The day had come for me to race my very first half Ironman, words could not describe how excited and nervous I was. As I walked through the Ironman village the feeling was so exciting and the Ironman village was a lot of fun. That night my Mom and I went for a pasta dinner, light olive oil and cherry tomatoes it was perfect!
After dinner went back to our hotel room and laid out all my gear and double checked to make sure I had everything! Swim: goggles, swim cap, wetsuit… Bike: towel, helmet, bike hat, sunglasses, salt tabs, socks, bike shoes, cooked rice (I like to eat cooked rice on the bike for fuel) …. Run: tennis shoes, visor, sunglasses ! I was ready and set to race.
Morning of the race, woke up at 4am ate a croissant cup of coffee and put on my tri kit. I was ready to go, headed to transition checked my bike, filled up my water bottles and set my gear up in order I was going to use them. I then put my wetsuit on and headed to the race start with my friend Hilary, she had driven down from the DFW area. It was time for us to line up in our age groups. I was in the first wave right after the pros.
After the pros went it was our turn, I was so excited but super nervous, the longest swim I had done was 800 meters and I was about to swim 1.2 miles in the ocean, something I had never done before.
The time had come for me to jump off the dock and in the ocean water, I started to freak out. The gun went off and we all started swimming, I swam maybe 200 meters and stopped I was panicking and not breathing well.
I remember telling myself “just get through the swim, your family is there cheering you on, just get through the swim”… I then decided to flip on my back and back stroke, I was able to catch my breathe. Then I told myself “just swim from canoe to canoe” so I started to swim again.
Honestly, I did the majority of that swim on my back doing the backstroke. It took me 1:03 minutes to complete the swim, I just barely missed the time cut off (1:10 minutes.)
I have to admit, I could not have been more excited to see land, I knew I was going to crush the bike!
Quickly running to transition to get my bike for a 56mile ride with headwind, crosswind, sidewind and everything but tailwind! It was an incredible ride, at the half point I got off the bike to refill water, as I started to head back you could see a nasty storm off in the distance.
I knew I needed to be off my bike before the storm hit, so I started to mash as hard as I could to beat the storm. That’s exactly what I did…. riding as hard and fast as I could to beat the storm. I made it, went and racked my bike and put on my running gear. It was time for the last part of the race … the run!
Now to run 13.1 miles, a half marathon to complete this race. Headed out and started to run, I felt good and steady. Saw my mom twice while I was on the run course, stopped and gave her a hug, it was so awesome to have her there cheering me on.
During the run course so many people where there with signs of encouragement, funny sayings, dressing up and just having a great time. I was the person on the course that would say hi and talk to other runners while I was out there. I mean, think about how incredible to be alive, healthy enough to race, how could you not be excited!
I was half way through my run when I meet a good friend of mine today, David. Ran with him several miles and talked, it helped pass the time and make the run even more fun! During this time it started to pour rain and then it started hailing on us. I was still smiling and happy to be part of the race.
It ended up getting so bad, they pulled us from the course, apparently the finish line had blown over due to the storm. I had 5 miles left and felt great. Didn’t get to run through the finish line but had an incredible time and made friends along the way! For me, this was still an incredible victory!
TriathleteRaquel 