IMAZ DNF

Not exactly what I spent many months working so hard for. It's clear the virus or food-born illness which I and Orlanda both got on Friday night, had more of an effect on me than I realized. My stomach was so upset and sensitive on Saturday, I couldn't hardly eat anything all day. The day before an Ironman is not a time to be fasting.

It literally got so bad, I decided to try and force myself to throw up, with no luck. I did the best I could to hydrate and sleep and on Saturday, as I felt so weak. I should feel lucky I wasn't as sick as Orlanda was, who was clearly not doing well after a night of little to no sleep and violent vomiting.

On Sunday morning, I felt a lot better, and figured I would give the race a go, and see what happened. I was hoping maybe I ate enough on Friday to make up for a major lack of calories on Saturday.

The swim went fine, as I just hung in the chase pack and cruised, really trying to make an effort to conserve energy, not even trying to go with a faster pack. Came out of the water in 52:29, a new PR. Pretty pleased when I saw that, and figured the race would maybe go better than I expected.

First lap of the bike and I'm riding fairly well, averaging 280+ watts and things are looking good. Second lap, about 1/4 of the way thru it, I suddenly really struggled to hold 250 watts. By the time I got to the turnaround, holding 200 watts was a struggle. It was clear then, my day was over. If I was too weak to hold 200 watts half-way, I clearly was going to put myself in danger if I tried to continue. After the second lap of the bike, I stopped at the penalty tent and dropped out. (No, I did not receive a penalty.)

What's next? Not sure. It's hard to think about the future when all your hard work for months ends up like this.

Thank you to everyone who sent me good-luck emails, phone calls, text messages, etc. I really appreciated it, and wish it could have gone better.

Vance