Ireland IM 70.3 September 2012
Now that vacation, jet lag, and the shock of being back to work is over I can start thinking back on Ireland 70.3.
Anyone who even had a brief conversation with me this summer knew that I was pretty nervous about the weather and cold-water conditions in Galway Bay.
We arrived Friday morning in Galway to some “Irish mist” as the natives say. Put our bikes together, checked out the expo, walked around in a daze from our overnight flight. Saturday morning was the practice swim and you had to check in and out of the water with a race director. This didn’t reassure me knowing that they were taking head counts on the practice swim. It was very windy and there were some pretty big white caps. I couldn’t swim more than 4-5 strokes before a wave swallowed me up. I did what a lot of other people were doing to get the first buoy, doggie paddle, breast stroke, whatever I could, trying to just acclimate to the water. While others were commenting on how cold the water was, I was surprisingly okay with it- but was most concerned about the waves and white caps. By Saturday afternoon a storm front had rolled in making the ocean look even angrier with crazy rain and wind that made you take a double step. The race directors kept reassuring everyone that the storm would be gone by the morning and thank God they were right!
Sunday morning race day, we woke up to a miracle of beautiful calm water and sunrise! We were so excited! The swim waves started in deep water where we needed to tread water for about 10 minutes before starting. It was time for my wave to get wet and over the initial shock of the cold water. It was weird because I got this positive peacefulness that came over me in the water. I’m pretty new to this ‘race thing’ so being terrified at the start is usually a normal feeling for me but today I just felt good- calm- excited… I remembered a phrase my sister said that I was ‘getting baptized by the waters I came from”. I found a spot on top of a small dock to wait until the gun- no need to tread in the cold water more than necessary… My swim wave started and I thought to myself “go easy, no rush, it’s just like Crystal Lake”. I stopped periodically to get my whereabouts, adjust my wetsuit and necklace that was tearing my neck apart, or while a school of men from the next wave swam right over me. Towards the end of the swim, I noticed my fingers were spread out wide but I couldn’t seem to move them the way I wanted, they were kind of stuck. That’s when I realized I had to stop dilly-dallying and get out of the cold water. I finished the swim, and ran the long distance to T1 (probably a ¼ mile). I saw Brant in T1 (who had started swimming 15 minutes later than me but finished at the same time as me) said goodbye and good luck to him. The bike was an out back on route N59 into Connemara. The road was closed to traffic, which was great especially since in Ireland people ride on the left side of the road. The bike route had beautiful scenery, a light headwind on the way out, a tailwind on the way back. I chatted with an older ‘Irish lad’ as we played leapfrog on the bike 6-7 times back and forth. He would pass me on the flats I would pass him on the hills. Clusters of excited spectators in the small towns were fun to ride by.
Another long transition to T2 helped get the legs ready to run. The announcer mentioned my name and thanked me for coming from the United States. I never saw a clock the whole day so had no idea of my time and my watch was slow to kick in so the time was not accurate. The run was a 3-mile loop around the finish line and Salt Hill promenade with ocean views and lots of great spectators. By this time the wind was picking up a bit but all in all I felt pretty good on the run. I only stopped at the water station for a quick sip of coke. Something I never drink but tasted pretty good that day ?. Brant, Jim and Mary Claire were at the finish line cheering me on. The finish line was the first clock I saw all day- with a time of 6:42:01. (58 swim; 3:21 bike; 2:02 run and 20 minutes in T1 and T2!) I was a bit disappointed at first since this was 35 minutes longer than my Pumpkinman time last year, but then I had to remind myself of my original goal for this race: “get out of the water alive then just enjoy the bike and run”. I had done just that! We bypassed the race food (which looked like a kids meal from McDonald’s) went straight to the showers and out for some real food and a pint. All in all- a great day!
The real story should be about the days that followed: the pubs, the Irish people, the sheep, the beautiful countryside, blue ocean and the simple way of life in Ireland. But then again that wouldn’t be a race report… Ireland is truly an amazing place and I’m glad the 70.3 gave us the excuse to go!
Patti Fahle