Coeur d'Alene-Here I Come!!!

Pre-Race

I drove down to my parents house (about a 5.5 hour drive) on Thursday night and then my Dad and I left Friday morning to drive down to Oceanside (3.5 hour drive). So I did alot of driving! On the drive down I said to my dad "I'm not nervous, is that weird?" He said that I was prepared so I'd probally just get nervous in the morning. We got to Oceanside around 2:30 and I went in to register. Well the signs weren't very good and I didn't know where I was going. I walked through the expo which was HUGE and there were ALL these people there that were in phenomenal shape. I started to get a little intimidated and overwhelmed. I finally found registration and as I was walking there I walked past, I was litterally a foot away from, Michellie Jones . Michellie Jones won the Ironman Championchip in Hawaii last year. I actually saw her 4-5 times during the expo and once she was eating french fries! That made me happy Anyway, this was the biggest triathlon I had ever seen and I was OVERWHELMED.

At registration they had all thes marines yelling out orders and telling us what to do, The race is all over Camp Pendleton so the Marines are a HUGE part of the race. I went in filled out my waivers, got weighed-ick (the do this in case you get ill on the course they'll weigh you and if you're lighter they know you can get fluids, if you're heavier they know that you have too many fluids and are probably suffereing from hyponytremia).

After that I got my wetsuit on and did about a 10 minute swim. It was 59 degrees which is about 7 degrees warmer than what I have been practicing in and it felt warm. I then got my running stuff on and did about a 15 minute run back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel I hopped on my bike and rode down to where transistion would be. The tri was so big that the morning of I would only be able to park about 1.5 miles away and have to bike in. Well, my hotel was about a mile away so I figured out how to get there beforehand

I went to a pasta dinner with my team, went to the store to get som PB&J and then back to the hotel room to prepare. At this poing I still wasn't nervous.
I set 3 alarms (because I am a freak), for 5 and then went to sleep. I slept GREAT and got up at 5. I ate my oatmeal with banana and half a PB&J, got dressed, got my big huge backpack with all my gear on and rode down to the race. I had to get marked (on my leg and arm) and set up my transition. The ONE thing I forgot was my bike pump so I had to stand in line for 20 minutes to get my bike pumped up....nice. Then I went and stood in line for a good 20 minutes to go to the bathroom. Again-nice.

The transition was probably the size of 2 football fields and there were 3000 athletes-CRAZY. SO BIG. I set up transition and then got my wetsuit on. My dad called to say that he got a spot near the water and that he would see me when I was getting in. My wave left at 7:29.

Swim

I got in line for the swim and we started pretty quickly after I got in line we got in the water. Right as I was entering the water "Let's Get it Started" by the Peas came on and that made me happy. Still at this point I was not nervous. We got in the water the gun went and we were off. Now I was worried about my shoulder so I started on the edge and tried to alter my stroke so that it wouldn't hurt. The waves went off in about 3 minute increments and there were about 100 people per wave. We were swimming in the harbor which was small but there were also pretty big waves-it was weird. Pretty quickly I came upon the slower swimmers of the previous wave. I was surrounded by my wave and was about in the middle of the pack (which is odd for me, I'm usually near the front but I was trying to be conservative with my shoulder). This swim sucked. It was so small, I totally got clobbered (I've got the bruises on my back to show that). And I was swimming over people (and felt bad). BUT-it went pretty quickly and my arm DIDN'T hurt!

I got out and got help with my wetsuit (that was fun! These big races do have benefits!).

The swim was done!

37:50

pace 1:59/100m about 20 seconds slower per 100m than I had practiced. Not bad for a hurt shoulder.

Bike

I ran through transition, got my bike, helmet, and race belt and took off. This was the first time I saw my Dad and that was nice to have someone yelling for me . The other cool thing is that our race numbers had our names on them so all the volunteers and spectators could yell for you and yell your name. So I took off on the bike and had issues with my HRM. During that yucky swim, somehow the HR alarm was set to go off if I went over a HR of 125-nice. So I put my HRM on the start screen where it tells you your HR but doesn't calculate calories burned or how long your going or any of that.

I started riding and got my HR to 145 and worked on keeping it there. The first half of the race was pretty flat, so I got in aero position and just went. I was riding with a lot of men and a few women. I did see one of my teammates on the bike, that was cool. I would pass him going up the little hills, he would pass me going down (typical), and then the last time, I said, "okay Tom, for real now-I'll see you later" (Did I mention that Tom is 63 and has done 3Ironman races-he's awesome!

The whole race I was swapping places with a guy named Roger (I could see his name on his number). EWWW and there was a girl who had see through shorts on-NASTY. I got my HR over 150 so that I could pass her. I did NOT want to see her ass crack the whole race.
The bike went great-lots of cute marines to cheer us on.

The second half of the bike was kind of hilly but nothing like bike riding in Northern California. BUT, there were DUDES walking up the hills. WTF? They were not that steep.

The bike went really fast and when I had 6 miles to go I couldn't believe that it was almost over already. And then I got mad at myself for getting ahead of myself. I was trying to imagine my last transition but I had to finish that last 6 miles and you never know when you're going to get a blow out. That last 6 miles, I did not get passed, but I probably passed about 20 people.

Sidenote: I knew I was doing pretty well when I came to my first aid station and they were all yelling-"It's a girl! It's a girl!"

2nd Sidenote: I totally peed on the bike twice. The only gross part was when it went in my shoe. But you figure I was drinking so many liquids, it was basically like water.

On the way in I saw both my dad and my brother and they were EXCITED!

3:01:14

Average: 18.54 mph

Run

I got all my biking gear off and my running gear on and I was off! My legs felt pretty good but my HR was a little high. I saw my Dad and Brother again and I asked them what time it was, they said it was 11:30 and that I was doing great. I calculated that I was right on pace to finish in 6 hours if I could keep a 10 minute mile on the run. Within the first mile Roger (the dude that I kept trading spots with and finally passed in the end) ran up behind me and said "Hey Chelsea, you had a wonderful bike-wonderful job." and I said "Are you Roger? Thank you!" So that was cool.

I fixed my watch right at mile 1 so that I could finally track my pace. I felt really good on the run and I just cranked it out. The spectators were awesome as were the volunteers. Everybody was cheering everybody on...it was so FUN! I learned that at the aid stations I like 2 cups of water, 2 sponges, 1 coke, and then 1 glass of water. I learned very quickly to yell out my order and they got it every time-those volunteers ROCKED! I'd use one sponge for my shoulder (which didn't hurt but I thought I would take care of it) and the other to squeeze over my head.

At about mile 3 my coach (who is FAST) passed me and said "Chelsea, you're doing GREAT! Keep it up." I couldn't believe that I was ahead of her at that point. I kept her in my site for awhile and kept the HR between 145-150. At some point I did pee (about mile 6) and that filled my shoes up with pee. That was gross but it felt so GREAT to pee. After I peed I would use the water and sponge to wash myself off. Yes people, you just pee when you do a tri. I knew that if I stopped and used a porta potty that I'd never be able to get my rythm back, so I just went for it. I saw lots of my teammates and we would encourage everybody on. It was super fun.

At mile 12 I was running next to a guy and he had started about 30 minutes ahead of me. When I saw the mile 12 marker-I said "Yay! Only a mile left!" And he said "Not for me. I don't think I can do this." This was a huge, muscly, fit guy, I was shocked and I said "You can do it...just keep going."
The last half mile I saw my Dad and brother (I saw them about 4 times on the run-which was great), and they said "KICK IT" so I figured I would. I had kept my HR at 145-150 the whole time and I knew that it was okay to spike it...so I did! I finished and it felt GREAT!!!.

2:09:11

Pace: 9:51/mile

Total Time-5:55:03

I did it! I did it! I did it in less than 6 and I felt GREAT. I could seriously have kept going. I had SO much energy after the race. I had a bunch of adrenaline running through me but a ton of energy. This makes me feel like I can do the Ironman-I can do it!

Afterward I saw my teammates and they all kept saying "You looked so strong" "You looked great" I think because they've never raced with me and didn't know what to expect-heck I didn't know what to expect! But it was just so cool. I'm still on cloud nine!

So I finished at 1:30 and I had to wait until 5:30 to get my spot to Coeur d'Alene! That's right-I'm going to Coeur d'Alene a full length Ironman! June 24th-CAN'T WAIT!!!

So that was very long!

But thank you all for all your support! Only 12 weeks to get ready for the full thing!