Silverman Ironman 1/2 Ironman over

Today, 11/11/07 was my Silverman 1/2 Ironman race and it totally sucked!  As I have stated in previous training blogs, I felt as though I was getting sick.  Sure enough, Friday 11/9/07 it hit me.  My sinuses and throat were totally thrashed.  I began taking Advil cold/sinus and Mucinex to try and help with breaking my fever and clear up my throat.  When I was taking those med's, it seemed to make me feel better and I was feeling as though I would have a good shot at having my strength and putting in a good race.  However, that was not the case.
To begin, myself and a friend of mine actually decided to drive from Reno, NV to Las Vegas, NV instead of fly.  First mistake!  On Friday evening, I was pulled over TWICE for speeding - no chance in hell of talking my way out of the tickets.
Once the med's began to wear off, my fever seemed to be getting worse as well as the crappy buildup of garbage in my throat.  Saturday was no different.  I continued taking the meds and proceeded to the area to pick up my race bag.  Seeing all the other athletes/competitors gave me a rush and made me feel as though I was ready to jump in and have a good race.
Saturday night, I began sweating like crazy and felt as though I was breaking my fever.  Arose early on Sunday and began to go through my typical race preparation.  I always drink a yogurt smoothie, eat one pop-tart and chug a little water and gatorade.  Not the best breakfast, but it's a ritual and don't want to break tradition.  Also popped my Advil cold/sinus and Mucinex just in case.
Arrived at Lake Mead early and started to get settled in and get into race mode.  The ironman course athletes were shot off at 6:30am.  I was able to watch some of the top guys coming out of the water in the high 40 minute range - pretty fast swimming! 
At around 7:00am the winds really started to pick up and that lake was getting some white caps.  Hearing some of the other competitors talk - there was a storm coming in and the day was going to get worse.  That's not something I like to hear!
The 1/2 ironman athletes were shot off at 8:00am.  In my field were Chris McCormack (2007 Ironman Hawaii winner) and Dave Scott (numerous Ironman victories).  The water was horrible and as I swam further out, the waves continued to get worse.  About a 1/3 the way through the swim, the buoys were getting hard to spot because all the swimmers, including myself, were swimming through some good size waves.  My time coming out of the water was 40min's and a few seconds.  Nothing to brag about.  A typical 1.2 mile swim in past events has yielded me times of 32-34min's and that was swimming very comfortably and not expending a ton of energy.  Today, because of the rough conditions I was swimming harder and found my head coming higher out of the water more often to continue to keep sighting the buoys so I would not swim off course.  However, my throat did not feel bad, nor my body at the time.
As I came out of the water, I hopped onto my Litespeed Blade TT bike.  I was a little nervous about how strong the winds were getting as I was riding with my Zipp 909 wheelset (full disc wheel in the back) and I was not sure how this wheelset would take the winds.  It turned out that it did not really bother me too much.
At 23 miles into the bike, I was informed that I was in the top 20 overall.  This means that I had a better swim than I thought and that I was strong on the bike (which is my strongest leg).  There was a lot of elevation change on the bike but the climbs were short with very low % gradients, just a bunch of them.  Roughly 35-38 miles into the bike was where my race began to fall apart.  I slowly began to lose my strength and the winds just seemed to be bothering me quite a bit as I noticed that my climbing speeds were dropping off very fast.  Athletes that I easily flew past in the beginning, were catching me and making me look as though I was a beginner on the bike.  I was taking in adequate fluids and actually choked down a powerbar at about 31 miles into the bike but it was not helping.  I was also noticing that my throat was beginning to hurt a little more and that the headwinds were drying out my mouth and throat quite a bit.  By mile 40 I had completely lost it.  I was in my small ring up front and my biggest cog in the back and still was not spinning up the climbs.  I realized that my sickness had done me in and that I was just going to continue to get worse.  I was talking to myself, out loud, and realized that I was starting to lose my voice.  So at mile 45, there was an aid station and I stopped here and informed that I was going to drop out of the race.  I asked the aids if they could get me a ride back to T2 so that I could locate my friends and get home to try and get over my sickness.  I ended up sitting at that aid station for more than 45min's.  All of the assistants that kept coming over to me thought that I was sick from improper nutrition and kept asking me if I wanted to re-fuel and get back out there.  I kept explaining that I was getting a really bad head cold and that I was scared it could turn into a pnuemonia and pleaded for them to find someone that could drive me back to T2. 
A little time later, a police officer came up to me and explained that the paramedics were on the way.  I explained again that I did not need an ambulance but just a ride back to T2.  So....the paramedics arrived and I explained my situation to them.  The main guy actually said, "we don't need to look you over, you just have a head cold"  I asked if they were going to take me back to T2 and he informed that he could not do that.  Just my luck!
At this moment, I began to get frustrated and just wanted to get the hell out of there.  So I put my helmet back on and finished the remainder of the 56 mile bike feeling like total crap!  I did make it back to T2 and from there I informed that I was not even going to attempt the 13.1 mile run and this is where my day ended.
As far as the race, it was not as bad as I thought.  The climbs do suck, but for the most part they are not steep (I feel sorry for the Ironman course as their climbing was way worse).  Coming from an area where the weather is really starting to change during this time of the year and trying to do a race during this time is a tough call.  It's hard to get into racing condition and deal with extreme temperature changes - thus part of the reason for getting sick.  I may just do this race again next year, however.  I was on pace to put in a very low 5 hr day, and as I observed from one of the top age group athletes time of 5:11 -  I probably would have been on the podium at least in my age group if not fighting it out for the overall.  Plus, this is the only race I have ever dropped out of and I don't want to live with that.  I may have to redeem myself.  Finally, the race bag was one of the best race bags I have ever received.  A crap load of goodies and shwag!
Anyways, it was a pretty depressing day and to be honest I just had this feeling that I was not going to be able to complete this race as my health was starting to decline.
I will now try and enjoy the holidays a little more, play with my son even more and focus on some of his athletic talents, and sign up for the Rock-n-roll marathon Phoenix in January and try to put in a respectable day.  Who knows, if I do good here - I just may start breaking in to the full Ironman races.  We'll see....