"Thoughts of quitting during a race haven't entered my mind since right before starting the second loop on the run at TriAmerica last year. A swift kick to the middle of my face, square on the bridge of my nose cracked the plastic, unseated the lenses and sent water rushing into my goggles. This unfortunate incident happened less than 100 yards into the 1.2 mile swim at Redman. I struggled to try to fix them but all efforts were useless. The goggles were broken and I was looking at 1.2 miles with my eyes closed. Not only would I face the entire swim with no goggles, I was battling the remnants of the flu from earlier in the week and the worst weather I have ever experienced racing or training. Well, I did continue that swim and this is my story of swimming, biking and running in the Redman half-Ironman triathlon."

The Redman triathlon is a series of races held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in mid-September. This years venue would host the USAT Club National Championship and the Halmax long course national championship. I signed up for the half-Ironman, 70.3 mile distance race which consisted of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run. This race would be my third 70.3 this year so I knew the difficulty and generally what to expect. What I wasn't prepared for was the weather, the equipment malfunctions and my bout with the flu.

Kelli and I left my house at 4:30AM on Friday to drive to Oklahoma. I was carrying the huge ice chest, the ice bath pool and all the goodies for the BR Tri tent we would be setting up at the finish line. Between all my equipment, the BR Tri stuff and Kelli's gear my poor little Honda was loaded down! The 10 hour drive wasn't too bad considering that I was a day from getting over a slight bout with the flu. I was on a steady regimen of Tylenol, Dayquil and Sudafed but my doctor assured me that I could race if I felt up to it. We drove straight to the race site and arrived with plenty of time to pick up my packet, scope out where the BR Tri tent was and make it to dinner with the other BR Tri guys. The weather was actually quite pleasant and I'd even go so far as to say it was a little cool. Scattered showers were expected for race day and even with that weather prediction, the actual chance of rain was low. After a pleasant dinner, we headed back to the race site to unload the drinks and goodies. Kelli was a trooper and helped me get everything situated for the day ahead. I knew that I wouldn't have the time to do anything the following morning so she eased my mind and promised to handle it. Well, she more than handled it and the tent ended up being a huge success. At around 10:30PM we made it back to the hotel so I could get horizontal and get some rest. I knew that 5AM would be coming soon and I was still feeling 'questionable' from the flu. I knew I was definitely not at 100% but there was no way I would miss the race after training for it for months.

Race morning was overcast but no rain... yet. The temperature was in the high 60s to low 70s. Seemed like perfect weather for a triathlon! Humph! I'd say maybe 5 minutes after I setup my gear in transition and was walking to get my timing chip, the rain started. It wasn't a light, passing shower either. It was coming down in sheets, turning the ground into a muddy nightmare, and soaking EVERYTHING that was exposed. As I rushed back into transition to try to cover up my gear with my tri bag I noticed running shoes, water bottles, sunglasses and various other pieces of equipment floating around the area. It was a MESS! As the sun started to peek over the horizon and light up the fully clouded sky, the true predicament of the situation revealed itself. This would be no passing shower.  The rain would be an all day affair and those participating in the race would have to just deal with it.

The race was to start at 7AM but was delayed due to impassable water on the road at mile 6 of the bike course. The first of many delays presented themselves so I walked back to the BR Tri tent to sit down and wait it out. Rumors of the race turning into a Swim-Run or a Swim-Run-Swim venue were floating around. Just before 8AM the race director shouted over the PA system that the race would indeed be starting within 15 minutes. The area at mile 6 of the bike course was still submerged under 2 - 3 feet of water but volunteers were now there to stop the cyclists, make them dismount, and then walk their bikes through the obstruction. It was good to hear some progress and I was anxious to get my race underway. Kelli helped me zip up my wetsuit and we walked down to the swim start.

I was in the first half-Ironman swim start wave. My wave had approximately 150 - 200 participants in it. I tried to position myself close to the back of the outer edge but there were so many people starting in my wave I ended up being somewhere near the middle with people surrounding me on all sides. The countdown started from 10 seconds, the horn blew and we were off. The flu and the nasty weather weren't going to stop me as I dove into the water and started my 1.2 mile crawl to the swim finish.

Heading out to the first buoy I was being bumped on all sides but I was used to that. I jostled for position, trying to get into a rhythm. My breathing was erratic and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get a 'deep' breath when I rolled to breathe. Maybe it was a combination of me paying too much attention to my breathing and not my swimming that caused me to swim right into the feet of the guy I was trying to draft off of. KARAAATEEE KICK! POW! CRACK! The bridge of the goggles cracked and the right lens popped right out of the plastic. The eye sockets of my goggles are shared so water rushed into both chambers flooding my eyes and causing me to take a huge gulp of the Lake Hefner special brew. I coughed and hacked the nasty water as I stood up and noticed that, thankfully the water at this point was only chest deep. I rubbed my nose and tried my hardest to do something, anything to affix the goggles to my face. Nothing worked as they were broken and unrepairable. It was at this point, less than 1 minute into the race that the thoughts of quitting were rushing into my mind. Tears were welling up in my eyes and I was battling with my inner self to go on. It was pouring down rain, I was coughing up a lung and standing there with my broke ass goggles looking at a 1.2 mile swim. I surely didn't want to do 1.2 miles with no goggles. Would I be DQd if I went back into transition to get a backup pair? I thought of a quote that I made up a few weeks ago as I was battling with myself as to if I should continue or not.

"Chin up. Chest out. No regrets. Handle it!"
- Chad Soileau

This whole day would be a challenge from the flu to the shitty weather to the broken goggles. It's the tough races that I remember and I didn't drive ALL this way to quit less than a minute into the race. I had never quit a race and I surely wasn't gonna let that happen today! I'm going on. It was time to HANDLE IT!

The rest of the swim sucked. It sucked just as much as I figured it would. I was having trouble breathing and I couldn't navigate worth a damn. I was getting dizzy from keeping my eyes closed so I held my head out of the water for the majority of the swim. Strangely enough, before I knew it I had reached the half-way point. How about quitting now? Heh. There was no choice now but to swim back to shore. I was being passed at this point by swimmers from the later waves that started after me. I know I saw at least 3 different color swim caps so I was at least nine minutes back from the guys in my wave. There were 3 minute gaps in between each swim start. After a SLOOOOW 45 minutes I finally made it onto shore. The rain was still coming down in full force as I slowly rambled into the swim to bike transition.

I like to think that at least 4 of the 4.5 minutes, which was the longest time I've ever had in transition, were spent pouting because of my predicament with the goggles and the realization that EVERYTHING I had was soaked. Not just wet, SOAKED through and through. I slowly dressed for the bike, wringing out each piece of clothing as I put it on. That effort, although providing me with a little comfort, proved to be fruitless as the rain made sure to make it nice and wet again within moments. And to make matters all the more awesome it was also cold. I'm sure the wind at 20mph when I actually got out on the course would do wonders for my coughing and congestion. After my 4.5 minute pity party I rolled out of T1 to Kelli yelling something, which I thought was motivational, at me. I had everyone tuned out so I didn't hear exactly what she said but after the race she told me she was busting my balls about taking so long in T1. Others from BRTri were entering and leaving transition and I was still over in my area putting on a shoe, wringing out a sock or pouting.

I mounted my bike and off I went onto the 56 mile bike course that wound through the Oklahoma City countryside. The wind and temperature were just a cold as I expected they would be. I've ridden in the rain before but today the hacking cough and sore throat made it worse! Rain stings when you get any speed and even though my arm warmers were wet and cold I was very thankful they were blocking the biting rain on my arms. The first 5 miles or so skirted Lake Hefner before turning into town. Mile 6 going out had the dismount line with the deep water covering the road just as the race director told us. Riding through that water would have been disastrous so I gladly got off my bike to bypass the water. When the course turned east and left the city within what seemed like half a mile were in the deep country. The rest of the course rolled through the cow, goat, horse, and I think I even saw some llama pastures. The hills weren't very big but when we got out on the country road there were no flat spots. You were either climbing or descending for the entire stretch. There was one spot on the course where a guy had a shovel out clearing a 2 foot path through the mud that was accumulating on the road because of the rain.

I was having trouble breathing before the turn around and had to slow down considerably. My coughing never subsided but I found it kinda amusing that my nutrition, honey, seemed to cool my sore throat when I sucked down one of the packets. I tried to let it linger in the back of my throat before swallowing and strangely enough it seemed to help considerably! I made it to the turnaround and similar to the swim, I had no choice but to haul my ass back to transition so that's what I did.

The rain seemed to subside a bit on the way back in. A spot right between my shoulder blades started to ache every time I got down in my aero bars around 5 miles from the turn around. It literally felt line someone was stabbing me with a serrated knife, twisting it around in my shoulder muscles. I sat up on my seat and spun my arms around but nothing seemed to make it go away. I guess I had a knot or something that needed to be worked out. The rest of the bike was uneventful other than the rain, the pain and the cold. The wet spot at mile 6 was gone so we didn't have to dismount again on the way back in so that was a plus.

I made it back into transition in just over 3 hours. The rain was still coming down and I was still soaked to the bone. I didn't take as long in T2. I racked my bike, grabbed my recovery drink, stopped in the port-o-joy to pee and shuffled out to the run course.

Kelli met me just out of transition. I slowed to a walk, kissed her and told her that my day wasn't going so well. I explained to her how my lungs still felt like they were burning and I was still having some problems breathing. She offered to meet me at the 2nd loop with an Albuteral inhaler. The inhaler had done wonders the day before on the drive up so I enthusiastically nodded. I was willing to take a penalty for outside assistance to prevent pneumonia or a heart attack. That penalty never came though.

The 13.1 mile run course of Redman is two loops. I ran the first 4 miles, walked a minute, ran another mile, walked a minute and pretty much kept this pattern up for the rest of the race. Had it not been so nasty outside and the running paths not covered with mud and water the course would have been really nice. There were spots where you had to choose to just splash through the water or walk through the mud. I chose the water every time. I found it like a game almost to see if I could splash the runners coming the opposite way. Anything to keep my mind off the pain. :)

Kelli met me at around 1 mile from the turnaround with the inhaler and ran with me to the halfway point. She saved my run. After I took a few breaths with the inhaler, my lungs opened up and I could BREATHE! It felt so good, and maybe it was a coincidence, but as soon as I saw her smiling face it seemed like it quit raining and the sun came out.

I ran pretty much the entire 2nd loop and walked the aid stations to hydrate and eat. The sun out was a nice change of pace but it did increase the temperature and humidity. I got to the turnaround and realized that I had just over 3 miles to the finish. I kept telling myself that 3 miles was just a short training run and then I'd be done. I increased my speed and by the last mile I was running just under 9 minute miles. I felt good as I got to the long finish line chute and put everything else I had on the pavement. I don't remember much about the finish line. I know they announced my name but I don't remember getting my finisher's shirt or getting my medal hung around my neck. What I do remember was seeing Kelli smiling ear to ear, waiting for me at the exit of the tent. She hugged and congratulated me as we walked to the BR Tri tent where I would sit down, drink and rest!

So, my time? I had a goal for this race. That goal was to break 7 hours. I ran a 7:30 at Ironman New Orleans 70.3 and a 8:15 at Wildflower 70.3. I didn't think there was any chance for a PR at Redman because of the broken goggles, the flu, the nasty weather and what I considered my poor performance on the course. Well, I was mistaken. Not only did I get a PR, I bested my time in New Orleans by over 30 minutes! My finish time was 6:57:01. I was very proud that I was able to pull that time out on a much harder course under much harder conditions than New Orleans.

So, the next race is the big one. I'm 7 weeks away from the most important race of my triathlon career. The Foster Grant Ironman World Championship 70.3 in mid November is my A-race of the year. Thanks to Will at 4th Dimension Fitness I know I will be trained and ready to perform when the date rolls around. I want to make everyone proud and have a great race. Let's just hope for great weather, no wind, no sickness and goggles that don't break!

Thanks for reading my account of the Redman 70.3 half-Ironman distance triathlon. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing (and living) it.