Training for it happened in the last 3 months or so before the race with longer rides, longer runs, not enough time for longer swims but figured it would be ok...
Training for it was fine, with 2 unusual training sessions, which happened to have helped me mentally and also physically:
- Reach the Beach Relay in June with team mate Mark Burton with 31 miles of running part of a relay, almost killed me but made me somehow more resilient to boredom I can get into when running for too long
- My last long ride on the computrainer for 6h, which also almost killed me but made the 112 miles on Saturday seem so easy!!!
After a long trip down there from New York, as I missed my morning flight and could not find my luggage in Panama city, I also missed the mandatory pre-race registration on Thursday! The good news is I did it the next day in 4mn, and everybody else, 2800 athletes, had to get in long 1-2 hours lines!
Friday was good with a quick swim in huge waves, more fun for body surfing than swimming, I enjoyed it! The sand is white and fine, really beautiful and the water so clear blue green amazing! The best beach on the planet maybe. Panama City has nothing else: a beach and that is it!
And that was-it for the day relax, prepare the bike, meet people, nice pasta dinner and bed time.
Met an interesting Mexican Business man Luis who was doing ironman #9 for 2010, he started in April, went to France and everything. He is on the Timex Team. He has done 70 ironman, started in 1991, just count!!! The things I love about these races is that you meet interesting or crazy people!!!
Tomorrow will be a great day I was telling myself and it was!
It started so cold about 40F, but in the excitement of everything else it was hard to notice. The day was going to start. I decided to try a new thing and started quite in the front with all the men on the left near the buoys! Well that was an experience on being beaten up all over!!! No panic I did it, lost goggles, got scratched but survived!
Swim done, I thought, now some work is still ahead! Transition was slow because there were so many people everywhere. I had looked at my watch and saw 127 so thought it was my swim time! During the whole race I thought I swam in 1:27 and was quite mad at myself, that was slow! I only discovered after the race that it was my heart rate! My swim time was 1:10!!!
Anyway I put a new tight fitting lond sleeves shirt I bought the day before (with an ironman logo of course) on my wet jersey, put my newly bought Walmart gloves on and off I went!
112 miles on the bike, flat as a pancake bike course, hardly changed gear for the whole thing! Good speed, felt good, had my powertap on average speed not per choice just happened but liked that a lot. I biked with groups and on my own. It seemed hard not to avoid the groups, but they make riding more fun at the same time, you make some friends like that. I could have gone for longer on the bike honestly. Ate the power gels at the aids stations, they were very easy to squeeze and tasted quite good! Did not stop for the bathroom, well managed again...on the bike, not sure if I need to be proud of myself for that!
And then, yes the dreaded run was there. I just needed 4h, felt great at the beginning and maybe went too fast, I was excited. There were some fun cheer leaders, pretty course, but 26 miles still to go. I could feel my pace going slower, my heart rate dropping, but still 15 to go, 10 to go. I had to play mental games, had to look forward for the girls cheer leaders who were quite funny. and then with 4-5 miles left a woman looked like my age passed me and in my head I knew she was going to be 3rd, I knew about #2, did not know about #1 but had a feeling there was one. I lost a bit of motivation then.
Everything clicked again when I ran through the finish chute, a spectator was screaming to a man next to me that he did it under 11h! The man turned to me and told me let's go it is under 11h! I could not believe it!
The finish was great, better than the first ironman I did in 2008. There were amazing words on the ground printed in colors, archs, people and the finish clock 10:52!!! Mark Carioto's family was there and it was nice to see familiar faces. Mark did really well for his first ironman as well, I know he wanted to finish with me (or ahead!), he was not far off 10:55!
I was so happy.
I know I missed Kona, again, by one spot but that is life! I did not run in 4h but 4:07. No big deal. Who could have guessed the woman who won my AG was going to bike under 5h!? It always seem there is a crazy woman or two in my AG. Next time I will be the crazy woman I think!
I highly recommed this race to first timers or racers who want a fast race. After all it is better to cover the 140.6 miles in less time on a flat course than more time on a hilly course don't you think?
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