Ironman World Championship Kona Race Report (6 weeks after breaking collarbone)

I qualified for this race doing Iron Man Lake Placid on July 23, 2023. I was excited to finally do the Ironman World Championships after doing my first Ironman for 17 years ago! It was a little daunting to jump back into training after just doing an Ironman but I knew I had a big race ahead of me. I started to build back to the longer training volume and had a long ride on August 31st, which ended up in the emergency room. I had crashed on my bike, descending Deer Creek Canyon, after hitting a patch of gravel on a curve. As always, things seem to happen in slow motion and I thought I had recovered but I ended up hitting a guard rail. I went down on my left side and the shoulder seem to take everything. Luckily a good samaritan picked me up on the side of the road and drove me home so that I could get my car and drive myself to the ER (my husband knew nothing about this… it was his birthday and he had a mountain bike ride planned that I didn’t want to ruin for him). Once in the ER, they did an x-ray and confirmed that my collarbone was broken. And not just broken… It was broken in several places. Luckily a friend got me in touch with an incredible surgeon ASAP. I met with the surgeon later that day and he scheduled surgery for the next morning (also happened to be my birthday… Happy birthday to me). The surgery went well and I started the recovery process. My surgeon knew that I wanted to do this race, assuming my body was ready. He told me if it was a simple break, there probably would be no question, but since it broke in multiple places, the chances were not high. I gradually started to ride on the trainer and then started to ride my triathlon bike on the trainer, which made me feel optimistic. Pain was never significant, which also made me feel optimistic. I truly believe my optimism is what helped my body to heal so quickly. At my surgical follow ups, everything was looking good so my surgeon said I could go for it! There was only one little glitch in that there was one spot on my incision that had opened up and so I need to be cautious about the swim. I boarded the plane feeling good about things because it looked like the hole was closing up. But once I got to Hawaii, I noticed that it was not sealed and it was oozing a bit (Sorry… gross). My amazing surgeon called me about it and he said obviously no swimming. I needed to skip the 2.4 mile training swim, which was my main reason for flying out as early as I did. I was sad and pretty deflated to be missing out on that. That was the lowest, mentally and emotionally, I have been since the surgery. With further conversations with my surgeon, we discovered that the stitch was the problem and we need to take it out. My good friend Tracy was up for the challenge and so she actually pulled it out for me! That was on the Monday before the race and the surgeon felt like there was enough time for it to heal, now that the stitch was removed. I watched it every single day still did not swim. Many things got me through that week, my surgeon, my amazing Cupcake Cartel teammates, my husband and son and again having a positive mindset. On Sunday I was telling my friends they would be racing but on Monday, I was back to we would be racing. In the meantime I enjoyed all the Kona things like the Underpants Run and a special photo shoot with my Cupcake Cartel teammates. By Thursday the incision hole was looking pretty darn good. I sent a photo to the surgeon and he said it looked great so put that skin glue on. I was able to do a practice swim for about 15 minutes on Friday! I could definitely feel the swells and the waves of the ocean but I felt a lot better going into the race, knowing I had at least gotten a few minutes in the water. I was excited to make that race happen and I realize a lot of it was because I just missed doing the sports that I loved.

Woke up easily on race day morning, since I really hadn’t transitioned to Hawaii time. It was fun to have Magnus and Klavs going to the race with me because they had VIP tickets. Everything went pretty smoothly once I got to the pier, dropped my personal needs bags, put nutrition on my bike (UCAN, Skratch High Carb, Clif Bloks with extra sodium, Salt Stick, Super Sport aminos and caffeine gummies) and was ready to get in my swim corral. I realized I needed to hit the portapotty one last time and the line was pretty long. I waited, got business done and then headed towards my swim wave, which included all 55-59 ladies. Some are calling this a mass start but as someone who did Ironman when it was truly a mass start, starting with just your age group is nothing like a mass start. We were scheduled to go off at 6:50 which was 30 minutes after the pros. My friends Courtney and Tracy were waiting for me wondering, where I was but I got there just in time. I had clear earplugs for the first time, and I actually dropped one, which freaked me out a bit that because I never swim without earplugs. Plus, they help with equilibrium in a choppy swim. Thankfully again, Tracy saves the day! She found my ear plug on the ground where we were talking. Now I said to myself that everything is truly lined up for me to have a good day. They announce it’s time for our wave to start so we all walk down the stairs off the pier and get into the water. It about a 250-meter swim up to the kayakers. Then we wait for the wave start. As I was swimming out to the start, I saw paddle boarder and I thought we had a lot of time so I stopped and chatted with her and took a little break. Little did I know we were ready to start. All of a sudden, the gun went off and I’m like OK I guess I’ll start my Garmin and start swimming. I had to swim up to the start line behind everyone but that was okay because my plan was to stay out of the fray of other swimmers to protect my collarbone. I stayed to the far left, which is away from the buoys and that actually helped to because my broken collarbone is on the left side. I felt really comfortable with that. I focused on breathing to my left side, which is the opposite of what I typically do in an open water swim, but it actually felt comfortable. It was so beautiful and I was actually enjoying the swim! As we got to the turnaround boat, it got a bit more congested, but I stayed left far enough that a kayaker was concerned that I was going off course. I continued to stick to the plan. I noticed the different color caps, as the fast swimmers from the waves behind me were coming upon me, and each time that would happen I would just take a little break let them go. As I got closer to the pier, It seemed like it took a long time to get to the steps but when I did, I was beyond elated! I climbed up the pier and saw Magnus and Klavs, which was amazing! I put my hands in the air and I yelled I did it! I pretty much felt I had won because I came out of that swim! I didn’t know it (I never want placement info at the end of any swim… it’s never good), but I was 4th from last in my AG but I would not have cared… I finished!

 Transition was long coming out of the swim, and I made sure that I hosed off all the salt inside my tri-suit to avoid any chafing. Got my bike and lightly jogged out of the transition. The bike is my favorite part so I was excited to get started. I saw Klavs and Magnus again, which was a big lift to my spirits. We did a little loop through town and there were lots of spectators which was super fun. We then we climbed Palani and went out onto the Queen K Highway. I wasn’t sure how the winds were going to feel but it actually felt like we had a tail end as we were heading out of town. I was feeling really good and was tempted to just ride through the bike aid stations, as I usually do, but I have made a plan to stop at every aid station, get off my bike to protect my collarbone and not risk falling down. I went ahead with that, and it was actually pretty nice because at the first aid station there was a really sweet young man that helped open my water bottles and put some ice in to cool my nutrition. I also made sure that I dumped water on my body to try and keep myself cool. We then continued on the queen K for a long time. My biggest error was getting fluid in the bento box baggies with the Salt Stick, amino acid capsules and caffeine gummies. I got in all the amounts through hour 5 but was low on caffeine because the gummies disintegrated. The best part of the bike was the camaraderie among the women. As a slow swimmer and decent cyclist, I tend to pass a lot of people on the bike. I always cheer for people as I pass them (maybe a bit more excitedly in the beginning) but in this race more women responded to me. Once we turned to start the climb to Hawi (I say climb but to a Coloradan, it’s not much of a climb), we hit a pretty strong headwind. I just put my head down and kept going. I needed to stop and mix another bottle with UCAN so decided to stop at the aid station at the top. Again, I knew this was slowing me down but remembered my goal was to stay safe. I put UCAN powder and water in one bottle and then just put the Skratch High Carb powder in another bottle, with the intent to fill at a later aid station. I cruised through special needs because I didn’t need anything, but in hindsight I could have grabbed more of my amino acid and salt capsules with the caffeine gummies. We descended down Hawi in a tailwind which was super fun. I got up to 33 mph, which was great after the crash. Nothing like racing to get past the PTSD of crashing while descending! I stopped at the next aid station and added more water to my UCAN bottle thinking it was the Skratch bottle. I never drank the last bottle of Skratch, which was okay because I built my race plan for worst scenario and I was going to finish well ahead of that. The grind back on the Queen K is where it gets hot and long. I was just counting down the miles and continued to stop at each aid station to get water and cool myself down. It was super fun when we got closer to town and I could see runners coming out on the Queen K. They were all so fast and it gave me a lift. I turned to descend down Palani and then it was into T2. I saw my boys again and was happy to get off that bike. I was not overly excited to start running and was concerned about the lack of run training but I was here to do this so just focused on what I needed to do in T2. I passed 76 women in my age group on the bike… not bad for all the breaks I took!

 When I was in T2, I took my time to make sure that my socks and shoes were on properly because I didn’t want to end up with blisters on my feet (I’ll get to that later). As I was leaving, I thought how am I going to run? Because of the surgery, my run training was very limited with the longest run since Ironman Lake Placid at 8-9 miles. My body just didn’t feel ready to take on a marathon. Luckily, there’s an amazing crowd as you exit T2 so that helped me to pick up my feet and start running. I took a UCAN Edge to give me a boost. I ran down Ali’i Drive, which I had done on my practice runs, but now with the crowds, it was incredible! All the athletes were running, which pushed me to keep running. There were spectators hosing us down and volunteers poured water on me at aid stations. In the end, probably not the best idea because my shoes were drenched and my feet did not like that. I stayed on plan with my salt stick and amino acid capsules, taking each, every 30 minutes. I was definitely looking forward to my caffeine gummies for some extra energy. Caffeine really is magical, isn’t it?! Once I got to the hill on Palani, I saw Cupcake friends and Klavs and Magnus, which helped me get up that hill. I race hike the hills vs run and it’s surprising how it doesn’t slow things down much and conserves energy. After that it’s a long grind on the Queen K Highway. It’s shocking how far out it looks before the turn in the Energy Lab. I looked at my watch and calculated that it wouldn’t be too much longer until the sunset, which means it would feel cooler. My feet really started to hurt at this point. This was a bit better than Lake Placid, because my feet were hurting right at the start of that run but it definitely makes it harder to keep running. This is also the point I saw other athletes suffering with GI distress. Many were throwing up or holding their stomachs. I was happy that I had no GI issues. In the heat, it’s more common to have GI issues as blood flow is shunted away from the GI tract and towards the skin to help cool the body. This makes it harder to digest and I see many athletes trying to force too many carbs in the heat. The sun was a big ball of fire as I turned to the west and ran into the Energy Lab. That was actually kind of blinding but at least we were running downhill. Once it got dark, I pulled out my small LED light, but the only place I could hook it was on my jog bra, and it didn’t really aim towards the ground right in front of me. I was a bit concerned about falling down, but just tried to be careful. I race-hiked up the climb out of the Energy Lab, alternating with some running. I continued this as I worked my way back on the Queen K towards town. Walking and running affect my feet differently so it was a nice change to the pain. The walk breaks allowed me to recover a bit more so I could hit a decent pace when I ran but my feet were still just killing me. My socks were wet and the skin on the bottom of my feet was on fire. With 4 miles left it seemed like an eternity. I just kept thinking to myself walk at this cone, run at that cone, and continued to do that. As long as my average mile pace was in the 11-minute mile range I was okay. I finally got to the turn in town and ran down Palani. My quads were on fire but I told myself to keep running since it’s downhill and take the advantage of gravity. At the bottom there is one mile until the finish line with a ton of spectators but it’s still another mile. I could not wait to get to the turn on Ali’i Drive. When I finally got there, I told myself to run this in, but also soak up that finish line. I was in tears and in shock that I was able to do this. I took my time on that red carpet and really focused on celebrating that moment. Klavs and Magnus were right there to give me my finishing lei and it was so incredible to see them! The finish line catcher was asking me if I was okay… I was not really, but okay enough. I was just so grateful and happy that I had this moment. I ended up passing another 41 women in my age group on the run and finished in 106th place out of 224. Pretty happy to be better than 50th percentile in a world championship, considering the broken collarbone just 6 weeks prior. The run is always mentally hard, but this one was harder and I had to battle my mind with every step. I thought to myself this can be the last time I have to push myself through a marathon in an Ironman, but the mind forgets pretty quickly so who knows?!