Race Morning & The Swim

By the time the alarm went off at 3:50am on Saturday morning I hadn't had a good night sleep in 3 days. Once we arrived in St. George on Wednesday the gravity of this entire event really sank in. If my mind was occupied with something like the expo or driving the course or even just sitting and talking to family or watching TV I was just fine but once the lights went out and I was left to my thoughts my mind would race over everything that was about to happen. I was nervous, anxious and worried that the preparations I had made over the last 5 months were not going to be sufficient on this difficult Ironman course. So when the alarm went off it was really no problem to get up because I was already awake.

The athlete shuttles from the finish line to the reservoir ran from 4:30-5:30 so Kati dropped me off and I hopped on the bus. This is one of only two races I've done alone so that shuttle down to the swim start was a long lonely ride. Once I got there I got my bike set up and sat down next to it to eat breakfast which consisted of a bagel (270 calories) and peanut butter (approx. 500 calories), 1 Ensure (250 calories) and 1 Gu gel about 15 minutes before the swim start (100 calories).

My sweet bike spot right at the end of the row, easy to find running out of the changing tent

Luckily Kati and I were able to find each other at the race start, especially since she had to take a different shuttle that morning. It was great to have some company until the swim started. We were also perfectly placed while I was putting on my wetsuit because one of the last spectator shuttles unloaded right next to us which had my mom, brother-in-law and cousin on it. It was great to see them and be able to get their well wishes.

Right after I got my wetsuit on I heard the cannon that started the pros race, this meant that I only had about 10 minutes before I was suppose to start swimming.

The swim start was the main thing that I was most nervous about. I've only had a few races where there were mass swim starts and some of them went great, others went horrible. Mentally I had to realize that I wasn't surrounded by 2,000 other athletes but only 6 or 7, which in actuality is really what's going on. I figured that the pecking order of the swim start would sort itself out by those that were anxious to get a sweet spot near the starting line getting in the water first and those that were a little more reserved getting in a little later. Apparently this doesn't work when the water is 59 degrees and no one wants to get in. I eventually just had to get in and made my way to the starting line while more than half the field remained on the beach. I had predetermined that I would start farther away from the buoy line and let those more anxious to take the straight shot to the first turn battle it out however they wanted. In my spot I was only about 5 people back from the starting line which made me a little nervous as I didn't know the intentions of those behind me. When the gun went off was I going to get completely steam rolled or were the people behind me more nervous then I was?

The announcer called out 7 more minutes, then 2 minutes later he called out 3 more minutes and I wanted those two extra minutes that he stole from me back. Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" started blaring over the speakers, getting the adrenalin going and then the cannon went off. I must say that it was very chaotic in the water but not nearly as physical as I was prepared for. I occasionally got an elbow to the head or someone trying to swim up over me but in those times I would just kick harder to either get away from flying elbows or to kick the person behind to dissuade them from their current path.

The swim course is a 1 loop swim which is pretty unusual for an Ironman race, usually they split it up into 2 loops. In the athlete's meeting on Thursday night the race director announced the distances between the swims. From the start to the first turn was 1,000 meters, first turn to second turn 600 meters, second turn to third turn 1,600 meters (1 mile), and from the third turn to the exit was 600 meters. I was a little concerned about that 1 mile stretch of swim with no turns or anything else to break it up and thought that I would lose focus.

Somehow after the first turn I made my way all the way across the the hordes and ended up about 30 yards inside the buoy line. I still have no idea how this happened. From there I had to angle myself south so that I was pointed towards the second turn because you can swim inside the buoy line but you still have to turn outside of the turn buoys. The long 1 mile stretch was far less daunting then I imagined it would be and before I knew it I was passing the rock island that is just before the final turn.

I obviously had not looked at my watch up to this point but I was pretty sure that I just had a stellar swim. When I got out of the water I looked at my watch and it said 00:13. What? something had definitely gone wrong. I knew that I started my watch as the canon went off but I must have hit it upon exiting the water. So I just pressed on, grabbed my transition bag and made my way into the changing tent. This tent was a zoo. There were chairs set up everywhere and almost every single one was taken. I grabbed the first empty seat that I saw and started throwing on my sock and arm warmers (it was 45 degrees when the race started so by this time it was still in the 50's). Transition took far longer than I thought it would and I think that most of that time was spent trying to get arm warmers on wet arms, they don't slide on as easy then.

I finally got everything on, stuffed my wetsuit in the bag, gave it to a volunteer and ran out to my bike which is when I heard the announcer say that we were 1:17 into the race. From there I knew that I had swam the 2.4 miles somewhere around a 1:10 which was far better than my goal. I wanted to have the swim done and be out of transition in under 1:30. Great start to the day. It wasn't until I had finished the race that I found out that I had actually beat 14 professional triathletes out of the water!

I believe that I had a pretty big advantage over a lot of the field in the swim. Not that I'm some fantastic swimmer but being in Texas I had been swimming in the lake in cold temperatures for the previous 5 or 6 weeks whereas those that were from further north didn't have that opportunity to get any open water swims in until a few days before the race.

The race was off to a good start.