It has been a fun time since my last post. One Saturday I rode the Rosedale Ride, a 42-mile ride which was supplemented by the 15 miles to the ride start, and followed by another 45 miles to get my March century completed for the 121212 Challenge. It was a foggy and misty morning, and I spent a bit of time wiping the mist off the front of my helmet camera.
The following day I ran the Capitol 10K, and had the opportunity to have a conversation with a weight-challenged man who also has cardiac issues. His doctor had told him he must lose weight, and this run was one step in the process, so to speak. He is an inspiring individual, committed to having a future with his family. I was happy to share my story with him.
That is an ongoing occurrence… whenever I wear my Cardiac Iron jerseys, I often receive a number of comments from those runners passing me by – and there are a lot of them. Whether it is just a run or a triathlon, I have received many comments such as “I like your jersey…very thought-provoking”; “You are right, we are ALL designed by God”; “Very inspirational, man; keep it up.” It is true, I believe, that when you are passionate about a belief or cause, people see that and many times acknowledge the impact on THEIR life. It seems to raise the awareness a notch or two, and that is the intent.
Anyway… last weekend, I completed the Ironman Lone Star 70.3 in Galveston. If you have read past posts, you probably know that this is the race I did last year where I had the bike crash, and was not able to finish. Well, I admit I was a bit apprehensive going into it from the start. The swim was about the same as it was 2 years ago, right at 50 minutes, and I felt okay getting out of the water after swallowing quite a bit of salt water as a result of getting kicked in the head 5 or 6 times. I felt bad about one guy, though…he kept swimming back and forth in front of me, and I swam on top of him once. Oh, well.
The bike portion was what really tensed me up, for obvious reasons. I took way too long getting out of transition, because I was trying to find my chamois butter someone apparently had borrowed or kicked, and once on the bike and out on Seawall, you could tell we had a bit of a headwind. It really sucked briefly, though, because I flatted at mile 12. Fortunately it was the front wheel so it didn’t take awfully long to fix, and the staple I had picked up in the tire was easy to find – a good thing since I don’t ride with reading glasses in my pocket. Back on the bike, I passed a few riders and got passed by a number of younger ones. Once I reached the San Luis Pass Bridge, the south end of which is where I had the wreck, I was probably being overcautious. I actually wanted to see if I could figure out what might have happened last year. Judging by what I saw, it was mostly likely one of the very many small potholes immediately at the end of the bridge that I hit, because there really weren’t any grooves in the road like I thought there might have been. And I know that was where the wreck happened, because when I came out of the blackout last year, I saw my bike leaning against the wall of the bridge. Needless to say, I breathed a very deep sigh of relief getting off that end of the bridge still on my bike this time. It was kind of odd though, because there actually was an ambulance sitting there when I went by this time.
The return half on the bike was a little faster, and the whole ride basically uneventful. I did see the pros on their return leg, with Lance Armstrong out front by about 10 seconds when I counted, and I saw Kelly Williamson was in the lead of the women, judging by the cameras on her.
Once I got back to transition, I didn’t really care how long it took me…I had made it through the bike unscathed, and was ready for a long, slow, very hot run. They changed the run course to 3 loops instead of 4 and the route went out onto the airport tarmac this time. I stopped at the transition exit to let the volunteers lather me up with sunscreen. Then it was off to the slow plodding elephant routine. I made it through the first lap after realizing how windy it had been out on the tarmac. On the second lap I came up on a man who is in my age group, moving pretty slowly. I slowed to ask him if he was okay, and figured that was a good a time as any to do my walk portion… yeah, my runs are not as well-structured as they should be. While it is the portion where I could most improve, it is also the part I care about least. Podiums will never be in my future, so what the heck. We talked his story and mine, and then I trotted off while he waited for his son to catch him so they could finish together.
It felt good to finally finish that third lap. I crossed the finish line and grabbed two bottles of water from the tub, draining the first before they even got the timing chip off my ankle. By the time I finish a run, there usually isn’t much food left in the athlete’s tent, so I didn’t even stop to check…I didn’t want pizza anyway. Back to the condo to shower and load up all my stuff, and then headed home.
Now it is time to focus on the Austin Tri Camp for TeamRWB. A lot of last minute details to make sure we don’t miss anything. It should be an exciting 3 days – Thursday dinner, Friday and Saturday training, Saturday Roundtable with the athletes, coaches and pros, and a morning run Sunday. We have 16 athletes coming in, and I get to see Jessica Jacobs again, as well as meet a few others. Fun stuff!
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