It all began on the north coast of Cuba… My boyfriend Brent and I were on our All-Inclusive-Do-Absolutely-Nothing but drink, tan, and sleep vacation. It was March 2006, and I hadn’t done any real training for over five months. Instead, I was sleeping in, going out with my friends, eating and drinking to excess. I was registered for IMUSA, which was in four months and counting, but I couldn’t seem to give up my life of leisure and start training for the race. Sure, I had gained more than a few pounds since I stopped training, but I was happy in my bikini sipping a Mai Tai instead of my spandex downing Gatorade. I was thinking that my life as an Ironman athlete had finally come to an end.
However, on Day 5 of our Cuban retreat, in the midst of reading my romance novel on the beach, I looked up at Brent and said, “I need to train.” I wasn’t sure what hit me that day, whether it was one too many Mai Tai’s, or perhaps I was tired of not being able to do up the top button on my pants, but I was back to my old self again. For the first time in over five months, I actually looked forward to getting on my bike.
Back in Toronto, I did the math. Less than four months left before my race.
Four months. I had never left so little time to train before an Ironman. I swam and ran sporadically during the winter, but I spent zero time on my bike. I needed a master plan to whip me back into shape in four months. So I emailed Nigel…
I had never met Nigel before, but I knew he was an amazing triathlete and I had heard a lot of good things about NRG. When we had our first meeting, I was trying to concentrate on what he was saying, but all I kept thinking was “I’m actually in the same room as Nigel Gray”, mixed in with hopes that maybe I’ll get faster through osmosis. “Do you think I have enough time?” I asked. “I think we can pull this together”, he said, “We’ll improve your time from last year at Placid, and then you’ll be set to peak in Hawaii.”
I would be happy to just qualify for Hawaii, so I was surprised that he thought I could actually race faster in Placid (since I trained for almost 12 months for last year’s race). I started following Nigel’s workout plan and trained with NRG at Lake Wilcox on weekends. My cycling improved a lot, especially thanks to Countr who pushed me over many long rides. Workouts were usually lots of fun, and gradually I could feel myself getting back into shape.
Then race week arrived. Brent and I drove to Placid a few days before the race (in his Xterra with great new indoor bike racks). In between doing race day preparations, we watched lots of movies, slept well, and checked the weather channel more than a few times. Race day forecast was calling for cold and rain, which were definitely not my favourite race conditions.
It rained hard the night before the race, but I slept soundly for almost 8 hours. I had a great dream about my mom (she died about four years ago), who was telling me that she wished she could be here for my race. I woke up feeling well rested, ate breakfast, and Brent drove me to transition. As I was checking my bike, Brandon pumped my tires while Fiona gave me last minute advice. I headed down to the swim start, put on my wetsuit, and hugged Brent goodbye.
I positioned myself right in front of the first buoy, a few rows back. A few minutes before the countdown, I started to get into my zone, where I get really focused on the feel of racing. Ten seconds…Five seconds (I start my watch)…canon goes off. I tried to focus on swimming a straight line, finding a good draft, and good technique. Apart from my goggles getting knocked off a couple of times around the turn buoys, I didn’t get beat up too bad in the water. I swam the first loop in a little under 30 minutes, and I got out of water with a swim PB of 1:00:54.
T1… Well, let’s just say that I learned that I need to work on my transitions… my swim to bike transition took a grand total time of 6:22. I’m still not sure what took me so long!
Once on my bike, I settled into to my much practiced IM race pace. I was glad that the rain had stopped and it was turning out to be a nice cloudy day. Countr passed me a couple hours into the bike; he was riding well and looked smooth and fast. Walter passed me next, and we rode together until he took off up the climb back toward town. About half way through the second loop, some girl flew passed me. “Who is that?” I thought, as I picked up my pace to try to stay with her. But I was pushing too hard, so I settled back into my race pace and hoped that I would see her later. I finished the bike in about 5:35. My day was going very well.
In T2 I learned that I was fourth girl off the bike. As I made my port-o-potty stop, I wondered if these girls can run.
After about an hour into the run, I had passed two of the three girls, and Brent told me the first place girl was about five minutes ahead of me. I was pretty sure it was the same girl who whipped past me on the bike. I was working hard to try to pass her, and it was incredibly encouraging to have so many supporters on the course – Brent rode his bike along the run course and gave me updated splits; my best friend Nikki put up signs for me all over the course; Brandon and Fiona told me I looked strong as they snapped lots of pictures; Countr, Walter, Marissa, and Nicole found the energy to encourage me while they were running their own marathon (I was so tired I could only manage a wave!). I had a good run, but I ended up finishing about four minutes behind the lead girl.
At the finish line, Nikki was waiting for me and gave me a big hug. Brent was right there with my recovery drink in hand, and the three of us crashed on the grass under a tree. We met up with Eric, my training partner, who also had a great day and finished with a PB of 10:43. That night, I called my brother Trevor, who was watching every step of my race online, and I told him about my day…
I had a personal best swim time of 1:00:57. Course PB on the bike (by 12 minutes) and run (by 3 minutes). Overall finishing time PB of 10:15:12. (I beat my previous IMC 2000 PB by over seven minutes). And to top it off, I won my age group and got a spot for Hawaii.
I’m still not sure how Nigel managed to pull this together for me in less than four months.
And I’m happy to report that I’m still quite motivated to train… I look forward to eventually having a finish time that starts with a 9… to swim under an hour… to push harder on the second half of the run… to have lots more fun riding my P3C at Lake Wilcox with NRG…to keep getting Nigel’s emails asking me how my workouts went… to lower my headset… and best of all, to spend three weeks with Brent on the Big Island, drinking Kona coffee, swimming at Hapuna beach, and watching lots of movies on our condo’s 57 inch TV!