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 It's taken me all week to get this report done. It really is not your typical race report. I intend to write more about my life experiences and how IM has helped me and how it has changed me ...lessons learned etc.. For some this will be boring and trivial and that is fine; this is not meant for them. Mike and I are crazy busy right now. For those of you who don't know Mike does the website. All of this is his work. Right now he is extremely busy at work, coaching football and, once school starts, he will be doing a lot of work for the Cub Scouts as the new den leader. He doesn't have the time right now to work on the IMC front page. Once we get back into a routine around here and we find some extra time... hopefully mid-September, we will be making some changes to the website and have the IMC front page up. For the new website I would like to have a page that is dedicated to Danskin. I would also like to have a page for the Luna Chix group. For those of you who are new to triathlon you are so lucky to have these women putting on these clinics for you. When I started there was nothing like this around. I have some new gals that I will be working with in the coming months and I hope to integrate some of the Luna workouts into their programs.
So here it is my IMC race report :)
Hard to believe it has almost been a week since IMC. This report has taken me much longer than normal to do. I have a lot going on at home right no getting the kids ready for school, school clothes shopping, supplies shopping, football practice, cheer practice, unpacking, laundry etc...etc.. I have a lot I want to say and a lot I would like to say about the year leading up to the race, but can't right now. Before you read any further this is a bit more than a race report. If you are strictly interested in reading what went on at IMC then scroll down to where you see ”RACE REPORT”.
I got an e-mail from Hamish today. I knew he was not happy with his results, he should have finished a couple hours ahead of where he finished. The first time I talked with him after the race he seemed fine with it; it really puzzled me. He is a very driven person and always wants to do his best. I knew the results I saw for him were not his best, but he didn’t seem to care. Today I understood why he was not so concerned with his results.
For some reason Hamish decided not to wear socks for the bike portion of the race. This was not something we discussed; it was something he just decided to do on his own because he heard me say I don’t wear socks. He knew at the time this was a bad idea... that he shouldn’t change anything, but he did. He ended the bike with a 3" blister on the ball of his foot to start the run. After running for a couple miles on it he decided to walk. He wound up walking next to a man who was doing this race for his daughter; his daughter has only 4 weeks to live. I do not know the details yet, I will hear more at our meeting early next week. I can only imagine the conversation he had with this gentleman during that 6 hour walk. Hamish, described it as a very moving experience and had him in tears for much of the walk ... clearly all he had worked for over the past year did not matter to him ...he could care less what his time was for the race he walked and talked with this man.
I can not think of a better person for this man to have walked with than Hamish. Hamish cares about people, when you talk he is really listening to what your saying.. he is not looking past you or beyond you. He has helped me through some very tough times over the past year. How can you hear something like that from someone and not have it affect you? I know from my own experience that there is nothing worse than losing a child; nothing. I guess in a way I was lucky in that I don’t have the memories of birthdays, holidays, the first day of school. My memories are of what would have and should have been.
My first child was stillborn. We were so excited when I went into labor, but when I got to the hospital we got the bad news. I went through 12 hours of labor knowing that Jeffery would be born dead. My hopes and dreams for my future were taken away. As I sit here and write this it seems like yesterday. I still feel that gut wrenching pain and loss I know this will never go away. After thinking through all this and reliving all of it again this morning, this race report seems so trivial...my race and my season seem so trivial. The disappointment of a bad IM race is nothing compared to that. Life goes on and you keep trying; you don’t give in or give up when you really want something. I have had many IM disappointments. It took me 5 IMs to get what I wanted. I had a stillborn and a miscarriage with twins before I was able to have my 4 children. Never give up on your hopes and dreams and don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. You decide.
Things have been put back into perspective for me as they always do. I have just had one of the most stressful years of my life immediately following on of the best years of my life after achieving my dream of qualifying for Kona. I have been let down over the past year by several individuals who I had respected and whom I had considered friends. If you know me then you know that when I say something I mean it. I have no hidden agenda. This was not the case with these individuals. I trust when someone says something they mean it that they feel moral obligations to stand by what they said. Clearly I was very naive. I decided after IMC that I would put this year behind me and that this would be the start of a new year; new friends, new experiences. So below you will find my report. It is not full of wattage, HR numbers or even nutrition info ...it is more just about my thoughts during the day. More of a journal type entry.
Disclaimer for guys… you may find this race report to be a bit too “female” in nature.
RACE REPORT
 Our original plan was for the family to head up to Penticton the week before the race and enjoy a family vacation before IM. In the past I have always gone up by myself then Mike has followed with the kids on the day before the race. Every year the football jamboree has fallen during IM weekend and we didn’t want the boys to miss this. This year because of all the work we have been doing on the house we decided we would go ahead and have them miss the jamboree. The majority of the summer has been spent working on the house; getting things done here and I was looking forward to a week of playing with the kids up in Penticton before the race. Well that was not to be.
The week before we left, my daughter found out the high school was having tryouts for a JV cheer squad. In the past they haven’t; had one because the football team was so small, but this year they had 80 kids show up between the freshman and JV teams. Candace had wanted to try out for varsity squad in the spring but had missed that due to a trip to Paris with my sister. She told me that if she made the JV squad she would have mandatory 4 hour practices every day the following week; the week we were going to be gone. So the decision was made when we found out she made the squad to not bring everyone up that week. Instead I rode up with Hamish on Wed before the race then Mike came up on Sat evening, after Alex’s jamboree game; the night before the race.
I felt great all week before the race; very relaxed and ready to race. I was excited for my athletes who would be participating in their first IM. Everything was new and exciting for them
My goal for this race was to break 4 hours on the run. I knew from my training that this was a very realistic goal.
Sometimes it’s your day, and sometimes it isn’t. This wasn’t my day.
The night before the race I slept pretty well. I woke up a couple of times but was able to get back to sleep. Everything went smoothly race morning. I woke up at 3:45am, had my usual pre-race meal; 5 eggs, half a bagel, a mocha, then headed down to the race.
I got my bike all set up. I went through my checklist of things I needed to do in transition. Things I needed to put in my bags, on my bike. It’s really easy to get distracted during this time (you may run into people, start conversations, etc.) That’s why I need a checklist. I saw Win, who said he felt good. I wished him luck, and then headed to drop off my dry clothes bag. I saw Jo Ann as I was dropping off my dry clothes bag. While there we ran into Tom Price, wished him luck, chatted for a bit and headed down to the water. While walking down, we were joined by Hamish. I was feeling pretty good.
After the pro start I got in the water for a good warm up. I decided to line up straight in line with the buoys. I started about 3-4 rows back. For the first time this season I decided to start my watch at the start of the race rather than at T1. I had a good warm up before the swim start. As I was lining up ready to go I ran into Loretta Murphy. I haven’t seen her for a couple years...she came over and gave me a big hug and wished me well...it was very nice to see her; she seemed very happy.
I originally had planned on starting to the far right hand side. I should have stayed with that plan. Everything was fine until we reached the first buoy. At this point all those people that were to the far right were merging over to go around the buoy. I got quite beaten up here. I am pretty sure this is when I got all these scratches that are all over my hands. It was crazy and I was right in the middle of it. Several times I just stopped. There was nothing I could do. At some point here my watch was ripped off. I have a big scratch on my arm where the face of my watch should be. I started to panic a bit as this was reminding me very much of my IMCDA swim I had a couple years ago. Then I decide to close my eyes, put my head down and just keep swimming. Anyway I made it through it, and after what was probably 3 min of panic the rest of the swim was fine. 1:13:41
When I got out the water I looked down at my watch to see the time, but my watch was gone! T1 went pretty well. I ran out and almost grabbed the wrong bike. 01:56
Off on the bike is always a relief. I felt really well. My swim wasn’t that bad considering all that I had dealt with at that first buoy it was a nice surprise to see the clock said about 1:16 as I was leaving transition.
 The first hour and half felt great on the bike. After that it was all just a downhill slide. Just past Ok falls, on the section between there and Richter, I wasn’t feeling so hot. I started to get a headache. My heart rate was good (I was reading it from my Powermeter since my watch was gone) but my stomach was not feeling well. I thought maybe I was riding too hard…so I slowed down even though my HR was right where it was suppose to be. I untied the string on my bottoms to loosen it up a bit, but it didn’t seem to work. My liquid nutrition was not sitting well with me. Just before Richter Pass I switched from CarboPro + ELoad to water + Cliff Shot Blocks. I wasn’t sure what was wrong. My watts and HR were OK, but my stomach was acting as if I was pushing too hard. My RPE felt like a 6…hmmm??? I couldn’t figure this out. I kept telling myself “You’ll come around. Don’t give up. It’s not over until it’s over.” I still had a headache... then into the rollers I still felt ok but still not right. I can’t explain it. I just knew something was wrong. The rest of the bike was more of the same; waves of feeling good then bad.
As I left the out and back, I resorted to Skittles; Plan C. Nothing else was making me feel better. It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t ride, but I knew something wasn’t right. The Skittles seemed to help for some reason, or it could have been just a wave of feeling good. The climb up Yellow Lake seemed fine. Muscularly everything seemed great, but I felt off as far as my nutrition was concerned.
Coming down into town I was feeling better. (My friend Wendy, who sent me a note wishing me good luck, said I’m sure you have several back up plans…she was right and I had used them all and still was not feeling great.) 5:48:29
Came into T2 and I actually felt pretty good during this time. I was going over the run in my head...first 5 miles easy, then 2x10 mile runs, then the last mile, give it all I have left. I have found this to be the easiest way for me to think about this.
Fortunately I had put my Garmin in the T2 bag, so I would have a watch for the run 03:02
I remember noticing how good my legs felt when I started running off the bike; no fatigue. This was different from prior IM races. I saw Mike as I came out and he yelled that I was in 15th place...15th! I thought to myself, “These girls must be fast and must be having a great day.” My swim wasn’t that bad and my bike wasn't horrible either hmmm??? (He had slightly miscounted; he later told me that I had been in 13th off the bike). My plan was to run a 9:20 pace for the first 5 miles. By about mile 3 I started to feel the same stomach issues that I had on my bike. I kept telling myself “It’s fine, you feel good… you’re OK”. Ok I thought maybe everything will be OK I wasn’t too far off where I thought I would be at this point. I then put it out of my mind and focused on what I had to do. Mike told me he would see me again out at SKAHA lake as I came back. I was very careful those first five miles...I made sure I stayed at 9:30s for each one, just to be sure.. I think some of the mile markers were off. I felt pretty good until I got to about mile 6. It was close to where I ran in to my friend Chris Whyte. Things just slowly got worse from there.
I kept adjusting my fuel belt to see if that would help the pain I was feeling. I have had stomach issues in past races but they were always much higher, more in the chest never as low as this. When Chris went by on the bike he asked how I was doing. I said "GREAT" I lied :-) I was trying to convince myself I felt fine. He gave me some words of encouragement then went on to check on his athletes. The stomach pain didn’t go away but would fade in and out. After a while I decide to try gels and water. Maybe it was the Coke today. I kept trying to relax and not worry about it … just keep moving forward... keep turning those legs over. It has been my experience with IM racing that you have these waves of feeling awful then feeling great. They come and go and the key is to stay tough when you are feeling the worst and wait for things to turn.
 Well that day it just never turned. I felt worse as I went on. Shortly before the turnaround I saw Simone. She gave me a big yell... I could tell by how far ahead of me she was that this was her day! I know she has had a lot going on in her life with work and a new boyfriend I was glad to see that things were going well for her today. Next I saw Karolina Wanke...Chris was riding next to her. She looked fantastic too. This was her first IM and she ended up second in her age group! Right behind her I saw Cynthia Krass .. they were all pretty close together. I thought to myself “That is where I should be.” UGH! I still hadn’t given up at this point but I was becoming even more concerned as this pain was not leaving ...it seemed to be getting worse.
The run back was not good. I walked through several aid stations and even stopped and bent over a couple times to try to get this pain to leave.. it didn't. I saw Mike as I came back by the lake he told me I was in 10th place and that the girls ahead appeared to be fading...Shortly after I saw him I did pass two girls in my age group....now I as in 8th, but about 1/4 mile later a girl passed me....that was an awful feeling. I don’t know how I made it through those last miles. One very nice thing that did happen that puts a smile on my face as I think of it today is I saw a friend just as I made the final turn into the chute. I heard his voice yell “Go Jill!” in his very cool Nordic accent. I look up and it’s HANS! He seemed sooo excited for me. He started running with me. I swear he ran almost the whole mile with me in his flip flops (I was thinking he’s going to kill himself ) He was telling me good job, asking me how I was feeling, telling me I looked great..(I thought, liar), and talking to the other spectators as we ran by. It was just comical... I couldn’t talk and at the time I probably didn’t seem very amused, but looking back I think that little part of my run made my day. Thanks Hans.. Run 4:18:09.
I finished in 11:26:06, about 10 minutes slower than last year, which really surprises me given how off I felt for the majority of the day. I crossed the line and was met by this wonderful volunteer. I wish I knew her name so I could thank her personally. We walked over to the athlete area and she kept offering to get me things trying to help me. I really just wanted to lie down... I went over by the fence and laid down and told her I was fine. While I was laying there I saw Scott Greene. He is a friend of mine from the PRO club. We have done some training together and had come up to Penticton in the spring with some other friends to ride the bike course. I called to him and he came over and sat with me. This was Scott’s first Ironman. I’ve known Scott for years through boot camp. He was thanking me for all of the help I had given him, telling me how he could never repay me for all the help and advice.
 Well he repaid me that day! I really want to thank him for taking care of me after the race. He was in quite a bit of pain himself after the race and was there taking care of me. He got pizza and went to look for Mike.. When he didn’t see him he went and stood in a long line to get his dry clothes bag (with his cell phone) so he could call Mike …he was great …I CANNOT THANK HIM ENOUGH. I really believe what goes around comes around. Scott’s friend Kraig was there as well keeping me company. Once I felt better I decided to eat some fruit; then go find Mike. Big Mistake! I immediately got very nauseous and had to lie down again.
When I got back to the room that evening and got in the shower it all became perfectly clear why I had felt the way I had all day. My period had started. Had this been the day before or even the day after I am sure I would have been fine. The first day is always the worst for me. This explains the headache on the bike and the cramping I was going through ...it wasn’t my nutrition after all. I probably messed myself up even more by messing with my nutrition plan, thinking that was the cause of how I was feeling. I am disappointed with my results, but I gave it my best effort under the circumstances. This experience has spurred me to work even harder the next year...so maybe it's a good thing.
This is my fourth straight year doing Ironman Canada. I love this race. The city, the people, and I plan on doing this every year. Last year, I had my best race ever here in Canada. I expected to come back and have an even better result this year. Looking back over this past year, I have had my best season ever. I couldn’t be happier with the results from my sprint, Olympic and ½ IM races. What’s amazing is thah I was able to race well at all the distances, while doing training that was specific to IM. I also started the coaching business, and I have such a wonderful group of people. The race was a big disappointment for me, but certainly not my first, and probably not my last. I was able to get a PR on the swim (by a few seconds) which is a total shock especially given the incident at the first buoy.
I have been looking back over my training schedule looking forward to next year, looking for areas I can improve upon and things I need to change. One thing I am thinking is that I might want to hire a coach for myself next year… I don’t know; we’ll see. I am going to start looking into this possibility. I know it will be hard to find just the right person for me. What I really want is someone to work with me, not for me. Someone to make sure I am taking care of my needs as I seem to put my family and athletes first then worry about me. I need to have someone else take over the “worry about Jill” role so I don’t have to worry about me and can focus on everything else. I know it is going to be really hard to find the right person.
Again I would like to thank all my family and friends who have helped me through this past year. I could not have done it without all of you, you are the best! | 
