Bethany Longmire: IRONMAN - A Coaches Perspective

How do you put into words what it is like to have someone literally put their lifetime dream into your hands?
I met Bethany on new years day 2016.  We were out for our annual new years day bike ride and she decided to join along.  The ride is about 45 miles and we stuck together for most of it.  She started telling me about her excitement of signing up for Ironman AZ 2016 and how it had been a long term goal for her for many years.  I asked her if she had a plan and how she was going to go about her training and she literally said she had none other then the fact that she is a mother and it would have to be as minimal as possible because of her obligations to her family.  I was like ok... well if you need a coach I would be happy to help you.  She jumped on it.  She said absolutely and I promise to do whatever you say if you can help me get to that finish line.
Bethany lived up to that promise in every possible way.  Coaching is more then just writing a training plan for someone and sending it out every month.  There is communication between the athlete and the coach that needs to take place on a regular basis to be able to adjust and adapt the training to the athletes specific needs.  In Bethany's case the first thing we had to work on was her aerobic engine.  She was a great marathoner but had no efficiency on the bike.  Not that she wasn't fast (she was) but her body was just not being efficient at processing the energy.  We got her a VO2 max test and then I had to tell her the hardest thing you have to tell an athlete to do... slow down.  She did.  I watched her on many rides letting her friends all go by her while she stayed in the back keeping her heart rate in her "long zone".  I had to remind her a few times to back off and she listened and slowed down.  This is when I knew that she trusted and respected me as her coach.  The plan was to make the improvement in her aerobic efficiency and then re-test her in 3 months to implement her new zones into her training for Ironman.  Holy cow if you could get an A+ on a VO2 max test she did! She nailed it!  She had made herself a fat burning efficient machine!  After that it was just getting her used to her new zones and slowly building up her volume.  This is what we needed to happen for her to have her best possible race on Ironman.

As we started to increase her volume and work loads she did everything right.  She called me when she was tired, she called me when she felt good, she called me with nutrition questions, she called me when she thought she should be doing more, she called me... She allowed me to take the reins and steer her in the direction she needed to go.  Sometimes as an athlete it is hard to gauge what is going on in your training and your own body, this is when it is essential to have your coach evaluate and adjust as needed.

Please don't take me wrong here.  I am certainly not taking full credit for her amazing accomplishment.  SHE did all the work. SHE stayed focused and driven and did everything she needed to do to be ready for this race.  As a coach you can't wave a magic wand and give that to your athlete.  They have to have their own purpose and drive to get themselves through all the tough times.  SHE did that.
As I reflect on this journey I was able to take with Bethany I am overwhelmed with emotions.  First is gratitude.  Gratitude that she allowed ME to be part of her journey.  Honor.  Honored that she thought I was the right person to coach her through her first Ironman.  Pride.  Unbelievably proud of what we accomplished together and her end results.  A friend of ours Bev has been saying all year "keep the most important thing the most important thing".  That is what we did together.

Here are her race results:

Ironman Arizona 2016

Swim: 1:20:23

Bike: 5:45:31

Run: 4:07:51

Overall race time: 11:21:04

SUPERFROG IM 70.3 September 25 2016

RACE REPORT:

This is probably one of my most negative reports to date.  I always try to keep them upbeat and inspiring but this one I was in a dark place for most of it.  I am thankful that I got through it and overcame the challenges before me but am in NO hurry to go back to this one!
I don't even know what to say about my race today...
The swim was brutal! The waves were so big it was like I was living the reoccurring nightmare I have been having. I some how made it out to the boeys for the first loop but by second loop the waves and current was so strong it was literally throwing us into the oncoming swimmers! It was like watching a giant wave full of people come crashing down on you. I literally thought I was going to die! Finally the lifeguards started rounding us up and pushing us toward the shore. I got out of the water thinking how am I going to do this again for Florida??? 

Thankfully my bike ride was flawless. Bike was in great shape no mechanical problems and no flat tires! No complaints about the bike. On to the run! OMG! The run was soooo hard! We had to run half of the race through super soft beach sand! I am totally not trained for that. My glutes and hamstrings were screaming! The finish line has never seemed sweeter. I needed that race to be over so bad! Race time 5:48. Pretty good but would probably have been 10min longer if I had been able to keep swimming. It really goes to show you no matter how many of these you do there is always something that can pose a challenge to you and take you to another level. Rod Gull is about the best Sherpa a girl can ask for and I am so grateful he was there to worry about me. So glad that is over...now on to Florida!

IRONMAN Florida 2016 -- Second Ironman experience!

IRONMAN FLORIDA November 5th 2016

Race Report:

What a great day! Loved this venue and loved the people. My day was chuck full of highs and lows but looking back I wouldn't change a thing. Here is my race report...

The SWIM: 2.4 miles 

Rewind to 5 weeks ago when I was standing at the starting line to Superfrog 70.3 and the surf was popping up way over my head. Looking out at the Gulf coast everything seemed to be way smoother then Coronado so I was immediately relieved. IMFL has a rolling start to the swim, which allows athletes to line up based on their projected finish time, and helps control the madness of a mass swim start. When I did IMAZ in 2014 we had a mass start and oh boy nothing can quit prepare you for the havoc of having the gun go off and 3000 athletes in the water starting to swim. Anyway I seeded myself comfortably in the 1:20-1:30 group, as this has been the time range of all my practice swims. Gun goes off and off we go! The rolling start made things so much easier. I just bounded out into the ocean and started to swim! Didn't really have to fight with anyone for a spot and found my grove right away. I was able to look down and see the bottom of the ocean and all of the marine life that was in it. I saw jellyfish, stingrays, schools of fish, and some other stuff that seemed to glow in the dark. I love wildlife so this was really cool for me to get to see. On the way out I was able to sight the boeys pretty well and didn’t veer to far off of course. The wind must have picked up because the swells started to get really big and made it almost impossible to sight anything after the turn. I can get really bad motion sickness so I made sure to take 2 Dramamine before the race to help with any nausea I may get. Man….am I glad I got up extra early to eat my breakfast. If I had waited to the last minute all those calories would have been up and out all over that ocean. I just kept getting soooo sea sick. Every time I started to feel like I was going to be sick I would stop and let my body come upright so I could keep it in. I just kept thinking “Dawn don’t you dare lose all of those calories you ate this morning!” Lol. It is funny now. Anyway between that and my horrible ability to swim a straight line I ended up with 600 yards extra and a time of 1:37! Augh…that was very upsetting to me. But in the world of Ironman you can’t waste time or energy stressing about the stuff that is out of your hands and I shook it off and ran to transition…

T1: The Transition Nazi

After grabbing my bag and running into the change tent I saw that they were really busy and there was not going to be any volunteer to help me. That's ok I am pretty good at transitions so hopefully they were helping someone that needed more help then me. There wasn’t a lot of space and so I looked for an open spot and started emptying out my bag. All of a sudden out of nowhere this lady comes running over to me and yells “NO you can not change there!” proceeds to pick up my stuff and throw it out of the way. I just stood there open mouthed completely in disbelief of what was happening. She continues to tell me “I have 200 athletes that need to get through here and I can’t have this area blocked”. Ok. I totally get that. I didn’t realize I was in the way of anything and would have happily moved my things out of the way. She totally did not need to throw my stuff and yell at me like she did. Again, no wasting energy on anger…Changed into my bike gear and off to get my bike!

The BIKE: 112 miles

Ahhhh…this is my sport. I love to ride my bicycle! Florida bike course is fairly flat and known for being a fast course. I was really looking forward to a fast bike time on this course. Ironman Arizona is pretty flat and fast too but the year I did it I got a ton of head wind going up the beeline so it slowed me down a lot…
Off I was on my bike feeling great. I passed my fellow racelabber around mile 10 giving him a woohoo and continued to do my thing. There is a really long stretch of this ride that has you heading north west and wouldn’t you know it…15 mph headwinds with gusts of 20mph! Oh man. I was not going to be slowed down by this damn wind again and just put my head down and forged through! It wasn’t until mile 50 that we finally got to turn and get some wind behind us. By then I had made some friends with fellow athletes I kept leap frogging with on the way out. The guys around me kept giving me props for being a strong rider and that made me feel good. I started to feel a little bit of redemption from my miserable swim and things were starting to look up! The rest of the ride was strong and steady occasionally battling more head winds but not for as long of stretches. As I headed back into town I started thinking to myself I hope I have what I need for the run! Into transition I rode. Bike time 5:47

T2:

Thankfully there was a volunteer to help me during this transition if only to make sure I went to the correct area! She was very pleasant and helped a lot. There was a time when she said “Oh I better not stand in this aisle I might get yelled at.” Poor volunteers! I am sorry that they had to deal with that mean lady all day! Off to the run.

The RUN: 26.2 miles

I remember during IMAZ starting my run feeling nauseous and not being able to feel my feet. I had to walk probably the first 3 miles of that run and it wasn’t until mile 13 that my stomach settled down. This time I wasn’t feeling any of that. In fact I was feeling GREAT! I settled in to a nice pace that felt comfortable with my heart rate was right on point. I was just running along taking in all of the views. My usual strategy is to run to each aid station and walk the aid station taking in fuel and water. But for this one I didn’t feel it necessary to walk all of the aid stations. I did walk some in order to fuel but I was able to pick it right back up. I did miss seeing all of my friends on the course like IMAZ but I drew strength from my fellow athletes and all of the awesome people that lined the streets. I couldn't believe how strong I felt! It is amazing how much you doubt yourself along your journey. Even though I have already done an Ironman I still had doubts about how I would do and how I would feel.This is the first one I have done coaching myself (always being able to reach out to Bettina when I had questions or needed advice). I was worried I wouldn't do as well as the last one and worried I wasn't in good enough shape… all of these things go through my head. But at the end of the day I felt STRONG! As I started nearing the finish line I was actually able to pick up my pace! WHAT?!?! 3 miles to go I was like come on Dawn you got this and dug deep and finished strong. I now know that I am even STRONGER this time around! Run time 5:00
Finish time 12:39

Thank you to all of my friends and training buddies for helping me have another successful Ironman. A huge thank you to Bettina Schnippenkoetter Warnholtz for being my amazing mentor and helping me adjust my training as needed. I am so grateful to be apart of Racelab as a coach and a teammate. You guys are awesome! I can’t wait to cheer you all on for IMAZ!
And of course thank you to Rod Gull for being my incredible support team. Thank you for supporting all of my crazy ideas and adventures. Thank you for letting me grow and spread my wings to their farthest reach. Love you!
Also a special thanks to Bethany Longmire, Bridgit Egosque, and William Ring my athletes. You guys inspire me everyday with your abilities and determination!

IRONMAN Arizona--- First Ironman experience!

Ironman Arizona November 16 2014.

Race Report:

I started out my year with the fear of the 3000 people mass swim start. No matter how good of a swimmer you are it looks and IS intimidating. I wanted my focus to be on overcoming my fear and feeling strong when I got in the water. I can't say was completely unafraid but I certainly knew I couldn't have been more prepared and trained thanks to racelab! Before we marched to the water our coach Bettina Schnippenkoetter Warnholtz huddled us together offering us one last speech of wisdom and prayers. It brought tears to my eyes as I digested all that she said.
I gave Rod Gull a kiss goodbye and headed to the lake. I took hands with Maggie Kinsley and together we headed to the stairs to get in. I swam out through the sea of people to get to the location I wanted to start. The cannon went off and the lake just came to life as we all started heading in the same direction. Almost immediately I started battling with a guy next to me as we took turns swimming over each other. I started to feel really angry at how rough he was being with me and was trying desperately to muscle my way around him. But then I started thinking about what coach Bettina told us about wasting energy on being angry and decided to relax, stop and let the guy go ahead of me. He wasn't worth wasting my energy on. After that I just kept that thought in my head and every time I came in contact with people I just swam around or away from them. After I rounded my halfway point buoy the water started to get VERY choppy! I was looking around for a jet skier because I couldn't understand were all the waves were coming from? (This should have giving me a good inclination of the weather that was ahead) It wasn't an easy swim by any means but my goal was to get 2.4 miles done in 1:25 and I completed it in 1:24:56! Ha! It felt like forever but I swam up to the stairs and was helped out of the water by the volunteers and on to transition!
T1: I was greeted in transition by one of my closest friends and mentor Beverly A Crupi. She calmly helped me out of my wetsuit, wiped off my feet, got me my helmet and sunglasses, handed me my bike shoes and sent me on my way! Everyone said you should take time in transition to pull yourself together but I just wanted to get to the sport that I knew I was good at!
The only anxiety I had about my bike ride was the fear of getting a flat tire. I knew I could fix it but it would just be so discouraging having to waste time doing that.
Yeah!!! Finally on to the bike. I felt great getting on the bike because I knew the hardest part of my day was behind me and I would now be able to enjoy the experience. I was cheered on by Rod Gull and the racelabbers as I headed out towards the Beeline! I was on a great pace heading out felt lots of energy and was trying to keep my heart rate in my race strategy zone... (This is very hard for me to do on the bike because I always want to KILL it but I did my best.) The course is 3 loops and composed of a gradual incline out and a nice decline coming back. I had done so many hill repeats in my training that the hill was going to be no problem for me...HA! Little did I know that Hurricane Beeline was coming at us in full force! It was so windy heading up the hill! I couldn't believe it! It was crazy. Every loop the wind just got stronger and stronger! About every mile I passed people with flat tires, people who got blow around in the road and wiped out. At one aid station the volunteer dropped a giant water bottle and the wind pulled it right out in front of me! I thought for sure I was going over my handle bars but luckily by the grace of God I managed to avoid it and stay upright! I think my heart rate spiked to 200 here...

Overall though I can't say it was a bad ride. I saw my friends Stephanie, Judy Thometz, and Kingston from the TAC on Gilbert and the beeline (right by the dump) for my second loop and Meg Maloney Marks, and Jodee for my last loop. Seeing their faces and knowing I had friends that would drive out to the dump and wait there for me to pass by was soooooo amazing! I can't thank them enough for showing me such great support! Then of course every time I rode back through Tempe to turn out to do my loops racelab tent was in full force cheering! That is always an exciting rush! In perfect conditions my goal going into the race was to do my 112 mile bike in 5:45-6:00 hours...I did it in 6:03 with CRAZY winds! I am super excited about my bike time! I KNOW that was the best I could do. I had no flat tires, only had to stop for the bathroom once, and made through the whole ride with a smile on my face! I flew into transition and were the volunteer took my bike and herded me back to the transition tent.
T2: The ladies in T2 were awesome. They helped me get my shoes on, slapped Vaseline under my arms and stuffed my pockets full of goo! I got a ‘YEAH DAWN’ from Ellen Camp who was in there helping another athlete.
On to the marathon! Now my goal was always to be able to enjoy the run and really soak in the crowd and excitement of doing my first Ironman. So I knew I was going to take it slow and steady. I started out for my first mile and took notice of how bad my feet hurt. I think I was pounding them so hard on the bike to get up the hill in the wind that they really took a beating. I thought to myself (this isn't good that your feet are hurting already). I tried to not think about them but was forced to run/walk the first couple of miles because my feet were cramping so bad. Once I was able to put my feet out of my mind I started thinking about my stomach (which wasn't feeling so great). I felt very nauseous. I thought to myself what coach Bettina had told me to listen to body and eat what it tells you to. I tried to hydrate and take in some calories at every aid station and by mile 13 I finally started to feel better. I ran into my friends Meg and Jodee again and then finally got to see Rod where I stopped to give him a kiss and pull a rock out of my shoe.


The second half of the marathon was way better. I wasn't moving super-fast but I was feeling a LOT better. Right after mile 17 I ran into Andi White Gorman! She and Gibby were there to cheer me on and she jogged a little ways with me offering me support and encouragement telling me I was almost there and I was doing great. That was a great pick up for that portion of my run. I kept trucking my way though each mile 1 by 1 until I was finally able to hear the roar of the crowd and Mike Riley calling out Ironman names. Running into that chute was indescribable. I saw Stephanie Warnholtz Woods just as I was entering and she yelled to me that I had done it and I just started smiling from ear to ear. I could hear people in the crowd saying "look at her smiling!" I ran in and saw Bev and Jim Crupi there yelling for me on the left and then heard Rod, Jenna Williams and Dylan yelling for me on the right! I ran into the finish line and heard Mike Riley say "Dawn Brooks you are an Ironman"! And there at the finish line was my friend and coach Bettina waiting with open arms to hug and congratulate me on a race well done.
I have tears in my eyes now as I am writing this. All of my dreams and goals about this day have become reality for me. I gave myself 5 hours to complete the marathon and I did it in 4:55. Overall my finish time was 12:35. I can't even tell you what it feels like to know that I did my very best at something so out of the ordinary and unimaginable to most. Thank you to everyone who helped me achieve this dream. Ironman may seem silly or crazy to some but to me it was a challenge I wanted to overcome. I know I will do more Ironman races in my future but I know this will always be my absolute favorite one.