Wow, i've had some pretty exciting posts lately, haven't I? Well this one isn't going to be any better. After a fight last night with the wife, I went on a 3 hour walk around downtown. Basically to blow off some steam. While on this walk, I got to thinking. What the hell am I doing? and why should I care what other people think of me.

Lately, I've been thinking that this whole louisville thing might be a little to much for me to handle. I'm not talking physically, because i've been doing all the training, and it really hasn't been so bad. But emotionally and more importantly financially. This adventure so far hasn't been cheap which everyone knows who has or had done this. Training has also made it pretty hard to actually get a job in the field I'm trained in. Most people aren't willing to hire someone who has 3 really big time comittments on their hands plus thinking of relocating to either Tennessee or North Carolina by the beginning of next year. Its just really fuckin annoying and honestly I'm thinking of selling my bike and just cutting my losses with IMLOU. I would never had thought with only 9 weeks left till race day that I might not be doing it. I'm gonna take a few days off of training and see how I feel. If I do decide not to, I'll announce it. I won't flip flop like someone else I know!

One other thing thats really been getting under my skin lately are some people out there who have made some really rude comments to me about staying home and doing nothing. Normally I would laugh a little with them about it, then its over. They have no idea what I'm actually doing, but I let it slide. But now its really getting under my fuckin skin. Yup I'm not "Working" but i'm doing more than majority of the fuckin people out there who are saying this to me. Next time I hear "oh but you are home", I might tear someones head off and let them know what I really think of them.

Rant Over!

So, this past weekend I was in St. Louis to get some stuff done. On saturday afternoon I did the most stupidest thing ever, and that was to run the wildwood (Chesterfield, Mo) hills. I was suppose to do 6 miles, but because I was doing hills I cut it down to 3. Honestly, my legs were still pretty sore from the Kansas 62.? experience. Which I'm somewhat over. Like I said before they were to quick to pull the trigger. Anyways, like I said I did 3 miles worth of running on saturday which was pretty uneventful. This morning I even woke up and rode my bike on the lake front path for an hour. I didn't bring my garmin which actually was nice. The reason I didn't bring it was because I couldn't find it. But anyways, tonight I'm suppose to spend some time in the pool. Hopefully that goes well.

Other than that things have been kinda crazy. Another one of our friends might be making the worst decision in their life. Why do people think they need to get married before spending time with the other person. Why do people rush into marriage? Don't they know its easier to get married than it is to get divorced. BLAH!!! Alright, rant over!

Kansas 70.3 Race Report

The Swim:
With the excitement in the air and the churning of my stomach, I slowly made my way into the water making sure not to go out to quickly. Thank god the water was beautiful. I walked my way into the water and then went on my way. Well what else can I say about my swim then:

It felt like I did the full ironman swim. For some reason, I couldn't swim in a straight line. The best part of my swim was that I never did the back stroke which I am proud of. Also I barely kicked in the water, which has been a problem. I swam easy like Maurice told me to do. I did free style the entire freakin time and I felt great. I glided through the water and I felt like I had a lot of speed going on. The worst part of the swim was that I couldn't swim a straight line if my life depended on it. I swear to god, the above photo is a great representation of how my swim went. I had people in kayaks tap me telling me I’m going the wrong way. Actually I met a really nice guy named Andy in a kayak who came up to me and said "Hey you, you got great form and speed but you keep going the wrong way, so I’m going stay close to you." Thank god, because I think the swim would have taken even longer. Andy advised me after every 3-5 strokes to look up and make sure I’m staying on course, which I tried to do. But every freakin time I looked up, I got splashed with water and forgot which way I was going. Also my goggles kept fogging up which made the race even more interesting. By the time I finished the swim, I was pretty happy with myself. I think I was one of the last people in the water, but I didn't care. I actually completed the swim. Since I thought the timing mat was directly after I got out of the water, I took my time to get to my bike. Well I was wrong. I feel like no one had any idea where the mat was. It ended up being at the entrance to transition, which was about 300-400 yards away. Well that explains my 1:04 swim. Oh well!

The Bike:
So ya, this was a load of monkeys! I'm pretty glad I already road the course 2 weeks prior, because I already knew what to expect. The first time I did the course, I completed it in 3:35. Overall this was a really freakin hilly and challenging course. As you can tell by the below elevation chart:

Once I got to my bike, my body was feeling good and loose from the swim. I was trying to stay calm and get it done. Once again the hills were a challenge. When I got to the first major downhill of the course, I was feeling more at ease then I did the first time I approached it. The first time I did it I road my brake down the 175ft decline, while this time I took my foot off of it. Well until I got close to the bottom where an ambulance was tending to another athlete. It really scared the shit out of me to see an athlete down in what looked to be a neck brace. It turned out he fractured his femur and another athlete made a tourniquet of their jersey which was wrapped around the guys thigh. Once I got past this part, I practiced a little more caution on the course. Periodically packs of cars were being released on the course which got a little scary. When I was approaching the turn around point at the end of the first leg of the cross, I actually hit a traffic jam of cars which got a little annoying. The hills of the first leg were pretty rough, so I just bit my lip and hunkerd down. It was a pretty big boost of confidence when I began to pass a good number of people on the hills. Not to bad for someone from a land of no hills.

Once I hit leg 2, I finally caught up and passed my lovely wife who was trucking along. Shortly after, while I was pushing along in aero position a huge freakin bumble bee went down my shirt. It basically felt like I was being stabbed in my chest. I finally grabbed the bee with one hand, and stabilized the bike with the other. Once I got the bee out of my shirt, I had to take it easy because my chest was killing me. This feeling lasted till the end of the race.

Once I got to the third leg of the cross, my body was aching a little not because of the riding but because of the bee sting. The one thing that gave me a major boost throughout the ride was Gods new gift of energy to athletes and it is called Roctane. I took this little pack of energy every 45 minutes. It took me from having no energy to being a kid in the candy store. I felt like I was on crack, if I knew what being on crack felt like. In my opinion, the third leg was definitely the hardest. The third leg had more hills with steeper grades. When I got back to the center of the cross, I just zoomed back to transition. My bike time was 3:49:07 which I wasn't to happy with, but I quickly got over it. I finished the bike and that’s all I wanted to do. I'm so freakin glad I went to enduracamps. These guys are awesome. They got this flat landed biker prepared for the Kansas hills. If you can ever take one of their camps, I strongly encourage it. Read my post about my enduracamp experience. Its definetly something I want to do again.

The Run:
When I dropped off my bike and got my stuff for the bike, I asked a volunteer how much time I had left to do the run in. Of course she had no idea, so I just took off. Turns out I had a little over 3 hours, which relaxed my fears. I originally thought I was pulling 9:30's but after looking at my garmin, I was totally wrong. My body felt strong and I thought I was doing a lot better. Here are my splits:
Mile 1: 11:17
Mile 2: 10:51
Mile 3: 10:16
Mile 4: 10:27
.30: 2:59

In my opinion, the run went pretty well. I was passing a lot of people and feeling great. During Mile 2, the sky started to get pretty dark. Since we were running in a wooded area, it kinda was little freaky. At one point, when the sky got even darker the temperature really dropped and I just thought a wicked storm was on its way. But when I looked in the sky, further in the distance was a bright and sunny sky. I knew we might hit a storm but it should pass quickly.

Even at mile 4, my pace was pretty steady and my body was feeling even better than when it started. I was pretty confident, I was going to have a great run. Well that was until I got towards the end of the first loop. A bunch of volunteers were blocking the run route and were telling us that we needed to make our way to the finish line because the race was canceled. They said if you continued that you would get a DNF. As I headed towards the finish line, I was pretty confused on why it was canceled. The sky didn't look as bad as it did. That confusion quickly turned to anger as some volunteer handed me a medal and said "Great job". My response to her was ya right. I got flashbacks to the 2007 Chicago marathon when we were told that the marathon was canceled. The only difference between this time and last, was that this time I wasn't able to finish. I felt so deflated and was slowly getting angrier. At one point I ran into a guy from my enduracamp, and I think he could tell by the look on my face that I got rerouted. I quickly headed into transition, grabbed my stuff and went to my car. After dropped my shit off at the car, I realized that we would be able to get out of the area faster if I went back to transition and got barbs stuff ready. I think a girl in barbs rack thought I was stealing barbs stuff, which was pretty funny. Transition itself was interesting. More people than I thought were not allowed to finish. The frustration all around me was pretty high. I finally saw barb as she headed to the finish chute. It’s funny because at that time it barely rained and that was followed by a bright and sunny sky. I was so upset. I basically told barb lets get the hell out of here before I break something.

It was pretty annoying to hear from people that there was lighting and that it was probably a good idea. My response to them was fuck the lighting and that I was in no state to hear that. All I kept thinking about was how much this fucking race cost, and how much my trainer cost, and how many times I didn't go out with friends because I had a long run or bike in the morning, or how I trained since January for this, and how much stress I put on my body, and that I was so close to completing the course. Hearing that there was lighting in the area, when the sky was already bright and shiny wasn't the best thing to hear. Oh and I let people know it. Days later, I'm sorta ok with the decision to call the race for safety issues, but I also believe that they were a little to quick to pull the trigger. This race left a very bad taste in my mouth and I really need to snap out of it. Since we aren't made of money, I told barb that we needed to find her another 70.3 and that I will just wait for Louisville. I didn't want all her training to be for nothing.

The pros of Kansas 70.3:
-Challenging but rewarding course
-Beautiful course
-Great volunteers
-Easy time cut offs

The cons of Kansas 70.3:
-To quick to pull the trigger
-The hills
-No one knew where any of the freakin timing mats were
-No clocks were found anywhere
-No volunteers were placed at the exits of transition which could have made it easy to steal peoples shit.
-The position and 3 minutes of the waive start. Stronger swimmers who were in the last waive were swimming over the weaker swimmers.

Kansas 70.3: Pre-Race

The Expo:
Barb, Donna and I headed to my old college town of Lawrence for the inaugural Kansas 70.3 expo. Since majority of my experiences in downtown Lawrence have been drunken and had absolutely nothing to do with exercise/fitness, this was going to be interesting. The expo itself was pretty basic, just your normal run of the mill expo. We once again forgot to bring money for the USAT registration fee, thanks donner! After picking up our packet, finisher shirt (which i will iron a decal over the 13.1 run portion), goodie bag, and free socks we wondered around the outdoor expo. Not gonna lie, when it was confirmed that I was going to be in the last waive start for the swim, I almost had a panic attack. It really wasn't a great feeling. Other than that, things went pretty well. My mil bought us Kansas 70.3 cycling jerseys which was very generous of her. Like I said the expo wasn't too exciting.

Saturday Pre Race Run through:
On Saturday, Barb and I headed to Clinton Lake for a run through/ bike racking. Donna and Bob came with to help us out, which was very nice of them.

Our coach Mo, gave us a quick work out to do before the big race. We had to do a 15 minute swim, 20 minute bike followed by a 15 minute run. Over all it went pretty well. I realized during the swim that I was going to have a problem swimming in a straight line. My sighting really sucks! Thank god the water was beautiful, because it really could of been a problem. Also there was no hope of correcting the problem at this stage of the game.

-Getting ready to jump in!

-Start of Zig Zag time!

The bike and run went ok. Racking my bike in my opinion was pretty exciting. It made me finally realize that this was gonna happen.

-Don't we look excited! -I told barb going this way was going to take us no where!

-Getting body marked

-Realizing that my cannondale is surrounded by really nice tri bikes!

-Really confused on where to put all these stickers!

Sunday Pre Race:
Sunday morning I woke up at 2am to down an ensure and then head back to bed. Once I hit the pillow, I felt it was already time to get up for the race. After a high calorie breakfast, barb and I headed to Clinton Lake which was about 45 minutes away. Once we made it to our friend’s camp site to park, the pre race jitters began. The "happy" pills were barely working. The morning weather itself was beautiful, and I thought it was going to be a great day. Once I finally settled on how my transition was going to be set up, I found the only toilet on my side of transition. It didn't help my nerves at all to wait for about 20 minutes to use the only porta potty. The freakin race already started when I finally was able to use it. So as the volunteers tried to clear out transition, I quickly grabbed my wet suit and another "happy" pill and headed for the beach. One thing I like about triathlons is how nice majority of the participants are. After struggling to get my wet suit on, another participant volunteered their services to help me get my wet suit on. It really was one of those mornings. After a quick warm up in the water, it was almost my turn. With every waive that left, my stomach churned. At one point, i thought I was gonna toss my cookies. Thank god I ran into my in-laws before the pink group started.

-Can you tell I'm about to hurl?

Once the pink group was on their way, I lined myself up in the far back right corner of the group and waited. I can't even tell you if their was a horn or anything, but once i saw everyone going I took off.

Brief Kansas 70.3

So, I got pulled! Not because i didn't make the swim cut off, Not because I didn't make the bike cutoff, and not because i was pulling 9:30 miles after a 56 mile bike ride. It was because of the weather. During the run the sky got dark and the temp quickly droppped. Supposely their was lightening which we never saw. So they called the race and almost directly after they did the weather passed and it was bright and sunny again. People were also rerouted with 2 miles left. I completed around 5 miles of the course. I'll explain more later. Peace Out!!!

Fuck kansas 70.3.

Omg its race day! We are almost there! Wish us luck!

Here in Kansas

So after leaving 45 minutes after we were suppose to and some pretty nasty weather we finally made it to Kansas. After a quick shower, we plan on heading to the "expo" in lawrence. I have a feeling because of my bib number (1158) i'm one of the last waves which isn't so great of a feeling, especially since i'm not the best swimmer. But oh well, lets get this shit done!

OMG

OH MY FREAKIN GOD! On a trip to the store to go pick up somethings for our trip to Kansas this weekend, I witnessed a very interesting altercation. It was so good that I had to share it with all of you!

So today while I was deciding whether or not to try another shaving product, the most interesting thing happened. An extremely over dressed in brand name products foreign women who I will refer to as CL (crazy lady) asked another shopper if she knew where a certain product was. The other women who I’m going to call "Tiny because it was the saying on her shirt" looked at CL and said "I'm sorry I didn't understand you, what are you looking for?" The women rudely said it again which I didn't even understand. Tiny then said "I'm really sorry, I don't understand what you are looking for?" CL even nastier than before shouted the products name at Tiny and continued by asking her if she needed to clean her ears out and if she was stupid. With a shocked look on Tinys face, and before the CL could even respond, tiny put her index finger in the women’s face in the only way a diva could and said "E-X-C-U-S-E me, you call me stupid again and you are gonna find this bottle of shaving cream up your ass." As I slowly moved away from the shaving products because i was surrounded by razors, CL responded to tiny with a remark about how rude Americans are and how they always turn to violence as a first line of defense because they are too stupid to use their words. Blah blah blah. Some Bush comment, etc etc. All I could think of was, "Oh no she didn't". Quickly tiny responded with "At least my mother taught me to have respect for others, unlike yours." She then she went off on how if you think we are all rude, then maybe you should take a look at your own actions and if you think treating people like crap is ok, then go back to your own country and leave us alone. I'm not gonna lie, a few others and I were attracted to this altercation like white on rice. Tiny who held her composure during this altercation finished by telling CL that she wasn't worth her time and energy and turned around and walked away while humming America the beautiful.

IT WAS AWESOME!!!

All I could think of was ”She is my hero!!!"

With the look of shock and how dare you on CL's face, she too walked away mumbling some stuff under her breath. I swear those who witnessed this including myself were all in shock. I decided to leave with what I already had in my kart and I went to check out.

I just find it so funny that some people think its ok to treat others like morons. And I even find it funnier that some people come to this country for a better life and all they do is stereotype Americans as being stupid and ignorant. I keep hearing from others that people over seas don't think to highly of Americans. After today’s incident, I think I finally found the appropriate thing to respond with. And that is "who cares what they think". As long as I'm proud to be an American, why should I. Let them think and say what they want, because at the end of the day if all they want to do is bitch about Americans, then they have a pretty sad life. Alright, rant over before I get myself in trouble.

U-S-A!!! U-S-A!!!