Texas Ironman 2015

If I was to summarize my first ironman experience in few words, I would use: Emotional, Amazing and Inspiring. This would have never been possible without the support of my husband Chris, my T3 Coaches (Mo, Jeff, Charles, Meredith), my teammates (Ana, Robert, Matt, Mary, Lauren, AJ, Suzy, Haley, Mike S, Mike B, Gokhan, Sarah, Lance, Pablo, Laura, Parker, Brett,…) and the inspiration I got from my Toughcookie friends (Tzatzil, Kinaya, Suzan, Dawn, CC, Carolina). Also a special thanks to Onder, Rachel, Jason, Lise, Estevam, Claire, Simon and my family who followed me in my journey.

The training: The Journey wasn’t easy since I signed up in December 2014 when Tzatzil convinced me I could do it. Juggling between Work and training while keeping some quality time with Christophe, family and friends was hard. The break I took from training when my parents came to visit was right when I was feeling worn out. Recommitting afterward was tricky but coach Mo, my team T3 and Ana my bike training partner in crime got me motivated (add to this the fear of not finishing the race). Everything was going fine until the week-end of my birthday (April 18). It was my first 110Mile bike ride with Ana on the Akins route. At Mile 90, I had a sharp pain above my right knee. I finished my first 110Miles but the pain never really left me afterward. I was depressed. We were 1 month away from the Ironman. I couldn’t bike hard without pain. I had to dial down the biking and take care of it. I started physical therapy with Jill and getting massages with Doug. April 26, I PR’d at the Galveston 70.3 but I cramped during the swim and the pain during the bike starting at Mile 40 didn’t give me much confidence for the Ironman. It took me a week and a half to get rid of that cramp in my right calf. We were 2 weeks away from the race: All I was doing was PT/massage, strengthening and swimming.

The week of the race, I was a nervous mess. I couldn’t sleep much because I had to squeeze a full week of work into 3 days. I was worried about the race, I was breaking down. The only thing I did right was hydrating. I packed in a rush on Thursday morning and off we go on the road with Chris, finishing some work in the car. We arrived in the Woodlands at the Ironman village right around 2pm for the packet pick-up. I was glad to see Ana. We were staying at the Woodlands Conference Center, 2miles away from the race start. I must admit the transition and special needs bags did throw my routine off a little. I had a hard time decide what to put in there and it took me forever to prepare my bags. Friday morning, I did the swim practice before dropping the bike and the bags. The bike transition was a mud pit. I cooked my rice cakes in the hotel room. In the evening, we met the team for dinner. It helped calm my nerves a little.

Race Day:

I didn’t sleep well. I was rehearsing my day in my head over and over. Did I plan enough nutrition? (bike: 5 pouches of infinit (330cal) for each 1.5hrs, 3 rice cakes, 2 chews, 2 gels; Run: 6 gels, 1 rice cake, peanuts, salt tablets). I woke up at 4am, ate cereals and rice cake left over. Chris dropped me at the transition. It was still dark. I wanted to install a valve extension I had bought the previous day because I could inflate properly my back tire. So here I am at 5:30am working on my tire or should I say working on a tire I think is mine. Yes! I had deflated and installed a valve extension on someone else’s tire. I gasped in horror when I realized and apologized to the girl next to me. I kept apologizing and fixing my error while she was screaming and freaking out. This wasn’t good and I was already sweating bullets with the 100% humidity. Finally, all was good and we hugged it out. Result of the operation: I was never able to install the valve extension on my own tire and inflated my tire by feel (Oh, well!). Lesson learned: Change your tube before race day.

By the time we arrived at the swim start a mile away from there, dropped the special needs bag, stopped by the porter potty, it was time to line up and listen to the national anthem. I was breaking down in tears from the stress and was glad Chris was next to me. 6 months of hard work for this moment. It was a rolling start. I had decided to start with the 1h30-1h40 wave (I knew I could swim 4km in 1h50 easily). We were walking toward the shore. I wasn’t ready. Wait! Here we go! I quickly started to relax and took an easy cruise pace. I tried to draft behind people but I was never good at that and all I got doing it was being kicked in the face. So I did my thing and kept swimming comfortably focusing on all the swimming tips Mo gave me one by one. One buoy at the time. How happy was I when the red buoy turned yellow indicating we were halfway! The very end of the swim was rough. The canal was very narrow and it was very hard to pass. I had to zigzag a lot to avoid being kicked. I was out of the water in 1h41min59s.

In transition (9min21s), I changed to my bike short and jersey, biofroze my legs, took an advil and ziplocked my feet (smart tip I got from the ironman facebook page) for the run through the mud pit. The ziplock worked really well. I didn’t have to spend time wash and dry my feet.

It felt good to be on the bike. I was excited by the atmosphere and all the people cheering. 10 minutes in, I go over a bump and see my precious rice cake flying together with 1 bag of chews. I am left with 1 gel and 1 chew for the first half of the ride until I get my special needs bag (Sigh). The first 40miles are flying at 17-18mph with a tail wind. I stay one gear easier than what I feel like doing the whole time. I am happy: no pain, great people cheering, nice people riding around me. The wind is getting stronger but I keep riding one gear easier. I am not worried about my pace anyway. The special need bag was waiting for me at Mile 58. I was excited to eat something else than bananas and gels. It was without counting on the roughness of the road. The newly picked rice cake escaped my grasp again after the first bite. I was left with only one and decided to stop to eat it at Mile 80. It was so hot that I couldn’t clip back after Mile 80. My feet kept flying off from every so often. I stopped a couple of times trying to pour water on it but no luck. At Mile 100, the bottom of my feet and toes started hurting from the pounding in my shoes but I was so happy to get closer to the bike finish. The bike took me 7h33min24s (15.6mph of average moving speed, 2,995ft of elevation, 78 avg rpm, 99W NP, 2300cal). Lesson learned: Don’t try to put powder in your aero bottle while riding if you don’t want all of it flying on your face. Don’t even bother bringing rice cakes.

By the time I arrived at the transition, I was happy to get off the bike and clean myself from the sticky mess that was my face. I actually spent 16min in transition: cleaning, changing, and drinking. It was around 5pm and it was still really hot and humid. I took it slow the first loop, taking a gel at Mile 6, some chips and pretzels. I was only walking the Aid stations. The energy of the crowd was incredible downtown. It felt good to see Chris and the T3 folks by the T3 tent, Suzan and Carolina on their bike. By the end of the first loop, I was depressed by the idea of having 2 more like this. I was doing good time wise. I still had plenty of time but I was losing the stamina and motivation to push. I couldn’t stomach anything sweet anymore and felt like walking a lot more. I grabbed a rice cake in my special need bag and changed socks in the middle of Loop2. That was the last solid food I ate. I was nauseous. I finished my second loop with a girl from Florida. It was her last loop. Also saw Mike and Lauren finishing strong. Starting loop 3, it was now night time. Chris was awesome and ran/walk half of the last loop with me. I was glad I had a head lamp because some portions were really dark. Most of the people left on the course were now walking. I didn’t feel like running myself. My watch’s battery died but I knew I could walk the whole loop and make it before midnight. Glad Chris was there with me and pushed me to run. I actually surprised myself running when I thought I had no more energy left. I was now only drinking chicken broth. I met some other great people on this last loop. I was getting closer to the finish line. I could hear the crowd. I wasn’t tired anymore. I was so excited to finish. That was it. It took me 6h14min32s for the marathon (14:17min/Mile) for an overall time of 15h55min27s. I will never forget that feeling, the red carpet, the lights, and the crowd. Chris and Mo were waiting for me at the finish line, smiling. It was amazing and so worth it! I reluctantly ate a piece of pizza. I wanted to wait for Ana but my legs were starting to give up. Every inch of my body was sore. That night it took me 2s to fall asleep.