Woke up around 3:30am, ate breakfast and put my tri kit on. Grabbed my transition bag and we were off to the race site. It was hosted at the Boulder Revisor, absolutely beautiful location and venue.
Set up all my gear, located my friend Hilary and we walked to the race start at the Revisor. This race they did a wave start, so you started with a group you thought your swim pace would be. There where several thousands of swimmers, it was an incredible site. The water temp was barley wetsuit legal, for some reason Hilary and I decided to go without our wetsuits. It looked like we where the only ones without one on. Lesson learned, if it’s wetsuit legal wear your wetsuit, it helps you stay on top of the water giving you a faster swim. I did not know that at them time!
As I’m approaching the start line, I’m so excited. I mean, this was going to be the day I get to run through the finish line, I could see the finish line and knew this was my day!
We were off, started to swim and I was able to get maybe 500 yards before flipping on my back to backstroke. I started to freak out and could really feel the altitude, I was really struggling to breathe. I knew I had to keep moving and just needed to finish the swim. After a very long 1.2 miles swim, I made it just in time.
I finished the swim with only minutes before the time cut off but I finished the swim. Then, I ran like crazy to transition to get my bike gear on and I was off, felt ready to crush the bike.
56 miles with a total of 2,048 elevation, the route was nice and I only stopped once to get more water, never felt the altitude on the bike but it was starting to heat up. So many people were going slow and making frequent stops, not me I pushed forward until I finished the bike course.
Now for the run, 13.1 miles, started to run and felt fine. About a mile into the run I started to cramp up, it was so bad I fell to the ground and started to massage my thighs. Thankful a really nice man ran past me and gave me his salt tabs. So salt tabs help with cramps and normally you take them to prevent cramps, but I had forgotten mine. I honestly did not think it was going to get as hot as it did. That day, Boulder had record heat!
I was able to get up and I told myself, “I did not come this far and not finish”. So I decided I would try a slow jog and go from water station to water station and that’s exactly what I did. I just keep going until I could see the finish line. When I hit the red carpet I started to tear up, I could not believe I actually finished, it was a really tough day.
I was so excited when I saw my Mom and friends cheering me on, it felt like I won the race. Well, in my mind I did win the race! Such an incredible and exciting moment. I finally ran through the Ironman 70.3 finish line…. I actually did it.
Just after I pasted the finish line and received my medal, I was in the chute about to meet up with my Mom and friends, when all of a sudden I see this lady collapse to the group. Holy cow, it was my Mom, she was having a seizure. Thankful I was there to give her the appropriate medication and then the medical team came and took her to the Ironman hospital onsite. I went to transition to collect my stuff, put it in the car and then drove as close as I could to the tent she was at. Apparently, she was also dehydrated but ended up being ok. Gave us all a huge scare. She learned a lesson that day, drink lots of water, eat and stay in the shade. Folks she was out there for over 7 hours cheering me on in the heat in high elevation altitude, what a trooper!
Later I found out just over 12% DNF, this is actually a very low number.
TriathleteRaquel 