Introducing another talented MB2 athlete, Lindsey Bunch Director of Operations! Lindsey competed in the Ironman North American Championship 2017 in the Woodlands, TX this past April and is an amazing member of our MB2 Dental team.
The Ironman, often described as the world’s most challenging endurance event, consists of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile run. Lindsey has always been active and started out as strictly a runner. She completed 3 marathons and 6 half marathons before fully transitioning to triathlons in 2012. Once she started competing in triathlons, Lindsey realized that the activity was easier on her body and she enjoyed the training much more with the mix of 3 different sports. Since her first triathlon in 2012, Lindsey has completed 16 triathlon races. Prior to the Ironman North American Championship this year she had only completed the half Ironman races. So finishing this was a milestone event marking her first full Ironman distance race!
Lindsey began training for the Ironman Texas back in November of 2016. She and her coach created a 24-week training plan that had her training 12-17 hours each week, and sometimes as much as 20 hours on big weeks. Lindsey focused on strengthening each discipline by doing one or two workouts a day and long endurance on the weekends.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]For Lindsey, the most challenging portion of the Ironman was the channel swim. The channel swim is a small section of the total swim distance where athletes swim through a very shallow and narrow, 25-foot passageway of water.
Photo: Jason Fochtman, The Courier of Montgomery County
“Over 2,000 athletes in a narrow and shallow channel really churns up the water and the muck. It was a hard swim and extremely crowded and choppy, “recounted Lindsey.
Lindsey was grateful to not run into any mechanical issues, health issues or injuries in her over twelve hours of competing. The only thing she had to overcome were a few mental hurdles throughout the race.
“There were a few points where I would get down, but other than that it was a very positive day. There was never a second of that day where I didn’t think I would finish,” said Lindsey proudly.
Lindsey’s favorite part of the race was at mile 21 of the run to finish the Ironman. Prior to the race, Lindsey and her coach estimated her finishing in 13:30-14 hours. During the race Lindsey’s coach had been watching her run time drop on the live tracker so he set out to find her. When he found Lindsey at mile 21 she was a bit run down. Her watch had died and she wasn’t sure how she was doing. Her coach was excited to reveal to her that she had over an hour left to complete the 5.2 miles remaining and would complete the race much faster than they predicted!
“Getting that news kicked me in gear. He swapped watches with me and told me to aim to cross the finish line before 7:50 p.m. and I would [break 13 hours]. Guess what… I did! With 10 minutes to spare! Coming across the finish line and hearing ‘Lindsey Bunch, you are an Ironman!’ made it all worth it,” beamed Lindsey. “To complete the race in 12:50 was a time that no one anticipated me finishing in! I couldn’t be any more proud of what I did that day. To realize I might break 13 at about mile 21 was the coolest thing….I was just thinking how awesome posting that time would be.”
