Icanbeanironmanofficial

Very true words!

Morning 5K ✅

Happy Medal Monday!

Happy presented by Always Advancing! Thank you to the volunteers and participants for making this such a great event! 🙏

Ironman Maryland Official Finish Time: 12:59:24💪🏻🏅

Ironman Maryland Recap: Finally, the run! For a marathon lover, I never expected the run to be the worst part of the race. As soon as I dismounted from the bike, my legs were like jello. I started off with about a 9 minute mile and quickly went down from there but was able to maintain a decent stride to stay below my sub-5 hour pace goal. The run was 3.5 loops through downtown Cambridge, so it was awesome to have all the locals cheering us on too. I watched the sunset during my third loop. Each loop, you got a different color wristband. I couldn’t wait to get the red band, meaning you were headed to the finish line! There was also a different finisher shoot when you were making your way to the finish line from downtown which was emotional because of how much pain I was in and how many people were cheering. Hearing “Melanie Davis, you are an Ironman” was the best feeling. After I finished, my legs gave out and I was taken to medical in a wheelchair. I had nothing left! Marathon time of 4:48:52.

Ironman Maryland Recap: Next up, the bike! A stunning 112 mile bike ride through Dorchester County and the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. I felt great and was riding really well. I was lucky not to crash a couple times when trying to open some stubborn Gatorade chews or store my Gatorade bottle. Several people commented how well I was riding for not wearing clips or having carbon bike wheels so I felt good. It hit me towards the end that I still had a full marathon to go. Final time, 6:23:45.

Ironman Maryland Recap: First segment, the swim. Started at 6:35 am. It was still a little chilly outside but the water was perfect, and I watched the beautiful sunrise while swimming the first loop. The jellyfish were insane and it felt like swimming through spaghetti. Although the swim skin worked great, my arms were destroyed. Got kicked a few times hard in the face but had a surprisingly great swim at 1:34:03. Face was almost muddy coming out of the water.

Almost go time! See ya after 🏊🏻‍♀️🚴‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️

- Hair braided
- Gear drop-off
- Open water swim shakeout
- Jelly fish stings
- Change of plans from wetsuit to swim skin
- Driving the course
- Gear ready for tomorrow
- 4 AM alarm set

All that’s left to do is actually race! If I can get through the swim, I hope I will be okay for the long haul. Ready to give it a shot!

The journey starts now…MD bound! You’ll see we are only making the trek with one bike. Stephen made the heartbreaking decision to defer his race, given lingering impacts from a second COVID battle. Although we are disappointed to not race for the first time together, we know it’s the right decision. I will test it out for us and Stephen will enjoy the weekend in MD and look forward to his race in the future!

Light pre-race week training!

Race week🫢😳💪🏻