Ironman World Championships

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 1^st in my age-group and 2^nd 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 5^th 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:

• 1^st Amateur Female overall
• 25^th fastest female in the World including Pro’s
• 2^nd 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.