Brad Williams- Professional Triathlete ARCHIVES: 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