IMC Race Report – part one: pre-race craziness

Since I have a lot to say about this race and tons of pictures courtesy of my fabulous crew, I’m breaking it up into installments. Kind of like a soap opera, only instead of amnesia and sleeping around, there’s lots and lots of exercising. 😉

I woke up just before my 4:00 am alarm and turned if off. I went to bed super early and tossed and turned for a while before falling asleep somewhere around 11. I actually slept pretty well, all things considered. I had written a list of last minute things to do as far as race prep so I wouldn’t forget anything, but even still I found myself bouncing between items – starting to do one thing and then realizing I should be doing something entirely different. The butterflies in my stomach felt like birds. I forced myself to drink two Ensures and eat a banana. Erin’s friend Tiffany had come down the night before and was french-braiding Erin’s hair. It was good to have something calming to sit down and watch and it helped me focus:

There are two “special needs” bags that you can pack for Ironman racing, one for the bike leg and one for the run. I’d packed a few ‘in case of emergency items’ (spare bike tube, first aid stuff), plus a little lunch cooler with an icepack and a bottle of frozen sports drink in my bike one and then some after dark stuff (headlamp, long sleeved shirt, etc.) in my run bag. I gathered up those bags plus an Ensure/banana combo to put in my first transition bag and we were off to the races. So, so nervous…

The car was quiet as we drove through the dark streets to the race start. Streets were already closed off so we had to do a sort of round-about route. Eventually, we hit the part where we were a few blocks away and traffic was backing up as people were looking for parking. T & I decided to get out and walk while M found a parking spot.

Doesn’t the look on my face say it all?

There were tons of athletes and spectators walking toward the start, so we just followed the herd. Soon we came to the fence that separated the athletes from the spectators and I had to say good-bye to T. It felt a lot like the first day of college where you have to say good-bye to your parents and try to play it cool, but inside you really want to start crying and say “Don’t leave me!” But I tried to be a big girl and joined the giant body-marking scrum. After watching me have my arms and legs thoroughly emblazoned with permanent marker, T walked along with me (on the other side of the fence) as I dropped off my bags and headed toward transition. I gave him one final hug when the fence ended and he wished me luck.

I headed into the transition area to do my last minute bike stuff (fill bottles/pump up tires, etc.) Erin & I had planned to meet up at the bike rack, since we were right near each other and managed to find each other without too much trouble. I filled my bottles and pumped up the front tire without incident, but when I went to fill the back tire, the little valve that lets you put air in the tire broke off and fell on the floor. (F#CK!) At first, I just stared at it and then I asked Erin what she thought I should do/if that was a bad thing. She was of the sensible opinion that it probably wasn’t a good thing and recommended I have the bike repair folks look at it.

So, I took the wheel off, grabbed the spare tube and a multi-tool (No, I don’t know why) out of my bike bag and headed over. I could feel tears coming on, but managed to hold them at bay while I waited for one of the bike shop workers to be free. Finally, I saw a woman finish up the wheel she was working on so I asked if she could help me. As I started explaining what had happened, the tears started rolling and looking at her calm, expressionless face made me feel like a total idiot. Finally, she asked me if there were other things I needed to do, to which I nodded and then she took the wheel from me and told me that she’d take care of it and I could come back and pick it up. So, I wiped away my tears and thanked her profusely while I went off to finish up my last preparations.

I checked back in with Erin at the bike rack, where we also ran into another friend of ours from training camp/Team Xantusia – Andrea (a.k.a. AndyPants) who was at the next rack over. Erin had her camera with her, so we asked a random guy in our transition area to take a picture:

Finally, I went back over to grab my wheel, thanked the nice lady again and put it on my bike. I was a little worried I’d do something stupid in putting it back on, but I tested it fourteen times to make sure it was in gear and the brake was adjusted, etc. and it seemed good to go. I had Erin double check it and we headed over to the change tent. Once there, we sat down to start changing into wetsuits and right next to us was a girl we’d volunteered with last year – it was great to see her and say hello. We chit-chatted, compared notes and reminisced about last year’s experiences in the changing tent. Soon, it was time to start heading toward the beach in the hopes of seeing our support peeps before all of the craziness started.