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2004
USMS National 2 Mile Cable Championship -----------------
Race Results for the Dave Williams' Ironman World Champoinship 2003 Well it was finally here. I have dreamed about doing the Hawaii Ironman since I was about 15 years old and I finally got my shot at it. To make the trip even more special Monette, my parents, and Katie (one of Monette’s sisters) came down to share the experience with me. The flight in was fun and, believe it or not, as we were landing in Kona there was a very bright rainbow with the base starting just in front of us! It couldn’t have been more perfect. I’ll spare you all of the details of the days leading up to the race except to say that I had to smile ear-to-ear every time I walked down Alii drive with goosebumps on my arms even after walking that strip about a dozen times. The expo and carbo dinner were awesome. I got to meet or see all of the top names in the sport both past and present (and probably future) and talked with both Scott Tinley and Peter Reid (the eventual winner) on Thursday. I rode my bike a couple of times and felt invincible on it and in the water I felt very fluid as well. The time was here and I was ready. I kept from running to avoid aggravating my hip figuring the more rest it can get the better. Time to race! While getting lined up to enter the water the scale of the race hit me. Directly in front of me in line were the three athletes from NBCs Degree Ironman show from the week before and there were literally thousands of people all around cheering and screaming. We were all treated like icons all week long! Once I finally made it into the water I knew just from the swim up to the start line that it was going to be a good swim. I haven’t felt that good in the water since college. I managed to get into the second row of amateurs and felt relaxed and excited. Looking around at the spectators reminded me of how I’ve dreamed of this for many years. Then the cannon sounded. It took me by surprise because they didn’t really give any warning after the 5-minute warning. I quickly swam over the guys in front of me and got into a pretty good group. I felt fast and comfortable and knew that I was near the front because I could see the lead swimmers. The first half of the swim felt like it took five minutes. There was a little bit of a current on the way back to the pier so the second half felt longer, but I never really pushed the swim and felt great. The only problem was when I started to pass a group of people toward the end and couldn’t get around this one guy who was swimming all over the place and kept knocking into me and hitting me. I finally got around him at the end and found out it was Jurgen Zack. My goal was to go 52:00 on the swim and my actual time was 51:32 without much effort so I was psyched! Then the luck ran out! On the run out of the water I couldn’t put any real pressure on my leg so I knew it was going to be a difficult run right away. Someone was nice enough to almost knock me over as I limped to transition. I decided to push that out of my mind and enjoy the day and the ride. Problem number two was that for some reason there was no sunscreen person to put sunscreen on me out of transition. We weren’t allowed to put sunscreen on our arms or legs beforehand to keep the numbers from rubbing off. Oh well . . . I was excited about the ride because I had prepared really well for it this year. I started with a nice group of pros including Zack and Michael Lovato to name a few. Then on the very first mile my cable to the front derailer broke through the housing! I couldn’t believe it. The beginning of the ride was a little hilly and I was going to take it a bit easier anyway so I didn’t worry about it until about mile 10. Then I realized that I couldn’t get into my big chainring at all! I stopped four times over the next several miles trying to fix it to no avail. The chain would just jump right back to the small chainring. I prepared all year to use my power on the bike and didn’t concentrate as much on spinning so I was a bit nervous. To make matters worse, when I was trying to fix the cable I bumped my wheel and somehow knocked a spoke loose making my wheel wobble and rub the brake a little bit each time around even with the brake open as wide as possible. I finally decided that I was going to enjoy the day, ride the entire ride in the small chainring, and just have fun with what I could do. The wind was great for the first 90 miles and I felt fine. I rode about 30 miles or so with Natasha Badmann, but she dropped me on the descent from Hawi since I didn’t have any big gears. I started to really feel the heat toward the end of the bike and the wind also kicked in making the last 15-20 miles pretty tough. I didn’t realize how much sunscreen helped and didn’t realize until afterward how much of a problem the sun was causing to my body. I felt coming in that I must have rode about a 5:45, and was pleasantly surprised to find out afterward that I actually rode a 5:16! My goal was to go 4:45-4:50 and I know that I could have been at least that fast without the problems. Coming into T2 my legs were trashed from spinning so much and I was pretty hot, but in good spirits. I took my time in transition and decided to change into running clothes to be cooler on the run. One mistake – I forgot to reapply bodyglide to the new chaffing areas! I did finally get some sunscreen, though, and took off. I tried to jog the first mile and quickly realized that my leg was going to give me trouble. I honestly was in pretty bad pain and to tell the truth at about 1-½ miles into the run if I would have seen an official I may have dropped out. Finishing 26 miles in that much pain just seemed impossible. But, the first 10 miles are in town with lots of fan support and they are great. I kept moving – shuffling as long as my leg would let me, walking when I had to. I knew Monette, her sister, and my parents were going to be around mile 10 so I jogged the flat stretch of road and didn’t see them. Then I came up to the steep Palani road where I obviously had to walk and lo-and-behold they were right in the middle of the hill! I told Monette that it was going to be a long marathon, but that I WOULD finish then walked off. The run was excruciating. As it went on my hip hurt worse and worse and I had to walk more and more. It was still incredible to turn into and out of the energy lab and know that I had seen this on so many videos. Doug Rockett reminded me of this even more as I saw him fly past me in his own world while in the energy lab. I yelled out to him and he turned around surprised and shared some good words of encouragement. He is truly amazing! The rest of the run was much of the same until the last 1-½ miles. I can’t tell you how incredible the atmosphere is in Kona! I managed to get myself to do a gimpy jog for that last run through town and felt as if I had just won the race. Even with the day I had I was simply giddy with excitement to finish the race. Actually, I was probably more excited to finish after really wanting to drop out then any other race recently! That unfortunately isn’t the end of the story however. After finishing I went over to get my clothes and started to feel a little woozy. I walked over the to the medical tent and passed out as the medics caught me. I started to throw up about a gallon (if not more) of fluid. I knew that I hadn’t gone that hard and shouldn’t have been sick from the effort and couldn’t believe I felt so ill. To make matters worse I threw up all over the lei that was given to me upon finishing! After an IV and lots of ice I started to slowly recover. I now know that I had sun poisoning. It was brutal. It took several hours until I could walk more than a couple hundred yards! The next day I was a sorry site. I was still pumped about the race, but my shoulders and back were orange and blistered and very painful. I couldn’t walk on my leg. My feet had blisters that broke open and bled during the night. I had rubbed myself to the point of bleeding in about a dozen places on my body b/c of the lack of bodyglide. And I was in the best mood! Hawaii is awesome and it is impossible not to be in a great mood. I know that I could have been close to the top and am hungry to get healed and get back to Kona to have my vengeance on the course. We spent the rest of the time enjoying the Big Island and the sites and I’ll cherish it forever. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and support. I thought about you a lot while I was on the course and even felt bad for keeping those of you following me on the internet up late! You really got me through it. So if you’ve made it this far or just skipped to the end – to sum it up – great swim, no sunscreen, broken cable, small chainring, hip PAIN, sun poisoning, chaffing, the time of my life!!! Thank you! Dave |
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