Ok. I am back in the US, and am sitting at my moms having lunch. I can finally think for a minute and can probably put the race report together. The funny thing is that those of you who were following my progress via the interwebs yesterday know more about my times and position than I do!! So, the day started at 3:50. Had to wake up HAVE COFFEE, eat, and get to the venue, park, organize last minute things, then get on a shuttle bus for the ride out to the lake. It was chilly, steam coming off the water. Water temp 66 degrees. Good temp for swimming. Teresa Hanson, I found a proxy guardian dolphin!!! I found a woman that was planning on swimming about 1:30, and she and I swam the whole course together. It was fantastic!!! I could have swum a bit faster, but the comfort factor and the comradery made up for that! bike transition went well, no wasted time, but I made sure I didnt forget anything. On bike by 8:45. Nutrition was Salt tabs on the :50 of the hour and food on the hour. I was strict and did it throughout the ride. I did well getting up to the top of Callaghan Valley. I thought it would take much longer, but I was up and down by 10:30-ish. The climb back to Whistler Village was fine and very much like what I have been used to training on. Things felt pretty good all the way to Pemberton. I knew that all the descending into town was going to be brutal heading back. Left Pemberton to begin the climb at 2:30. It was about 85 degress and little to no wind heading up the steepest hills EVER!! I had to stop a couple of times and catch my breath and let my my muscles recover. At the top of the last hill, all leg muscles decided that they had had enough and all cramp at the same time. It was all I could do to not freak out and totally seize up. I relaxed for a few and was able to get back on the bike and finish. I think I was off the bike at 4:30, and off on the run at 4:40. THE RUN: Oh man. I knew it was going to be hard. My foot was teetering on the edge of being ok, and I had doubts it would make it through the day. The first lap was HOT. I had trouble running on my foot and had to walk a lot. My first 3 or 4 miles were SUPER SLOW! But I had unitl 10:30pm to get 20 miles, so keeping that in mind, I paced myself and just kept FINDING A WAY to get it all done. Things were going pretty well until mile 12. Something just snapped in my foot. It stopped me in my tracks. I think I yelped out loud. From then on, it was excruciating to put any weight on the foot at all. I walked with intention and wasnt going to stop. I actually tried the tip toe hop/skip thing for a while...limited success. Not a great solution. So, I kept trying different foot positions until I found one that was slightly less painful than the rest. As I started the second lap, the sun went down, and it cooled off nicely. I began to run with something that might be called comfort, if it were compared to, say, someone stabbing me with a thousand knife blades. I actually ran more on the second lap than the first. which I guess accounts for the negative split that some of you commented on. So, on a very messed up foot, I kept FINDING A WAY to make it happen. I just couldnt be defeated. I just had to finish. I will be seeing the doctor ASAP to see if I have torn my facia. That is what it feels like, and what it felt like when it happened. But, for now, it is worth it. Pictures to follow.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 20:41:55 +0000
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