Embark on this long novel or just read my bullet point summary at the end and look at pictures! The race doesn't even start till further down the page!
If you want to know the long story of how I got to Kona you
can read back in the history of my blog. The short story is that after being a
Sherpa for my Sister/coach in her ironman races I got sucked into the Ironman
vortex and signed up for Ironman Texas. IMTX was a convenient race (close to
family) and it was on Saturday, which is a must for me. I do not work out or
race on Sundays because of religious reasons, instead I use the day to go to
church and worship as well as spend time with my family and friends and serving
the community and others. I feel as though this has not only blessed me
physically but spiritually and mentally as well. We all need to have one day
off of everything! I even did this in school with homework and cannot advocate
for it more! Back to the race, I placed 1st in my age-group and 2nd
overall so I qualified for the world championships. It was a discussion and hard decision whether or not to go but the next morning Emi and I went on stage and accepted the invitation to Kona.
I think this is how everyone feels after they sign up for an Ironman. That terrified face of what did I get my self into is how I felt before IMTX and Kona.
I got to the island on Monday night after having two of my flights
delayed and having to get put on a different flight and not having any time in
the airport of buy food during the 15 hr journey! But, I was in Hawaii! Allison
and TJ were so awesome to pick me up at the airport that night! It was the
first time I flew with my bike and Bryan Krabbe let me borrow his bike box
(thanks!). The ground crew unloaded the bikes to a dark parking lot. There were
more than 15 there and I couldn’t find mine. I finally found the bike box but
it had permanent marker writing on it. It wasn’t mine but it was a fellow competitor
that I met in Texas. I ran to the passenger pick up searching for her. It took
what seemed like MINUTES to find her, but really probably was 2 seconds. We got
things worked out with our bikes and we were on our way to base camp!
After watching a YouTube video we got the bike in the box! YouTube can pretty much teach you anything!
I got tons of cute pictures from home! From Scott and Diane Kendall! Thanks so so much to Diane for watching Emi AND sending adorable photos to a mom who missed her so much!
I had the most comfortable couch in the world although in a very hot
room with many fans pointed on me. That combined with the time change made for
little sleep. I had researched before I came and knew that there was an LDS
temple session (religious ceremony) at 5:30 I wanted to attend. TJ was so nice
to take me and my bike up to the temple for the session where the temple
president and matron greeted me. I left my bike right at the door and was able
to take park of the session. It was amazing and so peaceful. I know that it
helped me be calmer than I would have been if I didn’t.
I rode my bike
to Wal-Mart and did a little grocery shopping (with my bike not locked up
outside EEK!). I rode back to the house and slept for a while. After I went to
the expo and talked to the trigger point team workers (so nice to meet y’all!).
They were nice enough to let me make their tent my “base camp” for the
afternoon. I went on a 1 hr bike and then was going to do a 25-30 minute swim
but I got salt water in my eyes and had to turn back early, but OH MY! The
water was crystal clear and just unbelievably gorgeous! There were all sorts of
pretty fish, I even saw a puffer fish! I was worried that I would get
distracted during the race with all the wild life!
I went to athlete check-in where they even had bike parking complete with volunteer guarding and handing out parking places. I started talking to this random guy before the race. He had done many Kona races and said, “I know you didn’t ask for advice, but my advice for you would be to just slow down and enjoy the race, if it takes an extra 15-20 minutes, who cares! That is unless you’re trying to podium?” Sheepishly I said “well, I am.” “Well, then, I don’t know what to tell you!”
Don't mind all the mascara I had all over my face!
I got all checked-in in less than 8 minutes! I stared my
bike back home and pulled over at a beach to eat my very late lunch while
watching the waves crash on the shore.
That
night we all just hung out at the house. TJ and Allison and family had gone to
volcano national park that day. TJ adjusted me and I felt SO SO SO much better.
If you have not been adjusted, seriously rethink it. I don’t only feel
physically better but mentally, emotionally, spiritually etc. (THANK YOU)
Mama
Louis (Allison’s mom) let me sleep downstairs on the futon (so much cooler,
thanks!) That night I slept like a babe!
Another adorable photo from home! That's her toy box that dad made for her.
The first Sunset in Hawaii... love at first sight!
Trying to make mom jealous of all the delicious snuggles!
The next day it was down to the water for a swim then TJ took us out to be able to bike to Hawi and feel the winds and the climb before race day. By the time we got back to the house it was nap time for me!
TJ took me to my place to check-in then we rushed back to be able to get ready in time for Allison and TJ’s wedding on the beach! I will let Allison tell the entire story behind this celebration of Love, because there were so many little and big miracles that happened! The ceremony was beautiful and I was so honored to be able to be a part of it!
That night I picked Meredith up from the airport. We went back to our
place and crashed.
Our place had a ton of fruit trees. There was a basket of fruit for us to eat and this one looked like an orange but ended up being a lemon!
Meredith and I went swimming in the morning. It felt like
home being behind her feet! I love swimming right behind her. There is a
tradition to do a underwear run so we participated in that just for fun.
Meredith was batman and I was Superman. After that I went to the QR tent and
Brad helped me adjust a couple of things on my bike. (Thanks QR and Brad!).
Then we went to chill/sleep at the house. Later that day we had to go back down
to do a couple things and go to the store. We got to eat a delicious dinner out
on our porch over looking the ocean.
Friday
This day started with a very, very
sad text from Scott saying that he had slept in through his 5 alarms and missed
the flight to Houston to start his journey to Kona. He was supposed to arrive
around 3:30pm on Friday so we would have some time to hang out but he had to
pay $100 to change his ticket and ended up having an arrival time of 9:23. I was
super bummed I almost cried, but at least he would still be able to make it to
the race. TJ offered to pick him up from the airport and drop him at our place
so we could get more sleep. (THANKS!)
This is the photo that came with that sad text! Couldn't be upset at that cuteness!
We met Allison down at the water
for a swim out to the Coffee boat and back (about a 10-15 minute swim). We asked the NUUN guy out there
if he had any containers we could have for salt tabs. He told us to go by the
tent and they could give us several. So, the guy at the tent had Meredith and I
be NUUN tent girls and guard it while he went and found them. There was a ton
of money and lots of different product there. It’s so impressive how trusting
people are! We all went on a short bike ride (30min) and then about a 15 minute
run. TJ was at the cars helping all of us get things ready and put things away.
I did get laughed at quiet a bit for not being able to put my back tire on or
take it off J.
We
went home and got all of our stuff ready to do bike and gear check-in. We met
at Allison’s and all drove down together after I found out that half of my
things I wanted to put on my bike weren’t working.
Bike
check-in was a lot bigger deal than I thought it would be! There were so many
people out to just watch. You had to have a volunteer with you at all times in
the transition area.
We
went back to our house and had an earlish dinner of pasta, chicken, and
sauce—the same thing I have before every race I do. We were able to eat it on
our porch, which was amazing. 8:30 bed time for our early rise.
The "Sherpa" bag I packed for Scott for his long day Saturday!
Saturday- RACE DAY!!!
I
woke up to Scott coming in and telling me it was 4:43. WOW! I slept in! I
thought I wouldn’t have been able to sleep well so I didn’t set an alarm to
wake me up earlier. I got my pancakes ready and all my nutrition for the race
and we were on our way down to the start.
Body marking was first. They step it up for the world
championships and use temporary tattoos for race numbers on your arms instead
of a permanent marker. Then it was on to get my bike ready to race. I had
decided to put an extra two water cages on the back of my bike, one for a flat
pack and one for water. Scott was bringing them in so I had to attach it to my
bike Saturday morning instead of earlier. I taped the flat pack in so incase I
hit a bump it wouldn’t fly out. Then the bad news the water bottle fell right
through the other holder! Fortunately I had electrical tape and made my own
bottle cage support. I had to also attach an additional bottle cage to my bike
that Scott had brought in as well. The girls around me were looking at me like I
was crazy and had no idea what I was doing (which, I still don’t). After
pumping my tires I went and added my nutrition to my run and bike gear bags.
After a bathroom break I dropped my stuff off with Scott and met up with
Allison. We were fortunate enough to run into Meredith so we could get into the
water and hopefully start with her!
WTC
changed how they did the start this year. In past years, all the amature
athletes have started together (male and female), this year they started the
males at 6:50 and females at 7:00am.
I am far off in this picture in the green tri top with my speed suit half on. This was after I left all my stuff with Scott and we said a quick prayer.
THE RACE
Meredith,
Allison, and I got in the water together and swam to the start, which is
further than you might think! I was able to stay with Meredith, but we lost
Allison. I looked around for her but everyone looks the same in goggles and a
pink cap and black speed suit. After a couple minutes the start line
positioning started getting brutal. I believe girls are more vicious when they
are just with other girls and not guys as well so with an all women start we
were all in for one treat! There are paddle boarders who make sure we all stay
back. About 10 seconds before the start they leave and people start inching
forward. The cannon went off and it was a feeding frenzy!
I
wanted to try to stay on my coach’s feet as long as I could. I was with her and
then lost her for a couple seconds. I found her again and stuck on her feet. My
goal was to do a 1 hr swim and I knew the longer I could stick on her feet, the
closer I would be to that. I had
to fight a couple people off her feet and
one time the waves were big enough that I reached to take a stroke and
it was just air no water. I didn’t really have to sight because there were so
many people around, but I looked up a couple times to see where we were at. We
reached the turn around and I was still on her feet! YAY! The way back was slow
since we began hitting big packs of men who had a testosterone problem and
couldn’t be beaten by someone who started 10 minutes behind them. Eventually we
got to the exit, which was over crowded with people getting out of the water. I
called to Meredith and she said awesome swim!
All the guys kept getting in the way through transition, but
I found my bag and ran to the women’s tent. There were so many people in there!
I did have two volunteers helping me get ready though. I saw Meredith get up
and go and I didn’t even have my socks on! After a lot of help from volunteers
sticking my socks and shoes on me, I was ready and running off to my bike!
I
was super excited to be on my new bike and see what we could do together. Long
story, but my bike’s name is Bob, the Iwa bird, which is better than slot
machine or dingle berry that could have been it’s name after the first ride we
had together. The first part of the bike course is a weird half loop and then a
short out and back. I caught up to Meredith and whooped and hollered a lot. I
told her to tell me to calm down, which seems to always be my problem the first
10-20 minutes of the bike. I made sure my HR was 160 or below as I climbed up
the out and back portion. There were so many people that everyone was in packs.
I am a huge stickler of not drafting and hate it when people do, so I made sure
I wasn’t drafting, but sometimes it was near to impossible to do so.
The
first 20-30 miles were hard to get around people and go through water stops. I
think this was partly due to the fact that the women had to go 10 minutes after
the men so we had many more men to slosh through on the swim and then more on
the bike. I saw plenty of packs so I don’t know if it really helped with that
fact at all. Now as I write this after the fact though, the amateur female
times were slower than the pros then usual so I wonder if some of that is due
to this fact. Made it better for me that others couldn’t draft off really fast
guys. Somewhere between mile 20-30 I dropped my salt container so I had to stop
and run back and grab it. I saw at least 3 girls go past as I grabbed it (took
about 1 minute). I looked forward to every cross road because it was one more
opportunity to see Scott. I usually want to know where I am in the race place
wise, but Meredith (coach) told me to not pay any attention until I was going
out on the run to the energy lab (more than half way through the run). This is
also something that Bryan and I debated quiet fiercely one ride through Indian
Hill. I always used to think you needed to know where people were so you could
compete. While that strategy is important in shorter races, in Ironman distance
you need to race YOUR race and then at the end compete. I think it worked best.
I paid attention to my HR and nutrition. I am unlike other athletes with my
nutrition. I have a normal plan but never seem to follow it on race day. I like
to think that I am very in tune with my body and it can tell me (to some
extent) what it needs. I was wanting more solids during the bike so I decided
to eat more bonks than usual. I had 3 bonks on the way out to Hawi as well as
1.5 bags of Jelly beans. Each water stop I would pour an old water into my aero
nutrition and take one bottle at the beginning and put it on my bike and one
bottle at the end and pour it all over me. The water at the end always seemed
to be colder which was nice but also took my breath away sometimes as I poured
it on me! I didn’t go through my whole nutrition bottle between stops usually,
near the end I did though.
Well
I guess I should also mention the CRAZY head winds and cross winds we had. I
knew that this course was known for the cross winds and head winds so at least
I was prepared. When it started getting so bad that I thought I was going to
fall off my bike and was struggling getting nutrition for fear I would crash, I
thought “Wow, so this is what they face every year!” Sometimes it’s good to be
naïve about a race, then the crazy cross winds become “normal” instead of
extreme. I didn’t focus on speed, in fact I remember about 4-5 times looking at
it total. Instead I focused on HR and nutrition.
At
Hawi I got my special needs bag. I shouted my number at least 10 times to make
sure that I got it since I’ve been told horror stories about them loosing etc.
your bag. The guy who had mine wasn’t paying attention so it was a good thing I
was shouting at him the whole way! All I wanted was my extra Bonk since I had
gone through all of mine on the bike.
The
decent out of Hawi is the most fun part of the whole course. You just breeze
down the hill and feel SO good. It was also at this time I started singing
“America, the beautiful,” thanks Allison! I was passing people and rarely
getting passed and only by guys. I saw Scott again when I was about to turn
back on the Queen K. I was SO excited to see him since I still felt so good! I
was letting my HR fall into the 140’s instead of 150’s and seeing him gave me a
little jolt of get up. He told me I was second in my age group 9 minutes back
from the leader. I know I wasn’t supposed to pay attention to it until the run,
but I didn’t react to the information at all. The long stretch home was against
head wind and I struggled to keep my HR up. There was a guy who started
drafting off me when I passed him around mile 80-90. I was contemplating giving
a “warning shot” but not 2 minutes later a race official pulled up and gave him
a red card. He got all mad and sprinted past me, 5 minutes later he was eating
my dust.
I
usually get really uncomfortable on the bike the last 20-30 miles but I never
did! I guess that’s what getting a REAL tri bike gets you! I was looking
forward to running people down on the run portion though, that’s always fun.
Those last 20 miles went by fast even though I struggled to keep my HR up with
the head winds. I knew that I was one of the first women coming into transition
because the volunteers went crazy for me at the aid stations.
Transition
2: Gave my bike to a volunteer and started the run you have to do all the way
aound the Kona pier, lots longer than I thought it was going to be! Into the
change tent with my bag and it was EMPTY! I knew that was a good sign, but I
didn’t know how good. I had all the volunteers helping me and waiting on me hand
a foot. Cold wash cloth, sunscreen, shoes, hat, and nutrition and I was off
running!
I wanted to keep my HR around 160
for the run and knew I had to take it easy the first few miles down Ali’I drive
to make sure that happened. At one of the first aid stations I got to a little
boy told me I was 5th female. My stated goal was to be top 5 amateur
overall (my secret goal I didn’t tell ANYONE, not even Scott, was to win
overall). I again just kept running my own race and did not react to the news
at all. I also didn’t know to trust it or not.
At every aid station I would dump
some more ice into my water bottle and dump water on me and then squeeze a ice
spongue or two on me, wipe my face and the back of my neck. I decided to try
ignite naturals which is a liquid electrolyte replacement, the biggest problem
was that it foamed so I drank a whole bunch of air L. After the naturals was gone
from my bottle I just filled it with water and took a few salt tabs (BAD IDEA,
read on). I passed a couple girls and started going up Pilani (biggest hill of
the run). Scott was there cheering for me! He would cheer and then run a little
(never next to me or with me) and then cheer some more. He carried me through
that entire hill! I barely noticed it because of his cheering and
encouragement. Another highlight of the run came about 1 mile later as I heard
a woman cheering so loud for me. I look over to see Chrissie Wellington cheering
for me! That gave me another little pump up.
I thought I had set the watch up to
show my last split time and HR so I kept checking the lower left box for my
last split time. I was shocked at times to see that I didn’t run that mile as
slow as I thought etc. Well at the end of the race I realized that that number
was actually average pace not last split pace! I guess that’s what I get for
using a Garmen for the first time on race day! I saw Scott a couple more times
before I got to the turn off to the Energy Labs. I thought the energy labs were
a lot closer than what they were! It took forever to get out there. The last
time I saw Scott he told me that I was in second overall and was going to catch
number one very soon. At that moment it was surreal. I was about to go into
first place in the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ironman race. I passed the first place
woman with no response from her. Got to the turn around in the energy labs and
was so glad to be headed home.
Emi in Texas during my race was on her "bike" while I was out on mine!
I grabbed some Honey stinger chews
from my special needs bag for nutrition on the way back home. I got an awesome
cheer from coach at the Newton video with 7 miles to go. I think my
electrolytes were getting off at this point and I started to just keep putting
one foot in front of the other. My shoe lace had come untied at 9 miles to go
and I kept having everyone tell me it was untied and to watch out. I knew I
couldn’t stop. I didn’t know how much of a lead I had and I knew if I stopped
it would just take too much effort to get started again so I just gave people a
nod of thumbs up when they told me about it. I said a continuous prayer that it
would stay tight enough till the finish to not worry about it.
On my way to Pilani I saw a couple
people who cheered for me. Amy, Allison, and Meredith, I had no response to
them, even to Meredith who whooped and hollered like crazy for me. There were
some spectators that said “wow she’s still at it!” and “I didn’t think she
would hold that pace.” “What, she didn’t crash out there!” I guess people just
didn’t think that pace could be held! Those comments encouraged me on the way
home. At mile 22 I remember thinking it was going to be 23 and my heart just
dropped when it was 22. I wasn’t in a happy place the last 4 miles, as seen by
my splits too. I saw Scott and asked how far back the next woman was so I could
know if I could just savor the moment. He said he didn’t know. Garrett, one of
Meredith’s friends was a HUGE help down pilani to the finish. I think I might
have given him a glare of death, but he kept cheering for me. The little out to
Uncle Billy’s hotel and back to the finish was shorter than I thought it would
be. I was coming down Ali’I as the Amateur World Champion! I did my celebratory
leap across the finish line and listened for “you are an ironman”, which I
didn’t get! Before anything else happened a young lady and man came up to me
and she stammered around her words a little and then got out that I was
selected to be drug tested. When she first came up to me I thought she was
there to disqualify me for my shoe being untied the last 9 miles. After a race
you don’t always think straight. My hear sank until she said drug test. So the
let me quickly get my Lai and I asked for poweraid but they just let me have
water. We had to walk to the hotel since it was staioned in there. Some how
through a huge blessing Scott found me as we walked to the hotel. I was not in
the best shape, I was light headed and dizzy and just felt like passing out.
GRAFIC ALLERT: I had to give a 90ml
sample and couldn’t on the first go. My urine looked bloody to me and that
worried me. I had to lay down with my feet up and I asked for some salt since I
knew I was down on it. One of the ladies said “I wouldn’t,” but the other said
it was fine. I just decided to wait till I was done even though I'm sure salt sticks are fine to take! Finally, I was able to get
out of there and by that time I was sure Allison and Meredith had finished so I
went to the med tent.
Long story short, I was up 4.5
pounds from the start (yes they weight you morning of and after so they have an
idea of where you’re at). My sodium level was low so they gave me 3 cups of
chicken broth and sent me on my way. I felt so so much better after that!
I went to the massage tent and only
had to wait 15 minutes for a wonderful massage. I grabbed food and went out to
find Scott and Allison and family. I went away to change and when I came back
Meredith was there and so crazy excited for me! I was so fun to be with
everyone and hear how their races went and talk about mine.
We just hung out and ate and
relaxed for a little bit before we picked up our gear and bikes and went home.
I truly have a heart full of
gratitude for all those involved in this race with me. Whether it be
encouragement on facebook and texts or as a training partner, Sherpa, family
member, or adopted family and friends. Thank you to all the people who were tracking me October 11, it truly helped knowing I had so many people cheering me on. Thanks Josh Terwoord for letting me borrow your aero helmet! Thanks to John Book for pushing me in the pool! Thank you to Bryan Krabbe who first
planted in my mind that I could be top 5 in Kona, all the advice in training
and nutrition, and friendship and long rides, as well as letting me borrow the bike box! Thanks to Korry for letting me
borrow her speed suit! Thanks so much to my parents for watching Emi so this could happen and vacation could happen afterward and for all the love and encouragement and for the miles so we could get to Hawaii. Thank you to TJ for being a substitute Sherpa before my real Sherpa got to Hawaii, and also
for all the adjustments during training and most especially before the race! I
know that that was a big reason the day went so well! You are AMAZING at what
you do! THANKS! Thanks to Allison for so many countless things: a place to stay
in Kona those first couple nights, rides everywhere, putting up with me being
stressed out at times, talking me through my bike nutrition crisis the day
before the race, ALL of the AMAZING fun training rides, runs, and swims and
kick in the pants when I needed it, you make this sport/life SO fun! Thank you
SO SO much to sister Coach Meredith for the amazing training plan that helped get me to this outcome! Thanks for bringing me race wheels and a helmet to borrow (thanks to those who let me borrow things without even knowing me!). Thanks for the encouragement and motivation and chats when I needed it! SO excited that we will be able to see each other more soon! Thanks for the prerace chat to prepare me for the race even when you had your own race to get ready for!
Thanks to the love of my life, Scott! He sacrificed so much to let me be able to do this race. Thank you so much for all the Saturday mornings that I took away from the family to be able to do long rides and bricks. Thanks to being flexible with work so I could fit in other workouts during the week. Thanks to agreeing to all the money we spent on this endeavor! Thanks most of all for the eternal love and devotion!
The
fast facts:
- 1st Amateur Female overall
- 25th fastest female in the World including Pro’s
- 2nd fastest run split
- Beat an Olympian (Apolo Ohno) (only female amateur to do that)
- Hardest bike conditions in 15 years (70MPH gusts)
- Won my age group by more than 8 minutes
- Qualified to be a pro triathlete
- Time: 9:50:39, Swim 1:04:31, Bike 5:24:05, Run 3:14:53
A 20-mile hike we went on in Hawaii. It was all absolutely breath taking.
I lost the diamond out of my ring earlier this year and so this is my replacement wedding ring. It is a black coral with two little diamonds. Black coral is the Hawaii state gem so it seemed fitting.
