IMMD - Part I

"Whitney Dudzik, you are an IRONMAN!"

I still can't believe it

What an unforgettable day.

After a year of training I accomplished what I set out to do. This past Saturday I finished my first full IRONMAN in Cambridge, Maryland. It was hard, I had to walk quite a bit, and everything hurt - but failure was not an option and I finished in 15:23:21.

In an effort to keep my post short (it's still ridiculously long), I've split up my trip into three posts. Part I - The Days Prior, Part II - RACE DAY, and Part III - Post-Race

I started my journey to MD Wednesday night by driving down to my parents house in CT after work. There I had a wonderful dinner with my family and "won" the argument with my mother that I could fit 3 people, 3 bikes, and all the associated luggage in the VW Alltrack. HA! I should have taken a picture. My sister was a REALLY good sport and sat in the back with everything tucked in around her.

Me and my Wonderful Mom!

We headed out on the road around 7:30 the next morning. I knew I didn't want to follow the GPS completely because it would have me driving over the George Washington Bridge and through the Bronx and that can be a traffic nightmare. We opted to take the Tappan Zee Bridge instead and I think it was worth it. We ended up stopping for lunch in Mount Holly, NJ at a little place called Robin's Nest where I of course got a local beer (Spellbound IPA). Mount Holly was a really cute town and we ended up spending a little too much time exploring because by the time we got back in the car I realized that we were going to get to Cambridge with a mere thirty minutes to spare for mandatory athlete check-in! I freaked out just a little bit.

I'm really here!

Luck was on our side and we made it to the athlete village in Long Wharf Park around 4:30. There I got absolutely overwhelmed with stuff I needed for the race. I've never had to pack gear bags or special needs bags before so I was a little worried I'd screw it up. Then I couldn't help myself and may have spent a little bit of time and money in the merchandise tent... I have been REALLY good this year not buying stuff at other races so I went a little nuts. One cycling jersey, one AWESOME sweater with all the participants names on it, one IRONMAN MD pint glass, and one pink IRONMAN lanyard (which I am proudly wearing at work!).

After getting checked in we headed to the AirBnb. It was a four minute drive from the race finish! Not bad for panicking and finding a place last minute. When we first drove up I was a little skeptical, but as soon as we walked inside we were relieved. The house was very nicely decorated and clean. We each had our own bedroom and there was a brand new patio out back with a privacy fence so we could enjoy the outdoors a bit!

Once we brought our luggage inside and got settled in it was time to find some food. One thing about Cambridge is that it is a fairly small town - and other than the little town center there is nothing but farms and water. We started searching for a place to eat but everything was booked - I guess that's what happens when 1400 (ish) athletes roll into town for a race. We ended up going to a place called Rock Lobstah, which I was not super excited about but I am so glad we did!

The food was great but that's not the story. We were eating dinner when a couple walked into the restaurant. My sister quietly says... "That girl looks an awful lot like the girl in the pictures at the house." Of course when we arrived we had looked at some of the pictures our hosts have around their home. We thought they were going to be out of town though so it didn't occur to us that we might run into them. We noticed the guy was on his phone and all of a sudden I got a message via AirBnb from him asking if we got in alright. I replied and my mom goes "Did you just hear his phone ding?" I did!

At that point he actually got a phone call and we heard him say the girls name, and that's when we were positive those were our hosts. He stepped outside for the call and on his way back in he stopped at the table. They had been trying to figure out if we were the ones staying at their house. We chatted and they are a very nice couple. It was sweet of them to open up their homes to athletes coming in for the race.

I swear I'll get to the race details and not just tell you all about the beer I drank!

After dinner we hopped across the street to rar, the local brewery. (Hopped, get it?) I had their Nanticoke Nectar IPA and one other that I can't recall and my mom had the dessert stout. That stout was definitely the winner of the evening. It was delicious! To continue the story above who follows us over to the brewery? Our hosts! We talked some more and they ended up buying us a round of beers! My mom got a little tipsy, which is always fun to see. After that we called it a night and headed back to get some rest.

Still hadn't sunk in that I was about to do an IRONMAN

The next day we took it easy in the morning (which we shouldn't have) and I got ready to go to the mandatory athlete briefing in the athlete's village. I was worried that if I missed the briefing I wouldn't be allowed to race but that was a crazy thought. I am very glad I didn't miss it though, it had a ton of good information - like that I was allowed to have my phone on the bike. I had no idea that it previously wasn't allowed!

Bike 423 racked and ready to go!

After the briefing I dropped my bike and gear bags off in transition. As I said before, I'd never had to prepare gear bags for a race so I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know if I would have access to them at all before the race and so I didn't know if I should put fuel in there or not. I ended up asking a couple of athletes who passed me and got enough information to feel confident that I did it right (spoiler alert: I was wrong).

So sky. Much flat.

Once all the necessary stuff was taken care of it was time to pick up my mom and sister and drive the bike course. Most of the ride was through the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge south of Cambridge. It was gorgeous. We saw egrets, blue herons, a million vultures, and a few eagles. The biggest thing I took away from our preview was that this course was incredibly flat. They hopefully jokingly labeled the only hill on the course which was a small gentle slope to go over a bridge. I felt pretty positive about the bike because of all the hills I have to train on at home. Now my only worry was the wind.

Back at the house I was looking through my bags and realized that I didn't pack my running bib in my running gear bag. I immediately started panicking that I wouldn't be able to get to that gear and that I wouldn't be running with a bib! I was trying to figure out how I could carry it through the swim and the bike. At this point it was too late to head back to transition so I figured I would beg a volunteer the next morning to help me out.

We decided for pre-race dinner we would cook my mom's spaghetti and sausage at the house. It was a wonderful idea. My sister's friend Mara was staying close by and came over for dinner. She brought a salad and some really good mint chocolate chip ice cream. Oh, so if you ever thought you had a bad fruit fly infestation... go to Maryland. When we arrived at the house despite the kitchen being very clean and absolutely no food left out there were quite a few flies buzzing around. We set out traps and had them mostly taken care of by Friday. We decided to open up some of the windows Friday and when we got back to the house there were hundreds. I am not exaggerating. We spent the next few days frantically trying to capture them all. We barely made a dent in their renewed population.

After a wonderful meal and catching up with Mara I headed to bed and passed out around 9PM. I mostly slept OK, woke up a few times worried that I missed my alarm and I had all sorts of bad dreams about the race - missing a loop on the course, taking a thirty minute break, having the run be five million loops around a pool... you know, the usual.

Next up? Race day!