IM Korea Pre Race

2 July 2011-

Well the big day is just a wake up away, that is if I fall asleep. I am pretty tired so I should fall asleep no problem. WOW it is really hard to believe that tomorrow is the big day, it seems like just yesterday I started this journey...........

It has been a long journey that has been filled with ups and downs, definitely more ups. I can't thank everyone enough that has supported me throughout it. I appreciate everyone that has followed the blog, FB, and now TWITTER. As I mentioned in my last blog my buddy John is down here, he rode with us in the TDK. He will be helping me out on course with some splits and will also be keeping everyone around the world up to date with how the race is going. Those of you that follow IM Live and the Athlete Tracker know it is hit or miss, so I figured since he had a smart phone we would throw some "tweets" out there and link it up via FB. So that is the cool thing that will be happening tomorrow is no matter how bad or good the IM coverage is you will still have some updates from John.

I have been racing for a purpose over the last couple races and it really makes these races mean a lot more. I feel like racing for someone/something else makes the race special, and being out there for a purpose gives me a reason to push hard. I have decided to race this IM in honor of a former teacher Carolyn Searway. She was diagnosed, in January-2011, with duodenal cancer. This has hit home and I often pray for her and her family. They are a family of 5, Mike who is the same age as me, Robby who is a year younger than Bryan (my brother), and Katie who is going into the 8th grade and then her husband Ben. They are very similar to my family in that we are all close in age. I cannot understand at times why God does the things that he does, but I continue to pray for strength for their family and for Carolyn. She is making progress and I was fortunate to visit with her while I was home on leave. I hope to go out there and race hard for her and her family. I ask that anyone that would pray for me on race day would channel your prayers to her and her family. IM is tough, but it cannot compare to the battle with cancer. Please take a minute to look at the website that has been setup and if you can please take a minute to pray for her and her family.

http://www.prayforcarolyn.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/msearway

The race starts at 7am(GMT+9) tomorrow morning, which will be 3pm California time. It will all begin with a 2.4 mile swim/112 mile bike/26.2 mile run. So I figure I will throw some guesstimates out there of how the day could play out. If it gets hot, windy, rainy, cold or any abnormal weather things can go off plan. It is a long day anything can happen but here are some goal/rough estimates.

Swim- 1:05-1:15
Bike- 4:55-5:25
Run- 3:10-3:30

I also have some other goals listed in order of importance:

1. HAVE FUN!
2. FINISH
3. Sub 12 Hours
4. Sub 10 Hours
5. KONA!!

Yes those goals are pretty aggressive when you get towards the bottom. I believe that I have put in the work and have made some sacrifices to accomplish those goals. It will take a good day and executing the race plan, but anything can happen as it is a long day.

I had a funny conversation with my Mom when I was home. It was before the tri at home and she asked me if I was going to WIN my AG at that race. I looked at her and told her that I was in the best shape of my life and I was going to lay it all out there, and if that was good enough to win than I would win. But there are things you cannot control, I cannot control who is going to show up and I cannot control the course or weather. Everyone will have to battle the conditions, but if 4 other guys show up and they are just out right faster than me well then the beat me to the line. So I will go out there and control what I can control and whatever happens happens. I know where I am, I know what I have put in and tomorrow is just another day of proving to myself where I am.

Here is the information for following the race for tomorrow:

www.ironman.com or www.ironmanlive.com should have an "athlete tracker" up. As of right now it is not up. My bid number is 38.

Like mentioned above John will be updating Twitter so checkout: www.twitter.com/afbadbrad and those tweets will also be going over to my FB account.

Thanks again for all of the support and look forward to making everyone proud tomorrow!