The day has come to head out to Ironman Boulder! I loved the timing of this race. I could do almost all the training while the boys were in school. I spent a lot of time training while Miles took a nap and lucky for me, Aaron was working at home still and that provided me a lot of flexibility to be able to sneak in training time.
I loved training with the Sunwarrior team this time around. I spent a lot of time doing brick rides and runs with Shaneen. I rode a lot with my client Jodi, who is amazing! Running with Steph provided hours of quality run training. It was a great training ride for this race. My longer rides (100+ miles) I did going out to Zion National Park and over Utah hill towards Vegas. I was proud of myself for doing these on my own and had such an adventure with them! It's the best to explore- it's so beautiful around here!!
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| Laying everything out and getting it packed up! It always amazes me how much it takes to get to the finish line! |
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| Watching Aaron on an airplane is hilarious to me. He's a big man, living in a tiny world. |
We made it to Boulder! Merilee was so awesome to come out to Utah early to watch our kids for us so we could go on this "anniversary" trip. Luckily I married a supportive man who watched and cheered me on during the Ironman for our 13th anniversary.
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| Most of the SunWarrior team together listening to the pre-Ironman show. So many inspiring stories! |
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| Checking in! It was pretty crazy since we got there 5 minutes after checkin time on Friday. They were closed up and had me come back the next morning to be called in. They called us in like we were in trouble at the principals office, but I made it and had everything setup for the race Saturday morning. |
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| If there is anything that the Ironman has taught me.... |
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| Shaneen and I |
The team the day before, putting down our transition area at the swim start.
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| Ian, Rick, Shaneen, me and Shawn |
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| The swim start was BEAUTIFUL! |
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| Morning of! Let's do this thing! |
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| The voice of Ironman- Mike Reilly!! |
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| T1 transition area |
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| Oh, I love this supportive hubby of mine! He walked around everywhere with me and helped me start with calm nerves. |
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| Right before getting wet-suits on and winding down the shoot to start! |
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| There is no feeling like the start of an Ironman. It's overwhelming, exciting, terrifying, exhilarating, emotional, grateful- it's such a mixed bag! I'm mostly grateful that my body is healthy enough to be doing this and I'm slightly overwhelmed at what I need to do to get to the finish line and hear Mike Reilly proclaim me an Ironman! |
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| Coming out from the swim. The swim was interesting. I about panicked within the first 400 meters. I could NOT settle down and just started panicking! Id never had that experience before. I don't know if the altitude made it harder to breath or the nerves got to me, but I kept going and repeating in my head that I was going to be fine. Finally, I settled in and ended feeling very happy with how things went and felt really strong. It was beautiful water! |
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| Off to the bike! |
The bike went great for the most part. It's not my favorite discipline of the 3. It was hilly and challenging but had some fast and super scenic parts. I was happy with how it went. 3 loops was mentally hard, but it was neat to see the pros lap and watch in amazement at what they are able to do! My arms started killing me at the end- I was surprised by how tired they got from holding onto the bars. I was happy to be off the bike and on to the run for SURE by the end. 114 miles (2 miles over the expected distance) was taxing!
I can't say I loved the run. WHAT A STRUGGLE. Getting to the mileage signs and knowing I had 20 some crazy miles to go was overwhelming. The course was mentally tough for me, because it was 2 loops in what they called the "Flux Capacitor." It was a lot of seeing the same people over and over again and long stretches in the heat. It was beautiful though! I felt myself getting crabby and just kept one foot in front of the other. I made the mistake of letting a guy pour a bucket of water over me about 10 miles in and it soaked my shoes and socks. NO BUENO. I was worried about chafing really bad, but luckily I didn't end up with too many problems with that. My stomach decided to revolt with about 5 miles to go. Everytime I ran I had a nasty side cramp. This is my only regret, was not pushing through this a little more. I really wanted a 4 hour marathon time, but the last few miles got me. I had passed all the other team members early on in the run and didn't have anyone else to chase or push me, so I feel like I have a little bit of unfinished business with the run, but I did the best I could and I'm happy with the result! I finished feeling healthy and great (and extremely tired!).
When Mike O'Reilly called me across as "Cera Edgley, mother of 3 boys- YOU ARE AN IRONMAN," my heart was bursting with gratefulness! The Ironman is such a struggle, but to come out of it after fighting your demons, it's pretty fantastic. The hours of training and challenge come to fruition and it's all worth it!
I fought with some nausea and side cramps afterwords, but after eating some pizza and fruit, I started feeling much better. We waited for the rest of the crew to come in. The boys came in next and a few hours later Shaneen made it across the finish line. It was great to all be together, supporting one another as a team.
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| Stretching those sore muscles is my specialty! |
Team SunWarrior came and conquered!
After we were all in, Shaneen gave us a bit of a scare and landed in the medical tent. She was having some anemia issues. I was so proud of her, but sad she was dealing with her monthly issue during the race and made her have some issues. The rest of us went to eat at Cheesecake Factory (MAN, was that tasty after all that work!) We came back right before midnight to watch the final finishers make their way in. It was an amazing experience to watch these people who had been out there for 17 plus hours fight their way into the finish. The energy is amazing!
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| These 3 sherpas were an amazing support throughout the day!! |
What an incredible experience! I'm glad I got to do it, and I'm glad to have Aaron there with me. We had our first experience with using AirBnB and had some funny memories dealing with an overfilling toilet. It added some "adventure" to the trip. I love that I get to experience so many fun things with Aaron. I'm lucky for the last 13 years with this amazing hubby of mine!
