"Kelsey Adair from Gainesville, FL, You Are an Ironman!" The words you of triumph from Mike Reilly at the finish line. After more than 7 years of dealing with Ulcerative Colitis, I wasn't sure if I would ever hear those words again, or if it was all just a dream. It was real.
I signed up again for 2022, started getting better, and thought we were making it happen. But then everything came to another crashing halt in January. My insurance would not cover my medication (the last one on the market at the time) and I got really sick. Nausea, vomiting, bleeding, diarrhea, pain to the point that I could barely move, etc. Since it was the last medication, we were even in discussion about the possibility of having to have my colon removed because of it. The pure torture of the disease seemed insurmountable. Luckily, a new medication, Rinvoq from Abbvie, just came on the market. The insurance denied that, too, and I had to still wait for a few more months. Abbvie, thankfully, has a program to provide Rinvoq to patients in this exact situation, so they gave it to me. I got better immediately. And that's where Couch to Ironman was born. I only had three months left and decided to just start training and see how far I can get, taking extra precaution to listen to my body by slowing down when I needed to, taking rest days as needed, and even stopping if I needed. No injuries permitted.
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| Photo Credit: Jimbo Nguyen |
At swim start, I only had about 10 minutes for the bathroom stop and donning the wetsuit. I ended up meeting Tom, a fellow Team Challenge Alumni athlete and we finished prepping. I ran over and squeezed my way to the 60 minute start shoot just a couple minutes before the cannon went off to start the race. Teresa and Mark spotted me in line! It was great to see friends before the race. Once the race started, swimmers went through the starting matt 5 at a time at 5 second intervals. This is supposed to help keep athletes safer in the water to swim with similarly-paced people rather than a mass-start or age-group waves where people have differing abilities. Once I was in at 7:04, I followed the athletes in front of me to the first buoy across the American River. From there, it was a downstream swim. I thought I had a pretty good, but not too fast, pace going, but I could have sworn the buoys weren't straight! I kept trying to stay on the buoy line, but it seemed as if I was zig-zagging. My sighting couldn't have been that off! What was happening? I later heard that some of the buoys did not stay put, so that makes more sense haha. After about 1.2 miles, the American River flows into the Sacramento River. I could see and feel the current as soon as I breached the Sacramento River. All of a sudden I could hear kayakers yelling to go right. I had no idea what they were pointing to at first, but that current was already starting to take us. I tried to go right as much as I could as I made my way across the river, and then I spotted what they were talking about: the orange turn-buoy. We had to go around it. It was upstream/across the river at this point. That river is fast! And in case you didn't know, the Sacramento River is not the type of river that people normally just swim across like that. But here we were, going against the current and across the river to try to get to that buoy. As I was getting close to it, I was struggling pretty hard. Once I was there, I thought I was going to get clotheslined trying to turn around it! I temporarily was wondering if this is where it ends, right here at the buoy. I really needed to calm down. Panicking is how accidents happen. Just breathe. Calm. I made my way around the buoy and looked down river trying to spot the next buoy. I didn't see any after that, so I just aimed for the bridges. First the train bridge and then the Tower Bridge where the exit was going to be. I made it to the ramp, and the volunteers helped me climb out without slipping. 53:17
I made my way up the dock, careful not to slip and up the walkway to the street. It was over a mile from the river into the stadium. My feet were on fire. It was cold and walking on cement with cold, wet feet was painful. Every step hurt. I just wanted to dry off and put some socks on so badly. I saw my friends Jimbo and Sheila cheering and that really made me pumped to keep going. I dried off more than I normally do in the changing tent because I didn't want to bike while wet and that cold. After making my way to the bike, I put on sock sleeves (thanks to Jenny's recommendation so I can throw the socks out when it gets a warmer). And off we went on the bike. Transition time 24:12 (it was so long!)
The bike ride was brutal overall. 20+ mph sustained winds with 30-40 mph gusts. I thought the first part of the bike was fantastic! I was making pretty good time. It was windy, but I was going with the wind for the first little bit. Nice and speedy. When the course turned slightly, though, the crosswinds/diagonal winds were brutal. Right before the bad road section when we turned, I almost got blown over by a crosswind. It was scary! All I could do is hold on for dear life at that point and be very careful. I wished I had done more core work in training haha. Too late for that! When I got to the turnaround, it was brutal. Straight headwind. The speed decreased substantially and it was a struggle. I slowly made my way back to the end of the first lap, getting a boost from the crowd. I couldn't find where my Gu was in my pocket, so I was starting to get worried. Did they fall? What happened. At that point I had nut butters and a protein bar, but my plan was to switch off.
I wished there were porta-potties at the special needs bag, though. Where were we supposed to re-
Chamois butter? 😐At least I got some more Gus from my special needs, so I would be okay. I found the rest of the "missing" ones that were somehow hiding in the pocket where I couldn't find them lol. How did that happen? The next aid station was close to 70 miles, so that's where the pit stop was. There were not enough bathrooms there. Everyone was probably doing the same thing, so the line took me about 10-15 minutes or so and it was growing behind me. So that was kind of a bummer. More potties! This next portion was not too bad, I just kept going and tried to be careful about the winds. Any time I needed to get a water re-fill, I stopped at the aid stations because I didn't want to take my hands off the bars. I think I would have blown over! At the final turnaround, once I got to the headwinds again, it was so bad that I couldn't even get clipped back in to my pedals. It was "I'm going. Nope, I'm not going. I'm going. No, just kidding. Alright, I can do this." And then I got going slowly. Very slowly. The wind was demoralizing on the way back. I just tried to focus on moving my pedals and staying steady. Prior to the race, I thought I would be able to do about 7 hours on the bike based on how I was training. My time was 7:42. About an extra 30 minutes from the wind and the rest probably from the bathroom line. After that long on the saddle, I was ready to throw away the bike. I took my shoes off as soon as I could and made my way barefoot to the bike racks (another long transition). 19:10. I walked through the stadium. I figured we were already running an entire marathon, there was no reason at that point to run an extra mile through transition lol.
Once I finished going through transition, it was go time! I was fully planning that I would have to walk at some point during the run. I had only made it to 15 miles during training, which was not ideal, but it is what it is. So the plan was to run as far as I could and then walk when I needed to. I far surpassed my expectations on the run, only walking the aid stations and the few short hills. Everything felt pretty good! I saw my friends Jimbo and Sheila cheering on the levy. And then I saw Kevin, my Disney buddy! I'm so glad they were there. It makes such a big difference to get a cheer from friends. About 6 miles or so, I decided to make another pit-stop on the levy porta-potty. The wind was still so strong, that I thought the entire porta-potty was going to blow off the levy with me inside. That would have been a messy way to go. Death by wind-blown porta-potty. Ew. 😵
I survived, so off I go again. The run through the Old Sacramento area was great. So many spectators
cheering. I loved it. It was starting to get dark about this time and I knew we were getting to the American River Bike Trail soon. That part was going to be dark, so I had a light in my special needs bag. I saw some of my Team Challenge teammates on the run, which was fantastic. I love that so many people were racing for an amazing cause with inspiring stories themselves. The bike trail part was very dark. I heard a lot of people didn't really care for that section because it was dark and spooky, but I felt at home. I rode that trail so many times that I knew every turn and could practically follow that trail in my sleep. It was very crowded, though. If anything, that was the most difficult part. A lot of people were walking or bunched up, making it difficult to pass, especially when not everyone had lights on, so it was hard to see others at times. The turn-around was near Cal-Expo, and the then we had another ~6 miles back through to Discovery Park. I spotted my new Team Challenge friend from the morning, Tom, up ahead. We ran together after that for the next 4-5 miles and then parted ways. I went on ahead and just kept going steadily. I still felt strong, even though I didn't trained as much as I planned. The miles weren't fast, but they were ticking away.
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| Photo Credit: Todd Adair |
Once we got close to the capitol, I knew that there was going to be a spot that broke out to two laps based on the course map. The first of those laps, at mile 22, I could hear the finish line and got really excited. My miles started improving because of all of the excitement haha. But there was still another lap left and 4 miles at the end of this is not a joke. I kept on moving and it was a little sad going further away from the finish line until the start of the second lap again. And then more excitement. This was the last lap. 2 miles left. I knew I could do it at this point. Around mile 25, I saw my friend Erika cheering for me and then my Uncle Todd. Just one mile left and then the finish chute. The excitement was building. Once we got to the split of the "1/2 laps and the finish lap" it was hard to describe the feeling going to the "finish." Tom caught back up to me here and we decided to finish the race together. And then Mike Reilly announced our names. The most exhilarated I had felt in such a long time. We did it! 5:52. Total Ironman time: 15 hours and 11 minutes. After everything I had been through, I was now a 2X Ironman. My Couch-to-Ironman was not what I had planned by any stretch of the imagination, but I did it. This was my fight song.
If anyone wants to know more about Crohn's and Colitis, feel free to ask. I think awareness is important and I'm more than happy to share. If anyone wants to still donate to Team Challenge Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, the link is on the right. Thank you everyone for your support. It means the world to me and I couldn't have done this without you.
