The working Man's triathlon journey

My name is Wes Carey, 41 years old, married to my Lindsay and have 4 children, I’ve always been a competitive goal driven person. I started racing motocross at 9 years old and always dreamed of racing professionally, farthest I got was to the intermediate class, my last year racing things were a bit of a struggle, I was getting hurt a lot and seeing a few of my friends get hurt my head just was into it anymore, so in1997 at 18 I decided to not race anymore and get to work in the family construction business and just ride for fun. I’d say after racing there was a point for a few years I got way out of shape then around 2003 I met a friend that was a runner so I started running with him and we both decided to sign up for the 2004 LA marathon, we both accomplished finishing that race and I was hooked, since then I've done 9 full marathons and numerous half marathons. I’ve always been a cyclist as well, road and mountain which kind of lead me to triathlon down the road but back then I never thought I could even do a triathlon, always thought no way, that's crazy! But after a few years I need a new goal, so I decided to sign up for oceanside70.3 ironman in 2014. my buddy Mike young got David Bailey to give me a training plan, so I trained for a solid 6 months or so. The race came and it was insane, way bigger than I expected. I just remember how tough it was and thinking how in the heck do people do full Ironman, so crazy!?

 Fast forward to 2017 I was up in CDA Idaho and the full Ironman was going on and I was washing the finish. I was so inspired and told my new wife Lindsay that I’m signing up for a full, so when we got back home, I signed up for the 2018 Boulder Colorado Ironman and I told my wife I just want to accomplish 1 ironman. So, in 2018 I hired a coach. did Oceanside 70.3 again and a bunch of other Olympic distance races to prepare for Colorado.

Finally, Colorado came, and it was such a rad experience finishing a full Ironman I’ll never forget it. Definitely the toughest most physically demanding thing I've ever done, but coming down that red carpet and hearing the announcer call your name out and call you an ironman is just surreal! So, after this race I told myself I'm taking a break from triathlon and just ride mtb and do some races. I sold my tri-bike and bought a new mountain bike, did a few races but after a few months I really started missing triathlon. So, I told my wife I’m going to sign up for CDA70.3 ironman in 2019 and we will make a family vacation out of it after the race. In January I set up my whole 2019 season also picked up a new sponsor with Wattie ink so starting out the season I was super motivated, my first race was in February at Bonelli park for a 3 race series, I ended up winning the overall in my age group for the series. next race I did the Herbalife 24 tri which was a really fun event and did pretty good there. Then time for CDA 70.3 and that's the first race when I started using PNG thanks to Mike at Roy’s cyclery giving me some to tryout. CDA is a pretty tough race with it usually being Hot and the course is pretty hilly, but I ended up getting a PR for 70.3 distance and felt awesome all day. My next race was back up in Idaho at the Priest lake Olympic try. I got a PR there. September, I raced the Superfrog 70.3 and that one was tough. The swim is out in the ocean so your battling the waves, the bike is fast, and the run is brutal, 8 miles of the 13.1 miles is running in the sand so it felt like a huge accomplishment finishing that race. November, I did the Newport Olympic triathlon and I got another PR. I had my best run split there, just felt solid! Then finally my last race of the season at Indian Wells 70.3. What a fun event starting off Saturday morning handing out medals at the Iron kids’ event with my Wattie ink teammates which was awesome. Then check in, bike prep, bike drop off at the start at Lake Cahuilla. My Wife and I had dinner with some friends then off to bed.

On race day we woke up at 4am to catch the shuttle to the start. so, my goal for this race was to finish around 5h:30m. I knew the bike was going to be fast and I had been working a ton on my running. The swim started and at this race they don't allow warmups so jumping into that cold water was definitely a shock. it took me about 200 yards to get into a good rhythm. My enire swim was kind of a struggle with just too many people around. I was constantly running into someone or someone hitting me. Finally made it out of the water and when I got to my bike my front tire was super low. What happened was I borrowed someone’s pump before the swim, and it was a twist on so when twisted it off I accidentally loosened the core on the valve stem so while I was on my swim it had been leaking. So, I pumped it up with a co2 and took off, my transition time was 9 1\2 minutes, horrible! I was feeling good on the bike averaging 21-22 mph then at mile 15 my tire was getting low again, so I had to stop and put more air in it and again at mile 35. around mile 42 I was starting to feel tired and hurting so I backed it down a bit to try and save for the run. I made it off the bike and started the run. My goal was and needed to be around an 8:30 pace to finish in 5 1\2 hrs. my first 2 miles I was around that pace, but I just couldn't hold it, I was worked and Just feeling it after a long season. I made it to the finish with a time of 5:57 which I beat my previous 70.3 distance time by 4 mins so I’m happy with that! It’s been an awesome year and learned a lot for next year as I’m signed up to do anther full ironman. Cant thank my wife Lindsay and my kids enough for their support, my sponsors wattiink, PNG Living, Roy’s Cyclery are the best of the best and it’s an honor to represent them and be part of! now it’s time for a little off season and be ready for 2020, Cheers!!