Mission Accomplished

It was a little nerve wracking going into a 1/2 Ironman while being very sick the weekend before but I had a goal to qualify for Ironman Canada and I was determined to race. The entire week I've just been resting and training very little, I went for a 30 minute open water swim on Wednesday and a little 50km bike on Thursday but the rest of the week was very low key. I was hoping to do a little more running but over the past couple of weeks my right knee has been really bothering me.

I went into the race with a good attitude and excited to be there. I knew I wasn't going to break any records but just having the opportunity to feel healthy enough to race was a real blessing. We arrived in Stony on Friday and attended the pre-race dinner and package pick up, sat with some friends and swapped stories about racing. It was nice to see a few people from Calgary that I haven't seen in a while. Saturday I did my usual routine of getting everything ready and going for a little swim-bike.


Sunday morning the weather was perfect and the water at Allen Beach Resort was warm (at least compared to what I have been swimming in). I was as ready as I could be and by the time the gun went off I was in "race mode," focused and ready to rock! The swim was great, I felt strong and ended up having probably my best open water swim ever. It wasn't incredibly fast but by my standards I was flying- 31:02. I took a little more time in transition than I usually do but I wanted to make sure I had socks on for the bike-run. I ended up getting a blister anyway so I probably should have just gone without. The bike course is incredibly fast and I felt so good on the way out, of course there were a lot of bike specialists passing me but I knew that the swim and bike were just a warm up for my speciality.

I pushed as hard as I could on the bike, I didn't hold anything back and I was moving really well until about the 75km mark. by that time my energy dropped to almost nothing and I was struggling with some bad cramping in my legs. I tried to push through it but I knew I couldn't get any more power out of my failing legs. By the 85km mark I was just trying to get back to town and start running, I knew I didn't have any more to give on the bike. I made it back in a resonable time but the effort I put out definitely ruined my chances at having a good run.

I struggled to stop my legs from cramping up and I thought that if I could just shuffle for a couple kms that they would start to recover and I could run at my normal pace. However they never did recover and the run was absolutely horrible, I felt like I was trying to move two tree stumps that were cramping and causing incredible pain. I shuffled through the first 10kms and actually managed to catch quite a few people despite not being able to run well. By the 19th km I was really hurting and I just kept telling myself to keep moving and just get through the last 2kms. I ended up finishing in 14th overall in a time of 4:27.18, sub-4:30 and I'm really pleased to have clinched a spot for IMC. Although after the day I had yesterday I started to question whether or not it's a good idea to do IMC this year. I know I just need a couple days to recover and I'll be back on board with going into all the hard training I'm going to need to do to get back into shape. I love Ironman and I'm so fortunate to have someone like Amber to support me in achieving my life goals.