Ironman Wisconsin - TriathlonFull Ironman

What can you say about a mass chaos swim? I had a much better swim than anticipated. It was only 12 seconds slower than last year and I did it on about half the training volume, 2 bum shoulders and some recently cracked ribs. As is the case I sipped a lot of water. Because of the recent algae bloom maybe this lead to future problems. I'm not sure why so much water gets in my mouth when I swim.

Nothing. I took an easy controlled pace and ended up with a much faster swim than expected.

Moved slowly and smoothly through. Stopped for my last bathroom break in a very long time.

I couldn't have asked for a better bike start. Exited the helix and everything just felt right. As I powered through the ride I kept my heart rate down in Z1 and barely touching Z2. At most times I was right at 145-148. Last year I averaged 161 beats and I knew that was to high. As I came back into Verona after the first loop I contemplated stopping just to stretch my back and take in more food and liquids. Was feeling so good I decided to wait until the next stop. Next stop was same result. No bathroom break needed, just keep going. I should have known I was pushing my luck. I was still climbing and feeling great after Mt.Horeb on the second loop. Around mile 72 something just kind of gave out on me. I started vomitting violently. 5 or 6 times until nothing was left. Then I got really weak and nauseaus. Tried to drink water and GE but it came right back up. Made it to Cross Plains aid station and just wanted to rest for awhile and try to get some fluids down. As I pulled in a helper took my bike and I stumbled off to the bathroom first. Not sure why, now that I think about it I don't even remember going in. Just know when I came out a couple of volunteers were waiting for me. They asked me to come sit down awhile. Paremedics were then called over and they determined my day was over. Not even sure how it all went down but they said I had no choice after I "failed" a few tests. They removed my chip and I kind of lost it for a little while. In the end I was given 2 bags of fluid and got an ambulance ride back to the med tent. I had dropped 14 pounds from the initial weigh in and had some weird pulse readings. This was a an absolutely devastating end to a great weekend for me. I sulked for awhile and waited for my brother to come get me as the med tent was starting to fill.

I'm not sure. It all came on so suddenly. I have been dealing with GI issues all summer and maybe the algae just hit me all at once.

I still love this race and this venue. My brother took me back to the hotel and I got cleaned up and tried to pull myself out of the funk. Went to get Kelly from the end of her volunteer duty on the run and watched people for an hour or so. It felt so good to see so many BT'ers working ion the run and hurt so bad to know I wasn't with them. Went to eat at Friedas around 5:00 because I had literally nothing in my stomache from the whole day. Watched runners go by while we ate. When done we went to cheer on others. Hurt to clap from all the IV holes in my hands (3). Saw some of the bravest performances I have ever seen. Talked to and walked with several BT'ers as they went by. Worked our way towards the finish and then it just got to hard to stick around. Hearing Mike Reilly's voice put me over the edge and I needed to go back to the hotel.
I promised I would not do this race again in 2010. Of course this promise came with me never fathoming a DNF. It was so hard not to sign up again. I will be back in 2011 and get my revenge on this course. Conratulations to all the finishers. I couldn't have chosen a better group to try for #2 with.