Don't know quite what to make of this IMC 'report'

Triathlon Forum
1

It was forwarded to me, maybe shouldnt post it but he has sent it to a lot of people, names have been removed…let this be a big lesson! btw this wasnt his first…

Swim…a mass start with 2800 people…got jostled and pushed, and kicked. Came out with a swollen lip in an okay time, for me.
(note: his time was 1.58)

Bike…well this year I placed ALOT of time on my riding and running skills, and it showed on the first part. (not: he told me it was going to be a ‘long day’) I was flying on the bike upto Richter( 2nd of 3 major hills)..then boom!! My chain came off the cog set and got stuck ,in between the last gear and the wheel. It was jammed, and there was nothing I could do but waited for help. I waited exactly 72min for tech support to arrive. They( bike support) uped the vans from 7 to 9 this year,because of the numbers of athletes.. BUT I still waited and wasn’t happy.!!!
Once that was fixed, I became determined to me-up my lost time. At the out/back,( about 140kms in) I got a flat!!! Since I had xxxxx’s race wheels on, there is a special extender for his tube( ohh…that sounds naughty,doesn’t it!!) Ooops, i digress…anyways I needed a special 3mm allen key to open up the valve extender, so I could slip out the tube. Waited and waited 48min for a van. Once he showed up,and fixed it, I raced and raced like a mad-man to make up the 2hrs I had lost, in total. I flew up YellowLake( 3rd major climb) and down the other side, with the one purpose…to make it before the bike cut-off( at 530pm) I made it to there at 5:28..only 2 min to spare.

Run…well…my legs were fried from all that hard riding and I did what I told myself I was NOT going to do…I walked!!! At the 25km mark, I made another mental calculation and decided to move and shuffle my ass. I started to run and made it to LongShore Drive with 3 min left. I still had 2.2km to do. As I came to 1km of the finish I heard the announcer say that there was only 45 sec left. So…instead of stopping, I ran to the turn-around and ran in.I was out there so long, I wanted to finish for myself!!!The cut off is 17hr . My time was 17:10.

Cool factor…as I ran in, I got a huge applauses from everyone, and when I crossed the finishing mat there were no one handing out the medals!!! Then..out of no where Graham Fraser(CEO of Ironman) walks up and places it around my neck. Then Mike Reily( the announcer) walks up, looks at my bib number/name and says,“xxx…you are an Ironman!!!” I shot the shit with both of them for5-10min, and then Graham went on a hunt for a finisher t-shirt and cap for me. He came back and said to be at the award nite,where he will give me one.

So…I did the race, and if none of the shit would have happened, i would have probably made it in 15-1530hrs, but it was not meant to be!!! I am still proud of myself that I did not give up at the end, and even though I do not a finishing time, I am a finisher!!!

And yes, i will probably go and sign up again for this race next year, as it is a GREAT course and I still have something to prove here.

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2

Know the very basics of how to fix a bike?

3

He certainly captures the spirit of the Ironman finisher. All the other stuff is just noise.

4

I can say that having the tools to fix a flat would have been smart, but come on, people forget stuff all the time… rough day for him obviously. I would NOT have known how to fix the chain problem other than “yank” it out…

5

Are you sure this wasn’t tongue in cheek?

6

Parody…

7

Great story.

I was right there when this guy came across the line a few minutes after mid-night. Classy act for Graham Fraser to give the guy his medal. Thay had already started to pack everything up, but the medal box was found at out came the medal.

Just before that - For only the third time, I cried at the finish line of IMC when my good friends Steve King and Tony Davies came across with 10 minutes to spare. These two wonderful men have been real mentors to me over the years and I was so happy for them to have been able to finish and to do it together. I will note that the biggest and longest ovation at the awards banquet came during the video for the final finishers when they showed Steve and Tony running across the finish line.

8

well good that he kept on going but what I dont get is, if you borrow race wheels wouldnt you borrow the tool to change it also? yes, let this be a lesson…
but it seems there are a lot of excuses here!

9

maybe i’m just ignorant since i’ve never done IM, but why did he get a medal when he did not make it under the cut-off?

10

The (potential) backlash from not giving it to him would have been HUGE.

Don’t get me wrong - he gets my full respect for gutting it out, and pushing to the finish on a bad day. But the primary reasons for his bad day were his own fault, and I’m sure he learned a valuable lesson out there. Hopefully next year he’ll ride with proper tools and spend the time in between developing his mechanical skillset along side his fitness.

Had it been me, I’d have thanked Graham but turned down the medal. But that’s just me…

12

Nice that he managed to finish. Though both bike issues could have easily been fixed with a little knowledge (which would have led to having the proper tools).

Lots of people out there racing with minimal to no bike maintenance skills.

13

true, people forget stuff, but he is actually mad he had to wait so long, as he paid so much for the race, etc. like he piad the money and so expected a mechanic to be available right away. Still, I think this is a good lesson in knowing how to fix your bike and be prepared for everything and anything!
Good job that he finished though, even though he did not finish officially and also yes I agree, I also would not have taken the medal.
I agree, the IM has come a far far way from the original spirit…oh well.

14

He sounds like a spoiled brat. “Nothing” he could do? Umm, try learning how to fix your bike, or stop whining about it. 72 minutes he waited? Then 48 minutes?? And he KNOWS that these race wheels require a 3mm allen key if something happens, but doesn’t bother to bring one? Please. What an idiot.

Now having said all this, I am by no means an expert on how to fix my bike. If I get a flat at IMOO, my fellow racers will see me cursing at the side of the road while it takes me a very very long time to change it. Very. But I would be cursing myself, NOT blaming anyone else, certainly not tech support. I wouldn’t expect tech support to show up to help me - I should be able to do that stuff on my own. If I can’t, too bad. No one to blame but me.

15

“My chain came off the cog set and got stuck ,in between the last gear and the wheel. It was jammed, and there was nothing I could do but waited for help”

Guy may well be a jackass but I have done what he describes above. Tried to “yank it out” with no luck. Only way to get it out was to remove the cassette. Never seen anyone with a cassette lockring stool, chain whip and wrench with them on race day.

16

I think it would be pretty cool if they enforced the Ironman cut-off like the Comrades marathon:

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,ss6-239-281--11867-4-1X2X3-4,00.html

"At precisely 11 hours, 59 minutes on the time clock, the director of the Comrades Marathon Association will emerge from a tent and march to the finish line. There, dressed in a dark jacket and tie, he will turn around, his back facing the oncoming stream of runners. He will raise a gun and wait for the seconds to tick down.

All around, pandemonium breaks loose. Thousands of spectators stare at the executioner, imploring, “No. No. Don’t do it.” Then they look the other way, to the frantic flow of runners struggling for the finish. Some are sprinting with joyously upraised arms, some walking, some being carried by teammates, some literally crawling on their hands and knees. The crowd breaks into a rhythmic, throbbing chant: “Go…Go…Go…Go…” The atmosphere is electric, the suspense building. “Long before someone invented ‘Reality TV,’ we had the real deal right here at Comrades,” race manager Renee Smith had told me two days earlier. The national television audience skyrockets in the final minutes, as all South Africa tunes in for the tense Comrades conclusion. Who will make it? Who won’t?

At 12:00:00 on the race clock, the gun is fired, and the Comrades Marathon is over. Those who fail to break 12 hours will receive no medal for their effort. No time. They won’t appear in the newspaper agate or the official results program. They’ll get no credit toward their “green.” They will become, in effect, in this country with its wretched history of human-rights violations, a nonperson. A nonrunner. If you want, you could tell your friends that you ran Comrades. You could say you finished in, oh, 12:20. But you didn’t. Because there is no record of it. You would have been better off spending the day around the braai."

17

That is such a cool race. Although maybe this guy who missed the cut off would have been famous rather than just getting a medal he did not deserve.

“There is some solace only for the first nonfinisher. He or she becomes an instant hero, interviewed live on TV and pictured on the front page of every newspaper. To many South Africans, the Comrades runner who goes all that distance, for nothing, is more symbolic, of something, than the race winner. That’s another great tradition–one I think we can all embrace, even if we’re not sure what it means”