"Only those who will risk going too far . . ."

This has been a life-long dream for me, and I would like to thank the following people without whom it wouldn't have been possible:

Juli for being my inspiration.
Elise and Chloe for being my motivation.
John and Michelle and Mom for motivation again.
Coach. Seriously. Who knows how much time and energy he devoted to preparing me.
Dan who got me into cycling finally.
Team Pink who started it all.

Pre-Race:
Breakfast of ~1200 calories at 4:30 (2 ensures, 2 chocolates milks, a waffle, some eggs, and some Gatorade). I got to the great lawn at check in time at 5. Dropped my transition bags, lubed my bike, and was off to the swim start. It was a 15 minute walk, and when we got to the dock there were already hundreds of people in line. Got to rest and visualize for 90 minutes.

Swim 2.4 miles:
The swim start was a time trial, and not a traditional mass start. My plan was to get in early, find someone swimming faster than me, and draft off them for as long as I could, then repeat. Unfortunately, no one passed me during the entire swim--my speed is a curse. The channel was pretty packed (i.e. swimming over some people) until the turn around, then we were in the body of the Ohio river and there was lots of room. I added some time to my swim due to my inability to swim straight, but that is normal for open water swimming. The river was fine to swim in--not dirtier than some lakes I've raced in. And the current wasn't strong at all. I settled into a nice comfortable pace early on and kept telling myself not to go too fast. Coach's last words of advice were to not push it on the swim.
Swim time: 1:03:18

T1:
Coming out of the river was great. The crowd was enormous and noisy. It was a lot of fun. The great lawn was amazing. Right on the bank of the river, ironman flags and tents and inflatable arches everywhere. I got my bike, saw my girls cheering, and was off.
T1 time 3:31

Bike 112 miles:
My plan was to go 27 miles easy, 27 miles moderate, push miles 54-84, and hold the pace for the downhill 28 miles. I went easy for the first 25 miles or so, and found myself riding with some strong cyclists--I wanted to stay with them and kicked my pace up to a strong steady effort (sub lactate threshold, but harder than moderate). I basically held on to this pace for the rest of the ride. The ride was nonstop rolling hills, some of which were very large. They were relentless. But the hardest part of the ride was the wind--very strong gusts. Again, relentless. I saw the girls at mile 38 and 64 which was awesome. At mile 80 my quads were screaming--I had overexerted myself. Mile 80-90 was a grindfest. I told myself to ease up, hit the nutrition, and save whatever I had for the run. That helped as miles 90 to the finish were actually pretty good (the downhill grade helped as well).
Bike time 5:29:26 (20.40 mi/hr ave)

T2:
It felt pretty awesome to be off the bike. The crowd was amazing again. And I'm off. T2 time 5:25

Run 26.2 miles:
It was 92 degrees and humid. Heat index of 98 degrees.
I wanted to hold 8:30 min/miles for the first half then pick it up at mile 13 if I were feeling good (oh man, that makes me laugh in retrospect). That plan quickly degenerated to trying to complete four 6 mile runs at 8:30 pace with absolutely no thought whatsoever of going faster. The first 12 miles actually went really well. I was feeling good and keeping a good pace. The pain started at mile 17 which is when I crossed the line (that is ironman talk for hitting the wall). This was a pretty dark time of the run. It took all my will to continue to run through the pain (and I actually had to stop and walk a couple of times between miles 17-18, which infuriated me). At mile 18, I drank 8 oz of chicken broth to get some sodium and by mile 20 I was actually feeling really good. Mile 20 is also the last turn around, and all I had to do was run back into town. From 20-21 I picked up the pace and probably ran ~8:45 mile or so, thinking all the while of my awesome time. Then at mile 21 it happened: my diaphragm cramped up severely. Apparently my body was done. My diaphragm hurt so exquisitely that I could not breathe and I quickly slowed to a walk. Even walking did not alleviate the pain to any degree. I was also tingling in my lips and fingertips, and a couple of times started to get dizzy, but kept on walking. I tried to start running again every few minutes to no avail. Eventually I sat down hoping to get rid of the cramp with a few minutes rest (since even walking was aggravating it), but that didn't work either. I eventually just resigned myself to walking in. I tried to start running again at each mile marker, but by mile 23 my legs had entirely cramped up making running impossible. Anyway, I walked to the finish frustratedly watching my sub 11 hour performance tick away. One can view my run splits degenerate from 8:20 miles to 9, then 10, then 15! I started running (it was actually kind of a death-shuffle) at mile 26 and forgot about the 0.2 remaining miles, but oxygen or no oxygen I had to finish it running. Running down the finishing chute was one of the more amazing experiences of my life--completely indescribable.
Run time 4:35:25

Total Time: 11:17:03

Overall place 170
Age division 19/166

Impression: I was very pleased with my performance. I had some nutritional issues, without which I might have finished about 30 minutes faster. But Ironman is a cruel mistress, and given my first-time status, and the conditions of the race, I definitely did the best I could. I consider it a special experience to have pushed myself far beyond my physical limit (next time I just need to increase that limit). As Hemingway would say, the Ironman broke me, but did not defeat me.

It was awesome.