Okoboji Tri'd

Wow... I must say, I'm still recovering from that whole ordeal. Just a rough weekend. It was hot and I put a real scare into everyone in Okoboji... sorry about that! For those of you who don't know the whole story, here goes.... photos to come later.....

The race weekend was July 15, it was hot. Temps were to be approaching 100. But the triathlon started early (7:00 am) so I was not too worried. I had been hydrating well all week and loading up on the pasta. I felt good heading into the race. I had not been able to train all that much because of that pesky calf deal, but I was feeling pretty good. We took the traditional pre-race photo after dinner the night before... and I must say I did not look much better despite being 15-20 pounds lighter than the year before. the purple swim caps were a nice touch, though. (See the traditional Night-before race photo above.)

On race morning, we got up early and had breakfast. I drank a bottle of water and was feeling good. We got to the transition site and got everything set up. At 7:00 207 racers entered the water. (I still do not understand why they think it is safe to let 200 racers enter the water at the same time...) Tom and I swam fairly close together the entire swim....with Tommy drafting off me and overtaking me in the last few meters. We were out of the water in just over 18 minutes (only 30 seconds or so behind Jamie).

Tom, Jamie and I were all at the first transition together. This is where things started to go a bit off track. Jamie took off down the road with no problems. Tommy crossed the mat, hopped on his bike... and boom... flat tire. I saw him fall to the ground like he got shot. He said he was OK, and had to go back and get it fixed. I kept going. By that time, Pete was out of the water and in the transition area. tom tried to fix the flat, but could not find help. he ended up sitting there for an hour until we got back.

Just after Tommy turned around, about .25 mi into the 18 mi ride, I reached for a drink of water out of my bottle. It was already hot and the bottle had cold water. As I tried to put it back in the holder, it slipped out of my hands and fell to the ground. i saw it roll off the side of the road into the weeds. I decided to continue on without it. I figured there were stops along the race where I could get water. Plus, I'd gone on long rides and runs with limited water during training, so I thought I'd be OK. Looking back, however, it was never that hot and humid... and I never ran that long.

I completed the bike in less than 50 minutes. I was very happy with that time. I was a good 4 to five minutes ahead of where I hoped and was looking good to beat my personal best on that course. All I had to do was run the 5.5 miles in under an hour. I'm a 10 minute/mile pace guy, so I felt confident. As I started the run, Tommy joined me. He had to sit there the whole bike ride because of the flat. Luckily for me, he was there. I was able to get some water on the run, but I have a history of throwing up when I take a bunch of fluids while running, so I did not drink as much as I probably should have, considering I was unable to get any fluids during the bike.

As we ran, I felt pretty good for the first half of the race. I was tired and hot, but who wasn't? Also, my calf was plenty warm, but the run course is much more hilly than any tranining or other races I had done. My calf was straining on those hills. I was starting to cramp up in my quads as well. But, I was going to complete the race.

Anyway, to make a long story longer, as Tom and I crossed the bridge into Arnold's Park, I started losing it. I don't remember much after running through those back roads there. Evidentially, I fell down on the road (and maybe passed out) less than a quarter mile from the finnish line. The last thing I remember now is telling Tom we were going the wrong way and sort of swaying...and tripping on a curb or something. The next thing I remember is waking up in the Spirit Lake ER with ice bags all over my body and and IV in. (Again... see another embarrassing photo on the left). Evidentially they took me by ambulance and freaked Lori out. I also allegedly turned into the Incredible Hulk when they were trying to put my IV's in. Lori said it took them 5 people to hold me down and I was as mad as she'd ever seen me. I was in the ER for a couple hours and sent hom. They said my temp was at 102+ and I was severely dehydrated. Technically a heat stroke (again, that freaked Lori out). We can laugh about it now, I guess. I went to the doctor on Monday and everything checked out well. I'm just to take it easy in the heat for a long while. Looks like my times doing the Okoboji Triathlon are over... way too hot on that weekend anyway.

On a much happier note... congratulations to Pete and Jamie for completing the triathlon in great times. Also, Pam Wickham and Nicole Madigan completed the 10K despite the heat. Well done. Thanks also to all the other family and neighbors who walked, supported, or cheered at the event. Finally, THANK YOU to all who donated to the American Cancer Society in dad's honor. We were able to gather up over $1,300. Thanks to everyone.

TEAM TOOT is not done with this event. Tom, Pete, and Jamie are looking at other events this summer, and I'm sure we'll be doing Okoboji next year (well, some of us). Also, the Skram kids are going to work to have our own official TEAM TOOT fundraising event next year. Don't know if it's going to be a tri, walk or run, or what, we're working on it. But we are targeting LeMars as the location. We'll keep you all posted.