THE STORY:

It had been a journey to the start line. And quite frankly, i think you’ve heard enough about it. Life changes; relationships ending, homes moving, injured bodies, gross winter training. Whatever. Life happens! When i read the inspiring Corbinator’s post, i realized that if i was gonna start Ironman CdA (cause it was questionable for a looong while!), I was gonna show up all in. No excuses, no justifications. All heart, all the time. I was going to finish the race and say that i gave every mile everything i had. And quite frankly, that sums up my race report…Sunday was the very best i had in me to give. (oh, there is soo much room for improvement!)

THE FACTS:

I started the day ambitiously at the front of the beach….and got chewed up and spat out by the second marker. Kicked in the head, pulled under, up for air, swallowed a wave, pulled under, repeat. Oh, kicked in the head! If swimming is my “strongest” sport, i can’t imagine what it was like for not-as-strong swimmers. That being said, with every stoke and the cold water numbing my feet, I was so grateful to be moving forward. I love to swim and the fresh water was a treat to ocean swimming. As i ran up the beach, i’m surprised i didn’t trip over my own frozen feet…and as per always, the volunteers were nothing short of remarkable! I was into T1 in a flash and had the bloody camera man in my face following me down the wet grass…guess that meant my swim wasn’t tooo slow…

I jumped on bike with arm warmers and frozen toes; it was cold. The rain was starting….and I was pretty pumped to be riding. I recently had a bike fit down at Dizzy by Adriano and the guy is fantastic. I felt strong and relaxed. I had shoved a couple of gels from my awesome team down my bra and in my pocket so felt loaded with goodness to boot. The 2lap course was surprisingly fun – familiar faces killing it out there! Fast girls ahead and North Shore men who were chasing me down. After lap 1, the sun started to shine and the head winds picked up. The ride was gnarly. I smiled so big on every decent and sucked-it-right-up on every climb. With 22miles to go, I recall feeling sad that this bike ride was coming to an end….and it was time to get ready to run.

Onto the run, i now am not only HEARING JoJo but am SEEING her! She is prancing alongside me with a coffee in hand, knapsack on her back, shouting messages of joy. I cannot tell you just how sweet it was to see her there. I didn’t want to tell her how much pain i was in…and evidently, i didn’t need to. She knew. After my first lap, she proceeded to shout messages from the online world that to my utter disbelief were exploding. The run was slow, it wasn’t pretty AND i ran the last 6miles as “fast” (all things are relative) as my first 6miles which was exactly indicative as to where my head/heart were at. When I hit mile 20, I knew this was it. It was 6miles to relish the pain/joy/suffering/smiles of finishing another IM.

Final time: 11:34…a 5min PB – a pb is a pb.

THE DREAM:

All of this to be said, the dream and elusive Kona spot remains untouched. I finished 4th in my AG and the top3 girls are going to Hawaii. While I can barely sleep, yet alone walk, I’m not certain that this season is over….yet.

What I do know for sure is that dreams are worth chasing, always. There are lessons in unattachment, lessons in showing up with everything you’ve got and still being okay with the outcome that isn’t what you dreamed of; lessons in the power of the collective human spirit – there were people cheering for me on their day off alllll night long + strangers in other countries at #yougotthisSC - I’m soo soo great,FULL. Extra special shout out to Matt Corker + JoJo…seriously, you guys are somethin’ else.

Until the next start line…

XO!