Grace's First Ironman

I really had no idea what to expect on the day of my very first ironman and in the week leading up I had been racked with nerves. I checked and re-checked my nutrition plan. My brain seemed to be working overtime and double time as I mentally went through the course.
I had broken it up in to small sections and constantly went over each. Mostly, I was trying to figure out what to do if I panicked in the swim, should I:

Breathe deeply (as Chrissie my sister told me).

Practice my Shakespeare lines (as my acting agent told me - and by the way, don't laugh, it works quite well!).

Make sure I don't end up on the inside ropes of the course where apparently everyone would squash me!

Don�t stop or I�d get �swum over..�

Flip over on my back and do �backstroke� and have a look around me�

Jump on someone�s feet to get a good draft from them (surely with 1600 people in the water there is a fairly decent draft anyway?!)

Make sure my right arm is catching water properly/pull my tummy in/imagine I am in a bubble ��all this and only thinking about the swim! I decided that by the time I had done some, or all of the above my panic attack would have to be over! My swim in Tasmania had scared the life out of me and it strange how things work out as someone once told me that,

�Your greatest fears have already happened.�


I wake up for breakfast at 2am. (This later set a very annoying body clock for about four days waking up at 2am and not being able to sleep!) It wasn�t really the most civilised breakfast; � most of a water bottle with 4 to 5 scoops of HI-5 e-source and 3 pieces of toast with vegemite. Wow, I can�t believe it is nearly race morning and I wonder if I will get back to sleep. Miraculousy, I do and suddenly it is 4:15am and I jump up out of bed. I cover my face and body with the most long-lasting sunscreen I have and sip from my water bottle and nibble a protein bar.

I grab the gear bag I had prepared the night before and sneak in to say goodbye to Billy, John and Mum. (not all in the same bed don�t worry!) Outside, the air is completely still and I hope it will be similar to this on the bike later on. I get to the car and notice a piece of paper on the windscreen. It is a note, a beautiful little good luck letter from John, encouraging me in all the ways I need. The fact that he was there with Billy and Mum meant so goddamn much to me. Its funny how you do these things and challenge yourself but if you don�t have your loved ones to share it with you at the end of the day whether it be at the race or at home later, then what is the point? I nearly cried and I hadn�t even left home yet�.. it was gonna be a big day! I jump in the car and suddenly think �What if I haven�t got my wetsuit and goggles in my bag? (even though I had checked this at least 5 times the night before). I pull over to check, of course they are there. A car goes past me � hmmm, they must be ironman people too ..I wonder how they feel I and it all seems a little surreal.

As I walk to the marquee and go to my bike the video cameras are in my face, as I am one of the �featured athletes.� The producer had told me that they would be specifically watching me at the swim start as they knew my history for freaking out and that I would be terribly nervous � GREAT, just what I needed. (Was I supposed to wave at them or pretend they weren�t there?? I wasn�t too sure so I did both!) I readied my nutrition bars and gels, checked my tires, checked my cadence worked, checked my speedo, checked my wheels weren�t rubbing on brakes, wiped down the seat, checked my heart rate monitor was working, checked my bidons were ready��my gosh is that everything� then I checked it all all over again!!!! Off to the portaloos. I couldn�t believe how massive the lines were (or the smell). The portaloos at an ironman start really are the definition of �shitting yourself!� One guy who took really, really long, recieved a cheer from us all waiting � he quickly ducked away, however the poor thing soon found himself walking past us again for another cheer as he had forgotten his water bottle!

I recieved some great advice from Jodie Morris: �it doesn�t really matter where you start in the swim, it just depends who the people are around you as to how �roughed up� you will be.� Before I knew it, we were in the water and the gun had gone. Remarkably for the first 30 seconds I didn't really get hit; there were people very close, but no hitting. Then it got worse. I tried to focus on relaxing when I could and just �getting through� the times when I was getting hit or pushed under. Wayne Gale gave me a great piece of advice to remember in ironman,

�there are going to be times when you feel like crap and just get through them � and enjoy the times when you feel good.�

Before long I felt myself up against something.. uh oh, it was the ropes�but I was okay and not getting squashed - cool! Before long I was at the end corner and up against the ropes. I received a lovely surprise, everyone in front of me on the inside stopped swimming � so I did too, and lo an behold we held on to the ropes as we were whirled around the corner by everyone else as if we were in a washing machine! No one told me about this I thought, as our heads bobbed up and down!! How cool, but we were back to swimming in a matter of seconds. One lap was soon down � I always start to feel good at about the 1900m mark so I started swimming a bit more strongly. I headed for home thinking its okay, you probably have not done a good time, if its 1hr 20 that is fine, or even more I had survived the swim. I waded out and saw 1hr18 on the clock � oh, okay I thought�. Then I looked closer 1:08 My GOSH, A Personal Best! I giggled to myself as I remembered my Tasi swim for half the distance had taken 1:01!!

On to the bike. On the way out of transition I heard people yelling �MOUSTAKAS� I was sure there could only be one, and that he was from the best bike shop in town .. YES, It was Anthony coming out of the swim transition just in front of me on his pink Giant bike too! How exciting! I chased him down and we giggled all the way out of transition, trying to stay together where the photographers were to get a picture! Then I reached for my drink bottle and promptly dropped it. Shit.. I knew it was hot and it was VITAL for me to drink drink drink drink today. It was also carrying some of my energy but I worked it out that the next drink station was close enough. I had broken the ride into 30k intervals thanks to John Hill and was only allowed to think of one at a time � checking my nutrition, heart rate and that I was drinking enough all the time. The bike ride was fun.. highlights included�..

#�GO PINKY GO PINKY� being yelled at me from Steven G, my sisters boyfriend � I couldn�t work out what he was doing behind me as he is a good swimmer. �What the hell are you doing back here I yelled?�

# Riding past all my family and friends � YAY I smiled and they yelled SOO LOUDLY!

# Riding off the road into the fence as I didn�t turn fast enough at the Coomba Park Road turnaround�spot the beginner hey!

# Panicking at the end because I didn�t think I had eaten enough and taking in a couple of squirts of my emergency food drink bottle (I later worked out this would have been equivalent to too many carbohydrate all at once and probably caused my tummy problems later in the run � silly, silly me)

The last 10k of the bike hurt me and I think I slowed a lot � there was a head wind and it just seemed tougher but I made it into transition. As I got off my bike my head spun and I had a fleeting terrifying moment that I was about to faint� If I fainted would they let me still finish??� DON�T FAINT GRACE, just find your transition bag. I grabbed it and felt like I was tiptoeing into transition. On to the run. Ohhh I didn�t feel so good but I had a pace I wanted to do for the first 5k loop and though it felt yukky I stuck to it for the first 5k. Then my tummy started gurgling and cramping. I was looking for a portaloo and couldn�t see one. Hmmm no bushes either although, there were gardens - but there were people in them watching the race. I don�t think they would appreciate me pooing on their rose bushes but I honestly didn�t really care too much at that point. Needless to say, I found lots of portaloos and lots of cars and bushes and trees to hide behind � no one else in the race cared � they were all in their own world of hurt. The middle 20k were not good and especially with the cameras on me I didn�t really want to finish the race in a smelly state. My goals changed from doing my pace, to making sure I finished. Maybe it was a good thing as I may have �blown up� anyway had I stuck to my pace?? I will never know.

It was as I was feeling this horrendous that a group of guys yelled out�.

�You�re Hot���

I couldn�t believe they could think that now and yelled so back at them.

They just laughed and returned �What r u doing later on?�

Oh my god I thought�.. Men!!!!� I couldn�t help it but called out,

�Dunno, I was thinking of going for a run!�

Funny how little things like that amuse you in a race.

The last 16k of the run was much better. My stomach had settled, though I was still forcing gels down and nearly vomiting as I ate them. It became a little cooler and I was becoming confident that I was really going to finish and I was excited � I couldn�t believe that this was it!!!

I made my way to the finish picking up the pace in the last few kilometers. I knew Billy was going to be there and I wanted to run with him. The crowd was literally roaring and atmosphere was absolutely electric!. I spotted Billy and he sprinted toward me and the crowd cheered more. (Oh shit, I thought, as for a second he was going to try to jump into my arms and that would have been a disaster as my legs clearly weren�t up to it!) But we turned around and ran together for the line. I couldn�t stop looking at his face - he had the biggest grin on and this cute little blue hat and he was yelling �mummy we won we won.� I grabbed his hand and really, really couldn�t stop looking at him. BEST MEMORY EVER.

We got over the line and I couldn�t stop kissing him. Mum, John Jodie and Billy were all there kissing and hugging. I couldn�t believe it was over. I had done it!!! I had bloody done it! I had been dreaming all week about the race and kept waking up realizing and worrying that the race was still ahead of me and I was terrified right now that I would wake up and I still have the whole race to do!!!!!! IT was awesome! Then I was interviewed and John Hill and Mona and Steven came over and John said he was proud and I had done a decent enough time for me and it was all a bit overwhelming!

So what now? I am still learning so much about myself from this sport. I am more passionate about it than I have been anything else for a long time. (Obsessed I suppose you are thinking and you are probably right!)

I have set my sites on Korea. Someone told me when you know you want to do something you get a buzz and I really have that buzz about about Korea. 135 days. I will get to train with incredible people, get to push myself, learn how to motivate myself, be inspired by others and smile. I�ll enjoy food when I�m really hungry, showers when I�m really sweaty and bed when I�m exhausted. I know, it will be a cold winter and some times I�ll wonder what I�m doing and go up and down the motivation rollercoaster but most times, I�ll enjoy it. Whatever happens, I will try to remember it is all a gift, and just like in the race and as in life, get through the shit times and enjoy the good ones!

OHHH now I have gone all sentimental. If you had asked me after doing the Port Macquarie Long course which was four weeks before Forster, I didn�t even think I would make it to race Forster let alone finish and to finish well. Although I never gave up on myself.

Oh yeah � and I have since firmly decided that cameras or no cameras I am not toilet stopping in Korea! My sister Fiona had great joy in telling me that our sister Caroline had said that the �poo thing happens to lots of people� and �Robert De Costella just kept on running.� GRRR if its good enough for Deeks, its good enough for me. So this is a warning to all those unfortunate to watch me running marathons in the future � I didn�t get the nickname Gracie-pops during toilet training as a toddler for nothing!!