IRONMAN ARIZONA 9/4/05 (Tempe)

Arrived in Tempe, AZ Tuesday to beautiful warm weather, sunny skies and a little wind (not my own thankyou sister Emma!).

I home-stayed with a couple, Jerry and Erin, both cyclists when they are not working and really nice people. Erin gave me her four runner to drive for the week and as a bonus it has a great stereo system!I don't think she knows in Aust we drive on the left!

They both own cruisers so one night Jerry took me out to dinner, we rode the cruisers to the restaurant which had valet parking.....wouldnt park the cruisers for us so we kickstanded them right at the door.I must say I was stylin' on the pink cruiser with my longsleeve top in the cane basket up front and Jerry on his black macho painted bike.On the way home we sang songs from The Sound Of Music as(Jerry not me) reminded me of a scene from the movie.

Wednesday I decided to attempt to ride the course and headed out by myself with the official map.Either this map was wrong or I would go far enough as to entertain the idea I may have ....perhaps... misread it.....and gotten lost.After about half an hour I abandoned that idea of pre riding the course and wanted to meet with the map director and let him/her know that street names and arrows werent matching up and they may want to re-do the map!No it wasn’t my great sense of direction that caused this problem ,it was the umpteen turns we had to make and on this pea sized map I was riding with, couldn’t really read it too well!

Onto the pre race swim....there was no way I was jumping in the lake we had to swim in, it looked like the Brisbane river(brown and merky) and was a little cool so I used a pool down the road....a little safer and no current so I wouldn’t get washed away before race day!

I had some ART (Active Release Therapy and Cassidy from TP Massage ball) work on me throughout the week to loosen me up which was great and just spent time getting my gear all sorted and nutrition prepared.

During the week I had spoken to a few locals who said ‘its never windy in Tempe, this is the first week in a long time it’s been windy’. I was using my Blackwell disc for the first time and during Friday night the wind woke me up....outside it was blowin’.

RACE DAY-

Erin was crazy enough to offer to drive me to the start just before 5am and she didn't think it was too windy until she saw some palm trees trying to stay rooted into the ground and says ' oh yeh, it's real windy out there...that's not good!'.That was fine with me as the wind might make up for the lack of hills.

The water in the lake wasn’t as dirty as I thought.....I drank enough to know! It was a one loop swim and was ok going down the river but on the way back the wind had picked up and made the water so choppy you could barely see the markers (as a bonus I did manage to miss the bridge pilons!) and every time I went to breathe got a mouthful of Tempe Town Lake smack bang in my mouth!

Finally got out of the water and had to pull myself up on the portable stairs they had set up over the side of the lake wall.Just above the stairs I was told to lay down whilst the volunteers pulled my wetsuit off and then made my way through transition.Now that's a service I like!

Got to my bike and as I ran out with it, realised half my bars had fallen off somewhere....oooohh I was looking forward to them....quick calculation....had to have at least 2-3 Gu’s to make up the calories...oh yay, just what I was looking forward to( going from my first IM experience with Gu’s-lips stuck together!).

Straight into a headwind with the city loop(lots of turns) first before we headed out on the B-Line.One turn, a 180degree turn there were signs and people telling you to slow down but you know what it's like....slow down...I don't think so.Upon nearly taking the guy out who was alerting athletes of the U turn in the middle of the road and almost burning the carbon rims down to a mere splinter I decided to follow the signs and warnings throughout the course. On the B-Line Hwy I was going 47-8km/hr so I knew it was highly unlikely I was going to see those numbers on the way back.....27-8km/hr and down as low as 22km/hr at times.The winds were apparently 30-40mph.There were athletes pulling off to the side of the Hwy to not only pee but to get off their bikes and stretch out.One sportsmanship gesture I did see was one guy had stopped to help another guy change his flat.

After three loops on the bike we had to do one more city loop (7miles) to finish the bike and by this stage I had moved from 10th to 2nd and was down by less than 2minutes.

I made a quick transition ,donned on the running shoes and out of the tent I ran.I heard Mike Reilly say I was about 45seconds behind Desiree and then could see her not long after that.My aim was to keep my own pace throughout the marathon and see how that took me for a while.I had not longed passed Desiree within the first mile or so and dropped my gel flask...no hope in hell of bending down to pick it up so once again quick calculation as to my calorie needs.... and what I fancied taking in on the run.With a limited menu at the aid stations, Killer Pythons and Natural Confectionary Co. lollies werent an option....unless of course they had been flown in from Australia just for me!. The choice was easy with one option of... Gu and later in combination with a swig of coke wasn't so bad and kept me from seeing any bike tubes that had turned into snakes laying in the gutters!

The run went along Tempe town lake,up over the bridge, along the other side on a path and then onto some dirt trails/paths,through some other part of town and along another dirt path running beside a canal, turning around and heading back a similar way to which we went out....or something like that.Let me just say without markers and people along the course(or any course for that matter) who knows where I may have ended up!

I could not see Jeff nor Brent who were to be giving me splits throughout the run until about mile 16 or so and I see these two guys hanging themselves over the wall of the bridge I was about to run under yelling out a split and cheering.....then never to be seen again.Must have found a good pub in town! I was fortunate enough to have another friend of mine, Rob roaming around cheering his buddies on and got him to give me a couple of splits as I thought Desiree could still catch me and was gaining time.Next thing I see Rob going screaming past me on his bike(thanks to Jerry at Landis Cyclery) and stops.As I ran past him he says'1.50 behind' and he gets me moving with some encouraging words he always has,somewhat different to my sister's of 'move your arse!'.Within a few of miles I had made the difference back to 3 and a bit minutes.

Coming off the bridge and heading back into town and close to and down the finish line was very humbling.All these people,many of which I didn't know,cheering for me( except Jerry) who the town folk in Phoenix could hear.The voice of my 4.5yr old neice also came into my mind,she'd said to my sister ' I dont need to call Aunty Kate and wish her goodluck as she is always in my heart and always in my heart when she's racing' ,then came my mum telling me to 'break a leg' and my brother yelling 'go the Mongrel' and everyone else's goodlucks and well wishes.This short time of  reflection allows me to remember how fortunate I am to have all of these people in my life , caring about me and what I do and that I am able to do Ironman.......

My sister was hit by a car out training over a year ago now and is not yet able to compete but will get ther and my training partner (in Australia), Ashley has been out of racing since last year due to health reasons.Em and Ash have shown me the courage,dedication, patience,perserverence and strong will required not only in training and racing but in life and that anything is possible if you give it a try and you never know.....and it's all about the attitude! Take it, live it , do it!

We had a bbq at Erin and Jerry's Sunday arv/night which was great fun and Jeff was crowned Cruiser King Champion as a few of us had a TT competition around the block on the cruisers, winner stays on.For the hard core you had to ride with a glass of red wine in one hand and not spill a drop.Jerry skidded in one handed,gently layed the bike on the side,stumbled off but....didn't drop the glass.....what poetry in motion!

Thankyou to all my sponsors,friends, family,Nick Croft for your support,time and dedication.Without it,it would make my day and life not as enjoyable,

Kate

ps.I a currently having my website renovated so please be patient whilst under construction as I tend to go walk-a-bout with getting my content/layout done!(www.majorkate.com/)

Congrats to my friends who raced IM Australia(Dan,Garry,Zeglar,Phil,Jenny,Mark-to name a few)sorry to those I did not name but I have early onset of Alzheimers! AND Goodluck to Drew(swim coach extraordinare) and your swim squad kids(that kicked my butt) in the Aust swim meet next wk!