Earlier this year TSN did a nice piece on my project and I finally just got a copy of it. I wanted to share with you what they put together on it. I also wanted to say Merry Christmas and thank you for all the love and support I received this year. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Big things are coming!
Friday, December 24, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The final race of the season...
Clearwater Florida - 70.3 World Championships.
Coach Keena and fellow athlete Nichole finally found a flight that got them to Orlando in the middle of the night. Orlando was a 2 hour drive from where we were staying and Justin volunteered to drive there and pick them up- What a stud!
This morning my bike showed up. This is always a big relief as the bike is kind of a big part of the race (and my favorite if I'm being honest) A few weeks ago I was interviewed by the podcast TRI TALK done by David Warden. Today I received an e-mail from David Warden (click here to listen to his AWESOME podcast - episode 24) saying that one of his listeners had a few extra passes to the VIP tent and after race banquet dinner for the event in Clearwater and wondered if I wanted them. So Ryan hooked me up and gave me 3 bracelets. Sunny and her parents will now get to enjoy the race out of the hot sun and enjoy some good eats. Thank you so much David and Ryan for the sweet hook up!
The next days consisted of small "stay fresh" workouts, getting our bikes and gear into transition and doing nothing! Sunny was awesome putting up with all the race stuff and even gave my legs a good rub down before bed!
Saturday November 13, 2010
Today is the final event of my quest for the Tri and Give a Dam project, the World Championships! I am happy to just be here and hope to finish in the top 100 in my age. This may seem like a really bad goal but no one else in the field is working on their 22nd event and the 30-34 age group is very competitive. Our group woke up early and headed to the race site. One thing I forgot to mention is when we put our bikes into transition each athlete was assigned their very own escort to ask questions and make sure we understood the flow of the race. Nice touch WTC.
I was putting the final air in my tires and was having a difficult time getting my front tire to my desired pressure. It seemed like air was escaping from the valve stem. I started to tinker with it when all of a sudden the valve stem fell out and the clincher went completely flat. Luckily I had plenty of time, removed the wheel and took it to bike tech. They fixed me up right good in less than 5 minutes and all is well. It was a bit of a scare but I've learned to stay very calm in moments of crisis.
I was the first of our group to go off and was happy about my wave draw. I was the 5th age group wave which meant there weren't going to be a million athletes in front of me on the bike and I didn't have to wait forever after T1 closes.
I gave Sunny a big smooch and headed out for my 1.2 mile swim for the week. The winds were up and the water was rougher than the few practice swims we did earlier this week. The course was very simple with only 2 turns. The swim was straight out, shirt swim across the top section and straight back. The water was choppy by I managed to hit my average for the year and came in just over 35 minutes. The only part I didn't like was the swim back to the shore was straight into the sunrise which mad it tough to sight the buoys.
I ran through the showers which was great as it got all that salt off of us and headed out on the bike.
Clearwater is traditionally a draft fest due to the flatness of the course and the quality of riders. Typically big groups of riders (mostly men) get locked in together which is against the rules in half Ironman racing. The winds were still up and for the first 30 miles of the race I found myself pretty much by myself. I would pass small groups of 2 or 3 riders from the older age groups and pass them with ease. I was plugging along nicely wondering what all the fuss and muss was all about in regards to drafting. I wasn't catching the peletons in front of me and no peletons were catching me. I thought to myself that I must be getting along pretty good..... THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN I WAS SWEPT UP by a massive group if riders. With 20 miles to go I found myself dead in the middle of this giant cheat-o-thon. I went from 23 miles per hour in the aero position working pretty hard to 30 miles an hour sitting up and spinning my legs out. This group was so large it was tough to get out the back end of it. I found myself terrified with 2 riders on my right, 2 riders on my left and 20 riders both in the front and back of me. Most of the group was in their drops. It would have been a disaster if just one athlete clipped another riders wheel. We would have gone down in a bloody mess, thank goodness that didn't happen. After the race I did hear of a few other significant crashes - hope those athletes are all ok. I know I should have dropped off of this group as soon as I could but I was having SO MUCH FUN going so fast with such ease that I stayed longer than necessary and I deserved a penalty for sure. I will see if I can find a picture of my brightly colored disk in the middle of this insane pack. I felt bad for Jeannette who got a drafting penalty. She says that she was passed by a male rider and was about 3 bike lengths instead of the required 4 bike lengths as he completed his pass. It was a horrible call by the ref and she goes on to say that all the people in the penalty tent were women... Come on refs, all the peletons were packs and packs of men!
I rolled into transition and it was fun to just hand off my bike to a volunteer, grab my change bag and go through the change tents. I managed to have a strong bike with a time of 2:23.
Out on the run course and feeling great. My nutrition was bang on with a good run I had a good chance of getting a personal best (which happens to be 4:39 from Steelhead earlier this year). I was right on pace and still feeling great at the turn around of the first of two laps. Headed back to the pier I could feel my IT band starting to lock up on me. I started to have this issue late in the year and thought I had worked it out prior to this event doing several runs with no pain leading up to Worlds. I find that it tightens up after a good bike effort as my hip flexers are tighter than if I was just heading out on a long training run - something to work on for the off season!
The pain started to really increase and started to become unbearable. I said no way, gritted my teeth and kept plugging away going as fast as I could stand the pain. At mile 11, the pain was super high and I was dying out there. I took my heart rate as I knew I wasn't close to my cardio capacity. It was a low 136 beats per minute, but that's all my leg would give me. I limped in with a smile on my face having beat the world championships. I had a disappointing victory on the run coming in at 1 hour and 50 minutes - blah!
I managed to complete the day with a faster time than my quests average but missed my goal for the day. I mustered up a 4:54 which I am pretty proud of!!! It has been a long season. Sunny came down to the finish line to greet me and took me up to the VIP area. It was nice and cool up there with a great food and drink spread. This was a great treat and I got my fill of fancy meats and tasty pastries.
Jeannette had the performance of the day despite her 4 min drafting penalty with an awesome personal best time of 4:45. Coach Keena had a great race completing the final race of 3 World Championships (Olympic distance in Budapest, Half Ironman distance in Clearwater, and Full Ironman distance in Kona Hawaii)
Some final thoughts. It has been a crazy year and I could not have done it without all your sideline support. I think it's natural to say that I wished I'd raised more money, I'd hoped to get better exposure for the charity, I wished I had gone faster in the races and so on and so on. But at the end of the day I did the best I could and laid it out there every week. I not super human or an elite athlete. My goal this year was to do something fun and special with the hopes to impact the lives of others. I wanted to inspire the everyday athlete here and help Quiet Way impact many people in Africa. I don't think I'll ever really know my impact if any....
The year was difficult but I can only imagine that I will look back on this year and have some wonderful memories to keep me going in the future. I will not quit and I will continue to try to impact people in a meaningful way. I met a lot of wonderful people and made many friends along the way. I became closer with my family despite my time and distance away. I found out who my real friends and family were as they encouraged me along the way when I had moments of doubt and to celebrate the victories.
Where do I go from here? I'm going to sign off for at least 2 weeks :) and really digest what had happened over the last 30 weeks. I'm going to go back to real work that pay me as we be broke :) I'm going to analyze and map out my preparation year for 2011 and I'm going to try and figure out how to pull off 24 full Ironman races in 2012. Lots of things need to fall into place.... Here's hoping.
James Lawrence
An athlete with purpose.
Do you give a Dam?
www.TriandGiveaDam.com
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| Justin raked this M-Dot into the sand outside our condo. |
This morning my bike showed up. This is always a big relief as the bike is kind of a big part of the race (and my favorite if I'm being honest) A few weeks ago I was interviewed by the podcast TRI TALK done by David Warden. Today I received an e-mail from David Warden (click here to listen to his AWESOME podcast - episode 24) saying that one of his listeners had a few extra passes to the VIP tent and after race banquet dinner for the event in Clearwater and wondered if I wanted them. So Ryan hooked me up and gave me 3 bracelets. Sunny and her parents will now get to enjoy the race out of the hot sun and enjoy some good eats. Thank you so much David and Ryan for the sweet hook up!
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| Ryan handing out VIP passes - AWESOME surprise! |
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| Chilling on the beach, trying to stay fresh. |
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| Pre-race meal. Justin, Jeanette, Keena, Nichole and Sunny |
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| The final destination.... CLEARWATER. They put up a sign to welcome me! |
Saturday November 13, 2010
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| Pro men swim start. |
Today is the final event of my quest for the Tri and Give a Dam project, the World Championships! I am happy to just be here and hope to finish in the top 100 in my age. This may seem like a really bad goal but no one else in the field is working on their 22nd event and the 30-34 age group is very competitive. Our group woke up early and headed to the race site. One thing I forgot to mention is when we put our bikes into transition each athlete was assigned their very own escort to ask questions and make sure we understood the flow of the race. Nice touch WTC.
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| James, Keena and Steve O. |
I was the first of our group to go off and was happy about my wave draw. I was the 5th age group wave which meant there weren't going to be a million athletes in front of me on the bike and I didn't have to wait forever after T1 closes.
I gave Sunny a big smooch and headed out for my 1.2 mile swim for the week. The winds were up and the water was rougher than the few practice swims we did earlier this week. The course was very simple with only 2 turns. The swim was straight out, shirt swim across the top section and straight back. The water was choppy by I managed to hit my average for the year and came in just over 35 minutes. The only part I didn't like was the swim back to the shore was straight into the sunrise which mad it tough to sight the buoys.
I ran through the showers which was great as it got all that salt off of us and headed out on the bike.
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| Running towards T1 through the sprinklers! |
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| Done with my last of 22 1.2 mile swims.... |
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| No drafting here folks ;) |
I rolled into transition and it was fun to just hand off my bike to a volunteer, grab my change bag and go through the change tents. I managed to have a strong bike with a time of 2:23.
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| Gritting my teeth hoping to finish.... |
Out on the run course and feeling great. My nutrition was bang on with a good run I had a good chance of getting a personal best (which happens to be 4:39 from Steelhead earlier this year). I was right on pace and still feeling great at the turn around of the first of two laps. Headed back to the pier I could feel my IT band starting to lock up on me. I started to have this issue late in the year and thought I had worked it out prior to this event doing several runs with no pain leading up to Worlds. I find that it tightens up after a good bike effort as my hip flexers are tighter than if I was just heading out on a long training run - something to work on for the off season!
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| All the pictures of me were when I was running. yes yes yes!! |
The pain started to really increase and started to become unbearable. I said no way, gritted my teeth and kept plugging away going as fast as I could stand the pain. At mile 11, the pain was super high and I was dying out there. I took my heart rate as I knew I wasn't close to my cardio capacity. It was a low 136 beats per minute, but that's all my leg would give me. I limped in with a smile on my face having beat the world championships. I had a disappointing victory on the run coming in at 1 hour and 50 minutes - blah!
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| The final time across the line in 2010.....that makes 22. |
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| It's hard to describe how good this moment feels..... |
I managed to complete the day with a faster time than my quests average but missed my goal for the day. I mustered up a 4:54 which I am pretty proud of!!! It has been a long season. Sunny came down to the finish line to greet me and took me up to the VIP area. It was nice and cool up there with a great food and drink spread. This was a great treat and I got my fill of fancy meats and tasty pastries.
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| CEO of Quiet Way Ron and his wife Maurine enjoying the VIP seating |
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| Post race pastries in VIP... how can I do a race any other way now.... |
Jeannette had the performance of the day despite her 4 min drafting penalty with an awesome personal best time of 4:45. Coach Keena had a great race completing the final race of 3 World Championships (Olympic distance in Budapest, Half Ironman distance in Clearwater, and Full Ironman distance in Kona Hawaii)
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| Keena and Nichole finishing strong. |
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| Jeanette Schellenberg being AWESOME. Nice PR!! |
Some final thoughts. It has been a crazy year and I could not have done it without all your sideline support. I think it's natural to say that I wished I'd raised more money, I'd hoped to get better exposure for the charity, I wished I had gone faster in the races and so on and so on. But at the end of the day I did the best I could and laid it out there every week. I not super human or an elite athlete. My goal this year was to do something fun and special with the hopes to impact the lives of others. I wanted to inspire the everyday athlete here and help Quiet Way impact many people in Africa. I don't think I'll ever really know my impact if any....
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| Iron WOMAN in the making! My four proud daughters!!! |
The year was difficult but I can only imagine that I will look back on this year and have some wonderful memories to keep me going in the future. I will not quit and I will continue to try to impact people in a meaningful way. I met a lot of wonderful people and made many friends along the way. I became closer with my family despite my time and distance away. I found out who my real friends and family were as they encouraged me along the way when I had moments of doubt and to celebrate the victories.
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| Nichole, Scott, Keena, Maurine, Sunny, James Ron. |
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| Some well deserved pizza at the end of a long year! |
Where do I go from here? I'm going to sign off for at least 2 weeks :) and really digest what had happened over the last 30 weeks. I'm going to go back to real work that pay me as we be broke :) I'm going to analyze and map out my preparation year for 2011 and I'm going to try and figure out how to pull off 24 full Ironman races in 2012. Lots of things need to fall into place.... Here's hoping.
James Lawrence
An athlete with purpose.
Do you give a Dam?
www.TriandGiveaDam.com
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Check in, Sushi and relax!
Wednesday November 10, 2010
Four days till the world Championships. Today was a lazy and great day. We welcomed our new guests Jeanette Schellenberg and her husband Justin. Jeannette is an amazing athlete who will be sure to post one of the fastest run splits of the day for her age. We headed down to the race site and got all checked in nice and early. No waiting in line or fighting the crowds this race! After check in we jumped in the ocean and warmed up our swimming pistons. All systems go!
The remainder of the day consisted of hydrating, playing cards and eating sushi. Yum! Before bed we stretched and watched the new Robin Hood, just ok. My bike was suppose to arrive today but didn't. I will have to wait one more day to get to know my Ellsworth intimately again. Coach Keena and friend Nichole are having problems with their travel. Their departure flight was cancelled and they are stuck in Salt Lake forcing them to miss their connection in Denver. Now there are no flights out that will get them here on time for check in. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Clearwater is a gorgeous area, so far I love it!
Four days till the world Championships. Today was a lazy and great day. We welcomed our new guests Jeanette Schellenberg and her husband Justin. Jeannette is an amazing athlete who will be sure to post one of the fastest run splits of the day for her age. We headed down to the race site and got all checked in nice and early. No waiting in line or fighting the crowds this race! After check in we jumped in the ocean and warmed up our swimming pistons. All systems go!
The remainder of the day consisted of hydrating, playing cards and eating sushi. Yum! Before bed we stretched and watched the new Robin Hood, just ok. My bike was suppose to arrive today but didn't. I will have to wait one more day to get to know my Ellsworth intimately again. Coach Keena and friend Nichole are having problems with their travel. Their departure flight was cancelled and they are stuck in Salt Lake forcing them to miss their connection in Denver. Now there are no flights out that will get them here on time for check in. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Clearwater is a gorgeous area, so far I love it!
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| This was sculpted out of the beautiful white sand here in Clearwater. |
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| Warming up. Testing out the waters. |
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| We look rough.... I promise we feel better than we look... |
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Busch Gardens to ourselves....
Tuesday November 9, 2010
Five days till worlds and we made our way to Busch garden for some roller coaster madness. Theme parks are Sunny's favorites so that is what we did and what a day. We literally had the park to ourselves. We rode all the coasters we could in a day and had a blast! We had the park to ourselves and walked straight onto each ride. The park was themed and one of the main areas was Africa. So I got to go on my African safari after all this year. We bought an all you can eat pass at the park and ate our fill of good healthy wraps and good eats. We ate early and late to get our monies worth, they didn't understand they were dealing with planners when they sold those bad boys to us! So to sum up the day we ate good food, rode all the rides and saw all the animals. Enjoy the pictures. Tomorrow three more Utah athletes will join us in the condo - Jeanette, Nichole and Coach Keena!!! And hopefully my bike shows up.....enjoy the pictures from today.
Five days till worlds and we made our way to Busch garden for some roller coaster madness. Theme parks are Sunny's favorites so that is what we did and what a day. We literally had the park to ourselves. We rode all the coasters we could in a day and had a blast! We had the park to ourselves and walked straight onto each ride. The park was themed and one of the main areas was Africa. So I got to go on my African safari after all this year. We bought an all you can eat pass at the park and ate our fill of good healthy wraps and good eats. We ate early and late to get our monies worth, they didn't understand they were dealing with planners when they sold those bad boys to us! So to sum up the day we ate good food, rode all the rides and saw all the animals. Enjoy the pictures. Tomorrow three more Utah athletes will join us in the condo - Jeanette, Nichole and Coach Keena!!! And hopefully my bike shows up.....enjoy the pictures from today.
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| This coaster was insane -- 70 miles an hour in 200 feet! |
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| Who doesn't love Big Bird??! |
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| No lines all day long - BOOYAA! |
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| Run Sunny Run (faster than I do in my races) |
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| All Smiles here. |
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| Soaked! She only went on this ride for me. Ha Ha - what a trooper! |
Monday, November 8, 2010
Clearwater.... we have arrived.
It is tough to tell who is more excited about this trip, me or Sunny. She is pumped to get some good kidless sleep. No interruptions for the mom or the athlete. I would call this situation ideal for both of us. I would also say that I should be well rested for the World Championships this Saturday. We flew out Sunday afternoon and didn't have any problems till we got to the car rental place. The shuttle drove right past us and it took us a long while to actually get to the counter. Once we got to the counter it was past 11 pm. I had booked a Ford Explorer or "similar" SUV. Similar meant a Nissan Rogue to them which was too small to fit a bike box. I travelled with coach Keena's bike as I had mine shipped here from the Miami race a few weeks ago. Despite my reservation saying Ford explorer or "similar", the words Ford Explorer didn't really mean the Ford Explorer sitting there right beside the "similar" Nissan.... I guess it meant upgrade. So I was forced to do so as the available Explorer seated 7.... and the one I "reserved" didn't.... confused? .... so was I... so I got a mini van.... wanted to feel a little piece of Utah and the room will be nice.
We finally arrived at our condo and went straight to bed. Early to rise with nothing to do was great. We went and got food from the market for the week and then came back to the condo and played some cards. I won... of course. After lunch we went to Petersburg's Pier and took in some Florida sights. I got pooped on by bird and enjoyed a banana split.
We found a perfect family diner with great food, cheap and tasty. All filled up and tired. Tomorrow we are headed to Busch Gardens, the amusement park. Sunny loves roller coasters so were headed for some thrill rides... We started this journey riding coaster in Ocenaside, better end this quest the same we we started it - bring on the madness.
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| Waiting for the Shuttle......but still giddy. |
We finally arrived at our condo and went straight to bed. Early to rise with nothing to do was great. We went and got food from the market for the week and then came back to the condo and played some cards. I won... of course. After lunch we went to Petersburg's Pier and took in some Florida sights. I got pooped on by bird and enjoyed a banana split.
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| Oh ya pre race goodness..... This should help my run speed |
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| This wasn't the bird that pooped on me. |
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| The view from our condo....Good night..... |
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Miami Florida.... oh no!
When I got home from Austin I was greeted by an awesome surprise party from Sunny. All my friends were there and I was completely surprised. The party was set up as a roast and I have to admit it was pretty funny. The mic was passed around and people told funny or silly stories about things I have done. Ha Ha - well done everyone!
Today I "tried" to head out to Miami and like a good frequent flyer I arrived early to ensure a safe and timely arrival. With no bike to check I just had my carry on bag and flew through security. Right as I walked up to my gate the sign switched and showed a 3 hour delay. Dang! I knew I didn't have a 3 hour layover in Atlanta and quickly found a "help desk" phone and tried to see what I could get from Atlanta. All flight to Miami were booked and there were no other options. So I get to hang out in Atlanta for the night. I did manage to secure a 8:30am flight to Miami. My friend Alicia (who did Augusta 70.3 with me) just moved to Atlanta and has offered to let me crash there for the night. Yes- I love nice people!
On the flight to Atlanta I watched some satellite TV, which is a very cool feature to make the time go by faster. I chose the Discovery channel which was showing a documentary on the Hudson River Plane Crash - what really happened. Not the best idea for an in-flight viewing option, but I just couldn't turn it off. Every time we land I rejoice that mini victory.
Alicia and her sons grabbed me from the airport. Some food, a nice massage and bed.
Friday October 29, 2010
I woke up today and could hardly move. I have had some upper back tightness this week and I guess it moved down into my lower back. It hurt really bad and make the flight from Atlanta to Miami very uncomfortable.
As the day progressed my back got worse. I showed up at Maria's house (a super nice family of a mutual friend who offered to let me stay at their house for the weekend - Thank you Thank you Dayton family and McGary family.) Maria offered up some lotions and a pulse machine to help with my back as it was clear I was in pain. It didn't feel any better and I didn't think I was going to be able to start the race. But I still put my bike together and went to check in. The expo was bigger than normal but I didn't see anything new. I did stop by and try on a pair of Newton running shoes. Does anyone have an opinion there??
WARNING: the remainder of this post is mostly negative and filled with an abundance of whining and complaining. However accurate sensitive readers may want to stop here...... Being nice it is safe to say that the Miami 70.3 race falls outside my top 21 races of the 21 I've done so far....
After check in, still in pain I went to the swim start to check my bike in and get the lay of the land. When I arrived to T1 there was mass confusion. The race officials seemed to have miss-calculated the amount of bike racks needed for the amount of athletes that were coming. Seems to me like some simple math 5th grade style would have been handy here. It just so happened my number or spot were among the missing racks. We were instructed to just lay our bikes against the exterior fencing of transition and that they have ordered additional racks that would be arriving later this evening and that we could search for our bikes on race morning. Nice work guys! I was worried about the execution of the rest of this race after the rack disorganization and the big sign that said "Swin In" ....... Seriously?
Tonight was the free dinner in downtown Miami for all registered athletes. With the Miami Heat having their season opener ALL parking downtown was a $20 flat rate fee... So again I did the math and being on a budget it didn't make much sense to pay $20 bones for a free meal when I could go to a restaurant and get the same meal for $10.... Yes one could argue that the other $10 dollars would be worth the atmosphere and possible good times with athletes but let's keep in mind that I'm miserable with my back. I found my way back to the expo and located the massage and taping center. I needed something to change so I gave them a shot. Scored a pretty good guy and he worked on my back for about 20 minutes and applied some KT tape to the point of pain. It loosened me up pretty good and I could feel more mobility.... Maybe I could start tomorrow....... I went back to the McGary's and got off my feet. More lotions and a heating pad was all I wanted as I enjoyed the Miami heat take it to the Orlando Magic.
Saturday October 30, 2010
I woke up with full intentions of being a spectator today and chalk this trip up as a complete waste of time. To my surprise I woke up with zero back pain and feeling pretty good. I couldn't figure out how this was possible as I literally couldn't do a quick walk without shooting pain just 8 hours earlier.
WARNING: this post gets really bad from this point forward.....
I arrived at the rave start with plenty of time to get ready for the race. I located my bike and found that my front tire was now flat.... I quickly did a front tire change with my spare tube and as I was pumping it up the valve stem exploded. So now I've used my spare tube and I'm still flat. I needed to find 2 tubes ASAP. One for my tire and one to go in my change kit. The Specialized bike trailer was there and they hooked me up with the tubes I needed. My Ellsworth was now loaded with air, extra tube, 2 CO2 cartridges, liquids and gels for the ride. The water temperature was 80.6 so the announcement came over the loud speakers... No wetsuits. No biggie here!
As I made my way to the water, I always get my land markers picked out so that I can quickly find my bike for a speedy transition. I've gotten turned around in transition before and it sucks. On my way in I noticed that the "Swin In" sign was now covered with white boards- ha ha!
The swim start was a little disorganized with no signage to indicate swim wave order. At a good race they will have volunteers holding up big signs with the wave number and swim cap color on it. I didn't have any issues but any first timer would have been royally confused. It's these little things that were missed to ensure the newest athlete has a seamless experience at an Ironman event. That's why we pay a premium amount to do these races, isn't it?
Age 30-34 was in the gold caps today and of course we were the last of 15 age group waves. We were herded down a dock where all the athletes were jumping into the water. There was a guy at the end literally pushing us in, one right, one middle, one left. I guess he assumed us athletes were not intelligent enough to not jump directly onto the athlete in front of us. I happened to get pushed off to the left and luckily just missed a massive jagged rock just below the surface. I was incredibly lucky and I cam only imagine a few athletes landed on that bad boy. This swim was a clockwise direction swim with the bulk of the swim into a bit of a current. I knew it was going to be a long swim when they were announcing the pro times as they exited the water. The pros were 4-5 minutes slower than normal. I was right, I swam hard but finished with a swim time of 42 min. The combination of no wetsuit, a long swim course and the current contributed to this time. I found that it was very difficult to sight as there were only buoys at the turns and none along the straights. Typically you will find buoys along the course to help people stay on track. When they are so spread out it makes them very hard to see. Another cut corner by the organizing crew in Miami. I didn't use any of my body glide on my neck as I wasn't wearing a wetsuit. Well here is a free tip for everyone; Your Tri top can still rub your neck raw in salty ocean swims (especially ones that take 42 min:)) ALWAYS apply some type of lube on your next regardless of attire... Just to be safe.
The bike course was through the streets of Miami. The entire bike course was a series of turns trough downtown and residential Miami. The course was lined with orange cones. 56 miles of cones- holly crap. We had a lane for us bikers and a lane for cars. Most major crossings had police who were trying to control the traffic. The course was flat and fast and I had a lot of athletes in front of me to navigate through. The Ellsworth bike just doesn't like to go slow or be held up. Our one bike lane was extremely congested and many times cyclist were 3 riders wide making it impossible to pass - bad form triathletes!! On a few occasions it was so bad that I went left of the cones into the clear lane to pass the groups of people. This is also a no no and I could have gotten a penalty for this. However I feel that this was an extremely poor, unsafe and unfair bike course for many athletes who started in the last few waves. On one of my turns back to the right side of the cones a accidentally clipped a cone and almost took myself out of the race. My chain fly off the crank arm and I was forced to pull off to the side and fix it. Note to self - don't break the rules;) I must have said 'On your left a million times' I made it to the half way point of the ride in just over 1:10 minutes, 24 miles an hour with a chain malfunction and feeling good. It was time to go for a bike PR. I made the turn and bang - blew my back tire. I did what I consider to be a speedy rear tire change and was back on the road in under 4 min. This put a PR soundly out of reach so I just settle back into a comfortable pace and kept on with 'on your left' about 20 minutes later a witnessed pure craziness on the bike course. Several cyclist were almost hit as the police were struggling to hold the angry Miami drivers from crossing some of the intersections. I witnessed several close call that were within inches of a collision. Some drivers were yelling at us cyclist for being out there and racing. This course was horrible and dangerous! I had about 15 miles to go and on one of the many right hand turns I almost went down. My front tire was going flat and as I rounded the corner the rubber almost peeled from my rim. I managed to save the bike a straightened up as quickly as possible. 2nd flat on the course and 4th for the day. Luckily I had packed 2 co2's on board which I normally do not do but sadly I was missing one key thing - A TUBE! So I started walking with my bike yelling to the peletons going by asking if anyone had an extra tube. Finally a nice 51 year old lady stopped and offered me her tube. She explained that she wasn't trying to set any land speed records for the day and was happy to help. I was extremely grateful and did another tire change. I settled back into a groove and got into a rather good rhythm. I started to get a little tired and sat up for a second to take a drink. Upon sitting up 15 bikers peel off my wheel and wizzed by me. I wonder if people just don't understand what 4 bike lengths really means... I wonder if when the officials explain 4 bike lengths if people hear 4 inches. This bike course was also disappointing as there we no mile markers out there....another cut corner guys! A bike time of 2:37 was respectable with 2 flats and a chain malfunction (my fault on this one).
The day started to heat up as I began my run. This went from bad to worse as far as race organization and planning goes. The very first water station was out of water. There was one cup of Poweraid on the table so I snagged it. I needed some liquid to put down my bag of pills. I knew the run course was going to be in trouble from that points as there were at least 1000 athletes behind me and they were already out of liquid. This course featured several out and backs and a freeway overpass/bridge that made up a run loop which was run two times. I found one mile marker sign laying on the side of the road at mile 5.... Where is the signage guys. I felt very uncomfortable on this Freeway overpass. We took 8 trips up and down this bad boy. It was like doing hill repeats. The bad part was that this was an ACTIVE freeway with cars and semi trucks driving 65 miles an hour. All that was separation us and the cars were these small orange cones. If one of these drivers drifted because of texting, drowsiness, health conditions, and just plain not paying attention they would have taken out hundreds of runners. How did they even get a permit to do this? Very unsafe and yet another reason to never do this race. The aid stations continued to be out of water and no gels were provided. During the later stages of my run they came up with bottles of water and cans of coke. I cracked open a cool one and chugged it. It seemed like everyone was suffering out there. The volunteers were awesome and were doing everything they could. Ice was also finally brought in and athletes were filling their shirts and shorts with ice to try to keep cool. Another huge oversight was the fact that there were no porta potties on the run course except for the ones by transition. I saw packs of people pulled off to the side of the race course doing the deed. This works for guys but I felt horrible for all the woman athletes.... What are they suppose to do? I finally finished and made my way through a maze of food vendors who were offering deep fried foods which were authentic to the area. No thanks! I grabbed some brown rice, black beans and some plantains. I wanted out of there as fast as I could.
Once I was home I took a nice shower and was feeling fine considering all that happened out on the course. About 45 min later I started to feel sick.... I proceeded to throw up the post race food and felt awful. After a few hours of throwing up I felt much better and can only attribute this to some food poisoning from the post race food.
This race gets a big fat F- from me. If you have the urge to do a foreign race travel no further than Miami Florida. I would have had a slightly better day had I learned 2 simple Spanish phrases
1- On your left! And
2- Extra tube?
I can only imagine and have high hopes that Clearwater in 2 weeks would be a much better and smoother race. I was shocked that Ironman would allow for such a poor race to be put on in their name. I would be upset if this was my 'A' race for the year and I had prepared all year long to do it. Sorry to any first time IM 70.3 athletes. Most events are very well done, safe and exciting. Get me home!
UPDATE.... Ironman obviously knew there where some screw ups here and they came out with this statement.....
James Lawrence
An athlete with purpose.
Do you give a Dam?
www.TriandGiveaDam.com
Today I "tried" to head out to Miami and like a good frequent flyer I arrived early to ensure a safe and timely arrival. With no bike to check I just had my carry on bag and flew through security. Right as I walked up to my gate the sign switched and showed a 3 hour delay. Dang! I knew I didn't have a 3 hour layover in Atlanta and quickly found a "help desk" phone and tried to see what I could get from Atlanta. All flight to Miami were booked and there were no other options. So I get to hang out in Atlanta for the night. I did manage to secure a 8:30am flight to Miami. My friend Alicia (who did Augusta 70.3 with me) just moved to Atlanta and has offered to let me crash there for the night. Yes- I love nice people!
On the flight to Atlanta I watched some satellite TV, which is a very cool feature to make the time go by faster. I chose the Discovery channel which was showing a documentary on the Hudson River Plane Crash - what really happened. Not the best idea for an in-flight viewing option, but I just couldn't turn it off. Every time we land I rejoice that mini victory.
Alicia and her sons grabbed me from the airport. Some food, a nice massage and bed.
Friday October 29, 2010
I woke up today and could hardly move. I have had some upper back tightness this week and I guess it moved down into my lower back. It hurt really bad and make the flight from Atlanta to Miami very uncomfortable.
As the day progressed my back got worse. I showed up at Maria's house (a super nice family of a mutual friend who offered to let me stay at their house for the weekend - Thank you Thank you Dayton family and McGary family.) Maria offered up some lotions and a pulse machine to help with my back as it was clear I was in pain. It didn't feel any better and I didn't think I was going to be able to start the race. But I still put my bike together and went to check in. The expo was bigger than normal but I didn't see anything new. I did stop by and try on a pair of Newton running shoes. Does anyone have an opinion there??
WARNING: the remainder of this post is mostly negative and filled with an abundance of whining and complaining. However accurate sensitive readers may want to stop here...... Being nice it is safe to say that the Miami 70.3 race falls outside my top 21 races of the 21 I've done so far....
After check in, still in pain I went to the swim start to check my bike in and get the lay of the land. When I arrived to T1 there was mass confusion. The race officials seemed to have miss-calculated the amount of bike racks needed for the amount of athletes that were coming. Seems to me like some simple math 5th grade style would have been handy here. It just so happened my number or spot were among the missing racks. We were instructed to just lay our bikes against the exterior fencing of transition and that they have ordered additional racks that would be arriving later this evening and that we could search for our bikes on race morning. Nice work guys! I was worried about the execution of the rest of this race after the rack disorganization and the big sign that said "Swin In" ....... Seriously?
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| HA HA - this means trouble! |
Tonight was the free dinner in downtown Miami for all registered athletes. With the Miami Heat having their season opener ALL parking downtown was a $20 flat rate fee... So again I did the math and being on a budget it didn't make much sense to pay $20 bones for a free meal when I could go to a restaurant and get the same meal for $10.... Yes one could argue that the other $10 dollars would be worth the atmosphere and possible good times with athletes but let's keep in mind that I'm miserable with my back. I found my way back to the expo and located the massage and taping center. I needed something to change so I gave them a shot. Scored a pretty good guy and he worked on my back for about 20 minutes and applied some KT tape to the point of pain. It loosened me up pretty good and I could feel more mobility.... Maybe I could start tomorrow....... I went back to the McGary's and got off my feet. More lotions and a heating pad was all I wanted as I enjoyed the Miami heat take it to the Orlando Magic.
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| Home of the Miami Heat. I didn't see Labron though.... |
Saturday October 30, 2010
I woke up with full intentions of being a spectator today and chalk this trip up as a complete waste of time. To my surprise I woke up with zero back pain and feeling pretty good. I couldn't figure out how this was possible as I literally couldn't do a quick walk without shooting pain just 8 hours earlier.
WARNING: this post gets really bad from this point forward.....
I arrived at the rave start with plenty of time to get ready for the race. I located my bike and found that my front tire was now flat.... I quickly did a front tire change with my spare tube and as I was pumping it up the valve stem exploded. So now I've used my spare tube and I'm still flat. I needed to find 2 tubes ASAP. One for my tire and one to go in my change kit. The Specialized bike trailer was there and they hooked me up with the tubes I needed. My Ellsworth was now loaded with air, extra tube, 2 CO2 cartridges, liquids and gels for the ride. The water temperature was 80.6 so the announcement came over the loud speakers... No wetsuits. No biggie here!
As I made my way to the water, I always get my land markers picked out so that I can quickly find my bike for a speedy transition. I've gotten turned around in transition before and it sucks. On my way in I noticed that the "Swin In" sign was now covered with white boards- ha ha!
The swim start was a little disorganized with no signage to indicate swim wave order. At a good race they will have volunteers holding up big signs with the wave number and swim cap color on it. I didn't have any issues but any first timer would have been royally confused. It's these little things that were missed to ensure the newest athlete has a seamless experience at an Ironman event. That's why we pay a premium amount to do these races, isn't it?
Age 30-34 was in the gold caps today and of course we were the last of 15 age group waves. We were herded down a dock where all the athletes were jumping into the water. There was a guy at the end literally pushing us in, one right, one middle, one left. I guess he assumed us athletes were not intelligent enough to not jump directly onto the athlete in front of us. I happened to get pushed off to the left and luckily just missed a massive jagged rock just below the surface. I was incredibly lucky and I cam only imagine a few athletes landed on that bad boy. This swim was a clockwise direction swim with the bulk of the swim into a bit of a current. I knew it was going to be a long swim when they were announcing the pro times as they exited the water. The pros were 4-5 minutes slower than normal. I was right, I swam hard but finished with a swim time of 42 min. The combination of no wetsuit, a long swim course and the current contributed to this time. I found that it was very difficult to sight as there were only buoys at the turns and none along the straights. Typically you will find buoys along the course to help people stay on track. When they are so spread out it makes them very hard to see. Another cut corner by the organizing crew in Miami. I didn't use any of my body glide on my neck as I wasn't wearing a wetsuit. Well here is a free tip for everyone; Your Tri top can still rub your neck raw in salty ocean swims (especially ones that take 42 min:)) ALWAYS apply some type of lube on your next regardless of attire... Just to be safe.
The bike course was through the streets of Miami. The entire bike course was a series of turns trough downtown and residential Miami. The course was lined with orange cones. 56 miles of cones- holly crap. We had a lane for us bikers and a lane for cars. Most major crossings had police who were trying to control the traffic. The course was flat and fast and I had a lot of athletes in front of me to navigate through. The Ellsworth bike just doesn't like to go slow or be held up. Our one bike lane was extremely congested and many times cyclist were 3 riders wide making it impossible to pass - bad form triathletes!! On a few occasions it was so bad that I went left of the cones into the clear lane to pass the groups of people. This is also a no no and I could have gotten a penalty for this. However I feel that this was an extremely poor, unsafe and unfair bike course for many athletes who started in the last few waves. On one of my turns back to the right side of the cones a accidentally clipped a cone and almost took myself out of the race. My chain fly off the crank arm and I was forced to pull off to the side and fix it. Note to self - don't break the rules;) I must have said 'On your left a million times' I made it to the half way point of the ride in just over 1:10 minutes, 24 miles an hour with a chain malfunction and feeling good. It was time to go for a bike PR. I made the turn and bang - blew my back tire. I did what I consider to be a speedy rear tire change and was back on the road in under 4 min. This put a PR soundly out of reach so I just settle back into a comfortable pace and kept on with 'on your left' about 20 minutes later a witnessed pure craziness on the bike course. Several cyclist were almost hit as the police were struggling to hold the angry Miami drivers from crossing some of the intersections. I witnessed several close call that were within inches of a collision. Some drivers were yelling at us cyclist for being out there and racing. This course was horrible and dangerous! I had about 15 miles to go and on one of the many right hand turns I almost went down. My front tire was going flat and as I rounded the corner the rubber almost peeled from my rim. I managed to save the bike a straightened up as quickly as possible. 2nd flat on the course and 4th for the day. Luckily I had packed 2 co2's on board which I normally do not do but sadly I was missing one key thing - A TUBE! So I started walking with my bike yelling to the peletons going by asking if anyone had an extra tube. Finally a nice 51 year old lady stopped and offered me her tube. She explained that she wasn't trying to set any land speed records for the day and was happy to help. I was extremely grateful and did another tire change. I settled back into a groove and got into a rather good rhythm. I started to get a little tired and sat up for a second to take a drink. Upon sitting up 15 bikers peel off my wheel and wizzed by me. I wonder if people just don't understand what 4 bike lengths really means... I wonder if when the officials explain 4 bike lengths if people hear 4 inches. This bike course was also disappointing as there we no mile markers out there....another cut corner guys! A bike time of 2:37 was respectable with 2 flats and a chain malfunction (my fault on this one).
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| Giving props to the camera man! |
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| Miserable on the overpass section times 8! |
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| Done and Done! |
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| Peace Miami - I'm outta here. |
Once I was home I took a nice shower and was feeling fine considering all that happened out on the course. About 45 min later I started to feel sick.... I proceeded to throw up the post race food and felt awful. After a few hours of throwing up I felt much better and can only attribute this to some food poisoning from the post race food.
This race gets a big fat F- from me. If you have the urge to do a foreign race travel no further than Miami Florida. I would have had a slightly better day had I learned 2 simple Spanish phrases
1- On your left! And
2- Extra tube?
I can only imagine and have high hopes that Clearwater in 2 weeks would be a much better and smoother race. I was shocked that Ironman would allow for such a poor race to be put on in their name. I would be upset if this was my 'A' race for the year and I had prepared all year long to do it. Sorry to any first time IM 70.3 athletes. Most events are very well done, safe and exciting. Get me home!
UPDATE.... Ironman obviously knew there where some screw ups here and they came out with this statement.....
James Lawrence
An athlete with purpose.
Do you give a Dam?
www.TriandGiveaDam.com
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
What a Day!
Sunday October 17, 2010
I woke up giddy this morning as in my books today was a big day. I set out on a journey earlier this year to accomplish two thing.
1) Raise awareness and funds for a Charity called In our Own Quiet Way and their Give a Dam project
And
2) Break the World Record for the most half Ironman events done in a year.
Today I did #2. It has been a crazy year and I wanted to thank some key people that have helped me get here (So sorry if i miss anyone, just know there were a lot of people who helped me make this happen)
Thanks so much to my awesome wife Sunny and all my kids for allowing me to get out there and do my thing. I have been away a lot this summer and it hasn't be the easiest thing to do. In my opinion Sunny had the harder job. I would not be here today without their love and support. My sponsors have been very supportive and have also been a great support on my journey. Please check them out on my sponsors page. I can't thank my close fiends enough (you guys know who you are) for helping me train and push me to keep going. I also have to thank all my new friend out there from Daily Mile, Facebook and Twitter. You guys have also really kept me going. The list is huge and know that this is all of our record. The big picture is the cause and the need for water in Africa. I know I have been a "ME" monster lately but I had to do something that has never been done before so people would look my way. You would not believe how big the impact is with just one water retention system and I will keep doing everything I can to help as many people as I can. People have asked me "What is next?" Well the short answer is 2 more 70.3 races this year, Miami and Clearwater. Then what? Well 2011 will be a prep year for me and some quality time at work (I'm outta cash yo) and with my family. In 2012 we will take this thing to the next level, 24 full Ironman races in 12 countries... I'm sorry what? That's right you read that right.......
SO;
I woke up giddy this morning as in my books today was a big day. I set out on a journey earlier this year to accomplish two thing.
1) Raise awareness and funds for a Charity called In our Own Quiet Way and their Give a Dam project
And
2) Break the World Record for the most half Ironman events done in a year.
Today I did #2. It has been a crazy year and I wanted to thank some key people that have helped me get here (So sorry if i miss anyone, just know there were a lot of people who helped me make this happen)
Thanks so much to my awesome wife Sunny and all my kids for allowing me to get out there and do my thing. I have been away a lot this summer and it hasn't be the easiest thing to do. In my opinion Sunny had the harder job. I would not be here today without their love and support. My sponsors have been very supportive and have also been a great support on my journey. Please check them out on my sponsors page. I can't thank my close fiends enough (you guys know who you are) for helping me train and push me to keep going. I also have to thank all my new friend out there from Daily Mile, Facebook and Twitter. You guys have also really kept me going. The list is huge and know that this is all of our record. The big picture is the cause and the need for water in Africa. I know I have been a "ME" monster lately but I had to do something that has never been done before so people would look my way. You would not believe how big the impact is with just one water retention system and I will keep doing everything I can to help as many people as I can. People have asked me "What is next?" Well the short answer is 2 more 70.3 races this year, Miami and Clearwater. Then what? Well 2011 will be a prep year for me and some quality time at work (I'm outta cash yo) and with my family. In 2012 we will take this thing to the next level, 24 full Ironman races in 12 countries... I'm sorry what? That's right you read that right.......
SO;
The big day was finally here. I'm sure this was only a big day in my little world but still a big day. Race start was at 7:30 and I got a good nights sleep in. I woke up once at 3 o'clock and went right back to bed. I was so excited to get going I was actually disappointed it was only 3 am. In the morning I wanted to make sure that I kept my same routine. I filled up my bottles with Hornet Juice, Carbo Pro and Prolytes. Just to be clear none of these companies pay me, I actually like their products. I grabbed all my gear and my Rokitfuel and headed out. It was about a 30 min drive that took us 1:20 minutes due to a car crash and over 2600 excited athletes and spectators all going to the same road being fed by three roads. I tried to relax and just enjoy the calm before the storm. We finally made it to the shuttles and pulled up to T1 minutes before transition was about to close. I wasn't flustered as I had done this 19 previous times this year. I did feel bad for the hundreds of first time athletes who were caught up due to the car crash delays. The anxiety in the air was thicker than normal. A guy beside me blew a tire in the night and didn't have the valve extender needed to get the air pressure he needed into his tires. He was panicked so I took the opportunity to save the day and pulled the solution of of my bike tire kit. He was very grateful and I was happy to help.
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| ASEA,,,,,, It's gotta help right..... |
Since I was racing in Texas I shaved my beard into a traditional bull horn mustache and sported it proudly. I had a new goal for the day - win the foo man chou division. I had to way to validate this race inside a race but felt strong I could take home this title. Al and I watched as the parachute man flew in carrying the American flag as they sang the national anthem. It was almost go time!
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| This was a cool sight. |
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| I just couldn't resist doing the facial hair! |
It was now my turn to get in the water and I just wanted to have a confident swim. At this point of my quest I get that I'm not the fastest swimmer but wanted to thanks BlueSeventy for helping me out with my gear. The water was calm and warm and I didn't have any problems managing the groups of people in the water. I have managed to become very comfortable with open water swimming. Next years goal; swim faster, masters here I come! I wanted to swim around 32 minutes but had to settle for a 35. It was great to have someone there cheering and taking a few pictures. Thanks again big Al.
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| Me and Big Al before the race. |
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| Swim waves as far as you can see. The pro's are out of the water and long gone on the bike! |
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| It is finally my turn... only 1:30 after the pro's.... |
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| I put this picture up to celebrate the athlete in red with his awesome Aviator shades, mountain bike and running shoes - you gotta love it! |
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| There I go. Does anyone have any extra sun screen? Oh wait.. that guy took it all;) |
I quickly found myself on the bike and pushing the pace early. I really wanted to have fun on this ride and take in the day. I'm not sure why I think Texas is flat but this course wasn't and I wanted it to be. I was shooting for my first ride under the time of 2:20 but quickly realized that this was not that course. I was still determined to push my Ellsworth and see what she could do.
On the second half of this 56 mile ride the winds started to swirl and it didn't seem to matter which directing I was heading it seemed to be into the wind. The road was also very rough and I would consider to be dangerous on some of the country roads during the middle to latter stages of the ride. It considered myself luck today as it seemed around every corner there were 2 or 3 athletes who were changing flat tires due to the road conditions causing pinch flats. With about 15 miles to go on the bike I passed a Hispanic gentleman who asked if there were any more water stations coming up on the bike? I told told him that I didn't think so and he pleaded for some of my water. I had about 3/4 of a bottle left and was again happy to help a fellow competitor in need. He was extremely grateful and thanked me profusely. Two good deeds in one race, I wonder if that means that I will get through the race with no issues.
I wanted to head out onto the run with a total time of 3 hours which included swim, T1, bike and T2. As I ran out of transition I heard big Al yell 3:04!! I had a solid ride and couldn't have been happier with my Coefficient. I felt really good going into the run and knew it was going to be a great finish for me and a glorious day, the triathlon gods were paying me back for some past sufferings.... Or so I thought.
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I wanted to head out onto the run with a total time of 3 hours which included swim, T1, bike and T2. As I ran out of transition I heard big Al yell 3:04!! I had a solid ride and couldn't have been happier with my Coefficient. I felt really good going into the run and knew it was going to be a great finish for me and a glorious day, the triathlon gods were paying me back for some past sufferings.... Or so I thought.
I took in my little plastic bag of pill which consisted of DUB muscle and youth formulas, some salt tablets and some sport legs. I also slammed a DUB energy shot and carried one more shot for the second lap. I felt great as I moved through the field and took down the miles. I got to mile 4.5 of the first lap where they had a timing mat and an announcer announcing the names of the competitors as they crossed the matt shouting out encouragement. I know its silly but your name being called is always motivating and I'm sure helped many. He called my name followed by my city and state.
"There's James Lawrence from Lindon Utah"
He was just reading the names off of his computer but then all of a sudden I had a fun moment. A racer about 20 yards ahead of me turns around and yells;
"James Lawrence? World record right there, #20 baby!!! He slowed up just a bit and let me catch up to him. He reached out for a High five and told me good job and that he was proud of me.
That was a very cool moment in my year. I just do my thing hoping to reach a few people. Hoping to make an impact. Before I started this year that guy didn't know me from 'Adam' and now he has heard of me. And this isn't about me... But I had to do something bigger than anyone had done before me in hopes to turn some heads. The goal is he will hear of QuietWay and the needs of my project. I guess what I'm trying to say that despite my frustrations and sacrifices this year I think it's working. I'm getting out there and people are recognizing my efforts. And hopefully not for my benefit but for the greater good. I just wanna impact lives, motivate and inspire people and have a good time... Is that too much to ask?
I rounded the first loop still felling good and still knew that this was my day. The run course was half on roads and half cross country (which was nice). It was a fair yet challenging course. I continued on until I ran into a problem at mile 8. With 5 miles to go and with no warning I felt sharp pain shoot through my right leg. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I bent over grasping my knee wanting the pain to stop. It appeared that my day was done.... No way, not today I thought. Todays race was suppose to be different, I helped other athletes in need..... Today's race was suppose to be easy. Today's race was suppose to be a personal best. I analyzed the situation and knew what the problem was. My IT band had locked up on me. I possibly pushed too hard on the bike. Looking back at the ride I think it was my best performance of the year. Not in speed or time but I bet had I been running a watt meter I would have posted the highest watts of the year. I now have a knee that felt like a medal rod was being pounded into it with every step. I dug my fingers into my hip trying to unlock my wound up muscles. I started to run again hoping that they would let go. It just wasn't to be. My body was resisting every step and shuttered in pain with every pounding step. It hurt so bad and I couldn't even take advantage of the down hill sections due to the increase of pounding. I ran as fast as my body would allow and stopped looking down at my Garmin as my all out pace was down right depressing on what was suppose to be a perfectly executed world record day.
The finish of the race was very cool and located inside a stadium used for horse racing and other events. We ran into the big double doors at the east end of the stadium and ran the length of the floor. It was cool and shaded and the stands were loud and cheering for their athletes. I thought this was a perfect finish area. Triathlon is not the best spectator sport and to have a nice shaded finish area with a place to sit is a welcome treat to all the dedicated viewers. It is just as big of a sacrifice for the spouses and designated cheerer and it is for the athlete. It's a long day for all involved. I finished with my head up and mustered up a jump at the finish line.
I finished the day with a time of 5:01. I wanted to go under 5 hours but was happy considering all that had happened. My number one fan in Austin was there to greet me at the finish line. Thanks for all the cheers and the sign big Max.
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| Max waiting for the big finish! |
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| Two happy campers right there!! |
I wasn't in the mood for any post race food and really wanted to get a massage and get my leg some immediate attention. I am grateful for all the volunteers that gave their time and expertise for the athletes. Sometimes the massages are good and others times are a waste. This time it was AWESOME. I could have layed there for hours but alas there was a nice big line of deserving athletes behind me. I was tired and just wanted to watch some football. The rest of the evening we just chilled and did just that!! In the morning we golf.... hope I can make a good turn on the ball.
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| Hooked me a world record today! |
Woke up early (no rest for the wicked) and headed out to the links. Austin has some great rates. 28 bucks for breakfast, cart, golf, drinks at the turn and post round lunch. Oh ya!!! Al and I hacked up the course but had a great time doing it. It was a serious battle for hacker bragging rights. I only tagged a few house but no broken windows!
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| Awe yah! The good old days... collard shirts and khaki pants.... and bad mustaches. |
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