55 Seconds.....So Close

19Sep09- Air Force Marathon, Wright Patt AFB OH-

What an experience this whole trip was.....From the travels over the pond to get to the race to just being back in the states. It all started with 2 flights to get to Germany and then we stayed on base for less than 9 hours and then turned around and drove back to the airport. On Tuesday night headed from the airport to base it was about an hour drive on the autobahn. About 10 miles into the drive a BMW went flying by us between 150-175mph, it shook our van thats how fast it was going. Since I had just been up in Germany a month ago I was use to the fast speeds, but what happened next I was not use to. About 5 seconds after the BMW passed us I noticed its tail lights go from the far left lane crossing all 4 lanes and disappeared. I did not see an exit up ahead so was quite confused by what had just happened, then reality set in and there was a huge wreck in front of us with at least 3-6 cars. We were driving right threw it as debris was still sliding down the road and our shuttle driver would not stop. So I will just assume that at that speed the driver did not make it. So then we made it to base got checked into the hotel and got 6 hours of sleep. Woke up bright and early to get a short run in, which was amazing because the weather was great. So the flight across the pond was not bad at all and we landed in DC, ran through the airport and of course I got flagged by customs since we only had 30 mins to get to our flight. The reason they flag me is because there was a "Jessica Williams" that for some reason they thought I knew. Who would of thought since my last name is WILLIAMS I would know her, small world huh? So we made our flight after a good laugh with the US Customs guys. Once on the taxiway waiting to take off some more craziness happens........2 rows in front of me a guy in his mid 50's starts shaking and having a seizure. So everyone is looking around like what in the world is going on so I stood up and yelled to the attendant because we were in the back of the plane on a little puddle jumper. She came running back, called the pilot and back to the gate we went. After about an hour at the gate getting him off the plane we made it back out to the runway and took off. I asked the attendant if our baggage would catch up to us and she looked at me like I was crazy and it was already on board. I just laughed and knew there was no way it could of made it. So 3am in the morning 8 hours after arriving to our Hotel our luggage showed up.

So the three days leading up to the race in Dayton were awesome. I was so glad to be back in the states and have so many different places to eat at. I mean that is something that I love to do is eat. And once the trip was all said and done I sure did eat my $$$$$'s worth of food, $350 worth to be exact. So with all the great food I ate I made sure to go to a different place each day: TGIF, Olive Garden, Noodles (pretty awesome place), Cheese Cake Factory, Sake, Arby's, Hooters, Buffalo Wild Wings and Packys (the hotel restaurant).

Race day........I used the same morning routine I have been using this year for the longer races. Had my 2 packets of oatmeal, 1 banana, and cup of coffee and took care of the morning business, so I am 3 for 3 on that. We took some team pictures the morning of and then headed over to the race start with about 45 mins to get ready. Then next thing I know we are running a marathon, pretty crazy how it just sneaks up on ya.

The race went by really quick for the first 18 miles, thanks to Berlin, Manny and Rodney. I had heard a lot of stories about Manny and Rodney through my buddy Mark and met up with them and ran the first 18 miles with them. Manny and Berlin were both on the USAFE team, so it was cool to run as a group for the first 18 miles. We stopped once for a bathroom break at mile 4 and then picked up the pace to catch the 3:20 pacer. We eventually caught up to him between mile 8 and 9 and slowly pulled away from him. At the halfway point we hit 1:35 and I was really worried I had went out to quick. At mile 18 I realized I had a shot at a Boston Marathon qualifying time (3:10:59) and figured I needed to pick it up a bit. I started concentrating on one person at a time and would slowly make my way through the people. At mile 24 I realized it would be really hard to pull of the Boston time but ran as hard as I could. I ran mile 25 at 6:57 and mile 26 at 6:25 so I knew I had some left in the tank which was hard when I crossed the line at 3:11:54 only 55 secs off of a Boston spot.

All in all I was really happy with the results and went into the race not knowing what to expect. I just looked up the numbers and the month leading up to the race I ran a total of 64 miles with only 10 runs in 35 days, not exactly the kind of mileage I should of been running leading up to the race. Germany really took a lot of out of me mentally and physically so that is the reason for lack of mileage. I also realized after the accident that I had been going pretty hard since 1 December and rest is what my body was in need of. So running a 3:11:54 with only 64 miles of training leading up to the 4 weeks prior was great in my book.

I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone that continues to support me and follow my passion for endurance sports. A special thanks to my co-workers, leadership and USAFE for allowing me this great opportunity. We were treated somewhat like Pro Athletes in how we were driven around, accommodations and flights were paid for and having all the support of the Services Staff that was there just to support us.

Stats:
Time: 3:11:54
Overall 58th/2014 participants
Age Group 5th out of 136

Military Division-
15th out of 489
2nd out of 65 Age Group

Average Pace: 7:19min/mile
Fastest Pace: 5:22min/mile
Average Heart Rate: 158 (80%)
Calories Burned: 3,500
Shoes: Aasics Gel Cumulus 9
Fastest Mile: 6:25 mile 26
Elevation: +1,123/-1,048
Mile Splits:


Below are some pictures from the race and travel during the trip:

AF RECRUITING TOOLS....Tricked out Mustang and Chopper were on display at the Expo

Team Dinner pre race night

Team USAFE 9 Marathoners/8 1/2 Marathoners

Team Turkey....had 4 members, the biggest group from one base!

Feeling the pain

This was around mile 24 and I was asking the guy if I could make it in time for Boston....He said "Run fast, you will need 7:20 or faster miles and you can do it"....Our math was off because I ran sub 7 min/miles and came up short :(

Feeling good and showing off the tan lines.

This guy ran the whole marathon with the flag display. He is a bad ass!!

Visited the AF Museum and it was cool.....

The F-22 on display with some prototype plane above it.

Myself and Berlin at SAKE Japanese grill for our last meal. Berlin never had SAKE so I had him try some and you can tell it got to him ;)

Life's a Roller Coaster......And It Just Keeps On Climbing

12 Sept 2009-

Figured it had been awhile since I have blogged and with all the good news lately figured I should get on here. So where to start.........As many of you know since the crash in Germany things were not looking to good. I was suppose to be out for at least 4-6 weeks from swimming, biking and running. Once I arrived back here to Turkey the Doctor here had his own opinions on my arm and cleared me to run immediately and I was also cleared to ride the trainer. I have now gained about 85% rotation back in my arm and this past week I was cleared to swim. So things started looking promising but I was not motivated to train. The first 3 weeks back I just lounged around and reflected on life and how privileged I had been this year.

I have been in "training" mode since 1 December(3,951 total miles), so lounging around for 3 weeks in August is probably what my body was needing. I have been too 6 countries and have raced in 5 of the 6. I have qualified for the World Championships for the Half Ironman and won two overall triathlons on military bases. I am slowly establishing myself as a endurance athlete and becoming "known" around the community. But when I look back and reflect NONE, ZERO, ZILCH would be possible without the great foundation that supports me. First of FAMILY has been behind me 100% and has supported myself in so many ways. Then comes the FRIENDS, without you guys I would not be where I am today. Then the fellow athlete's, who continue to push me day in and day out. You may not be here stationed in Turkey or you may not even know me but when I train I am training because you might be out there training just as hard or if not harder than me. You are the ones that push me to go harder and strive for more everyday. Then those that doubt me or don't believe in me. I know there are people out there that are waiting for me to fail, and were probably glad to see poor results in Germany (when in all reality the crash and then finishing made me even stronger as a person). These people are around everywhere in life, especially when things start getting good and you start accomplishing great things. So for the people out there that are waiting for me to fail, when I am training it is to prove you wrong. So bottom line THANK YOU to everyone who has been there pushing me and supporting me since the start of this season and the start of the passion for Tri's/running.

Alright so now that the reflection process is over here is all the good news:

I was 1 of 18 individuals selected to represent USAFEurope at the AF Marathon. It was a last minute selection process but I applied in hopes of getting picked up and having a paid trip back to the states to compete at such a great race. We leave on Tuesday to head out to Dayton OH for the race on September 19th. This will be my second marathon so I am quite excited about it.
On Thursday I found out that I was selected for promotion to SSgt (E-5) and will more than likely put on the stripe in December. This now means I will be in a supervisory role, yeah I know SCARY huh?



Then when I thought nothing else could get any better Friday I got more good news. I was selected as the 2009 Incirlik AB Athlete of the Year. My package is now up at MAJCOM level (USAFEurope) and I will be competing against other athletes from around Europe for that award.

So like the title says Liefs a Roller Coaster.........And it just keeps on Climbing. But what goes up must come down, so lets hope this roller coaster doesn't derail for quite some time.

2009 Hits a WALL!!!!(Literally)

20Aug09-

Well I know it has taken extra long compared to normal to update the blog post race. There is a good reason for it and I am sorry it has taken so long.

So race morning was a typical race morning. I was up bright and early at 0430. Morning went well, took care of the biggest fear on race day, the morning business. Ate my 2 instant packs of oatmeal, banana and the un-routine cup of coffee. The bag was already packed and luckily the hotel was only 1/2 mile from the bus pickup to take everyone to the swim start and T1.

So out the door I went and I arrived at the bus stop with a bunch of other athletes. Ended up sitting across from 2 other Americans, so that was nice to have someone to talk to in the early morning that was from the US. Come to find out there was only 13 of us that raced, 30 were signed up for the race. I think that is a good sign of how bad of shape our economy is in.

So I got to T1 pretty early and had plenty of time to get everything set up. Started sipping on the pre-race bottle of HAMMER HEED and began the days hydration process. My swim start was not till 835 so I had a lot of time to walk around. Ended up running into 2 other AF people and had a morning talk with them and wished them luck. Eventually had to take care of the morning business one more time and felt really good that everything was out of my system from Carb dinner #2 from the night before.

Swim- It was a good swim course in the shape of a rectangle and was just a 1 lap swim course. The only different part was that it was a in water start about 100 meters from the shore. So we swam out there and had to tread water for about 5 mins, well really just float in the wetsuit. The start was pretty good and I did not get swam over that much. I quickly found some feet and stuck to them for about the first 800M. I ended up losing those feet and drafting partner and right after the turn picked up on someone's feet and stuck to them for the rest of the swim. I have been working on drafting these past couple races and have slowly felt better and more confident doing it. Now I just need to work on finding the right set of feet that are just a little bit faster that me so it can make a difference. I came out of the water and the announcer acknowledged me and that I was in the USAF, so that was cool to hear and motivated me. Came out of the water in 33:21 which was an improvement from China so that was good to know.

T1- It was a long run from the swim exit to T1 so that was what took the most time. I felt really fast going through it though and as always it helped already having my shoes clipped in. So as you can see in the picture below I have not got my shoes on yet as this was my photo exiting T1. 3:09 was my official T1 time.

Bike- AMAZING!!! This course is the most difficult course I have ridden to date. I remember thinking a few times if the climbs would ever end. I would come around one corner and go "WOW I thought the climb was over", then I would just find the road still going up. So I was feeling really good on the bike and my nutrition plan was working wonderful. The downhills were really fast and really fun, making up for my average speed of climbing all the hills. So at mile 45 is when the day took a turn for the worst. In the pre-race briefing they had told us that they would have flaggers at the corners that were going to be bad and that we would need to slow down for. We had already went through a few of these corners and I took them extra safe as I knew a crash could possibly end my day. Well coming down through one of the villages I slowed for a corner where the flagger was and then proceeded on. About 1K down the road I got to a section on a descent that was really really bumpy. It just so happened that it was through the corner and instead of my tires having traction and being able to corner at 20-25mph they started wheel hopping. So I had no traction and was headed straight for a curb/wall. So I tried to hop the curb to avoid going down but my front tire clipped the curb and took me down. Luckily the only damage the bike took on was a flat front tire and minimal scrapes on the rear derailleur and front brake lever. Now my body on the other hand took quite a beating. I had road rash on my hands, hip, buttocks, elbow, and shoulder. At the time I did not know it but a bone in my right arm was broken as well. So once the medics took care of me and bandaged me all up I fixed my flat and was off on the course again. I was light headed and a little nausea's so I sat around for a few minutes to get everything under control. But lone and behold right after the corner I wrecked on was the biggest hill on the course at 10% grade for about 1km. So after be off the bike for about 30mins the legs had other thoughts about riding a bike and decided it was time to cramp up. So going up a 10% grade hill all bloody and scrapped was some American guy, going 2.5-3mph looking all beat up and in pain. Yes that was the speed I was doing as I remember looking down several times. Luckily after this last climb there was only 2 more rolling hills and the rest was a beautiful downhill section into down. For me it was taken very cautiously and slow as I did not know how bad of shape the bike was in. So once into town the real fun began..........

T2- Well knowing that my "race" was over I took my sweet time looking for my bag and changing. I got everything out and started getting everything on. I get to snapping my watch into its holder (it comes off the bike and has to snap into a thing on my wrist), and this is where I am humbled. Here I am 23 years young in great shape have been training for this for quite sometime and I can't even do a simple task like snap a watch into its holder???? So that is the point where I knew something was wrong with my arm. So trying to get a non-speaking triathlete to snap my watch in took sometime but eventually we got it figured out. So THANK YOU to whoever that guy was who took some extra time in T2 with me so I could have my watch on the run.

Run- Now you are all thinking what in the world are you doing running 13.1 miles with a broken arm. Well I did not travel to Germany to race and not finish. Crap they make you finish here to get the shirt and of course the medal. So I did not travel all this way to not get a shirt or medal and I am not a quitter. So off onto the run, it was a 4 lap course which had a lot of spectators and athletes on it. Its hard to fit 2,000 athletes on a 5K run course so it was quite crowded towards the end. The great thing about it being 4 loops is I was able to see a lot of fans and here the word "schiezer" (O SHIT, in German) about 1,000 times. I would hear it from the fans, the people I passed and the people that passed me. So they were all going "schiezer" about how pitiful I looked running. So after the 1st lap I got some motivation to actually run and stop messing around. I started picking up the pace and realized my legs felt quite well. Long story short I ran a 1:43:48 1/2 marathon w/ a broken right arm. Painful...........YES...........Best pain medicine.........ADRENALINE!!!!

Final Numbers:

Swim- 33:21 31st/94 AG
T1- 3:09 26th/94 AG
Bike- 3:07:42 53rd/94 AG (Was on pace to go 2:38-2:40)
T2- 3:26 85th/94 AG
Run- 1:43:48 24th/94 AG
(Legs were feeling good on the run I just wasn't there mentally. I think I had a sub 1:35 run in me)
Total- 5:31:27 412th/2052 Overall

So all in all this was a great race. I learned a lot from this and have proven to myself that it is going to take a lot to stop me from finishing. All though this recovery process is going to take a lot out of me mentally and physically I feel I will overcome the side affects of it and come to Clearwater ready to race. I may be under trained but I will show up with a well rested body ready to go Sub 5 hours as that was my goal for this year.

The recovery process as of right now is scheduled to take 4 weeks before I can run/bike again outside and 6 weeks out of the pool. So the pool will be the biggest set back as I can still train on the treadmill and trainer for the run/bike. I have a follow up on Monday to find out if surgery will be needed but as of the Monday after the race surgery will not be needed.

I have a lot of people to say THANK for this past week. I will start with most importantly SHAUNA and LUCY!!!! Without you guys the days after the race would have been miserable and I would not have had a smile on my face. Along with all the pre-race support and accommodations you guys have given. Lucy can always find a way to make me smile. Next would be my Family, you guys are always there supporting me whenever things go good or bad. All of the friends who followed the race and congratulated me on an embarrassing 5:31, even though you didnt know about the accident. The whole BBBC crew, old Osan Alumni and the new Turkey riders that followed the race. To Amanda for whipping my butt in the pool the last day and letting some random guy "draft" on some hard 100's. To Frank for letting me ask endless amounts of questions and giving me advice for the taper and race. To everyone else out there that I may have forgot that randomly follows my blog or on Facebook. THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE!!

Below are some pics from the pre-race and event.

Headed from the hotel to the Bus

T1 was a huge grass field
The bike all setup in T1Coming out of the water and starting the running stripper ;)Out of T1 without the feet in the shoes yet......

Climbing up "THE HAMMER", trying to fight of cramps and not fall over, this was right after the crash.Checking my pace making sure I am doing alright. Also checking to make sure the Tylenol didn't mess with my Heart Rate.
Coming down the finishing chute all bloody......
Would of looked a lot better with a Sub 5 hour time up there.
Myself and Shauna with my "acquired" signPhhhheewwwww.......My legs are fine and not scraped up ;)
All the above pics are in the hospital. I had to keep Shauna entertained for the 12 hours we were in the ER so some of them I was messing around. I was not on medication in any of them and was in some pain. Still found a way to keep smiling and make it through the night....

Bag Check/BIke Turn In/Grub on some food

15Aug09-

Well everything is prepared and ready to go for tomorrow. It was a good short day but started to drag out towards the end. Everything got accomplished and I am feeling good. Got a short run in and short swim. The bike was ridden but just from the hotel to bus and from the bus to Transition Area. Not to much to write about except for our dinner excursion that went on for about an hour and a half of driving around in circles. Well Shauna has a Garmin GPS for her car and the thing works great for getting from point A to point B. When it comes to finding an italian place to eat dinner at now thats a different story. It took us to one that was just way over priced and then we went to 3 other ones that were either not open or did not exist in that location. So we ended up doing exactly what she said we should have done from the beginning and just have eaten at the restaurant downstairs of our hotel which had italian food. I guess I should have just listened to her in the first place. So we ended up eating there and I made sure to eat a good meal and hoping it will provide for a great race tomorrow. Well I am going to post a few photos and a
video of Lucy from dinner tonight. She was telling me about what was going on tomorrow.

LIVE TRACKING UPDATE-

Looks like www.ironman703.de will have a live feed running during the race. Not sure exactly where the footage will be from but I will be wearing a black/white w/ red trim tri suit. My bib # is 1313 and I will be wearing a white visor w/ orange on it for the run. My bike helmet has a USA sticker and Cali sticker on it. So check out the live feed and see if you can see me. Also www.ironmanlive.com should have the tracking service up and running so you can see how my splits are going throughout the race. See blogs below about other information in regards to tracking.

The park that I ran through this morning. Also happens to be the race course. It is nicely shaded as well as only has one hill, which I accidently ran up this morning.
The outside shot of the race briefing/awards ceremony building.

The stage for the Race Briefing and Awards Ceremony

The beginning of the race briefing

You finish the swim under all of the flags for the countries repersented

The swim course is in a harbor

My next bike that I will get hopefully early next year. 2008 Pinarello Prince

Lucy tellin me what I am going to do tomorrow. She is 3 years old and missing Church to come root me on :)

Day 2...Pasta Party/FREE BEER!! and Race Registration

14 Aug 09-

Well today was a pretty busy day for 2 days prior to the Tri. Woke up at 0700 and got out of bed and made some breakfast. Which included bagel and cream cheese, Yogurt with blueberry, banana, some OJ and 2 homemade muffins from Shauna. After that I loaded up my bike and off we went to the base. It is about 8 miles from her house through a couple villages. So I went to the pool swam a nice and easy 1K and the headed back out towards her house. I guess someone was looking out for me and really wanted me to take it easy because I forgot my bike shoes and road the bike all the way back with flip flops on. With several steep climbs along the way I just put it in the small chain ring and spun right up them. I took some nice pictures along the way as well.

That is what I just came up, you can't see the road so it must be steep right??

The glasses fogged up from all the heat my body was putting off after that climb so I had to take them off.

A motorcycle coming up the hill which I was about to go down.

Riding through the local village.
A cool looking house or mansion not sure which one it is. All the houses are so huge here.

After viewing all the awesome scenery and snapping some photos I figured it was time for some brunch. So I stopped at the same cafe as yesterday and ordered the "Brad Special": 2 eggs over easy, 2 salami and cheese sandwiches, 1 raspberry and pudding croissant, and a roll. Here are some pics of breakfast and the cafe.

Myself and Moni at her Cafe.

Moni's Cafe Bistro and the P3

So then finally I arrived to the village where I am staying:


So after all of that I needed to clean the bike from the dirty and wet ride yesterday. Once all of that was done it was once again time for that much needed nap. So I slept for about and hour and then packed everything up to get ready for our afternoon departure. So bags were packed and off we were for my first autobahn experience. I wan't to impressed as we did not get passed by anything doing over 110mph so it was pretty un-eventful.

Once arriving to the race area we attended the Pasta Party and had a great dinner. Here is where the FREE BEER comes into play. So many of you may know I have not had any alcohol for the past 5 weeks in prep for this race, well minus the glass of wine and shot for your digestive system last night. So I figured I am on vacation and it was the Pasta/Carb Party and beer has lots of Carbs, so why not load up?? So I got 2 beers along with 3 plates of pasta 2 waters and some peach tea. This is why I love Pasta Parties, it is all you can eat and supposedly drink at this one. Well after the first beer I start thinking to myself I should at least be feeling a little buzz since I have not drank in so long and this is German beer and all. So I start looking at the label and in German it said Alcohol Free according to the translation I received. :( :( So it was alcohol free beer hence the fact they were handing it out for FREE!! Big disappointment but I looked at the nutritional backing on the "beer" and it had a lot of Carbs so at least I accomplished that.

So after dinner I came back to the hotel and got everything ready for tomorrow since I have to turn in the Bike and Bike/Run bag. They do this the day before so there is not so much going on race morning and it is kind of a logistical night mare for the organizers if they have 3,000 people turning in a total of 9,000 bags on race morning so they cut it down to 6,000 on Saturday and 3,000 on Sunday with only your stuff for post race being in your Sunday bag. I have attached some pictures off what my room looks like 2 nights out from race day getting everything ready for pre-race day.

The 3 bags and all the gear that goes inside.

All the nutritional supplies for race day. The Zym's were just in case a hot front came in but looks like I will just be sticking to all HAMMER!!!

The P3 already for race day, just needs the bottles race morning. New addition to the seat post and helmet are the US/Cali Stickers. Have to represent when in other countries!!

The room with everything everywhere. My parents might disagree that this is just during race time as my room gets like this when I am home on leave, but I have so "much" going on I just dont have time to clean it ;)

So with the blog being updated now it is time I head off to bed. Going to get up tomorrow for complementary breakfast at the hotel and then a short run down the road to the race briefing......Hope everyone is enjoying these updates.

Germany Day 1=Amazing...but WET!!

13Aug 2009-

Well the plan for today was to get up after a good nights sleep and go out for a run down to the local cafe in the next village over. So I slept great and woke up around 830 and was out the door for a 4 1/2 mile run and then stopped at the cafe for breakfast on the way back. Well breakfast was great: 2 eggs, 2 salami and cheese sandwiches on rolls, 1 croissant with raspberry and pudding and 2 waters and OJ. Walked to Shauna's house from there which was about 1 mile up the road, YES it is uphill the whole way.

So with the travel day yesterday I figured it would be good to get caught up on rest so I took a nap after my mid morning meal. Then of course the one thing I absolutely hate about having to travel via airplane is packing/unpacking and assembling the bike. So that was next on the days agenda. Only took about an hour and everything was good to go. Went out for a test ride of 4 miles and it worked like a champ.

So after all that I went out for my real ride. Got everything together that I would need because it was more than just a ride. It was what was going to get me to base which was where I would meet up with "SUPER DAVE" whom I was stationed with in Korea. We had planned to meet up on Friday morning for breakfast but his flight out was earlier than expected so we met up tonight for dinner. Well in my jersey pockets I stuffed my camera, a change holder w/ Euro in it, a pair of sandals, and a change of clothes (shorts and long sleeve shirt). So off for the ride I went.....The plan was to ride 11 miles in the opposite direction from the house and then back to the house and then the 8 miles to base for 30 miles. Well mother nature quickly change my plans. I get 2 miles out from the house and it starts to rain on me, so I look back and it looks lighter the other way so I turn around. Well it just continued to rain the whole time for my 30 mile ride. So it should of been miserable right?? NO it was absolutely amazing I could not complain one bit. I am in Germany riding through absolutely beautiful scenery and its pouring rain. I never ride the P3 in the rain but it is so awesome here I couldn't come back. And if I came back how would I meet up with Dave for dinner??

So 30 miles later I was soaked from head to toe but had an amazing ride and felt really good. So I met up with Dave on the base and we headed out for dinner after I had my shorts and shirt dried and got out of my soaking wet bike clothes.

Dinner was amazing just like the ride. Had great raviolis, great salad, a nice glass of wine, a "sampler" dessert w/ 3 items and a shot to wash all of dinner down that was suppose to help "digest" your food.

So official Day 1 is complete and was truly amazing. Germany is an awesome place from what little bit I have seen so far. Below are some pictures from the day..........

The "mansion" that I am staying at. 6 bedrooms and 4 baths. I have a 1/2 bathroom and full bathroom just for me :) THANKS SHAUNA!!!
The Church down a few villages
After the 3o mile ride coming onto base

Dave and myself.....He brought a towel so I could dry off before getting in the car. I was soaked from head to toe and the bike was a disaster!!
Leshia, Dave and myself at Dinner. BBBC "old school" members always find a way to meet back up.
The sampler "dessert" platter..........AMAZING!!!

All Packed and Ready to Fly in T-12hrs

Well with this race popping up last minute it has been a hectic last couple of weeks. Trying to get the paperwork signed so that I did not get charged leave and could go race on the AF time was a hassle but well worth it. Had a good solid 4 weeks of training and the legs are feeling fresh from the little bit of taper that I have been doing.

So today we had a Change of Command ceremony for our base commander. So with not only having to worry about getting everything ready and packed I also had to be into work this morning at 645 to be out in the hangar for the ceremony. So the ceremony started at 8 and lasted an hour and it was pretty warm being in full service dress. Below is a picture of me in my full service dress.

The tie looks off center but I think the coat was just off ;)

So after the ceremony I came home and went for a short swim and then since I was up so early I felt the need for an afternoon nap. Post nap went out for a short run and then continued packing. Once everything was packed I have been fighting with my computer for the past 2 hours and lone and behold I think my MagicJack has took a crap. The weird thing was it was making the computer not start up or shutdown so I think I will just go buy a new one.

Alright so now on to the pre race portion of this.

Pre Race Notes:

Height-6'1"
Weight- 160
Wetsuit- Zoot Zenith Full Suit
Race Bike- Cervelo P3C
Wheels- Easton EA90 Aero
Shoes- Asics Gel Cumulus 9
Nutrition Plan: 5 Servings of Hammer Gel, 8 Hammer Endurolyte Capsules, 5 Servings of HEED

Goals:
Finish
Top 5 Age Group
Go Sub 5 Hours
Top 100 Overall (Suppose to be 3,000 people)


Goal Splits:
30-32min Swim-Hoping to improve on the rough swim in China
2:33-2:43 Bike- 4,500ft of Climbing is going to be tough but the bike is my strong point
1:35-1:45 Run- As long as we don't see heat like China I think I have my legs ready to run. Might even go sub 1:35 depending on how the hills kill my legs.

Once again I have set high expectations but I am prepared for this race and feel like if everything goes smooth I will come out with the results I am looking for. The main reason for this race is to prepare for Clearwater in November, although the courses are not similar in altitude and elevation gain just having another 70.3 under my belt is what I am looking for. And why not take advantage of the opportunity to travel to Germany and race on "work" time :) So everything is packed and I have about 5 hours till wake up so off to bed I go......I know 5 hours is not much but I will get the extra sleep on the plane ride :) Here are some pictures all packed up and ready to go.

Everything all ready to go!!

The beanie baby was a "present" from Maddy and I was told to take it with me whenever I travel and take pictures with it. I have been bad about this here in Turkey so figured its first travel should be out of country.

Also the race should be able to be tracked online starting at 1135PM West Coast Time Saturday Night, or 0835 Germany time Sunday morning. Below are the links that should be tracking the race. My bib # is 1313.

www.ironmanlive.com (should be looking for a link that says Athlete Tracker Germany 70.3)
www.ironman703.de (should have a link to the live tracking not positive though)

It should at a minimum update the swim time, bike time and run time as well as have a finishing time and place. Hopefully it will have a half way bike split and it might have run splits every 5K. To know how the day is going if you are tracking it live just compare my times to my goal times and that will give you a good idea of how the days is going.