Mary
06-05-2009, 10:22 AM
I have compiled my thoughts and experience at IM Brasil. It's quite long, but is my experience for the day.
Race Report
Race morning: I thought I had set my alarm clock for 3am, but the time on my phone was off 1 hour, so I got up on race day thinking it was at 3am and I made some coffee and checked the time, lo and behold it was actually 4:30. Any one that knows me understands how I enjoy getting up early, I have to say that this threw me off a bit and unfortunately I think it showed later in the day. I ran down to breakfast and gobbled some oatmeal, bananas and rolls with jam. Not my normal breakfast, but it was all I could eat quickly. I still needed to catch the shuttle to the race site. I am glad that I had packed the night before, so I grabbed my stuff and headed down to the shuttle pick up. I ran into a couple of friends who knew by looking at me that it was best to just keep quiet, I must have looked rattled and a bit stressed. Heather Gollnick was also waiting for the same bus so we chatted a bit. We talked about how much sleep we had gotten the night before, when I mentioned 8 hours she wondered how anyone got that much sleep the night before the race. I ran into Heather again in the women’s changing tent. She is very nice and easy to talk with. I put my nutrition on the bike and got my wetsuit on. It was time to head down to the beach. I finally ran into Steve, Max and Porter. It was good to see my teammates on race morning. We got some photos taken and then wished each other well and went off in our own directions.
The swim: We all know that the swim is not my best event, but I was not prepared for what lay ahead. The swells were around 4 ft and the currents were very strong. The only comment I would send to the race director is more buoys’. They were nearly impossible to sight and when I finally thought I saw the buoy and began swimming towards it I was told by the kayaker that it was the wrong buoy and I needed to swim back out again. It was very demoralizing and I decided at that point that I was going to drop out. I have never DNF’d before, but the thought of swimming back to shore and going back out again was more that I could comprehend at that point. On my swim back to shore I began thinking about joining Allison, Trish and Deb and becoming a spectator for the day. I had talked myself into dropping and thought I would be ok with that decision. I have to say that when I got out of the water and told the swim ref that I was done, he said that he had to take my chip and I knew that and thought I was prepared. I was very wrong; the minute he took my chip off I broke down and started sobbing. There was a press photographer standing next to us and he told me, shorter, much shorter, you can do it….much shorter. So I told the ref I would go back out. He put my chip back on and the crowd on the shore began cheering. That helped as I headed back out for the shorter leg. Enough said, I finished the swim and high fived another competitor that finished at the same time. I figure I probably ended up swimming close to 3 miles total by the time I maneuvered all the buoys and got out of the water. I ran into the transition tent to change for the bike.
The bike: This is my strength, but would not be so this day. I started out pacing myself and felt pretty good. I ate a banana around mile 21 and ended up on the side of the road throwing up everything that I had ingested all day. I think the salt water combined with the banana was more that I could handle. I normally can eat or drink pretty much anything and not have issues, so this was a new experience for me. I could no longer drink NUUN and was a little hesitant to ingest too much gel, so took it light on the nutrition for a while. After I got to the turnaround for the first loop and headed back out, something happened to me emotionally. I just felt spent and could not get myself back into the game. Emotionally I had resigned myself to the fact that the best I could do this day is just finish. That was hard to digest as I had so many high hopes going into the race. I did pull it together enough to finish the bike and head out on the run.
The run: I have been working hard all year on my run and had made the decision that no matter how hard the first part of the race had been I was going to give it all I could on the run. I had a great run and managed to pass quite a few people. That was very uplifting as I am normally the one getting passed on the run. Several of the people that I passed were folks that I played tag with on the bike, but in the end taking it a little easier on the bike helped me out. I ended up with a PR on the run, which was a great finish to the day.
Lessons learned: Respect the distance, not every race is a given and you never know what obstacles you will face. I faced several challenges and managed to overcome and complete the race, which I am thankful for. Not everyone that started the day finished and I was one of the lucky ones that did. This is not the best race I have had, but it was also not the worst. I have to thank the photographer, if he was not on the beach encouraging me to continue this report would read very differently.
Now that I have had time to reflect I realize that this was overall a fun race and I am glad that I was there to compete. Seeing Porter, Max and Steve out on the course helped get thru the day. It’s always fun to be able to give a shout out to your teammates. So, until the next great adventure…..
Race Report
Race morning: I thought I had set my alarm clock for 3am, but the time on my phone was off 1 hour, so I got up on race day thinking it was at 3am and I made some coffee and checked the time, lo and behold it was actually 4:30. Any one that knows me understands how I enjoy getting up early, I have to say that this threw me off a bit and unfortunately I think it showed later in the day. I ran down to breakfast and gobbled some oatmeal, bananas and rolls with jam. Not my normal breakfast, but it was all I could eat quickly. I still needed to catch the shuttle to the race site. I am glad that I had packed the night before, so I grabbed my stuff and headed down to the shuttle pick up. I ran into a couple of friends who knew by looking at me that it was best to just keep quiet, I must have looked rattled and a bit stressed. Heather Gollnick was also waiting for the same bus so we chatted a bit. We talked about how much sleep we had gotten the night before, when I mentioned 8 hours she wondered how anyone got that much sleep the night before the race. I ran into Heather again in the women’s changing tent. She is very nice and easy to talk with. I put my nutrition on the bike and got my wetsuit on. It was time to head down to the beach. I finally ran into Steve, Max and Porter. It was good to see my teammates on race morning. We got some photos taken and then wished each other well and went off in our own directions.
The swim: We all know that the swim is not my best event, but I was not prepared for what lay ahead. The swells were around 4 ft and the currents were very strong. The only comment I would send to the race director is more buoys’. They were nearly impossible to sight and when I finally thought I saw the buoy and began swimming towards it I was told by the kayaker that it was the wrong buoy and I needed to swim back out again. It was very demoralizing and I decided at that point that I was going to drop out. I have never DNF’d before, but the thought of swimming back to shore and going back out again was more that I could comprehend at that point. On my swim back to shore I began thinking about joining Allison, Trish and Deb and becoming a spectator for the day. I had talked myself into dropping and thought I would be ok with that decision. I have to say that when I got out of the water and told the swim ref that I was done, he said that he had to take my chip and I knew that and thought I was prepared. I was very wrong; the minute he took my chip off I broke down and started sobbing. There was a press photographer standing next to us and he told me, shorter, much shorter, you can do it….much shorter. So I told the ref I would go back out. He put my chip back on and the crowd on the shore began cheering. That helped as I headed back out for the shorter leg. Enough said, I finished the swim and high fived another competitor that finished at the same time. I figure I probably ended up swimming close to 3 miles total by the time I maneuvered all the buoys and got out of the water. I ran into the transition tent to change for the bike.
The bike: This is my strength, but would not be so this day. I started out pacing myself and felt pretty good. I ate a banana around mile 21 and ended up on the side of the road throwing up everything that I had ingested all day. I think the salt water combined with the banana was more that I could handle. I normally can eat or drink pretty much anything and not have issues, so this was a new experience for me. I could no longer drink NUUN and was a little hesitant to ingest too much gel, so took it light on the nutrition for a while. After I got to the turnaround for the first loop and headed back out, something happened to me emotionally. I just felt spent and could not get myself back into the game. Emotionally I had resigned myself to the fact that the best I could do this day is just finish. That was hard to digest as I had so many high hopes going into the race. I did pull it together enough to finish the bike and head out on the run.
The run: I have been working hard all year on my run and had made the decision that no matter how hard the first part of the race had been I was going to give it all I could on the run. I had a great run and managed to pass quite a few people. That was very uplifting as I am normally the one getting passed on the run. Several of the people that I passed were folks that I played tag with on the bike, but in the end taking it a little easier on the bike helped me out. I ended up with a PR on the run, which was a great finish to the day.
Lessons learned: Respect the distance, not every race is a given and you never know what obstacles you will face. I faced several challenges and managed to overcome and complete the race, which I am thankful for. Not everyone that started the day finished and I was one of the lucky ones that did. This is not the best race I have had, but it was also not the worst. I have to thank the photographer, if he was not on the beach encouraging me to continue this report would read very differently.
Now that I have had time to reflect I realize that this was overall a fun race and I am glad that I was there to compete. Seeing Porter, Max and Steve out on the course helped get thru the day. It’s always fun to be able to give a shout out to your teammates. So, until the next great adventure…..