up. He was supportive and I reassured him that training wouldn't interfere with his study time.

So I started to train. I used a beginner guide online and wrote everything down. Life got in the way and I would improvise on some of the workouts when I had to. As long as I was doing some sort of exercise or making it up on the weekend. Then my radial head arm fracture set me back a month. Great, I was screwed. However, once it was better I kept on training. Kept on going. I focused on the bike and if I could bike 50 miles I could finish the ironman by the cutoff. At the same time I was hoping to get faster. Everyone said the only way to get faster was to ride. Get on the saddle. Keep riding. Ride with people faster than you. And that I did. Soreness ensumed and I kept at it. I got my 50 miler in with a 3 mile run. I was confident.

Monday and Wednesday Night Rides

My trunk and comments of "How do you find time" when people see the 2 car seats.

I'm part of the Sunrise tri group and the Shreveport Bicycle Club. Both of these groups didn't start doing anything till Daylight Savings so I was on my own a lot in regards to training. I have been able to meet some great people though and have found a liking to cycling that I really want to buy my own trainer. Yes, indoor trainers suck but it is a great workout for when I'm in a time crunch. It's like my own spin class.

As the date got closer I realized that I needed to get some swimming in. I knew I could swim the distance but I needed to get my body used to it again so I swam 2,000 yards which is pretty equivalent to a 1.2 mile swim. I also swam once with a wetsuit on. That sucked because I'm not used to it.

First time trying on a wet suit

As for the running I kept up with 5 miles at 5A during the week and substituted some long runs on the weekends for the bike riding. Running on Saturdays start at 6 and biking usually around 8. Technically I could have pulled off both but I wasn't confident my body could handle it so I kept them separate.

Taper week was difficult. You're supposed to start tapering your workouts 2 weeks prior to the race. I did 1 week prior. Everything I read said to "trust your training". So I took out my scribbles of all the workouts I had done and put this spreadsheet together. Yes, I'm a nerd but this puts it all into perspective. I do not recommend anyone to do my willy nilly training. It did get me to the finish line, but it could have been better. I should have done a longer brick workout with the bike-run. Oh well, it's all over. 571 miles in and 55 hours of training. The kids are so used to hearing that mommy is going to run or bicycle. 

Race Check in

I headed to Galveston on Saturday with my cousin Matt. This was his 20th half ironman. Luckily he offered to share his hotel room with me. I initially planned on staying with my inlaws and just driving in. Glad that I didn't! We checked in our bikes and I bought some overpriced ironman swag - a shirt and a pink backpack and hat of course! We ate dinner at Brick House Tavern. Not my top choice for a carb load dinner but it worked. I figured that I had carb loaded on Friday that I would be set. Man, I felt so blah but I guess all the carbs were fuel for the long race day ahead! By the time we got back to the hotel it was already 9:30 so as soon as we got in I showered and called it a night before waking up at 4:30A. Thankfully got a good night sleep!

Swim - 42:09

The water temperature was 77 degrees so race officials called the wetsuits. You could wear a wetsuit but you would have to start after the last wave at 8:20A. My swim wave was at 8:08 so it wouldn't have made a difference for me. However, I don't like the wetsuit so I was happy to swim without it. I did notice that I swim faster with a wetsuit on but it just wasn't as comfortable. My age group of 30-34 seemed smaller than I had anticipated. Maybe some of them went in with the wetsuit wave. The most nerve racking part of a triathlon is the beginning of an open water swim with arms and legs all over the place fighting to get through the water without giving someone a black eye. This swim was different. My gameplan was to swim like a normal workout and I positioned myself in the center. There was a current moving us all to the left so we all had to keep scooting over. I am not a fan of open water aka who knows what's lurking in the water swims but this one was nice. The temperature was great. No nasty algae, seaweed, etc getting in my way. People said you might have a nasty saltwater taste in your mouth when you got out but I didn't. Luckily no swallowed water here. I was in a groove. I kept the buoys in site and just kept on swimming. There were a few times in the first 500 yards or so where I caught myself going the wrong direction so I positioned myself closer to the buoys. Luckily there weren't that many people to get in my way. Being one of the last waves I was concerned that I'd be faced with the people just sitting there treading water and not getting out of your way. As I got out of the water I was relieved. One leg down...two to go!

Bike-3:12:32

The real test for me...the bike! Coming out of transition there were a bunch of turns and it seemed like people were just cruising along. Finally we made it out to the main street where we would be doing roughly 27 miles one way before turning around to come back. Those first 15 miles or so were great. The wind was in my favor and I was seeing my speed at anywhere from 19-21 mph. I was shocked. All I would hear about the bike course from people was how bad the headwind was so I was thinking I'd be doing a good 15-16 mph. I was flyin. Ahh...but not for long. The rain started coming down. No biggy. As long as it wasn't too hot I was happy. An hour in I ate one of my Honey Stinger waffles and kept on pedaling. As I got closer to the bridge there were a lot more people on the course. I was passing people. This never happens. I'm usually the one hearing "on your left" so it really boosted my ego to be passing people...and people on the expensive bikes that I thought I was at a huge disadvantage of. After the turnaround on the way back the rain stopped and I looked down at my watch. Whoa...it looked like I had a shot of finishing the bike leg in under 3 hours. No way! I was determined to get as close to 3 hours as I could. I really was originally aiming to do it in 3:30. Come mile 35-45 though the wind was really hard to push through. It was around 11A. Bikers would just come by and say "daym this wind". I agreed! My speed suffered and I just tried to maintain a decent cadence in an easier gear to keep on. Finally, the 50 mile marker. I was almost there. I was so proud at this point. It was the most nerve racking thought in my head the entire time - - "i hope i survive the bike.i hope i survive the bike."

Run - 2:42:09

You would think that I would have nailed the run. I barely made it! This was the most brutal run I have done in my entire life. It was hot. It was humid. It was awful. The run course is 3 loops around Moody Gardens with several turns. I was shocked at the beginning of my run to see so many people walking. I was like "whoa...what's going on here" and kept on running. Less than a mile in I saw why as my own body started to lose all the strength I had on the bike. I started to walk/run. I stopped at every water station. I was confused that first lap. Where the hell am I going and this is one weird course. I kept looking at my watch. It went from a 10 minute mile pace to 11 to 12...oh god, it was horrible. I just stopped looking at my watch and kept on moving. Running. Walking. Jogging. Water. Gatorade. Oh, let's go for a banana. Shit it's hot, give me an orange. Cup of ice? Sure, let me walk with that for a bit. It was hot. I was miserable. Am I there yet? This loop again? Oh, hi family. Let me try to run past ya'll at least so I don't look weak. Ahh...ok, walk break. Around mile 11.8 my left calf was on the verge of a charlie horse. Crap. I started to walk/run on my heels. Almost there! I chatted with 2 folks about crying once we reach the finish line because we were so miserable. It was quite entertaining. FINALLY, the finish line! YAY! VICTORY! SO HAPPY!

I finished at 6:44:29. During the race I was thinking I could definitely beat 6:30 but the run screwed me. Overall, I'm happy with it. My goal was to do it under 7 hours and I did. But that run. The competitiveness in me against myself is upset with the run. So that just means that I will have to one again one day and get a better time:)

Looking back at the race over a week ago I'm still on a high. It was the most amazing experience. I think the last time I felt this way was completing a full marathon. The feeling of taking on a challenge that seems so hard and crossing that finish line is the most exhilarating feeling ever! Now, I have no desire to do a full ironman but not to say I'd rule it out. I'm content with the 70.3 distance. Recovery wasn't too bad. Sore and then sick for a few days but all good now! 

Justin took this video of me on the last lap. Watching this does not represent how I was feeling. The video shows me strong and running while I was realistically in pain. I probably walked right before this video so I could at least run by them!

The "hospital bracelet" that I wore for a few days after:

The professional pics. Gotta smile for the camera!

The stats:

My fans:

Another medal to the collection: