Arizona Ironman 2013 and Sunny

Arizona Ironman 2013

It's official!! I'm signed up again for Arizona Ironman 2013 next year on November 17^th, 2013. 

I volunteered for the 2012 event at the Wetsuit Stripper station! This basically means I got REALLY wet! And had an Awesome time!   Ripping off wetsuits (carefully J) of the athletes as they just get out of the water.

                               
Race Weekend has this amazing energy. Even when you aren’t competing and volunteering, I love this race. I love the vibe. It gets me exited to get back into training. A much needed inspiration when your 6 months into training and tired.

I got to meet some great new friends at the “stripper” station.  I arrived at the race site, remembering how nervous I was from last year, happy I was just volunteering, but excited that I was going to do it again. 

I got over to the wet suit station and as I was talking to people, a nice gal walks up with a prosthetic leg.  A 36,000$ prosthetic leg. I ask her how she is doing, and who is she helping today. She says her daughter Sarah.  We get talking and I realize it’s Sarah Reinertsen, the well known first female amputee to race at Kona in 2005.  I tell her I’m available if she needs any help with her transition. Her mom says yes. I’m excited that I get to meet Sarah.
The race gets started and I hear the cannon go off for the Pro Men, then the Pro Women, the finally the age groupers!! They had a lot of wait time, and I’m glad I’m not in the water cause that would of made me nervous. Boom the cannon goes off and they are on their way.

After about 50 minutes, the wetsuit area get exciting. The pro field is just getting to the steps and we watch as the pros literally SPRINT out of the water and on their way to the transition area. Probably the most exiting was watching Leanda Cave, Who won Kona this year, run by. So exciting that I forget to take a picture!!

Then the age groupers start coming out of the water. It’s all around HECTIC, by the second person I help strip I am aware that I’m going to get soaked…so I run over to my backpack and throw my phone into the top pocket and run back to my spot. After about an hour, Sarah’s mom comes running over to me to ask me to come help her daughter .So I finish my current athlete I’m helping and  run up to where she will be sitting. She arrives and I say hello!! Great Swim!! She had a big smile on her face!! And we talk about the swim as I help her out of her suit. I get to watch as she puts on her leg, and then get her up and on her way!  Inspiring!!! She swam it in 1:33, right around my time. 

I head back over and continue to help others with taking off their wetsuits. Then about another forty minutes later…I hear someone yelling my name. I turn around and there is Sarah’s mom with my cell phone in her hand!!!  Apparently, in all the excitement, I put it in her backpack instead of mine!  And how kind of her to track me down, and find me to return it when she could of just took it to lost and found. I’m forever grateful for her kindness.  And a few people got some phone calls!! Nicole to the rescue as she answered and let her know who I was and what I was doing.

By the time the athletes were threw, I was soaked to the bone! But that was SUPER FUN!! And I’m happy to say, everyone I stripped was clothed after the wetsuit came off, so no naked bodies.  Attached is a fun video that Ken took of me “stripping”.

Check out this video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/SA3kSxbKCbs

 
I stuck around for the race long enough to see the pros come across the finish line around 3 pm, Men’s and Women’s and then I headed home to rest up and get up early to sign up for next year.


On Monday I was up at 4 am, and driving to the race site by 5 AM. By the time I got to registration, there was an insane line of volunteers. Some we heard were in line by 2:45 am to be first in line. Knowing that every volunteer who wanted to race was gurantee a spot, I was ok with getting there two hours early. And as I was walking to get in line, I met up with a gal who looked at me and said, “hey, weren’t you a stripper?” LOL! She was a friend of Vicki who I met as a fellow wetsuit stripper. And so I spent the next two hours chatting with several wet suit strippers and the time passed pretty quickly.

It’s funny, my experience is different this year. I was more calmer. Like I was signing up for another race like it was no big deal. But it was a big deal. Its’ an IRONMAN!! My second, I think I come into it with more experience, so the fear of the unknown is not there. I’ve already done the distance, so I know I can do it. Now my focus is on doing better than I did last year. (14:55 hr/min). I can plan in my head where I think I can improve, now that I know the course, and how I should train for it. It makes the focus of this race different.  Nerves gone (for the moment anyway) and now a new goal. “Beat my time from last year” by getting stronger on the bike, swim smarter, nutrition.  Review my list of things I’d do differently:

          As I prepare for my next season for 2012. I am looking back at my race reflecting on what things I told myself I would do differently to make my experience better for next time.

1.    I won’t train alone again, that was just way to tough. But, I did do it, and I will again if I have too.

2.   Get a tri bike. Trek or Crevelo, but really I just want to get one that is a good fit for me.

3.   New Pedals, a proper bike fitting. That could be some of the cause for my tweaky knee at mile 80 in the bike.

4.   Buy a wetsuit, TYR Hurricane, by far the best wetsuit that I have used and like a lot Category One is fine. Okay…Maybe Category Three J

5.   Hire a Coach, or online training plan. Even though mine was good, nice to have additional input, even for one time.

6.   Diet, I did well, but I could do much better. Paleo for Athletes is the plan

7.   Lifting Program, Don’t STOP IT!! Core is huge! And the strength you felt at the beginning from lifting was not there like you wanted it to be at the end.

8.   Focus on Speed in disciplines for the next training year. More speed work and technique  in  the pool, more spin on bike, drills for legs etc. speedwork/hill work for runs

9.   Yoga/Massage with Strength Training- very important for recovery process

10.                 Full Length compression tights?  Even just the knee highs helped a lot!

11.                 A new seat for the bike. The girly parts could use just a bit more comfort.

So here I go, back into the line and with one quick swipe of my debit card, and I’m signed up for next year. Full sign up to be completed by Friday when I get my confirmation information.

This years race will also have special meaning to me. I’m going to be racing for one of my patients. Her name is Sunny. I met her in her most challenging moment in life around June of 2012. She arrived at our hospital with a glioblastoma, which is an aggressive cancerous brain tumor. (Disclaimer: due to HIPPA rules, I did get permission from Sunny, her husband and her daughter to tell her story, as I hope they read this, they can let me know if anything isn’t okay post J ). I walked into her room to do my OT eval and was met with this amazing spirit and smile. She had her head shaved in a Mohawk and was dyed in either purple or blue, in polka dots one day, stripes the next. We got to know each other the few weeks we were together, we connected with each other through our leisure activities. She had hiked the Grand Canyon from River to Rim, I had just done a Rim2Rim2Rim. She did her first triathlon two years prior at Carlsbad in the Pacific Ocean. I was in awe of her! I may have done an Ironman, but open water ocean swims were something that I feared. Hence, why I did AZ Ironman because it’s in a protected lake.  We bonded in the mornings as we did therapy. And one particular morning, when she was having a rough moment, we talked about triathlons and things on the bucket list. As we were talking, she got quiet, and said, “I’m never going to get to do one of those (Ironman)”.  My response was, “yes you will, because with your permission I’m going to put your name on my bike and race it for you.”  She smiled and said, “Okay, and my dtr will have to do it with you!”   And I said I would do the Carlsbad Race again for her, if it was her first tri, then it would be my first open water sprint tri.  I learned after we talked that she didn’t get a medal for doing her race. I wanted her to know that she had done an amazing accomplishment that many people are afraid to try. She knows this I’m sure, once you do a triathlon, no matter what distance; it gives you this sense of accomplishment. Like you can conquer the world. So her last week there, I gave her my first medal I ever won for a sprint triathlon. It was my third place finish at the “Tri in the Pines” from Show Low, AZ.  I wanted her to have that same feeling for the fight she had ahead of her.   I’m in the design process of how I’m going to put Sunny’s name on my bike. But as soon as I have it, I’m going to post it.  So, Sunny, This race is for you!!