Unlikely Ironman
By Cathy Morgan
5.15.01 (www.slowtwitch.com)

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Cathy Morgan is not a beginner, and hers was not a race for beginners. My wife, JulieAnne White, coaches Cathy, and at my request JulieAnne asked Cathy to share her story. Cathy is not a pro. Far from it. But it may serve to inspire any of you who wonder, "Can I complete the difficult race for which I'm training?"

PRELUDE

Dropping out of the 2000 Ironman California was easy. Perhaps too easy. Yes, I had been sick on the bike for 20 miles and couldn’t keep anything but water down, but how many people finished that day who were also sick? More than a few. This didn’t sit well with me later, so I signed up for the 2001 version. But then late last summer I traded emails with a couple of Aussies who were going to Taupo [Ironman New Zealand, 2.4mi swim, 112 mi bike, 26.2mi run at Lake Taupo on the North Island] and heard it was a fabulous trip. The course was supposed to be beautiful, without the big hills of IM Cal, so along with Aussies Mike and Simon, and my friends Steve and Jane, I found myself signed up for Ironman New Zealand.

What I hadn’t counted on was the law firm I work for going through a big merger and having to work a lot of extra hours the couple of months prior to the race. That and two business trips to the East Coast in January made training tough, but I caught a lucky break with the weather and only missed one weekend bike ride to weather. So, with a better base than in 2000, a lot more confidence on the bike and this fortune in my fortune cookie at dinner shortly before I left ("If you think you can, you can."), I was on the plane to New Zealand.

THE TRIP AND THE RACE WEEK

The trip there was a little crazed. Lots of rain in Northern and Southern California, coupled with the fact that my parents’ flight from Kansas City to Los Angeles was late, meaning they missed our New Zealand flight, made me just a little stressed. I got to my seat and of course, all the overhead bins were full. I guess I shut the bin a little too hard because a really nice guy in the row behind me told me there was room a little further back. Then, when the flight attendant sat someone in one of the seats where my mom and dad were supposed to be sitting, I asked her, "Does this mean my parents will not make this flight?"

Frustration levels were high and I was thinking that hitting something or someone probably wouldn’t be the best idea, so instead, I cried. (Better to look silly than be arrested.) The flight attendant went to check and came back to tell me they had been put on another airline, to arrive in Auckland three hours later. Thank goodness my friend Kalpana had come out to LAX to say hi and was able to get them to the right place. Thanks K!

We finally all arrived in Auckland, got the rental car and headed out for Taupo. What a beautiful country New Zealand is! Green rolling hills, wonderful people, lots of sheep and cattle, forests and did I say green? Just gorgeous. Driving was fun too. I actually had no problems driving on the "wrong" side of the road and car or dealing with the roundabouts as I’d driven in Ireland previously. The biggest thing was that I kept turning on the windshield wipers when I wanted to turn on the turn signal. My mother found this very amusing. After a stop for lunch (do we tip or not?), we arrived in Taupo Tuesday afternoon.

We found the B&B and greeted old friends and met the rest of the house. Gillies Lodge has nine rooms and every single room either housed an athlete or supporter of someone racing. Four people had completed at least one IM, I had started one, and the other six people were IM rookies. That made for a really great atmosphere. We all give a big thanks to Gerry and Kay English for running a wonderful place, helping to keep us all sane and keeping the coffee flowing in the mornings.

Tuesday evening a group of us went down to the lake for what I thought was just a swim of part of the course. I got there and found out that it was a "race"—either 1,000 or 3,200 meters. It was timed and for a token $2NZ (charity fund raiser), you did get to swim most of the course. I was a bit rushed getting the wetsuit on, it was warm, I was sweating. You get the idea. No, the wetsuit wasn’t fully pulled up, I was jet lagged and I had no idea where the exact 1,000 meter course was.

So, I just followed some people and about a half an hour later, the current was pushing me away from the finish. I got out thinking, "Geez, if I swim like this on Saturday, the swim will take over two hours!" But, the lake was fabulous. Not cold and so clear––you could see all the way to the bottom the entire way. Saw a couple of friends from San Francisco, met another online friend from Australia, and won one of the spot prizes. A great start!

Wednesday was a short run, some shopping, meeting friends for lunch and then later, a ride of part of the course, including what everyone said was the worst hill. Thursday was registration and the bike check. We drove the full bike course and that evening was the Parade of Nations (we watched and took pictures instead of marching) and then the carbo dinner. Greg Welch spoke and said to have fun and remember why you are doing the Ironman. He also talked about a friend of his who had done the race in 2000, but passed away not long after. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place. Friday was the athletes’ meeting and bike and bag drop off. We drove the run course, then stopped at the local shop to buy drinks and snacks and on impulse, bought a lottery ticket. We walked out of dinner Friday night and it was starting to drizzle. The drizzle turned to rain and it was still raining when I fell asleep.

RACE DAY

Slept great and woke up ten minutes before the alarm went off. The rain had stopped, but while we were eating breakfast it started up again. Pulled out the cycling rain jacket to take with me. I felt much more calm than before IM Cal and about 5:30 AM, we headed down to the start. I’d covered my bike computer the day before, but not the saddle. Bad idea. I won’t let this happen again. Pumped tires, filled water bottles, stuck the cycling jacket in the T1 bag, got body marked and found Jane. As we were walking down to the start, her husband Robert asked what was on our calves. I had an FE on mine and Jane said, "You are already iron." Another good omen. Got the wetsuit on (fully pulled up this time) and just before we went down to the water, mom and dad found us. Headed to the water, did a short warm up, and with a huge bang from the cannon, we were off.

THE SWIM

My goal for the swim was to be under 1:45. Not a speedy time, but I barely had 15,000 meters total of swimming since December since swimming is the hardest thing to fit into my schedule, and decent pools in San Francisco are hard to come by.

After IM Cal, I knew I could swim at least three miles with no problem, so we had put the most emphasis on the bike. Someday I’ll work on swim speed.

We swam about 1,600 meters straight along the shore to a boat, turned right to form the bottom of the rectangle, then swam back 1,600 meters to the mouth of the river, turning again right and into the channel to the finish. The first 1,600 meters were good. Caught a peek at my watch and was pleased with the time. The second 1,600 meters were not so good. Somehow, instead of swimming a straight line, I headed out towards the middle of the lake—twice. The first time, a girl in a kayak put me back on course, but somehow I got off track again. The girl said, ‘I’ll just stick with you until you get yourself sorted out." Thanks!

We got to the channel, and the last 600 meters were great. People on their boats cheering and the channel was a deep water channel so you couldn’t see the bottom at all. Just a lot of really blue water. Got pulled out at the finish and ran up the steps to the transition area and found that my friend Judy and I came in within seconds of each other. Time: 1:44, under goal, happy with that. T1: 8:26.

THE BIKE

As a Clydesdale, big hills kill me, but, in my world, what has to go up gets to come down really fast. Luckily, this was a flat to rolling bike course with some good stretches of flat and my goal for the bike was 8:00. I got on the bike and took off through town, with people lining both sides of the streets. Got out to the "big hill" and sat back and spinned up it, feeling great.

I’d decided to not wear the rain jacket as it was just cloudy, but not raining. Perfect weather really. I had on a jersey and arm warmers and felt fine. I tried to ride hard on the flats and downhills, but not too hard. Passed a few folks and played leap frog with Vicki from the Philippines. About halfway out to the turnaround on the first lap, I passed John and Judy Collins and John Collins said, "It’s an honor to be passed by Cathy Morgan." (Note: IM NZ gives you bumper sticker sized stickers with your name on it to put on your numbers, so it was really weird to have people shouting out your name. Do I know them? Oh, my name is plastered across my chest/back.)

I had a smile on my face for the entire bike ride and it was so fun to see everyone I know on the course multiple times. Heading back towards town on the first lap, a guy who had just come through town said, "Wait until you ride through town. It’s brilliant." He was right—the streets were lined with people, cheering as you went by. Saw my mom and waved at her and headed out on the second lap. Time for the first lap—3:30 (Wow! Faster than my entire half-Vineman bike split).

I hit the big hill on the second lap and it wasn’t as fun, but about halfway up was Jane’s husband Robert shouting encouragement which was a big lift. Stopped at the special needs stop to swap out drink bottles (Extran—works great), but nothing else in there looked at all appetizing so I shed the arm warmers and kept going. The second lap was almost as fun as the first. I passed a few more people, but did slow down on the last 5K of the out and back (definitely uphill). Also, it had begun to warm up a bit, not a lot, but the sun also came out. One thing that happened on the bike is that I dropped my bottle of Extran on the way out to the turnaround the second time, so I had to go to the drink on the course (PB). This may have been the start of my downfall. Once we turned off the out and back, all that was left was the fast downhill back into town and by this time, I was ready to be finished as the bottoms of my feet were burning. Time: 7:30, well under goal. Woo whee, was I jacked! T2: 6:35.

THE RUN

Oh my God, who took my legs? I left the transition area at a walk, drinking, with my dad trotting along the fence. I got to the street and tried to run, but there were lumps of cement where my legs used to be. What is up with this? In all the bricks I did in training, the runs were faster after cycling than the stand-alone runs.

My legs finally loosened up and I began a very slow run. The run course has hills and is actually quite cruel. You leave T2, which is about a half mile down the road from T1/finish, and have to run BACK to T1/finish and around, then you run along the lake and out towards the airport. It’s great for spectators, since they see you either four or six times, depending on which side of T2 they are at, but for the slower runners, it was a bit demoralizing as each time you passed the T1/finish, they gave you a colored bracelet and seeing people with two bracelets (meaning they were on their way to the finish), when you only had one was not fun.

Again, it was great to see all your friends multiple times and I cannot say enough about the people of Taupo who came out to cheer everyone on the entire day (and night). I swear, if I had $1 for every time time someone said, "Good on ya" or "Brilliant effort", I could have paid for this year’s and next year’s trips. The crowd support was one of the highlights of the day. I continued on, run-walk-run-walk, and turned off on the Rainbow Point leg (through a residential area). Here people had brought out tables and chairs and drinks and food and were making a day of it. It was here on my first lap, that I saw my friend Mike as he was headed towards the finish, but he stopped and asked how I was feeling and said, "You’re going to do it." That was a bright spot. I saw everyone I knew at least once on the run, which was great. And, my fast friends actually drove out on the course after they finished to give me a shout. That was very cool.

I finished the first lap and headed out for the second lap with lots of time and in fact, was probably running a little faster on the second lap. I saw Jane and we both mentioned that we just might negative split this marathon. Wishful thinking. I was still doing the run-walk thing, walking the uphills and running the downhills and flats, feeling good and then with 10K to go, it hit. PB backlash? Long day? Something else? Who knows. All I know is that there weren’t enough portaloos on the course and that they weren’t close enough together. I had a lengthy stop at the next aid station, and from that point on, my pace slowed dramatically. I also had to stop a couple more times and was doing more walking than running.

I had my own cheering section from about 3K to the finish, though at this point, I was definitely NOT chatty, but just wanted to finish. I got to the street in front of the finish area and Steve Wyle had come out to look for me since my mother was getting nervous (thanks again Steve). IM Canada announcer Steve King was also there and said, "Only 400 meters to go. You’ve got it made." I went down and around the corner and there was the finishing chute. I ran down the chute and there were so many people in the stands, cheering and throwing confetti. It was incredible. I crossed the tape at 16:50, relief that it was over, not the overwhelming emotion like I’d pictured on many a run. Mom and dad were at the finish, and just beyond the fence were Steve and Liza Wyle, Jane and Robert Fratesi, Simon Haigh and Mike Bundy. Seeing all of them just added to the experience. Thanks guys. Run goal: Finish. Time first half: 3:23 Second half: 3:51.

They took me into medical for the mandatory weighing, then made me lay down for about 15 minutes and took my vitals. They finally let me go, and as we were walking to the car, a guy came up and said he had been cheering out on the course and wanted to come down and see me finish and shake my hand. That’s the kind of people there are in New Zealand and is a huge part of what makes this race so fantastic.

AFTERMATH

Got home and showered and begin to immediately chill, so I got into bed and fell asleep pretty quick. I felt pretty good the next day and was probably walking the best of anyone in the house. I think that getting a massage and sitting in the thermal pools really helped get the soreness out of my legs. In fact, my worst problem was saddle sores. Never again will the bike have a chance to get wet or will I wear cycling shorts under the wetsuit. No way.

Something very cool happened two days after the race. We had gone out to Prawn Park (yes, they raise prawns and then you can eat them in the restaurant) and a woman came up and congratulated me on my race. She said she had seen me finish and wanted to say congratulations. She and her husband (who raced) had come over from Switzerland and we agreed that the race, the country and the people were wonderful. This happened again the next day in the pharmacy when the pharmacist said she seen me finish and wanted to congratulate me. Again, just a snapshot of why this is such a great race and place.

Lastly, at no point during the day did I ever think that I was not going to finish; only when I would finish. On the second lap of the run, I just wanted the race to be over so I could stop and not have to do it again. But, the next day I was ready to do it again and planning how to go faster. See you in Taupo in 2002.

P.S. We doubled our money on the lottery ticket.