WIPE OUT
The next day was all about Christy’s race. This part of the report is in Christy’s
words. I’ve added a few of my own
comments, just in case you’re wondering what I did all day while Christy was
killing herself. Hint – it largely
involved cerveza.
CHRISTY: I woke race day morning after actually
sleeping very well. I was a bit surprised I was able to sleep. I guess at some point I conceded no matter
what happened, I was going to finish, and if I had to walk, it would not be the
end of the world. I guess it is a good
thing I got that through my thick head.
ANDY: We got
up, and I watched Christy force herself to eat bread, and peanut butter, and
some other lovely delicacies. Was that
paste? Then we caught the shuttle bus to
the race start at Chakanab. Driving wasn’t an option, since the roads
were more or less closed.
CHRISTY: As we rode the shuttle bus from our hotel to
the swim start, I was unable to sit with Andy.
However, I could hear him talking to a guy behind me and it sounded like
they were already picking out my next race! Somewhere out west, Utah I
think. That seemed like a very long ways
away at that point. First I would have
to survive this one, then, I would have to want to do another one. I decided I would just have to see how it
went. I was not ready to talk about race
number two.
The
music was blaring loudly in the transition area as I stuffed my bento bag with
yummy treats (gel, goo and other high fructosey-type
delicacies) and made sure I put my water bottles securely in their cages. Before I left for Cozumel somebody suggested
I put tequila in my water bottles; I was beginning to wonder if it would
help. Next I went to have my numbers
remarked, only to hear them ask us not to put sunscreen on before the
swim. Dang, I hadn’t put any in my swim
to bike transition bag, so I hid it in the changing tent instead.
ANDY: When we
arrived at the race site, I discovered that I wasn’t allowed inside the
athlete’s area. I waited for Christy
near the fence for awhile, but gave up after 30 minutes. It was past time for me to find a place where
I could actually watch the swim race and get photos.
I followed a throng
of spectators over to the platform overlooking the starting area. This area was a total zoo, and just getting a
view of the beginning of the race was an achievement. From there, photography would be hopeless. Instead, I decided to improvise and see if I
could find a better spot on my own.
I left the park, and
followed the old coast road back towards our resort. After a short distance, I found a place where
I could access the rocky beach. I then
followed the coast back down towards the pier where the swimmers were
starting. After a few minutes, I found
myself with a perfect view, about 50 yards from the start. I was feeling pretty smug about finding such
a great spot, and only having to share it with a handful of other spectators.
CHRISTY: I gave up on trying to find
Andy. With 2000 athletes and at least
that many spectators and volunteers it would be impossible. I watched the pre-swim dolphin show, we all
sang (or at least listened to) the Mexican national anthem, and then the pro’s
were off. Slowly we inched our way down
the boardwalk and jumped into the warm salty water. I started to get a little bit panicky. This was the worst part for me…a mass swim
start. There was a very strong current,
which made it difficult to stay in one place.
I was not happy with my position. I wanted to be on the outside, to the right of
all the buoys, but I was in the exact opposite location, and surrounded by huge
(good looking) men. I tried to keep my
feet out behind me so I would have some extra cushioning on the start, but it
was near impossible. Finally the gun went
off, I guess, (I never actually heard it), and we started swimming.
ANDY: The
swim start was exciting. The gun went
off, and the ocean turned into a chaos of flailing arms, legs, and spray. I watched the pack go by without even trying
to spot Christy. The swim start looked
like an outtake from one of the “Jaws” movies.
I’d never see her in that crowd.
After the swimmers
past by, I had to figure out how to get to the other end of the course as fast
as possible. The course starts out
northbound, before swinging around buoys and heading back south. At the far end of the park, it turns back
north to finish near the starting point.
To get to the south end of the park, I knew I could go all the way
around the park. However, I wasn’t sure
I could beat the swimmers down there going that way. Instead, I decided to cut through the
park. This meant that I had to walk
through an area that was clearly off-limits to spectators. That was ok though. I decided to rely on a nearly foolproof
strategy for these situations – act like you belong there. I figured if I took that approach, it was
unlikely that anyone would question me.
If they did, I’d fall back on the fact that I don’t know a bit of
Spanish. No habla
Espanol.
I strolled right
through there, in front of a throng of thousands of spectators. Once past the starting line, I hurried
through the park, following the coast to the south. I passed a pretty lagoon, and even paused
briefly to check it out. Then I
continued on, arriving near the Submarine marking the turnaround point well
before the first swimmers. This gave me
enough time to eat some breakfast while I was waiting.
CHRISTY: Having done two practice swims, I knew the
current was strong on the way out. I was
a little disappointed when the race officials decided to cut length off of this
end and add it to the other where the current was less, although still pretty
strong. I was surprised how easily I was
moving through the current, and as I was getting bashed, kicked, smacked and
punched I realized these same men were pulling me along. I never have had the opportunity to draft
like that - it was amazing. As soon as
we turned the first corner of the first buoy, I took off, using the current and
my years of swimming to finally start passing people.
ANDY: The
professional athletes passed by while I was eating. A bit later, the regular athletes began
making the final turn towards the finish.
The pack of swimmers had thinned out considerably, and it was now
possible to watch each individual as they passed by. I focused on looking for pink caps, since
that was easiest way to identify the female athletes. A few females, and quite a few males, had
passed by when I actually thought I saw Christy. She was well off-shore, so I couldn’t be certain,
but it definitely looked like her. I
checked my watch – the race had been going for less than 50 minutes. If that was her, she was killing it! I took a couple of photos and then hurried
out to the road. I wanted to be in
position to see her at the beginning of the bike segment.
CHRISTY: During the swim I saw some amazing things:
starfish, a giant manta ray, a puffer fish and a submarine! I turned the last corner and swam into the
steps where I was surprised to have some difficulty getting out. It was a steep wooden staircase and it made
me dizzy just looking up at it. As soon
as I got to the top of the steps, I saw the swim time – 55 minutes! That got me
moving and running towards the showers.
I was almost there when some guy shoved me and said, “Excuse me!” How rude. I guess he needed that shower more
than I did.
I
ran into the changing tent after grabbing my transition one bag off the rack. I
was looking forward to getting out of my tight race suit. It was a little
small, but I was willing to take whatever help I could get to finish faster. When I got into the tent, a lovely young lady
took my bag (which I had packed in the order of how I was going to put things
on) and dumped it. While I was standing
there totally naked I realized the tent door was wide open and I was giving the
men a show. Oh well, if they haven’t
seen it by now there is something wrong with them. I got all my stuff on and shoved my suit, cap
and goggles back into the bag and handed it to one of the volunteers.
I
ran to my bike and out of the transition area to the mount line. I had some difficulty getting clipped in to
my pedals (it figures) and almost wiped out right there. Andy said he saw lots of people do that, I am
glad I wasn’t one of them. I took off,
excited. I was really doing this! It seemed very surreal. I was riding along quite nicely when I
realized not only had I forgotten to put on my sunscreen that I had hidden, my
heart rate monitor strap got left behind in the tent. Ugh.
At least I would have my mph and watts on my Ergomo
power meter. I looked at that and the
watts were all messed up. I realized I
was just going to have a technologically challenged day. It has happened to me during training so I
didn’t freak out.
ANDY: The
area outside of the bike transition zone was a zoo. I couldn’t see a thing there, so I retreated down
the access road that connects the park to the main highway. Near the end of this road the crowd thinned,
and I found a good spot to watch the cyclists heading my way. I was only there a few minutes when I saw
Christy! I was thrilled, as she was off
to a great start. Later, back at the
resort, I discovered that she had finished the swim in 55 minutes, which was
ahead of her target pace. She was also
third in her age group at this point.
After she passed by,
I walked back to the resort. The bike race
consisted of 3 laps around the island, so it would be awhile before she came by
again.
CHRISTY: As I turned the first corner to the “other
side” of the island I met my next challenge…the wind. It was brutal. I told
myself it was practice for Kona if I ever got there. The road was closed - there was no traffic
and the only people I saw were other cyclists and the volunteers at the aid
stations. The other side of the island was
beautiful, which made the wind a little more bearable. There are only a few establishments on the
other side of the island, and due to the race and the road being closed they
obviously had no business. I was very surprised when I got to some of them to
find the owners all sitting out on lawn chairs cheering us on. One place had even made an Ironman sculpture,
complete with two tequila bottles where the water bottles should have
been. It gave me a much-needed laugh!
As
I got closer to town and near the end of lap one, the number of spectators
grew. As I rode through town, the
streets were densely populated with locals who were so excited, yelling and
cheering. It was apparently a family
event. I never would have thought they
would all still be out there at midnight!
At one point I felt like I was riding in the Tour de’ France, people
were walking out into the street to get close and cheer…I felt like a
professional bike rider, Lancette Armstrong
perhaps.
ANDY: I spent
an hour or so back at the resort. By
then, it was getting close to the time when I expected Christy to pass by. I made the short walk from the resort out to
the island’s main road. There was an aid
station here, so it was a pretty good place to wait and watch the cyclists
coming by. Christy passed by about 10
minutes later, and it looked like she was doing well. At this point, she was still pretty much on
her target pace. After she passed by, I
headed back to the resort for some quality beach time and lunch. It was a tough day. Later, I watched an NFL game, which was
pretty entertaining with the announcers speaking Spanish. I couldn’t figure out why they got more
excited about the field goals than the touchdowns.
CHRISTY: Early on lap two, I saw Andy try to take some
pictures and that is the last painless memory I have. A short ways down the road, I was passing a
guy who was pretty wobbly. I gave him a
fairly wide berth, but still wasn’t on the yellow line. The road was closed so I really wasn’t
worried. The next thing I know, this guy
comes flying up on me and passes me, but cuts over before he has
clearance. I saw it coming, I was on my
brakes, but there was nothing I could do.
Down I went. I saw him look back;
then he turned around and kept going. I
remember hearing my helmet hit the ground and starting to slide. I wonder how far I slid; I was never any good
at that in softball.
The
next thing I remember was some women yelling, asking me if I was all right. I unclipped my helmet strap and lay there for
a bit. There were a lot of questions
being asked. “Are you alright? Can you
get back on your bike?” Then I heard
somebody say, “Call an ambulance!” That made me sit up. I realized I had some flesh wounds and
saw my helmet was cracked. Then I started crying. There was no way they would
let me continue. Somebody helped me on
my bike and asked if I could ride the two miles to the next medical tent and
aid station. I thought I could, although
it was hard to see through my tears. At
some point I realized if I didn’t stop crying they probably wouldn’t even think
about letting me continue. I don’t know
how long it took me to go those two miles, but I am pretty sure anybody reading
this would have been faster.
I
got to the medical tent and found something to lean my bike against. I must have taken my helmet off, or they
never looked at it in the tent. When I
walked in somebody started talking to me in Spanish. She finally said, “habla Espanola?” I stared at them blankly (I think)
then I heard them yelling, “English, English,” as if it were some type of
disease. They cleaned me up, slapped
some Vaseline on me and said “ok”.
Dazed, I went out and got back on my bike.
I
can’t say I didn’t think about quitting.
I knew I had a good excuse. I
spent time thinking about it, but I am not sure how much time. I don’t remember a lot of lap two. I know I stopped and got my special needs bag,
replaced my water bottles, and used the port-a-potty. I must have eaten my peanut butter and jelly
and corn chips, and for whatever reason, I left my aero bottle at the station. I had cut the straw a bit too short, but it
was still usable. I guess I just got
frustrated with it. I realized later
that it was pretty dumb since they are about $15.
ANDY: I
walked back out to the road a few minutes before I expected Christy on the next
lap. This time, she was nowhere to be
seen. My first thought was that she was
definitely off her pace. As the minutes
dragged by though, I really began to worry.
What if something had gone wrong?
Finally I spotted her. As she
passed by, she shouted something about a wreck.
I didn’t really catch much of what she said as she whizzed by. She looked like she was still doing fine
though, so I figured it couldn’t have been too serious. Du huh.
I returned to the
resort to watch the rest of the football game.
An hour later, I caught a taxi from the resort into town. The marathon portion of the race would take
place downtown and on the north end of the island. Some of the island’s roads were open to
taxis, but not to private automobiles.
This was a good thing, because it would’ve been a long walk from the
resort into town.
CHRISTY: When I saw Andy at the start of lap three, he
informed me I was third out of the swim in my age group. I yelled something about being the first one
to wreck, which was probably stupid and just made everybody worry. Lap three went a little better; I was
refocusing and calculating if I was going to be able to finish. I hurt; there was no doubt that I had been
slowed down by the accident. Who knows
how much time that cost me? I realized
if I could run some, I would be able to finish and I had hope.
IRONMAN
CHRISTY: I rode into T2 and gave a volunteer my
bike. That was a bit weird, but that’s
how it’s done. I had some trouble
finding my T2 bag but after about 5 minutes we eventually found it, way out of
place. I went into the changing tent and
the little volunteers went nuts trying to bandage my wounds again. I tried to tell them I had already been
treated, but I don’t think they understood me.
I just changed while they tried to bandage me. This time the door was
closed so nobody got a free show. I used
the bathroom again and headed out the door.
My plan was to walk the first mile, so I was hoping I could find Andy
and he could walk with me a short ways.
He found me and I filled him in on what happened and showed him my
bloody wounds. Andy said, “You don’t
have to finish, it’s up to you.” I
almost laughed, I certainly hadn’t finished that bike
ride to not try. I told him I thought I could run some. My knees were sore, but I thought I could do
it. Amazingly, my legs weren’t even
tired.
ANDY: The
taxi dropped me off at the convention center, which was quite close to the
finish line. From there, I walked up the
sidewalk towards town. Once I passed the
bike transition area I found a spot to wait.
After 30 minutes or so, I spotted Christy walking towards me. One knee was bandaged, but otherwise she
looked ok. I walked along side her
(which was a violation of the race rules), and she filled me in on the
wreck. When she told me what had
happened, I got really angry. Christy
had invested a lot of time and effort into training for this race. You’d think that other triathletes
would at least be able to ride a bike without taking somebody else out.
I walked with Christy
for a few minutes, and realized that she was still going to try to finish this
thing. I did some quick math, and
determined she would have to average close to 4mph to finish before
midnight. That meant that she would have
to run part of the marathon.
CHRISTY: The run was three laps through the streets of
Cozumel, which were lined with locals. They were all yelling for me to run, but
I knew better. I walked the first mile before starting my run 9 minutes, walk 1
minute sequence. I did that the whole
first lap, half of the second lap and half of the third lap. I figure I only ran
about 16-18 miles of the marathon. A lot
of it is fuzzy. It got dark, the
mosquitoes were vicious, and I was annoyed that I couldn’t run the whole thing.
My knees were hurt from the missing skin
and every time I moved them it felt like I was tearing the skin some more. I was developing huge blisters on my feet and
I was sick of Gatorade. Somebody had
gone out and bought some mosquito repellant - they were my heroes! They were so bad I probably should have included
them in my nutrition plan; I was choking on them.
ANDY: While
Christy was running, I went bar hopping.
I walked around town, enjoying the enthusiasm of the crowd. I’ve been to a lot of Christy’s races over
the years, and I’d never seen spectators as excited about the event as the
locals here were. I strolled from bar to
bar, looking for places with outdoor seating where I could watch the race and
cheer for Christy each time she passed by.
I enjoyed a few cerveza’s, and had another
great dinner at Casa Dennis. The entire
experience was surreal, with pounding music coming from every bar, and cheering
spectators still lining the street.
I brought a book with
me, but found it difficult to read. I
also brought Christy’s pink backpack with a change of clothes, our stuffed pink
salmon, and the giant pink sombrero. I
guess I was pretty brave walking around downtown like that.
Around 10pm, Christy
was well into her final lap. I headed
back down towards the finish line, and finished up across the street at Margaritaville. I
got a seat outside and put the final touches on a pretty good buzz while
waiting for Christy to finish.
By 11 I was getting a
little nervous, but she still had an hour.
10 minutes later, I spotted her!
I passed the sombrero to her, and watched as she covered the final
triumphant yards to the finish line.
CHRISTY: Near the end of the third lap, Andy handed me
my newly purchased giant pink sombrero.
I ran with it across the finish line as they announced “Christy Kunkle
from Charlotte, North Carolina…YOU ARE AN IRONMAN! Look at that pink sombrero….the crowd loves
it!” I never heard so much
cheering. I thought I might get a
chuckle, but they were really excited that I carried it across the finish
line. I was already thinking about where
to get my tattoo….I don’t think I really felt tired until I was in bed and
realized what a long day it had been. I
am certain that some of our lovely hiking “adventures” helped me get through
the race. Particularly
the time in Canada, when we hiked out 20 miles in one day because we had eaten
all of our food. This was much easier by comparison. Of course I trained for this so it should
have been!
ANDY: It
wasn’t until after we returned home that we found out that Christy sustained a
concussion in the wreck. It amazes me
that she was able to finish the race in that condition.
CHRISTY: It was an amazing experience. I definitely
want to go back and try to qualify for Kona. The third place time was
11:31. Next year my name is going to be
in the top three. The baby making will
have to wait a couple more years. Andy
informed me yesterday that it is hard to get pregnant when you are sleeping and
training all the time. He is probably right!
ANDY: I said
what??
The Spanish Word of the day is “hombre de hierro”. “hombre de hierro” translates to “iron
man”, as in, “Christy is an hombre de hierro”.
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