St. George Ironman 2012

In July of 2009 I was getting ready to do my very first triathlon, the Hillman sprint distance TRI in Blanding. It consisted of a 500 yard swim, 17 mile bike ride, and a 3.1 mile run. I had rented a wetsuit and a bike and was pretty nervous before the start. At that time I would have never imagined even considering to attempt to compete in a full IronMan sanctioned race. A little less than 3 years later, here I am stepping in to the cold Sand Hollow Reservoir to race in the 2012 IRONMAN St George Utah.

Over the past few years I have built up doing longer distance triathlons, a century ride, two half ironman distances, and 3 marathons, but the real ironman training started at theend of November 2011. I had six months of steady training with a few weeks of high volume training, peaking at around 18 hours a week. Julie and I did manage to throw in a Caribbean cruise about 4 weeks before the Ironman for a well needed break.

Julie and I had fun designing a team Hazleton race shirt for all of our family that came to watch. My parents, all of my siblings, Julie's parents, and Clark’s family were all in attendance. I spent Friday morning eating a big breakfast with friends from the Southern Utah Tri Club, taking my bike and bags out to the lake and to the bike-run transition. I drank lots of water, carbs, and a few cans of Ensure. Maybe a little too much water because I ended up going the to bathroom about every hour or so Friday night.

Needless to say I was excited and anxious and really didn’t need to set an alarm because I was staring at it most of the night. I got up at 3:30 made myself some oatmeal and had some apple sauce and some Gatorade. Kirk slept at my house and was up by 4 to get ready to volunteer out at the lake. I asked him to give me a blessing, and I remember him blessing me that I would have the strength to finish and I would be safe. I’m glad to have a brother that is worthy and able to use the priesthood at the spur of the moment.

Some friends picked me up at 4:30 and we loaded the buses.When we got out to the lake, I looked out the bus windows and noticed that there was a bit of a breeze from the north, evidenced by the flags waving. That put a little lump in my throat. I knew the water would be around 57 degrees but I had swam in the lake for the past week or so, and that didn’t bother me, but I was concerned that the wind would be bad during the bike. When I went into the transition area I was greeted by my dad, Kirk, Matt, and Calvin. It was great to have so much family there to help me get ready.  It made the time go by fast, and after a quick trip to the bathroom, a quick check on my tire pressure I got my wetsuit on and the announcer told us to start heading over to the water.

On my way over I spotted Julie. What a relief it was to know that she had made it there to see me start.  It meant the world to me, she had to spend a lot of time working out the details to get somebody to watch TJ and Abby, pick up Clark and my inlaws, and fight the traffic to make it to the start. After a few pictures, with her and Kason, a quick kiss and some reassurance from Julie, I was off to the swim start.

Getting into the water I heard a lot of people complain about how cold it was, but it didn’t seem to bother me much, I was concentrating on getting into a good position, on the inside lane next to the buoys.  Since I breathe to my right, it was easier to swim from that spot. Within just a few minutes I heard to cannon go off and then it arms and legs flailing and water splashing everywhere. I was surprised though that it only took a few minutes to find my groove.  The first 15 minutes went great, however someone did manage to kick my goggles, but they didn’t come off so I was fine. After about 15 minutes I could feel the current push me a long, I thought it was more the draft off all the swimmers than the actual current, but as I made the turn, I realized I was wrong. The winds had picked up and I was facing over a 1.8 mile swim head on into 4 to 5 foot swells with white caps. I just hunkered down and focused on getting my breath without swallowing a gallon of water in the process.

Within minutes things went from a good swim to survival mode! After about 10 minutes of fighting the waves and current I realized that there were no other swimmers around.  I couldn’t see the horizon, let alone a buoy, and there wasn’t a kayak or boat anywhere in sight. That made me nervous, but I just tried to keep the sun on my right and just keep swimming. After a while I finally stopped swimming an did another 360 to try to see anything at all, and I spotted a boat about 300 yards behind me, I tried to communicate with the boat to point to the direction I needed to swim, but they motioned for me to come closer. So I swam backwards for about 200 yards and when I got with in ear shot they were yelling at me to get in the boat. Heck NO! I yelled “just point in the direction I need to be heading." They pointed in the direction I was already heading, which was pretty frustrating because I had to retrace my steps.

The next 30 minutes was definitely a trial of my faith. I didn’t see a single soul or buoy that whole time. I thought for sure I had to be getting close to the next turn arournd to head into shore! I finally saw a red buoy and headed straightfor it. I was confident that this was the last corner buoy before the turnaround and the waves would just push me to shore. Right when I was getting to make that left turn, I felt inspired to take look to my far right.  There was the same American flag that was blowing in the wind when I was looking out the bus window and I knew instantlythat I was off course. That flag was south of the area where we entered the water and I knew I was supposed to exit far north of there.  If I had taken a left at that buoy I would have basically swam right back to the starting line! I looked farther to my right and saw the rock island that I knew I had to swim to the right of, so I had to make a decision to just swim back to shore and call it a day or give it a shot. Many things went through my mind; all of those hours spent training  and selfishly taking a lot of time away from my family, all of my family that have traveled to come see me, and how I would feel if I gave up. With these thoughts it only took a few seconds to make my decision.  I started swimming and kicking as hard as I could towards the rock island. As I was swimming I was praying that I would get back on track and make it. I had no clue how long I had been fighting the waves, but I knew I was way off of my predicted swim time, and was probably real close to not making the time limit of 2 hours and 20 minutes.

By the grace of God when I got closer to the island I finally sited a few other swimmers, a jet ski, and a buoy and I knew I was finally not alone, but back on track! Even though the waves and current were beating my face, and it felt like I was swimming in place, my anxiety was completely gone. I finally made my last turn around the bouyand could site the finish. As I turned the momentum of the waves basically pushed me in. It reminded me of body surfing years ago inVirginia Beach. I was thrilled so see that I made it out under 2 hours and I hadn’t drowned. (I told Julie I would be out of the water between 1:20 and 1:30. I got out out 1:55. So for that 30 minutes Julie tells me she stood there and cried. She was terrified that-- 1) I had drown, or 2) that a boat had to rescue me and that I would be devastated my race was over. She was so relieved to see me emerge from the water).

I later found out that the water was so bad that it capsized the majority of the kayaks and pushed them across the lake.  Over 60 kayaks, canoes, and lifeguards on body boards started and only 6 of those made it out of the lake.  So the boats were busy rescuing the kayakers and a few hundred swimmers. No wonder I never saw any boats. There 1800 people registered for the Ironman.  1423 of those got in the water and only about 900 that made it back in on their own power. I felt blessed that I was one of them. Later I heard that the Ironman officials were quoted saying that this was the worst swim in ironman history! Ben Hoffman, who won, was quoted saying that this race was the hardest thing he had done in his life! Needless to say that swim put me behind the 8 ball. (There were only 464 first-time Ironman athletes, and I was one of them).

I knew that I was about 30 minutes slower than what I had planned so I rushed into the transition tent. I had to practice a lot of patience when a volunteer and I spent a good 3 minutes trying to untie the strings to my bike bag. It was nerve racking. After a quick change I ran out of the tent and my dad and brothers were there with my bike ready to hand it off tome. (I heard that one of my co-workers who was volunteering, Kimmy, saw Kirk and Calvin with my bike and said "this is my friend's bike and I'd like to be the person who gives it to him." My brothers said "sorry, we are his brothers and we trump friends!") As I left the transition I noted the time, but I didn’t realize until later on that the clock I looked at was based off of the 15 minute head start of the pro athletes. I had planned that worst case scenario I would be on my bike at 9 am, so seeing that it was 9:18 was a very discouraging, but I forgot that it was actually only 9:03. However that little bit of nerves I had was overshadowed by the exhilaration of being on the bike, where just 10 minutes earlier I was in the water preparing for the likelihoodthat I wouldn’t get out in time. It was a rush of adrenaline clipping into the bike and riding down the shoot with all the fans cheering me on I caught a glimpse of Julie and her family and shoutedout a big “whoohooo!”

That exhilaration didn’t last long, when I realized that there was a 40 mph headwind leaving the lake and riding into town. I can’t count how many times I checked my back tire to see if I had a flat and thinking that my brake pads were rubbing against my tire! I have made this ride many times and know what my average mph is through that first 20 miles. I was no where close to that speed. I had planned on taking the first 22 miles at a comfortable pace to save some energy for the two double Veyo loops that were coming up, but when I was having trouble picking up any speed on the down hills I knew that I had to push it pretty hard to fight against the wind and make it to the bike check point before the time cut off.

When I finally got to mile 22 I asked a volunteer what time it was and he said it was 10:52.  The cut off was 11:30, so that made me feel a lot better, but I knew I still had a lot of work to do. I fought those same awful headwinds as a I made my way to Gunlock. It was actually a relief to climb the steephills, because it wasn’t as windy. I made a quick refueling and unloading (potty break) at the Gunlock aid station and I was off to take on the wall. The infamous “Wall” which is a switch back a few miles before Veyo, is about a mile long and had some pretty significant climbing to do. Today though it was relatively easy, because it was the first time I had a tailwind all day! Once to Veyo I had a tailwind all the way to Dameron Valley to my bike special needs bag where I had stashed some extra nutrition the night before. After restocking my water bottles and goodies, I was off! I passed a lot of people flying into Snow Canyonbut had to feather my brakes a little when I saw some bikers ahead of me get thrown across the road by some pretty nasty cross winds! I first felt like it was a shame to use my brakes on such a fast steep decent, but reason kicked in and I had to think about being safe. I hadn’t drowned earlier in the morning, and I wasn’t about to crash going 50 mph down the canyon! Miles before heading into starting the second Veyo loop I was trying to stay positive telling myself that I was lucky to be healthy enough to be even attempting an IronMan.

Luckily the winds started to die down a little and my secondloop was actually a little faster than my first! South of gunlock I kept asking people what time it was because I knew I had to make the next time cut off in Veyo by 4:30. I was having some serious GI distress…ok, it was more like full on diarrhea, I know TMI right? But, I felt like I couldn’t waste any timeusing the porta potty so I didn’t stop. Somehow I made it up the next few steep hills, including “the wall”without having to get off my bike, which is what I saw a dozen guys do.

I made it to Veyo at 4:02. At that point I knew I was going to be an IRONMAN. I knew I would have enough time for the marathon that I could speedy walk it if I had to. Realizing that it was going to happen, I felta little adrenaline boost and flew back into town. As I rode in on diagonal street I saw the hundreds of runners plodding along in heat and I found myself thinking “ those poor, poor suckers” and then realizing I would be one of those poor suckers in just a few minutes! A few minutes before 5 pm I handed off my bike and sprinted (walked fast) to a bathroom, took care of business and then changed into my running gear. After getting my socks on, I remembered that I forgotten to put some Glide on my feet, which helps prevent blisters, so I stripped off my shoes and compression socks and started from scratch. I’m glad I took the time to do that because my feet came out with just a few minor blisters. While I was changing there was a buzz in the air and people were chanting “ Ironman…hoorah, Ironman…what” something like that, but it did pump me up a little. When I heard someone say that we had about 20 minutes to get out of the tent before the timecut off, I put my fuel belt on and took off.

I walked out of the shoot and started jogging, I was surprised that my legs and feet weren’t as sore as I thought they would be, but my gut was a different story. My game plan was to run a steady pace and walk the aid stations, but I had burned up a lot of energy fighting the waves in the lake and the strong winds on the bike I knew I would have to make some adjustment to that plan. I also quickly learned that if I ran faster than about a 9:30 min pace that my bowels would painfully cramp up and force me to walk, so I adjusted my pace and trodded a long. At the first water station, Kirk was there to give me my gel flask. A block later I saw Julie and the gang, it was great timing, she had just arrived and saw me with in a minute or two. She couldn’t of timed it better! As I was taking a walk break at mile 2 a girl named Barbara recognized me from the bike ride and walked next to me and we started chatting about the race experience so far. We decided to work together and run the downhills and flats, and power walk the uphills and aid stations. So for the entire marathon we did exactly that. It was amazing that our run splits were pretty evenly paced throughout the marathon. I learned I could run through the stomach pain, but I had to stop 3 or 4 times during the run or I would have messed my pants. Barbara was a good sport and used the time to stretch while I was in the john. The run took place all in town going, up and down several streets, which made it great for my family to see me a lot. It was definitely the best part of the day seeing all of my family cheering me on, and reading all the cute and funny signs they had made for me. My running buddy Barbara couldn’t believe all the awesome support I had, and once my family learned her name, they were cheering her on too!

The walk/run plan was working great, but I wasn’t able to drink a lot because by belly was sloshing while I ran, so I sipped a little coke, or water, or perform energy drink at each aid station. I knew my stomach couldn’t handle anything solid like a banana or pretzels. In fact I hadn’t eaten anything solid since about 10:15 in the morning on the bike.

Looking back I realize that it was a miracle that I was able to run that marathon with the little bit of calories and water that I consumed…amazing! I knew I hadn’t sweated since about half way through the bike course, so I was already pretty dehydrated, I consumed a fair amount of salt pills and electrolyte pills on the bike and was able to choke down 4 or 5 on the run, which I felt helped a lot. Even with a sloshy stomach I forced myself to drink because I knew that my legswere on the verge of cramping and I couldn’t let that happen.

I knew the Lord was helping during the run because somehow anytime I started feeling down or negative thoughts start to enter my mind,within seconds I would see a friend or family member cheering me on, or hear Mike Riley (the voice of IRONMAN) shouting out “you are and ironman" to some lucky athlete crossing the finish line, and that would me the extra boost I needed to keep plodding a long. The runcourse was a 3 loop course and when it started to get dark on my third loop they handed out glow in the dark bracelets and necklaces. I remember the first time I watched Ironman on TV, and seeing the athletes get these glow in the dark bracelets. Some of my friends wanted to finish before dark, but I actually felt like I earned that bracelet like a badge of honor!

At mile 20 I realized how hard it was to do even some simple math, because it took me about 5 minutes to figure out what pace I would have to run to cross the finish line before the 16 hour mark. To wear the title of IRONMAN I had to completethe 140.6 miles under 17 hours. On Friday I had told Julie that my goal was tocome in around 10:30, but once the weather turned for the worst I was happy to just finish before midnight.

To keep us motivated we made it a goal to pace ourselves so we could finish under 16 hours. It was awesome to run by my family for the last time and shout out “see you at the finish line!” Those last few miles were pretty crazy. I had a lot of different emotions, I was onthe verge of crying, puking, laughing, and passing out. We heard some young girl ask her mom why we were all walking. Her mom said that all the athletes were pretty tired (understatement), and the little girl said, “but aren’t they in a race?” I had a good laugh with that one. The last few miles we passed tons of people and the two of us ended up picking up 3 or 4 more runners in the last mile or two who were struggling. One girl told us that this was her 7^th ironman and that she usually finished in less than 12 hours.  She said that hands down this was the hardest ironman, including Kona, that she had done. It was good to work together as a team to help each other out. This race was never about trying to beat other people to the finish, it was about accomplishing a goal that I set months ago. In the last mile or so about 5 or 6 of us would set goals to run to a cone and then walk a few steps, then run to the next sign, etc. until we were down to about ½ a mile.

With a few blocks to go Barbara shook my hand and told me how much she appreciated having someone to work together with, and how much she loved all of my family cheering us on. I told her the feeling was mutual. I told her I wanted to walk down the chute to enjoy the moment and soak it all in, but she wanted to run the finish. I told her I need to find Julie and give hera big hug, so we compromised and started running the last few blocks a bit faster so that I would have a few minutes to find family, but still have enoughtime to get under the 16 hour mark. I saw all of my family along the barricades but hadn’t spotted Julie yet. I spent a few moments celebrating with my family with some high fives. For the past few months, I’ve been worried that when I crossed the finish line they would mispronounce my name. I know it sounds like a pretty small thing, but after all those months of sacrifice, dedication, and training, and all the hours spent that day swimming against those 4 foot swells, battling heat and high winds on the bike, and trying to gut out a marathon, I wanted to hear MikeRiley say, “Tige YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!” At the time it sounded like he said “team Hazleton” so I thought maybe he might of seen all 20 "Team Hazleton" shirts out there cheering me on. Later I heard that he infact did misspronounce my name saying "Teeg", but that was another small small gift the Lord gave to me because I didn’t hear him. When I was a few feet from the finish MikeRiley literally stopped me and put his hand on my shoulder and asked me my name and then said “Alright crowd on thecount of 3…TIGE You are and IRONMAN!” That was one of coolest moments, but I still hadn’t seen Julie. I crossed the finish line at 15:54, and Julie was there waiting to put the medal over my head, she gave me a big hug and kiss! What a great way to end such a tough long day!

I got my picture taken, sat down and had an EMT, check me out, grabbed a chocolate milk, and walked out to Tim’s car and went home. I kicked my feet up and within 10 minutes all of my family was around me congratulating me and we all sat around and talked about different things and experiences and thoughts we had during the day. What a special moment for me. I’m so grateful for my family and their support! Matt started an IV and through the night I gave myself 2 liters of fluid and made several trips to the bathroom. At 7am I went down the the Dixie center and picked up my bags and ate some solid food for the first time in almost 24 hours, I visited with some Tri club friends, and watched the volunteer and athlete videos with Kirk and Matt. What an emotional 24 hour rollercoaster! 3 years ago back when I was about to start my first sprint triathlon I couldn’t have dreamed of swimming 2.4 miles, biking112 miles, and running 26.2 miles all in the same day, but did it on what manyhave already labeled as the hardest ironman ever! How cool is that?