The Desire to Quit and the Satisfaction of Perserverance

On the way to the finish Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga
photo credit: M.A. Locke

This past weekend I competed in my third Ironman 70.3 Distance triathlon as a professional athlete.  

At the YMCA,
Lexington, Kentucky

My husband, and two of my three daughters joined me on the road trip from Niagara Region, Ontario, to Chattanooga, TN.  It was a long drive and the kids did great.  We made several stops, one was the Carol Martin Gatton Beaumont YMCA, in the state of Kentucky, where my 11 year old and I did a swim workout to break up the travel day.  We arrived in Chattanooga at 8 pm on Friday night before the race, unpacked our gear,  went to sleep at the AirBnB as we were getting up early next morning to enter the kids in the IronKids race that began at 9am.

Post race IronKids Chattanooga

Heather Jackson helped start
the IronKids Chattanooga race!

The next day went smoothly.  The kids ran phenomenally in the heat, enjoyed the Ironman expo, and played in the park while I attended the pre-race pro meeting.  I made sure all my gear was ready and went to bed hoping for good weather, as severe thunderstorms was the projected forecast. 

THE RACE

Upon race day wake up, there was no rain!  We packed my bike and gear into the car and the family dropped me off at the site.  It was a perfect morning.  Once I was finished in transition, I hopped the shuttle to the swim start and got ready to race.  I'm not a person that likes to sit quietly and contemplate what's gonna happen next, I prefer to meet people, chat, and find out about them and their triathlon history.  So that's what I did, and happy I did so.  I met some amazing people, both age groupers and pros, this is one of the reasons I enjoy this sport so much. 

 THE SWIM

 

 

The Pro Women were starting in the water at 6:55am.  We were allowed to get in after the men started at 6:50am for a short warm up.  The swim course went 350m against the current of the Tennessee River, 100m across, then the remainder of the race in the quick current to the swim finish and transistion area.  At the start line I could see the current pushing us back behind the line, it was  stronger then was expected, as after the pro waves left the officials made a quick decision to change the age group swim course by eliminating the upstream portion of their swim.

I learned from Miami that it helps to get out in the front of the group if possible, even if people are going to draft off you.  The drafting is a heck of a lot better than fighting arms and legs, so I did my best to get out in the front group.  In fact I led the entire swim with Sarah True!  She is known as one of the top swimmers in the Ironman Series, and competed for Team USA in triathlon at both the 2012 & 2016 Olympics.  We exited the water 2 minutes ahead of the rest of the pack, ran up a ramp which felt like climbing a mountain, through the long transition and to the bikes.

THE BIKE

I am well aware of my limitations in a triathlon.  The bike is the big one.  However since Texas I have improved it a fair amount, during Chattanooga I was going to hold onto second place as long as I could before many of the rest of the girls would pass.  I figured with a good ride, for me, and a run that was similar to Texas I could hold on for a top-10 finish.  During the first 6km of the bike, the Tech Vehicle was riding directly beside me.  At 6.5 km it had moved in front due to oncoming traffic, and 1/2 km later when I got my flat, it was gone.  I pulled into someone's driveway, started to change my tire, the amazing volunteer tried her best to call the Tech Vehicle, but there was no answer.  So my panicked self took forever to change my tire, only to have a bulge in the tube and have to do it again. I watched disheartened as every single pro passed me and any chance of a top 10 finish disappear completely. Lesson, next time I use Pit Stop, and if it doesn't work it doesn't work.     After putting my rear tire back on, running through the gears, I hopped back on my bike and tried to start going again.  Of course I made an even bigger rookie mistake, I left the gear in too difficult a setting.  I fell over.  At this point I actually debated whether or not I should just lay there and let the volunteer pick me up and just call it a day.  However, the bike still worked, so I wiped the gravel out of my scrapes and got going again.

In the pro division, you spend much of the bike on your own, the women especially.  There is usually a good space between you and the next girl and are generally not worried about receiving a penalty due to drafting.  It was a  lot different riding with some of the age group men.  There were several large packs of men that biked together.  While being passed by one of these groups, I  didn't show fast enough backward progress and  received a 5 minute drafting penalty.  What does this mean?  It means that at the next penalty tent, which was about 50 metres from the bike dismount line, I needed to slow down, stop, and wait for 5 minutes before starting the bike again. When the official went by and showed me the blue card, I was like, great, what's another 5 minutes onto the 20 minutes I just spent changing a tire and picking myself up off the ground!  While sitting in the penalty tent I considered ending my race right there.  I was definitely in last place for my division at this point, and I do have another race in 2 weeks.  Do I keep going, or do I save it for next time?  As I trickled in over the dismount line I heard my family yell "Go Sheila".  At that point I wanted to cry.  How can I not keep going with my 9 and 11 year old watching me.  They drove for hours in the car to Tennessee, they have been up since 4:30am, and they are waiting to see me finish this race, if I give up now, with no real reason except my own disappointment and frustration, what is that teaching them? I took my time through transistion to regroup and ran passed my kids who were yelling "Go MOM"! and briefly let them know what had happened on the bike course.  

THE RUN

I wasn't sure how the run would play out after that bike, I was struggling mentally with continuing but had some outside motivation to do so (KIDS).  At one of the turn arounds, I saw top triathlete Heather Jackson coming the other way; I did not want to get lapped on the course, motivation #2.  When I looked at my watch, I knew I was on pace for my best run split yet, motivation #3.  Needless to say I finished the race in 17th position.

 

THE LESSON

My record to date, as a pro, has not been stellar with a 16th place and two 17th place finishes.  To let you know, my expectation is not to win, but it is to place in the top 10 or better so these finishes have been a bit disheartening. But hey, sometimes less than ideal stuff happens.  My coach so kindly pointed out to me that, although it wasn't a great thing, he was happy that this happened.  Up until this point every race has gone relatively smoothly, no bike mechanicals, and every age group race I have been in I have won.  This was a mental test,  and a kick in the pants to practice a faster tire change, or use another method to get back in the saddle quicker should this happen again.  As another friend pointed out, it's just an excuse I can use to justify why I didn't do well, mind you it is a good excuse.    Lastly, it was a chance for me to take what was a dissapointing race and look for the good that happened in the event. There was a lot of good.  My swim was solid and I was excited to come out with someone like Sarah True, I did my best run split, finally breaking the 1:30 half marathon time in a triathlon (1:29.51), and my actual moving time on the bike was quite good, for me, and without the mishaps I most likely would have gotten that top 10 finish. Most importantly I didn't give in to the mental gremlins that were whispering in my ear for me to quit.    Now I need to figure out how to put it all together for a great race!

Next up:  Eagleman, Racine, Niagara, Steelhead, Barrelman.