Way too long post for a DNF 🙂
In short I got sick during the lead up. I still started the race but had a dry throat and a cough and gave up half way into the bike.

Read on for all the details….

The lead up to this race wasn’t great. I got sick in the 2nd overload weekend and probably got back to training to quickly and wasn’t feeling great for 2 weeks. But I was able to train. The Wednesday before the race I didn’t feel great during a swim training and cut it short. It started to feel worse and on Thursday stayed home since I was feeling pretty bad. From then on I skipped all workouts up to the Ironman. I spend most of the time on Thursday/Friday in bed. On Friday when I went to sign up and saw the line I was tempted to go home again, and maybe try again later. I wasn’t feeling good and queuing in a line (and sun) sounded like a horrible idea. But thanks to being an AWA (All World Athlete: I finished top 1% last year) there was a special line and I didn’t have to wait at all.
I even slept a major portion of Saturday. I was getting better but certainly wasn’t back to healthy. I rode my bike on Saturday to check it into transition (~3 mile ride). It didn’t feel too bad, aside the fact that I was breathing hard on every little hill (like an untrained person). My number was rather low (157), normally with my last name or age group I get a much higher number. I didn’t think much about it, I figured they assigned them in order we signed up. Once in transition area I noticed all the disc wheels left and right of me. I was wondering if these days every Ironman athlete has a disk wheel. I found out on race day morning, they had a special bike rack for all AWA.
My coach said there is a chance that I will just feel fine and I should give it a try. The race strategy was to race purely by heart rate to factor in my healthiness.
I was curious if he had some guidelines for giving up a race, since I questioned if I could compete and I have another Ironman lined up just 3 weeks later. John told me not to give up when I feel bad, but rather when I feel okay again. The reason behind that is, that even on the best day there is a rough patch where you don’t feel good.

Swim:

The picture says it all…

Race morning was usual business and I felt okay. I had a good swim start and swam in the clear for a while before I ended up swimming in a big group. Swimming just felt okay. Within 15min I noticed that I had to breath much harder than normal and my pace felt slow. Especially considering how many people were around me. I also had to cough a couple times, which is always interesting while swimming. But somehow I figured out the timing that I didn’t have to stop swimming. I felt pretty crappy coming out of the water, which is evident of the picture they took of me.
I finished the swim in  1:06:41 min which is not too bad, but over 2min slower than last year in the same race. After swimming exactly the same time (1:02:51) in IM Texas and IM Los Cabos I was hoping for something in that range. But I was also aware that wasn’t all the much in the grand scheme of things.

T1:
Nothing major, wasn’t fast nor slow. I was pleasantly surprised that at least 1/2 of the AWA bikes were still there.

Bike:
Initially the bike felt good, but on the climb to Callaghan I got a really dry throat and a more regular cough. That is the first time I thought about giving up. I decided to just do that race focusing on heart rate and actually enjoy the race. I did okay on the climb and had a quick decent. But on the road back to Whistler I noticed that my Watts were much lower than normal and people just kept passing me. I knew some of the people and knew that I should be able to ride better or at least similar to them.

Looking for Amy to ask for cough drops. Thanks Bri for the picture!

In Whistler I stopped to ask if Amy had any cough drops which she didn’t. I felt really crappy at that time. But as my coach said, I wanted to give out when I felt okay. Also the crowed was cheering me own and encouraged me to continue on. So I did. But on the decent to Pemberton it became pretty clear that I was dropping out. I stopped at two medic tents to ask for couch drops because my throat was super dry and every time I would look down I had to cough. For a while I was considering turning around and doing the climb into town myself (obviously giving up,  I just wanted some cough drops and rest). I have never dropped out in a race, and was very hesitant to do so. I was very certain I could finish the race, but I wondered at what cost. I wasn’t looking forward to run a marathon with a bad cough. Besides, I didn’t want to dig myself into a whole for the next Ironman. 3h into the bike ride at the 3rd aid station (down in Pemberton) I asked for cough drops, and they didn’t have any either. I decided to drop out and ask the medic (couple volunteers) how I could get back to Whistler. The first answer was that I had to wait till 4pm. I didn’t want to wait that long. I asked if I could ride back myself. One of the volunteers felt like she needed to save me from myself and wouldn’t let me ride back. I was kinda annoyed at her, since I definitely could have ridden it. After all, for me dropping out wasn’t fitness related. They didn’t have cough drops or anything else for me there besides perform and water. Kinda joke for a medic station. But all in all the volunteers were very nice and one of them talked to the staff and told us there is actually a shuttle for people who drop out. There was also a pro who dropped out and about 20min later we got a ride back to the city.

Aftermath:
The first hour or so I felt okay, but than for about 1-2h I felt horrible and was just in bed. Realizing that it was the right decision to give up.
I definitely wasn’t easy, but I know it was the right decision.

Now, I’m looking forward to my next race!

“Partial Race Result”