Amber's Adventures: Ironman and such

Ironman week and race day passed by in a bit of a blur. I did a bunch of bike training leading up to Ironman week and went with a 5 day taper leading into the race. The race itself went okay, but I knew that it wasn't going to be a great day going into it. With the time off the bike with the hand injury and a big bike/run day 6 days prior to race day I knew it was going to be a tough one.

Race week felt different than every other time I've been here. I didn't hang around the venue at all and didn't attend pre or post race dinners or even the pre-race briefing. It almost felt like I wasn't racing. I never got nervous, which was a weird feeling as I stood on the pier at 6am on Saturday.

I got my training done early and hung around the condo the rest of the day. I did get up and swim every day. I am completely blown away by the swimming here, and even on days I wasn't supposed to swim I'd make up an excuse to get out there.

Race day started with a 4am breakfast and then hitchhiking to the start line. No way was I walking 1.5 miles to the start. I lined up in the center about 2 rows back for the swim, but kept getting pushed/kicked back during the 15 minutes of treading water prior to race start. I could feel the nerves coming off people. The start of the swim was insane, but I was jostled far less than I had been during prior IM swims. For 400 meters or so I went fairly hard to get into a good bunch and then settled in on someones feet. Which is where I stuck for the duration of the swim. The pace felt moderate hard and I didn't feel like I was pushing myself very much. I was super excited post race to discover that I swam a 1:03. Sweet!!

The bike was a draft fest from start to finish. I felt slightly tired on the bike, so I didn't push the effort and just enjoyed the experience. The winds were insane this year..... the windiest I've ever seen it on race day. The descent from Hawi was a white knuckled experience.

The run was a death march. My legs felt okay, but about 2 miles into the run my hands started cramping really bad and were super swollen. I drank some of the Ironman drink to get some electrolytes in at the next aide station...... big mistake. About a mile later the stomach cramps started and I proceeded to stop at every mile to hit the bathrooms. I figured to just keep it as a training day and not do too much damage to myself, so I got in a rhythm of bathroom, walk the aide station, and then run about 1 mile to next bathroom/aide station.

The finish was amazing as always and so was the post race party. Sorry about no race pics.

View from the condo of the IM turnaround buoy and cruise ship. The best is when the cruise ship disembarks it's passengers at the pier among all the athletes. We all look at each other like the other is crazy.