Sunday, November 16. It’s go time.
My alarm went off EARLY. Ugh. Got up and started to pull my breakfast together while getting my eyes to open up. I actually didn’t have problems sleeping the night before the race. Started to get dressed while eating up a bit and got my bottles ready to put on my bike and all my other stuff ready for the start of the event: the swim. After about an hour or so, Carrie and I started walking towards the race start/transition area. Again, it was SO good to have a hotel near the start!
We walked our way down to transition and I made my way into transition to set up the bottles on my bike and check my tires for air. Ran into my tri-brother Tony Huffman in transition! Tony and I had planned on racing this event together for over a year...we had both finished Ironman Louisville in 2012 and this was gonna be a great event for us both. After dropping off my bottles and stuff, I dropped my morning clothes bag and met my family in the VIP area. They were amazing and made it down there by 6:00am to see me in the water at 7am. Once it was start to get into the water I left my family and told them I’d see them at the end of the day, went and joined the thousands of other athletes who all waited to be ushered into the water and “tread” water until the cannon went off at 7am. Luckily, I got in the water at 6:55am and only had to tread water for a few minutes. On top of that the water in Tempe Town Lake was much more warmer than I had planned on all year long...about 68 degrees. So not warm, but not as cold as I worried.
When the cannon went off it was like a freak washing machine, which I knew would happen. Watching this even last year on the shoreline, I remember gasping in awe….it’s just a literal mess and doesn’t seem to let up for a while. It went on for a while….Carrie told me to expect at least 5 minutes. It went on for a while longer. Tempe Town Lake is narrow and there’s so many people trying to find their own niche in the water and not swim in a crooked line. I started to get into a bit of a rhythm after a while, until we made the first turn to come backwards to the exit. It got crowded….again. My biggest goal in this swim was to keep my form and NOT look at my watch to see “where I’m at” in time. I did both of those goals and still struggled with the washing machine effect. Excited the water about 1:21 which was a record for me! I’ll take it!
After exiting the water I met with wetsuit strippers who helped me out and saw my little brother taking some good pictures on the sideline. Got into my changing area and was helped by a volunteer in getting my things out to put on. Got my helmet, bike shoes, Just Tri jersey, glasses, etc….and headed out to my bike. I was ready to go out. Killer and I headed out onto the bike course and it was pretty rough from the beginning. It’s tight and close in downtown Tempe, but I knew this and had ridden this course a month earlier.
After about a few turns out of town the wind picked up tremendously. It was pretty rough, a bit worse than what I remembered in October. As I headed out on Beeline Rd, the main road of the bike course (which we had to do 3 times), I could feel not only the wind slowing me down, but the cross wind across my bike made me feel very awkward on my bike, as if I would be just “tossed” to the side while in aero position. I did my best to hold my ground on the way out...it was about 9 miles. It was brutal enough that the wind pushed all the desert on it’s side. Pretty tough.
Right about the time I was to turn around and come back into town for another loop was when I was tossed off my bike, hit the ground and passed out. I don’t remember a single moment of it. I landed on my right side which fractured a few of my ribs and fractured my right clavicle bone. I also hit my head which made my brain bump the left side of my head and bleed a bit internally. Again, I have no memory of this. I only have memories of knowing and hearing that there were actually athletes who got OFF their bike to help/tend to me. That blows my mind! These other Ironman athletes put themselves aside to help ME, a gal they didn’t even know.
I was transported after this even to the emergency room of the Scottsdale Hospital.
So my year long dream of finishing IMAZ was done. But I was lucky to still be alive.
Be helped. Be Brave.
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