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Ironman USA Lake Placid
July 27, 2003
-- Lake Placid, NY
2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run
This whole race should have been wetsuit legal.
UPDATE - 8/4/2008: As some of you might know, I never did write a race report for this race. It's been 5 years, and a recent thread on TRI-DRS caused me to write out some more of the backstory from that rough day in 2003. That post was then posted to Slowtwitch.com, where it gained the attention of the publisher, Dan Empfield.
He turned it into an OpEd piece, which ran on the main page Monday, August 4th, 2008.
Slowtwitch OpEd:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/Opinion/A_Hard_Rain_s_A-Gonna_Fall_463.html
The Original Xtri Articles from August 2003:
Part I:
Original Quick Report - Posted 8/1/2003
I'm at my desk. I'm back to my life. I'm tired. That was too fast.
14 hours and 21 minutes is a long time to spend in wet clothing. I didn't know it could rain so hard, so long. Mother Nature had the final say, and beat me like a red-headed stepchild and rented mule all at once. I have never dug so deeply and at the same time, gone so slowly. Slower than my first IM in 100 degree heat. Slower then anything I've ever done. At one point on the bike I passed a mile marker for 93 miles, knowing I had only 19 left - normally about a 1 hour ride.
I knew headed into the notch by the Ausable River, into a howling, unrepentant rain and wind, those 19 miles would take me close to 2 hours. Then at mile 111 it REALLY started to rain.
I have blisters in places I've never blistered before. My fingers are sore from running with a Mylar blanket for 7 miles while fighting hypothermia. My last IM for a long time was not the beautiful, blue-sky day I was thinking about for 364 days. It was the worst weather I've raced in, and the most emotionally draining day I've ever had.
At the worst I was walking in the rain, knowing that I had family standing out back in town as they had all day long. They'd changed 3 times waiting for me, downpour after downpour. They were waiting, and waiting, and I just wanted to tell them to go home. I didn't want them to suffer anymore...but they wouldn't leave. Nobody left. They were wonderful.
Did I quit? No. Never. I walked. I wept. I mumbled to the sky. I thought about a million things in the dark as the rain pounded down, thousands of points of light dancing under light towers I'd never seen lit before. I kept moving. I was last amongst my friends, but I finished. 14 hours and 21 minutes is a long time for a race. 14 hours and 21 minutes is a long time to suffer.
However, remembering that I finished and didn't quit, every day for the rest of my life, will be much longer than 14 hours and 21 minutes.
I finished. I am a 6-time Ironman.
I suffered. I slowed. I faltered.
I didn't quit.
14 hours and 21 minutes. A long time, but it's really no time at all.
This report will take a while to get together, but it'll be worth it.
Hurricane Bob
PICTURES! Courtesty of ASI Orders - Official Race Photographers of Ironman USA
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This is at lap 1 of the swim - 1.2 down, 1.2 to go. I was feeling good, because it wasn't raining yet. Note grey sky in the background. Sorry about the focus, but I'm sure the race photographers had their hands full. |
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End of lap 2, and the last part I'd be out of the rain all day long. I was suprised to have finished the swim in 1:03, but that was the end of my quickness. Check out the guy fighting the wetsuit behind me, facing 90-degrees to his right. Yikes. |
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"So, you want to go for a ride? A little run later on?" Only 138.2 miles to go. Making chit-chat on the way out of the oval, headed for the cold, wet roads of Lake Placid, Keene, WIlmington, Jay... |
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I'm not smiling now. This is around mile 64 of the bike, and the descent to Keene (Part II) has started. I'm wet. I'm nervous. I have damp britches. Note shimmer on wheels. I didn't stay aero too long here - too nervous. |
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Off the bike, and into the deluge. Actually, this was just light rain by now. At this very moment, Joanna Lawn is blowing by me to my right about 13.1 miles ahead. |
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Where have you seen this face before? How about Mile 24 at Boston this year? Yes, the 1000-Yard Death Stare(tm) is back! Only here, I'm at mile 4 of the run. 22 miles to go, and no sun in sight. Yeesh. |
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THEY FOUND ME! What can I say here? This was my worst race, but thanks to ASI Orders for finding me two weeks later, this is the best finish picture I've ever had at Ironman! |
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This is less than 60 seconds after I finished the longest day of my life, and there's no more pain. 14 hours and 21 minutes is a long time, but at a moment like this, it matters little. |
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I can officially say that I'm the first in my family to perform in Times Square, in New York CIty. Through a magical clearing of the rains, ASI put a photographer in the square - here's what he caught of finish as it played live over Broadway on the Jumbotron! |
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Second shot, about 1/2 of a second after the previous. Pretty cool! I wrote to Lynda and said, "I've never looked bigger! I'm what - 30 feet tall here?" |