*note that this was written in March/April 2019
Let me start by saying that I have some major beef with Ironman Texas (here comes an annoyingly long backstory. Bear with me). IMTX was my first full distance attempt back in 2013, and it ended with me in medical ~4 miles from the finish line. It was devastating, but a HUGE learning experience for me. Since then I have finished Ironman Boulder twice (2014,2016), and Ironman Florida (2015). It gets a little complicated here, but I was supposed to race IMTX in 2016, but that was the year of the bike course debacle, and it just didn’t feel worth it to race there again without hitting the distance (it would have been even shorter than the distance I went in my DNF year). So in the midst of my taper I accepted the option to defer to Boulder, and started the training cycle all over again (oy vey. mistake). So that was not a fun training cycle, and I had my worst finish so far capping it all off with walking off a stomach bug during an 8 hour marathon (I felt better at mile 18 while David got sick that night and felt like shit for the next 3 days). <<note: don’t eat unknown food the night before a race>> I then registered for IMTX 2017, but unexpectedly lost my job in January and dealt with a huge whopping pile of shitty life stuff… so it didn’t happen in 2017 either (deferred to this year, because why not?). I gained 25 lbs in the process, and lost every bit of fitness I’ve ever known. Last May I could barely run a mile, so the smart thing to do is obviously register for the Houston Marathon. Luckily I had a very dear friend who was stuck in a similar sort of rut, and throughout the summer, fall, and winter of 2018 we ran our way back to sanity. Somewhere along the way I realized I was indeed still registered for IMTX, and there was a dauntingly short 14 weeks between the Houston Marathon and IMTX race days (fuck). And then there was that whole winning a slot to Kona thing (OMG!!!), so I got myself a new coach (Angela rocks!) and started training for IMTX.
Here’s where the reflection comes in (finally). Training went swimmingly well. Like really well. I was more consistent than I’ve ever been. If you look back at my training schedule for other races it’s populated with as many yellow and red boxes as there were green. I did enough to have some decent races, but the level of commitment was different. I went 7 weeks without missing a workout! That has never happened! The streak got a little bumpy when I had to travel for a new job, but for the most part I stayed more on target than off. Throughout this training cycle I just kept realizing how much I’ve matured and learned as an athlete over the years. It really made the mindset of how I went into this race so much different. I still have soooo much to learn, and a ton to work on to improve this whole triathlon game I like to play at, but there were a few key differences that happened on Saturday that lead to me feeling truly proud of my finish for the first time ever.
- Feeling in control of the race rather than letting the race control me. This distance has always felt overwhelming to me. There are just so many variables, and so much shit can go wrong. Especially when you’re out there for 13, 14, 15…16… hours. After Boulder 2016 I knew the run really couldn’t get much work which lended some hopefulness. I went into this knowing there would be tough points, both mentally and physically. I spent time during taper imagining all the horrible things that could go wrong, and how I would deal with them (there just might be something to that whole visualization theory). I was able to roll with the punches, and it just never felt like I lost control of the day. The finish line (although very far away at tines) never felt out of reach.
- Remembering to smile. There’s this theory about how your physical form can affect your mental state. Examples being: standing in a power pose to gain confidence, or smiling to get you back into a positive mindset. I love to swim. It’s by far my favorite of the trifecta, but for some reason I always dread the swim in an Ironman. Once again, it’s just daunting. That’s a long as way to swim with no break! I found myself thinking that way while lining up to swim, but then I told myself, “Hey! Don’t be stupid! You like to swim! This is JUST ANOTHER SWIM. Go. Do. It!” I got in the water, and immediately started passing people. And I kept passing people. And kept passing people. When I’d get tired I’d just remind myself that the swim is my strength and this was the last time of day I’d be the one making all of the passes. I may or may not have been repeating something about “passing bitches left and right” over and over again (ahem). I was actually having fun!!! Then on the bike heading south on the #partyonthehardy the headwind was pretty brutal. It got tough. 20+ miles of unrelenting headwind was not fun, especially when I knew I had to do it again and the wind was only going to get worse (hello springtime in Houston). Anytime I felt my spirits taking a tumble, I’d force myself to smile and remind myself that I was lucky to be out there. I can’t begin to tell you how much this helped.
- Not trying to do too much. It was hot. I don’t deal well with heat, and I haven’t gotten much heat acclimation in (yet. Kona = scared). My run felt decent when I came out of T2, but I was going too fast and my heart rate was too high. I kept trying to back off the effort to get my heart rate down, but it just wasn’t budging. I knew I could keep going like that for awhile, but with 25 miles to go I knew it would all go wrong eventually (see??? maturity!) . I decided to try a 2’ run 1’ walk routine to see if I could get the HR down. This worked fairly well and I kept it up the entire first loop. The back part of the course had zero breeze, and not much shade and I could feel myself getting too hot on the second loop so I went down to 1’ run 1’ walk, and carried that all the way through the loop. By the end of the second loop I was feeling amazingly fresh, and the sun was FINALLY starting to go down making the third loop far more pleasant. I then adopted a slightly more loose policy of run as long as I felt like running, and walk for no more than a minute. The result was a pretty big Ironman marathon PR. Success!
So don’t get me wrong. This was still a fucking hard day. I was still out there for 13 hours 46 minutes and 26 seconds. But the MINDSET was so very very different than any of my previous four attempts. I don’t have regrets about my day. I know where I can and need to improve. I know what needs work, and where the focus should be leading into this next build for Kona (seriously??!?! I still can’t believe it!). I finished feeling HAPPY and PROUD. I still feel proud, and there’s not many things that feel better than that.
beerrunner 