Race Report: Ironman St. George

Skyler wanted to do an Ironman this year, but because he wanted to wait until after Desmond was born to sign up, only St. George was open. And there's a reason that the St. George Ironman was the only one that was still open....it's the hardest one. And this one was definitely no exception.

We were fortunate enough to stay at Skyler's dad's house just north of St. George. This was our first road trip with Desmond. I was a little worried about how it would go, but surprisingly everything was fine. Pumpkin came along too, which helped keep Desmond entertained in the backseat. We kenneled Pumpkin in St. George, but at least she got to enjoy some of the trip with us.

When we got to racer check-in, I was super antsy. I don't like being at races and not racing. I was half-tempted to sign up on the spot, but luckily I didn't. But I was very close.

Skyler tested out the waters of Sand Hollow the day before the race. It was a pretty warm day. After he finished, I rode my bike from Sand Hollow to his dad's house, which was about 30 miles away. The second I got on my bike I was shocked to feel how windy it was. St. George is windy a lot of the time. Triathlons are turned to duathlons pretty frequently because of the wind. I hate the wind, especially on the bike. The good thing was that the wind was forecasted to leave for race day.

Race day was here and we were up super early. John and Deby offered to watch Desmond for the morning while I drove Skyler to the shuttle area. I then drove to Sand Hollow so I could watch the swim portion of the race. Skyler was excited to race!

The sunrise over the reservoir was beautiful. This was going to be a great race day! Or so we thought...

The racers began swimming at 7:00am. Within 15 minutes the weather changed from beautiful to awful. The wind kicked up and all of a sudden swimmers were being pulled from the water by the dozens. The 50 mph wind was creating 5 foot waves! We later learned that if the wind had begun 15 minutes sooner, they would have canceled the swim. It was like a hurricane out there!

Skyler finished the swim 25 minutes slower than he should have. But at least he finished. We later learned that several hundred racers did not even finish the swim. Crazy!

Skyler grabbed his bike and was on his way to a 112 mile ride. The wind was still fighting strong. The man who would eventually win the race said that he was blown off his bike by the wind.

I drove back to the homestead and waited for Skyler to come to the special needs station, which was just a few blocks from where we stayed. Skyler pulled up and I could immediately tell something was wrong. He did not look well and he did not sound positive. This was the half-way point on the bike and we encouraged him to keep pushing. 

I went back to the house for a nap and was awakened by my cell phone ringing a few hours later. It was Skyler. He was throwing up and needed to be picked up. He had stopped riding at mile 90 because his stomach was not going to finish this race. I knew this was a hard decision for him to make, but it was the right one. We are not sure why his stomach was having issues, but our best guess is that the 90-minute swim in a washing machine messed up his body. Not surprising, he wasn't alone. 500 racers (out of 1600) who began racing that morning did not finish the race. That's the most DNFs in the history of Ironman.

I picked up Skyler and he was devastated with not being able to finish. I knew that he was in bad shape because the last 20 miles were all downhill. If he couldn't hold onto his bike to ride downhill, then something was definitely wrong. We chilled for the rest of the day and enjoyed a delicious dinner with John and Deby. It was hard for Skyler to see people finishing the race, but he knew deep down that it was the right decision.

So what do you do when you have a bad race? Sign up for another. This time I'm joining in and racing Ironman too. In less than 4 months, we will be racing Ironman Arizona. Fingers crossed that Skyler gets his stomach to cooperate this time.