RACE REPORTPART3: PRE-RACE THIS 'N THAT

listen up, people. this is important shit
next up was the athletes' meeting. if i hadn't stated it already, let me say right now how incredibly organized this race was. i can't compare it to any other Ironman, but it was certainly more organized than many halves i've done in The States, perhaps because of the international profile, something like 43 countries i think. the athlete's meeting was offered in 4 different languages throughout the day and for several days before race day. for anyone who's never done an Ironman, and actually for anyone who has, i would recommend that you NOT MISS THE MEETING. you may THINK you know everything there is to know about the race, but it never hurts to review it one last time live and in person. for one, there may be last minute changes, and those would be announced at the meeting. the special needs bags may not be exactly halfway on the course where you expect. this is all up to the race directors at each individual race, and it's best that you know where it's going to be so you can plan to carry more or less with you until you expect to reach that point of the day. also, the cutoff times may be different than the standard Mdot times that we've all read about. at Brasil, the swim cutoff is 2:40 only because so many people would come out within just a minute or two and they felt the need to push it back by 10 minutes. they boasted how nobody has ever not made the swim cutoff at IM Brasil. i was expecting to swim between a 1:15 and a 1:20, so i didn't think that was gonna be a concern for me. at each race, there may be additional cutoffs within the 3 events. i recall from sitting in on the IMAZ athletes' meeting that if you hadn't made it to the far end of the 3rd loop on the bike, you could not even proceed back to t2. same thing for the run. Brasil didn't have any of this as it was a 2 loop bike and a 3 loop run. you simply had to make it all the way back to transition in the time alloted. also different from IMAZ where participants had two shots at their run special needs, as they passed it twice, we would only have access to our run special needs bag after the first and longer half marathon length loop of the run even though we would pass special needs again. this was something to consider. i had planned to put a long sleeve tech tee in my run special needs bag, but it would still be warm and light out when i passed special needs the first time, so what was the point? there was NO WAY i was gonna wrap it around my waste for a few more hours in case i needed it. that woulda just driven me crazy. at saturday's bike and bag drop off, the bike was to have nothing on it except for shoes attached to pedals if we opted to, and we would have no access to bags on race morning. ok, this was good to know. how was i supposed to store my extra bottle of Perpetuem that were supposed to go in my bike jersey if they needed to be refrigerated over night and i couldn't drop them in my bike bag in the morning?? change of plans. i now had to tape the extra two that were going in my jersey onto the bike frame on race morning and then rip them off and put them in my jersey pocket as i hopped on the bike. SO YOU SEE?????? all this stuff was made clear at the athlete's meeting, but most importantly, we learned that the Kona roll down was monday at 9am SHARP. last year, both the male and female winners were stuck in traffic and their slots went first. THEY BOTH LOST THEM. lesson learned, Ironman waits for nobody. Oliver turned to me and gave me a look so serious that i could only have one response:

"WE'LL SET 3 ALARMS."

then back to the room with all the bags of crap. i couldn't deal with them just then. i had two more days anyhow. now, it was time to ride THE FUCKER and do a final mechanical check including changing out to new tubes and brand new race tires and give the tread a bit of wear. yeah, cuz putting on new tires is SO FUN AND EASY!!! i had waited until now because my race tire was wearing unevenly in ONE SPOT due to the rim on my race wheel expanding and the brake catching in the same ONE SPOT which caused a BLOWOUT (more on that later) just a week before on a downhill during a training ride.

this time, Oli and i headed out separately to do our own checks and ride at our own intensity. i wanted to be so careful after what had happened to our fellow hotel guest, Carlos. i kept it mellow heading out to the more rural section of town where the roads were really smooth. everything felt good, and i was easily holding 18-19 mph on the flats as i passed scores of other riders and groups of riders all doing the same, but i knew i had to test the cassette on a hill, THE MOTHER SHITTER HILLS, so i headed back towards the center of town. heading up i felt nervous as i started up the first and least steep of the two hills. there was a serious crew of pro looking dudes running up the other side. they were nearly running faster than i could actually mash up on the two wheeler, and the last thing i wanted to do was UNCLIP in front of them. here i was, all the way in Brasil and still worrying about what other people were thinking!! JAYSUS!!! but sure enough, i barely beat 'em to the top. still about 150 yards up was the shorter but way steeper hill. i mashed and mashed and can't recall my cadence dropping to like 3 EVAH before, but i'll be damned if THE FUCKER and i didn't crest to the top with everything we had like it was L'Alpe D'Huez or somethin'...

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

back to the hotel where i promptly went to inquire what mechanic Fernando's favorite beer was, and i went and bought him a six pack. that guy resurrected my FUCKER!!!

next day was a free day as our scheduled beach tour of the other side of the island was canceled due to not enough sign ups. we took it as a relief. i was becoming anxious about all THE BAGS and wanted to focus on those and THE LIST/SCREENPLAY. so instead of our beach tour, i went for my last 5 mile run, this time over the same mother shitter hills i would encounter on race day. i kept a nice clip and then forced myself to walk the steepest portions both uphill and down. right after, i got to squeeze in a pre-race "massage" just before we headed to the athlete's pasta dinner that evening. i use the word "massage" very loosely because it was, well, LOOSE. i had met the couple who were doing the massage therapy a few days prior, and i got the husband. i suppose it was somewhat my fault too because i took every opportunity to practice my Portuguese wherever i could, but maybe i shoulda kept it zipped on the table. i yapped and yapped as we discussed politics (they all LOVE OBAMA in Brasil!!!), culture, family, you name it. all the while he was kinda just grabbing at my skin and giving it a bit of a pinch, not even really getting deep enough to the muscles, and at one point i even got what i refer to as the "Jack Lalanne Chop Down" except it wasn't down my back as you would expect but instead DOWN THE FRONT OF MY THIGHS!!! WTF???? man that is not a good look for '08. nobody wants to see that shit wiggle. who's to say if it didn't do something. i suppose if i'd gotten the massage i'm used to just two days before Ironman, i'd be in a heap o' pain, so i'll just chalk it up as a $45 Portuguese lesson with extra wiggle.

next up, THE ATHLETE'S DINNER!!!

pick your flag...


let's EAT!!!
as we all began to trickle into the indoor arena where they staged the athlete's dinner, it became very clear how different this experience was going to be from a North American Ironman experience. it was similar to my experience traveling to Switzerland to compete at Worlds which was like the mini Olympics for triathlon. 43 countries represented here in Brasil. 43 COUNTRIES!!! who knew there were so many people in this world who love this crazy sport??? at my table alone sat a Brit (Oli), a gentleman from Venezuela, and a Brasilian man from Sao Paulo with his wife and son. all but Oli were doing their first Ironman. coolest part was that i spoke all their languages!! i could communicate with each one of them!!!


CARB UP!!
the food was the best we'd had up to this point. pastas galore, plenty of grilled chicken for protein, breads, and a whole boat of fruit so we could steal bananas for back at the hotel!!!!


LEAVE NO CARB BEHIND!!
this was really the last opportunity to pack in the big calories and carbs, and up until then, i'd been eating pretty Paleo and light, so these carbs were sure to stick!!! oh my god, i was SO.FULL. but not to fear. as much as i wanted to stumble out of there in a sweet food coma, there was DANCIN' TO BE DONE!!!


GET UR SAMBA ON!!!!
next up, were the Samba/Batucada performers!!! oh man, this was a sight to see. first, the Samba troop of percussionists trailed like a snake through the room calling our asses out of our chairs and gettin' us movin' to the rhythm!!! this rhythm was infectious, and the frenzy grew within the crowd!!


shake it don't break it...
next came the dancers from all corners of the room, and it wasn't just a show for the men. these women had it goin' on, and again, this country just has a way of celebrating the human body that isn't about degrading women or unleashing a repressed sexual taboo of some sort. we danced and danced, and the Samba troop lifted to a crescendo of one song that the entire room knew the words to. i wished i knew what they were singing about, but i knew that whatever it was, it was all good. what a way to celebrate, what a way to call the spirits up and inspire us for what was to come in 2 days!!!

back to our hotel for a good night's sleep. this was the night to get that good sleep as typically, Saturday night is all about tossing and turning and wondering if you still may have forgotten something. i woke up Saturday with a little more intensity. we got up and headed down to the swim start to hopefully get a swim in with the race buoys out, but alas, they were still on the beach, so we headed out in a different direction than we had before, towards this point at the end of the beach. i saw a few jellyfish here and there, but nothing too menacing, so we kept going around the point. i kept up with Oli pretty well, and it was kinda nice to be pulled a little bit, but neither of us were interested in pushing it at all on the eve of the race. we stopped before we headed back and looked up on land to discover this beautiful fortress overlooking the cove. there were what appeared to be tourists walking along the paths of the perimeters. had we not swam this way, we'd have never known about the fort. you couldn't see it from the expo village or the main beach, so we promised that after the race we'd figure out how to get to it. i wanted to get back to the room, as i still had the bags to do and then get to bike drop off.


so many bags, so little time...
again, i gotta say, don't even go into Ironman week without having your bags figured out ahead of time to some extent. and even though i did have my plan all written out, and all i had to do was fill them with what i said i wanted in each one, i still stood in front of them empty like this all stunned for about an hour. now imagine if i hadn't had a plan already?? if i didn't know what was going in each one and had to figure it out on the fly?? OH.HELL.NO. as i filled the bags, i started to visualize the race, a successful race filled with highs and lows and how i would push through the rough patches. i listened to my inspirational playlist on the ipod filled with inspiring songs i planned to sing over and over to myself all through race day. so finally, i came up with this...


i will want for nothing!!!
this, ladies and gents, is a friggin' buffet of everything i could ever want for on race day. food, sunscreen, more food, more sunscreen, chammy butters, powder drink mixes with more calories, more chammy butters, suprise sugary and caffeine treats, extra dry socks, extra co2 and tubes, extra extra etxra!!!

this part of the day was where Oli and i became a little more quiet, a little more insulated in our own plans and routines. his plan was to eat his last big meal no later than 1:00. then after that it was no more fiber and his last light meal by no later than 4:30-5:00. after that, and for breakfast the next morning, it was ALL LIQUID with Ensure. he was bummed that dinner wasn't opening at the hotel 'til 5:30, but he just rolled with it. me, i wasn't so concerned with the fiber or eating so early, and the next morning i'd be having an early breakfast of oatmeal that would have time to digest and later a banana, a croissant with jelly, and Gatorade Endurance. this guy's goal was to not have to stop and shit and go sub 10 hours. my goal was to eat enough calories to get through my first Ironman without bonking. there was no way i was gonna go all day without a shit...


Oli's last ritual meal...


"the legs" get one last shave...
next was bag and bike drop off. and even after all the printed instructions, the meetings, all the lists, all the prep, i still nearly made one big mistake. you're supposed to bring your "swim" bag empty to bag drop off. i thought we were supposed to drop it off on race morning with the "dry clothes" bag, but no, we were supposed to drop it off empty with all the other bags besides the dry clothes bag. DOH!!! luckily, the shuttle hadn't come yet, and i had time to run back up and grab it. i also pumped the tires up +10 psi from where i ultimately wanted them which would be perfect by race morning after siting Saturday in a little bit of warmth. i'd check them again the next morning, but if they felt firm to the touch, i'd leave them alone.


lining up for bag and bike drop off
again, i gotta say this was one well-oiled machine when it came to organization and communication at bike drop off. for some weird reason though, they made us wear our helmets through the entire process?? we were first sent to bike mechanical check. i don't know if i liked the idea of THE FUCKER being handled by another woman in this fashion, but what was i gonna say...


um, why are you touching my ride like that??


Oli and the aero-helmet militia


welcome to transition!!!

next, we were greeted by this cheery group, each one of whom spoke like 7 different languages. one would be paired up with each participant and personally escort them to their bike rack...


final farewell
... and here we are. me (helmet on like a dork) and THE FUCKER one last time before we do THE FULL MONTY (i look fat though. WTF???) the racks were like nothing i'd ever seen before. these wooden contraptions that snugly held the back wheel...


sweet dreams 'LIL FUCKER... tomorrow, WE RIDE!!!!
the instructions were that we were not to leave anything overnight on the bikes except for shoes if we opted to have them clipped on. i still saw a bunch of full setups with drinks mixed and everything, but i left THE FUCKER as instructed. tomorrow morning, i'd attach the bento box, my computer,the salt stick turbo boosters, co2 cartridges and tubes, all drink bottles and rubberband my shoes in place. i surveyed the aisles and where i'd be running out of the changing tent from and identified this marker along the corridor of transition to mark where i would turn...


look for Powerbar and cut left

next, off to drop off our bags. one last bonus from Oli was the pink vinyl tape he brought. we added it to the straps of each bag so that when there were a bunch of volunteers holding out a bunch of the same colored bags, we'd easily be able to identify ours from the others. they let us watch as they hung our bags on the racks and then we walked out the back of the tent through the changing areas.





let's not dilly dally in here tomorrow, k?

and there you have it. all set to go. except people were looking at me funny, and just then i caught up with another woman from my hotel who kindly pointed out that i still had my helmet on. DOH!!!! i tried to go back through but the well-oiled machine wasn't having it. i was told by one scruffy old security guard that i would have to go all the way back to the line at the front of transition which was now much longer. just then i found a volunteer who had better access. she said she'd put it in my bike bag for me. oh man, what a thing to obsess about all night. did the helmet make it?? would it be there tomorrow?? i had to just trust that it would...

i guess this is it now. no turning back...