Part 2D - Bike Got a great start on the bike! I took off with confidence after smashing my swim goal. There was adequate cloud cover, no wind, and a gorgeous rolling hills course in front of me. I happily rode up the Lolly Pop stick (thanks to Glenn Kubina for the Lolly Pop analogy) toward the stem which would be a beautiful, green, forest-y out and back. It had a couple decent climbs, but I attacked them one at a time and remembered what Cathy Spenser had said to me one day: Hills are a state of mind. Dont fight them - settle in like you are riding into a headwind. And so I did, and I was back on the Lolly Pop stick headed for La Grange. La Grange is a town northeast of Louisville seated at the top of the Lolly Pop. This portion of the course took us on two loops through town. Spectators were shuttled to La Grange, where they lined the streets along with Ironman banners. Bands played and it felt like we were part of an exciting parade! Or maybe this is what Lance Armstrong feels like. It felt pretty awesome. But I still had another 30 mile loop to complete before heading back down the Lolly Pop. I was about half way through the course at this point, so I took a closer look at my watch, did some quick calculations…twice…and realized, Oh shit! I was wayyyy off schedule. And I might not make the cut off?? What?? How did this happen? I have no idea how this happened. I simply wasn’t fast enough. Was I playing it too safe pacing myself for the day? Slow and steady wins the race, right? Maybe on a training day, but not so in the Ironman arena! There are two bike cut offs to make, and if you miss either one, even by seconds, they pull you off the course. Everything changed in a single moment. I went from happy and joyful to fearful and scared. What if I didn’t finish? My body was beginning to feel it. Everything was starting to hurt. And I wasn’t expecting the body shut-down til at least mile 80. This was only mile 50. I hurt and I was scared. I began fantasizing a little about getting a flat that couldn’t be fixed in time…or, crashing. I figured if I crashed, itd be the best excuse for getting out of the marathon which followed. Then I thought, what if my body really does break down and I make a stupid mistake and I really do crash?? That scared me even worse. Bottom line, at this point, I felt like I had the potential to fail, a feeling I wasnt prepared to have. What happened to my confidence? It was overwhelming. I broke.. I proceeded to cry for 5 miles. Like, boo hoo let-it-all-out “yes I am an emotional girl, ok??” kind of crying. How was I going to pull myself out of this? Where was my strength? What is so inspiring about me now?? I had nothing. There was no one. I mean no one to talk to. Not even a stranger. This was probably a good thing…I was able to cry in silence. I got my cry over with, pulled up my big girl pants like I always do, and I began working to make up the time. I was in the 2nd loop, so I knew that from that point forward, every foot I covered, I would never ever have to see again in my entire life! And that was a wonderful thing. I even made a deal with myself...Id never have to ride my bike again if I didnt want to. That made me happy. It was at this point that I got crazy focused on my cadence and watched as my mph average began to creep up. Every time a faster Lap reading would appear on the Garmin, I knew everyone tracking me saw that my splits were getting faster. At this point, I started talking to myself. “They saw that! They see this! They know I’m working! They know I’m not giving up!” With every Lap reading, I felt a connection to Jeff and Heidi. In fact, I felt like I was in communication with them all day. 700 miles apart and we were communicating. Pure determination turned the ride around and brought me back to Louisville. I began passing athletes, and everyone I passed, I encouraged. “Come on, we didn’t spend this entire year training to not finish this race!” Not finishing was actually a real concern for those I passed at this point. My calculations were rough, but I think I was within maybe 15-30 minutes of the first cut off?? I didn’t like it being that close. People were pulling over to stretch, etc, and we just didn’t have time for that! Motivating others motivated me! While passing one guy, I heard him yell, “Look at you! You are my hero!” That’s right, buddy! I am amazing! I’ve got energy to spare! Follow me! We are going to finish! I was on fire! I was delusional. Around mile 100, we could start to see the river to our right. That is one of my most favorite parts of a triathlon. As you get back to the tents, you get to bike along the water that you swam in earlier. At this point, I wasn’t only talking to myself. I was also talking to BB. You know, the Blue Boss. My bike. “See that BB? That’s the river I kicked ass in this morning!” I spent the next mile telling her allll about my awesome swim… The last 4-5 miles, BB wasn’t sounding so good. Her breaks would squeal when we slowed down, her back tire felt squiggly at times, and I kept thinking I heard things falling off her. Truth is, I was afraid something would happen just miles from the finish. We made it this far, we are not getting a flat or crashing now! I talked her all the way in. “Not now, BB. We are crossing that finish line together, in just 4 miles. We got this, girl!” Delusionally focused, we finished the bike portion of the race.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 22:14:20 +0000
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