Race week is finally here. Ten months in the making, it’s finally go time. After training for Ironman Arizona, only to have it cancelled a week and a half ahead of time, we had the option to transfer to Tulsa on May 23, 2021 compared to waiting another calendar year to hear those words, “Heather Burd, you are an Ironman” from Mike Reilly’s microphone as I cross the finish line. Without doing any thinking of the time of year, what the course would be like or knowing anything about Tulsa, we looked at the Navy schedule and said May is our best bet of doing this together, so we transferred our registration. A few months later I realized Tulsa would be ALOT hillier than Florida, even windier than Florida, and at the end of May who knows if a tornado would be coming or not?
Thursday: I flew into Tulsa on Thursday evening. On my plane from Denver, Colorado to Tulsa, Oklahoma I met a few fellow Ironmen who were also participating that weekend. One was a member of Team RWB and another was an older gentleman who was also doing his first full distance event. One of the last people to board our plane was Sam Long, a professional triathlete. I asked him if he was ready to do some smack talking this weekend, he said, “Of course!” I was expecting to see a handful of professional triathletes this weekend because Tulsa was the North America Championship race, but I didn’t realize how close to them I would get.
After I landed in Tulsa and checked into our hotel, The Hyatt Place downtown, I headed to the hotel bar for dinner. I pulled up next to another lady with an Ironman wristband all athletes are given after checking into the race. We started talking with the guy she was with and another girl who was in town on business. After we started talking for a bit, I started to put some hints together, that I thought she was a professional athlete. Low and behold, I was sitting next to Australian, Sarah Crowley, the 3rd ranked professional triathlete in the world. Sitting next to her was her social media guy, Dale Travers. We sat there chatting for the next hour or so talking about races we’ve done, our favorite 2XU tights, triathlon teams we’re a part of and what we think will come of the Tulsa course. I thought it was so cool you’re able to do this in the triathlon world compared to any other professional sport.
Friday: We met up with Laura, Don, and the Kansas City WolfPack team to do Athlete registration at noon. We went through the registration tent and got our bib numbers and struck a pose in front of the Class of 2021 Ironman banner and grabbed our orange bracelets to identify us as 1st timers. Then we were reunited with our bikes at the Tri Bike Transit tent. The kind gentleman put our pedals back on and then fixed the spacers by my back wheel so it could get moving again--I had a mini panic thinking something was wrong with my bike. Once we walked through the merchandise tent to get some Ironman Swag we found our way back at the hotel. Later that afternoon, we did a run course recon on our bikes to give the legs an easy spin before race day and to scope out where we’d run the marathon on Sunday. That was our first real glimpse of Tulsa roads, man were we in for a treat. Good thing my Pittsburgh upbringing prepared me with dodging potholes. There were some slight up hills and down hills along the river run path (not quite flat like Ironman advertised, but a lot less hilly than the “flat” Florida 70.3 run course). After we rode for about 30 minutes, we returned to the hotel and packed our gear bags for the race. We had a variety of different bags to fill: our morning bag, T1, Bike Special Needs, T2, Run Special Needs (which I didn’t use). Thank goodness Brian was watching me label my bags. My number was 1467, and I kept writing 1476 on all of them.
Dinner was at a cute Italian place called Ti Amo. We ordered our delicious dinners and had nice conversation with Laura and Don. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and got ready for bed.
Saturday: Saturday morning was grey and drizzly. I started the morning off with a short 20 minute shake out jog in downtown Tulsa, turning around at the GOAT (fitting for this weekend’s event). Afterwards, we had breakfast and headed to Double Shot Coffee to meet Mike Reilly (The Voice of Ironman). We were second in line to meet him, Brian reminded him about announcing for his son during his Point Loma Baseball career, and it started to trigger Mike’s memory. He autographed Brian’s book and then we headed back to our hotel.
We met Don and Laura to check in our bikes at T1, scope out the swim start and the bike course, and drop off our T2 bags for the run. Keystone Lake looked pretty. I was excited that the portion of the lake we were going to swim in was a pretty contained section of the lake with visible land on both sides. Once we said good night to our bikes we headed out to scope out the bike course. All sorts of nerves and excitement came over me as we were driving through the first 20 miles of the bike course. Looking at the climbs and descents that we had set on the course before us made me a little nervous, but I kept telling myself to trust my training, and I’ll be alright. I was praying that Ironman would come and sweep the roads a bit, especially the giant mudslide that was on the back side of the technical portion of Watertower Road. Once we saw enough of the course, we headed back to downtown Tulsa to drop off our T2 bags with our run gear and returned to the hotel.
I met up with another participant, Courney from Wilmington, North Carolina so she could braid my hair. After my hair was done for the big race day, we met up with my Virginia triathlon teammates, Sarah, Beth and her husband Jeff who traveled to Tulsa to cheer us on. We ended up ordering dinner and having it at our hotel lobby. We were entertained with a variety of photoshoots taking place outside, especially during the “Golden Hour.” Dale and Sarah came out for a photo shoot with the historic downtown Tulsa buildings while she was rocking out her Hoka, 2XU, and Oakley gear. After chatting about tomorrow’s big race for a while we retired to bed. After trying to watch a little bit of the Iron Cowboy for some motivation the lights were out for our 3:00 AM wake up call.
SUNDAY!
Thank goodness Brian, my alarm clock, was there to help with the 3:00 AM wake up call. Such an early start for such a long day ahead. Don picked us up at 3:45 AM to drive us to the shuttles located at T1 to take us 20 miles west to Keystone Park in Sand Springs. Knowing that this was the 2021 North America Championship I knew we would see a lot of awesome professionals throughout the weekend. I already met Sam Long and Sarah Crowley. Daniela Ryf, the top ranked professional triathlete, rode our bus shuttle to the swim start! After we saw her, we knew it would be a good day (She ended up winning the race)!
Once we arrived at T1 we walked to find our bikes, pumped up the tires, loaded nutrition onto the bike, then it started raining. We made small talk with the other participants around us. Once they called our approximate swim finish time, we started the mile walk to the swim start. A dark, one mile walk with 1900 other athletes to get us started on our 140.6 mile journey. As soon as we hit the swim area, the nicely organized lines of participants scattered to different areas to put on their wetsuits and get ready for the long day ahead. We pulled up to a picnic table and started chatting with a group of 3 people from Hawaii. Of course one guy was in the Navy and Brian and him started name dropping people to find a connection. We sprayed ourselves with Tri Slide, pulled up our wetsuits, texted back and forth with Skye for a bit, took a fun pre-race selfie, then dropped off our Morning Clothes bag, and continued walking to the swim start ramp.
While we were waiting in the swim start area the nerves started running through my body. Some nerves about the grewling day my body was going to endure over the next 140.6 miles and if I could actually do this thing! We listened to the National Anthem and more emotions poured through me. As swimmers started entering the water and we were moving forward, Brian and I kissed goodbye and he went to meet up with more appropriately paced swimmers for himself. I walked down the left side of the ramp to the entrance of the lake. I spotted the VIP area and started screaming Don’s name to get his attention, little did I know that Mike Reilly was also standing right there to start us off on our 140.6 journey to become Ironman. Don snapped a picture of us, we fist-bumed and off I went. When I reached the water, I dipped my goggles in the lake water, suctioned them to my face, and dove head first to start my swim. I quickly found my rhythm in the refreshing 67.7 degree water, and just went from buoy to buoy. The buoy to buoy method was going fine until the long stretch on the “rectangle,” there were red buoys in the water, which normally signal to you to turn, but not these ones. I had no idea how long we were swimming for, but I just kept my head down and continued swimming forward with the pack. When we made the final left hand turn to head toward the exit water, I was so excited! I was able to finish the swim in 1:23. One leg down, two to go!
I am normally pretty good at transitions, however once I reached my bike in T1 I was a hot mess. A lot more goes into transition during an Ironman race than a sprint, olympic, or a half. By the time I got to my bike, my wet suit was almost off, then I just started peeing, I figured since it was really raining outside, oh well, who cares, the rain is like a shower anyways. Then I got my socks, shoes, bike gloves, helmet, clear glasses and I was set. However, a mental note is to apply chamois cream, before the bike gloves are on. What was I thinking? Normally it is already on before the day begins, not during an Ironman. Eight minutes, and 38 seconds later, I was ready to mount my bike and begin the 112 mile ride. When I was at the mount line, I had a spectator yell, “Go Stellar!” I was like, “You know Stellar?” She said, “Yes, I’m from Jacksonville!” I thought that was so cool, being so far from home, hearing a familiar name being shouted at me put a big smile on my face. As we were biking up and out of Keystone Lake State Park on the bumpy road filled with potholes in a steady downpour, I was like what have we gotten ourselves into!?! Towards the top of the climb out of the park, I saw Don cheering us on. I was really on my bike ride journey, I just prayed to God that my brakes worked in the rain.
After we left the state park, the first section went over a bridge/dam. I kept my focus forward and not how high we were above the water. I did sneak a peek to the left to see the section of the lake we swam in and the view was pretty cool. That bridge dropped quickly to the right where I rode my brakes the whole way down.
The first 15 miles of the bike ride were pretty crazy--bumpy roads with potholes, steep downhills with sharp turns, mud slicks, loose gravel mixed with a rainy morning. I was super excited after I made it through the Water Tower Road section. Unfortunately, I already saw one person get hit by a car and knocked over and another girl who crashed her bike and was waiting to get picked up. I felt lucky and fortunate that I was able to keep pedaling forward to my goal. The first half of the bike contained most of the climbs. As I was climbing, I would encourage the people passing me or the people I passed and made small conversation with them. It was so cool being on top of the hill, looking to the right and seeing that we were on top of the tree canopy. After the first really big climb of 4 I saw my friends Sarah, Beth, and Jeff at the top of the “mountain.” I was so excited to see them I was starting to get emotional and I told myself, keep it together Heather. A few more miles went by and eventually Brian caught me around Mile 20something. I was relieved to see that he made it through the swim. It was right before an aid station and he asked if I wanted to stop for a drink and we kept peddling. The climbs and the rain continued, but I kept pushing through taking it one aid station at a time.
Around mile 52, I came around a bend and saw someone else wearing a Stellar Kit off the road and hanging out in the grass area off of their bike. I was like oh no, Brian got a flat! Sure enough, that's what happened. I stopped to see if he needed help changing his flat, I gave him another CO2 cartridge and tried to motivate him through his frustration. He felt so bad that I stopped, he kept saying, leave me here, I don’t want to ruin your day. After a few minutes passed I went forward and told the people I saw with radios to call for the Bike Support to help him. I knew we were only 4 miles from the Bike Special Needs bag at the halfway point.
The volunteers at the Bike Special Needs stop were great. As I rolled in they had my bike ready for me when I was there. I grabbed my bike and went back to prop my bike along a truck. While chatting with some ladies I applied more chamois cream, ate some of my PB & J, stocked my bike with more nutrition, snacked on some Peanut Butter M&M’s, used the bathroom and headed on the road again. As I was rolling out of the Bike Special Needs area, Brian was rolling in. What a relief that he got his tire full with air and kept biking forward.
I left the bike special needs area with a small group of bikers. I stuck with one girl from Arkansas for a bit as we were making conversation on the back half off the bike, the Cervelo Crusade was in full force. The 2nd half of the bike seemed to flatten out a bit. It was a beautiful ride through the Tulsa country seeing the various farmland and different animals along the way. It reminded me of riding through the Virginia countryside. At one point, there were some real dark clouds in the distance and around mile 70ish a real hard downpour started. These were moments you just had to laugh at, because what else can you do...but keep on pushing. There was a super long downhill section that was fun and scary at the same time. There was a crew of people hanging out on the downhill curves cheering everyone on. Shortly after that I saw Sarah, Beth, and Jeff again, (at this point Jeff was enjoying his newspaper, lol). After our ride through the country, we got to ride though some small towns leading us back to Tulsa, there I got to see Sarah, Beth, and Jeff a 3rd time before experiencing the treat of the last 10 miles.
Around Mile 100 you could see bikers descending and coming towards us, as we turned right for the last 10 miles before it was our turn to enjoy that downhill. At that point, I was riding close to two Tulsa natives. I asked them if the worst was behind us. While we were enjoying a nice downhill they wisely told me to save my legs for the last section. I remember being so excited when I hit mile marker 100, I let out a little who hoo….then came these 3 steep punches of a hill (as if we didn’t do enough climbing already). The steepest climb of the day came at Mile 102. The climbs reminded me of Sugarloaf Mountain in Florida, though shorter and perhaps a bit steeper, and we got to do it 3 times. By the 3rd steep hill, people were walking their bikes up it. I just kept my bike in the lowest gear possible and continued peddling. I was thinking back to when I was a kid and couldn’t bike up the hill to my house without zig zagging back and forth, now look at me...going straight up the steepest climbs of an IRONMAN RACE!! I asked the Tulsa guy, if we were done with the climbing, he said yes (clearly there were a few more rolling hills).
Once we got out of the backroad climbs, we got back on the highway, through some rolling hills and back into downtown Tulsa. On the last highway climb, I talked to some more people. One guy did IM Chattanooga before and he said this course was harder. I told him I was just so excited to be done with the bike and move onto my favorite part. He was like you’re about to find out if running still is your favorite. Another girl I talked to had the same kit as my friend, Casey back in Jacksonville. The crowd support cheering us into T2 was amazing and motivating, it made me so excited to celebrate that I just finished THAT bike ride. Never had I ridden my bike for over 7 hours, and never had I climbed that much elevation, but I proved to myself that I could do it! I was surprised and extremely thankful that the wind had been surprisingly calm this whole ride. I was expecting to feel the 20-30 mph winds, like everyone kept talking about on the Facebook Page leading up to the event.
Time for T2! I tried to quickly rack my bike and change from my tri kit to a fresh pair of running clothes for the marathon. In my head I was convinced I would have some sort of blisters on my feet from pedaling through almost 7 hours in the rain, but to my surprise, there were none! I saw our Bike bag was also at our rack, so I grabbed that and dug out my chamois cream, dried off my feet and rubbed it all over my feet and other places before I put on dry socks and shoes for the run. I kept my helmet and bike gloves on for far too long. Eventually I shoved my stuff back in my transition bags. I spent a minute deciding on sunglasses or no sunglasses, threw my hat on backwards, my race belt around my waist, stuffed nutrition in my shorts, grabbed my water bottle and took off.
I was supposed to chill for the first few minutes of the run to let my body recover from the bike before starting the run, but I just felt so good (and running’s my favorite)! The first section of the run took us down to the river. Once we got to the river, we turned left for a two loop course. The path along the river was packed with spectators. I first spotted Sarah and Beth around the 4 mile mark. I kept looking to the right waiting to see Laura and Brian as we passed each other going opposite directions. First I saw Laura, she was crushing it..looking so happy and cheerful. Then I saw Brian who was moving along quite swiftly as well. I stuck with my nutrition plan, a Gu every 4 miles and put a cup of water in my water bottle at each aid station or every other aid station. While the rain did stop, the air was so muggy (but nothing that I’m not used to, thanks to training in Florida). The first turn around was at mile 8. Man did those 8 miles seem like they took a long time. Brian said it was easier running back towards town, so I was excited for the turn around. I still felt pretty good through the first half of the run, taking in the views of the river, the flowers, this cool park called The Gathering Place, and the buildings in the distance. The little rolling hills along the running path weren’t horrible, it felt nice to have a little downhill action every once in a while. I saw Sarah and Beth on the way back and had Sarah run with me for a few minutes. I kept trying to make friends out there, but I never seemed like anyone was going my speed.
We got our picture taken at the finish line, then waited in line for some food and got our morning clothes bag. Shortly we were greeted by Laura, Don, Sarah, Beth and Jeff. They congratulated us on a day well done. I apologized for making them wait for me after Laura finished and thanked them for being out there at random spots along the bike and run course. After snapping some pictures, we said our goodbyes to Sarah, Beth, and Jeff then hopped on the shuttle to T2 to get our bikes and gear bags. We dropped off our bikes with Transition Tri and headed back to the hotel thanks to Sherpa Don! When we got back to The Hyatt Place, our friends Sarah, Dale, her coach, and the rest of the professional guys staying in our hotel were already celebrating a day well done. Brian and I went upstairs with our stuff, cleaned up, and went downstairs to join in the celebration! What a day. WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!!
After 10 months in the making, I’m happy and proud to say that I am an Ironman. I couldn’t have done it without the love and support of my family and friends. All the long rides and runs Brian did with me along with all my Stellar Triathlon Buddies. From my Ironman Florida Buddies with that fun Iron Weekend and all the weekend rides and runs in between. I also couldn’t have done it without my Stellar Coach Skye who was there for it all and got me to the starting line, in the best shape of my life being such a stronger athlete and person overall.
It's crazy to think that that training cycle is over. The celebration day at Ironman Tula was over and done within 14 hours, well 13 hours, 58 minutes, 11 seconds to be exact. I’ll definitely do another one, one day. Until then...time to figure out what’s next!
