Team Member: Dennis Reardon

Race Name: West Point Lake Triathlon

Race Date: June 13, 2010

Race Placement/Time/Qualification: 4th overall (3rd Best of the U.S.)

Tell us about your race (limit 500 words)…: Sorry, it has take a while to write this report. It was not a race to remember for myself. There were things that made me disappointed, others for which I am embarrassed, and also a lot for which I am thankful for having. I also learned a lot from this race. First of all, I would like to thank all who helped me or checked on me after the race was over. I don’t want to leave anyone out, so I thank you all. I am very grateful for having such a supporting wife who puts up with all of my training. I am also lucky to have a great mother and father who have seen me in some very scary situations at races. Amy, I would like to again apologize for some things said. I really appreciated seeing you out on the course and being such a great cheerleader.
As everyone else has written in their reports for West Point, the conditions were brutal all day. I am very competitive when it comes to racing, sometimes detrimental to my health. I, like several others, got dehydrated during the race. I lost a gel on the bike and yet another one on the run. I was really low on electrolytes and despite taking in fluids on the run, my body started shutting down. It got so bad for me that I do not even remember the last 2 miles of the race or even finishing. I can’t complain for finishing 4th, but it was not worth risking my health. I was told that I was walking, staggering from side to side at the finish. I apparently knew that I was in bad shape, and started to ask for fluids. I got stressed about not getting fluids in fast enough that I went into a panic attack. For those who have not experienced one, I really thought that I was not going to make it. Again, one race doesn’t matter, but my friends, family, wife and daughter are the most important things in my life. It has take me a long time to write this because I had been questioning racing ever again. It has been a big part of my life for the past 19 years. I needed some time off think about it. I still will be racing, but I hope that my priorities are in the right place from now forward.