David Cascio is a local friend of mine and long-time triathlete who has qualified and competed in the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii multiple times.
David was sidelined a few years ago with a knee issue an unable to run at all. After undergoing knee surgery, his doctor told him he was pretty much done with triathlon. After extensive physical therapy and an incredible desire to compete again, he was able to compete again at the Ironman World Championships posting an impressive time of 10:16 in very challenging conditions.
David Cascio finishing at Ironman Hawaii
Racer: David Cascio
Race: Hawaii Ironman World Championship
Date: 11 October 2008
Distance: 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run
Time: 10:16:03
Place: 434 overall, 23/161 45-49 Age Group
This one meant more to me than the other times I’ve done this race. A lot more, for many reasons. There is probably less than 5 people who will read this report that fully understand what it took to get back to being a Kona-level athlete. A lot of sweat, 5 hour days of rehab, luck, and I’ll admit even a few tears of joy and sorrow along the way ended with a 10:16:03 race. A race that I’m very satisfied with. I think I may have made medical history again. Special thanks to each of you who helped me get back. You know who you are. That was my second fastest time on a difficult day but my lowest place ever. The field is getting faster and I’m not so young any more. This was a really tough one. With the race, catching a bug post race, travel, and getting back to work, a week later I still feel destroyed.
Swim: 59:53
I got in the water right after the pros started at 6:45. Did a quick warm up then swam over to the pier and hung onto a tire for a couple of minutes before positioning myself about 15 meters from the pier about 4 rows from the front. It was brutal from the cannon shot. This was the roughest swim I’ve ever been in. Really rough for the first mile which caused me to have a slightly elevated heart rate from what I wanted. I gave it out as good as I was getting it. I could certainly see how someone without experience in that type of situation could freak out. After a mile things thinned out a bit and got more normal. I felt a bit of a current push from right to left on the way back and had to angle into it. Overall navigation and effort were good. My time was a bit slower than best case but conditions vary so much it’s hard to compare year to year.
T1: 3:08
Transition tent was not all that crowded and I got a chair and a volunteer to help. Pretty simple - off with speed suit, empty bag, on with race belt, put speed suit in bag and tie it shut, put on helmet, grab shoes and start running. In my shoes I had my sun glasses and power bars and coin purse of endurolytes. I took care of those things while I did the lap abound the transition area. Volunteers had my bike pulled, I put on my shoes and ran out and mounted and off I went.
Bike: 5:35:20
I did the first 40K in 1:08 and felt pretty good. Energy wise I felt good all day. It was just damn long, and hot, and windy. Early on I saw some pretty blatant drafting. From my perspective lots of marshals on motorcycles were out there. When I went by the first penalty tent it was really crowded. Good. I rode honest the whole way which means a few times I had to soft pedal to stay legal. About 30 miles in I passed Scott Molina (1988 Champion) who I thought was going to crush us all in our age group. On his shorts he had JFT (Just F’ing Train). On my way to Hawi I saw Chris McCormack pulling to the side of the road going the other direction. He was surrounded by 4 or 5 cars and I thought surely one of them would have been tech support to help him fix his problem. As it turned out he called it a day.
The climb to Hawi was pretty windy, maybe a touch windier than Monday when we rode it. Wheel choice is critical for a small guy like me in such conditions and the choice I made worked well (Zipp 303 front, 808 rear). The decent was fast, and scary. I took my nature break while coasting at 35 mph (“pee by Hawi” or you aren’t drinking enough). I was bombing it in a 53×12 for the most part. A couple of time the cross winds were too gusty and I had to get out of the aerobars to stay safe. Back on the Queen K we hit headwinds. I just tried to stay low and keep ticking the pedals over at a good cadence. About mile 85 I got stung by a bee on my left forearm. That hurt big time. The race is hard enough as it is with out having to deal with such problems. I was worried for a bit if I would have any kind of reaction. As it turned out, I was left with just a welt on my arm. Late in the race my feet were killing me (must be from my specialized wedge inserts) and my back was getting tight. So I was doing some riding on the tops and stretching so things didn’t get so bad as to affect my run.
I was not too surprised to get passed on the bike by so many riders. The field is crazy fast and getting faster. Most of the guys have calfs the size of my quads. It’s pretty unreal. Unlike any other race. I did see one group riding very close together that included some pretty big names in the sport. Two of them wound up on the podium, and one of them I think was in that group did indeed get hit with a drafting penalty.
As far as nutrition, it was exactly the same as I did at IMLou: 2 power bars, Gatorade Endurance, 10 Hammer Gels (vanilla) in frame bottle. The volunteers were great. Hawaii has the worlds longest aid stations. One of them one the way out was incredibly long. I lost count of how many water bottles I took and poured on myself to keep cool.
T2: 2:56
Flying dismount with shoes left clipped in pedals and handed bike to volunteer. Ran around transition area and volunteer had my bag pulled and then into change tent. Wipe feet, which were pretty dirty from running barefoot, on with socks and shoes, grab cap, and go.
Run: 3:34:48
It’s always nice being back in town where the crowds are huge and loud. From the start every thing felt good except for my feet. From miles 3-8 I was getting pretty hot. In that stretch I ran for a bit then passed two of Daniel’s Chilean friends I had meet during the week. They both turned in solid races. I tried to acknowledge each athlete out there I recognized. Back through town and up Palani Rd. I felt pretty good. Heading out on the Queen K back into the lava field is where it starts to get really tough. But you get to see the pro men and women heading back in. Craig Alexander looked smooth. Best running form in the sport. I was doing all the tricks to stay cool – wipe down with cold sponges, ice in cap, and pour water on head. AP reported temps were 108 degrees but I don’t think it got that hot. Mid 90s for sure in the Energy Lab. Coming back out of the Energy Lab I saw Stacy Taylor’s message on the electronic message board. Thanks.
At the aid stations at miles 18, 19, and 20 I walked a bit so I could drink a full cup of coke as I was getting some lower GI cramps coming on, which I thought were dehydration cramps. That seemed to work. Had to take a nature break at mile 21. Keeping it going was very very hard. I was drained and running on fumes. My hip flexers were complaining, my feet were sore, my calfs felt like there were about to cramp but thankfully didn’t. Even my right knee, my good one, was complaining. My quads held up well. Running down the Palani hill at mile 25 can be brutal but this year it was not so bad. I attribute that to the high mileage run training I did all year. Running down Alii was fantastic. That is sacred ground in the sport. Gave Reid Keiser a big high 5. Stacy gave me a great hug after I crossed.
This was not as good a performance as I produced at IMLou. I was hoping for sub 10 hours and top 10, but with the short recovery time between races (41 days) I did the best I could do on the day. I’m happy to have competed in such an awesome event. That concluded a pretty darn good season of triathlon racing for me. As far as next year, I need to sit back a bit and evaluate the long term risks of continuing ironman racing.
Special thanks to Daniel Labarca for fixing me up with housing from his friend Rolando who lives in Kona. Daniel, although you had a tough day, I’m sure you’ll be back next year. It was a pleasure staying and training with you. Your Chilean friends who did the race are a most pleasant and friendly group.
The Hawaii telecast is scheduled to be on NBC Saturday 13 Dec 2:30-4:00.
Whenever I’m feeling frustrated about my races and my own naggining hip and hamstring issues this year, I remember David’s story and know that there is always next year. 
