Maggie the Ironman

One of these days, after swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles, and running a marathon - I will hear the words, "Erin - you are an IRONMAN!" Until then, I thought I would share the race report of my friend Maggie, who finished her first Ironman last weekend. She has been one of my greatest inspirations, and I owe a lot of triathlons to her. I am so proud of her.

MAGGIE'S RACE REPORT
I thought I would just touch on some memorable moments through out my Ironman week:
I was overwhelmed by the amount of well wishes from my friends, family and co-workers. Thank you for all the emails and texts through out the week and on race day. I had just started my new job a month before my ironman so I typed up an email to my co-workers explaining what an ironman is and what all I would be doing on November 4th. Apparently they found it exciting and motivating, next thing I knew the email was forwarded all over the company and HR called to ask if they could post it on the company newsletter. also, my co-worker Tracy decorated my work area with posters and balloons which by the way I took with me to panama city.

Let's back up just a bit..let me just say that I had some personal turmoil in my life to deal with less than 2 weeks before my ironman. I had a very difficult 4 days of pure chaos to deal with and I am plain ole impressed with myself for not letting this get in my way of finishing my ironman journey. My personal obstacles and the weather conditions made this accomplishment even that much more significant to me.

The night we arrived in pc we drove by the ironman village for the first time and seeing Ironman all over the tents made me nauseous and excited at the same time, but most of all I was happy. I felt like a little kid and this was my playground.

I was so incredibly happy to share this experience with my closest friends.
Joey, Rachel, Teresa (my bff's), and I shared a house together. Joey and I were the 'athletes' and we were well taken care of by Rachel and Teresa. I can't thank them enough for carrying all my bags, stocking the fridge, massaging me, picking up my bike and bags before I finished and basically going along with what ever Joey and I wanted to do. Thank you!!!
I couldn't believe how cold and windy it was. I live in Texas! 40 degrees is freezing!!! I was so worried about the wind I was crying Friday evening knowing it was going to be tough for me to make the bike cut off time with these conditions. My coach tried to comfort me, but still, I went to bed crying the night before the Ironman.

The swim was very rough. I would be on top of a swell and then airborne on the way down. I swallowed so much salt water. I swam right over a jelly fish bigger than the size of my head and it was within arms reach. Yikes! I was told to pee in a bottle and have it in T1 just for this, but being the priss that I am, I said "I'm not doing that". Good thing I didn't need it.
The Wind. The Wind. The Relentless Wind. It was 80% head wind and 20% tail wind. At mile 80 I was seriously preparing in my head my "Finding Success In Failure" speech. I toggled between being a fighter and just wanting someone to put me out of my misery. I passed a girl on the side of the road curled up in the fetal position crying. She was done. But seeing that and being there at that moment made me realize that I didn't come all this way to not Make It Happen!! I thought about Sara Reinertsen 2 years ago at Kona and I think I can say I knew then what she must have been feeling trying to make the bike cut off. All this and knowing so many of my friends were tracking me online helped to make me pedal harder. I wanted this bad and I wasn't going to let this wind take me down.

I had biked for 8 hours and maybe spent about 1.5 minutes with my special needs bag. I knew I didn't have time to spare. getting off my bike for the first time back at T2 was painful. I dismounted my bike and thought my legs were going to give out on me. I had no idea how I was going to run a marathon.

I stretched for about 30 seconds at T2 and then took off for my marathon run. I was surprised at how good I felt all of a sudden. My plan was to run as much as I could for the first loop, then walk as much as I needed to for the first half of the second loop, then run the 2nd part of the second loop.

I pretty much stuck to that. I was shocked at how much I was able to run. it wasn't fast but I was running non the less. I remembered all my training runs with Erin and how she would always say "C'mon!!! we didn't just ride 60 miles to WALK!!!" or "C'mon!!! we didn't get up at 5am to WALK!!!" only on this day I was saying "C'mon!!! I didn't come all the way to walk this Ironman". Thanks Erin!!! you were with me all the way.

Let me just say how incredibly wonderful the volunteers were. From the wetsuit strippers, helping you in the transition tents, the handups on the bike, the aid stations on the run, the day before with all the bags, and they were all over the run course, if I stopped to walk, a vol was right on me asking me if I was okay. They were just amazing and this race can not happen with out them. Thank you!!

Spectators made signs which lined the road to the state park (the turn around point). Rachel had told me she made me a sign: "Iron Maggie; always funky fresh". I looked for it but all the signs were facing the street not the athletes.

At mile 10 for Joey, 4 for me, I stop for a moment to hug Joey, then I sent him on his way by yelling "Go c%cks%cker!! ooops! I hope a race official didin't hear that!! At mile 14, I see Rachel and she runs after me yelling "Maggie!!! do you want your Funyuns??!!" Classic!!! and we got that on video!!! Chicken broth rocks!!!! so do spectators on the run course!!! they were so happy to be ther cheering for us. Thank you!!

Arriving at the finish line was amazing. you always hear about the high you will feel running down the finishing chute and all the people cheering for you. I can't even describe it. It felt like all those people were waiting for me!!! and when they saw me turn the corner it was as if they were yelling just for me. It was magical and I was having the time of my life. I had dreamed of this for years, I had trained so hard, week after week, day after day, early morning wake ups, so many sacrifices, this meant so much to me and it all came together for me right here at this incredible finish line.

I could hear Mike Reilly (the voice of Ironman) announcing my name and he said "she is happy to be here" and I was! I was jumping up and down, high fiving everyone and holding my number up for the world to see!!! (it had torn off my race belt so I had to carry it for the last few miles)
I truly feel so blessed to have experienced this wonderful Ironman journey.

I am surrounded by genuinely wonderful friends who I can't thank enough for sharing this tiime with me. I'm blessed to have enjoyed all the training and for remaining injury free. So many people brought me to that finish line.

Ironman is not something you can do all on your own. It truly is life changing and so many people touch you in the smallest ways to inspire you, motivate you and encourage you to get to that finish line. I know I didn't do it all by myself, and I am truly thankful for everybody who gave me hope and encouragement to do this crazy thing we call Ironman.