I made it through the triathlon season this year! This was my number one goal.
I hired a cycling coach this season, (Lang Reynolds) and one of the things asked on the questionnaire was “what are your strengths?” I couldn’t answer that question. What are my strengths? I’ve thought about that a lot over the season. I now have an answer for my coach. One of my strengths is that I will persevere, no matter what the obstacle or the setback. I am not afraid to be different, to try new things. I don’t need the approval of others. I am my own person. What you see is what you get. I don’t play games, and when I say something, I mean it. What I have learned this year is that a lot of people seem to be very uncomfortable with this, but I have also learned that a lot of people are quite inspired by this.
As the triathlon season started this year, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to do Ironman Canada. I didn’t know if I had the passion for it, and I didn’t just want to suffer through another Ironman without the desire to compete. Danskin became my “A” race, and my focus became the fulfillment of a goal that I had set for myself several years ago; the “25/6:30” goal. I accomplished half of this at Danskin. The following week I did Ironman Canada. Looking back at that day, and comparing it to my Kona race is like night and day. Canada seemed like a breeze to me in retrospect. I didn’t go to Canada this year with the goal of qualifying for Kona. In fact, I had decided that I would forego a slot if I happened to qualify. After the race, Mike told me “I think you qualified”, but at that time I was still of the mind that I was not going to race in Kona. I just wanted to go to watch the event for the first time.
So, that night in late August, I went to bed after the race (with ice bags on both knees), and felt very happy and content for the first time in quite a while. At some point in the middle of the night, I woke up and something just said to me “No, you need to go to Kona and finish your season.” For some reason I felt that Kona would bring me closure to this most challenging year.
A couple of weeks after IMC, I was cursing myself for this decision. What was I thinking?!? I had no time for training, none. The four kids were going back to school. The team was expanding rapidly, and I had a to do annual training plans for all of my athletes. Mike kept reminding me “Stop putting pressure on yourself, for Kona”. My training between Canada and Kona consisted of three swims, (thank goodness for my Halo Swim Trainer... this thing saved me!). One two hour run, and many 1 hour runs. Probably 9-10 rides, the longest being about 2 hours. About 3 weeks after IMC, I was just completely wiped out. My power numbers were way down, and I felt physically awful. I was very concerned about this, so Lang and I agreed that it would be better to go into Kona as rested as possible, rather than over-trained. I had no problem with that!
So, heading to Kona, I had no idea of what to expect. We did a Functional Threshold test two weeks out from the race, and my power numbers were still much lower than I had going into Ironman Canada. I did know that I wasn’t going to have the swim, bike or run of my life, so I was just determined to do what I could.
I spent the week before the race in a beautiful condo with Char and Jason. We were right next to Lava Java and very close to the swim start. Originally we were supposed to stay at another place farther out, but due to construction, we got moved. The upside of the move was that we were closer to town. The downside was that we were now in a 1 bedroom condo. This meant that I got to sleep on the air mattress. This worked out great! This was a two story condo with a loft. Off of the loft was a deck on the roof. I moved the air mattress onto the deck, and slept outside. I loved this! The first three nights I slept so soundly and had so many dreams. I had not slept that well in a long, long time. I pretty much spent the whole week relaxing at the condo with the Popps. On Thursday, Sharon, Blake and their family arrived.
On race morning, I was very relaxed. I wasn’t too nervous, I was wondering whether I was going to be able to do the swim, bike and run, and how much this was going to hurt, given my lack of training over the past month. I walked down to the swim start by myself, and halfway there I realized that had forgotten my bottles for the bike, so I had to head back. This worked out really well because when I got back I got my body marked, went in and pumped up my tires, went to the bathroom, and then it was time for the race to start…. no time to sit around and worry!
Swim...this was the part of the race I was most concerned with. I started the swim to the far left...near the Ford sign that was floating in the water. No problem with the start it was one of the calmest IM starts ever. I was very relaxed and felt good. I was able to draft off a guy for about the first 20 minutes, then my goggles started leaking... the leaking got worse and worse as the swim went on. Shortly after the turn around I felt like my cap was coming off. I stopped and yes, it was about to come right off my head. I stopped, took my goggles off, took my cap off, put my cap back on and then my goggles back on and started to swim again. One of the guys on a surf board came racing over; I think he thought I was DONE. While I was doing this I got a slight cramp in my foot...this was a concern. I tried not to kick too much after this. The rest of the swim was just frustrating constantly having to stop to fix the goggles. I think the sunscreen on my face is what caused the problem. I had swum with these goggles all week and had not had any problem with them! Through it all I just tried to stay calm and relaxed, there was nothing I could do about it so I just had to deal with it as best I could.
Transition was fine....They make you walk all the way around this big pier to get to your bike...next time I will carry my shoes to the bike and then put them on. I walked through transition and I was sure to get 2 big cups of water just before I got to my bike.
Bike...headed out on the bike and felt pretty good. You do this out and back in 
town, the road is terrible here ...lots of pot holes. As I was coming back down the hill, my aero bars slipped and were pointing DOWN! I quickly pulled them back up. They were not so loose that they wouldn't stay level while just riding along; I just had to be sure not to hit any bumps. I figured if it got worse I would flag down the support crew. For the first couple of hours I felt pretty good. However, I was having this unusual pain on the bottom of my feet. I tried to ignore it, or to wiggle my toes and move my feet around in my shoes, but it wasn’t going away. It felt to me like we had a pretty steady headwind all the way out to where you go up Havi. Once we started climbing, the winds got worse. It was hard to climb and have such a strong wind coming at you from the side. One of my biggest concerns was trying to eat or drink because I did not want to take a hand off of the bars The winds out there felt like they were swirling around...I felt constantly on guard, like I wasn't sure where it was coming from. I remembered the winds being very bad out there last time too. I was really looking forward to the turnaround; down hill with some help from the wind, but no, with the wind the way it was it was almost as tough going back down.
Around mile 70 this pain I had had in my foot for most the ride really started to bother me...to the point that it was distracting and I was focused more on the foot than my riding. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I felt like there we needles pushing up into my foot. When I got off the bike I could barely walk, the pain was so bad. I felt like I had huge blisters on the balls of my feet and in the blisters there were needles pushing up... weird I know. For a moment... and I mean moment, I thought "I can't finish like this" I stood there and thought, let’s walk and see...calm down...no rush. So I took my cycling shoes off and walked through transition. It seemed like this took forever. Once inside there were three gals there to help me; they were very helpful and very sweet. I told them what was wrong and asked if they could get me some ice for my feet. I looked at the bottom of my foot...no blood ...nothing it was just swollen and sore. I stuck my hand in my shoe and then realized what the problem was the screws had popped through in both shoes. I guess my feet didn't like pushing against that for 112 miles ;) I iced my feet for just a bit and thought, just go out there and do the best you can do.
Running was painful but not so bad I couldn't deal with it. I managed to run most of it although at the end I probably could have walked faster than I was running :) In the first couple hours of the run I thought a lot about all of you.. the team, plans for next year, etc... I tried to stay very positive and smiled at everyone that went by. Coming back into town at some point I was looking down and I heard a "Go team JFT!!" shouted. I looked up and it was Gordo. That was a nice surprise! Shortly after that I saw Blake, Sharon and the Popps, I had seen Kirsten and her husband on my way out. Tom Price came up to me and gave me a big high five just before I headed up Palani. It was a huge help to have everyone out there cheering in support...THANKS!
Heading out the Queen K was definitely the toughest part of my day. At that point my feet were killing me. I thought that I had thought all of the positive thoughts that I could possibly think of, and I realized that I still had SIXTEEN MILES TO GO! That’s a long way! I just wanted to be done! There were people walking all around me, and I really just wanted to walk. At the same time, I realized that if I walked, it would take that much longer! So I continued to run, and I could tell that I was getting slower, and slower, and slower. This was frustrating. Negative thoughts were starting to work their way into my head… feeling sorry for myself… all of the things that I try to avoid. It was a real battle to try to stay positive… to think about my running form… (what little form I could muster).
As I was running out to the Energy Lab, I saw that the sun was setting. I just kept focusing on getting there, so I could turn around and head home. It felt like it took FOREVER to get to the Energy Lab. Once I was there, the sun was just about to set and it was absolutely beautiful. I was running straight into the setting sun, and it lifted my spirits. I was about to start heading home!
As I left the Energy Lab and got out to the Queen K, it was getting dark. A lady handed me a glow stick, which I looped around my wrist and headed home. For the rest of the run back I was running in the dark. All I could see were these glowsticks coming toward me. There was no one ahead of me that I could see… I was running completely by myself… all alone with my glow stick, for several miles. Occasionally people would run by me, but we were all much more spread out than we were on the way out. It was very quiet and peaceful. I could hear the ocean waves. I really liked this.
I finally made it back to town, then realized that I had to run down this big long hill. I started thinking, “Oh no. This is going to hurt!” There was a gentleman running in front of me, and I saw him drop his glow stick. He ran back to pick it up, and he made some comment to me that he had to have that glow stick, as it was going to be his souvenir from the race. About 30 seconds later, there were some little girls in the road, asking people for their glow sticks. Without hesitation, this man ripped off his glow stick from around his neck and handed it to the little girls.
I thought that was really sweet! I took mine off and threw it to the girls as well.
So, now I’m at the bottom of the hill, and with all of this distraction, it didn’t seem that bad! I was almost there. I realized as I was approaching the finish line that I hadn’t talked with Char or Sharon that morning about running down the chute with me. I was hoping that they had figured out where to meet me, because I had no idea. As I came around the last corner, I saw the two of them with huge smiles on their faces, screaming and yelling. I ran up, grabbed their hands, and THEY WENT SPRINTING DOWN THE CHUTE! I thought “OH MY GOSH!” These girls are going to make me really run! I was so thankful to have them there. I was really glad that they could share this with me.
I finished...did the best I could do given the challenges I faced that day and for the entire year. I am grateful that I was able to finish the season in Kona. I am looking forward to some time off. This year is behind me now, and there are a lot of exciting changes happening in my life.
Next year is going to be a new beginning and a great year. The team has grown to over 60 people which just seems amazing to me. I never thought this team would grow this quickly. We are planning several events already, including a large group heading down to Wildflower for one of our early season races; I have never done Wildflower and I am really looking forward to it. This next year I would like to focus more on my short course racing, do a couple of half Ironmans, and end my season with Ironman Canada. I am also starting another business venture, and we're moving, yeah! No more remodeling!
Huge thanks to my family and team for all of the support this year!
