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!

Spangdahlem Duathlon

8 May 2010- Spangdahlem AB Germany-

On the return trip home from the states I had planned on stopping in Germany for a Volleyball tournament but it had got canceled 2 weeks before I went on leave, so I made an adjustment to the trip. One of my friends that I was stationed with in Korea is now out in Germany at Spangdahlem and said I was welcome anytime. Why not pick a weekend to go visit when we could get a race in. I had got an email from him previously with all that they had going on there, and sure enough there was a Duathlon (5k Run/30K Bike/5K Run) lined up for the weekend I would be in town.

I figured it was a great opportunity to go see what the area was like since that is where I am headed in October 2011. I also figured I would get a feel for how they ran things there and what the competition will be like. I was excited to be racing on a bigger base, in hopes of more people showing up then the normal 25-30 athletes we get showing up here in Turkey. Well I was quite disappointed that only 10 people showed up, 5 of which were on Mountain Bikes. I believe there were more volunteers than athletes. It was a sad affair considering they put on a great event and not to mention it was free. They even had post race snacks and prizes to give out.

Myself and Mark showed up with both of our bikes on top of his car. Quite a funny scene to have two bikes on top of a car and our bikes combined are worth more than the car, shows where our priorities are at. Actually I think his bike alone was more than the car, but when you are riding a Pinarello that is expected. He hadn't raced a local race since he had been there because he had been so busy with work and moving into his house. We were both going into the race blind not knowing who the competition was or what it would be like, until a German guy showed up and Mark goes "O well have fun getting your legs torn off by him". The guy had beat Mark up pretty good on a ride 2 weekends before, and knowing how strong the Germans are on the bike I figured I would just have to out run the guy.

With the race being short in comparison to other events it means fast and hard the whole time. The run course had one good climb on it right after the turn around which put a damper on my calf's after only having a week of recovery from Wildflower. The bike course was a 3 loop course and had some decent rolling hills on it. Then the last 5k run was on the same as the first course so just that one hill after the turn around.

I went out hard on the first run to see if anyone wanted to go with me but I ran it pretty much solo the whole time and put a good gap into the group. On the bike I just pushed hard from the get go in hopes to keep the gap opened up and not let the German guy (Martin) catch me. I would occasionally look back and could never see him so I just kept pushing hard. Had a good transition off the bike and onto the last 5K and I had opened up a good lead on everyone that was on a road bike, the MTB guys only had to do 20K bike and I had one of them out in front of me on the run. My goal was to eventually catch him, so I just ran hard but my legs were really getting sore and fatigue was setting in. I finally caught the MTB guy at the turn around and just tried to maintain a decent pace to the finish. I felt pretty crappy after the race, my legs got tight and were really sore. Note to self do not race 1 week after Wildflower!

Run 1- 19:22 (5K) 6:15min/mil
Bike- 51:25 (30K) 21.8 mph/avg
Run 2- 19:39 (5K) 6:23min/mil
Finish Time: 1:32:45

Overall Germany was a good time and I can't wait to get out there and have a good group of people to train with. Spangdahlem FSS put on a GREAT EVENT; just sad that people didn't take advantage of it.

SPECIAL THANKS to MARK and his FAMILY for letting me stay with them and showing me around the local area and for the transportation to and from the airport!

Below are some pics from the trip:

Mark's bike and my bike on top of the VW

Accepting my awards which included a Towel, Sweatshirt, and Medal!

Mark, Myself, The German (Martin) were Top 3
The coolest thing I saw while there was this tube machine outside the bicycle shop!

I ate enough Gellato while I was in Germany to hold me over for quite sometime I would normally get 8 small scoops of different flavors and then a Banana Split, I think I spent all of my Euro there. Probably close to 40Euro, it was some good stuff!

Wildflower......What a Race!

1 May 2010- Lake San Antonio CA-

For those of you that have not been able to enjoy the Wildflower experience, I highly recommend it. Even if you are not an athlete or tri person just going and hanging out is quite an experience. This is not a typical race, it is a week long festival, AKA "The Woodstock" of Triathlon. Last year was a great time and we camped but only stayed for a few days. This year my parents decided to get an RV and we decided to go from Wednesday-Sunday, which was a very wise decision. With us staying so long and having an RV I sent out a mass invite to everyone I know that races. I had 2 takers on the deal and my buddy Gary from Wisconsin flew out for the race. We had met at IM 70.3 Germany and then both raced Clearwater. His wife and my mom spent race day together in FL cheering us on and they really enjoyed each others company. Amy who we camped with last year also decided to come out but wasn't to into the camping thing so she stayed at a hotel Friday night about 45mins from the race, forgot to mention WF is in the middle of nowhere. This will be a little more than a race report and more of a Wildflower Report.

Wednesday morning we left and headed out for WF about 530am in hopes of getting a full hook up RV spot. The GPS that we were using decided to take us a "short" way and we ended up taking a twisty back road, which would of been fine in a car, but not in the RV. The best part was this is right when I had took over to start driving. No longer than 20 minutes later down the road Madyson (my little sis) decided that I was a horrible driver and decided to throw up. We pulled of to the side of the road and let her get it all out. Since it was all my fault and not the twisty roads fault Mom took back over driving and I caught a much needed nap. We ended up arriving around 10 and found a full hook up spot right on the run course of the Half IM course. We were very close to our campsite that we had last year so it was nice to already know the area.

Once we set up camp I headed out for a 5 mile run on the run course which was from miles 7-12. It was a nice run and I was able to enjoy the scenery and see some wildlife, Deer, dead rattle snake, turkey, squirrels and some quail. I came back and told Gary that it was going to be a brutal run on Saturday, little did I know how brutal it would be.

Thursday morning I got in a nice morning swim and biked mid day with some new friends. Our next door neighbors at the camp ended up being a group from Canada. They had 2 RV's and 8 people total and were some cool people. I hung out with them quite a bit after our run and we hung around a camp fire and had a few beers and even some Margaritas, blended ones at that. Just so happened that some of the other neighbors had packed a blender for the trip, like I have said WF is one of a kind. "Team Trevor" was the camp that had brought the blender and in exchange for margaritas we had promised to go down and sign up for the bone marrow registry. It was a simple process and I stopped in and did this post race on Saturday.

Friday was the normal pre race day routine that I always go through. Get a good short morning swim in, try and bike around the same time I would be on the course and get a good short 10-15min run in. Once all of that in it was time to relax and stay hydrated. They always say to stay out of the sun, but I had to work on the tan a little bit so I just made sure to have a bottle of water around at all times. Mom made a good meal and I made sure to eat enough to make sure I could take care of the morning ritual on race morning.

Race morning came as usual other than waking up in an RV at 0500 and trying not to wake everyone else up was a little rough. I made it over to the showers and it seemed everyone else was still asleep and I was able to get a good wake up by the low 40 temps and a decently warm shower. Once back to the RV I was able to get my 2 instant oatmeal packets ready with the touch of a button on the microwave and 2 minutes later breakfast was served along with a banana. Breakfast went down as usual and I even had the race morning cup of coffee. The lucky morning routine streak is still on a roll and I have been lucky enough to go 4 for 4 over the past 4 HIM's with taking care of business (knock on wood).

The nice thing about Wildflower is that you do not have to pre check in race bags or your bike. However you do get to ride down lynch hill which tends to be really chilly in the morning AM. Once everything was all settled at camp I headed down to transition area to get setup as well as watch the pros head out. I was lucky enough to be the 3rd wave that started so we were going off at 8:10, as where Gary and Amy were starting over an hour behind. Mom, Steve, and Maddy all met me down there and it was nice to see them before the swim start. Steve was down there getting ready as well as his first Tri, the Mountain Bike Sprint Tri started after all the Long Course athletes went off. I think his start was just before 10.

Swim-

I was hoping to have a good swim after having a great swim 2 weeks ago at UVAS Reservoir. I felt good in the water and with it being a good size wave start of around 100-150 athletes it was a little rough for the first 200M and I couldn't find clear water or get into a good draft until about 400M. That is where I got in what I thought was a good grove but did not turn out so well. The swim course is a little difficult with the first half of the swim being into the sun. I just stayed on the guys feet in front of me and well he was spotting off the opposite buoys on the course. We ended up in the middle of the course and had to navigate back on course which had cost me some time. Once we mad it past the half way point it was a easy swim and I just found some feet that were swimming straight and hung on till the end of the swim. By far not a great swim but I was able to save some energy by staying on some feet most of the time.

T1-

Went really smooth and I was able to get in and right out. The boat ramp just makes for a long run to transition but other than that it was fine.

Bike-

Coming into this race I knew I would need to be conservative on the bike since it was so hilly. I made sure to pace myself wisely and make sure I was taking in enough calories and liquid. For the bike I went with one bottle on the down tube that had 2X Hammer Perpetum Servings w/ 4 Servings of Hammer vanilla gel mixed in; it was quite concentrated. For my upper bottle on the aero bars I just used on course Gatorade and opted for the orange flavor, since the perpetum is orange vanilla. That made it a little easier to wash down than with lime. I had a few problems on the bike mechanically; one being on a decent at about 45mph I hit a hole in the road and a loud sound came from the front wheel. This was my second time racing on this wheels so I am still no comfortable on them at high speeds, so I stopped to check and everything was fine. Then at mile 45 after nasty grade I dropped my chain going from the small ring to big ring, luckily it was right at an aid station so I got off fixed the chain and grabbed a water bottle. With those 2 mechanical problems I fell behind the group that I had been riding with and had to ride solo for a majority of the ride catching a rider here and there and then being caught by some of the "older" fast guys. Overall I was happy with my bike split and felt that I had conserved some more energy for the run course which was going to be brutal.

T2-

Went really smooth and I was in and out with no problems.

Run-

Felt really good right off the bat and the legs felt decent for just riding 56 miles. I made sure to put down some salt pills as I had started to get some small cramps in my quads. I knew with the big hills and down hills the quads were going to take a beating so I took more salt in than normal, and I was sweating pretty bad as well. The first 3 miles went by and I was feeling really good by that point but then came mile 4 and 5 which included a lot of walking. The hills were more like climbs and were better suited for hiking than trying to run up. Well what goes up must come down so at the end of mile 5 it was straight down to what I was hoping would be the motivational water stop. It is known that at Wildflower the college kids get a little crazy out at this so called water stop and are normally topless, offering beer/liquor to hydrate with and even offering to make out with the athletes. Well to everyone's disappointment the water stop was out of order for the third year in a row :( On with the run I went and at mile 6 one of the female pro's I had caught on the bike caught me on the run, so that was some motivation to run a little faster. The next water stop we came across a somewhat crazy water stop. I was attempting to intake gel and salt pills at the same time as drinking water, which was a task that was hard. Then to make matters worse, well actually better one of the college girls say's "Free motorboat, guaranteed to take a minute off your time". The pro girls was still in the vicinity and started laughing and told me "well you better do it and take a minute of your time", so sure enough it happened and I believe that was what made my run time a little bit faster. Back onto the run with a little motivation I started talking to the pro chick and was pacing with her as we got to talking she was talking about how it was a rough day and how she was in last and what not. I reminded her that she was not in last and that other people had quit or had mechanical problems and that just finishing was an accomplishment, she was still not happy with being "last". Well not even 200M down the trail I see another female ahead and I look over and tell her "Looks like you aren't going to be last for long". She took off and ran down that girl and sure enough ended up not being the last girl. I felt strong towards the end of the run thanks to a 39 year old guy telling me to run with him and well he got me going really strong and I was able to run down a guy ahead of me. Thanks to that guy I was able to pick up that one spot and hold off the guy till the finish. Going down lynch hill was painful on the quads and I was hoping the guy behind me wasn't going to want to sprint it out because I wasn't sure how much I had left in me, luckily he was out of energy as well and finished 5 seconds back. Making it to the podium can be decided by mere seconds, which I learned the hard way in my first tri missing top 3 by 1 second (it was a wave start and that guy that finished 3rd wasn't in my wave), but I ran hard in hopes of that podium spot (WF podiums Top 5 since it is a big race).

Splits-

Swim-34:46 (1:48/100M)- 417th OA- 29th AG

T1-2:15 6th AG

Bike-2:51:41 (19.5mph Avg)- 165th OA- 8th AG

T2-1:33 11th AG

Run-1:41:47 (7:44/mil Avg)- 104th OA- 7th AG

Overall Time-5:12:02-113th OA/1860 Athletes- 5th AG/54 AG Athletes

Overall I was very happy with my race. I was proud to have family their cheering me on and also to have met some incredible people over the weekend. Thanks to Gary from coming out from California and being able to experience WF! The whole Canadian clan was an awesome group of people both prerace and especially with the after party (*disclaimer* bad idea to party with Canadians, you end up hungover for at a minimum 2 days). Jay from ST for settling into the campsite and enjoying the WF atmosphere for the first time. Great weekend and great trip, hopefully I can find a way to make it back next year for WF!

SPECIAL THANKS: MOM/STEVE/MADDY for coming the whole week and getting the RV. Mom did a great job cooking and taking care of us athletes for the days leading up to the race. Aunt Chrissy/Uncle Jr/Mayson/Mikalyn/Oscar for making the long trip out just to see me run by a few times.

Someone told me a couple weeks ago that I was "to into my hobby", which I find quite funny. My response was simple and the honest truth "Triathlon is not my hobby it is a lifestyle". I think that sums up most tri people, it is more than a hobby to us it is a lifestyle we choose to live. So I think it is quite clear where my focus is right now and I am perfectly happy with that, I work, I eat, I sleep, I train, and I continue to take college classes, I would say that is enough to keep me busy............

Myself and Gary on the way up from packet pickup.

Rasmus Henning and myself, he won IM China the year I raced there.

The 4 racers on race morning.

Maddy and myself right before the swim.

Coming out of the water from my half crap swim.

During the beginning of the bike.

Coming down the finishing chute feeling strong.

Amy and myself both were top 5 in the 20-24 Age Group

The family came and supported me :)

Top 5!

The other guys in camp lost a bet at beer pong so I joined in the non sense, and then redeemed ourselves by beating the girls!

The great thing about triathlon is the 74 year old lady still racing and having fun!

After a long weekend a much needed nap, we had just packed up and were headed out so that is where the bike went for the trip home.

Wildflower Pre Race

27 April 2010-

Well it is that time of year again to kick off the year with a big race. All packed and ready to head out for Wildflower. The family stepped it up this year and got an RV for the trip and we will be heading out tomorrow morning, well actually here in 5 hours to hopefully get a full hook up spot. A buddy of mine that I have raced with in Germany and Florida came out from Wisconsin for the race and got into town today. It is always nice to have someone else to experience race week with and get in a few last minute workouts and prep for the race with. So Thanks to Gary for coming out and getting to experience the greatest race on the west coast.

The past 11 days home have been fun filled with all kinds of craziness keeping me busy. Was able to see a lot of old friends and catch up with a lot of them as well as family. Managed to squeeze in 2 family BBQ's and even some family pictures. Was also able to play volleyball a couple times and even travel up to Chico to watch some DII College softball and then stop in Davis and play some 2v2 Grass Volleyball. This trip has turned into a huge adventure and it is only half way over. Still have Wildflower to tackle and then 6 days in Germany with a good friend that I trained with in Korea.

As for how I am feeling and what I am expecting for Widflower, well that is up in the air. Legs are feeling really good and fresh, for the run that is. I think I have lost a little strength on the bike but have made it up in the run so not to worried there. My swim has come around over the winter and I am feeling really good in the water. I was able to swim with the local masters group here in town and was pushed for some good workouts. I think I put in my biggest swim week last week ever with 10K in 3 days, not sure it was at the best time but it felt great being pushed hard by some fast swimmers. I even managed to complete a few 100IM sets and not drowned, well it may have looked like I was a fish out of water, but I completed the sets just not in fashion!

For Wildflower I will be really happy with the following splits and outcome:

Swim-32min-34min
Bike- 2:40-2:50
Run- 1:38-1:45
Top 5- Age Group
Overall- Top 10%

If I can accomplish those times and placings I will be very happy with the race, if not I guess Saturday night will truly be a great night with the case of Shiner Bock I have to celebrate with or drink in shame of a crappy race ;) Whatever the outcome is of the race it does not matter because Wildflower is truly a great race and great atmosphere, so in the end great friends will be made and current friendships will grow stronger! Best of Luck to everyone racing!

Climb for a Cure 10K

24 Apr 2010-

Well I found a local 10K that fit into my training plan and worked out well for a Saturday morning run. The best part about it was that there was a 1 Mile fun run as well. My Mom and Madyson were able to compete in the 1 Mile fun run, while myself and Steve (my Step Dad) warmed up for the 10K. The reason I liked this race is because we were able to all participate. When the fun run started Madyson was glued to my moms leg and it took here a little while to get going. As we were waiting Steve was telling me that Maddy was fast and they had been running here and there for a little bit, mind you she is only 7 years old. We were waiting and the joke of the day was that Madyson told Mom before the race that she would meet her at location "X" because she was going to beat her. We weren't sure if they were going to start the 10K during the fun run or not so she had a plan to wait for mom at the finish. Sure enough at 9 minutes Maddy was the first "little" kid to come in and finished in 9:20, and was 2nd in her Age Group which was Under 19. She got beat by a 13 year old so that is not really fair competetion in my opinion, and she was 10th overall. Mom finished in 12:51, not bad for not running at all in who knows how long ;) Talk about being proud of my little sister and giving me some motivation for the 10K ;)

The 10K was suppose to be relatively flat according to the website so I was looking for a PR but wasn't really worried about it since Wildflower was the following weekend and I didn't want to put a beating on the legs. Standing at the start line the guy next to me looks over and says "Are you an IRONMAN?", my response which I believe is true is "No, I am to young for that long stuff". We talked a little bit and he knew some of the guys in the race so I asked about how he thought the race was going to go and his buddy was suppose to run 36ish. I figured well I should just run with him and that would keep me on pace for a PR, that is right forgot to mention my Garmin was dead so I ran totally on feel and had not a clue what was going on time wise. Off we went and I figured I would push the pace and see what would happen. Well never looked back from there and 37:41 later I crossed the line of what ended up being a not so flat course that had some decent elevation on it.

For a local charity run it ended up being GREAT! Winner of each 10 year age group received a bottle of wine, minus my age group because we had 20-29, so they have us a $15 gift certificate. Cannot complain about that, and then the best part was for winning Overall I received $100 gift card to Royal Robins here in Modesto. For a $28 race entry it was a great deal!

http://www.shadowchase.org/2010_CFAC10K_Overall.HTM

Below are some Pictures of the Family! We all took podium spots: Mom 1st in her Age Group, Madyson 2nd and Steve 2nd (45:04)

Coming to the finish line!

Overall Male and Female Winner showing off our $100 gift cards!

The Family all happy after a good morning workout!

UVAS Reservoir OLY Tri

18 April 2010-Morgan Hill CA

Well since I have been in Turkey for the past 13 months I have had some amazing weather. I think through the winter it might of been down in the 30's maybe a handful of times. The low was normally in the 40's and it was a very enjoyable winter. Waking up yesterday morning and heading out the door to race was like a winter morning in Turkey. It was 40 degree's and CHILLY! Well to mother natures defense it was 4am. So yeah 340am wake up and a 2 hour drive later we had arrived at the race. I started off the morning with the traditional race morning coffee and instant oatmeal. I also threw in a new twist and had a Hammer Whey protein shake.

I had a lot of family there, 2 of my 3 grandma's both my mom, dad, stepmom, stepdad, and little sister. So having family at the race always makes it nice, something I am not use to racing primarily overseas. So having them there is nice but sometimes makes for an interesting morning with all the questions, but all in all they are a tremendous help.

SWIM-
730 was the start for the first wave which was Male 34 and Under. Off we went in the warm 60 degree water, it was actually the first race I have ever been happy to get in the water. With it being warmer than the air temp it was nice but still 60 degree water is chilly. I wasn't expecting much from my swim since my training this year has been hit or miss. However on Friday I felt really good in the water and was excited to see what I could do. I just concentrated on staying on some feet and staying in the draft. I found some feet early, then lost them then at about half way stuck to some feet from there on out. I was able to save some energy this way and perhaps this was the reason I set my swim PR for the OLY distance. I came in at 25:19 and was shocked when I heard my mom call out my split, funny thing about her calling out my split was in Florida last November she tried to call out my swim split and was about 6 minutes off. So this time luckily there was a clock at exit and I double checked and sure enough she was right. THANKS MOM!

T1-
Wasn't really sure if I wanted my long sleeve jersey or not and wanted to dry off but ended up not drying off. Was really indecisive here and kind of wasted some time.

Bike-
With Wildflower coming up I would of been really happy if I could of found a hilly OLY race. Well without knowing it I found one and it had some good rollers as well as one good climb. Having trained on base on the 8 mile FLAT loop over the past 5 months I am skeptical about my bike strength. Well I put it to the test yesterday and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Rode really strong didn't pass as many people as expected but when I came out of the water there was only 12 people ahead of me and they were all fast. I think I passed one guy and was passed by two guys. Ended up passing and staying legally with a group from about half way on. I say legally because out of the 4 of us 2 of them got hit with 2 minute drafting penalties, I was at the back at the time and was legally back and the guy pulling had been honest throughout the bike leg. One of the two guys got stuck in a bad situation and then the one guy deserved the penalty as he had been wheel sucking since I had passed him. It was good to see race officials out there and actually do there job.

T2-
Was pretty slow in my opinion and should have been a lot quicker. It took a little long to slip into my shoes, might throw some body glide on the heel area next time in hopes of slipping right in.

Run-
Left out of T2 with a group of 3 other guys and they were out a lot faster than me. Good thing was only 1 of them was in my AG, so I just concentrated on him. At mile 2 he was 40secs up on me. I just kept slowly working on him and really concentrating on him. At mile 5 I finally caught him and stayed about 10 feet back hoping he wouldn't know I was there. He never looked back but I am sure he had an idea I had caught him. At mile 5 1/2 I pulled up next to him and made a surge for about 30secs just to see what he would do. I knew there was no one ahead of us in our age group so knew I couldn't worry about my overall time but just needed to concentrate on playing some mind games with him. Those 30secs he started breathing pretty hard and was trying to keep up and he hung in there. So I slowed it back down and waited another 30 seconds and then decided to push hard till the end and see what would happen. Took about a minute and then he dropped off and I put some distance on him. Run ended up being a little slower than I wanted but felt I could of been a bit faster but conserved some energy to make sure I could pick off the one guy that was in reach.

Splits-
Swim-25:19-72nd (1:41per/100m)
T1-1:01
Bike-1:06:24-14th (22.4mph)
T2-1:09
Run-41:48-31st (6:44mi/min)
Overall Time-2:15:42*PR -22nd/239 OA 2nd/10 AG

Overall I was really happy with my results, PR'd by 4mins and felt really good. I can't wait to get on a flat course in Korea and see what I can really put down. Hoping to concentrate on the short distance stuff the remainder of the year after Wildflower and see what happens with my speed. Glad to have all the family there and it was a good time. Below are some pics from the race!

Also this race was one of the best races I have participated in. They had some great SCHWAG for the overall winners and they even had prizes for the premium winners of Swim,T1,Bike,T2,Run. Swim fast times got Xterra wetsuits, truly amazing for a $100 entry fee. Not to mention top 3 in each Age Group got a bottle of wine. And the best part that is really hard to believe FREE BEER post race, as well as the usual carb/protein food! AMAZING RACE put on by great people for there first annual race. THANKS http://www.thresholdracinginc.com/