It was a perfect, no excuses, day! I had the chance to do what a lot of Dad’s would like to do. I got to race with my 35 year old son doing his first 1/2IM. Quite a thrill for me, and he seemed to have a great time, too. Our S.Os were there to watch and mine ran most of the 13.1 with me (shhhh, don’t tell anybody about “outside assistance”). The water seemed much colder than our swim at La Jolla cove on Friday. I never got very comfortable and had a 4 minute PW for the swim.
Happy to get out on the road, I felt good and the computer said I was headed for a fabulous bike split on my new ride until that moment of inattention around mile 22. In full aero position at 20+mph, I launched off the edge of the road into a ditch and tore up some of the Marine Corps’ vegetation. Before I had a chance to figure out whether I was seriously hurt, I checked the bike over and remounted. The bike survived quite a bit better than I did, but I had come much too far to DNF. I thought it might be a Tyler H. moment.
The bleeding stopped pretty quickly and everything seemed to work OK on the flats. When the little rollers started I noticed that any “pulling” from the waist up created some interesting sensations in my shoulder that were not all that enjoyable. Thanks to good advice from Julian, I was riding with a compact crank (50/34). Lots of spinning in little gears got me most of the way through, but I couldn’t spin up the two biggest hills. My shoulder hurt more than the loss of pride caused by having to walk for a while.
The downhills were great, but the headwind for the last few miles was a bit demoralizing. I was looking forward to getting off the bike until I tried to lift that right arm off the aero bars. It was as if it was glued there. I had very little strength left on that side. An amazingly efficient T2 lead to some really interesting moments while trying to run. I couldn’t tell if it was tears or sweat streaming down my cheeks, but it sure hurt a lot.
I have run lots of marathons and half marathons, so this was supposed have been the easy part. Training and a very supportive girlfriend got me through what should have been a fast run in good conditions. But, it was pure survival. My son finished 30 minutes in front of me (16 minutes on the clock) then came back to make sure I made it across the finish line.
The people in the medical tent were great! Cleaned up the road rash that decorates my leg, arm, neck, and elbow and said that I didn’t get to be Tyler today, my clavicle wasn’t broken. I thought it was mandatory to break your clavicle in a bike crash?
Congratulations to all finishers. Altogether, it was a peak experience for me. I wish I had stayed upright on the bike, and done better overall, but nothing could ruin the thrill of racing with my son. We plan to do it again soon.