I call this “the Ironman that should not have been”. I planned not to write a race report for this one, for so many reasons, but then I thought, well I need something to remind me of things I should not do. Maybe if it’s on paper, I won’t make the same mistake again for the 7th time. Just maybe, 6 times will teach me a lesson.
After my last IM, I proclaimed my retirement. So when the Crewe said that they were doing IM Louisville and IM Arizona, I said “no way, you’re not bullying me into doing another IM”. I held my ground for months. I trained with them, but did not enter, I was just there to support their effort. The subtle bullying continued and I finally made a proclamation that I believed, would not come true. I said if general entry was still open on August 1st, I would enter. I was sure that would not happen, it never happens in IM. Of course this year of all years, the race did not fill up and I was caught in my own web. Well you know how the story ends, I enter the race.
I continued to train, even threw in 4 sprint triathlons for fun. Things seemed to be going well and then in the last month before race day, life kept getting in the way and my training started to plummet. My runs were slowing down, my bikes were staying flat and my swim was more of a float than a swim. It was like I peaked a month too soon. I was really regretting my decision. I dreaded the swim, worried that I would drown, thought my bike would be ok, but that the run could go south fast. Then 3 weeks out my knee started hurting and swelling and just not cooperating at all. Too late, I spent the money, a lot of money and I was going even if I didn’t think I would come out alive.
Before I knew it, race weekend was here. I guess when you don’t enter until 10 weeks out, time really does fly. All the Crewe was pumped and ready to go, everyone was signed up as a Zilla to help with the team competition. Lots of newbies were going and most of them were young fast movers. More women than usual were entered, Liz, Tanya, Donna and I, with a host of 10 boys. We had a good team, and we all needed to work hard to win the team competition.
We had tons of support, lots of family and friends showed up to cheer us on. So many people supporting us at home, sending good luck messages and planning to track us on race day using the Ironman app. All I could think about was letting everyone down with a crappy finish time and even doubting that I could finish under the time cutoff. It was only 16.5 hours instead of the usual 17 hours.
We rolled into Louisville on Friday, checked in at race headquarters and had some dinner. Saturday we were up early and out checking our bikes into transition and dropping our transition and special needs bags. The weather was near perfect on Saturday, even a little cool, but the forecast for Sunday was showing rain, but a little warmer. We were all stressing about what clothes we packed, were they the right clothes to cover the forecast. The river was rolling the current was moving fast, but we were assured that the flood gates would be closed in the morning and we would not have much current at all. Dinner came early then off to bed, hopefully I could get some sleep. I laid in bed and looked out the window at the river and the swim buoys, wondering just how it would go in the morning and thinking “just get through tomorrow and you can go back into retirement”. My first goal was to finish under the cutoff time, alive. My stretch goal was to finish faster than I did the first time I competed at Louisville, which was in 2010. My dream goal was to break 14 hours, and that was a true dream.