Friday – Sprint Triathlon 250 meter swim, 3.5 mile bike, 1 mile run

Friday Moring we gathered up all of our belongings and headed down to Portsmouth
OH and Shawnee State Park (nothing but mountains) for what would be a battle the
four of us would never forget.  The 3 day event began with a small sprint
triathlon which provided just enough of an effort to get your blood flowing,
realize how cold the lake was and to soak your shoes due to the rain leading up
to the race.  Thus far one race down with three to go.

Saturday Morning – Olympic Triathlon 1500 meter swim, 24.2 mile bike, 6.2 mile
run

While I have done a few Olympic distance triathlons this would prove to be a
test out of the gate.  And, knowing you had to turn around at 3 pm and do this
race all over again really forced you to hold back and conserve energy.  The
race began like every other with a 1500 meter swim, but this was freezing with
water temps hovering around 60 degrees all weekend. The good news was this
provided for a PR swim time for me so at that point I realized my work in the
pool all winter was paying off.  The bike would then prove a test – 24.2 miles
of nothing but climbing.  A typical 24 mile course would take me about an  hour
on most days but not on this day.  This one took about 1:45.  One climb in
particular was probably about 2 miles long at a crazy grade with an average
speed of about 6 miles an hour.  I could feel my body screaming at me! Coming
into the transition area I felt pretty good and headed out for the run which
would prove to be INSANE!  The runs all weekend involved an out and back course
on an old logging/fire road in a heavily wooded forest.  And….you guessed it
nothing but up and down hills.  I finished this race feeling ok and knew the
afternoon race had the potential to be disastrous.

Saturday Afternoon – Olympic Triathlon 24.2 mile bike, 1500 meter swim, 6.2 mile
run

We had roughly 2 hours to recover from the morning Olympic distance before
heading out and doing it all over again….but with a twist.  This time the bike
was first and the swim was second.  This is partially what makes this race so
difficult – two hours of recovery between races and then heading back out on the
same bike portion that about destroyed half of the field earlier in the morning.  
I felt ok heading into race #2 for the day feeling pretty good but absolutely
exhausted.  The bike portions went as planned and my body screamed in the same
places it did in the morning.  Now….Imagine this – Ride 24.2 miles on a bike
getting your legs all warm and your muscles all loose and then jumping into a 60
degree lake – we’ll that’s what we did.  We all knew cramping would happen in
the water and were warned by race directors that it would happen.  I entered the
lake and took inventory on my legs which felt pretty good at the time.  As I
made my way around the first 750 meter lap and entered the beach for the 50 yard
run to lap number two is when I felt my world crashing down (along with many of
the other athletes). As I exited the water and stood up I felt pain that I have
never felt before.  From my waist down every muscle ceased to the point that I
fell to my knees in 2 ft of water, screamed and thought – THIS IS IT!!  I later
heard that 25 (of the 400) athletes ended up dropping out of the race at this
point.  After about 3 minutes of thriving plain I managed to rub the cramps out
and head out for lap number 2 with nothing but pain and fear in my head.  
Thankful for the wetsuit most athletes didn’t kick during lap two in fear of
cramping in 25 ft deep water.  We took  our time and just pulled ourselves
through the frigid water.   Somehow I set another PR swim time during this
second Olympic distance race for the day besting the PR I set in the morning for
a 1500 meter swim.  Exiting the water my legs began to recover bit from the
cramping and I slowly made my way to the transition area and made my way out to
the same up and down run we did in the morning.  My goal for the two Olympic
distance races was to complete them in about the same time.  I ended up doing
them just about 2 minutes apart.

Sunday Morning – Half Ironman Triathlon 2200 (1.2 miles) meter swim, 56 mile
bike, 13.1 mile run.

After all of the ups and downs on Saturday we still had to conquer the dreaded
half ironman distance before we could claim “we did it”.  I woke up at about 5
am Sunday morning feeling “dumpy” and lethargic.  I wasn’t feeling any pain in
the joints but was definitely muscle sore.  I  had a nice hip massage the night
before from Pete which sure helped.  None the less we raced for 7 hours the day
before and now had to prepare for the largest test of all.    As I headed down
into the transition in preparation for the race I was full of lack of confidence
and doubt.  As my other teammates and I prepared our gear in our spot in the
transition one of the guys on my rack looked at me and said (after I shared my
doubt with him) “Failure is not an option, if you have doubt this course it will
eat you alive”.  This righted my brain pretty quickly and I spent the next 30
minutes focusing on the task at hand.  We headed out to the swim with the water
a few degrees cooler than the day before – thank goodness for wetsuits for 95%
of the athletes.  Somehow, some way I ended up doing the fastest half ironman
swim of my life, setting a PR by almost 12 minutes.  I really felt in a grove
and found myself getting into a really strong stroke, stroke, breath pattern
with some quick turn over in my arms.  Perhaps my mind was telling me this water
is freezing get out as soon as possible.  I exited the water feeling pretty
confident at this point and thought as long as I don’t have any mechanical
issues on the bike I should be good to go.   So, off came the wetsuit and out on
the bike we headed.  This would prove the most difficult 56 miles of biking of
my life.  Typically a 56 mile bike would take me about 2:45 minutes during a
half ironman race.  Not on this day.  I was out on the bike course for 3:45
minutes (this was the case for most of the field).  I kid you not, what seemed
like a billion ft of elevation change and three climbs that would rival the tour
– miles long and 85 degree sun.  I finished the first 28 miles feeling decent
but as I hit mile 35 my brain and body went to a place I don’t remember.  People
talk about outer body experiences and I think that’s what happened to me.  Miles
35-45 I barely recall a moment.  I entered into some serious shivers and chills
and remember thinking I must be dehydrated and looking down at my hands and
seeing nothing but veins throbbing not feeling my fingers. At this point a few
ambulances  passed me heading to a few bike wrecks on the course – fear was all
I could think about. Because of the long up hills this provided some dangerous
downhill rides that put us at about 40 mph with difficult hair pin turns that
forced you to go from 40 mph down to 10 mph quickly. I ended up inundatedding
myself with liquid during this point (emptying my water bottles) taking a number
of salt pills and stuffing myself full of energy gel’s.  I ended up coming out
of “lala land” before the last climb and in time enough to pass the course
director and having him say “you are almost home”.  I love riding my bikes and
it has kept me same for the past few years. But, I don’t want to see a bike
saddle for at least a week!!  I entered into the transition got of the bike and
recall rubbing my hand down my left arm and feeling the dried up salt that had
exited my body during the bike.    All I could think at this point was slow down
all you need to do is finish this run and it’s game over.  I headed out onto the
running trail with Terry who finished the bike right behind me.  My body was
screaming and I felt like it was eating itself having lost any water I was
putting in and on my last reserves.   By this point it was about 87 degrees and
despite the sunscreen I was fried like a crab.  We took our time on the up hills
and took advantage of the down hills. My savior ended up being a bag of pretzels
and a coke at one of the water stops at mile 7 of the run.  The coke really
calmed my stomach and the pretzels added a little salt back into my body.   My
hips and knees felt good but my calves and quads were trying to shut down on me.  
Our run was more like pick up and drop rather than a stride.  In the distance I
could now see mile marker 12 and knew it was 1.2 miles to the finish line.  At
this point I wept like I never had before and really began to kick my run into
gear (the last mile ended up being sub 8 minutes).  In the distance you could
hear the crowd at the finish line and the announcer  when finishers would cross. 
As I turned the corner and came back onto the street there it was about 400
yards away… “the holy grail.”   I can’t believe it.  I tested myself mentally,
emotionally and physically. As a crossed the finish line the other teammates who
had already crossed embraced me in a hug as they tossed the finisher medal
around my neck – which did not leave my neck until 8 hours later!!   I remember
one of the Team ER guys saying to me “you met pain on the course and kicked it’s
tail!.   Over 400 athletes entered and I am proud to say all four of us finished
because we had each other during the weekend to push and support. 

All in all we proved much to ourselves over the weekend.  Our goal was to finish
regardless of the time and we did just that.  I came away from this weekend with
a new profound outlook on many aspects of my life and completely thankful for
every little piece of it.  So, what’s next…….. I’ll think about that once I can
walk 100% upright in the next few days…………………………….  I know one thing the typical
sprint and Olympic tri’s we do week in and week out will seem like a walk in the
park this year.