Ironman CDA 2008 - Pre Race Report

Wednesday

After getting everything packed and saying goodbye to Preston I headed off to my last massage with Stefan. On Sunday I had started to get a pretty bad head cold so I had laid low and rested all of Monday and Tuesday skipping my easy short workouts. Which makes waking up Tuesday with a very serious pain in the back of my calf so weird. I wasn’t freaking out but I did ask Stefan to please figure out what it was and how to fix it.

He said it was my papliomous (sp) which probably got inflamed because I’d run a 10k Sunday and hadn’t stretched well enough. He dug in and I held back the tears as he tried to loosen it up.

Whew!!! He pronounced me good to go. Asked me to get out of the car every hour or 2 and stretch and pretty soon I was on the road.

I made it up to CDA without incident stopping a few times for coffee, gas and the bathroom.

As I got closer to my exit I played my theme song for this year, which is from the Broadway show Wicked. It’s called Defying Gravity and I love it! As I drove into town I wasn’t quite as emotional as last year but tears did still spring into my eyes as I thought about what this year’s race meant to me and how excited I was to be racing again.

The hotel people were wonderful and the room was huge so I got unpacked and headed out for a quick easy jog. My calf still felt sore and stiff but I just took deep breaths and believed that I would be right as rain come race day.

Met up with Kelly (tri-chic) from BT and her coach for a delicious dinner and then headed out to get my grocery items and get some sleep.

Thursday

The locals have taken to calling this June – Junuary because of how cool and drizzly it’s been so we’d been watching the forecasts and water temp all month silently willing it to warm up. We got our wish and the race week forecast had full sun and temps up into the high 80s. WOO HOO!!! Unfortunately the water was still hovering at about 56-57 on Thursday. I tried not to freak out about it. I had swam in cold water before I was sure I would be fine. I met up with a bunch of my buddies from Beginner Triathlete (BT) at the morning swim and we got suited up for a practice swim. As I looked around at hundreds of triathletes I noticed several things. Everyone was wearing either a neoprene hood or booties and I was the only female that I could see in a sleeveless wetsuit. Uh-oh!!!!

I got in the water and got lots of looks and comments like “whoa, she must be hardcore”. If they only knew……I hadn’t bought a full sleeved wetsuit because I was worried about shoulder fatigue, I didn’t want to spend any more money on IM this year and I didn’t think I really needed it. Big mistake!

So into the water I went in my booties, 2 swim caps and sleeveless suit. It was bone chilling. Mind numbing. Ice Cream Headache producing. OMG – I can’t even describe it. I swam about 1100 yards and when I got out my hands were frozen open. Like I had no muscle control to keep my fingers closed which is very important when you’re trying to scoop the water during your swim stroke.

I got warmed up, dressed and then hit the merchandise tent to buy some gear that said IM CDA on it without the giant FINISHER on the back (since last year I hadn't wanted to jinx myself and buy anything pre-race). WOO HOO – they had tons of cute stuff and I only spent $200 (a huge improvement from last year). For that I got a zip-up hoodie, a long sleeved technical running shirt, a visor, 2 luggage tags, a women’s specific shirt and a t-shirt for Preston that reads:

“I don’t do the Ironman, I’m Doing An Ironman – IronMate”

Hehe!!! They had Men’s and Women’s versions which were so funny I had to get it for him.

Met up with Jenny and Randy, two of my friends doing their 1^st Ironmans and we got all registered then I cruised through the expo to buy my reflective tape and some extra body glides, made a sign for some of my friends and headed off to have some lunch and work on organizing my gear into my race bags.

Jenny and I went for an easy bike ride on Thursday afternoon into town and back to spin our legs out and check our bikes, which was a lot of fun.

Thursday evening Randy and his awesome wife Angela had a bunch of our training group over for a BBQ at their rental house on the river. It was a wonderful evening of relaxation and good food and good friends!

I went to bed hoping that the neoprene gloves I had procured earlier in the day from a local dive shop would help keep my fingers warm the next day.

Friday

Friday was a weird day. I got up and headed down to meet up with a bunch of the BT peeps for a swim and hoped the water had warmed up. I had my diving gloves and after suiting up I got in and made it about 100 yds with them before I returned to shore and gave them to a spectator to put with my stuff. They felt like weights on my hands and filled with water. Not an improvement!

Started swimming with my fingers as tight as I could make them but by the turn buoy my fingers started drifting apart. I was so cold I couldn’t control the muscles well enough to close them so I was basically clawing the water. Ugh! All kinds of defeatist and negative thoughts were swirling in my head. I felt awful.

I finally made it out of the water and it took me 52 minutes to swim that 1 lap. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t think straight. It was all I could do to get my wetsuit off and wrap a towel around myself before heading to the Multisports.com Camp breakfast.

I talked to a few people there including Michael ;) who looked poised to have a great race! After the breakfast 2 very interesting things happened.

#1 - I asked Heather Fuhr and Paula Newby Fraser who were camp coaches if it was ok to give the Biggest Loser prize to the 2^nd place person because assuming no one beat my weight loss I didn’t feel right about getting the prize 2 years in a row. They said if I won I could do whatever I wanted (more on this later).

# 2 - I was very stressed and agitated about the water temp situation and was still (almost an hour after getting out of the water) shivering and a little loopy. Paula asked me what the problem was and I explained I had a sleeveless wetsuit and she practically grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. It was pretty funny. She was like “why would you not try a long sleeved suit” and of course I have a million reasons namely that you shouldn’t try anything new on race day and I’ve never swam in a full suit before blah blah. She’s like “OMG girl get down to the booth right now and try on a full suit, do you want to finish the swim???? Extreme conditions call for extreme measures etc”

So I left the breakfast and pretty much had to hold back the tears because honestly at that exact moment I felt so defeated and freaked out I just couldn’t even handle it.

I got to the Blue Seventy booth and they told me I could try on a suit in the water but I only had 10 minutes to swim before they closed. Fine I said and I told the woman my height and weight and she gave me a Women’s M/L suit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOO HOOOOOOOOO – I was still melting down inside but as I slipped this beautiful wetsuit on I felt so happy and it clicked in my mind why I’d been getting so cold. I bought my sleeveless suit 3 seasons ago when I weighed 220lbs. They didn’t make a women’s suit large enough to fit me so I bought the Men’s Short and Stocky suit. Well I’ve since lost more than 40lbs and I didn’t really think about the size because the suit seemed to still fit me in the hips and butt which of course makes sense cause it’s cut for a man not a woman.

So into the water I jumped in this trial long sleeved suit. I swam around for about 10 minutes and honestly it felt fine and I seemed to be a lot warmer. I got out and was hurrying to get my towel and sweatshirt back on because I was now about to be late to my massage when I asked how much the wetsuit cost……

$550 + tax

Visualize my head exploding at this moment. I was like WOW – do you have other suits that are less. Yes – they had a high, medium and low priced suit and I was trying out the high one of course.

Jetted off to my massage and planned to hit the tent later to try the other 2 models on.

Joanne calmed me down, warmed me up and helped me relax with a lovely massage before I headed back to the merchandise tent. I ended up buying the medium priced suit because I could really feel the lower priced suit wasn't flexible enough and I just couldn’t justify more than ½ my rent for a wetsuit. $440 later (SALES TAX SUCKS!!!!!!) I have my new suit and I am feeling much calmer about things.

I hit the Inspiration Station where I found a pink marker and decided to make a big sign for myself that had pink spots all over it and said Speed Leopard in huge letters. It would give me something to look for while I was riding and running on Sunday.

Finally went back to the hotel where I did some laundry, mixed all my bottles, packed all my frozen bags and stored them in the hotel freezer and then relaxed and watched some TV before heading to the Athlete Dinner.

Sooooooo every year at IM they do the Biggest Loser contest where they say if you’ve lost more than 10lbs stand up, 20 stay standing etc and when they get down to like 3-4 people they bring them on stage. Last year I won the contest by a mile because I had lost like 170lbs at that point but Mike Reilly was injured and not hosting the dinner and I was really bummed out cause I wanted to talk to him. So imagine my surprise when he starts this portion of the evening by saying “If over the last 8 months, training for this race you’ve lost more than 20lbs stand up”

Interesting……

Not only did I not even stand up this year but last year I would have only been standing for 1 round - 2 guys ended up tying with 86lbs lost which is incredible and awesome but honestly if I were a first time IM like myself last year I’d want to be recognized for losing a lot of weight even if it had happened pre-Ironman training. So I’m going to suggest that they make the contest for first-timers instead of limiting it to just weight you’ve recently lost.

After the dinner I picked up my tortilla chips from Taco del Mar in Spokane and Preston from the airport and headed to bed because Saturday was going to be a busy day.

Saturday

Woke up early because I’d been asked to share my story with the CDA Weight Watchers Center members at 7:30am which was awesome. There were about 75 people there and I talked for about 40 minutes. There were lots of members volunteering the next day which was great because I’d have a whole new cheering section. People seemed very motivated to know that a very normal WW member could go and do something like Ironman. Hopefully they were inspired :)

I zipped back to the hotel and met up with Jeff (IronViking from BT) for our now traditional pre-race brick. We chatted and rode our bikes for about 20 minutes and then hopped off for a 10 minute transition run. My legs felt good and I was really excited for the next day to start.

Jenny, Katherine and I had all met through our Weight Watchers Triathlon group and since we were all racing here at CDA we met up with Carole (also from our group) who did CDA in 2006 and her husband Tom and Katherine’s friend Pam who was also racing. We had a great breakfast hanging out and having fun! Preston had picked up my best friend Siani from the airport and we all headed back to the hotel to pick up my bags and bike for check-in.

After a quick check of my list (Reset speedometer, release some air from tires, GU, medicine and chapstick in my Bento Box, check my gearing to make sure I was in an easy gear to leave transition) I said a quick prayer for my bike to work well and for me to be strong and calm on race day and then headed back to the hotel.

Siani, Preston and I settled in and it turned out HBO had some great movies on that afternoon. We started with We Are Marshall, moved on to Oceans 13 and then rounded it out with Thelma and Louise - Kick Ass!!! I was rested, relaxed and calm about the next day despite the thunderstorm happening outside my window.

We got some dinner from the Olive Garden (my traditional pre-race Cheese Ravioli w/sauce on the side, yummy!!!!) and then I showered, stretched, wrote a card for Siani to give Preston while I was out on the course the next day and closed the evening by watching the YouTube videos of The Hoyts and Jon Blais. Those guys are the embodiment of everything the Ironman is and means and it always helps give me perspective on things to see them.

In bed and ready to rock and roll by 9:15pm.