I am an Ironman (sorta)

Well, I finished.  I got a medal.  I'm tired and happy, but my plan to do one and done is now changed.  I guess I'm destined to do these races more than just once.

My official results are posted below.  There were 39 women in my age group.  The winner came in at 11:39:31.  The last official winner came in at 16:17.  Five did not finish (DNF)

I arrived at the finish line as the last racer allowed to complete the course at 17:03.  This race, is the only Ironman race in the country with only 16:30 for the official completion time so I was over a half hour after the official completion time and officially I received a DNF on my record.  That is disappointing to me but I can say I did the distance and my friends have all rallied around me and procalimed me an ironman.  I love them all and I'll accept their proclamation.  But I'm a perfectionist and this was less than perfect so I'll still be striving for that real finish in my future.

In fact, the officials were still there when I arrived and gave me a medal, a finisher cap and a finisher shirt and proclaimed me an ironman because I had finished the 140.6 miles that day.  I cried at the finish.  I wanted to just give up several times and there were people all day who crashed, or missed cutoffs or pulled from the race.  It would have been simple to just flag down one of the three vans that came by around midnight and ask for a ride to the finish because I knew I'd have a DNF much earlier than midnight.  I could see that my body was not going to let me run fast enough to get that last two miles in time.  I considered it a couple of times but not seriously.  I wanted this.  I wanted it a great deal.

So while everyone around me says I'm an Ironman...I'm saying I'm and Ironman*
I guess I have to do another one.  This is sort of like my first half ironman.  I DNFd that race too but was not allowed to finish.  That was heartbreaking but went back that year and did a second one and qualified for the world championships that year so I did a third one and completed it too!

I'm very proud of this accomplishment.  The official result does not tell the story.  My next blog will be the whole story of the day.

I'm grateful that I have the means, the time and the support for doing something like this.  While it is a very tough challenge, it is a luxury to be able to do this sort of thing.  I'm also grateful for all the support I received from friends, strangers and volunteers and officials on the course.  I meant a great deal to have them shouting encouragement to me as I finished a race for which we all knew I'd have no official finish result.  They understood why I did it.  That made a difference to me.

SWIM DETAILS | Division Rank: 22

SPLIT NAME	DISTANCE	SPLIT TIME	RACE TIME	PACE	DIVISION RANK	GENDER RANK	OVERALL RANK
Total	2.4 mi	1:21:48	1:21:48	2:07/100m	22	464	1748

BIKE DETAILS | Division Rank: 35

SPLIT NAME	DISTANCE	SPLIT TIME	RACE TIME	PACE	DIVISION RANK	GENDER RANK	OVERALL RANK
22 mi	22 mi	1:32:00	3:09:03	14.35 mi/h
39 mi	17 mi	1:13:27	4:22:30	13.89 mi/h
60 mi	21 mi	1:28:21	5:50:51	14.26 mi/h
69 mi	9 mi	1:01:38	6:52:29	8.76 mi/h
90 mi	21 mi	1:29:06	8:21:35	14.14 mi/h
112 mi	22 mi	1:38:25	10:00:00	13.41 mi/h
Total	112 mi	8:22:57	10:00:00	13.36 mi/h	35	711	2404

RUN DETAILS

SPLIT NAME	DISTANCE	SPLIT TIME	RACE TIME	PACE	DIVISION RANK	GENDER RANK	OVERALL RANK
1 mi	1 mi	16:55	10:30:06	16:55/mi
7.3 mi	6.3 mi	1:32:55	12:03:01	14:44/mi
13.9 mi	6.6 mi	1:37:45	13:40:46	14:48/mi
20.1 mi	6.2 mi	1:29:40	15:10:26	14:27/mi
26.2 mi	6.1 mi	--:--	--:--	--/mi
Total	26.2 mi	--:--	--:--	--/mi	--	--	--

Transition Details

T1: Swim-to-bike	15:15
T2: Bike-to-run	13:11