Tongeyong ITU/Olympic Hopefuls

17Oct2010- Tongeyong Olympic Tri-

Tongeyong is down on the southern part of Korea and is right on the ocean. It is a very nice town and is about 4-5 hours from Osan. Dave, Jeremy and myself all headed south early Saturday morning so we could get down there and watch the ITU race. I didn't know anyone racing but I knew a former US Naval Officer was coming out to represent the US. I didn't know that there were going to be 3 other team USA guys out there. It was cool to be able to talk to them and cheer them on during the race. All of these guys are vying for spots on the US team for the 2012 Olympics. 2 of them are still active duty military and are in the WCAP (World Class Athlete Program), you are temporarily released from your "normal" job and spend the 2 years leading up to the Olympics and the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Spring Colorado. One of the guys was James Bales, who won Armed Forces Tri this past season and is in the Air Force. Come to find out Dave knew him from when they were both back in Texas.

After the race we talked to the guys and they appreciated having some Amercians there to cheer them on. It was cool to see people that we could relate to as military members being at the top of our sport. James actually came up to Osan after his race and stayed in town till Thursday before departing for another ITU race out in Hong Kong. More to come about the adventures of his stay later in the blog.

Saturday Dave, Jeremy, James, and myself all went to a pizza place and I had my normal pre-race beer and then they had spaghetti, so I ordered 2 servings and devoured that stuff. It has a lot of cheese in it but it was really good. Once getting back to our huge hotel room, see pictures at the bottom of how awesome it was, I got everything ready and then called it an early night. I read a few pages out of "Bowerman and the Men of Oregon", I just started reading this and it seems like it is going to be a great book. Shortly after reading I feel right asleep and slept really well.

Sunday morning I was able to take care of the normal pre race ritual, which is always a good sign that things will go smoothly the rest of the day. I headed over to transition area and got everything setup. This was my first race as "Age Group Elite", it is a class they have out here in Korea. I am not sure if they have it anywhere else so I will briefly describe it. The great thing about AG Elite is that you do NOT have to pay race entry fees and you still get all the goods. Occasionally you have a chance to win prize money as well. The race is done ITU style and is draft legal. The AG's for this class are broken up into 20's,30's,40's........etc. We start in our own wave which makes for a smaller wave start and cleaner water for us. To become AG Elite you have to win your AG and go under 2:15, so it is not extremely difficult but luckily I was able to qualify at my first race here this year at Sokcho.

Swim- It was a cold morning and standing on the dock getting ready to dive in my feet were numb. A guy from up in Seoul who I have got to know was the only other foreigner racing AG Elite so we were standing out there freezing our butts off waiting for the swim to start. I was joking about what could we do to keep our feet warm and made a joke of how funny of a picture it would be too see two guys in wetsuits all ready to race with those funny looking boot things that girls where with skirts in the middle of winter. We laughed about that and then shortly after the swim started. I haven't been in the pool much since May and wasn't expecting anything spectacular. I felt good on the first lap and had a lot of clean water to swim in and found some feet here and there to swim off of. The second lap was a different story and things got congested towards the end and there was a lot of swimming over people due to the other waves going off after us and the slower swimmers were still on their first lap.

T1- Went smooth and Doug's wife, the Canadian guy's wife told me he was about 5mins up on me. I knew this was going to happen since he is a super fast swimmer but didn't know how I was going to catch him this race. He was the guy that I passed in Sokcho with 1/4 mile to go.

Bike- Man was this a technical and hilly bike course. I caught 2 guys within the first 2 miles and stuck with them. We caught a couple guys throughout the race and ended up with a group of 9 riders coming into T2. I didn't feel strong on the hills but was able to catch up on the decents and put the hammer down on the flats. Like the pool, I haven't been on the bike much since May/Wildflower. Just looked up the numbers and I have only put in 625 miles since May, which is really LOW.

T2- Had a quick transition and felt strong going into the run.

Run- This is what I have been putting the time in on with the Marathon next weekend, and actually I have put in more run miles since WF then bike miles. Pretty scary to see the numbers, 736 miles running since May and only 625 cycling. I was really wanting to hammer hard on the run and see if I could catch Doug. At the first time we crossed I checked the split and he was 6mins up on me. That is when I knew he was having a killer race and he would have to blow up for me to catch him. I just ran my race and didn't let anyone pass me. Felt strong on the run and set a new OLY distance run PR.

Swim- 25:12 29th/440
T1- 1:06
Bike- 59:12 1st/440
T2- 0:54
Run- 38:14 5th/440
Total- 2:04:38- 3rd/440 Overall 1st/3 in AG Elite 20's

The official times did not include transition time so doing the math between my Garmin I was able to figure out the splits. The placings for each event came off of the official splits. This was a great race and I was very pleased with my time and overall placing. My buddy Dave went down hard on the bike and has had to take some time off for training. A Speedy recovery to him so that he can get back out on the road and get back on track for IMWA!

Alright so too the adventures of hanging out with James Bales. Being around someone that is at the comes from the same background as you and knows the difficulties of being in the military and training was quite cool. Just asking someone that is in the professional ranks of triathlon questions and just taking it all in was awesome. He wanted to get out and see Korea so on Tuesday we headed out for a 30 mile ride. By the time we hit mile 5 he flatted, at mile 8 he flatted again. Well we were all out of tubes so back to base we headed. He didn't get too see much and decided that he wanted to head out again on Wednesday. We headed out the same route and luckily neither one of us flatted at all. I took him up to the golf course "hill". When we got to the top of the first climb I told him about the guards and how we could attempt to go by them. Off we went and he got to experience the chasing of the moped and how much the golf course security guards love cyclist. I think it was my 6th trip up the top of that mountain and I am sure no one else in spandex and a bike trys to go up there due to the guards so I think we are on a first name basis now. They just figure I am some crazy american now and I just wave and say have a nice day as I leave there country club. It is one of the best climbs around here and has some great views so it is worth the hassle each and every time. After the ride I took James to experience some traditional Korean food and I am pretty sure he got a good taste of the food. I appreciated someone at that caliber taking the time to go out and ride with someone at my level and answering the amount of questions I had to ask. So keep your eyes out for AF Capt. James Bales as he pursues his dreams of being on Team USA's Tri Team!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Joddie Swallow the female winner of the ITU race!
Capt. James Bales on the run course.
Getting my certificate and "gold" medal!
Pyeongtaek Tri Club and the honorary member, ME :)

White Lightning and her first win, she is now 1 for 1! Couldn't ask for a better ride for ITU style racing, well I guess I could get an S3 but the R3 is killer!
Korean style bed I slept on.
1/2 of the living room. Overall 2 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bath. $185USD for one night but well worth it since it had a great view and lots of room. Probably could have 5-8 people in there if they doubled up in the beds.
For all of you wondering why I got flying past security guards to climb a mountain, this picture should sum it up. This was from back in 2009 when myself and Dave climbed up there for one of the first times. Dave discovered this "secret" climb and let me know about it. It is a 2 mile climb from 200ft to 600ft

An Early Payday :)

10 Oct 2010- Pyeongtaek Port Half Marathon South Korea-

With the big Marathon only two weeks ago I had talked to some people on how to run this race. The "smart" thing to do would have been to run it at marathon pace and not tear the legs up too bad. Well come to find out the race had prize money for the top 6. The new plan became to see where I stood at the half way point and if I was within 2 minutes of the money to push hard and catch them. Well at the half way point I had only counted 6 people ahead of me, so I decided to run hard. It was a beautiful day out with great weather and I wish this race would of been further out from the marathon because dang my legs felt good. When I started pushing hard I was running high 5 min/miles and it was not hurting that bad. I ended up catching what I thought was the 6th place guy with 4K to go and once I caught him I slowed down to his pace.

I sat on his heels for 1K and he was hurting pretty bad just running along at 7min/mil. That was a nice little break on the legs and then at 3K to go right after a water stop I made my move by him and he didn't try to follow. Coming across the finish line they gave me a card thing that went around my neck and it said 5th, so I was kind of shocked by that. 5th/6th actually paid out the same amount so it wasn't that big of a deal. It is just nice to say I finished in the top 5 of a decent size half marathon. I still don't know how many people were in the race but if I were to take a guess I would assume between 1,000-1,400.

The funniest part about crossing the line was that a guy came up to me and told me I had been selected as a nominee for "best dressed". I was just wearing my running gear, but I think it was the awesome tri top that got me the nomination. I am not sure if I have mentioned it before, but at WF I met some awesome Canadians and they were all on the same tri team. The team name is Critical Speed Racing and they had an extra tri top that they gave to me. I have been showing off my cool jersey in Turkey and Korea and it has brought me some great results. Thanks CSR for hooking it up! I didn't end up winning but it was still pretty funny how just wearing some running gear that matched could get a "best dressed" nomination.

I ended up running 1:20:05 and finished 5th overall. Below are the results of the top 15, 7th-15th got a 3kg bag of rice. The other american is an older guy, I think in his late 50's early 60's and we ran the first 8K together. Pretty impressive to see someone that lets say "experienced" still running so fast.

Rank		Name		Back No.				Net-Time
1		여흥구		3086				1:14:04.19
2		박창하		3788				1:14:35.61
3		Osamu Tada		3961				1:16:03.58
4		김회묵		3757				1:16:28.28
5		Williams Brad		3642				1:20:05.48
6		장성준		3866				1:20:57.96
7		김동호		3420				1:22:03.22
8		유영대		3823				1:23:29.33
9		이용승		3431				1:23:29.80
10		Elger Dave		3650				1:24:13.27
11		정호현		3884				1:24:48.98
12		이한석		3588				1:24:57.80
13		김정동		3410				1:25:50.82
14		김명호		3720				1:26:24.36
15		오상수		3176				1:27:41.32

Here are some pictures from the awards ceremony:

The pre-awards show.....

Receiving my gifts.

The top 5 with some important Korean. The third place guy was flown in from Japan with his wife. Not a bad pay day of 300,000Won and a free trip to Korea.

The trophy and my "best dressed" nomination award.

My first pay check in Korea! I won a gift certificate while home on leave, but cash is so much nicer! 100,000Won is around $95USD, the exchange rate is not that great right now :(

Headed down to Tongeyong this weekend for an Olympic Distance Tri; it will be my first race as Age Group Elite :) Getting to watch the Pro's race on Saturday and going to be rooting for Timothy O'Donnell to tear it up and represent for the USA!!

First Wrong Turn :(

2 Oct 2010- Energizer-Adiddas 10K-

Well I was looking forward to PR'ing my 10K, and then I got to the race. Someone had mentioned that the course was hilly, so I thought well I can still PR just as big as I want. Then I did my warm up and the start of the course was uphill, but not too bad just a gradual incline. O and to make everything better it was raining and the race was at night, which was cool and thought it would be fun.

I felt good and the legs wanted to run. The fireworks went off and I took off. Was up in 3rd for the first 1.5miles then settled into 4th. Around mile 3 I got passed for 4th and was in 5th. I would play the passing game with this guy up and down the hills. Well it was just a bunch of uphills and a few downhills, more up than down the first 5K of the race. I was feeling good, just irritated at how much grade there was and how it just kept going up. We caught glimpses of the 3rd place guy every so often and I thought I could possibly bring him back in sense the last 2K was all down hill. I know I finish strong and my kick has gotten stronger over the past two months so I figured if I could get him within 100M I could make things interesting.

Then for the first time I made a wrong turn, well "WE" made a wrong turn. Myself and the guy in 4th both went off course and ran onto another course. There was 2 5K courses and 1 10K course all going on at once. When I had looked at the map I remembered seeing we finished up with one of the 5K courses. So I figured that was the turn and we kept going. This was around mile 5. I knew things were bad when I saw a sign that said 2K, meaning that was 2k into the 5k race. Well that couldn't be right since I was at 5.5 miles by that point. That is when I decided well it is over and just continued on that course and made it my cool down.

The worst thing about this is I keep getting so close to the money and this time I cost myself the chance at the money. They paid out top 3, so I could of had a chance at 100,000Won, which is about $90USD.

Considering all the conditions of rain, darkness, and running through a zoo it was still a good experience. Everything happens for a reason, still not sure what that reason was but what is in the past is in the past. Here is the map and elevation chart from the race:

Half way between the 1 and the 5 where it takes a sharp right is where we made the wrong turn :(

First 2 miles were all uphill......This is just the first half, it was out and back so go from right to left and then left to right and thats the complete course.

Quoted from FB: "Brad was running too fast to take a pic....."

Hat Trick.....3 in a Row at the Hump!

Sept 18 2010- Camp Humphreys, South Korea-

When I previously said I was hitting the ground running, I meant it. Third weekend in a row of racing and what a thrill it has been. I had been in Turkey way to long with not enough racing going on. I thrive on this stuff and just enjoy competing, although things have changed over the last year. Believe it or not I am starting to get a little smarter about these races and I do not go out and "race" every single on of them. They are goal oriented now looking into the future at what my "A" race is.

I like racing these small sprint tri's and especially at Humphreys. They are well ran and they even have a timing system, which makes things nice. This time things were a bit different and we were in a 50m pool and the course was completely closed off to traffic. There was a good showing of 35 people and a lot of fan support. I had previously won here two times last time I was in Korea and was hoping to win again. You never know who is going to show up though, so it is always interesting.

Swim- I have been really bad lately and have not put time in at the pool. With Chuncehon right around the corner I have been completely focused on running and a ride every other week or so. I actually swam quite well and was 2nd out of the water, but with a speedy transition was first out onto the bike course. I swam right around 6 minutes, which wasn't too bad for me for 400m's.

Bike- It had some rolling hills and was a 2 loop course which wasn't that bad. I had a police escort the whole time which was nice, but not sure why they were out there since the course was completely closed off to traffic. Felt decent on the bike and was really wanting to run a good 5K, so I conserved a little energy on the bike.

Run- It was on the same portion of the bike course that had the rolling hills, which I wasn't too happy about. I like a nice flat run course, but you can't always get what you want. I had a good lead coming off the bike so just concentrated on running a solid 5k. Didn't try pushing to hard and felt good coming into the finish.

400M Swim- 5:xx-6:xx (either high 5's or low 6's)
20K Bike- 32:49/23.2mph avg
5K Run- 19:16/6:18min/mil
Overall-58:22/1st Place overall

Below is a link to a story that was posted in the Morning Calm, a weekly paper done by the Army:http://imcom.korea.army.mil/site/news/MCW-PDF/mcw-thisweek.pdf (PG 21) If this link doesn't work it is the Oct 1st edition of the paper.

Here are some pictures from the race:

The Ride

Headed out onto the bike course

Out onto the run...

The Osan Crew! Jeremy, Dave, Me

Myself and the "Post" Commander. Wonder how he felt about an AF guy coming down and whippin up on his Army boys ;)

Running for a Purpose

12 September 2010- DMZ Half Marathon- South Korea

It had been almost 2 years since I had ran my first half marathon, well stand alone half marathon. I have run 13.1 miles many of times but never all out and just running. I have done a few half Ironmans over the past 2 years and had some decent run times. I was really looking forward to this race to lay it all out on the line and see how far I had come over the past 2 years. I lined this race up while I was still out in Korea through the Seoul Flyers. They are a running group out of Seoul about 1 1/2 hours from here by train/bus. They are a group of foreigners that like to run, and well party, which I will talk more about in my next post.

The weather had been pretty crappy leading up to the race day and it was possibly going to be raining so I was not too thrilled about that. I packed up and headed up to Seoul the afternoon before race day. I got up to a "love motel", this is where single people/married men take girls after a late night out as they are cheap places to stay $35US for the night. It includes a flat screen TV, Internet hook up, and computer. Of course it has all the other regular amenities as well, nice big bed and decent bathroom. I got settled in and did some HW, didn't really get much of a dinner but I had a late lunch so I snacked on a gatorade, snickers bar and 2 bananas. I attempted to go to bed around 11 but it started storming out which caused a very annoying drip outside that kept me up all night. I think I may have got an hour of sleep and that was it.

Woke up and felt like crap. I had 2 Cliff Bars and a banana, wasn't able to get the usual pre-race coffee, but settled for SB's chilled cappuccino and a chilled mocha. My stomach was upset most of the ride to the race and I wasn't feeling that great at all. I luckily was able to use the bathroom before the race. It was a first time experience for me as I have never had to use the "korean" toilets before. Most places have the regular style toilets by now and I have never had to squat, EVER. Took me a few seconds of pondering how to accomplish this daunting task but luckily I figured it out and took care of it. Once again morning business taken care of and no worrying on the course.

The race started on time and I got off to a good pace. I was told to be careful and not go out to fast, which I was worried I had and just kept going with it. There were two foreign guys that went out strong and stayed about 200M's ahead of me the first couple miles then built into 400M's then one guy got about 1200M's ahead. I just focused on my race and was hoping they went out too fast. Well come mile 10 I started pulling them back in and was determined to catch the last guy. I caught up to him with about 1/2 mile to go and made sure that when I went I went hard too make sure he didn't want to stay. I came around the corner and saw the time and it read 1:18:50 and I crossed the line right after 1:19, luckily I started a few seconds after the clock and my chip time came out to 1:18:55.

This was one of the biggest breakthroughs I had and didn't think I had it any me to run that fast. I had a interesting conversation with a friend leading up to this race and she had told me it is a lot funner and means a lot more to run for a purpose. I took that to heart and set out to run this race with a purpose, and it did just that, it meant a lot more and I found inner strength to run harder knowing it just wasn't for me. This person knows who she is and she has inspired me to run every race with a purpose and for something other than myself, THANKS!

Chip Time- 1:18:55
Age Group Place- 3rd/53
Overall- 13/1,362 (missed the money by 1:25 secs :(, it was only $50, but still would of been cool to get paid)

What was the PURPOSE? NEVER FORGET!

I didn't get any race pictures, but here is the map of the race. That gray line above the course is North Korea, it was only 5 miles away. Pretty cool if I don't say so myself.....

Hitting the Ground Running..........

5 September 2010- Sokcho, South Korea-

I arrived back in Korea on the 1st of September. Korea missed me so much it decided to welcome me back with a Typhoon my first day. I was lucky enough to get into town early enough to go off base enjoy a quick dinner and a beer down at the VFW. Jeremy who was stationed with me at Seymour Johnson picked me up at the bus station and then grabbed dinner and a beer with me. He was quite surprised when we went down to the VFW and it was like a small homecoming, everyone was happy to see me and some didn't know I was coming back so they were a little shocked. It felt good to be back to somewhere so familiar and too still have great friends around.

I couldn't think of a better way to get to Korea then to have a line up of races my first two months here. It started off this weekend with Sokcho Olympic Distance Triathlon. Jeremy is new to the Triathlon scene and I convinced him to come along to race. I couldn't do all the racing in Korea without Des. Des has been here in Korea for a total of something crazy like 15 years (I am not sure how long but his experience with traveling is what I rely on). I now call Des my "Logistical Manager" and rely on him heavily for all of my travel needs and logistics to race here in Korea. I think I ask so much of him he might start asking for a salary, but until then I will just thank him in my blog, because it is much appreciated with everything he does for me.

Jeremy and myself got to a bus station about 30 minutes away thanks to Des giving us a ride there. We then got on a bus for about 4 hours and made it to the city of Sokcho for the race. We biked around the city to find the transition area and race registration area. We got there about an hour too early to register so we went and found a hotel to stay at. We ended up getting a huge room with a flat screen TV, King Bed, Twin Bed, Couch, Computer and A/C for $80. It was about 5 minutes from race start and transition area. The only problem was there was no bridge to get us across a river to the start area, luckily the Koreans are quite smart and there was this boat/barge pull thing with a cable to get us across. It cost about 15cents each way and took about 3 minutes.

Alright enough about all the pre-race stuff and onto the race report.

Swim- I haven't been in the pool much at all due to training for Chuncheon Marathon. We did have a swim meet on base back in Turkey before I left but I just swam the 100M Breast Stroke; which I suck at and got my @ss handed to me! Then I swam the 200M Flippers/Kickboard, they had this event instead of freestyle so that everyone could compete. I swam well in that and my legs felt good. So other than that I hadn't been in the pool much but was hoping I would just be able to survive the swim. It was a 2 lap swim and I felt great on the first lap, the second lap was another story. I could feel myself slowing down and tried to find some feet when someone passed me. Luckily I was able to hang onto some feet for the last 300M and came out of the water feeling good.

Bike- If you are not familiar with Korea, it is a NON drafting country. Well that is what everyone is told, but you should just be prepared to get blown by with a peloton screaming by you. I have hard feelings about "cheating/drafting", but they do not enforce it here. They will come by and blow a whistle and not take down numbers or anything. I have came to the conclusion of join them or get your butt handed to you on the bike. The first lap I couldn't get with a group, I was passing a few of the pro girls who started 20mins ahead of us, they were starting their 2nd lap. They would hang on for a little bit and then fall off. I was riding good and felt strong for not being on the bike much other than the weekly TT's which were every other week for me. I finally caught a group of about 5 riders after a lap and a half and latched on with them. The other problem with these drafters in Korea, only 2 of the guys wanted to do work. I can't stand pulling along 5 guys and having only 2 of them pull their weight. I actually biked a slower 2nd half of the 3 lap course with them, but I was able to save my legs for the run. I came in with a group of 3 to T2 and they got out about 100M in front of me onto the run.

Run- It took me about a mile to get that 100M back and we were running in a group of 4. I was feeling really good on the run and stuck with the group up until mile 4 and then I started pushing hard. I didn't know where I stood overall but thought I was having a decent race and a really good run. I wanted to run my last mile hard and I dug deep and did just that. I caught another foreigner with about 1/4 mile to go and that is when it got fun. When I ran by I said "Well here we go", meaning this is going to be fun. He said "You got to be kidding me", he was disappointed because he had out swam me by about 4 minutes, but I put a minute into him on the bike and then put 2 minutes into him on the run. I made sure when I passed him I went by quick to make him think he couldn't stick with me. He didn't try and stick with me which was good because I am not sure how much of a kick I would of had left. I crossed the line feeling good and was happy with my overall time. Someone came up to me after I finished and told me I was the 2nd Overall individual, which I was in shock about. I knew I had a good race but didn't think it was that good. I was really happy about that and it is one of my best finished in a big race to date. When the official race results came out I thought I was in 1st Overall but overlooked somebody's time and thought they were in the Pro division. So I was really in 2nd Overall.

Swim-27:18 12th/198
Bike-1:05:31 4th/198
Run- 39:19 2nd/198 (1st Place Overall did not have splits for bike/run so I am assuming he was faster)
Overall: 2:12:07 2nd/198 Overall 1st/3 Age Group

Overall I was extremely happy to PR and have a great race returning to Korea. I wish I could of spent more time on the bike and in the pool to have an even better performance, but I am focused on the marathon right now and this was just a good long workout. It was nice to prove to myself that the running is paying off and seeing a good run split after coming off the bike was good.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me and been there through the good and bad times. The last couple months in Turkey were great, we had a very dedicated group of athletes that were there and held me accountable to showing up, without them I could of just slept in or went out and not showed up on time.

Below are some pics from the trip and race:

The Triathlon statue down from the registration building and it was also along the run course.

It had all the past results for Age Group and Pro's on the back. I hope to go back for a running race or the Tri next year to get a picture with my name on it :)

Pizza Hut salad bar "dessert", it was my own concoction :)

The swim course, it was a 2 loop course in a protected harbor.

I couldn't find any race pictures of me, but here is one on the race course of a Korean Pro. It was an awesome 2 loop run course with a harbor and mountains in the background!
Up on the podium for my Age Group Award and Medal
Bal Jeong, Jeremy, myself, Staci, Doug
Jeremy getting the fish out of our post race soup. It was something different and we had to give it a try. It wasn't that bad and actually quite feeling!

Incirlik Sprint Tri

25 Aug 10- Incirlik AB Turkey-

I was really looking forward to this race for the simple fact that I hadn't been able to do a tri in quite some time. I had been working a lot on training for a marathon so I felt confident in my running legs but wasn't sure how the bike was going to go. This tri is a little different and they like to do it backwards here, since it "gets to hot" by 0700 when most people would be out on the run. It was only in the high 80's by this time, but it was nice to jump in the pool after being all sweaty and hot. The one thing I do not like though is people do not have to go from the bike to the run, which is where you pay for it the most. I learned last year that you could run hard and still have a good bike time and the legs didn't pay for it to much.

Run-
I wanted to push hard on the run and stay up front with the lead runner. We knew there was a guy that was pretty fast but we thought he was going to fade. Off the start I let him go and he pushed out pretty hard. I kept back with Elissa and Berlin hoping the other guy would fade. He held strong for the first 2 miles and I tried to pull him back in with a mile to go and I ran good just not good enough. He had about 30 seconds on me and I put 20-30secs on the people behind me. I ran some good mile splits (5:50/5:59/5:50), and had a total time of 18:18.

T1-
I knew this is where I could make up time and put time on everyone else due to the fact I have slowly figured out how to transition and have some of the tricks down now. I have finally got the hang of jumping on the bike with the shoes clipped in and strapping in on the move. I wasted no time in transition and was in and out in no time.

Bike-
The bike course changed a little bit from last year for the better and had a good stretch of tailwind. The only bad thing was it was a loop so that tailwind only lasted for so long and then the head wind hit. I felt good on the bike and have my position dialed in pretty good. I caught the guy that lead the run within the first 1/4 mile (he was on an MTB), and never looked back after that.

T2-
Went just as well as T1 and felt really good about it. After the race someone said "You were so fast I didn't even see you take your shoes off". I told her the secret of taking them off while riding so it saved time and she seemed pretty amused by it and had to think about it for awhile.

Swim-
225 meters is SO short, which I enjoy very much since I am pretty much a brick in the water. I think I swam mid 3mins, someone was suppose to clock my swim time but forgot so I am not really sure. I did some math of my bike time and run time and total swim including T2 was right around 4mins, so mid 3's sound about right.

Run- 18:18-5:53min/mil
Bike- 29:34-24.8mph/avg
Swim- 3:xx
Total- 51:51
Overall- 1st place/55 Age Group- 1st/11

Overall I was very pleased with the race and was happy that 55 people showed up to race. The most rewarding thing for me about this event was not winning but watching other people enjoy their first triathlon. I rounded up 6 bikes and loaned them out to some people that were TDY (Temporarily Deployed) giving them the opportunity to race. I hope giving those individuals the opportunity to race hopefully inspired them to want to do another triathlon. My goal with racing and training is to inspire people to want to change their lifestyle and live a healthy and active lifestyle. If this weekend I was able to inspire or motivate one person to do another tri then it was a success!

Thanks to Alisha for taking some great photos and to everyone else that showed up and volunteered! Below are some pics from the race!

The start of the race

Coming in from the run

Heading out on the bike

Coming by the first lap, heading out to the turn around

Getting my medal
Myself and Berlin
Myself and TJ
Berlin, myself, Chad, Elissa, and Jim. Everyone was top 3 in their Age Groups!

A Few Races and Updates

25 Aug 2010- Incirlik Turkey-

Well since getting back from the states and Germany quite a bit has happened. I haven't been updating the blog as much because I have not really raced anything noteworthy of updating the blog with. I have waited till now and will throw a few races in here and a few updates on life in general.

I got back from leave beginning of May and did not have another race until the 22nd of May. It just so happened to be sponsored by New Balance and they were giving away a FREE pair of shoes to the winner of each division. They had 5K men/women and 10K men/women. My friend Seth and I are known to be the "fast" runners on base so we discussed who wanted to run what all in hopes of winning the shoes. He decided to run the 10K so I stuck with the 5K. I ran a pretty slow time of 19:40 but was still able to win the shoes which was nice. I ended up giving them to a friend who is just getting into running as I have way to many pairs of shoes.

They also held a track meet end of June which was a fun event. I ran the 1.5 mile and took 2nd, behind Seth. I ran 8:13 and he went 7:40's, not sure exactly what his time was. I then helped out another team and ran the 4X400 with them since our Squadron didn't have a team. I ran anchor and we pulled a big lead so I didn't have to run that hard and still ran a 1:02 which I was happy with. After that things settled down and there was no more racing for a while :(

I ended up starting back up the weekly Time Trials and have had a good showing ever since. Now that I am leaving it is sad as it has turned into a fun thing to show up too and see others starting to get better as the summer goes on. We have had 5-8 people every week which has been great and if everyone would show up one week we could have 15+ which would be awesome, but my time has come and I will be gone :( I have passed off the torch too two other dedicated riders who will do a great job keeping the TT's going. I broke my record from last year by 8 seconds and haven't really been on the bike that much, so I was happy with that. Hopefully by the time I leave Osan I can break 18 mins :)

I applied to the USAFEurope Marathon team again this year in hopes of being selected. I found out back in June that I was selected so then the process of trying to get extended started. I put in all my paperwork to get "stuck" in Turkey for an extra month so that I could go run, but it was denied so I will not be able to attend with the USAFEurope Team :( I was pretty disappointed as there were quite a few of us returning from last year and it would of been a great time. Guess I will have to wait till I get out to Germany to apply again.

Well there was one more race that I was able to compete in before I had to leave which was a Sprint Tri this past weekend. I will blog more about that in the next blog and add some pictures as well. I will be leaving Turkey 31 August and head straight to Korea. I am looking forward to Korea and can't wait to get back to a country that is focused on fitness. It is a bitter sweet departure though as some very talented athletes have showed up here and have been great mentors the past couple of months. I have been fortunate enough to have an Armed Forces/USAF/X-College runner take me under "her" guidance the past 2 months. Yes I said HER, she is a bad ass and has been a great mentor, constantly kicking my butt on our runs and holding me accountable to our early morning workouts. It has been a great last couple of months of training with a great runner, THANKS Elissa!

Speaking of Korea being so focused on fitness here is what my race schedule looks like over the next two months:

5 Sept- Sokcho Olympic Distance Triathlon
12 Sept- DMZ Half Marathon
18 Sept- Camp Humphreys Sprint Triathlon
10 Oct- Pyeongtaek Port Half Marathon
17 Oct- Tongeyong Olympic Distance Triathlon
24 Oct- Chuncheon Marathon

Can't wait to get back to Korea and finish out the year on a strong note! 5 days and a wakeup :)

Here are some pictures from the New Balance 5K/Track Meet/Time Trial

Coming to the finish line of the 5k

Myself, Jen, Angie, and Seth. All the WINNERS :)

At the track meet running the 1.5 mile.

Myself and Berlin

The TT Group!