This Age-Grouper’s Bike Had a Fast Split at 70.3 Worlds - It Just Raced Without Her

Carey Cribb’s bike had an incredible split at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, Spain, last month – its fastest ever, in fact. “It raced speedy and strong,” said Cribb, 71. “It just did it without me.”

Cribb, a pediatric emergency room physician in Fort Worth, Texas, had traveled to Marbella to compete in what would have been her fifth Ironman World Championship across both the 70.3 and full distances. But from the moment she arrived in the coastal city with her husband and a few friends, things felt off.

Their flight was delayed, they barely made their connection in Madrid, and when they finally landed in Málaga, their bags – including her bike – didn’t arrive.

After long lines to file a lost luggage report and more waiting for a rental car, the group finally reached their condo. It had been 10 hours since they landed, and Cribb hadn’t eaten in nearly 24 hours.

“It just wasn’t the perfect setup for racing,” Cribb recalled. And the misadventures continued the next day as she tracked her bike via AirTag, eventually locating it after several miscommunications with a delivery driver.

“I was exhausted: little sleep, inadequate calories and fluids, no chance to jog or check out our bikes, no swim in the ocean. We’d already missed the Parade of Nations and the Fun Run.”

Usually, triathlon fills Cribb with joy, but this time she felt none. The headaches – literal and metaphorical – pulled her completely out of race mode. In search of distraction, she opened Facebook and was immediately flooded with frantic posts from athletes still missing their bikes or looking to borrow gear.

My bike is still in Lisbon!
Still in San Francisco!
My bike made it, but not the bolts I need for the cockpit!
My luggage is lost and the airline can’t find it!
I’m 5’3” and need an XS bike!

Cribb’s heart broke for them. She wanted to help, but how?

Then a thought struck her.

What if I just give someone my bike…and don’t race?

Making goodness from mishap

It felt wild. She had traveled thousands of miles and worked hard to qualify. But deep down, she knew her purpose in Marbella wasn’t to race; it was to help someone else.

It wouldn’t be the first time Cribb felt the instinct to step in – and step up – for a stranger in a big way. In 2017, she was recognized as a local hero after resuscitating a man who had collapsed in a cycling studio after a workout. Cribb administered CPR and saved his life.

The situation in Marbella, being far less dramatic, made the choice even easier.

“I’m at the stage of my life where I don’t have to arrange childcare to race, or save up vacation days, or spend a year budgeting for a trip to Europe like many athletes there,” she said. “Me not racing wouldn’t be the end of the world.”

So Cribbs reached out to Tara Snow, one of the women posting in need of a bike. Snow, a mom of five from St. George, Utah, was in Spain with her husband and teenage son and had reunited with her 20-year-old daughter, who was on a six-month mission in southern Spain. Racing in Marbella meant everything to her – not just as a test of fitness, but as the culmination of months of training requiring time away from her family.

Snow, who had posted her plea on Facebook out of absolute desperation with no expectation that anyone would respond, couldn’t believe her luck. “I was so happy when she reached out that I didn’t even care what size the bike was.” (It was, in fact, too small for her, but Cribbs helped make it work.) “Completing this race was so important to me. I’d worked so hard to get there. It took me two tries.”

On race day in Marbella, Cribbs leaned fully into spectator mode, cheering for her friends and for Snow, who had a solid day despite cramping from the undersized bike.

“I couldn’t stop smiling all day. I felt like I had won the whole thing,” said Cribbs, who ended up pivoting her race plans to Ironman Cozumel two weeks later, finishing second in her age group. “I have no regrets. I chose my joy, which was lifting someone else when they needed it most. My validation doesn’t come from another finisher medal but from being the best person I know how to be. Sometimes, the best gift we give ourselves is the one we give away.”

Weeks later, reflecting on Cribbs’s selfless act still brought Snow to tears. “I do feel like there was a higher power at work that brought Carey to me,” she said. “Despite all of the division and anger in this world, there is a lot of goodness out there, too.”