After I ate, I went down to my bedroom and did some light foam rolling as part of my pre-workout/race routine and then went outside in the light rain for a little jog before one last stop at the house bathroom. Karel was giving me reassuring words and telling me that I always do well in the Ironman distance. I appreciated his words and support.
Around 4:50am, we all squeezed into two cars (Jodi's husband drove and Karel drove) and we were driven 0.9 mile to the transition area on the backside of the lake. There were shuttles but we opted for our own valet service.
As we walked to the transition area, the rain started to come down and over the next hour, it went from sprinkles to light showers to no rain to pouring rain. I didn't let it get to me as I had studied the weather and the rain was only predicted to last for a few hours and would stop by ~9am.
The transition process was pretty smooth and I liked having my bags by my bike. I first dropped off my bike and run special needs and then made my way into the transition area. It was a bit dark and with the rain coming down, I found myself needing to triple check everything but after I filled my Ventum hydration system, put in my other bottle between the aero bars, put on my computer, pumped my tires, checked my breaks and gears and put my run flasks in my run bag, I did one more check and trusted myself that all was good. I did one last walkthrough in the transition area and then we all walked to the swim start.
The overall atmosphere was energetic as the crowds were still out despite the rain. The closer we got to the race start at Mirror Lake, the harder the rain started to fall. Even though we were in our ponchos, putting on the wetsuit seemed like a logical option since we were going to get wet anyways. Around 5:50am I put on my Roka wetsuit, put on vaseline around my neck, took in two Clif Ginger chews, sipped on my sport drink in a throw away plastic bottle (1 scoop Orange skratch) and then dropped off my morning clothes bag. Around 6am we were allowed to get into the water so I took advantage of this rare opportunity to warm-up in the water before the race start.
I got into the water around 6:15am and spent some time in the water adjusting my wetsuits, getting the blood flowing and just getting my mind into a good headspace before the start of a long day of exercising. The water felt better than being in the rain so I just stayed in the water until I was ready to line up to the race start. The professional men started at 6:25am, followed by the professional women. I lined up near the front of the age group start, which was gathering by predicted swim finishing times. The day before the race, I told Karel that I felt confident that I could swim around 57-58 minutes so I lined up around that time slot. My athlete Stephanie, who is part mermaid (hehe) lined up next to me so it was great to have her there with me before we started.
The first section of the swim was chaotic. It was a bit rough as everyone was settling into their own rhythm. I was around a lot of pink caps (which for this race, the pink was for the guys and green for the ladies). Even though there is a cable under the water to help with sighting, I had no plans on getting closer to the cable as I wanted to find clean water away from others. But somehow, I kept ending up close to the cable so I just focused on swimming my own effort and finding clean water whenever I could (which often meant accelerating past others or needing to change my stroke to get around others). Since I was near the front, there were plenty of fast swimmers who swam away from me and I was ok with that.
After the first turn buoy, I felt like I was swimming pretty fast but then I made my way back on the first loop and the water felt a lot more choppy and slow. I reminded myself that we only had to swim this section once since the finish of the swim was at the top part of the lake, so I stayed strong and focused and continued to focus on catching water and swimming strong and efficient. I don't wear a watch when I swim cause I will just look at it and it will mess with my head so when I got out of the water for my first loop, I did some quick math and saw 7:35am on the race clock. My immediate thought was "ugh, 30 minutes for the first half of the swim, this is really slow for me!" And then it took me a few buoys after getting back into the water (quick run on the ground before getting back into the water again) I realized that the first loop was longer than the rest of the swim. I kinda laughed at myself but also had no idea exactly how long the first loop was so I just cleared my mind and focused on my swim. Later I learned the first loop was 1.3 miles.
At this point I started to catch the slower seeded swimmers who had just started their first loop and this made it difficult to keep a good rhythm as I had to swim around many swimmers and slow down at times to sight for clean water and to stay on course. I found myself on the cable a lot on the second loop which worked out well when I was heading to the shore as I wasn't in the mix of the first loop swimmers.
After I passed the turn buoy, I continued straight to head to the finish. I felt like the swim went by quickly but it also didn't feel like a "fast" swim for me. As I was getting closer to the shore, I felt like I could pick up my effort a bit and build to the finish. I was with a strong group of swimmers and I couldn't believe that I was swimming away from them. When I got close enough to the shore to stand up, I quickly got out of the water, glanced at the clock and it said 7:30am. As I made my way on the long carpeted run from the swim exit to the transition area (up through the Northwood high school campus), I did some math and I thought "did I really just swim a huge personal best of 55 minutes??" I couldn't believe it if it really happened. I thought maybe the course was short so I wouldn't really know the official results until the finish. I was just so pumped for my swim. It didn't feel hard or fast so I guess I just shocked myself.
I ran pretty quickly through the transition area and accidentally dropped my goggles. I didn't realize that I did until my nutrition athlete Marcus kindly ran them up to me and gave them to me. Such a thoughtful gesture of going out of his way! My friend/athlete Alvi was just about to get on his bike as he crushed the swim in 53 minutes so I wished him a great race as he ran off with his bike.
I sat down and put on my helmet, socks and cycling shoes (I had my compression sleeves under my wetsuit). I put a bar, clif chews and baggy of tums and Gu aminos in my jersey pockets and opted not to wear my arm warmers as I really warmed up in the water.
I ran my bike to the mount line, got on my bike and made my way down to the town. I was excited to see Karel (and Ericka) and Karel gave me a big shout "you swam 55 minutes!" and I gave him a huge smile back. Prior to the race I asked Karel to just tell me things that I would need/want to hear and I think he was really excited to tell me my swim. At this point, my day was off to a great start and I didn't even mind the rain and wet roads. I was so happy to ride my bike on this beautiful and challenging course.
2.4 mile swim
55:43
1st AG (35-39)
7th overall female
44th overall
T1
6:24