Marble Falls Half-Ironman Recap

My recap starts the night before the triathlon.  There were four of us that were doing this tri.  We all headed out to Marble Falls the day before to go to the athletic meeting and stage our bikes.

Amazing staging area.... bench with my name on it!

 Our four sherpas (friends that were coming out as race support and to cheer us on) met us in the evening for dinner.  At the end of dinner I received a call from my bear, my 10 year old.  We are talking and she tells me to win my race.  I laugh and tell her I am not going to win it.  She says, with the wisdom of a 10 year old, "Win it in your mind mommy"  Those words were more powerful than either one of us knew at the time.  They became my mantra and brought me to tears many times during the day.

Race number, ready to go?

After dinner and a restless night sleep, we were up at 5 am to grab breakfast, check out of the hotel, and head to the race site.  I, of course, had my jacket on inside out.  It is what I do.  We got to the site shortly after 6 and proceeded to lay out our stuff near our bikes and get into our wetsuits.  Our sherpas were there already with coffee in their hands and smiles on their faces.  Really, they were amazingly cheerful for that hour of the morning!  One of the girls proceeded to put her wetsuit on backwards.  Much laughter..... and then I realized I had mine on inside out.  As I said, it is what I do.  Luckily it was caught before I was in the water and corrected.

The water temp was a brisk 65 degrees.  It was certainly cold getting in, but we quickly warmed up as we started swimming.  The swim was a mass, in the water start.  It wasn't as bad as I expected.  The first 200 yards was a fight for position, but then it thinned out enough to find a spot.  My swim was good and smooth and one of the best swims I have had in a while.  I barely went off course and kept mostly to the inside.  The only complaint was that my feet were cold.  My feet would be my 'achilles heal' all day.

I exited the swim literally right behind my training partner.  Darn it.... I can't believe she beat me!  AGAIN!  She was faster at transition.  I was busy applying my sunscreen and talking to the people around me.  It was going to be a long day, and I felt one or two more min. in transition time was not going to make or break me (Cindy.... I am not Jules!)  I headed out on the bike.  It was an immediate uphill, but I was prepared for that.  I had been told that the shoulder would be smooth, but it was mostly chip seal which made for hard riding.  The bike course was mostly an out and back made up of rolling hills that were mostly farm land. The indian paintbrush and the bluebonnets were in full bloom and  were breathtaking.  I was being passed a lot on the bike.  It was frustrating but I kept telling myself that it must have meant my swim was good.  It only took about 15 miles into the bike before I had to result to some mind tricks.  I started singing songs in my head.  I spotted my training partner at one turn around.  She was only a mile or two ahead of me. But I didn't really worry about catching her.  My body was hurting.  My back and shoulder were really bothering me and I was just focused on keeping the pedals moving.  I hit the "hard" spot.  There was a 10 mile section that we were warned would be mostly up hill and into wind.  The wind was holding off, the clouds were still mostly covering the sky, so the ride was hard, but not overwhelming.  I saw the sherpa team for the first time since the swim at about mile 30.  It was a welcome sight to see them and Frieda cheering on the bikers!   A quick stop with them so I could grab  some motrin, which helped a lot.  Right before I spotted them, I also spotted the other three girls.  I knew they were ahead of me and it was nice to see where they were at.  I was glad that they all seemed to be having a good bike ride so far.  Another quick turn-around and I got to ride back down the hills.  It was nice to be able to go fast and I felt I was making up some time.  So far, I was happy with how the bike was proceeding and was pretty good at keeping some of the demons at bay.  I was now counting down the miles.  And then 10 miles left in the bike and I lost the loving feeling.  The voices in my head told me I was dead last.  I was alone except for the occasional biker passing me.  And the full-ironman leaders started to pass me here.  My voices told me I didn't belong here.  And that is where my bear's tidbit came back to me.  I might finish last, but I was going to win in my head.  I hit chip seal yet again and it was reverberating through my body.  My left foot was having such sharp pains I concentrated on pulling up on my pedals to try to alleviate the pain.  I was hitting the run course in the last 7 miles of the bike and all I could think of was how far it was.  The demons were winning.  One of the sherpas drove past yelling encouragement and all I could say was how much I hated being there at that moment.      I just kept repeating that I might finish last, but I would do it with dignity and win in my head.  Finally I made it to transition.  The race director assured me I wasn't last, but I wasn't sure I believed him at that moment.  I pulled in to transition in tears and ready to just pull out and not finish.  The thought of 13 miles was overwhelming at that moment.
A quick text to Drew "This sucks" and I reluctantly headed out to run.

I met another woman who was the same pace as me.  We talked shortly as we started out. It is surprising how little things like touching base with another racer can help get you past some hard spots.  It was still hard, but it went from "I'm quitting" to "one step in front of the other"   I decided to try a 4 min run/ 1 min. walk.  I made it to mile 2 and dropped off my water belt because I couldn't stand the feel of it around my waist.  Again, we were running mostly up hill.  It was hard.  I decided that 1 min. walking was not enough and changed it to 6 min. running and 2 min. walking.  But mostly it was running downhill, walking up hill.  The people participating in the race were so incredibly friendly. At my first mile or so into the run, I was passing the leaders who were headed to the finish.  Quite a few of them high fived us and offered words of encouragement.  I have never seen that behavior before and it was very uplifting.  I noticed that some of these leaders were also walking which made me feel better about the amount of walking I was doing.  Shortly after mile 4 Dee (one of the sherpas) joined me.  She talked to me, encouraged me, offered me water, and brought my spirits up.  She was a huge help to me.  I started also talking to some of the other runners that I was "running" close too.  It was great to hear their stories as well.  Took my mind off my own pain.  And I kept trudging along.  A lot of walking, but I ran as much as I could.  The run was an out and back on the same road as the bike.  It was hot and muggy with no shade at all.  On the road.  The run was brutal.  So I kept singing nursery rhymes and counting steps.  And walking.  When I had one of the sherpas by my side it helped immensely.  I am not sure I would have finished if they had not spent so much time running or biking beside me.  I finally made it to 2.5 miles left and Cindy, my coach met me with a ice cold coke.  That tasted so amazing!  One last hill, and I actually ran the last mile in completely.  Between Cindy and the coke, I could do it.  I think it might have been  the most amount of running at one time that I did on the course.  But I ran across the finish line.

Hot, tired, last to finish, but DONE!