IMLP, "The Run"

Well, after spending 6 minutes in T2 ( god knows, I was chatting, feeling good, I don't know I could of taken a nap I guess, what the hell was I doing?" got some water and headed out. I actually felt pretty good heading out of T2, its a bit of a downhill so you have to be careful not to go out too fast and blow your quads for the rest of the race, the sun was out a bit but not too bad and I was saying to myself, " If I can stay feeling this way, this marathon might not be so bad". Well, after passing coachie who gave me good words of encouragement my cadence was doing great but it was holding its own. The one thing I remember very clearly that happened from the start of the run to the finish is that my feel hurt a ton, right on the bottom of my feel where the cleat placement is on my bike shoes, and it hurt on both feet. It hurt everytime I put my feet to the ground. I actually stopped several times to readjust my shoelaces, I even contemplated once to run without socks, well, after the Patriot 1/2 ironman I quickly decided I'd rather run in pain then have blisters the size of quarters on them.

I saw a lot of people out there, I tried to hydrate at every aid station, however, I think I took in more water and coke then powerade which could of been my downfall, I didn't have a ton of negative thoughts and I continued to shuffle along. The first loop was ok, not great, I was still running so that was something, I just didn't have power, but at this point all I cared was that I was running and not walking. I got by the mile 16 mark and realized that was the place I started walking last year and I vowed I would keep going. It was a long 26.2 miles, lots of wonderful people out there, lots of encouragement, I was happy I was shuffling but full knowing I wasn't really running. It was again another disappointment in my eyes and at least last year it was my first ironman, the experience was so amazing just to be there and to just finish, this year was supposed to be different for me, I was starting to feel sad and not enjoying the scenary, the people, it wasn't the experience it was supposed to be ( this made me sad). Not only was I disappointing myself I felt like I was disappointing my friends, my coach. My friend Sara who was watching me that day sad she was going to kill me if I didn't put a smile on my face, which I did at the end because I was almost finished.

I finished in 13:11, well past the time again that I was hoping for but still finishing in a decent enough time to be in the middle of the pack on not such a great day. I was greated at the finish line by my husband Phil, Sara, Greg, and my amazing coach Janda. After about 2 minutes of chatting however I felt the urge to vomit so I immediately excused myself and made way to the medical tent. They brought me in and found my blood pressure to be extremely low and that I needed to get hydrated pretty quickly. I felt ok but I really did want to puke. After several attempts at trying to get an IV in ( of course since I'm dehydrated my veins had decided to go on vacation) on the 4th try they got in. 3 Bags of warmed Normal Saline later, some Zofran for the nausea, 3 cups of hot chicken broth and I could actually feel human again. It was amazing to see how many people are in the medical tent after an ironman ( since I have been a frequent visitor both last year and this year) I'm getting to know the ropes. One man next to me on my right was and is a pediatric anesthesiologist who was getting pissed that they couldn't get my IV in, he actually offered to put mine in but they said they couldn't do it for legal purposes. He was in the bed next to me because he decided to run in a new pair of sneakers, guess what the bottom of his feet and toes looked like, about 25 huge blood blisters everywhere, not so smart for a doc. The guy to my left fell coming out of the the swim and hurt his ankle so bad he had a tough time getting to T1, however he finished the race but low and behold he actually fractured his ankle. Can you imagine running on a fractured ankle. Athletes continue to amaze me.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS IRONMAN EXPERIENCE:

1. MY MENTAL GAME WAS NOT THERE, I MADE MAJOR MISTAKES BECAUSE OF IT AND VOW TO MAKE SURE THIS PART OF MY ATHELTIC TRAINING BECOMES A STRENGTH

2. MY FITNESS WAS SPOT ON AND I TRAINED VERY HARD FOR THIS EVENT I SHOULD BE VERY PROUD OF WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED NO MATTER WHAT THE TIME SHOWED THAT DAY. I NEED TO LEARN TO BE HAPPY WITH MY RESULTS AND LEARN TO LOVE TO RACE AGAIN WITHOUT BEING SO CRITICAL OF EVERY LAST THING.

3. EXPECTATIONS OF MYSELF ARE OK AS LONG AS THEY ARE RESONABLE. I THINK MY GOALS FOR THIS IRONMAN WERE RESONABLE, HOWEVER MY EXECUTION ON THE DAY WAS NOT, THOSE MISTAKES WERE DONE BY ME AND NO OTHER, I WILL LEARN FROM THIS EXPERIENCE AND COME BACK TO MY NEXT IRONMAN BOTH MORE MENTALLY STRONG AS WELL AS PHYSICALLY STRONG

4. I HAVE THE MOST WONDERFUL AND SUPPORTIVE HUSBAND AND FAMILY, WITHOUT THEM MY 4AM RIDES WOULDN'T OF GOTTEN DONE OR SOME OF MY WEEKENDS WOULD NOT OF HAPPENED. I KNOW ITS BEEN HARD FOR THEM SOMETIMES WHEN IM TRAINING AND SPENDING SOME TIME APART BUT THROUGH IT ALL THEY SUPPORTED ME.

MY FRIENDS, SO MANY I CAN'T NAME THEM ALL BUT APRIL, SARA, DARCY, BOB, KERI, VICKI, JESS, CINDY,MARNIE, NAN, MY TRIROK FRIENDS, THANK YOU FOR BEING THERE AND LISTENING AND SUPPORTING ME AND CONTINUING TO SUPPORT ME WHILE I EMBARK ON ALL THESE CRAZY ENDEAVORS.

AND LAST AND CERTAINLY NOT LEAST MY COACH J, COACHIE AS I LIKE TO CALL HIM, WHAT CAN I SAY, HE IS AMAZING, HE HAS WORKED REALLY HARD THIS YEAR TO GET ME TO WHERE I WAS THIS PAST SUNDAY, ALL THE WORKOUTS, CHATS ON THE PHONE, THE POWERFILES, GARMIN FILES, ETC... THERE ISN'T ANYTHING MORE THIS MAN COULD OF DONE FOR ME EXCEPT THE RACE MIND YOU ( NEXT TIME, HUH?) HE IS AN AMAZING COACH AND I HOPE THAT EVEN THOUGH MY PERFORMANCE WASN'T WHAT WE BOTH EXPECTED THIS PAST SUNDAY WE KNOW MISS DONNA HAS A LOT IN THE TANK THAT THE WORLD HASN'T SEEN AND WITH SOME MENTAL PREPARATION AND SOME PHYSICAL WORK AS WELL THIS CHICKITA BANANA WILL BE A SOURCE TO BE RECKONED WITH FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS YEAR AND ALL OF NEXT YEAR.

HERES TO THE REMAINDER OF THIS RACE SEASON AND TO KICKING SOME ASS NEXT YEAR AS WELL. CAN ANYONE SAY IM WISCONSIN, HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.