I am really looking forward to sharing some great pics from my dad and Karel as well as sharing my race reports with you. Thank you again for all of your kind words of encouragement and support. Yesterday was an incredibly tough day as my tummy was not tolerating "sports" nutrition near the end of the bike and it started getting worse on the run. At mile 3 of the run, I saw Karel and told him I needed to quit. There would be no way that I would be able to cover 26.2 miles as I was spending more time walking and in the port-o-potty, than covering ground on this run course. But, they don't call it an Ironman for anything - anything is possible.
I remembered how much I wanted to do this run and being injury-free, I needed to prove to myself that I could run. I didn't come to Kona to quit or to walk and sometes the mind has an amazing way of confusing you when you must change your game plan. Luckily, after a few miles of searching for the true meaning of why I do the Ironman, I dug deep and managed to move one foot infront of the other. My tummy was screaming no, no, no (as were my quads) but my mind was saying yes, yes, yes.
After a brutally exhausting 2.4 mile swim, the most windy and challenging bike ride of my life and the most exhilerating, hot, windy, painful, mentally challenging run, I kept a smile on my face as I reminded myself that at any point, my body could have said "ENOUGH already!".
I had the most amazing feeling running down the finishing home stretch and I jumped for joy across the finish line.
A few stats from the race:
Finishing time: 11:02.14
2.4 mile swim: 1:08 -16th division place
T1: 4:11
112 mile bike: 5:40 (19.7 mph) - 17th division place (A HUGE bike PR for me!!)
T2: 3:23
26.2 mile run: 4:05 (9:21 min/mile pace - including all my walk stops, port-o-potty stops and stops to convince myself that I must keep moving)
Overall age group place : 22nd (25-29)
Overall place: 1017 out of 1918
Gender place: 172
