triandgiveadam: Ironman Zurich Switzerland #15 HALF WAY!

Thursday July 12 2012

The original Dave

I slept in super late. My body has needed a lot more sleep than it normally would. The body does most of its repairing when asleep releasing the HGH (human growth hormone) which is key to me recovering and racing an Ironman week after week. In the afternoon I drove down to the race site and got all registered nice and early. To kill some time I picked up the program of events for the week and was flipping through it. I came upon an article about a guy named Dave who just happened to be a guy I talked to about 15 minutes earlier. Dave was one of the original athletes who did the Hawaii Ironman back in 1978. I was 2 years old when this event happened. I went back out to the lake and Dave was still there being interviewed by the media. When they finished I walked up to him and introduced myself and blamed him for all the crazy stuff I and so many others are doing. It was very cool to meet one of the guys who started it all. I found it interesting that in the first event entry was $3, I can even get a water bottle with the Ironman logo on it for $3 bucks. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and recovering from all the climbing in France last Saturday.

Friday July 13 2012

Today was another lazy day. I slept in nice and late again before heading out to the English race briefing. I only go to the race meetings now to find out about special needs bags and parking or shuttle information on race day. These differ from race to race and I want to make sure I can get to the race on race morning and I also need to make sure I get my nutrition. The rest of the info is all the exact same. After the meeting I waited around for the athlete dinner. The food isn’t really that good at these but it is a free meal. I would never take a spouse of children to one of these dinners as they charge $30 for over cooked noodles, red sauce, salad and water. After eating I went back home and headed to bed.

Saturday July 14 2012

Their little boy that called me Jason all week.

Another day to sleep in. The Viagas-Haws family has been very good to me all week. They took me in and have treated me like a son. I am very grateful to have been directed to them by my very first home stay of the year in Naples Florida - so thank you very much. The event had limited to zero parking for athletes and spectators. I did not want to have Julianna or Tony drive me early on race morning so we came up with a plan. Tony works at a bank close (just over a mile) from the race site and told me I could park at his office and then take the trolley in. Sounded like a plan to me! So today I loaded up my bike and followed Tony and family to the bank where we both parked and they took me to lunch and to see some sites in Zurich. Lunch was awesome. Zurich is a very health conscious city with great food. We went to an Asian restaurant where I ordered chicken and rice bowl - it was silly good! I also had a fresh cucumber, celery, apple, and mint drink. It was surprisingly good! After lunch took in a few local sites and Julianna bought Sunny a small taste of what is suppose to be THE BEST chocolate in the world. I will let Sunny be the judge of that. The city has all these fountains everywhere that I saw people drinking out of. I am not talking drinking fountains but like the kind of fountains you see in the US where people throw money into and make a wish. Apparently all the water is super fresh spring water and they have these fountains all over the city and the route the run off water to them. So I dove in and took a drink, and it was fresher than fresh!

Custom MINI hummer.

There is MONEY in Switzerland. I took a picture of the first Ferrari I saw thinking it would be one of the only ones I saw. This was a every 15 minute occurrence. I saw BMS’s I had never seen before, a million Mazzaratis, unique Porsches, and I even saw a mini Hummer. It has to be custom and the only one of it’s kind. I also saw plenty of Lambourghinis and a few cars I didn’t even know what they were. We looked into a few shops and pants were going for about $3200 and sometimes more. It was insane. Just watching the people was fun. it was a world I have no clue about. Tony is an estate planner for the bank and deals with these people everyday. He says it is a pretty fun job.

I marked my GPS unit so I could find the parking spot again in the morning. I rode my bike to check it in and then walked back to my car and timed how long it took me to get from transition to my car. It was 23 minutes (this is important later). I drove back home for dinner where Julianna had again prepared a great meal. The family had recently gone vegetarian so I was getting to try all these new great recipes.... I think I liked it.... Off to bed.

Sunday July15 2012

Race Day Zurich Switzerland

I set my alarm for 4 am and wanted to be out of the house by 4:40 so I could get down and make sure to get my chosen parking spot. I was heading down a hill into town when flashing lights went off like I was a famous celebrity and the paparazzi was taking pictures of me. Sadly it was traffic speeding cameras mounted high up on posts, hidden. I bet I had 10 of more speeding tickets if these things are all over..... this was the first time I was driving int he dark. Later that night I asked Tony about these and he said his first month here he got over $1500 in speeding tickets. I laughed and said they will have to find me in the US - ha ha! I drove right to my parking spot, grabbed my bags and heading to the race.

The streets were empty and I was the ONLY one walking towards transition. This was very strange. I kept thinking and wondering if I had the right day. A few volunteers were there and 2 athletes came up after me. I was the FIRST person into transition which is amazing cause I am never there early and actually think it is dumb to go so early. There is NOTHING to do race morning but wait. Your bags are done and bike is already there, so there is nothing much to do. So I sat there, in the rain freezing. I was wearing the shoes I would be racing in so decided to go back into transition and lay them beside my bike as we only had 28 minutes to be suited up and lake side for the gun start. The media had found me there and did a quick interview for a show being broadcast in Europe, hope I sounded smart;) I laid out my shoes and took off my socks to put then in my bike shoes. BIKE SHOES??? I had left my bike shoes in the car and remember I now know exactly how long it takes to get to my car and back. I didn’t have enough time to get to my car, grab my shoes, get back to transition and then over to the water start. With my wetsuit on and up to my waist I put my shoes back on and started running to my car. I got to the car in about 10 minutes, grabbed my shoes and headed back to transition. My calves were sore and tight from this unexpected 2 mile sprint in my wetsuit before todays Ironman race- DUMB!!! I made it back to transition, set up both pair of shoes and socks and ran over to the swim start. I got all zipped up with about 45 seconds to spare before the gun went off for race start!

Dock on the right for second lap, Dock on the left to exit.

I jumped in the water and again stayed way left. I started swimming about 10 feet inside of the mass of people and have had tremendous success finding my own space in the water. Water temp was 20 degrees Celsius and was perfect. We swam the first loop and I just settled into a nice rhythm. I could see all the swimmer fighting it out to my left as I enjoyed all my own space. We swam the first loop and looped under a bridge to a small island where we got out of the water, ran over the small island then swam diagonal out to the original first swim buoy, around it, across the top for a second time, back under the bridge and then out of the water towards the bike. Another swim down safely!

Done with another swim.

The Bike-

I felt good going into this ride and felt that I could post a good time today. I didn’t look like we were going to get rained on too bad and I race better when it is not too hot. The course started out flat and fast as we raced towards the back side of the first of two loops. I got to about mile 30 when I noticed my right foot starting to move around and float a little more than I was used to. My cleat screws had striped and my foot became very unstable on the peddle, An efficient bike stroke required and good down stroke and a solid up pull. With out the pull you are just mashing your peddles and using mostly all your quad muscles when you could be using all of your leg muscles. As the ride progressed my cleat became looser and looser. I had high hopes of coming across bike support but NEVER DID SEE THEM. By the mid way point the two back screws had come completely unscrewed and forced me to continue only pushing down on the peddles. This cause my right quad to get really hot and knot up right in the middle. I tried to take it easy and peddle more with just my left leg. My quad were still tired from last week and not being able to engage the upstroke really put extra stress on my right quad. I was in trouble.... I slowed way down in hopes to save my quad and not do too much long term damage. I didn’t see how it was going to be possible to run the marathon. To make matters worse I was freezing and despite my positive attitude it rained on and off throughout the entire ride. I was soaked and then wind made me very cold. I was grumpy and certainly not having a good time. I finished the bike ride in 6 hours flat and pulled into transition deflated and discouraged with the possibility of a LONG LONG walk in the rain.

Wet and cold but hanging in there.

On my way into transition I jump off my bike and started running towards my spot. I always undo my chin strap while running through transition as it is one less thing I need to do when I get to my spot. Apparently this is against the rules. I was immediately stopped by an official and could not continue till I did my helmet strap up again. I guess I COULD fallen while running with my bike....good thing we didn’t have to wear our helmets on the run course. I took my time in T2 and stretch out both quads pretty good. I started running and I was shocked to find that it felt ok, so I just kept on running. I decided I would keep running and if I felt it acting up I was prepared to walk the entire run. Thank goodness it held up the whole 26.2 miles. The aid stations had these very tasty chocolate treats that I took to munch on after I had taken in my appropriate functional nutrition. The run course was 4 loops around one side of the lake and through a park in the middle of town. Despite the poopy weather the crowd were great. The Viagas- Haws family eve came down with signs and all cheering on their IronCowboy. They have 3 small kids in the family that is the same ages as my kids. I was awesome for them to come and cheer me on, they even made big banners to motivate me to keep going. On my third lap the skies opened up and poured on us. This created a nasty rubbing situation between my top and my nipples. I peeled off at the first medic station and they hooked me up with something called “second skin”. They were magical and I need to see if I can find these in the states. You never know when they would come in handy.

Last lap and I managed a smile ;)

A happy finisher in the wet conditions

#15 in the books which marks the half way point of my journey!

The last lap and this Ironman as a whole was tough for me. I was tired, cold and wet. It was the first race where I would take the warm broth at each aid station. This warm drink helped me get through and to the finish of my 15th Ironman of the year. To get me through I thought a lot about Sunny, my kids, and all the incredible support I had back home. On the last lap I just had to keep telling myself “One foot in front of the other” As I run around the course I look for my friends in Europe. I look for the Ryan Grover of Europe, the Casey Robles of Europe, the Keena of Europe, the Andy Compass of Europe and so on. It is a fun game I play to get me through the day. Anyways #15 is in the books and I can’t wait to get back home. One more stop in Lake Placid New York before heading home to Utah to see some friendly face.

I didn’t leave the house Monday or Tuesday till I left for the airport. I was completely exhausted from the efforts of the last few weeks and didn’t have motivation to do anything. I am in uncharted territory for my mind and body and this race in Zurich was my 6th consecutive race in this stretch of 8 in a row. This is a tough month but I am learning so much about myself and others. Thank you so very much to ALL the people who reached out and helped me on this trip and also ALL the people who helped Sunny out while I am away. I means the world to us and your acts of kindness are not going unnoticed. We also had a record high in the donation department for the charity Quiet Way. If you haven’t already please consider donation even it is just a small amount, say $15 dollars for 15 Ironman races done ;) You can donate at www.quietway.org All the money goes to the work in Africa so don’t be shy. See you in NY city!