Melbs—Melbourne, Brissie—Brisbane—Jaimee/ Pookie, the athlete-Tez , her boyfriend.
These are her thoughts before, during and after the race.
Arrived in Melbs on Thursday, checked into the hotel, checked into the race, found this wicked vego place, 'Lentil as Anything,' where you give a donation instead of a set price. Very cool! Went to sleep but woke up every hour for some reason... Bad night's sleep no.1.
Friday, I put my bike together, cycled down to Janine's school and visited her cute little preps. Made me miss being at school a little bit... Went back to the expo and put my bike in, met up with Isla and Brian. Went to the IM carbo loading party which was pretty cool. They had two vego options, a chicken one and salad. It was different to last year, not a buffet and it was all done by around 8pm I think. Yay, I get to go to bed early... Tez drove down so met up with him around 9pm... He got some dinner, went back to hotel, sleep time... wake up at 1145pm when his mate calls him... then there's a street party or something downstairs... am awake until around 230am. Have called the police by this stage as I desperately wanted a good night's sleep!! Bad night's sleep no.2.
Saturday we drove down to Frankston. Stopped off at a Salvos so Tez could buy something to wear for his big day of supporting at IM. Haha, he finds a bright blue 80s shwish shwish (you know that material that old Okinawans wear
) tracksuit and buys some white arm bands and a matching headband. He wants us all to call him "Head Coach" on Sunday lol. Anyways, check into hotel, head to transition after racing around trying to find chemist jelly beans and some panadol to put in my transition bags. Make it just in time. Check out my bike, must be one of the only non-time trial bikes there! See Caroline Steffen!!! Get a piccie with her. Us 5 head to an Italian place for dinner, have a big bowl of spaghetti. Yummmmm. Watch some IM stuff back at Isla's place before heading back to our hotel for sleep time. 9pm yess.... 10pm I check my phone, still not asleep... Wake up almost every hour... Dammit, wish I didn't get all in my head before the race. I wasn't even too stressed really... I knew I just 'needed to get it done.' Bad night's sleep no.3.Race morning, shower, oatmeal, coffee, hot cross bun, wake Tez up, wake Tez up again, road blocked but find an easy way to get to Isla's. Walk to start, check bike, everyone seems in good spirits. Swim has changed to 1.9km. I thank all of the gods out there. STOKED as I had only done a handfull of swims in total for this event. Swim time pushed back again, now until 8:25am. Isla and I line up for 20mins+ to pee. Janine's aunty braids my hair. Yay!
Isla and I wander down to the beach being super genki "We love this!" "This is fantastic!" "Can't wait to cycle, can't wait to run... can't wait to be asleep!!" Look at the waves... omg... scary, waves coming in on an angle. Watch the pros, off they go. Our turn, I struggle to even get past the first few, Isla has my hand and is being encouraging. Off she goes and I feel like giving up! These waves and this current are too much for me. Eventually get past the pier... Oh there's some jelly blubbers in the water... I'm doing breaststroke... swallowing mouthfulls of water... omg, this is crazy. I'm careful not to accidentally kick or hit anyone as I swim as I don't want the same to happen to me... Around the bend, should be easier because the waves are behind us pushing, but then you get pulled back... All of a sudden, no one is around me... I'm in the wrong bit... Find the others... Finally get out of the swim... Yes, it's over!
Tez is there supporting, people everywhere, grab my T1 bag, so many ladies in the tent, no time to be embarrassed, pants off, new pants on, sports bra off, tri top on, get organised, Tez cheers, grab my bike, off I go... This headwind is nuts, I thought I could do better on the bike this year as I'd built the legs up a bit and done a lot of RPM classes, my Garmin says I'm doing 17km/h... I'm so unprepared for these winds... boo... omg some poor girl's bike is in the air and she's skidding across the ground on the opposite side of the road, bang goes the tyre... Omg
... Get to the turn around area, yay I'm going faster! Yay for the tailwind... 30kms later, there's a bit of a headwind, what?!?!? Tez is at the 90km mark, "Go Pookie," so happy to see him! 45kms more of headwind (what is going on with these winds???), I love this though, I start thinking "I know why people do Ironman, I really love this." Have a million thoughts going through my head about life, how much I'll miss Tez when I'm in Japan, babies are so cute, elephants are strong so I just need to be like an elephant... Haha, an elephant riding a bike... ok Jaimee, focus you twit... 20kms later...urgghhh, come on tailwind, please... I'm slower than others so that tailwind only lasted about 15km for me, the last 30km or so were all headwinds... I'm at 14km/h at one point... The front of my bike is blowing around, have to hold on tight, just wanna get T2!!! Only a few mins faster than last year but much much tougher winds so I'm still kind of happy I guess... Feel giddy getting off my bike. Walk slowly to T2, get run stuff organised, get sunscreen put on me but I'm already red-as. Start my run. 3kms later Tez is there again. What a champion supporter. Hug, mini-chat, off I go... Wanted to run at a 6min/k pace and was doing better for the first 9 kms or so. Catch up to this older guy who I chatted with while cycling and chat some more. Little by little though, my pace is getting slower. Grab gatorade, coke, water, ice at each aid station. The volunteers are amazing. I smile at everyone and thank everyone who cheers. Half way point, really starting to hurt. The beach is so pretty. Getting crampy below my calves by 30kms, some random rides his bike next to me for 2kms, nice guy, just chatting away. It's dark. I want to cry. I can only mouth 'thank you' when people cheer by now. I feel like I am doing a limpy kind of run. Oh there's Tez at 37kms! I am doing a walk/shuffle/jog combo. I tell Tez never to let me sign up for one of these again. I'm so close to the finish line. 40km mark, there's Janine and Tez! I see the lights, the people, the finish line but I just have nothing left, I can't even sprint to the end like I usually do, I've used everything in the tank... I jog there. I'm done!
Two volunteers grab me as I'm a little bit wobbly and emotional... Isla is there! Need to sit!! I go to the massage tent but am feeling quite ill, so I lie down on the floor of the medical tent next to it. I'm so cold. Isla is keeping me company! I want to go and find Tez but I just feel rubbish when I stand up. Start walking to leave, volunteers make me go back to the medical tent. Just low blood pressure and low blood sugar so I have a lie down on a bed and have an anti-nausea tablet. Feeling much better 30mins later. There were quite a few people on drips in there... Say bye to Isla and Brian and Tez and I find a mexican place still open. Yay for being in Melbs! Nothing would be open if it were Brissie haha.