After 13 hours, 59 min and 17 sec of HARD exercising I recall saying to my husband when I first saw him: ‘I NEVER want to do that again!..and I was serious! It’s funny..but it’s only been 5 days and I can’t seem to stop rehashing everything I went through or thinking about what I could do better IF there were a next time!!
First of all, let me say how touched and surprised I was to hear from so many interested friends and family! It kind of turned out to be a bigger deal than I thought.(.how did YOU know this experience was going to be so special for me!) THANK YOU for being interested! I TRIED to think about all my splits and where/when I slowed or sped up etc but to tell you the truth, I was just SO excited to experience the day’s events that I really don’t even remember..or really care!! I could barely tell you any of my stats other than my final clock time! I realize I LOVE the learning part of it all and there’s SO much to learn! I LOVED learning from the podcasts from my awesome coach Angie, about the power of your mind and all the videos about swimming technique, biking, running form, nutrition, stretching ideas etc. I LOVED what it felt like after she gave me a new speed work session! I loved how my legs felt after a hard bike ride (I never knew you were suppose to feel THAT way!) I LOVED learning about MYSELF and how I CAN DO HARD THINGS! I even surprised myself and every so often I pinch myself to reaffirm this was for real!!
I’ve always liked to be healthy and take care of myself, but I’ve never had a very athletic/competitive mind. In grade school I just couldn’t seem to make myself fight for that ball, if you wanted it, you could just have it! My unofficial ironman journey started after Lance, my 4th child, about 13 years ago. I decided to run a 10km race in Lethbridge, AB called the Midnight run where a REAL policeman actually stopped the traffic while I crossed the road! ‘Imagine that’ I thought to myself! I felt like such an athlete! I continued running for the next several years doing ½ marathons before competing in several marathons. Then 6 years ago, I took level 1A-blowing bubbles at the YMCA. I’ve always been afraid to put my head in water but I was determined to do whatever my swim coach said (thanks Becky Stoddard!) . My husband Randy told me he would buy me a bike as soon as I could swim 100 lengths. That May, for Mothers day I received my first bike! I tried a few sprint triathlons, then Olympic distance. I remember watching my first ½ ironman and sitting in the car afterwards, crying from the sheer scariness of it all, saying over and over ‘I can’t believe I WANT to do that!’ Over the next 3 years I participated in four 1/2 ironmans until my friend Sue Gallup told me one day on our weekly 5 C.O.P hill run repeats that she was signing up for a full triathlon!! We went through alot together including being the last 2 athletes out of the water in our very first Magrath, AB sprint triathlon ‘I Swam the Dam’ triathlon! I didn’t want to get left behind and I knew I probably wouldn’t have the guts to sign up for a race like this on my own another year so I decided I better do it this year so I would have someone to train with. Turns out we had a very different schedule and we weren’t able to rely on eachother very much. Somehow I made it through and usually found company for my long rides-thanks Toni & Dave, Jacqui, Tara & the rest of the TTL group, Claire, Camilla, Wendy, Sue, Pete, Janice, Susan & Sheila!
This is how the day played out for me: I guess the most shocking part of the day was during the swim after entering the water for my 2nd of a 2-lap 4km swim. My first lap was 48 min which would have been a good even split for me to finish the swim in the 1:30’s. Within 5 minutes of entering the water again to attempt my 2nd lap, I got sea sick-literally and couldn’t stop throwing up! After what seemed like a LOONNGG time of doing this, the thought occurred to me if I just continued to float, the waves would bring me in but I knew I didn’t have THAT much time left. By the time I turned around at the far end bouy I was just floating, and dry heaving, when a lifeguard in a kayak came up to me and asked ‘Maam, are you OK?!’ I didn’t want to have anything to do with him taking me out of the race yet, so I just said ‘Yes and began to swim again.’ I didn’t want to stop AGAIN so while I was breathing under the water, I would dry heave, just in time for my 3 stroke breath-sorry for the details but that’s how tramatic it was for me! Every few minutes I would think ‘Oh no..here comes another wave from under me and my stomache would turn! I remember feeling really cold in the water..but I knew I wasn’t. In the first transition tent I couldn’t stop shaking and figured the shaking was probably what I was feeling when I felt ‘cold’ in the water. I was SO glad to be done my first leg of the race! I KNEW I needed to eat so I told myself I’ld give myself 15 min on the bike to calm my body down and then I MUST start eating. I had all my nutrition on my bike and in my special needs bags so I was good for nutrition. I wrote down what I needed to eat every hour so I didn’t have to think about it and kept it handy to read often. I ate alittle more that first hour and stayed on schedule throughout the bike. I even topped it off with a bit more calories so that I could have a little more leeway on the run where it’s harder to eat more. The first while on the bike I was just not myself. My eyes felt heavy and all I wanted to do was sleep! I couldn’t believe I was feeling that DURING my ironman! I think that swim took alot out of me and it was a bit traumatic for me because mentally, I wasn’t prepared for that to happen AT ALL! No matter how much I talked to myself I just couldn’t seem to gather strength. What changed it for me, was this French guy came up from behind me and out of the blue said ‘You know, for some reason I just feel like you are not trying as hard as you could, I just get that feeling from you!’ I said ‘Why, am I wobbling all over the road?’ (that’s how I was feeling I was doing!) He said ‘No, you look like a strong biker and sometimes you push hard and then you back off. You’ve passed me a few times now. We passed a few pleasantries and then I told him he had better go ahead before he gets a 4 min. penalty for drafting. Just that bit of interaction with someone gave me some new-found energy and I felt strong enough to get back into the game. That was my turning point on my bike. I was able to regain focus and mentally bike hard. My last ¼ of the 180km bike was definitely my strongest and I felt I was really trying hard physically. (I since looked up my stats and see that I wasn’t going any faster but realize I paced it well because the last part is SUPPOSE to feel the hardest.) I saw the French guy again right at the end of the bike ride and when he saw me he said ‘SEE! I TOLD YOU!’ It was SO nice of him to mentally help me! I was SO glad to get off my bike and start my third leg of running my marathon-42km! For those of you who don’t know, I developed plantars fasciitis and by September, my last treadmill run was spent trying to tell myself ‘Megan..be strong!..be strong!..I told myself over and over before hitting the button at 21 minutes and crying out in pain ‘I CAN’T DO THIS TO MYSELF ANY MORE!’ Other than a few minutes of brick runs, I hadn’t run since then, till the day of the race. I began stopping every mile for a minute to drink and take something to eat. I also stopped for about 4-5 min at the washrooms and even though I knew it would slow my overall time down, it was worth feeling comfortable for the rest of the race! After 21km I began to stop at every other aid station and then the last 10km I was too scared to stop at all for fear I wouldn’t be able to get going again and I really wanted to run the whole thing even though it was tempting to walk as it seemed ½ the runners were doing by this time. By this time it became dark out and it was actually a welcome change and felt cool from the 82 degree day-time temperature. I love running in the dark because it feels calming to me. (Oh-did I mention that the warm chicken broth tasted SO GOOD about this time!!) The last half of the marathon I calculated I’ld have well enough time to come in under 14 hours so even though I didn’t start out with a goal, I was VERY THANKFUL for thinking of this goal at this precise time, to focus my mind. I figured I’ld have about 20 minutes to spare! Every few km’s I would recalculate the time, thinking I must have calculated wrong. The goal was no longer in the 13:30’s, it was 13:40, then 13:45, then 13:50 , then when it became 13:55 I thought I better hurry if I wanted to come in before the top of the hour! Just like the bike ride, I was SURE I was running my fastest the last ¼ of the run but looking at my stats afterwards I was REALLY slowing down during this time and never realized it. I only had my garmin watch on the screen that said what time it was. (Next time I want to learn to use all my technology!) About ¼ mile from the finish I saw Randy and quickly asked him what time it was. When I realized it was 4 min. to the top of the hour I said ‘I HAVE to come in before the top of the hour!’ He said it was so funny to watch me all of a sudden sprint to the end (he was trying to run beside me for a ways but he said he couldn’t keep up!) I could hear all the spectators calling out my name saying ‘Go Megan Go!’ As I crossed the finish line, the words I worked so hard to hear sounded through the speakers ‘Megan Fibke of Calgary, AB..YOU..ARE..AN..IRONMANNN!!!! Up until that last 4 minutes when I started to sprint, even when I consciously thought about my foot, NOT EVEN ONCE did it register to my brain that I was feeling hurt from it. It wasn’t until I started sprinting at the end that I first said to myself, ‘I think my foot is really hurting’. Literally the first step over the finishers mat, I said to myself ‘BOY! My foot REALLY hurts!!’ and I had use Randy as a crutch to walk home. It was like a true Cinderella story where as soon as the clock struck 14 hundred hours, POOF! I was back to my gimpy self. The next day, Angie was right, I couldn’t walk!
As I look back at the day, I feel SO GRATEFUL for my body and that it held up for me and that I was able to experience as crazy and painful and hard of an experience as this was! I was so humbled as I rode my last 3 miles into town and saw this man in a wheelchair, all by himself out on the side of the street, clapping and cheering for all of us athletes as we came into town. I looked at him and thought ‘WOW, HE is amazing for being able to be so positive and come out and be happy for all of US!’ It’s all relative isn’t it! Maybe in a group of Ironman Athletes, I’m nothing WOW as far as time goes, BUT I SURE FEEL WOW!!
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