What a adventure this past few days has been.

I am going to attempt to write a race report for Sunday. I have never been very good at this stuff but I honestly made a conscious effort to take in everything on Sunday and try to remember what was going on around me so that I could tell everyone about it.

4:00 am - The alarm went off and I just sat there thinking today is the day. I am going to become a ironman. Then I thought wow - it is going to be a long, long day. I got up and ate my first meal of the day ..... pulled together my final stuff and we headed to the race start. When we pulled out in the car my good friend Heidi emerged from the motor home with very sleepy eyes and a huge sign to send Al and I off with good wishes....thanks Heidi ~ I think we both needed the tension breaker even then.

5:00 am - walked to the Olympic Oval where transition was and stood in line to have our bodies marked. At that point I was really getting nervous. We had to go into transition and put the final touches and nutrition in our gear bags and on our bikes. I must have gone back to my bag at least 5 times feeling like I was forgetting something. (I didn't). Once we finished in transition we
walked up to the Team Z tent where everyone was getting ready to go. That's when really started to get emotional ( scared ) I found myself crying from all the nerves. I kept looking out at the water doubting my ability to swim 2.4 miles with 2,400 people around me. For those of you who have never watched a ironman on TV or in person. The start is really amazing. Also, a bit intimidating. I was lucky a few of my close friends Katie especially gave me a hug and calmed me down ...... assuring me that I was ready for what lie ahead. When we started to work out way to the beach I was calming down ...... I can only remember looking up on the hill and seeing my friends and family ...... and yelling out to them that I was on my way to them. I was so happy to see them before starting but that too made me cry again. My dad came up to the start shoot to give me a hug and I couldn't look at him because I was afraid I would fall apart again and the race was starting in 3 minutes..... The National Anthem was sang and I was in the water moving to a position that I felt comfortable starting in. ( way right and in the back ) I was with my team mate Siri at that point and she was the only thing keeping me from total breakdown. She has that way about her.... just makes you smile and tells you it will all be OK. When the cannon went off we said our goodbyes .... Siri told me to have fun and off I went. I tried my old count your first 30 strokes to calm down and just keep moving forward but with over 2,000 people all starting at once time in a not so big lake ..... my first 30 strokes were not so continues... I had to stop a few times and find a line to swim in. I think it was probably about 15 or 20 minutes into the swim before I was able to relax and start just thinking about my own race. I got beat up a bit on the first loop of the swim but it was not nearly as bad as I anticipated so I came out of the water on loop one feeling much better, ran over the timing mat and got back in the water for loop number two. I don't remember if it had started raining on my first loop or if it was the second but at some point while we were swimmimg the rain started and as you will read it didn't stop for the next 14 hours. Anyway, I was out of the water in 1:33 right on target for what I thought I would do. I let the wet suit strippers take do there thing and I headed up the hill towards transition. I saw everyone.... Stef, Dave, Jay, Julie, Karen ( thanks for taking my wet suit KP) Heidi, Katy, Steve, Danielle my dad all of them yelling and cheering my name - hooting and hollering. It is such a cool feeling running to transition. I got to T1 changed my clothes grabbed all my stuff and headed out to get my bike..... ( fyi - I packed a raincoat but it was in my special needs bag that I wouldn't see until mile 56. The weather man said chance of showers late afternoon. I think he got fired yesterday by the way) Anyway ... I ran out of the tent and around the corner and I saw Jenni ~ i think she was more excited than me.... she grabbed my bike and handed it to me and told me to go have fun. ( Jeni was a bike in/out volunteer that's why she was in transition )

So off I was for 112 miles on the bike. At that point the rain was coming down pretty steadily and I realized that it was going to be a long wet ride. I had hopes that it would let up so I just dug in and made the first of many climbs and kept going. The first loop didn't seem all that bad ~ the fast downhills were hard because the rain was hitting your face so hard that it was really hard to see ... at one point I looked down at my cyclomotor and saw I was going 43 miles per hour on wet pavement and I couldn't really see the road in front of me so I decided to slow down a bit on the downhills. As for the climbs, I am just not a great climber and even though I am better now than I was a year ago I still struggle but I do OK. The spectators and race volunteers were so great out on the course... the best part of the first loop was the Team Z tent at about mile 40 ... I could hear Linda R. when I was coming up to the turn and that really gave me a boost. The out and back is great because I was able to see so many of my teammates most of them coming back when I was going out because they are all pretty much faster than me but it was still great seeing them and hearing all the go Z cheers. At the end of the out and back you have a 11 mile climb to get back to the village and start loop 2. The climb isn't the hardest thing in the world but it isn't easy either and all I could think about was damn after this I get to do it again !! ye he can't wait. Again - the first loop 11 mile climb there were spectators out all over I saw a ton of Z'rs and they were amazing. At the top of the last climb refereed to as "Big Bear" it was like the tour deFrance the hill was packed with tons of people cheering and bringing you up the hill. It was great. Coming into the village is totally awesome .... I could hear the Z nation at least a mile out... I was so excited to pass them and see everyone braving the rain to cheer us on. Team Z you are the best.

Loop 2 on of the bike...... it was still raining .... and not lightly I think that was when I started getting a little frustrated with the whole being wet thing. I felt like a damn raisin. However, I didn't really have a choice so off I went to do loop 2. Not much different than loop one still pelting rain and a bit more tired but I was feeling good and once I realized that it was pretty clear I would make the bike cut off I enjoyed it much more.

The run - Ok most of you know I hate to run and I am not fast by any standard so when I got off the bike I can not say that I was excited to start running however, just getting off the bike was nice. So I came into transition and again Jenni was screaming my name - very excited to see me making the cut off ...she grabbed my bike told me I was kicking butt and I ran pick up my clothes and change for the run. Needless to say I was drenched and getting out of my wet clothes was not all the easy. My dry clothes went on wet due to the fact I didn't have have a towel and it was so muddy in the changing tent thatany towels they had were on the ground to try to keep you from getting muddy feet. The towels didn't help all that much but I put my barely dry clothes on and headed out on the run. I have to tell you that 26.2 miles seemed like 100 from the start. I had never done a marathon. My longest run prior to the race was 20 miles. I just took off and decided that I would run as long as I could and then walk if I needed oh yeah and on the hills.... so the run and the ride obviously had hills - several so I did walk a lot but for the most part I ran 5 minutes and walked 1 minute for the first 15 miles then I hit the wall.... the last 11.2 miles was pretty damn hard. I was just moving as best as I could forward - one step at the time !!!! Going from aide station to aide station. I think it was mile 23 when I thought for sure I had it in the bag. My friend Steve was out there and I was so thankful to have a friend to chat with for a bit and as we entered the village and the last big hill I could hear Heidi yelling "GO TIMRA LU " and I was grinning from ear to ear at that point. Heidi, Danielle and Steve walked me to the turn around and once I turned the corner to do the last 1.2 mile out and back - I could hear the Z Nation going wild. It was so awesome..... Team Z you are great !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't remember who all I saw but it seemed like 100 people with wet green clothes screamin' my name. I got past the Z'rs and went about a 1/4 of a mile and my two oldest(time not age) friends Stef and Jules were waiting for me to walk the the rest of the way to the village with me.... we were laughing, telling jokes and Stef was telling me about all the cute boys that she had found for me....... funny the last thing I was thinking about was a date but leave it to Stef to remind me that when the race was over I might have time for a date ??? Anyway, I got about 1/4 mile from the Olympic oval where the finish line was and decided I could run to the finish.... I heard them say my name over the speakers when I entered the oval and I was so excited to round the corner and see the finish line. The greatest thing is that every participant gets to cross the line with the IRONMAN ribbon and then you hear them say - TIMRA STUMP you are a IRONMAN.... that was such a great moment. All I could think about was I DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I crossed the line and once again
everyone was there for me.... it was the best !!!!!