For those on the outside looking in, completing five Ironman distance triathlons in five days seems unfathomable. What those outsiders may not know, is that it seems just as unbelievable to those competing, even when they are crossing the finish line on the final day.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, 10 ultra-endurance athletes finished a trek they started five days earlier, completing the EPIC5 Challenge, an event that includes five Ironman distance triathlons, spread over five different Hawaii Islands, starting in Kauai and finishing on the Big Island. Along the way, the competitors also hit Oahu, Molokai and Maui.
For Chad Esker and Melissa Urie, crossing that finish line on the final day was an emotional experience — one they struggled to believe was happening.
“I was crying all the way down Alii Drive,” said Urie, an Australian, who was the only female competitor in this year’s event. “I was in complete disbelief.”
Urie signed up for the race not knowing if she would be able to finish it and she faced her fair share of problems along the way, especially during the running portions of the triathlons over the final three days, when hamstring issues slowed her to a walk at certain times.
“The first two days were not bad, but my hamstrings locked up on the third day,” Urie said. “I wasn’t stretching and doing my normal recovery because the main two priorities at the end of each day was to eat and sleep.”
She estimated she walked close to 25-30 kilometers.
“It really got me down and I knew it would mean less sleep each night and my crew would have to stay out longer,” Urie said.
Despite the struggles, Urie said 99 percent of the time she had a smile on her face and was having fun. She had plenty of motivation as well, not just from her crew, but from unexpected cheering sections.
“When I was on Maui a couple came down during the bike to run transition area. The husband yelled to his wife ‘she’s here, she’s here,’” Urie said. “The wife runs up to me and said they had came down and wanted to find me. Apparently they had seen me on Facebook or whatever. The wife was tripping over her words, she was so excited to talk to me. It was really beautiful and it hit me how much of an impact having a female in a race like this is.”
Esker’s journey was an ordeal, and he said he couldn’t believe he finished.
“It was an accomplishment, not just for me but my team,” he said. “I really thought I had the easy part. All I had to do was run, bike and swim. The crew did everything else.”
Esker fought through physical and mental exhaustion, and being from Wisconsin, the heat took its toll. However, his biggest challenge came in the water.
“On Day, 4 the swim was brutal,” Esker said. “On the boat from Molokai to Maui I got seasick. Then I started the swim on Maui and I got rolled over in the waves and ended up throwing up at least six times in the water.”
When Esker made it back to the sand, his crew could tell he was wiped out, or as he put it, “near death.”
“They tried to put food in me, but I must have swallowed sea water and threw up again,” Esker said. “I think I finally ate everything from goldfish crackers, hamburgers and shakes just to get nutrients back in me.”
Esker experienced a similar problem on the final day of competition on the Big Island. At one point, he couldn’t take the constant churning in the water and was ready to give up, but a social media campaign started by his crew that included live feeds and constant contact with his followers helped him fight through the pain.
His feed grew to 400 viewers over the five-day span, and he was inundated with positive messages from his fellow Wisconsinites, some in person.
“I had people from Wisconsin on nearly every island come out and watch,” Esker said. “Even when I crossed the finish line, I was getting text messages from home with people cheering me on. I can’t believe everyone took so much interest in me.”
However, during the final swim, Esker’s thoughts turned specifically to his followers with disabilities, those just struggling to get through every day life.
“If they can do what they can do, then I knew I could finish the final 40 minutes of the swim and then I am out of there,” Esker said. “I made it to the sand and everyone was cheering for me. I just turned back to the deep water and started vomiting over and over and over. Finally my crew chief came out and grabbed me, saying they would get me going again. I had an amazing crew and such great support from my home town.”
With 10 participants, this marked the first time in six events that everyone who started the race finished.
Also finishing were Armando Armellini (Texas), Tim Sheeper (California), Duncan Tebb (Australia), Ignacio Garcia Vaquero, Patricio Doucert (Span), Laurent Gambotti (France), Michal Subrt (Czech Republic) and two-time finisher Juan A. Craveri (Argentina).
The event continues to grow, with possible expansion in the future.
“With such a high demand, we are holding a second event this year in September,” race director Rebecca Morgan said.
