Name of the Triathlete

Every once in a while we get wind of a story that is truly unique. Sometimes they have something to do with DeFeet products, sometimes not. This is a story about the character of a person, brought out through sport. We'll throw in a bit about 'product integrity', too.

Chris Sadowski is a father, a triathlete, and a project manager. He's not an average triathlete. He competes in IronMan events. In 2004, during IronMan Hawaii, he ran into some problems. This is his account in his own words:

It was an 'official' Ironman motorcycle that rear ended me at mile 105 of the 112 bike leg. The 'official' driver was carrying a red-shirted 'referee' that was observing the bike course at the time. I guess they wanted to make a right turn into Energy Lab to see the pro's (who where running already) when they smashed into me after I moved 6" to the left of the white shoulder line to avoid hitting the upcoming staggered cones & pedestrians in the shoulder. I was pulled out of the peddles, flew over the bike, fell on my back and avoided hitting my head but badly scratched both arms and rear. As soon as I rolled over, the medics were freaking-out and wanted to put me on a spine board and tape me up like a mummy. After their initial exam, I had to tell them all to settle down and tell me my options. If they would have helped me, I would have been DQ'd. My rear tire was destroyed and my carbon Giant TCR Zero frame was cracked at the rear diagonal. My only option was to pick it up and walk it in.

It was a long 2-1/2 hour walk with the bike on my shoulder and, amazingly, my bike socks didn't have any holes afterward. It's a good thing that I fully hydrated in anticipation of a grueling marathon because I went without water the entire 7-mile walk and barely made the bike cut-off time. My heels, left calf and rear hurt extremely bad once I started the marathon. My ankles swelled up too. I had to alternate between running and walking and was afraid that I wouldn't make the 17 hour finish mark. The NBC cameras wouldn't leave me alone. Now I know what it feels like to be a pro on film. I've been told that NBC will show me on the November 20th Ironman special at 4PM.

I was so tired after I finished the race that I didn't have the energy to sit up and drink a beer (that means I was deathly tired). Plus, the road rash on my rear prevented me from sitting. I am recovering with no broken bones and a lot of scrapes. I can, of course, drink beer now. It's helping.

I'm hoping that I get full compensation for my bike and a return trip out there so that I can do the race again (without incident) next year. However, this next time I will be attaching two spare wheels and a spare frame to my bike in case I'm as unlucky again.

Chris Sadowski

race number 1390 at the 2004 Hawaiian Ironman Championships

The results:

Swim time of 1:23:43, 100meter pace of 2:13

Overall place out of water: 1363

Age group place out of water: 205 (I really dislike swimming)

Transition 1 time of 6:40

Bike time of 8:28:26, average speed 13.2 mph

*before the accident I was averaging around 18mph and had a max speed of 62mph

*when I finished the long walk, I had 31min 11sec to spare before the bike cutoff time, originally I thought I only had 1 minute, so I ran the last 1/8th of a mile.

Transition 2 time of 17:00 (had to wrap feet up)

Run time of 5:54:02, 13:31 mins per mile (slowest run speed ever)

In my age group I was 208th out of 222 (M30-34) and 1534 overall to finish out of 1579 (not counting the 149 that didn't finish)

Chris has gone on to finish more IronMan events, thankfully without this sort of drama. Amazingly - using the very same pair of socks that he walked in for 2 1/2 hrs. during the IronMan Hawaii event - Chris came back and finished the 2005 event in Kona!