I guess I better state right from the beginning,...this is a TRIPLE IRONMAN that I did by myself....kinda. This was not a sanctioned event. I made up the course, and did the distances, but with a lot of help from my friends. They swam and biked, ran and crewed me. This was just to see if I could do it, and without sleeping. So...here we go. I did the swim at my local swimming pool, Silver Lake Swim Club. The pool was set up that morning for "short course", which is 25 yards per lap. That was 506 laps staring at me. Ye Ha! I got a last second sponsor, MEL, and that put me in the pool at 5:01, since we had a ceremony and all. I jumped in with Perry first, and I drafted him about the first hour. He set a perfect pace. He asked what pace I wanted, and I said 2:15. Perry must have some awesome internal pace clock, because he hit it perfectly. Drafting made the swim effortless. I'd stop every 40 laps to take a quick bite, and then off we'd go. I got out about every 80 laps to pee. At about an hour, he had to hit the road to get to work, so Peggy took over. Peg is FAST, and I knew it was taking some great effort to slow down to my snail pace, but she plugged along in front of me forever. Overall, I think Peggy did well over half my distance. Incredible! I not only have great friends, but awesome athletic friends to boot. Steve showed up and then he and Peggy switched out every so many laps. While Steve swam with me, Peggy kept doing laps beside us! Geez! All Peggy is missing is the cape! Steve hit my pace perfectly, and but for a few leg cramps he got, it was an easy swim with him. He put in a heroic effort, and said that was the furthest he had ever swam at one time! About the time Scott showed up, Erin Webb showed up with a box of Servatii donuts! OH YEA! I went to work on one of those instead of my ole pop tarts. Scott added a lightened mood to the swim and made me laugh several times. I caught him doing the back stroke a few times! With about 26 laps to go, Luke jumped in to give me some laps, but he lost his rhythm and wasn't feeling it, so Scott dove back in and finished the remaining laps with me. 506 laps. Done. The swim went by much faster than I imagined. Between my music and switching out pacers, it felt good and I was surprised how fresh I still felt. It felt much easier than my longest solo swim of 3 hours. I was excited to get out of the pool and start biking.

Absolutely nothing. This went better than I could have hoped for. Nothing hurt. I wasn't tired. All systems GO!

Went to the locker room with my bag and took my time putting my bike stuff on. I needed to get this right with being dry and putting on plenty of lube. There was a gigantic ride in front of me, so there was on hurry. It was still in the high 50s outside, so I put on pants, long sleeved shirt under my jersey, and a buff on my neck.

Zero. No reason to hurry, so take the time to get it right.

Scott Meacham and I left Silverlake about 10:17am and headed north up Dixie Hwy into Covington. The long downhill from Park Hills into Covington was great, because I knew that was the last free ride I'd have for a long, long time. Across Veterans Bridge into Newport, then the Purple People Bridge into Cincinnati. We rode up to Lunken, did the loop, and connected Otto Armleder. Made our way to Mariemont, then to the shelter at Little Miami Golf Course. Karen had driven my car up to the shelter from Silverlake, and Jennifer had followed to bring her back. Matt was already there to take the first shift as my crew. I gave him info on where my cash was to order pizza. So, for the next 20ish hours, we'd bike up 13ish miles to Loveland, turn around, and come back....eat, drink, switch riders, lube up and head back out. It was a great advantage to have people to draft of for this. I tried to keep the pace about 15mph, and never wanted to feel as if I were actually pushing a pace. We had to keep going through a "detour" at about the 4.5 mile mark. The owner of the driveway we were using got a bit testy a couple of times, but I couldn't be bothered with that, so we pretty much blew him off. I'd go a bit short now and then to get back to the shelter to meet my next rider. I had 2 front flat tires during the ride, and Mark Neikirk had 2 as well. No big deal. Besides that, there were no problems. I ended up riding solo from 9pm to 11pm because of some snafu, but I was fine. I was proactive with using icyhot on my knee and ITB, so nothing ever hurt. The ride with mostly uneventful to the degree that nothing went wrong and it was easier than I expected. My ass never even hurt that much. However, although I didn't know it at the time, my toes were taking a beating and even days later are somewhat numb, as is two of my fingers on my left hand. Hopefully that will go away. I got off the bike at 1:08pm and went into the golf center to use the bathroom to transition into run stuff. I felt good.

Nothing. This went better than expected.

Took my time here. Went into bathroom, changed clothes, lubed up and went back out to shelter.

Nope. Took time to get it right.

Coming off the bike, I felt much better than I imagined I would. Nothing hurt, and besides having "sea legs" a bit, I felt fine to run. I can only account for this because I took it as easy as I did on the bike. Now I felt like running! I grabbed my first runners, Mel, Steph and Em, and off we went....right into a storm. We were less than a mile in and it started raining some big ole drops, and hard. UGH! I didn't want to start cold and wet, so I decided to turn back and put rain gear on. Half way back, the rain stopped! Geez Us! We went back anyhow, put on a dry shirt, and took off again. We did a 2/5 walk run. This lasted well into the night until it was just me and Jack Corey, when I finally had to break down and do a 2/4. There really wasn't much to report on the run during the day. I was fine physically. Nothing hurt, which continued to elate me, but in the back of my head, I kept wondering when and if something would break down. I kept trading out running crew every 6 miles, although some, like Mel, Emily and Steph, stayed for several laps. Around 3am, the train finally left the tracks. Physically I was fine, but the mental aspect was beginning to waver. I'd never experienced something like this before, and the closest word I can give to describe it is "despare". I knew I had gone so far, but I also knew that I had a long way to go, which I think was screwing with me. As we came back to the shelter area, Pat and Mike had showed up, and Pat had a lit sigh and was yelling for me. She saved me here. All I could do was give her a big hug and tears started coming out. I could barely talk....but a hug was what I needed and she was at the right place at the right time...I continued on to the shelter and Mary was there, which was my extra boost. I just hugged her for a bit, then sat down to eat. I was sitting there eating with tears coming out and laughing at myself for not knowing what the hell was going on. It was surreal. Eventually I got a hold of myself and headed back out. Jack Corey was there for the next 2 runs, and Jack can tell a story. I was still feeling low, but not as bad as before. I was just trying to hang on mentally until the sun came up. I knew the sun would recharge me, as it has in the past, so I just had to suck it up. Mary and Mike came with me for a few laps next. Apparently, and completely by accident, the right people were coming with me at the right times to keep me in one piece. I listened to Mike and Mary talk about topic after topic, and that took my mind away from the low places. Once I stopped to go to the bathroom, and as I was sitting there, I closed my eyes for a second and immediately started dreaming. I wasn't asleep, but I was full on in dream land. I must have been taking to long because as I was washing up, Mary came to the door to check on me. Eventually, the big ole fireball in the cosmos began to illuminate the heavens, and with it, I felt somewhat better. There is so much more to tell about each time I went out with different people. Mostly, I'd let them talk,either to me or mostly to each other. That is really what I needed. Just listen to other people talk, to let my mind wander away a bit. The last 2 "laps" were probably the most memorable, but because the end was near. For the last 6ish mile bit, we went out the other direction, just to change things up. This gave us 3.3 miles, so when we got back, we had slightly less than 4 to go. We went out for 1.98 up the same ole path we'd taken all night, and turned around. We kept to a 1/1 that I'd been on for hours now, and was working. We got to the end and I ran into the shelter to finish the mileage. Anti-climatic, but what did I expect. We'd all been out there sooooooooo long, and I think everyone wanted this to be over about as much as I did. We cheered and talked and thanked each other, but it was over. I was fine. I sat down, ate a little, talked to my friends, then Mary gathered me up and we went home. It wasn't until I was stepping out of the car that I felt my legs stiff and hurting. .....

Ok...that was the "official RACE REPORT", but if you are bored silly and want to read the ENTIRE story, with pictures, here is the link . Put on a pot of coffee and get comfortable.....https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nRuA2WdZJmwdFH9OdP6_GTgOxXiCXxAm0OyN0MLQLB8/edit?usp=sharing


Nothing. I had expected for something to go wrong physically at some point, and that never happened. I never expected to fall apart mentally and I did. Lessons were learned.

Drive home, take a shower, collapse into bed.


Nothing


This entire event was me testing me, but at the same time, having a experience with my friends. For the most part, I think they had a great time doing this and it wasn't some chore or waste of their weekend. Friends were made, life was lived, and a mission was accomplished. Time to recharge.