Ironman Arizona... the good the bad and the WINDY

Last year I decided it was a good idea to sign up for another Ironman race... not exactly sure why, but I paid my almost $600 and signed up for Ironman Arizona. When I signed up I was in the midst of a serious cough that lasted about 2 months and ended up with a broken rib that I found out about only after trying to run the White Rock Marathon and that not going so well. I dropped out at mile 7 after seeing my sweet friend Rosa along the course. In the middle of January some idiot, who was probably texting while driving, ran a red light and T-boned my car, right into my drivers side door. Broke the side window with my head, car was totaled and I had a severe case of whip lash.


At this time I really just decided that the Ironman probably wasn't going to happen for me, and for the next several months I did nothing besides try to get healed up after the accident. Couldn't hold my head up for more than a couple hours without pain and all that stuff. Fast forward to July...
I met this guy who had just started doing triathlons and I was telling him how I'd signed up for Arizona but wasn't going to do it because of my trials and tribulations of the winter and that I couldn't be ready for it in time. He thought that was the most ridiculous thing in the world and that I should do it.

And so I trained. I started my Ironman training season 5 months before my race, which isn't too bad- if I were to have had a base. I'd been running but zero cycling. My neck was suffering the effects of the accident still and I wasn't sure I could stay aero for very long without pain. Swimming, cycling and running became my life.
In the middle of the training the dam that makes Tempe Town Lake a lake burst and there was no more lake. We all know swimming is the one thing that got me into triathlon, because its the one thing I'm good at. If there was no swim- I was out on this race.

Fast forward to November 18th. I leave for "sunny" Arizona. Arrive Thursday night, pick the ugliest rental car I could- so I wouldn't lose it in the parking lot... and I didn't...
Friday I go pick up my packet, do a focus group to earn $50 to the Ironman Store, and attend the athlete dinner. All very fun- athlete dinner was outside by the lake at night. Let's just say it was chilly. We ended up leaving early because it was so cold!

Saturday was the only day we were allowed to swim in Tempe Town lake- the site of the race the following day. Usually you can swim at the race site 2 or 3 days before the race. The city didn't post any water temps of the lake, a kind man from Phoenix got in his boat a few times a week and posted water temps. When I found his blog, then started in the mid 70's then low 70's and the week or 2 before the race the water temperature fell to the low 60's. OUCH! I like to swim in a sleeveless wetsuit- so that was going to be cold for that! I never swim with ear plugs but tried it on the practice swim, decided I didn't really like it and took them out and was alright.

We dropped off our transition bags and headed back to the house to relax and unwind.

Alarm went off at 3:45am race morning- not that I'd really slept at all. Got up, ate breakfast and packed into the car to head down to Tempe. Did all the things you have to do to get ready for the race, dropped off special needs bags, put fluids on the bike etc.

At 6:30am they are hussling us out of transition to get to the swim start. NO ONE was excited about getting in the water and waiting for the race to start in 15 minutes. So we all hovered around the entry until the last moment we could.
I placed myself in the perfect spot for the swim. Last IM I was miserable and thought I was going to die. This time- I had clear water and was feeling great. My googles didn't fog up, my wetsuit didn't rub the snot out of my neck and life was good. When I got to the turn around buoy I was at 35 minutes- not bad I thought... I got out of the water and saw a 1:16 on the clock and was happy with that.



Headed into the changing tent and got ready for the bike. It was pretty chilly so I wore both arm and leg warmers as I headed out and set in for the 112 mile bike ride.

The bike ride was the hardest thing I have every physically done. The weather forecast rain and wind- and they were not lying. There was a great tail wind out for the first 2 loops and coming back in there were terrible head winds- but tolerable. The last loop I picked up a little steam on the way out and figured the wind must have changed directions- but that's ok, the way back was slightly downhill so I could manage. NO SUCH LUCK. I made it off Bee Line Highway to head back in towards downtown Tempe. It was everything in my power to go between 8-10mph on the bike. I won't admit it but there was a man ahead of me that I tried to have shield the wind a bit. Didn't work so well. By the time I got back to transition my neck was KILLING me. I wasn't sure how I was going to pull one leg over my saddle to get off the bike and get into transition. Somehow I managed and got my wits about me to get into the changing tent again.

I changed into my Blazeman jersey and running shorts and stuck my arm warmers in my pocket and set out. Felt pretty good not to have a saddle between my legs and running was a nice change of pace. Until the chafing set in... upper inside arm on my right side. Sports bra's have a lovely way of making me have side boob and that rubs on my arm if there is no fabric to protect it. I'd used bodyglide on my arms, but there is only so much it can do. I resorted to using vaseline at every aid station. Then I remembered the great arm sleeve/warmers Jennifer from Run On had told me about. I put those suckers on, pulled them up past the red spot and, hallelujah, I was good to go!


Made the first loop in reasonable time. Started on the second loop and realized the familiar blisters were forming and hoped I could just ignore them. My regular issue with running is a tight soleus and Achilles and this day was no exception. There was a lovely aid station that offered massages and I took them up on it my second loop of 3. Helped tremendously and I went on. Got to about mile 12 and couldn't ignore the blisters anymore. Stopped at an aid station to do some minor surgery and move on. OUCH! Didn't realize how sensitive the area would become after popping them. Walked it off a bit then got to running/shuffling again. I will say when I was running I was passing tons of people, far more than passed me.. but I was running aid station to aid station. Using a lot of vaseline and occasionally stopping for blister triage. All the faster people had already finished the race so that's why I was doing the passing.

In my mind I wanted to quit. I wanted to find a way to cut the course short and just be done with it. Everything hurt, everything. My skin was even sore just to touch. I managed to make it past the thinning crowd along the course up to the finish line chute. This was the most exciting finish line I've seen. The crowd was loud and excited to see me! I was the only one headed in at that time and had the biggest grin on my face. I had worked SO hard to get to this finish line and I was going to relish every moment of it. There might be no greater words to hear than Mike Reily saying "Claire Oliver, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN." Third time I had been called an Ironman, but this one was by far the hardest.
I was honored to be wearing race number #179 the number Jon Blais wore when he did Kona in 2005 after being diagnosed with ALS. All Blazeman warriors ROLL across the finish line and so did I. I rolled at 15:09:43. I was expecting a good hour off that time, but with all the ups and downs of the day I was not going to complain.
Chrissie Wellington is a big supporter of the Blazeman Foundation and was there to give me a big hug when I crossed that finish line- very cool since she won the female race, got 8th overall and set a new world record that same day. I was a little delirious when I finished and not sure if I made a lot of sense when I thanked her for being there.
Shoo'd to take a picture by the nice volunteer. Thank God for those volunteers out there! They are so important to the success of the race. What would we do without them?
I tell people, if this had been my first- it would have been my last. It was tough- I won't be signing up for Arizona again, although I enjoyed my time out there. Its a check it off the list race, I'll move on and do a different Ironman race next time... no immediate plans to make that happen soon though. I'm enjoying laying on the couch and spending time with my dogs and my friends right now.