Ironman Mont-Tremblant 2012 - Pre-Race and Swim

We arrived in Quebec on Thursday after a leisurely 2-day drive, only to find strange sounds coming from my back wheel almost immediately. Cue a meltdown: I had already dealt with a last minute bike issue before we left (this is after my bike tune up the week before the race), it had taken a few more hours to get to the hotel than I had expected, I was supposed to swim and ride, and I had a total breakdown. I excused myself from the room, went into the bathroom, and let it go. I cried, sobbed actually, and felt like the weight of the last three weeks leading up to the race was finally coming out. I calmed down, washed my face, and we took my bike down to the bike tent. I made it to race registration just before it closed, was forced to sit down and eat and RELAX, and went for a swim that cleared my mind and soul.

Thanks for fixing my bike and dealing with my madness.

 Friday felt just as hectic. It was raining, I picked my bike up and took it out on some of the run course and was still hearing sounds that make me uncomfortable, but I was assured the wheel was straight and the noise was coming from sand and crap from the road. The really nice bike mechanics told me to go home, clean my bike, and if it was still make the noise later, they would figure it out before I had to rack on Saturday. My parents arrived, we went out for pizza, lasagna, salad and wine and I decided I NEEDED Saturday to be low key. I was stressed beyond belief and just not feeling ready or excited after months and months of prep. I didn't go to the athlete dinner, but we enjoyed the fireworks show from our room.

Friday Night Fireworks from our balcony

I woke up Saturday at 5:50am to pouring rain. I went for a 15 minute run at 6am, which was JUST what I needed. Total peace and quiet, hardly anyone out, just chilly air, wet road, and quiet. I came back to the room, fueled up, and went for a short swim. I was disappointed the buoys were not up on the course yet, but was glad to get in the water - it was breezy and choppy and I knew it could be like that race morning. I made a point to be in line to rack my bike and drop off my bags at 10am sharp. I didn't want to be out and about and surrounded by the craziness. I spent the rest of the day in my room or on the balcony, visiting with awesome friends who came to support me and other NYC teammates, and just being lazy. I made an early dinner, realized I had forgotten the stupid yellow sponge for my aero bottle, but Dan made one appear, and was really my backbone all weekend, dealing with my craziness and making sure I had what I needed. We watched Hunger Games, lights were out by about 10pm and I had no trouble sleeping.

Race morning I was up at 4am. No trouble eating, no trouble 'going', and was out the door at 5am for the 5 minute walk to transition. I kept things simple. Did what I needed to do and removed myself from the madness of transition. Dan took the bike pump back to the room, I dropped off various bags and stuffed some last minute things in to my T1 and T2 bags, and had more than enough time to arrive at the swim start, find a seat, and relax.

Walking to swim start, "Yay let's do this!!"

I chatted with some teammates and sat with Dan for a bit, sipping on Carbo Pro and Nuun, and in no time it was time to get suited up and head towards the water. It had been announced as a beach start at the Athlete's Dinner and for some strange reason, I was MOST nervous for the swim more than anything else the entire day. I still wasn't totally clear on the course, there were boats on the course were I thought we were swimming, the sand was cold, and I REALLY REALLY wanted to start the day off on the right foot.

 

SWIM 

1:00:04,  4th/AG, 13/female, 118th overall.

The beach start was scary, I lined up sort of to the left, but the start line was quite tight and the way the course turned, there were LOTS of people to the left and I sort of wanted to stay away from them. We watched the pros go off, inched forward to about calf-deep, and waited for the start cannon that never came, and we were off.

This is me. I'm pretty sure I'm looking back at all the people and thinking  'What the HELL am I doing??"

Almost right away one side of my googles was hit and filled up with water. I tried to fix it, but didn't want to lose position, so I let out a bit of water and just accepted it. The first 10-20 strokes were not real freestyle strokes at all, I was simply trying to keep my arms moving forward and stay afloat. I was pleasantly suprised at how quickly things actually broke up and calmed down, save for the random dude that would swim across 3 people going perpendicular to the direction everyone else is swimming. I found feet almost right away and they were PERFECT. They were just fast enough that I had to focus on keeping up, but I didn't feel like I was over exerting myself. The person was putting in surges, perhaps to stay on the feet they were following, and I was so happy I was able to respond and actually stay on these feet (and fight for them a few times when silly boys in blue caps would try to steal my feet - they were MINE!) I took a few sights every so often, but I really just focused in on staying on these perfect feet. They were so perfect in fact, that I decided people should get body-marked on the bottom of their feet, bc I wanted to find whoever this was and thank them after the race (Yes, I really was thinking that). As we approached the first turn, things got a bit more crowded, but nothing like I expected. I knew I was likely going to lose my feet, which made me sad, but I was excited to be halfway done. 

Swim start from the back.

 Then I got confused. For some reason I had in my mind the swim was a long out and back (which it was), but I failed to take into account there was also a short 'across' portion. The map is clear as day, it just hadn't registered. So we got to the second right turn buoy to head back to the swim finish and I felt like the swim started for real. The sun had come out, maybe the wind had picked up bc I felt like all the sudden the water was a lot rougher (didn't even notice any chop on the way out) and I was having trouble finding feet. I basically started to play leap-frog with different feet just to keep myself focused on the task at hand. There were a couple girls around me (green caps), and I just kept thinking "Am I going fast?" I decided it was either going to be a really GOOD swim, or not good. I just couldn't tell. It took me until 45 minutes in to glance at my watch (I wore a simple Timex, didn't start the chrono, but knew the race started at 7am). I was glad to see that 45 minutes had passed and knew I could swim for 15 more. So I again focused on finding feet and counting buoys. I figured I had 2-3 buoys left, but was totally wrong [I'm not sure why I would think that, as the buoys were roughly 100m apart, so I had at least 800 or 900 left]. The last few hundred meters felt like it took forever, but I found some good feet FINALLY to pull me in to shore. I got out of the water, started to pull down my wetsuit and got NAILED in the mouth by an errant elbow. I made it 60 minutes without much contact at all, and then this. It was bad - my teeth hurt and I could taste blood.  Amazingly, I got race photos at the exact moment this happened.

Pulling his arm out, headed straight for my face.

Post impact, you can see both of our reactions. OUCH

The guy profusely apologized, and of course he hadn't done it on purpose, but it really hurt. I tried to ignore it, ran for the wetsuit strippers, and glanced at my watch to see 8:00:--. I heard my friends cheering and gave them a wave, and just focused on the long run through T1. I was pressing on my lip almost the whole way to stop the bleeding, but the second I got in the tent, I forgot about it.

I was SO HAPPY and really excited to get on with the race. I just felt like it was going to be a good day.