IMFL: Car crash, TKO in 2010, back in 2011

On Wednesday, November 3, 2010, three days before IMFL, my wife,
six month old son, and I were driving from north Georgia to Panama City Beach,
Florida for to compete in that year's race. My beloved high-end Cannondale
Slice was on a trunk rack on the back of my car. We finally arrived in Panama
City in the rain late that evening and turned onto Front Beach Road. Wihin one
mile from reaching our condo, we were rearended by a local in a pick-up truck
traveling about 40 mph. My wife and son were transported by ambulance to a
local hospital as a precaution while I stayed with the car and to help with the
crash investigation - I followed shortly after for x-rays and evaluation.
Fortunately, my son was completely fine - the infant car seat did its job -
while my wife and I sustained fairly typical soft tissue whiplash type injuries
in our necks and backs. My left wrist was injured and swelled significantly,
but was luckily not broken.

My bike did not survive. Sustaining the initial collision with the
truck, my bike was squarely pinned between the two vehicles. The carbon fiber
frame was fractured in several places, the stem was crushed and severed on one
side, and my Zipp 404s were mangled with the carbon rims fractured and
dislodged.

The following few days were very difficult. I knew at the moment
we were hit, my race was over before it started. The following morning, I awoke
in a good deal of pain and soreness in my back and neck and my wrist was
seriously hurting. Our condo was on the run course and I spent the morning
watching out the window all the runners and bikers preping for the race while I
was on the phone with the insurance companies sorting out a rental car and our
claims. I was up and down and emmotionally and in a high moment of hope and on
the idea that I could harden up and raced, I picked up my number and chip
ignoring the fact that my bike had not survived the crash.

My wife insisted that I contact the RD or Ironman people to see if
they could help, to which I refused. She contacted them anyway and I received a
call early Friday morning from someone at Ironman offering me a bike to use for
the race if I could go. In a lot of ways, this made things worse. I really
wanted to HTFU and race, but knew it was a terrible idea, that I probably would
not even make it through the swim with my wrist and back, much less be able to
ride or run, and that I would be seriously risking making things worse and
prolonging my recovery. Regardless, I told Ironman that I would call them back,
put on my shoes and went out the door for a test run. I did not even make it a
block. I called the Ironman lady back and told her how grateful I was for the
offer, but I was in no condition to accept.

I was dispondent. This was to be my fourth Ironman, which
mitigated the effect somewhat, but I had sacrificed a great deal for this race.
With my son having been born in April, the days of easily scheduling training
were over. I had adapted to his schedule to minimize the time I was away from
him and my wife, training early in the morning before he woke or late in the
evening after he went to sleep, often sleep deprived. I raced very little that
year, putting all of my focus to this race. Being that close to the race with
all of the training behind me and having been taken out at the race venue was
hard to handle.

The Ironman people were awesome and rolled over my slot to this
year, so I am on my way back to finish what I started two years ago. This year,
I have been able to utilize my anger and frustration over this incident in my
training and focus for this event. I have raced often this year, with PRs in
most races. On Saturday, I will be racing with anger and fire.

This is simply my story. We all deal with adversity in our lives
and I am very fortunate that this is pretty minor compared to what others have
dealt with and overcome.

I will be wearing Bib # 1082 this year. My bike is being carried
to PCB in the back of a truck under heavy security.