Flat Stanley ready to cheer.

Race Report:

2.4 mile swim – 112 mile bike – 26.2 mile run

Short Version:
Overall Time: 15:49:46
Overall Place 1604 / 1943
Division Place 62 / 72
Swim Time/Div Place/Overall Place: 1:33:46/57/1684
T (transition swim to bike): 14:52
Bike Time/Div Place/Overall Place: 7:03:03/49/1553
T2 (transition bike to run): 57:06
Run Time/Div Place/Overall Place: 6:01:02/51/1297

Long Version:
Pre Race Stuff
I left Dallas the Monday before the race for a two-day drive to Phoenix. I was looking forward to spending some quality time alone on the road with my XM Radio. The drive was uneventful – there is nothing west of Abilene to distract you from the desert. I did see one interesting billboard:
“Giant Parking In Room Spa”. I think this was a punctuation error, but it led to some interesting visualization.

Once in Phoenix, I had to deal with switching the hotel accommodations for the 11 people that would be coming. The hotel we had pre-booked was a total dive (the website made it look and sound like a completely different place) – bars on the windows, dodgy neighborhood, ancient paint and wallpaper, itchy furniture, and the thermostat was wired backward (leading me to believe that the entire hotel wiring might be suspect). It also didn’t have high-speed internet, so when my husband arrived Tuesday evening, we immediately started looking for a new home. We ended up finding some rooms at the Courtyard by Marriott which worked out perfectly, and the staff there was absolutely first rate.

Ken and Betty-Lou, Todd and Maureen and Gus (the Guide dog) arrived Wednesday afternoon after a 6 hour drive from L.A. Ken and B-L have been friends of ours for years, and this would be Ken’s 16th Ironman, but his first since the early 90’s. Ken used to specialize in Double and Triple IMs:
http://www.triathlonweb.nl/dutch/records.htm (he PR’d his IM time at the double in Huntsville….). He now is the CEO of a company in LA so his training time isn’t what he would like. He had 2 swims prior to the IM – 2 sessions in the pool to prepare himself to swim 2.4 miles. He took spin classes 3x week and rode with the local bike team 1x week for the cycling – long ride was 60 miles. He only had two long-ish runs, both in the 12 mile range. Amazing!!

Thursday morning Ken and I drove to the race site to have a practice swim in the lake and to pick up our packets. The swim was about 20 minutes of me flailing around trying to catch my breath in the 68 degree water, and Ken stroking calmly ahead waiting for me. After 10 minutes or so the panic subsided and I felt that even though I would never be the fish that Ken was, I at least knew that the swim wouldn’t be any worse than I had imagined. I’m very glad we got a chance to get in the water ahead of time.

Packet pickup was a little tedious with a long line, but well organized, and all of my questions were answered. The volunteers and staff were very well prepared for anything that might happen, and once we made it to the head of the line everything went very smoothly. They weighed us which was a little bit funny. Ken and I guessed our respective weights exactly to the pound, impressing the volunteer.

We spent Thursday afternoon sitting in the shade around the pool (another perk of switching hotels) and waiting for more of the groupies to arrive. It was nice to be able to hang out and relax with friends. Bill (my massage therapist and training buddy) and Joyce, and then Ellen (friend I met in Antarctica) arrived late in the pm, we had some wine and then Doug took us all to dinner.

The IM was my 40th b-day present to myself, and Doug had made reservations at a great restaurant in town, and had champagne and a seafood appetizer tower ready when we arrived. It was a great dinner to share with friends. The amazing food was topped only by Todd (who is blind) and Gus (his guide dog) going to the valet for the car and having the guy ACTUALLY HAND HIM THE KEYS!! It was a riot.

Friday morning I woke up with a bit of a panic attack – the butterflies were practicing maneuvers in my tummy and I need some serious calming down by DH to get myself together. After Ken, Bill and I had a quick run we all packed into two cars and headed out for some road touring – the drive up to Sedona was beautiful. We stopped for lunch at Bad *** BBQ; the food was good and as we were getting ready to leave Maureen had to ask “where’d you leave the blind man?” – Somebody had taken Todd to the men’s room and forgot that he was still in there.

Friday night, we all relaxed and ordered pizza in to the hotel to celebrate Todd’s birthday. The hotel staff put some tables together for us in the lobby and provided all the plates and silverware.

Saturday am Ken and I went for a short bike ride. He needed to test out his shoes (which he had bought a week previously) and his aerobars (which he had installed the night before using my Swiss army knife). We were doing just fine along the bike path until we made a turn and ran smack into the Asthma Walk – 200 people coming at us on the path. Needless to say we bagged the rest of the ride!

Our friends Kim and Billy arrived and we had breakfast at the Denny’s across the street. Kim had had T-shits made up with a picture of me running on the front, and on the back:

“Swimming 100 miles
Biking more than 2000
Running nearly 850
Just to celebrate your 40th!

Being there when she finishes
Her first Ironman –Priceless!

Happy 40 Celeste – You Rock!”

It was such a nice surprise – she had brought enough for everyone to wear during the race, and they were a nice bright yellow so I could spot them. Made me tear up a little…I have great amazing friends.

That afternoon it was time to head to the transition area and drop off our bikes and transition bags. Once again everything was amazingly well organized. I went to have my bike checked by the mechanics as the rear brake and been rubbing on our outing that morning. Turns out that I had to have quite a bit done to the bike! I had borrowed my coach’s race wheels, and I had to have the rear cassette switched out with the one on my regular wheel in order for the derailleur to work cleanly, and the brakes had to be re aligned. I’m glad I had it checked as the mechanic said it could have been quite dangerous.

The pre-race dinner was uneventful - we had made reservations at Buca Di Beppo for the 11 of us (which they lost so I got to yell at the manager until he sorted it out), and we were back to the hotel by 8 for me to finish packing my special needs and to paint my toenails (“Iron Willed” was the color for this race). I was in bed with my feet up by nine, and asleep (off and on) from 10 pm.

Race Day
Doug and I and Ken and B-L along with Ellen, piled into our Jeep and headed to the race at 5:00 am. There were already a ton of people there, and although it looked a little confusing, it was actually very easy to get around: body marking, special needs bags, load the bike with bottles and food, wetsuit, bathroom, wetsuit again. I kissed Doug for good luck, waved to all of our group who had arrived in the meantime and then Ken and I walked toward the swim start.

At 6:15 the pros started entering the water, at 6:30 the age-groupers started to enter. It took a full 25 minutes to get all 1900 or so athletes in the water. My plan all along was to be very close to the last person in the water, and to place myself outside and to the back for the start. Ken entered pretty early as he is a great swimmer and wanted to be much closer to the front. As soon as I hit the water I could feel both my pulse and my BP go up. I was very nervous, and cold (at least til the wetsuit warmed up). I turned over on my back to float and relax.

The Swim
The gun (cannon!) went off, and so did the swimmers – all 1900 at once. Even though I thought I was back and outside, I immediately got run over about 10 swimmers, and found myself in almost a full-blown anxiety attack – I couldn’t catch my breath, I couldn’t find a stroke, I was swallowing water (yuck). After a few minutes, I managed to calm myself enough to actually start trying to swim.

It was a full combat swim almost all the way around the 2.4 miles. I was constantly getting bumped and hit and people touching my feet (which is really creepy). About a third of the way through I was kicked hard enough in the calf by a young man for the calf to cramp. The lake is about 20 feet deep, so touching the bottom was out of the question. I immediately rolled to my back and looked around while trying not to get run over. I raised my hand toward a kayaker, and he paddled straight over (plowing over a couple of swimmers to my amusement). I held onto the kayak and rubbed the cramp out, and then off I went to try and survive the swim.

I didn’t have any fun in the swim. Sorry PB, I don’t know how you found it spiritual! It was utter chaos, at least to me. Somewhere about 2/3 of the way around I managed to actually keep my face in the water and do some bi-lateral breathing, actually swimming instead of surface crawling. It was short lived, but I was grateful for the few minutes of respite. I even managed to catch some geese flying over-head out of the corner of my eye as I turned to breathe. If only I were that graceful in the water. The battle continued to the take-out, which was a staircase (kind of like bleachers) that had been lowered into the water. The volunteers were great at helping us up – I was a little dizzy from the cold water on my ears and being horizontal so long. Once out of the water, the wetsuit strippers helped me out of my wetsuit, and then it was a bit of a jog around the transition area, through the Trans. Bags. They handed mine right to me so I didn’t have to dig – one of the advantages to being a little slow out of the water is you aren’t trying to trans with 200 other people!. My time was 1:33 (which is what I had predicted). Ken swam a 1:08! On only 2 training swims!!


T1
Once in the change tent, I followed my plan – body glide everything, sunscreen, have an ensure, sip some water and take an endurolyte. Shorts, bra, shirt, shoes, gloves, helmet (don’t forget the strap!), sunglasses. The volunteers in here were excellent – they laid all of my stuff out, helped me with my checklist, rubbed sunscreen all over (my vol was a massage therapist so this felt really good after the swim). Leave T1 and head to the bikes.

Bike
Once I left the change tent and ran into the bike racks, there was a volunteer holding my bike for me – I didn’t have to go find it in the racks. I ran the bike out of the chute down the sidewalk and then mount up ready for the 112 mile ride.

The ride was OK. I won’t say that I was having a great time, but I was so happy to be done with the swim so anything would have been better! The route was essentially three out-and-backs, so Ken and I had a chance to see each other each loop. I’m not very fast, so I concentrated on keeping my HR and cadence where I had trained (not worrying about speed) and on picking out landmarks along the mostly flat route. The desert was very pretty the first loop, but quickly became monotonous. Cactus, rock, dirt. I got lapped by the pros (not too surprising). I kept on eating and drinking and taking e-caps.

Once back in town, I saw my groupies! It was so good to see them all jumping up and down, waving signs they had made and wearing their matching shirts. Even Gus stood up when I went by. The second loop was about the same as the first – cactus, dirt, rocks, eat, drink, e-caps. I stopped to pee once (good sign) and to get some my PB&J sandwich out of my special needs bag. YUM! I was already sick of gels and bars and Gatorade and still had 50 miles to bike.

Back in town again, over the Mill Ave Bridge, and finally my fans found a place in the shade (I had been a little worried about Gus). The sun was fully up by now, and it was getting hot, although not as miserable as the humidity we get in Dallas. I headed back out for another loop of the same. My times were very consistent through the bike –I got a little faster each loop, but it wasn’t by much. By the last 20 miles I was very ready to be off the damn bike. My crotch hurt, my low back hurt (looking back, was this my kidneys trying to tell me something?), my hands hurt. At least I was in better shape then the guy who was on the 1-speed cruiser riding in flip-flops and a Hawaiian shirt. He didn’t make the cut off.

The traffic control along the entire route was great – no worries about cars, every turn was closed and protected. The bikes owned the rode and some people were making killer time on the flat hot course. I finished in 7:03, right dead-center of my predicted range of bike times. (Ken did 6:03).

I ran back into trans, handed my bike to a volunteer to rack, and headed into the change tent to get ready for the run. I got in the tenet, sat down, and the wheels completely came off.

T2 (The heart of the story)
As soon as I sat down a volunteer brought my bag, and I started to change into my run clothes, have my snack etc. She asked me if I needed anything, and I asked for water. When she brought it to me, I must’ve looked like crap, because she immediately asked me if I wanted a medical person. I said no at first, but she went and got an EMT (Tom). He walked me back into the med tent, had me lie down on a cot, and put icepacks on my belly, behind my knees and behind my neck,. At this point my whole face was all tingly, I had a little bit of tunnel vision and dizziness, and my hands and arms were all tingly and jumpy. Not to mention that I thought I was going to hurl.

At that point, I just cratered emotionally. I was so MAD that I had ended up in the med tent. I was worried that they would pull me from the race. I wanted my hubby. I wanted to be done. I wanted to be anywhere but on that cot in that tent balling my eyes and twitching every muscle in my legs and arms, waiting to cramp, sieze or toss my cookies.

Tom was great. He got me some more water and e-caps. He got me an ensure with ice. He rubbed my feet (there is a place in heaven for anyone who will rub an athlete’s feet). He told me through my tears and hiccups that my day didn’t have to be over, that I could stay as long as I wanted, that I had plenty of time. He was very sweet and helpful, calming me down. He walked me to the port-o-potty (I still had to pee, which was good). He walked me back, and let me lay down with more icepacks.

About this time they brought in a young man who was delirious, vomiting and in full body cramps. When they got him in a wheelchair, I decided that I either needed to DNF, or get out the door – no more recovering. I thought I had been in the tent for about 30 minutes total, but it turns out that it was 57 minutes in T2. Possibly the longest T2 in IM history! But I did eventually leave (after Tom body-glided my feet, and put on my shoes and socks for me).

Run (well, not so much)
Tom the medic had told me that there was an aid station about 300 yds from transition, so if I got out there and couldn’t go on, I could just sit down. My stomach was completely gone, everything I looked at or tasted made me gag. I told myself that I would just walk, sip something when I could. I had over 7 hours to go 26.2 miles, and if I could just keep moving I knew I would finish. I walked almost all of the first loop, except for the few downhills which I ran. I stopped in each aid station and either sipped water, coke or Gatorade. I had an ecap every other stop. I ran when I could and tried not to throw up because the running jostled my tummy.

I was still an emotional wreck. I had not seen my friends or hubby in almost three hours. I felt like crap. And I was so MAD – unbelievably mad that I had bonked. Being mad makes me cry, so I was crying which made me even more mad and that wasn’t helping my stomach.

Finally at about 8 miles (near the end of the first loop) I saw my hubby. I ran right up to him, balling, and had a good long hug. The groupies were there and they had no idea I had been in the med tent. They just thought that they had missed me coming out of transition! So they were (almost) as glad to see me as I was to see them. Doug told me I was beautiful (which made me laugh and boy did I need that laugh!) and that he was proud of me for going on. He told me just to keep moving and to stop apologizing for taking so long. Gus seemed to be happy – they had dressed him up in a Sheriff’s hat so at least he was having a good day.

Off I went to start the second loop. I ran a little more this time around – still trying to sip on stuff when I thought I could keep it down. At about mile 3 or so, I saw Bill and Kim. At about mile 4.5 I saw them again. I saw people all over the loop. As soon as I had left Doug, he had rallied the troops and sent them all over the course, because he knew that I wouldn’t get too down if I kept seeing everyone. It seemed like during the second and third loops I saw people almost every time I turned a corner. Fantastic! It was such good comfort to know that everyone still believed in me.

My stomach was still toast, but I thought I was moving better – still run/walk, but more run and steadier pace. I was treated to an amazing sunset somewhere in the second loop and I actually started passing people. During the third loop Bill and Joyce ran a little with me and I saw a whole flock (?) of rabbits along the path. I ran almost the entire last three miles (even the long uphill!). Once I saw Doug for the last time, about .75 miles from the finish, I put the hammer down (relatively speaking). It was a long downhill into the final turn – Todd, Maureen and Gus were along the course with Ken (who had finished in 13:40 with a 6 hour run), Bill and Kim and Bill and Joyce and Ellen were at the finish.

The final 100 yards are just a blur – they had bleachers set up and they were still full of people shouting and cheering, people were slapping my hand as I ran by. Then they call out your name and age “Celeste Walz, age 40 from Plano, Texas – You are an IRONMAN”. (run time 6:01, total time 15:49)

After the race
Once I cleared the finish chute and got my goodie bag (medal, finishers t-shirt and hat). Ken grabbed me and gave me a big hug and walked me to the food tent. Doug went to get my bike and gear, and everybody else grouped up for cheers and hugs.

I was so glad to be done. Unbelievably happy to be done, and still very angry about the bonk. We took group pictures, and then somehow Ken scored four pizzas from the food tent (an advantage of finishing back in the field - they need to get rid of the food!). We all sat around in the grass listening to the final competitors coming in, eating pizza (as soon as I stopped moving my stomach started feeling better). I was able to nibble on a slice of pie and eat some banana. My crew were starving – Ken and I had managed to space ourselves out enough that they never got a chance to leave and go eat!!

Summary:
If you read this far, thank you! I’m still trying to sort out my feelings regarding the race. On one hand, I am an Ironman. I set my goal, I did the training and I completed the race. On the other hand, I should never have bonked. All the ultra-running should have prepared me to take better stock of my body and nutrition. I’m still not entirely sure what happened. I was eating and drinking and e-capping. But apparently not enough. The heat was deceptive on the bike. Since you weren’t sweating, you didn’t realize how hot everything was – esp. with the breeze you generate. I was peeing fine the whole race and I actually never felt bad on the bike ride - my splits show that I actually improved throughout the ride.

I guess the most frustrating part is that I feel like I wasted an opportunity. I had great coaching, great training over 5 months, a perfect taper, good ultra experience, and I still managed to let myself down. I feel like I could have done this time without all of the coaching and training. What in the heck was I doing the last 5 months that I only managed a 16 hour IM? I know, I know, I overcame adversity to complete a very tough event. I get that. But I also know that I was capable of so much more. The 6 hour run was esp. frustrating as my legs actually felt pretty good, but my stomach kept me from moving too fast. My original expectations (conservative, based on training times, NOT racing times) were 1:30 swim, 6:30-7:30 bike, 4:30-5:30 run. Transitions in the 10-15 minute range.

On the positive side I managed my longest open-water swim ever, my longest bike ever (in the same day), I moved up about 80 places overall from the swim to the finish (in spite of the hour in the med tent), I won T2 (!) and I finished.

Now for the rock-star thanks!
First to Doug, the best hubby in the world for being there all through the training, being supportive and for giving the best damn hug ever just when I needed it most. I love you

To Ken, for being a great inspiration. (And to Amy for first timer perspective).

To B-L , Todd, Maureen, Gus, Bill, Joyce, Billy, Kim and Ellen for making it all the way out to Phoenix to cheer me on. I would’ve DNF’d if I had been there alone (I don’t know how you did it Liam). I could not have finished without you guys. Thanks for making my birthday so special! Extra special thanks to Kim for the special T’s and to Bill C for massages during my training. Always pays to be friends with a MT.

To all the forumites who have tuned in during this saga: I knew you were watching on race day, and that helped keep me going. Special thanks to Liam and Jeff who also answered numerous questions and concerns off-line and who called to wish me both luck and congratulations.

My coach Diane was fantastic (I hope I didn’t let you down).

To all my other friends and family who called to wish me luck, gave me support and advice, I love you guys!

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