I think it was hardest for me because I was coming off of the intense running and aggravated knee from NY as well as traveling... so going straight into this race was tough.
That being said. I arrived on Friday and met up with Lilias and David, newly married and both competing in Silverman as well as IM Arizona. They are awesome and waited for me to arrive so we can drive the bike course. I have to tell you, I am so glad we did. I was able to put a mental note on hills and turns and equate them in my mind to hills I had bike before... this hill is like Pepperdine, this one is like Mandeville, etc.
On Saturday, we woke up bright and early, had a delicious breakfast and headed to the swim start to get in a pre-race dip. The water was AMAZING. It was about 75 degrees, so on the boarder of wet suit legal or not. Given that Cozumel is NOT wet suit legal, I opted to take my dip and race in the skin suit I bought for Cozumel, one to test it out and two, to practice without a wet suit and gauge my time. After the swim we bike the course for about 7-8 miles. It was nice to shake off the cob webs and see what it was like... after our "test drive" we headed to registration to pick up our packets and hear the athlete brief. Lilias and David's coach is the emcee of the event and multi IM Winner --1st place at Cozumel! So, it was really nice to hear some tips from him and get our selves sorted.
Not paying attention to the time, we realized that our other stuff was at the hotel and that we needed to get a move on it as we had to bring all of our gear back to the two transition areas. Yes. Silverman had two transition areas, similar to Vineman and IM Cozumel. Which works out great for me in training to get used to packing multiple bags.
Dinner and rest Saturday night and we were ready to rock.
My alarm was set for 3:45. Knowing that it would probably take me 15min to get out of bed for my targeted 4:00am wake up. Of course I couldn't sleep. I was hot, I was cold, i had to pee, you name it. Then, just as I fall back asleep, I wake up to what felt like an earthquake. 3:11am... I am of course confused and try to fall back asleep, but no such luck, so now I am up and getting ready and probably only have about 4-5 uneasy hours of sleep. Fumbling around the room, I put my knee tape on, eat some breakfast and chill. Ready for the day ahead.
As we all load up the car and head to T2 to catch the shuttle, I ask Lil and David if they felt the earthquake and they looked at me like I had 10 heads and told me it was probably just nerves that kept me awake. I agreed. So i boarded the shuttle and reality was setting in.
It was super dark out and I was really excited and of course nervous, the course was super hard. The entire bike route was hilly and and it was basically climbing uphill the entire time... awful = hard.. and knowing that I was going into a stupid hard hilly run, I was freaking out internally, especially because of my knee, but I was also calmly ready... well.. except for the fact that I really had to pee. :-) by the time we got to T1, I could barely stand up, LOL. But I made it.
As I walked down to T1, The view was amazing. The sun was coming up over the hills, it was gorgeous. I was ready.
I set up my bike and put on my skin suit and headed to the water with my age group. my heart was pounding and as the buzzers were going off and then it was my turn....
As I entered the water and adjusted my goggles, I noticed the girl to the left of me was wearing a snorkel!! I could not believe it. Seriously!?!? a snorkel. Now, I know they are legal, but DUDE that is lame! I kinda chuckled to myself, because literally we were just talking about snorkel in our swim practice 3 days prior, so I knew Adrian and the group were get a good laugh when i told them later. That being said, I got back in the zone and BANG!! Off we went.
As I started swimming guess what happened... stupid snorkel girl, who wasn't sighting and swimming all over the place, elbowed me right in the face and knocked my goggles. Since I am a smart girl, I had them on under my cap, so they did not fall off, but they were all wonky and filled with water. So as I stopped to fix them, I sank to the bottom. I panicked. I wasn't wearing my wetsuit, which normally keeps me a float, so since I was just in my skin suit, down I went and since I am a strong swimmer, I was in the beginning of the pack, the girls started to swim over me. It was scary. After what seemed like forever, I started to tread water, fix my goggles, and attempted to swim, I couldn't, i was actually freaking out... so I started to breast stroke and talking to myself to get my heart rate down, reminding myself -- Rachel, you are a swimmer, you have trained for this, you got this... slow breaths, deep breaths, how great is this water, so amazing, ooh buoy #3, see you are moving, now SWIM -- and finally, I was back and in groove... Buoy after buoy I was cruising and really liking skin suit. I felt very slick! :-) as i was getting close to the exit, maybe about 3 buoys back, I saw this guy trying to squeeze in next to me, normally, I am put up a fight, but I today, I moved over to the right and let him in .... big mistake.. BOOM, another elbow to the face, same eye, AGAIN! I couldn't believe it. I actually screamed under water, Son of a Bit@h! and then kept swimming and finally made it the the exit... and with all the punches in the face and almost drowning, I still managed to finished in 42min. One Down, Two to Go.
The Bike was great... the first 18 miles I was seriously cruising. I was taking in the view, which was gorgeous, "chicking" a few guys and having a blast. It was hot, but not enough to get to me. It was however enough to get to my Gatorade. By mile 25, it started to taste like melted Jello, it was super gross and started to make me nauseous. So I switched to only water and electrolyte pills. I tried eating solids, but I just couldn't do it... so my energy was depleting, which sucked, because the mile 45-56 was all uphill and it was crap, But I made it.. and only 10min past my goal time. Total of 4:10. Not too shabby... Two Down, One to Go.
The Run... the run was S#!t. I think i probably ran a total of 2.5 miles throughout the entire time. It was 3 loops on one stupid hill... it was seriously awful. My knee was done. My stomach was done. Literally, even the pressure of my water belt resting on my hips and grazing my stomach made it hurt. Just before the 3rd loop I had to ditch it. I felt so dehydrated, despite drinking whenever I could and the fresh oranges were amazing. But despite all that.. I soldiered on. It took me 3:30 to do the 13 miles, which is not ideal. But I finished. Three for Three
IRONMAN SILVERMAN 70.3 FINISHER!!!
On a side note, I am fully aware that I have to get better at the run, but the knee and my nutrition are not 100%. ... these I have to fix ASAP.
Sunrise, The Course, The Winners and Me!
Silverman Finisher!!
No Pain No Gain... If you are not having fun... Why are you doing it. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment