Ford Ironman Arizona, U.S.A - April 15th 2007

Dear Sponsors and Friends

I arrived here in Arizona after some good weather in San Diego and my taper had been going well so was looking forward to having a good race and getting a Hawaii slot which was my main goal at this race. It was going to be wild weather all week and I hoped I would deal with that well!

Race morning looked great and I got into the lake early and warmed up! The gun went at 6.45am for us and I got straight into my stroke and took the lead early then just let a few other take over to save some energy. Nearing the finish I picked it up and went for the lead as wanted to be 1st out of the water and did just that.

I got onto the bike and felt awesome for 15miles and that was it!! A switch went off and I had no go! Tim Deboom caught me in 2 miles after I had 1min on him at 15miles and said lets go I just couldn't!! I struggled with my nutrition and kept throwing up and just going backwards on the bike the wind wasn't helping. All I could think about was it has to get better! I came into T2 in 8th place and hoped I could run a couple of people down and headed out feeling ok. After 10 miles I was struggling feeling dizzy and sick and at the 13 mile aid station on the 2nd lap I lay down that's when I passed out and next thing I knew I was getting a IV and headed back to the Medical Tent!

I'm going to have a blood test to see if I have caught a flu or virus as I feel terrible and hope to change my year around as I can't figure out what is going wrong.

Thanks for the continued support!

Kind Regards - Bryan Rhodes