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trihotta · 3 years ago

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IMTX - IM #21 & a quick recap on IMWC in St George IM #22

When I turned 50 last year I decided I would be cool with it if I got into the best shape of my life and Kona Qualified again. IMCA last October was canceled the morning of the race due to the Bomb Cyclone (it rained 5 inches the day the race was supposed to happen with winds that knocked trees down on the course; it was the right decision). Ironman let everyone who showed up and registered defer to another race and so this is how I ended up racing in Texas. Over the winter I worked on my run endurance by training for a 50k hilly trail race. I had not heard of TriDot previously, but I kept seeing postings on their free two month program (their marketing is working) and I was intrigued regarding their science based and individually tailored workouts. I wasn’t sure how okay I would be with workouts that are so structured, but decided to give it a six month try and started the first of February. A few weeks in I decided to upgrade with a coach (which I have never previously had) to help me navigate a path through my crazy racing schedule. Cindy over at TriDot gave me a perfect match with Jason McFaul. On to Texas! The day before the race I was doing a short ride on my bike and a Pelican flew across my path, just over my head and scared the crap out of me. For fun (and with a huge grain of salt ) I pay attention to unusual animal sightings before a race and then go Google their meaning. I do the same thing with my race number, but I don’t put a lot of credence into the results (see pics below the text for a screenshot of both). These were both good signs. I had been hoping to have a significant cushion in time off the bike because my run is usually where I falter and get passed. Maybe that was not going to be the case. My family did not go because they are all coming to St George for the IMWC in 2 weeks. I met Janice Hom from Team Zoot who is going for a legacy slot in Kona (12 fulls finished - this is #9 for her) in person and had fun sharing meals with her Thursday and Friday. We had dueling weather apps - the weather channel said 15mph wind and no gusts and Accuweather said 22mph and 40mph gusts. We both decided we liked Janice’s app better. Race morning there is a mile walk to the start which I used to jog for part of my warm-up. The transition area was on the way to the swim start - I stopped to loosen my helmet. My hair always absorbs water and then my helmet doesn’t fit. I have hysterically wasted time in transition dealing with this in the past when I couldn’t fit it on my head. I also took a couple of hits off my rescue inhaler (now 1.5h to start). Off to transition. I took care of business and did some band stretching (broke another band in the process!) and lined up to start early. The swim is an out and back in a lake section and then enters a canal for the last 0.4-0.5 miles. The gun went off and we entered the water 6 at a time with a running start. Coach Jason and I had discussed how I was going to have to work hard to KQ - upper zone 3 all day - and that I should prepare myself to hurt. My RPE was up there in the swim but everyone just swam away from me. My watch was set to buzz every 500m and the first check was slow - 8:00. I was off pace and needed to speed up. I tried concentrating on my turnover and the second 500 was 7:50 - better but not the 7:30 it should be, especially with a wetsuit on. I struggled catching drafts because I was slow for where I started, but I sited well until the turn into the canal. At the race briefing they mentioned there would be arches to swim through before turning into the canal - they were a lot sooner than that, however. This confused me and I almost went the wrong way until the person drafting off of me yelled to swim right! He saved my ass. The canal was quite choppy but it ws fun to have people cheering during the swim. Someone was yelling to “Keep pushing” so I continued to do so. It felt like forever to get around the last turn buoy to shore. Volunteers were amazing helping us up the exit steps and someone unzipped my wetsuit before I even hit land. Wetsuit strippers were back (yay!). I looked at my watch and the negativity started in. 1:08 instead of a low hour - yikes! I’d better hurry up in transition. I thought there could be no way someone wasn’t in front of me. In hindsight, I was having an asthma attack during the swim but it is really hard to recognize one while I am moving. Swim 1:08:03

Transition had the best volunteers. I had 3 to myself inside the change tent - one got me water, one dumped my stuff, and one handed me things as I asked for them. Shoes on, nutrition in my pocket, helmet on and out. I am thankful that the volunteers packed my bag back up so I didn’t have to spend time doing it myself. I did have to get my own bike which was pretty far down the rack. Found it on the first try and headed for the exit. T1 3:49 I used my inhaler right away. Usually, 2 puffs every 4h keeps my asthma in check, but that was not going to be the case today. Maybe because of the wind, maybe because pollen counts were high and my body had not seen some of these allergens since I lived in Miami. I never realized on course that I must have been swimming using a straw to breathe. It just felt like a hard effort that was disappointingly slow. The way out to the Hardy toll road has a lot of turns so it is hard to get a groove on. I had 3 timers set, one every :10 labeled “focus,” for which I did a power check (attempting to average 180 watts), one every :35 to eat a Huma gel and take in Boulder salt, and another alarm every 2h to take an alt red. I planned on using my inhaler every 4h - so during the second alt red alarm. Also, to keep my mind wandering away from my goal (KQ) - I wrote on my forearms in sharpie. “EAT” and “bury yourself” on one arm and SALT and “seek and destroy” on the other. My watch face had heart rate, speed, and watts. My power meter (infocranks) doesn’t always play nice with my Garmin watch. It will randomly change the crank length to 180mm or even 210mm and then my watts will read low. It must have been doing this during the race and I certainly was not going to stop and calibrate it during a race like I would have done while training. ‘Oh well -power is out, let’s just go with HR and speed.’ I was on pace the first 19 miles out to the toll road (expecting 20mph). I had a short mishap on a bumpy section when my right shifter popped out of my aero bar and was hanging by the wires. I frantically crammed it back into the bar stem and it didn’t happen again.Thankfully it was still working. Turning on to the Hardy Toll road was a fat dose of reality. There was a 22-24mph constant headwind. Dammit!!! Accuweather was correct!! Usually I try to think of the wind like Natasha Badmann - I am an eagle playing the wind and I am under the wind. Well - yeah no positive self talk was going to get me to forget a 20+ mph fierce headwind. My speed was reduced to 15mph (average). It was 21 miles of *that* and it was completely relentless. My brain came up with “soul crushing.” Yep that’s it - this is soul crushing wind. Then there was the matter of the bike being advertised as flat. Let me just say - it is not flat!! TriDot uses NASA topography readings and they put the total climbing at 4400ft for this race. There were so many overpasses. My race rehearsals had equivalent climbing so I was fine, but Ironman needs to update the elevation from the old course on their website. There was a 2-4mi section of swirly, gusty crosswind around miles 30-32 and 74-76. When I was at mile 30, the pros we’re going by on the way back and somebody around 10th place crashed during that crosswind section. I decided to get out of aero and ride the handlebars on that section. Draft marshals were out in force but they didn’t seem to be handing out many cards. There was a group of 5 guys drafting (one of them had a Norway USAT tri suit) and they were pissing me off because they would pass me and then slow down so that I couldn’t maintain the speed I had planned. On the third try to pass and get away from them I found myself yelling, “Real men don’t draft, Gentlemen!” They passed me about :15 minutes later but I caught Norway guy in the last 10 miles of the bike. The whole bike I was dealing with my right foot hot foot. My right femur is 1.2cm shorter than my left and so I have a huge vertical footpad on my right foot that swells when it is hot and pushes on my shoe. It can feel like someone is holding a blowtorch to the bottom of my foot. I have not found a shoe with good vertical room (last option is custom shoes) so I have to keep a water in my bottle cage specifically for dumping on my foot to lower the swelling. Usually this starts around mile 70 but it was already an issue at mile 20. I was able to keep it under control. The turn around at about mile 40 was magical (you go about 21 miles south, then 21 miles north for two loops). Woo-hoo! On with the tailwind!! I hit 35mph down an overpass and averaged over 25mph on the tailwind section of the first loop. 20mph (for the entire loop) was slower than I wanted to go. I was looking to average closer to 22mph, but I figured the wind was slowing me down. The first aid station with the tailwind was almost a complete fail - I was going too fast and missed the first 3 tries at water. Got the 4th after pumping the brakes. The tailwind section was wayyy too short and that second stretch into the headwind was looming. That said I was mostly on target and was keeping to plan. “Ok, 21 miles of pain and then you get to fly again.” The wind felt a bit worse on the second headwind stretch. I was still averaging around 15mph average until a chain drop around mile 74 in the cross wind section. I was looking down while shifting when a giant cross wind gust blew my chain off mid shift. Ack! My chain got caught in the front deraileur and I stabbed my hand into the brake lever which was now bleeding everywhere. I pulled over, got the chain back on - nope! Not on. Try again - felt like forever but was probably only a minute. Chain was now good to go and I was back at it. Mile 82 couldn’t get there fast enough. On the last turn around I started noticing how bad the diesel fumes were coming from the highway. The AQI had to be pretty bad. I noticed on the tailwind section that my heart rate was down to 120 and I wasn’t going as fast as the first lap. I tried taking in extra salt (low Mg and K can do this) but it didn’t help. I started coughing a big bronchial cough. My moron race brain was like, “am I sick? Did I get Covid? Why am I coughing?” It took until mile 100 for a rational voice to surface in my brain - “Hey!!! Maybe it’s your asthma.” I got out my inhaler and ended up taking 4 hits and then felt so much better. I stopped coughing and my heart rate went back up to zone 3 but I had lost a lot of speed over a 15 mile stretch. I was never so happy to get off a highway. It was then about a 10 mile stretch back to transition. Again, lots of turns so hard to get a groove on. My cycling legs never fully recovered from my asthma attack. My time was :35-:50 minutes slower than what my training suggested I could do. Add that to a slow swim and I got to the second transition an hour late.There were no butterflies at all on the bike like usual (my cheerleaders). The negative self talk got loud. “I am disappointing everyone including myself. There is no way to make up an hour on the run.What an effing disaster.” Bike 5:53:56

My transition was probably a bit slower because I don’t historically run down my competition and I was sure there had to be at least 4 people in front of me. Bikes are handed off and then you run down a sidewalk to get your run bag. Another competitor commented this was his third IMTX and even though he was in better shape his bike was :35 slower than 2019. Ok ok - that made me feel better. I stopped in the loo with my bag to pee while changing shoes, etc. I then ran into the tent and sat down while a volunteer got me some water, and found my salt and alt red to pocket. Had my inhaler. I grabbed my visor, sunglasses, and race belt and put those things on while running. As I hit the run course a volunteer yelled, “Hey 960, you are in first!” I was like, “Err, what??!!” I asked, “By how much?” He shouted, “5 minutes” Oh shoot - 5 minutes is not a long enough gap. This is going to hurt!! New motivation gained - a Kona slot is still mine to lose. All that self deprivation for nothing. T2 4:02 Rolling swim starts are safer but do I ever hate them for racing purposes. You don’t know when anyone around you started the race and when you do get time checks from random spectators (this is SUPER helpful BTW) you don’t know if someone that started later than you is actually virtually ahead of you (and just hasn’t reached that particular time check yet). I was running scared the entire marathon. The run course at IMTX is hands down the best on the Ironman circuit for spectator support. Simply amazing. It was 84, partly cloudy (mostly cloudy) and I was doing my best to manage heat since we had not had many hot days in Nor Cal. Ice in hands, ice in bra, water down my head/back at every aid station. I had not previously practiced pouring water over my head with my salt and alt red in small tic tac containers in my back pocket previous to this race. Those tic tac containers worked great on the bike but NOT great on the run. At mile 3, I reached into my back pockets for my salt (the Women’s zoot kit has no leg pockets which I would prefer). To my horror, the salt has liquified, dissolved, and has been washed out of the container. Crap!! Maybe I can dig some salt up under my fingernails at the bottom of my pocket? I reach in, pull my hand out and it is COMPLETELY covered in red. Looks exactly like blood. Moron race brain thinks, “Holy crap, why am I bleeding? And SO MUCH blood. Is my heart rate strap cutting into my back? Did someone scratch me? What in the what? Holy hell that’s a lot of blood. Let me try digging again for salt. Oh no - only blood!!! This is not good for so many reasons.” Moron brain won out for another 2 miles or so while I imagined other people wondering why my back was soaked with blood. Finally, a rational voice surfaced, “Hey dumbass - your alt red dissolved too. That’s beet powder not blood.” *finds alt red tic tac container - confirms it is also empty* *mentally performs face palm* ok ok I am not bleeding out. LMAO. Around mile 5 on the run course you run into a wooded area. TriDot was there cheering which was a welcome boost! Then you run through a neighborhood which is a longer stretch between aid stations. There were amazing residents handing out water and other goodies. I didn’t take a water the first lap and regretted it. Took advantage the last two. I started to cough about mile 5.5/6 and this time was like - asthma!! Hit on my inhaler again earlier than planned. I just ran with it for a while and took like 6 draws. Ok ok - you’re good. Miles 6.5-10 have amazing crowd support. Hippie Hollow was fantastic - got a Groove is in the Heart blasting and I was not allowed to leave without hitting the power up drum - a guy chased me down and made me hit it . At mile 7 a random spectator bellows, “960 you are in first by 5 minutes!” What? I am holding the gap? Sweet! In reality, I had lost 2 minutes which would have been good to know, but the rolling start had deceived that first time check back out of T2. Well, this can’t last. I need to keep pushing. There is a wind tunnel on the run course around mile 8. It had a tail wind going in, there was a turn around at an aid station, and then a full on furnace blast headwind after you turn around. The wind was really pushing hard which will become important in the start of the third lap. During the second loop my cadence went to crap without my salt. I tried pretzels - they barely had any salt on them at all and were like chewing on sand. Who ordered low salt pretzels?? Tried the potato chips and my stomach immediately refused the oil. I chewed some up and spit them out, but what I really needed was magnesium and potassium. Around the halfway point I got a Nuun from TriDot - I think from Jeff but my race brain was in somewhat of a fog. I ate it whole and perked up for a while. I kept hunting for alternate salt sources at every aid station and was kicking myself for not putting any in special needs. I got back through the neighborhood, through Hippie Hollow and the best crowd support. Now it is around mile 16 and I am in the wind tunnel again on my way to the last lap. Just before I climb up the grass to the first aid station on the third lap I notice my Stryd is disconnected- no power detected. I look down and it is GONE. The clip is still there but my Stryd must have flown away in the wind. I did NOT notice. Well, I was supposed to stop paying attention to power at mile 18 anyway per my coach. So now I will definitely not be paying attention to power anymore - just a few miles too soon. I was walking through the aid stations making sure to get enough water and coke down and continued to do the same. The last 10k was go time and I was hoping to get another Nuun at mile 20-21 from TriDot but that didn’t happen. They were all very intent on giving me messages from Jason (I appreciated this very much) that they didn’t hear me ask. Per Cindy at TriDot and my Coach Jason I now knew that I was up by 2 minutes with 5-6mi to go now. Remember the pelican. So I left there without any salt and asked myself if I could keep running hard for 5 more miles and finish. The answer was, “Yes - but I will end up in the med tent.” I had been instructed to run on heart and get deep into the hurt locker these last miles and well, I didn’t have salt, but I did still have my heart. My cadence was still crap, but I dug deep, got into a flow and stayed there. I was breathing so hard that walkers were getting out of my way before I needed them to. Just get through the neighborhood here, keep pushing to where the crowd is at Hippie Hollow. Then take up there energy and just go. Pull the other racers energy as you run by. WAIT. Is that People of the Sun I am hearing? Rage Against the Machine is playing in Texas? Pick someone ahead and get past them - take their energy as you pass. Made it to the turn off to the finish and I think it was Andrew from TriDot who told me I was now 2min behind in 2nd place. Dammit. Well - anything can happen, keep pushing past the finish line. I sprinted down the finish, took a few steps and felt, well, wrong. Run 4:16:30Total 11:26:32

A catcher came up and got one arm and summoned another catcher who came up on the other side. “Do you want to take a finisher picture?” I answer, “No.” He follows up with, “Are you okay?” “No.” “Do you want a wheelchair to the medtent?” “Yes. Yes, please, that would be amazing.” I spent a couple hours in the med tent. Drank 3 cups of broth in the med tent. My peripheral vision came back, but I was really cold. It was 85 outside and I was shivering. The med voluteers gave me two more space blankets - they don’t help. They gave me a volunteer shirt so I could get out of my wet clothes and later brought my morning bag that had my jacket. They took my temperature- it was 95.2. They took it again, 95.4. They don’t believe the oral thermometer and insist on taking it rectally. All the while I am telling them, “Hey, what I really need is magnesium and potassium.” Temp is still 95 and change. They do a blood draw with the worst phlebotomist ever. I know these are volunteers, but could someone draw blood who’s done it before? I have huge veins in my arms (with tracks even - just follow the scars from many years of donating blood), but this med volunteer goes for my smaller veins off center of my arm and is DIGGING. They finally get blood and determine my electrolytes are low (no shit) and then mercifully decide that I need an IV. The IV won’t go in. The volunteer is pushing and digging some more. I am pretty sure I yelled an obscenity and they decided to switch arms. “So sorry. It won’t go in, we have to try on your other arm.” Once the IV went in I was immediately better. Night and day. They told me I would have to go to the ER if my temperature didn’t go up. I started thinking about how I didn’t have anyone at this race - yeah, no, that can’t happen. Can’t go to the hospital. They take my temperature again and now it’s 98.2. It was so crazy that my body went hypothermic from a lack of minerals despite it being 84 outside. I narrowly escaped getting sent to the ER. that IV was magical since I was able to walk back to my hotel room fully coherent. When I turned on my phone it took ten minutes for all my backlogged notifications to cease! Coach Jason sent me a picture of the Kona slot allocation - there were two slots in my age group! I had missed first by just under 4 minutes, but it didn’t matter because there were two slots - yay!!! Thank you everyone who supported me through this race family and friends tracking me online, my coach ( I could not have done this without you), and TriDot getting messages to me, and the incredible crowd support out on the run course.

Epilogue

Two weeks later I participated in the Ironman World Championship in St George, Utah. This is probably the worst memory I have of a race so far - usually I remember the whole day like a birth or a wedding. I came down with a very sore throat and cold about 16 miles into the bike. My performance declined from there. I do remember thinking the ride up Snow Canyon was in slow motion hell. People puking, walking their bikes, one young Team Zoot member crashed and crying at the side of the road. Carnage. My race didn’t get any better on the run. I forced it the first 18-19 miles thinking I could get past the intestinal issues I was having (4x in the loo), but this would be the first race that I wasn’t able to recover and run. I walked to the finish after trying fartlek from cone to cone. This time I asked myself, “Can I keep running and still finish?” and the answer was, “No.” I had to repeatedly tell myself out loud not to close my eyes or stop moving or I would wake up in the ER. Mike found me with a mile to go and kept me awake to the finish. I loved the excitement from Daria and Max every time I ran by in this race - they were running with me and yelling loud enough that everyone around me was smiling. Those few moments during a 14hr plus finish were gems. IMSG was by far (maybe by fifty minutes?) my slowest IM finish out of 22. Luckily, I am participatingn in both world championships this year and I plan to make Kona a coherent race with a proper race report. See you all in Kona :)

TriDot had a huge presence at IMTX. I got to meet a lot of great people and Jeff Raines was supremely awesome giving me a TriDot visor so I can represent.

Organizing race bags

The swim finish

Racking Tiny

So good to meet and spend time with Janice Hom - a fellow Team Zoot member I had not previously met :)

left arm reminders

Right arm reminders

Out of the swim with SOOOOO many fantastic volunteers.

Fairly early in the bike (still smiling)

No more noticing photographers

Still clicking at this point.

There was no smiling on the run.

Pain down the finish chute.

Done and off to the med tent shortly after this was taken.

All the pokes in my right arm. There were three more in my left. The numbers are in the order of stabs. Isn’t #4 obvious to start with??

A big shout out to Andrew Harley from TriDot who took these pictures for me since my family was not at the awards :). It was good to share a smile with Ironman legend, Mike Reilly.

Top five women 50-54

Surprise lei during Kona slot allocation,

Kona!!

IMSG bike taken by Justin Luau. It was a gorgeous ride, but HOT, dry, and windy. There was a LOT of suffering out on the course.This is the first time I have ever gotten wind burn on a bike ride. The loose sand/soil litterally cut lines in my thighs.

This picture perftectly sums up my race at Ironman St. George WC. After getting through the cordoned off race finish maze, I took one look at the grass and decided laying down and not moving was a great idea. Sure, I should probably go try and find my family, but I assured myself that someone would ask if I was okay and I could use their phone to text Mike. About thirty minutes later, another Team Zoot member did just that. Thank you to this Team Zoot angel - I do not remember your name but I do remember your kindness. This is the moment Max and Daria found me after walking past me thinking, “There’s no way Mom is that out of it.”

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