Vineman 70.3 July 12, 2015

This time last year I was recovering from my 3rd femoral head stress fracture brought on in part by a 198 day run streak & part because of the chronic inflammation that comes along with rheumatoid arthritis. I was frustrated & decided that if I was ever going turn my dream of running Boston Marathon into a goal that could be accomplished I needed to make some changes. I had already signed up for St George Marathon & decided that if I trained smart I would be able to run the race. Over the summer Josh & I spent a lot of time mountain biking. I did most of my running in the pool with an aqua jogger flotation belt to keep the impact off my bones. My longest pool run was 3 hours long. Leading into St George marathon I only did one long run on solid ground, a 17 miler with Salt Lake Track Club on the rail trail in Park City. Race day came & I felt unprepared & under trained. But the mountain biking & pool running paid off. I had a great race! I ran the marathon in 3:57, a 47 minute PR for me that included 4 bathroom breaks thanks to tummy issues. I was thrilled & decided that my time was now close enough that I could turn my dream of qualifying for Boston into a goal. I recognized that cross training should be a regular part of my training if I want to stay healthy & ever reach my goal. I decided to sign up for a 70.3 Ironman race as a way to keep me honest & “force” me to put in the time cross training that I should. Cold water hurts, so I opted for Vineman in Sonoma County California. The 6 months leading up to Vineman included 2 more marathons attempting to earn my BQ. I used Vineman as I had intended, as goal that would get me to cross train & not just run. I put in my swim & bike miles but up until the end of May, running was still my primary focus. My training was going well & the cross training approach seemed to be working until one early morning in April. I had been in the pool swimming for less than a minute & I had this terrible pain in my head overwhelm me. I was disoriented & my head felt like it was going to explode. My arm hurt & had this strange numb feeling while my head felt like someone was stabbing knives through my skull in different directions. I sat on the side of the pool for an hour holding my head, trying not to move & afraid if I did I would loose consciousness. I was almost convinced that I should have someone drive me to the er, but really didn’t want to move so I just sat there. After a while it subsided & I went home. The migraine that remained stayed the rest of the day. Three days later I thought that maybe it was some freak random spasm so I went back to the pool. Same thing, within 50 yards in the water my world was reeling. This time it took 2 days to calm down. I tried to swim again several more times over the next few weeks always with the same outcome. Thanks to the RA I have herniated discs & bone spurs in my neck. I have been warned by doctors that it would present a problem. But why now? I signed up for a race that required a 1.2 mile swim and I couldn’t make it 50 yards without days of pain. I tried to swim through it, but it wasn’t possible. Luckily for me Josh had a brilliant idea… why not swim with a snorkel & avoid neck rotation. Worth a shot… and it worked! So I was back in business. I was self conscious about what a dork I looked like going to the pool with my snorkel to swim laps, but I didn’t let it stop me. At 1st it was extremely frustrating; I had to adapt my swim stroke so that my body wasn’t rotating in the water to keep the strain off my neck. I wasn’t fast before, but now I was even slower. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to make the swim cutoff. But I kept working at it & slowly improved. Bike & run training were pretty low drama. I took it easy on both, wanting to be healthy & prepared but not wanting to push to hard & suffer another injury & subsequent setback. Leading up the race we listened to the pro’s speak. Mirinda Carfrae spoke about race day nutrition & told us that she prefers to eat on race morning. She said cupcakes. She may have been joking, but I took her seriously and decided to try it out. So race day came. I ate my cupcake on our way to the river. I watched Josh’s wave take off and then finished getting ready for my own swim. This would be my 1st river swim and I was a little nervous. But the water was a nice temperature and it felt good to get started. I had no issues on the swim with other athletes or my snorkel. It was rewarded to complete the swim I had been dreading. My swim time was 45:25 Transition was a dirt parking lot and by the time I exited the water it was a muddy mess! I tried to wipe my feet off as best I could and get started on the bike. T1 6:04 The bike ride was gorgeous! We rode through wine country in Sonoma County California. Compared to where we ride at home in Utah it was a fairly easy ride. This being my 1st 70.3 race I kept my effort moderately easy with the intent to not blow up on the run. Bike time 3:07:16 Transitioning from the bike to the run I again took a few minutes to try and wipe more mud off my feet. My feet are severely damaged from the RA and any added stressors don’t help. T2 6:59 Then off on the run. My run started out well with a good pace. By the time I reached mile 8 my feet had started to hurt. My toes are bone on bone and sometimes they do not like to stay in place and I need to stop and realigned my toes and adjust them. It feels like the bones are trying to protrude out the bottom of my feet and slows down my ability to run. So I stopped and adjusted my toes repeatedly over the next few miles. Run time 2:20:36 Overall time 6:26:20