Don't forget to read about my purpose in all of this at http://www.daaa.org/DAAA_ironman.html and feel free to consider donating to this great cause.
When I started this effort to raise money and awareness for the Dwarf Athletic Association of America, I went at this with great plans to maintain a blog and update it weekly so that those interested could follow what I am doing. As the training load has started to increase and other activities have gotten in the way, that hasn’t quite gone as well as I had planned. It has been 2 months since I have posted an update and I apologize. Since my last post, there have been some really good things happen and some not so good things. I will be very brief on each of these because it would be a book if I included all of the details. Here is a highlight of the events and key accomplishments that I have accomplished over the past few months:
1. Completed Music City Triathlon in Nashville. I was a little disappointed because they shortened the swim. They said because the current was too strong, but I didn’t understand. I guess that was a make-up for the extended swim at Lake Guntersville. I had a pretty good swim at this race, a really nice bike (for me) and a collapse on the run. The run was extremely hot, and if you have ever been to downtown Nashville, you know what the hills are like through there. After 2 laps of those hills, I was happy to finish. I still wasn’t able to beat that coveted 3 hour mark for an Olympic Distance race. The best part of this race was the day before in the kids duathlon. Both of my kids competed. Brett gave everything he had, even though he is not the most athletic person, it inspired me to see him cross the finish line still putting his heart into it. Hannah, on the other hand, didn’t look like she was trying that hard, but she is just gifted. We moved her up in age group to the 5-6 year olds, even though she is only 4. She beat every 5 year old in the race and several 6 year olds. I wish I had her ability.
2. I had a good time at the Summer Sizzler Super Metric Century. It had one tough climb up Nat Mountain, but was a very scenic ride of a little over 70 miles.
3. The next major event came at the Huntsville Sprint Triathlon. I did not compete in this race, it was my turn to pay back the favor of watching the kids while I was spectating. It was Annette’s first triathlon and we had the opportunity to cheer her on. She did great, beating her expectation by almost 10 minutes. Brandon, my brother-in-law, also competed in his first race that day and almost broke the 1 hour mark. I was proud of both of them and I think they are hooked (more on that later).
4. The next weekend was the Rocketman Triathlon. I started this race saying that I am going to beat that 3 hour mark no matter what, and I shattered it, finishing in 2 hours and 43 minutes. I had a great swim, my fastest bike split yet and a decent run, although it did still have some walking on it. I did learn one valuable thing, don’t walk up a hill when you are passing John Hanna or you will get an earful. It did motivate me to push a little harder than normal though, so I can’t complain.
5. So, back to Annette getting hooked on triathlon, 3 weeks after her first race, we discovered that there is a race not far from my parent’s condo in Gulf Shores that has an Olympic distance and Sprint distance race at the same time. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to have an ocean swim before Ironman Florida and she could do her second, so I made the proposal. I was shocked that she didn’t even have to think about it, she just said yes. So, we packed up and headed down to the beach for the race. The sprint race started first and I was able to cheer Annette on as she did her entire swim. I walked up to transition to give her one last jolt of motivation before I walked back down to the beach to get started for my race. She had an excellent race, finishing 3rd in her age group, I am so proud of her. She said that we just made this a permanent weekend trip every year. The Olympic distance race started after everyone from the sprint race finished their swim. The swim was a 2 loop swim of 750 meters each. I had a great first loop, but the second loop was a little congested because the slower swimmers were just getting started. It was fun swimming in the ocean like that and I went on to have my best swim yet. I got out on my bike and had a decent time, but didn’t feel like I was going very fast and my heart rate was really high. I am not sure what was going on, but it must have been the wind. It was still a fun ride though. Then, it was time to start the 10K run. The first mile felt great, but then it all fell apart. The foot injury that I has bothered me all year got worse than ever and I wound up walking the last 5 miles. I was disappointed because I wanted to beat my Rocketman time and fell short by more than 10 minutes, but I did beat the 3 hour mark.
6. The next order of business was to visit Dr. Walter Olsen. He pulled out his laser and went to work on my foot. I have made it a week and some pretty tough runs with no pain. This may seem like a minor event, but I think it was the most important.
7. The last event to talk about on this post is the All-You-Can-Eat Century ride. It was really 108.5 miles and it was tough. This was a big confidence boost because if I can make it through this ride, I can make it through the flat ride at Ironman Florida. I felt great on this ride, even at the end, and the all-you-can-eat noodles from Nothing but Noodles made it even better. I will say that I did not make good friends with Skyline Mountain though, that climb to the top was tough.
I will do my best to update this weekly. I don't have any races this week, but it will be a good training week.
Another cool thing about my training up to this point, I have been keeping a little log of the number of miles that I have swam, biked and run. After the century ride, my total distance was 3237 miles, which is more than the driving distance from Bangor, ME to San Diego, CA.
Don't forget to read about my purpose in all of this at http://www.daaa.org/DAAA_ironman.html and feel free to consider donating to this great cause.
