New Orlean Ironman 70.3 Race Report:
We arrived to NOLA late Friday evening after meeting Matt's family in Hattiesburg for dinner. We checked everything in, and actually got a good night's sleep. Saturday morning, we met a couple friends at Mother's for a wonderfully healthy breakast of buttery pancakes, fully sugar maple syrup, and huge buttermilk biscuits with jelly ;) YUMMY!!!!!!!
After the carb-loading that took place at Mother's, we headed over to pick up our race packets and numbers. We had to sit through a 20 minute briefing, which I never really understand the point of, and we checked out the expo for a bit. After this, we headed back to the room, packed up the bikes and rested for a bit, grabbed a light lunch from the hotel restaurant, and then drove our bikes to check-in at UNO.
We tested them out around the parking lot, since they had most of the roads blocked off in the surrounding area. It's always fun to check out the nice bikes in transition around you!!! Lots of money spent on this sport is an understatement ;)
After checking in the bikes, we headed back to the hotel for just a bit. We met a few more friends for dinner at Gordon Bierch(sp?) and then turned in for an early night's sleep. I never sleep the night before races, but I was excited that I actually had no trouble sleeping that night!! Maybe I am getting used to the excitement of races ;) It was interesting to hear a prom going on in the hotel and lots of people going in and out of rooms, but they didn't bother us like we were scared they would.
Morning wake-up at 4am. Breakfast of bagels and peanut butter and a banana for me. I think Matt had a bagel/peanut butter, 2 Clif Bars, and a banana? Hydrated well and got our things ready to go!
SWIM:
There were lots of interesting things that happened on this crazy swim!!!
Our friend Melanie, was getting ready to zip her wetsuit before our wave started, and the zipper broke!!! Can you imagine? I felt so bad for her, but we all encouraged her to keep it on, rather than toss an expensive wetsuit to the side. Surely the company will reimburse the wetsuit? I think she has only worn it once!!!!
I found out later that Matt was in the water getting ready for his wave to start when he realized his goggles were missing. He put them on top of the water for a split second while he was putting on his swimcap, reached down to grab them, and GONE!!!!! Oh my gosh---another panic!! Luckily, for some reason, he threw an extra pair of goggles in his transition bag. He said he took off to get them. If you didn't know any better, you would have thought he was a pro finishing the swim, because he said he was running to get his goggles as the pro's were exiting the water. Ha!! Thank God he had that extra pair.
So, back to the swim----------Upon looking at the water, it didn't look THAT choppy. I didn't do a practice swim, and I am honestly thankful for that. If I had known how bad the conditions were beforehand, I would have been even more frightened by the fact. As I started, the swim, I realized from the beginning how challenging this was going to be for me. I wondered if it was just me that was feeling this way?? I have never had a panic attack in water or felt seasick, but suddenly I was feeling both. If you have ever felt this way in the water, you know how mentally frightening it is. I saw kayakers everywhere, and saw lots of triathletes hanging on to the kayaks from the beginning. Every time I would turn to breathe (I breathe on my right), a wave would hit me in the face and I would swallow water. When I DID actually get air, it smelled like gasoline because of the boats out there. I told myself if I could just get to the turnaround buoy, maybe the waves would not be coming straight at my face. I finally got to the turnaround, started back, and realized not only were the waves still hitting my face when I turned to breathe, but they were now coming from the opposite direction due to the seawall on my right. Wow. Talk about the worst conditions I have ever been in. I told myself that if I ever got out of this water, I didn't know if I could handle Ironman Canada. When I would try to sight on the way back, the sun was glaring at me, even with tinted goggles. No one could see the buoys due to the waves coming at your face when you would try to sight. I thought to myself, poor beginners. If this is someone's first race, it would definitely scare them out of the sport for good. I ended up swimming way off course, because a kayaker yelled at me "move to your left" when I came up for a breath. I had swum towards the seawall. I was so freakin' frustrated, because I felt much stronger this season with my swim, and my times in the pool reflected this. To know I was way off course and panicking just ruined my day. I finally got back to shore and got my wetsuit stripped. I looked down at my watch---I really didn't want to know---I knew I had potential to do around a 37 minute swim, which isn't great by many standards, but for me and swimming being my weakest sport, I would take it. My watch showed 43 minutes. Talk about a letdown. I continued on, nonetheless. (I found out later just how rough the swim was for everyone else----it seems to affect weak swimmers much more than strong swimmers. Matt told me he got a calf cramp and actually had to lay on his back and massage out the cramp in the middle of the swim!)
Overall Swim Time:------ 43 minutes
BIKE:
The bike was the same typical headwind on the way out--the same experience from last year. My bike was averaging around 17.8 until the 25 mile turnaround. It honestly took me about an hour to get over that mental madness in my head over that horrendous swim. I was so mad and frustrated, but there was nothing to take it back. I did realize that if I can make it through that swim, hopefully every other swim this season would seem like a breeze :)
After the turnaround, I started picking up speed. It was fun to see team members on the out-and-back. There was a nice little tailwind and man was that FUN!!!!!!! To see my bike mph go from 17.8 and finish out at 20.2mph was VERY rewarding to me. I had been hoping for around 19.5mph that day, so that was a bonus for sure!!! I took in 3 water bottles of Gatorade, as well as 3 gels and felt very hydrated and good coming off the bike. My legs were surprisingly not as tired as I was scared they might be. The winter trainer rides were paying off ;)
Overall mph for bike---- 20.2mph
RUN:
The run was the same typical non-shaded very hot course. I started off with my first mile being a 7:36 pace. My goal overall was to hit 7:58 as long as possible, but with the heat, I knew I would most likely fade. I decided after the first water stop that I would walk every water stop for a mental break. I took advantage of all the ice water, cold sponges, and gatorade. I even put ice down my tri top when possible and poured water over my head. I passed lots of people on the run, and that felt good to stay so strong. I did fade towards the end, but seeing though Matt and I have only been in base phase of training with no speed work yet, I was very content with an 8:09 pace for the 13.1 miles, especially at the beginning of the season.
Overall run for 13.1 miles-------1:46 (8:09 pace per mile)
The last 3 miles of the run are always tough; that's where you have to dig reallyyyyyy deep. I never scrolled my Garmin over to see what my predicted finish time would be. I knew that I would either be motivated or frutrated. If I was frustrated when I looked at the watch, with 3 more miles to go, I knew that I would mentally want to throw in the towel. That's why I made the decision to wait until I crossed the finish line.
My overall goal going into the race, with perfect conditions and race expectations, was a 5:15. Overall, I was 5:22. If you look back at my estimated swim time I had hoped for (37 minutes), that would have put me right around a 5:15. Bummer. BUT, you can't change weather conditions. I still beat my New Orleans time last year by 17 minutes, so I am very happy about that!!!!!
Matt finished in 5:12. His goal was a 5:10, so he was very close as well. At least we can understand each other's frustrations, seeing that neither one of us are strong swimmers. I am very proud of him!!!
Sister Madonna!!! 80 years old---oldest female to finish Kona ---36 Ironman Triathlons!!!
Afterwards, some of the members of the MS Heat team met for dinner at Crescent City Brewhouse for dinner. We enjoyed sharing race stories together.
The morning after, we slept in and got to enjoy a lil bit more of New Orleans before heading back to Jtown!!!
We are all very concerned over a team member that crashed on the bike course. He looked down after making a pass and upon looking up, hit an orange cone blocking a hole in the road. He was taken to Tulane Medical and had hip surgery Monday from a broken hip. Please pray that he makes a speedy recovery from this. This was his first 1/2 Ironman, and it just breaks my heart that this happened to him. He was so well-trained and excited about this race. He will be in good hands though; A friend of ours is taking over his care after he returns to Jackson. It turns out, the surgeon on-call at Tulane at the time was a good friend of George's, our friend who is the surgeon here. I think God definitely is playing a hand in all of this, and we are just thankful that Robin was not injured any worse than this.
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