Paula Popp's Team In Training Page
Running with endurance the race set before me...
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Welcome to my Team In Training home page.
Can you believe that in 9 months we have raised over $10,000.00? I am so pleased and proud and grateful to all of you who have been a part of this. I know that there are many worthy causes vying for your charitable giving, and I cannot express how much it has meant to me, personally, to have you give to this cause which is so close to my heart.
Now, on to the update about my HALF IRONMAN RACE!!! For those who have already heard, or are "just the fact ma'am" types, just skip to the last paragraph where you will learn that I finished the race (but will seriously miss some good laughs!) But now, for the color commentary...
I decided to go on to the half-ironman shortly before going to do Lavaman. My greatest concern was making sure I could finish since they had an 8 hour time cut-off, with time limits for each leg of the race. My coach told me to double my Lavaman time and add 30 minutes to estimate my Half-Iron time. Well, that put me at about 7 1/2 hours to finish. A little close for comfort, but I felt I could do it. Jump ahead 10 weeks to June 15, 2007...
Bright and early on Friday morning our team, led by our gregarious and competent campaign manager, Nari, boarded the Victoria Clipper, bound for the land of "Eh?" It was a cold and misty morning, but a beautiful 3 1/2 hour ride none-the-less. I even spotted several orcas swimming along the port side. When we disembarked, we headed out for some lunch downtown and then met up at Hamsterly Park on Elk Lake, the site of the triathlon. We saw one man in a wetsuit coming out of the lake whom I asked about the water temperature. Clearly a Canadian, he said, "Oh, the water's fine, eh?" Probably the water in Canada doesn't reach more than 60 degrees in the hottest part of the summer, so I decided not to believe him. Anyhow, while the plan was to get in the water for a swim, I don't think it took much convincing for our fearless leader, Lance, to give in and just have us familiarize ourselves with the bike route by riding one loop of it (40 kilometers - that's Canadian for about 25 miles. I hate metric.) So amidst terrible traffic, and drivers who clearly wished we weren't there (only 52 of us!) we enjoyed a beautiful ride through the countryside and town.
Then we went to check into our hotel. Okay, let me just revel in that memory for a moment. Ahhh...I was all alone walking into a hotel room which I would have all to myself for one entire night. There would not be one child fighting and asking me to run interference. There would not be someone to get annoyed when I took up the entire bed (he can be so selfish.) Okay, memory complete. I'm happy all over again.
The next morning we headed out for breakfast and then on to the race site again to do a "mini-tri". I can't even call it a sprint because it was so short. Everything felt great and after picking up my race packet and sporting my new "Half-Iron" hoodie, I was so excited to finish up and meet two of the best friends in the world who had come to see me finish this race. They were waiting at our hotel room when I arrived, looking beautiful and ready for tea at the Empress Hotel. I was looking, well, not ready for tea, but I took a fast shower and met them shortly thereafter. Tea at the Empress is something everyone should experience (except perhaps my husband who would have absolutely no interest, and my son who would love it, but the china tea sets would be in grave peril.) Okay, so back to race details!
Mandatory meeting for all race participants (600+) at the park...in the rain...in my tea attire. Then our pasta dinner to inspire us with a testimonial from one of our honored teammates and cancer survivor and to carb load. It was wonderful, but it was soon back to the hotel to try to get some sleep. I mentioned that I thought I would finish the race in less time than I had anticipated, maybe 7 hours. I was afraid to hope for it, but possibly even 6 1/2 hours. My friends were both asleep long before I was, as I fretted over making sure I'd read every word of my race packet (required, but told me absolutely nothing new) and then also making sure I had everything laid out, clothes, helmet, swim cap, goggles, and my Advocare nutrition, as well as my ibuprofen. I think I closed my eyes around 11:00 and probably slept by about 11:30. I was up at 3:30am before I got my wake-up call and started getting ready. Yes, my friends - now these are real friends - got up WITH me to come down and see me start. Amazing. We're at Hamsterly Park by 5am, unloading bikes from the truck, topping off the air in the tires, and doing last minute checks. By the way, it's cold. People are wearing hats and coats and even gloves, and we're going to be getting in the WATER! This is crazy! 5:30am the transition area opens and we head in there to get set up. I was on the "Masters Women" rack. Sounds nice, but it just means the "Old ladies' rack." I'm set up, I'm taking my Muscle Fuel, my O2 Gold and getting excited and a little nervous. About 6:30am I get in the water (which is warm compared to the air temperature!)to warm up a little. At 6:40 the horn blows for the Old Women (I mean, the Masters Women)to start swimming. Looking at the buoys, the farthest of which I could barely see made it feel like I'd be swimming a MILE. Um, oh yeah, we WERE swimming 1.2 miles (but the Canadians call it 2 kilometers, which I will take because it sounds better.) Having never done a HALF-IRON before, I was a little afraid to wear myself out on the swim and I took it rather easy. I think, in retrospect, that I would give it a little more and get that leg done faster. So my time was 49:XX and I was peeling off my wetsuit as I ran a bit dizzily to the transition area. I was on my bike in my cleats, (which I was getting used to, and hadn't fallen in recently) and off I went. The bike felt GREAT. I was keeping up a good speed overall. As I came screaming down one hill, looking at the hill I'd need to then climb, I saw another racer on the side of the road. I yelled, (as every Good Samaritan should,) "Are you okay?" I fully expected that though she probably had a flat tire, she would say, "Yeah, I'm okay." Nope. She said, "No, I'm not okay. I have a flat!" So I screeched to a halt (and didn't fall even with my new cleats) and had her come over. She brought me her wheel which she had off her bike. She was having a dickens of a time getting the tire off, so I said, "Do you have tire levers?" She responded (and here's where I got really nervous) "Is that that little blue tool?" WHAT? No, this can NOT be happening. She has NO IDEA how to change her tire. I saw the race clock turning up 8 hours with me still sitting there trying to help this lady. Fortunately, after I got it started for her and gave her a little instruction (which is a crack up in itself if you knew how lame I had been at tire-changing!) she said, "You go ride." Oh thank you GOD! (I do hope she finished.)
The bike is the place to refuel. I have been instructed in this to a fault. Lance can not bear any blame for my lack of calories on the bike. After 10 minutes of riding, I took a bite of my 210 calorie protein bar, which should be about a third to a fourth of the total calories I should consume on my bike. I took another bite a few minutes later - and inhaled part of that dry bar into my windpipe. I spent the next 30 minutes trying to cough it out and could not bring myself to take another bite. I had two "gu's," at 100 calories each, through the remainder of the ride. Grand total of calories in a 3 hour and 13 minute ride: two hundred and maybe 50? Hardly the nutrition I'd been coached to get. I felt great though. What does Lance know? I have plenty of fat reserves to get me through the run anyhow. Helmet off, runnning cap on; cleats off, running shoes on and I'm off (two loops around the 10k lake.) Did I mention that I hate metric? I'm okay at math, but do NOT ask me to run and convert kilometers to miles. It can't be done. Loop one complete (that's a lot faster than I actually did it, just so you know) and my stop watch says my total time is 5:04! Wow. This was unbelievable. I knew I could finish that loop in an hour, so as I passed by Lance, Nari, and honored-teammate, Kim, I high-fived Lance and said, "I'm gonna finish in LESS than 6 1/2 hours!" I was way ahead of my game and so pumped! I started on the second loop hearing my friends yelling wonderful things at me and confident that I'd be finished in an hour. And then it happened. I understand there is a word for this: bonked. I have never heard that word until recently, but it does a pretty good job describing my state for the last 5k. My lack of nutrition caught up with me. I had nothing with me. My stomach was growling, my blood sugar plummeting, and the water stations were out of gu. I should have taken some of the flat coke, but I had never tried it before and there are significant warnings about trying anything NEW in your stomach on race day. My left knee started throbbing and screaming, "STOP THIS, YOU IDIOT!" And so I sort of listened, which I really had no choice about, because I was about to face plant in the dirt. To prevent serious injury from flying into a tree as I passed out, I began to walk. I was getting really depressed, as my hopes of finishing in 6 hours or slightly over were dashed and I began hoping again for 6 1/2. One teammate passed by and I begged for food. She was kind enough to hand me two miniature potatoes that she had. I ate them, but they were going to take a little time to get into my bloodstream. I needed some serious sugar FAST. When I went by Nari, Lance, and Kim again, I was walking and they were yelling, "Run, Paula! You can do it!" And I cried, "I need FOOD!" Kim, (God bless that girl!) gave me a nice sugary granola bar, and I soon was running the last kilometer of the course. My ending time was 6:32:35, still a full hour faster than I'd estimated! I am very happy with it. I wish I could say that thinking about how blessed I was to have Ally still with us kept me running on no nutrition, but I just needed food.
I will not even go into the detail of my total lack of self-respect as I took a rice krispy bar off a lady's plate in line for food as I crossed the finish line and the man with the medal was trying to chase me down...
