Ben Miralia- Ironman Lake Placid 2008

Today I learned something about myself and something about the Ironman that I had not known before this. It had nothing to do with the swim which I finished very much within my goal time. It began on the bike where we encountered 15 straight hours of a torrential downpour. Coming into transition after the swim we had to walk through ankle deep mud. The entire change tent was under water which made it impossible to keep anything dry. As we left the tent we had to walk through the mud again which clogged up all of our cleats and soaked through our shoes. It was nearly impossible to clip into the pedals because of the mud, but we had to do so quickly as there was a sharp left turn just after the mount line. That was fun, too. Then began the 112 mile bike race through the pouring rain. The first 5 miles is a fairly steep uphill which kept us fairly warm even though we were soaked to the skin. Then came the 6 mile descent on roads completely underwater. It was actually flowing across the road. As much as I tried not to brake to much it was hard not to. The corners were treacherous and it felt like someone was shooting you in the face with a pellet gun. Big raindrops at 35 miles an hour really hurt. Then the chill set in and throughout the entire day people were staggering off the course with hypothermia. The medical tent was so full that they took over the massage tent for the overflow. People were shaking so hard they couldn't even take off their bike shoes. Parts of the road had just been paved and the rain caused the oil in the new asphalt to bubble to the surface and more than one person wiped out on the slick pavement. A couple of the pros abandoned. Some from falls and at least one from hypothermia. It was the most miserable ride of my life.

Once again the change tent was under water so the prospect of comfy dry socks was quickly dashed as my gear bag was soaked through and everything was already wet. Years ago an old cyclist showed me a trick in cold wet weather and I had stuffed plastic bags under my jersey so I was one of the few who made it out onto the run course fairly warmed up. On the run there are always a few people who match your pace and right away I started running with a girl named Jen. We started talking and here is her story. She is 32 years old, but at 26 she was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Her doctor told her that there were some treatments available to her, but that they were not pleasant and would only prolong her life, not cure her. She told the doctor that dying was not in her plans and that she had no intention of pumping chemicals into her body. She became a vegan after years of a typical awful American diet. She began searching out all forms of alternative medicines. She knew she was going to eventually die, but she was going to try everything she could think of to live a healthy, productive life for the time she had left to her. She had never been athletic and decided she wanted to do anything that she had not done before. If she was going to die she was not going quietly. She started running and cut out all caffeine and simple sugars. She had a boyfriend who had run triathlons and she decided that she was going to spit in the face of the disease and train for an ironman. So here she was with her dream of finishing only 26.2 miles away.

We ran together for the first 14 miles and then she started to struggle. We began walking the aid stations and then just tried to run for 4 minutes at a time with a one minute walk break. She was really starting to fade and we were walking four minutes then running 4 minutes and at mile 18 she was pretty much reduced to walking. At that point I knew she might be in trouble. We needed to keep moving at about an 18 minute mile per hour pace in order to make the 17 hour cut off and we were at about a 15 minute per mile pace. Between mile 21 and 22 we tried walking ten steps and running ten steps and we passed about 20 people in this manner. Then the bottom fell out and she just stopped and told me that she was finished. She had not been eating much at the aid stations and she had that ashen, disoriented look people get just before they collapse. I forced her to eat a half of a power bar and in spite of her protests I got her to drink some coke. She wouldn't touch the chicken broth so I was worried about her sodium levels, also. But after she at a little she started walking again. At this point I was not going to leave her. I knew that if she was on her own she would just sit down and wait for the medical van to pick her up and there was no way this girl was not going to cross the finish line. The trouble, of course was that we now had 4 miles to go at basically a crawl and the clock was ticking to the cutoff.

We reached the final turnaround and got about a hundred yards past it when she stopped and sat down. She was in so much pain she couldn't even walk. I said to her "listen, think of this incredible journey you are on. From a 26 year old with a death sentence to half a mile away from crossing the finish line of an Ironman". I held out my hand and dragged her back to her feet and she started walking again. When we could finally see the finish she gritted her teeth and charged into the final 100 yards. Her whole family was waiting to see her along with her boyfriend. She hugged me and thanked me and threw herself into their arms. She was crying, they were crying, I was crying. She asked if we could finish together, but I told her that today she was the rock star and that she should have that moment all to herself so I hung back while she found her legs and charged through a crowd of screaming fans, tears streaming down her face and across the finish line. I came in about 15 seconds after her at 16 hours and 41 minutes. My worst time ever and I couldn't care less. It was the most awesome experience of my life. If you think you know yourself or if you think that you understand the Ironman I am here to tell you that until you experience something like this your really don't have any idea at all.