Kit Kat's Jump Into The SuperFrog 1/2 Ironman

[KitKat]

Well this just about sucks. My training journal has now been interrupted twice. I'm at the end of my training for my first 1/2 ironman and am now in day 8 of my taper, 3 days out until race day. Taper is kicking my ass, I feel bloated and lethargic from lack of exercise and carb loading. I figured I’d just start this training log to have somewhere to post up my race report. Wish me luck, I’m going to kick some Navy Seal Ass!
Here’s the link to my race, oh so I get a note I have to have ten posts to post a link so I'll try to trick the system, wtf?
superfrogtriathlon
just add the www and .com before the superfrogtriathlon

[SarahPT]

Yay!! Kick some butt this weekend! Can't wait to hear about it.

[KitKat]

Muahahahaha! I did it. I kept my whole training log in Word. Unfortunatley you don't get the details or my creative narrative for each workout but you can view a top level summary of what it took to get me trained for my first 1/2 ironman. Enjoy!

[KitKat]

A few observations on my morning swim and bike check
• Upon walking to the beach I realized that I was now fearful of the ocean water. It looked rough and scary.
• Jenny’s wetsuit fits like a glove. Fitted and sleek, and with lots o body glide zero chaffing.
• The ocean was not as scary as I had anticipated. The water was warm and the surf was only 2-3 ft waves. Not bad at all.
• Salt water is freaking disgusting. Spit Kat Spit
• Swimming into the waves is fun.
• It’s hard to sight in the ocean when there are no boyies (sp?)
• I experienced open water shock a few times. Note to self : Do not think about what is underneath you, in fact it might be more beneficial to close my eyes under the water, it was too clear. I cannot stress or worry about getting stung buy a jellyfish or stingray, if it’s going to happen it’s going to happen. Cannot stress over shit I cannot control.
• Coming in on the first swim loop is going to suck ass, second loop as well. The sea kelp monster attacked me today and sure it will happen on race day.
• I found out today that there are no waves besides individual and relay. WTF? That means I will be starting with 179+ athletes and Seals. My god have mercy on me.
• I biked 6 miles along Hwy 75, it was smooth, flat and fast. Hopefully the whole ride will be like that and headwind will be light.
• I adjusted my seat post and no longer feel the knee pain. Hopefully the tilt will help with the woman pain from riding in the drops for 3 hours.
• IT Band is still giving me shit. I was going to wear shoes with less mileage but that’s not going to work. They have holes cut in the sides to help prevent blisters. I can’t wear shoes with holes while running on the wet sand.
• My original goal of 6 hours might have been too aggressive. With the sand, woman cramps and bad IT band the run will hand me my ass. Such a damn pity.
• Damn, there are a lot of HOT Seals running on base. I am going to be easily distracted.
• I am going to experience a lot of pain on this triathlon. I am fully aware of this and ready to embrace it. Bring it on baby; I’m a glutton for pain.

[KitKat]

Please pray for me, I am now about to endter the depths of hell. I'm entering the water with 260+ navy seals+ athlete's, a storm is approaching and 2/3's of the 13.1 mile run is on dry loose sand. I am ready to die today.

[SarahPT]

How did it go???? Waiting....

[KitKat]

70.3 miles through hell and back

First let me start off with saying that after I finished this ½ iron I firmly believe that I can do anything. I have never been through such mental and physical torture for so long.
I had 3 goals for this race, only 1 of which I was able to achieve. In order of highest to lowest.
1. Have fun (thanks Seth, Kelly, Michele, Gayle, Jenny, Jessica, Kristie)
2. Finish in less than 6 hours
3. Do not walk on the run (Hahahahahahaha!)

• I woke up feeling nervous and scared. For what? I couldn’t say. I knew I had this. I had trained hard and I knew I would be able to complete it. Maybe it was the unknown factor. Maybe it was the storm that was predicated to roll in that day. Maybe it was the fear of what I leaned about the course the night before. Maybe it was a combination of it all, but regardless I was uber scared.
• Tim picked me up at 5:15 race morning; he appeared cool as a cucumber, which helped my nerves. Thanks buddy, I won’t be damning you until later (inside joke)
• As we reach the race site beautiful expensive bikes surround me. It seemed like everyone had a Cervelo, aerobars and many had disc wheels. Another surge of fear went through. It was just Cadence, although my baby is carbon she didn’t have aero bars. My only hope was these boys liked to buy expensive toys and didn’t know how to appreciate or utilize them properly. I actually found a whole lot of truth to that.
• Transition set up was at one spot and the bike racks were not numbered. Another thing to add to my nerves. How the hell am I going to remember were I put my bike? Tim’s son Brian had a great idea of setting up next to a light post. It was a perfect reminder.
• The next hour was spent setting up, checking in and picking up timing chip (didn’t give out until race day) and getting inked. The markings sucked and they didn’t list your age, just your number. How was I going to find the hot man seal to follow without his age? Blah.
• The triathlon was small in number of racers. 260 + of mainly Navy Seals and a few civilians (myself included ) Out of the 260+ racers only 26 or so were women. Talk about racing in a man candyland. Beautiful men everywhere. I think I spent half my set up time staring at all the candy around me. I knew that I was in a hellish version of heaven.
• Around 7 we got an announcement that we would be starting late and that they were probably going to shorten our swim. The NAVY SEALS couldn’t get the boyies (sp?) planted. The storm had rolled in and the ocean was getting crazy. Again I’m overcome with fear. WTF? You know you’re going to have a challenging swim if the Seals are having a hard time out there. The RD also said that this was the worst weather the SuperFrog has experienced in its 29 year history. Oh and the sky. It was scary. Black and dark, it would have pockets of light but mostly looks like the depths of hell were going to swallow us up. It rained off and on pre race.
• We started 45 mins late. They kept the swim distance but changed the course. Originally we were supposed to do 2 loops, 400 out, 200 side and 400 back. Run up on the beach and repeat. Instead we lost a boyie, uh oh! And changed to a 3 loop course to get the yardage up to 2000. Oh my.
• Tim and I went out for a warm up swim. Shout out to Jenny for letting me borrow her sleeveless wetsuit. It was awesome. The water was pretty warm and having free arms made for a much more comfortable swim. Going into my warm up swim I peed once : ). Tim and I went out to the first boyie and came back. The water was rough but not as bad as I had expected. The waves were pretty big though, what do you think Tim? 5ft swells? I managed ok as long I dove under as they hit.
• The swim was set off to start with ALL individual athlete’s starting together. That’s 260+ people entering the water at one time with 90% of those people being giant males. Eek! As we’re getting ready to start I find myself needing to pee again. Tim just tells me to go, sanding out of the water. At first I’m like “Uhhhh, there are men all around me.” But then I think about it again, “I’m a triathlete and really don’t give a #$#%”. So there I go. I guess you could say I got over my public fear of peeing.
• My sister runs up to me just before the race starts to let me know they made it. This brought a smile to my face. I waved to my sister, brother-in-law, dad and dad’s girlfriend.
• Woohoo! Race time. We’re all sitting around waiting to start and I see a small group of girls my age. I start talking to them. 2 had never done a triathlon before and this was the first ½ (as with me) Lol, we started talking so much we didn’t know they had started the race. No gun or anything. That’s ok though, I didn’t want to be one of the first ones in the water.
• So hear it goes, my first step into hell. I run into the ocean and a few feet out I fell on my face. Oh you know I did and this was first of many falls. I quickly get back up and try to battle through the monster waves coming at us.
• The water was salty and nasty. Coming around the first boyie was crazy! There were so many people in the water, insane I tell you. It was at this time that I had a close encounter and was punched in the lip. Ouch. Tasted blood, it tasted better then salt water, yet stung like a mother. Ok, I’ve been hit once and I still have 2 ½ loops to go, may god have mercy on my body. I come finishing my first loop and I’m swimming to the shore and I get this moron yelling at my telling me to run it out. I can’t touch the sand yet so I didn’t want to run but he persisted and it was irritating me. So I jumped up and fought the water, not fun. I will not be doing that again. I run up around the sand. Wave to my family and run back in. What happens next? Again I fall on my face. A nice man helped me up and asked me if I was ok. I was : ) Again, it’s another battle with the waves. Swimming down the side and I’m starting to feel nauseas I don’t know if it was from the amount of salt water I consumed or from the crazy giant waves. I felt like I had motion sickness, which I really never get, it was NOT a good feeling. 2nd loop goes through easier then the first, no one hit me. I enter the water for my 3rd and final loop. This time I do not fall on my face. Yay for me! 3rd loop wasn’t as bad, at the end some guy ran right into me but the apologized which is pretty hard to do when you have waves smashing down on you.
• It is now transition time. Out of the water we have to climb up this 7-10 ft mound of loose sand up and over to transition. Ready for fall three? Upon reaching the top I loose my footing and fall. Lol, my sister got a pic of this. Again another man stopped and asked if I was ok. If anything these Seals are such gentlemen. I was fine and ran on. There were Navy men hosing you off as you entered the transition zone, this was awesome! T1 went pretty smooth. I was very surprised to see that at least ½ off the bikes where still left. Yay me, I actually did ok. I couldn’t get the sand off of my feet and just thought $#@$#@ it and decided to ride sockless. As I’m prepping for my ride I see Tim and Brian. It was so nice to see familiar faces.
• My oh my….the bike course. It was a 4-14 mile flat loop. As Cadence and I start our journey we are welcomed with more rain. I look at this as advantage. I’m from Oregon, ½ my training is done in the damn rain. The first 20 minutes on the bike are spent warming up and spitting the salt out of my lungs. I don’t know why I brought electrolytes; I surely drank a few gallons of ocean water. Ick. Oh and Kristie girl, you would have been so proud of me, I mastered the snot rockets. I was shooting them out right and left. Fun times!
• The first 30 minutes of the bike sucked pretty badly. I was only avg’ing 15-16 mph. Was I really this slow? I didn’t feel that tired. I wasn’t getting passed and I had actually passed a few, it didn’t make sense. Then there was the first turn around, oh yes; this is where the sense came in. Coming back I rode an effortless avg of 24-25 mph. Seriously, I just spun this out and I was flying. I wish I had counted my kills because I passed a lot. Oh, the boys and there expensive toys they didn’t know how to use. I was eating up Cervelo’s, shit I was eating Navy Seals. Lol, I wonder how it felt to get passed by a little girl in pigtail braids.
• Loop 2 pretty much followed the same as one. I spent a lot of time drinking and eating and trying to keep high cadence while battling the wind on the way out. I also focused on pacing; I knew I had a long way to go. Loop 2 rained a lot. I heard a lot of bitching from other athletes. I embraced the rain.
• I had some pretty interesting conversations on the bike. Drafting wasn’t allowed but a few people rode up along your side and you would talk for a min or two. So I guess it was allowed but you weren’t able to follow right behind another rider. Each girl I would pass I would shout out words of encouragement. And then there were the boys, seriously, you can’t hit on a girl while she is racing. But there were some nice attempts.
• My sister and brother in-law are the best triathlete cheerleaders I have even known. For amateurs I would have thought there were pro’s. This was a spectator’s race so I saw them 3 times on my swim and 3 or 4 on the bike and 5 on the run. And how did I know where they were? The loud cheering. They were the best! On a side note I got a whole lot of GO TEAM! Since I was rockin’ my oh-so hot and new TNT tri suit.
• Loop 3 started to hurt. As the ride grew longer the rain stopped and headwind grew stronger. Loop 3 going out I only avg’d 13-14 mph. It was nuts, I was fearful I was growing weak. But then coming back I increased to an effortless 25-27 mph avg. I was flying back. As you know I don’t yet have aero’s on my bike so I opted to ride in my drop down bars the whole ride. This stressed my back a little but I’m sure it helped in my speed.
• Coming around the turn around to start loop 4 my clumsy ass falls off the bike. I didn’t brake quickly enough and took the corner to wide and rode right into the sand and then my bike drifted and my rear tire flew out from under me. I just sat there for a minute in front of a large crowd of spectators thinking to myself, WTF? Did I really just fall? Lol, guess I did. My sister runs over to see if I’m ok. I smile, get up and realize I’m fine. I cut my knee but nothing too bad. My chain came off so I sat there for a few minutes trying to get that back on. A Seal came to offer assistance. At first I resisted. I fell, I wanted to get back up on my own, but after a few minutes of messing with it and getting greasy I gave in and let him help me out. Mount up and I’m off on my 4th and final loop. This one I took a little slower. The fall had shaken me up a bit and I wanted to make sure I was able to process enough food and conserve enough energy for my run. I spun the last few miles at high cadence and was passed by a few men that attacked on me. I laughed in my head; I wonder if they knew what was in store for them.
• 2nd transition. Oh this went slow. I was tired and not too thrilled about the run course. My sister and brother in law come over to cheer and make sure I was ok and to see if I needed anything. I was good, they provided the mental support. I needed help with the physical. To my surprise only maybe ¼ of the bikes had returned. I did much better on the bike then I had thought I would. And to think, I just started to ride this year. That made me feel good. I didn’t care that I fell; I’m clumsy and know this will probably always happen. I just need to make sure I plan for a 2-3 min. fall in my time estimations.
• And I’m off for the run. I start the first few feet on the road. Not bad, my legs actually feel ok. Then very shortly I hit some loose sand. Ugh, NOT fun. Then I hit hard packed sand. I’m running next to the ocean. The wet sand hurt my cement legs. Going into this race I was having a lot of problems with my IT Band. I had been icing and massaging it for the last week. It was getting bad, my shoes were too old. The sand did not help this. The ocean side of the run lasted for a mile, then we ran up a 5-7 foot hill of loose sand. This is where I lost goal #3 of not walking. There was not way in hell I would have been able to run up that. As I attempted my legs flew out from under me. I didn’t fall but they where had their own sense of direction. OMG, talk about pain. After I reached the top I had another mile to run, all on dry loose sand. This killed me. I had to walk a lot of it. I was getting passed and I swallowed my pride. It was at this point I had thought about quitting. I hurt so badly. The pain shooting up my left knee at the IT was mind numbing. The only thing I could compare it to was some one stabbing me with a cleaver on my outer knee. And then my calves stung and the pains surged up from both legs on each side. First time I had ever thought I would get a DNF (do not finish). How could this be happening? I trained for this. I was not a quitter. I thought about Michele and the marathon training she had done with her achillis. She gave me inspiration to keep moving; on I walked until I reached the road again. I had never been so happy to run on the road in my life. My legs screamed in praise. My bowels were also killing me, I think the salt water reeked havoc on my insides. Thankfully a honey bucket came to my rescue. I pulled myself together and thought if I had to I could run the road and hard sand and walk the loose sand, still that would be walking 6 miles out of the 13 and that was a disappoint, but yet better the quitting.
• The second loop was better the first. I ran ¾ of the 2.6 mile loop. The loose sand was starting to get packed by all the runners. I was able to tune out the pain and just run on. I lost one of my fuel bottles on the second loop. That was 110 calories and water out the window. This now worried me, I knew I would end up needing it. Third lap was better then the 2nd and I only walked once to add PowerGel to my water. I regained my strength and I knew I would be able to do this. I started passing people that had passed me earlier. A lot of people were walking now. I tried to start conversations but people were in their own zone. Most were in pain and just didn’t want to talk.
• On the fourth loop it started raining hard. This felt amazing. Prior the sun had came out and my core had started to over heat. At each add station I would grab water to pour on my body just too cool myself. Now I didn’t have to, the rain was showering down. I took this time to think about everything. All my training, my friends and family that supported me. I couldn’t have done it without my TNT family or my sister/brother in-law, dad or grandfather. Everyone played his or her part to strengthen and mold me into who I am today. I love you all. Ok, enough with the mush : ) I ran into Tim on my 4th loop. It was so good to see him again. He looked strong and provided me with inspiration to keep going. Thank buddy but damn you : P
• The rain helped the loose sand portion of the run. Well it helped and hurt. Running in wet loose sand gets in your shoes and by the end of loop 4 I think I picked up a lb of sand in each shoe. My feet grew heavy and the sand rubbed in my socks hurting my feet. The last loop sucked. I was out of water and calories. I was growing tired and weak. My feet burned from the sand and they felt so heavy. I felt weak. I hit the first aid station ½ mile into the run. All they had was water. Agh! A guy offered me salt tablets but I needed calories, I was still able to make light of the situation and told him if I needed salt I could like my arm. I had enough salt on me to rim a margarita. Finally ½ way through loop 5 and I got some Gatorade. I took two cups and downed them quickly.
• Running out the last of the loose sand felt good. I laughed out loud; I will never run in sand like this again! I caught up to this woman with giraffe legs (She reminded me of a female version of Coach Glen), we talked for a bit. She had said she had done 10 other ½ ironmen and this was by far the worst. This was her slowest time by 30 minutes. It made me feel good for feeling so bad earlier. I thought it was hard but she put the whole thing in perspective. We hit the road together and talked until we saw the finish. Now I was just going to run it in with her, I had no desire to race her or sprint. She wasn’t in my age category and really I just didn’t care. I was pretty sure I hadn’t met my 6 hour goal and I just wanted to be done with it all. BUT then I see my dad. I have about 400 meters left and my dad runs up on my side. He says “Come on Baby, I’m going to race you.” I almost fell over laughing. Like he could ever keep up with me. This what I needed though. It pushed me and like all other races I do I muster that last little bit from inside of me and sprint to the finish. I flew through it and my dad ran around the side picked my swirled me around. I almost puked on him but instead cried like I needed to. My sister comes around with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s PB cup ice cream. : ) I love my family. My time on the clock was 6:23, I did not make my goal, but I didn’t care, I was now a ½ ironwoman. About a half-hour later I find out that the large clock had malfunctioned and I had actually came in at 6:06. That is close enough! Tim followed closely behind and then we waited for his son came in. What an amazing ½ ironman.
• The aftermath was interesting. I took off my shoes and had cuts and blisters all over my feet. The backs of my ankles both have deep cuts and I have several giant blood blisters on my toes. My sister had brought me a bag of ice to work on my knee and later that evening my dad’s girlfriend did some yoga with me to help with my back and spine. I must say that today I feel great, except for that little IT Band problem.

So I managed to accomplish 1 out of the 3 goals. I came 6 minutes shy of my 6 hour goal, strike one. I walked during the run, strike two. BUT I did manage to have fun. As I was thinking about the DNF I thought about all my TNT family and who everyone emphasized the fun part. You know what? I did have fun. I enjoyed the pain and suffering. My sister said that every time she saw me (3 swim, 4 bike and 5 on the run) I had a smile on my face and she has the pictures to prove it. And the best part of it all? My dad got to run me in.

[Shandi]

Congratulations, it sounds like you did great, especially considering the weather. Even though you did not meet your 6 hour goal, think about it this way...if the weather had been good, you would have met that goal.

[CTri17]

congrats !!!!!
as a fellow triathlete (and surely not a 1/2 ironmanner lol) i'm so proud of you!!!
it sounds like the weather wasnt exactly conducive to you running under 6 hours, but hey 6 min is like nothing in the grand scheme of things....
GOOD JOB :clap: