Relay for Life/First Ride in Turkey

9May09- Incirlik AB Turkey-

Well I don't normally blog about other things but figured this was a worthy thing to blog about. So I arrived to Turkey on a Wednesday and the following day at work I found out that there was going to be a Relay for Life here on base my first weekend. It just so happened that they had 2 open 1 hour slots for our squadron which also just so happened to be back to back. So of course I had not had a good long run since China and figured I would kick it off with a 16 mile track run. The great thing about this event though was it was something that I had grown up around and probably had done about 5-7 of them in the past years from about age 10 or 11. It was one thing that I always looked forward to every year going out to Johansen and spending the whole day and night out there. There would always be volleyball going on along with all other sorts of events. So the event here on base was only 12 hours instead of the full 24 and was a lot smaller but at least I was able to get out there for a good long run for a good cause. I did hear quite a few comments from the other walkers/runners since I ran for 2 hours straight: a little girl said "Man his legs are SKINNY!! But he sure does run fast".....A husband and wife "He is still running????" and then the water lady about every 15 mins "Are you OK??" So the event was good and I had a great time soaking up some sun and getting a good long run in.

So Sunday morning I met up with a guy that was stationed at Osan while I was there but I did not know him. I got a hold of him through some other bike friends back in Osan and they hooked us up. So he was able to show me the ropes around the roads here and got off base and was able to see some interesting things. It was a short 18 mile ride but was nice to see some different scenery then the 8 mile loop on base. Below are some pictures from the ride. In my opinion it is a heck of a lot nicer than osan scenery wise but I don't know if the drivers are near as respectable as the Korean drivers were.

Well I found out there is a 5K on base this Saturday and then next Saturday there is a "Poker" run 5K on base as well. So we will see how those go. I will post a small update after each of those.

Wildflower, Wildflower, Wildflower!!!!!!

3May09- Avia Wildflower Olympic Distance-

Once again I dont know where to start. It all started off with a 4 hour drive with my buddy OC that was stationed in Korea with me. He is now in Idaho and made the trip out for the race. So once we arrived at the race site we had to set up camp. Luckily I had made some friends in China that were going to be at the race as well so they already had a camp site picked out for us. So we got the camp all set up before the Friday afternoon rain rolled in and just hung out on Friday. Once we decided to go to bed the rain stopped.

So OC was racing Long Course on Saturday so that meant an early wake up. I got up and cooked some oatmeal and had a good breakfast myself. 515 was quite early but it didnt really matter because at 615 some garbage truck came into our area and woke up the whole damn city dumping the garbage. So I headed down to the race around 730 and was able to watch OC start his swim at 815. For the rest of the day I just hung out and got a light swim in and got a feel for the water. Later on in the day I went back up to camp to catch a nap and ended up sleeping in the tent which turned out to be like a sauna. Well about an hour into my nap I was woken up to someone telling me OC had just ran by so I figured well I havent road the bike yet so I hoped on the bike and caught up to OC and cheered him on for a little while. After that I grubbed out on the Carb load party and then had a 2nd dinner with the family up at camp. So with a full stomach and having nothing to do we just hung out at camp and told stories until it was bed time. Got a decent amount of sleep and was wide awake at 0600 the following morning.

Well I stuck with the same eating plan as I had in China and woke up and ate some oatmeal and banana's. Sipped on some Gatorade and water and made sure to take care of the morning "business". So once all of that was taken care of and I got everything ready I headed down to transition area and set things up.

I started the swim in the 3rd Wave behind the College Men and Women. I started 10 minutes back from the official race clock and had 2 waves of people ahead of me. So by the 1/4 way mark I started catching people and the course got a little more congested. When I hit the last turn and headed home for the home stretch I felt really good and picked it up a bit. When I hit the boat ramp I looked over at the clock and it read "36:14", so that meant I had completed the swim in 26mins which was about a 2min personal record for me. So I came out of the water feeling really good and was pleased with having such a great swim. I had a decent transition from the swim to bike and did not have any problems getting the wetsuit off.

Onto the bike. Well let me tell you what..........A 1 MILE climb after just swimming .93 miles is not fun at ALL!!!! Known as "lynch hill" this thing was a beast and made me appreciate the hill work I had done in Korea. So this course was by far the hilliest course I have ever raced on and I thought it was going to take a lot out of me. I did not push extremely hard on the bike but kept a constant pace and really watched my cadence and tried to keep it up above 90 the whole time. I did not want to exert all of my energy on the bike and not be able to run on the hilly run course. I was only passed by 2 people on the bike which made me feel really good. I did a lot of passing but since there were so many people on the course I did not know if I was passing people in my Age Group or just the college people. So overall I was really pleased with the bike.

Now to the run......Well just like the bike course this was the hilliest thing I have ever raced on. I was tired of seeing hills on the bike let alone the run. So I just went out there and ran. I tried to find my legs early and they actually came to right off the bike and felt good. So I had a great run in my opinion and was very thankful for all of the college students out there at the aid stations especially the one at mile 3 that handed me a Coors Light which I happened to take a swig of. It was refreshing and I think it was the extra kick in my step from there on out...hint hint COORS LIGHT SPONSOR ME ;)!!!! At the other aid stations they were very willing to hose you down with cool water and had all kinds of gatorade and water. Sadly enough the mile 4 aid station was "closed" and I did not get to see what I had heard so much about. Overall the run was great and getting to come down lynch hill on the run course was great. A complete mile decent that I was able to fly down and have a nice last mile split.

So overall it was a great race and I had an awesome time and weekend. I was able to PR my OLY course record on one of the hardest courses out there which just showed me how much all the training for China helped out. Below are the split times and stats for the weekend along with some pictures.

Swim-26:17 (526th Overall)

T1- 2:32

Bike-1:13:01 (50th Overall)

T2-2:00

Run- 41:09 (60th Overall)

2:24:17** The official results are posted wrong and are in the process of being corrected. My official time shows 2:26:17 but is off by 2 minutes. This moves my overall finish up, but not my age group placing.

4th Place Age Group out of 54

67th Place Overall out of 2,603

I would like to give a big THANKS to my family for coming out and supporting me at this race. Mom, Steve, Madyson, Mamma Weez, Aunt Vicki, Aunt Debbie, Cousin Blake, OC and then the people from "Camp WONGSTAR". Also big shout outs to Amy Chow and Jocelyn Wong from our camp for Amy taking 3rd in her AG and the Wongstar winning her AG.

Our Camps Bike Stable

Madyson with her "GO BUBBA" sign

Getting ready in transition area Coming up the boat ramp...
Out on the bike.....

Out for the Run...
The final kick down the finishing chute
Checking some numbers post race
Mom and Me

Myself, Amy, Jocelyn, and OC

Post Race China

23 Apr 09-

I really don't even know where to start this post race report so I am going to try and back it up and start it from Sunday morning. I will warn you now that there will be some graphic photos at the end that if you have a weak stomach make sure you watch for the WARNING before looking all the way down. 0500

19 Apr-

Woke up bright and early and made a few phone calls home. Sat there and ate 4 instant packs of oatmeal and drank a completely disgusting cup of coffee. The best part of the morning and the thing I was most worried about got taken care of, the bathroom.........That could hurt your race time by upwards of 5 minutes if you cant take care of business before race start. Then got everything packed up and checked over to make sure I was not missing anything. Sat around the room and just relaxed until 0640.

Once on the bus headed for the transition area we were able to see all the Ironman athletes lining up on the beach and getting ready for there 0700 race start. We arrived and were able to watch the start of the race and notice how strong the current was compared to other days and I knew I was going to have to sight really well to make sure I made all the buoys. Once the Pros came out of the water I went over and got the bike setup and all of my fluids filled. Our race did not start till 0900 so once everything was completed I went and found some shade and relaxed for awhile. Around 0815 started to put on the dreaded wet suit. After that I went down to the water and got in a quick warm up swim and then headed to the beach for the start.

Swim- Talk about having to aim so far right of the buoy's and then still missing them. That's how strong the current was, luckily I only miss judged the first buoy by about 5ft and had to swim upstream for that minimal of a distance. Was I noticed how strong the current was, I realized I would not push to hard on the swim as it could possibly ruin my day. Down the backstretch with the current to my back I found someone to draft off of and stayed on there feet for about 400M and conserved a lot of energy for the dreaded up current swim that would soon be coming. This is where I had to use quite a bit of energy or else I would have just been looking at the same building off in the distance when I breathed for quite some time. It was the craziest thing every couple strokes I would look up and it seemed like I only would have moved 5ft. This up stream section probably took me 20mins and was one of the shorter sections of the swim. I ended up coming out of the water right at 35:05, 5 secs slower then my goal but it was a hard swim so I was fine with that. I was 54th out of the water which I did not mind because that would give me a lot of people to pass on the bike. Below is a picture of the swim course and you can see what I am talking about.

T1(transition from the swim to bike)- Went really well and slipped out of the wetsuit quite quickly. Once I got to the bike I checked the competition and realized I was 2nd out of the water and did not know how much time I was back.

Bike-

Once on the bike my legs felt great and I took off. I started passing people left and right. I hit the first aid station and my aero bottle still had quite a bit in it so I realized I needed to start drinking more. By mile 12 I had caught the other guy in my age group and was still feeling good. At the second aid station I road through and got a water bottle to mix with my cytomax special mix and was on bottle 2. I kept on going through the course and was feeling really well. By mile 45 I had caught the female pro that was in the field and I knew I was having a good day on the bike at that point. A majority of the course was on the main highway which was freshly paved but at mile 45 is right when we hit the village which had a pretty bumpy road. For those 4 miles I sat up out of the aero position and just kept my cadence up. Once out of the town I was back at it and felt really strong. Now here is where I started to get confused. Mile 50 or 51 my right leg started cramping; my legs have never cramped on the bike. So this is when I knew the heat was getting to me and I could be in some trouble on the run. I took 2 extra salt tablets and drank quite a bit more for the next 20 minutes. I ended up consuming 5 bottles of cytomax on the bike and took about 7 salt tablets. The cramps slowly went away and only came back when I went to get off the bike at T2. I hobbled into T2 trying to make sure I did not cramp. Below is a picture from my training software with a breakdown of my bike.

Click Picture to Enlarge

T2(transition from bike to run)- Went extremely well minus stepping in the mud pit that caked mud all between my left foot and toes. So I took some time in the tent and got all of that crap out of my foot and toes and then was on to the run. Also while in T2 the male pro from the full distance tent who ended up winning the race came into the tent and was putting on his running shoes at the same time.

Run-

Well this is where I started to fade due to the heat. Well it was not heat it was a scorching 113 degree's. I did not think it was that hot until later on when I realized how bad my sunburn was. I had put sunscreen on in the morning before the swim and once I got on the run course I layered myself in it hoping to keep the sun off of me and keep me cooler. Well that did not work out to well. I felt decent for the first 2 miles but it was just way to hot to be running. So for the first half of the run I would trot for a while then walk or walk for awhile then trot. I call it a trot because it was no where near a run. Now for the 2nd half of the run I thought to myself what are you doing stop walking and start running. Well I sucked it up and started trotting/running, every aid station I would get drenched with sponges of cool water and for about 3 minutes after that I could really run. After 3 minutes my body was back to being hot and would just slow way down. Below is a picture of my run breakdown along with mile times for every mile. This was by far my weakest run to date but everyone else had bad runs as well so I was pleased with a 2 hour half marathon.

Click Picture to Enlarge

Finish-

WOW, the one time in a race where I almost came to tears when I saw the finish line. It was so hard to hold it in but I manage to not let it out. I had put 19 weeks of solid training in for this and to be able to cross that finish line still in good shape felt great. They took me to the massage tent after the race and that was by far a great massage. After the massage and post race food we had a BBQ for all the 70.3 athletes. So I managed to get some food in my stomach then along with a well deserved beer so that was nice. It had been 20 weeks since I had drank a beer so that by far was one of the greatest tasting beers I have ever had.

The Final Stats-
Swim- 35:05/54th Overall/2nd Age Group
T1- 3:31
Bike- 2:33:57/7th Overall/1st Age Group
T2- 2:52
Run- 2:01:11/9th Overall/1st Age Group
Finish Time- 5:16:34
1st Place Age Group--QUALIFIED FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN CLEARWATER FL--
4th Amateur Overall
7th Place Overall Finisher
**NOTE- When results first came out I was 8th overall. When final results were posted someone was DQ'd ahead of me so that is why I moved up.**

Below are 2 links to some stories that were published online about the race:

http://ironman.com/events/ironman/china/mccormack-and-balding-claim-ironman-70.3-china-titles-kevin-mackinnon-recaps-the-exciting-day-of-racing

http://www.slowtwitch.com/News/McCormack_Balding_supreme_at_China_70.3__766.html

Post Race Recap-

Alright now to the fun stuff. Since it was 113 degrees out I received 2nd degree burns on my shoulders and back. We joked on Monday night that you could of fried eggs on the road out there. Well Tuesday when I got back home I had 2 sunny side eggs that had cooked on my back and decided to become blisters. These are the graphic photos that I was talking about so if you have a weak stomach they are posted at the bottom and you may not want to look.

This was by far the best race to date in my short triathlon career. I was overwhelmed by my performance and by all of the support I have received. Everyone back in Korea and the states that followed my race I appreciate it. To Kayla for sitting in your room and yelling "RUN BRAD RUN" at your computer, maybe that is the point where I started running and stopped walking.LOL. I still do not think it has set in how big this was and what I have accomplished. I just know it would not have been possible without everyone behind me and supporting me. To everyone that I have trained with here in Korea you guys have been great. Without having you to ride with or run with or go up to the pool with I don't know if I would of rolled out of bed on those early 0430 runs or 9am Sunday rides. Thanks again to all of you for your support.

Below are some pictures from the race:

The start of the Ironman Race

In transition area getting ready

Eric and myself getting ready. Eric was 11th Overall and had a bad day in the heat. Eric and I roomed together and he was my mentor and helped me out quite a bit with everything throughout the weekend. THANKS ERIC!!

Dreyfus and me, he was in my Age Group and we have connected on Facebook and will keep in touch. Triathlon is great for making new friends from all around the world. Dreyfus lives in Hong Kong.

Receiving my trophy. The stage was right next to the Ironman finish line so that was really cool.

You can tell how burnt I got in this pic. I think my Bryan Clauson Racing hat brings me luck, I have not missed a podium finish in my Age Group since I started wearing that thing!!!

An awesome pic of Jocelyn Wong, myself, Donna Phelan, and Tereza Macel. These girls are on Team TBB and are Pro Triathletes. Awesome people and they will all be at Wildflower as well.

WARNING DO NOT LOOK IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!!!!!

Day 3 in China

18Apr09-Haikou China-

Well woke up this morning at 0600 for another morning swim but it was not meant to be. It was coming down like crazy with rain and there was thunder and lightning. It poured down for quite awhile and I ended up leaving around 9 to head over to the swim start/transition area. The current was still pretty bad and they announced at the race briefing that there would be a change to the swim course do to the current. Instead of swimming the full 1.9K (1.2 Miles), we will have to run a section of about 200-300M down the beach. They made this change due to the fact that the current was strong in that section and they think some people might not be able to make the swim in that last section.

No one around here knows what is going to happen with the weather it is really a mystery. With it being a tropical area things can change in a matter of minutes it seems. The race director says that it should be high 80's with a chance of rain in the morning and late afternoon. Other rumor is it is going to be a beautiful day and nothing to worry about.

If you are interested in following the race it will be on http://www.ironman.com/. Look for the link for athlete tracker or China 70.3. It will be starting Saturday at 1800 West Coast Time and hopefully I will be done by 2300-2359 West Coast time. For everyone in Korea it starts at 1000 Sunday morning and be finished by 1500-1600 Korea time. If for some reason you cannot find the link I will have my blog update late Sunday night Korea time/early Sunday morning West Coast Time.

I have attached some photos from the race briefing along with some pictures on the ride over to the TA from the hotel.

The Beach area where we will start the swim from

There was a wreck on the bridge so we got off the bus and started riding to the TA


Another photo of the swim start area

The guy going over the swim course

Day 2 in China

17Apr09-Haikou China-

Well it was another great day in China. The weather was not bad at all, stayed cloudy pretty much all day and that kept the heat down. It was not as humid as it was yesterday so that made it nice as well. I woke up at 0700 and slowly got going. Went to the breakfast buffet and had a good meal. Went out around 0900 for a morning 5 mile run and felt good. I took it easy and ran at my race pace and really felt good with it. I then decided to lounge around and relax for a couple hours. They had a meet the pro session at 2 and they had several pros show up and it was a neat experience to hear about there stories and experiences. After that I went out and biked for 15 miles. Had some mechanical problems but took the bike over to the mechanics here from Team Bike Boutique and they fixed it up within 10 minutes. Had to replace the rear derailleur cable and adjust the rear derailleur and they took care of it for no cost. I was really surprised that I was not charged a dime for their time and replacement parts. Below are some pictures from the meet the pro Q&A as well as a satellite image from my bike ride today. A lot of people have asked exactly where I am so I have also attached a map. If you look on the map you will see a #5 and that is where the race is being held, on the island of Hainan in the city of Haikou. I have also attached some photos from the welcoming dinner that was held tonight.

Welcome dinner


Hotel with all of the people getting ready to eat.



Q&A session with the Pro's

The map of the Bike ride today

The map of China

Day 1 in China

16Apr09-Day 1 in China-
Flight went well and was into Haikou at 1130pm on the 15th. Arrived to the hotel at 1230 and was unpacked and had the bike together by 230am and was dead asleep at 245am. Was up bright and early at 0700 and was out the door to catch the bus at 0800 for a morning swim. The swim is in a river and the currents are pretty bad. Nice when it is moving with you but coming back for the final stretch it is working really hard against you. So when I was just finishing up my swim this nasty T-Storm decided to move in and poured down some rain. Check out the picture below of what almost looks like a tornado was forming but the locals said it was just the storm. Other than the swim I have just been relaxing and enjoying the free time not having to worry about work or anything else. I have put up some pictures from around the hotel and the city.......Check back tomorrow to find out how my morning bike ride and afternoon run go.......

The resort all lit up at night
The beach out back of the hotel

The pool at the hotel

Front of the hotel

The crazy storm that moved in on us.

Pre Race Report for China 70.3

15 Apr 09-Incheon Airport Korea-

Well amazingly I found a free wireless Internet cafe in the airport. Yes you read that correct, absolutely free with computers and all. Did not even have to pull out the laptop. Well today has been good so far, made it through checking the bags after having to explain what Hammer Gel was. I explained that I eat it and they thought I was crazy, they thought it was oil so I guess that is why I got the strange look. Then go through the X-Ray line and they tell me that my crescent wrench and T-Handle allen head is a dangerous weapon so I had to check that. Guess traveling with the bike is a learning experience for me.

Well to back track a little bit. I have not been able to sleep worth a crap lately, well I am getting 6-8 hours but my body wakes up at 6-0630 every morning no alarm needed. So I was up bright and early just laying in bed this morning. Finally rolled out of bed at 8 and talked to the parents and some friends. Headed out for a light 30 minute run at 9 and then got everything ready to head to the bus stop.

Pre Race Notes:

Height-6'1"
Weight- 159 (lost 10lbs in the last 4 weeks) this is right where I wanted to be for the race.
Wetsuit- Zoot Zenith Full Suit
Race Bike- Cervelo P3C
Wheels- Easton EA90 Aero
Engine- The whole 159lbs of my body
Shoes- Asics Gel Cumulus 9
Nutrition Plan: 7 Servings of Hammer Gel, 3 Zums Sodium/Potassium/Endurolyte Tablets, 4 Servings of Cytomax(Gatorade on Steroids), and 5-10 Hammer Endurolyte Capsules, A LOT OF LIQUID.......

Goals:
Finish
Podium in my Age Group- Only 3 of us so I have to finish and this is accomplished
Go Sub 5 Hours
Top 10 Overall
Top 10 Bike Split
Earn a spot to the 70.3 World Championships......Earn not a ROLLDOWN!!

Goal Splits:
30-35min Swim
2:25-2:35 Bike
1:35-1:45 Run

I have set high expectations for myself but with full execution of my plan all these goals are reachable.

Run into Spring 5K.....2009 Keeps on rollin

27Mar09--Osan AB RoK--

Well just seems that 2009 just keeps on rolling with good things. It is nice to see results reflecting the past 3 months of traning and hopefully everything will pay off in China. Well it was a windy day and in the low 40's high 30's w/ Windchill. There was about 200 people that showed up and once again a decent size field for a base 5K. A guy came up from Suwon that is TDY out here and we talked before the run. He was saying it had been awhile since he had raced and was trying to go Sub 17, I was like well looks like ill be fighting for 2nd today........So the race started and some HS kids were there and they took off running like no other. I was like what is going on and where did they come from. I stayed calm and did not try and keep up and sure enough about 1/2 mile into it they were dead. So it was the guy that was TDY and myself out in front. He lead all the way till the turn around then I picked it up to see what he would do; he hung on for the next 1/2 mile so then I let him set the pace again. We were right with each other all the way to the last 300M then I decided to start my kick and got him by about 3-4secs. So it was a great day and I set a new 5K PR by 1:03.

Race Results:

1st/200
17:33----NEW PR------

2009 Off to a GREAT Start!!

21Mar09--Camp Humphries Sprint Triathlon--

Well it was an early 5am wake up to make it over to the Hump by 7am. We had Mr. Lee from the Pacific Hotel give us a lift over there and we had someone from base drive the bikes over in a Van. We had 9 people total from Osan head over to compete. We had 1 team and 5 individuals. The swim was only 400M and I felt really strong out of the water, swimming approx. 6:30. It was a very cool morning so I wore a long sleeve jersey and took some time to dry off once I got out of the swim. The bike was a 2 lap course total of 12 miles and had a few small rolling hills on it. I tried out the new aero helmet and it was nice but made me sweat a little more than usual due to not as much venting. I had a really good bike split of 29mins and felt strong once again. Then came the run..........Had a great T2 (T2 is when you go from the bike to the run and is the time that it takes you to Transition) but took some time to get my legs to want to actually run. Kept a high 6min pace for the first 2 miles and then my legs finally started to feel good and dropped it down into the low 6mins. Ended up running a 20:03 for the 3.1 miles and felt pretty good about that with a 6:39 pace. I was shooting for high 18's low 19's but thats not what happened. So I felt really good after the race and had to wait for everyone to finish to find out my exact time......The awards ceremony was very well organized and Osan did very well. Team Osan took 1st place with a time of 1:00:55. A Female from Osan took 2nd in her division and Osan swept the under 35 podium:

Myself at 57:31

Mark at 1:03:17

Jeff at 1:09:08

This was my last race in Korea and it was a good one at that. I was pleased with the turnout that we got for the race and was happy that our Local Korean team showed up as well. It was a great way to go out and was very happy to have a good group of people there. Below are some pictures from race day.

Myself and Mr. Yoo getting ready to race (he is 58 and keeps up with the youngins)

Myself and Shauna (the girl that whips my ass by over a minute in a 400 Free)..We get a lil pumped up and crazy before race start.....

Getting ready to get in.....

Mark in the closest lane, then myself in lane 2, Jeff in Lane 3

Headed out for the 3.1 Mile RunFrom Left, Jeff, Mark, Myself
The New bike with its first win!! I swear Cervelo could make rocket ships!

Pyeongtaek Tri Club with their adopted Americans!!! Some of the greatest hospitality has been provided by this team. Transportation up to Incheon last November, hooked me up with a Jersey that I have promised to sport in every country I go to. So look for it in future pictures at China, Wildflower and Turkey!!

8 Weeks down 10 to go.......

5Feb09-
Well its my first post since the new year. Hope everyone brought in the new year with a bang. Training has been going great and time is flying by. I have already been at it now for 8 weeks and training is going great. Luckily it has been somewhat injury free minus a minor groing injury. I have been doing a little cross training with a weekend of skiing and a 2 day volleyball tournament. Other than that things have been great and the countdown is on till China. As of today only 72 more days till race day. Once I get back from China I will have a few days left in Korea and then home to Cali for a few days and the Avia Wildflower Triathlon. Here are some photos from the ski trip. I will be doing a 5K on base tomorrow morning and it will be interesting to see what 8 weeks of training has done for my run. Hoping to go out and set a new PR and go sub 18 mins........I will update this weekend after the 5K and let everyone know how it goes......

The View from the Gondola leaving the hotel.......
The top of the mountain.....