Yeah, more about Zurich and the Ironman

Warning. This is my longest post ever. If you're sick of the race stuff, skip down to my personal thoughts and epiphanies.





Zurich is a very nice venue for Ironman Switzerland and I highly recommend it for a destination race. Zurich is a beautiful city, a little crowded for my taste, clean, friendly, good restaurants and hotels. The public transportation is exceptional and very timely. It’s also an expensive city. I’d guess everything is about 20 to 30 percent more costly than in the US so be aware of your budget if you go there.
The race venue is quite good and the volunteer staff was stellar. All of the race sponsored events and at the expo area had many very helpful volunteers around and most of them spoke enough English to help me feel informed and comfortable. Lake Zurich was about 73 F and is quite clean with good visibility. The swim course is well marked and the on-water support was excellent and ever present.
The transition area is self supported like a short course race with only your assigned transition spot. My transition spot had plenty of room for all my equipment and extra stuff. The bike racks are also set up and grouped according to nationality so all the American athletes were in 2 or 3 adjacent rows and our race numbers also started with the same 2 digits. Leave it to the Swiss to be so damn organized.
I really liked the bike course. It had good terrain variety, nice pavement, and volunteer support everywhere. My opinion of the bike course marshals is that they really liked American athletes and gave them extra attention. The only athletes I witnessed getting stand down penalties or getting assigned penalties were Americans. Are Americans bad at following the rules? Do we cheat? It might take me awhile to figure that out but I have to say here that I witnessed several groups of 15 to 20 European cyclists riding in peletons and drafting as if they were doing a team time trial. I heard later that these guys often say “if you’re not cheating you’re not trying.” That kinda chaps me. How do I know they were European? By their race numbers (see above paragraph).
Case in point: One of my American racing buddies was riding solo when a group of over 20 riders caught up to him and merged in so he got positioned in the middle of the pack. Seconds later, a motorcycled course marshal pulled up, flashed his yellow card at him, not at any of the other riders, and wrote down his race number. When he started the run, the officials pulled him into the penalty box for a 6 minute drafting penalty. What happened to the other 20 riders? They had a really good bike split. Shame on them. Ironmen my ass. Drafting is cheating.

The run course is 99 percent flat with very good aid stations and wonderful volunteers. Those volunteers always called my name and the variety of food and drink items was just right. Keeping track of oneself on the 4 lap run course was helped by the wrist-band station near the half way of each lap. As I passed through, I was given a specific colored wristband for that lap and it was kind of motivating to get that 4th and last band knowing I only had about 3 miles to the finish.
At the finish area I got my medal and a kiss from a cute volunteer and was then escorted to “The Athletes Garden” where I had my choice of lots of yummy food, liquids, showers, hot tubs (tepid), finish photo area, splits printout and finisher t-shirt.



Personal lessons learned and epiphanies.

Epiphany: (1): a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2): an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking (3): an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b: a revealing scene or moment.
That’s about right.

1. Having a little prayer before an Ironman is essential. Say it to whomever or whatever you want but say something that takes your mind to a different place for just a moment. My dad was a high school and college athlete and an adventure seeker all the while I knew him. He suffered many broken bones in his lifetime, 4 knee surgeries and eventually a knee replacement, spinal fusion surgery, a broken neck from body surfing in Hawaii put him in a halo brace for 10 weeks. It’s an odd twist of fate that none of those things stopped him but it was cancer that did. Yeah, that sucks. He loved hearing about my races and wanted to know all the gory details. When I was 3 years old, we were traveling Europe and Zurich was one of our stops. I carried a small capsule of my dad’s ashes throughout the race and then scattered them in Lake Zurich after I finished. He’ll be there with you too if you ever do Ironman Zurich.

2. I’ll have to try and not swallow any lake water if possible. I think that’s what turned my stomach and prevented me from following a good nutrition and hydration plan and I suffered greatly on the run.

3. Losing 11 pounds during my race was a bad thing. I weighed myself before the race; 154 pounds. After the race (and after eating and drinking); 143 pounds. That puts me losing about 8% of my body weight. Mostly fluids. Borderline extremely dangerous health risk. I will never let this happen again.

4. Cowbells and HOPP! HOPP! HOPP! are a good thing. Hearing my name being called out by spectators on the bike and run course was motivating and helped to get me through my dark moments.

5. No matter how bad I feel, someone else is feeling worse. I had sympathy for them and even pitied myself but I didn’t stop moving forward. I could always find a way to take one more step and get closer to the finish line.

6. I took training advice from the veterans in the sport and was willing to do what they suggested and did what I thought I was incapable of doing and overcame what I thought impossible. Having a good coach is paramount.
“Never give up” – Chris Legh. “Impossible is nothing, believe” – Carrie Tollefson.

7. The first time I completed a triathlon and crossed the finish line, I was no longer a cross trainer, I became a triathlete. The second I crossed the finish line at Zurich, I was no longer just a triathlete, I became an Ironman. I felt like no other time in my life mattered but that one moment, that one split second freeze-frame, one exhaled breath, one step, one blink, one heartbeat. It really did feel like a slow motion movie scene. My world stopped moving and I went deaf when I entered the finish chute and now I only have a blurry vision of hitting the finish line and being caught in the arms of my coach. That glorious moment passed quickly but the memory of that achievement will last my lifetime. All my fellow athletes have told me to “enjoy the feeling as long as you can”, “bask in the glory of your achievement”, “ride the high”. I think I’ve done just fine with that because now I’m already thinking of which Ironman to do next. I feel like I have unfinished business now and gotta do something about it. WTF is wrong with me? Stop the insanity!

I am smitten.
I’d definitely do Ironman Switzerland again…someday. But I think I’ll do Ironman Brazil, Austria, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand first.
Care to join me?