Gulf Coast Half Ironman 70.3 (5-11-19)

Back to Panama City Beach, Florida to hopefully complete the full distance.  Back in 2017 when I did the race they canceled the swim on race morning.  We still did the full bike and run and even received our medals, but I never felt it was a real 70.3 race.  That's probably how the people felt in Chattanooga this past September for the full ironman when the swim was canceled.  It just kind of makes it not feel as real.  So this time I was going back in hopes that all 3 events would take place and I'd have me another 70.3 under my belt in preparation for my full coming up in September.  Just so happen the race was going to be on Mother's day weekend so what better way to spend Mother's day than by taking my mom and daughter with me to be my sherpas. :)  

We left on Friday arriving at the beach around lunch time. 

It was HOT and MUGGY.  It started to bring back memories of my HOT run 2 years before for the event.  I took my mom and daughter with me to the expo because it wasn't quite time for us to be able to check into our room.  My mom went with me on my first half ironman so she was familiar with all the bikes and people you'd see.  This was my daughter's first time.  Let's just say I think she learned a lot about what all I go through to do a race like this. :)   I  believe she was amazed and probably also thought I was a tad crazy. Hee Hee

 Packing and checking my list.  Thanks LISA for a nice list!

Lisa wanted me to do a short bike check, leg check, and swim to test the body out.  So after picking up my bib, I went to check my bike in and walked pretty far on my legs stretching them out from travel. 

Then we headed to the beach for me to test the waters.  I noticed it was RED FLAG and everyone was looking at the water trying to decide if they were going to test swim or not.  I decided I needed to if the waters were going to be like that on race day.  I was literally beat up by the waves.  When I came out my daughter said I looked like I had gotten beat up. :)  Here's a picture mom took of me walking back up the beach.  I was thinking to myself... Oh .. sh@t.... this will be bad tomorrow.  Not only did we have the waves, we had chop and a current pulling us north.  It was going to require a lot of sighting to stay on course.  I was very worried about making my 1 hour 10 min time limit in these conditions.  

Needless to say I was very unsettled the rest of the evening.  Even tough we went to eat at Olive Garden and I had a nice time with mom & Erin, I was worried deep down about the swim.  When we got back to our room I googled videos of how to swim in chopping ocean waters.  I'm so glad I did because Saturday morning while swimming in the race, I kept telling myself so many things that I heard on the videos and one bible verse I kept quoting over and over....  "I can do all things through Christ who strengths me". 

Race morning came early with a 6am swim start!  In the previous year the race started at 7am.  I guess they changed it to try to beat the heat.  I was calmer now.  I ate and left the room to go to transition to fix all my stuff by my bike.  Mom & Erin would come later closer to 6am to see me swim.  The two ladies next to me in transition said this was their first half ironman.  They were very nervous about the swim.  We chatted for a minute and all told each other we would survive the swim and complete the race.  I love how encouraging TRI people can be!  The water temp was 78 so that meant it would be wetsuit optional.  I heard so many people saying they were still going to wear their suit due to the water conditions.  I also wore mine!  I wasn't getting out in that rough stuff without mine.  I knew I wasn't there to try to win anything... my goal was to finish.  The wetsuits started last so we got to watch as people entered the water and fight the waves just to get out far enough to try to swim.  The waves were bad.  They were knocking people down as they tried to walk out to deep water.  The pros started coming back in and were cussing as they exited the swim.  I knew then it was going to be a tough swim.  When it was my turn, I took a deep breath and said let's do this.  As I saw many people raising their hands for the people in the boats to get them out, I kept also telling myself I was not a quitter.  I tried to remain as calm as possible and just keep moving forward.  It was hard to swim the proper way.  Here's a picture posted by a news paper of the water.   

The chop was rocking me every where and when I'd tried to breath the wave would hit me with a mouth full of water.  It felt like I was in a washing machine being constantly shaken and rocked all different ways!  I kept spitting out salt water and telling myself not to panic.   By the time I finished I was so beat.  It seemed like it took me 10 minutes to get out of the shallow water to get to the shore with the waves beating me.  And then your time didn't stop until you ran up the beach in the sand a little piece and went under the arch.  I kept telling  myself don't stop until you get under that arch.  You've got to make the time.  My daughter was standing there and hollered at me smiling.  I figured that meant I had made my time, but I still wanted to see it.

  I tried to fix my watch so I could see the time, but my fingers were a mess.  I didn't see any wetsuit strippers so I had to pull that thing off myself and get to the showers to get the salt water washed off me.  When I made it to the showers and guy was there that was sick.  He was throwing up.  He said he had swallowed so much salt water he didn't know if he could go on.  I told him he'd make it just don't quit.  

I finally made it to my bike where one of the ladies was also just arriving.  We were both on a high from finishing the swim and chatted for just a minute while getting on our bike gear.  I wished her luck on the bike and went to the porta potty before heading out on the bike.  I didn't see my mom.  I was wondering where she was at because I didn't see her with Erin when I came out of the swim.  I got on the bike and hoped I'd see her soon.  

The bike out was GREAT.  We had a nice tailwind.  It was like I barely had to pedal to maintain a 18-19 mph.  I felt great!  When I reached the half way point to turn around my pace was 19 mph average.  I was grinning from ear to ear and then it hit me... oh crap... head wind going back. LOL  And boy was it a head wind! and it also seemed the whole way back was uphill.  It's a flat course except for 1 overpass bridge and another hill so I knew that wasn't the case.  It was just the headwind making it feel that way.  I came into the finish line and there my mom was hollering at me.  Boy I was so glad to see her and Erin waiting on me.  They were cheering and taking pictures.  Mom later realized she just thought she had pictures of me on the bike.  The sun was so bright she couldn't see that her phone was not taking pictures. :(  Erin got a couple from a distance of me inside transition putting bike up. 

By this time the sun was blaring and it was heating up.  I knew the run was not gonna be fun.  I got changed into my bike shoes and stopped for the volunteers to spray me down with sunscreen.  I felt like my body was on fire.  Heading out on the run. 

We had 3 loops to do to complete the half marathon.  I had planned to stick to my 5 min jog / 1 min walk program, but after almost 2 loops... I had to walk a lot more than I wanted too.  However, I looked at my total time on my watch and knew I would beat the 8 hour 30 min time limit so I didn't stress over walking.  I was still doing this thing. :>)   I talked with several other participants while walking on the run.  Heck it seemed everyone was walking off and on.  There were no fast runners zooming by me.  The heat was getting to everyone.  Not to mention we all had worked hard to finish that swim.  I talked with one guy that lives there that has done the race several times and he said that was one of the toughest swims he had done.  That made me feel better with him actually living there and doing the race several times.  Soon I finished my 3rd loop and was heading in.  I felt so great to be finishing!  Mom & Erin were at the finish line waiting on me.  I couldn't have asked for better sherpas!  I'm so glad they were with me!   

My time wasn't a PR.  My first halfiron man was 7:12 and I had just finished this one in 7:17.  However, my bike and run was faster this go around.  It was the swim that killed my time.  I swam Augusta halfiron man in 33 minutes 56 seconds (now that's a downstream river swim)... vs this ocean swim of 1 hour 1 minute.  Can I say how much I like a downstream river swim :>)

I told mom and Erin to let me get cleaned up and rest and then we'd go out to celebrate Mother's day and me finishing!   They spent the afternoon sitting on the beach and I stayed in the cool hotel room.  I didn't want to be hot or sandy again.  I was over the heat for the day. :>)   The water was beautiful that afternoon and even looked much calmer than that morning although the red flag was still up. 

We went to a nice restaurant that night for dinner.  The food was awesome and the company even better.  We toasted each other and celebrated.  

The drive home the next morning was not so nice.  He hit heavy rain.  You could barely see the road.  I was so glad once we got that 5 hour drive over and I was able to relax at home.  I can't express enough how much I love my mom and daughter!  I'm so blessed they were with me on this adventure.  My daughter did tell me while we were eating dinner after the race that she had googled the full ironman ..... and she was like ... that's double what you did today.  I was like yep... :>) She said that's ALL day into the night... I was like Yep.... Lord willing I'll complete that also.  AND the plan is for my hubby, my mom, my daughter and my son to all be with me on that day! :>) 

 

So glad I had on my bracelet that says Philippians 4:13 the whole race. :>)  I'm a tad tired today.  Usually that 2nd day after a race is worst than the day after for me.  Too bad I have work. LOL  But at least Lisa has me on a recovery week so I'll get a couple of days of rest. THANK YOU LISA!