It’s been almost 2 weeks since IM Florida but I am just getting to my second post about the experience. My friends and family know about the big personal issues going on for me. It was a lot to deal with while training for Ironman with the broken ankle. But I am finally starting to have some free time (even though I worked TWO days this week) …. And will hopefully get all caught up on my Florida adventures before Thanksgiving! And … I WILL keep the rest of these posts about the trip short. The one previously about Ironman had to be long …
I only slept from about 11pm until 3:30 am and then had some coffee and started putting away all my triathlon gear. I really felt physically great (and very happy about my great race), just a little quad soreness when going down steps. Walking on flat ground felt fine. The Ironman store at the Athletes Village would open at 7 am with official “finisher” gear available. I really liked my shirt/hoodie and hat I got at the finish line but wanted to see what else was available.
It was less than a mile walk from the condo and it was another perfect day.
I bought a shirt, hat and mug, and for the first time ever got my medal engraved (it was included in my Nirvana package).
There wasn’t the “rush” for merchandise I was warned about so I didn’t really need to be there at 7. The awards ceremony breakfast wouldn’t start until 9 but I was very content just sitting in the shade and resting.
I was VERY excited to have finished as I wanted to claim a spot to go to the World Championship in Nice, France in September, 2025. For the last 3 years the men’s and women’s WC has alternated between Nice and Kona, Hawaii. The Kona spots are very desirable as that is THE race even a non-sports fan has heard of (or even seen the annual NBC broadcast).
For the last 2 years when I have volunteered and gone to the awards ceremony and WC slot allocation the Kona spots went very quickly but the Nice spots did not. In fact, after the roll down thru the age groups there were spots still left even after the “any finisher who wants to go to Nice … ?”
As there were 75 spots available for the men for Nice (only 45 for women for Kona). I Assumed I would get one. But…. As soon as they started offering them…. They were snapped up very quickly. In my age group there were only 4 spots and they only went down to the 6th finisher. In the bigger age groups with 10 spots none went below 20th finisher. I did note that most were taken by Europeans and South Americans who made up a much larger percentage of IM Florida than at Lake Placid where it was almost totally Canadians and Americans.
Alex felt very badly for me … they said “why not do Lake Placid next year to get a spot to Nice!” Ah, the endless optimism of youth.
I really was not planning to do another full Ironman for at least 3 years until I realized Nice was possible (I won’t be able to ever qualify for Kona unless I am still racing at 75).
It is ok though. I have a busy race season for next year anyway. I have the Tokyo Marathon in March, Buffalo Marathon in May and then 2 long course AquaBike races and 2 Ironman 70.3 races.
The best part of the awards ceremony was that the 2 super fluffy huskies I had seen on the race course were there and I got to pet them.
It was only 1pm when we got back to the condo but I was exhausted and napped for 3 hours.
Then we did GrubHub and watched the sun set!
It takes a village! Really! I want to thank my Coach Mark Wilson , my massage therapist Nick, My swim coaches at Nickle City Splash, the people at StretchLab, my personal trainer Melissa, and my therapist.
Without their help I don’t think I could have finished IM Florida, much less a PR and 11 of 50 in my age group! Especially with having to deal with no running until September after the ankle fracture.