12/15/2024
My first 70.3 Ironman World Championship!!
What an experience. These girls are BEASTS and it was so fun racing with them.
Swim- such beautiful crystal clear water! I thought it was mass start- all 200+ of us in my age group, thankfully it was 10 of us every 3 seconds. I felt pretty good and strong, found a lot of good feet I hung on to. How I placed it the swim- still not great and this is for sure my weakest! Thankfully it’s also the shortest.
Bike- as I’m leaving transition my bike felt hard to push, I checked the tires again, they were good, so I went on my way. The first 8 miles were hell. 3 miles in I was already being passed by everyone and seriously already thought there’s no way I’m finishing the race today. I didn’t know what could be wrong with my bike since I checked the tires but I felt like something was wrong and I wasn’t just that slow.. I yelled at volunteers for a bike mechanic but didn’t want to stop and wait for one. By mile 8 I was really cooking my legs and had to stop. My front brakes were pinching my tire.. I sat there and waited 20 min for the bike mechanic. As soon as that was fixed I tried to make up as much ground as I could but I knew I was already far behind and my legs were pretty spent from those hard first 8 miles.
Run- when I started I was concernedddd because my legs felt like trash. I just didn’t think about the distance or my pace and just went one foot in front of the other. Thankfully my pace stayed around 8 min miles! It was hottt out there and my stomach wasn’t awesome but I drank coke, electrolytes, and sometimes water at just about every aid station. I dumped myself with ice and water too.
Overall- very happy and proud of my performance. Would it have been my best race without bike issues? Maybe, maybe not. But I still put together a hell of a day, and mentally-more proud of myself than anything for not giving up.
