Mieko almost quit XTERRA World

Mieko Carey almost did not make it to the winner’ circle of this year’s XTERRA World Championships in Maui.

In fact, the longtime Saipan resident nearly dropped out of the grueling 0.9-mile swim, 19.1-mile bike, and 6.9-mile run triathlon after suffering from stomach cramps in the two-wheel portion of the Championships.

While Carey did just enough to come in third in the women’s 30-34 age group with a time of 3:53:38, the standout multi-sport athlete was first to admit that the 2008 edition of the XTERRA World Championships was the hardest race she ever took part in.

“It was hard. Of the three years that I had done this race, this was the hardest. I don’t know why but I felt physically beat up after the race. The night before the race, I kind of had a bad dream that I was taking part in XTERRA Sport here on Saipan,” she said in an email to the Saipan Tribune.

Carey said the swim split, which has always been her waterloo, was again no picnic. She said she was surprised that the swim had so many people and a lot of them were packed into one small area in the water after the second lap.

But she still felt fine after coming out of the surf and going into the transition area for the bike split.

But around the second mile of the bike race, she felt excruciating pain in her stomach.

“I was thinking maybe I was drinking too much water. So I tried not to drink that much even though I felt thirsty. But I knew from adventure racers that I have to drink before my body feels the need to drink. So I drank again and I felt my stomach balloon again.”

That’s when she started wondering why she was doing the race.

“I don’t want to do this! Why am I doing this? I never want to come back here!” she told herself, her negative thoughts getting the better of her.

She said throwing up on the side of the trail, or worse, pulling out of the race completely suddenly became appealing.

Fellow Saipan triathlete Eli Torgeson then passed Carey after what course veterans call the Heartbreak Hill, but the former PIC Clubmate was feeling so bad that she didn’t want to talk to the CHC anesthesiologist and ignored him altogether.

“When he passed me he talked and asked me about my swim or something I thought ‘I cannot talk to you now and please go’,” she said, feeling guilty later that she snubbed her friend.

Around the 7-8 mile mark of the bike, Carey started to feel better, as her trademark enthusiasm began to take over and whatever doubts she had of finishing the race disappeared.

“I just started thinking about finishing the race. Then I saw people had encountered problems and some were even crashing so I told myself that I was still in a better position than them to complete the race.”

“From that point I just tried to convince myself to never give up! Finally I was talking to other athletes during the latter part of the bike course and I felt good. My downhill was awesome and I wished someone took a video because I passed so many people.”

Her stomach cramps, however, began to act up again while she was transitioning to the run part of the race.

“I saw Kevin (her husband) come back from the bike but I couldn’t say anything. He looked good and fast! But I never forgot about never giving up. So I forced myself to keep running and not walk even if it was slow. The trail was just hot, hot, hot—hotter than Saipan.”

Carey even got the chance to douse herself with Gatorade in a premature celebration not of her liking during the run course.

“Some of the aid stations were out of water and they had only Gatorade. But it was still better then getting dehydrated so I poured Gatorade on my head,” she said.

While it didn’t really quenched her thirst, the move only made her more determined to complete the race.

“So many people were walking uphill but I just kept running. When I ran on the beach I felt I was not moving because the sand was so soft and my feet were sinking into them. Then I came to finish line and I could finally smile!”

“It was hot and hard but fun. I will probably change my mind but I will come back again next year. When I finished, Eli congratulated me and I could finally talk to him and soon Kevin finished too,” she said.

While the Oct. 26 World Championships taxed Carey’s body to the point of breaking, the Saipan triathlete just took everything in stride and was even surprised by an invitation from an adventure racer at the finish line.

“I had hard races this year, Kansas Ironman, XTERRA Japan, and Maui. But still I like them and I also met a Japanese adventure racer that did GEAR 6 and he told me he is looking for members of his team for next year’s event.”

With Carey’s will and determination, everyone’s already counting her in for next year’s GEAR 6.