Race Morning
Talk about perfect conditions. The air temps were in the mid 60’s with a light breeze. I loaded the bus when instructed to do so and was at Sand Hollow at 5am (for a 7:20 start, ugh). T1 was logistically simple and low stress. Things ran smoothly enough that we lined up early and got in the water 10 minutes early. Haley Chura and Lisa Norden were getting out of the water as we were lining up to go in the water and I got to see them up close in action. Cool.
The Swim
And cool is exactly what the water was. The organizers said the water was 64 degrees but my Garmin said it was closer to 63 degrees. In reality the water felt great. Especially when compared to the practice swim a few days earlier which was significantly colder. I wore a neoprene swim cap and it was very comfortable. As I approached the start chute I saw Mindi Gerritsen, my wife’s cousin, who was volunteering there. I gave her a big hug and she wished me luck. As I came to the start line the volunteer controlling the start was R. Adam Lee from my tri club (Salt Lake Tri Club)! It was great to start getting encouragement from familiar faces. The start bell beeped and Adam said “Go” and into the water I went with 10 other guys. Here we go!
I started with an easy breaststroke for the first 75 yards or so and then I settled into an easy freestyle stroke. About 300 yards into it my goggles started fogging up. With the sun in front of me and the goggles fogged up I couldn’t see a thing. I was literally swimming blind. I continued like that until the first turn buoy. I then decided I couldn’t continue with my goggles like that so I swam to the side, stopped, lifted my goggles off my face and dunked my head in the lake. I then put the goggles back on and the difference was amazing. I could see! The swim was awesome and uneventful after that. A little bit of chop and cold in spots but overall an extremely enjoyable swim. With about 400 yards to go I suddenly realized I had made a rookie mistake. I forgot to turn on my bike computer!!! Idiot! Anyway, I wanted a 1:30 - 1:35 swim and I achieved 1:30. I ran like a bat out of hell to transition.
T1
This took longer than expected mostly because I had to mess around with my bike computer and wait to calibrate my power meter. Aaargh… what a waste of time. So, instead of 9 minutes it took me 13 minutes. Oh well, on to the bike.
The Bike
I started the bike with a very elevated heart rate and I immediately tried to calm down. I put on throw away gloves and pretty soon realized these were unnecessary. The other thing that was annoying is that there was something in my bike bag that smeared on my visor and I could not see very well at all. The bike was not starting well for me. I spent most of the first 15 miles cleaning my visor and then getting my gloves off and focusing on taking my nutrition. I also realized, after Nemesis Hill, that I really needed to pull it back a notch. My body was telling me early on that I was going to have to take this one a bit easier than what I had originally planned. An interesting thing was that I had already seen two bike crashes, in the first 15 miles! One thing that the elevation profile doesn’t make clear to those who have not raced on this course is that the first half of this course is not “rolling”, this sucker is full of hard bona fide hills! I actually saw a couple of people I knew from my tri club, including Andy Wade who I had swum with just a few days before. This was a nice distraction from the grind of the hills.
The wind and heat started to become a factor and my thought was “man, just the first 56 miles would be a very challenging 70.3 bike course”. My family started meeting me at different spots starting at Maverick Hill at mile 35 and this was incredibly motivating to me. I made my way to the out and back going into Washington. The wind was picking up by the minute and it was starting to make the ride very uncomfortable. Where you were supposed to get relief on the downhills instead you got wind on your face that slows everything down. The crazy part was when I got to the down hills at the start of Red Hills Parkway. I am usually flying down these hills in the 70.3. I was having to pedal just to keep moving. I couldn’t believe how windy it was getting.
My family met me at the Mile 55 aid station and it was nice to talk to them for a while and recover a bit. It’s always so refreshing to see them, especially when I saw that Charlee was having a great time being out on the course cheering the athletes on. I refilled everything and tried to eat a Cliff Bar but could only get half of it in before I couldn’t stand it. I said my goodbyes and rode on to tackle the Gunlock loop.
The stretch of road in Gunlock leading up to the Wall was actually better than expected, however the heat was definitely a factor now. It was horribly hot and I found myself stopping at many of the aid stations to get some Coke, refill, and douse myself in ice water. The volunteers in this area were very helpful and one of them even helped me clean my visor. I gave him the white volunteer wristband that I had been saving. Then, the Wall at mile 75. Holy crap, I could see the Wall about two miles out and I made sure to get myself ready for the challenge. I simply went on my lowest gear and went up nice and slow. Luckily, the wind was more of a crosswind at this point and not directly in front of us. It was a slog. Many people were walking their bikes. Once we finally made it to the Veyo Pies aid station I witnessed my third crash of the day. An elderly gentleman was so tired that he could not unclip and he went down hard right at the aid station. Many, many people were stopped at this aid station. I picked up some water on the go and moved on. As soon as I turned south to go back to St. George, a blast of wind hit me hard. This headwind would not dissipate until I was back to the entrance of Snow Canyon. However, things would soon get even more interesting for me.
I spent a lot of energy just trying to stay upright. The wind gusts were insane (it was reported they were about 30 MPH) and they were throwing me all over the place. I was going 40+ miles per hour but I had to slow down because it was so difficult to keep the bike under control. This wore me out so bad that I totally missed the turn to Snow Canyon Parkway and ended up heading to Diagonal Street. I could not believe I had made that mistake! I was so tired that all I could think of was that Snow Canyon was right of where I was at the moment so when the fork in the road came along I read the signs but they did not process and I took a right. Aaaarghhh… It kills me because I had done so much recon on this course and I knew this detail but I was just too tired and the mind failed me. The volunteers I talked to at the corner of Snow Canyon and Bluff tried to make me feel better by saying that many had made the same mistake. I then had to weave my way through cones back up to Snow Canyon Parkway. The whole process took me about 10 minutes because stopping and getting back on the bike caused me to cramp horrendously and I had to stop and take my final salt tablet (of five already consumed). It was then that I witnessed a terrible crash. A cyclist on his way to the finish miscalculated the cones and crashed right into a couple of them. He went flying right over his handlebars and crashed hard on the ground. It was terrible. Immediately volunteers rushed to his aid. I said a silent prayer for the guy and hoped that he was ok. I eventually made it back up to Snow Canyon Parkway and back to the cross winds. I then made it to… Snow Canyon.
Snow Canyon is what everybody has dreaded about this race since the course was announced. Snow Canyon comes at mile 100 of the bike. The route is not the steepest of the course but it includes some 19% grades that are challenging even without the 100 miles of accumulated fatigue that I already had. Having done Snow Canyon many times, I decided to focus on the positives: no headwind, beautiful scenery, and I currently wasn’t cramping. All my training had been focused on this moment. Eat right, train hard, be patient on the rest of the course, be strong in later miles so that I don’t cramp. The variable that was hard to prepare for was the unbearable radiant heat that was in full force. The temps were in the low 90’s and the heat was punishing us as we tried to make it up those hills. There were TONS of people walking their bikes at this point. I was so exhausted that for a while I didn’t even notice I wasn’t in my lowest gear! My plan was to do a 7 hour bike ride, at this point it became clear that I would be well above that. I put all notions of time out of my mind at that point. I just focused on doing the work in front of me. There was soooo much suffering going on right there. Many people’s races were being destroyed right there and then.
Soon enough I made it to the top. I then prepared myself mentally for the sketchy descent back to St. George and the finish of the bike. It became very clear that something was not right with me. I was bonking hard and I was starting to cramp up. I had been doing well with my nutrition plan but the heat had thrown a wrench into the whole thing. I knew I needed more electrolytes. I was out of salt tabs and the Gatorade and my sports drink were not enough. I felt so horrible that I decided to stop at the Ledges Parkway Aid Station. By the time I made it there I was in some real distress. I asked the volunteer helping if I could get me and my bike under the shade of the pop-up tent. She said it was fine. Once I made it there I rested on my aero bars and I passed out!
Luckily the volunteer was right next to me and caught me. I woke up as soon as she grabbed me but I could not stand on my own. They took my bike and helped me to sit down next to a cooler. I then started cramping horribly. They called a medic and they gave me more Gatorade Endurance to drink. Unbelievably they had no salt tabs! I downed the Gatorade Endurance and asked the medic to massage my legs, which turned out to be incredibly painful. I was there long enough to get my strength back and to witness other people stop and puke and receive attention like I was getting. After a bit I decided to get up to walk around. In situations like these you do not want to sit down or lay down for a long period of time or your race could be over. I was still a bit queasy but I decided I felt good enough to finish the last 7 miles. I loaded up on electrolytes and got out of there.
The next 5 miles were the most dangerous and horrible of the whole race. I knew this would be sketchy and I literally verbalized out loud a prayer for safety (sounds dramatic but, trust me, you would have done the same). As soon as I went over the last little hill before the course turned sharply downhill a wicked crosswind hit me hard and moved me all the way across the lane. This scared the crap out of me and made me tense up which immediately sent cramps shooting up my left leg. I was going so freaking fast all I could really do is just try to move my legs and hope the cramp went away then another monster wind gust hit. All I could do was hold on for dear life. Then my left leg started cramping as well. The pain was horrendous and there was nothing I could do. I hate admitting to this but all I could do at that point was scream at the top of my lungs. Luckily I didn’t have people close to me or it would have been so embarrassing but it was out of my control. The pain was horrible and I didn’t think I could safely stop and unclip with my legs cramping as they were, so all I could do was scream and do my best to move my legs. The wind, the cramps, the cursing and the screaming continued all the way to Diagonal Street at which point the winds subsided and the cramps finally started to go away. All I could do now was hold on to finish the last 1.5 miles to the finish.
I almost cried when I saw the dismount line. I quickly unclipped, stopped my Garmin, saved my ride and gave the bike to the volunteer and told her (or him) “please take this thing the hell away from me, thank you!” I was so happy to be free of that bike. My final bike time was 7:39, ugh, but at least I didn’t push beyond my limits, I survived, and I actually felt optimistic about the marathon. On to the change tent.
T2
I remembered exactly where my bag was and I was able to execute a fairly fast transition of about 8 minutes. The best part of the transition was that I wasn’t the only person who had a shell locked look on their face. Misery loves company. I did hear from a volunteer that Kristian Blumenfelt and Daniela Ryf won the race. These were my top picks (after Gustav Iden dropped out with illness) so it felt good to have picked the winners. On to the run…
The Run
There was an aid station in the chute leading out to the run course. I loaded up on some Gatorade Endurance, put on my race belt and started jogging out to the first of many hills on this brutal marathon. As soon as I got to the M-dot roundabout the course went steep up toward Diagonal Street. I decided to walk to make sure I could reset my body and assess the challenge ahead of me. To my surprise, I did not feel totally destroyed. This meant that although I did not handle the heat properly I definitely pulled back enough and was fit enough to have some strength left for this run. I was extremely encouraged by how I felt. I committed to stick to my original strategy for the run: keep running as long as I can hold my form, do not push it on the uphills, do all I can to push it on the downhills, walk every aid station, fuel at every aid station, and pour ice water on myself at every aid station.
Before I knew it I was at the roundabout to Diagonal. Being on a slightly flatter section of the course felt so good. I had visualized being at this very spot so many times. Also having run here soooo many times, I felt at home. I have done the 70.3 race here 4 times and the St. George Marathon, which has its last miles on Diagonal, three times. Also, my home stay (my wife’s aunt Marsha), lives right off Diagonal, so yes, I was home. I found that my running legs were coming back to me and I started executing my run/walk strategy. Soon enough I got to Marsha’s street and sure enough there she was cheering me on! She’s awesome. Seeing her lifted my spirits and I got a boost of energy.
I made my way up to Snow Canyon Parkway and was really feeling the heat taking its toll on me. I was excited to get to the top of the hill on the corner of Bluff and Snow Canyon Parkway but when I turned to go downhill the wind was blasting directly at me. I just turned my cap around and focused on my strategy: run the downhills! I’m a pretty good downhill runner and I just let gravity take its course. I only walked the aid stations going all the way to Mile 5 where I finally saw my family cheering for me. They surprised me! I thought they would be at the turnaround at Mathis Park but no, here they were at the side of the road. I decided to make a stop and get some love. It was awesome to see everybody, especially my grandbaby Charlee who looked like she was having an awesome time. I told Jolynne all about my adventure in the last 10 miles of the bike and she was horrified. The Ironman Tracker lost track of me and for an hour they all thought I had DNF’ed somehow. They were very relieved when they saw the tracker pick me back up when I got on the run. I said my goodbyes and made my way to Mathis Park and the turnaround of the first loop.
The heat of the day at 6pm was still at its peak of 92 degrees, scorching. It had been this hot ever since Snow Canyon a couple of hours back. So, coming into some shade at Mathis Park was a really welcome relief. I love this part of the course, shady green and protected from the wind. The interesting thing was that I saw a ton of people in distress at this point. People laying down on the grass, at least two people puking and one receiving medical attention. It was bizarre. I had seen a few people in distress on my way here but nothing like this. It seemed like the comfort of Mathis Park was leading some people’s minds and bodies to finally give in. I could not blame them. This was such a brutal experience for average age groupers like the majority of us out on the course. Interestingly enough this is where my Ultrarunning background came into play. In that world, the more comfy the aid station the greater the risk for you to drop out. I was having none of that, I put in a bit of a surge and got the heck out of there.
On my way back I started to get an upset stomach. This was both good and bad. Good because I wasn’t feeling nausea or terrible distress, I just needed to unload at a port-a-pottie, which was great because it meant my digestive system caught up and was back to working. It was bad because I knew it would further eat up time. At the next aid station I stopped and went to the bathroom. It did take some time for my body to do its business but wow did I feel so much better afterwards. As soon as I came out of the port-a-pottie I saw my family who were, again, frantically looking for me. They gave me a boost of encouragement and energy and I went on my way.
Other than the heat, the up-hill trip back up to Snow Canyon was on plan for me. The crazy thing was that I realized that I was running with a bike inner tube still in my jersey pocket! I dropped that sucker off at the next aid station in hopes somebody would benefit from my stupid mistake. I hated doing that (so wasteful) but I was only at mile 8.5 of 26.2 and special needs wasn’t for another 4.5 miles with a lot of those miles uphill. Besides, I did not want to stop at special needs if I didn’t have to. So off I went to make my way to the Snow Canyon climb. That climb was brutal to do in the heat of the sun but I was able to stick to my run/walk strategy even there.
Before I knew it I was back at Diagonal Street and running my way down into town. I passed the Salt Lake Tri Club’s tent and they gave a brother member some cheers and some love. Those guys were having an awesome time. It was awesome to see the energy close to the finish line but it was also gutting to see the finish line and know that I still had one more loop to do. The out and back on Tabernacle Street close to the finish line was wayyyy longer than what I expected. I did feel good enough that I skipped the Special Needs aid station. I fed off the energy of the crowd and made my way back to the 2nd loop. It was approximately 7:20 (over 12 hours from the start!) and the sun was finally lower in the sky and conditions felt cooler. It felt much more pleasant to be out on the course and that gave me hope and energy. I started feeling that a good run performance and definitely a finish were within reach. As evidence of that I started passing people that had been ahead of me for a very long time and then I kept passing people. I wasn’t racing, I was saving that for after Mathis Park. Once again I passed Marsha’s street and she was still there! She gave me a cheer and I gave her a cheer back, so awesome.
The next couple of miles were pretty uneventful and I found myself making good forward progress. It was interesting to see and pass people who I thought were on their last lap. It was motivating to see that there were many others that were with me who still had a lap to go. The temps were now getting much more comfortable and the sun was slowly going down. I was still seeing people in distress on the course. Some by themselves lying on the ground and trying to recover and others receiving medical attention. I did converse with a few people and the consensus was “this course is absolutely insane”. Many veterans of Ironman, like myself, unequivocally agreed that this was the hardest course they had ever done, and the race wasn’t even done!
Pretty soon I found myself at the corner going to Mathis Park again and my family was there again. It was so good to see them there and I was surprised to still see Charlee there. It was 8:15 pm by then, which was bedtime for her (she’s 3 years old) but there she was having a grand old time cheering the runners on and bringing a smile to my face. Here’s a funny Charlee story from the race: Nikki and Kevin kept telling Charlee to cheer on the runners and she kept telling people “Go you green guy!” or “Go you red girl!” depending on the color of the kit the athlete was wearing. Charlee’s favorite color is pink and an athlete came walking by wearing a pink kit. Nikki told Charlee to tell the athlete “Pink makes you go fast!”. Well, what came out was “Hey pink go fast!”. The poor woman who was clearly suffering turned to Charlee and with a very sad face said “I’m trying!”. Poor Nikki ended up having to rephrase Charlee’s cheer to the suffering woman. LOL. All spectators and volunteers actually looked like they were having a great time. This course was definitely spectator friendly. It was very much like the Boston Marathon in that sense. There were lots of families having a great time cheering us on and it was awesome to have their support.
I got back to the Church aid station, which was the 5 miles to go mark, and I decided to run through the aid station and only walk on the uphill out and back. As I got to the aid station I heard they were offering broth. It was now dark and it definitely wasn’t cold yet but the thought of broth sounded like a great idea. I took some of the broth and it was such a great change of taste and went down really well. I finally got to the hill and I ended up talking with an athlete from Minnesota. The guy, like many others on the course, was shell shocked at how difficult this course was. He had participated in Kona before and he said Kona was child’s play compared to this course. I hung out with him for a while until the turn-around. At that point I said goodbye and I ran down the hill as fast as gravity would take me.
I have always felt pretty good running at night and this was no exception. I felt a pretty good bump of energy and I was able to power down that hill. The crazy thing was that for a long time now almost everybody on the course was walking. I have done 4 other Ironman races (and seen many others on Facebook) and I have never seen so many people almost exclusively walking. This was something that after the race Jolynne and my family commented on, that after about 7pm pretty much everyone was walking. This meant that I basically was passing everyone. Every once in a while I would get into a leap-frogging series with somebody but I ended up passing them. One thing that was super useful in this race that I have never seen (or noticed) before were the lit up course markers from Hoka. These markers were about six foot tall, light blue, inflatable balloons with the Hoka logo that marked the distance of the course. At night these tubes were lit up and made for awesome targets for breaking up the run.
I would see one of these Hoka markers in the distance and use it as a target for when to take my walk breaks. I would then pick some other random marker until I got to the next Hoka marker. It was very motivating and a good way to break up the course, especially the uphills. There were parts of the course on the trail that were very dark and I was loving it. I like it when the senses are dulled and all I have to do is focus on moving forward. Pretty soon I got back to Snow Canyon Parkway, the last (and steepest) hill on the marathon. By that point I was determined to finish this sucker as soon as possible. It was slightly after 9pm and I had over 4 miles to go. I had no idea how long I had actually been out on the course but I did not want to cross the line after 10pm. There was no reason for this other than the fact that 10pm just sounded ridiculously late and I needed a target to motivate me. I decided I would not stop at any more aid stations and that after I got to the top of Snow Canyon Parkway I would not walk at all until I got to the final out and back on Tabernacle right before the finish line.
This was the funnest part of the whole day. I was hurting and beyond tired but I knew I would finish and I knew I had enough energy in me for a strong push. I started passing everyone. Mind you I wasn’t moving fast but faster than everybody else up that hill. Once I made it up to Bluff it was all downhill from there. I gritted my teeth and started to run. I was actually jogging fairly slowly down that hill but it felt like I was flying. I passed many people that had been well ahead of me for most of the marathon and that gave me even more energy. However, there was something that really was heartbreaking. There were many people who were just making their way up to Snow Canyon Parkway who I was pretty sure were not going to finish. They were pushing with all their might but moving so slowly that it would take a small miracle for them to finish on time. I have felt that feeling of desperation before and I said a prayer in my heart for them, that if a miracle was an option that it would be granted to them.
The Finish
Going down Diagonal was horrendously painful on my feet and quads. I was trashing my legs but by that point I did not care. I was finishing this race. Between the 70.3 and the St. George Marathon I had been in this same spot at least 7 times before as I closed out epic races, and this was no exception. Diagonal is where you put it all out there and commit to finishing strong come what may.
I couldn’t believe it but I came up on a guy from my tri club that had been way ahead of me that I thought was definitely done by now. As I passed him I could tell that he was going to try to stay with me. This was great because it gave me some competition leading to the finish to help keep me motivated. I finally got to the Dragon roundabout and then the course went sharply downhill towards the finish line. My legs were like jelly by now but the crowds were now thick on both sides of the course and this gave me strength to keep up the pace. I could clearly hear Mike Reilley at the finish line but this cruel course had one more test in the out and back on Tabernacle. I made the left turn on Tabernacle and the course flattened out and with it my momentum. However, I kept jogging. I could feel the wind had really picked up significantly and it was currently at my back so I decided not to walk until after I had made the turnaround at which point all that wind would be right on my face. The guy from my tri club ( I later learned his name is Jim Cory, super nice guy) passed me at this point. For all I knew he was already minutes ahead of me since I didn’t know what age group he was in and had no clue when he went into the water. But none of that mattered; he was the motivation I chose to keep me moving. I tried to stay with him and closed the gap. We got to the turnaround and the wind just hit me like a wall. Another cruel reminder of the brutal nature of this course all the way to the finish. I started walking and so did Jim up ahead of me. I took a minute to collect myself and muster up all the energy I had left. NO MORE WALKING! It was all running from now on all the way to the finish. I caught up to Jim and passed him. People on the sidelines were cheering us runners like crazy and I could see the M-dot turnaround and the hot corner. I heard my name being called at the hot corner. I then took a left turn and onto the red carpet. I raised my hands and clapped a few outstretched hands. I could hear Sofia and Jolynne cheering for me but I couldn’t see where they were in the crowd. The carpet then went up to the finishing arch and I heard Mike Reilley say “Jose Jimenez, from Herriman, Utah. You are an Ironman!!!” I did it!!! Other than my 100 mile ultramarathon I have never been so close to a DNF but screw that, I did it. I finished Ironman St. George!
The volunteers at the finish line were the happiest people I had seen all day. Everyone was so kind and congratulatory. The crazy thing was that the volunteer that led me away from the finishing arch was the same volunteer that sent me into the water at the start of the day: R. Adam Lee from our tri club! Man, it was good to see a familiar face there. Then another volunteer placed a massive medal around my neck. I was super happy to get the medal but I also discovered that my neck was horrendously sunburned. Wearing that medal hurt! It was such an appropriate way to finish an Ironman in St. George.
The Finish Line Area Experience
After getting my medal I got a nice Ironman Gatorade towel, my race shirt and my race hat. I immediately put on that race hat and then went to get my finish line picture. The finish line area had great food but not great choices for drink. All they had to drink was water, Coke, Gatorade and Athletic Brewing Beer. I had been drinking Coke, Gatorade and water for hours and I just couldn’t stomach a non-alcoholic brew right at that moment (although it sounds awesome as I write this). So I did the sensible thing and got a Gatorade but what I really wanted was some juice, any juice! They had pizza and Chick-fil-A to eat but I just couldn’t stomach it. So, after sitting for a while I hobbled my way to get my bags and then made it out to the family meet-up area.
I finally was with my family! They were so nice to me. I really couldn’t walk all that much so we hung out in front of the giant screen where they were showing the finishers coming in and I just laid on the ground where Charlee covered me with a towel and with some shirts that were laying around. Laying there on the soft grass debriefing the race with my family was such an awesome way to finish the day.
Emotions really came rushing in at that point. I remember the horrible feeling of disappointment I felt when they canceled the original Ironman St. George series after the crazy 2012 race. I was devastated because I had the opportunity to race but I just didn’t feel ready and then the full Ironman was … gone. That really had been a horrible disappointment for me for many years until they announced in 2019 that the full Ironman would be back in 2020 and then every three years thereafter. I signed up immediately. And then … COVID. IM St. George was postponed and then it was canceled and then I was moved to IM Texas and then that was canceled twice. And then finally I made it back on the entry list to IM St. George 2022. And then, a nice reward for 10 years of waiting, IM St. George was turned into the 2021 Ironman World Championship and I was signed up for it. I have to say that the way I felt at that finish line, celebrating with my family, was worth all the waiting, disappointment, training and suffering. I love this sport and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to do it in a place I love, with people I love and on the biggest stage imaginable.
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