CYCLING
Let’s talk about failure. The longer the distance, the more likely an athlete is not to finish a race. The Frank Lloyd Wright run? Not too much risk of abandoning there.
Not so the Ironman. Everything has to come together to finish within 17 hour – conditioning, nutrition, hydration, weather.
That’s what makes spectating compelling. From early morning until late at night the human drama is worked out in the 2.4-mile swim, the 112-mile bike and the 26-mile run.
The first swimmer out of the water with a huge lead may be unceremoniously dropped on mile 14 of the bike. Age groupers trundle through their personal hell at mile 18 of the run, then cross the finish line at mile 26 and fall into the arms of “catchers.”
Even pros drop out. At the recent Ironman Wisconsin, nearly 20 percent of the pros failed to complete the race.
Each Ironman racer comes to the start line facing a possibility of failure. Last year, Karen Steward Nolan, of Oak Park, went to British Columbia to compete in Ironman Canada. Steward Nolan had not been able to do all the training she had planned. And when she got half way through the run, she could not go one step further and had to abandon the race.
This year, Karen worked hard training all year and returned to Canada. With her family cheering, she finished in 13:12.
In 2008, Bob Bell, 70, of Oak Park took on his first Ironman Wisconsin. Though he had completed 70 marathons, biking and swimming were challenges. Bell missed the first time cut-off at mile 56 of the bike and was pulled from the course.
This year he was back, better trained and more determined. Bell was one of three racers over the age of 70. Bell improved his swim time by 10 minutes. And he made that first bike cut-off at mile 56, even if he did it with only three seconds to spare.
But the second half of the bike on one of Ironman’s hilliest courses is always slower than the first and Bell failed to complete the 112-mile bike by 5:30 p.m. Though disqualified he suited up for the run and ran half of the marathon.
So Bell failed. Again. Or did he?
I was out there accompanying him on the bike course. I heard the crowds cheer for him as he climbed the steepest hills. Bell looked utterly alive. He was sweaty and covered in salt. And he didn’t stop pedaling even after it was plain that he would not finish in time.
I had my own failure last year at Ironman Wisconsin. I was hospitalized with a kidney stone not long before the race. Like Steward Nolan, I dropped out half way through the run.
This year, seeking redemption, I am signed up for Chesapeakeman, an Iron distance race in Maryland on Sept. 25. My training was going well until August when I crashed my bike and broke my collarbone.
Two weeks later I pushed myself back on the bike and this Saturday I will attempt the Ironman again. I plan to finish this time or have a great story about a massive flaming failure.