My Ironman PR leading into this race was a 10:16 at Ironman Cozumel ‘09.

I nailed my training going into this race, and I knew I’d smash my PR.  I didn’t want to count my chickens hatched, but I’d put in the work.  I was biking 20+ mph, holding much higher wattage than last season, and forced myself to run sub-8’s on my long runs.

Race day wasn’t perfect, but it was close.  It seems that the further you move away from the event, the more you forget the pain…

The swim was a little boring.  I staying with the lead group through the first turn buoy, lost them after that, caught a male pro on the second loop, but for the most part, it was an hour of swim alone.  3-5 minutes faster on the swim and I would have been with the lead pack… Matt Russ is right, I should be swimming more.

However, with that 5-minute time gap, it was equal to 1-2 miles on the road which kept the other girls out of sight, and I was able to focus on my ride.  Two silly negatives on the ride:  1. My Garmin got some water in it on the swim.  So the top corner of it was foggy.  My Garmin had my heart rate AND power data for the ride – not so good.  It was tricky to see the numbers, but I’d do spot check every 5-10 minutes.  2.  I lost an arm pad (velcro and all) at mile 56, and chip-seal road + rough roads on the medal arm-pad – OUCH!  I got a good elbow bruise due to that one.

Coming off the bike, I was in 6th place.  In the beginning, it didn’t feel great.  I got off the bike with Paolina Allen, started the run with her.  I knew she could run and the first mile was a 7:20 as I tried to keep her in sight.  As Paolina ran out of sight, my pace was creeping up, 7:40, 7:50…somewhere between mile 7-8, I had a little, inter-personal heart-to-heart.  I told myself to focus on MY race, sub-10 hours was still within sight, not worry about the 2 girls running within a few minutes behind me, etc.  About this same time, some angel at the aid station offered me ‘Cola.’  At first, I said ‘no, too early,’ but before I had passed it by I had changed my mind grabbed the cup, and things seemed to smooth out.  Be it the caffeine or the sugars, ‘Cola’ fueled the rest of my marathon and I felt stronger as I ran…until about mile 20.  I had cameras on me for most of the final 13.1 which really helped smooth out my stride.  It gave me a little extra burst of energy having the camera by my side.  I couldn’t run poorly on TV (at least that was my thought process while I was running.)  The marathon hurt, but I ran as quickly as my stand alone marathon PR – 3:33.

I crossed the line in 9:53, my first sub-10, and in 5th place.  A 27-minute Ironman PR, HUGE!!!  Taking home $3,750, and my first (and only) real pay-day!!

A HUGE Thank you to Rev3 Triathlon.  They go above and beyond and the attention to detail is unlike anything in the market.  They CARE, and in the people business, that makes all the difference.

A HUGE Thank you to my husband, Ken Burkey, without him, none of this would be possible.

A HUGE Thank you to my Coach Matt Russ.  This was his plan.  I was just the puppet and 75% of the time, I did what I was told. To get to the next-next level, I’ll probably need to bump that percentage up.

A HUGE Thank you to Joe Domaleski.  Years ago, he told me these things were possible and that I had to potential to achieve them.  He believed before I did.  Thank you Joe.

A HUGE Thank you to Tri-PTC.  My community has backed me along my professional career, and that means so much.  It really does take a village.

Final Thank you to Splish.  I looked good out there.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.  (Looks like they are having a sale right now…)

(Rev3 Cedar Point – 2010 Photo)