Donna Weeks’ 2012 FirmMan Half Report
I’ve been reading everyone else’s race report and never thought to write my own until today. So here is my story:
I remember when I was around 20 years old I was reading Outdoor Sports magazine and on the cover was an IronMan competition, probably Kona for all I know, and I thought, wow, someday I would like to do a triathlon. Needless to say, my only competitions were when I was 12 and 13 years old on a swim team. Around that age (8th grade), I moved from upstate New York to New Jersey and kind of got lost….was on the softball travel league in 9th grade, fencing in 10th grade, tennis team in 11th grade…nothing consistent and no real competitions. In the mid 1970’s girls team sports was in an infant stage, depending on where you lived.
I bought my first bike at age 16 (through babysitting money) and rode by myself around town for one summer. All I knew was I liked bicycling. Started to ski at 15 and basically once I hit 20 never really participated in sports until I joined the Cyclonauts in 2010, that would be about 30 years later…Just to ride my bike with a group and meet people. Yes, I joined without knowing anyone in the club and without knowing how to unclip, ride in a group or how fast I could go.
My first group ride was on Monday night Ladies Only Ride, well at least that’s what it said! I drove my car to the parking lot, with my bike in the trunk, looked around and saw at least five men, in shape, with tight cycling clothes on and said to myself, I’m not in the right place, I’m just going to pretend I drove into the parking lot by mistake, turn around and go home!!! A little voice in my head said, don’t do it! You came this far and you want to do this for you….go park, get out of the car and see what happens. So I did. I believe Bruce Hiorns said hello to me and I said, I thought this was a ladies ride…he said it is, can’t you tell we are ladies? LOL….That was the beginning of my journey to my first Half, although I didn’t know it at the time!
I rode Monday group rides until I was strong enough to join the Wed night MP ride with the help of my friend, Steve Brault (I probably wouldn’t have gone over there by myself so he said he would help me) in July. I watched a lot of members get off their bike and run and I asked, what are they doing?….a brick someone told me. A what? By August people were asking me to run a brick too, and I said, are you crazy, I am NOT a runner…there is no way I can run off of that very difficult 30 mile ride. NO WAY!!
It was in January of 2011 I hired PCS to coach me to start, maybe, doing triathlons. So I started to jog/walk a mile, then increase to 2 miles. I think it was 9 months before I even ran more than 11 miles in one week. I hated running! It was so difficult for me, cardio-wise and I would get so physically tired. Then I did my first half marathon in Hartford last October and finished in 2:08 (this is an important time to remember), then the Hyannis Marathon in February, then the Holyoke 10k in March, then the Quassy Rev Olympic in June. Wow I was done, that’s enough for me! No, not true, I was to find out. I then went to watch Lake Place Ironman in July. That’s what changed my mind!! I truly got inspired and finally thought, maybe, just maybe I could possibly do this in two years.
I started to train in August. I kind of let running slip since the Olympic in June (cause, as I said, I don’t really like running J) What the heck did I do? I think Bill Lodi was more of an influence…he kept asking me when I was going to sign up for PumpkinMan, over and over and over again. No Bill, I’m not ready for a Half….NO, NO, NO! So, I signed up for FirmMan in Rhode Island. Lol!
Saturday, the day before the race: Kevin and I were running late and we were to meet the crew; Fran Feeney, Doug Manners, Rob Carpenter Steve Camp and Derek Bushey for a swim in the ocean, just to get the feel of it. OMG, the waves were huge. The gang had just gotten done with their swim and they told me to go in, it would be good for me to get the feel of the swim….just swim under the breakers and beyond then you will be fine. So off Kevin and I went to swim through the breakers…well there weren’t just one, two or three breakers that were 5, 6, 7 feet tall consecutively, there were 8 more waves, one bigger than the next with an undertow. There was just no end to the huge waves. My heart started to race and I was thinking, there is no way I am going to have energy to get on a bike after trying to get through this swim tomorrow. I AM NOT SWIMMING IN THE RACE TOMORROW IF IT LOOKS LIKE THIS….is what I told the guys coming out of the water…they all stood in stunned expression.
Sunday morning: I was thinking for sure, the swim portion would be cancelled but it was not. Uh oh! Here we go! Everyone was standing around on the beach waiting to hear what was going to happen with the swim. The ocean was calmer but there were still 3-6 foot waves out there to break through. They announced the swim was optional. For weaker swimmers, please don’t swim, the water is rough out there. You can go directly to your bike. This was my moment, do I go or don’t I? I decided to go, I really wanted to do a full Half Ironman. I realized all the other women in my wave were as nervous as I was and we nervously talked about how to go about getting through the waves and what was the best entry point. So off we went! I dove under wave one, without a problem. I walked and swam to wave two, dove and swam. Then there was wave three, wow, that looks pretty big!! Dive and just get out there on the other side! Yay!!!! I made it! Now I was swimming but my wetsuit was getting tighter and tighter on my chest and my breathing was shallow. I stopped, pulled the wetsuit out from my neck and calmed myself down to catch my breath and slow my heart rate. I said to myself, just swim easy, just get around the buoy and your home-free. I turned the buoy and swam some more, boy my chest feels so tight, I really hope there’s no sharks in here. Oh ya, there’s the jellyfish….not so frightening at this point. I had to stop several times to get my bearings, the group was far out to the left but my crew told me to not follow them and keep your line straight but I wasn’t sure if I was straight or not. I think at this point, the kayaker was nervous about my ability to finish because I kept stopping…I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t swimming any extra yardages…lol! I turned the buoy and I started riding the waves, that was a thrill until the last one I didn’t see which slammed me to the sand and my calf cramped up! I hope I can still bike and run was my thought. The swim is done! 34 minutes…not too shabby.
T-1: Took too much time in the bike transition, even put my bike gloves on. What was I thinking? I was thinking, I have to ride 56 miles, my hands are going to hurt!
Bike: Oh, I felt good on my bike. I was cruising about 5 miles when I took the turn and I heard a weird noise. I yelled at two men walking on the sidewalk…hey, do I have a flat? They looked and said, yes you do! Oh, %#@&!!! This was my worst fear, besides the sharks. I have deep dish wheels on with a stem extension and it’s the back wheel! I looked at my bike and decided to run into the street and yell back towards the turn, “anyone help me with a flat”….desperation looks different for everyone! No response! I sucked it up and said, I can do this! The two men came over and watched….I talked to them in detail about how to change my flat while doing it(the only way I actually could get through it and stay calm was to talk out loud). For some reason, I remembered everything. The support team came when I was just about to add the CO2, he took the wheel and pumped it up and put it back on my bike! I was off and had some time to make up!!!
I didn’t want to use up too much energy because I knew I had to save it for my run (my weakest part). I thought this was a flat course….no way….hills, not like Monson but just the same….but I felt good, I felt strong. I started to pass people but then I’m climbing the hill and I see a woman about my age looking helpless…..I rode past her thinking should I stop to help, which took another 50 feet…uuggghhh…couldn’t do it, I turned around and went back. She needed a CO2 tube, I had an extra….as it turned out it got used up when I had put it back in the saddle bag. I had to move on but told her the support crew was just behind her helping about the tenth victim of the day! She felt so much better and so did I.
At about mile 35 I started to ride behind two women who looked a lot stronger than me but after following them about 5 miles I decided it was time to kick it up a notch and boy, did that feel good, just cruising along….I think they passed me on the run.
I was coming into the final two miles when I apologized to a woman and said, I’m sorry, I’m going to pass you…she said….you go right ahead girl….I saw you had the flat and you caught up to me….go girl! That made me feel really good.
T-2…lost some time here too….not much to say.
Run: I was so ready for the run, I was sore on the bike, my butt, my arms, my neck were sore by the end. I knew I had to take it easy for the first few miles and get my legs warmed up. I stopped at mile 1 to take a badly needed potty break and eat a banana…by mile three I was feeling so good…I couldn’t figure it out! I just took the run steady and strong. I took a second potty break at mile 6. Between mile 7 and 9 my feet and stomach were hurting a little but I just kept my pace steady. By mile ten I was feeling good again, plus we started going slightly downhill at this point. The last ¼ mile was in the soft sand, which was difficult but I was so happy to know I was just about to cross the finish line that the sand was no bother to me. The Cyclonaut crew was cheering for me, which is such a great feeling, and I ran up the ramp to cross the finish line. 2:08 on my run!!
Total time was 6:11. I was so happy and felt satisfied on a race well done.
In my first Half Ironman race I learned it’s all about the journey; the training, the emotional ups and downs, the self-doubt, the physical changes, expectations and mostly I learned I can get through my worst fears. I braved the ocean, the fear of sharks, jellyfish and surf. I learned I can change a flat in the middle of a race and I can run 13.1 miles after a long bike ride.
At age 52, even afer not doing anything physical for 30 years, you too can be someone unrecognizable to yourself if that is what you truly want for yourself.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way, without you I wouldn’t have been where I am today!