My 70.3 story

PIGMAN Triathlon 2009

This is the story of my Pigman Tri experience. Saturday August 15 we drive to Palo, Iowa to check out the course. We drive the bike course and it is a beautiful day and everything looks fine. A lot of hills but they are long pulls nothing step so I'm thinking no big deal. Saturday night we eat pasta; a good high carb meal with Kara and Jay's Dad. I went to bed around 10:30 PM which is later than I intended. I slept better than I expected. I woke up shortly after 4 AM and started to get ready. There were thunderstorms in the area and it was raining pretty well. We were supposed to leave at 5 AM for the race but we ran a little late. The drive from Jay’s Dad’s house to the park was rainy. We made it to the park and it cleared up for a bit. As we were waiting to get our bodies marked it started raining again, but then stopped again when we were setting up our transition areas.

While we were waiting for the race to start the rain started coming down pretty hard and steady. My race started shortly after 7:30 and I had a pretty good swim. I was sighting well so I did not go off course much. My swim took 49:45 to swim 1.2 miles. That was about 10 minutes faster than I thought it would take me; pretty good for me. The jog to T1 was slow more like a walk. I probably used more energy than I realized. My T1 was slow but I did not care about transitions on this day.

I got on the bike and the rain started again and the wind picked up. Most of the first 15 miles of the race was hell. I was riding south and that was the direction the storm was coming from. I finally started going west and was able to pick up some speed. But going up those long hills with rain and wind in my face was a bad word. I made it to the turn around and headed back in. About 30 miles into the race I see Jay and give him a wave. At this time I'm headed south again into the wind and up plenty of hills. As I'm approaching the last two miles of the race I have to climb one final hill on the entrance to the park. I’m spent at this point and my pace was a crawl. Also at this point I'm seeing runners coming in finishing and some going out to start the run portion of the event. I see Kara on my way in and give her a wave.

I got to T2 and I'm beat. I'm soaking wet, my socks are wet so I was going to change my socks. No luck I left my socks in the bag at the truck. So I pulled my wet socks off and squeezed the water out of them. Then I put some Butt Butter on my feet hoping that that would help keep them from rubbing and blistering in my shoes and put my wet socks back on. I was very tired at this point. I put a little sun block on but the sun is not strong at this point so I’m not worried.

Out of T2 I have to pee guess what the Port o Potty is full. While I’m waiting for the restroom one of the volunteers asks me if I’m OK. I knew I was tired but I must have really looked bad. So I wait a little while and a guy that is not in the race steps out with his news paper. Who reads a paper in an outhouse? I try to pee but not a lot comes out and it’s pretty bright. OK I'm finally off. Say hello to Kara on the way out and I'm off to a walking start. At this point I'm walking but with a purpose; kind of a fast walk. I'm feeling pretty good but my legs are weak. I see Jay headed in on the bike before I leave the park. He said something like that was a pain in the butt, but it could have been more colorful. I meet a guy who was also walking but he had a plan to walk / run the whole thing and he had done it two other times so he know what he was getting into. I tried to keep up but when it was time to run I could not keep up with him so we parted ways. Around mile three of the walk I want to quit. I tell myself I can push on and at every aid station I stop and get some water or heed a sports drink, GUI or an orange to help me out with my low energy level. Just before mile four Jay catches up with me and that picks up my spirits, we walk. Jay was on a walk 5 minute run 5 minute schedule. When his alarm went off to run I tried and was only able to run for probably 30 seconds. Every time I took a deep breath I felt like a rib was sticking me in the lungs. I told Jay I was slowing him down and to push on but he would not leave me. By mile 5 I'm dead but Jay tells me to push on. OK mile six comes and we are almost to the turn around all we have to do is walk 1/2 a mile up a big hill to get to the turn around. We look to be the last people on the course. We get down to mile seven and they are closing up the water stand. Just around then we meet a lady coming at us so we are not the last people. She catches back up to us by mile 9 and I could not keep up so she left us. I'm dead at the point and wanting to quit even more. The only thing that is keeping me moving is Jay talking to me and telling me to push on and that I know there is water at every aid station ahead. So we are on our way to mile 10 and I see the truck with the water leaving. Oh man it was like someone just reached in and ripped my guts out. I was devastated and almost cried. Jay kept me going and when we got to mile 10 they had left some stuff behind for us. I poured a cup of ice down my shorts which cooled me off for a little bit but I was hot. My nipples were sore from my shirt rubbing so I had my shirt off which probably made the people in the cars sick. My spirits picked up at mile 11 after we had finished climbing the big hill and the race was mostly downhill from there. Now I'm not thinking about dropping out I'm just willing myself to finish. We finally get to the home stretch and we see Kara and she takes a couple of pictures. We walk down to the finish area and everyone is going. We see the rubber mat and cross it yes we are done. No one of the few people that is there said you have to go down the road a little further. So we finished again. At this point the race director gives us our pictures and points us to the refreshments area which is all but gone. I see the massage table and talk the lady into giving me a massage which almost made me cry several times but it helped a lot.

Wow I finished the race and I’m exhausted. After cooling down a bit we decide to change clothes and get ready to come back home but the locker room at the beach was locked. There was a shower outside so we rinsed off in a cold shower then changed clothes in the truck. While changing clothes in the back of a Chevy Avalanche pickup I get a leg cramp that almost makes me scream. I end up rolling down the rear window and sticking my legs out it too stretch out. I had a couple more leg cramps on the way home but the rest of the 6 hour ride home was not bad at all.