Kim's Longhorn 70.3 Race Report

Since I touched down I have been on the run. From work to class and Thursday it all slows down! I shall collect my race thoughts on Thursday. But first I have Kim's race report. She is one of my athletes and the first one to jump on the Texas bandwagon. Her first 1/2 Ironman, her first big race..... way to go KIM!

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70.3 Longhorn (6:12:49; 48th/90):
I don’t even know where to start. This race definitely has taught me many things. First of all, the weekend was amazing. I am so lucky I got to spend it with a great group of people. If it wasn’t for the company I probably would have freaked out. I was able to ask all of my rookie questions without feeling like an idiot.

Race Morning: I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be. I was very excited to get the show on the road.

Swim (27:28.30; 20th/90): I thought the swim was very difficult. I would get a line to swim, but then after a couple more strokes I was within another group of different colored caps. I fought with a couple people but never let anyone truly get to me. I just kept swimming. During the swim, I thought to myself, I must be swimming really slow. It just seemed to take awhile. But then once I exited the water, I looked at my watch 28:xx. Wow, that was fast. Then I found out that the course was VERY short. But that’s ok.

T1 (2:40.25): Nothing exciting happened here except that my feet we caked in mud. I felt like I was in a barn with all the mud.

Bike (3:09:16.40; 44th/90; 17.8 mph): The minute I got on my bike I heard a thumping noise. I had no idea what it was but didn’t think it would cause too much of a problem. This course could have been much faster for me. When I would go down the hills the thumping noise would louder. This thumping was shaking my entire body. I could see my arms move. I knew this would affect my back muscles. I tried to keep as relaxed as I could. At mile 7, I was going down a hill, getting speed to hang up the next hill.

Then I heard metal against metal, then it was too late. I camp to a complete stop to see what happened. My water bottle unit that hangs behind the seat was about 25 yards away from me (with my new bottles from Mellow Johny’s L, Lance Armstrongs bike shop).

At that point, a few things went through my head. First, RELAX. Everything will be OK (because it has to). I can’t go back and get those bottles; I have no place to put them. So I got back on my bike and started to pedal. Then I had to come up with another plan. Then Mary’s voice came into my head.

This was the conversation:

Mary: “So what are you going to do if you lose your bottles?

Kim: “Gatorade Endurance,” Thinking to myself, this will never happen. Little did I know.

Mary: How many calories per bottle?”

Kim: “150 per bottle”

At this point, I thought to myself, wow that is a lot of liquid to drink to keep around 225 calories an hour. As well as some water. And we all know I don’t handle GE that well. I didn’t want to risk Plan B since I know I don’t digest GE very well. Onto Option C, I guess I will GU it the entire day.

GU it is.

Once I made this decision, I never looked back. I was put in a situation that I never wanted to get in. I made the best of this and had to deal with the cards that I was playing with. I got to the first aid station. Came to a complete stop, got about 6 Gu’s. Filled up my aero bottle and then went on my way. I couldn’t read the labels on the package, so I just assumed the calories around 100. I took one GU every 45 min.

I could see that the Power Bar GU’s do have caffeine in them. But I could not see the sodium. My watch was still set to beep every 15 min. I took one salt tablet every 15 min, and then on the 45 min I took a GU’s with NO salt tablet.

A couple times I had to guess what 15 min tick was going off but I think I guessed right. I had no nutrition problems. I did find out that the Power Bar Gu’s have 115 calories. That means I consumed 460 calories of GU, and about 50 calories of a Power Bar. Totaling: 510 calories for a little over 3 hours, which is much lower than I would have ever thought. Maybe this happened to show me that I don’t need as many calories as the calculations tell me.

Mary passed me around mile 20 (right where we calculated she would, that meant Mary was where she was supposed to be!). At that point I asked her if I had a bulge in my back tire, she said no. WE celebrated; I wished her good luck and that I would see her on the run. Man she is strong on the bike. She was out of my sight in less than minutes.

I did get hungry around mile 35. I needed something to chew. I took a bit of a Power Bar. Another bad idea. It felt like I had saw dust in my mouth. It took about 5 miles to chew one piece. But it did take away my hunger.

I told myself if I saw a Bike Repair Car, I would stop to have them check my bike out. That did not happen until mile 40. Then I thought to myself, I have been riding for 40 miles, I think I can go another 16. So I kept riding.

Every Aid station I took a bottle of water, re-filled my aerobottle and then dumped the rest of the water on my head.

Once I was getting close to transition, I saw that I would come in around 3:10. Kind of disappointed but with everything that happened, I couldn’t be too upset. If everything went my way I know I would have been in at least 5-10 mins faster. This still allowed me to have 2:20 for the ½ marathon to get in less than 6 hours. Being that this was my first ½ Ironman and it was 90 degrees, I did not want to get myself hung up on breaking 6 hours.

T2 (2:41): My bike was very far from the entrance. I hate running in my biking shoes.

Run (2:30:43; 63rd/90; 11:30): I couldn’t have had more fun on the run. I never had any low thoughts, the miles kept passing by. It did take me until 2 miles to get in a grove. My legs wanted to run faster at first, but I knew I would regret that later. I kept around a 945 – 1030 pace while I was running (including the hills). On the second loop I started to walk the hills. They seemed much bigger the second time around. This course was much hillier than I thought it was going to be.

I did have to shuffle through the aid stations to make sure I was getting sponges, towels, water, water and more water. I kept the same nutrition as I had on the bike. Solely on the course. I took three gels then salt tablets around every 20 min. Depending on where the aid stations where located.

At mile 6 my knee felt like my bones where rubbing against each other. I didn’t let this bother me, as I knew everything would be ok in about one more hour. I also started to drink coke at this point. I don’t know why, it just sounded good.

I met a man around mile 10, right when you go back into the woods. If it wasn’t for him I probably would have walked more than I did. We had small talk the rest of the time. It was refreshing hearing other people’s stories. At that time, there was about a group of 5 of us, making it to the finish line.

It was neat because you could hear the finish line from mile 11. That was very inspiring. All these people were waiting for ME to cross that line.

The minute I came up that last hill, I had a smile across my face, which I can’t even describe. I can’t wait to see the pictures.

While making my way through the finishing Shute, I had a zillion thoughts cross my mind. My dreams are finally coming true. The hard work has finally paid off. With all of my accidents in the past, I am so lucky I am ABLE to run across that finish line. If only some of my doctors knew what I was doing now.

Of course I could not have done this without Mary and the support of my family and friends. Everyone plays an important part of my journey to become and Ironman.

What I have learned: This is exactly how I wanted this race to go. I learned that I can handle anything out on the race course. There are some things that I have no control over. And I have to make the best out of what happens. You never want to lose your nutrition, bike problems, and have a nagging knee pain.

Nutrition: I am very particular about my nutrition. Losing my nutrition allowed me to “try” ….I mean be forced to use something else. And it worked. I made smart decisions and didn’t flip out. I also found out that during a ½ Ironman (in 90 degree weather), I only need to average around 150 calories an hour. My total calories was 905.

Mechanical Problems: Even though I rode my bike less than 12 hours before this race. I must get on my bike race morning. This would have eliminated this thumping noise. I am assuming it was my magnet hitting my spoke. I will be taking my bike to Jim, just to make sure.
Knee Problems: Being that I was having a very sensitive stomach a couple days before race day, I did not want to take Advil during the race. This is the first time I ran a race with no Advil. I have found out the reason my knee starts’ aching is because my knee is swelling. Monday I still woke up with the same pain as Sunday. Monday night the swelling has dropped to my right foot. My foot looked like a sausage. I slept with my feet elevated and the pain magically went away. And it hasn’t come back.

Pacing: I did not know what to expect, being that this was my first ½ Ironman. Now that I look back, I could have pushed it harder on the bike, and be able to hold onto the run. The heat and changing my nutrition plan concerned me. I didn’t know how I was going to react to anything.