2003 Odyssey Triple IRON Triathlon
It Takes a Village to do a Triple Iron Distance Triathlon!
Triple iron distance triathlon-Lake Anna State Park 8th-10th October 2004
By Christine Couldrey aka Kiwi
Well, sitting here in front of the computer I realize that it has already been a whole week since Aaron and I were sitting in traffic in my little red truck on our way to Lake Anna State Park in Virginia. And, as I sit here, I realize that I am starting to regain some of the feeling in my toes (although I’m sure it’ll be another couple of weeks before the pins and needles go away), I am starting to regain mobility in my right knee despite the fact that it still feels incredibly swollen. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost my brain somewhere on the race course, I am contemplating another trip down there to find it. But despite all of the aches and pains, I also sit here with an incredibly peaceful feeling, knowing that I have completed a race that only a very small handful of people in the world have completed. And know that I have an incredible group of friends: that inspire me, encourage me, and support me, no matter how crazy they think I am!
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Here is the story of my Triple IRON distance: starting this race report is daunting, there is so much to write, so many comparisons to make with the Double IRON riathlon I did two years ago, and so many emotions to describe that I worry that I can’t possibly do it all justice!
So how did the idea of “doing the Triple” come about? Well, unlike when I did the Double two years ago and I spent 18 months of planning and getting ready for the race, my first thought that I should attempt something as crazy as the Triple came about though the loss of my Red Cross job and start of a new job, and consequently little vacation time. Not only did I spend a number of months not knowing which country I would be living in come October, but that together with the lack of vacation time, made planning for adventure racing difficult, but I still needed a challenge so there was the Triple! No great desire, just the need for a challenge. But then circumstances changed again and I found myself doing some challenging adventure races and I dismissed the idea. Unfortunately things changed again when a teammate messed up his ankle in the Mega Dose and we were forced to quit. I felt like I still needed to face up to another challenge to make up for this bad luck. So about 1 month before the Triple I committed verbally, but it wasn’t until about a week before the race that I really mentally committed to this race. This lack of commitment came with many new fears, not only was there the fear of the mental and physical pain, would I cave or not, but now also the fear of, do I want this enough to finish it?”
I felt like I was putting off the packing and sorting of all my worldly possessions that were to accompany me down to the beautiful Lake Anna State Park. Fortunately Aaron was once again going to be in charge of my support crew. We both know the drill for these long distance events, and so not much discussion was really needed, but some TLC was required the Sunday before the race when the realization that I was committed suddenly hit me!
Thursday morning, what seems like every thing I own has been sorted and packed into labeled boxes to make it easy for my support crew to find. I had written up a plan with details of how many calories/hour I needed to eat, how to mix my sports drink, how much I wanted to sleep, lists of everything I had packed, I think some would call me anal!!!! Work was challenging on this particular day, my mind kept wandering to what lay ahead of me! But finally it was time to go! And with the well wishes of my co-workers (and some discussion as to what would happen if I should end up in hospital) it was time to head down to the lake!
Traffic was horrendous (as usual) and it took longer to make the drive than it should have. Fortunately Aaron took charge and drove, my brain was pretty scattered, trying to work out why I was doing this, how would I deal with it, was I mentally strong enough, and so on.
Race brief time is great at these ultra distance races, with a total of 17 athletes (9 doing the Double and 8 doing the Triple) it’s a very different affair from the 100’s at most triathlons, folks just gather around and you sense that you are not only in the presence of some incredible athletes but these are also incredible people. Most of the field was from Europe and so who ever could speak more than one language translated whatever couldn’t be understood by other people. I had met the oldest athlete of the field, 67 year old Karl who mainly spoke German, I got to brush up on my German before doing my bit in the translation of the race brief.
Because of the traffic, it was dark before we had a chance to unload the truck and put up the tent. This would have disturbed me 2 years ago where everything had to (and did) run like clockwork. But this was a different race, I was doing it for different reasons, I had different goals, and had experienced a lot of different races since that time. Aaron and I were pretty proud of our efforts at setting up our HQ. We had a tent which bordered onto a canopy! Aaron remarked on how much better our set up got each year and we affectionately christened it “Camp Couldrey”. It was around this time that we realized just how many things we had borrowed from our friends, the canopy from the Reston Area Triathletes (thanks a lot), the tent from Aaron’s friend, the bike lights from my Adventure racing teammate Caroline (go team Standin), the CD player from my roomie Jen, and the list goes on. And Aaron being Aaron, came out with a classic line “it takes a village to do a Triple Iron Triathlon”, that is one of the most accurate statements I have ever heard! And with that it was time for me to go to bed for the last time in 3 days!!!!
Once asleep, I slept surprisingly peacefully, except for when, at around 1am there was a loud banging at the door. I didn’t even hear this first time, to me it was just something going on in a dream. But the second time I woke, and some what startled, fortunately it was simply someone who had to much to drink, and upon realizing his mistake yelled “ummmmm guys we got the wrong room”. Back to sleep.
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