Thanks
This article is written with many thanks to my wife, Diane, children Mikayla, Ben & dog Jilly. All of whom, without their endless support & help, I could never of achieved a lifetime ambition in completing this crazy, crazy event.
“WHY?”
If you have to ask the question, you will never understand the answer.
“I simply do what many dream of,
I simply do what others talk about,
I simply become what others dare not even to imagine”
Deca Ironman Triathlon (Ewa Beach, Hawaii, U.S.A.)
Eating the Elephants
by Rob Holmes (City of Chester Tri)
The Deca Ironman Triathlon is rated as the hardest Endurance race in the World. Quite simply it is 14 days of total madness where people turn up with this idea that somewhere along the line it may be fun. What could be fun about swimming 24 mile’s, cycling 1120 mile’s then running 262 mile’s? I along with 25 other Triathlete’s was about to find out.
Only 42 people have ever completed this challenge, 40 being male, (more people have been into space). The looks of disbelief when you tell people about what you plan to do is amusing, at least to watch & I have lost count of the amount of time’s that I have been told that I am mental & crazy for taking on such a challenge, that why my good friend “Tony Candyfloss man Fisher” has Christened me “Mad Dog”. Why do it? Well there is a saying that if you have to ask the question, then you will never understand the answer, for me it is just something that I need to do, to progress, as if you don’t keep moving forward then you will end up standing still before going backwards.
Each year thousands of people attempt the Ironman race, (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike & 26.2 mile run), this, for them, as it was for me back in 1995 was to become the ultimate of challenges, the chance for the mystical M dot. When asked why take up the challenge, the people reply “because I can”. I sit back & think, can I?
Of the 26 athlete’s taking part 5 other Brit’s had arrived;
Jason Sawyer from the Royal Navy who was the highest ranked Brit this year, he had already raced & had great results at the Double Ironman races Austria & Lithuania this year (4.8 mile swim, 224 mile bike & 52.4 mile run). Jason had a large following in the way of his wife, 2 children, Mother, Farther & his auntie & uncle who had made the trip from their home in New Zealand.
Arthur Puckrin, 66 years young who only learned to swim at the age of 50 of Cleveland Tri, a well-known & very respected member of the Ultra community. Arthur is a true cyclist who crunches the big gears along with the rest, if you ever meet him at an Ironman race don’t be surprised when this old guy goes flying past you. Arthur’s trademark though is his walking boots, no Nike or Reebok here, just an old pair of boots. If you ever meet him at a race he will tell you, as he has me on many occasions “you will have a great time”, at the time you think, your mad, what, but at the end you agree that you have. As ever, his wife Mary supports Authur. Mary is a grey haired lady with a big welcoming smile; she can be seen making sure everything is OK for Arthur throughout every race. What I can never work out is when she sleep’s, she is awake before me & still up when I go to bed at every race.
Suraya Oliver from Black Country, who was 1 of 3 Females taking part. Suraya was sitting in 2nd position in the 5 race series & any finish would see her finish top of the world ranking. She had support in a friend also from Black Country Triathlon, Chris Catton. Chris had been in triathlon for many years although him big passion could be found in a can of Bud, any time is beer o’clock for Chris although I’ve never seen him drunk.
Suraya was here to face her Demons, after failing in her first attempt at the Deca two years before. This time she was in a lot better shape & had spent every penny she had just to be here, that’s what this event means to some.
Desmond Kieran from London, but racing for Ireland made up the 5th member. Desmond was a well-known ultra distance runner who was supported by his brother & 2 friends. He had in the past acted as a pacer for Bob Brown on his Ultra distance run’s.
This was to be my first Deca attempt having completed 4 Ironman & 2 Double Ironman races, one advantage of competing in Ultra races prior to the Deca was that I already knew 2/3 of the other athletes, this put me at ease as nearly everyone who was here was so laid back.
I was supported by one of Chester Triathlon’s coaches, Chris Morgan. Chris has so much experience having run 21 marathons along with this year completing the Lanzarote Ironman & is a very sociable guy. One area that Chris would prove invaluable to the majority of the athlete’s would be his skills in Sports Therapy (Massage). Chris had also played a major role in the organisation of the Chester ˝ Marathon (2200 people) & some other local races, he didn’t know at the time but this experience would also prove to be valuable.
What I didn’t want in the way of support crew was my wife or family, the strain on a relationship could be too much & what someone so close could end up seeing would not be nice. The last thing that an athlete needs when he is hurting is someone telling him to stop or take it easy, what you need is someone whom you respect, telling you to get up & get going even when you know in yourself that it’s time to stop.
At my other two Ultra events I have seen, people getting off their bike’s in the middle of the night & throwing them into bushes along with others just breaking down in floods of tears.
This year, the 8th running of the event the race went to the home of Ironman, Honolulu Hawaii from it’s other home in Monterrey Mexico where all the previous 7 races have taken place. Honolulu is the place where the whole Ironman thing started many years ago.
The official starter for the event was Mr Tom Knoll. Tom finished in 7th position in the 1st ever race all those years ago. When asked what he thought about what we were doing to the races? He said, “it’s great, this is what we did it for in the beginning, a challenge, this is where it has naturally progressed to”.
The swim took place at Barbers Point swimming pool, a 50 meter out door pool on an old US Navy Station by a Navy Airport on the Leeward side of Hawaii. The Pool is approximately ˝ from the cycle / run course & made for easy access after the swim.
We arrived at the pool early, to register & get things sorted out prior to this monster of a swim. I had spoken to Chris about my plans for the swim; he agreed that on paper it looked good so that’s what we would do. Chris had spent time in training with me during my long swims & knew what I was capable of, he also knew about my eating plans. What he didn’t know yet was how important he would be in getting me through the night. I also gave an interview to the US Navy newspaper. The reporter said “ sir. If you don’t mind me saying, you look the most relaxed person here”, looks could be deceptive, inside I was scared as well as excited.
Soon it was time to get into the water. I had been placed in lane 6 of 10 along with Jason Sawyer & an Aussie David Crinitti, at least they all spoke English. After a quick talk we all agreed on how we were going to tackle the swim & came up with some simple rule’s for overtaking & decided who lead the pack, Jason, David then myself, I was happy as I could just do my own thing at the back.
At 12 noon on Saturday 13th November 2004 the horn sounded & we all set off. Jason would stop to feed after every 1000 meters, David stopped as & when, myself every 20 min’s. Chris he kept a note of the time & fed me at each stop. My food was a drink of water or Gatorade every 20 min’s, a Ľ piece of Go Bar every hour & a slim fast shake every 3-hour’s.
Very quickly the 3 hour mark came around, Chris informed me that I was on schedule & to just keep taking it easy, I was swimming at a pace of 1100 meters per 20 mins & after a shake I set off once again, I kept this pace & yet again another 3 hours had passed. I was not feeling great at this point but put it down to the event & the swimming in a 50 meter pool, this was the first time that I had ever been in one & the difference from a 25 meter pool is vast. Bob Brown the British record holder for the Deca had told me to swim for up to 6 hours as training & it was the best piece of advice that I had been given.
Jason took the lead in our lane, he was the best swimmer by far & soon he was knocking off his 1000 meters before taking his rest. This continued until he started to tighten up in his shoulders. Chris started to loosen up his shoulders by massaging them. Soon he was back in the pool knocking off the lengths before the pain started to get really bad; soon he had to get out to rest his arms before completing the swim.
Arthur was not having the best of days. He’s not one to cope to well with the hot conditions. On his arrival in Hawaii, the week before the event he spent 2 days in his Hotel room because of the hot conditions. 65 lengths into the race he had to get out of the pool due to starting to feel the effects of heat stroke. At the Deca 2 years before Arthur had to abandon the swim after 6 hours as the doctor said that he was to ill to continue, was this another case of deja-vu? Arthur spent the next 4˝ hours laying in the shade on a sun bed, wrapped in iced towels trying to stay cool. At 18:30 when the sun went down Arthur got back into the pool to finish off the swim. It must be said at this point that Arthur is a role model for all athlete’s to follow, never give up & keep on enjoying yourself.
Suraya was having a good swim. She is not the best swimmer in the world but she kept on plodding up & down her lane, knocking off the lengths one by one under the watchful eye of her support crew Chris.
Arthur was in the same lane as Suraya so she only had 1 other in the lane for the first few hours of the swim. This should have been an advantage for Suraya but the other swimmer in the lane was Manuela from Austria, one of the other female athletes. The problem was that Manuela couldn’t swim to well & did 1 length out front crawl followed by 1 length of breaststroke. This continued for the 760 lengths & took her 48 hours to complete the swim.
Desmond wasn’t having the best time of things in his lane. He was swimming in a lane with 2 other athletes who could not speak English. The main problem that he found was that no one in the lane knew which way to swim, this ended up with Desmond hitting his hands several times on the lane ropes along with the others in the lane. The cuts became mildly infected & would affect him for the first few days on the bike.
Just as it went dark I was at half way (12 miles) in 6 hours 11 mins, I set off to swim the second half of the race but things were not right. After a few hundred meters I got out of the pool, ”what’s up” said Chris, before I could answer the projectile vomit flying several meters through the air told him. One of Desmonds support crew, Dr Dave, saw my problem & came with some “Diralite” re-hydration fluid, after a short break & more sickness I was off again plodding through the water, I felt terrible but Chris told me to just keep going forward & keep swimming. I couldn’t keep anything down so all I could take was water, this came up at regular intervals & when it did, Chris & Dr Dave would get more re-hydration back into my system. Shortly after 1 in the morning I had to get out of the water, I was freezing & all I wanted to do was curl into a ball & die. I sat watching the others, they all looked so relaxed & graceful, why was I feeling so bad? Chris came over, he said, “you have got to get swimming again” he also told me to get into my full wetsuit, as it would support my very sore shoulders. The words of support were not music to my ears as the last thing that I wanted to do was get into that pool. The one thing to note at this point is that no one ever leave’s the pool to take a break & the fluids go in about every 20 – 30 mins, this X 26 athletes & I’m sure you can work out the rest. Just before re – entering the water I noticed that others had started to become ill as well, this strangely made me feel better until I was told “ your doing great, you are nearly at 17 miles” “What” I replied “What are you on about? I feel terrible, am doing projectile vomit every ˝ hour & still have 12000 meters to go, what’s so good about that?” I stopped moaning & got back into the pool.
I needed to get some direction, it was the middle of the night & the whole of my race was falling apart, after about 500 meters I got out of the pool, Chris looked worried. “What’s up?” he said, “can you get me a piece of paper & a pen” I replied, with in what seemed seconds he returned with pen & paper. I decided that I should swim the rest of the swim as I had done in training, 1500 meters then 30 seconds followed by 1400 meters / 30 seconds rest, 1300 / 30, 1200 / 30, 1100 / 30 going down until I only had 100 meters to go.
Felix Bermister from Austria was in the next lane, he was so bad that he couldn’t move his arms & was swimming on his back doing breaststroke legs, again strangely this again made me feel a little better.
After a long night swimming & just after 6 in the morning I started on my last length, I couldn’t believe that I had done it. As I got out of the pool my friend from the USA, Eileen (the 3rd female taking part) had also just finished, she gave me a big hug & Chris took our picture. She gave me a smile, for once in her life she never said anything but I knew what she meant. I now have the greatest respect for any one who has swam the Channel.
I finished the swim in 18 hours 04 mins, it was day break, then it started to pour down with rain, great after all that water, more water for the bike leg, great. I took a shower, the warm water was nice, after a 15 min transition I set off for the bike course, I never wanted to swim again for the rest of my life.
The Bike course was just short of a mile so 1170 laps had to be completed to do the required 1120 miles. The course was left out of camp Deca, up an incline with a right hand bend; the surface was very smooth on this part. At the top of the course was a right hand 90-degree bend & a long down hill; the surface was very poor with rolling down hill impossible. At the bottom was again a 90 degree right hand turn followed by a flat section past Barbers Point Elementary School, with lots of large bumps before another 90 degree right hand turn back to camp Deca. Half way up the course a road cut across to the downhill section. The whole of the area was overgrown with lots of trees; these would act as good shelter & a windbreak.
On leaving the pool I had already decided that I would do 3 to 5 miles then sleep for 6 hours. It was raining so I did 3 very quick laps then stopped to sleep, Chris had sorted out some food for me so that at least I had something in my stomach; Chris gave me a quick massage on my sore shoulders before I lay down to sleep. As soon as my head hit the pillow I went into a deep sleep, the world could of stopped but it would of made no difference to me as the swim had left me worn out.
Chris woke me just before 12 with something to eat before starting to cycle. My plan was to cycle for four hour’s then have four hours off. Arthur had told me at the Double Ironman in Canada earlier in the year that this was how he thought it should be done, so I had trained that way, as I set off again I had no idea of what lay ahead.
Because of an extended sleep after the swim I decided to stay out & cycle for 6 hours instead of the planned 4, Shortly after 6 the race was stopped, “Chet” the Jet Blanton who was one of only 3 people to complete the Double Deca (now that is madness) had promised to provide up to 200 volunteers to help with the organisation & running of the event, only 2 had turned up. Steve & Silvia Foster who also ran a timing company (Timers Plus) these people did the timing for the Hawaii Ironman at Kona, said that they were going to withdraw their equipment as the race could not go on without the help. I along with all the other 25 Triathlete’s couldn’t believe it, here we were, and 10’000 mile from home & the race was going to be stopped. All that I could think about was “after doing that swim, your not going to stop this race” John Riedy from Australia stood forward, “what do you need to keep this going?” no reply, again he said “what do you need to keep this race going as your not going to stop it, now just tell us?” after ˝ hour of talking the race was back on with the support crews running the race, from this point it started to run like clockwork, or so I thought. After my 4-hour break I set out on the bike again, this time it was dark, very dark as the illuminated bike course had no or little light on it. As I said earlier, this was an old Naval Base, a very old Naval Base, so old that all the buildings had been knocked down some 10 years earlier. Lampposts still stood but there was no electricity to them. Chet or Steve had just thought that as there were lampposts there would be light, no one had checked what was happening, my Deca dream was fast becoming my Deca disaster.
The next night, portable lighting was put in place around the course, Jason’s family & the other support crews maintained lots of this. If they hadn’t work so hard as they did then this whole affair would of come to a very rapid end, so a big thank you went out to all of them by all the athletes taking part at the end of the race.
The worst part of cycling for me is the sheer boredom of it, I am not a bad cyclist & if I trained more then maybe I would get better. I followed Arthur’s instructions after Canada & did 3, 4 hour rides per week, 2 on the same day. I also cycled to & from work, this is only an hour in total but it meant that I was on the bike 6 or sometimes 7 times a week. For my birthday in April of this year Diane brought me a mini disc. Mikayla spent hour’s preparing the disc’s for me so that I had lots of variety in an attempt to stay motivated. One advantage of a mini disc is that it will hold over 4 hours of music on a disc, so unlike a tape there was no need to change, This worked in the day light but at night I found that I opted for the radio, I found the presenter to be company in the dark. The first night that I did this I found a radio station called “FISH FM”, at night the music was easy as I rolled around the course. It was after about 3 ˝ hours that I realised that this was the local God squad station & I had spent the night praising the Lord, Nothing wrong with that & maybe I was in search of some divine intervention but the following evening it was “CRATER FM”.
My support crew Chris had become head cook & bottle washer. He woke up each morning at 03:30 to prepare pancakes for all the athletes, some nights he didn’t even go to bed. This was one of the highlights of the day, Pancakes, syrup & a cup of coffee. Chantal & Gina often supported him in this role. Chantal is a Nurse who works & teaches at the main Hospital in Montreal, Canada, she was there as support for Michele Bisson along with his wife Christian. Anyone who knows me will know of my skill in the French language (or lack of it), it’s a good job that they all speak good English as my attempts only seemed to make them laugh. Chantal did teach me some French so my journey wasn’t wasted. She also looked after mine & everybody’s cuts, bruises & blisters.
Food was becoming something of a rarity, apart from Chris cooking the breakfast it was wait & pray that something would be cooked for you. Chet had promised that food would be available 24 hours a day, just like at the other Deca races but this was not the case, most of the food that Chris & myself would eat was brought & prepared by Chris.
Saddle sores started to take their toll as the race wore on; the worst case could be seen on Felix Bermister. For those who have never seen or had them they are blisters about the size of a 50 pence piece, just where you sit down. Felix was the youngest person taking part in the race at 24 & has a very muscular body, complete with six-pack. He called Chris & myself “Surfer Dudes” or “Brit Poppers”. Felix needed help so off to Chantal he went, down with the pants & spread the cheeks, I think that you get the picture, just at this time Christian walked in the tent, she just stood there with mouth open, jaw on the floor. After that she made sure that she was there to assist Chantal every time Felix needed a re-dressing.
It was at this point that the leader in the race, Brock McKinley from Australia told us of his secret for not getting saddle sores. “Corn Starch”. After this sores didn’t seem a problem much to the disappointment of Chantal & Christian.
With the hot conditions I found that my feet would get very hot. So hot that at one point the soles of my feet started to blister, this was something that I hadn’t planned for along with watching people fall of there bikes, Guy Rossi, who was attempting his 8th Deca just fell off in front of me, all the people around just picked him up, put him back of his bike then he was off again. Luckily falling off hurt no one & once it happened people started to rest properly.
At the end of one of the sessions the timing system gave a wrong result, it recorded that we had all completed 50 + mile more that we had. A near riot happened when the miles were taken back until several people checked their computers & found out that the system was in fact correct. After taking back the distance I knew that I hadn’t covered the distance so, like many others wanted things to be right & didn’t mind so long as it was right. It was at this point that my cycle computer packed in, I think in sympathy with the timing system. The next morning it was a shock to see Chris & Doctor John out around the course with a measuring wheel, all the athletes had the course at different lengths so the organisers, “Chet & Steve” asked someone to go & measure it. This is something that I would of thought, would have been done before the race started, but the organisers thought that it was, “about right”
Some of the athletes paid the price for going out to hard on the bike. John Riedy from Australia was one; into the second night he was in the top three & looking good. Come 2.30am his direction to Gina (his only support crew & girlfriend) was to only let him have 2 hours sleep - she stayed up to make sure he didn’t sleep in. After two hours sleep at 4.30am she woke him, “John you have to get up now”.
After 40+ hours of pushing his body it had thrived on the rest, but 2 hours just wasn’t enough. He needed a little more sleep. “One-twelfth” he said to Gina. Although it made no sense to her, in his mind he was asking her to let him sleep for another 20 minutes.
“What are you talking about, you told me to wake you up.” She said
“One-twelfth” he repeated getting a little angrier. How she couldn’t understand that he needed an extra 20 minutes sleep was beyond him. How could he make it any clearer, he paused then in a slow and controlled voice I said, “one… unit!”
“John I don’t know what you are talking about, you asked me to wake you up, just two hours you said” she was getting a little upset.
John by this time was really annoyed. He needed an extra 20 minutes sleep and as far as he was concerned he couldn’t have made it any clearer. Angry, he got out of bed and straight on to his bike, he was still wearing his bike gear. Riding around, his mind slowly came back to reality. He started laughing when he realised that the comments, ‘one-twelfth’ and ‘one unit’ made no sense at all. Then tears started to well in his eyes. He then started to laugh because he thought he was going to cry. Then all of a sudden tears poured out of his eyes as he started to sob. What was happening? He sat up on the bike and rolled back into transition. “I need another 20 minutes sleep” He finally said to Gina & took an hour.
John was up with the sun, and for hours was riding along smoothly. For hours after that however, his head would drop as he gazed into nothingness. This annoying cycle continued, up and down like a yo-yo. “Just keep going” he said to himself & pushed on.
On night three with just three hours sleep under his belt, the direction was the same, ‘just two hours sleep’. Again Gina did as directed and woke him up after 2 hours. “John, you have to get up, you have to get back on your bike”.
John sat up staring at nothing in the darkness. He knew Gina was there, & he knew that his bike was there, but nothing made sense.
“John, you have to get back on your bike now” Gina repeated.
John was dumfounded, he had no idea of what she was talking about, the comments made no sense at all. “What do you mean I have to get back on my bike” he replied.
“John, you told me to wake you up, you have to get back on your bike and ride”. Gina was getting annoyed, she new how important this was to him & she couldn’t make him get up.
“I don’t understand, why do I have to get back on my bike”. It was an honest question. It was like he was in a trance. John had no idea what he was doing there & one thing’s for sure, there was something very unsettling about being told he had to ride a bike.
It took another 20 minutes of coaxing. “John, you’re at the Deca. You have to get up and ride your bike. It will be morning soon. Eat this… Drink this...” Eventually he was back on his bike but not feeling well at all. After an hour of flat rolling around this painful loop, he gave in again. Rolling back into transition he took another hours sleep. It was becoming evident, he just couldn’t function on two hours sleep - more sleep would have to be written into his routine.
The race favourite was Luis Wildpanner from Austria, at the pre race brief he stated that not only was he here to win the race but he was also here to break the World record. Whilst waiting for the swim to start Jason Sawyer & myself were having a chat about Luis, his body looked like something that you could use to show all the major muscle groups in the human body. This man had no body fat at all, he was a machine but was he missing something? The Deca is about more that just being very fit, you had to want this race, you needed to have the heart & passion. Luis was there because his sponsors & coach told him to race but was it enough?
Luis swam well, but his swim was average. His main area to make up time was on the bike & the run. At the Triple Ironman last year he posted a time of 10 hours 33 min for the 3 marathons (3 hr 31 min per marathon). Brock McKinley had already gone out hard on the bike some 3 hour ahead of Luis. Luis cycled hard but he had not met the likes of Brock on the Ultra circuit, at the end of the second night Luis was 75 km behind Brock when Brock went for a rest. After a few more laps Luis also took a rest on the instructions of his coach, he was now only 70 km behind. Brock didn’t sleep he just pretended to & when Luis was in bed he knock out a quick 75 km before having a sleep. When Luis woke Brock was asleep but within mins he was out again. Luis team thought that he was catching Brock when in fact Brock was now 140 km ahead, this was the first time that this had happened & Luis crew didn’t know how to handle it. Not only was he getting beaten but also the world record was creeping away. Brock had support in the way of his friend Pete, Pete went about telling Luis crew that Brock was one of Australia’s top distance runner & a house hold name back in Aus. Brock finished the bike some 6 hours ahead of Luis, breaking the world Deca bike record by 3 hours. The cracks were starting to show in Luis team & to make matters worst his major sponsors had just turned up without warning, about 12 of them.
Most of the athletes had a plan of how they would tackle the Deca, some like myself broke it down into daily sections, some broke it down into the 3 disciplines, others just went out to do want they could & hoped that they could complete the race before it all fell apart.
Eileen Stiles (USA) is one the most high maintenance people you will ever meet, in saying that she is a very good friend of mine & someone who I just love to be around & hang out with; she is not how you would picture an athlete to be, slightly over weight, I think is the right description. The first thing that strikes you about her is her big welcoming smile, but her ability to make a disaster out of a normal event is amusing to say the least.
When the rest of the athletes were out riding the loops of the course, Eileen would be on her phone, talking to her friends to tell them about the disasters that, in her head, where unfolding around her. She would call her doctor at least 5 times a day, back home in Atlanta.
Eileen was a person who would grind the big gears on her bike, she could not understand why so many of the others were making up so much time on her, the more that she did, the more the others pulled ahead. At one stage she thought that her lungs were filling up with fluid & another she thought that she was having a heart attack. Because of what she was like, no one, including her support crew (Beniour from Canada) was taking any notice. It was during this time Eileen stated that she had been talking to her Doctor & he thought that she was allergic to the race. When I heard this I roared with laughter, so much that I very nearly fell off my bike.
For me Eileen is good entertainment, I call her Pussy Cat as that’s just what she is, she is someone who always makes me smile. She needs to learn to clam down but she never will.
After she had cleared up her lung & heart problem she got back on the bike, crunching her way through the loops. She still hadn’t reached half way. She rode for a little with Brock. “Why are you nearly finished & I am still not at half way?” she asked, “easy” came his reply “ I ride my bike whilst you just talk on the phone, if you want this, then stop talking & ride your F*****G bike” came the Aussies reply (Brock is not noted for his tack), this quite shocked her but it also did the trick as then stopped making the calls.
She then fell out of favour with her support crew, asked one of the retired through injury athletes, “David Crinitti” to help her, which he did for while & then during the second week she had the help of her sister who flew in from Orlando Florida. I must say that at this point she was so far behind the others that no one gave her a chance of finishing the race but I think that Brock had hit a nerve.
On the 5th night I had just started my 21:00 hours session, Brock had given me a gel saddle cover to easy the pain & hopefully stop any saddle sore’s from starting. My own saddle was working well but the extra gel would make things a little more comfortable. After a few laps into the session I needed to lower my seat, the extra cover had made me sit about 1 cm higher on the bike, this made my hamstrings tight so I decided to lower the saddle. It was when I was doing this that I managed to snap my seat clamp. I couldn’t believe it, here I was in the middle of the wilderness, in the middle of my most important race ever & now my bike was broken, could anything else go wrong? Chet, Chris & Chris tried to help me out but we couldn’t fix it. Manuela’s husband who we called “Eric the Viking” had a bike but thing were a little tense between him & Jason’s family due to a fight that had broken out the evening before. I asked him if I could lend his seat clamp & surprising to us all he couldn’t get his seat clamp off quick enough. After a quite fixing of the bike I was off & ridding again, the dream was back on.
When Brock & Luis started to run it was interesting to watch from the bike just how the race was panning out. After the first night, the run direction had to be changed. The runners were running in an anti-clockwise direction where as the cyclists were travelling clockwise. The lights from the cyclists would dazzle the runners & some started to get headaches. It was decided that both should travel in the same direction, it was at this time that, yet again, the organisers decided that the course should be measured, this time the run course. Off again went Chris & Doctor John to get an accurate measurement.
The rest of the days just seamed to roll on by, before long Chris told me that I was on my last 10 laps, I couldn’t believe it, only 10 miles to go, 1110 miles already done & soon it would be time to run.
After 7 days 2 hours & 09 mins I completed the bike section, over the past 6 days I had ridden over 180 miles per day & now all that stood between my Deca dream was the simple matter of 10 marathons (262 miles) in just under 7 days.
After a quick change of clothes & it was time to start the run. The first lap would be a short one, to the top of the bike course & back. After 2 laps I took a short break, I worked out that if I completed 46 miles per day then I would finish before the cut off, this was my goal, finish before the 14 day cut off. To do this I planned that I must take less rest time so my plan for the next 7 days was 5 hour’s on, 3 hours off. In each session I must cover at least 15 miles so off I went. Again I had talked with Arthur about how to tackle this, he told me that at the last Deca the people who ran at first suffered big time as the race wore on, so we decided that we would walk the first 3 marathons then see what was happening & how we felt. As I set off the race favourite, Luis Wildpanner of Austria retired though injury, he was all out to break the world record but this mad, mad race takes no prisoners & if you show no respect to it then it will hurt you, Luis had pushed hard when told to & his crew had become obsessed with Brock instead of looking after their man, this along with lacking the spirit to win had worked against Luis.
After withdrawing from the race, Luis coach resigned stating that Luis had a chance to win & become one of the greats but had just given up. I spoke to him just after he pulled out, he didn’t seem to mind, I would of cried for a week if it had been me.
As I went round & round the mile loop I noticed that peoples bodies had started to break down with quite disturbing effects, hips & knees had popped out, blisters would form, burst then others would form on the burst blister. Chantal had started to burst & then dress the blisters for you if required then inject them with Iodine to prevent infection before dressing them, this hurts like hell but if you grit the teeth then after 10 mins your up & hobbling around towards your goal, the end of this madness. The runners started to walk then stagger. Chris walked with me for a while, he said one night just after midnight “look at the others walking down the road, this is the night of the living dead” he wasn’t wrong.
Chris was keeping our club (Chester Tri) informed of the progress via our e-group, each day he would post my progress & the events of the day. I believe that snow fell during that time. 90 degrees every day & 70 every night is great until you do a Deca, it’s not ideal, the snow would have been wonderful. One of the members couldn’t do a 5 km or 5 mile race that weekend due to having a cold, when Chris told me I couldn’t believe it, people here were struggling to stay upright, I had never seen so many injuries, bandages & strapping. Arthur had heat stroke during the swim & sat under a towel for 4 hours wrapped in ice packs to cool down, later on in the run the hot conditions would talk there toll on Arthur but as always he kept smiling & having a great time. Feet were bleeding, people couldn’t even remember there own names & here a guy had a sniffle & couldn’t race; I just shook my head in disbelief.
After my sleep on the 8th night Chris woke me at 4, he was very excited. “Guess what’s happened?” Pascal Jolly (France) the current leader of the men’s World Championship has been caught taking a short cut across the course in the middle of the night & has been given a DQ. All he had to do was finish the race to become the next World Champion. This news quickly spread around the race, everyone was both shocked & disgusted by Pascal’s actions. No one wanted this sort of thing at the race & the bad press that it could bring. Pascal continued going around the course until Steve pulled him to one side, he had to read the rules for what to do. Rule’s, how could this race have a set of rules? Steve pulled Pascal from the course & announced “by the power invested in me by IUTA I am disqualifying you for not completing the required lap distance & cheating by means of taking a short cut, you are now disqualified, please leave the course” Pascal’s wife then burst out in floods of tears, Pascal as ever just lit up a Cigarette & had a smoke, he smokes about 40 a day & drinks like a fish.
The short cut then became known as “Pascal Boulevard” as he was from France.
Two nights later, again around 1 in the morning I was staggering around once more when the strangest thing happened. Earlier in the race, during the bike section Jason had ridden through one of the barriers, apparently after being chased by a Police Car, all in his head of course, we were on a closed road. I was at the bottom end of the course when I saw John Riedy on his hands & knees laughing & joking, not all that strange but for the fact that he was talking to a tree, & at that, to John at least a very funny tree. I asked if he was OK & he said that he was fine. Later I was told by his girlfriend “Gina” he thought that I was having a bad time & thought that I was going mad. The tree must have told him that during their conversation.
One thing was starting to bother me though. At the top end of the course I noticed a small white Rabbit with a dark stripe down it’s back along with a few dark spots. It was the only Rabbit around & if it was real then I couldn’t work out how it lived here all alone. I didn’t say anything to anyone else in case they thought that I was mad. On the 2nd night of the run whilst taking a quick break Jason’s Dad asked if I had seen the Rabbit, I just smiled with relief that someone else had seen it, then others around me smiled as well, no one was going to say anything in case the others thought that they had lost their mind.
For some reason that I still don’t understand, the organisers decided to change the direction of the run, this was the third time that the course had changed direction in this race. This was done when you completed one lap, then you were asked to turn around & go the other way, the others on the course would look at you in disbelief when they saw you going the other way. The change didn’t suit me & really got to me, I don’t mind doing something but just explain to me why.
The run is quite a roller coaster of emotion, at he end of my 4th Marathon I was feeling great at nearly being half way through the run, or so I thought. Chris had seen what was happening to me, I was becoming very depressed & in lots of pain due to my blistered feet, He ran along side me & said “here’s someone to talk to you” on his mobile, it was my wife & kids back in England, tears formed in my eyes, I spent 20 mins on the phone before feeling better & ready to beat this madness.
The heat from the road was starting to hurt; every time that I stopped my feet were on fire. On Thursday 25th, during the morning session I said the Chris & also to John that during my afternoon break I would go to the pool at Barbers point & sit with my feet in the pool for an hour or so, I thought that this would clean the blisters & cool then down. I knew that my feet had swollen as I had cut the toe box from two of my best pains of trainers; this was the only way to get my feet in them. Both Chris & John thought that his was an excellent idea but this was a public holiday in the USA & the pool was closed, Chris suggested that we get Chet to take us to a local private, US Navy beach about 2 miles away. A sit in the Pacific for an hour would be better that the pool, this sounded good so at noon both John & I finished for a few hour’s rest & off we went.
The Beach was just like a picture postcard of Hawaii, surf rolling in, palm trees on a large lawn area & sunshine. When we arrived we took off all the blister plasters & strapping, John found it difficult to walk without his strapping but he & Chris shot down to the Ocean, whilst I hobbled down behind. The waves were breaking right on the beach with the surf about 1 meter high, within two steps you were waist deep. The sea hurt at first but I just couldn’t get over how lucky I was to be here, living the dream of so many people, taking part in the world championships.
The sea did the trick I after about 20 mins or so it was time to get out. Gina lay down sunbathing on the lawn & was out of sight of us all, John tried to get out but there was a problem. The tendons in his feet had become damaged by the constant pounding of the previous 12 days, without the strapping to support them they would just not work & hung down, limp. John called out to Chris “can you help me get out of the water?” Chris put an arm around John & tried to help, this wasn’t enough & John needed to be carried out. After a few minutes struggling Chris & John made it up to the lawn to where Gina continued to sunbathe. Chris came back to the sea where I was attempting to get out. As he walked down the beach, 3 lifeguards at the Lifeguard tower, who had watched him help John from the water asked, “What happening, is your mate OK?” Chris proceeded to tell them about the Deca & told them that some of the fittest people in the world were taking part. One of the lifeguards said, “what like the guy you just helped out & that guy there”, pointing in my direction. Chris turned around to see me on my hands & knees, crawling up the beach with no energy left to stand up & walk. Chris just smiled before helping me up to the lawn.
On our arrival back at camp Deca I went to see Chantal to have my blisters dressed, she was turning out to be a good friend. I didn’t know until after the race but she had taken time to come because her boyfriend Didder from Paris said that he was doing the race, when it was all paid for he told her that he couldn’t make it but she came with Michele & Christian any way, I’m glad that she did as I don’t know what state my feet would be in if she hadn’t. I told her about the trip to the Beach, she just laughed. Michele had finished the race two days before so Chantal was now on vacation time, but she still helped out all the athletes still trying to finish. I started to go around again, the sea had done the trick & my feet felt a lot better, at least I could move along more easily. It was about two hours into the session when Chantal decided that she would teach me French, as mine was so bad. We walked & jogged for the next 3 hours, me making even more of a fool of myself with my attempts at this new language, soon it was time for me to sleep, I couldn’t believe that the session had gone so quickly, the end of this madness was now within my grasp.
The next morning, Friday 26th November 2004, I stayed in bed for an extra hour. When I woke I said to Chris that before it got dark tonight I would put this thing to bed. I only had 35 mile to go, just under 1 & ˝ marathons, during the last 5-hour session the previous day I had covered 19 miles, I couldn’t believe it.
I knocked out 22 miles before lunch, leaving me with a ˝ marathon for the afternoon. Chris was sorting out food & sending the report to Chester Tri. The messages of support & general chitchat were great to listen to. Most of my time on the course during the last few days was spent with John Riedy. He knew that he would not be repeating the failure of 2 years ago; although he was also in a lot of pain the mood was quite up beat with the knowledge that this madness was very nearly over for the both of us. We talked about just anything, John had a story about when he took part in a Rodeo, riding a wild Bull called “Spider” This is one of the funniest stories I have ever heard & I still smile when I think about it.
After a short break I changed into my Chester Tri kit before setting out on the short road to the finish. The first three miles I walked with John Riedy again, laughing about spider, my French lessons & the Pascal incident.
I had over taken John after being over 50 miles behind him 3 day ago, I could see the pain getting more & more each day. After the swim I was in 21st position, after the bike 19th now I was up to 12th with just 10 miles to go. Chris (my rock of a support crew) ran with me for a lap then I said that I felt good so I would run a lap for every marathon that I had done. Chris continued with me & we turned up the pace with each lap until with 2 laps to go we went flat out to record a 6:24 min lap. As I started my last lap, Suraya’s support team Chris Catton, gave me a Union Jack for my final lap. As I went around the course I shook hands with all the others left on the course, Eileen & Suraya both gave me a kiss & a hug before finally approaching the line, this was it, what I had been working for during all the long training sets.
With the flag held high, Chris made sure that it was the right way before taking the photos. I took the final step; this was it, what I had dreamed about for years. Now I was about to find out what it would feel like, to be what I had set out to become 62 weeks before, a DECA IRONMAN.
On finishing the race Chris gave me a well-earned can of Bud that didn’t touch the sides before another one was opened. Everyone on the camp came to shake my hand & a kiss from all the ladies & then the phone was placed in my hand by Chris for the call to my family that I had finished. On the down side it was 4 in the morning in England when I finished so it woke Diane up, but she was as happy as me as she knew just what it meant to me.
This article is called eating the Elephants. I have called it that because that’s what completing the Deca Ironman is, eating 3 very large Elephants. You have to eat each one, one bite at a time.
The only way that you could ever describe doing this crazy race is, when you jump into the pool it is like going into a black hole, when you start the bike you dig the hole deeper, so deep that you loose all sight of the light, wandering around in the dark & what you are doing. The run is like having a JCB dig deeper again, so deep that you don’t know what day it is until, on the last lap you climb a ladder back to the daylight.
Would I do it again? never say never but the swim sent me mad & even now sends a shiver down my spine when I think about it. It is hard work & when I think about it is the only part of the Deca that I didn’t enjoy doing. I will (fitness permitting) be on the start line in Mexico in 2006 for the 10 X 10 Ironman race within 10 days.