IMLC 2013

"Persistence is far more important than perfection."

Collage credit to the Stud Tri Chick Jaime Berry!!

First official ironman in the books and I don't know how I actually feel about it. It hurt and was exciting at times. I finished an hour slower than my goal. I never imagined not being able to bend my knees when I ran off the bike. At the finish line 5 IV's were injected in me due to extreme dehydration, but you wouldn't think it looking at my finish photo!! Reminder do not drink liquids you have not trained with during a race!! Yes Gatorade is not my electrolyte of choice, pedalyte or Osmo is! And in Mexico they didn't have either on the run course, duh Erin!!! Wow! Water didn't sound yummy so I kept drinking Gatorade and Pepsi. Yep the carbonation felt like heaven in my mouth.   Puking while running is not sexy, but I managed to smile through it.

The swim was a long 2.7miles and being a swimmer you think I would have been happy?! No choppy salt water in the mouth sucks!! Stumbled out of the water into T1 with excitement to see so many bikes still there!

Out of T1 up a slight grade couldn't clip my darn foot into the pedal!! My friends cheering looked on with worry that I might fall! Recovered from an almost tumble and off I went on the bike!! 112 miles, 2 loops of rolling hills and wind! Not bad right?! Not a huge fan of wind so I borrowed a friends wheels to avoid any crosswind issues! Thank goodness!! The rolling hills turned out to be more like 6000ft of sporadic climbing!! Normally I like hills, but that day I was getting a little over the toll road climb! Now for Ironman Cabo 2014 they changed the bike course to make it easier due to so many DNF's!! That kinda makes mad and kinda makes me want to do it again! I predict at least a 30min improvement in times with that course modification!

Off the bike in a sweet overall position who knew? We'll I know running is my least favorite thing to do and when I came into T2 my legs were wobbly! This should be fun I thought! I saw my friend Jam who thought I went down because Pele wasn't recording my splits after mile 7 on the bike! Lol. If I went down I would have found you by now and been drinking a Margy On the side of the road cheering those still torturing themselves!

I understand while people might just pee while running, not to save time but to avoid the pain of the chaffed areas down there!! WhoHa! Snap that's part of the game I guess!!

3 loops on the run - pretty flat - tons of people!! 💗 cheerleaders!! I meet a Navy Seal on my 2nd lap and we played cat and mouse for awhile. Finally on the last lap I saw him walking and I patted him on the back and said come on let's do this! The last 6miles we gingerly jogged together with some chatting here and there. He said "I never do this!" I said "what?" "Talk in an Ironman", he replied. he had done 5 and wasn't a fan of making friends while racing nor cared for all the people cheering!! I on the other hand needed the distraction, the encouragement, the support! Ironman Cabo sure supplies that!

About 500yards from the finish I had my friend hand me a green wig! The race was on St. Patty's Day, my dads favorite holiday! In his memory I crossed the finish line with green hair, arms in the air and a huge smile with a time of 12:02:?? He always died his beard green that day!

I collected that finisher medal and then buckled. At mile 24 I had puked for the 3rd time and lost all my nutrition! Med tent it was for me😭!! Not best case scenario since they were striping my clothes off and putting me in random pj's!! But I turned out fine after some much needed refueling.   2 hours later I'm out looking for my 2 other teammates that raced with me: my hubby and Adri the youngest Ironman I know at age 23! My husband didn't finish due to some major mecanhically issues on the bike. Adri cranked in at 14hours or so and won her age group!!!

The day was over and all I wanted was a mimosa!   Yes it sounded refreshing!! We were staying at the Cabo Azul a fabulous hotel right in San Jose. Next year we will be back, but this time I will be on the sidelines cheering on my friends, Margy in hand! The race broke me down too much!! I'm not sure I'm an Iron Distance chick, Yet!!

Hats off to the IMLC organizers! The race was great, fabulous venue and amazing hospitality!! I'm excited that I was part of the Inagural race in 2013!

Till next time,

Live Fit, Love Fit, TryFit

😘

My support at home! The BAC chicks!