IM KONA Bike Accident Race Report

Reprinted from E-CAPS newsletter

http://www.e-caps.com/downloads/ENews/ENIssue45.pdf

Chris Sadowski with intro by Steve Born

If you watched the telecast of the 2004 Ironman Hawaii, you probably saw the coverage of an athlete who had to walk the last several miles of the bike course after being accidentally hit by one of the official motorbikes. In a show of tremendous courage and fortitude, this athlete kept his focus on the goal of finishing, despite the catastrophe that had just befallen him. The athlete? Chris Sadowski, one of our valued clients. We have his own report of this remarkable example of effort, focus, and courage to share with you.

Chris wrote, “I have to hand it to your company for products that really work. Without them I would have not been able to do the 2-1/2 hour walk at 2PM with no water. Like the below article states, I was prepared for a grueling marathon and was completely hydrated prior to the crash. I have followedevery guideline that your company offered and then I took more of both the Endurolytes and perpeteum (so much so that my intestines hurt). During the bike portion I had a 5-hour bottle of Perpeteum with me. And, I prepared a strong squeeze bottle (the small Hammer Gel plastic hand held) of Heed for the marathon. At some points, I was taking two Endurolyte tablets an hour. It all worked like a charm. I only took water, soup, bananas and fig newtons from the aid stations. I stayed away from the Gatorade and Coke. I had previously used this method for Ironman Switzerland (11:05) in July of this year.

Congratulations Chris on a truly heroic effort!

Below is his account of the bizarre accident and his complete dedication to finishing the race. I had trained for an extremely hard race, but never expected that while I was thinking about how bad my toes were hurting from stomping my pedals against the wind, that I would have been hit from behind by a motorcycle. I was also trying to pay attention to the upcoming “Energy Lab” intersection. There were a lot of people, cars and cones near the bike course. I remember making a 6” movefrom the right of the white line to the left of the white line to avoid hitting some of the upcoming staggered cones and pedestrians in the shoulder. I then remember hearing tires squealing before the impact. It was a huge force that struck the rear of my bike. Immediately I thought it was another bikethat hit me and then a milli-second later, I thought it was a car, and then a second later I thought it was a semi because of how hard it threw me from the bike.

While I was watching my feet fly up, I remembered thinking that this was really going to hurt once I made impact with the asphalt onmy back. The road-rash on my right butt, both forearms, both elbows and my right thumb showed where all the impact occurred. I was lucky not to have hit my head. The medics were in the area and immediately rushed over. I rolled over as they were doing a quick assessment. My left calf was displaced and I had to slap and massage it back into place. Both my elbows were swollen. My right thumb was numb. But as I looked up and over at my bike, all I could think about was, “Kim (my wife) is going to kill me. There is no way I can explain this to her and the bike was only 10 months old”.

The medics were still freaking out and wanted to put me on a spine board and tape me up like a mummy. After their initial exam was over, 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. The bike techs were there and trying to put on a new tire, but the frame wouldn’t accept it. I had two options, but quitting the race was not going to be one of them. So, my only option was to pick up the bike and walk it in.

I never really thought that what I was doing was ‘unheard of’ or ‘crazy’. Even the head marshal told me to ‘stop being a martyr and put on these shoes’. He wanted me to use his shoes to finish the walk. I wouldn’t have dreamed of taking outside assistance and later be DQ’d. The underlying rule of this event, as well as all tri’s, is that you do it on your own. Period. I’ve had enough of a variety of endurance training to understand that you have to be ready for anything that will come your way. Sometimes you just have to wipe the blood off, swallow your anger and just continue. This was just another one of those obstacles to overcome. My anger subsided once I started concentrating on walking as effortlessly as possible to avoid tearing my socks. I had told my wife the day before that this race was ‘special’ and that I would finish it at all costs, no matter if that meant crawling across the finish line. I just knew that I had to finish the bike portion so that I could relax during the marathon. I’ve been a runner for about 15 years, and for some reason, I wasn’t really worried about this marathon. I kept thinking that it couldn’t be any worse than the 48-mile ultramarathons I do in Switzerland (I’ve done it 8 times). Little did I know that it was going to be a tough run.

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. Once I finished the walk and started the marathon, my heels, left calf and rear hurt extremely bad. 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 distinctly remember that mentally I had a really tough time slowing down and walking during this championship race. I had trained my butt off (and now I had actually left some of it at Energy Lab on the asphalt!) and didn’t want a weak finish. So, instead of just walking the entire 26.2, I pushed myself. But my heels were toast, my ankles hurt like hell, and for some reason my right butt felt like it was going in a different direction. I also had shooting pains in my left calf, and my knees starting hurting. However, I was going to move (however pitiful it looked) as fast as I could.

My adrenaline was so high that I sprinted the final quarter-mile and almost fell over right on the timing mat. For the past ten years, I have finished every race with a sprint. The ‘Sadowski Sprint’ will be my signature until I cannot race again. And, especially for this race, I wasn’t going to slack off and just jog it in.

I felt a certain form of closure and comfort once I saw myself finishing on the big screen. The day was over and I had made it in under 17 hours. I was able to overcome the obstacle. People like Wendy Ingraham, Rob Hyland with NBC, the bike tech gurus, the medics, the racers who said, “‘finish so we can buy you a beer” and the one referee who constantly checked up on me during my long walk mademy ordeal so much easier. It was a humbling experience for me, but now I know that my level of pain tolerance and task concentration has intensified over the years instead of becoming dull. I can honestly say that this experience has made me a stronger racer instead of turning me away from racing.

I was so tired after I finished the race that I didn’t have the energy to stick around the finish area, or to sit down somewhere nearby 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, but a lot of scrapes. I can, of course, drink beer now. It’s helping.

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 ‘volunteer’ that was observing the bike course at the time (it was his daughter). They were done for the day, but decided to continue on their own and do some spectating. Essentially, they were trespassing on the course. A bicyclist behind me said that they were traveling extremely fast. I guess they wanted to outrun the pack of cyclists behind me to make a right turn into Energy Lab to see the pros, who where running already.

Hopefully I can do the race without incident next year. However, next time I will be attaching two spare wheels and a spare frame to my bike in case I’m as unlucky again.