Well, WOW! Ironman is a CRAZY thing. You go into it knowing the distances and anticipating how long each takes, but somewhere in the middle of the event, I remember looking at my watch and thinking - geez, I've been out here a LONG time.

Everyone says that you should go into IM with a plan, but expect to be thrown some curve balls. You have to be flexible and adjust, and yesterday was no exception. If you've been following the weather here, you know that the temperature in the morning was about 47 degrees. Luckily for us, the water was about 69! As the pros went off in their wave at 6:50, we could see them drifting inside the buoys that were up marking the course. There was some big wave action toward the shore, but the announcer assured us that as soon as you got past the first buoy, the water calmed down. That was the first lie of the day. Our gun went off at 7:00 and 2300 of my best friends and I entered the water and began the swim. The start of an Ironman is a mass start, so everyone goes in at the same time. It was like being in a big washing machine, arms and legs everywhere.

I've been very nervous about the swim portion of the race, but all of a sudden there I was in the middle of it and I was having fun. I remember looking up to sight at one point and actually laughing out loud. It was great! However, as we passed the first buoy and expected the chop to die down, it (of course) did not. It actually got worse. By the time we reached the sixth buoy and made the left hand turn to swim toward the second set of buoys, there was no way to even see the buoys. I prayed that someone in front of me knew where we were going and just followed the feet in front of me. The first lap around was about 48 minutes or so. We entered the water for the second lap and I probably had the best swim of my life. I found some really clear space, put my head down and just went for it. When I exited the water I gave a huge shout! I was so happy - the swim was over and I was onto the bike portion. Total swim time was 1:22:22.

The volunteers gave me my change bag and I entered the women's changing tent to get my gear on for the bike. Never in my life have I seen so many naked women! Great thing they divided up the women's and men's tents! Everyone was freezing and shivering and trying to put dry clothes onto their wet bodies including me. I finally got my stuff on, tried to get my hands warmed up (no, I did not do my hair at this point!) and headed out to a quick stop at the porta potty and then to pick up Malibu Barbie. Besides being cold, it had been really windy the past few days - 20 to 30 miles per hour - and Saturday was no exception. The announcer said that as soon as you got about 7 miles inland, the wind died down. That was lie number 2.

We headed out along the beachfront road and then made a right turn and headed inland. The next turn did not happen for 49 miles, and for 49 miles we fought a killer headwind. About mile 5, my bike computer decided to stop working. I tried to get it going without stopping the bike, but it just wouldn't cooperate, so I had no idea the entire bike how fast I was going or what the bike leg time was. It did, however, show my heart rate, so I paid attention to that and kept track of my total time on my watch.

I had 4 bottles of nutrition - 2 on my bike and 2 in my special needs bag at mile 49. I miscalculated at first and thought I had 45 minutes to drink each one (based on a bike ride time of 6 hours) when in reality I had 1:30 to drink each one. I downed the first one in 45 minutes before I realized what I had done, so then I just spaced the second one out to get my through to special needs. I drink Carbo Pro on my bike and it makes me a little queasy, so I combat that by taking salt tabs - which I was taking about every 1:30. Right before we hit special needs, I got what I thought was a cramp on my left side, right underneath my ribcage. I sat up and tried to stretch it out - no luck. It was painful to be aero on my bike, but the wind was so strong, I knew I had to stay down. By about mile 80, I was really in pain and realized what I had was GAS! I had taken two Imodium the morning of the race, powered through the salt water in the ocean, drank my nutrition too fast, taken salt tabs and my stomach was rewarding me with gas. UGH!! (sorry if this is TMI!) I tried to burp to let it out, but no luck and it was not coming out the other way so I just tried to endure it.

About mile 88, I met up with my Ironcrew. The only thing I yelled at them was "I NEED GAS-X!" (it has, of course, become a great big joke now, but I was dying!!) I was only able to get down one of my second two bottles of nutrition, but I was drinking lots of water and hydration wise felt pretty good. We caught a pretty good tailwind on the way back and the second half of my bike I think I was going pretty fast. I can't tell you exactly, but I think it was probably in the neighborhood of 20 mph on the back. I was passing a lot of people, wasn't giving it a huge effort, kept my heart rate in the 140's and just cruised back. Muscularly, I felt awesome on the bike (well, as awesome as you can feel after you've been sitting on a pogo stick, leaned over for 6 and 1/2 hours!) and I think that has a lot to do with the weight training I did during my training. We cruised along the beachfront road where the crosswinds were enough to knock you off your bike - I don't know how those people with disc wheels did it - passed the Waffle House and into transition. I was ready to get off Malibu Barbie, but I was so proud of her for the great job she did for me. No flats, no mechanical issues, I couldn't ask for better. Total bike time 6:27:07.

Into transition, I get my bag, into the tent and get set for the run. Here my transition time was a little long because I decided to do my hair. It was a mess! I took it down, brushed it and rebraided it and then got my gear on. Again, a bunch of naked women in the tent, but at least everyone wasn't shivering since the weather was pretty decent for the run. Pulled on my running skirt - yes, I wore a skirt. Laced up my shoes and I was off. I was still having huge pain, but I was hoping I'd see Johnny or Julie on the course and they'd have gotten me some Gas-X. I didn't see them coming out of transition, so I headed out on the run. The first half of my marathon, I was feeling pretty good.

I remember someone telling me that they talked to a lot of people during their IM. Nobody talked in this one, at least not to me. The bike was a completely solitary endeavor, and the run was turning into the same thing. I was "in my head" a lot. I thought about my friends, everyone who'd sent along wishes. I thought about my kids. I thought about my life and Johnny and at one point on the first loop of the run, I realized just how darned lucky I am to have you all. Not that I didn't know that before, but it really hit home all of a sudden.

I ran from water station to water station, and walked in between. I kept my heart rate in the 140's and tried to get down some type of nutrition during each water stop. The first half, I did mostly gel. I took one every other water station and did Gatorade in between. My stomach was killing me. Not queasy killing me, but pressure type killing me. I need to get some of that gas out of there, but I didn't know what to do!! I heard lots of people expelling lots of stuff on the run and I was SO jealous! I never wanted to pass gas more in my whole life!! The pressure made me feel like I had to pee, so I probably stopped 3 times during the first half and easily six the second half. I hit the half-way mark and finally found my Ironcrew - where is my GAS-X???? They said that they'd put it into my special needs bag, so I grabbed it and took two.

Julie said my split on the run was 2:17 - that is just about 5 minutes slower than my regular marathon time - but I told them that I thought I needed to slow down a bit and walk a little more. I headed out for the second half. About 20 minutes into it, the Gas-X started to work and I started to feel a little better. I had slowed a bit, and was walking about a minute at every rest stop, but still trying to run between.

About this time, it started to get dark and I realized how dang long I'd been out there. I was hungry, but not for the Gatorade and gel and sweet stuff I'd been consuming all day. As it got dark, my mind started playing games with me. Can I do this? Am I going to finish? Why am I out here? That lasted through the middle 6 miles of the second half of the marathon, and I just kept trying to get my head together and get the thing done. IM is definitely a mental test, and it plays all kinds of games with you. By the time I hit mile 23, I knew I could finish - I knew I could go 3 more miles. How many times in my life have I run 3 miles - hundreds probably, so I knew I could do it. My quads were sore, I was having some sort of crazy tendonitis thing in my ankle and although my gas was gone, I was having a side stitch, but I powered it. I ran a minute, I walked a minute, I ran a minute, I walked a minute and before I knew it - I was almost to mile 26.

I saw the finish, the lights, the people on the side cheering everyone on and suddenly the adrenaline kicked in for a last burst to the finish line. There were two women in front of me, so I slowed just a tad to give them time to finish before me. I wanted to cross that finish line alone. I wanted to hear Mike Reilly say "Melisa Angelone, you are an Ironman", and as I approached, I heard him say it, I heard Johnny and Julie and Tim yelling and I put my hands in the air and screamed with the crowd as I finished and "broke the tape" all by myself! I was done, I had done it!! WOW! What a blast!! Total run time: 4:57:59, Final finish time 13:11:54.


As I found Johnny and he hugged me and told me how proud of me that he was, I said - I am really glad I did this, but I'm NEVER doing it again!! We walked around, they brought me upstairs, helped me to get showered and to eat, and into bed to rest up after my wild adventure. I didn't sleep well last night, I was so high from the day, I am sure tonight I will crash, but that's ok. There’s plenty of time to sleep now that I won’t be training 20 hours a day. Believe it or not, I'm not even sore. My quads are great, everything feels good except my ankle, and it’s a little sore and inflamed with the tendonitis. Besides that, all is good. Today when I woke up, I told Johnny, you know, IM is kind of like childbirth. You have your first baby and you immediately say - I am NEVER doing that again, it was so painful. But the pain fades after the first day (otherwise we'd all be single children!!) and so did the pain of the day yesterday. I think I might do another... In fact I'm sure I probably will, BUT there's nothing quite like your first...

If you've made it this far... from the bottom of my heart, I thank you all for your collective thoughts and good wishes yesterday. I can tell you, that there were many times during the day where they were the things that helped carry me through to the finish line. My love and hugs and heartfelt thanks to you all.

As Johnny likes to say – peace, love, out.