Nathan Triathlon

 

Tempe, Arizona

I missed this race this year due to my injuries.

Bike Crash & Injuries

Gilbert, AZ

I went down on my bike on September 15, 2012. I broke a few things including my left clavicle and some ribs. But by far the worst break was my heart. I will have to wait another year to complete Ironman Arizona. I had surgery on my clavicle on September 26, 2012. This is an X-ray of my titanium plate on the day it was installed:

The picture below is my plate. How cool is that it is blue? The company that makes my Locking Superior Distal Clavicle Plate is called Acumed. Acumed color codes their plates. Blue is for left clavicles, and green for right clavicles. Now even under my skin my color scheme remains blue. I have 10 screws. Not all the holes have screws in them.
 

Installed below: 

 

 

Basically the surgery involves opening your shoulder up and screwing in the plate. Below is and illustration. The illustration does involve my particular plate but you can get the idea:

The plate does have some depth and I can feel it. Below is picture of another Acumend model installed on a clavicle:

By the way, in all my research of those who have experience with clavicle breaks, none of them had three to their credit. I guess that makes me a virtual expert on the subject. I have had three different types of breaks, in three different decades, with three different treatment approaches, on three different types of bikes – Motorbike, Mountain bike, and a road bike. That has got to qualify for the collarbone hat trick.
 

I shouldn’t forget the ribs, especially since they were by far more painful. Imagine Driving a railroad spike into your back and twisting it. I marked below in red where my ribs broke:
 

 

By the way, from my research I learned that Lance Armstrong has exactly the same plate as I do. He broke his collarbone into 4 pieces so they used 2 more screws than mine. Lance has 12 screws, and I have 10 screws, but the plate is the same. Armstrong’s plate is the right clavicle while mine is the left. Here is Lance Armstrong’s X-ray:

 

My orthopedic surgeon, Dr. George Myo did a great job and I would highly recommend him. I saw him 11 days after my accident. I wish I had seen him earlier. He took X-rays at his office and went over them to me. I had been severely misdiagnosed in the Emergency room. He explained things and went over my options. Once the decision to go forward with surgery was made, he had me scheduled for surgery the very next morning. I had a bad experience with staples after a surgery years ago and asked Dr. Myo if he would make sure to use sutures. He went one step further and used dissolvable sutures and left me with an incision site that a plastic surgeon would be impressed with. Thanks Dr. Myo!  

Deuceman

 

Show Low, Arizona

          I signed up for this race because a guy from church wanted to do it and talked me into it. He ended up dropped due to an injury, and as I was packing the car up in the pouring rain, I was wishing I hadn’t signed up and could enjoy an easier weekend. I kept telling myself not to be a wuss and just go do what I do. Just because the weather was bad and forecasted to be bad the whole weekend down in the valley doesn’t mean the weather up in the White Mountain’s would be bad. Mountain weather is so unpredictable anyways. When I lived in Missoula Montana I never bothered to watch a weather forecast. They were worthless.

            As it turned out, the weather was great for the whole weekend. It was nice to be out of the heat. In fact, I don’t think I could have asked for better weather for the race. The weather cooperated perfected, played to my strengths and as you will see actually helped me.

Swim

            The swim went well. I started out easy, but managed to stay right behind the lead pack with little effort. I gradually built up my speed and did not have any issues with elevation. The water was a good temperature and I did not encounter any congestion. My right shoulder was hurting me considerably though. It has been bothering me since the 10k swim. I did relatively well for the elevation and my shoulder issue. My T1 Transition was slow. Running up the hill to transition winded me terribly and then I had difficulty with my helmet.

Bike

            I was glad I opted for the black bike. I almost brought the blue one. I certainly needed my apex gears for the hill at the close of the ride. The bike course was a nice ride. There were some stretches of road that were my kind of riding. I had over a 20 mph average up until the last 10 miles, where the course turned into a steady grinding climb. We had some scattered cloud cover that kept it relatively cool. I took in close to my normal fluid intake. When I say normal, I mean the intake that I had been taking in over the past summer with 3 very hot races: Hawaii, Buffalo Springs, and Vineman. Apparently I was not sweating as much as usual, because the last 15 miles of the ride my bladder hurt and made the ride uncomfortable. I thought about peeing on the bike but I couldn’t seem to relax grinding up that hill.

Run

            I started the run with legs as heavy as lead from the last 10 miles of that bike ride. The grind of that long cat 3 hill turned my legs into heavy metal. The run course starts out pretty rough. I joked to a guy next me that I thought the Xterra race was on Sunday. We started out running in gravel slightly up hill and it felt like I wasn’t even moving. I spoke with several other athletes after the race who felt the same. The course then hit dirt and even some rocks as you have to traverse a dry river bed. My average quickly rose above a 10 minute mile and continued to climb as the run wore on. The elevation and that 10 mile bike climb made me feel like I was made out of lead. I stopped concentrating on my target pace and just tried maintain a steady run. Even that became difficult as we hit inclines. There were only two significant hills on the course and both of them were not very long. They were just tough hills at 6,000 + feet and after 60+ miles of hard racing. I focused on just continuing to run, questioning why I signed up for this torture. The first hour of the run my bladder continued to trouble me. I convinced myself that the water would be absorbed since the sun was making things hotter. I was doing fairly well time wise and I had studied my competition. Prior to the race I had looked up past results and this year’s competitors.  After that I looked up each competitor’s racing histories on Athlinks.

            I knew enough about my competition to know that I was still in the mix for a place on the podium. A little over 5 miles into the run my bladder was becoming a real distraction and affecting my ability to run. I knew that I did not have time to stop and pee. My competition was too close. I would need every second. So I did something I have never had to do before. I passed an aid station and dumped a lot of water on my head and then grabbed a bunch of sponges to mask what I was about to do. After I cleared the aid station I just peed myself while moving. My bladder was very full. It just kept running down my legs and I was running in soggy shoes leaving a trail of foot prints on the hot asphalt.  Oh well, I felt much better and then I could run normally again.
            The course was basically a two loop 10k course that had an extra mile in the middle. The extra mile was an uphill/downhill out and back that gave me a look at all my competition. One guy was leading me by a good ¼ mile. I knew there was no way I was going to catch him the way I was feeling. I just didn’t think I could run any faster without completely breaking down. Behind me were 4 more challengers hot on my heels maybe 200 yards behind me looking strong. From what I could deduce, I was in second place with 7 miles to go.  I winced as I thought about the fact that my competition had seen me and now knew that I was in reach. They would be chasing me hard and I knew that if I wanted a place on the podium, I was going to have to go through tremendous suffering over the next hour. I resolved to pick up my current pace a bit to discourage them. That began to take a toll very quickly and the suffering increased. The heat was beginning to become an issue. There was no ice offered on the course and I thought to myself about how I tend to do better in heat than most. Maybe the guy in front of me would breakdown in this heat. Sure enough, about a mile later I found him walking through the now scorching river bed. As I passed him I said something about the heat and ran by him in a display of strength designed to crush any thoughts he had of giving chase. Several miles later we went down this long dirt road and turned around. I got to see my competition again. I had not made any ground on them, but they had also not made any ground on me.
            I focused my mind on the fact that I had forced down good nutrition and stayed hydrated. They had to be discouraged that they had made no headway against me. I told myself that I was stronger. I am a good closer. I picked up my pace to crush their hopes.
            I don’t know how many people can truly appreciate what it takes to run your last hour with that kind of pressure. Your mind betrays you listing all the reason you should back off and how a stupid trophy is not worth the agony you are experiencing. 67 miles into a hard race, the exhaustion and pain threatens to swallow you and you have to fight your mutinous body and mind with your spirit. It is a constant battle that begins to drain even your spirit. I prayed for strength as I had continually throughout the day. I really wanted to finish first in my division with Christian watching.
            There was a big hill about a half mile from the finish line. I knew that it would be a challenge. I ran up it until my heart rate was in the red. Then I walked backwards to check out my competition. They were nowhere in sight. I had broken them. I felt a huge relief. Now I still kept running, and running hard.  I wasn’t taking any chances, but at least I could enjoy the last half mile knowing that they could not catch me and I would cross that line safely in first place.

            For me this was a great race.