Ironman Poconos 70.3 (actually 69.1) Race Report

I don’t really know where to start with this one so I’ll take it from the top..I signed up for this race last October. At that time I had been on my bike maybe once or twice EVER with an epic failure with the whole pedal clipping in shenanigans, and swimming? I hadn’t swam since gym class in high school. I had just raced my 3rd marathon on a stress fractured foot and was sick of the injury. I went out on a limb and signed up, I figured I can run a marathon, I can do a half-ironman by next year, right? This was also a big turning point in my life; a major chapter was closing and this was going to be the thing I did for myself, besides school I needed another challenge and to start a new journey.

In the few weeks leading up to this race it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did,including my previous hip injury acting up making me make the call to not run 10 days prior. Last week was probably the hardest week of school,clinical, and work along with other matters going on in my personal life. I felt as if I was being pulled in 10 different directions trying to give 110% to all(because that’s just who I am). Sleep was minimal and stress was high that I found myself crying in my room, unpacked the night before leaving, until a friend reminded me why I even signed up for this race in the first place.

The weather forecast was grim so I packed my snowsuit(but really I brought hats, gloves, cold gear) and my medical nutrition therapy notes and tried to keep focused on the race and studying….ha.

Race morning rolls around and I’m a bit uneasy for my 1st TT start. A bit bummed  for no swim, that current would’ve secured a PR even if I just floated down the river. As we waited around freezing in T1 (I heard it was 38degrees since we were in a valley) the girls in my AG and I started chatting a bit… a former UVA track runner..girls who have been to worlds….yikes. I felt outmatched around these studs. I just kept telling myself, anything can happen on any given Sunday.

The bike. Eeek. After driving the course, I felt SO unprepared. Lots of steep climbs followed by some great downhills, which unfortunately could not be capitalized due to the narrow and winding mountain roads. Not to mention the rain overnight which left the roads slick and puddles everywhere. I was beyond happy I switched tires on the 404′s I was borrowing and put my new tires on! Regardless, I have not done a more challenging and technical course, I think it was harder than the Placid loop, because at least in Placid you could take advantage of some of the downhills (at least when I rode it this summer). This course was just flat-out dangerous, but I think it was due mainly to the riders. I know it’s only my 1st year riding but I know how to pass properly and say ‘on your left’ at least. I know this happens in all races but with the roads so narrow and at parts having riders taking both lanes…it got scary. After seeing so many flats, a few crashes, and being chased by a dog, I was happy to make it into T2 and in under 3 hours, which was my big goal this race.

This is where things got ugly. I racked my bike and saw I was 4th in AG. I wasn’t surprised. I knew 1 was a stronger cyclist and the other 2 were on road bikes, which on that course, I would’ve sold my soul to the devil for one! I ripped open my run gear bag, slapped my sneakers on over my compression socks (yes pink ones) and got moving through a football field thats all mud at this point. Ouch.  I couldn’t feel my feet. I see guys cramping in the 1st 1/4 mile.  I’m thinking, with my feet…how many runs have I done in sub 10 degree weather through snow and they have never been this painful. I hear my garmin hit mile 1…7:19…whoops, time to pump the brakes, 1st run in 10 days and longest run in 3 weeks, this pace was a recipe for disaster!  Then it got ugly. Around mile 2 my glutes were on fire. Mentally I tried to keep myself in it. Mile 3.5 I hear my coach, Kevin, call me out. I just remember looking at him and saying ‘Dog, I’m 4th, I just don’t think I can do this, I’m in bad shape right now’ as I kept looking up and seeing climbs..until mile 7 it was a pure mental game with myself. I hit the turnaround to go back up those hills but knew I could hold on. At mile 8 I finally hit my stride and actually felt good. I started picking off all the 30-34 males, sorry guys. I then ran into a guy I had been talking to in transition and we ran together from mile 8 till 10.5 (since he refused to be chicked, even though I still chicked him) when I saw a girl in my AG. I looked at him and said ‘gotta go’! Somehow I caught her at mile 11, where she then told me #2 was just ahead and to go get her. Boom. Here I had to decide whether to hang a bit behind her and pass her at the end or just go for it. I went for it and passed her around mile 12. I just kept saying this could be vegas, this could be vegas, just hold her for 1 mile. Well, turns out the course was long at 13.33 and she got me at 13.13. I had nothing, the legs would not got any faster. I was done. Then,remembering the TT start I knew she started 10 seconds behind me at least and I let her go. My last 2 miles of the race I put up a 7:25 and 7:23. With the lack of run training, it still leaves me wondering and disappointed for what I really could do..

I ended up taking 3rd in age by 50 seconds. Even though I didn’t get Vegas, I ended up on the podium in my second IM 70.3, PR’ed my half marathon time (ok, results said 8:03 pace but since the course was long I had 7:56′s, still a PR) either way for my 3rd half marathon ever, I was still pleased. My bike was a PR and my transition was fastest in age AND beat Kevin’s with a 1:44 (sorry, I had to). I also met some awesome girls and had a blast out on the course. I stuck to my plan; to go out there and give it all I have, to race for me, and live up to my nickname ‘scrappy’. For how much pain I’m in right now, I know I left it all on that course.

This race closes my 1st tri season, and man, what a year it’s been.

What did you hurt now?

That question gets asked to me at least once a week, usually at the gym I work at by one of my clients or regular members. Here I find myself 1 week out from my ‘goal race’ and surprise–I’m injured. It seems to be my curse, within the month before a big race I get hurt. I should have frequent flyer card at UB Orthopedics, like get 3 MRI’s get the 4th one free punch card type deal.

It happened in the beginning of the season after my last big run, 21 miles before the Nashville Country Music Marathon. This was going to be it–on track for a 31 minute PR and BQ, everything was clicking. Until what felt like just a pulled hip/groin muscle that I continued training on turned to be a stress fracture in my left femoral neck. Bye-bye biking for 7 weeks, running for 10 weeks–hello crutches for 4 weeks!

This wasn’t the first stress fracture for me, out of my 3 marathons 2 of them were raced on stress fractures (metatarsal & tibia) which both were acquired within the 3 weeks leading up to the race. Only my 1st marathon (which the goal was just to finish without walking) I ran uninjured. Mind you I’ve trained for 5 marathons, only have been able to race 3. This is why I started doing tris.

Only being cleared to run again on June 10th,yep, I raced Keuka on the broken hip, first run in 9.5 weeks was that 10K at 8:14s–ouch. I did make sure to walk for 100 feet when I passed my Ortho on the run course. Rhode Island 70.3 was done with only 4 weeks and maybe 10 runs prior, only one ‘long’ one of 12 miles, ask me where those 8:05′s came from on that hot & hilly course, who knows. By the time Summer Sizzler rolled around it was nice to say I raced healthy, with some decent run training being able to post 655′s and 651′s for my run splits respectively. This was followed by AG Nationals which had to be the hardest run of the season so far. Knowing that I had been on the side of the road for close to an hour with my technical issues, I knew it was all over for me. Half of me wanted to crush it and at least post a good run split, the other half was defeated and wondered why I should kill myself if my race was done. I ended up with 7:39s, with way too much left at the finish.

This just leaves me wondering–what could I REALLY do if I could race healthy? I feel like such a disappointment, a letdown, that I can’t ever race to my potential. I put in the hours, the miles, the sweat like others do, but my body holds me back. I’ve had people tell me you’ll lose the anxiety once you trust the training you’ve put into preparing for a race, to have faith in the work you’ve done. I can’t feel that way. I am just waiting for my body to breakdown. It’s a constant struggle. I wish my body were as strong (or stubborn) as my mind is. I want to push, I want to improve, I want to know I did my best, not my best considering the circumstances . It’s gotten to a point where I’m losing confidence in myself, injury after injury. I envy those who can push themselves and train to race to their full potential. I want that.

In a few months my focus will be shifting onto next season, to take on my biggest challenge yet, Ironman Lake Placid. I don’t fear Placid itself, I fear not making it to the start of the race. My battle isn’t with my competition, its with myself.

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.

I was just saying the other night how I wish I had time to blog. I love to read my friends race reports and just posts about life. I decided tonight was the night to give it a shot. Much better than studying GI disorders.

So, to start, if you don’t know me very well my life is pretty crazy. I like to stay busy and keep challenging myself, so Type A, I know. Between full time classes/clinicals, 2 part time jobs, tri training and trying to maintain something that resembles a social life of a 23 year old, things get pretty nuts. People tell me it’s like I’m juggling 20 plates and everyone is just watching and waiting for me to drop them all..people like this keep me going. Trust me, I crash and meltdown, but only a few people close to me see that, and they are the greatest for being an awesome support system.

Thursday still sticks out in my mind so I guess I’ll start there..

As much as I complain about being in smelly hospitals a lot, I actually love it. It keeps me in check. Too often to do people get caught up on things and lose sight of what’s important (guilty as charged). Spending time in the acute care environment can be tough, but it is a constant reminder of how lucky I am. Being in the hospitals all day is like a time warp..in when it’s still dark and when you leave at the end of the day it feels like you’ve lived 5 days in one.

So Thursday starts, the alarm goes off at 5:15 and after my 3rd night in a row of 4 or less hours of sleep it feels worse than Monday. I am dreading my day at Buff General as I make my 45 minute commute. I get my patient and start documenting from her chart–69 year old with cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, diabetic neuropathy, morbidly obese with a BMI of 38.8, peptic ulcer disease and the list goes on..chief complaint of abdominal pain and dx of renal cysts—all pretty standard in a patient here. I compile the lab data, figure out her estimated needs, put together what questions to ask her and I’m off. I finish my coffee and play a quick game of words with friends on my elevator ride to the 15th floor. I’m dreading this and just wanting this to be over with, you never know what the patient will be like when you walk in a room. Within 2 minutes of talking to her she had me near tears in laughter. We talked for 45 minutes.

If you spend any time in hospitals you know most patients… a. are asleep b. are on tons of drugs and out of it c. are in pain d. are miserable and e.all of the above

She showed me pictures of her son, told me what she eats, asked me questions about myself, and most importantly ASKED for diet education! She knew her blood pressure was high and wanted to learn how to lower it. She also wanted to “get nice and trim mmhmmm” and informed me “oh lorddd sweeetie you should see my fridgeee”..It was so nice to teach someone who wanted to learn, more often than not patients refuse education on their diets. She thanked me, blessed me and wished me the best of luck. Even said she only wanted to speak with me and was sad to hear my rotation was ending.

To know I made an positive impact and gave someone the tools to help better themselves made me so happy, that all this nonsense is worth it and I can help. It was a huge reality check, a reminder of what really matters.