Ironman Indiana – My First Ironman
Race information
- What? Ironman Indiana
- When? October 2nd, 2021
- How far? 140.6
- Where? Muncie, IN
Goals
| Goal | Description | Completed? |
|---|---|---|
| A | PR the Swim, Bike, and Run (i.e. Finish my first Ironman) | YES |
| B | Swim < 1:10 | NO |
| C | Bike < 5:10 | YES |
| D | Don’t Walk the Marathon | YES |
| E | Stretch – Finish Sub 10 | YES |
Background
With lockdown and no racing, I was able to focus on training a good amount and decided to take on my first Ironman in 2021. Leading into the race I was feeling pretty good about my training and set a 20 min PR at 70.3 Maine in August, but was not sure how I would handle the full distance so I was fairly nervous.
Race Week
Race week was pretty uneventful. We drove in from the east coast on Wednesday (15 hrs) which gave me a couple days to relax and get settled. Stopped for a light swim halfway through the drive, took Thursday completely off, and then did 15-20 of swim, bike, and run on Friday in between registration and check-in.
Race morning was a bit of a mess with them only having 1 porto open in transition and I was rush to set up my area a bit. Was also stressed by all these bags I was not used to!
Got the wetsuit on and pounded a few fig bars and headed to the water.
The Swim
I am not a swimmer (self-taught since after college) and have suffered two shoulder injuries (& surgeries)over the years (torn labrum on one side, broken collarbone on the other). I was hoping to swim sub 1:10 but given the race nerves, I seed myself in the front half of the 1:10-1:20 wave.
The first lap of the swim went fine – I took it pretty easy wanting to make sure I save energy and didn’t make any silly mistakes. The second lap is where things got interesting with so many more swimmers in the water – just after the first turn buoy I took a hard kick to the face that cut the inside of my mouth. Ended up coming out behind my goal, but not that far off.
Swim Split: 1:15:32, Place 310
T1
T1 was pretty uneventful – it was a long uphill run and my bike was on the far side of transition so it was a bit of a haul. Took in an SIS gel as I was slipping on my helmet and shoes and got going.
Bike
Given the storms predicted I wanted to push the pace a bit and make it as far as I could before the rain. The course was also a lot less crowded on the first loop without the 70.3 athletes out there yet. Overall I was hoping to hold around 220W, with my HR below 140bpm. I nailed this plan ending with average watts of 219 and an HR of 139.
Nutrition on the bike for me was a mix – 2 bottles of UCAN, 2 of Gatorade Endurance, then a mix of Clif bars, UCAN bars, SIS bars, and SIS gels. Overall took in a little less than I was planning but still probably got in 75g cards per hour
Bike Split: 4:45:24 (8th fastest), Place 20th
T2
Lol, I messed this one up. Lost my bike visor running in, turned around to get it, and strumbled (a volunteer caught my bike for me) – definitely not my smoothest moments. Got back going and made a quick shirt change (tri-top -> Running tank), although I screwed that up too and 2 miles into the run I notices I was rocking the tank backward!
Run
I have run two marathons before (the last one in 2019) and have an open PR of 2:57. That combined with being good at running off the bike in HIMs gave me some confidence. My plan was to just go out on feeling the first few miles then try to hold 7:15 -> 7:30s as long as I could.
After the first 30 min or so I looked at my watch and saw that I was cruising well sub 7s, which was both great to see and freaked me out. I kept thinking “When am I gonna hit the wall”, “At least make it to the next aid station”. At the halfway point the legs felt like they were gonna hold up so I knew I just had to keep fueling.
Again was taking an SIS gel on the 30s, and an SIS beta fuel on the hours. Was trying to take water or Gatorade every other aid station – Although I accidentally grabbed pickle juice at one and that was a shock to chug lol.
I had the run of my life and didn’t end up fading much at all – my run splits are posted below for the data curious.
Run Split: 3:00:15 (Not a typo! Fastest of the day), Place 7th!
The Finish
I was completely overwhelmed just to finish my first ironman and knew I had done better than I expected but almost fainted with shock when the announcer called out my final time 9:12:15… more than 45 minutes ahead of my goal.
In the end, I was 7th overall and 3rd in my age group. To make things crazier the next day I found out that the M30-34 group would be getting a rolldown slot from an older age group and the winner was turning pro so he wasn’t going to take his slot…I HAD JUST QUALIFIED FOR KONA!. This wasn’t even in my goals as I never considered it a possibility!