Pigman!...I Won't Back Down

This is the song of the day in honor of my recent official entry into the Pigman Longcourse (70.3...half Ironman) Triathlon. Whoot! Whoot! Bring it baby...go hard or go home...cuz this year I WON'T BACK DOWN!!!

I've mentioned this race (Pigman) a few times in the past in regards to my desire to do this again...and I've also mentioned my one DNF...these two events are related. My DNF occurred at Pigman Long (better known around these parts as Big Pig...that's right, "dig the Big Pig gig" baby!) in 2009. I really have no excuse, I wasn't prepared for the day and I got into my own head at some point and I couldn't get out.

The day started with thunderstorms and lightening at 5:15 in the morning, and like all hopeful triathletes, my buddies Jason, Therese, Steve and I rolled out to the race course determined to set up our transition and get started...in the rain (did I mention the thunderstorms already???). So we get there and we get marked (loves me the smell of sharpie and neoprene in the morning!) and we start setting up our transition, covering all of our shit with garbage bags in hopes of keeping it dry...epic failure!! Everything was DRENCHED before we were herded like cattle to the beach for the start.

Now here's the thing about me and triathlons...if someone ever tells me to "find my happy place" (the place where I'm most comfortable and at ease and the place that will immediately throw me head first in to the Vortex) the image that almost immediately pops into my head is standing on the beach of a triathlon waiting for the starting gun. HOWEVER, it never fails that at the start of each race, while standing on the beach, I have to convince myself NOT to puke. It's a strange and complicated relationship I have with the swim start. Not really a love-hate thing, it's more of a love-omg what the hell was I thinking sort of thing. (Side note: I maybe do have one other happy place that I like to use to jump into the Vortex, but I'm not willing to tell what it is. :))

So we're standing at the beach looking out at the whitecaps on the lake, listening to the thunder in the background and attempting to hold whatever breakfast we've eaten in our stomachs when the gun goes off. The water is so choppy and the sky so dark that there is no way to sight the buoys at all and I quickly discover that the best bet here is just to follow the feet of the swimmer in front of you and hope that they are on course. The pounding rain started up at the first turn buoy and added the challenge of trying to breath and swim while getting a mouthful of rain instead of air. All I can say is thank whoever for wetsuits that day!!!! I was way overheated, but that thing probably saved my life more than once out there.

Coming out of the water and trying to find our land legs was an even bigger challenge. The whitecaps have a way of really messing with your sense of balance, and we were then faced with wet everything in transition and a continued thunderstorm with 45-50 mph sustained winds...phucking sweet...yeah, I've got a great idea...lets get on a bike anyway and see if we can even make this happen. By the time we left the park and I headed straight into a headwind, pedalling my ass off, going down a significant hill, I had hit a whopping 6 miles per hour...shit...this is going to be a long 56 miles.

You know that song from Nemo..."just keep swimming"....well I used it on the swim, then changed it for the bike to just keep moving...just keep moving...just keep moving...over and over again. Between the alternating 50 mph head wind and 50 mph cross wind, I was using all my strength and endurance trying to keep the bike moving and upright (I'm not a big girl and my bike is pretty light too)...there was no rest time or opportunities for nutrition. I was at the turnaround before I had my first bite of food or something to drink in more than 3 hours (anyone who knows anything about endurance racing knows that this is bad...I don't know how much nutrition I had lost through sweat at that point, but 3 hours of continuous hard effort exercise without even a sip of water, let alone electrolytes or carbs, is not good)...my body was starting to fight back hard...I was losing ground quickly.

Just beyond the bike turnaround, my body gave up the fight and did a full on revolt. Dizzy, nauseous, and about to pass out, I climbed off the bike for just a minute to try to get my bearings. All I wanted at that point was for the sky to stop spinning. As I did I stumbled down a ditch, puked in some farmers front yard, and fell to the ground. A course medic happened by just in time to see me puke and fall, and with that, my day was pretty much over.

After tossing my cookies and eating a banana that was offered to me, I tried to convince the kind medic that I was ok and would be able to finish the race. He actually took my bike from me (sucker had it up and loaded in the back of a truck before I turned around) and said no...then he kindly put his arm around me (I think to hold me up) and ushered me to the back of his truck for the ride back to the park. I was too tired to fight it. It's probably a good thing. I think I passed out at some point during the ride back. My body was shot.

Here's what I learned...I trained for perfect conditions that day, and had we had them I would have finished, maybe not strong because I'm not sure I was trained enough, but I would have finished. Race day wasn't perfect, but there are never any guarantees with this, so I learned a very valuable lesson. Train for ALL conditions. Those days when you don't want to bike or run because it's cold, or raining, or windy...HTFU (harden the fuck up) get the phuck out there and roll, because you never know what your going to get, especially during an event that could last up to 6 hours. I got thunderstorms, wind, lightening and puke in 2009...in 2010 it was well over 100 degrees and sunny for the same race...I don't know what 2011 will bring, but I'll be ready and I won't back down.

This year it's death before DNF (I'm not kidding!)!! I will go until I collapse and then I will get up and I will go some more, because this year I know I can!