Phoenix's IMC race report

Alright here goes my IMC 2009 Race Report
Pardon my poor grammer but it wasn't meant to be an english essay :-)

Going into the race this past weekend I had hoped to have a really good swim, hammer the bike and hold on for the run. I knew it was going to be hot, but thought I had factored in for the heat.
The swim was a gong show, I arrived prepared: I’d had a hard time eating any oatmeal at 5 in the morning so I just stuck with my Boost and sipped on some Carbo Pro. When the race started I positioned myself some what right of center, I hoped to be aggressive and find feet. The first bouy felt like the worse kickboxing match ever! People were just swimming all over the place, whacking each other etc, but I felt like I was working my technique and just trying to find faster feet. At one point some guy grabbed my waist and actually pulled me backwards! I know ridiculous, I was so flabbergasted, yet knew anger wouldn’t serve me well, so I just vowed to get back to horizontal and start swimming my butt off again.
As is probably pretty normal, I would find feet, then discover they weren’t fast enough then repeat. Coming around the house boat (rather sail boat this time) I was starting to deal with breathing problems similar to the ones I had at the 70.3. It feels like my throat gets covered in a film of phlegm so I can’t really get a good breathe in or out, and although I ignore it for as long as possible in time it wears me down and I can’t get any oxygen, I have to stop cough several times and then carry on. I’m wondering if I am dealing with allergies or something, because I was relentless in my diet by not taking in any dairy or bananas for weeks prior to the race, which has worked in the past. Any way after the second turn I think I got off course, I was starting to feel lonely and un-abused…when I finally looked up long enough to do more than just keep the orange buoy in sight I realized I was in fact swimming alone, and almost down the center of the course. Dang, it’s a love hate thing, you want to just swim but if you are alone you lose the draft advantage.
I came out of the swim, and was a little pissed at my time, for the effort it wasn’t what I wanted, although nearly 7 minutes faster than last year, so a small triumph.
In transition I ripped through no volunteers to help me because I came out in such a cluster…I was fine with that. Off on the bike. I was hoping for good things on this course as I have worked hard on my bike this year. The first 40 kms were ridiculous. I looked at my computer it was 1:15 it was great, then the climb out started. I don’t know why but I haven’t felt as strong on climbs this year as last, and part of me wanted to make the climbs easy so as to avoid the power drainage, however I was getting passed on the hills, and then having to pass the same people again on the flats. I found the bike course incredibly crowded and damn near impossible to stay out of peoples draft zones. Ricker’s came and went without any issue, however after that I found myself starting to look for the out and back, not because I needed the nutrition at special needs, but almost because I needed to get grounded again, I wasn’t in the moment like I had been the first 90 kms of the bike. At the special needs I missed my turn and just about took a spectator out, then by clip has moved and I couldn’t unclip, I almost fell off my bike trying to stop so a kid could run my special needs bag up to me. After that although I was happy to finish the out and back I was starting to fade. I knew I had lost a lot of my water from my aero drink but I think it was more than I thought. I had water bottles in special needs that I had never used before with my carbo pro in them, and unfortunately I had never used them before and they turned out to be horrific! I couldn’t get the liquid out of them without considerable effort, my aero bottle was just about falling off and I thought I was better off leaving the nutrition in bottles than risk losing it in the aero drink. Either way I was dying up yellow lake, I was so thankful to see some spectators and hear some music, I had dreaded yellow lake since the out and back, with no real reason too, as I wasn’t scared of the hill….just needed to get the bike portion over with. As you know yellow lake is the tough hill because of the timing of where it comes on the course. After that I just enjoyed descending; however with 25 kms or so to go I caught a head wind which I didn’t have the energy to fight. I knew my bike split goal was slipping away from me, but the tank was running empty.
Once back into transition I took my time, getting everything….even got the volunteer to fix my race belt, which was cinched really tight against my waist because apparently the last one to use it was my 6 year old….note to self get her, her own race belt.
I headed out onto the run…and it was immediately noticeable to me that it wasn’t going to be the consistent effort that I needed to keep up with last years time, at first I thought I would still do better because my bike and swim time was faster, but my strategy to walk only aid stations wasn’t working. The smoke from the bike portion might have played a factor but I didn't personally find the smoke from the fire that difficult. (until the following day). I was making it about a half mile and then walking for a couple of minutes and then going again. Any excuse…like a minor hill and I was happy to walk it. I took in water, and either chicken broth or pepsi at every aid, I even drank my carbo pro that I was carrying. I realize now that my nutrition called for four gels and I never took those in. I remember thinking to myself on the run course “I haven’t peed yet, that’s peculiar”, as normally I just run and pee. (turns out this is a sign of the dehydration I was experiencing but totally unaware of). My stomach held up well with the help of the Imodium I took (two doses) even when the runners around me were violently retching…oh the joys of ironman. Anyway, on the run back in I think I just started to work more on auto pilot…my friend auto pilot. Then this New Yorker started to talk to me, and was so red neck in the things he was saying, I actually slowed down so he could get ahead of me, but anyway the Skaha Lake gave me a beautiful sun set.
I had struggled not seeing my family this year, knowing they are at the race somewhere and not seeing them was killing me, I finally ran into them with a kilometer to go, and it was a relief, a little late but awesome, my daughter just about exploded with glee which was so amazing to me. I crossed the finish line….slower than last year which was hugely disappointing. I had hoped that if nothing else I could avoid the medical tent this year as that was the worse part of last years race. Albeit that was not to be my fate. The catcher walked me through the shoot, and then over to the photos, at first I felt good…thankful to be stopped actually, but then it hit. I knew what was coming so I told the catcher that I wasn’t feeling good and had fainted last year. She informed the medical tent…it’s all a blur after that really. I tried to go to the bathroom, but started coming in and out so thought it best to go into the tent. They tried to triage me, and make me sit, some guy kept telling me to keep my eyes open, apparently after I tossed the Gatorade they figured I was belligerent enough to be given a bed…jeeezzz what does a girl have to do around here to pass out in peace?
Anyway I was in and out of it for three hours. Poor David was told repeatedly that I was not in the tent when he came looking, I couldn’t dial his cell phone number despite the lovely volunteer having fetched it for me from my dry clothes bag. At midnight they told me if I couldn’t get up I had to go to the hospital. I was feeling better by then, after a saline drip some IV gravol and a snooze. They said they had never seen such a lack of veins (thank you! at least I win the award for most dehydrated). The lady who poked me had four guys watching what she was doing and I’m not kidding that they cheered when she found a vein. Lol Anyway, it was a hard day. I think I would have done better (at least David would have been much less stressed) had the medical part not happened. I am started to feel a little betrayed by my body…I gave it chicken stock for god sakes…warm chicken stock too…it was gross.
The next day the worse damage was the sheer lack of skin, chafing from the wetsuit and bike shorts, are the things that hurt the most, legs remarkably are fine. (probably because I didn't work them as hard on the run?)
It will be back to the drawing board after this. I plan on taking several months off and not doing anything remotely resembling swimming, biking, or running. :)