Ironman 70.3 Raleigh - The WIN and The Bloopers

Registration Day!
Sheila, Diana, Natalie, Kevin
Team Tri-Hart

Ironman 70.3 Raleigh, was my first Ironman race and 3rd triathlon ever. For those who do not know, the 70.3 stands for 70.3 miles. However as a kilometre person I tend to translate it a bit differently; 1.9km swim, 90km bike, 21.1km Run.   Last summer, I competed in two local tris, after Masters Swimming World Championships in Montreal, to see if I wanted to compete in triathlon moving forward.  I decided I did, and coach Lee started helping me to get ready. 

Raleigh was an amazing and completely overwhelming event.  The organization it must have taken to put this together, I can't even imagine. There were  2800 athletes entered including relays.

The morning of the race arrived and our support group of Coach Lee, my husband Jeff, and teammate Diana's husband, Drew, dropped the 4 of us off to catch a shuttle to the swim site at Jordan Lake, a 40 minute drive from downtown Raleigh.  (The 4 Tri-Hart team members that raced were myself, Natalie Hart, Diana Grant, and Kevin Van Geest). Our support team met us at the race site while 

Race Morning
Body Marking #2166

we set up the bikes. From the bike transition area I saw the group waving at me from our meeting spot, where  I would come over to say goodbye to my husband and get  last minute advice from Coach Lee. Before going over, I needed to go to the bathroom so badly that I had to stop at the potties.  The line was 25 minutes long!  Lucky for me, a nice man saw my pee dance, and let me go ahead of him, so then the line was only 23 minutes long.  When I finally made it to the meeting spot there was no one to be found.  I panicked slightly.  Where did they go?  Finally I found one of my teammates and was reminded that the guys left before the event started so they could see us out on the bike course and make it back to Raleigh in time to see us come into transition two.

The Swim

The 15th wave was mine.  We waded out to the start buoy and waited for the horn to sound.  There were a hundred or so women in the wave all in pretty pink caps, all nervous, all without wetsuits!! Woohoo!!   I was one of two women in that group cheering about the no wetsuits.  The water was 80 degrees F.  The horn blew and off we went.  I pulled well ahead of my wave by the first buoy so I settled down and into a easy pace, this was going to be a long day and no need to kill myself in the first 25 minutes.  The swim wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, however after 2 minutes, I was swimming through the next wave in front of me.  What I found difficult was that many people were not swimming in a straight line, or not sighting to see where they were going often enough.  It became a game to avoid the other swimmers.  Unfortunately a few veered right in front of me and I swam over top.  This seemed to be a theme for me on the run too, as I'll explain later.  After swimming through the sea of multi-coloured bathing caps I exited the water first in my age category and 3rd fastest female swim of the day. Took off my Xterra Speedsuit and new Vorgee goggles and ran to my bike.

The Bike

Is that Sheila on the Bike?

I threw on my Rudy Project Wing 57, which is totally cool, and ran my bike to the line.  Of course on my way someone slathered me up in sunscreen, which I took advantage of, as it was a hot and sunny day in North Carolina.  The first comedy of errors happened as I tried to get on the bike.  My Shoes were already clipped in the pedals, which is normally fine, however I'm not used to having 20 people trying to get on their bikes at the same time, in the same spot.  So as I pushed down on my right shoe, someone veered in front while pushing off on their bike.  Instead of getting my foot on my shoe on the left side, I let the pedal go around again and the left shoe got caught on the ground....I didn't fall.  I regrouped and started again...phew.

The bike course was very hilly...no real flats; it was either up or down. Although it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be the day before when we drove it.  The course went by quickly.  I averaged almost 35km/Hr overall.  Sometimes it was 20km/Hr and sometimes 61km/hr depending on which part of the course I was on. As I said there were many ups and downs.  It was exciting to pass people along the course as usually I'm trying to keep up with the guys on my team. The first aid station was a bit of a debacle, as I haven't practiced grabbing water bottles from volunteer's hands.  The poor first three volunteers all had the bottle knocked out of their hands as I tried to grab them.  Finally, I slowed to almost a stop and grabbed a bottle of gatorade, took a few gulps and tossed it away while I still had a chance.  Skill will come with time. I hadn't seen any women with a #40-44 on their legs go by so I was  still feeling pretty good.  

Heading to my spot in transition...far, far, away.

The last bike comedy came at the dismount line.  It came up so quickly, I know I know, how can it come up so quickly after riding 89km, but it did.  The dismount line was at the top of a hill, I hadn't taken my shoes off yet and the line was right there.  I had no momentum, as I was going up a hill, and I looked like I was drunk, swerving my bike trying to get my shoes off.  I got them off and ended up stopping 4 feet from the dismount line, getting off my bike and running from there. It was just easier. This is where I was so thankful I wasn't doing a sprint Triathlon.

The Run

Finally the run.  I put on my shoes, visor and sunglasses. Stopped to get sunscreened up again and headed out for the hottest run I'd ever been on.  The course went through Downtown Raleigh passed the capitol building.  It is a beautiful downtown.  It was a two loop run, straight up and then back down.  Literally...straight up; Five kilometres up hill after hill.  It was painful, but I knew the down would come after the first turn around.  My first 10 km was fast. It hurt but I was moving.  When I headed back up the 5km hill for the second time I had slowed but was still keeping a good clip.  I had someone in my sights I was trying to chase down.  At this point the biggest comedy or errors happened.  I looked down for 1 second and a man moved in front of me.  I stepped on the back of his heel. The theme continued from 

Okay, there was one tree for
shade.

the swim...running people over again. He looked at me, and I apologized...then he fell to the ground and held  the front of his leg and howled in pain.   I felt so bad, was so tired, tears welled in my eyes, and I was winning. What do I do?  I stopped.  Asked if he was okay...another man told me to get running, "you go get this", and then we both ran to the near by cop to send him over to the runner.  By this time, the man got off the ground and started running again.  My momentum was thrown off.  However was kickstarted again by another man who when I ran by him said "so are you gonna take me down too?" Nice.  Each aid station was a blessing, offering cold sponges, ice, water, gatorade, Red Bull or Pop, and gels, bananas, and orange slices.   It was a regular smorgasbord. They also marked for me how much further I had to run.  The last station was 1.6km from the finish line.

The Finish Line

Never have I been so happy to see the end in sight.  My legs were sore, the heat was relentless, and I 

Me and Meredith Kessler

wanted a cool drink of water that went down my throat not all over my face.  When I ran up  the shoot my coach gave me a high five, and the announcer called my name and said "Sheila has been at the front of the virtual leader board all day".  I was surprised and excited to hear that!  That meant I may earn a spot to World Championships in Austria!  My time was really good, 4:45.09.  Not bad for this mom of 3.  My husband Jeff, and training partner, Kevin, hung out with me in the medical tent for a bit and then we all headed outside to watch our other teammates, Natalie and Diana, race to great finishes, pick up my first place award and take my spot for Austria, meet Pro Triathlete Meredith Kessler, then head back to our temporary Raleigh home to eat one last team meal before heading back to Ontario.

The Finish!!!

Winning was definitely a major highlight of the weekend for me.  However I loved living with my team, creating and eating meals as a team/family, and sharing this phenomenal experience with an amazing group of people.  I couldn't have done it without them, and that will be what I remember most from this week.