They started training back in November.  They’re very first workout consisted of 6 minutes of running and 24 minutes of walking.  They struggled to gt through all the running, and now I’m scared to run with em cause they just might smoke me!
It was in June, but I had to get pictures up here cause I am seriously so proud of both Rachel and Christal.  So cool to watch them be dedicated to the training and even see some drastic life changes as they both chose to live healthier.

They finished their first sprint in an hour and 40 minutes, which was even better than they expected.
Here’s some pics.  I have some of them getting out of the swim, but if I remember correctly, they both threatened my life if I put up pictures of them in their bathing suits.

Caleb scoutin out the finish.                                 Pre-swim

Oh yeah, some dude proposed at the finish.         The finishers.

Click here to check out a video of their sprint to the finish.

Great job ladies!
And I think at our last Missio Dei gathering, like half of us were triathletes.
Sorry Dan & Katie!  We may get you someday.
Ok probably not.  But that would be pretty cool.

I’m sure there will be a more complete race report from my wife when she catches up on her blog.
Christal wrote about it over here.

So who’s next?!

After our week at the assessment center, Rachel and I had the privilege of attending the annual ICTN triathlon camp in Tucson, AZ.
Last year, through Dan, I was invited to come lead worship, an element they hadn’t regularly had.  Micah was due a week or two later, so no way I was getting away from my wife with her ready to pop and chasing a 2 year old around the house.

This year it worked out perfectly though, with Rachel’s parents just keeping the kids a few extra days.
We missed most of Friday, but got a day and a half in with Sat. and Sun.
We caught a session in the morning on how to raise money for charity through the sport, and then I bailed on a second breakout to get my gear ready for a ride up Mt. Lemmon.

So this was my first ride in probably 5 months or so.  Not on the training schedule yet.
So after all was said and done, for me it was about a 30 mile ride, riding out to the base of the mountain, riding up to mile 4, then headin back in.
Of course I only head back so I could get there early to set up for worship.  Had nothing to do with fitness level.
Of course, as I turned to come back down, I went to down shift and realized I never switched into my easier gears of my front 2.  So I guess I worked a lot harder than I had to.
A few pics from the ride:

That night we got to lead worship and then again in the morning.
It was so fun to lead in this context, especially having these two passions of Jesus and triathlon that everyone in the room had in common.
Worked out nice that we I also came away from it with a free wetsuit, a jug of Heed, and Rachel and I both were offered a free training plan from a coach we connected with there.
The best part really was getting to connect with a lot of really great people.  If we are blessed with the opportunity again, we look forward to getting to see all those people again in the future.

Rachel is training for her first sprint this summer.
I asked her if this gave her more of an appreciation for Triathlon…

Rachel: Not necessarily.  Gives me a better idea how I can share my faith in the process.  But I think it makes me more scared for my first one.
Me:  Scared?  Why?  I’d think you should be encouraged.
Rachel: Those people are crazy!  They bike and run all the time and they talk about it as if it’s fun!!

Ha!  That cracked me up.
Another post coming soon as to why I think she just hasn’t gotten addicted quite yet.

The more I’ve gotten involved with Tri’s recently, the more I’ve read, and the more people I talked to, the more I came to realize what a big race Wildflower is.  Apparently you’d be hard pressed to find a harder half-Ironman race.  When I signed up, I knew it was hard, but I hadn’t heard that.  You know the old adage – what goes up must come down?  I think this course proves that wrong.  More on that later.  My weekend recap:

Pre-race
One of the fun things about this race is that most everyone camps at Lake San Antonio for the weekend.  It’s considered the “Woodstock of triathlon.”  The lake is about 2.5 hours from me.  So, early Friday morning Rachel drove me out to Dan‘s house where we loaded up his car and I rolled down with him and a new friend now from FCA Endurance, Chris.  Forecast was for rain, so we got there and Dan quickly got to setting up his tent.

I was stoked to sign up cause a couple really good friends from my Young American days were doing the race as well.  I got a ride over to meet up with my old roomie Dave Listenberger and Rich Leist.  I set up my tent pretty much at the speed of light as it was beginning to drizzle as I got all set up.

We cruised down to the expo area for lunch, and Rich and I went for a swim so I could check out the water and get a feel for my wetsuit.  HUGE thanks to Patty at WetsuitRentals.com for hooking me up once again.  Rich actually wasn’t doing the race this year because he’s been training some friends for L.A. Marathon 3 weeks later and didn’t wanna burn out.  We picked up our packets, I ran a few errands, and it was in bed early that night.  As Dave said about the sleep, quanity made up for quality.

After sleeping with the sound of rain on the tent, which I actually enjoyed quite a bit, race morning was perfect weather!  Slightly cloudy, but not too chilly.  Sun came out nicely later.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t expecting sun so didn’t bring sunscreen.  Last time I make that mistake I hope!

Swim – 42:00
After getting all marked up I got my wetsuit on and hung in transition for a few minutes.  Pulled out my iPod to listen to something to get me pumped.  Decided on Fee – We Shine.  Then head down for my 8:30 swim start.  The pro’s took off 8am, so as we were waiting we got front row views of the first men coming out of the water.

Right before my wave I got in and swam a short distance to get my body ready.  Took Rich’s advice and just buried my head in the water for a bit to absorb the cold and get used to it.  Then it was back behind the starting line to get ready.

The swim started and we all hit the water.  I was on the left side not too far back and didn’t rush into the water.  As usual, the start was madness.  But unlike SLO a month back, I didn’t come out of the gate too hard.  I tried to pace myself from the beginning.  The wetsuit was 1000 times better too.  The swim was feelin pretty good, and as we rounded the first buoy, I was stoked to realize I hadn’t fallen off the back at all yet.  I kept on swimming and everytime I looked up I saw quite a few other black caps, so that gave me a little bit of confidence.

Not sure exactly how the drafting thing works for swimming, but I’m pretty sure I was drafting off some dude for a while, and that was kinda nice.  I was able to stay nice and close to the bouys so I didn’t swim any extra distance.  We made our way out and turned around, and by then I was losing some steam and dropping back a little.  I hadn’t swam out there yet, and on the way back in I wasn’t sure exactly where we were supposed to stay in relation to buoys, dock, what not, so I just tried to follow the crowd.  Probably would have been better off swimming right for the dock, but I still felt pretty good about it.

A few times I stopped and kinda pulled up to see where I was at.  As I tread water, I could feel my bad knee kinda gettin to me which wasn’t encouraging.

T1 – 8:29
Being that I’m not exactly trying to be real competitive with others, and it was gonna be a long race, I decided to take my time and make sure I had everything I needed.  As I was taking off my wetsuit, standing on only my left leg while I pulled my right one out, pain shot through that knee, it buckled, and I was on my butt.

Got everything off, threw my bike shoes on, and made sure I had my spare tube, co2, hammer gels, and I was good.  I popped 4 ibuprofren hoping that would do the job and that I’d get the timing right to pop more before the run.  And I was off.

Bike – 4:07:03
I had ridden the course and then some 2 weeks before, riding 65 miles that day.  I had averaged 10mph that day.  Not great but it’s a tough course, so I was OK with it.  But that would have put me at like 5.5 hours, so I was pretty stoked to end up with a much better time.

Pretty much right off the bat at mile 2 or 3 there is a steep 1 mile climb at Beach Hill to get out of the park.  It was good to know what was coming and I took it nice and easy right from the start of the hill.  It actually felt a bit tougher than I had remembered, but still not horrible.   Got that done and it was a lot of small ups and downs throughout the course.

There was a guy in my age group who I had a good time chattin with as we took turns passing each other every 5-10 minutes.  For the most part the bulk of the ride was pretty uneventful.  I tried to enjoy the beautiful scenery and push out what speed I could when I could knowing that Nasty Grade would pull my average way down soon enough.  I was optimistically wanting to hit like a 15/mph avg.  I ended up at 13+, which was cool with me.

At about mile 42 we hit Nasty Grade and it was on!  The grade is about 1000 feet of climbing over 5 miles between that and Heart Rate Hill right after it.  It starts off seeming like just a long not too steep climb and then gets steeper and steeper as you go.  When I rode it a few weeks before, I
had to walk a few portions of it.  I was pretty determined in my head not to get off my bike for this one.

Everyone was moving nice and slow up this hill, and I just put my head down and tried to stay in the higher gears as long as I could.  It wasn’t long before I was in my lowest gear and climbing away.  The festival atmosphere makes for an interesting race the whole way.  I came up on the dude in a speedo with his inflatable wife cheering people on and he gave me a gentle push as I passed.  There were a number of people by the 2/3 mark walking uphill with bike in hand.  I’m proud to say I made it all the way to the top as I passed by the “Energizer Bunny,” a dude with a giant drum pounding away and another lady in an Energizer Bunny costume.  As you approach the turn at the top there’s writing on the asphault that reads, “What Hill?”

I was glad that I knew the climb was far from over.  It continues to the top of Heart Rate, then some down hill and a bit more climbing.  Then there is some crazy downhill!  I like to go fast but it freaks me out a bit with those small tires.  I know Dan told me he hit 52mph down that hill.  I think I topped out at 37.  It’s especially annoying cause there’s a rough road section that seems even harder to downhill on to me.  But it was a nice break after a long brutal climb.

After some more flat, and minor hills, the ride ends with a nice mile plus downhill into transition.

T2 – 5:24
The good news is up til this point, I hadn’t really felt my knee too much once I got the legs moving.  But I wasn’t taking any chances!  I popped 4 more ibuprofren, changed the shoes, downed some enduralytes and equipped myself with more for the run, and it was out for a short jog of 13.1 miles.

Run (Walk?) – 2:51:20
I had heard plenty of stories about how difficult this run is.  But that still can’t prepare you for it I think.  I didn’t train on hills much like I had been told I should either.  I know it starts and ends in the same place, but it sure does seem like there is more uphill than downhill!

Right about mile 3 we hit a nice steady uphill pavement section.  As I jogged and walked up it, I figured that must be the hill I had heard so much about.  Boy was I in for a surprise.  At the top of that hill we turned off onto some back trails.  The scenery back there is pretty sweet.  I knew it wasn’t going great for me at one point though when a 51 year old dude with his glasses, shorts, and a short sleeved collared button up passed me.  I swear the dude just walked out of the office and onto the course!

Then came mile 4 or so.  And the trail goes up and up and up for days.  I actually felt more like I was in a hiking club more than a race.  We were pretty much all walking at this point, which was probably faster than it would be to run.  I joked with a few fellow walkers that I was taking it easy cause I didn’t want to set the bar too high to where I couldn’t beat it next year.

After mile 6 or so, the run is a lot easier for a while.  It heads downhill and then back into the main gate for the park.  I was still walking more than I wanted, but once I hit the gate I got a second wind and hit a nice running pace for several miles.  It’s fun running through all the campsites and having all the encouragement, music, and cheering as you keep on goin.

Eventually, around mile 10 or so I think, there is a turn on the pavement to a turnaround to the end.  This is basically the final hill section, and it’s pretty tough too.  It seems like the ups just don’t end on this stinkin course!  Finally, the last mile plus of the run shares the final downhill of the bike at Lynch Hill.  Dan and I agreed that the mile markers were pretty funky.  I hit mile 12 a little before the downhill and was stoked to have well under a mile left.  Then I hit mile 55 from the bike on the way down and wondered how a mile on the bike was the same as half mile or so on your feet.  I think the bike markers were the right ones.

For the final mile or more of descent, I decided it was time to take advantage of gravity and air out my legs.  Figured I’d give it all I had left so there was nothing left at the end.  I actually figured with the downhill that most people would be moving quicker.  But I must have passed 10-15 people on that last mile.  It flattens out and you see the finish line, and I pushed myself to keep going as fast as I could through the finish shoot.  I have to admit, that last section kinda made me wonder how I could do if I learned how to push myself more.

Final Time – 07:54:18
As I came across the finish line the time read 8:19:19.  Since I was supposed to leave at 8:30, I figured that put me about 10 minutes shy of 8 hours, but I guess it must have been a few minutes off too.  I actually was afraid the race could take me over 8.5 hours, so I was actually pretty stoked with that.

I came across the finish line and was pleasantly surprised with an ice cold towel on my shoulders along with the finishers medal.  At one point at the top of Nasty Grade on the bike, I think I realized for me what an accomplishment this was gonna be.  I had finally finished my first 70.3 mile race.  And a tough one at that!  Not gonna lie.  Crouched down and kinda had a moment there.

Overall, I was happy to finish, had a great weekend, and the race was painful and way fun (2 words I never thought I’d use in the same sentence!).  I’ve taken the last week off completely from working out.  Now it’s on to get ready for the big bike ride in August that you’re gonna support me for.  Right? 

So I said this would be coming last week.  Then Easter hit, and Catalyst West Coast is next week, so it’s been hard to find time to hit the blog like I wanted to.  But as promised, here’s a quick rundown on my last race a few weeks ago.

If you wanna skip all the details, just jump down to the takeaway.  And make sure you don’t miss the bold paragraph at the bottom!

Pre-race
So my friend James is the one who talked me into this one.  Actually, he was kinda the reason I jumped into doing the triathlon thing, and we had yet to race together.  He raced the sprint while I raced the Olympic distance.

It fell exactly 4 weeks before my very first half-Ironman, the Avia Wildflower.  So I figured it fit well into the training schedule.  I was under strict orders from Dan the man to not think about the finish line at all.  This was just another training day and I needed to to be listening to my body and learning what I need to do for the next 30 days.  As you might see in the report, that was tough to do.  Kept going back and forth between thinking about it and not.

*As a sidenote, the biggest thing I came away thinking was, “What in the world was I thinking signing up for Wildflower?!”  Everything I read says Wildflower is an “iconic” race in the sport and one of the hardest long courses in the world.  Oh yeah, perfect race for my first.  Haha.  Needless to say, I was a bit discouraged, but now I’m back on track and fired up for Wildflower.  Now back to this race.

The last couple races I’ve liked to be in the transition area really early to be set up and feel like there’s plenty of time to be ready to go.  I was leaving at 8am, and James at 8:45, and we were staying about 15-20 minutes away.  We decided to compromise and leave around 6:20.  Transition area opened at 5:30am.  When we got there, transition was already PACKED.  I found a place to lean my bike against a fence in a corner.  That was a bit disappointing.  Transition area was way to small and kinda unorganized for the number of people in the event.  Granted this, was also quite a bit smaller of an even than the Tri-california race I did.  And this one is put on my the Tri team Cal State SLO.

Swim/T1 – 50:06.9
For some reason there was only a timing mat on the way out to bike and out to run, so no split on the transition times, so I’ll group em together.  There was actually some confusion on when I should leave.  Based on USAT rules, I should be in the 30 category because I turn 30 this year.  But they had me in the 29 age group.  It was hard to find that out.  Asked once and they said they didn’t have time to check, but I should go with 30.  Went back 10 minutes before start, and they checked the computer and it said 29, and that was my cap color as well.  So I went down to start at 8 instead of 8:05.  Then when the times came out, it had me in the 30-34 age group.  Since there was no mat at the start, that sadly could mean I took 5 min. longer than they think.  Not sure.  But I wasn’t there for time anyway, right? 

It was a deep water start so we all jumped in and warmed up for a bit.  After a while, the guy next to me and I were thinkin it had to be past 8 already.  When were we starting?  And they hadn’t told us where to start from.  Some guys were still out there a ways and we were discussing this when we here them shout out that we start in 45 seconds.  Guys were swimming in to get back in time to start with the rest of us.

Finally we were off.  First mistake, I just took off with way too much gusto right from the start.  A couple hundred yards in I realized it and already started to run out of steam.  A little too excited from the beginning instead ot remembering to just pace myself for a long swim.  Also, this time I was racing with my surf wetsuit on.  I wasn’t sure I really believed Dan and Patty that it was that big of a difference.  After those first couple hundred yards, I knew I was dead wrong.  My arms felt way heavy and I could just feel the weight and lack of mobility in my wetsuit.  I decided for the first time to start the race at the front in the middle of the pack to see what it was like.  Needless to say, it wasn’t long before I felt a wave of dudes swimming right over the top of me.  I knew with my wetsuit and quick start I was in for a long swim.  So I just buried my head and tried to enjoy it.

The other thing I noticed was I need to do a better job sighting for Wildflower.  I kept realizing that people were swimming way to the left of me in this counter-clockwise swim.  So I probably swam the extra .3 miles I’ll be doing in the long course.  That was the plan, of course.  All part of the training, eh? 

I finally finished the swim just as James’ wave went out, so it probably took just over 45 minutes.  As I was jogging to transition, I saw James dad, brother and brothers girlfriend, gove em a quick shout hello and continued on.  Transition took a lot longer than I expected getting into my shoes and all.  But I got everything covered, took some electrolytes, pounded a gel, and it was off to the bike.

Bike/T2 – 1:53:39.3

Bike was pretty normal and actually not too bad.  The 25 mile bike was basically just 2 loops of the sprint course.  There was a pretty steep hill heading out and then again coming back in, so we got to hit it twice.  Even though it was a short steep one, I was glad it was there cause I need some hills to help get ready for Wildflower and Nasty Grade.

Overall, I felt pretty good on the bike.  It was a beautiful ride out there.  There were a few decent hills out there, but nothing really major, mostly cruising alongside Lopez Lake.  One of the goals for this race was also to try out my nutrition stuff which I had just gotten a couple days before from Hammer.  It seemed to work out really well overall and I have since been training regularly with the gels and capsules to have my body ready for them in a few weeks here.

Toward the end on the way in, I kinda wondered if my back tire was going flat by the way it was sounding, but with my momentum and no extra tube on me, I wasn’t about to stop and check.  I had 2 flats in that tire on the ride leading up to this race so I was a bit paranoid.  I forgot to check when I got in or even after the race.  But James brought the bike back from SLO on his rack for me, and it was really flat when I got it back, so who knows.

Got into transitio
n, and being that I don’t have any bike shoes right now, those didn’t have to be changed so not much to do.  Lost the helmet, moved my race number around to the front, pounded another gel, and threw another Hammer flask in my jersey.  Unfortunately forgot to take a few more electrolyte capsules.  not sure how that affected me, but wish I would have remembered.

As an added point, I must say it is a bit discouraging realizing not many people are left to finish the bike and hearing them anounce that the awards ceremony will be starting soon while you’re in transition, all the while knowing you still have a good 6.4 miles to run.

Run – 1:40:29.8
Yup, this was definitely the most brutal part of the race.  You’re reading that number right, and it actually works out to a 14:02/mile pace.  Ouch.

From the very first step, my left knee and my right calf were killing me.  They had been hurting for a while, and I’ve since visited the doctor regarding the knee.  He says it sounds like Runner’s Knee and I’ll be hittin some physical therapy next week to try and at least get it under control before running 13.3 miles at Wildflower.

Toward the start of the run I passed James coming in from the sprint and told him to relax at the finish, cause it was gonna be a while.  Helping out were a bunch of guys in some military outfits.  Not sure what braanch or who they were, but they were actually very encouraging along the way, so that was cool.

I hit the sprint turnaround a bit quicker than I expected and kept on jogging toward the Olympic turnaround.  Pretty much all trails on this run.  And the run to the turnaround was pretty much a long uphill run.  Good training for Wildflower, not good motivation when you are in pain and already feel like you’re sucking.  Kept on running most of the way, at least that’s what I called it, but did have to stop and walk a few times more than I would have liked.  Everyone I passed who was coming back kept saying, “Once you get to the turnaround, it’s all downhill from there.  You’re on the hardest part!”  Pretty much the same thing I told the few people I passed on the way back.  But it selfishly was nice to at least pass someone on the way back.  There were times out there that I seriously couldn’t see anyone in front of or behind me and thought I might be the last one in.

About mile 4 the dull cramp like pain in my right calf became a sharp pain.  I had to pull up for a minute and stretch it a bit.  As I did, a few girls heading the other way said, “No shame in walking!  Just gotta finish.”  I smiled at em and encouraged them as they passed.  Then I thought to myself, sure there is, and started up again at a slow jog just wanting to get back.

I finally got to the finish line to be greeted by James.  He then said to me, “The foods been pretty much cleaned out I think, but there are still a few bananas left I think.”

The Takeaway
Overall, I was glad I did it.  It was an eyeopener.  And even though it wasn’t the most encouraging race, at least after my last Olympic, I can say I properly completed one now.

It got me bumpin up my training for May 2, and I’ve had some encouraging workouts since then.  This tri was definitely tougher than PG was, and it helped me to get my mind off the need to do Wildflower in any sort of time, but rather to go into it with the attitude that finishing my first half-Ironman, especially at Wildflower, will be a success in itself.  Probably a good mindset to be in as I head into this race.

Good experience.  Fun race.  Not sure it’s one I’d wanna sign up for again, but glad I did it, and had a fun weekend with James and part of his fam.

Unfortunately, on one hand, Wildflower will probably be my last tri of the year, and the first of the season for most people there!  On the other hand, that’s because I have something BIG coming up later in the year.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about yet, you will soon.  Hopefully I’ll have the details for that announcement tomorrow, but worst case Monday or Tuesday.  And you’ll wanna hear this one, so please stay tuned!  It involves the whole community here at my humble blog. 

I tend to be slightly perfectionist…in an odd way.  I think I should be really good at whatever I do.  Even if I rarely do it, or have just started.  Tritahlon is no exception.  I'm not exactly good at everything I do, but there is very little I have committed myself to that I wasn't at least decent at to begin with.

This past weekend I participated in my second Olympic Triathlon.  I primarily did it as part of training for the long course at Wildflower. 
It was a tough race.

My race report will come later, but the point is this…at a few points along the run, there was a part of me that seriously wanted to throw in the towel.  It wasn't cause I was hurting (although I was).  It wasn't even cause I couldn't finish, cause I knew I could.  It was cause I was embarrassed by how long it was going to take me this time.  If it were anyone else I'd be the first one to tell em to keep going and be proud of doing it.  But that doesn't seem to be enough for me.

It got me thinking.  Everything I do is ultimately to the glory of Christ.  This scripture came to mind as I was running:

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
-1 Corinthians 2:1-5

So yeah, I know I'm not exactly out there preaching Christ.  But there was still some truth to that passage as it rang in my head.  Christ is made strong in our weakness.  It's the things we don't do well that force us to lean on Jesus and trust Him to get us through.

When I love something, I wanna share it with others.  I've encouraged multiple people to give a triathlon a shot.  It's fun.  It promotes health.  But what encouragement could I be to people if I was good at it from the beginning?  Instead, I can say, "Hey, I did it.  And got better over time.  You can do it, too." 
It's the same way as each of us work out our salvation in fear and trembling.  I'll keep on pressing on, as Paul encouraged, and in the difficult times is when God will be most glorified.

And in the meantime, I guess I'll work on being OK with not being as good as I want.  Such is life.  I'll commit to pushing to get better.  And I'll let God use teach me in the process, and use my weaknesses to point to Him.

Thank you Jesus for using a Triathlon to teach me a small lesson in humility.

But I was running (or trudging) last week and decided mid-run that it was time to lose the mop again.
Will it really make me faster?  Probably not.  (Especially since I was wearing a hat when running.)
But it makes me feel faster.  Sleeker.  Neater.
So maybe it will have some positive psychological effect.

Don’t worry…I haven’t resorted to shaving my legs…yet.
(I did, however, shave them once for swimming in college, and I confess, it felt kinda nice.)

I went to the Dr. afterward and was prescribed physical therapy.
So I basically get my own personal trainer for the next month at COAST rehab.
Kinda nice.
The goal is to strengthen my core to prevent further injury.

We did get an x-ray done which I went over with the Dr. the other day.
There’s a lot of “bony growth” in my lower back.
In his words, more than he would expect for a 29 year old.
Consistent with a facet issue which doc thinks it is, rather than a disc.
So I guess my back has some extra years on me!

That’s it.  Random post to share my t-shirt, my back, and the weakness of my core.
And now I’m itchin to do my first triathlon of the next season!

Now time for a triathlon spiritual analogy.  As I was running, it got me thinking about 1 Timothy 4:2, when Paul says “preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season”.  I can do the same thing at times in my spiritual life.  I dig into the word because I’m gonna be teaching on that passage soon.  I spend some extra time with Jesus cause I’ll be leading worship.  But sometimes I forget to just stay sharp and hang with Jesus because He is.  Because I’m meant to be.

In the same way that I won’t be ready to race a triathlon if I don’t continue to train, even out of season, and definitely won’t get better, I won’t be ready to meet the increasing challenges that God has for me if I don’t work to say spiritually fit as well.
So what are you doing to “be prepare?”  In season and out?

That being said, I need to get lots of Tri training in during the next couple weeks.  And just for fun, here’s another pic from Pacific Grove that I thought was kinda funny!

Swim.  37:51.
First of all, a huge thanks to Patty at wetsuitrental.com for hooking me up with a tri wetsuit.  We met up at the expo and she was not about to let me use my O’neil surf wetsuit!  I used to be a swimmer in high school and college, though I never claimed to be a real good one.  And if you’ve never experienced triathlon swimming, it’s a totally different experience!

I was able to jump in the water and take some strokes before it all started which helped acclimate my body to the 58 degree water.  Knowing that I wasn’t gonna be exactly competitive, as the wave started, I chose to swim on the outside and about 1/2 way back to avoid some of the congestion of being hit, kicked, clawed, scratched, swam over and across.  I still started out with plenty of legs and arms around me.  i think I may have been better off to jump in the thick of it and just go for it.  Might help my time a little.  We’ll see.

The kelp actually wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected.  And it was nearly as thick as the day I did the swim clinic a few weeks earlier.  There were a few times where I got a little caught up, not to mention the time I got a giant piece draped across my neck.  It slipped off slowly, rubbing nicely on the spot where my new wetsuit was chafing on the area I already had a rash from working out in my other wetsuit.

As I rounded the first buoy I realized the field had spread out a bit more.  It was hard to see behind me, but I started to get the feeling I was at the back of the pack.  Not gonna lie.  The swim was not horrible, but it was tough, and I can remember thinking once or twice that I might just want to call it a day.  But of course I wasn’t gonna do that.  I jumped out after one lap, rounded the rock, and hit lap 2.  In good news, I didn’t rinse my goggles really at all after spitting in them before the race, and this was the first time in quite a while that they didn’t really fog up at all.  Yay for that!  Coming in a few people from my wave were swimming back toward the wrong.  Although it made me second guess myself, I knew from the swim clinic to veer right toward the exit, which I’m sure helped a bit.  All in all, I could tell that swimming was the discipline I neglected the most during training.  I’ll have to fix that next time!

T1.  5:48.
I did a swim/bike “brick” workout the week before, but still I was surprised how difficult it was to jog onto the beach and up the hill to the transition area.  Not sure if that was the horizontal blood flow to the upright position, or if the swim just took a lot out of me.  I didn’t really rush through transition much.  Made sure I had everything ready to go for the bike, downed a Powebar gel, and caught my first glimpse of Rachel and Caleb.  Then it was off!

Bike.  1:39:01.

Now the 4 lap bike course was slightly more hilly than I had expected.  Nothing too major though.  I spent a fair bit of time biking during training, so while I wasn’t very fast, I was pretty confident in getting through this portion somewhat comfortably.  I have a bike computer that isn’t working to give me distance and speed, but it does keep time.  So I used that to check my time at each out and back and tried to at least stay consistent, if not get faster.  My times show that each lap did get faster, so I’d say that’s a good thing.

Being in the first wave, the course was pretty nice when I started.  Not many people out there.  But as the waves kept coming in, it got more and more congested.  It’s pretty amazing how fast I am not on the bike.  There were lots of people passing me with really nice bikes.  On my first lap, as I was pedaling in from my first loop, I rode by
Rachel and Caleb.  Rachel was whooping and hollering and it was awesome
seeing Caleb’s face mesmorized as daddy rode by with all the bikes.  On
the way back out Caleb joined Rachel to say, “Go Daddy!”  All of a
sudden, I seriously didn’t care how many people passed me.  I was just
enjoying the ride, giving it my best, and looking forward to finishing
for my kid.

I did manage to pass a few people though.  And then there was a guy from my wave that I kept trading places with for the last couple laps.  On lap four, about half way in, I get passed by a guy who taps me on the butt and shouts a quick word of encouragement.

T2.  3:44.
Actually, I was kinda surprised how short this transition was when I saw that.  I thought I took at least as long as the first one.  It should be a shorter transition, but again I wasn’t all that quick.  I downed some electrolyte pills I had along with another gel blast before the run.  And I couldn’t help but make a quick stop in the port-a-potty before going.  (1, not 2)  I thought it was maybe a bad idea for time, but I knew it would make the run a little more pleasant.

Run.  Umm…37:41…plus 17:00ish???
Yup, my royal screw up.  As I stared out, the run actually felt pretty good.  And when I look at the time for my first lap, I’m actually really happy with a 8:28/mile pace.  That’s better than some of my training runs without the swim and bike.  Frankly, that surprised me.  First lap was pretty good, with about 100 feet of walking to take advantage of the aid station at the turn around.

On lap two, it started to get a little bit more painful.  My legs started getting a little tighter, especially my IT bands with I was starting to feel in my knees just a little bit.  I decided to stop at one extra aid station on what I thought was my final lap.  Oops.

I think you know the rest of the story.  Couldn’t find my family at the finish line, so I got my phone from the transition area and made a call.  After realizing I hadn’t finished, and almost wanting to cry, I wasn’t sure what to do.  Finally, I decided I needed to finish for myself at least, and snuck back on the course for 1 final lap.  I looked as I went out and the clock said 3:20:–.  When I finished that lap and crossed the finish line (again) – where I spun my # to my back so the announcer wouldn’t say my name again – it said 3:37:–.  So I figure my time should have been right around 3 hours and 20 or 21 minutes.

Conclusion
I know.  Long post.  If you’re still reading, you’re either a triathlete, my mom, or I’m impressed!

So a few ending notes.  For one, I had a blast regardless of the screw up.  It was loads of fun to be out there, and fairly gratifying (minus the screw up) after training for essentially 6 months.  I’ve never been really the athletic guy, through school and what not, so it’s kinda crazy to think I finished some triathlons.  Especially since I’ve always hated running!  Not sure how many I’ll have to complete to feel comfortable calling myself a triathlete.  using the word athlete about me just doesn’t feel right, even though I’ve always wanted to.  That being said, I’m in for San Francisco!!  I gotta do it right this time.  So anyone else in?  Dan? James?  Eric?! You?

Also, I think it’s in my blood now.  I have trouble with any hobby or activity with just giving it a shot and then letting it go.  That’s why I’m still working on how I’m gonna get SCUBA certified someday.  I also love to challenge myslef and accomplish something I didn’t ever think I’d do.  And it’s great that this one keeps me healthy, too!  All that to say, I’m adding two more races to my bucket list.  Half Ironman, and yup, you got it, an Ironman!  Sounds insane to me, which is why I think it would be amazing to be able to say I did it.  So I guess I might as well throw a marathon on that list, too.  Half Ironman I hope to do next year, maybe the Big Kahuna here in Santa Cruz.  The Ironman…that may be at least a couple years.  Especially cuase I think it would be rad to Ironman New Zealand.  Two birds with one stone from the list!  And that will take some serious saving, planning, and getting rid of school loan debt!!

P.S. – I love the half face shot of Dan in the video still above!  Very nice.