Blazing a Trail

So I traveled to Red Top Mountain State Park in Georgia this past weekend. This is about 35 miles north of downtown Atlanta. I came upon this destination for a wedding. Friends of mine, Dusty and Leslie, got married this weekend. The wedding reception and ceremony were absolutely amazing. The surrounding woods and trails were a gorgeous setting for a wedding. The actual reception was held at a plantation house. It was a great time for all.

On Saturday morning, I was able to take advantage of the locale for the event by doing some trail running. Once again for the second weekend in a row I realized that while Texas is great, it doesn’t offer much in terms of beauty or hills or nice outdoor scenery. These trails snaked around Lake Allatoona and climbed through the hills of the mountains. Starting off I knew from looking in the hotel guest book that there was a 5.5 mile loop that I could run. I set my mind on Friday night that I would run this route in the morning. So in setting out for the trail I asked the front desk for directions and they indicated that I could pick up the trail and follow the yellow marks for what was called the Homestead Trail.

With the first step on the dead pine needles and leaves, I knew that this was going to be a good run. I immediately noticed how with each step I rebounded significantly quicker and felt more of a spring in my step. I haven’t ever done much trail running, but have read up on in it runners world before. I was very happy with the way it was starting out. The ground provided a cushioning that is not comparable to anything man made. The rigidness of concrete, asphalt and steel, provide no cushioning against the pounding impact of each stride. I didn’t know what I was in for either. The trail had many climbs and descents.

The trails I hoped would be hilly and fun. I took cautious steps as I begin to climb the first of many hills. Trail running is not as simple as lacing up your shoes and heading out the front door. It’s critical that you have heightened senses on your run. A trail is place of raw untouched and ever evolving terrain. It at times seems as if it is devoid of anything that a normal runner is used to, cars, concrete, stoplights, bikes, and all of the other items that a runner comes into contact with on a daily basis. I could run this trail twice in the same day and each time the trail would present itself to me in a different way. When you run on a trail its crucial to be ever vigilant of each future foot strike. Each time that you strike the ground you never know if a rock will roll or a root moves and if mud is not solid. It provides a challenge to have a keen sense of what you are about to do before foot hits the ground. The uphills were steep long and the down hills were a quad punishing delight. Running hills is great because you are able to challenge your leg muscles on the way up and forces you to work them in a completely opposite way on the way down. I can compare it to squats on the way up and more of a balancing act and restraining challenge on the way down. What’s more challenging is when you are running hills on trails, because with each stride down the hill you gain speed and momentum, and this is when it becomes ever critical to make sure that with each step you have secure footing. Because at any moment you could slip and roll down into the ravine that is to your right and stream that has sharp jagged rocks protruding. Needless to say it was a challenge. Some of these hills were sustained grades of 15% with durations from 400ft to .5 miles. I have included some pictures of the elevation profile and some shots of were I was able to run.

What was most interesting is I completed the first loop and realized it wasn’t the entire 5.5 miles and I had to cross the street in the state park to continue it. So I ran and just chose my path and ended up running closer to about 7 miles for the day. I ended quite a ways away from where I needed to be when I started following another trail. It was then time to look at a map and go back to the lodge. All in all it was a terrific run on a great Saturday morning.

It was also nice to catch up with all my old college friends, I haven’t seen many in a long time and all I can say is when you get us all together like that is some things never change no matter how old you get. My friends are dropping like flies and getting married one after another. It makes you stop and think how far away I am from ever getting married. Hell, I don’t even have a girlfriend. I also hope for these people that are getting married that they have long lasting marriage with many happy days to come. I have seen 2 of my fraternity brothers have their lives ruined by their wives because they caught their wives cheating on them in the first few months after marriage. It’s terrible to have this happen, but it happens. So congrats to Dusty and Leslie and I wish them a long and happy life together.

The Will of the Hill

Ever since moving to Dallas there has been something different about the state and the city that just isn't right. After being here for almost 8 months I have finally put my finger on it. The terrain of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and NOT Austin, SUCKS!!!. I like everything there is to like about Dallas but I hate the fact that its surroundings are so bleak and flat. Just this past Tuesday, I was in Tarrytown, New York for work. This is some 30 miles north of NYC. I had the pleasure of going for a 45min run just before sunrise. What made this run so pleasurable was the fact that I was able to run almost up a hill for the entire time. It was great. As I set out from the hotel basically running along side a highway, I noticed a castle of sorts at the top of the hill. The castle was positioned in such a way that the rising sun made it difficult to see anything but an outline. I knew for certain though that it was a castle, the turret stuck out like a Rook on the end of a chess board. I thought to myself as I ran on brisk morning, some 30 degrees out, "Wouldn't it be cool to run to the top of that hill and see that castle. My goal for the morning was to run some steep hills. I ended up cutting across a 4 lane road to get to a side street. The reason I did this was because I could see that the street began as a very steep hill. So I ended up just running up this hill, and I remember coming around the bend and saw an even steeper hill and was just so excited.

I know many would think why would you be excited to run up a hill, "Isn't that more difficult?" why yes it is more difficult. However when you live in a place like dallas and run and ride your bike as much as I do it can get very boring riding solely on pancake flat roads. Its as if when I ride and run in Dallas you are on a treadmill of sorts, just never ending.

So the run in New York was great, and here I am in San Clemente, California as I write this blog. I came here for a friends wedding. My friends Mike and Andrea are getting married this weekend. The people here this weekend are the first people I met when I came to Dallas. They are great people and I was very excited when I was invited to their wedding. I was excited for 3 reasons, Weddings are fun, it was very nice of them to invite me having only known me for a short period of time, and I really have wanted to go to California for a long time.

Well here I am sitting in a hotel room getting ready to go out for dinner. I just took a drive down to the beach and pier. All I can say that as soon as I left the airport, I saw something that I miss. I saw mountains and hills. I began to think, to myself well Brett you moved to Dallas and didn't know anyone, why not move to California. I would have near perfect weather to train in year round, and hills. What more could a triathlete ask for. It just really makes you start to think about what your doing and where your going.

So my plan for tomorrow is to wake up at about 8am and eat an apple and cliff bar, then drive to the beach for about a 20 -30 min swim in the open water. I brought my wetsuit and swim goggles, and bright yellow swim cap. I am super pumped for this. I will be sure to bring my camera to take pictures. It may not be the smartest idea swimming alone but I am sure there will be surfers and I will try to get my friends to come with. Other wise this could be my last will and testament if I drown. Much love to everyone, but thats not gonna happen...

Then after the swim, I am gonna go to my car and change into my running clothes. I plan to do a 6 - 8 mile run. I brought my fuel belt with me too, so I can tote my camera and take pictures while I am running. It is just so beautiful here and it makes you happy to be alive and just be outside. This is one thing that I don't recall ever saying about Dallas. Its just so ugly in Dallas.

Now Austin, TX that is another story.

I will post some pics from the run and swim in my next post.

The entangled and weird Friday and the rest of the weekend.

Lets begin this odd and interesting yet scary tale that was my Friday, April 12, 2008. It all began well with hopes of a short day at work followed by going with a friend bike shopping, then maybe a few cocktails and in bed a decent hour so that I could go for a long bike ride on Saturday morning. Needless to say my evening ended the same but its what happened in between that will make you realize there are so many things in life that you cannot control. With that being said it is important to appreciate yet be cautious of all that which you cannot control.

So my day started good, I went for a 4 mile run in the morning. The last almost 2 miles I ran without listening to any music. This was a nice change and it was very peaceful, as it was so quite at 5:30 on the Katy Trail. I had sent a message to fellow colleague Patrick, asking him if he could pick me up at the U-Haul Shop where I was having a hitch installed on my car. I was having a hitch installed so that I could get a bike rack and haul my bike and friends bikes without having them scratch the paint on my trunk lid. I had arranged the previous night to go help Sarah shop for a road bike and she would be taking me to pick up my car in the afternoon. Well Patrick and I drove into work and started our day. At about 9am that morning Patrick got a call from an old friend who he used to work with at Turner's Corporate office in Dallas. Patrick's friend Dean had been in a car wreck and wanted Patrick to bring a camera to take pictures to document the scene. Patrick obliged. 45 minutes later Patrick came back to the office with the camera and the first thing he says is... "Brett I now know how your car would preform if it were ever in a wreck." Patrick uploads the pictures to his computer and to my surprise his friend Dean drives an Infiniti G35 just as I do. Turns out Dean was waiting to turn left at a light and so was a semi truck and the truck was in the outside left turn lane and took the turn a bit sharp and dragged and crushed his car almost 50ft. The car was a wreck and totaled. However most importantly Dean was uninjured and everyone was okay. It was interesteing to see the car similar to the one you drive in pieces. 

A shocking and interesting experience to say the least. So the day passed and Sarah came to pick me up at work and at this point she had decided against going bike shopping and was nice enough to still take to pick up my car. I get to the U-haul and it was sitting out front and all complete. The hitch looked great and you could barely see it. I went in an paid and left to go to the bike shop to buy my bike rack so that I could use my hitch.

The bike rack was purchased and I really wanted to get my car washed it had rained this week and was quite dirty. See if you don't know I sold my Red truck in Janruary and purchased a 2006 Infiniti G35. It was a slate blue 4 door car. It was a wonderful car and I couldn't have been more pleased with it.

On my way to the car wash Patrick sent me a message asking this one question " Car OK?" I responded " Yeah its great the hitch is on and you can barely see it"

No less than one minute later I approached a green light and had to turn left on green. Everyone has done this 1000 times before. I pulled up to control the intersection and there was another car attempting to turn left who was facing me. I looked and carefully examined the situation and saw and opening between cars to go. So I stepped on the gas to pass through the intersection and what I failed to see was a 2007 VW Rabbit. I immediately slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel all the way to the left in hopes to correct my position some more that I wouldn't hit him. My effort was worthless. For those of you that have been in a car as the driver in an accident there is a moment when you are in the car that you almost feel that the car that you have been controlling is no longer in your control. No matter how hard you press the brakes or turn the wheel you cannot change what is about to happen. At this moment I take my hands off of the wheel and relax my arms and watch as my car collides with the VW Rabbit. I sit in my car and wait for our all of our kinetic energy of my car and the other individuals cars to come to a rest. During the course of this crash, my airbag deployed and there is a smell in the car of cap guns or firecrackers. This is from the explosive reaction that is required to expel the airbag at such a velocity to protect the passanger from injury. I however, was wearing my seatbelt and didn't move an inch in the car. This is the second bad accident I have been in, in which the seatbelt has thourghly protected me. 

My first reaction after the cars come to a stop is to turn off the car and get out. I get out and immediately ask the other individual if he is okay. He indeed is okay. I then tell him to turn off his car as well. We then both get out and begin to inspect the damage. I immediatly apologize and say tell him it was my fault, because it indeed was. A bystander had already called the police so I begin the process of getting on the phone with my insurance company, and taking his information. This is a long drawn out process and it takes some time. The Police officer writes up the statement and both myself and the other individual are in agreement with his assessment of the situation. At this point the officer indicates that he will not be citing me for any violations of any sort. This was nice, because it may help the long road of my increased insurance premiums be a little less. 

As we begin to part ways and watch the tow truck driver load my vehicle a individual begins walking towards me and hands me a card. He introduces himself as Ken. Ken is an employee of Sewell. Sewell is a company that owns numerous car dealerships throughout Dallas. I in fact bought my car at Sewell Infiniti. Ken said he saw this on my licsence plate frame and wanted to see if he could help me in any way. He offered a ride and I gladly accepted. He said just let me call my wife and we can leave. I wrapped things up at the scene and left with Ken.

This is when things got a little weird. Previously when Ken handed me his card I noticed that he was a LEED AP. I too am a LEED Accredited Professional. For those of you that don't know "LEED" stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Its Green Building and sustanability.  So I begin some small talk and ask him what he does for Sewell. This is where he indicates that he is the Faclilites Manager and in charge of new construction. This is very interesting to me since, my company Turner is working with them on building a few of their upcoming buidlings. We shared talk on Turner and Green Building, and it was nice to hear from one of our clients the things he likes about Turner. I will be sure to share them with the people I work with on Monday. Ken ended up taking me to the collosion center and back to my apartment. It is amazing that Sewell employees have that kind of dedication to their customers, especially since there was nothing in it for him. It was a selfless act of compassion. I have already written Ken a hand written thankyou note and will also write one on behalf of Turner Logistics to their entire company.

So my weekend didn't start like I had planned. But it happend, so I tried to just be happy that I was alive and could see another day. It was weird how intertwined everything was with the G35 being wrecked that morning, having Patrick ask how my car was, all the way to meeting a Client of Turner Construction. Its a small world. So keep scrolling and you can see the pictures. If you get this in your email you may not see the pictures Just go to this website.

So on Sunday I woke up at 5:30 so I could go volunteer for a Half Ironman race here in dallas. It was a great experience. I got to be at the bottle hand offs on the bike route. This is a fun thing to do. You basically have to hand off bottles to the riders as they are riding by. Some are going really fast too, so you have to run along side them. It was truly nice to see how appreciative everyone is of the volunteers, I mean in every race I do I thank them all the time. I realized in my Half Ironman that without the volunteers at these races they wouldn't happen and no one could ever race. I am going to try to volunteer as much as possible for events that I am not racing in.  

Sometimes in the spring time we.....

So I had to travel for work on Monday afternoon, for one night to Atlanta, GA. I went there for a class called "Dealing with Difficult People". It was a very informative class and I left with some good pointers. It was also nice to hear that people from all across the country in all Turner offices are dealing with the same thing. I sometimes thing my job title should be a Dealing with difficult people engineer. What was the most interesting is when we shared stories on how to deal with various difficult situtations and what works and doesn't.

What I hate the most about traveling for work is that most of the time it really screws up my eating schedule. I hate it because when I am in Dallas all week, Mon - Fri, I plan out my meals on sunday and go to the grocery store and buy fresh ingredients to eat. When I have to travel for work, if I go and buy fresh food it usually goes to waste since I am not at home for a few days. It just throws a wrench in my eating. However, also when I travel there are too many temptations for me and I usually give in to eating some sweets or a treat here and there. Because when I am at home I eat really healthy food, a treat every so often never hurt anybody.

Back to the training. I had a good recovery and feel normal after my Half Ironman (HIM). I did a 30 mi bike ride called Tour Dallas on saturday, it was a nice easy slow ride. I also had an unexpected 1200m swim on friday afternoon with Tommy and Mike. This was good, but I could tell my shoulders were still sore from the HIM. Its funny, because it wasn't the swimming 1.2 miles in the race that made my shoulder and back sore it was the combination of running 13.1 and biking 56mi. Believe it or not these activities use your Latissimus Dorsi, Trapezius, and all 3 deltoids more than you think. I mean after my full marathon, my shoulders were tighter than Dick's hat band. They were sore. Its just the running and moving your shoulders back and forth for almost 4 hours that can really take a toll on the body. This is why it is important for triathletes to have some type of strength training in the offseason to help with preventing injury, etc. etc. I began yesterday on the plan to figure out my workout schedule for April, May, and June. This is in preparation for Buffalo Springs Ironman 70.3 I have really tried to make the best of all the traveling that I will be doing for work during the month of April and June. Some of my plans include running hills while I am in NY in April and doing some OWS when I am in Long Beach, CA in June. I actually am really looking forward to these workouts since it will really break up the routine, while providing some great training for the race.

So today I had a 5mi run and it was nice. As I went outside to run, I have begun to see the changes to the foliage and many of the small changes that occur as the seasons turn. I ran at the same time on Monday and it felt like it was already getting brighter out early. The trees a more green and the weather is warm and refreshing. I have never realized that this year I am much more dependent on the changing seasons for my training. I feel like I have an acute sense of the change of the seasons this year as opposed to any other year in my life. In many years past I never remeber feeling such an invigorating sense of opportunity and desire to train outside. It is almost as if as the winter turns to spring, my body is turning from a swimmer, cyclist, and runner, to a triathlete. I feel very optimistic about this summer and spring training and that good things will happen. What is key is proper recovery and making sure I listen to my body and don't get over zealous and try to take on too much to quick. This is why I think its going to be good to take 2 weekends off in April from training and just relax.

The key to a successful triathlon season is finding a good balance between, training, friends and family, fun outside of triathlon sports, and work.

So I will try to post my work out schedules in some fashion for all too see, but don't know how yet.

Going half way home.....

So this is the post that will sum up my race experience throughout my first Half Ironman Distance Race. I competed in the Lonestar Half Ironman, in Galveston Texas on March 30, 2008. I think the best way to do this is kind of like a favorite author of mine, Tucker Maxx. I will put it into time and date stamps and write a piece about each significant time of the entire weekend. After which I will comment on the experience as a whole.

Thursday 3.27.08

3:15pm - I left Dallas all packed up hoping that I hadn't forgotten anything. I had a partner with me for the ride and was curious to learn a little bit about who he was, and what his story was. He was another member of the Team In Training Team. His name was Jack.

6:50pm - I arrived in Houston at the hotel where I lived for almost 2 months. It was a weird feeling. As usual all of the business travelers looked at me like I am some kind of nut wheeling a bicycle into the hotel room but I don't care. They are the fat fucks who are simply sitting around getting more fat talking about how they should loose weight but not doing anything about it. To make a long story short Jack was a great guy and I was really excited for him. He was getting ready to do his first triathlon this weekend and was very nervous. I tried to give him all the advice I could. I reached back into my triathlon experiences and my first few were a great deal shorter than his. He was doing the Lonestar Quarter Iron, basically half of what I was doing. Some of the things I told him were this:

1. You have to simply swim .6 miles. This is about 1000m. I asked him how many times have you swam that distance in the pool? He answered quite a few. I said so what makes doing it in this race any different. Yeah, your in a wet suit, the water is a little more cold, there are others around you, but what is most important and what doesn't change is the distance. You did it once just do it again. There is no need to rush, if you get tired just do breast stroke. 

2. The other thing I said was you have done 2 century rides (1oomi bike rides) you will finish this race there is no doubt in my mind.

Needless to say he finished and was really excited. His entire family was there to support him and he was so happy when he was done too. I was truly touched by him and how happy he was. It was a great site to see and to be honest there were so many people around me in the same position. 

7:15pm - I got the bike put together and in spandex. I went out for a 20mi ride on the bayou trail in Houston right by my hotel. It was a wonderful evening. Then I went and ate a fat burger at a restaurant and was in bed by 9:30pm

Friday 3.28.08

5:00am - Woke up and went to my work meeting fast forward to....

3:45pm - Arrived in Galveston. There was a open water swim from 3 - 5 pm and I really wanted to make this so I rushed to get checked in the hotel. I was really excited. The hotel had signs up welcoming the triathletes and there was certain buzz about the place. I mean the first things you see are people unloading there expensive bikes, and walking them into the hotel. They are always pushing the way triathletes do. It seems like, and I do it too, that triathletes always like to push their bike by the seat and not by the handle bar stem. One would think this is more difficult but its kind of like a challenge to see how straight your bike will go and like a little game.

3:55pm - Standing in line at the checkout counter there are two guys my age almost in front talking about racing. I love to eavesdrop too. I have realized in my life that I am a competitor and I love to size people up. By no means am I a all-star triathlete but I like to compare myself to others. I know that some are better than me and that is all right by me. The beauty of triathlon is not about if you are the best its about personal improvement, achievement, and the satisfaction you get from training and racing. But hell, I still like seeing who I am better than and winning; who doesn't.

4:30pm - I make it to the dock with my wetsuit and my swimp3 and swim cap. I strap up and get loaded in. I talk with a lady coming out of the water and asks her how the water is and she says Excellent, and wonderful. I think even if the water is freezing fucking cold everyone should give her response. Cold water is only as cold as you let you mind think it is. Why do you think some people think 65 is cold and others don't. I get in for about an 800m swim and it was flawless. My first few strokes I floated and glided through the water like a hot knife through butter. I can now say that I love swimming in the salt water in a wetsuit. It was great.

I will fast forward to race day because I just realized that I will probably be here typing for like 3 hours and that would be shitty.

3/29/08

I go to dinner by myself after I pick up my packet and attend the race meeting. The whole time while I am doing all of this by myself, I have time to reflect and just get focused for tomorrow. I begin to think that I really truly have enjoyed training for this race and in particular the time I spend alone, by myself, in the pool, on the bike and running the roads. This always a time of deep introspective thought about your life. Its very meaningful to me and I enjoy it. It can be hard to explain what you are think about on a 3 hour run or bike ride but there is always something going through your head, its never just empty.

I eat alone at a Pizza restaurant. The pizza was good too. I always love to eat pizza or chipolte before a race because of my horrible experience at my first half marathon. I ate weird food the night before and had diarrhea every hour on the hour from midnight to 5am. It was a hard race. Thanks to sarah I was able to make it. She bought me imodium AD. So that is why I stick to pizza and normal food that I know my body can handle.

I get back to the Hotel at about 8:00pm. I get into some comfortable clothes and want to watch my What It Takes DVD. I put it in my work computer only to find out it doesn't play DVD's. Needless to say I got that fixed this past week. So I end up going to bed at about 8:30pm. Right before that another TNT team mate who I am sharing my room with comes in. I wish him luck and I say I am going to bed.

Sunday 3/30/08

4:30 am -- I wake up from my wake up call. This is when the routine begins. One key thing about racing in endurance sports and especially triathlons, is that alot of things can go wrong on race day. Think about this, I will be doing an event that lasts close to 6 hours. I will have 3 different events which I will compete in and all of these 3 events have there own accessories. You could have your goggles break, bike break, sunglasses break, shoes break, etc. etc. You could have stomach problems or multitudes of other things go wrong. So my motto is:

Stay In Control, But Never Forget What You Control....

What I am trying to say by this is that don't let things outside of your control upset you and get you down, and also don't be a victim to something that you could have prevented. This is why I have my routine.

My routine is like this any race I do its the same. When its starts to go awry I get worried....

1. Wake up, shower.

2. Shave

3. Put on Comfortable clothes.

4. Make Breakfast. I always try to eat breakfast about 2 hours before the race. The reason for this is that I have learned how my body processes food and that I need time for it to really settle and sometimes an hour isn't enough. Eating breakfast causes that gastro intestinal reflex and makes ya shit to be blunt. You don't want to have to do this during a race so, to get it all out I make sure I eat well before the race, and I eat the same thing I do on almost every training day. I eat a cliff bar, instant oatmeal, and a banana. Sometimes I will add in some peanut butter and wheat toast.

5. Drink water and gatorade.

6. Go through all of the stuff I layed out the night before that I am going to need for the race. I pack the night before so that I can check it off again the morning of and will not be in a rush and forget something. This is another reason I wake up so long before the race. I mean the race didn't start until 7:45 and transition didn't close till 7:30am. Being rushed on race morning is a horrible thing and should be avoided at all costs. One bad outcome of being rushed is obvious, the other not so much. Sure you may forget something important, but chances are you will get it and only be delayed in arriving. What would affect me the most is the mental effect of being hurried. The long distance triathlon is such a mental game that when you are rushed in the morning it puts you in a agitated state and hurried state. For me this is negative. I preform better when I am calm and resolved. I want to feel the nervousness throughout my body.

7. The routine is now done off to the race.

Arrive at transition at 5:45am. I go to get my body marking done. I forgot to heed the comments in the race packet and put on my sun screen before they marked me. Needless to say my numbers rubbed right off. The whole time walking to transition I was listening to the music I listen to when I train. This helps to put me in the right frame of mind. I listen to weird music but it helps bring the memories back of training all the time. I rack my bike and set up transition as always. 

I then take a walk to the swim exit and follow the path all the way back to where my bike is racked at. I note the row I am in Letter B, and the best path to go. This is important to make sure your not lost when you get out of the water. I can tend to be in a daze after I swim hard for a long distance and then start to run. If triathlons were swim, run, bike, I think a bunch of people would fall over, I stumble around when I get out of the water sometimes.

So I am all set up and waiting for the race to start. Its only about 6:30am. I have more than an hour just to relax and think about the race ahead. Not in a rush, hurry or anything, this is a good feeling. 

7:15am I walk out of transition and towards the dock. The swim course begins to come into sight and take shape. All I think is Damn thats Far. Open water swim courses always look so much farther in person than compared to when you actually swim them. We have another pre-race meeting for 5 min and I am ready to go. I am in the 3rd wave. Its starts with Green Caps, Blue Caps, and then me Yellow caps.

7:40am they let the yellow caps hop in the water and tread for 5min till the start. Luckily I am wearing a wetsuit and don't even have to tread. I just float. So I wait a minute or 2 then jump in at about 7:43am. As soon as I get in, I piss myself. This couldn't had been better timing. I had been holding it until I got in the water. See the thing about a wetsuit is that it is supposed to let some water in but not back out and the warmth of your body in turn raises the temperature of the water and provides like an extra warm water blanket that surrounds you. They are great. My water however I didn't let in on my own, it was 98.6 degree urine with a bit of salt water. Say what you want, I was fucking warm.

7:45 am - The gun sounds and I was at the front of my swim group. They let each group go 5 min between each other. The Green caps started at 7:35, Blue caps at 7:40 and then us. I just start swimming knowing that I will be swimming non stop for 1.2 miles, in lightly choppy salt water that was about 67 degrees. I was doing my sighting about every 3 breaths or every 9 - 10 strokes. I swim pretty straight in calm water so I don't sight much if its calm. I get to the first buoy, and start my turn. I pop my head up and see a few blue and green swim caps around me. This gets me pumped up. I was feeling really good and strong. I had covered almost at least 10min of ground on some people.  After this site I feel into a rhythm and just kept trying to pass people or find someone at my pace. 

I finish the swim and exit the water. There are wet suit strippers there for us and I plop on the ground and they pull on the arms of the suit and off it comes like sheath off of a knife, fast, slick and smooth.

I run to my bike throw on my socks, bike shoes helmet, race belt and glasses. Then I realize the sun isn't even out so I throw them back down. This could have been a crucial error but I gambled and the gamble paid off The sun never came out until the run. I am out of the T1 in longer than I would like but no worries. 

I begin the bike ride and I am hauling ass over 20mph. I felt strong and began to just drink my fluids and figure out what times I was going to eat my food. I ate a gel immediately when I got on the bike, then I figured about 50min later I would have my cliff bar then another 50min I would have my gel, all the while drinking gatorade and water. I made sure that at each bottle hand off I took a bottle in. 

Well, I drank alot of fluid. So much that I had to stop and pee 3 times. Every time I had to pee, I tried so hard to stand up out of the saddle and piss myself and I don't know what the problem was but I just couldn't go. I don't know if its the pressure from the saddle on your but that transfers to your bladder or what. I mean how many times can you say all you wanted to do was piss yourself and you can't. I mean most people have the exact opposite problem. So I will just have to practice it sometime. I mean practice makes perfect. So stopping 3 times to pee didn't help my time at all. The first of the 2 - 28 mile loops was lonely, cold, and foggy. It was all the lead guys and not many people in front of me. At one point I felt all alone and it was quite. All I could hear was the humming of the sinusoidal wave of the high voltage lines running above my head along side the highway. It was all too eery. The second loop was much more fun. I mean I rode about 21 mph the entire time and passed tons of people from all the previous waves. Way more things to look at.

Now on to the run, I had a quick T2 transition and was off. I realized on the bike at about mile 45 or 50 that I should have ate more on the bike. I was hungry. Next time I will bring another cliff bar and 2 more gels. So first thing I do is pop a double espresso gel and have a water on the run. I start off a good pace and hoping just for an under 2hr half marathon. I just let my body fall in a groove. I drank and ate at the aid stations. I forgot how many more gels I had but it at least was like 3 more. I had some handfuls of pretzels a few times too. I felt good the entire run. No weird pains, or side stitches. This was a positive thing. What wasn't was the run course itself. It was a 2 - 6.5 mile loops. I hate loops in races. I run the same route all the time at home but in a race I just want to run one and be done. The run was nice scenery though. After mile 10 is when I begin to get bored. I wasn't tired, I wasn't sore, I wasn't in pain. I was just bored of running. What I wanted was my music. I really enjoy my music and it makes the miles tick away when I am running. If I would have had my music I could have probably ran another 6.5 mile loop. So I think in preparation for other races I need to do some of my long runs without the tunes. This will help to aid in this boredom. So at mile 11, I begin to chant, or say some sort of mantra. At this point I had to go to one more turn around and then the rest of the way was back to the finish line. I was chanting something along the lines of " Why Not Now!" It fell in real good sink with my breathing and just was kind of fun to chant it out loud. All the entire time anyone I saw wearing a white bib which signified the Half Ironman who was walking I shouted encouragement to them. I said things like don't quit now, and you can do it, simply its easier when you smile.

One prevailing thought through my head the entire time I was racing was how I thought in August 2007 that a Half Ironman was out of my reach. I remember on a 10mi run at 4:30am in October 2007  I realized how easy and fluid 10 mi runs had became to me. This is when I said to myself, I am going to sign up and run a half Ironman. So 6 months later I did, and I crossed the finish line felt good. The whole time I was training for it all I would ever do was visualize myself walking across the finish line hands in the air with a giant clock ticking above my head, red timing mats beneath my battered running shoes and a smile upon my face. This image became my reality on March 30th 2008. There are few things that you can think about and imagine for nearly 6 months that actually come true. How many times in your life has this happened to you? And if your lucky enough that you have imagined something for a long time then it comes true, then how many of those times have you and only your efforts been the cause of that visualization and image becoming a reality. This is why I love triathlons. I can do anything I want.

So My final splits are:

1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 mile run

Total Overall Time - 5:18:52

1.2 mile swim - 36:45

1:54 per 100m

Transition #1 - 3:01

56 mile bike ride - 2:45:18

Average speed 20.3 mph

Transition #2 - 1:16

13.1 mile run - 1:52:31

8:35 per mile pace

Thats it folks, and BTW it is way easier than a marathon. I felt great the next day. Whens the next one. I love this distance.