Sunday Bloody Sunday

Nyc is one busy city

The night before, Team Fat Cyclist went to dinner and Fatty presented us with our team shirts. Sweet swag from Pearl Izumi. It would be so cool to be a sponsored runner.

Game time!

I feel great, slept well, extra hour has made me feel awesome. I am ready to run NYC the worlds largest marathon.

I met a couple other Fatty runners in the lobby and we hoped a taxi to the ferry. We timed the trip perfect, after we got off the ferry, we laided around in the lobby.

I had big fears about being cold as shit for 3 hours. I had foot warmers, hand warmers, layers of clothing and all supplies to make a small camp adventure on Staten Island a positive experience.

The starting city was a mess of people all huddled together keeping warm. Some runners were standing around in only shorts and shirts others had layers on top of layers. They were turning blue and looked like they were hating life.

My corral opens and I enter, it was only a short wait until they took us to the start line. As tradition calls, the cannon goes off and Frank Sinatra "New York New York" is playing on the speakers. Epic!

I start running and can not believe how crowded the road has become. I am trying to get a pace going over the first bridge when it happened. Bam, I strain either my calf or Achilles on my right leg. I am pissed, I slow a little to see if it will loosen up. After about 1/4 mi I pull to the median and rub down my calf. I can't believe this is happening to me. I run again, it begins to scream and seize up. I begin to talk to myself, I am pretty sure it is out loud. I have to stop again, I stretch and tell myself "I will finish"

I jump back onto the road and start down the backside of the opening bridge. I am at mile 1 of 26.2 and I can not run under 9 min. miles. Every time I push under 9 min. and my calf seizes up with knifing pain. As we pull off of the bridge, I decide my PR is gone and I will just run at 9min. pace. At that moment I let the goal of a PR go and decide I will try and enjoy a nice long run.

I am now headed down 4th ave. in Brooklyn. As I run, the smells of food and crowd is cheering loud. Bands seemed to be every 1/2 mi and the water stops are at every mile.

I tell myself, my calf will loosen up later in the race and I will have all kinds of stored power to finish strong.

Around mile 6 I pull into a first aid tent and ask the volunteer to massage my calf. Hoping this would help it loosen up. I head back out onto the course and take in the sights. Each neighborhood has its own feel. Kids line the streets with parents giving high fives.

I come to the half way point at 2:07 and tell myself, that this day is going to be a very long day. I try and keep positive, but my mind is going into the pain cave. My calf is killing me and with every step the pain seems to be getting worse. I tell myself it makes sense to walk 1min and run a mile. I do this until the bridge back over to Manhattan. At that moment, I begin to crumble, the bridge is a lonely place, no crowds just silence. I walk and walk and walk.

I make it across and head down to 1st ave. this is where the crowds are packed and screaming. I want to run but my leg is killing me. I run some and walk a lot. It was a very humbling experience. The streets are lined with barricades, if not I would step off and head back to my hotel. It was at this moment, I tell myself I will make it to Central Park, I will finish this race. Then at mile 18 I look up and there she is Philly Jen.

Jen and a group of Fat Cyclist supporters are there with signs and positive vibes. I stop and give hugs. They are great, they give me some Reese's pieces and they are the best tasting treat I had all day. The mile after this visit was my fastest of the second half.

After what seemed like an hour, I cross into Harlem. I was in what seemed like a fog, I knew it was only a 10k to the finish. I just kept moving, walking, jogging.

Before I knew it, I was headed south along the park. As I entered the park, all I could think about was why I was running. I was here to fight the fight against cancer, I was here for a bigger reason than some PR. I looked up and saw a man with the name DEAN on the back of his shirt. It was a sign, I work with a Dean who lost his son to cancer, and the night before the race he emailed me and wished me luck. I followed this man for the next 3 miles, he lead me to the finish.

I learned a lot about myself this weekend and in the process, I supported a honorable cause.

Below is my favorite picture of the weekend, Fatty and the Runner

That night when I returned to my hotel room, I took off my tights an revealed a bad looking ankle or cankle.
That's one ugly pic! Swelling has gone down, but I still have pain on both sides of my ankle and calf. I will wait one more week to see is a MRI is in my future.

Oh by the way, I did pick up some bling

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NYC 26.2

The time has come to check off one of those bucket list items. It is the night before the NYC Marathon.

I am running for Team Fat Cyclist supporting the LiveStrong foundation. The excitement is in the air here in the city. Nationalities abound, teams from all over the world are here to run.



This morning we had a breakfast meet up for LiveStrong at Nike Town. On my way how I came across the nations peace 5k. It was amazing, as far as the eye could see runners of all shapes and sizes from all nations running with smiles. This was very powerful to watch, I wanted to jump in but instead, I cheered my ass off giving high fives and support.




The city is a very big and intimidating place. I have yet to stick my head underground to the subway. You know that is where the warriors are hiding.

I couldn't live here, there are amazing delis on every block, I have been eating multiple meals.


I was able to meet a couple people at the expo, Sarah Stanley and Andy Baldwin.

you may remember him from the Bachelor TV show




For now, I wait to go to the team dinner with Fatty and Friends.

A huge shout out to the Wife and family for their support! Sphere: Related Content

Augusta 70.3

Finisher @ 5:10:54
Here I go off to Augusta with a goal of finishing in my mind. I will tell you, it is a lot less stressful when you under train and head to a race without any expectations. I stayed outside of downtown, if I were to do it again, I would stay at the Marriott downtown.


Once there is scouted out the swim start and transition area. This is a point to point swim so logistics were a challenge. I spotted a couple of dilly bars going to jump in. They must be from East KY, water temp was 74ish
I proceeded to head to check-in and the line was small. This made me very happy, but gave me more time to check out downtown. I started to drive the run course and realized it was perfectly flat. I then spotted the Mellow Mushroom, had to atop and have some dinner. Good eats!


The next day, I slept in until 8:30 wow. I had planned on something like 10a but I just couldn't make it that long. I went for a short 2 mile run and felt strong. Then it was off to bike check-in. Here is where my biggest race mistake was made. As you can see the bike is racked and covered for rain. That was not the mistake, the fact i didn't make my transition spot with some kind of colorful ribbon was. In both T1 and T2 I couldn't find my spot. As you can see from the pic below lots of bikes. I was in the right area both times, just couldn't spot my bike.



Ok now for the race report
I started in the 21st wave pros went off at 7:30 I went off at 8:30ish
I played it cool and let the group swim off for about 10 seconds. I started to swim and for the first 100m or so, it was crowded. I took to the outside on the left and found some open water. Amazing, I swim pretty straight compared to some of these fools. About every 50 m or so some goober would come across my face going at a 45 degree angle??? I just stayed calm and swam to finish. The current didn't feel strong, but it must have been I came out in 30:45 1:28 / 100
For some reason the last 500m I went for the most direct line to the finish and this cost me some time. It took me out of the strong current and near the shore.
As I stood up to exit the water I vomited, and thought to myself oh shit that was not good. Then I realized the swim was over and I was happy as shit. I ran to transition and yes looked for my bike what seemed to be 2 mins but probably 60 secs. Jumped into my shoes grabbed my bike an d off I went. Upon getting on my bike, I passed what seemed to be 60 people in the first 400m.
Keep in mind my ag was one of the last 5 to start. I had 2,000 people to pass on the bike. I swear it was a crazy ride. It rained the entire ride, sometimes very hard. I can not explain how flat and fast this ride was. Well yes I can, I rode easy many a mile trying to save my legs and rode 22.2 mph for a 2:31:40 80k. That was good enough for the 275 best bike time. What a fun ride, I was smiles the whole way, my heart rate was way low and I was having a ball. I love those Zipp wheel rentals.
I finished up the bike ran into transition and yes, again I couldn't find my spot. This time it was longer my T1 time was 4:51 and T2 was 4:55. I gave up 4-5 mins in the transition.
Once I had my running shoes on I realized I had to pee. I stood in line for about 10 secs and then realized I was about 8th in line. I was not waiting, so I took off. I was soaking wet from all the rain and I just let it out. My first pee on the run experience. I hit the road and the legs felt great. They started turning out 7:30 pace. I was worried, about going to hard so I pulled it back to 8:00 pace. My plan now was to run 8min miles for as long as possible. I am a garmin nerd but I didn't set up my 310 for multi sport before the race. So it ran the whole time in running mode. When I started to run I didn't mark the mileage and was a little unclear where I was on the course. Looks like I ran 5 at 8:00 then 4 at 8:42, 8:42, 8:50, 9:05 this is where the legs went tight. They looked up to me and said, "No more papa" the next miles were a miserable 10:23, 10:12, 10:48 and 10:05 for a 1:58:46 half.
I was very happy with this result, It is a very easy course and I would recommend it to anyone.
Noe time to recover for a day at least. NYC is only 41 days away. Sphere: Related Content

Rev3 Tri

2010 REV3 Knoxville - First Olympic Distance Triathlon 15 in AG 99th overall Top 15%


It was a cold morning in Tn. As you can see from my picture, I looked calmer than I was on the inside. The last time I lined up for a mass swim start, resulted in a bad experience and a DNF

Here is the swim exit, that is Phelps in the grey cap. He blistered the course in 20 mins. I swam a 24. Good for me, but put me behind from the start.

I couldn't help but have some bike envy checking out the pros rides. More over the wheels than the frames.

Here is a picture of Phelps bringing it home on the bike. I don't have a pic of me to post sorry. The bike portion was great. I started off going down Neyland just telling myself to get into a nice rhythm. As I got to south Knoxville, I began passing people and it was awesome. This is the bonus for being the 158th best swimmer. The way the results are sorted and the swim start we had, it is impossible to figure out how many I passed. Every hill we came to I was blowing by people. The front part of the course also had 70.3 participants. They started in a wave 10 mins ahead. I caught a bunch of them as well. I realized I was going to post a solid bike time when I began to pass riders who looked sponsored. Now I don't mean pros just some local type sponsors. I even passed some Trakkers sponsored athletes. I came to the last 3 mi with two men who were hammering. Both were in the age group above me. I ended up dropping one coming onto the Gay st. bridge and the other heading up to UT campus. Bike split was 1:17:26 Hilly course 19.22 mph

I felt real good coming off the bike and as I was coming in, I saw Phelps and another even better swimmer Greg Simpson headed out on the run. Greg swam a 15:30 - 1:04 / 100 ave SICK!!!

I jumped into my shoes and told myself my toe would be alright. I ran the first 3 with a conservative approach 7:40 ave and I think it was smart because my quads were not happy nor was my toe at mile 4. I was able to maintain the pace over the 6.2 mi and finish in 47:29 or 7:40 pace. It was a flat course and with a perfect body I feel I could have ran 44 flat.

Here I am Phelps once again beat me. That's ok, it was the closest race we have had yet. I had a blast and the event was first class.

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My Birthday

Today is my 40th birthday! I am ok with that number, I have never felt better. 40 is the new 30 these days. I weighed in at my 11th grade wrestling weight this morning of 155#. I can't believe how hard it was to maintain back then. Poor Poor Diet! Now, I make much better choices of what goes into my body. Last week Lenny, our Corp. Trn Mgr put on a demo with his Vita Mix 5200 - Green smoothies and healthy soup. I can't wait till the office kitchen has it's own Vita Mixer.





Lately I have been attempting to get my bike legs under me for the upcoming Rev3

Below, Phelps AKA @DavidADawson shows off his new STEED! Its fast, he's fast and I will not see him during the race.

Here he is again sucking my wheel like a pro!

Last Sunday, I raced a 10mi running event in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. The first race in 30 years and touted as the last race ever. The only reason they are having the race is Cades Cove Loop was resurfaced and has been closed for the last couple months. The race was great, I spotted 28 deer and 2 Black Bear. Results were ok, only thing consistent about this race was you were either going up steep hills or down one. Tore my legs apart by mile 10.

This is Brandon Bruce, I have rode with him in a couple of events last year. He is about 6'7 and he is a stud. Listen to this he completed a 508 mile solo Time trial in 35 hours and 7 mins.

Check it out HERE By the way, he also beat me in this running race. Oh, by the way, he finished 6th overall! Yes that is sick! check out the results HERE

As we parked for the race, some friends appeared

My Olivia, showing off an Easter Egg

Last victory as a 35-39 ag. Today I join the ranks of the Masters!

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Where and Why

I have been horrible in keeping up on my blog, I will be honest Twitter is so much easier on a daily routine.

So today, I will update you on what I have been working on. I have been running and I mean a lot of running for me. To bring you up to speed on last years totals here they are:



Run Bike Swim


740 mi 2,732mi 87,000m





Onto the current training. I am in week 16/18 of marathon training. So far this month I have ran 83 mi.
The longest running event I have ever raced is a half marathon. My Pr is 1:41, so the extra mileage should really develop my leg strength. I started out with very low goals. You know, finish! But, soon after I began the 18 week program, I got the bright idea, I might have an outside shot at qualifying for Boston with a 3:20:59. After a couple weeks of that thought and some very painful Race pace runs, I gave up on that idea. Now, I am back to running strong, smiling a lot and setting a solid first Mary type number. Happy to be sub 4hr thrilled to under 3:45



Sat. was my last 20mi run for the training plan. I was lucky enough that it was also the day Anthony Famiglietti (nickname: Fam) came to speak at Earthfare about eating like an Olympian. So as soon as I finished, I threw on some dry clothes and ran into the store. Can you believe it, I had to stand for the next 80 mins or so. I found his talk to be really helpful. It is really close to the program Justin, my 6 yr old is about to start. I would love to share with all of you the nutrition secrets he spoke about but then, well they wouldn't be secrets anymore. I wouldn't have the advantage. Maybe someday, when you turn 40 I will share. Until then us old farts need some help. Thats for Dynamite Dawson! The human Tri machine

Check out some of Anthony's PR's

Distance
Time
Year
Place
1500 Meters
3:35.83
2004
Rieti
Mile
3:55.71
2006
New York
3000 Meter Steeplechase
8:17.34
2008
Beijing
5000 Meters
13:11.93
2007
Walnut
10,000 Meters
27:37.74
2006
Stanford

Are you kidding me? Most of you couldn't ride a bike and keep up with this guy!
When he spoke about running for 10k without a nutrition let down I was all ears. He runs at one speed, all out!
Now I will point out, I have about 13 years and 30 lbs on him. Without this disadvantage, I am sure I could whoop him. HAHA


The really cool thing that was amazing was after his talk, he made it a point to look the two young cross country runners in the eyes and somehow mentally burn into there brains not to make the same nutrition mistakes that he had. He had a similar message I have spoken to Pat Summit about, success at the highest levels never comes without extreme hard work. How hard you work in the end will be the difference in being a champion. Fem stressed to the two youths about working out and also the work you put into your body. (Proper Nutrition)
The funny thing is, I was nervous about going to hear him, and he also said, this was the most nervous he has been in years.
By the way, notice the Mt Union Football shirt I am wearing. Congrats to Pierre Garcon of the Indy Colts for having a killer game on Sunday. He is a DIII Mt. Union College Alum. Mad skills for a DIII player. Sphere: Related Content

St. Croix Flop

My experience at the St. Croix 70.3 was real short. I did learn a valuable lesson in this race. Remember this was only my second ever tri. After 6 months of solid training, I really felt prepared to finish in the 5:30-5:40 range.

Now with the story, only I think I will tell it through pictures in reverse order.
Our last night we watch the sunset at the"Hole off the Wall" local bar and grill just to the right of the world famous 13,200 ft dive destination "The Wall." I did some snorkeling here and it was amazing for 100yds off shore.


Before we went to dinner we spent one last night at the beach.

On Friday, we hiked about 4miles to some amazing tide pools. Hit them at low tide, which for this island is tough to find.

View from the tide pools

At the end of the hike, we came to a bald that gave us some of the most amazing views.

can you say peaceful retreat, without children. Jenn and I did some serious self medicating

We took a snorkel trip to an amazing Buck Island. We had a cook out with the crew on a small deserted beach. This grandpa came for a snack.

It was hard staying here "The Carambola"

My only glimpse of my favorite blogger

the first one to tell me her name and her bikes nickname you win a $20 Pilot Gift card.

I found myself too embarrassed at my result to attend the post party to meet the pros.

Sorry Vinnie, I let the valley down with that performance.

Big Beard snorkel trip

Botanical gardens, furnace built 1830

Whim plantation tour

Breakfast at the Carambola, Amazing view

Now for the fun story, this is the start of the fun. To begin the race you jump in and swim to the island. Everyone gets over there by 6:15 for a 6:30 pro men's start.

Swim felt great and I was ready to hit the waters. I felt relaxed and very confident in my ability to have a good day.

I had spent the previous six days preparing on the island for every aspect of this race. I was ready to slay this course. Slay as much as a second time triathlete could.

My age group has 65 swimmers, without thinking I line up right in the middle of the pack, the gun goes off and I am sprinting into the water. I dive in and land all over the swimmer in front of me. I begin to take strokes. Well, I attempt to start swimming. You see, I am on top of a guy and there is a guy on top of me. I try to move right to the outside of the course and no luck/no way.

I tell myself, just calm down it will all settle in a little bit. at the second I get kicked or hit in the head. I am not sure, went by too fast. My right eye was half full of salt water. I am a little shook up at this point. I continue to swim. Finally it begins to loosen up and I flip over and fix my goggle. I turn back over and am very anaerobic. I get kicked this time for sure and am now in complete panic. Why am I here, this is not like practice, fuck,fuck,fuck are all this I remember going through my mind. I sight and i am just passing the second set of entry gates to the course. My mind your ok, my mind says turn left and swim to the island and compose yourself. The dip shit i am, I listen. As I stand up and watch the 65 guys I am competing against swim away, my mind really shut down. I was there to compete not just to finish with some lame ass time. This is what I am now telling myself. This might have been the root cause, too much pressure put on myself. Either way one thing is for sure, I am not an Half Ironman.

Set up and ready to go

Special thanks go out to both sets of Grandparents for taking care of the children.

Jennifer, Happy 15th Anniversary

Married 15 together 24

I love you

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First Five In St. croix

No pictures today, I am blogging from the resort computer. I have taken many great pics for you to dream over.
We have been here for five days and I am officially lite red.
Sun is hot and the wind, well lets just say it doesn't ever stop. I have managed to ride most of the course, the first day I set up the bike and headed out for a loop around the east end of the island. It is mile 37 - 50 of the race. 1,000 ft of climbing at 19 mph ave. I felt good, but hot. Water will be a key in this race. I must force myself to stay hydrated.
The next day I braved the waters of the Divi. The winds blow in from this side and the water is way rough. I jumped in and like a fool began to swim straight out into the blue waters headed for the reef. It looked to be about 300m-400m out. About half way, the little devil popped up on my shoulder and told me I would not make it. He was right, I turned around and headed back toward shore. I kept looking for the pool side to grab. NO LUCK
When I got back in Jennifer said that I looked like I knew what I was doing. Ha ha ha
The next day, the wind was blowing hard, so i set out with the wind and the thoughts I would ride west along the course until the main hwy and then turn around and get in about 1.5 hr ride.
The time was the only thing that turned out the way i planned. I turned left out of the resort and headed up to Grassy Point Hill. Unbelievable views, I have pics and video just wait. The the fun began, I rode with the wind at about 27-28 mph for the next 12 miles. Loads of fun! I turned around and headed back, directly into a 30mph steady head wind. This is the way the race take you, and I was only going 17-18 mph. I got back at the resort in 1:20 and 19mph ave.
Today was the practice swim day. Surprise, i was the only one in a wet suit. I am so glad I have it, I would never have made it with out it. A 1.25 mi course laid out in the ocean is huge. Now I know why they usually make you swim a course twice. I could barley see the end buoys. I had Phil's butterfly's, my butterfly's and someone else's running around in my gut.
Jennifer came with me to be the official race Sherpa and she zipped me up. I was worried about this because Dawson seems to have such troubles with this at swim practice. Without much prep, it was time to start jumping in. I started my watch and jumped. I told myself just swim buoy to buoy. I had no idea how hard it was to go straight when there are no lane lines. I am sure if you had me on gps, I swam 1.5 mi. When we reached the turn around point, I was really relieved to be wearing the suit. I took many rests along the way, I even flipped to my back a couple of times and did the Clothier. I kept telling myself, You will finish! I had to, there was only a couple of small boats watching all of the swimmers. One seemed to hand around me, not sure why. On the return back, I found my stride. I had a woman to my right and I decided to just follow close to her and I would follow her lead. bad mistake. After about 100m I stopped to spot and we were way off course. We looked at each other and I shouted out GOD DAMN IT!
We were swimming against the current now and it seemed like I was standing still. I just kept taking about 15 strokes and then spot. it seemed like I repeated this 20 times. Finally, I reached the shore.
I did do one thing right during this swim, I managed to keep my cardio in the aerobic state the entire time. Never once did I push my self to the danger zone of the bonk in the middle of the ocean. Smart don't you think?
Oh, I did learn one other thing, don't drink so much salt water, it doesn't agree with my stomach. Would be real embarrassing to brown out at this race.

One really cool thing happened, I swam with Sister Madonna!

How many of you can say that! No shit, I didn't take a picture and I could kick myself.
I hooked up with Vinnie Monseau after the swim and met his wife. They were nice and offered some more advice. He went down on the bike at St. Anthony's last Sunday and got to the run and did a 32min 10k. 5:18 / mi pace. He lost by 11 seconds! Bummer

Tomorrow, I am doing a 5k that I should get smoked in, and have a blast doing it because it doesn't take place in the water.
As I sit here, my body still feels like it is rocking with the current. No shit, I am serious!
Oh well, no problem mon, as they say on the island. Sphere: Related Content