My Very Lucky Day at Ironman Puerto Rico 70.3 – Surviving a Drive-by Shooting enroute to Austria.
Apparently this race changed its name somewhere along the way since it was the San Juan 70.3 when I last did it in 2012. This was the 5th edition of the race which features a lagoon swim, a mostly flat bike ride, and a very hot and hilly run. My goal was to place in the top 5 and be in striking range for a rolldown slot to the World Championship 70.3 in Austria on 30 Aug 2015. I came in third, but little did I know when I started just how lucky I was going to be this day.
When I last raced here in 2012 I came off the bike with a sizeable lead but I was cooked and suffered terrible leg cramps throughout the run eventually being passed. I dialed it back this time and managed to go faster by going slower on the bike. Here are my results from the two races for 2012 and 2015 respectively.
Swim - 35:07, 37:04
T1 – 4:27, 4:22
Bike - 2:28:16, 2:34:35
T2 – 2:28, 2:46
Run – 2:17:22, 2:04:32
Total – 5:28:02 5:23:19
In 2012, I had just aged up into the M55-59 group, so being able to drop the time in my next to last year was a real achievement. Even so, I still lost a lot of time the last 3 miles of the run when my legs gave out and I was forced to stop a number of times due to severe cramping. Between the sun and the hills, this is just a brutal run.
Although I was lucky to finish well, I was even luckier to finish at all. In what I assume is a first and hopefully last ever near tragedy, two triathletes were shot early in the bike leg during the cross-fire from a drive by. One woman from Wisconsin suffered a superficial wound to her calf from shrapnel, and a Puerto Rican doctor in the race was hit three times in the side. Another triathlete simultaneously wiped out, continued the race, but apparently withdrew later due to venomous ant bites he received while on the ground. The information on the shooting was very sketchy as I presume Puerto Rico did not want this in the news due to the impact on tourism. The major daily paper did not report anything. My account is based on what I witnessed, heard first hand from others, and read in a few online news reports that were sometimes conflicting. I biked right through the middle of this drive-by with gunfire going off just in front of me and just behind me.
Although I had a firsthand view of the shooting I didn't really understand what had happened until after the race, when my wife told me two athletes had been shot, and I received a few inquiries if I was alright. Here is what I saw and what I think happened. I started in wave 4 with all men 50+. Ahead of me were pro men, pro women, and wave 3 including F25-29 and F45+. I had passed a lot of AG women in the swim and on the long run to transition so when I started the bike there were very few riders around. We looped out of the stadium to the east and then back to the northwest coming by the lagoon at about 1 mile into the bike. My wife and daughter saw me pass on the bridge near the swim exit but I was already deep in race mode and did not see or hear them.
About 2 miles into the race, I was head down in the aero position and heard several pops. I look up and see a white van careening out of control towards me on the opposite side of the road. This vehicle was the apparent target with a recently released drug dealer that was either the passenger or the driver depending on which account you read. I believe there was another car to his right that was shooting at them but all I know is that the vehicle is riding up the low concrete divider and if it flips over it I'm probably a goner. My entire focus is on the van, not other riders or cars. Although I thought I heard gunshots I was thinking it must have been the tires exploding and the driver going out of control. The vehicle is making tremendous noise sliding along the divider and then I hear a lot more gunshots as it goes by to my left but again think this must be the result of metal scraping on concrete. I simply did not perceive that this was a gunfight on a sunny Sunday morning in an affluent section of San Juan. Nonetheless, the driver of this van was shot dead which explains why the vehicle was out of control. Now that the van has slid by me I look forward again and see two male athletes on the side of the road, one down as if he had slid out. It looks like the one is helping the other. I see a female triathlete stopped, straddling her bike and looking back over her shoulder shouting something to the other two men as if she knew them. In retrospect I believe these were the athletes hit by the crossfire from the car shooting at the van with the triathlon in progress on the other side. I did not see blood or hear anyone asking for help. This all happens in seconds and I am wondering if debris from the van had come over the divider causing one or more of them to flat. Less than a minute later I see police vehicles heading back to the scene. Apparently a number of athletes just minutes behind me were stopped and told to take cover as police first assumed that the bikers, and not a drug dealer, were the target. On the way back, I see that police are still investigating the scene and I am still thinking it was just a spectacular crash.
As noted above, my family saw me bike out at approximately the 1 mile point. They hear the gunfire shortly after I pass. They hear the initial several shots, then about a clip worth which is consistent with what I heard, but then they hear automatic gunfire being sprayed. The police at their location yells for everyone to get down and take cover. They learn that two athletes were shot and my wife and daughter were distraught until they see me coming into T2. I don't hear about the shooting until I'm done with the race. I sincerely regret not stopping to render aid but I truly thought I was seeing some kind of multiple mechanical failures which I have come across in some other races.
At the last water stop heading back I was nearly taken out by an out of control rider. The water stop was on the other side for riders heading out and the guy apparently lost control grabbing a bottle and was careening across the road right at me. I pulled to within a foot of the edge and the guy recovered just two feet to my left. It would have been an awful head on. My guardian angel was working overtime today.
My final luck of the day occurred at rolldown. There were 30 slots for Austria and 17 were claimed by automatic qualifiers before awards. Any unclaimed by the start of awards at 6pm would go into rolldown. I was pretty confident I had a good shot because in my assessment prior to the race, I identified my serious competition and who I believed would take a slot and who would let it go. I had beaten every contender who I thought would take it and accepted the one slot for M55 when they called my name. The rolldowns did not go deep. Only one woman’s group went to 7th to get a taker and that led to some real elation.
The rolldown process is always interesting and worth seeing at least once. In San Juan, the winners of the two oldest AGs, one man and one woman, had no taker (e.g., there was only one M75 finisher) and those were reallocated to the largest group in the same gender. And here is where WTC broke their own rule that you had to be present when they called your name. When they announced that the F35-39 would get another slot, the next lady up was not there, but her husband was. He tried to intervene for her, and they announced that the lady was in the building but in gastric distress. They said they would wait. Meanwhile, the next lady waiting started asking how long were they going to wait, and what about the rules, etc. Several started counting down. A few long minutes later, the lady shows up and they give her the slot, but they knew they had broken the rule and ended up giving one to the other lady who had protested. So 31 slots to Austria out of about 1600 athletes. A lucky day, indeed.
When I last raced here in 2012 I came off the bike with a sizeable lead but I was cooked and suffered terrible leg cramps throughout the run eventually being passed. I dialed it back this time and managed to go faster by going slower on the bike. Here are my results from the two races for 2012 and 2015 respectively.
Swim - 35:07, 37:04
T1 – 4:27, 4:22
Bike - 2:28:16, 2:34:35
T2 – 2:28, 2:46
Run – 2:17:22, 2:04:32
Total – 5:28:02 5:23:19
In 2012, I had just aged up into the M55-59 group, so being able to drop the time in my next to last year was a real achievement. Even so, I still lost a lot of time the last 3 miles of the run when my legs gave out and I was forced to stop a number of times due to severe cramping. Between the sun and the hills, this is just a brutal run.
Although I was lucky to finish well, I was even luckier to finish at all. In what I assume is a first and hopefully last ever near tragedy, two triathletes were shot early in the bike leg during the cross-fire from a drive by. One woman from Wisconsin suffered a superficial wound to her calf from shrapnel, and a Puerto Rican doctor in the race was hit three times in the side. Another triathlete simultaneously wiped out, continued the race, but apparently withdrew later due to venomous ant bites he received while on the ground. The information on the shooting was very sketchy as I presume Puerto Rico did not want this in the news due to the impact on tourism. The major daily paper did not report anything. My account is based on what I witnessed, heard first hand from others, and read in a few online news reports that were sometimes conflicting. I biked right through the middle of this drive-by with gunfire going off just in front of me and just behind me.
Although I had a firsthand view of the shooting I didn't really understand what had happened until after the race, when my wife told me two athletes had been shot, and I received a few inquiries if I was alright. Here is what I saw and what I think happened. I started in wave 4 with all men 50+. Ahead of me were pro men, pro women, and wave 3 including F25-29 and F45+. I had passed a lot of AG women in the swim and on the long run to transition so when I started the bike there were very few riders around. We looped out of the stadium to the east and then back to the northwest coming by the lagoon at about 1 mile into the bike. My wife and daughter saw me pass on the bridge near the swim exit but I was already deep in race mode and did not see or hear them.
About 2 miles into the race, I was head down in the aero position and heard several pops. I look up and see a white van careening out of control towards me on the opposite side of the road. This vehicle was the apparent target with a recently released drug dealer that was either the passenger or the driver depending on which account you read. I believe there was another car to his right that was shooting at them but all I know is that the vehicle is riding up the low concrete divider and if it flips over it I'm probably a goner. My entire focus is on the van, not other riders or cars. Although I thought I heard gunshots I was thinking it must have been the tires exploding and the driver going out of control. The vehicle is making tremendous noise sliding along the divider and then I hear a lot more gunshots as it goes by to my left but again think this must be the result of metal scraping on concrete. I simply did not perceive that this was a gunfight on a sunny Sunday morning in an affluent section of San Juan. Nonetheless, the driver of this van was shot dead which explains why the vehicle was out of control. Now that the van has slid by me I look forward again and see two male athletes on the side of the road, one down as if he had slid out. It looks like the one is helping the other. I see a female triathlete stopped, straddling her bike and looking back over her shoulder shouting something to the other two men as if she knew them. In retrospect I believe these were the athletes hit by the crossfire from the car shooting at the van with the triathlon in progress on the other side. I did not see blood or hear anyone asking for help. This all happens in seconds and I am wondering if debris from the van had come over the divider causing one or more of them to flat. Less than a minute later I see police vehicles heading back to the scene. Apparently a number of athletes just minutes behind me were stopped and told to take cover as police first assumed that the bikers, and not a drug dealer, were the target. On the way back, I see that police are still investigating the scene and I am still thinking it was just a spectacular crash.
As noted above, my family saw me bike out at approximately the 1 mile point. They hear the gunfire shortly after I pass. They hear the initial several shots, then about a clip worth which is consistent with what I heard, but then they hear automatic gunfire being sprayed. The police at their location yells for everyone to get down and take cover. They learn that two athletes were shot and my wife and daughter were distraught until they see me coming into T2. I don't hear about the shooting until I'm done with the race. I sincerely regret not stopping to render aid but I truly thought I was seeing some kind of multiple mechanical failures which I have come across in some other races.
At the last water stop heading back I was nearly taken out by an out of control rider. The water stop was on the other side for riders heading out and the guy apparently lost control grabbing a bottle and was careening across the road right at me. I pulled to within a foot of the edge and the guy recovered just two feet to my left. It would have been an awful head on. My guardian angel was working overtime today.
My final luck of the day occurred at rolldown. There were 30 slots for Austria and 17 were claimed by automatic qualifiers before awards. Any unclaimed by the start of awards at 6pm would go into rolldown. I was pretty confident I had a good shot because in my assessment prior to the race, I identified my serious competition and who I believed would take a slot and who would let it go. I had beaten every contender who I thought would take it and accepted the one slot for M55 when they called my name. The rolldowns did not go deep. Only one woman’s group went to 7th to get a taker and that led to some real elation.
The rolldown process is always interesting and worth seeing at least once. In San Juan, the winners of the two oldest AGs, one man and one woman, had no taker (e.g., there was only one M75 finisher) and those were reallocated to the largest group in the same gender. And here is where WTC broke their own rule that you had to be present when they called your name. When they announced that the F35-39 would get another slot, the next lady up was not there, but her husband was. He tried to intervene for her, and they announced that the lady was in the building but in gastric distress. They said they would wait. Meanwhile, the next lady waiting started asking how long were they going to wait, and what about the rules, etc. Several started counting down. A few long minutes later, the lady shows up and they give her the slot, but they knew they had broken the rule and ended up giving one to the other lady who had protested. So 31 slots to Austria out of about 1600 athletes. A lucky day, indeed.
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Comments
Great race despite the challenges!
It was great to see you out there.
Rest assured, this in no way scares the ever living crap out of us first time peeps.
So glad you are ok, and I am part of the coolest team ever; because, we know focus, mental toughness and courage.
Very glad you survived - both the race and the shooting/crossfire. I was behind you and got back to the area after they just shut down the other side of the road.
My dad and gf ended up jumping over a retaining wall for cover, right there at the intersection of the bridge, pedestrian walkway and sidewalk behind the Caribe.
I knew the woman who dove over the wall into the fire ant pile. Met her a few nights before when we all did the Bioluminescent bay tour. She ended up riding all the way back to T2, then pulled out of the race, and went home back to New Hampshire on the next available flight. What I heard from her friends the next day, she's still suffering from anxiety/PTSD-like symptoms. That's unfortunate.
I'm stoked for you that you got the rolldown!
Mary - you did great and should be very proud for persevering in the hottest part of the day. Is that a tough run course or what? Congratulations to you!
Congratulations!
Definitely a crazy day. Great job on getting the slot through superior execution.
If I do non-Ironman iron distance in Germany my priority will be Challenge Roth.