September 11, 2019 | Andersen Group Realty
Lake Placid Ironman – The Day After
I have completed the most physically grueling feat in all my life. A feat I knew I could complete, however I had no idea just how emotional I would be once I completed it. I saw my wife and kids and just about lost it. I have accomplished much in my life, but nothing had been put in front of me that was such a complete emotional and physical challenge, like this was. I wanted to stop more than once but continued on. Here’s what happened:
The night before the race I decided that I need to take a magnesium bath (bad idea as I had never done this before). Long story short I spent most of the night in the bathroom losing most of the hydration that I was supposed to have for race day. I got 2 hours of sleep and woke up to the feeling of my left calf starting to cramp.
In preparation for the race I told Adam Hergenrother (the person who got me to sign up to do the race) the story about what happened to me leading up to the race and he said “something like this happened to me, you’ll be fine, just drink gatorade for the entire race.” He continued to say “its all in your head, you got this, now go get it”, so I did.
I started to get some minor calf cramps halfway thru the swim. 3/4 of the way thru the swim I had to a hang onto a kayak to rest. The girl on the Kayak said “you have 500 yards to swim, you got this” and with that I took off with both legs in a full leg cramp for the finish line. After getting to my bike at the first transition my abdomen, legs and toes completely cramped up to the point where the guy next to me asked “are you ok?”. I thought to myself my body is cramping, I’m dehydrated and there is no way you can get on a bike now and crush 56 miles, but I did. This being my first Ironman, it was going to be the end of the road for me, I couldn’t do it, I had to stop..HELL NO. I’m not going to give up on myself now and let this race beat me. I’m not going to let my friends and family down, I’m not going to allow what happened to me on the bike take the “Joy” from this journey that I had prepared over 6 months for. I took some Garorlyete (sodium mix) straight into my mouth and the cramping subsided so that I could at least get my socks and bike shoes on and sprinted to the bike entrance. This cost me 18 mins of time (typically transition time is 3-7mins) Here we go….
I knew what was in store for me on the bike course, as I rode it a month before with my buddy Brad Stephens as a “preview” and I’m glad I did. Sometimes in life getting a preview of something is well worth it, it truly was in this case. I knew that I had to use every downhill to my advantage and on the Keene descent I hit 46miles an hr (the fastest part of the race). My coach told me that I had to pee on the bike so at this point I remembered “you only pee going downhill” so I did (its gross but required) as stopping takes too long. I finished the bike with the monster hills in the end and had a my cheering crew when I came into transition chanting “GO SVEN GO” it was such a rush. Coming in off the bike, my family cheering for me gave me a huge adrenaline boost and I sprinted to my transition spot leaving for the run in under 5 minutes and 30 seconds. I couldn’t stop now.
The run was brutal, I was not ready for the amount of hills I was about to encounter. I started my first 2 miles seeing people walking up one of the final hills and said to myself I’m not walking this leg of the race no matter what happens. That mindset help me along the way, running without stopping the entire way. I was thinking in the back of my mind I’m going to do this and nothing is going to stop me. My wife and daughters wrote me notes prior to my race and in one of them my daughter wrote “find the joy in this journey.” I thought about that quote during the entire run and truly did find joy in the beautiful course.
FAST FORWARD – I crossed the finish line with my entire family cheering for me. I have never had such an emotional, physical and mental challenge that I have overcome like I did on Sunday. I’m so grateful for: Courtney (coach), Ken Ballard (friend from Project U), and the other Project U guys I raced with Brad Stephens, Matt Bex, David Hill and of course Adam Hergenrother. Special thanks to Adam for pushing all of us to get every ounce of physical and mental ability to complete this race. You and the entire Project U group have help me to change my mindset and I’m so thankful to you.
I’m grateful to my family Bob and Betsy (my in-laws), Bo & Shannon (my brother, sister in-law), Caitlin and Erik (my niece and nephew). Then there is Christina (my wife) and girls Karissa, Brooke, & Paige my family that have sacrificed so much to allow me to train sometimes 6-7 hrs in a day. I’m so very grateful for the sacrifice you made to help me achieve this incredible goal I set for myself back in March. I love you all dearly and I’m so thankful that each of you could follow me on this journey. Here’s to the next journey… Stay tuned…
I’m so glad I did this race, but even more so because of the impact it has had on other peoples lives. Thank you to my friends, colleagues and family who have shared your story with me about how I have helped inspire you, these are the stories that continue to motivate and fire me up, keep them coming.
– Sven
So inspired by your finish no matter what attitude. I understand that all so well. There were races I should have quit but refused to. You have inspired me to push harder to finish my 50 state goal