Postscript

First, now that I know my real coach Mike is going to read this, I need to give him a big thank you. I mentioned Endurance Nation a lot in my race report and while they helped me come up with a solid race plan, Mike was the one who got me through a year of training uninjured and Ironman-primed. I'm so glad I found the D3 group to train with this year and I'll be sticking with them for a while.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with how this race went. I survived a mass start swim of 2550. I rode a strong bike leg that, while not as fast as I hoped to be, was strong for the course. I did not have any mechanical issues, nor any crashes with my fellow 2550 athletes. My marathon was only 7 minutes slower than the Portland Marathon I ran in 2000. I ran (jogged/shuffled) most of the way, and that was a big goal for me. I followed my nutrition plan and didn't get sick or bonk. I didn't need IV fluids at the end. In summary - my race execution was spot on.

It's now Thursday and I'm coming down off my post race high. I still am pretty sore in my quads and the past three days I have avoided stairs and need arm support to sit on the toilet. But really, I was thinking I would feel much worse. I've been this sore before, just not this long. I plan to take this week off completely from all exercise, and then next week I'd like to try some yoga classes at my gym. I'm going to take 1 month off from all triathlon related sports. I need a mental break as much as the physical so that when I go back I'm excited and not burned out.

And what does the future hold? I'm not ruling out another Ironman but I also wasn't in the line on Monday to sign up for IMWI next year. Most of my anxiety with this race was my fear of the unknown. Having done it, and seeing all the different types of athletes who completed this race made me realize that Ironman really is open to anyone willing to put the training in and the guts to go for it. Many of the Ironman athletes I saw racing were extremely fit men with 3% body fat. But there were a lot of regular looking people too. There were many women with a little extra curve (and men too) who finished. It may have taken them 3 more hours than I took, but they did the same course and earned the Ironman title. I was even passed by a blind athlete - he swam with someone on a tether, rode a tandem bike and ran again with his Iron helper. Amazing!

I like racing the half Ironman distance - it's long enough to be a challenge and worth traveling for, but not as much training and time commitment as a full. I will probably do the Boulder 70.3 next year, as well as the D3 trip - wherever that may be. I would like to get a triathlon specific bike, I think that will put me in a more competitive position in the shorter races. Liz is signing up for Ironman Arizona 2011 and while I'm not saying yes to that yet, I'm not saying no, either. I love triathlon training and next year I'm going to strive to find a balance between being fit and not being stressed about training.


(And no, that's not a real tattoo. I haven't decided if I'm going to get one or not. But when Jeremy got home he said he was half expecting me to already have one.)