My my mom and I finished the Vikingman Half Ironman Triathlon on Saturday! The race consisted of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run. We got up at 5am on Saturday after little to no sleep and headed over to T1 to drop off our bike gear, I couldn't help but notice a flag rippling in the 20 mph wind. Our next stop was the swim start, we were one of the first to be body marked and the kid who marked me looked at me like I was crazy when I told him I would probably be wearing long sleeves the entire race (at this time the temps were between 39-41 degrees, but it felt a lot colder in the wind). We then squeezed into our wetsuits, (always a fun thing!) and put on our neoprene caps and booties, because the water temp was a chilling 59 degrees. We walked over to the swim start, it was supposed do be a down river swim in the direction of the current, but with the wind blowing in the opposite direction all I could see were the white caps headed straight for us. I was seriously considering not getting in the water at this point....
SWIM:
But when it came time for my wave (all of the women went first, 7am sharp), I walked down the boat ramp and slid my way in with everyone else. The entrance to the water was so steep and slippery that we had to sit and slide in. They only gave us about 1 min in the water before the gun shot and the we were off... well sort of. The swim took and incredibly long time because of the waves coming at me and crashing down over my head, it seemed like I drank a good gallon of that water, and several times found myself gasping for air. I was not the only one, I think there were only a few swimmers that came out of the water with a decent time and there were several who opted to just get on the boat and ride in. I did get used to the water temps and found that after about 10 min I wasn't freezing anymore. I finally did reach the bridge and was pretty happy to be out of that choppy water. I took a long time in T1 because my hands were so cold that they were not very functional, it took a while to get my wetsuit off, and then I had to add a few extra layers due to the cold air and wind. Including heat packs in my cycling booties :) I was happy to finally get on the bike and start moving...
BIKE:
well sort off... I started out at a pretty good pace, keeping up with most people, until we hit that first turn, then we were faced with the 20 mph (+ extra gusts) of head wind. Everyone that passed me would say something like.. "this totally sucks," "I can't believe this," "having fun yet?" or my favorite, "are we stupid or what?" A lot of people quit on the bike, and I sure wanted to, I kept waiting for my dad to drive by, so I could get in the car and be done, but fortunately he didn't show up until mile 18, I asked if my mom was still going and he said she was, so I kept pushing through the wind, even on the downhill, it felt like uphill, I tried to stop pedaling a couple of times on the downhill just to get a little break but I would come to a stop, it was crazy! I don't think I ever got above 12 mph the first 22 miles, but usually I was riding 7-10 mph, thinking, I am going to be on this bike for the next 6 hours. After I turned at mile 22 I accelerated to 20 mph and soon realized that I could not maintain this speed without being blown over, I almost fell every time I tried to ride faster, so I was still stuck riding 12-15 mph ughh...
Finally I hit the next turn and a tail wind for a while and could easily keep a pace of 25-30 mph for a while, then it was more headwind/ crosswind/ headwind/ crosswind. I was dying to get OFF of the bike! I think the course was a little long because mile 56 came and went on my computer.
RUN:
My dad, Kael, Kyle and Wayne's family was waiting for me at T2 which was a great help, to have some cheering coming my way after an exhausting and challenging bike section. I took my time and regrouped in T2, obviously I was not that concerned about my time by this point. I switched my shoes, grabbed a payday bar, shot blocks and sport beans and headed out. Poor Kael was upset that I came and went so quickly. I was feeling good on the run, I think I ran about a 10 min mile the whole way. About mile 9 I started to feel tired but knew I could finish at this point. Miles 8-13 were an out and back loop, it seemed like mile 10 would never come, but when it did I was faced with another headwind to finish off the race. I finally made it to mile 13 and was proud of myself for finishing. It was great to have the kids there at the end. Kyle keeps telling people that "mom won the race" because he saw me coming out of the finish with my medal. A little while later my mom finished. I was glad that we did it together, It will be something we will never forget!
What would I do different?
If I woke up and there was wind, just get back in bed and try again next year!
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