This weekend Julie, Coach Kathleen, and I traveled to Macon, GA for the Rock 'N Rollman Georgia Half Ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). Dana met us down there and my parents made the trek from Augusta. All I can say is that was by far the hardest race I've done....
We arrived on Friday afternoon to the race site where we picked up our packets and checked our bikes into the transition area. My Mom and Dad arrived just as we were heading down to the lake for a quick swim which ended up being the best thing we did in preparation for the event. The water turned out to be really warm but not so warm that it was gross. Very refreshing...and clean...which is a nice change from Percy Priest Lake! After our swim we headed to the hotel to check in and change for a quick dinner at a restaurant down the road. We had a good meal and then it was early to bed...I think I woke up every hour during the night afraid that I was going to oversleep. At 5:00am I finally gave up and started getting ready for race day. When we got to the race site they said the water was 77.5 degrees and the cut off for being allowed to wear wetsuits is 78. It was already hot outside so we took the advice of Coach Kathleen and decided to forgoe the wetsuits because we didn't want to bake ourselves during the swim. That turned out to be a great decision because some people didn't even make it past the swim....they were so overheated. After the swim we had to run up a big boat ramp out of the water into the transition area. I should have walked it because my heart rate was so jacked up after running up that boat ramp that I couldn't breath for the first 25 miles of the hilly and windy bike course. My bike split was super slow because of that....lesson learned! The bike course was hilly, windy, hot, and had no shade...other than that it was great...ha. I was so ready to be done with that bike.
The run was pretty bad because by the time I started running it was in the heat of the day. Georgia heat is like no other heat...you feel like you are sizzling or melting. It's not fun. We had to run 3 out and back sections so you could see all of the faster people in front of you...the people who never walk and finish hours in front of you on most days. Not that day. I've never seen so many people humbled to a walk. No one was running. I felt pretty bad for the first half of the run but finished somewhat strong at the end. I had heat exhaustion, a bad sunburn, and was pretty miserable but I got it done. It was great to see mom and dad and Coach Kathleen at each transition and the end cheering me on.
For as bad as I felt I ended up getting 2nd in the Athena Division which I think might qualify me for Nationals in October...I'm waiting on confirmation for that. My mom ended up getting my award for me because I was so tired of waiting around for them to announce the Athena division. I walked away to get my bike from transition and no longer than two minutes later they had announced my name...haha...oh well.
As I was out there doing this race and feeling pretty bad all I could think of was how in the world I was going to survive Lake Placid in July. Luckily some friends of mine that did the race this weekend who have also done Ironman races said that the race in Georgia was so much harder than any Ironman they've ever done. So that at least made me feel better....if I can survive Georgia heat I can survive Lake Placid.
(a little post race treat...cold fresh strawberries...yumm!)
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