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Race Result

Racer: Mike Guzek
Race: Duke Blue Devil
Date: Saturday, September 14, 2002
Location: Durham, NC
Race Type: Triathlon - Ironman
Age Group: Male 25 - 29
Time: 11:17:10
Overall Place: 49
Age Group Place: 3



Race Report:



First off, huge congratulation's to David Glover on an amazing race despite a constant rain from 10:30 a.m. on, that at times boarded on "monsoon-like." These were not ideal conditions, but you would never know it by his time! A tremendous effort!

As Dave mentioned, we drove down together along with his girlfriend Jen on Thursday and I did my best to extract every nugget of information I could from him. He recommended I hammer the bike as hard as I could no matter what. He told me that I should plan on redlining the whole time on the bike and I could just figure the rest out when I got to it! OK, I am kidding. He advice was gummy bears. Not earth shattering, but it was a start.

The day before the race the temperatures were up close to 90 degrees and I was a little concerned about the role that the sun would play. I figured salt tablets and sun screen would rule the day, but I could not have been more wrong. That night, we hit the pasta dinner and were surprised at how great the food was and that the guest tickets were only 5 bucks! After dinner I went back to the hotel for some last minute prep and the lights went out at 10. The first of my 4 alarms went off at 4:10. Then the wake up call at 4:15, followed immediately by the watch alarm (also at 4:15) and finally at 4:16 by my cell phone alarm…ok, I am up. Little oatmeal, little yogurt, a sandwich, a banana and Gatorade and I was out the door and headed to the race at 5:15.

Bad omen? I arrived at the race site and my front tire was flat. Upon inspection, there was a ½ inch split in the side of the tire. Terrified I rushed to the bike techs who fortunately had time to switch out the tire, saving my spare and saving me the panic of trying to change my tubular in that short hour before the race. Crisis averted and everything else checked out ok. The weather was cool and comfortable. Down at the water I ran into David and exchanged a few words of encouragement and also managed to see my parents waving over the crowd. The swim was pretty nice. There were only a little over 300 people on a 2 loop 1.2 mile course. After about 100 yards I settled into a nice rhythm in a pack of 5 of us and around a half mile into it, latched on to a guy in a red tri top who was my driver the rest of the way. I stayed right behind him as we exited the water after the first lap and I entered right behind him. I did a quick check of the watch--24 minutes. Holy smokes! I figured the course was short (or maybe I am just that great these days!). I followed my guy the entire second loop and exited that water 11th in 50:59! Wahoo!

My transition was slow and unexciting. I made sure I took the extra time to get the sun screen on. I was on my bike after about 54 minutes and very soon after David came zipping by. This was a two loop course and the terrain was moderately hilly with enough ups and downs to keep you on your toes. I managed to hold a 20 mph pace through the first couple hours. Around mile 30 my chain got jammed some how and I feared the worse. I got off the bike, but everything seemed to working fine so I got back on a kept going. About 2 miles later I passed an aid station and picked up 2 bottles, but before I had time to put either up them in a cage I came up to a turn. With one bottle in my mouth and one in my left hand I started turning with the one hand I had free as everyone was yelling, "You're going the wrong way!!" Whoops! I sort of circled around and headed back the right way and got my water bottles put away. I then reach down to pull one of my fig newtons out of my bento box and my salt tablets went flying out with them. Uh oh. I decide to not go back looking for them cause I was tired of all the hiccups. A rocky start and I was ready to settle in for the long haul. I cruised another couple miles and I started feeling the drops. Here we go, it's raining. Man oh man. It was pretty light at this point. I made my way through special needs at the halfway point still holding my 20 mph pace and feeling pretty good, but shortly after that, the heavens opened up and dropped a flood of biblical proportions on my head. I am not kidding here folks. This stuff stung as I was riding through it. I gripped the handle bars in some sort of ninja death grip trying to decide the most likely way I would die -1) being blown off my bike 2) being hit by a car 3) hydroplaning 4) struck by lightning 5) being gouged to death because my bar ends were not plugged.

My pace slowed and I tried to remain as careful as I could. After about an hour, things scaled back to simply a steady rain, but at mile 75 my ironman crisis occurred. I went to shift and nothing happen. I could not down shift on my rear cassette. It was just sitting there, locked in my smallest cog. I was down to two gears -- my big chain ring and my little chain ring, both on my hardest gear on the back. Welcome to my hell. I road the last 37 miles like that. The down hills were fine, the flats were ok, but the up hills were awful. After 80 miles, I was not in the mood to push big gears. My pedals barely turned over on the up hills and people cruised passed. This may be my new "most miserable ride." The final insult came at mile 110. As you can imagine, I was counting the miles down 1 by 1 at this point. As I got under 10 miles left, my frustration turned to adrenaline as I realized that I was less than 10 miles from over coming the rain, the gears, and heck 112 miles of riding! My computer ticked over the 110 mile mark just as a volunteer screamed out, "9 miles to go!!" "WHAT!?!? They marked the course wrong, those SOBs!!!" Then I realized that it was pretty likely that my bike computer was not as water proof as I thought and was screwing up the odometer. Great. I pushed through those last few miles and lumbered in, with a 5:40 bike split. I was pretty happy with that time considering the rain and gears, but I was not feeling too light on the feet as I made my way through the transition.

I emerged onto the run at the 6 hour 37 minute mark. I was surprised that I was able to run at all. I was quite afraid that I was looking at a 26 mile walk at this point. I kept a steady pace around 9 minute miles for first 10 miles or so. The rain at this point was more of a drizzle, but the shoes and socks were still soaked. After mile 10, things when down hill (not the course…..me). I began introducing intermittent walk breaks and by mile 13 I was in the "why am I here?" phase. I was taking a gel at every other aid station and taking water and Gatorade in between with an occasional coke. The walk breaks grew longer and the running pace slowed considerably….run is probably not the right word…sort of a shuffle is more like it. By mile 20 I was in the "someone please shoot me stage." Going into this race I had really hoped to improve my run from my previous two ironman distance performances, but it just was not meant to be on this day. After doing a few of these ironman races I thought I would be better prepared for the struggle…or that it might hurt less. I realized 140.6 miles is 140.6 miles no matter if it's your first time or your 101st time. This distance is the same, the effort is the same….it's a battle each and every time. I crossed the line 54th overall in 11:17 with a 4:38 marathon and immediately took a seat on the ground.

I worked my way over to the medical tent and took some saline and tried to eat. I threw up a little later that evening so I was back to square one for taking in calories. I manage to get one BK burger down before going to bed and ate the rest throughout the night as I woke up in a pretty restless sleep. I polished the last of my 4 burgers off at 6:30a.m. just as Dave came knocking on my door to see what our plans was for getting our bikes back. I went back to sleep for another 30 minutes and when I awoke I upgraded my condition from "pretty crappy" to "not too bad."

My time was the best I have posted to date and I even managed a 3rd place Clydesdale trophy. I still, however, feel like I am searching for the perfect ironman, if such a thing exists. We'll see!

http://mguzek.tripod.com/dook02.htm