Augusta 70.3 Race recap

Ironman Augusta 70.3 Race Report

Most importantly, I finished!!!! Now for all the details.

Ironman Village

The family and I traveled to Augusta, GA on Friday morning for race weekend.  The first thing we did was Athlete check in at the expo.  Things were so wonderfully organized and it took no time.  After showing my driver’s license to prove I was me, I was given “the waiver”.  The one that says if you drown, get eaten by an alligator, hit by a car, lost or whatever, you will not sue Ironman.  I had already signed the electronic version of the same thing, but they wanted it signed again.  I started reading it and Keary said “Just sign it or they won’t let you race”.  True!  After signing my life over, they gave me my purple swim cap, bibs and most importantly the blue Ironman athlete bracelet.  The one that gets you into transition and lets you retrieve your bike and belongings.  It is made to be worn all weekend, and if you lose it you are in trouble.  It is kind of like a badge of honor, I might wear it a while.  Lastly, I was given my timing chip on an anklet.  You want a time, wear the anklet.  Next: the official race shirt.  Women got dark blue, men got black.  You know the one that says, Ironman Augusta 70.3. The rest of the expo was pretty huge.  The Ironman village had everything you could think of to buy with the Ironman logo on it and with the Augusta logo on it.  Anything from socks to tank tops, t-shirts long and short sleeved, sweatshirts, headbands, coffee mugs, shot glasses, window decals, towels, tri kits, cycling jerseys, and more.  I had already decided that I wanted a tri kit with Augusta on it to wear in next year’s races.  So I was on a mission.  I did end up getting the kit and the “name” shirt where you have to have a magnifying glass to find my name in the m-dot on the back.  I also got the 70.3 decal for the back of my car.  When I get home I will take off my bike rack and put on my new decal.  By then, I will have earned it.  The money spent at the expo was pretty much my birthday and Christmas present, but it was exactly what I wanted and I even got to try everything on!  Now it was almost time to swim.

Practice Swim

Through the “Augusta 70.3 Ironman” Facebook page, I found out that a large group of swimmers were going to be swimming the 1.2 mile course on Friday at 5:15pm, so I really wanted to meet up with them to do a test run.  There were over 100 swimmers that met and swam the course.  The water was cold; 68 degrees on Friday and when I slipped off the dock into the water, it went over my head and took my breath.  I “tarzan” swam the first several strokes with my face out of the water.  It was so cold that it seemed to take my breath when I put my face in it.  But, soon I was able to bear it and resume my normal stroke.  Then came the river weed which slightly freaked me out.  When that stuff wraps around your arms or feet, it is slightly distressing.  I made it through the patches of river weed though and got a good pace going.  I had heard that the Savannah River had a nice current to it which aided in great swim times.  The buoys were small and I didn’t exactly know where the swim exit was, so I just kept following the caps in front of me.  Another swimmer told me that we were swimming toward the white house.  Once I could see the white house good, I knew that I was ¾ of the way there so I checked my watch.  It said 22:04.  It seemed like I had been swimming forever.  I had to look twice to make sure I was right.  By the time I got to the swim exit, I could see Keary and the girls waiting for me with all the other families.  Time check:  32:55.  Current assisted, wetsuit legal swims rock!!! (So to put this in perspective, in August, I swam Lake Logan, which is 1500m in 33:32 and today, I swam 1931m in 33:05.)  That practice swim really helped me to wrap my brain around the swim aspect of the course.  I really felt like this would help me out on race day.

Briefing and Bike Check-In

Saturday, was Mandatory athlete briefing and bike check-in day.  Some of the things I learned at athlete briefing:  1400 volunteers to run this race; $4 million economic impact on the city of Augusta; this is the 6th year for the Augusta 70.3 and it is the largest 70.3 as far as participants with approximately 3200.  We were told that they would be releasing water upstream the day before the race which would make the water cooler and higher which would probably also mean swifter.  We could only hope.  Keep the yellow buoys to your left and at the end of the course there is a red buoy at the swim exit that you should keep to your right.  We were told that if you swim so far that you stop seeing buoys, turn around and swim back upstream because you have gone too far.  Hopefully, this would not be a problem.
The swim cutoff would be 1 hour and 10 mins after the last wave starts.  So even though my wave started at 8:40, the last wave didn’t start til 9:30, so technically, I had until 10:40 to finish the swim without being pulled from the race.  I may be a slow swimmer, but I could handle that.  We were also told that starting in 2015, Ironman was changing that rule so that each person had a personal goal of 1 hr, 10 mins which is different from this year’s rule.  There will be 350 foot run to the transition area.  Man that sounded long.
On the bike course, there would be bottle exchange locations with food and liquids at miles 18, 37 and 47.  With aid stations at every mile on the run course.
Then the Head Official came to talk to us about some common rule violations and how to avoid them. No passes on the right.  Keep 4 bike lengths between you and the cyclist in front of you.  (4 bike lengths is farther than you realize).  If you start to pass, you must complete the pass in your 20 second time frame to avoid penalty.  Once you make the decision to pass, no backing out or to the left.  If you do get a penalty for drafting, the official riding on a motorcycle will show you a red card which means that at the next penalty tent, you must stop and rest or cuss or whatever for 4 minutes before you can resume riding.  If you do get a penalty, don’t try to skip the tent, you will be found out and disqualified.  A yellow penalty card could also be given for other things such as unsportsmanlike conduct, littering, etc.  That is a stop and go penalty.  If you get 3 penalties, it is an automatic disqualification.  And don’t argue with the officials, it just makes your time last longer.  Run penalties:  Your family cannot run beside you on the course.  If they make forward motion beside you, the runner gets the penalty.  It is for safety reasons.
Mandatory Bike check-in was from 10am-5pm.  Every age grouper had to check in their bike on Saturday; only the pros could check in on Sunday.  There is just not enough time for all of this to happen on Sunday morning before the race.  Seeing the transition area set up for all those bikes was kind of amazing.  I found my number on the rack and that is when I realized just how little space we actually had.  There was probably only 6 inches on each side of my bike to the other bikes.  This is going to be interesting!  We couldn’t leave anything else there that night.

Family & Friends

Susan and Meredith came to join us for supper at Texas Roadhouse.  It meant so much to me for them to come all the way from Albemarle to support me.  Thank you again, Susan and Meredith.  Love you tri girls!  I wanted to head to our room kind of early to settle down, but Shelby and Casey’s allowances were burning a giant hole in their pockets.  So we headed to the Dollar Tree.  It was huge.  You can really buy A LOT of junk at that store! I was thankful to find some $1 shaving cream and razor there though because that was what I had forgotten at home.  (No hair, no drag!)  Back in the hotel room, I got everything ready for the next morning and laid it all out on the lounge chair in our room.  About 10:30 I was ready to get some shut eye, but the television was making everybody else too loud for me to relax and sleep. (Next year, room with a suite so I can shut the noise out).  Sleep finally came and before I knew it, it was 4:30.  Time to get up!

Race Morning

It was nice to have a quiet room so that I could get my thoughts together that morning.  I thanked God for getting a good night’s sleep and for getting me there.  He had seen me through the crash and all the training.  I knew that He would be with me on this day too.
I put on my Tri Tats (temporary tattoos) in the mirror to make sure I didn’t put them on backward or upside down. 2132 down each arm and my USAT age on the back of my calf.  Done.  Got dressed and everything packed to catch the shuttle to transition by 5:15.  I also ate my preplanned breakfast at 5:00am; banana and dark chocolate covered almonds.  Enough to equal about 400 calories for breakfast.  I left Keary and the girls in bed with a promise to see them at 7:30 at the swim start to see the pro’s go off.    The hotel was hustling and bustling full of other triathletes going about their morning routine too.  Some drinking coffee, others still looking asleep.  I am a morning person, so I love that time of the morning.  I stood in a line of about 30 other athletes as we boarded local school buses that would take us the 1 ½ mile trip to transition.  I was thankful that I wasn’t walking it this morning in the dark.  I realized mid-trip that I had forgot my Gatorade in the room refrigerator.  I didn’t panic tough.  I was early enough that I could set up my transition and take the bus back to the hotel in time to get back to transition before it closed at 7:15am.  When the bus rolled up to transition, the lights were bright and it looked like daylight even though it was still dark.  And there sat over 3000 beautiful bikes ready to go.  It was an amazing sight.  There was a lot of money in that lot and I was glad that it had been guarded all night by local police.  I set up my bike stuff and run stuff under my back tire of my bike and borrowed a neighbor’s tire pump.  I had brought an orange piece of surveyors tape to tie on my tri bars so that it might stand out a little better.  The music was booming and the announcer was already making jokes and playing “lost and found”. It was time to get back to the hotel to fetch my Gatorade before it was too late.  I made it down and back in time to mix my Gatorade in my bottles; ¾ Gatorade and ¼ water.  Straight Gatorade is a little too strong when I am racing.
It was 7:10 and I was ready to catch a ride to the swim start which was 1.2 miles away.  Now the line for the bus was 200 people long and we were getting a little worried.  One of the volunteers said that he didn’t think anymore busses were coming and we might want to start walking.  I had on flip flops and did not want to walk 1.2 miles in them to the swim start.  Next thing we knew, 2 buses came round the corner and we piled in them like sardines.
About the time our bus pulled up and I got off I noticed something in the sky.  It was sky divers, about 5 or 6 of them and one of them had a huge American flag.  Instant goose bumps!  He dilly dallied around making his entrance last as long as possible and the closer he got the louder the cheers from the crowd and the bigger his flag appeared.  It was amazing!
The announcer was saying that the pro start would be in about 5 minutes.  I found Susan and Meredith but Keary and the girls were not there.  I called and he was dragging them out of the bed.  Probably literally.  Said that they would never make the pro start, but would be there ASAP and definitely make my 8:40 start.  The pro men were in the first swim wave at 7:30am and a cannon sounded and they all dove into the water.  They were all like fish; gone in a hurry.  Next were the pro women at 7:33am and when the cannon sounded it shook the whole town.  At this point, I had an hour till my swim wave and my stomach was so nervous.  I headed to the port o potties and waited in line there for another 15 minutes.  As I was waiting in line, I could hear people saying that the toilet paper was running out.  So I made sure that mine had paper.  (Note to self:  Carry your own toilet paper next time just in case it runs out!)  Back up to the swim staging area and Keary and the girls had arrived.  Time for my 8:00 fuel: Lara Bar #1.  We took some pictures, used the bathrooms again, and stood around looking at all the different shapes and sizes of athletes.  It was getting close to my time, so I decided to go ahead and put on my wetsuit up to the waist.  My swim time was 8:40, so about 8:25 I decided to bid my farewell to my fan club and head down to the swim entrance with the other purple caps.  My stomach was turning somersaults and the music was loud.  I remember it was playing “Sexy and I know it” and the volunteers were dancing around crazy.  (I heard rumors later on that Keary and Shelby were also dancing around the embarrassing Casey.)  Wave 16 was on the dock and I had 8 minutes to go.  I was taking it all in.  My dream was about to start.  I was getting ready to tackle something that so many people cannot or have not ever done.  I felt proud and ready to go!  Wave 17 was called to the dock and my wave was moved into the “ready” position.  I put my arms in my wetsuit and put my goggles on my head.  The breeze felt good and I was ready to just get this party started.  I knew that once we heard the command to go, that all those nervous would subside.

Swim Start

Wave 18 was called to come to the dock.  We could either start in water or sit on the dock and slide in when it was time.  I wanted to get in as soon as I could to acclimate myself with the temperature.  I actually didn’t seem as cold to me as it had 2 days earlier.  I kept bobbing my head in and out of the water; just letting it flow over my head.  By the time he counted down from 10, 9, 8 . . . I was ready to go.  The cold shock factor was gone and so were the nerves.
There was a huge American flag draped over the 5th Street Bridge, so that was my first sighting tool.  There were about 95 people in my swim wave, so there were arms and legs everywhere.  I didn’t notice the river weed near as much as Friday and for that I was grateful.  We were told that at the halfway point, the buoy color would change from yellow to orange indicating that we were over half way.  You know I kept looking, but I never did see any orange buoys.  The water actually felt good and I was in a happy place.  I had not worn a watch, so I really didn’t know what my time would be.  33:03 was my official time.  Not too shabby.
As soon as I got out of the water, I started taking my arms out of the wetsuit and I could hear Keary cheering for me.  I wasn’t as disoriented as I had been Friday, so I trotted up to the transition area.  When I got to the wetsuit strippers I ran on by.  I did not want to risk them ripping and tearing my wetsuit.  I had seen how rough they were in Raleigh trying to be fast.  Got to transition and took it the rest of the way off.  I was not in as much of a hurry as I usually am in transition because this was a much longer race and I didn’t want to forget anything.  Ate my Lara Bar and took some Gatorade.  Dried my feet off, put on sock and shoes, discreetly applied Chamois Cream.  Put on some sunscreen, even though it was cloudy.  Helmet on, gloves on, ready to go.

Bike Out

Out of transition, I saw Keary and the girls and Susan and Meredith cheering for me.  I now had 56miles ahead of me.  My goals on the bike were to fuel every half hour and to fuel often.  I didn’t want to go out too fast on the bike and burn out in the later part of the race.  I had in my mind that I wanted to keep my avg. speed around 15 mph.  Some of the roads were in bad shape and there were lots of water bottles that were lost on the course.  I wouldn’t hesitate to say that I probably saw 200 water bottles dropped all along the course, especially on the rough roads.  We had driven the course a day earlier, so I was somewhat familiar with it.  Some of the roads still seemed long though.  One of the particularly rough roads lasted 30 minutes.  Boy I was glad to get off of the one.  With so many athletes, I was never alone on this bike course.  Lots of volunteers and police presence also.  There were even homeowners and their families sitting in their yards cheering for us as we rode by.
It was about a half hour in and time to fuel.  An applesauce and a salt tablet.  Most of the bike course was in South Carolina and I am pleased to say that I did not see a single dog!  It might have been easy to complain about the roads or tiredness until I came up on a Wounded Warrior.  He had lost both legs (I found out later in Afghanistan) and he had both Titanium legs.  He was riding a standard road bike like mine just that his artificial legs were in his shoes and clipped into his pedals too.  I cheered him on as I came up on him and he was so positive and he encouraged me.  Situations like that make you thankful for what you do have.  After the race, I looked his number up and found out that his name was Cedric King and he is a motivational speaker for the US Army and is from Spring Lake, NC.
The 1st aid station was coming up and I had already decided to come to a stop and get off my seat just for a moment.  I took another Lara Bar and half a water bottle in and it was time to get going.  Cedrick had passed me while I was stopped, so I came up on him again and once again he encouraged me.  Such a class act he was!  I also came up on “John”.  He was another challenged athlete.  Except that he had no use of his legs, so he had the hand cycle.  Talk about upper body strength.  The way the hand cycle is laid out, the legs are stretched out in front and he was almost in a recumbent position low to the ground.  I got passed a lot.  I heard a lot of “on your left, on your left”.  I just let them go.  No need to burn out because of my ego.  My neck and back was starting to feel stiff by now, so I kept switching between aero position and the standard position.  I stopped at the 37 mile aid station too and reapplied Chamois Cream.  I really think this helped comfort what could have been a sore saddle.  Mile 47 was the last aid station and they were the loudest and rowdiest.  They were a church youth group and they were so encouraging.  There were mostly rolling hills on this course.  Nothing like what Albemarle has to offer.  I was so thankful that I had practiced on the harder hills though.  Thanks Tim Bennett and company.  About mile 50, we were crossing back into Georgia and I we were coming into town.  I had enjoyed the ride, especially the area of the horse farms, but I was ready to get off the seat soon.  As I hit mile 53, I remembered that this was the furthest I had ever ridden and I only had 3 more miles to go.  I couldn’t help but think of Tim Bennett and Mauricio who had helped me get those 53 miles in.  Mile 55.5 and spectators were coming into view as I rounded the corner into transition.  Time:  3:38:20 – 15.4mph.  I was really happy with my bike time.

Time to Run

As I came into T2 I saw that my sister Janice and her hubby Danny had arrived and they had brought Team Susanne t-shirts for Keary, Shelby and Casey.  That made us feel official.  They were all matching in their turquoise shirts. I noticed that I had a sore place on my back coming into transition, so I asked another athlete what it was.  She said, You are sunburned.  Already?  The sun had not hardly even shown.  So I applied sunscreen for the 3rd time!  After racking my bike and putting on run socks and shoes, my SwimBikeMom sunvisor and packing a Lara Bar and salt tablets in my bra, I was ready to run. I was 4 hrs and 30 mins into this race and for the first time ever during a race, I had to pee.  Glad there were port a potties in transition.  Out of transition, Keary asked me how I felt and gave me words of encouragement.  Janice was running along the grass cheering and the kids were smiling and waving too.  I topped the hill and there was Susan and Meredith who had talked to military guys into chanting my name as I ran up the hill.  Only Susan would do that.  It made me smile though and keep running.  I was already tired, but I knew that I still had 13.1 miles to go.  So I broke it down into smaller segments.  I told myself that I would do a 5k first.  I ran a good bit in the beginning.  I think I felt faster than I actually was going.  Then when I got tired, I used the cone method.  Run 3 cones, walk 1. Repeat.  When there were lots of people around cheering on the street corners, it seemed easier to run and then on some of the back streets where there was no one, it was easier to walk.  The run is a good place to talk to other athletes too.  I met some girls and ran and talked with them a while and it helped me to forget how tired I was for a little bit.  I walked with a guy on the second half that had drank too much beer the night before and felt bad.  There were all kinds of people there.  Keary and the girls were able to cut across and meet me at several places to cheer me on.  When I saw them I had to run.  Walk when they are out of sight.  I never had a desire to quit.  I was ready to be done, but never quit.  There were multiple groups of soldiers volunteering from Fort Griffith singing cadence songs along the route.  I loved that.  Could have listened to them on the whole route.  I stopped at every water station on the run course even if it was just to get a small sip of water.  I even had a mouth full of salty potato chips about mile 9 that tasted wonderful!  The sky was still overcast and the temperatures were really perfect for the day.   I came up on Cedrick King again, the Wounded Warrior.  He was on the first lap of the run course as I was on my 2nd lap.  He was bent over the railing looking like he was about to throw up.  I asked him if I could do anything for him.  Told him I had salt tablets.  He just asked me how much further.  Later on I found out that his prosthetics were rubbing badly and he was probably in very much pain.  Once again, respect!

The Finish

A friend gave me some advice that I remembered at this point.  Val Sapp told me to slow down at the finish line.  Take it all in.  Listen for your name and enjoy it.  I did.  I slowed down, ignored my watch and listened for the announcer to say Susanne Allen from Robbins, NC and it was done!  I finished 70.3 miles in 7:36:50.  I was tired, but not hurting, hungry and ready for the hugs.

Thank You’s

I want to say thank you to my wonderful Sherpa husband, Keary Allen, for everything you’ve done to support my dream.  From all the long bike rides on Sunday afternoon when you stayed home to watch the kids, to running the runs with me when I didn’t feel like to by myself.  You drove when I was sleepy or didn’t want to, you drug the kids around to I don’t know how many races.  You cheered, took pictures, encouraged me, prayed for me, loved me but most of all you supported me and never doubted that I could be a Half Ironman.  I am certainly still on an Ironman high right now, but soon reality will come back.  It’s trail season and I can’t wait to support you during the fall and winter months.
People have asked me if I would do another 70.3 Half Ironman race.  This was by far the hardest thing I have ever done.  But I can’t wait to do it again on May 31st in Raleigh, NC.  Hope to see you there.