Ironman #7 - 2009 Ironman World Championships in Kona

I am getting in the last of my off season between Christmas and New Year's & now have plenty of extra fuel to burn during my base period. I'm trying to get motivated to up my hours & start that long road to getting back into race shape, so I figured what better way than to recap Kona? Just a warning - it's gonna be a long one!

I had forgotten to mention in my CDA report that a complete stranger paid me $20 for a relatively small piece of kinesiotape the day before the race. No, he had never used it before, but after I explained how it had helped me qualify in Arizona, he was handing over cash (that I was trying to refuse). Mike and I mused how if someone could get the Ironman logo on that stuff, it would be a cash cow. When I got back to town I realized that Rock Tape had already beat me to it (not that I would've followed through). Mike then had the brilliant idea to get my hands on some white kinesiotape so that the kids could draw on it & I could carry them on me through the race in Kona. As fate would have it, Greg at Rock Tape had just put in an order for white tape. I was in! Another quirk of fate landed me a sponsorship from my CEO at Cobalt Biofuels. I just happened to end up being his partner for an exercise during a team building day, and the leader of the ropes course was an Ironman himself. This was the week after IMCDA and I was wearing my finishers shirt. Long story short, I ended up getting my plane ticket paid to Kona along with a new speedsuit & race outfit. Thank you, Cobalt! I borrowed some lab pens from work and the kids used these on the plane ride to Kona to draw up some most excellent art work on my tape. The lab pens are alcohol and water proof & so their artwork was preserved during the entire race & gave me many boosts of energy when I needed it most. Most importantly, I had no muscle cramps.

As usual, I was covered in tape. It works, so I don't care what other people think – I have no problem being seen in public with this stuff on, much to Mike's dismay. This is exactly how he feels about compression socks, so we're even.

It was great being in Kona. I've never been here for the race before, so it was a bit surreal seeing all the landmarks in person that I've seen on the NBC coverage over the years. We stayed at the end of Alii Drive, about a mile past the run turn around. I did all my workouts in the area leading up to Saturday. The swim was the most enjoyable. It felt more like I was snorkeling than dialing in for a race. I taught marine biology for 3 years, and had salt water tanks in my classroom. I loved those tanks – one day I'll have one in the house! Anyways, I spent most of my time identifying the fish on the reef than paying attention to how the buoys were laid out (mistake!). On Friday, I went to turn in my bike and transition bags and was surprised to see the line up of people with clipboards sitting along the entrance to the transition area. They, of course, were checking out everyone's bike equipment. So that's how they tally all the bikes, and wheels! I reluctantly left my bike. In Kona, you leave your helmet on the bike (you can't do this at other IM races). I was worried that it would roll off my aerobars since I have a profile drink on there. The volunteer suggested that I put my straw through a vent in the helmet – an excellent idea. My helmet was right where I left it come race day.

On race morning, Mike & a couple of very groggy kids dropped me off near the host hotel to go get body marked. After that I went to put an additional inhaler in my run bag (just in case) and then pumped up my tires. I then found Mike & the kids over by the extra cool Banyan Tree & had him help me with my speedsuit. Took a quick picture & gave everyone a kiss before heading off to drop off my morning bag & head to the water.

As I was heading towards the water I saw the navy seals parachute in – very cool. Once I walked down the steps to the water the national anthem started up. The crowds were thick all along the water's edge. It was really amazing to be there realizing a dream! I walked part way out, watched the pros start & then decided to swim out to the start. Wow. The whole day I was thinking in terms of Facebook updates because I knew Mike was logged on to my page updating everything for me during the day. Jeanette Mucha is at the start line of the world championship! I had a smile on my face a mile wide & was too excited. Another female competitor asked me “what's your heart rate?” I looked and saw that it was 98 (my resting pulse is 45) – she replied that hers was 99. Guess we were nervous, but more excited than anything else. During the NBC coverage, Faris Al-Sultan mentions that the moments before the race start are worse than the rest of the entire race – I do not agree. I was soaking in the atmosphere, trying to live it in slow motion, listening to Mike Reilly on the microphone. Reilly mentioned that as soon as everyone is behind the start line they'll fire the cannon. Up until this point volunteers on surfboards are paddling back and forth horizontally to keep everyone behind the line. As soon as the cannon fires they turn vertical & you are hosed if they happen to park in front of you. The toughest part of the start was getting around all the boards. The cannon fired without a countdown and you could hear the field say “Oh!” almost in unison. Let the battle begin! And a battle it was. Pushing, kicking, bumping, slapping. It was impossible to find open water. Someone was repeatedly grabbing my leg and pushing me down – I decided to kick the sh*t out of them if they did it again. Bad idea. Now my toe hurt. In hindsight, the start line makes a right triangle with the buoys (the buoys are the hypotenuse). I should have started on the far left and swam straight to the turn around buoy, but because I had been paying more attention to the fish earlier in the week (now I couldn't see them at all – the water was so turbulent) I started in the middle of the field. Everyone that had started next to the pier had to merge and get over to the left to get around the buoys. Everyone that had started on the left was swimming right to get closer to the buoys. There was so much traffic at the first couple of buoys that I was literally stopped in the water waiting for people to move. Even though this is the smallest ironman field I've ever started in (1600 v. 2400) it was by far the most crowded in my time zone. For a while I had the pleasure of drafting behind a guy with one leg. I figured I'd stay there as long as possible – it was inspiring & at the same time I had a 50% less chance of getting kicked in the face! It seemed to take forever to get to the turn buoy. In fact, the water was so clear that I accidently saw my watch & it read 36:30. Crap! I wanted to go under 1:10 and really would have preferred to go under 1:06. Oh well, all I could do was concentrate on good sighting & minimize the damage. The way back in felt faster even though I was swimming against the current. Note to self: the Gatorade bottle inflatable looks a lot closer than it actually is. I knew when the reef started getting shallower that I was near the end. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I made it in under 1:10 despite my slow time at the half way point!

1. mile swim 1:09:48, 15/71 age group

The run to my bag and change tent was very short & I had a great volunteer that helped me zip out of my speed suit (I didn't wear my race shirt under it – too much drag) and get into my bike/run shirt. Race belt on, sunglasses & go. The ground was pretty slippery – I passed someone running in cleats & was glad that I was running barefoot. Once I got to my bike, I put on my helmet and rolled out. I was a little nervous about leaving my shoes on the bike, but that was no problem at all.

T1 3:40

Climbing up Palani I noticed that my watch crapped out after hitting the timing mat. It restarted the chrono timer to 0:00. Oh well, I hit start again & figured a couple minutes had passed. I was in my small ring, but was still managing to keep my heart rate too high. I tried to settle in to a sustainable rate. On Khuakini I got a special treat of seeing Mike & the kids! I was happy to know that I'd see them again after I turned around in a few miles. On the way back Mike was the only one who saw me – both kids were concentrating hard on their DS games. I shouted their names to no avail! At this point I was still overjoyed that I was there in Kona racing. I wanted to pull up to someone and say “hey, we're racing in the world championship – this kicks ass” but I never did – everyone else seemed wayyy too serious. Once I got on to the Queen K the facebook updates were coming often into my head. Jeanette is riding on the Queen K. Jeanette is in the lava fields and loving every minute! Jeanette saw her first butterfly around mile 30 of the bike. Yay! There aren't a whole lot of butterflies out on the Queen K. I saw most of them on the climb up to Hawi. This is where I started to get tired. Jeanette is climbing up to Hawi & distracting herself by watching the pros. There was a headwind climbing up to Hawi and I could tell by how amazingly fast the pros were going by that there was a tailwind waiting for me at the turn around. So, I just kept telling myself that relief was close by. I saw Lieto scream by followed a couple minutes later by Al Sultan, McCormack, and couldn't tell who else – they were going way too fast. Not too much later after the first couple of packs of male pros, Chrissie Wellington was all by herself smiling with no competitors even close. Farther back, I saw Natascha Badmann on her Cheetah. She didn't look good. After most of the pros were out of sight, it was back to climbing. The butterflies kept me smiling. Once I made the turn around, I was flying! I was enjoying a speed of around 30mph for about 7 miles and then Madame Pele mettled. Usually the wind does a 180 at around 1-2pm, but this year it decided to do the switcheroo at around 11:30. Crap. I was feeling really bad for everyone that was 10-15 minutes behind me, they got a headwind both ways all day. At least I got that glorious 7 miles of tailwind. I knew the wind would be steady the rest of the way back. Once we were back along the coast the wind was blowing as a side/head wind the rest of the way back to Kona. Wow, it was hot. Jeanette understands why Chrissie Wellington doesn't wear an aero helmet. I wanted to take it off. I tried to shoot water in there from the side, but it wasn't working. I had to fight the desire to stand up into the wind just to try and cool off. Later, I found out it was 90 degrees in the shade, so who knows how hot it was out in the lava fields with the sun beating down. I usually prefer races to be hot – my body temperature is lower so it's usually an advantage for me. I was still overheating. I tried to grab a water at the start of the aid stations to dump on myself, then a gatorade to drink, and finally another water to carry for dumping. I always have trouble with hot foot in warm weather. Today was no exception – I must have dumped 10 gallons of water on my feet by the end of the bike trying to beat back my hot foot. Jeanette's has hot foot and wants the bike to be over! Jeanette's psoas is tight – that'll be fun when I get off the bike. More butterflies by the airport. Needed those. Then I reminded myself – hey, you're riding on the Queen K in the World Championships! You are so cool, why are you complaining?? Back to smiling on focusing on the positive. Ugh. Left pec/deltoid killing me in the aero position – no, no, no, be positive! You don't need your shoulder to run. I tried to read the coral rock messages in the lava fields, but I couldn't focus on them – it all looked blurry to me. Alright, hang in there. Oh good – pros to watch again. Jeanette is watching Chris Lieto approach the energy lab – hey, it looks like he is still in the lead, what do you know. Looks like Alexander and (who is that other guy?) is closing in fast. Jeanette has made it back to civilization!! Once you ride up to the crowds – it's great! Big smiles again, and downhill into the transition.

112 mile bike 6:11:47 41/71 age group

I left my shoes on the bike & ran bare foot through transition. It's a pretty long run around all the bike racks to the change tents. I couldn't even imagine running it in cleats – Ow. I made a quick pit stop and put on my running shoes, visor, changed out my salt tabs, took a hit on my inhaler & was off.

T2 4:05

As soon as I hit the timing mat my HR monitor/watch died. The screen went blank. Great. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I was running a lot slower than I expected to, and my minute per mile data would only have been a negative. As it was, my legs felt heavy. Totally beat. My run training had been the best it had been in years, but I hadn't gotten in enough biking mileage. It's hard to get on the trainer at night after working all day and having gotten up at 5:00am to swim and/or run. It's tough to get your kids in bed on time (8pm) when you haven't seen them all day. Too many times they didn't get in bed until 9pm or after, and then I was just too darn tired to get on the bike. There was no cramping (thanks to the tape), but there was also no get up and go. The first aid station is 1.5miles away from T2 which seems like an eternity when you're overheated. I had to stop and walk through it. Trying to cool off and get hydrated. I carried ice in my hands and stuffed it down my shirt. That helped, but I still didn't feel human. Suddenly, I wasn't having fun. But I was supposed to be having fun – that was my only real goal that mattered on the day! I decided to walk the aid stations – that would give me something to look forward to! The only danger here was that I knew the “walk, just walk” demons would get louder. Once you start walking, it's easier to just keep on walking. I decided to focus on the fact that Mike and the kids would be waiting for me at the mile 5 turn around. C'mon now – Jeanette is running on Alii Drive in the World Championships! I saw a butterfly at mile 4 and finally felt like I was cooling down – it was misting now, a little bit of rain. I kept looking for hummingbirds (they've been running with me at home over the past year), but sadly didn't see any. After the race I did some searching on the internet only to find that there are no hummingbirds in Hawaii! Well, that certainly explains why I didn't see any during the race :) Down the road a bit now I can see Mike & the kids! I pick up the pace and give them all big sweaty hugs and kisses. I hand Mike my HRM strap & watch (useless weight) and go through the turn around chute. And I'm back for more sweaty hugs and kisses! It was so, so good to see them! Thank you, Mike, for towing the kids around all day – I'm sure they complained incessantly. Our kids think Ironman is just something boring that all parents do. It's completely ordinary to them. What's the big deal? My parents do these all the time, don't yours? Oh, boo. Family is gone – now I'm feeling the pain again & stuck with just myself. I decided to walk the aid stations again. Soak in the scenery, focus on the gorgeous ocean. Watch your form – keep cooling off. I was staying mostly positive & smiling at the crowd until the run up Palani. This is the only time I thought, “do you really want to come back here again?” to which I told myself “don't answer this now – umm, wait until tomorrow”. Somehow I got up to the Queen K and started to feel overheated again. The rain was gone, the hot foot was back, and every voice in my head was screaming “walk!” - oh come on, just for a little while. No! I was only going to walk the aid stations, it was the World Championships, dammit, no more walking. I was watching the pro women and the struggling pro men finish up the last part of their race (they were headed in, I was headed out). I, unfortunately, watched one guy lose all his cookies & then heard him finish that up for at least a mile longer into the distance. Now see, someone feels worse than you do. Sack up, Jeanette, keep running & do it with a smile on your face. You WILL have fun! Jeanette is running toward the Energy Lab. Where is that @$#% Energy Lab? Is it over this hill? No. The next? No. It has to be at the next light! Someone must have changed the course, it couldn't possibly be farther! Good thing the sun was on it's way down. The Energy Lab isn't nearly as evil when the sun is setting! Jeanette is running in the Natural Energy Lab in the World Championships! There are extra aid stations in there, which I really appreciated. It was getting harder and harder to start back up jogging after each subsequent aid station. There's the mile 19 marker. One more mile & there's just a 10K to go. I can do a 10K in my sleep! Jeanette is back on the Queen K & just hit the mile 20 marker. Woohoo! Okay, let's see how fast I can get to that finish line. Hmmm, not very. It's still a big struggle. I pick up a glow stick at the next aid station. I am amazed at how dark it is out there. There are street lamps, but they aren't on. This briefly pisses me off, and then I just concentrate on my breathing and my form. There's not a lot of snap left in my legs (honestly, there never was out there on the run). Nobody that I'm passing or that's passing me is in any kind of mood to talk. Why don't I ever remember how hard an Ironman marathon is? I always have visions of doing these fast times and then reality hits my legs and I just end up surviving. Jeanette is running up the last hill on the Queen K – just a couple miles to go! There was more light here & the crowds were thickening up. The emotions came on heavy as I turned on to Palani. What a glorious corner! It's all downhill from here & lined with people cheering. I had a big smile on and hit the last aid station running. The demons were gone now simply because I knew I was going to finish – and soon. I was so looking forward to running down the finisher's chute. It seemed quite a long way to Alii Drive (probably because I was pushing myself), but once I made the corner I turned on the slow motion again. Jeanette is headed down Alii to the finish! I wanted to soak it in! I high-fived every possible kid along the way & tried to convince myself that this was actually happening. I was getting choked up in between smiles. There wasn't anyone right in front of me, so I was able to hear my name – Jeanette Mucha from San Carlos, California you are an Ironman! I put my hands up on my head in partial disbelief. I had gotten to the finish line in Kona. Now I just had to figure out how to get back :)

26.2 mile run: 4:35:28 51/71 age group

TOTAL TIME: 12:04:48

Unfortunately, I didn't see Mike nor the kids at the finish line. I figured they were working their way back to the family area. I got my finisher's medal and then walked over to the massage tent. My hands had been vibrating the last 10 miles or so of the race, and after I stopped racing it became more pronounced. Now my feet and lips joined in & I didn't feel quite right. I wanted to lie down. My chest wasn't sore, but I obviously wasn't getting enough oxygen. I didn't want to go to the med tent, I wanted to see my family. My name got called for a massage, but they wouldn't let me stay. Guess I wasn't looking so good either & the guy in charge there asked the volunteer to take me to the med tent. I told him no way I was walking all the way back there. No problem, he said, we'll wheel you there. So, instead of a massage I got a wheel chair ride. Of course, this is when I finally see Mike and the kids – while I'm getting wheeled to the med tent. Perfect timing. I didn't quite know what to say except that I just didn't feel right & wasn't sure why half my body was vibrating. I was in the med tent for a long time, the conclusion was that I was hyperventilating & had really low blood pressure. As to why, no one could give me an answer. I had only lost a pound from weigh in to the end of the race, so I was hydrated. They put my feet up and made me drink more gatorade and also had me munch on some chips. I was ordered to breathe nice and slow and to take the biggest breaths possible. Eventually I felt well enough to sit up & after I successfully used the loo in there they signed me out. I found Mike and the kids & went to get some food. Only, there wasn't any. I've done over a hundred races, and Kona has by far, the worst food tent of any triathlon I've ever done. All they had were some ice cream cups. They were out of pizza and kept saying (for hours) that more was coming (those poor volunteers working the food tent – no one has been more abused!). Max and Daria fell asleep on some mats in the family area & I went over to get a second chance at a massage. Success! We let the kids nap longer so we could stay to watch the final finishers. Everyone was napping but me. My metabolism is always haywire post-ironman. I think I flip on some sort of migratory survival gene that could keep me going for days without sleep.

Staying to watch the last finishers was amazing – if you travel to Kona for the race you absolutely can't miss this! Although the kids had had it and thought it was way too loud, Mike and I were loving it! There was a total party at the finish line. I was happy to see Harriet Anderson finish in time & she walked it in with what looked like a sling. Later I found out that she got clipped at mile 80 of the bike & broke her collarbone. She is one tough 74-yr-old! Despite her bad luck she was the only woman in her age group to finish – so she has her Kona slot for next year when she'll be aging up! A couple weeks later she was back in my Friday morning spin class, arm still in a sling. I hope that I am still doing Ironmans when I am her age – she is such an inspiration to everyone who meets her!

Now I am going about thinking about my limiters and trying to figure out how to get back to Kona next year on my tight schedule. It can definitely be done! I am signed up for Louisville, so I won't know until 6wks before Kona if I'll be going or not. Mike and I are also doing Arizona, so I will be stepping it up. I'll definitely be doing 2 ironmans in 12 weeks, and hopefully I can make that three!