I was confident heading into Ironman Canada on Sunday.  I had been racing great this season and my training has been fantastic.  Probably in the best shape since college.  I had a great plan was ready to post a great time.   

I slept well the night before the race.  Went out for a 10 minute job just before 4am to wake the body up and then had a little breakfast before getting showered and dressed and then walking down to the start. I got my bike tires inflated and my nutrition on my bike hit the porta-potty line which was only about 25 minutes and then got into my wetsuit and headed to the beach. 

I've been swimming well this year in training and in my other races.  I positioned myself just off to the left of the main buoy line in the front row.  At the start I got off fast but despite this with 2600 people all going the same place things still got a little physical for the first mile to the first turn.  After the first turn I locked into a group of about 10 people and we swam as a group to the finish.  I had a great swim, swimming 1:01:07 which was my fastest IM swim split by 4 minutes.  In two years I've taken 15 minutes off my IM swim time which is huge.  I was out of the water in 221st place and really happy and feeling great.   

Off on the bike I eased out of transition and got into my rhythm quickly. The first 40 miles of this ride is fast and my plan was to really hold back until I got over Richter Pass.  Every few minutes I kept telling myself to back-off, back-off, back-off.  I rode a really easy effort but was still just flying.  I hit the 40 mile mark at the bottom of Richter Pass with an average of 25.6 mph and I went through the 56 mile mark in 2:22.  Just after halfway my stomach staged a revolt, it had been bothering me for about 10 miles but at this point I started to throw-up (ala Norman Stadler in Kona).  I continued to try and get nutrition, hydration and electrolytes down but it wasn't working.  I was simply hurting at this point.  At the out and back section of the course I had to stop at two different aid station porta-potties.   As I headed up Yellow Lake which is a Tour De France style section with crowds all over the roads rooting the athletes on I decided that I'd finish the bike but I wasn't going to run.  I didn't have anything to prove to anyone or myself by suffering through 26 miles of upset stomach in all likelihood walking most of the marathon in the 90 degree heat and forest fire smoke.   

I made it over Yellow Lake and descended well into Penticton (I still would have come off the bike in about 6:25).  Then about 2 miles from the transition I was coming up to an intersection still going about 25 mph and I went over a steel plate covering a valve or something and my back wheel slipped out to the left and my bike shot right 4 feet into the curb, my front wheel hit the curb and knocked the bike out from under me and I flew off the bike through the air.  In that instance I saw that I was going to hit a light pole.  I was flying through the air with the pole heading towards my chest and mid section.  In that instance I tucked my body a bit and my body rotated a bit and I hit the pole glancing off my ribs and took the direct hit on both thighs and my arm and fell to the ground.  I feel really lucky that I didn't hit my head or chest directly into the pole as I probably wouldn’t be writing this if I had.  

There was a family there watching and a police officer as it was an intersection so they immediately called for a ambulance.  I was assessing how badly I was hurt pretty quickly I figured nothing was broken.  As I was lying on the ground the kid who was there with his family picked up my bike and was holding it for me, I politely informed him I wasn’t going to be riding it anymore today and he looked at me and said “that was epic”.  The ambulance arrived within a couple minutes but pretty funny they parked right in the bike course and I had to tell them to move the ambulance back around the corner.  They did a quick assessment to check if anything was broken checked my head and then loaded me on the stretcher and gurney and took me (and my bike) to the medical tent at the transition zone.  I was hurting at this point because my legs were starting to cramp not from the crash but from the bike ride.  They admitted me and did their triage assessment.  The medical tent hadn't really gotten busy yet so it was pretty much just me and about 30 doctors and nurses.  They got me in and sitting down and got ice on my legs and cleaned my few cuts and scratches and got me some electrolytes and took my vitals. 

After about 40 minutes I felt better and got up to try and hobble around.  I was getting dizzy so they decided that was due to my stomach problems I was dehydrated so they took me in for an IV.  At this point I was on my 4th doctor and would have to give the information and details of the crash over and over again.  After two bags of saline they took me over to have a massage therapist to work on my legs a bit.  So after 4 hours in the medical tent I started the long slow walk back to my hotel.  After a shower, some food and phone calls to family, girlfriend and coach I walked back to the finish to get my bike and transition bags only to have everyone I passed say “congratulations”  which I just politely and quietly replied “thanks”, it was just too much to explain.  It was not the way I wanted to end my day but better on a day where things weren't going well than on a day when things are going well.   

Now two days later I’m very sore and not moving much at all, but glad it wasn’t worse.  I’m already plotting for my next race.  For the record my bike fared much better than I did.  A few little scratches on the wheel and handlebar. 

Thanks for all the support and well wishes and I'll be back to race another day.
 


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    2008 Kona Reports

     

    2010 Race Schedule

    Issaquah Sprint Tri

    Ironman Boise 70.3

    Mountain to Sound Relay - Solo

    Whirlpool Ironman 70.3 Steelhead

    Beaver Lake Sprint Tri

    Grand Columbian Half Iron

    Longhorn Ironman 70.3 Austin

    Ironman Western Australia

    2009 Race Scedule

    Capitol City Half Marathon                             10th OA/2nd AG                                      1:22:46                                          
    Issaquah Sprint Tri              10th OA/2nd AG                                             1:01:20

    Ironman 70.3 Boise              65th OA/7th AG                                  4:40:52


    Vineman 70.3                     48th OA/7th AG                           4:36:06

    Ironman Canada                DNF - Bike Crash

    Silverman Ironman                    November 8th - pending recovery

    2008 Race Results

    Kirkland Half Marathon                   1:25:27                                              2nd AG/10th OA

    Ironman 70.3 Kona                    4:53:08                                             15th AG/60th OA

    Ironman Coeur d'Alene 10:06:05                                            10th AG/51st OA

    Snoqualmie RR Days 10K 38:19                                                  4th AG/14th OA

    Escape from the Rock Tri 58:21                                                 2nd AG/4th OA

    Grand Columbian Half Iron 4:56:55                                               3rd AG/22nd OA

    Ironman Hawaii          11:01:56                                          178th AG/785th OA

    PACE 5K                       19:05                                                 2nd AG/7th OA

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