Ironman Wisconsin - TriathlonFull Ironman

This was the best swim of my life. During my first ironman it took me two hours to finish the swim. I was hoping for anything less than two hours, so I was very happy to get out of the water at 1:31. I started near the buoys about 3/4 back in the field. The entire swim was a volley of punches, kicks, and the normal full body contact. I didn't expect this to go on throughout the entire swim. Perhaps the constant contact is what helped me stay focused, which lead to a good swim.
I got out of the water feeling great and was cheering as I ran past my wife who was standing on the helix.

Damn....transition at IMWI are long. After running up the helix, walking through a convention center and two different rooms to change...it felt like I was in transition the entire day. I did opt to change into cycling shorts, which added a minute or two.

The entire bike segment went great. I was anxious to check out the Wisconsin bike course for the first time. I had trained my a$$ off on hills and had hoped I was prepared. Although the IMWI course was hilly, it was manageable and not as difficult as I expected. I had hoped to hold an an average of 17 to 17.5. Was very happy to finish the bike segment at 18 MPH average. I got off the bike feeling strong and confident that I could meet my goal of 13 hours. My TFL/ITB was tight, but I was ready to run.

Although I had exceeded my Run volume throughout the entire 40-week schedule I went into this race not knowing how the marathon would go. My longest run was 20 miles about 5 weeks out from IMWI. During this run I pulled a muscle in my TFL / Glute that lead to severe ITBS. I was forced to virtually stop running the last 5 weeks before IMWI. I saw a PT and A.R.T. doctor a total of 23 times leading up to the race. I expected to have a jog/walk marathon. What I didn’t expect was for something else to stop me.

I came off the bike feeling better than ever. My energy level and body felt great. I started the run and immediately felt the TFL/ITB pulling hard. The pain was manageable and the knee wasn’t turning in yet so I was able to continue running. I made it to Mile 2 water stop where I walked and got water. I ran into Bryan (Mndiver) and ran with him for a while. We played leapfrog from stop to stop. We’d jog to the stop and walk for two minutes. That was the plan. At about mile three I noticed I was sweating profusely. Not just a normal sweat rate. I knew something was “off” because I was cold. The air temp was in the mid 70’s and breezy. I started to feel G.I. issues coming on. I had to aim for the nearest Porto-jon where I evacuated everything.

I kept jog/walking between stops, drinking water at each stop and taking gel. I followed my nutrition plan to a ‘T’. I felt the slow creep of dizziness and nausea coming. It felt like dehydration, but it shouldn’t have been dehydration based off of the weather conditions and the amount of fluids I took in on the bike. At mile 7 or 8 I began vomiting and feeling dizzy. That’s fine, I can deal with it. Just keep taking in fluid and gel and puke if I must. The following few miles progressively got worse. Puke, walk, puke, stumble, etc. I noticed that as soon as I took in water or gel I would get extremely dizzy and feel like I was going to pass out. As soon as I puked it up I regained a little more focus. I continue on….forward. Step by step.

I started making small goals. Next goal was the 13.1 turn around where I got a handful of antacids out of my special needs, hoping they would calm my stomach. It didn’t work. Next goal was to make it to mile 15 where my wife was waiting on me. I told myself if I make it this far I’ll sit down for a bit and try and recover before moving on. The two miles leading up to mile 15 was ridiculous. I was stumbling so bad that people were walking up to me asking if I needed help. I had lost the hearing in my left ear and could feel my right ear going deaf. I made it to mile 15 where I ran into my wife. I lay down on the side of the road under a tree. My wife brought over Monty’s (montyzooma) father-in-law who was a doctor. He checked me over and checked my pulse. He said I didn’t look good enough to continue. I told him about losing my hearing in my ear and he explained that my blood pressure was too low and it would be dangerous if I continue in this state. So I did what most of you would do, which was get up and continue walking. I told my wife I’d stop when I knew for a fact I couldn’t continue. She was so worried about me she followed a few steps behind me for about a mile. I would make it about 100 feet before I had to stop and vomit. In order to stay upright I had to hold onto something because gravity was pulling me down. It took more effort to stand upright than to walk. It was a struggle staying conscious.

I continued this for another mile and a half. I was in such a haze I don’t know exactly what was going on. I remember puking, falling to my knees, people coming up to me offering help. I remember making it to the football stadium a second time and walking around the stadium. The last thing I remember was rounding a corner and waking up next to a fence. I was sitting on my knees and people were talking to me. One of these was a paramedic. The medic asked if I was OK. I told him I was sick and dehydrated and I just needed a minute to regain my composure. He said to me..”I think your race is over my friend.” Which sounded very odd to me. I was confused. I thought I’d be able to get back up and continue walking. I knew I was somewhere around mile 17 or 18. The medic kept asking me if I wanted his help, and warned that if he put his hands on me my race would end. I told him to hold off and give me a few minutes. I must have spent 20 or 30 minutes trying to regain my alertness and ability to stand and walk. I would stand up and immediately felt blackness coming in from my peripheral. I had to hold onto a chain link fence in order to stay upright. After holding myself up for a few minutes I turned and began to walk towards the next stop. Mile 18 I suppose. I made it about 10 steps before it felt like someone was pulling me to the ground with a rope. I collapsed back to the ground on my knees. By this point I probably had 50 people standing around watching me. There were three paramedics standing next to me talking to me but I wasn’t sure of all of what they were saying. I did make out words like..”Your race is over.”..and….”You can’t go on.” I sat for another minute or two and had to make the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make in the 40 years. If there was ANY chance I could move forward, I was going to take it. I only had 9 miles or less to go to finish and about 4 to 5 hours to cover this distance. Knowing this I wanted to stand and walk, even if it was 20 feet at a time. But I couldn’t stand or walk. I told the paramedics that I’m done. They picked me up and carried me to the ambulance.

Once in the ambulance they checked my blood pressure, blood oxygen and heart rate. My blood pressure was 70 over 30. When one medic announced this to the other they seemed to go into panic mode, which kind of freaked me out. They jabbed an IV in my arm and started squeezing fluid into me. He then read off my blood oxygen number to the other medic. The medic’s tone went from friendly and helpful to very serious. They were no longer responding to me but were talking back and forth to one another. Probably because I was mumbling. A few minutes later I arrived at the Med Tent where they rolled me in and started giving information to who I guess was the head doctor. The Doc came over and asked if I could stand long enough to get my weight. I told him I could. The scale showed I had lost 18 pounds. Even after 500 cc’s of fluid and wearing full run gear I was down 18 pounds. Not good. The Doc worked on me for a while checking all sorts of things. They switched out IV bags about every 15 minutes. I went through a total of seven IV bags, or 3500 cc’s of fluid. The doctor asked me about my health history. I explained that I was diagnosed with a heart valve defect a couple of years ago. The Doc explained that with this condition my heart cannot keep up with the “flow” demands under long periods of extreme stress. He went on to explain that my heart would not oxygenate my blood, which lead to the extremely low blood pressure, which lead to the loss of hearing in my ears, which lead to my organs shutting down one at a time. He explained that no matter what I could have done there was no way I would have recovered from this on the race course. No amount of rest or fluids would have helped. He stated that I was in shock, and had probably been in shock for some period of time.

Hearing all of this made me feel better about the decision I made to end my race. I would not been able to live with myself had I known I quit earlier than I had to. This was to be my last Ironman race and I didn’t want to go out like this. But some things are out of our control.

The first Ironman I did was for a charity. I trained, but not as hard as I should have. I finished in 15:13. Ironman Wisconsin was to be MY race. I wanted this season and this race to be something different than the first time. I wanted to finish strong, hopefully in 13+ hours. The way the day was unfolding I felt confident I would finish right around 13 hours. So to find myself on the ground at mile 17 on the run was more than my mind could handle. Laying in the med tent for 2.5 hours listening to Mike Riley call out finishers names just beat the hell out of me. I wanted so badly to get out of there and disappear. Another medic volunteer had brought a message to me that my wife was outside and that all of my friends had finished and are doing well (Bryan, Monty, Scott, David, Rodger, Craig, Rob)….more I may have forgotten. Knowing they finished made me feel a little better. But I couldn’t get the weight off of my chest that my day ended without a finisher medal. I wanted to go to the finish line and stand in the rain and meet up with fellow BT’ers, but I couldn’t.

I left the med tent around 11pm and walked my bike back down to the base of Monona Terrace to wait for my wife to get the car. As I stood in the dark listening to Mike Riley’s voice off in the distance I reflected on what had happened. I was still in a fog and couldn’t comprehend if what I had just gone through was real or not. Everything was just a blur. My day was over.

I go away from this feeling good that I had a great swim experience and a great bike split. I know I gave everything I had and more. I’m fortunate to have met so many bad-ass BT’ers who were great support and were great friends over the past year. I plan to continue with the sport of triathlon but at a much lighter pace. Maybe one Olympic a year and maybe, if my cardiologist agrees, one half-ironman a year. As for 140.6…..I don’t think any more are in my future. I’m glad I have at least one ironman finish. Being 9 miles shy of a second finish is acceptable, but hard to swallow at this point.

Congratulations to all of the other BT’ers who rocked IMWI!

Ironman Wisconsin was a great event. I've been asked to compare an M-Dot brand event to a Independent 140.6 event, since my first 140.6 was a indie race. All I can say is this....distance is distance. Having a huge crowd surrounding you throughout the entire race seemed to make the M-Dot brand race easier. The M-Dot race site, with all of the inflated arches and M-Dots were cool, but not necessary if your goal is to finish a ironman distance triathlon. So to those considering a 140.6 but can't get into a M-Dot race, or want to go through the hassle....check out one of the many independent 140.6 races around the country. At the end of the day you're an Ironman regardless of who owns the event.