DNF - The Whole Story

Guys,
First off congrats on everyone's finish, you guys posted some impressive times and it was great having the blog and spreadsheet to see other peoples training numbers throughout the season.

I never thought I would DNF a race, but I learned this weekend it can happen, and as frustrating as it is in the moment, it isn't the end of the world. I could give lots of excuses for the failure, but my lack of preparation was the reason, so I solely blame myself for my DNF this weekend. I'm not writing this post as a justification, but rather to help others avoid the same mistakes I made, and because I assume some of you are wondering, "Whats the deal with Honey Stingers DNF?". So here is the full story.


Failure to Plan:
Everyone says you should train with the same nutrition as whats offered on the course. However I thought I had an iron stomach because I have always been able to take in whatever sports drink (Gatorade, Hammer, etc.) and other food offered on a course without problems. So I always train and start my races with Hammer Heed in the water bottle and Honey Stinger for chews, gels, and waffles. However when I exhaust that nutrition I just use whatever is offered for each race. This weekend was my first time using Ironman PERFORM and apparently my stomach did not agree with it one bit.

How it went down:
I drank my first Heed water bottle (and water) until I ran out (mile 32) and I then switched to Perform. After my first bottle of Perform I felt very nauseous and couldn't eat or drink anything for almost an hour. Fortunately it was still cool outside, I caught it early, and I stopped at the aid station just past Veyo to get rehydrated, and I then switched to my second bottle of Heed (wasn't sure my stomach issue was due to the Preform at that point).

Everything was good again until around mile 70 when I was out of Heed and I took down another bottle of Perform. Again my stomach shut down and I felt terrible, but it was much hotter at that point and I went almost an hour (including up 'the wall') without eating or drinking much of anything.
I knew things were getting bad but I thought if I could get back to the final aid station past Veyo I could again rest, get hydrated, and do the rest of the race with gels and water. However, on the climb up to the aid station at about mile 92 I stopped sweating, lost feeling in my limbs, started hyperventilating, dry heaving, and was on the verge of passing out. I got off my bike and rested/sipped water for about 30 minutes hoping to recover, but I was too far gone at that point and couldn't get my breathing stabilized or my stomach able to handle anything more than small sips of water. I walked over to a nearby car and after another half hour of no improvement I decided it was over for me (toughest, most emotional call of my life). Fortunately, there was another guy already there in the same condition, so they had already called for the SAG wagon.

The rest was pretty mundane but we picked up people until the van was full (mostly people with dehydration and/or heat exhaustion) and then headed back. We stopped at a cyclist who was hit on the course by a confused elderly lady who wondered onto the course and then hit the cyclist from behind. By the time I got back to the start line I was feeling both physically and emotionally much better.

I suppose everyone has a bad race at some point and Ironman St. George was my bad race. When I heard the stories of others in the SAG I realized it wasn't the end of the world for me, I wasn't racing for a special cause, I have already done an Ironman distance tri, and this certainly isn't my last tri. I've always enjoyed the half Ironman distance over the full and I think that will be my focus going forward. I am still very jealous/disappointed that this weekend I didn't get to hear the words, "Congratulations Jason Miller, you are an Ironman."

Take Aways:

1. If a new product is going to be offered on the course, be sure to spend some training time with that product.
2. Take responsibility for your successes and failures. For everyone else in the SAG their present situation wasn't their fault, the weather was too hot, the elevation was too high, their goggles were kicked off so it threw them off mentally, etc. I was tempted to blame my situation on that dang Perform, but at the end of the day it was my failure to train with it ahead of time and/or bring enough of my own drink.
3. If things start to go south during a race, take care of it earlier rather than pushing through until it is too late. I am sure that if I had stopped at the aid station before Veyo and gotten things under control I would have at least finished the race, it wouldn't have been my fastest splits, but at least I could have finished.