Ironman.. kinda

There must be some truth behind the number 13 being bad luck. Today was my 13th Ironman and it certainly wasn't one of my better ones. I felt great before the race. My swim was right
on target and I came out of the water in 1 hr. My plan was to take it very easy on the
first loop of the bike. I did and had a split of just under 3 hours. I started pushing the
bike on the second loop and by mile 70 I could tell things weren't going as planned. By
mile 90 my stomach had turned. I knew it was going to be a long day from that point on.
The last 22 miles on the bike were pretty painful. When I arrived at the transition zone I
decided to spend 10 minutes in the Med tent. I went inside and put my legs in the air. The
doctors checked my blood pressure and weren't really thrilled. They kept me there 30
minutes longer than I wanted to stay. When I left I knew I wasn't going to be able to run
the entire marathon. The first 6 miles were so so. Miles 7-10 were somewhat difficult. At
the 12 mile mark I was laying on the ground and the ambulance crews were getting ready to
pull me from the race. I convinced them that there was no way I was going to quit. They
made me sign a release form before they would leave. Fifteen minutes later I was feeling
even worse. At that point I knew my day was over. I asked the volunteers at the aid
station to help me make it to the med tent. Deb and Mark helped me to my feet and supported
me as we began the 1/2 mile walk to the med tent. After about 50 yards I threw up and fell
to the ground (in the middle of the run course). Deb & Mark called the ambulance as I
vomited 3 more times. After a few minutes I started to feel a little better even though I
was laying in a pool of my own vomit. (yes, it could have been worse.. I could have been
laying in someone else's vomit). By this time the ambulance crew and I were like old
buddies. They were determined to get me off the course. I convinced them that I was strong
enough to finish and told them that I had plenty of time to do the rest of the run. They
wrapped me up in a mylar blanket, made me sign yet another release form, and shook their
heads in disbelief as I hobbled back onto the run course.At this point I had no energy stores in my body. My stomach was still queasy and I had 14 miles left to go. I made it 12 miles before things started to shut down. I had to sit down on the side of the road at the 24 mile mark. My friends were there and gave me enough support and encouragement that I got up and staggered the final 2.2 miles to the finish.
As soon as I crossed the finish line I told the catchers to get me to the med tent ASAP. The
doctors gave me 4 bags of IV and were very concern when my bloodwork results came back. It
seems my kidneys had started to shut down. My sodium and potassium levels were in the
danger zone. After 90 minutes they decided I was well enough to leave. I had some pizza
and 2 cans of soda. I was disappointed in my performance but extremely happy for all my
friends. Dave, Nancy, and Kevin all had fantastic races!! Maybe next year I will finally
figure out what I need to do to have the race of which I know I am capable.

The weight is over

Here we are at T -17 days until Ironman. The past 2 weeks I have been shedding some pounds at a much higher rate than I was for the previous month. That is a good thing because I put on a lot of weight this past spring.
We took test trip with the RV this past weekend. It worked great except for the fact that we left the windows down during the day and at night it was loaded with mosquitos!

It has to start somewhere

This is my blog for my cross country bicycle trip.

The plan is to finish Ironman on July 25 then drive to San Francisco. I'm hoping that August 1st I will dip my rear wheel in the Pacific and start the trek to Virginia Beach.