Austin Ironman 70.3 - Sunday November 8th
2015 was declared the #YearToTri when I signed up for the
Austin half ironman on December 17th of last year. Now that is a big C-word. The whole season has been filled with many great
races, trainings, and events with a great bunch of teammates, friends, family
and supporters. I did my first Triathlon
ever at the Austin Rookie Tri, coming in 7th for my division despite
panicking on the swim and resorting to the side stroke as a faster stroke than
“doggie paddle” since I apparently wasn’t going to be able to put my face in
the water. I went on to compete in more
of the Tri series with the all-women’s Skeese Greets, the Couples Tri, and
Kerrville, not to mention an epic family event at Ski to Sea, Dempsey Challenge,
and many other benefit runs and rides.
Coming into the Ironman, I had to make a proactive decision
about the race and how far I would go.
For those of you who do not know, on August 15th I was coming
down a hill on a training ride in Austin when it began to rain. Despite my best efforts to handle my bike
appropriately given the conditions, I ended up crashing. The bike was fairly fine, I had a number of
impact points but they all would heal, but I did land on my head. The impact
cracked my helmet all the way through and gave me a pretty good
concussion. The recovery from that has
been long and filled with weeks of not training, frustration, and trying to do
everything I need to get better to attend Kerrville, Dempsey, and the
Ironman. Despite good progress, I am
still suffering from post-concussion symptoms.
As I understand it, the symptoms could last up to a year, which is no
fun. Always wear your helmet peeps.
I decided that I would do the swim, and then rest in
transition 1 (T1) for a minimum of 3 minutes to reassess my ability to safely
ride a bike for 56 miles with other people and road and wind conditions. I decided ahead of time not to do the run,
which was a hard decision to make and even harder to execute on race day, but
it ended up being the right decision.
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| Photo credit: Norm Quach |
Sunday morning started off so early many of you may have
thought the small numbers on the clock referred to Saturday night. It was a mere 53◦ F outside, which may be
nice if you have hot chocolate and plans to sit around a fire, but was a little
cold to be half dressed, barefoot, and about to hop in the water for an hour of
leisurely swimming with you and 2,500 of your new best friends. The water temperature was 69.2◦ F, which
sounded like it might be nice to get into since it was colder outside, but I
was worried about getting cold on the swim; you lose heat 25x faster in water
than in air, and let’s be honest, I have trouble swimming in Barton Springs (68
degree spring fed water) any time of
year. The wind was blowing between 5 and
20 mph that day. When I got in the water
at 7:45 for the 11th wave of athletes, the chop on the water was
high and the wind was blowing strong.
The waves were pushing me out of the water, and then I was collapsing back
into the water, which wasn’t doing any favors for the dizziness in my
head. I managed to not drink too much
Decker Lake water (thank goodness, because as rumor has it, there is a cooling
pipe that goes through the lake from the power plant). The second leg was with the wind, so between
that and just getting my feet wet in the competition, I found my groove and
really started swimming for real. Normally
the half Ironman swim is 1.2 miles long, if you follow the course markers, but
with the wind and my personal need to be farther away from the elbows and
flailing body parts of the other swimmers, I ended up doing 1.39 miles. The last leg of the swim was brutal as the
wind was blowing us off course. I was
forced to swim with only one arm in order to stay on course, and even then a
kayaker had to come and tell me to head back the other direction. I bet they got a lot of exercise that day
getting people back onto the course.
When you stand up from being horizontal in the water for an
hour (53 min in my case), sometimes it takes a minute to get your bearings and
not tip over. The event crew has
volunteers in the water to help you with standing up and getting your
bearings. For me, it took them, plus
hanging onto the fence to stay upright, but I didn’t lose an opportunity to ham
it up for the camera.
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| Photo credit: Norm Quach |
After my tea and crumpets in T1, I hopped on my beautiful
bike, The Boyfriend, to tackle 56
miles and 1,555
feet of elevation on the Austin-Manor-Elgin roads and hills. In the last two weeks Austin has been hit by
flooding (250 road closures) and high rains and winds. Although the event coordinators tried their
best to clean up the roads of debris and mark the hazards, the road conditions
were less than optimal. Oh, and for
extra fun, we had wind.
I found out on Monday how strong the conditions were for the
swim and the bike. I heard there were
100 people removed from the water and a number of ambulance calls on the ride. I personally saw the rescue boat going back
and forth in the water and one person go over their handlebars hard right in front
of me on a washed out road. I spoke with
some people on the ride and they were surprised at the elevation gain and even
walked some of the hills. There were a
number of spots I wasn’t thrilled about on the roads, but overall it was an
amazing ride. I am blessed to be able to
train in a great area, on hills, with teammates that push my abilities and
support my progress. This made a mere
1500 feet of climbing easy for me. The skies
were clear and the temperatures warmed up.
I didn’t end up taking off my kitten jacket, but I probably could have
gotten away with just a vest and arm warmers.
I got tons of compliments on my Vanderkitten gear; I had been looking
forward to participating in this Tri with my kitten tri kit, so it was great to
share Vanderkitten with other female athletes and hear how much they liked the
kit.
The bike course took me past many roads I’ve ridden with my
local team, and past fun places like the Manor corner market and the Ghost
Town, complete with a bar and spooky events.
I was passed by old, young, aerobars, flat pedals, and all my teammates,
who whooped and hollered when they saw me J. Thirteen weeks of not training took its toll,
but I have a great time and even managed to average 12 miles an hour (slow for
me, but good for the amount of biking I’ve been doing) – and I climbed every
hill on my bike!
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| Photo Credit: Irene Albright |
This is me being very excited to see my mom and Amie at the
end of my bike ride, and therefore the end of my Ironman. I made a new division, called Aqua Bike Ironman
57.2 and had a great time doing it.
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| Photo Credit: Irene Albright |
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| Photo Credit: Irene Albright |
A number of my local teammates were racing, as well as my
friend from SF, Amy, to whom I credit getting me into racing on the bike and then
into Triathlons. My mom and BFF, Amie,
came to cheer me on, and so did a number of other friends. It is no small deal to be in the middle of a
race, hurting, pushing, trying, and then all of a sudden see a friendly
encouraging face. Those moments are the fuel
that lights our fires and reminds us of our determination and goals. It meant so much to me to have supporters,
near and far, on race day. A big shout
out to you all! Thank you.
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| Melissa with a pile of awesome signs |
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| Mark, Laura, Norm, Amy |