As some of you may
know, it has been a bucket list thing of mine to complete a Half Ironman. I wanted to do it when I turned 50, but with
my daughter graduating high school and us relocating to Cleveland, it just didn’t
pan out. Then I got hurt that summer,
and my goals changed.
Fast forward to
January of this past year, my running friend, Karyn, found out about the
inaugural Ironman 70.3 Ohio, and the next thing I knew, we were signed up and
ready to compete in August, 2016. What
were we thinking? Well, I sounded like a
good idea in January – but you know how that is.
The good thing was that I was going to get this bucket list item done
before my 55th birthday – so score. First, I had to train for
Boston. As most of you know, I consider
Boston to be my hometown race and after my very successful Columbus Marathon, I
was looking forward to it. Training was
ok and I ran a very fast *for me (1:39) half in March in NYC, and Boston turned
out to be just ok. I felt that I had let
down Coach Bob (but that is another story), but it was time to transition to
triathlon training. With the early
assistance of Bob and my good friend, Mary Pat, I figured out an early race
plan for the summer. I got started by
accomplishing my first ride a week after Boston in 40F temperatures in
Cleveland, and it was the first time I had ridden my bike since the one ride I
took in July of the previous summer.
That 10 miles was accomplished in just slightly under an hour – and it
was hard.
Then life took over –
my daughter graduated college, she and I went to Alaska, Coach Bob unexpectedly
left us – and I was still signed up to finish this Half Ironman in August. I enlisted the help of Coach Lesley from
AJBaucco Coaching (as recommended by my extremely awesome Cleveland Triathlon
Club (virtual) friends) and the game was on.
Still reeling and trying to cope with the loss of my good friend, I took
on that training plan and did all I could to stick with it It was hard – a lot
harder than training for a marathon and this 54 yr old was tired – so TIRED
that I aborted and walked a run (with a few awesome friends – you know who you
are – so thanks), who worried about me.
I swam a lot of miles in the pool at Turner working on my stroke
technique with Coach Tom (and realizing that I still a really good breaststroker)
and Lake Erie, I rode a lot of miles with the awesome cyclists at my summer
home at Chautauqua (Special thanks to Chris, Jen, Kent, Bill, Stuart, Carol and
Mary Pat – you have no idea how much you helped me feel like I can actually
cycle!), and I ran a few miles including a slowish half marathon at Presque
Isle where I unexpectedly won my AG! After all that, I knew
I was ready.
My hubby, John and I,
headed down to Delaware on Friday late afternoon and we got there before
dinner. I was accompanied by my vote of
confidence from Coach Lesley and my fuel plan (where I had taken the required
number of carb calories and sodium from my sweat test and created a plan using
UCan, Gatorade Endurance and Gels) and all that stuff that is required for a
triathlon. Believe me as a marathoner,
the STUFF you need for a tri and the logistics are incredible! John and I had a fun dinner at a craft
brewery in downtown Delaware and then settled in for the night.
We got up on Saturday
morning and headed to the Ironman Village to check-in and listen to the Athlete’s
briefing. Logistics still seemed complicated,
but easier than expected. John decided to
sign up to volunteer and we met my SIL, her husband, and my nephew for lunch in
town (my other nephew is a new freshman at Ohio Wesleyan – so they were there
moving him in. John and I then drove out
to the Swim site, checked it out, and then drove the bike course. I got in a short ride and a quick run, and
then we went to dinner in Westerville (which turned out to be on the house
which is another story completely). We went
back to the hotel, watched Matthew Centrowitz kick butt and went to bed.
So the day started by
getting up at 3:30am. John and I got to the stadium about 4:45am then shuttled up
to the lake by 5:30am. Waiting for the swim start was nerve wrecking. John took off for his volunteer assignment
and I “set up” my bike transition area.
I saw Beth and other CTC folks at the beginning and wished them luck,
pumped my bike tires like ten times, and used the porta potty probably 20 times
more. And then, it was time to line
up. I saw Karyn in the wave, we gave
each other a hug, and then we were in the water. I figured that it would take me about 45 min
to complete the swim and all seemed well for the first 500 yds – or to the
first turn, and then all hell broke loose. My stomach started feeling nauseous, all that
anxiety rose to the surface, and I panicked.
Determined not to latch onto one of those kayaks, I resorted to breaststroke,
and I thank all of you women in the F50-54 wave for putting up with that. I looked ahead and didn’t see too many light
pink caps, but I did see a lot of blue and green from the earlier wave, and I went
into the mode of swimming 23 strokes freestyle, 20 breast, then 23 free, 15
breast, then 23 free and 10 breast and so on and then I was at the 2nd
return (why 23 free – well that is how many strokes it takes me to complete a
length in the 25 yd pool). By then had
regrouped, and I was able to swim freestyle to the exit of the swim. Strangely enough, the swim took me 45 min and
28 sec.
The bike part was actually good.
I’m not a fast cyclist and I figured it might take me 3 and a half hours
to complete the 56 miles. I was so very
happy when I realized that I was going to be actually quicker than that. I took a gel every 30 min as planned and managed
to drink all but about 8 oz of the Gatorade during the ride. The chip and seal road was of no real
consequence since it is what I rode on all summer during training and the final
hills and rollers were welcome as they play more to my strengths. Wow, I was so very surprised to get to the
end of the bike leg in 3:15 – averaging 17.2 mph. That for me was a major accomplishment especially
since I tried to keep my HR low in the first half and not blow out my legs so I
could use my strength on the run.
And then, it was time for the run and for me the “middle distance” long
distance runner, a half marathon is my wheel house. I knew that I didn’t want to go out too fast,
but once I hit that road, it felt good and it felt right. I kept trying to slow it down, but I got into
the groove, and I just let it go. The run course was fair and maybe even a bit
harder than I thought it would be. There
was a nice small climb in the 2nd mile and the back half of the loop
was pretty much up a gradual hill from about mile 4.5 to 9 and again from mile
10.5 to 12. But I felt good, and I
passed so many people on the run – all those who flew by me on the bike, and I just
cruised by (jumped from 45th in my AG to 19th). I guess I just will never
understand (and I’ve seen it in all 5 triathlons that I’ve ever done – so definitely
an expert am I) why competitors seem to drop into a walk mode almost
immediately during the run leg. Now
granted, I am a runner, but I’m not a cyclist – so you probably think my 17.2
mph is ridiculously slow – but you didn’t even try to run???? But I digress, I am a runner and I used it as
my strength. It was somewhat hilly, the
sun came out and it was warm but once I got down the hill at mile 12 – I was
going to get to that finish line even if I had to walk (lol).
As I came into the stadium, I started to get emotional as all those
spectators and volunteers were just not letting you quit. I knew that Coach Bob was watching me from
above, and damn if I wasn’t going to finish that Ironman 70.3 Ohio race and
finish it a lot closer to 6 hrs than I could have imagined. So when I crossed
the finish line in 6 hours and 8 minutes it was such an amazing feeling and an experience
I will always remember. I pushed my body and it did not fail me.
Thanks so much to John (and he loved volunteering), to Karyn
for getting me to finally sign up, to Coach Lesley for the awesome plan and
unrelenting encouragement, to Chris, Jen, MP, Carol, Ironman Bob, Kent, Bill,
Karin, Stuart, and others for putting up with my slow cycling butt and helping me
get better and better – I still bike like a runner – but I’m closer, to Coach
Tom for helping with swim technique, to Beth and Aimee for the mentoring and
answering all my questions in the final weeks and for not letting trade in that
bib, and to Coach Bob for watching over me on Sunday (I miss you). If I ever do another Half IM (and I’m already
looking at courses with fast, easy swims – lol), I know what to work on to
improve and I also know that I can.
Here are my final stats:
MICHELE KEANE
OVERALL RANK: 764
DIV RANK: 19
GENERAL INFO
|
|
BIB
|
1224
|
Division
|
F50-54
|
State
|
Bay Village OH
|
Country
|
USA
|
Profession
|
Engineer
|
RACE SUMMARY
|
|
Swim:
|
45:28
|
Bike
|
3:15:34
|
Run
|
1:55:51
|
Overall
|
6:08:11
|
SWIM DETAILS |
Division Rank: 21
SPLIT
NAME
|
DISTANCE
|
SPLIT
TIME
|
RACE
TIME
|
PACE
|
DIVISION
RANK
|
GENDER
RANK
|
OVERALL
RANK
|
Total
|
1.2
mi
|
45:28
|
45:28
|
2:21/100m
|
21
|
272
|
785
|
BIKE DETAILS |
Division Rank: 45
SPLIT
NAME
|
DISTANCE
|
SPLIT
TIME
|
RACE
TIME
|
PACE
|
DIVISION
RANK
|
GENDER
RANK
|
OVERALL
RANK
|
32.3 mi
|
32.3
mi
|
1:55:44
|
2:47:51
|
16.75
mi/h
|
|||
56 mi
|
23.7
mi
|
1:19:50
|
4:07:41
|
17.81
mi/h
|
|||
Total
|
56
mi
|
3:15:34
|
4:07:41
|
17.18
mi/h
|
45
|
405
|
1267
|
RUN DETAILS |
Division Rank: 19
SPLIT
NAME
|
DISTANCE
|
SPLIT
TIME
|
RACE
TIME
|
PACE
|
DIVISION
RANK
|
GENDER
RANK
|
OVERALL
RANK
|
2.3 mi
|
2.3
mi
|
20:17
|
4:32:37
|
8:49/mi
|
|||
5.2 mi
|
2.9
mi
|
24:27
|
4:57:04
|
8:25/mi
|
|||
7.5 mi
|
2.3
mi
|
20:30
|
5:17:34
|
8:54/mi
|
|||
10.4 mi
|
2.9
mi
|
25:03
|
5:42:37
|
8:38/mi
|
|||
13.1 mi
|
2.7
mi
|
25:34
|
6:08:11
|
9:28/mi
|
|||
Total
|
13.1
mi
|
1:55:51
|
6:08:11
|
8:50/mi
|
19
|
202
|
764
|
Transition Details
T1: Swim-to-bike
|
6:39
|
T2: Bike-to-run
|
4:39
|
