The alarm went off at 4:45 am, had
breakfast and talked to mom, Raquel and Sami at the apartment. My mom was
asking about my times and how long I thought each leg would take me. I made a
prediction and told her what I thought I could do and where I should be instead
(being conservative keeping in mind a- this was my first IM and b- I had not
had a good run since my last long weekend and wanted to make sure that even not
feeling 100% healthy I could still have an ok run). After breakfast I met some
of the girls and headed down to transition, set up my nutrition and headed to
the beach start. I can still feel the rush of the morning, before I knew it I
was standing on shore waiting for the gun to go off.
At the Swim Start
I had so many friends out there
(racing and cheering) that I couldn’t feel by myself but even with all that
support and the 2800 athletes lining up next to me for a sec I tried to savor
the moment and find some ‘peace’. I knew my first IM experience would only
happen once and I wanted to make sure I could take in as much as I could.
Getting ready to line up at the start line (Thank you Haley for the wetsuit!!)
The gun went off and it was CRAZY!!
I am a swimmer and I never thought for a second that I would struggle out
there, and I didn’t, but I honestly didn’t expect so many people swimming on
top of each other, kicking you and basically trying to stop you, on top of that
it was pretty choppy so I got thrown from one side to the other. I finally
found my comfortable pace at some point after the first turn around. I got on
an easy rhythm and made it out of my first loop, got back in and went for a
second one. By the time I was heading to the swim finish I was ready to be out
of that water.
Predicted swim time: 1:00hr
Actual time: 1:00:05
Transition went a lot faster than I
expected, if you are a friend of mine on FB you know what some of my dilemma
was between using a tri kit vs bike short on the bike. I end up wearing my tri
kit and had no issues at all! I also wore my compression socks since I had ran
all my long runs with them, that is probably the one thing I thought it would
take me a bit longer but thanks to Jill Poon and her ‘how to’ video I got those
on in no time. It was pretty warm so I end up deciding against the arm warmers,
and as soon as I headed out on the bike I was glad I did that.
T1 time: 4:38
The bike was ... well long. I knew I wanted to keep my HR in
Z2, I had never ridden anymore than 4.5 hours in training so I was a bit
‘scared’ of how I’d feel once I’d be done. I knew that by being a mass start
there would be a lot of passing on the bike (as of me being the one passed).
The one thing I also expected was to see drafting out there, but OMG I didn’t
expect to see groups of 20+ riders passing me on a ‘peloton’, I am so NOT
kidding! Honestly it was pretty sad. I tried to stay in my zone and not look at
anything else other than my HR, I kept it low and steady the whole ride. Around
mile 80 I started to break the rest of the ride on smaller portions (10 miles
at a time), not because I was tired but because I was ready to start running. My
neck was getting stiff and I just wanted out! I kept my head ‘on the price’ and
tried to stay on the moment.
The last 10 miles went by pretty fast, heading back into town
just brings so many emotions. I had gone for a training ride the day before
with Sami and I recognized the scenery.
As I was heading to T2 I saw Sami, Joe, Melissa and Don cheering.. I was
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy to see them.
Coming back to T2.. ALL smiles!
Predicted bike time: 5:45-6:00hr
Actual time: 5:44:37
Handed my bike out to one of the volunteers (who by the way
were AWESOME!!) and headed to T2, grab my run bag and went to the ‘changing
tent’. It literally took me seconds to change, I think I have taken longer on
some of my sprint and Olympic distance transitions, again big part of it was
the amazing volunteers out there. As I was putting on the shoes they would put
stuff in my pockets and before I knew it I was running out the ‘run out’.
T2: 2:22
I felt pretty awesome coming off T2, especially considering
I had just biked 112 miles. I knew I needed to get into an easy pace and not
start faster than 8:30 pace. As soon as I passed the area where the Alpha
Ironman tent was with Raquel, mom, the kids and all the awesome families I
checked my Garmin and realized I was running 7:30 pace, so I slowed down. It
took me a bit to get into a consistent pace, and as soon as I did my asthma
started acting up.
At that point my mind started playing games ‘you are never
going to finish, just give up’, or ‘it is not worth it, so much easier to sit
on the side of the road’. I would have never thought my mind could be SO
NEGATIVE!, around mile 6.5-7 I had to walk to keep my breathing controlled as
well as my asthma, I needed my inhaler and I knew it wouldn’t be until mile 13
or so before I would see Sami and could ask him for it… it was tough. I wanted
to cry, I wanted to walk, I wanted to give up. Somehow that first time I only
walked for a couple of minutes max and started back up. Around mile 12 it was
getting hard to breath without the inhaler, I didn’t want to walk again and
knew I was close to where my family was.
Beginning of the second loop
As soon as I saw Sami I asked him to get the inhaler, from
that point on (approx. mile 12.5) til he brought the inhaler I was honestly
taking it one step at a time. This was probably the second lowest point of the
day, as I ran by the PT Solutions tent Dale ran with me for a little bit, I so
appreciated his words of encouragement, this are the little things that make
you realize how big of a support group you have out there and although it feels
like it, you are not alone.
Not the greatest picture of me but love that someone got this moment on a pic (Thank you Corey!!)
Sami caught up around mile 15-16, once I got the inhaler I took a couple of puffs
and started walking again with the hopes the inhaler would make its way through
my body and I could start ‘running’ soon.
It took a bit longer than expected but I was finally able to
get at it again, I couldn’t go very fast because anytime I got to a good pace my asthma would
come back, but at least I got to ‘run’ for most of the second loop. I only
walked once again at mile 20 for approx 1 min. and after that I just had one
thing in mind… ‘Carmen Brahim you are an ironman’, when I took the last turn around
and saw the Balmes family, the Homekes and everybody else out there I forgot about
all the pain, I knew I was SO close!!
Out of the thousand times I had pictured the race on my head
I never imagine I would straggle the most on the first loop on the run, I
always thought the second one would be the tough one, but somehow my second one
felt so much more doable than the first.
The final shoot is
something you have to live to appreciate. I remember last year when we all came
down to volunteer and went for a run while everybody was out on the bike
course, talking to Brian he mentioned how I needed to make sure I could soak in
the whole finish shoot, he couldn’t remember his from his first IM and that is
something he was looking forward this time around. And that I did… I was not
having the day I knew I could have, but I was having a darn good day and I was
about to enjoy the best part of it. I high five every single person I saw on
the shoot and took the time to enjoy the last minutes. I made sure I heard the
famous words and as soon as I crossed I embraced my friend Sina who was one of
the catchers. Apparently some of my friends back home who saw me cross the
finish line didn’t know I knew her and thought it was a bit weird how I just
cried my eyes out on this stranger’s arms.. well, she was no stranger. After I
calmed down she took me to where they were taking the finisher picture and then
handed me out to my family. As soon as I saw them I started baling again,
having Sami, the kids, mom and Raquel is something I will always be thankful
for, as I hugged Raquel my first words to her were ‘It was AWFUL! Don’t you
ever do it!’.
Predicted time: I honestly didn’t have one, I wanted to
think I could do it in 3:45-4:00hrs, but I also knew that this was going to be
the true test of the day and I could even end up walking the whole marathon.
Carmen Brahim you are an IRONMAN
All worth it
Run time: 4:30:01
Total Time: 11:21:43
A heck of a time for a first IM and the experience I got out
of it and what I learned is just priceless. Do I think I can do better?? Heck
YES!, but I also know that in triathlon we’ve heard so many times how there are
lots of variables that you can control and some that you can’t, unfortunately
for me there were some thrown at me that took me a bit to react to but for my
second IM (IMKY 2013... more on that later), I got some things I can improve on EVEN if I am not
having the best day out there.
