The trip to New Zealand started with about 32 hours of
traveling. The week before I left I read a bunch of race reports on IMNZ so I’d
have a better idea what to expect. I read a report about a guy whose bike never
showed up, he raced on borrowed/newly bought equipment and had a crash mid race
caused by a volunteer. Ironically I happened to meet this American who lives in
Peru in between flights. It’s funny how small the world can be at times. This
didn’t help my concerns of my bike not showing up, as when I flew to AZ with my
bike it missed my connecting flight. Luckily my bike made it on all the flights
and showed up in one piece.
The trip to New Zealand was always first about a vacation
and second about the race. Therefore, I only set aside two days completely
about the race and rest of the days leading up to the race I planned the
vacation aspect first and fit in a little training where I could. Monday was a
short run and ocean swim. I complained a lot in my head about the waves I was
fighting during the swim but figured this would be the worst conditions I’d
experience while in NZ…ha.
On Tuesday morning I woke up early to get in my longest
training day. I planned to do a point to point ride and run off the bike. Bill
was going to leave the bed & breakfast later than me and meet me at my ride
ending point. One of my biggest concerns about the race was the road conditions
I heard about. NZ is knowing for having bad chip seal which makes for a much
slower ride and the possibility for more flats. By some amazing luck, I have
never had a single flat. I knew it was stupid to go into a race with bad road
conditions with zero idea on how to change a flat so I practiced at home
beforehand on my front wheel. 15 minutes into my ride I had my first flat ever
on that front tire. There I was on the side of the road in a foreign county
with no working cell phone and no way to fill the new tube because I didn’t
have a chance to buy a CO2 cartridge. I took my time changing the tube and
waited for Bill to finally drive by 45 minutes later. I pumped up the tire and
debated if I should finish the ride given I lost a lot of time and we were on a
schedule. I decided to go for it. It started raining and I was pretty grumpy at
this point. Then I saw a double rainbow and reminded myself I was riding in a gorgeous
place and I had no reason to be unhappy. Bill was playing leap frog with me in
case anything else went wrong.
30 minutes later I got another flat on the front tire. Naturally
I’m still wondering if I somehow caused these flats given the coincidence that
the first time I mess with my tire I flat twice. It was a sudden pop and I was
riding on my rim on a wet, curved downhill going about 30 mph. The wheel kicked
out from under me and I crashed. I don’t remember much other than after hitting
and rolling trying to stay in a ball on my back to keep my head and limps off
the road as I skidded to a stop. My first reaction was to quickly jump up and
get myself and bike out of the road. Sadly, my next reaction was to collect
rest of my crap all over the road and do a quick check on my electronics and
bike. Then I stood on the side of the road with my hands on my knees trying to
stay calm while bleeding. Some locals saw me and pulled back around to help me.
They gave me an old t-shirt to help with the bleeding and some big Band-Aids.
I’ll say the locals in NZ are all very nice. Bill eventually found me.
The pain I could handle. I was mostly in a slight state
of shock and my main concern was about the Ironman that was in only four days.
The owners of the bed & breakfast let me come back to their house to clean
up and find a doctor’s office. After a long time cleaning up all the wounds
everything was bandaged up. I had road rash on my right ankle, knee, hip, upper
back and left hand. The worst damage was the back of my arm below my elbow and randomly
my left pinky. Those two spots wouldn’t stop bleeding. They couldn’t give me
stitches because I somehow removed big chunks of skin so they couldn’t pull the
missing skin together. I’m going through the slow process of losing my pinky
finger nail. As you can imagine in a situation like that you worry about how
much it’s going to cost. $30… hurry run away before they realize they made a
mistake!
Obviously that was the end of my training that day. And
the next day. And the next day. I was in a decent amount of pain Tuesday but
the internal pain got better each day. I’m stubborn and wasn’t going to let the
crash interfere with the rest of my vacation activates even though it hurt. I’m
sure I irritated my body with some of the activities which I’ll talk about in a
separate vacation post. Friday I decided to do very short easy sessions of
swim, bike, run purely to see how my body was feeling. Could feel some pain in
my knee during the run. Swim felt the best. The bike I was a mess mentally. The
whole time I was in fear of flatting and crashing again. I had to fight my urge
to stop and check that my tires were still full. Every little sound during the
ride made me worried I had flatted which is a problem when it’s not a smooth
ride from the road conditions. My concern about the pain was as figured. My arm
injury was right where I place it on the pads for aero position and it hurt a
decent amount to be in aero because of it. My problem is I actually prefer to
ride in aero vs sitting up. I spend more time in aero during training than
sitting up. So from a comfort and muscle usage standpoint, I want to be in
aero. The course also had long mostly flat sections so from a speed standpoint
you want to be as aero as possible. It’s also common for the wind to pick up
during the bike course which made it extra important to be in aero. Pain in my
arm from being in aero wasn’t going to stop me from doing the race though.
I will say I’m extremely thankful that the crash didn’t
cause worse injuries. My head was untouched and I have no broken bones (I
think). My bike was mostly ok. The front wheel was very bent. The shifter was
pretty messed up but still functioning. The bike shop was able to get a new
mismatching wheel shipped into the store the day before the race.
Saturday morning I was up and ready to race with my body
saran wrapped in Tegaderm. I was so distracted by what was going on with my
body I didn’t even check the weather or notice the wind until we were on our
way to the race site. This race is known for having calm water in the beautiful
Lake Taupo and the wind typically kicks in on the second lap of the two lap
bike course. Ohhhh no that was not the case race day! My biggest concern with
the swim was it’s one of the few remaining races that does one mass wave start
which can be very aggressive. I hadn’t thought about water conditions. I didn’t
see the water until we were starting to get in.
It was bad. Very very bad. It was very choppy like when I
raced in NOLA but there were also waves. I think everyone was so worried about
the conditions that it caused us to be very spread out at the start. Being beat
up by fellow racers wasn’t the problem but being beat up by the water was. The
athletes were more an issue of swimming over me because it was very difficult
to sight. The waves were big enough that you often couldn’t see the buoy during
sighting because of the height of the swells. The waves were coming across us and breathing
on one side or the other didn’t seem to make a difference. It was either water
coming towards your face or going over your face.
I spent half the swim thinking this is absolutely ridiculous
and the other half telling myself over and over again “it’s fine” which I heard
in Katie’s voice as she told me I’d have to remind myself that during the race.
My effort started out strong but halfway through it was obvious I wasn’t going
to have a swim time anywhere near what I wanted. I also knew my whole day was
not going to go as what I hoped or planned before the crash. I eased up on
effort and decided to survive the swim conditions without expending too much
energy. On the plus side the conditions were bad enough that I wasn’t paying
much attention to the pain in my elbow other than when someone kicked me right
in the wound. That hurt. Thankfully the wetsuit was a nice protective layer. I
FINALLY reached the shore, saw the race clock which is what I was expecting
based on the condition and thought well that was horrible with lots and lots of
swearing going on in my head. Not at all the way you want to start a very long
day but we were all in the same conditions so I moved on. Passed Bill on the
long run to transition and I didn’t even have it in me to smile at him.
2.4 Mile Swim – 1:21:25
So swim done, long run to transition, and an improved
amount of time in the tent compared to IMKY. I did take time to wrap a bandage
around my arm in hopes it would provide some extra protection and cushion. I
didn’t really see Bill until I was passing him but once again I couldn’t bring
myself to smile. The bike started as I expected. Legs felt fresh given I had a
taper full of too many rests days. In the beginning I had no issue hitting my
power numbers and higher for the uphill in the beginning. After we left town
there was a bunch of downhill. Between the nice tailwind, the downhill and
trying not to draft, it was some miles of easier riding. Once we hit the flat
section I tried to settle into a steady effort. It didn’t take long before I
realized I didn’t have it in my body to stay in my original power range. I
needed to back off a tiny bit for the effort to feel as it should. I knew I’d
have to do more of the race by feel so this was fine and what I expected.
The pain in my arm was also as expected. I couldn’t keep
myself from being in aero though. I would sit up on any uphill. Sometimes I
thought the switching made the pain worse. Up until that point I hadn’t been
bending my arm much because I’d start bleeding again. I have a decent pain
tolerance though and figured I wasn’t doing any damage but putting weight on
the wound other than making it bleed some. I had some pain in my right hip
which was bothering me during the week. What I did not expect was pain in my
left leg. Less than 10 miles in the pain started in my hip and knee. As the
miles went on it kept getting worse and worse. My power kept dropping and
dropping dealing with the pain. Katie warned me to be careful about being in
aero and being in a position that could mess with my hip angles. I’m sure
that’s what was causing the problem. My guess is I was unknowingly putting more
weight on my left side to reduce the pain on my right side. I tried sitting up
more but that wasn’t improving the pain. At this point I had reached the turn
around and riding into wind which made it harder to sit up.
I don’t want to say the wind was a problem but it was
effecting me mentally on top of everything else. On the ride out my average
speed was 20mph which on a rough road at my power was fast. I knew I was going to
be screwed when we turned around and rode into the wind. Even riding with the
tailwind I was mentally struggling a lot so I can’t blame that on the wind. I
debated a lot the days after the race if the wind played a factor in me pulling
out of the race. I don’t think it did but I’m sure I pulled out sooner than if
it was good conditions. My head was a mess and the pain was getting bad and the
wind was just the cherry on top. I couldn’t shake off the fear of flatting
again. I could feel myself giving up and was riding easy effort at times. I was
fighting with myself to keep going but the pain was getting worse. I reached a
point where I started crying. Not from the pain but because I knew what was
going to happen.
I decided to stop at an aid station and go the bathroom
as an excuse to give myself a break and hopefully a mind and body reset. I
almost fell over when I got off the bike. All the muscles across my pelvis were
seizing up and I couldn’t stand up straight. I hobbled my way into the bathroom
and you know you’ve reached that bad point when you don’t care about sitting
down completely in a port-a-potty. I got out, tried walking around a bit to
shake things out, but it wasn’t helping. I stood there for a minute doing
nothing but debating before making the call. I walked over to a volunteer and
told them I was pulling out.
Eventually I got picked up. They were busy dealing with
other people pulling out for various reasons and people flatting from the roads
and people crashing. From everyone I talked to they all commented on how race
conditions are never that bad, at least not that early in the day. When I was
dropped off at transition I was amazed at how many bikes were still on the
racks. Apparently lots of people pulled out either during the swim or after the
swim. I hated that I felt like I pulled out from the wind even though that
wasn’t why. Then I had to deal with trying to get in contact with Bill who was
out on the course waiting for me and who had an international phone number. He
picked me up and took me to the hotel.
I cried a bit awkwardly by myself on the side of the road
watching runners from the 70.3 going by. When I got to the hotel, I sat and
cried for a few minutes and that was it. I knew how I reacted to the day was my
decision and being upset all day was not the answer. I stopped crying, went and showered and
decided to move on with day. Katie was out racing and I wanted to cheer her and
other athletes on. I’ve never spectated
a triathlon before and it was especially a unique experience to cheer on your
coach. It was no longer my day but it was still many others. I ate a lot, had
several drinks and spectated the race not with sadness but with admiration for
the athletes still out there pushing through their day.
Pulling out of the race, seeing that DNF, it was hard. It
still is. This was my best training cycle. Every single training session was
green, I did everyone with intention and my training was never altered because
of injury. I trained hard. I was ready to unleash my body on this race and see
what I was capable of. It’s hard not to think it was for nothing as I sit and
watch all the hard earned fitness slide away. I know I made the right decision
though. I’m still having pains in my body and even if I could have finished the
whole Ironman, I would have done more damage. I’m not in this for any one race
but I’m in it for the long game. I’m not sure where I’ll go from here other
than first making my body healthy again. My main focus this past week has been
on enjoying an amazing vacation and I’ve been truly happy. I haven’t taken a
week away from training in years since I started triathlons. I’m ok with the
break though and I’ve been moving my body in other and fun ways. Although a lot
of that has hurt. As Bill repeatedly
told me after the crash, take it one day at a time. That is all I can do right
now.
