(10/14/18)
Louisville 2018 Race Report (ruff draft)
Performance Day or Persevere Day
Where to start, where to start?
As athletes were watching the weather for the last week, day, hour, min. until the start we all knew it was going to be cold and rainy but NOT as bad as it was.
4:28 AM "Morning Sunshine’s it's race day” as I say to Bethanne and Amanda (none of us slept at all that night) we get up and look outside "OH crap" the weather guy is right it's raining and it's 41 degrees the high for today will maybe get to 50 degrees, cold rain and 17-20 mph winds. People who really know me, know I don't do well in the cold at all however, I told myself today is a "Persevere day" and no matter what YOUR GOING TO SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP and do the best you can!
As we walk down to the transition area Bethanne and I are both in socks we forgot our flip flops so it started out incredible, cold wet feet on the cold cement walking about a half mile to transition and then walking in the mud and wet grass as we get down there. Bethanne, Amanda and I all stayed together as we put things on our bikes and in our bags, we walked down to get body marked and walked down to the swim start together it was about 6:00 AM. It was packed with athletes, friends and family. The race start time for athletes is 7:35 for Pro's they start at 7:15. So we go to the restroom, small talk and yada, yada and then off to our starting lines. As I gave both of them hugs, wished them luck and reminded them to stay STRONG we all have this.
I jump into line and meet a women name Bella and her Sherpa Katie we talked and talked and talked however, as we were standing there I noticed the helicopter going over us more and more and lowering down by the swim start, I'm thinking something is wrong it's 7:32 and nothings going on I said to Bella something is up. This is going to be interesting, as the rain was coming down and it was foggy out on the river, as soon as I said that a volunteer come over and said the swim has changed to a .9 mile everyone in our group as like NOOOOOOOOO, however, as soon as we heard the Pro's couldn't swim up stream because the current was so strong then our minds we like “what the HELL are we getting into” but then thinking wait thankfully the swim isn't canceled we can do this..
As we hear the canon go off for the pro's we started walking Sloooooooooly down to the docks it took us about 35 min to get to the swim start, they were letting athletes go 1, 2,1,2,1,2 and then when we seen what was going on in the water, that was incredible you seen big orange buoys floating down river and speed boats getting them, yes you read that right buoys floating down river.. Then all the athlete I was around starting gauging where to get in, and how they would swim it (because there was no buoys to stay on your left) as we watch Athletes get pushed into the bridge pillars, and others grab on to kayaks which they were struggling to stay in one spot you just knew jump in and go straight as much as you can... SO my turn I jumped in started swimming and yep the current brought me next to the bridge pillar however, there was more kayakers there to get Athletes, as you swam down stream it went fast
but because you were with the current you could over shoot the left turn, so you were running into boats and kayakers and them yelling at you to swim left to get into transition it was incredible. The volunteers were amazing they grabbed your hand and pulled you in, as I ran up a volunteer took my wet suit off, i ran and grabbed my swim to bike bag and knew it was going to be crazy in the transition tents there was not going to be enough volunteers as I get in there I see the tent bottom is all sand yes SAND and I'm thinking ok crap this is going to suck, I find a chair put my stuff down and start getting dressed on my cold, wet, sandy body I'm thinking yep I'm not the only one going threw this everyone women is, as I run out, I hurry up go into a porta potty and as I come out I slip and got mud all over, I instantly thought this is going to be fun, get to that darn bike and ride it's, it’s only 112 miles, thinking I can't control the weather however, I can control my mind and I'm going to be as positive every moment on that bike "lets go," I grab my bike run it down and jump on, off I went squinting my eyes as the rain was falling hard, riding through puddles, trying to get around athletes, by mile 10 I couldn't feel my fingers, I knew I had to stay in aero position because that's what was going to keep my core warm, as I get to mile 20 it went from raining to misting, I'm thinking ok grab your gloves in your back pocket, yeah right as I reached Back I couldn't reach them, my hands were so cold and the wind wasn't helping. I couldn't open my back pockets, so I pulled my long sleeve shirt as far over my hands as I could get it. Then about mile 30 I'm thinking I need to eat something, well that wasn't going to happen my hands were so cold I couldn't open my little baggy, so I had to get all my nutrition for my bottles and from all the volunteers on course so that's what I did.
The rain, mist, and winds were amazing at times you thought ok it's going to stop raining then it came down even harder, then when you went to pass Athletes you were so lucky to get water/mud in your face because it was coming of their back tire and if you went into aero down hill you got the same because it came off your front tire. By the time I got to my special needs bag I went right by it, there was NO WAY I was stopping and getting off my bike my legs were so cold and cramping. I knew if I stopped I would have situations to get back on the bike, as I went into the second loop I couldn't believe what I was seeing trucks, cars, vans with freezing cold Athletes in them and their bikes on the back I felt so bad for them and I remember thinking today was just not their day for whatever reason.
I pushed on, by mile 80 I had to pee so bad however, I can't pee on the bike and I know it was raining and no one would know but I couldn't do it. I road on playing mental games like find someone with an orange shirt, find some one with a blue shirt, yellow shirt, yada yada and pass them, I sang 3 songs to myself over and over, Imagine Dragons Whatever it takes, Natural, AC/DC Thunder, it's so funny I felt like I knew every word, because I sing them over and over with my lil's.
As I get to mile 100 I'm thinking you only have 12 mile to go, you can get your other fast pants on, go potty, come on get your butt going "YOU ONLY" have a marathon to babyjog/walk; and again I say baby jog because “I don't do good in the cold” so I'm not going to put any pressure on myself.
As I drop my bike off, I baby jogged to my bike to run bag a sweet little girl hands it to me and says “great job, you look great” I silently laugh to myself because I know she was being so sweet, I thanked her for helping out today and off to changing room I went, yep take those wet, muddy pants off, vest off, socks off and then notice, I did't put dry socks in that bag ugh put back on my wet muddy socks and dry shoes on off I went.
I run out of the tent and again back to the porta potty thinking don't slip in the mud again..
Off to the run course I go, I knew I was going to have some situations my quads, calfs and Achilles tenants were cramping so much however, I knew I had to jog some of the marathon and power walk a lot of it because if I walked to long I would freeze. I also tried very, very hard not to look at any women's calfs because our age on them and I knew I was not going to be where I set out to be for that day meaning in the top 5 of my age group. As women and yes of course men were passing me it is what it is and I had to stay mentally focused on that finish line. Thankfully there were so many Coaches out there following their Athletes I asked one to follow up on Bethanne and Amanda so I knew they were close to being off their bikes as they told me where they were it was priceless. The run was slow, rainy, cold, and full of cramping the whole time at one point I went into the porta potty and as most of you know you really don't sit down in those however, as I hovered over it I fell back and yep my quads were cramping so bad, thank god they have those little bars in them to help you up and thank god there wan't any thing I sat on........Just sayin...
As I'm baby jogging I see Dawn, Chris, Les and then I see my sister, I almost cry I'm just so filled with joy, I let her know she looks good and I"ll see her soon. I come up on my second lap and then I see Amanda wooot, wooot the feelings are so amazing.....
As I'm running down 4 street I take a deep breath and take it all in, my legs were cramping all the way down the red carpet, I knew if I went down to do a plankstar I wouldn't be getting up as fast as I normally would or volunteers would have to come out and pick me up, as I looked back I seen there was another athlete to close to me so I made the decision not to do it, I in no way didn't want to take anything from that athlete running behind me and I also knew he was in much pain as I was.
As a volunteer Mike grabbed me I just stood there and said “THAT was AMAZING!” I just finished one of the hardest Ironman’s, he agreed with me, he said there was so many athletes that didn't finish and how yucky the day was..
As I went to get my Finishers Photo I was able to do my plankstar and yep Mike helped me up... lol
I knew I had a little time, so I hurried up got something to eat, went back to the hotel, Facetimed my husband and my lil Sunshine’s “I was so excited to see their little faces,”
I got cleaned up, and sat in a HOT bath for 15 min. Went and picked up the girls bikes and bags brought them back to the hotel and went back down there to watched and cheer on other athletes.
It was so “priceless” seeing my sister and Amanda’s achieve their Ironman’s...
Always, Always Remember This~Life will always bring you ups and downs it's your attitude about the ups or downs that's going to be your outcome of it........Whatever it is!
A huge thank you to all of you who took the time out of your busy days to send text messages, Facebook messages, and calls... 💗☀️
#ironmanlou #ironman #40yearsofdreams #ironsunshine #ironlifestyle
Ironman 10 is in the books now time for number 11.....
