Navid is my brother's best friend and our childhood friend. This guy made the trip from Toronto, to spend the Saturday evening and race morning with me. Wish my brother could join us! I am not sure if he would ever come out to support any other races. He didn't look impressed when I woke him up at 4:30 AM to head to transition.
At the briefing on Friday night, they told us not to put any nutrition on our bike nor the transition bags. There were bears, raccoons, etc. That messed with my checklist.
The Morning of the Race:
I woke up at 4 AM. Double checked my bottles, and bags. Made sure I packed my running shoes to take to T2 bag. By 5 AM we walked over to the transition. My hotel was in the IM village and only 2 minute walk to Team Z HQ. I walked to the body markers. Then headed in to the Transition tent. Here is where things didn't go well. I was nervous and distracted. So didn't put the nutrition in the T1 bag. Everything went in to the Bike Special Needs! Oops.
I went to the bike, put 4 scratch bottles on it. Pumped the tires ... ALL SET! I was excited! I wasn't feeling nervous before that morning. I was feeling all the feels at that moment. I went out and found Navid, we walked over to Team Z HQ.
As I was sipping coffee. Someone said:"Everyone make sure you have your timing chip" ... Me"CRAP!!!!" and I started running to the hotel. Phewww it was on the floor by the bed.
We all started walking to Swim start. It was a 20 minute walk. Once there, everyone got in their pace lines. And before I knew it, it was go time.
My main goal was to have fun. I honestly didn't think I would even finish!
Swim:
As soon as I got in to the water, with my sleeveless wetsuit, I started freezing! I thought maybe it was death that was coming for me. My feet, face, arms all were freezing. It felt like that for 10 minutes, until I warmed up. No of course I didn't do a warm up! Why would I?! I got kicked in the head at the first turn. I had already gone too far to quit, so I kept going. I did stop and yell at a guy who kept grabbing my feet. I am sure he completely understood every word that came out of my mouth. As he changed NOTHING!
Swim was otherwise uneventful. Swim Time: 1 hour 42 minutes.
Once out of water I found the strippers, they took the wetsuit off and I started running to T1.
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| This pic is for Cliff. Both feet off the ground! Look how happy I am to be done with swim! |
T1 Time: 11 Minutes 17 seconds. Here is why:
One reason was the long run back to the transition tent. The other reason is once I put my clothes on for the bike, I realized I had no food! Then and there I had a nervous breakdown on the chair. Threw everything out of the bag and found no food. Then I decided that I needed to suck it up and get on the bike. I thought "Plan says to take it easy on the first 10 miles. So do that and drink your scratch. At the aid station get food."
Bike:
Since the swim, I never got warm. I felt a little cold all day. If you know me, you know I absolutely loved that. I was in shock when teammates complained about the heat the next day. The fact that I didn't feel the heat also explains my later visit to medical tent.
Once I got to the first aid station at mile 10 I told the volunteers that I had no food. And they filled up my jersey pockets with bananas, bars and Gu. The Gu and Banana were okay, but the bar made me sick. So I ended up not eating until mile 56 special needs. That wasn't smart, I know! Because I was bonking while trying to bike through the Duplesis. After the first loop I stopped at the Special needs. Filled up my water bottles and grabbed my food. It was too late, I just kept getting slower and there was a wind! Seriously!
I could see the cutoff time vehicle coming from the other side. Even though I really wanted to just stop pedaling and take a nap for a while, I kept going. I am lucky that I didn't get a flat nor dropped a chain. The second round on Duplesis was hard. I think I cried a little and maybe just maybe asked for my mom!
The team Z cheer crew were at the start of Duplesis and they gave me the energy that I needed to push through.
I made it to T2 10 minutes before the cutoff time.
Bike Time: 8 Hours and 15 minutes
T2: 7 Minutes 41 seconds
Run:
As I came out of the T2, Ed told me that I had to keep a 15 minute mile pace or I wouldn't make it. For some unknown reason I was able to run after that horrific bike ride. I didn't want to push it. Since my back was completely out and I was in pain already. So I kept it around 11:30-12 per mile. That way I would have more time at the end if I needed to crawl through the finish line.
People kept telling me that I was on fire! And my response was something like:"Yes! My back is on fire and I am having labor pain! I may be running with a baby on the second lap!"
Jamie saved me. She had Advil and that changed everything for me. I danced with the volunteers at the aid stations. Why not!? I met a guy racing his VERY FIRST Triathlon that day at age 65!
I ran the last lap with the oldest finisher, 75 year old guy. We were both so delusional that he spoke to me in French and I spoke to him in Farsi. We had a fantastic conversation about Arctic I think.
My Garmin died around 2 miles before the finish! I saw John right around 24 mile and he mentioned his head was foggy. I should've stayed with him. But I knew I was running on absolute empty and didn't want to faint before hearing Mike Riley saying my name.
Somewhere through that marathon, I decided that I wanted to break 16 hours. I finished IM Cozumel in 16 Hours and 47 minutes. I was in a better shape at Mont Tremblant. The more I did the math in my head the more I wanted to push. Once In the village I kept asking people for the time. The run to the finish felt like Tour de France with everyone high fiving me.
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| The face you make while trying not to faint before Mike Riley says your name! |
Total time: 15 hours and 50 minutes.
Once in the tent, I went straight to the medical tent. I told them that I wasn't an emergency, but I was going to faint. I then laid on the ground and put my feet up. They checked my HR, Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar and were high fiving each other!They said they had never seen such low numbers. I was shivering at this point. After 45 minutes of eating and forcing down Sprite I was better. They wouldn't let me leave, Debbie had Tom release me from the medical tent. I walked over to the transition, grabbed my bike and bags and headed to Team Z HQ.
What is next you ask?! Watermans Half Ironman and Marine Corps Marathon
