Dawnie's road to an Ironman!: September 2008

Wow..I cannot thank all the people who have influenced my race. I'll try to mention a few, but I know there will be more out there I'll forget.
My husband, who is my best friend and partner in crime. We have the same love, desire and uncanny ability to have fun together no matter what we're doing. He's the athlete I want to be.
Coach Patrick who got me to the starting and finishing lines healthy and sane. You know your stuff and helped me train smart this season.
Our families who support us, care about our love of the sport and come out to races to show support. Donna, Don and Joe came out to Madison, thanks...it was great to have you there!!
Our crazy tri peeps Laura and Kim who got us to sign up for this race, it was SO fun having you guys to train with and spend race weekend with.
Our training peeps Pam and Daniel, you guys are our biggest fans :) We appreciate your support and friendship. You are both awesome athletes. We look forward to many more rides and runs together!
Amanda Russell...sometimes fate has a funny way of affecting our lives, somehow we ended up working together which has allowed us to spend many hours chatting about triathlon- you get it. You also connected me with April, who is a great athlete who I was able to cross paths with at IMWI, hopefully I'll get to know her better and become friends with. We're similar in speed and have a shared desire to be a better athlete. My other online IM training peeps, Karen, Edie and Colleen...have enjoyed sharing our experiences throughout training!
The guys at Fitwerx2 who keep our bikes straight and our gear up to date, They ROCK...shop there often they are worth every penny. Trust me.
Jenny Harvey, a Team Envision training pal who came out to Madison (and surprise us) to watch the race, you ROCK!
There are SO many other people that I'm sure I'm missing, but thanks, thanks, thanks to everyone, you are all so important to us!

Expectations:
Was told not to have any, that I would likely be let down, but like any other athlete would I had “secret” goals that if I came remotely close to I would be happy…
1. Have a 12 be the first number in my time.
2. Get out of the swim in 1:15-1:20
3. Ride around 6:30 (based on two RRs)
4. Run for as long as I could on the run…if I came in around 4:30 I would consider my run a success (stand alone PR for a marathon was 4:07:17)

Days leading up to Race:
Got in on Thursday afternoon, weather was freezing cold and rainy. Picked up race number, bought gear and had dinner. Friday was sunny and nice headed off to recon the bike course (drove most of it, but rode about an hour on the bikes) and then had dinner with family, went to required athlete meeting. Saturday we slept in, swam a portion of the course brought bikes/transition bags down, had an early dinner and went to bed at a reasonable hour.

Race Morning:
Woke up at 4:15am before the alarm. Had PB sandwich and showered, got things ready to go. Headed down and dropped off Special Needs Bags. Got to bikes, checked tires, dropped off water bottles and put on wetsuits and headed down to the swim start….

Swim:
The five minutes of treading water before the start was fairly calm…as soon as the cannon went off all 2400 or so athletes began to work our way around the first loop of the two loop course. It was CRAZY…for me, it was everything that everyone described an IM swim start to be….blue caps (men) and pink caps (women) were everywhere…flying arms, kicking legs, no water to actually swim in…I was in the mix and hating it. I was hit, swam over, and smacked around (by blue caps, mostly) I kept trying to find space, some open water..but to no avail…I was resorting to donkey kicking the blue caps off me, and twice had my ankles grabbed and pulled down. What jerk was trying to ruin someone’s day so early in an all day event? I was using all my energy to fight people off….I talked myself off the ledge and said “this is NOT why you swim at 5:30am three days a week, let them do their thing and keep focusing on YOUR race” so I calmed down and by the second loop was able to find space and swim nicely alongside some pink caps. It was WAY more pleasant! I only then had to worry about the turns which still became a mosh-pit…but I got through it. I was so happy to be done, and glad that I stopped wasting energy on fighting off other swimmers and was able to actually swim for a loop!

1:13:37
30/112 in AG

T1:
Out of the water (heard my name announced!) and headed over to the wetsuit strippers, they had my out in a second…carried my wetsuit as I walked up the Helix to the transition area, I swam in my tri gear, so nothing to change, just grabbed helmet and carried shoes out to my bike.

7:21

Bike:
Down the other helix and off onto the bike course…a technical course (many, many turns) with lots of rolling hills, none that difficult but with so many it is said that they can “take their toll on riders” It’s a 14mi out to a 40mi loop (ride that 40mi loop twice) and then 14mi back. I had a power-meter and a couple race rehearsals under my belt, so I felt prepared. I took the first hour as easy as I could and then fought off the headwinds heading into the first loop. My husband caught me around mile 30 and we chat for a brief second, he had a good swim, I was having minor stomach issues (I think I swallowed lots of Lake Monona water during the swim) but didn’t think it would be an issue. I focused on the bike and only the bike…I took my InfinitNutition feed bottle (560cals/bottle) and took water for the aero bottle at every station, so I continuously had water to drink. I was getting passed by lots of folks (mostly guys, plenty of hot shots) One guy passed on a hill and said “Hey, what are you watching there?” I replied “what do you mean?” He said “On your TV screen on your bike there (referring to my ergomo screen) you watchin’ tv, or what?” My response “oh, my powermeter..you should consider researching them” I noted his kit and continued on my way thinking “I’ll see him again, if it’s not on the bike, it will be on the run” So I played the bike safe, followed my numbers and took the hills as easy as I could UP and as fast as I could DOWN which led to a lot of back/forth with the same hill-hammering folks…they commented, I smiled and continued to race my race. Along the way my back tired rubbed my frame (stopped and adjusted) I hit the porto-john on loop #2 and stopped at special needs for feed bottle #2 and some lube on the shorts :) Around Mile 80 was when I noticed it…the field moving backwards towards me. It was subtle, but I noticed…I was passing lots of people of the flats and downhills while they all didn’t have the legs to hammer the hills anymore…I passed a lot of people in the end miles…made for a very FUN ending to a long bike ride!! Oh, remember my “TV” watching friend? Well…around mile 100 I was passing a bunch of guys who clearly had slowed…I recognized the guy’s kit right away after he commented about the tv and hammered past me up the hill…from behind I knew I caught him. I rode (easily) up next to him and simply smiled, waved (while in aero) and blew past him like he was standing still…I saw him double-take and could feel him staring at me as I rode away…I was all smiles..karma, baby! He blew up AND made fun of a chick who ultimately had more juice than he did. I never saw him again…but I can only theorize that he blew up on the run, too…he was hurting when I saw him! I love it when I can show stupid guys that racing smart has benefits. I had nothing to prove to him, only to myself that I could hold back on the bike in order to have a good race.

6:37:34
37/112 in AG

Power info- was aiming for 139watts with an FTP ~205watts
Entire workout (137 watts): Duration: 6:34:10 (6:38:28) Work: 3233 kJ TSS: 358 (intensity factor 0.738) Norm Power: 151 VI: 1.1 Pw:HR: 16.94% Pa:HR: 17.1% Distance: 113.237 mi Elevation Gain: 6578 ft Elevation Loss: 6568 ft Grade: 0.0 % (10 ft) Min Max Avg Power: 0 329 137 watts Heart Rate: 0 165 117 bpm Cadence: 31 111 83 rpm Speed: 1 42.8 17.2 mph Pace 1:24 60:21 3:29 min/mi Altitude: 246 643 402 ft Crank Torque: 0 523 137 lb-in Temperature: 62.6 89.6 74.1 Fahrenheit

Run:
The run was F-U-N….I seriously have never had so much fun running. Coming out of T2, I saw friends and family…I smiled and waved, I couldn’t believe I was already running. I got to see the pros out on the course, and even made a few friends…one guys came up from behind me around mile 2 and said “Dawn, I got your number” I responded “Oh, no, what did I do?” He laughed and said “You smoked me at the end of the bike course…way to go girl” I smiled and thanked him…we were friendly on the out/backs whenever we saw each other! Besides that I tried to stay consistant. I did gels every 4mi (so 6 gels) at each aid station I walked, took a sip of water, a sip of Gatorade and wiped my face with a sponge. I had NO stomach issues, so pains, no “dark moments” I spent my run enjoying the scenery, passing LOTS of peeps (got SO many cheers and “nice pace”, “looking stong” type comments probably from the same blue caps who smacked me around in the swim and hammered away on the hills. These guys were mostly fit, many with M-dot tattoos on the right calf and a few talking about their bike rides :) I was even mistaken for a “leader” by a student who was out on the course just jogging along…she said “are you one of the leaders in the race?” I laughed and said “hell no, but thanks for the compliment, you made my day” she and I chat for a bit, she was right, though there just weren’t many women on the course during my first loop, but I was NOT a leader of anything but MY race :) I continued, went through the “Inspiration Station” and saw “Go Team G” I came around to start my second loop and started seeing many, many more racers coming out on their first…lots of friends and my husband who was already on his second loop…he looked strong so I knew he would finish soon…we high fived and I kept running. Started loop 2 far more positively than I thought I would be…lots of spectators and knowing the course I was about to do made it more fun. I definitely was starting to feel the muscles in my legs, but honestly it bothered me more to walk than run. I stayed slow and steady keeping my HR down. Loop #2 was when I started smiling continuously. All the training rides that felt like garbage or runs I could barely do seemed insignificant now, I knew I was on my way to finishing my first IM….I was SO happy and kept telling myself “You are racing YOUR race right now, you’re doing all you can do.” I did start to struggle at mile 18 a little (the *only hills on the course were here!) so I took it easy and made my out back out to State Street turn around where I saw Rich and Patrick for the first time…I was all smiles and held up 6 fingers saying “ that’s all I have left to do…6miles and all smiles” I saw my friend Kim when I hit mile 25, she was going out for her second loop, so she still had about 12mi to go…she bear hugged me with teary eyes saying “you’re going to do it, you will be an Ironman” I hugged back and said “don’t make me cry I’ve been smiling for miles!” I told her I would be at the finish for her when she came in…I continued on and around to the Capitol building…it’s funny the people you pick out of the crowd..there was a guy on the corner after the last water stop with Iron’s in each hand (you know, the things you iron your clothes with!) cords hanging down to the ground…he points at me and says “Hey girl, You are about to become the next IRONWOMAN” I smiled and gave him the thumbs up…he was right… I rounded the corner and into the chute as Mike Reilly said “Dawn Guarriello from Cambridge, MA you are an Ironman” I simply could not stop smiling!! I was in shock that I actually did it, enjoyed it and executed it. I raced MY RACE on Sunday.

4:34:13
33/112 in AG

Run Splits:
Mile 1- 9:30/149HR
Mile 2- 10:01/151HR
Mile 3- 10:01/155HR
Mile 4- 10:01/155HR
Mile 5- 10:20/155HR
Mile 6- 10:18/155HR
Mile 7- 10:11/155HR
Mile 8- 9:53/158HR
Mile 9- 10:06/156HR
Mile 10- 10:06/156HR
Mile 11- 10:06/156H
Mile 12- 10:36/144HR
Mile 13- 11:01/137HR
Mile 14- 10:30/149HR
Mile 15- 11:02/149HR
Mile 16- 10:26/150HR
Mile 17- 10:26/151HR
Mile 18- 11:02/145HR
Mile 19- 11:10/149HR
Mile 20- 10:46/152HR
Mile 21- 10:50/152HR
Mile 22- 10:58/153HR
Mile 23- 11:56/144HR
Mile 24- 10:58/149HR
Mile 25- 10:11/153HR
Mile 26.2- 10:10/153HR