First race of 2011, within seconds.......

20 Feb 11- Seoul Korea-

Well to start off the 2011 season I set out to run a half marathon up in Seoul. One of the best days weather wise to have race for this part of the year, so the day started out great with awesome weather. The morning was a little chilly and down in the 40's but by the end of the race I think we may have reached low 50's with a light wind. Training has been going good up to this point, thanks to having a great coach and structure in my training. I will blog more about how the whole being coached online is sometime in the near future.

I went into the race with a plan that coach had laid out and if executed properly I could PR by a few seconds. I looked at this as being a little optimistic for this early in the season and wanted to just put in a solid workout, which meant executing the plan. I went out nice and "slow" for the first 5K and sped up throughout the remained of the race. I ran with a Korean lady who normally wins the female overall title at a majority of the half marathon races. I stuck with her till the half way point, just by coincidence. This is when I started feeling good and was able to drop down to where I needed to be. I missed my mark at the 15K split by about 25 seconds, and knew the next 5K was where I was going to make some money on people. I had paced right and felt good going into the last 5K. Then came the wall, no not the normal wall that hits during a marathon but the wall of people.

Korea is known for having many races on one course, remember back to when I got lost ;) Well they had a 10K, 1/2 Marathon, 32K and Full Marathon all on the same running path along the Han River. The 32K/Full went out the opposite direction but ended up coming back in our direction on the same out and back section we had ran on. So we had 32K/Full runners head at us and then the best part was the 10K runners who were say 55:00 to 1:05 pace 10K'ers running with us. All on what you could possibly squeeze 4 people in each lane and maybe one skinny guy down the middle. Well in Korea I wouldn't consider myself skinny, so trying to squeeze down the middle lane was where the fun began. For the last 5K I had to fight traffic in both directions and avoid hitting people coming at me and avoiding to run over people moving with me, but at a slower pace.

Lets just say the last 5K I did not run the pace I needed to to execute the plan, could I of if there wasn't a human traffic jam for the last 5K? Who knows, but what I do know is that if I would of seen someone from my race within striking distance I would have ran them down. So to the next point, the course was so crowded I had no clue where anyone was. I knew I was sitting in the top 10 but couldn't see anyone identifiable in front of me from my race. There was way too many 10Kers to identify if there was a half person ahead. Long story short, I missed 5th place by 6 seconds and 4th by 26 seconds. Could I of ran down 4th? Who knows, but I am pretty sure I would of caught that guy that was 6 seconds up. What did I miss out on? A pretty cool trophy and a $200 fuji digital camera :( What to do differently next time, run hard the whole way so you can't complain about missing top 5 by 6 seconds.

Time- 1:20:34
Overall-6th/838
Pace- 6:09min/mil

Everything is about the experience and what you gain from it, so missing that by 6 seconds was a great learning experience that I will remember for awhile. Below are some pictures of the race courtesy of Michael Onofray, who was kind enough to take pictures and cheer us on instead of tearing up the race course. Congrats to my new friend Jason Brosseau on his first race in Korea and his first win in Korea! He runs for the AF Marathon and Cross Country Team and is out here for a few weeks working. It is amazing how small the AF is as we both have a lot of the same friends and know a lot of the same people.

Pre Race pics
Trying to look over and see if a guy that was running "fast" was a 10Ker or half marathoner. He was only a 10Ker.

Coming down the finishing chute. Olypmic Stadium track!

Drinking some Hammer Recoverite and working on my tan. Some French dude later told me to put my shirt on because it wasn't poper. Where in the world are people not tanning in February, I thought 50 degrees and sunny was ideal temps for it ;) Needless to say I respected my elder and put my shirt back on. He did however beat me in the race and is probably in his 50's. When I congratulated after the race he acted like he didn't understand me, but he sure spoke clear English when telling me to put my shirt on.

Post race talk with Norah the Great! She told off the French dude when I was grabbing my shirt to put back on. Wish I would of stuck around to listen to him get chewed out by her. Thanks Norah for having my back!

2010 in Review

11 Feb 11- Osan AB, South Korea-

Well it has been over a month now since the new year and I have put this off far too long. So with the new year well underway I figured I better do a quick review of 2010. It was an interesting year which had its ups and downs, but mostly ups.

Well the start of 2010 was interesting, in Turkey, the land of NO racing. I believe 2010 was a year that I had little motivation in the beginning of the year due to knowing there was not a lot of racing to look forward to. I mean I had Wildflower to look forward to and that was a good way to start the year, but the middle of the year was dull in the sense of racing. I took that time to really focus and train for marathon #3 and the return to Korea. I knew coming back to Korea would offer me the option to race A LOT. That was probably the one thing that hurt going into the marathon was that I raced a lot leading into it. I needed those races though to feel fulfilled for the year, I just didn't get enough in early in the year and enjoy racing and being able to compete more than anything.

A few things I learned through 2010 was that if I dedicated myself to something I can achieve my goals. Going Sub 3 at the Chuncheon Marathon was the big goal of the year, after not being able to attend AF Marathon. I put in the miles and had a good plan going in, thanks to Elissa. Training in Turkey went great for the marathon due to having a consistent training partner who was able to push me on a daily/weekly basis. I concentrated on getting the work done and actually focused on going sub-3. My other marathons were more less spur of the moment, under trained lets see what I can do races. Chuncheon I had a purpose going there, I wanted to show that I had put in the work and I proved to myself that hard work pays off.

So with accomplishing that I wanted to reach for something bigger in 2011. I wanted to step up and go the full distance in Triathlon and attempt my first IRONMAN. I am a little young and under experienced in the sport overall, so I knew some things would have to be done to make this a successful attempt. I have signed up with Team TBB Online Coaching and am now being coached by Scott Defilippis. This all started in December of 2010, and what a difference having a coach makes. I will write a seprate blog about having an online coach soon. So at the end of 2010 I started focusing on 2011. Below are some goals for 2011, in order of importance athletically:

-Arrive to IM China in good health to compete in my first IM
-Finish my first IM
-Finish in the top 10 in all races entered throughout Korea
-Win an Overall Olympic Distance Race in Korea
-Qualify for Kona (not by rolldown)
-Go Sub 10 at IM China

This year the focus is obviously on IM China(and hopefully Kona). A lot of people have said just concentrate on finishing your first IM, well I am going full steam ahead and wanting more than to just finish. I have set high goals and hope to achieve my goals by being prepared for anything that the year throws at me. Staying focused throughout this year and managing my time will be the key to success this year. I am trying to juggle a full time military job (which in Korea can mean working 7-20 days straight at times, 12 hour days), completing 8 college classes this year, and training 12-20 hours a week. So to say the least I have a full plate.

Here is a brief review on some stats from 2010:

2010 Race Statistics 1 Jan-31 Dec

23 Races Entered

8 Overall 1^st Place Wins

5 Age Group Wins

14 Top 5’s

Races Entered Breakdown

1 Track Meet

2 5K’s

4 10K’s

3 ½ Marathons

1 8 Mile Time Trials (Bike)

1 20K Hill Climb (Bike)

2 Sprint Duathlons

2 Sprint Triathlons

3 Olympic Distance Triathlons

1 Half IM’s

1 Full Marathon

Training Stats 1Jan10-31Dec10

Swim- 58.8 Miles/94.6KM’s/34h43m

Bike- 2,629 Miles/4,231KM’s/151h34m

Run- 1,116.8 Miles/1,797KM’s/142h03m

Total-3,805.6 Miles/6,124KM’s/328h20m/13d16h19m

Some interesting things about the above data: I decreased my bike mileage quite a bit and did not feel like I lost a lot of fitness on the bike. My run mileage increased by quite a bit and I gained a lot of speed and fitness on the run. My swim mileage is more of something like what a kid in elementary school swims on his/her club team. In the first 42 days of this year I have already swam half of what I did last year, so I know where my weakness is and I am now putting in the work to improve my swim.

Overall I believe 2010 was a great year considering how it started and where I was. Coming back to Korea was something that I really appreciated and knowing that I am in a place that I can succeed surrounded by some great people. I can't wait for the 2011 race season to start and get things rolling.

Thanks again to all of the support from family, friends and fellow competitors. As long as I can inspire people to be active and live a healthy lifestyle I feel that I have accomplished something. Thanks again for all of the support!

Below are some pictures from throughout the year:

At UVAS OLY Tri getting the bike ready with my Dad.

Probably the highlight of my year. Seeing my 7 year old little sister run a 9 minute mile and win her race!

The family post Wildflower. Was glad that my Aunt, Uncle and cousins finally were able to see me race.

First race back in Korea. Awesome Triathlon monument as well, my name should now be on the back of the monument with my AG win there.

Chuncheon around mile 10.

XMas Eve Macgyver Project

24 Dec 10- Osan AB South Korea

Well XMas eve brought me an SRM in the mail that I had ordered about a month prior. I had mailed it to my buddy Eric who lives in Colorado near the SRM shop. I had the batteries replaced in both the computer and cranks. Thanks to Eric it saved me some time and headache of having them shipped here first then having to ship them back to the states.

Since it was my first SRM I had my buddy Zach come over and help me out so I didn't screw anything up. It took us about an hour and a half to get it all hooked up and ops checked. A little longer than expected but it worked and we didn't have any major problems. Being a triathlete for some reason I wanted to be a perfectionist and make sure all the wires were routed cleanly and that it looked clean.

I really didn't think about getting rid of my Garmin Forerunner 305, but hadn't really thought about where it was going to go on the tri bike. Once we had it all setup is when I started thinking about how I was going to get my "cockpit" all setup on the tri bike. With nothing better to do on Xmas eve the project began........

Step 1- Remove 305 quick release kit from the stem and figure a way to get it up in between the bars.
Step 2- Remove water bottle holder in between aero bars and reverse it to where the bottle ejects towards my body.
Step 3- Hook the SRM Computer (PCV) up with velcro on the back and put velcro on the aero bars.
Step 4- Had to undo all the bar tape on the aero extensions and jimmy rig up some zip ties to the aero extensions for the quick release bike mount.
Step 5- Re-wrap the extensions and make sure everything was in place and worked properly.

The whole process ended up taking about 45 minutes once I had figured out how I wanted it.

Below are some pictures of the before and after. When I re wrap the bars and re route cables before the beginning of the season I will take photos of each step.

The before setup. Garmin Forerunner 305 setup on the stem with the quick release kit. Bottle cage is just zip tied to the aero extensions

The new setup with the 305 at the top, then the PCV and then the water bottle now exiting towards the back.
The two red zip ties are where I had them on the old setup except they wrapped around the stem. Now they are just there and each zip tie on the aero extensions hold it in "air". It leans quite a ways forward and you have to pull it back towards you to mount the 305 in the quick release and then it sits fine in between the bars. My bars are a little narrower than the 305, and this might be why it works so well.
The bottom view of the zip ties.

The next project was to hook up the wiring harness to my road bike. The second harness I had did not have the nice mounting bracket that the first one had. The normal bracket is easily attached under the bottom bracket with the screw that is used to route your derailleur cables. I couldn't figure out what else to use so I came up with an initial plan of using zip ties.

I took two small zip ties and slid them through the two holes in the magnet pickup device. I then slid them under the bottom bracket mount that is already there for the cables to be routed. I then tightened down the screws and it held the sensor in place just fine. Once I put the cranks on zip tie heads rubbed on the cranks so that idea was out the window.

Next I walked around the room and thought about what else I could possibly use to make a mounting bracket. Well on Xmas eve you get some crazy ideas. I looked at my floss plastic case and figured if I cut it apart I could possibly make it into a bracket. Using limited tools of a cable cutter and knife I went to work. I cracked the first side I was going to use and ended up getting stuck with the back of the case as my only option.

I sculpted it out into what is similar to a field goal shape. At the end of the "posts" I made the end larger though so that it would keep the sensor in place and would not slip out. The bracket is kind of big but I didn't want to crack it and figured it could possibly work. Sure enough after a lot of cutting and sculpting I had a final product. I hooked it up and eye balled where I needed to put a whole so that the screw would hold it in place. I used the knife and put a whole in the "bracket" and screwed it in. Put the cranks on and luckily nothing rubbed and the sensor was picking up cadence and power once I got it on the trainer.

So if you have time on your hands and want a late night project take a floss case and a few tools and have at it. Beats spending $70 on a new wiring harness and new version of the bracket or maybe I just don't know where there is an accessory that makes the old harness work.

The floss case that I used:
Below are some pictures of the bracket:

The final project was done some time ago, but post keep popping up on Slowtwitch in regards to bottle setups for different races. I figured I would add my setup to this blog so that if people wanted a reference with pictures I could just post this link.

I have taken a cheap Profile Designs water bottle for my rear mount (Excel Sports has them for $5.95) This back bottle holds a multi tool, tube, pump, C02 cart, and C02 Adapter. I also have a spare tube under my ISM Adamo Saddle. I took 4 zip ties and hooked the cage up to the seat post. Two of which are hooked just on the bottle cage in a vertical manner. The other two go from the two on the bottle cage to the two holes in the seat post. Below are two pictures of the setup.

I then use the setup pictured above for my cockpit setup. In that water bottle I keep my electrolyte drink which is either Cytomax or Hammer Heed to start with. After that I use whatever they have on course.

I then have one bottle in the downtube which I use as a concentrated Perpetum or Sustatined Energy bottle. It holds all of my calories with 4 scoops and then 2 gel servings. Below is a picture of the overall setup, prior to my cockpit setup up front changing.

I use this setup for 70.3's/Half Ironmans and plan on using it for my first full IM in May. I will have an extra concentrated bottle for my downtube at special needs.

When I race Oly/Sprints I take the rear bottle off and move the tools to the downtube and just have a single bottle of Hammer Heed or Cytomax in the aero bars.

If you have any questions about any of the above setups feel free to email me and I can take more detailed photos or answer any questions.

Sleep Deprived 10K/Merry XMas Training

18 Dec 2010- Seoul South Korea

Well I have been on night shift for the past couple of weeks now and had previously signed up for this race thinking that I was off the night after the race. I was hoping to get out of work a little early and be able to sleep a couple hours prior to the race, but like the past race I tried to attend the crazy Chongger up North decided to ruin my plans. This time I decided I can't have my life controlled by some crazy guy up North and would go crazy if I kept missing races.

I ended up not getting out of work early and still had to work the night when I got back from the race. The race was on Sunday at 10 am. Saturday I had got up at noon to get out for a 3 hour group ride with the guys which departed at 1. Upon arriving back to base I headed into work from 1800-0600 and then came home and packed up to head up to Seoul for the race. A new girl here runs for the AF Cross Country Team and AF Marathon team and it was going to be her first race in Korea. I was waiting at Starbucks for her and sure enough she slept through her alarm. Luckily I plan accordingly for these kinds of things when traveling with anyone else to races, especially females ;)

About 30 minutes later than expected we departed for our adventure up to Seoul. Two train transfers later and we were right at the race start, it was literally right outside the train stop. It was a cold morning with temps down in the low 30's. The course was an out and back along the han river. There was still some spots of snow/ice which made for a lack of traction and some taking it easy spots during the run. They had a marathon and half that day as well and they took off ahead of us.

We started 5 minutes after them which meant we had to weave through quite a few runners until the turn around. I started out a little too fast and split a 5:36 first mile and then a 5:55 second mile. After that I settled into low 6 minute miles and ran in the top 5 the whole race. I tried to put on a surge with about 1 mile to go and just couldn't catch the 3rd/4th place guys. They ended up about 200 meters or less up on me and I ended up finishing 5th. It was a PR for me with a time of 37:10. I was really pleased with this considering the lack of sleep and the course conditions along with temps.

Time- 37:10
Overall- 5th/Approx 200-300 runners

Well I had a workout scheduled for Christmas since I knew I was going to be off that day and figured I could get in a good long workout. Luckily there are other people out there as crazy as me believe it or not. My buddy Zach came over and we put in a solid 2 1/2 hours on the trainer while watching the Kona broadcast. Nothing better than getting in a good workout while sitting there watching coverage of a place you dream of being in 10 months. After the ride I finished off the workout with a 30min run. Wasn't a bad way to start Christmas. Following the run I got in my days sleep of about 4 hours and then headed down to the VFW for the Christmas feast.

The VFW has been my place away from home during the holidays. They always have a great spread of food and always a good group of people down there for Christmas and Thanksgiving. I went down there with a few friends and it was a good time.

Below are some pics from the 10k:

To the left in the picture is Norah the speed demon from Seoul Flyers. She has been undefeated this season as far as I know. She makes a nice little earning by kicking butt in races. The guy in the red to the right in the picture won the race in low 33's.

Coming down the last 100 meters.

Glad to be done and ready to get some sleep, ended up getting 3 hours of sleep prior to work. That was a long 12 hour shift that night!

A Couple Races in One Blog

Well since Chuncheon a lot of my plans have kind of fell through. I came up with this crazy idea to run 2 marathons 3 weeks apart. Sounded like a good challenge since I couldn't find an Ultra for the end of the year. The original goal was to run 2 sub 3 marathons 3 weeks apart. Then reality hit and I was going to shoot for 2 Boston Qualifiers in 3 weeks. So I started the training plan for that and I had a lot of soreness. I ran a half the weekend after Chuncheon as a long training run for the week and just took in the sites and stopped and ate at all the aid stations. I hit the split I wanted and enjoyed the day. After that my IT band was giving me some problems, so I took it easy. I figured rest was better than an injury going into a 2nd marathon that soon. Race weekend was approaching and I still wasn't feeling great. I got a phone call about a bike race that was 70K and figured I would do that with less impact on the IT band. Attempts to get into that last minute failed so back to square one and running the marathon. Getting ready to leave on Saturday to head up there I get a phone call from work. 2 hours before leaving I had to be into work. So it just wasn't meant to be for me to run that marathon. I figured it must of been someone above looking over me.

When that happened I figured it was time to take a "break". I took a whole 8 long painful days off of doing absolutely nothing. I can't say it was great, because in all honesty I was going stir crazy. So to start things of right I did a 5K race on base after my 8 day break.

It was the Turkey Trot and they had a 30 pound turkey up for grabs. So of course I had to run hard, I mean it was a 30 pound turkey for just winning a 5K. I went out hard and was trying to set a new 5K PR, but it was cold and the body just wasn't feeling it. I split a good first mile and then after that I backed off a bit. Ended up 18:18 and was feeling pretty good with that time considering how cold it was and the break that I had taken.

Well I figured there was no better time than to get my first bike race in then this off season. I have been training with a CAT1 cyclist here who rides for the Armed Forces Team. We found a hill climb up in Seoul and headed up there to ride with a foreign cycling team and then do the hill climb the following day. Saturday turned out to be horrible weather, snow, sleet, rain, wind and COLD! It was pretty miserable but we got to pre ride what we thought was going to be the course. Sunday morning it was even colder than the previous day and the race started with a 12K warm up/neutral start. What really sucked was after the 12K they bunched everyone back up and we sat around for 10 minutes before beginning the hill climb. It was only 6K but it was brutal. I got put in my place and the little koreans gave me a lesson in climbing. Overall though I was happy to get my first bike race in and learned some valuable lessons that day.

I am going to close out the year with a 10K this weekend and then the focus begins for 2011. Some of you know what the plan is already and others may have seen it somewhere on here as well. This is officially week 1 of training for the big race in 2011 and things are going good so far. I will post a season recap and 2011 plans here in a few weeks. Big News is coming so come back and read!

2 years later and Sub 3 is COMPLETE!

24 Oct 2010- Chuncheon Marathon, South Korea-

Well it was 2 years ago when I completely lost my mind and spontaneously did a marathon. You can go back and read that blog if you want to know why it was so crazy. Lets just say I had no idea what I was doing and ran 18 miles 4 days prior to the race. So 2 years later 2 marathons under my belt, I think I have wised up a little bit but not much ;) A few people that know me well can vouch that I still make some poor decisions leading up to races, but I am having a blast with racing my butt off.

Chuncheon was not on the radar for this year but I got my assignment to Korea and was not able to push it back. I had to turn down my slot on the USAFEurope team to run AF Marathon so immediately looked for another marathon since I had already started training. I got with my "logistical manager" Des in Korea and had him get me signed up for Chuncheon. I kept up the training and had a good core group out in Turkey to train with. I couldn't have got to where I was in terms of being prepared for this marathon with out the help of them.

Leading up to the race my body was feeling good week in and week even though I was racing a lot. I had been getting good results and hitting the marks I was aiming for and on occasion pushing to hard, my point that I still make bad decisions. Then the week before I got a bad feeling that I was starting to get worn out, my body wasn't feeling "great" like it had been and I just took it easy trying to get as much rest as I could and make sure the last runs leading up to the race were at a nice easy pace.

We headed up to the race the day prior and stayed at a small hotel right downtown Chuncheon. It was only about 3K from the race start and we didn't even know it. We has went out to dinner the night before and I went with the sure choice of Pizza Hut as it hadn't failed me in the past. I had the seafood pasta and ate a good salad, all followed up by Cold Stone. Enjoyed a Shiner Bock when I got back to the hotel and then called it a night.

Race morning was the typical morning, took care of business, ate 2 bowls of oatmeal, 2 banana's and the ritual race coffee. I made it there in time to hang out with the Seoul Flyers and have some good pre race chat with some great people. One guy flew all the way out from the states to run and it was his first visit to Korea. He had previously ran Pikes Peak a month or two prior and said it was BRUTAL. I was starting up in the "B" wave so I headed over to the start area a little earlier than everyone else. I got up there and go situated and before I knew it we were off and running.

Not much to describe about running 26.2 miles. The one thing that did happen is I started running this race WITHOUT a purpose. I was at mile 2 and I thought to myself WHY am I running this race. I had realized in the past how much more these races meant if I raced for something or someone. I thought to myself for a split second why I was running this race and it clicked. The night before at dinner I was with a guy that I have raced with before. He was a friend of Des's and we have now became friends. This guy is a true inspiration, I will not put his name out here but once you read these few lines about his story you will be inspired. He has been doing running events/tris for quite some time if I remember correctly. He has a family of 6 wonderful kids, with the older ones starting to do tri's/running events as well. His wife recently up and left him with all 6 of the kids. He stepped up to the plate and is raising all 6 of the kids while still holding a job and providing for his family. He hadn't really been able to train for the marathon but had been swimming everyday at lunch, the only time he had to get a workout in. As we were at dinner the conversation came up about his kids ages and there was a gap between 2 of them of about 5 years, if I remember correctly. I made a comment about the gap and he responded with we had another one but he passed away. That is when it sunk in and I felt bad, the kid died when he was 2. At that point it hadn't really clicked that was who I was running for the next day but it caught up with me at mile 2. I decided to run this race for a kid that only lived a short life and couldn't live to run a marathon. He is what kept me going through the last few miles when the going got tough. When you think you have it rough, just think of not knowing everything you know or having everything you have, because there are less fortunate people out there. Too the guy that is raising 6 kids and making the best out of every second of life, keep up the good work! You are a TRUE INSPIRATION!

The scenery was beautiful, the fans were great and the hills were NOT what I remembered. Maybe since it was my first marathon 2 years ago I didn't know the difference between hilly and not hilly, but it definitely was NOT flat. The biggest disappointment was the last aid station was at 37K and nothing after that. I had to stop and ask people on the side of the road for Coke/Pepsi. I was hoping that I could get some at an earlier aid station but no such luck, bad on my part for not seeing what they had at each aid station. As for the generous Koreans that let me have some of their Coke it was greatly appreciated. I think it was too late but still I was thankful for it. I started falling apart at mile 24.5-25 and was just trying to hold on. I stopped and walked a few times during that period and then realized that sub 3 might slip away so I better just man up and finish the race. I sucked it up and ran out the last 1/2 mile and crossed the line in 2:58:12. It was a great feeling and I was pleased with the day. Although I thought I had a lot more in me and a low 2:50 I was extremely happy to break 3 and get a Boston Qualifying spot all in one race. It was a PR by 13m42s, which I was extremely happy for. From marathon 1 to 3 it was a PR of 26m48s.

Time- 2:58:12
13.1 Mile Split:1:25:10
Overall 98th/12,020
Age Group- Unknown


Mile Splits-
The Course:

The Seoul Flyers gang before the race!

Myself sporting my cool new Yokota Striders beanie with the guy that came over just for the marathon and had previously ran Pikes Peak earlier this year.

When I came across the first group of crazy Seoul Flyer Cheerleaders around 30K. Man was I happy to see them! Thanks STEPHANI AND EMILY! **Funny Story** I hadn't met Emily prior to this race or even since the race but knew Stephani. As I was coming up Stephani was yelling and screaming for me once she realized it was me and Emily was like do we know this guy? I just chuckled and actually was feeling good at this point so that is why there is a smile. Once I passed Emily made the comment to Stephani "WHO IS THAT GUY? HE IS KINDA HOT!" That is when I really started laughing and at 30K it made for some good entertainment. Thanks GIRLS!

Probably about the time I was laughing about what Emily had said......

Around 41K I saw Zu and she took this pic, different feeling from 30K and definitely not a smile on my face.

As always I want to say a special thanks to everyone that has supported me through this crazy journey. This Sub 3 wouldn't of been possible without a few key individuals. First my "logistical manager" Des for providing transportation and lining up the hotel and entry. Elissa for taking the time to sit down with me and lay out a modified Hal Higdon plan that brought some unknown speed to my legs along with a little muscle. You were a tremendous help and a great training partner out in Turkey. And lastly everyone out there that absolutely hates seeing me do well, I know you are out there and I thrive off of your negativity so keep up the good work!

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