Ironman St George #7 of 30 in 2012

St George Utah Ironman #7 of 30

Thursday May 3, 2012

Expo Time

Lucy and Lily

Just when I didn’t think things could be any harder.... welcome to St. George, Utah.  The week started out normal, as we loaded the van with bikes, gear and food.  St George is a close 3 1/2 hour drive from my home.  My two older daughters decided they wanted to come and hang out with the big people and cheer on mom (Sunny) in her first Ironman.  Lucy and Lily were busy all week, making their signs to cheer us both on.  My buddy Heath Haacke was once again super nice and booked a condo for our family for the weekend. Earlier this year, he was brutally hit by a motorcycle on a training ride in prep for this Ironman and was not able to participate.  Hopefully, he will be back on his feet soon to take on the challenge of an Ironman.  Thank again Heath, your courage is inspirational to me!

Working on all the bikes - Thanks Matt From Lift Wheels

Is THIS drafting.  Me and Kyle Woodruff having fun not getting stressed before the race

We drove straight to check-in and ran into a ton of friends who were spectating and also doing the race.  It was a lot of fun taking pictures with friends and people who recognized me at the expo.  This was my ‘home town’ race and the support was INCREDIBLE.  That night, we went to the pre-race dinner with all the athletes.  This is free for the athletes, but friends and family needed to pay to come in and eat.  They wanted $15 bucks for each of my kids (ages 8 and 9) and $30 bucks for additional adults.  RIP OFF!!!  Are you kidding me?  For dinner it was noodles, red sauce, bread sticks and salad.... maybe it was the cups of WATER that drove the cost of this dinner so high!!!  STOP RAPING US WTC, not cool!!!

Friday  May 4, 2012

Today we slept in as long as we wanted before getting all the bikes and bags ready for the race.  We did a morning ride and run before heading to the swim start to test out the water and get everything situated for the race.  It was a ton of fun seeing everyone checking in and getting a feel for the water.  Little did we all know that this water on Friday was not the same water we would be swimming in on Saturday.  My friend, and local celebrity, Keena had a dinner at her in-laws place where a nice big group of us got together and ate and tried to settle our nerves for what was about to happen to us all in the morning.  In reality we had no idea what was coming, as the weather forecast called for perfect 83 degree temperatures with a non factor 8 mph wind.  Ironman racing is becoming routine by this part of my quest and sleeping the night before is no problem!

Saturday May 5, 2012

So ready for an awesome day together..... not knowing what was about to happen...

The calm before the storm....looks inviting doesn't it??

We woke up today (4 am) to really nice weather and high hopes of a fantastic day!   I ate a small breakfast and we headed out the door to catch the shuttle buses to the race site at Sand Hollow reservoir.  The energy is always very cool at an Ironman event.  The air reeked of nervousness and excitement.  All the athletes lined up and piled into the water.  This would be a mass deep water start.  The water temperature was about 63 degrees, which is about perfect for a wetsuit swim.  The water condition were perfect, nice and calm.  I planned to do the entire race with Sunny and support her in her first Ironman.  I was excited to create some memories and watch her experience what I get to experience on an almost weekly basis this year.  I gave Sunny a kiss in the water and waited calmly for the race gun to go off.  BOOM!  The canon blew and we were off.    I breath on my left side and swam just to the right of Sunny.  I am a stronger swimmer than Sunny, which made it very easy for me to just chill out and keep an eye on her.  When we came up on other athletes in the water, I would swim just ahead of Sunny and clear the path for her.  About 300 meters in, I noticed she was sighting too often and tapped on her shoulder to offer assistance.  I told her just to sight off of me and that I would sight the buoys for her.  This worked perfect and allowed her to keep her head down and just focus on her swimming.  If she swerved to the right, I would bump her and she would straighten out her line.  Things were going perfect and then all of a sudden the water started to rock.  Sunny popped her head up and and asked if we were too close to the boats, thinking this is why the waves started to rock.  I thought the same thing and looked around, but found no boats.  We turned at the far swim buoy and our day just took a huge turn.  We went from smooth water and the excitement of a fun day together, to what looked like a scene from the Titanic.  From nowhere, 40 mph winds set in and turned the lake into blender.  

My heart rate was super low and I hadn’t exerted myself yet.  All of the buoys disappeared and all you could see was walls of water.  I could hear people screaming at the top of their lungs for help.  I looked over to see Kayaks turned over with dozens of athletes clutching on for their lives.  I looked over and saw one of my athletes sitting on a boat with a terrified look on her face.  I swam back to her and helped her back in the water.  We calmed her breathing down and I helped her and Sunny swim in the right direction.  I swam to the left of Melanie trying to block the waves and yelled at Sunny for her to follow my voice.  We slowly made it to the turn buoy and now were headed directly into the wind and waves.  Swimmer at this point were scattered everywhere, some being pushed by the waves all the way across the lake to the other shoreline.... INSANE!  Sunny told me she could not see anything with the waves crashing down on us and the 5 foot swells of water.  She looked strong but wasn’t making fast enough progress through the waves.  She would take four or five freestyle strokes before a big waves would knock her down where she would then need to regroup and get her bearings.  During this regroup time, the waves would knock her back several feet. It was like taking 3 steps forward and 2 steps back.   I kept an eye on Melanie and stayed close to Sunny making sure she stayed safe.  I had a very different experience than most of the swim field, swimming much slower than my skill level, which keept my heart rate very low.  I was under complete control and started playing in the waves.  I would dive in and dolphin kick under two sets of big waves before coming up.  By doing this, I was able to stay in the ‘calm’ water under all the waves.  I was keeping a close eye on my watch and watched the time slowly tic-toc away. I kept telling Sunny that she needed to keep swimming.  The buoys were all being blown off course, so I just told Sunny to swim towards the big rock island in the distance.  The farthest turn buoy was just beyond this massive land mark.  It was amazing, the waves were so big that even this big rock landmark was hard to sight.  Sunny was in control and safe and even yelled out a big “WOHOO” as she rode the waves in an attempt to get closer to the final turn.  Our progress was really slow and 1:40 into the swim I asked Sunny if she felt safe and if she was ok?”  She told me she was great.  I told her I had to go as the time was getting too close to the cut off and I still had some ground to cover.  Knowing she was ok, I took off and started to swim hard.  Again my swim experience was different than most.  I was calm and rested but got to experience swimming hard in these conditions.  I fought and passed a ton of people.  I could hear people screaming and putting their hands up surrendering to the day.  The rescue boats looked full.  I had several boats come by me and ask if I was ok.  I said I was great and forged on.  I rounded the big rock where I could see athletes peached, either waiting for rescue or taking a break.  I could see the swim finish and was now swimming with the waves.  This wasn’t easy either and the waves crashed over you slamming you down with every stroke.  No pictures or video will do this swim justice.  Just know, that it was very intense and easily the hardest swim I have ever experienced.  I jumped out of the water in 2 hours and 2 minutes and waited anxiously to see if Sunny would emerge out of the chaos.  Unfortunately, I knew there was no way she was going to make it.  I stayed on the boat ramp and talked with my friends who anxiously waited to cheer on the athletes who fought to make the 2:20 cut off.  At 2 hours a 22 minutes Sunny stood up out of the water exhausted and emotional.  She knew she had missed the mark but gave it everything she could.  She was shocked to learn that they were going to allow athletes close to the cut off to continue with no timing chip and no official time.  She broke into emotional tears both from exhaustion and excitement with the realization she was going to be able to progress in her Ironman.

We both rushed through the change tents as I guess there was now a T1 cut off.  Never having experienced this part of the race I had no idea this cut off existed.  We scrambled and ran out of transition with our bikes into the 40 mph winds.  Sunny was exhausted and tried to get her calves to loosen up.  She had never swam for more than 2 hours before, let alone kicked and fought like that for 2 hours 22 minutes and 15 seconds.  She tried to start the refueling process and see if she could get her energy levels back up.  She was wearing a custom hand made Tu Tu that garnished a lot of attention by most of the spectators.  As we were biking out to the start of the first loop, the winds were relentless.  It was work on the ups, and the downs were difficult due to the cross winds.  I kept a close eye on the clock knowing we started this bike section behind the eight ball.  In my softest voice and without wanted to nag or be annoying (which I failed at), I looked at the 13 mph we were traveling and told Sunny we needed to be going faster if we wanted to make the bike cut off.  Obviously she handled the news well, but I knew she was super bugged that her Ironman was now defined by chasing cutoffs.  She told me this isn’t how her Ironman was suppose to go.  "I’m a good biker."  She kept telling me, "I’m so exhausted from that swim.  I was suppose to have an easy ride and enjoy the run.  This isn’t fun."  I felt awful, but I knew if we had any chance of making it to the run, I needed to kindly remind her that we needed to do some work to get this job done.  She picked up the pace and pushed on through the wind.  I would drift up the road hoping she would try to keep pace.  When she didn’t, I would drift back to see how she was doing.  At about mile 30, when I drifted up, Sunny blew a tire.  She yelled up to me, but with the winds I didn’t hear her.  After about 5 minutes, I pulled over noticing she was no longer behind me.  I pulled over to the side of the road to wait, but no Sunny.  A motorcyclist came up to me and explained that Sunny had flatted.  I turned around and went backwards on the course, getting many strange looks from racers.  I found Sunny over a mile back, just getting back on her bike.  She had done it, a successful tire change.  The continuous winds and this flat has really put us in a pinch.  

Sunny and James

On my own doing work!

Sunny Fighting!

John Rose and James

A race official came up along side of us (who happened to be my LIFT wheel sponsor) and I asked about the cut off.  He told me we had to be at mile 64 by 2:05 or 2:06 to make the FIRST bike cut off.  I wasn’t thinking intermediate cutoffs, just the final T2 cut off.  I looked at my watch, did some math and started to panic on the inside, I couldn’t miss a cutoff.  I looked at Sunny again and said, “I’m sorry, but I need to go again!”  I took off from Sunny at mile 40 and biked like it was an Olympic Triathlon race.  I biked HARD for the next 26 miles and made the 64 mile bike cut off by 1 minute.  I saw the official standing on the side of the road looking at his watch as I went by.  I didn’t stop to chat or even look back.  I just kept biking grateful he didn’t stop me.  I passed my  good friend Kyle at the special needs which was several miles to the cut off.  I looked at him and told he we needed to GO!!  This years Ironman was a redemption year for him as last year he was the LAST person to cross the line and he was determined to have a different experience n 2012.  Kyle was the last person to make this 64 mile cut off.  I later found out on the run that he didn’t make the final bike cut off and was pulled off the race.  I was sad for him and all the hundreds of cyclist I passed racing towards the cut offs knowing they would not make it.  I rode nice and easy the rest of the 112 mile bike ride knowing I had enough time to calmly make the few final cut off and be able to run the marathon.   I knew Sunny would not have enough time to make the final cut off and I knew our day together was over and there would be no marathon, and no memories in the finish shoot.  I later found out that she flatted AGAIN on the bike loop!

Done Done and Done - get me off this bike!!!

I came into transition saddle sore with 4 consecutive weeks riding 112 mile in an Ironman and the ride time today was more than 7:30 hours.  I was happy to be off my bike and happy to have made the run, too many close calls today!  I knew I had all the time in the world and could take my time transitioning and on the marathon.  I picked up my T2 bag and noticed it had grown in size.  I dumped it out in the tent and found Sunny's tutu.  She found a way to get it into my bag.  In honor of Sunny, I gladly threw on my run clothes and the brightly colored tutu for the run portion of what has turned out to be the toughest Ironman ever for most!  I headed out into the streets of St George, excited to see friends both racing and spectating.  It was hot, but I didn’t care, I was happy to just be running.  

This ones for you Sunny Jo Mama

The beard looks pretty good with the tutu if you ask me.

I was overwhelmed by local support.  Cheers for the IronCowboy made me smile for 26.2 miles. I was sad to see Sunny on the other side of the barriers with my kids, she was suppose to be out here with me.  The tutu was a big hit out on the course.  I easily ran the entire marathon, other than through the aid stations and to stop for my family friends and athletes along the course.  Thank you to all the local who cheered all day long and into the night.  People had made signs for me and I even saw one for Sunny Jo Mama, just awesome.  I ran down the finish shoot and took my time.  I high fived as many people as I could and in honor of my 9 year old Lucy, I did 4 cartwheels across the finish line.  I was tired from a long day and just wanted to go home, shower and lay in bed.  I could not be more proud of all of my friends and athletes who brave enough to take on this day.  Getting to the start line of an Ironman is one thing, getting to the start line of the St George Ironman is another thing and crossing the finish line at THIS St George Ironman is a thing all on it’s own.  It is hard to describe, unless you were there and fighting - but it was awesome.  I can honestly say, I had a blast today and will remember this Ironman forever.  I am so proud of Sunny for staying calm in the waters and actually swam the entire 2.4 miles in those conditions.  This Ironman had a 30% DNF (did not finish) percentage which is the highest of any Ironman ever.  It was also the slowest winning time by a male professional.  Here is a news write up about the event - http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/54055727-77/race-didn-george-athletes.html.csp

IRONMAN ST GEORGE FINISH!!