2016-Were you humbled?

Yes.....I'm guessing I'm probably one of few people in the history of triathlon to ride an extra 10-12 km in a World Championships! And I think I may have set a world record for how many things can go wrong in the same race. Those aren't distinctions I'm really proud of!

It would have been humbling enough without any issues. I've never competed in a triathlon quite like that, with so many fast people. I actually was worried I'd end up DFL. There aren't as many alternate ways to get into 70.3 Worlds, like the lottery or Hawaii residents or executives or whatever, as at Kona. 99% of people are there because they qualified. Sure, some races and age groups are more competitive than others, and you always have people who get injured or sick or pregnant or something between qualification and race time, but still....

Things started going south from transition set-up, when my Garmin mysteriously refused to start. It hasn't done that before or since. I can only guess that the contact point (where you plug in the charge cable) was not properly closed, and it got wet as I was schlepping my stuff to the race site. (Normally it is in a protected waterproof compartment in my transition bag, but they had said you had to bring see-through IM bags with race number, I guess for security.) So I started knowing I'd probably be riding "blind", unless a tech miracle occurred while I was swimming.

Had a decent swim and was MOP on that. Got out of the water and stepped on either a rock or a scorpion--nasty pain in foot and big purple mark. I had to walk/hobble both transitions, but it was okay with running shoes on. (Grateful for that, at least.) Got on bike and of course the Garmin wasn't working. I had a good ride for the first part. There was supposed to be a sharp turn to the right near 54 km up a steep hill for the first of two overlapping loops. I saw the 50 km sign, but never saw the 55 km one (before I saw 60 km). It didn't even register at the time but in retrospect, I think I was way over to the left (Australia!) while being passed by a draft train on the right (don't get me started about those), and went right past the turnoff on the first lap without seeing it, doing the second lap first. I only saw the turnoff when I came around again on my second lap. Asked an official what to do and was told, if you don't want to DNF, ride the first loop (with the monster hill) now, and then the second loop again. Otherwise the electronic timing will not record you as finishing the course (which happened to quite a few people who didn't catch their mistake or who did but weren't willing to do what I did).

So I rode the last hour plus pretty sure I was riding a lot extra. It was awful. It went from maybe having the bike leg of my life, being in the thick of things and leapfrogging with some good people in my AG and others, to riding along solo much of the time and catching stragglers who were going much slower than I was. I was in tears by 80 km, which I hit a few minutes after the time I'd expected to finish the bike.

It was an okay run, considering, but I was basically catching stragglers the whole way. I did find a few people who'd had mechanicals or something on the bike and were decent runners to pace with. I did not expect to cross the finish of my first-ever World Championships in tears that were not ones of joy (or maybe pain!) but that is what happened. It still kind of boggles my mind that I managed to finish exactly MOP in my age group after all that--but it depresses me to think how well I could have done had all this freak stuff not happened. The only slower HIM I have done was my first one (3 minutes slower), and Vietnam in 2015 (when I was deathly ill and had a 2:14 run.) I had a 3:14 bike split and 5:50 final time after a 2:49/5:16 at Calgary (which is at 4000-5000 feet, with 5200 feet of climbing!) and 2:55 at Vietnam in windy 90 degree heat. Had conservatively hoped to be around 2:50 for the bike and 5:15 to 5:20-ish overall at Worlds.

I'll be honest--I feel cursed. It's like those months, actually years, of hard work counted for nothing, and what really mattered was that my Garmin somehow got wet in the wrong place, and that I got passed by a draft pack in the wrong place. Would even have felt better if I had proof of my bike time and distance on my Garmin, which I don't. So yes, humbled, not really by my competitors (though I would have had my butt kicked even with a perfect race!) or the race distance, but by crappy luck and my own stupidity or carelessness.


Edited by Hot Runner 2016-11-26 10:47 PM

This year I trained and completed my second full ironman. Going into it my goal was to PR. I trained hard with the same coach and felt super confident. I was faster and smarter in all three areas and I didn't have the stress of prerace logistics as I knew what to do and expect. I had my nutrition dialed in, my bike was in great shape, and I felt healthy. I did a HIM 4 weeks prior that went really well, although the run was super hot so I fell a little short of a HIM PR. However, my swim and bike went very well.

Come race day I felt great and ready to go. I knew where to line up in the swim (I was doing Wisconsin so it was a mass start), and I was confident. Race started and off I went. As I was swimming I felt relaxed and pretended it was just another training swim. Lots of people passed me but I was ok with that (I'm a super slow swimmer but I have endurance and have no problems getting through the distance). I knew what times I had to be at for each turn to ensure I was on pace and ahead of the cutoff. The year before I made the cutoff by 6 minutes and this year I was ahead of it. I kept swimming and never looked at my distance, just time. When I made the final turn I thought I had plenty of time and felt I would finish in 2:00. I just kept swimming and focusing on getting to the finish. At some point I got a strange feeling that I was more behind than I thought. I saw nobody around me except a ton of kayak people and they were all yelling at me. Finally made it to the finish and was literally dragged out of the water and over the mat. I had no idea what was going on but when I looked at the clock I realized I made the swim cutoff by 40 seconds! Needless to say this set me up for a bad day mentally. I did realize long after the race that although my pace was faster than last year, I somehow swam 400 yards further than last year.

Fortunately I'm really strong on the bike and run but that thought of almost not making the cutoff haunted me all day. All day I kept questioning what went wrong in the swim rather than focusing on the moment. I screwed up my nutrition/hydration on the bike and finished the bike 30 minutes slower than I thought I would. I was upset during the run and because I didn't follow my nutrition plan on the bike I cramped. I did manage to finish in 14:54, 35 minutes slower than last year. It didn't even occur to me that I made up more than 2 hours between the bike and run.

After the race I was upset and angry. Everyone around me was so happy to finish and all I thought about was how horrible I did. At the time I didn't think about the fact I completed my second ironman, I was only upset that I didn't get the time I wanted.

A couple of weeks later I was talking to my aunt and I told her how disappointed I was in my time. She looked at me square in the face and told me that I need to realize that I am a two time ironman finisher and that I should be grateful that my body (and mind) has the endurance and tenacity to accomplish such an amazing goal. She said that a lot of people could never do what I do even if they wanted to. That was sort of the thing I needed to hear. Since then I've taken a new approach to my workouts and am trying to appreciate the fact that I can go out and do what I do.

My coach also helped me put things in perspective. He told me this race probably taught me to respect the distance, which I've always have, and not go into it overconfident (which I think I did).

I decided to give the IM another go but this time will work harder and respect the distance more. I've learned that if things don't go as planned to move on and live for the moment as I never know if this will be my last race. This was my first ever bad race (I've don't a ton of races over the years), and I really can't say it was bad as I did finish well under the cutoff, but it taught me that things will not always go my way and that I need to learn to adapt and make changes on the fly. Having this "bad" race will definitely help me train for my next IM.

My goal/plan for next year is to have a positive attitude regardless if things don't go as planned and appreciate the fact that I am able to go out and do this crazy sport. I'm not going to stress out as much if I don't hit a certain time or pace, although that is still my number one goal as I need something to aim for.

I had one of those years where nothing went as planned. I did one HIM--in the pouring rain and with food poisoning. It was miserable. I finished but missed my time goal by almost an hour. My apologies to anyone who had to use one of those port-a-potties after me.

I also did a sprint tri in the rain when I was sick. That was some sort of virus. I shouldn't have raced that day because I don't think it helped me recover.

I did my first ultramarathon. I missed my time goal there by more than two hours, but again I finished. It was over 90F at high altitude, and I had to relay messages to aid stations about runners who collapsed on the course. I really should have carried the capacity to carry more water and done more to protect myself from the sun. After I got dehydrated, none of my training mattered. Now that I know, I will be better prepared for the next time.

I was supposed to have my first full IM, but thanks to a hurricane, the bike course was cut to 56 miles, so I don't count it. That was the biggest disappointment of the year. I put a lot of training into it and finished MOP, but it was a huge letdown because the course was so short.

I did have one trail race, a 25k, that I only did for training. I felt like garbage during the entire thing and was convinced that I was one of the last people to cross the finish line, but somehow placed really high. I still can't figure that out.

I also finally found a good swim coach who took me from BOP (sometimes DFL) to almost MOP. That was big for me.

I was humbled, but couldn't be more proud.

I spent the first part of the year training for my first HIM, Raleigh 70.3. I was most scared of the swim, but came in at 54 minutes and feeling good. However the bike absolutely destroyed me (hence the humbling), turning my "run" into mostly a walk. A race I was hoping to challenge the 6:30 mark turned into almost an hour longer.

I spent the next few months training for my first full marathon. Felt good going in, took off with the 4 hour pace group, and they dropped me around mile 16. I spent the last 8 miles run/walking to a 4:24 finish.

Was I disappointed? Absolutely. Was I humbled? Oh yeah.

Was I the most proud of this year I have ever been in my life? You bet your @ss I was.

A couple weeks after signing up for an IM...

I was humbled by riding 78 miles and really just wanting to sit on the couch the rest of the day and not having a clue as how to I'd run, walk, or crawl 2 miles (I figured I could squeeze out 1)...let alone 20+.

A few weeks later, I was able to squeeze out 100 miles on a bike, and while I felt like I could do "something" after that, I'm still a bit bewildered by 20+.

Humbled for sure...
Determined and hopeful as well.

I have time...

I going against the grain here a bit too since I had a great year of racing. I managed to PR in every single running race that I did, did two half IMs and finished in top 15% of field, and also podium'd for the first time (in a sprint). I feel very fortunate to do the things that I was able to do.

And this is after beating the Big C for the third time (Cyberknife Radiation on a lung lesion in May; which I actually ran a half marathon between treatment sessions). Carpe Diem!!!

I'm glad you started this thread. I have learned a lot from everyone's excellent postings. Many lessons to be learned.

I was definitely humbled this year. After "restarting" triathlon in 2014, my first two seasons were pretty good. I was making steady progress for an old geezer, and had what I felt were some pretty decent placings/times in 6 Sprints and some 5Ks over those two years. Last October, I fell (running in the dark, not paying attention to the stuff fallen on the road), messed up my right hand/wrist pretty good. . . still don't have full range of motion and something like a pushup still hurts. Then in January a blood vessel in my shin area popped while running. That, and traveling, kept me from running for almost two weeks. Dumped my bike in March (luckily I was just pulling away from a red light and probably hadn't even hit 15mph yet). Re-injured the hand/wrist, misc. bruises including my ego. In April, the shoe really fell when I literally fell from the upper bunk in our RV. Fell backwards, head first, and hit a projecting wooden corner really hard, busting one rib and bruising several others as well as damaging my right latissimus dorsi. That really hurt and kept me from doing pretty much anything for a couple weeks. Then a couple weeks of just walking, graduating to hiking, and then starting to add the spin bike. Within about 10 weeks from the fall I was nearly pain free and able to start building my training up once again. Seven weeks to my first race which went pretty well, slower paces than the year before, but considering everything, I was pretty pleased. With four weeks until my next race I felt I had a pretty good chance of doing quite well. Then I woke up with my ribs hurting like crazy, but this time more in the front. Pretty weird, a "relapse" almost 4 months after the fall. I could not run without severe pain. Swimming hurt, but not as bad. Biking was okay. A week before the race the pain had decreased enough that I could tolerate a 2 mile run. My swimming had been going pretty well, my biking was strong and it was a really hilly race which suits me fine. So what happens on race day? I got so cold waiting in the pre-dawn that by the time the swim started I was immediately hyperventilating. Took me a good 2 minutes to get it together doing breast stroke before I could finally start freestyling. Needless to say, my swim split was horrible. The bike went really well, I felt strong on the climbs and my handling was good on all the descents. The 5K run went better than expected considering I'd only logged about 12 miles in that previous 4 weeks.

So, for me, it was a very humbling, learning type of year. Some lessons were old and just needed to be relearned. In no particular order:
- I appreciate everyday that I'm able to swim, bike or run. Even if maybe not as well, or fast as I want to.
- I appreciate painless or even low pain days. I empathize with those who are not so lucky.
- I appreciate that even injuries and trials can be learning experiences and help me enjoy life to a fuller level.
- I appreciate my family and friends even more than before, because they backed me up and I know they're there, even if I can't do Tri.
- I appreciate my health, and again, I empathize with those who struggle with theirs.
- I understand that at some point I may not be able to do Tri, although I plan to for a long time. Still, this has prompted me to take up the guitar again and I'm really having fun with it.

Oh, and today I just finished up one of my better months of running. IF all goes well, I'll be doing three or four sprints next summer and my first Oly in 28 years

I was definitely humbled at the NYC marathon this year. Backstory...had a case of pneumonia I couldn't shake for three weeks during my build and finally started to feel "better" a week before. Ive completed a few open marathons before and three full IM's, so I thought...yeah I can still bang this out.... Time to get a big slice of humble pie.

I knew my time was going to take a serious hit, but when I hit mile 19 the wheels fell off. The rest of the race was a complete suffer fest. Seriously doubted a finish at all, but stammered my way back to Central Park. Finished, but ended up in the medical tent and with a new found respect for the distance.

Sounds like my year. First tri ever was a sprint in August of 2015 at age 60. Next tri was 2016 IM 70.3 Coeur d'Alene at almost age 61. My ups and downs involved trying to train on the road due to a heavy work travel schedule. Spent some long, lonely nights in hotel fitness centers. Had a 58 minute swim, a good biike, but ended up walking as much as I ran in the last segment. Nonethless I finished, and for that I am proud.

Going to do sprints and olympic distance races this year and jump back into HIM distance in 2018, after I retire from work and can focus on training closer to home. I got the bucket list HIM out of the way...now to start shaving time.

Edited by HaydenHunter 2016-12-01 8:33 AM