Ellen Ainsley... You are Ironman

My body is broken and sore and I feel like an Ironman hit me... guess it did!

On a day that saw race favourites falter at Subaru Ironman Canada and weather that included rain, hail and wind, we saw some surprises in the results here in Penticton. Some of the pros didn't finish.

SWIM

The day started out great. Despite the fact that I hadn't swam for five months, I still managed to pull out a 1:28 on the swim. That's faster than a couple of previous Ironman swims of mine, so my new philosophy is to not train in the pool - only problem with that is that my arms get sore when I swim long distances. I went off course quite a few times on the final leg and that slowed me down. All of a sudden, after only 5 strokes, I was headed towards the kayaks. I need to lift my head and sight more often. When I got out of the water and saw my time, that's when I thought "this is going to be a great day".

BIKE

The bike started off good; not a lot of wind, and sunny. 2:26 into the ride, at the bottom of Richter's Pass, I wasted valuable time waiting at a porta-pottie - 10 whole minutes! If I had known that in advance I would have stopped in the ditch, as I did several times later on. I'm not waiting in line to do what Mother Nature intended me to do, not to mention wasting valuable time when I could be farther along on the course. It may not sound like a lot, but when you add up all the time I could have spent in lines, it adds up. That's why I chose the ditch route.

The out and back section at Keremeos was wicked. There were gale force winds at our face and the wind seemed to turn when I turned because I seemed to have a head wind coming back too. The start of Yellow Lake climb wasn't too fun either. It started raining and it was cold, but that soon subsided. Riding down the other side was fun - I got up to 70 kph before I decided to touch my brakes. Some guy passed me like I was standing still. The traffic was moving very slow and we were passing vehicles. What a great feeling - moving faster than a car. Finally, up in the distance, Penticton - what a sight for sore eyes. The down hill was great. One lane was closed to traffic and it was smooth sailing. But man oh man! The wind coming down main steet was terrible. It almost blew me off my bike. I was joking that we might have a nice tail wind on the way out on the run, but the wind died down.

RUN

My run started out fantastic. I was on pace to reach my goal of 4:45. I was running slowly, but steady - just what I planned, and my legs felt great. Every time I reached a mile marker I looked at my pace band and I was four or five minutes ahead of pace. Maybe I'll be able to do this in 4:30. That would be fantastic. By the half way point things turned quickly. I was only one minute ahead of pace and my legs were so sore I could barely pick them up, so I walked quite a bit. I couldn't stomach the Smarties in my special needs bag. In retrospect, maybe I should have slowed down a tiny bit going out, but it's hard to tell because my legs always get sore after a long run. My pace band was based on a marathon alone, not a marathon after a 180km bike ride. Then it dawned on me that stretching would help. I stretched at every aid station. I started running again, but slower than on my way out. The upside is that I didn't get dehydrated, and at least I was able to run.

About five volunteers at various places along the run course asked me if I was OK. I was wobbling. I usually wobble when my legs feel like they've been smashed with a two by four.

My finishing time was 14:51:01. It wasn't what I was hoping for, but I am still a FINISHER. I didn't give up through all the challenges of the day. Giving up is not an option. Anybody that knows me knows that I'm not a quitter. That's the sign of a true champion. I have learned to not make a goal with an Ironman race. Anything can happen to throw that notion out the window - whether it be weather, sore knees and legs, hypothermia, heat exhaustion, flat tires, or dehydration.

The awards banquet was on Monday night and I didn't feel one iota of guilt taking advantage of the disability placard in the window of my parents' vehicle. I feel disabled! Note the tense. I have a case of DONS. That's an acronym that stands for Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness and it's getting worse. After dinner I entered a draw for free entry into Ironman Canada 2011 and five nights in the Penticton Lakeside Resort, which couldn't be a better location as it's at the race site, and that means I could sleep in until at least 4:30 am. Maybe I'll fail the skill testing question! I can only hope, since I wasn't planning on doing another Ironman for a few years and it wasn't going to be in Canada, but I couldn't walk by the entry kiosk without entering. "Why", you ask, "would you torture your body like that over and over again?" The answer: Because I can.

Tomorrow morning we leave to go back home and I'm going to make a pit stop at a mountain stream somewhere along the way so I can soak my legs. It helps unbelievably with the sorenes.

I got no sleep at all last night. It hurts to roll over.

Signing off - Ellen "Ironman" Ainsley. Til next time.