Ironman Florida 2020

It’s been a little over a week since my second Ironman. I did Ironman Florida in 2019 and finished 4th overall and 1st in my age group qualifying me for the World Championship in Kona. That day went pretty smooth. Ironman Florida 2020 did’t turn out the way I had hoped but there was a lot of good things that happened that day and good that came out of what went wrong.

My alarm went off at 3:00am but I’d been up since around 2:00am. The usual pre-race nerves. I started fueling right away with applesauce, banana, Juice Performer beet juice, almond butter and coffee. I applied my race number tats from TriTats, put on my race kit, braided my hair and then put my feet up until it was time to head to transition at 4:30am. The morning was warm, 65 degrees which was a lot more comfortable than last year’s 40’s in the morning! To keep the race safe, we had to stay next to our bike until we were called down to the start based on our expected swim finish time. I went with the first group expecting to finish under one hour. We were corralled in properly social distanced lanes.

THE SWIM:

It was pretty wavy to start, once I got past the initial break the water was a little smoother. My thoughts in the swim are always to stay calm and strong. The first lap of two went well. I came out at about 30 min. We had a longer beach run this year as the course changed from last year. Back in for the second loop! This one was a lot more crowded as many athletes were just starting their first lap. I tried my best to keep my pace while navigating around other swimmers. I finished the swim at 1:02:41. Initially, I wasn’t happy with that swim but after seeing that I placed 15th overall female, including the pros, and 6th age group female I felt better about it. There was quite a long transition run then onto the bike!

THE BIKE

The goal was to average 23mph and around 200 watts to have a bike split of 4:52. I came out of the water 6th overall amateur. By mile 2 on the bike I was second. I stayed there the rest of the bike. I felt amazing! I passed 5 pro females who had an 8 minute lead in the race. I was executing as planned and was having a blast. There was pretty much either a head or tailwind the whole day. When there was a headwind, I stayed patient and rode to my power and heart rate. When it was a tailwind, I took advantage and flew! I hit the out and back around mile 60. I knew that the out was going to in a headwind and then a nice tailwind the last 30 miles.

At about mile 67, I crashed. It all happened so quick I don’t exactly know what happened but I remember swerving towards the road and then over-correcting. That’s when I hit the edge of the road and gravel. I dumped my bike and skidded several feet on the road. My first thought was, not again (I fell on my first ever 70.3). Then it was a quick self assessment to see if there was any damage to me or my bike. My elbow swelled up like a softball. I thought maybe it was broken but I could move it so I assumed it wasn’t. The rest was just cuts and road rash. Volunteers were there quickly. They helped me clean up some of the blood and bandage the worst areas. One volunteer offered his shirt to wipe up the blood. I said I was ok. I knew my coach and friend were going to try to meet me along the course somewhere in this out and back area. It was crazy that they showed up like 4 minutes after I fell. My bike looked fine and I was determined to finish the race. So after about 5 minutes and still about 15 minutes ahead of the next girl, I got back on my bike. Battled the headwind and, finally, turned back towards town with the helping tailwind. Although I was able to continue biking and kept the same pace goal, I knew my head wasn’t in the same place it had been. My focus and confidence were definitely shaken. I finished the bike with a time of 4:58:02 (Strava moving time minus the 5 min fall break was 4:53. Just as planned.

THE RUN

The first couple miles of the run after an almost 5 hour bike are never very easy. It takes a while for your legs to feel good and to settle into the run. Right away I felt tired but I tried to be patient knowing these things. The goal was to average 7:30/mile pace. After the first couple miles I had to slow that to more like 7:45 pace. My focus on my run just wasn’t there so I don’t remember details very well. I remember at mile 4 stopping at an aid station. I have never in my life stopped running in a race. I took some water, Gatorade and RedBull and pushed on. My goal was just to get to the next aid station, which were every 2 miles vs the usual every one mile. I stopped at each aide station. I remember from mile 4 on having the tug of war in my mind of continuing to push through or giving up. There were moments I rallied and felt better and moments I wanted to just stop. When i was about a mile from the half way point I saw my coach on the sidelines. From my face he knew something wasn’t right. He told me I still had a pretty good lead on third place and just try to maintain this pace. I think I was running around 8’s at this point. Maybe even 8:30’s. I don’t remember for sure. I continued to push on. Stopping at each aide station.

Then when I was almost at mile 19 i started to feel like I might pass out. I stopped, hands on knees, bent over trying to rally. I stood up and attempted to start again and had to stop. As fate would have it, someone I’ve followed on social media since last year’s race was right there cheering on one of his friends. He had me sit down. After about 10 minutes he asked me what my decision was. I told him I was done. At this point what’s going through my head is that I cannot believe I am sitting down. I am a failure. What are my athletes and others who support me going to think of me? Knowing I had made it this far for nothing. This was one of my lowest points. Ever. I was escorted back to the med tent and given oxygen, IV fluids and some wound care.

More to come about the lessons I’ve learned from this experience but my fire only burns hotter now. I saw this quote in the days after that I really resonated with.

“Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe.” – Sumner Redstone

My mission is to learn what I need to from this so that I come back stronger, smarter, more experienced, more confident and better equipped to handle adversity. I WILL reach my goal.