I was excited to return to Floripa for Ironman Brazil this year. I had to miss the event last year due to injury. Being 2nd here in 2007, I wanted to try to come back and do just a little bit better!
I arrived on Monday. While it's only an hour time difference from Boston, it's a long trip and I wanted some time to recover from the long travel. Ken Glah and his team at Endurance Sports Travel took excellent care of me all week. I can’t say enough about their level of professionalism and support. In fact, at one point during race week, I got some of the best advice I could have gotten from one of Ken’s staff. I went in to ask for help and Gaby looked at me and said “You look stressed. You should go eat some dessert.”
I settled in quickly, but my bike had some other ideas. It started to freak out on me; a broken shifter, a tire puncture and lastly, a busted stem, all in the days leading up to the race. It seemed the race would either be dynamite ...or a disaster!
I had some fun in the pre-race week as well. I met the entire team from Saucony in Brazil. They became my adopted family for the week and took care of me as Dave would have if he’d been there. Rodrigo got me to a pool so I could pool swim just once; as Karen says, better for my head than my body….but it all counts! I got to do some promotional stuff with them as well and had a blast meeting tons of Brazilians attending the expo who were excited about the race, and hopefully excited about Saucony!
I tried to put all the stress of pre-race week behind me as my feet hit the ground out of bed on race morning. My friends at Kestrel had done a fantastic job in helping me to resolve all of my bike issues and now it was time to race.
I feasted on my pre-race meal of unsweetened applesauce, a banana, and some Infinit drink at 4AM, followed by a Zone bar at 5. Got to transition and took care of all my business and before I knew it, we were at the start line.
The buoy placement was a bit odd. The first turn buoy was not straight ahead of the start line, but far to the right. As it turns out, the turn buoy moved further and further right as we swam toward it. On the beach, race officials decided to abandon the swim cut off time because we were all chasing a moving target for that first buoy. How's that for an added twist?!
Water conditions were quite difficult as well. Very choppy! I felt great in my BlueSeventy Helix, however, and with the added work I'd done this season on the Vasa Ergometer, I felt like I was powering thru what were less than ideal conditions.
I ran from the water into T1 and was greeted by my motorbike escort who pointed at his bike marker which read "1 Lugar" (first place). He gave me the thumbs up as if to say "good swim". And we were off. My goal was to have “1 Lugar” follow me the entire ride!
On the bike, I had some nutritional problems. My Infinit drink mix splattered everywhere on the cobblestone section and I lost, maybe 100 calories. About 15K into the bike, I noticed my gel flask which housed another 300 calories was gone. The Velcro had slipped off the flask due to the condensation and was lying somewhere on the road.....well behind me. So I pretty much had 300 Infinit calories to tide me over to special needs. I'd have to switch to Gatorade to make up the deficit.
At the first aid station, I grabbed a Gatorade, but 5-thumbs Griesbauer here dropped it almost instantly. Next aid station, I was going way too fast and launched 3 bottles, grabbing none. Finally, the third aid station, and final before special needs, I managed to grab a Gatorade and get it down.
And then it came right back up, all over my beautiful Kestrel.
Relieved to finally get to special needs, I reloaded my Infinit inventory, and pressed on. Monitoring my wattage, I felt strong on the bike, but well under control. I could see that the women behind me were....well, still behind me. My lead seemed to have grown to somewhere around 6 minutes by the end of the bike.
I knew that there were some great runners in the field; Heather, Lisbeth, Charlotte, Sara, Fernanda; all tremendous athletes and fierce competitors. They'd be coming for me until 20 yards PAST the finish line.
Running had never been my strength, but I have been working tirelessly on it with Karen, with Alex, my running coach, and with Jesse who helped me with some very useful gait analysis. I was determined to have a good run.
My pacing was on, but the hilly section definitely took some wind out of my sails. After the hills, I struggled to regain my pace. I was off about 10 seconds per K than from before the hills. My lead was increasing, however, so I did my best to maintain form, monitor nutrition and not do anything stupid!
In the end, I came away with the win. I savored every second of that finish chute; high-fiving the spectators, blowing kisses to the crowd, waving and giving a little fist pump. In the end, I celebrated just about 11 seconds too long. I wound up missing the course record by 11 seconds. Apparently the announcer was shouting "She's going to get the record if she can just get across the line". My friends from Saucony Brazil who were there as a major sponsor of the race were yelling at the announcer to "Say it in English...she doesn't understand Portuguese". But it was too late. I came up 11 second short....but it gives me every reason to come back and do it just a little better next time.
Tremendous thanks to all my sponsors; Saucony, Kestrel, The Zone, Fuel Belt, Team Psycho, BlueSeventy, Oval, Infinit and Vasa. And to my coach Karen who puts up with my endless BS and makes me laugh when I want to cry. To Eric, Alex and Jesse for making me stronger and leaner. To my Team Psycho training mates who push the pace early and often every day in training. And to my husband Dave for whom I don't have the words to thank enough.
Stay tuned for "Ironman Brazil, Part Deux, the Aftermath".....coming soon!