For those of you who read my ½ Ironman Mooseman Report titled Meltdown in Mooseman, this report should be called Poured on in Placid.
To say it rained would be an understatement.
The race started at 7 am to calm air and light rain. It didn’t rain the time we were in transition preparing for the race so we were dry getting into our wet suits. As soon as the gun went off the rain began and it NEVER STOPPED FOR 15 HOURS!!!!!
That’s right, I don’t mean a light drizzle, it was teaming down and I kept thinking surely this is going to let up, people would talk to you saying, when will it stop?! But it never did until I was almost finished the run.
For those of you who have not checked the race results yet, our times were 16 hours 2 minutes for me and Bob was 16 hours 16 minutes. I felt I had a good race under the circumstances. This is a tougher bike course than Penticton, and with the rain and the way I ride in the rain (hardly ever)! I was just happy to survive.
I did have a properly fueled bike ride though. I was popping my gels or blocks every 20 minutes and took 2 salt pills every hour. I was so focused on what Fiona taught me that I think it paid off. I was disappointed with my run, but pleased that I ran as much as I could except would walk most of the uphill’s. The course is hilly for both events and the loops make you crazy. I don’t like loops, except it does make it a better spectator course.
So speaking of our spectators. There were my poor parents standing under umbrellas for hours, they saw me go by on the first run loop, but missed me coming through on the finish. They saw Bob 3 times though. As for spectators they would never have been able to get into the stands, so they stood outside for many, many hours. I tried to be quicker but just had no legs left. I was exhausted, wet, cold, and blisters everywhere. My feet were a mess from the rain all day on the bike then the running through puddles was insane.
Bob had a good swim for him, he had a good bike and also felt the nutrition thing finally worked. I met up with him and John Deans (some of you may remember him from the Fitness Factory) just before mile 1 on the run. I knew I was gaining time on him on the bike because I saw him later on the second out and back section. I was so pleased to see him running, but I just said hello and ran by. The run has 4 times that you can see people at similar speeds. I saw Bob again and he was not far behind me. He was still running and we were about 7 miles in. I then saw him at the ½ way mark and he was still running. I thought at one point he would catch me but by the time I saw him just before the 20 mile mark he was doing more walking than running and I had been doing a bit more running than walking. Our final time tells the tale. Once I finished I found the food area and a chair and even though it wasn’t raining anymore I was FREEZING. It was also 11 pm so it was dark and getting cool. I saw Bob and we were able to hook up and sat for a bit while we tried to get some food in. Not much left that late at night but had something. The stomach isn’t really interested after the day of pushing.
With about 1 ½ miles to go Fiona came out and ran a bit with me. Imagine, she won her age group and ran with me while she was wearing flip flops. Hard to take! She then went back and did the same thing for Bob until they met me again heading into the finish line. I was so happy to see that Olympic Oval, you can’t imagine. There were lots of people in the stands and they were really cheering everyone on. They too were soaking wet from all the rain for sure.
When we got home, Bob was able to eat the take out that my Dad picked up from Tale o’ the Pup. He placed his order the day before for the 4 Meat Lovers meal. He ate that and was a happy man. I, not yet interested, but I am sure once I get moving around I will be able to have a good meal.
Today the SUN is out (how dare it)! We are going to try to do some site seeing with my parents. I am hoping I can keep up with their 71 year old arthritic knees and joints.
We head home tomorrow, so for those of you at the Y you should see us on Wednesday morning, and for my work mates hopefully I will be able to walk by then.
This was a race that I spent a great deal of time worrying about. I had been so worried about not finishing, but we did all the work and obviously it paid off. Thanks Fiona, for all your great workouts and nutrition plans; Bob and I had very good days under the circumstances. The training camp we came to here with NRG in June was the best thing for getting you race focused. I was able to play over in my mind every part of the course. I guess you can say we had a PB in LP since we FINISHED!
Cathie & Bob