A One Handed Blog

As if an Olympic distance triathlon wasn’t enough I now have my sights set on completing a Half Ironman later this year, that’s 70.3 miles total race distance.

Crazy? Perhaps, but that’s what life is about. Plus, you heard it hear first, next year I have my sights set on competing in the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii…that’s 140.6 miles, now that’s crazy!

But, one step at a time. I’m volunteering again with Team In Training to help others realize their dream of completing an endurance event whilst raising money for LLS to fight blood cancers. This time I’m training for Big Kahuna, held this October in Santa Cruz (nice and local).

This is a big step up for me, a Half Ironman consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike followed by a 13.1 mile half marathon. Last season I remember completing a 56 mile bike ride just by itself, followed by a 10 minute transition run, I literally could not run…I got shin splints so bad I could barely walk. So this is going to be a big step up for me.

If you’d like to support my cause and make a donation to help me achieve my goal of raising $1,980 for LLS that would be greatly appreciated, no amount too small (or too big), you can donate online via my fundraising page.

And, in case you’re wondering what I’m trying to do in the photo above, it’s my attempt at swimming butterfly…badly!

 March 29th 2009, Kona, Hawaii…Lavaman had arrived, it was time to race!

Kerry and I arrived in Hawaii with the TNT crew on the Friday and settled into our hotel and picked up our bikes. On Saturday it was an early start to see Dave Scott (6 time Ironman World Champion) provide some sagely advice for race day, then off for a practice swim, bike and run.

And then it was Sunday, up at 5:00am, quick bite to eat and cup of tea and then off to the hotel lobby for the 5:45am meet up. From there we all headed down to the transition area to setup our kit, get marked with our race numbers and pickup our timing chips.

At 7:00am everyone gathered at the start, or went for a warm up swim, come 7:15am the tension was building as the first wave of pros got ready to go at 7:30am, 3 minutes after that I'd be off and after 9 minutes Kerry would be following.

7:33am and I the race was on, 7:34am and my right arm was dislocated…as I reached forward with my hand someone must have been kicking backwards and kicked my shoulder out of its socket. So there I am, no left hand, can't use my right arm, just kicking to stay afloat. I waved my stump at the safety support dude on his surf board, unfortunately since all I could wave was my stump he just stood on his board staring at me blankly. So I had to kick myself over to him, rest my head on his board, relax my shoulder and pop it back in, then on with the race! All-in-all it probably cost me 2 minutes, but at least I wasn't out of the race.

Since I'm slower than most on the swim and the subsequent waves started only 3 minutes apart I had the pleasure of having the next 3 waves catch up with me and literally swim over the top of me…even the women, man they don't take prisoners!

45 minutes later and the swim was over. A short jog up the beach to the transition area and it was time for the 40km bike ride along Queen K (the main road of Ironman course fame). Despite my slow time on the swim I was able to make up time on the bike, passing many people during the ride. The last 6 miles or so were into a 15-20mph headwind, even though I was going down hill it was like peddling up hill! I was glad to be heading back to the transition area after about a 1 hr 30 mins ride.

Last leg left, 10km run…definitely not my favorite part. The first 1/2 mile of the run was across a lava field, uphill and into the headwind, what a start. At several points during the run I was heading uphill into that same headwind and the last mile or so of the course was along a single track path through lava fields, coral and finally a sandy beach.

I have to admit, I had to walk parts of the course, a combination of the heat and wind just wore me out, but I was determined to finish and just over an hour later the finish line was in sight. My total time was 3 hours 21 minutes, a few minutes faster than my tri at Pacific Grove, which considering the conditions wasn't too bad really.

The fun part was yet to come though, I had no idea, but, as we watched the awards ceremony I heard my own name, I wondered what on earth was going on…apparently I was first in my class, so I got to stand up on the podium and accept my prize in front of all these great triathletes. It was a bit lonely up there mind you, since I was actually the only one in my class, but hell I'll take all the awards I can get.

You can see more photos here.

Another day in the life of a triathlete, today was our first open water swim of the season at Aquatic Park in San Francisco and the water was a balmy 48F (9C), what a joy! Despite the chilly water we still had a great turnout by the team, all in their shiny new wetsuits.

I must say, it was a beautiful day once the sun came out, considering it's winter we've been very lucky with the weather.

After our swim we then headed out for a 40 minute run up to Crissy Fields and back, probably about 3 or so miles. After the swim my feet were so cold that when I started my run they felt like wooden blocks, I just couldn't feel them. The things we do, eh!

So far we've raised over $1,000 towards our $5,880 goal, thank you to all those that have been so generous in these tough times. If you'd like to make a donation it would be greatly appreciated, it's easy to do online: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/lavatri09/kezandkeiron

To quote Britney Spears, one of the great bards of our time (not!)…well, Kerry and I have signed up for another triathlon, Lavaman, in Kona Hawaii, on March 29th, 2009. It's an olympic distance race again (swim 1.5km, bike 40km, run 10km) and the course is partly on the Ironman World Championship course, which should be a great experience since I'm toying with the idea of doing an Ironman triathlon in 2010 (that's about 4 times the distances of an olympic event).

We're raising funds again for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) through Team In Training and this season we have also volunteered as staff to help everyone else achieve their dreams. We actually started training back in November and training through the winter is a bit different from training during the summer, not nearly as enjoyable. As you can see from the photo, riding in the rain is just one of the many pleasures.

Admittedly we've been a bit lax on the training so far, but, with the new year we'll have to kick things up a notch as we have less than 3 months until race day!

I'll keep everyone posted of my progress and if you'd like to make a donation to help us reach our $5,880 goal that would be very much appreciated, this time Kerry and I are fundraising together. You can donate via our fundraising page:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/lavatri09/kezandkeiron

Happy New Year everyone and best wishes for 2009.

The alarm went off at 4:30am on Saturday, a quick shower to get the blood flowing and time to go meet everyone and cycle down to the race in the dark to setup in the transition area…thus started the big day.

Come 8:30am I was diving into the rather chilly waters of Pacific Grove surrounded by 100+ other nutters in the TNT men's wave, Kerry followed in the first of the TNT women's waves at 8:45am.

42min later I exited the water after swimming 1.5km and headed to the transition area to get my bike for the 40km ride.

It took me 1hr 26min to complete the ride and head back into the transition area to change for the run, my least favourite part of the event…2 down, 1 to go.

The 10km run was the hardest part, but, 1hr 3min later I was crossing the finish line with Mike Bishopp (a fellow Brit) waving the Union Jack flag high in the air.

In total it took me 3hr 23min 41sec to complete the race, beating my personal goal of 3hr 30min. Kerry finished in 3hr 55min 34sec, beating her goal of 4hrs. It was an amazing day, what an incredible sense of achievement!

Between the 2 of us we raised over $11,000 for LLS. To everyone who donated, thank you, thank you, thank you. Whilst it's been a long 3.5 months of training, it has been just so much fun being part of the East Bay TNT tri team and in a strange kind of way the race itself was actually quite enjoyable…maybe that means I'm now addicted to triathalons.