Completing the race would have been a setback for me.... financially? I wonder how. A shame about the mechanical.

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

Guessing he’s going to race again soon? Florida?

I was wondering what happened. His speeds went from ~25mph to ~13mph after the turnaround. Seemed like more than a bonk. At that point (being so far removed from the group) I think it makes sense to DNF. Disappointing for him as he didn’t get to really see how he could stack up or get the full Kona learning experience.

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Matt

As it is, Cody can probably show up at another race this year and win some money for himself and attention for his sponsors.

If he had gutted out the marathon run he would have not won any money or recognition yesterday.

Worse, the effort would require much more recovery time and diminish his ability to perform at other races this year.

it would have been a negative career move to continue the race. i don't fault anyone for walking it in. but i also don't fault anyone for packing it in. if i was an athlete, and i hired a manager, i would empower my manager to make the decision over whether i should pack it in (just like a boxer's manager having the decision to throw in the towel). if i was a manager and my athlete was out of all contention i'd make that call. there's no need to go the distance if this is how you make your living.

there are 2, total, if that, good ultras in a body per year. if you race 3, okay, but that's 1 more than optimal. if you race 4, that's considerably more than optimal. in the old days we'd race 6 or 7. we know now that there's a finite life span to that, and hell to pay later in life. cody's best play is to toe the line between now and next may for a qualifying race, and if you finished kona yesterday you've just added 1 more to IM to the ledger.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

A mechanical from travel that couldn't be fixed? That seems very weird to me. Obviously not all pros get the kind of support as others but I would think his bike sponsor would have stepped up and fixed that issue before the race. Maybe a bent/broken hanger and couldn't get a new frame in time?

I also was confused as I was really rooting for him, but just like AB: now he got a taste and will be better for it. I also agree that a DNF is the correct call. I’m don’t fault anyone for finishing, but also think it’s a smart move to call it a day. Such an amount of abuse to the body, especially knowing there is no $$ spot to finish. Pride doesn’t pay the bills, and I think this was a smart call on his part....which isn’t surprising, because he is a smart guy!

He was conflicted even before the race about being in Hawaii to do the race. Pressure from sponsors, wanted to wait longer to do the race, said he was able to get his head around this but not sure if he really was able to do this. Sounds like the day just went south and it makes more sense to pull the pin and move on to the next race. I think he got enough out of the race for him.

I'd like to know more about the mechanical too, as it has me puzzled. Regardless, it's unfortunate that he wasn't able to show his ability on the big stage.. His time will come.

I would assume it would dig him a hole that would be hard to recover and race another IM again soon.

I guess we should expect to see him on the line soon for another race to make a payday.

While I get the "honoring the sport/distance" view. Beals is very smart and he looks at every decision how it will effect him in many ways. I think many lose sight of that sometimes and that is an advantage Beals has over others from a career development standpoint.

The phrasing suggests to me that it was something he discovered on the bike leg itself and that was fixable on the route, rather than an issue they discovered prior to the race itself. Plus, with riding a Ventum, you'd figure that there'd be more than enough extra bikes (of any bike, really, given their sponsorship of the rate itself) in the area to get him a new one at moment's notice.

that post is really, really well written. cody is a smart guy with a great career ahead of him.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

It clearly wasn’t something apparent before the race - and if/when things go sideways w a mechanical that far out on course, the odds are that it’s ending your day - in terms of competing anyway.

By not burning matches unnecessarily on a futile marathon, he’ll be fresh and ready to race again soon, and win some $.

It was the smart call to make.

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float , hammer , and jog

Any concrete examples for the bolded part?

yes.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

You don't just need to look at triathlon. Look at what happened to almost all of the stars of the first running boom to see what consistent triple digits and tons of distance did to the likes of Rodgers and Salazar.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Maybe he just needs a new bike sponsor. That Ventum didn't look so good in the Peak Aero Shootout.

Like someone above said, something happened with the ventum bike that couldn’t be fixed, but he probably doesn’t want to say what it is because it will look bad on ventum which is his sponsor. It’s probably something disaster like a critical flaw ... otherwise Cody is the type of guy that he would detail it in a later blog post either at we will find out... or not if he keeps it general to protect ventum

But if it happened in transit, I don't see how he couldn't have been given a new replacement. Ventum had tons of bikes there last year for demo, and I'd assume they would have had something similar this year. The wording made it seem like he went into the race with a bike issue, which is what I find very odd given the stage he was on.

Another Canadian Jen Annett posted that she was hit by a moto and tried to continue but eventually pulled out. Tough day for the true north strong and free!

Thnx for the update. Will see about that

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

I can’t figure out if people think Cody is lying or is people can’t make an inference from his explanation.

Either there was damage that was noticed but wasn’t expected to cause an issue, or there was unnoticed damage that came to the fore during the race. In either case, he would have gone into the race not thinking repairs/replacements were required.

I doubt a derailleur hanger problem would have that dramatic impact on his speed after the turn-around. And given the support these guys got before the race, any problem from travel should be fixed long before the race began. So it would have to be something that failed during the face, but it's also from travel but not detected before the race. I really wonder what that may be.