From a friend who did the relay…
(Blank) and I volunteered to work one of the aid stations for the Chesapeakeman Ironman distance triathlon that was held in Cambridge Maryland this past Saturday. Blank was doing the race and I was doing the bike leg for a relay in the event, so they stuck us on the 8:00-midnight shift. Lucky us… up at 4:30 for the race start, a long day racing (not so long for me), then working till midnight.
The run course looped back on itself a couple times so competitors passed our aid station at mile 3, 16.5, 19.5, and 22.5. We had hot chicken broth so we were very popular with those still on the course later on in the day. By the time we got to the aid station there were only a dozen or so left out there (only 121 total in the event). Most that were passing our aid station were walking at this point. It was 13 hours into the race.
Around 8:30 the guy that was in last place passed us for just the second time, his mile 16.5 (9.7 miles to go). He was 13.5 hours into the race and he was not in good shape. He was walking slowly, and asked for a chair to sit for a while. We offered him everything we had (which was a lot) and he only accepted some saltines. He took off his shoes and socks and had some bad blisters. We gave him some vaseline and we urged him to keep put his socks back on as he still had over 9 miles to go. He didn’t put them back on and hobbled off with socks in hand. We watched him walk off into the darkness and disappear, then saw that the saltines that we had given him were still sitting on the chair. It didn’t look good for him.
Around 10:00 we heard on race radio that he had just passed through the high school turnaround at mile 18.8. He was still walking and stopping to sit at every aid station. At one aid station he had sat for awhile, then gotten up and walked off, then come back to sit for awhile longer. He was very disoriented but said he was going to keep going. His pace was nowhere near what he needed to finish by midnight when the race would be closed. We had also heard that he had gotten confused when a car was coming toward him and he had walked off the road and fallen into a ditch, soaking his shoes. They had the paramedics check him at the high school. They were concerned but let him go. We thought they were sending him off with a motorcycle escort but we soon found out that they had not.
The aid stations were about a mile apart and it was pitch black in between. The glow sticks illuminated the athletes for us, but didn’t help much for the athlete’s sighting. (Blank) and I were concerned that he might fall off the road again, or just wander off the road into the field. We decided to drive along the road to find him and give him some light.
We found him at about mile 21 and asked him how he was doing. He had just passed an aid station and taken a foil thermal blanket. He looked in pretty bad shape and was shivering. (Blank) wanted to walk with him and make sure he was ok. She walked about a half mile with him to the next aid station while I drove behind. She tried to encourage him and told him his blisters were only temporary and he could do it.
After awhile, (Blank) and I traded and I started walking with him. He said his stomach really felt bad but his feet hurt the worst. We talked about his family, his job, where he was from, anything to keep his mind off his pains. Turns out he was from Lansing Michigan and lives a mile or so from where I lived for a year while I was at MSU.
We heard that the race officials were talking about taking him off the course because of his condition and his pace. He was still walking 25-30 min miles with ~4.5 miles to go and only about 1:15 left. I told him that he was going to need to pick up the pace if he wanted to finish. He said he couldn’t; his feet hurt. He asked how fast we were going and I told him. He just wanted to finish so we picked it up and walked a bit faster. Not much, but it was something. He made it to the next aid station and he finally took some cookies and a drink.
I went back to the car and (Blank) said there was no way he was going to finish at this pace. He would be over a half hour past the cutoff. She said we were going to have to encourage him to run if he was going to finish. So I went back and told him he was going to have to run a little if he wanted to make it. Still 4.2 miles to go and only 1:07 left till the course closed. I reminded him that his blisters were only temporary. I told him that he didn’t do all that training and come all the way here from Michigan with his family to race for 136 miles just to get pulled off the course with just 4 miles to go. We just wanted him to run for a bit and then walk, run a bit, then walk. He said maybe he could run after he got some chicken broth, but that was another mile away.
One more time I tried to encourage him, asked him if he could run for just a bit. “Yeah, I think I can” he said. And then he did. “Go Rob, you can do it” was all I said as he started to run. And he wasn’t just jogging, he really started running. I’d say inside of 10 min mile pace, easily. He ran all the way to the aid station at mile 22.5 and got some hot chicken broth. Then he ran all the way to the next aid station, and the next one. Then he ran to the high school where there were maybe 12 people left, including his wife and son. His son joined him on the track and could barely keep up. He ran even faster and the announcer said “look at this guy, is he running a 5k?” Rob ran all the way to the finish line. The guy that wasn’t going to make it, the guy they were going to take off the course, finished in 16:28. A full 32 minutes before the race was to close.
The last place guy that wasn’t going to make it. It was far and away the highlight of the race. Go Rob!