Chris Hutchison – Ironman California 2022 – Race Recap
Chris Hutchison
Ironman California 2022
Race Recap
I trained like crazy for this day. I hired a coach to really do this right and get me ready for what was to be the hardest thing I had ever done. My coach, Tom Mossman of Go the Distance multisport (GTD), was fantastic (seriously, if you ever need a coach with a ton of experience, hire Tom!). We met in June and discussed what my goals were. He assigned training to me over the course of about 4 months, as I was already trained up already, having just finished Ironman 70.3 Hawaii. The training got harder and harder as it went along. I was waking up at 4:45am on weekdays to get my 2 to 3 hours of training in before work. My weekends were eventually filled with very long bike rides, very long runs (sometimes both) plus swimming. Mondays and Fridays were my rest days where I did yoga, stretching, foam rolling, Theragun and/or Normatec. I hardly saw Cheryl and the boys some days. But this is what I signed up for, and Cheryl and the boys knew what I was trying to accomplish and were so supportive and patient along the way.
Packing for an endeavor like this was a task in and of itself. Lots to think through and prep for and triple check -- everything I’d need not only for a 5-day “vacation” but then of course all things swim, bike, run, nutrition, etc. etc. I dropped the kids off at my parents’ house and then finished packing late Wednesday evening and felt pretty good that I had everything done.
Cheryl and I drove up to Sacramento on Thursday for the race which was on Sunday. My parents and Cheryl’s Mom were able to watch the boys while we were away and my sister was able to check in on our cats. Murray checked into “camp”.
We arrived in Sacramento around 3pm and checked into the Embassy Suites Sacramento Riverfront which was right on the river I’d later be swimming in on race day. It was a great location – close to both the transition area at Sutter Health Park and the finish line at the California state Capitol down the street. My good friend and training partner, Winnie and her husband Matt were already checked in. My coach and his wife Cari, along with a fellow GTD team member, Naomi, were also at the same hotel. Cheryl and I met Winnie and Matt and walked down to Ironman Village to take part in my favorite thing about Ironman weekend, the shopping!
After spending too much money, we headed back to the hotel to unpack and unwind. The four of us then treated ourselves to a delicious meal at Morton’s Steakhouse where we indulged in so many yummy things. So, so good!
After getting back to the hotel, I noticed a total of eight nasty mosquito bites on my feet, ankles, legs and back which I must have gotten on Wednesday evening while dropping the boys off at my parents and/or packing up Cheryl’s car that night. Yay, another thing to think about and deal with!
Friday was a day I needed to do a 1 hour run, so I got that accomplished early in the morning while Cheryl, Winnie and Matt went for a walk and then went to breakfast. I was able to run some of the race course, which was nice to get my bearings.
I later met everyone for breakfast at the hotel. We then walked down the street to Ironman Village for an 11am Athlete Briefing where the race organizers go over all the important details for race day and everything leading up to it. I also met up with fellow GTD teammates, Sean, Naomi, Anthony, Howard, Maria and Robert, along with coach Tom. The plan was to all check-in to the race together so we could get bib numbers right next to each other, thus allowing us to rack all together in transition. After waiting in a decently long line, we got checked in and then were immediately funneled back into the Ironman Store, where I spent a little more money!
The team then disbanded for the afternoon and we would meet back up later for a team dinner. That afternoon, Cheryl, Winnie, Matt and I ate at Il Fornaio and had some delicious Italian food for lunch.
After that, we headed back to the hotel for a little rest. Cheryl and I then met up with the GTD team at a great Mexican restaurant called Tequila Museo Mayahuel.
All the GTD athletes were there with their spouses and we enjoyed a lovely meal together and talked a little bit of race strategy and logistics before taking a team picture and headed back to our hotels for the evening.
But the evening wasn’t over as coach gave us “homework” that night – to get our bikes and bike & run gear bags packed and ready to go for Saturday morning. For big events like this, you have to pack all of your belongings into 5 separate bags and really think through what needs to go into each one. Cheryl is always super helpful as I read things off to her and check things off a list to make sure I’m not forgetting anything. After getting all that done, we went to bed.
Saturday, I met up with the GTD team for a quick brick – a 30-minute bike ride followed by a 30-minute run, on the race course. Things felt good for me although I somehow got a cut on the back of my left calf during the ride – must have been a rock or something. A little bit of blood never hurt anyone! We then checked our bikes and bike and run gear bags into Sutter Health Park which served as the transition area for the entire race. It was a really awesome venue and probably the coolest transition for any race I had ever done prior.
The only bummer was that even though the entire GTD team (and Winnie) checked in at the same time at athlete check-in and we go sequential bib numbers, half of the team ended up racked at the other end of the ballpark field. A few of us were at the other end, as the racks ended with certain numbers and then needed to start again on the other side. After checking everything in, we all walked over to the swim exit at the river to see what the transition from swim to bike would be like. It was quite a long distance, more than any race I had been a part of previously, but it felt good to check it out and mentally prepare for what would come on race day.
I got up around 2:45am, before my alarm, and started to prep for the long day ahead. I had planned to meet Winnie in the hotel lobby at 4:45am so we could walk over to transition together, but I had some stomach issues (surprise, surprise), so we ended up meeting around 5am. I woke up Cheryl to kiss her goodbye and tell her I loved her before I headed out. Matt was also up too and walked over with us. We dropped off our run personal needs bags (things you may need around the halfway point of the marathon) and then our bike personal needs bags (things you may need around the halfway point of the bike ride) and then headed into Sutter Health Park to get everything set up in transition.
After the team was all set-up, we headed to get on a bus which would shuttle us to the swim start up river. The problem was, once we got in the long line, it barely moved. The team got disbanded a bit, as we tried to make our way forward to see if there were separate lines for the bus for athletes vs spectators. Winnie and I were able to stay together and apparently got a good distance ahead of the rest of the GTD team. We were texting each other throughout the line to give updates and see where everyone was. The line just didn’t move. We found out later that initially they were letting athletes and spectators on the bus at the same time and then realized shortly thereafter, that there was no way they’d be able to get all the athletes to the start line unless they held the spectators back. Even so, we waited such a long time to get on a bus. It was dark, cold and windy. Those of us in line together tried to make jokes about the situation to pass the time. It got later and later. The swim was supposed to start at 7am and they were attempting to get the last athletes in the water by 8am. That was never going to happen at this point.
Winnie and I finally got on a bus and got to the swim start where people were already lining up to get in the water. Apparently the first person in the water was at 7:30am (instead of 7am). Winnie and I quickly changed, got into our wetsuits, dropped off our morning clothes bags (which they’d bus to the finish line for us to pick up later) and then got into line.
I distinctly remember hearing Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” playing over the loudspeaker which helped take my mind off of all the stress of trying to get to the swim start on time. We walked down a steep hill to the swim start and Winnie pointed out that the clock time was around 7:40am when we were about to get into the water. We gave each other a fist bump and off we went on a 2.4-mile swim.
We first started in the American River. It was cold. We had to swim out to a single buoy and then make a left turn to head down river. My biggest fear in open water swims is getting swam over by other athletes. The river was wide enough that there was plenty of space for everyone to swim. I think this really helped me stick with my pace since I didn’t constantly have to readjust. This was by far the longest swim I had ever done in a race (previous was 1.2 miles). I just kept telling myself “just keep swimming” like Dory from Finding Nemo. Other than the cold feeling in the water, I felt pretty good. The American River then transitioned to the Sacramento River. At this point, it was a bit of chaos. Because the current was luckily moving down river (meaning faster swim times), it was extremely difficult to make the transition from one river to the next. They had buoys that you had to swim around in order to not get penalized or disqualified, but it was super hard to get around one of them in particular because of the current. I basically had to swim up river and fight the current just to get around the buoy. Everyone else was doing the same, so it just resulted in a lot of people swinging their arms and legs around in the same small area – not fun! After finally making it past that buoy it was pretty smooth sailing from there. I saw the swim finish ahead and positioned myself into one of the three exit ramps until I was “beached”. Then I stood up, got my bearings and then kept going. My total swim time was 59 minutes and 52 seconds, way better than I had expected.
There was a decent sized dock/ramp to get up and wind around to get up onto the pathway area that would get us back to the Sutter Health Park transition area. After that, they had “wetsuit strippers” which are basically folks that will help you out of your wetsuit, which is so very helpful. After the volunteer got my wetsuit off, I held it in my arms and headed towards transition. The race organizers had told us that most of the way would be carpeted and what wasn’t carpeted would be “clean” and swept. Well low and behold, none of it was carpeted! I saw Matt standing on top of a statue as he yelled out to me. I then saw Cheryl shortly thereafter who gave me a little encouragement and then off I went, barefoot.
I couldn’t feel my feet at all since the water was so cold and maybe that was a good thing as I didn’t feel the pain of running barefoot on the ground for such a long time. The distance from the swim exit to the transition area ended up being a little over 1 mile, which was the longest transition I had ever experienced in a race. On the way up to the baseball stadium, I was greeted by my friend and fellow triathlete, Colette VanMierlo-Wheeler who came to cheer me on. After a quick high-five, I kept going. I entered the park, found my blue bike bag and carried it down to the field area where my bike was. They had changing tents for us but I decided to bypass, as I wasn’t planning to fully change my clothes. I got to my bike area, sat down on the ground and dumped the content of the bike bag onto the ground. I then shoved my wetsuit, swim camp, goggles and earplugs into the bike bag. As quickly as I could (while cold), I got all my bike stuff on, sprayed myself down with sunscreen and then headed to the “bike out” area to start the ride. My total T1 transition time was 22 minutes and 5 seconds.
I headed out on the bike. The course was set up to go out 28 miles, turnaround for 28 miles and then do it all again until you got to 112 miles. The first 28 miles I felt pretty good. It was windy but it was mostly at my back, giving me a tailwind. There were definitely times where I made a turn and then all of a sudden there were crazy cross winds which felt very unsafe. I would long for the next turn so the wind was at my back again. By the time I made it to the 28-mile turnaround, I was averaging about 21mph, which I was pretty happy with.
Then the tight turnaround and all of a sudden, it was chaos. The wind was so strong. I had never ridden in anything like this before. I later found out that the wind was up to 30mph with gusts in the 40mph range. I kept pedaling but felt like I was going nowhere. When the gusts would come, I felt like I was going to die. I kept hearing my coach in my head saying “stay calm and relaxed in the wind” but it was so hard. I was gripping my handlebars so tightly. I’ve never quit in a race or come close to wanting to quit but after about 2 miles in the wind after the turnaround, I was having serious thoughts of quitting. I honestly felt like I was putting my life in jeopardy by continuing. But I quickly got rid of those thoughts and told myself to just take it one mile at a time and that things should get better on the next turn. So I put my head down and just kept pedaling. I wasn’t able to properly keep up with my nutrition or hydration plans because I had fear of taking even one hand off of the handlebars. I had to wait for the next turn to then get liquid and food into my system. Then the next turn would come and I knew it was going to be bad again, and so on and so forth. I battled the crazy winds all the way back to the turnaround at mile 56. This is where our bike personal needs bags were. I pulled over to an awesome volunteer who found my bag and opened it up for me and asked me what I needed. She was surprised that I didn’t have much in there – just a bag of peanuts, a clifbar and some sunscreen spray. She opened the peanuts for me and I started to eat them while she offered to spray me down with the sunscreen. I put the clifbar in my back pocket, threw some more peanuts down and then headed back out. It was so nice – even if brief – speaking with someone so nice after dealing with the last 3+ hours of anguish. Mentally, I knew what was ahead as I had just done it. I tried to go as fast as I could on the next 28 miles, dealing with the crosswinds on the few turns. I told myself, I knew it was going to be bad the last 28 miles but that I could do it, because I had just done it a few hours earlier. I got to the turnaround and the chaos started all over again. I tried to stay as calm as possible and just keep pushing. I saw Sean on the other side of the road on one stretch and yelled out to him. I later saw coach Tom but didn’t realize it until after he went by, so I didn’t get a chance to yell out. I finally made it back to transition alive and had never been so happy to get off of my bike and start a run. It was the hardest, and longest bike ride I had ever done in my life, by far, but I did it. I was so happy to see Cheryl as I headed into T2 transition. I yelled out to her “that sucked” to which later I found out that she thought I said “shut up” lol. Even though I am a much better cyclist than my time showed, given the weather conditions, I was okay with my bike time of 6 hours, 42 minutes and 54 seconds.
I walked my bike into transition, exhausted. My feet hurt from my cycling shoes, but again, I was so happy to not be on my bike saddle anymore, that I was in decent spirits. I headed to my spot, racked my bike, grabbed by red run gear bag and dumped all the contents onto the ground. I sat down and took all my bike gear off and shoved it into my run gear bag then proceeded to get all my run stuff on, spray myself with some sunscreen and then head off for a marathon. My total T2 transition time was 17 minutes and 3 seconds.
After about a mile or so into the run, I saw Cheryl again, as she gave me some more encouragement and ran alongside me for a few seconds while taking video/pictures. This definitely brightened my spirits.
I said “see you later” and then kept going. My routine during the run portion is to settle into my pace and then at each aid station, stop and walk to get water and food into my system and then start running again. This is what I did for the majority of the marathon.
After around 8 miles, I saw Cheryl again at a different spot. She gave me more encouragement, a big smile and some more running alongside me until I took off again and said “only 18 more miles to go!”. I was feeling pretty good at this point and had some decent energy even after having already raced for hours and hours.
I got to my run personal needs bag at around mile 10.5. I had stashed a headlamp, a long sleeve running shirt and some extra nutrition. A friendly volunteer found and opened up my bag. I took the headlamp out and put it on under my hat, decided to leave the running shirt (which would later get donated) and took the nutrition with me. I kept running into Discovery Park which we all knew ahead of time was a location with a large homeless population. I’m sure the race organizers did what they could to make it safe for us, but it was definitely a little sketchy at times. As the sun went down and it was now dark, I turned my headlamp on. Mine had settings for white LED light or red. I chose red because I had heard that it was the courteous thing to do so that you didn’t blind other runners coming from the other direction. Well I felt like I was one of the only ones who did this, as I was majorly blinded by oncoming white lights. I just kept trying to run with my head down as much as possible, trying to focus on my red light and the road directly in front of my feet, but it was really difficult to do. There were also tree roots and other obstacles on the ground that I narrowly missed and luckily didn’t trip over in the dark. There was a crazy barking dog around mile 16 that sounded like it wanted to eat us all (I later found out that someone got bit). It seemed liked forever on this section of the run course. I finally made it out of Discovery Park around mile 19. There were then some street lights and other lights which made it easier to see. I took my headlamp off and stashed it in my back pocket and kept going. By this point, it was dark, cold and windy. I slightly regretted not taking my long sleeve running shirt (but I made the choice because I wanted to proudly display by GTD kit at the finish line). This point of the course was super quiet, with no spectators as we made our way back to downtown near the Capitol – a few other runners here and there but pretty quiet. I didn’t know the course well enough to know how long I’d be on each street, so I just followed the signs and tried to remain positive. I finally got back to “civilization” around mile 22 where spectators once again lined the streets and were cheering, giving encouragement, holding signs, etc. I remember seeing some spectators holding a sign that read “Happy 44th Birthday, Ironman”. I yelled out to them that it was also my 44th birthday to which they all cheered loudly! I saw Cheryl again and was so happy to see her and know that I was almost done and that becoming an Ironman was only a few miles away and within reach.
The course had us do two laps around the Capitol and then on the third, you would enter the finisher chute to the finish line. It was very confusing and I later found out that some people only did 1 or 2 laps and then went to the finish. Luckily, Cheryl knew what I had to do and told me. Those last few laps were miserable as I just wanted to be done, but I kept going. I was hungry but when I tried to eat, I felt nauseous so I just kept to liquids the last few miles. I saw Matt on the second lap who gave me a loud “woooo” to which I replied with the same – that definitely gave me some extra energy. Finally, on the last lap, I entered the finisher chute and found Cheryl, gave her a kiss and told her I loved her. Then I headed to the brightly lit finish line where I heard the famous Mike Reilly announce the words I had been waiting to hear “Chris Hutchi(n)son, you are an Ironman!”. I got a “way to go, Chris” as well.
I did it. I finished. I am an Ironman. Wow!
My total run time was 5 hours and 22 seconds.
I got my medal and finisher shirt, some water and a space blanket and was then ushered to the photographer taking our pictures at the end, for which I got this:
I then saw Matt who congratulated me and pointed me in the direction of the Mrs. I caught up with Cheryl who was on Facetime with my parents and the boys. I could barely hear them amongst all the chaos but it was so nice to see all their faces and to see how happy they were for me. Cheryl then snapped a quick pic of the finisher:
My total time for the race was 13 hours, 22 minutes and 15 seconds. Before the race, I was hoping to finish somewhere between 13 and 14 hours (but secretly, just under 13 hours would have been sweet). Given the weather conditions, I was so very happy with my finishing time.
Cheryl had already gotten my morning clothes bag for me which had my sweatshirt and sweatpants and shoes from the morning. I quickly found a place to sit and change, Cheryl helping me the whole time. I ripped my running shoes off as I wanted to be done with them! I got my warm clothes on and my morning shoes and just sat there trying to take it all in and recognize the accomplishment. Cheryl had a Cherry Coke waiting for me which tasted oh so good. I realized that I was supposed to get a finisher hat and flag but they didn’t give it to me so Cheryl went over and got that for me and came back. She then hopped on the phone and ordered me some food from the hotel restaurant and we took the oh-so-long walk back to the hotel. Cheryl helped me and held my hand the entire way as I was in a lot of pain. Matt also walked with us and the three of us talked about the race and I asked where Winnie was on the course. We finally got to the hotel. Matt parted ways and Cheryl and I went to get the food. It wasn’t ready yet, so I went up to our room to shower and then sit down while Cheryl waited for it. That burger and tots was so delicious! During the race I had really only taken in gels, gummies, clifbars and stroop waffles, so this was the first “real” food I had had all day. So gooood!
As I ate and worked on some race recovery, I went to the Ironman Tracker app to see how Winnie and all my other teammates did or were doing and continued to track them up until Winnie finished around 12:30am on Monday. I shot Winnie a quick congratulatory text and then decided to go to bed after having been up for about 22 continuous hours. I went to bed a happy man; an Ironman.
That night’s sleep wasn’t great, but I didn’t care. I was still riding the high of the accomplishment from mere hours earlier. Cheryl offered to go grab me breakfast and I ate in bed.
Winnie swung by and we put on some temporary tattoos I had of the Ironman logo. Maybe a sign of real things to come…
We then packed up and got on the road to head home. Cheryl so kindly drove so I could relax as much as possible. What a whirlwind 5 days!
I have so many thank yous to dish out so here it goes…
· To my coach, Tom Mossman: thank you for getting
me to the finish line. Your expertise
and training made a huge difference in my life.
Headed into the Ironman, I was in the best shape of my life and I owe it
all to you.
·
To the Go the Distance team: it was a pleasure
and honor to meet you all and race with you at IMCA. The camaraderie I felt all weekend was
fantastic and it made the event that much more special. I look forward to training and racing with
you in the future.
·
To my buddy, Winnie: thanks for being my race
partner in crime, always travelling to new places and trying new races. I appreciate the push to sign up for IMCA
2022 and I’m so happy we both finished (your third!). I look forward to all our races next year and
into the future.
·
To all my friends and training partners in the
triathlon community: you are all what makes this sport so awesome. Thank you.
·
To my sister, Brynn: thank you for always
watching our pets for us when we go out of town. Couldn’t have done it without you.
·
To my mother-in-law, Janine: thank you for
always taking such good care of our boys (and pets) while we are gone. I very much appreciate it.
·
To my Mom and Dad: thank you for taking care of
the boys while we were away and for always being willing to do so, so I can
live out my triathlon dreams. Even
though I know it makes you sick to your stomach (Mom), I appreciate all the
love and support.
·
To my boys, Dylan and Evan: thank you for being
patient with me while I had to train so much and I wasn’t home as much as
normal. I know you think this is just
what I do, but I hope that my training, follow-through and hard work show you
that anything is possible, as you become young men out in the real world.
·
And last but certainly not least, to my
beautiful wife, Cheryl: I couldn’t have
done any of this without you. Like none
of it. You were the rock holding
everything down at home while I was training hours on end for months and
months. You pushed me to sign up for
IMCA and believed in me that I could do it.
You gave me encouragement on days where I didn’t feel like training or I
was exhausted. And you were absolutely
the best “Sherpa” a guy could have asked for race weekend. You were everywhere I needed you to be, you
got my bike and gear back to the hotel room before I was even done with the
race so I could just focus on racing.
You gave me encouragement and love while I was out on the course. You were the last bit of encouragement to get
me to that finish line in my last laps around the Capitol. And you took care of me and brought me back
to the hotel and got me everything I needed that night and drove us home the
next day. I seriously couldn’t have done
it without you. I love you so much.
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