–noun
1.the fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships, etc.
2.the ability or strength to continue or last, esp. despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina: He has amazing physical endurance.
3.lasting quality; duration: His friendships have little endurance.
4.something endured, as a hardship; trial.
Yesterday I raced my first half Ironman triathlon which consists of a 1.2mile swim, 56mile bike, and a 13.1mile run. It was definitely an endurance event, both physically and mentally, and in many ways I crossed the finish line a different person. What follows is a peek into what I endured that day.
I awoke just before 4am to eat and do a quick shake-loose run. I was up before my alarm because I had been waking up periodically throughout the night. I don’t generally get nervous before races but, even though it’s never happened to me before, I have a huge fear of sleeping through my alarm. I stepped out of my hotel room and even in the dark I could tell the sky was overcast. Still, the weather was pretty calm. The forecast for the day seemed to change hourly - such is the nature of the weather. I did a quick jog and forced down a good amount of food knowing I would be racing for at least 5 hours and would need those calories at some point in the day.
I got to the race at 6 and got my stuff set up in the transition area. I was early enough that only the race volunteers and a few of the athletes dotted the transition area. As the light gray of a cloudy morning sky began to seep into and overtake the darkness of night, more and more athletes entered the transition area to get set up and mill around nervously until the start of the race. I, however, had decided not to be nervous even though this was twice as long as any other triathlon I had done. I had trained for 8 months, so I felt well prepared. Plus, a half Ironman is long race and anything can happen out there. There are so many things that are out of your control no matter how well prepared you are, so I figured, why waste my energy worrying?
The race starts at 7:30 and I run into the water knowing that this is my weakest of the three disciplines. Now, I'm a pretty mediocre swimmer, but this swim was awful. I only got kicked in the face once, but I was having trouble sighting and apparently I wasn't swimming very fast either. With everyone swimming together and stirring the lake into a frenzy, I felt like a rickety wooden ship stuck in a hurricane. When we made the turn around the final buoy, I was so happy to see the swim finish getting closer. I trudged out of the water and was relieved to be back on the beach, but when I looked at my watch and realized that I was 8 minutes behind where I wanted to be, that suddenly drug my relief into the pit of my stomach and planted it there as the uncomfortable feeling of dread. Right then I knew that I was really going to have to hammer on the bike and have a perfect run to reach my goal of breaking 5 hours. I came out of the water 408th out of 600+ people (including teams). I ran into transition, cracked my sunglasses putting them on, grabbed my bike and was off.
It had rained a little while we were swimming, so the roads were wet for about the first 10 miles, but I knew that I didn't have the time to spare to take it easy for the sake of safety. This is, after all, a race. I exited the park and there was a big downhill followed by a long flat. There was a line of bikes that stretched out quite literally as far as I could see. I tried to stay calm and remember that there was still a lot of racing left to do, so I just thought to myself, “No worries. You’ll just have to pass them.” The first 5 miles were pretty flat, but that was the only easy part of this, "challenging," bike course. It was pretty hilly the whole way. In fact, we had to ride up what felt like a vertical wall at about mile 16. The only good thing about bombing the swim was that I was constantly passing people on the bike, which was a great confidence booster - especially during the later stages of the bike when I was tired and it was hard to focus. The first 20 miles or so went by pretty easily; I was keeping a good pace with little effort and was really able to attack the hills. There was a stretch from about mile 25 to mile 40 where we had a pretty stiff headwind, and I really had to push to hold my pace. By mile 45 I was getting really tired and was ready to get off the bike and on to the run which, as a runner, I figured would be a piece of cake. At about mile 50 my legs started cramping a little bit, but I only had that big hill back in to the park and the bike was over. I held an average pace of just over 20mph to finish the bike leg in 2:45. During the bike I had passed over 200 people to come off in 178th place.
The clouds were beginning to break and the sun was making it hot and humid, so I threw off my jersey, slipped on my shoes, and was off for the last 13.1 miles of this 70.3 mile adventure. I came off the bike with a total time of about 3:30 and knew that if I had a perfect run that I could still hit my goal. I had some side cramps right away, but that's pretty usual for me when running off the bike, and I just hoped they would go away as I settled in to my pace. I was still on target through about 4 miles, running about 6:45 pace, but then everything began to unravel. My pace slowed to a couple 7:30's and then I decided to walk through the aid stations to make sure I was getting enough fluids since the course was all sun and heat now. I quickly realized that it was too late and that I was dehydrated and had gone out too fast on the run. Luckily the heat had turned the run into a death march for everyone, so I was still passing people pretty regularly. This helped to keep my spirits up a bit but I was still going too slow; it was hard to deal with the fact that I knew I could run faster but my body just wouldn't respond. My right knee started to hurt, then my quads started to cramp up, and finally my calves knotted into wood in my lower legs and slowed me to a couple of 9 minute miles. There were so many people walking, but I just couldn't let myself do it. I knew I was not going to make my goal time, but I trained for 8 months and drove 5 hours to race - to see what I could do - and I was going to give it everything I had. I managed to force myself back down to 8 minute pace and drug myself to the finish line. My run time was 1:46 (just over 8 minute pace), for a total time of 5:21 and a final place of 103rd.
As I lay in the grass, my quads twitching with spasms and my calves knotted into solid blocks of wood, I stared at the wisps of thin white clouds painted against a blue summer sky and marveled at what my body was able to endure. Sure, I was sore and tired, but I had just traveled a total of 70.3 miles by swimming, biking, and running. I traveled 70.3 miles under my own power and I did it in less than five and a half hours. It’s amazing to realize what my body was able to do and exciting to think about what else I might be capable of. What are the limits of the human body? Every time I tackle a new challenge or distance I think I get closer to finding out.
