Here's a quick summary I sent out to recap this race weekend below:
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Hi Everyone,
Just want to write and say thanks to all of you for your encouragement and support.
Oh geez, how do I even summarize this race... It was a really long weekend and probably best described as a series of unfortunate events.
Laurel and I drove up Thursday afternoon, but by that night, I came down with a cold. I knew I was getting sick, but chgged airborne all week. Well, it finally hit Thursday night. So the new addition to my race nutrition plan was tylenol cold and chloroseptic tablets. By Friday morning, I got my period. Now I'm carrying tampons with me on my race too. Then Friday afternoon, when we finally got to camp, a car door slammed on my left thumb so hard that it was bruised and swollen instantly and not usable thru the race. I iced it for a hour, but still could not bend it. Not that it impacts the race, but made taking off wetsuit, shifting gear w/ my left thumb, and tearing open gel packs and tylenol packs on the bike in high winds kinda tough... sigh. Oh, and then there was the 40 degrees night in the tent the night before the race with a cold not able to breath or sleep... But I thought as long as I'm still breathing (or half breathing), I'll do this race. What else can go wrong anyways...?
So now we're at race day morning. It was mild temperature at about 78 degrees. But the wind was the worst this race has ever seen in its 25 years history. It was so strong that made the lake look like an ocean with waves. To my surprise, I finished my swim 10 minutes earlier than I thought I would. Zig zaged between the kayakers and the buoy, had problem sighting and choked a few times due to the high waves. Drank a lot of lake water. But learned quickly that I need to raise my head higher than normal to avoid the choppy water to get air. Bike is normally my stronger portion. But this time I was in for a surprise. The bike distance is 56 miles total. The entire way, there was either a 15mph head wind or cross wind. It was relentless. The whole time my bike swerved whenever a gusty wind comes thru. I thought something was wrong w/ my bike, but then realized the wind was so strong it was making noises blowing thru the spokes of my wheels and pushing the bike around. Many people went down and we kept hearing and seeing ambulances rushing thru. Then when we finally took a turn where there's no wind, there's a 7 miles continuous steep uphill climb at mile 42. My quad muscles were pretty spent by the end of that hill. What else... oh... had to stop to fix a chain that fell off my bike and got stuck in gear. Then had to bike around a snake in the middle of the uphill climb. That was kinda funny. I saw the snake, and said to mylself, you have got to me kidding me... any more surprises? I had to really make sure I was going around his tail since I was climbing so slowly, so I don't piss him off and get biten. I knew I didn't have much time left before cutoff, so I was popping in medicine and cough tablets right before I get to transition so I can just feel better and take off on my run quickly. However, when I finally crossed the timing mat, an official came up to me, took my timing chip away, put her hand on my shoulder, and told me "thank you for coming". I was dissapointed to say the least. I can still keep going, just let me run. But she said I'm not allowed to continue. I never wanted to run 13.1 miles so much my entire life.
I gave it my all, but I guess it just came up short this time... 4 minutes and 59 seconds short to be exact. I never stopped or quit trying. Total race time: 5 Hours, 36 Minutes 59 Seconds. I missed the cutoff by about 5 minutes.
It was one of the most humbling experience. I learned so much from this race that I will apply to my next ironman race. And the amount of emotion I felt and saw from other people was undescribable and overwelming. I sat on the ground next to my bike in the transition area for a long time afterwards. And realized how important it is to have supportive family and friends like you. So I just want to give you all a quick run down of this weekend, and also to say thanks to you all. Reception was really bad up at Lake San Antonio at the campsite. But I did receive all of your emails, text, and voice messages. They meant so much to me, and kept me going on my race. Thank you so much for your support.
