My First Half Ironman

Lake Steven’s 70.3 Ironman was my first Half Ironman. It was also a blast! I can’t wait to do it again….WOW! I can hardly believe I’ve grown this much as an athlete in a few short years! Well, here goes my first attempt at a race blog….After a long winter of training in rain, sleet and snow (with Kathryn who talked me into signing up for HIM, Robin who pushed me to ride faster, Nikki my training partner, and several others who would join the diehards) and then unusually frigid water temperatures until just a few weeks ago I really appreciated the perfect race weather the morning of Lake Steven’s 70.3! I need to mention that staying the night before at Marci’s near the race site was a huge blessing! She was so awesome! She even got up with us at 4:00am the morning of the race and had breakfast and coffee ready! I couldn't eat much as I was a bit nervous since our briefing the day before. When I got to the swim start my stomach settled down as it didn’t look as scary as I had imagined (I had viewed last years Coeur d alene Ironman swim start and it looked like a raging sea!) Also, as I approached the dock there was Lisa was on the dock snapping pictures! So at this point I relaxed and really had a good swim, very steady and when I finished the swim portion I was feeling absolutely great and ready to get to my bike as this was the part of the course I knew like the back of my hand as I had been out here riding the course for several months! I had a great ride. I felt strong the whole way and the hills were my friends…I knew exactly where they were J I was very relieved when I finished the bike without incurring a single penalty…(the orientation meeting the day before freaked me out as I listened to all of the rules from the head officiate and I was sure I forget something and see their motorcycle flagging me down. Also, I was worried if I had to drop back 7 yards every time someone passed me I would end up back at the start!) It is funny how our minds work overtime—As it turns out I had nothing at all to worry about , because when the really fast pro’s go by they are flying and there isn’t a need to drop back because within the 25 seconds they are way ahead! I was strong and had fun passing other riders too! When I came to the second loop I saw Rich cheering us on and that was a cool surprise seeing him out on a part of the course where there aren’t many spectators! It was during this loop that my stomach started cramping up and as much as I tried to stretch it out and get rid of it before the run it continued. When I left the transition area to head out for the run I had to keep telling myself that that my legs were not connected to my stomach so my feet had to keep moving! I was in the 3rd leg of my half ironman and I was tough enough to finish strong through anything! So, most of the times I was moving pretty slow but I smiled none the less, encouraged others running in pain by shouting “finish strong”, and prayed! Every time I passed the downtown transition area (5x) there was a mass of Team Fastt supporters and my huge family crowd (15 of them) in blue teamfastt t-shirts cheering me on. That was the equivalent of Super Gu and energized me for miles! Three miles from the finish I caught Nikki and almost started tearing up as I realized we would get to finish the race together! We trained as partners for this race the past several months. (She is a faster swimmer than I and was ahead of me on the swim by 9 minutes…) She told me I couldn’t get emotional because she was saving her cry til the finish line! So we ran …and at one point we saw the finish line around the bend it we realized that we were just minutes away from completing the race! We Finished Strong, beat our personal time goals and more than anything dug deeper, pulled stronger, and pressed through to our finish! I have a long way to go in rankings but I personally WON my race! I couldn’t be more satisfied. I Finished Strong The Race Marked Out For Me. With Perseverance! I checked a huge goal off my list. Now I’ll set a new goal, one bigger than me, one that will stretch me as I train for it! That life list seems to keep growing as I do triathlons…I realized as I added a full ironman to it as I was running this race! Who knows when I’ll check that one off the list…Next, I am going to support Kathryn and Jo Ann at Ironman Canada and catch athletes at the finish line… :)