6 Weeks Until IM Louisville

This is my blog, so I can say what I want, hehe.  So sorry if this comes across very snotty.  First things first.  I have to start out by saying that it drives me bonkers when I tell someone I'm doing a full Ironman and their response is, "Oh, I signed up for that Wipeout race (or glowstick run, or bubble run OR WHATEVER)."  I'm pretty sure they can tell I've tuned out of the conversation after that.  It also amazes me at the few people that actually know what an Ironman is.  Many think it's a marathon and can be used interchangeably.  Let me clear the air.  An Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and then a 26.2 mile run.  Yes, all in the same day.  To be exact, we are starting at 7:30am and have to be finished by midnight or we get a big fat DNF - did not finish.  Ouch.  So basically, we have 16.5 hours to complete this race.  But it gets a little fuzzier than that.  The Louisville IM uses a rolling start instead of a mass start, so roughly 2 people start at a time.  So, depending on where you are in the starting line can determine how much time you actually have to finish that day.  They say they can get everyone in the water in 45 min.  So the last person to get in the water only has 15:45 to finish on time.  Needless to say, I will get my happy butt up as close to the front as I possibly can!  I need as close to 16.5 hours as I can get!

Training has been getting real lately.  We basically have 1 day off a week.  The hardest part was getting used to being completely fatigued from the workout the day before, and knowing you have to do a workout that day, and the next day, etc. no matter how you were feeling!  We know how important rest is, as well as nutrition.  We signed up for this IM a year ago in August.  We have basically been training since January.  It is a lot of work.  And there are summer vacations, and illnesses, and family matters, and wrecks (more on that later) that get in the way.

A typical month of training.  September will be our hardest month before tapering.

About a month ago Cori got in a wreck while crossing some wonky railroad tracks.  Poor girl got a concussion and was out of training for a week.  It was scary for us all.  Fast forward to last week.  5 of us head out for our first century ride (100 miles).  One of the girls started to go off the edge of the road and overcorrected into me and it was basically a domino effect.  I like how she says it best, "I ate shit and took down all my friends with me."  It was pretty horrible, and very scary.  But we were so lucky there wasn't any traffic going either direction or that crash site would have looked a whole lot worse.  When the wreck happened we were in a formation like the dots on the 5 side of a die.  Basically, girl #1 overcorrected into girl #2.  Then girl #3 ran straight into girl #1's bike and she crashed.  Then girl #4 actually ran over girl #1's body and then she crashed.  Girl #5 was lucky enough to avoid it all.  Poor girl #1 ended up with the most injuries.  She had some really nasty road rash, but worst of all she broke her collar bone in 2 places and fractured it in 3 places.  She had surgery this morning.  Cori hit her head again, but luckily it wasn't that bad this time.  Jen got a mild concussion and we all got nasty cuts and bruises.  It shook us all up.  A lot.  My hip got bruised pretty badly.  I was lucky on the road rash, barely had any.  But my ribs are still hurting me pretty badly.  I got them x-ray'd and nothing is broken, but OMG if I move wrong, breathe too deep, sneeze, blow my nose, laugh, hiccup, yell... IT HURTS!  Pretty sure I tore some of the muscle away from the rib bone and the nerves are getting pinched.

My hip a couple of days after the wreck.  It still has a huge knot on it but doesn't bother me anymore.

Bad news is there is a possibility it will still be hurting on race day.  I've had people ask me if I'm still going to do the Ironman.  Remember how much work I said this was?  And I didn't mention the cost, but the time and commitment alone are insane.  There is no way I would stop training.  Even if that means my ribs don't get to start healing until October 12th, those are just the cards I was dealt, and I will get through this.  Once a person truly commits themselves to something this big, it is just devastating to think they can't compete that day.  There is a chance I won't finish on time that day, but God willing, I will give it all I have.