I wake up to my alarm, 3:15am. Although it is not like I was able to sleep with all the nerves and emotions running through my body. I make my granola with almond milk and bananas. It is delicious. I take my time enjoying my breakfast. I don't normally do this, I usually just eat and get on with my day, but today, I enjoy it while listening to the waves crashing on the shore. It was just what I needed to get me centered for the day. I washed my face, brushed my teeth and changed into my tri shorts and sports bra -- taped up both knees in gorgeous hot pink tape -- and got comfy in my sweats, tee and Ragnar hoodie. It will still be quite chilly since it is so early. I back up my bag and head down to the ice machines to load up my water bottles. Upon my return, I get my food ready for the bike. This entails tons of PB&J sandwiches. Yes my dears, that is right. My PB&Js are coming with me. I make about 3 sandwiches for the ride, keep in mind I have another 2 in my special needs bag. But I do also have my Fiber Fruit One Bars, Peanut butter pretzels and Powerbar gummy. I am all set!
I make my way downstairs to meet up with Dad, Marc & Christy. Everyone is bright eyed and ready to go! It is awesome. We sit an enjoy some breakfast. I just chill and have some OJ while they enjoy the breakkie. Then the shuttle arrives. 4:45... and arrives at T1 at 5:00am. Holy moly it's about to get real! :-)
There are buses upon buses and the energy is buzzing. I am super excited and super scared. I know deep down I am ready for this and that I will become an Ironman, but what if I DON'T finish? I have trained mentally for a year and physically for 6months! Can I do this? What if I let everyone down? I let myself down? I went down that rabbit hole for a couple of minutes before my inner unicorn turned that attitude right around into pure excitement and nervousness, but for the anticipation, not towards the negativity. I walked with Dad, Marc & Christy as far as I could. We said our good byes, good lucks, I may have teared up a little, like I was never going to see them again or as if I was going off to kindergarten for the first time, but I used that energy to get me jazzed up. This was it. It was about 1hr 30min before the race was going to start. I was ready!
I checked in at my bike. Dropped my water bottles, pumped my tires, gave her a little love tap and kiss, changed into my skin suit then dropped my swim bag made my way to the shuttle to take me to the swim start. By now, I am flying solo. No Dad, Marc or Christy. No fellow racers that I know, just me alone in my thoughts, making my way to the shuttle. It is amazing the most random of thoughts that go through your head and how quickly they fly by. Like, I wonder how many times I will pee on the swim? I hope I find my bike quickly when I get out of the swim. I hope I don't have to use that Imodium today, that would suck. -- it really is quite the conversation with myself. :-) On the shuttle, I make a few friends, not one that really sticks with me, just some friendly conversations.
We get dropped off at the swim start and it is amazing how relaxed the whole place it. I was expecting a bunch of people buzzing around in a ball of nerves like little worker bees, but nope, just a few people stretching, some photos being taken and the heats beginning to group up.
Before I make my way down to the water, I pop into the port-o-potty for one last visit. It was a successful visit and I am a happy camper, until, I can't get out! That is right my dears, I am locked in the port-o-potty, struggling to get the door open, I literally almost start to panic as that is probably one of my worst nightmares that and if it were to tip over!!! Could you imagine!?!? Anyway, back to me being locked in... the door would not open. I have no idea why, nada ... then finally, by the grace of god, it opens! The entire line of people are staring at me. I am mortified... and make a quick joke -- something along the lines like "be careful of that one!" then I got the hell out of there! sooooooo embarrassing.
Once at the water, I see Stephen, he is in yellow cap, the first wave to go. I give him a huge hug and good luck and off he goes. I also see Guneet and Neil separately, which really is amazing considering this event has 2500 people! It was meant to be. Hugs and Good Lucks all around and then we disband to get into our own mental space. Here we go!! Wave one, Wave two, the waves keep going, I think were are wave 4 -- we get cattle called into the water. Thankfully in my training at both Vineman and Silverman, we had in water starts, so I was ready for this. I had those clear goggles on, despite the difficulties in the pool and the day before, I was confident in them that they would be great and would be beyond awesome for the beauty that lies below for the next 2.4mi. My heart is now beating like crazy. We are in have about 30seconds until the horn blows. I calm myself down and remind myself that I have done this swim many times before and that I totally have this. Now it is time to sit back and enjoy the ride. One quick little prayer to mom and powers at be and HOOOOOOOOOOOORN!!! Boom.. we take off like! (I'm in a purple cap -- somewhere in the abyss below) (pictures from Ironman)
This swim is gorgeous. WOW. Erick was right and for a few brief moments I was so happy I had the clear goggles over my tinted ones. But then it happens. Probably about 10min in, if I am lucky, the damn goggles!! I scream at myself and say I knew I should have switched them! Damn it!!! (I even had them in my bag at T1! --dumb!) They weren't working in practice, the pool or even yesterday. What the hell would make me think that they would work today?? I am furious with myself. I have to stop and fix them multiple times and all I keep thinking is that I am losing time.. the swim and the bike are my strengths - if I don't do well on the first two, I am screwed on the run. This is not helping me. I am probably 1/2 mi in the swim and fighting with myself is not going to get me anywhere. I quickly remind myself and pull it together. I continue to swim on, stopping every 50 or so strokes to fix my goggles, screaming internally at myself. The frustrating part is, it was only the left side, which is the buoy side. The worst part of it all, was that I would be in a rhythm swimming and to stop to fix the goggles threw me off and I lost momentum. That being said, after about 1mi or so, losing what must have been a solid 5 min, I just started to swim one eye open. I would swim only breathing out of my right side and when I had to breath out of the left, I would close my left eye to breath so the water that was in that side of the goggle would go in my eye. This was awful. It worked for a while until I made myself a little seas sick. So I had to stop again, empty the water from that side of the goggles, tighten them up a bit and then really just hope for the best as that was the last time I was stopping. So for the remainder of the swim, the water continued to get in my goggles, but my eyes just adjusted to it. I think it is because our eyes tear salt water, they were used to the salt water by now? I have no idea, but that is what I am telling myself. I zoned out and swam on. At one point, I see what I thought was the final triangle buoy and turn on the engines and haul ass... only to learn after a couple of buoy markers that it was not the turn around buoy. So I am slightly tired because I burned my engines too soon, but then I realize I am doing pretty well, despite the goggle situation and burning out my engines. I noticed I am passing multiple people with yellow swim caps among others... I am swimming past dudes in the first wave?!?! What? That is crazy... that being said at the same time, dudes with black caps that were the wave behind us are flying pass me and others with no regards that we are there. I mean seriously torpedoing over us. They are 6ft tall and just machines. It's very impressive, to be honest. With this, I am deep in the zone, the mindless zone of just swimming, I actually forgot I was in a race for a little while. I seriously was just enjoying the view below, the fish, noticing the current was moving in opposite directions at times, mediating through my breathing and in perfect Zen. That is until I look up to sight and almost hit a lifeguard on a surfboard telling us we are at the turn around. What?!?! That was quick, I say to myself. Then I turn on the engines again, pass that amazing "Never, Never, Never Give Up" sign below - get super pumped and head for the stairs... 2.4 Ironman Ocean Swim is DONE!!!!
As I get out of the water, the excitement is literally bubbling out of me. I am in this and ready to crush it. I knew I did pretty decent on the swim... I just hoped I hit my A-Goal of 1:18. And all of the sudden as I am running down the lane I see Dad, Marc & Christy! Right there, front row! It was awesome!
WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! One down Two to go!!!
CRUSHED MY SWIM GOAL: 1:14:02
No comments:
Post a Comment