Looking to redeem myself from a 2nd place last year in a mud shortened Ironman attempt, Kaylee and I took off from Batesville, Friday morning. By around 2pm landed at the coolest place I’ve ever seen for anyone who likes to play army! Found signup and got my race packet. Starting unloading and taking a few things to the pits. Spent the rest of the afternoon pedaling around a few section to get an idea of what I would be seeing all the next day. Spent the evening packing in my last bits of food and hanging out with the Mulherns, mostly making fun of Trevor.
Saturday morning, I was up by 5, couldn’t sleep if I wanted to! I was super pumped to get this going; weather was beyond perfect for this. Finished getting all my stuff to the pits. Trying to prepare for anything that could happen to your bike in 9hrs of riding isn't easy. Flag dropped at 8am sharp, Ironman classes were about 4 rows back. A big row of probably 30+ of us took off, I missed an upshift and ended up around 3 or 4 into the woods, Trevor came by me soon, as I expected, then he ate it in a corner, also as I expected!
Trevor recovered and eventually made a pass on me during a pit and extended his lead to a lap by the end of the day on me to take 3rd in the Ironman lites class. I decided that the track was rough enough that it was really gonna wear some folks down after 2pm, so I picked up my pace and race an “A” speed for a couple hours, I was quickly able to start putting my class down by a few laps. 40+miles went by with only one spill. Terrain was intense. Lots of huge hill climbs and steep descents, then mixed with some tight woods, all of this seemed to get a fresh load of loose gravel delivered to the entire trail every lap. Very reminiscent of the 100Miler where I broke my wrist, that image stayed with me most of the day. Some of the trail became extremely fun while other parts really started to suck. The property is home to the world’s largest paintball battle, so everywhere on the 1500 acres is littered with fake cities of foam and concrete, it was really very cool,…the first 15times I had to weave thru the “church”…then not so much. The track was just rough, my suspension was doing an incredible job but after 9hrs of jarring, my hands were in a lot of pain, became very hard to hold on. For some reason every year I’ve done this I get really sick feeling from about 11-1pm, I nearly threw up in my helmet this time. Then about 1:30 I got out of my funk and started putting in better feeling laps. Mile 130 was my slow down point, I clipped a tree with my right side, bounced to a tree on my left side, ejected from the bike, did a nice tuck and rolled, bike flipped over, and there I was. My bars were rolled all the way down to my stabilizer peg; I could not get them back up. So I rode the next 5 miles with my bark busters, clutch and brake levers sticking straight up to the moon. Got to the pits and got them rolled back forward. I carried on for another 25miles, but at a slower safer pace. I was watching my clock closely knowing I was way ahead of my class and too far from Trevor to catch him, I stopped an 1/8 mile from the finish for 4minutes to make sure they were waving that checkered flag. I wasn’t making another lap. I ended up with 155miles for the day. No major injuries, no major bike damage, and a 1st place in Ironman 35+ class, and 4th overall in Ironman. Big thanks to several folks for helping me succeed in my goal. Kaylee first off, for doing a great job and helping her daddy when he was too weak to load the trailer back up, Tim and Amy Mulhern for the countless things they did all weekend. Jeff Nichols for getting right in there and helping fix my bike and fuel it up. Jay Hackett and Christy Turner for their help in many ways all weekend long. Thanks to Sandi Martin for breaking my fingers and hauling some of my stuff back to the pits for me. I’m sure I’ve left a few folks off, I’ll apologize now. Looking forward to 2015 and seeing if this old man can do it again!
