*When Meredith Kessler (the female overall winner) finishes her 44th Ironman and says "this was by far the hardest swim/bike I have ever dealt with in any ironman" ,you maybe start to get an understanding of the day. Sidenote: Meredith pulled a Dan Beaver last year at IMSG, and blacked out on the run at mile 22 of the marathon while running in 2nd place and was picked up on the road and taken to the Hospital. , but this day was even more EPIC than that!!!
*Ben Hoffman (the male overall winner) and multiple Ironman Champion, states at the finish "this is the hardest "anything" that I have ever done in my life", now you starting to get the idea.
*Maybe the best of all is the voice of Ironman Mike Reilly, he has called the finish of over 110 Ironman all over the world, in all kinds of conditions, including something like 20 straight Kona finishes, he states that "this is by far the slowest winning time of any Ironman that I have ever been part of",
Now we are talking!!!
My experience is as follows:
The Swim
Mary and I enter Sand Hollow's beautiful 63 degree water with 15 minutes until the start. We are both feeling great and ready to smash the day. After a little warm up swim we line up at the very front of the swim start, I right behind her, and the cannon sounds and we are off.
Now my plan is to swim harder than I have ever before, and try to sight off of Mary's pink swim cap as long as possible. (she is the only pink cap ahead of me) so this should be perfect. We swim the first leg of the swim right on pace working hard, but feeling great, as we approach the first red turn buoy I am perfectly lined up, we make the turn and all of a sudden, like someone turned on a switch I was instantly being pulled off course! What was that? At first I think it must just be that we are close to the shore at this end of the water and we are just caught up in the break of the waves or something? I am struggling to stay straight for the next roughly 200 or so meters to the next turn buoy. I keep telling myself once we get going back the other direction (north) that things would be fine.
I couldn't have been more wrong!!! As I make the turn I start taking in mouth after mouth after mouth full of water. WTF? This is not good at all. I was such a surprise that none of us knew how to react. As Mary's cousin Beth from Miami that is used to swimming in the freaking ocean said. "the hardest part of it was the waves where just one right after another", Exactly, unlike in the ocean where you may have like 30 seconds or so to recover between waves, these where coming every 3-5 seconds, and straight into us. Making it impossible to sight while swimming freestyle without being totally smashed in the face by a 3-5 foot wave. So after about 10 minutes of this crap, I see a paddle boarder and flag her over to me. I asked her what the hell has just happened. She says "we just had one hell of a wind kick up", no shit! I ask if she has any tips on how to deal with this? She simply says " stay as close to the small buoys as possible and stay in a straight line" , wow thanks! Ok, this is about survival now. For the next roughly 1.2 miles or so left in the swim I had so many thoughts run through my mind, One of the overwhelming one was , how where the swimmers behind me going to make it out alive? How was specifically my friends and family going to make it. Beth, Paul, and Shawna Folts keep running though my mind. I knew Mary would be fine as she is more comfortable in the water than myself and I knew I would make it out alive, just really slowly!!!
I more or less did whatever i had to do to get to shore, I may have even invented a new stroke out there. UGLY!!
I remember saying to myself that Utah is a horrible place to hold an Ironman. In 2002 at Ironman Utah in Provo the exact same thing happened, and before they could get everyone out of the water a man lost his life. Was this going to be the same thing? I was certain that they would call it off at some point, but I was just focused on getting the the shore. Hell, I can't save anyone but myself out here!!! Eventually I make the boat ramp and stand up, so happy to be on terra ferma. I step up and Mike Reilly says good job buddy, I look at him and say "it is not at all safe out there", hoping that if they didn't already know on land that it was nasty dangerous, that this might be enough to get them to start pulling people out and cancelling the swim ASAP!!!
As I get my wetsuit stripped off I look up, in a total fog, and there stands Mary with tears in her eyes.
She says to me " I'm not doing this" "I'm not getting on the bike in this wind".
I walk with her to her gear bag and assure her that she just needed to get changed and on the bike and it would be ok. My last words to her where "you just have to adjust your bike expectations" and I will see you at the exit of the the change tents!!
By the time I went back and got my gear bag ,changed and got to my bike i didn't see her anywhere. Well she is safe now, she will either get on her bike or not, I can't to much about it now. So off I went. I went exactly .25 of a mile flying and turned into a head wind that was Shocking! I new we only ha to go about 3-4 miles into this and then would turn for the next 20ish miles with it at our back. About two miles in I pass Mary on the bike. So I know she made it out of the tent and was moving forward. I tell her I love her and to be safe out there on the bike. I keep telling myself that when we got to the main part of the bike course, that we would do twice, that the mountains and canyons would block the winds and we would be just fine. There was no way it would be like that first 3-4 miles all day long, Right???
The Bike:
Now for all the crazy wind and stellar tough bike course, this section was fairly uneventful for me. It was just a lot of the same thing over and over.
As I was just about to hit the part of the highway heading north, Adam Folts catches me on the bike, we chat for a few minutes and I find myself working harder to stay with him. At first I am happy to have someone to work with, but as I try to stay with him I remember my game plan, and after about 10 miles, decided to let him go and stick to the "take the first loop of the bike a little easier, and try to pick it up on the second loop. So I let person after person go by me, staying in control. Trying to stay in my aero bars as much as possible to offset the stupid headwinds and cross winds.
The number one priority that I have on the bike is set my stomach up to have a successful run. So I was taking in small amounts of calories every 34 minutes (about 100 calories). hoping that this would allow my stomach to digest said calories and water through out the day on the bike. We won't know how this worked until about mile15-18 of the run.
Once we got through the 25ish miles into the wind we have a 1 mile climb called the "wall", I fly up it because this was the first turn out of the winds and we where pushed right up it. At the top you turn back into the wind for another mile or so and then we hit Veyo, the Pie Shop and a right hand turn Finally heading south (Huge Tailwind) and mile 50. One more climb right away, and then it is about 15 miles of descent with a 30-40 mph tailwind. Hell Yes!! I am seriously flying by people like they are standing still. I top out at 58 mph on the biggest down section. Love This so much!!!
I finally come back into St. George and make the right turn to start lap number two. I have not seen another biker in over 20 miles, I passed everyone on the down hill, and hadn't caught anyone in a while. Kinda weird riding 20 miles of an Ironman and not seeing anyone in front or behind you. Now I know what It feels like to be Chrissie Wellington or Andy Potts!
Then all of a sudden I start to catch lots of people and pass them fast, bam, bam, bam. At first I can't figure out why it took me 70 miles to catch these people. Then I figure out that these people are just finding their way to the 25 mile mark of the bike and are on their first loop. Ouch. So for the next 25 miles back into the wind I decide it is now time to pick it up and push it. I catch Melanie S. in this section and encourage her to keep pushing it. She doesn't look happy, just like most of the other people out here. She will be back later though!
Once again I approach the "wall" fly up it and a couple miles later start the big down hill section. Really pushing to go as hard as possible. I pee one more time and take in my last bit of nutrition so as
to have time to digest it before the run, or so I hope!
One more right turn and a little turn around section and back onto Diagonal st.
I see my buddy Bryan Dunn hitting the 7 mile mark off the run meaning that he is about 1hr ahead of me, and that he must be at the front of the race. Awesome!!!
Into T2 and hop off the bike and run to my gear bag, for the first time ever I have forgotten to leave my shoes attached to my pedals and am running in my bike shoes. Damn it. funny things is that I am passing everyone in transition, come to find out that everyone in the change tent had DNF'D except for me, and they where in no hurry to go anywhere. I had a pretty quick T2 and was off to my favorite part of the day (I hope)!!!!
The Run/Nap
As I take off on my own two feet finally on solid ground for the first time in almost 8hrs, my legs have come to play. Always a good sign.
Now I have my game plan to follow, and just hope it all works as planned. First 7 mile loop just let the legs do what they want, don't push to hard, and let the stomach settle as much as possible. With the amount of out and back loops that you have on this course you have a chance to see lots of friends on the course, and by mile 2 I turn around and see Bryan and Adam about 3/4 of a mile behind me, Bryan on his second loop and Adam and I on our first. Just behind them is Melanie. When I pass each of them I cheer for them and try to keep everyone motivated after such a crazy swim & bike.
Somewhere around mile 4ish Adam passes me and I encourage him to stay strong and go after it all the way to the finish line. Then first loop went by nicely and now it was time to focus on loop two and just keep my pace steady here and stay strong, paying even more attention to my stomach and kinda keep my fingers crossed. I still have good legs, but start to worry about my calories.I really have no choice and decide I have to get some calories in or I will never make the finish line, so at about mile 9 I take a gel. It goes down fine, but a little stomach rumbling starts. Damn it, Please don't, just take it stomach, please!!! I pass the 13.1 mile at 1:44:00. Perfect, I haven't started to run hard yet and I am on pace for a sub 3:30, just stay focused and get through the loop and then you can start to push on the final loop. My plan was at 19miles to start really digging in and ramp up the pace with everything I had left. Well, at about 14 I start to get the bloating and bad stabbing pains in my gut. I slow to a walk at an aid station to let it settle and drink some h2o. No more than 10 steps and I am running again. Come on, keep it together stomach! less than a mile longer it finally hits full force.
Here we go again! A few minutes later Bryan passes by me on his last two miles to the finish line. I had been keeping tabs on him all day and knew at this point that he was at least top 5 overall, and at least top 2 in our age group 40-44. I tried to go with him, but my stomach cramped up and doubled me over. I yelled at him to push it all the way. Two minutes later i passed his coach Nick, he informed me that he was in first in the 40-44 age group and only had to run 1/2 mile to the finish. It was going to be his first Ironman win, on such an epic day. So happy for him.
Now back to me, what can i do to get better. Take in more, take in less, speed up slow down? Nothing seems to help. So I just go into full damage control and try to get one more mile at a time. Somewhere around mile 19-20 my friend Melanie finally catches me as I am now walking through aid stations in hopes of some magic pill. She taps me on the back and says 'lets go, lets finish this and puke together at the finish line". So I start running right behind her, keeping on her like a second pair of shorts, she's right, lets suck it up and get this done. We are running well at this point and we pass Mel's cheering section that encourages us to stay together and keep pushing, they yell at her to hammer the down hills, and we turn the corner and she gaps me. Damn it, you need to stay with her, push it!!! I catch back on and by the end of the hill I actually took the lead again. Now we are hammering back up hill and I am doing the pulling and feeling strong, my stomach keeps yelling but I don't listen. I am forced to slow at the next aid station and I decide it is now or never, go the the coke for the boost and just hope it works. Mel passes me again and i take off after her. She is my life line and if I can stay with her we are both going to be better off for it. Around the corner past about mile 21 and headed to 22. This is where all of a sudden things go black. The next thing I know I am laying on the side of the curb/side walk, and two EMS guys are talking to me, but I can't really answer them or even open my eyes to see them. I can hear everything they are saying and I am not happy about what I am hearing. They checked my bib number and called me into to someone, and then called for what they where calling the "Gator" I think that was one of those ATV things they use to take people from the course to the medic tent. If that happens i am out of the race. No EEFFing way I'm not getting that medal. So I force myself to sit up. Eyes still closed a volunteer comes over with potato chips and I tell her I just need her to walk up around the next corner to where my wife is standing and then I will be alright. I stumble and trip several times into her almost taking us both to the concrete, finally Mary can see me and comes running, as soon as I can make out that it is her I collapse right there onto the side walk. The lady ask's Mary If she should get help and she tells her no, she will keep and eye on me and that she has seen me like this many times, just normally it is at the finish line!
Well the next hour goes like this, me laying on my side eyes shout and kinda in and out of it. For the most part I could hear what was going on around me, but I couldn't see or say anything. The old man's yard that I am in front of comes out and starts checking all of my vitals, over and over and over and over. Next thing I know I have a pillow, then a blanket, then a drink, then a camping mat to lay on ( I never used it , I couldn't move onto it). Then he apparently goes in the house and brings out some cut up watermelon with salt on it for me to eat. After shivering for about 15 minutes with both blankets on me, I came around and was able to sit up. My math at this point was not its best, I heard someone tell another runner that they had 6 hours to finish, so I figured I had about 4-5 miles to go and if I could walk 20 minute miles I would just make the cut off. The only thing that keep me from throwing in the towel and calling it quits was the fact that I went through that swim and bike and no way in HELL that I was not getting that medal no matter what!!!
So considering that Mary was still technically a registered athlete with her wrist band still on, I told her that I needed her to walk some with me. After 1 hour I stood up and to my surprise felt so much better and even more surprising I was laying right in front of the 23mile marker. Yes, only 3.2 miles to get this done. Off we walked 1 1/2 miles out to the final turn around and Paul caught up with us at about mile 24 and walked with us for about half a mile. Finally he started jogging again, I thought he was finishing and then I realized he had one more loop to go. Finally I started feeling like maybe running again, but believe it or not I didn't want to leave Mary out there over a 1 1/2 away from the finish, but at almost this exact time she asks if i wanted to try and run. I said yes and off we trotted, I got to about mile 25 and the stomach doubled me over again with sharp pains. Ok, time to walk again. Just let me gather myself again and I am going to run this thing in no matter what. We make plans on where she will find me at the finish line and off I go. It;s not fast, but it is kinda running. On my final down hill there stands Melanie cheering, and I am wondering what the hell she must think, the last time she saw me was 90 minutes ago running with her and we had only like 4 miles to go???
Anyway, my stomach is killing me, but I'm not stopping again just a few turns and we are done. I hit the last little turn around and only have maybe 500 yards to the finish. People are cheering and I pass several people headed out for their third loop and I am so freaking happy not to be going with them. One right hand turn and I can see the finish line only 50 more yards, and Mike Reilly calls me in and I am an Ironman for the 10th time. The slowest, toughest, strangest ironman I have ever done, and I am just as happy as the first time I finished Kona. This was no joke. I feel very privileged to have been part of the hardest, most Epic Ironman in history, and to have came out the other side as a better person. What else could I have ever asked for.
This race with be talked about for the remainder of our days, when I talk to someone that raced Ironman St. George 2012, I will forever have a special kinship with them. Whether or not they made it to the finish line that day or not, they will understand what no one else ever will. That Cinco De Mayo 2012 will always hold a special spot in our memories!!!
Thank you to everyone that makes it possible for me to reach deep inside of myself and learn something new about myself and life each and every time I toe that Ironman start line.
Special shouts out to my little girl Megan for loving me no matter what happens, to my simply amazing wife Mary for inspiring me daily to be a better man, and for being my best friend and life's companion. Non of this would matter if you where not there to share it all with me. I love you girls!
Big thank you's go out to Mike at Focus Cyclery for keeping my bike on the road with great service and knowledge, A Gigantic shout out to Endurance Rehab, especially Nathan Snell and Matt Kraemer that take such great care of this old body and keeps me moving forward. I certainly couldn't do it without you. Lastly, but not leastly a huge thank, thank you, thank you goes out to my team and main sponsor TriScottsdale, you guys are awesome team mates!!!
Until next time, Be Safe out there!!!
