Marla's Wildflower 1/2 IRONMAN

Marla Rocks!
She did really really well 2 weeks ago at Wildflower 1/2 Iron Man. She trained for 6 months during what most people call the off season, which is to be commended as most of her usualtraining buddies were not going the distances she was. Countless of solitary bike rides, long runs with different people, and swims with the group or on her own at lunch, and she kicked butt!


Here's her race report:

I knew this race was going to be way harder than Vineman (my first 70.3 Ironman) so I did not set out to PR. I set out to make it in under 6hr.
I got in at 6hr and 59 sec. That hurts.
My swim was slow. Word to the wise..starting at the back, when you are faster than some of those in front of you, is not the smartest route. I got caught up behind the group and was totally pummeled. The first 400 meters was a total ass kicking (my ass getting kicked). Once I broke through the slow group the remaining mile was just slow and steady. The finish, as usual was a cluster. I got out of the water and dropped my goggles and had to go back in and find em ($26 goggles...wasn't going to
leave em!)

Got to the bike and tried to put on my Jack and Adams jersey. It got hung up on my shoulder blades. I spent at least a min trying to jerk it down over my back. Finally, I gave up and took it off again. I straightened it out and put it back on, sat down (cause I kept losing my balance), took the wetsuit the rest of the way off, slipped on the shoes and socks and stood up to grab the bike. My bike was hung up on the bike beside it. UGH! I finally got everything untangled, grabbed the bike and
was off.

Side note...my bike arrived, in Cali, with bad bearings. I spent the better part of Fri hunting either new bearings or a new wheel. I could spend some time talking about it but will sum it up by saying, "I found neither and rode the bike as is/was. So my poor sick bike and I took those hills like a 1 ton elephant...slow and steady. I got passed like I have never been passed before, on the bike. I was sad
and depressed and, more than once, I wanted to quit. I was pushing so hard, at mile 8 that I thought there was no way I was going to go 40 some odd more miles. NO WAY. But what do you do when you have trained over 6 mos for something? You just keep going. My bike time sucked but I finished and am proud to say I rode up all those massive hills. I climbed a total of 4000 ft on the bike and I even passed a few folks on the way up.

Off the bike and on to the run....
Here is where the fun began. Really....the run was hard..hilly but fun. It was a total trail run with a hill like Mt. Bonnel (I walked up that one). But, it kept your mind busy and your feet moving. I felt 100 times better, this year, than at Vineman. I climbed a total of 2000 ft, on a trail style run. It was much harder than last year's run and I had a better time so, all in all, I was pleased with my run effort. I finished 17 out of 102 in my age group. Not bad for having had mechanical issues. But because I had issues and think I can do better...
I have decided that I need to go back and do it again. The race is beautiful, the people are great and I totally felt like I had conquered the world when I ran across the finish line.

In the end....
I was 17th in my age group out of 102. I was 83rd female in a field of 410. I was 660 out of 1755.