This weekend I competed in the Muncie Ironman 70.3. My friend Maxine picked me up and we were on the road before 8:00 Friday morning. It took a little over 4 hours to get to the convention center where packet pick-up was. We got there looked around for a little bit, brought a few things and then went back outside to eat some lunch. At 2:30 we went to the athlete's briefing to listen to the race director talk. He was hysterial giving us the rules relating to the events and what we should expect during the race. After were done there we went to the race venue to look around and rack our bikes for the night. There was not any rain predicted so it was okay for that night.
Afterwards we checked into our hotel and then made our way to dinner with Team Tri Smart. We went to a local Italian place called Johnny Carino. Food was good and company was even better. At dinner we shared a lot of laughs with those who came and stories of other races we have done.
Maxine and I are very similar in the fact that we like to be early to transition in the morning. Believe it or not we were not the first ones there at 4:30 in the morning. There were at least 20 other cars that were parked ahead of us. We hung out in the car until 5 and then made our way into transition and got our stuff set up.
Before the race started I met up my friends from Tri Smart friends to wish each other good luck. We listened to the national anthem and then the pros went off. I got in line to get ready for my wave to take off and chatted a little more with Maxine. The announcer was calling out names of people, most of whom had served in our military. My wave entered the water and the announcer calls out my name as I am talking to my friend Courtney. I was raisied my hand as he tells everyone that I have been a special education teacher for 12 years. I immediately felt my face turn bright red. I had forgot that I filled that out. Although I am sure at the time I filled it out I wasn't thinking my name would be called out. The horn for my wave went off. Those girls went out like they were swimming a 100 yard swim. Now the director said the water temperature was 75.5 degrees. I had a difference of opinion on that. I am one that likes to be hot and I was like whoa, this is way hotter than 75.5 degrees. In the process I let some of the girls that took off go, got myself together and calmed down. That helped a ton. As the swim continued I passed girls in my wave and guys from the wave in front of me. Now I know that some of those guys I passed were going to fly by me on the bike, but it is still fun to chase them down. I made the final turn into the finish and the sun was blinding. I was still able to look up and find my way to the finish area. I got out of the water feeling a bit discombobulated between taking in some water that also had a nice gas taste to it and running up to transition on a carpet that covered the stones. Since I was just getting over an injury in my hamstring I was looking down as I was running. All the sudden I heard "Go Lisa" from my friend MJ. I looked up to see where she was, but didn't see her until a few steps later. She asked how I was doing, but all I could muster was a thumbs up. I felt bad because I thought I was being rude. Usually I try to smile and say something. I got into transition and got ready to go out on the bike. I was happy with my swim of 33:55. My bike was not far from the bike out.
As I head out to the bike, the street was a little bumpy, but manageable. I got about 8 or 9 miles into the bike when fellow Tri Smart friend, Ryan came passed me. I gave him a go Ryan and continued to focus on my ride. Finally out to Highway 35. Awesome stretch of road. I was able to consistently keep my bike betweeen 18-20 mph. Loved it. Along the way came Courtney and we played cat and mouse most of the ride. There was one stretch of the ride that was a no passsing, of course people still did. Little did I know that at this point I had a bunch of guys behind, probably the ones I flew passed on the swim. Once we got off the stretch they switched gears and return the favor by flying pass me. Now this stretch off road was awful. Totally bumpy. Again Courtney and I were still playing cat and mouse. Each time we would go passed each other we would chat about our feelings on the road. General consenus we both had, the road sucked and really hurt our whoha. Finally made the turnaround and dealt with the bumpy road until we finally got back on 35 to head in. YAY, now I could cruise again. Maxine came by me at mile 40 with a bunch of guys drafting on her. I wanted to say something, but I chose to just say hi Max, keep it going. I hit the last aid station on the bike and grabbed some water. As I did a guy cut me off. Luckily I was able to gain control. I thought for sure I was going down. I regained my composure as well because believe me there were choice words that went through my head. On the way back I met up with Dario and Nora. I told them both that they were tough to catch.I got back into the bike in. Bike in was at a different spot than bike out. I had a bit of a trek to my area, so I walked my bike in and slowly got myself together. Bike time was 2:59:39. I was happy because my split were pretty even.
As I got ready for the run, I was a little nervous about it. My leg felt find, but I had not run a lot since mid June. I felt I would be okay to run 13.1 miles after biking because I knew I had trained hard with some added bike rides for this. Truthfully I wanted to just be done after the bike, but I knew deep down that the only reason I wanted to be done was because my stomach was starting to get screwed up. Well, too bad, I was not quitting because of that. For anyone who knows me, there are times in races or Bernie's basement that I just get sick and throw up. It is not something I plan for, but it happens. Of course who really plans to throw up in races. All my nutrition was the same as training. I don't know if I get so jacked up in races or what, but it happens. So anyway, I did a run/walk for the 13.1, seeing teammates and friends along the way. On my way out of transition I saw MJ with her camera ready to go. I smiled and gave her a thumbs up. She asked how I felt, I responded I'm a little tired, but I will be okay. This course has rolling hills that whole way. The volunteers were awesome. I took a few sprays of water from the hose and grabbed water and ice. My plan was originally to run until I hit the aid stations. That worked through the first four miles, then I would run/walk when I felt okay. As soon as I would feel nauseated I would walk again. Nora came by and bless her heart was willing to stay with. I told her to go ahead as I knew she was having an awesome race. Another issue I dealt was probably being dehydrated, which I don't understand since I drank the whole ride. I became a little nervous at the turnaround of the run because I had stopped sweating. That was not going to stop me. I saw Debbie before the turnaround and she was having an awesome run. After the turnaround Claire came by, also having an awesome run and looking solid. On the way back I also saw my BFF, Jim, Mike, Diane, Lee, Tim, and Kelly. I love doing races where the team is there because it is great to have that encouragement. With about 1 mile to go Dario came by and encouraged me. I made it through the last mile and got to the finish where I saw the team tent. I got some high fives from those at the tent and made my way to the finish. After I got done I walked back to the tent and took off my shoes as quickly as I could. I knew I had a blister on my left side heal of my left food. It was great to hang out with the team and watch everyone coming in.
We had a great showing at Muncie and was a ton of fun. I was so glad for all the encouragement and team spirit. A special thanks to MJ was being such an awesome and encouraging friend. I know just staying at the start was probably not how you wanted to watch the race, but it was great to have you out there. Big thanks to Maxine for an awesome weekend of friendship and putting all my stuff back in the car. I was for sure procrastinating on that one.
I am looking forward to getting my run back in order. It is kind of funny that when I started triathlon I got better as the race went on, now I have kind of reversed roles a little bit.
