Well
what can I say....it was by far the best experience of
my life and Don's too! And Matt"'s (my brother, the
other half of the support team).
OK, I lied, I was really really nervous about being
the kayak support for Don. I nervously picked out a
kayak I thought I liked and packed it with Don's food
and drink. Ten minutes later and five minutes to the
start, Jane (the race director) tells me the kayaks
have arrived by truck...."what?" I say. "I already
picked out my kayak." No, that was not for me.
Nervously, I instruct Matt to unpack the kayak and put
it in this new one. OK, OK enough about the kayak.
I get in the water and paddle
out. The support teams get the honor of counting down
10 seconds to the start (6:30am at the pier). I
immediately spot Don and he spots me. We hook up
within 200 yards....excellent. Oh yeah, I tied a
orange ribbon to the kayak with a rock attached. Well,
that didn't work so well. First it got stuck in rocks,
so I had to break it partially off and then Don got
wrapped up in the remainder....whose idea was that
anyway?!!
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—
Mel leads the way for Don
(green swimcap). Photo
courtesy of
ultramanlive.com |
OK...Don got GU2O and gu's every 15 and 30
minutes...plan was working. Except for those darn
jellyfish. Don stops and yells to me, "Mel, I got
"stung by a jellyfish." I reply, "Shut up and just
keep swimming." (only kidding...I say shut up. The
only problem with having a fellow athlete as a support
team is that their competitive instincts naturally
kick in! I realized we were in third place and I
thought second place would be a nice finish. Time to
push Don.)
I see a boat coming towards us with a swim
official. I yell to him, "Where are we?" He replies,
"The halfway point." Excellent! He then proceeds to
tell me where the one and only buoy is (at the turn
towards the shore.) As we are still in third I make a
cut inward closer to the shore and cut a line to the
buoy...second place is looking better.
As we approach the buoy (500 yards), I tell Don to
just follow me, no sighting...save that for Tuesday's
Master swimmers!! My planned worked, we were running
parallel with the second place guy....we make the turn
at the buoy and swim straight for the shore.
Not so today, third place will have to do. I'm
proud of Don, what an excellent swim!! I shake the
paddle in the air as we approach the shore to get the
crowd to cheer us and Tony (the 2nd place guy) into
shore.
It works.
We get to shore, I yell for Matt to pull the kayak
from the shore. Not part of the plan, Matt has gets
his sneakers soaking wet and I help Don to a vertical
position after being horizontal for 3:12 hrs.
Transition goes smoothly....Matt had it all set up,
excellent!! We pack the car and follow Don up Kam III
to Highway 11....the first 6 miles are straight up!! I
think I may have pushed Don too hard on the
swim....must control those competitive urges!!
After throwing up twice and one hour, Don starts to
feel good. Very tough bike course through small towns
and winding roads. Winding and climbing, ascending and
winding to the turn around. Don remains in third place
at the turn around as we head for the finish line.
About 20 miles to the finish, through a ten mile
section (no feed zone) it begins to rain. We follow
close behind and leap frog where possible to make sure
everything is fine with Don. We gave Don bottles at
the planned intervals....very smooth.
A left turn onto the Queen K, a right towards the
airport and Don reaches the finish line....8:05 hrs!!
Excellent, third place. 1 st place goes to Gordo Burne
and second place to Tony O'Keefe.
OK....get food, unpack car, go to grocery store to
replenish, make bottles for tomorrow, pack car again.
AND now, it's time for bed....and much needed
rest!!
