Ironman Sacramento
I haven’t really posted much about my race last week because Daniel did such a nice job describing things in his post race report. However, many have asked and I’ve been reflecting on it a lot so I’d thought I’d share…. all I can say is that shit was hard. Now I know Ironmans aren’t supposed to be easy (lol otherwise I probably wouldn’t do it), but I chose this course because it was supposed to be “flat & fast” and I was really gunning for a sub 12 hour race. I had been working my butt off and going into it, I felt strong and was super excited for a great day. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans. The weather was chilly to start, in the low 40s and topped out around 70 at 1pm. The winds were over 20mph with gusts over 35mph making for a VERY challenging bike ride and run. It became quite evident early on that this was not going to be the race I had hoped for. I had to readjust my goals and by the end, it was a fight to get to the finish.
The course itself was interesting to say the least. Ironman always throws in some extra challenges at each event to kind of keep you on your toes and the post swim 1 mile run on cold cement though a park and across a highway to a sports stadium to get my bike definitely made for an interesting and looooong transition. The bike course itself was narrow and very technical. The roads were also elevated and had 2-3 foot drops on either side so when I flew off my bike at mile 107, I landed in a gravel ditch that I had to literally crawl my way out of. This was a soul crushing ride that left me feeling rather defeated. By the time I got to the run, I didn’t have much left to give; especially around miles 11-21. These 10 miles were through an unlit park filled with many homeless villages. I had no idea where I was going or where I was stepping and I was stressed for most of it. When I finally made it back into the city of Sacramento and into some sort of light, I was eager to get my ass to that finish line and hear Mike Reilly say the words “Keri Mandell- you are an IRONMAN”.
I battled, wanting to quit during that race. How easy it would have been to tap out, get driven back to the finish and then to my hotel, take a nice hot bath, and eat real food… but I am no quitter. When life gets hard I don’t throw in the towel. When obstacles are in my path I don’t turn back. No, I hit that shit head on and I figure out a way over them. So I’m pretty confident that this race was preparing me for bigger shit to come and I welcome it.
Ironman is hard. Life is hard. And things never really go as planned. But you have two choices… you can push through and overcome your challenges or you can give up and stay inside your comfort zone and have a pity party for yourself. For me, this is never an option. I choose to perservere and fight through obstacles in my way because that’s how we learn and grow. If you want to overcome challenges in life, you need to learn from these experiences. Once you have them under your belt, you can redirect your course of action to yield greater success. No effort, no matter how small is ever wasted when you’ve invested time into improving yourself.
So while the race didn’t go as planned I am truly grateful for the learning experience and will definitely use it to yield better results in the future.