Ironman China and digging deep!

[Ryan]

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice over the last couple of months.  I managed a p.b of 10: 44 and qualified for Kona!!  Doc two things you told me were use your wetsuit and eat real food.  I cranked out a 53 min swim and if I did not use my wetsuit would have been swept away, the brownies on the bike brought me back from death more than a few times.  Cam I used the 808's and they went great.
Matt talking with you out there and seeing you finish was very motivating and my respect level for you went up even higher.  You toughed it out and finished in the worst of conditions and are now stronger both mentally and physically.  I know your next result will be more to your liking.  Jocelyn what can I say!!  You were the only person I saw smile out there and you were incredible.  You have the right mind and I now believe you will become a superstar triathlete.  Tereza and Donna u two were unbelievably tough!  Donna way to represent Canada and of course Newfounland!
I know a lot of pros dropped out but they have to remember everyone out there is suffering just as much as them.  You have to go through that pain to become a better athlete.  I believe Doc would agree with me on this.  I just felt that many pros thought it was not their day so they just packed it in.  If you have a serious injury yeah drop out, or you have a huge race next week.
As for me I am still buzzing and excited to get training again.  I was not able to get the bike training I wanted in and can now.  Hopefully I can work hard and get a top ten next time.  Again thanks to all for the advice you guys made a difference!  Now it is off to the pool for a recovery swim. 
Take care and train safe
Ryan!

[MAA]

[Tereza Macel - "TMac"]

Congrats on your race Ryan, definitely a survival race, not a speed race 
Hope you are recovering well, and see you in China.

[Jocelyn Wong - "Wongstar"]

hi Ryan!  great job on Sunday    what a day to remember, and congratulations on your Kona slot!  you totally deserve it!!   

[NiLiDy]

I know a lot of pros dropped out but they have to remember everyone out there is suffering just as much as them.  You have to go through that pain to become a better athlete.  I believe Doc would agree with me on this.  I just felt that many pros thought it was not their day so they just packed it in.  If you have a serious injury yeah drop out, or you have a huge race next week.

Great Job Ryan and congrats on the slot.  So you're not a pro?!  So it was okay for you to soldier on even if it was hard because you don't have to worry about getting injured or sick and not be able to compete on your next race.  If ever you injure yourself by pushing on, then all you have to do if file for a medical leave and still get paid... the pros don't have that liberty of getting paid while at home.  It's just the first quarter of the season.  I'm not going to push through too if i felt like it could possibly hurt me just to please people like you and get a pat on the back for braving the race.

just my thoughts anyway so it doesn't matter   

cheers

[Caroline Koll - "Bean"]

Congrats Ryan! Followed a couple of your pre-race dilemmas, so it was really great that everything on the day worked very well for you! In defence of our guys who didn't finish, I have seen these guys train, the decision not to finish must have been the hardest thing they have ever had to do. Where continuing the race will cause a permanent health risk, one has to make a gut felt decision. I have respect for all, not just the Pro's, who try their best at an Ironman, and if they fail, they come back angry and try again.....

[doc]

what bullshit .
ryan hit the nail on the head .
they said oh its not going to be my day so i dont want to hurt myself
for up coming races .

unless they had one in 2 weeks then i concncure , but if not ,
they were beaten , and beaten is ugly .
we can all lose , we all do in one way or another , but to pull the plug because i am not going to be in the prize pool
cheapens ironman for what it is
and be sure , our people have been told .
we dont get beaten by ourselves in this team , we have pride , in
giving our 100% best .
matt will one day podium in an ironman  , because he is teaching himself one defining human quality .
i might not be the best , but i never give in . nobody , no race or no person can take that away from me .
that made me proud .
one day , it will make him a winner .
cause those who wait for a better day  , finds out the hard truth ,
that day is further away each time
we give ourselves  the excuse , this is the right thing to do .
when the right thing to do is
if i start something  i finnish  it .
nobody from our team was not preached to about how hot and how to prepare best for this race .
if they dont listen , and faint , that is not an injury excuse .
they prepared to faint .
sorry people but age groupers battled on like troopers out there  .
that is the dna of our sport  .
we owe it to em to battle it out  ,
that is a pros obligation ,
that is the true love of the sport .
ironman  is about iron people

[Amanda]

Anyone to stands on the start line or treads water with me, whether they be 18 or 80, fast or slow, always has my respect. We, in our own ways have all sacrificed to make it there. Trained hard, blood sweat and tears. And all just to hear those sweet words 'You ARE an Ironman' as we cross the line. It hurts getting there though!

I always think to myself that pain is relative, that 10 hours or (in my case) slightly more, we are all swimming, cycling and running the same course, with the same weather conditions, pushing oursleves to our invididual limits, maybe even discovering new ones.
But whatever those conditions, really cold, or really hot, windy etc etc I may not be a pro, quite a long way off in fact, but I know I'll still keep going. (Physical injury preventing that not included of course.)

I'm certainly not saying that this is the case for all the pro athletes that had to drop out, I do not know their exact circumstances, so I am not judging those that had to pull out for legitimate reasons. Dehydration can have very dangerous outcomes. But maybe the faster bods, who did pull out simply because they were losing could think sometimes about those that are still toughing it out when they have long since been due to finish.
I accept I choose to do it, but I also think, for the amount of time I can keep going for I deserve that Ironman label just as much as the man and woman that wins!!

And for me, to be able to say I raced in and finished the same race as people like Bella and Stephen, Scott Neyidli (not in TBB I know, but still a great GB athlete) - it makes me very proud! They have even been known to come back to the finish line at IMUK after some food and a shower to show their appreciation and respect to the people that try so hard to finish. True sportsmanship and credit to GB.

These athletes that did drop out for lesser reasons than genuine physical problems should be shut in a room with Jocelyn, then she could tell them exactly what it feels like to have a total shocker of an hour and half swim, and still keep her head, ride a strong bike, and to run one of the fastest female marathon times of the day!!!!

There's usually a silver lining if you wait patiently enough, and look in the right places for it - she just had to bide her time for 114.2 miles until her opportunity arose!

[Cameron Watt - "CAM"]

Glad it all worked out Ryan
As for wheels, u won't want that 808 on front in Hawaii it will prob blow u round to much, something like 404 or similar. The back one is fine though.

[ZachRuble]

I would have pulled out 40k into the bike if I were going to to pull out when I knew it was not my day...I had no bike legs, neither did any of the guys.  I rode my worst Ironman ride in 14 tries...but I still was trying on the marathon, trying to make something of it, 11k into the run though I could walk no more, I layed beside a tree,  after 3 hours in teh med tent I felt like I could have walked it in too the finish, but I had 70 hours of traveling that would begin the next day(which I am still in the midst of as I type this), not too mention I was getting sick in the days before the race...so I guess if I finished I would have slept for 4 hours, gotten up and packed all morning, boarded the plane, travled teh 70 hours, and gotten home with pnuemonia or something and ruined a few more weeks of training...I think it was a good choice for me not to continue after the med tent. I've struggled home a few races now, and not too mention all the slog it out tired/sick/cold/lonely/stuck indoors/hot/hungover/depressed/middle of hte night/ training and proved my manhood or whatever you want to call it enough times now, I wasn't on this team then, and nobody really saw it, but I know what I have done, and I am not here to prove anything to anyone about how tough I am, I am here to get bettter.

[ZachRuble]

Here you go on being tough.  My first two Ironman finishes were 6 days apart.  The first one I made a rookie mistake and changed my bike position two weeks prior to the race, and my knee swelled on the bike during hte ironman.  I had to walk the last 13 miles of the run and could hardly get out of bed the next day.  I couldn't ride or run during the next 3-4 days, but I signed up for a small Ironman (the Pineman) the next Saturday, and drove to the race.  It was remnants of hurricane weather coming up into ohio, and super windy.  4 lap swim (no kayaks b/c of the chop), 4 lap bike, 4 out and back run.  Only about 20 people finished, so it was me versus myself out there in the 30 mph winds.  I remember pissing on teh bike, and the piss was burning the chaffing in my legs that hadn't healed from the last weekend.  My knee was hurting onthe bike so I was popping pain pills the whole ride, I got into t2 and my knee was swollen, and I limped out of t2 until it loosened, and popped the pills the whole run and did not slow to a walk once b/c my knee would lock up.  I finished that run in 3:08, and won the race.  I then proceeded to try and drive th 3 1/2 hours back to school, I had diahhreea, my sore leg was propped on hte dashboard, and was stopping and limping into every gas station, and I ended up making a wrong turn so after 4 hours I couldn't stay awake anymore and my stomach was killing me, my knee was killing me,  I finally stopped and found a hotel. 

[Jockey]

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly... but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
[Theodore Roosevelt, 1910]

Take this as you will.

[Ryan]

Great quote. 

[Matthieu O’Halloran - "M@"]

Hi Ryan, it was interesting meeting and suffering with you out in Haikou 

Keep trying to get a TBB store in Ottawa, wouldn't that be awsome eh!

I'll be in Hull, or should  say Gatineau sometime this summer, maybe we can meet up and go for a ride out in the gatineau park! Damn I miss that place, dont you Jonnyo?

[Caroline Koll - "Bean"]

Oh dear! My point was not correctly understood at all...
I totally reject the idea of anyone - that is Pro and Age Group - quitting the race because they are feeling a bit crap and are not in the prize money. However, the only person who knows when things have gone too far is the athlete himself. If you withdraw, deep down, on reflection, you will know if you could have continued and that guilt is yours alone. There are instances where an athlete, no matter how good he or she is, has crossed the line physically. Take for example Bella at Ironman SA - she was well placed, trying her heart out but eventually her body gave out and she HAD to DNF. Do I think she is disrespectful for not finishing? No, I respect her for going as far as her body would allow and having the courage to stand up and try again like the true Iron person she is. Courage for those that couldn't and guilt for those that could have, not a great feeling which ever way....