Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot do something due to lack of strength, courage, or knowledge. I truly believe that if you set your mind to achieving a goal anything is possible!!!
Growing up, I would sit and watch the Kona Ironman World Championship on television every year and tell my parents that one day I would do that race!
Once I arrived in St. George I attended the mandatory pre-race meeting. After it concluded, I addressed the race director and informed him that it was my first Ironman ever and that I had a question for him. He was extremely nice and said, “What is your question?” I asked, “how many spots to Kona do you expect to award in the 24 & under female category” he looked at me like I was crazy. He replied, “That is a very difficult age group to get a spot and since this is your first Ironman you should be happy if you just finish, good luck.” I smiled and said, “Oh by the way it’s my first marathon as well.” He more or less raised his brows and gave a half hearted smile back and said, I’ll see you race morning, and walked away. Little did either one of us truly know that come October 8, 2011 I will be achieving a childhood dream, racing in one of the most prodigious endurance races in the world, Ironman Kona World Championship! Thank you so much to Wheat Ridge Cyclery for sponsoring me at St. George’s Ironman making this all possible. Without the generous support of WRC I would never have had the opportunity to qualify!
Saturday May 7th Race Day
I got up at 4:30 am and ate some oatmeal and a banana. I was so excited to be racing my very first Ironman and marathon in the same race, but also I was very nervous. My father and I had driven the bike and run courses the past two days and I was truly aware that this was the hilliest Ironman in the USA. I knew I had the mental edge to finish the race after doing a 30 hour Adventure Race in Moab Utah a few months prior. However, I wasn’t sure on my aerobic endurance since my training time leading into the race had decreased from 15-17 hours to about 10-12 hours per week due to commitments at work. I recently started my amazing job at LifeQuest (which I absolutely love and wouldn’t trade for the world) and have been working longer days than my previous schedule at Wheat Ridge and had less time to train. Therefore, I had to adapt my training program from moderate intensity long duration, to high intensity short duration. I knew I was getting great training in, but wasn’t sure how it would transfer over to an Ironman distance triathlon.
St. George’s swim is held in Sand Hollow Reservoir which is absolutely beautiful. The only way to transfer all the athletes to the swim and allow for adequate space in the parking lot for the swim to bike transition area is by escorting all the athletes by bus. Therefore, all the athletes have to meet down town in St. George and board one of the buses they provide and ride about 30 minutes to the Reservoir. I tried to have a conversation with a Colorado athlete about Carmichael Training Systems for whom she is currently racing for and I completed an internship there last year. However, I completely understand she had her game face on and was focused on the upcoming race and was in no mood for talking. So instead, I just sat and listened to the guys in the row next to me talk about the size and quantity of their bowel movements that morning and how they were going to have great races because they were feeling extremely light now. :)
Once I got off the bus, I hurried into the transition area to fill my tires, water bottles, and prep my bike for the race. Ironman races are different than any other triathlon and Xterra that I have done in the past in that you do not set up all your gear around your bike. Instead, everything including your helmet, bike shoes, clothes etc. are placed in a bag which is located in a different staging area than your bike. You must have both your bike and run bags prepped and turned into the appropriate transition areas the day before the race. This is nice because it makes setup on race day extremely easy. St. George had two different transition areas for the swim to the bike located in Sand Hollow Reservoir’s parking lot and the bike to the run which was in St. George’s town square about a 30 minute interstate car drive away.
The professionals started 15 minutes before the amateur athletes. So as the professionals were beginning the race, all 2000 amateur athletes were being herded through a narrow chute from the transition area to the water. At the water’s edge, there were very tiny sharp rocks and the starting line was about a 100 meter swim from the water’s edge. This causes a huge back up because everyone was being very careful to enter the water without cutting their feet and walking as slow as possible until they were in deep enough water to actually start swimming to the start buoys. Deep water starts are always interesting because you want to be at the front of the line to get good positioning in the swim but you also don’t want to get destroyed by having other swimmers swim on top of and over you or whack and/or kick you in the head. I was lucky and managed to scurry my way up to the front of the line so I could be right in front for the start. Once I got to my starting position, I looked back and the water was swarming with colored caps and a few hundred people were still up on the beach and had to start from the chute on the shore because there wasn’t enough space for 2000 individuals in the water for the start.
5.4.3.2.1 Blast…. The canon echoed across the water and we were off. It was a very rough start with hundreds of people fighting for position. We remained as a group for over 800 meters which is a long time to be battling other swimmers for position. Finally, it started to gap slightly allowing for us to get into a nice elongated stroke. The swim was one loop totaling 2.4 miles. My goal was to get done as close to an hour as possible. When I exited the water at 1:09:11 I was elated.
I ran/ stumbled up the boat ramp to the transition. I was slightly dizzy from being in a prone position for over an hour to an upright position in a matter of seconds. At the top of the ramp you had to run through the first part of the transition area where you call out your race number and volunteers diligently locate your bike gear bag which is organized numerically and hand it to you as you run by. Then you keep running with your gear bag until you reach the changing tents. There are two tents set up one for the males and the other for the females. Since I had my bike uniform already on under my wetsuit, I just sat outside the tents and took my wetsuit off and put on my bike shoes and helmet. Then I handed my bike bag now filled with my swim gear to a volunteer and ran to grab my bike and head out of transition onto the bike course.
The start of the bike course consisted of riding out of Sand Hollow Park reservoir approximately 4 miles mostly downhill with an occasional slight incline to the main road. I felt great once I got on the bike and hammered all the way out of the park. The course was designed to take bikers from the park into the town of St. George across a ridge above the town which was also a huge part of the run course. This was about fifteen miles into the bike and then we entered into a long gradual incline up a valley which was the beginning of two loops. Next we raced through a canyon in which there was a beautiful reservoir and this was a rolling terrain up through a very small town. To get out of the canyon we needed to start climbing the first climb which was extremely short but very steep and the second was the longest and steepest of the three hills and the last was the longest but slightly more gradual than the prior two hills. I felt fantastic throughout the entire bike until I hit mile 80 and then I hit the wall. I had eaten one champ blocks and four Gu’s. I also drank water, EFS, and Gatorade provided by the race course. Up to this point, I was averaging about 21 MPH on the bike but I almost instantly went down to 18 MPH. This was also the first time that a female passed me on the bike and I wasn’t able to stay up with her to overtake her. The worst part was a total of five women passed me between mile 80 and 90 on the bike. I could see what was happening so I ate a bar and by mile 90 I was finally feeling better. I received my second wind by this point and was able to overtake one of the five girls before the run transition. The significance of passing this specific girl was that she was in my age group. She was from Germany and had specifically chosen this race to this race to qualify for Kona. Her name is Katharina Grohmann, and this was her third Ironman race. After completing the entire bike course which was 112 miles we hit the bike to run transition a few seconds apart from one another. My total bike time was 5:47:58.
As you bike into the transition there is a bike dismount line. This is the spot where you have to be completely off your bike before entering the transition area. However, in Ironman as you get off your bike 5-6 volunteers eagerly swam around you to grab your bike from you and rack it so you can focus on getting your run gear bag and head to the changing tent. As you run though the transition area again you call out your number and a volunteer of the same sex as yourself grabs your running gear bag and runs next to you into the gender appropriate changing tent. Once you are inside the volunteer opens your bag and grabs exactly the items you instruct them to and even helps you put it on. Here I switched my biking shorts for running shorts, one of the wisest decisions I made that day. She also put sunscreen on me as I put my shoes and hat on. Then I was out of the tent in a matter of seconds however, so was Katharina. She took the lead for the first half mile and then I passed her thinking I was going to be able put time between her and myself in an attempt to discourage her from chasing me down.
The run course consisted of two laps, each totaling approximately 13.1 miles. The first 4 miles were a gradual incline. At mile 3, I was in position to pass a fellow female competitor whom had passed me on the bike. I thought I was doing well until mile 4 which was the start of the first huge climb! My stomach was feeling off at the start of the run but at this point it felt like a battle field in my stomach. I knew I was in trouble when Katharina put a move on me and passed me and kept increasing her lead all the way up the hill. This was also the only section of the run that I walked for about 90 seconds to get my legs to come back to life after such a demanding bike ride before. I truly believe the reason I walked was because the girl Katharina and I were gaining on would walk for a few seconds at each aid station located at every mile and then start running still managing to stay ahead of me. By mile eight, I got my third wind of the day and I felt like a new person! At each aid station I would grab two sponges and place them in my bra and keep them there until the next station. Upon arrival at the next aid station, I would replace my now completely dry sponges for new ice cold ones. With no shade and a ninety one degree temperature I also drank as much water and Gatorade as I could manage while still running, I also disciplined myself to down at least half a Gu each mile. Only one female passed me on the run that had not passed me on the bike and by the half way point on the run I had managed to catch every girl ahead of myself including Katharina except for two amateur women. I was still nervous that Katharina would somehow come blazing by me out of nowhere. At approximately mile 22 the course entered a cul-de-sac and run into the Elks club parking lot where we looped back and exited the same way we entered. This was when Katharina was coming into this loop as I was exiting and I knew that Katharina was about 2 minutes back this gave me incentive to kick it into another gear. I was running as fast as my legs would allow just praying to God that they would continue without cramping for another 4 miles and not give out on me. I wasn’t sure how my body would handle the stress since I had never pushed myself to this degree before in my life. By mile 24 I passed yet another amateur women and I knew for the first time that I was well on my way to qualifying for Worlds! When I ran down the main street to the finishing chute and had all the spectators cheering for me I was as high as a kite as this was the best feeling in the world. When I crossed the finish line with at time of 10:46:44, an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment, excitement, adrenalin, joy, shock, etc. rushed into my veins. Finally, a race that went smoothly and I could be extremely proud of (no flats, no bike malfunctions, and no crashes)! It was such a powerful moment!!! I did it, I finished my first Ironman, my first marathon, and now I was going to KONA, HELL YEAH!!!!
The volunteers at this race were phenomenal and made it a glorious experience. Right after I finished my legs did start to give out so I was helped to the massage table were my masseuse could barely touch me because I was so sore all over especially my legs.
The next day was the awards ceremony where I was announced the 24 and under St. George champion and a Kona qualifier. This was also when the male first and second place champions in my age group informed me that I beat the first place male (24 and under) time by over 24 minutes! I ended up being the second place female amateur and placed seventh overall when including the professional women!
Again, I want to thank Wheat Ridge Cyclery for supporting me and believing in me to achieve this feat! I also want to thank my father Dan Kehoe who has been one of my number one supporters all my life. He traveled with me to the race and we had a blast exploring the race course together. Race day he was at every point possible on the race course to cheer me on and give me race split and distances between my competition. I love you Dad! I want to thank God for doing the race next to me. Anytime, I was feeling down I would just pray to him for strength, courage and stamina, which he constantly provided me with. Thank you to LifeQuest for letting me to take the time off from work. The LQ solders also were so supportive and I have gained so much courage from seeing what one can overcome. Finally, I want to thank all my family, EPC teammates and friends who cheered for me from their homes and prayed for me. I know this was important and helped me feel this positive energy the entire race especially the last four miles of the run!
