My name is Taryn, and I am runner. I fancy myself a bit of a triathlete as well, and last weekend I participated in my 7th Ironman in Louisville Kentucky, which also served as my 23rd marathon. I really enjoy running marathons, they are my favorite thing, but I enjoy Ironmans immensely, too. So, I invite you to sit back, take a sip of your beverage and take in the amazingness that surrounded me in beautiful Louisville, KY last weekend...
Once again Louisville was a special place to race. This race was a little different
because I did not have anyone from my family coming out to support me, Marion
was working like crazy as always, and it was a little far for my parents to
come out, but I did have a few friends racing, so that was fun. To be honest, it was nice to just go
through the motions of race prep and not worry about keeping anyone
entertained, plus I always enjoy a little quality “T Time”, and I knew everyone
would be tuning in online, so I still felt the love.
Okay, so race morning was warm, and pleasant, but the swim
line was L to the O to the N to the G!!!
LONG!! Still, I was in the
water by 7:25ish, and rocking my new TYR Torque, which did not have the amazing
powers of my wetsuit, but was helpful nonetheless. I felt pretty good while swimming past Toe island, but once
we made the turn, I kind of felt all over the place. I did not feel any current helping us down the river, but I
felt like I was in a pretty good spot.
My swim stroke has vastly improved this year, and since the St. George
swim was more like a squall than a IM swim, I was looking forward to see how my
improved form would translate on race day, so when I looked at my watch while
climbing up the stairs of the swim exit I felt sucker punched when I saw a 1:20
on my watch, “What the F%^*?!!” I knew it was not a fast swim, but I was hoping
for a 1:10, so I just pictured my day BLOWN! This deflation in spirit explains why my T1 time was an
eternity, but I was just sorting out my thoughts, and decided to put the swim
behind me, and go crush it on the bike.
Luckily, I felt like I had all the energy in the world, and
got to work right away on River Rd.
The first 90 miles of the bike was an absolute dream, I was pushing hard
the entire way and just had to giggle to myself at how much easier this course
was compared to St. George.
However, a little bit of St. George came up to haunt me around mile 90
in the form of a nagging headwind that slowed me down a bit coming on
home. I was working towards a 5:40
split, but the last 15 miles blew that out the window, and I felt like I needed
to take into account the marathon, so I wanted to be smart and just keep a
quick cadence to spin out my legs, get in at a decent time, and move on to the
run.
I was a happy camper when I ran into T2, it could be because
there were not many women in the tent, always a good sign, but also because
running always brings me out of a funk, and my day was pretty funky thus far,
so I just wanted to go run, and luckily I had 26.2 illustrious miles just
waiting for me. As soon as I ran
out of the tent I was beaming, my legs had no remnants of the hard ride, and
just felt strong and ready to carry me for the next four-ish hours. This was my 23rd marathon,
and even though I am still fairly new at ironmans, I feel pretty confidant at
running marathons, and this one was executed nearly perfectly. My first thought was to stay conservative for the first ten miles, which I wanted to do for my
mother, I knew she was worrying, and I wanted to run smart, and not push
it hard too early. I was
methodical about what I would eat and drink at each aid station, and just
maintain my pace, which I though was a 4 hour pace, but my math was off…
Fortunately, I did not discover my mistake until mile 12, and at that point I
was pretty bummed, because it was more like 4:20pace, but than I was just
thankful that I had fooled myself up until that point, and just had to keep
clicking off the miles. Oddly
enough, I did have a new sensation overwhelm me around mile 14 – 15 that I had
never felt in a race before, sleepiness.
I blame the mere 3 hours of restless sleep I gained the night before, or
the gallons of sunscreen that had flooded my eyeballs all day, but honestly I
just wanted to curl up on the sidewalk and take a nap. Obviously, that did not happen, but I
adjusted my aid station plan and decided to start drinking coke earlier than I
planned, I was holding out for mile 20, but I grabbed it at 16 instead. I immediately woke up and I started to
pick up the pace. I am not sure if
I have ever shared this with you, Marion thinks it’s weird, but whenever I feel
in an amazing running groove, I feel really tall, and from mile 17 on I felt like
a giant. I decided to take
complete advantage of how amazing my body felt because I knew that this surge
may not last too long. Luckily, I
just kept feeling stronger and stronger as the miles clicked by, and I knew I
was taking minutes off of my pace, yay!
My original goal for the day was a sub 11 hour finish, that was not to
be, but I did see a possible sub 11:40 in my future, and my bod did not let me
down. I pushed the last couple of
miles, and ran that final half mile like the end of a cross country race, fast! I probably could have spread that out
across the entire marathon, but I thought I executed it well because my first
18 miles were controlled, which set up the last 8 miles to be the fastest of
the day.
