Ann's Race Report for the Women

We arrived into Busselton Sunday evening (still Saturday in the states); ate a quick dinner and went to bed around 10:00. The flight was very long but actually not bad; it went much quicker than I anticipated.
The next morning we headed into the small, quaint town of Busselton. After breakfast we walked down to the beach, near the jetty, to check out the ocean. I was in complete awe. I have never seen water so beautiful in my life. It was an incredible bluish-green and absolutely crystal clear. I just couldn’t wait to swim in it. I began to get very eager for the race (at least the swim anyway).
The week went quick and fairly smooth. Dave, bless his heart, tried desperately to find me a disc wheel to rent since I so idiotically left mine at CyclePath the week before. But, after 3 days of searching, I conceded, believing not having a disc was, maybe, meant to be. I had packed my 404’s so I used those.

As the week continued, I grew increasingly worried because I wasn’t feeling as rested as I have been in the past before a race. I was having multiple aches and pains…both my neck and lower back hurt and my right hip flexor was tight and sore along with both my upper gluteus. Up until this week, I had no discomfort so this was very frustrating. Who knows why, maybe it was from the extremely long flight or the taper or both.

We signed up with a company called Tri Travel. The group consisted of around 30 athletes along with their family/friends. A small bus would pick us up throughout the week and chauffer us to practice swims, a tour of the course, for registration, the carbo dinner, etc. We met some really nice people. It was the first attempt at an Ironman for most of the athletes in the group (all were successful).
The first day on the bus I met Monica Fernandez who is from Guatemala and she currently lives in Morocco. We talked awhile about our athletic backgrounds. We also shared our past accomplishments and our goals for the race. We discovered we were in the same age group. She looked incredibly fit. She told me she had previously won Ultraman (overall female) two years in a row…WOW!! We quickly became friends and hung out through the week.

By Thursday, the weather had progressively become colder and very windy. Friday, we went to the carbo dinner located in a large tent near the finish. The wind was so strong I couldn’t believe it and would find myself staring at the tent in disbelief. I took pictures to prove it. I (and everyone else) thought the tent was going to blow over at any second. I talked to a few athletes who had competed in the New Zealand IM the year it was so windy that they had to cancel the swim and change the bike and run to less than a half IM. They agreed the weather we were having was eerily the same. I kept thinking, “thank god it is only Friday night and we still had over 30 hours before the race”. After dinner, there were a lot of very nervous athletes.
Sunday morning we woke to fabulous weather. The air temperature was perfect and there were no winds. I was stoked.
Before every race I calculate approximate times for each discipline along with an approx. total finishing time. The first is the slowest time I would be satisfied with (not including any major problems that may occur). The second is a more realistic time and the third is the fastest possible time I truly believe I could achieve on an absolutely perfect day. Below are those approximate goals I calculated for this race:
Slowest- 10:25:00
Realistic- 10:10:00
Fastest possible- 9:58:00

My Race

Swim: 1:00:19 (PR) - never thought I would swim this fast.
HR- ave 172, max 174
3rd in AG

Dave and I entered the water about 5 minutes before the start. The water was very murky and slightly choppy because of the stormy weather we had for the last few days.
The swim is a mass start but is separated in 5 different wave sections according to the estimated time you had given when you signed up. I was given a “white” cap which placed me in the second wave. We were supposed to be able to swim between 60-69 minutes. Directly in front of my wave was the 1st wave in which every athlete was supposed to be able to swim less than 1 hour. I was very excited and thought it was going to be a great swim…boy… was I wrong. This was the most brutal and combative swim I have done thus far.

My strategy: line up on the left side (farthest from the jetty) in the very front of my wave so I could hopefully latch on to the feet of a “super fast” swimmer in front of me. Well, that was no problem, as soon as the gun went off it was like a wall of feet and they weren’t moving “fast”. What were they doing? Why weren’t they swimming? These people were definitely not sub 60 minute swimmers. If you are ever asked to give an estimated swim time…please, do not exaggerate your swim time!!! Not only did I end up struggling to swim around all these overzealous exaggerators, but, within minutes all the swimmers behind me had caught up and were trying to swim over us. I had my ankles grabbed and pulled numerous times. I got hit in the goggles. I was punched in the stomach. I had some guy place his hand on my back and shove me under the water. At one point, I almost panicked and had to talk myself out of it. But once we rounded the jetty it was heaven, the crowds seem to just disappear and I jumped on some faster feet and swam straight back to the shore trying desperately to make up time. I truly thought I would swim, and was on pace for, a 1:05. Once I realized how close I was to the swim finish and what time I had on my watch, I about shit my pants (I mean wetsuit). I tried so hard to get out of the water and break that infamous 1 hour mark. I was so close and just couldn’t do it, oh well; that just gives me even more motivation to increase my swimming when we get home. I was still so incredibly happy with my time and even more excited because I had not counted on swimming that fast and it put 5 minutes in my pocket for a nice little cushion, just in case. At this point, I was hopeful and knew if the bike and run went as planned I actually had a chance at braking 10 hrs.

T1: 2:12
The transitions are very fast especially coming in off the bike. For some reason they add the transition times into the bike and run splits. I do not know why and. I don’t like it.
Bike: 5:20:50 (PR) (5:23:02 with T1)
Ave- 20.9mph
HR: ave-155, max-169
Ave. normal watts- 146w
1st in AG

I feel there are only two downsides of this bike course: the three loops (which you are dreading by the end of the second loop), and a long out and back section of fairly rough chip seal (which you are dreading after the first). Oh yeah, and the wind…other than that it was a great course, incredibly beautiful and super flat.
I had one mechanical issue (if you can even call it that). I use an aero bottle on the front of my bike. Dakota (our dog) chewed the straw, perforating it with multiple teeth holes. I hadn’t noticed it until the week prior to leaving. So, after we arrived in Busselton, I purchased a new straw. I tested it once before the race and it worked fine. Well, then came race day and within a few miles of the first loop it became a major problem. All of a sudden it was way too long and every time I hit even a small bump it would jam into my upper or lower lip, my upper teeth or both. After ramming my mouth at least 10 times (in less than an hour) I began cursing at it. By the second loop, I tried frantically to shove it further into the bottle. By the third loop, it took everything I had not to rip that f*#&ing piece of plastic out of the bottle and hurl it as far as I could. Needless to say, I had a fat lip for the first half of the run which eventually either went away or I stopped focusing on it.

The first loop on the bike went well. I felt great physically and the wind was very light. I was pretty energized. I forgot to hit my lap splits so I do not know what time I did for each lap.
Once I started the second lap I could feel the wind pick up and for some reason my legs started to get fatigued and moderately sore. I began to worry because I still had a long way to go especially since our longest ride since June (in the Germany IM) had only been 76 miles. I wondered how I was going to handle this.
Around mile 45, I could see a female in the distance. As I passed her I realized it was Monica. We said a few words and then played leap frog for around 10 miles. My legs were really starting to hurt so I backed off and let her go.

I was not looking forward to the third leg at all. My legs were extremely tired, I was really dreading the long section of chip seal and by this time the winds were really strong.
My speed slowly continued to decrease and so did my average watts.
Around mile 80, my legs (for some reason) started feeling better so I decided to push it as hard as I could and maintain 145-150w, trying to increase my average watts. My goal for the entire bike was an average of 150w and I was having a very difficult time doing this. I really had no idea how I would run after pushing so hard on the bike. The odometer on my bike is always slightly off so I am never sure what speed I am truly going.
As I approached the bike finish I realized that I was extremely close to a 5:20 bike split so I pushed even harder. As I entered the dismount area and got off my bike, a super sharp pain shot down my left quad and I thought that is it; I am done. Thankfully, it immediately went away as soon as I started running toward the transition but I was still cautious. I hit my split as I entered the transition and was ecstatic. I made it (5:20:50) with only 10 seconds to spare!

T2: 1:38
As I entered the changing tent I saw only one other female already changing her shoes. It was Monica. I couldn’t believe it. What are the chances that we would both end up in T2 together? I gave her some encouraging words and we smiled at each other. As she ran out of the tent she yelled back in her fun foreign accent “come and catch me…” We found out after the race we would soon stand side by side on the podium. That was really cool.

Run: 3:27:44 (PR) (3:29:22 including T2)
7:55/m
HR: ave-151, max 158
1st in AG

As I left the transition I hit my split and looked at my overall time to see what I would have to run to possibly break 10 hours. It said 6:25, holy shit; I could actually do this if I could just run a 3:30 marathon. I smiled for only a moment because, even though I have run 3 sub 3:30 marathons in IMs, I did not want to get too confident. I knew anything could happen.
My legs were very tired running out of transition and I had doubts I could do this but I just kept telling myself to give it a little more time and sure enough, within ½ a mile or so they loosened up and started to feel pretty good.
Dave passed me heading the opposite direction, around mile 2 ½, and told me to watch my pace. I am glad he did because I think I was running a little too fast too early, even though my heart rate was in my zone. I slowed down just a tad. I constantly monitored my heart rate and it was a consistent 149-151.
Around mile 5, I noticed a really sharp pain on the top of my right foot. I was sure that I was being stung by a bee. I tried to look down as I was running but was unable to clearly see anything. I thought about stopping but that quickly exited my mind because that was not an option. I decided that if it were a bee he would stop stinging me eventually. Within a few minutes, sure enough, the pain subsided and I completely forgot about it until after the race when I removed my shoes and socks. There, stuck to the top of my foot, about 2cm away from a small, painful skin-removed sore was either a very small piece of glass or a seashell. I thought how lucky am I that it eventually moved to an area of my foot and completely stopped rubbing.
I was also having a little bit of stomach issues (grumbling, bloating and gassy) early on. I had been taking my nutrition every 3km and I realized this was only about 15 minutes apart and must be too soon, thus the GI issues. I decided to take it every 4km, approx every 20 min, and this did the trick. I stopped having problems soon after.

Around mile 7 ½, I entered a park that leads to the jetty area. As I ran down the path I looked up and saw sitting on a brick wall next to the entrance of the jetty, right in front of me, was Luke Bell and company. What an incredible thrill it was to have him cheer for me. After that point, that area is what I focused on during each lap. Just those few seconds of running past a world class triathlete and have him personally cheer for me just erased all the pain I was having for a brief moment…it was heaven!
The course was marked every 2km and after the 22km mark it seemed like eternity to get to each of those markers. It really started getting tough around 24km (just a little over halfway).
We had a pretty strong head/cross wind every time we ran west which was half of the loop. It was very difficult to run against but every time I turned the corner and headed back the other way it was wonderful.
I always hit the splits on my watch to monitor my nutrition intake, not my pace (because I loose track of time and can’t remember when I drink) because of this I have no idea how fast I am running. I go completely by heart rate. I continually tried to pick it up but my legs just wouldn’t go any faster and my heart rate stayed exactly the same.

By 26km, my left calf was really tight, sore and about to seize. The outside of my left foot was painful and my right quad and IT band were very sore. I think this was due to pushing against the wind. I did not feel like I was at the point of injury though so I kept running my pace.
I told myself a couple of times, there was no way in hell I was doing Arizona (and of course, now I can’t wait to race it).
I was so excited to run around the last turn around because I knew I was home free. I tried so hard to pick it up but my legs just wouldn’t move any faster. I was quickly catching a man who was walking and he was wearing a TriTravel bike jersey (the group we were with). As I ran up to him I noticed he had two wrist bands on his arm which signified he was on his last loop and on his way to the finish. I yelled out to him, “hey TriTravel, come on, let’s go, you are almost done, I can hear the finish.” He began to run a little and mustered that a friend of his, who has never beat him in a race before, was only 100m ahead of him. I responded “well then let’s go, we are there.” The next thing I knew he was running beside me and then as soon as we could see the finishing chute ahead he started sprinting. He caught up to his friend and they ran across the finish line together. It was pretty awesome.

This was the first time I’ve run down the finishing chute and actually savored the moment. I ran up to kids on either side with their hands out and gave them high fives. I felt like I jumped into the air a couple of times (but I’m pretty sure that didn’t actually happen) and I know I had the biggest smile on my face.

As I look back at my life, I never in a million years would have pictured myself being an Ironman (I didn’t even know what an Ironman was 4 years ago) and now to be running down the Ironman Western Australia finishing chute and cross the line with a 9:52:55 is still completely unbelievable to me.
Dave immediately ran up and gave me a giant hug to complete my unimaginable day.
9:52:55
1st AG
2nd AG female
11th overall Female
Kona 2008