Holy Sh!%!!! That was not easy. Finished the Providence, RI IronMan 70.3 yesterday in a time of 6:05 - pretty close to my goal of under 6 hours. What an incredible experience!!
Here's a summary and timeline of the day's events:
2:38AM - Woke up nervous and anxious about the race - tried to get back to sleep and wake up at my scheduled alarm of 3:30 - didn't happen.
3:30AM - started eating salted pita chips and peanut butter - to get my sodium levels up and get a little bit of protein/fat before the race, also had a powerbar with some black coffee
4AM - got the tri suit on, made sure I had all my gear together, got ready to hit the road.
4:20AM - Jamie and I picked up Marc Capobianco (a friend I have been training with from North Reading) at his hotel and started to make our way down to the beach.
5:20AM - arrived at Roger Wheeler State Beach to a mass of people getting ready for the days events. Volunteers bodymarked us with our number on each arm and our age on our right calf. Sun is just starting to come out. It rained the night before and things were still a little wet.
5:30AM - Still pretty dark out and they announce that the race will be starting 15 min late due to choppy water conditions that moved the buoy's marking the course. So that's good news and bad news. Good news is we have 15 extra minutes to get ready, use the bathrooms, etc. Bad news is the water is really choppy - so choppy that they announced that if people wanted to back out of the swim and just do the bike and run - they could. I wasn't going to do that, so I just had suck it up and take what the ocean gave me.
5:56AM - waiting in line for the bathroom when I hear that they're closing off the bike transition area to everyone so they can get people down to the water. I then realize two things 1. I don't have my wetsuit - it's back near my bike and 2. my goggles and swim cap are with Jamie which I mistakenly gave to her with a bag of my warm up clothes. Try finding someone in crowd of 2000+ people in rush - not exactly what I wanted to be worrying about minutes before the race.
5:59AM - found Jamie who grabbed my goggles and swim cap, wet suit is on, feel good, except I still need to use the bathroom. Waited in line and then Jeannie, Michael, Mikayla and Dora all showed up - unbelievable at the hour in the morning!
6:15AM - the music is cranking and the cannon sounds for the Pro's to hit the water first - what a rush of adrenaline and nerves all at the same time!
6:35AM - My age group wave is ready to hit the water! Cannon goes off and everybody sprints into the ocean. After diving into a couple of wave sets I finally started swimming and worked my way out into the beginning of the 1.2 mile adventure.
6:50AM - Still swimming and having a hard time tracking the buoys because they're all over the place and because of the rough waters it blocks your visibility.
6:57AM - Rounded the last buoy and got ready to head for shore. Fortunately with the rough waters the tide was pulling us in on the way back and managed to finish the swim in under 40 min.
7:15AM - Ran out of the water and waved to everyone and had the volunteers help me rip off my wetsuit.
7:16AM - Got to my bike, put my socks on, bike shoes, helmet, bike gloves, rinsed the salt water out of my mouth and started running to the bike mounting area.
7:18:AM - started the 56 mile journey to Providence. The bike course was really beautiful with ocean views for the first 15-20 miles and then we headed inland for some rolling hills with a couple of steep climbs and then at mile 45 there was a killer hill that many of the riders really struggled with. Heading into the city was awesome - many quick turns around street corners mostly flat or downhill descents. The bike course finished up the backside of the Providence Place mall heading up a steep hill past the capitol building over to the run transition area.
10:20AM - Got to the run transition area and jumped off the bike, changed from bike shoes to running shoes, changed from bike helmet to running cap, threw three gels in my pocket and got ready for the half marathon.
10:22AM - Ran past my own unbelievable entourage of fans!! Thank you so much! and started the run. Now we were all told by the race director the day before that there is a hell of a hill on the run about 3/4 of mile in that we would have to do twice because it is an out/back x2 course. He wasn't kidding about this hill...ridiculously steep and about 1/4 mile long - just cruel after 56 miles on the bike! The run started ok, but about 3 miles in, my quads started to cramp up - had some gel, had some gatorade and that seemed to help a little, but they definitely bothered me for the rest of the race. Circled the loop and said hello to everyone cheering me on (again, thank you!!) and headed back out on the course for another 6.5 miles. I hit a wall after going up the infamous hill the second time and was fighting just to suck it up and finish. Coming down that same hill on the way back into town my legs were just bricks. Started to try to pick up the pace as best I could to finish strong.
12:37PM - What an exhilarating feeling to finish running up onto the lawn of the state capitol building with everyone there. I was handed a hat and a medal was placed around my neck for finishing. Said hello to everyone while I waited in line for a much needed massage. My brain was a little foggy at this point and took about 10 minutes or so to get my bearings back.
12:45PM - Took pictures with everyone, had a massage and enjoyed the rest of the day knowing that I had accomplished what I had set out to do last October when I signed up for this thing.
Thank you so much to everyone for supporting my journey!! I couldn't have done this without your support! Jamie, you have given me just the right balance of support, love, and motivation to get into this - I can't thank you enough. Pictures to follow on the next post.
6:38PM, Monday - Trying to decide which 1/2 IronMan I want to sign up for next.
