Ironman Australia Part 1/4 - The lead up to Ironman
So taper week was done, I was counting down in every way possible. 2 more swim sessions, 1 more run etc. The excitement was building by the day.
Thursday came around and it was time to pick up Sapphire, then mum up from the airport. “This is going to happen!” we left early on Friday morning so that Sapph would sleep most of the trip down stopping in Coffs Harbour to have breakfast after she woke up.
A lot of thoughts going through my head and feelings going through my body, from fear of the unknown to joy. Nerves to excitement and every other feeling available. The closer to Port we got and the more bikes I saw, the stronger these feelings got.
Arriving in Port was something else. Suddenly all of the nerves were gone for a while and I was just excited to be there. Walking around the Expo, seeing the finish line "That is where I will be crowned an Ironman”. We went for a quick drive to see transition, the far end of the run course, and the swim in general, including the weir which had intrigued me. After realising that the check in wasn’t near transition we found a spot and went to check in
Walking though the doors to the Glasshouse (this is where Ironman HQ was for the weekend), with mother and daughter in tow I felt so special, seeing all the Ironman merchandise, “I deserve this, I will get to wear this with pride knowing what I have accomplished”. Upstairs to check in and I see Gayle and Antony (they were there at my first ever tri so it was a great feeling seeing them at my first ever Ironman also). We finally made it to the front of the line (in all honesty it was probably only 5-10 minutes later). A very friendly volunteer helped me check in and as soon as I mentioned that it was my first time, Ring! Ring!! she rung her cowbell and everyone cheered, I felt amazing and I finally understood why the bells were ringing. After telling her my story and collecting my race pack I was ready.
Off to our accommodation in Laurieton for the weekend.
On the Saturday morning I headed into town to meet everyone for our swim practice. I decided to drive the bike course on the way there, this was great, every time I headed up a rise I thought “This isn't soo bad" thinking it might have been "The Hill" and when I finally reached Matthew Flinders Drive and driving up wasn't as bad as I was expecting.
Arriving at the water, the most amusing part of this would have been watching me try to put my wetsuit on. This took a rather long time, but luckily I had arrived about 30 mins before everyone else. We had a quick chat, Drew told us what we were doing and what to expect while in the water. As soon as I got in, the first thing I noticed was how salty the water was. When it was deep enough there was no need to tread water, essentially with the salt and wetsuit we all were able to float with no effort. The downfall of this though was how salty my mouth tasted as soon as I started moving anywhere. The first leg was only a few hundred metres but it was not very fun. My goggles weren’t getting a good seal, I had to stop multiple times to try fix them. The current was not fun, I was going very slow, and this is not going to make for a great swim tomorrow. The one great thing was that we were shallow enough for me to see and also touch the grasses so I could physically see myself moving forward. At tweed the depth of the water was demotivating because I could see the debris moving past me but this was due to the current not my speed, at least with the grass, any movement was me moving forward. We headed back in after about 30 mins, that was enough I was able to gauge how I was going to go on Sunday, I think I might decrease my expectations slightly to a potentially 2:00:00 swim.
Time to check out this bike course and "The Hill" in particular. We met up as a group again and were going to be doing an "easy" ride out to see the town end of the course without wrecking our body a day early. The first thing I noticed while not in my car is this course was not very flat. In fact some may say it was rather “undulating”. Following the course until the bottom of Matthew Flinders Drive, we had a quick chat about how to attack it and we were off. I decided to get out of the seat early and try keep my heart rate as low as possible. I got up and found it really wasn’t as horrible as everyone had made out, in saying that, I'd been on the bike for 10km beforehand not 170km. Back to a coffee shop for a quick catch up.
I went back to Laurieton, picked up my gear and the girls before heading back to town showing mum the course along the way. Time to take my gear to transition but before we do that I decided that Sapphire needed a cowbell to cheer me on . . . hmmm, maybe we shouldn't have given that to her straight away. We also picked an aerodynamic drink bottle that attaches to my handle bars with a big reservoir that you can fill up on the go.
Taking my bike to transition was great, I arrived close to closing time meaning I got to see what everyone else was riding, leaving me in awe. I was in love with so many different models available, including my favourite Canyon CF SLX 9.0 WOW! Then to drop my bags off and have a quick look at the changing tents. (In Ironman, rather than leaving all your gear at your bike, you place it in bags they provide and then when you come in from the swim you grab your bike bag, take it to the changing tent and then leave it there before heading to your bike and onto the course) All done, time to relax now.
I had planned to have a sourdough loaf garlic bread for dinner but before we did that Mum wanted to get a pizza, so I grabbed a fettuccine carbonara for a late afternoon tea. Turns out thats all I could eat. During the evening however I did eat about 400 grams of lollies and drink about 3 litres of gatorade for get in all the possible carbs and hydration that I could. An early night and it would be race day.
I woke up to my first alarm in the morning and my heart rate was elevated. My pre-race routine was almost automatic. Go have a shower, shave any parts of my legs that I'd missed on the night prior, rub Bodyglide everywhere I possibly could, trisuit on, eat a few pancakes, down a bottle of gatorade, do my final internal prep, visualising the start of the race, the swim, transition 1, the ride, transition 2 the run and finally the finish. I was pumped.
We drove in very casually, talking about what to expect, how to entertain Sapphire and a few other things to slightly take my mind off the thoughts. My heart was racing, I was a little quiet on the drive as my mind was racing, more nerves than anything else. As soon as we go to race precinct this changed, I was excited.
I went into transition to fill up my drink bottle on my bike. One last look to remind myself where I'm racked, time to head toward the start line. Mum met me on the way with Sapphire who had gone back to sleep in the stroller. Now was time for the hardest part of the day, putting my wetsuit on. Luckily I had at least 30 minutes until I was going to be starting. The atmosphere was great, there were a few friendly faces, but not only that even just overhearing other people talking about their journey gave you a buzz. My wrist buzzed, turns out just standing around waiting my heart rate was sitting at 120 BPM (this would usually be closer to 70)
10 minutes until the elites are off, time to go to the starting pen. I found someone to help my zip up my wetsuit, it was his 32nd Ironman, he was more than happy to give me some advice which was very simple "Enjoy yourself". I saw Dave again and got a few final pre-race pictures. Mum found us to get a couple too, including one of me with my reason for doing this (My beautiful daughter Sapphire)
Zone 3 was starting now, "OKAY, this is happening! Its me, myself and I, time to line up". The music was blaring, dance music, I have no idea what it was but I was moving to it, the MC was revving the crowd up. Cheering for everyone, especially us first timers, squeezing into the starting funnel now, two at a time, it was quite a calm affair "and go".
