IMAZ Race Report 2005
Anna Larson

I got to Arizona on Wednesday… just wanted to make sure to have enough time to get everything done. Because Ironman has made me more compulsive than usual I packed my bike ("The Outlaw") and race wheels in a bike box, and traveled with a spare pair carry-on. (Thanks to Get A Grip for doing such a great job tuning and packing the Outlaw for me ... more on OTHER bike shops' terrible work later...). The trip out was uneventful (good!) and I went straight to the expo. It was fairly empty as it had only just opened. I dropped off the Outlaw at Inside Out Sports for them to put it together. (Outlaw is a Softride, and I thought it would be better and easier to have her put together professionally, to get the beam height right and so on. My LBS so thoughtfully included my fit-sheet for them). Then I went to register. Also very painless but exciting. All of my pre-race nerves (terror) had turned to excitement upon arriving in Arizona. After registering I picked up the Outlaw from Inside Out Sports and went back to the hotel. I then discovered that they (1) hadn't tightened the skewer on the rear wheel (!!!); and (2) the brakes were rubbing and the rear wheel didn't spin right. At this point, I personally checked all of the bolts… or so I thought. More on that later!

Thursday morning my Dad and Uncle arrived (my uncle did the race too - and he's now an Ironman!). I picked them up at the airport and just relaxed around the expo. Then back to the hotel to pack up the many many bags of gear necessary for Ironman! Wow, we triathletes carry a lot of junk!

Friday I took my bike to get the problems fixed. Also the beam was a bit high and we fixed that. I rode it a bit and all seemed fine. I checked my bike and then we picked up my friend and soon to be fellow triathlete, Jennifer, also there to cheer me on. Nothing like having your dad and best girlfriend at your first Ironman to support you, cheer for you, carry things, run and get Gatorade for you… I owe them both a huge debt. Other than that, Friday was just a lot of relaxing and pasta eating. (Yum!). I was exhausted from all of the events of this week and got to sleep around 8:30 the night before the race. So I got a good 7 hours sleep! YAY!

Saturday: Race Morning!!!
Woke up around 4am and tried to start my pre-race breakfast. I thought I was pretty calm, but I had trouble eating, probably nerves, but was happily nibbling on my Cliff Bars (Peanut toffee buzz… :)) by 4:30. We left the hotel and were at transition by 5am when it opened. I pumped up my tires, filled my aerodrink and all those necessaries.

Put some extra stuff in "the many race bags" and then got in the bathroom line. I've discovered that race morning I should just camp there. After a bathroom trip if you get right back in the line you'll be at the front in perfect timing if you're hydrating properly. :)

It was soon time to go to the swim start. My uncle and I headed down together. (Amazingly, we had no trouble finding each other amid the other 1849 people...) MAN the water was freezing. We were in about 15 minutes early and it took that long to stop the hyperventilation from the cold. Of course, I'm a real wimp when it comes to cold. The 65 degree water hit me like 55 might hit a normal person! Also my goggles were leaking. Great. Turns out I was able to ignore the water in the goggles for most of the swim and it was still better than nothing. I sure didn't swim straight (or anywhere close to straight...), and I would pick a different starting position next time. But hey, it's a first IM... so a good learning experience. We swam into the current on the way out and into the wind on the way back, so you had to swim a hard left just to stay straight. I have never been so glad to have a swim end! I was surprised how hard getting out of the water was. There were steps, and when I finally got my foot on one, my calf cramped up and I almost fell over. The wetsuit peelers were great. No way in my cold, tired, confused state could I have gotten that thing off by myself. I was having trouble remembering how to work the velcro at that point...

They guided me to my bags (which was fabulous, since even though they were RIGHT THERE I never could have found them on my own) and off to T1 where two very nice volunteers helped me put on my shoes and armwarmers and kneewarmers. Then off to sunscreen and the bike.

The winds were terrible that day - it was cold and windy. 20 - 25 mph, and quite a few side gusts/crosswinds that made things tough for me. (I came within inches of being blown into a pack of Harley Davidsons!!!) Better bike handlers were probably okay, but I had a hard time. Also, around mile 15 I discovered that my handlebars hadn't been tightened properly. (Note to self: never ever let anyone other than LBS Get a Grip or me work on bike!) I tightened the handlebars around mile 30 (fortunately I had tools with me). After about a 10 minute bike repair delay I was on my way again. I was way off of my pace due to the headwinds and repairs and did some quick math… figured out that if I kept getting off the bike to go to the bathroom I'd never make the bike cutoff… so… well let's just say I made the cutoff by 30 minutes. ;-) Wonder if my bike will ever forgive me for peeing on her… Anyway, I would have made the cutoff by about an hour, but my left knee started to hurt so bad at the end I did the last 6-8 miles using only my right leg. (much slower that way!!!) The three loops plus city loop weren't any problem. I just counted the number of times I got to the turnaround at the end of the beeline highway, and once I had seen it three times, I knew I could take the city loop when it came up.

Finally made it back to transition. I have NEVER been so happy to get off of the bike.

And off to the run… the kind volunteer tried to untie my shoes for me. Unfortunately, I had YANKS on my shoes, so I had to stop her! I was tired, and knew there was no way I could run a marathon at that point. But I knew I could run for 8 minutes. So I ran 8, power-walked 2 all the way until mile 19 when I was only able to run 5. At mile 20 this was down to being able to run 2 minutes. Such pain and exhaustion, all I wanted to do was stop. Everything hurt. I figured this was the time to start on the flat coke. That got me back up to running 5 minutes at a time all the way until mile 23 when I looked at my watch and realized that if I ran the last 3.2 miles without walking except for aid stations (more coke!!!) that I could finish in under 16. The difference between 15:59 and 16:01 in my mind was huge. So off I went. It hurt so bad I managed to convince myself that I LIKE pain. In order to do this I thought I should pick something I like and then equate it with pain. So what did I pick? Gummy Bears! That's right. At mile 23.5 I decided "Pain = gummy bears" (we'll see if I can ever eat them again…) and it worked. I just kept on going and going.. Passing tons of walkers, all shocked to see someone running. I finished in 15:53.

After: … it was COLD! They were out of foils and I (well, actually, my dad) eventually swiped a sheet from the massage tent to wrap me up in. (Yes, we returned it) Then the three of us went down to get some dry clothes from my morning clothes bag. (I pulled some foils out of the trash down there. Hey, after going to the bathroom without getting off the bike for 112 miles, foils out of the trash are NOT disgusting!!) We then went back up to the massage tent and I started trying to drink my recovery drink. At this point I was freezing and started to get dizzy and sick to my stomach so off to the med tent we went. Turns out I'm SUCH a cold wimp that I got hypothermia … in Arizona!!! I checked in with a body temp of 95 degrees. Brrr…. After a warm IV and being wrapped in tons of blankets for awhile, my body temp came back up and when the IV was done I was miraculously hungry for pizza again! (Which Jennifer and my dad were happy to feed to me as I laid there like a mummy in all my blankets.) Oh, and thanks to Jen for getting photos of me in the med tent... I'm sure I'll treasure those... ;-)

The next day I went to Inside Out Sports to complain about the job setting up my bike…and tell them of the loose handlebars. They agreed to box up my bike for free. I thought, fine, well that's nice anyway… but given my experience with them on this trip I checked the job when I got back to the hotel. The rear wheel was in cassette UP (even I know better than that) and the beam hadn't been lowered. Now my bike won't fit into the box without lowering the beam, so to jam it in, they left the chainring hanging over the edge of the box before closing it (so the large ring was sticking out past the edge and the whole bike was resting on this chainring on the lip of the box). Then I was really mad. So Inside Out Sports' incompetence gets included in my race report. Don't use them. I seriously thought that after my complaints they would try really hard to do a good job. Guess not. Photos of the packing job are available for those considering ever using Inside Out… (fortunately I traveled with all my tools, so I removed the beam and repacked the bike myself. I can do all the work on my bike myself, I just thought it would be better to have a professional do it. Now I'll be doing all that stuff on my own).

I felt pretty good the next day, and by 5 days later all muscle soreness was gone. Recovery from Ironman was definitely easier than recovering from the marathon. So strange. I'm still tired, and even thinking about working out makes me want to take a nap... but I'm glad I did it.

Anyway, sorry this was so long. Thanks to my dad and Jennifer for enduring a freezing day to carry my junk, take photos and cheer me on… and thanks to my uncle for doing the race with me. I'm an Ironman! :):):)

(PS - anyone caught trying to call me an Ironwoman will be in big trouble….) :):):)