I'm going to Disneyland, er I mean, Clearwater...part two...

Here I was, I finished, my watch said I did a 4:38:03 and my name was not on the results page. I was running the situation in my mind. Did I hear a beep every time I ran over all the timing mats? Did I get disqualified for something? There was guys drafting off of me, but I didn't draft anyone, but a marshall on a motorcycle drove by and was writing down numbers, did they write down mine for some reason? Did they DQ me? If they did, I was visualizing how I was going to fight that one. I never draft period, I'm a triathlon purist. Then I was wondering if I had a chin strap violation? Nope, I can't remember it not being on.

They had great food after the race. It was sponsored by Pizza Hut and there was pizza, pasta, breads, hamburgers, chicken and even salad. I filled my plate and sat down to eat, but couldn't eat for long. I had to keep getting up, asking the guy beside me to watch my stuff and go look at the results board. Still no change. My name was not up there. This went on for at least an hour and a half. Originally, I was going to get my times and join Alice with the kids on the beach, that was an hour and a half ago. My anxiety level was on sphincter level 10. I kept asking myself "why is my name not on the race results"?

At 2 pm they have the Clearwater sign up for athletes that qualified in the top 5 for my age group. According to my watch, I'd be in the 5th and final position. I went to the table and they told me that they were still waiting for the results. They also said that the results on the board were preliminary with a lot of inaccuracies and that some of the age groups went off in different waves and that is why some times are posted and others aren't. After hearing this, I started to feel a little more hopeful. I decided to sit at a chair beside the sign up table and jokingly told the woman I was first in line. But I wasn't joking.

Eventually the result pages came and she asked me my name. She found it. Great, at least I was on the board, and then she showed me it said 4:41:16 and I finished in 8th. I panicked. I told her the results are wrong, that my watch said 4:38:03 and I should be in 5th spot. She was calm, cool and helpful and told me I need to go to the timing tent and pointed me in the direction. Now this is a big race and I had been looking for the timing tent for the past hour and a half and couldn't find it. They also wouldn't let me back into the athletes area, it's against the rules. But I was told the timing tent was there and I wasn't going to be deterred. I walked right past the security guards, didn't make eye contact and walked like I knew what I was doing. Once I got in, I still couldn't find it. I kept asking volunteer after volunteer and no one could help me. Eventually one pointed me to one of the race organizers. He heard my story, asked if an official sent me in here, I said yes (which I'm not sure if that was completely true) and he took me into the building to see the timing guy.

I told the guy my problem and showed him the time on my watch. He was mechanical in nature, "what is your problem and I will look into it". After a minute or two, he said his system is right and my watch is wrong. I had a mini discussion/argument with him, showing him the watch and asking him how could it be wrong? He then showed me his system, without the splits, that showed me the start time and the finish time. I asked him to show me the splits, I figured that would help verify. I had my Garmin that showed my run time and my bike computer showed my bike time, I wanted to make sure his run split was the same as my Garmin and my bike split was the same as my bike computer. He wouldn't show me the splits. He said the results are right, he doesn't have anymore time for this discussion and essentially in a nice way, said to F**K OFF.

I was still disheartened but was at least glad my results were on the board. Then I readjusted my mental state and said 4:41:16 is still a really good time, even though 4:38:03 sounded and felt so much better. Now it was a two hour waiting game. At 4 pm, any of the slots there were not taken by any of the first 5 finishers in my age group was going to be rolled down. For me to get in, I needed 3 of the 5 to turn down their spots. I showed up at 4 pm and they were still having problems getting the race results finalized and before they did the roll down, they had to give out the awards. Another hour passed.

Finally they got to give out the spots and they started with the women. They went through all the women's age groups. I just wanted it to go fast, so I could find out if I qualified. As they were going through the women's roll downs, one guy had a problem with something and that caused a major discussion with him and the race director. It was another anxiety filled delay. They got through that and then started the roll down on the men. Prior to the roll down, I went to the qualification table and asked the guy if he thought I had a chance of getting a spot, he asked me my name and thought I was 9th and said he didn't think so, then I pointed out that I was 8th and he then thought I had a shot at it. He said the first and second place guys had already declined the spots and all I needed was one other guy to decline and I was in.

So there I waited. In actual fact, when they got to my age group, I was so nervous, I didn't even want to know if I was chosen. It felt better not knowing, than knowing and being turned down. The one thing about my age group is that the guys have disposable income and can afford a trip to Florida. They don't typically turn the spots down for financial reasons. I figured that they were going to announce three names and if one of those people did not show up at the table to sign up, they would announce my name on the second round and I'd be in. I was focused on hearing the three names and then watching to see if only two guys showed up.

To my utter surprise, they called my name as one of the three. I couldn't believe it, how is this possible, I was 8th, I shouldn't be called until the next round. I leaped out of my chair, pulled my check out and asked where I sign and who do I make the check out to. It was the most awesome feeling knowing I was going to Clearwater and qualifying with the best race of my life. The lady at the table was happy for me, I could tell, she was the one that sent me to the timing tent. At this point, I didn't even care that my time was different than my watch, I was going to Clearwater. I called my parents right away, they weren't home, and I left a verklempt voice mail message. Sadly, I don't think I was this choked up after the birth of my kids. Although, to my defence, I have a bad memory and they were born a long time ago.

On the way back to the car, I was doing the math in my head regarding my splits and final times. I knew the swim, bike and run splits were correct. I started adding them up and then realized that the timing guy was right, his times were correct, my watch was wrong. I eventually figured out that I must have hit the stop button instead of the lap button during the transition from the swim to the bike. That actually made me feel better. I no longer had the timing uncertainty and I now had the officially qualified for the World Championships. During the race, I was thinking I was going to forgo my normal post race beer, but after qualifying I told Alice we need to celebrate. Rather than staying in Benton Harbor, we drove 3 hours closer to home and ended up in Frankenmuth. It is the coolest town, all Christmas, all the time. It has the world's largest Christmas store and authentic big German Bavarian meals. It is a must stop.

We managed to find the last room available in Frankenmuth and went for some dinner before heading back to the hotel room. We had a great family time, laughing and joking. We didn't get to bed until past 2 am and I had to keep telling the kids to quiet down. I made sure I set the alarm for 11:30 am, even though the check out is 11 am. When I got up this morning I went to check my race results online. It turns out that I finished 7th, not 8th. There must have been an error that was corrected. The reason I was called for the spot was because I was in 7th. Had I been in 8th I wouldn't have got a spot because all three of us called up took our spots. Like I said yesterday, the sun, the moon and the stars were all aligned.

I'm pretty pumped that I'm going to Clearwater. It is a once in a lifetime event. With all the new Ironman 70.3 races popping up all over the place and with the continued high level of competition, it is not, and will never be an easy event to get into it. Reid's not pumped about going to Florida for the race. As he puts it, "he hates triathlons". He'd rather stay at home and watch Youtube. He did give me a compliment however, he told me "congratulations, your finally good at something". Aren't having kids great. Today will be hanging around Frankenmuth and then driving home. I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and getting back to some healthy eating.

Steelhead Race Results & Splits

Swim- 34:03 - 1:47 /100 m (long run to the mat, my watch was 32:58 - 1:44/100 m out of the water)

T1 - 2:46

Bike - 2:27:25 / 90 km / 36.63 kph

T2 - 1:46

Run - 1:35:18 / 13.1 miles / 7:16 pace / 156 avg hr (was 7:10 on Garmin, distance 13.29 miles)

Final 4:41:16

Age Group - 7th out of 205

Overall Male - 53rd out of 1182

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