Sunday, November 20, 2016

Proof that white people are the most racist....

OK OK OK, the title was click bait. But now that you are here, you might as well hear what I have to say, right? Earlier today I made a post on facebook about an incident that occurred on the way home from Concord. I'll spare you the details, you can read it on facebook. I had no intentions of posting about it on facebook, but I mentioned it to my roommates and I was fascinated by their responses.

My roommate Mandi was surprised by me telling her "I was called a chink for the first time in years". Her face was priceless, she thought, due to the tone of my voice (which apparently was happy) that I would have great news for her. She immediately apologized for what I had to go through. My socialist (just kidding) roommate Matthias comes out with his input as well. I was floored at how upset they were. For a fact, they were more offended than I was. I think I was too busy figuring out where to place my 15 cases of DRINKmaple (which you can get for 15% off with the code FRIENDofJDT, shameless plug, I know), to be upset. We had a brief discussion about race relations, how we each defined racism, and what is (in our opinion) acceptable and what isn't. I really relish these conversations, it forces me to expand my understanding of others, it forces me to push on all 6 sides of the box.

I decided to blog about it and parlay it into a shout out for DRINKmaple (I happen to be chugging a bottle at the moment anyways), partly to break up the seriousness, partly, because I think I'm funny.

This blog post is about my friends, the outpouring support that I have from my social network. You people, are truly inspiring and I am so incredibly proud to call you my friends. I didn't make the facebook post so that people could tell me how sorry they are for me, I didn't make it so that people could pity my life as a minority in this country. I wasn't even offended by the racist, I just thought he was stupid and I thought the post would get a few laughs.

I didn't get a few laughs (well, I know at least Eliana thought I was funny), I got an enormous amount of support. I had friends text me, I had friends call me, the first thing that happened at band practice was hugs and apologies for what happened. It was incredible, and I want you all to know that you DO make a difference, you folks are the game changers in America. Do not be silent. I don't buy all the love trumps hate bullshit, but I do believe in sharing knowledge, sharing stories, and supporting one another.

Within all this, is a small lesson to be learned. A very important one, if you ask me. The majority (and we're talking great, you could say YUGE majority) of racism that I have experienced in this country have come from white people. But this blog is dedicated to all my friends, especially the YUGE (ok, that's just a funny saying) majority of support that has been poured out to me were from white people, some even trump supporters (no, I'm not getting political). This is important because I am fortunate. I am fortunate to have a diversity of friends to pull from, to learn from, to experience. This diversity of friends allows me to understand that not ALL white people are racist. I think we as people, need to better understand others. There are minorities out there that are not as fortunate as I am. Their surroundings, their social networks, their friends, are the same spectrum. Take a black child in Compton (gah, I'm dating myself, Comptom is probably gentrified by now), his friends are going to be other poor black kids, he's not going to be able to draw from experiences like I am. The same can be said about many other ethnic minorities in our republic. The same can even be said for "white supremacist" in parts of America. It's hard to think otherwise of someone of color, if you have never had the chance to get to know that person. You take the 4 year old of a racist and put that child in the playpen with 5 other children of color, they'll play. They'll fight too, but that's because of a toy.

Perhaps the key is diversity, perhaps the key is forcing children, at a young age, to be friends with people of color. School desegregation works... but it is vehemently fought against, as per the case of Michael Brown's mother. Episode 562 of This American Life did a phenomenal job covering this.

I'm not sure what the point of this blog was, this is quite typical of my blogs, if you are a follower (do I have any followers?). I start off with this grand idea, then my mind floats, perhaps it was the 2 fingers of scotch... nah, it was probably the second 2 fingers of scotch....


Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Vegas baby, VEGAS!

OK OK OK, so this is probably not your typical blog about vegas. I didn't hit any strip clubs, nor did i get shitfaced drunk. in fact, the only time i step foot into a casino was because i had to in order to get to see rock of ages (more to come later).

i had my first taste of red rocks earlier this spring, it was great. my sister from another mister couldn't make it out so we talked about doing a fall trip. i've been needing to tick off nevada for my 50 states marathon, so i figured i would combine the two. luckily, vegas marathon happened to be in november, which is perfect fall climbing season.

my training for vegas was pretty spotty. i had about 5 weeks after ironman choo to recover and train. the recovery happened, the training itself.. meh. i had a 20ish mile week, a high 20's week then a 38 miler week followed by a 2 week taper. i had originally wanted to run a 3:20 or lower but i knew that wasn't going to happen race day. again, we'll get there.

i got into vegas early, around 10am. deirdre, one of kristie's friends from SF was getting in at 10:30ish so i waited for her at the lounge. we kind of had a little goof moment, taking the tram to terminal 1, only to realize we were not actually leaving the airport, then when we tried to order an uber it took us a good 20 minutes to find it. it was as if mccarran airport didn't want the coolest 1.5 asians to leave.

we were both pretty hungry (ok, i'm always hungry) so we decided to find this ramen shop where we decided to eat and wait for kristie and johnny to get in. we ended up waiting for quite some time, the shop closed and kicked us out (perhaps we should have eaten more, or more slowly) so we sat outside like bums until our friends showed up.

the croo on frogland

the original plan was to do some single pitch climbing on friday since the marathon was saturday (or so i thought), but we decided to go after it and do some multi pitch climbing. frogland is a classic 5.8 climb that i had done in the past but not lead any of the pitches. i wanted to get back and try to lead a few pitches and it was something kristie was stoked about. we got up early (not early enough) and headed there with dierdre and jacob. there were 3 parties ahead of us, but we decided to wait and eventually all got on the climb by 11. mannnnnn, was my lead head gone. i got lots of work to do. maybe the injured wrist kept me worried, maybe not. i'm not sure. but i'm glad i got some lead climbing in on my trip. the climbing was good, we had some rope stuckage the last pitch which slowed things down. hiked out as the sun set and got to the car in the dark. i was toast. only had 1 liter of water and 2 bar (340 calories). we got back to the house, picked up johnny and headed out to goyemon for awesome all you can eat sushi.

jacob destroyed after all the sushi... we ate all the things. 

i was pretty pooped the next morning. i was dropped off, got my bib etc but realized on the way home that the marathon was sunday, not saturday. by that time it was past noon and everyone was out climbing. i decided to take it easy, chill in the hot tub, have some beers and just relax. i ended up eating ramen and meeting up with dana as his teammates had 2 extra tickets to rock of ages at the rio.

dana and i met up with folks, had komex (korean mexican fusion) and headed over to the rio where we met some folks. i would recommend rock of ages, it was a funny show, had some good songs and the seats were pretty good. the next morning folks slept in a bit, i didn't want to spend another day sitting around doing nothing, so i opted to head out to kraft boulders with thomas and beau, with ryan and cat joining a bit later. we worked some warmup problems, i snagged both classics on potato chips and then got 6 or 7 burns on the pearl, which is an awesome boulder problem that starts with a 3 finger pocket that you have to crank on to get to a pinch while cranking on a toe, only to bump to a super super shitty 3 finger slope, to bump off to a rail. it was extremely painful, it did not go, it was in the sun all day.

i was getting tired so i decided to head back to the house and chill and get ready for the marathon. after some resting, i took a lyft to the race, but the traffic was poop. i ended up being almost 2 miles from the race and had to walk there drop off my bag and then make my way to the front of the line. it was really awesome walking down the strip, no cars on the road, a pretty cool experience.

the whole strip, all to the runners!

the marathon was... well, it was interesting. the first 6ish miles were on the strip. afterwards it took us into old vegas and into vegas and took over a billion turns, in and out of industrial parks and regular parks before it looped back onto the strip. i put down an expected time of 3:20 so i could start in corral 2. but next time i run a rnr marathon, i'm going to lie hardcore so i can start in corral 1. i was extremely annoyed when i saw a lot of folks with high corral numbers make their way up front. the first 4 miles of the race was a complete cluster fuck. races really need to at least threat disqualification when slow runners get up front and bog up the race. what's the point of going out at 8 min miles for the first 4 miles when you run 11 minute miles to finish the race. either way, i kept a solid pace for the whole race. by mile 6ish the 3:30 pace group passed me. i'm not one to run in groups as i prefer to run my own pace but for some reason they seemed like a fun group, the pacer was enthusiastic, so i decided to join then. we ran together for a little over 6 miles, he was not the best pacer. at times 8:20 pace, at others 7:05ish pace. i figured the surges back and forth would hurt my later so i kept at my even pace and just yoyo'ed with them. by mile 10 i decided to just stay with the group. mile 12.5ish came and the 2 people i was running with kind of started to pull ahead of the group. that was when the pacer yelled "ugh" and grabbed his leg, i asked if he was ok, but he told me to keep going. i looked around and it was pretty obvious the 3:30 folks were a little lost. i could tell that folks were thinking "oh fuck, now what". i looked around and a few folks were with me so i said i would hold the pace. i pushed it a bit to catch up to 2 others who were in our group. by the time i caught them, the 6-7 folks with me withered down to 4. we stuck together from 13-18 miles. by then the 2 picked it up a notch. it was clear they were a little competitive with each other, it was pretty cool to watch, but i had a feeling they were going to pay for it. about a mile into it they were about 100 yards ahead, i looked at the 2 guys i was running with and told them that i would bridge the gap. i could see that they were losing steam a bit, so i picked up the pace steadily until i caught the two. i stayed with them until 22 and the 3 of us started to work a bit harder since we both knew we were really close to the 3:30 marker (or so we thought). i was the first to break, probably at mile 24. but i found a 2nd win and caught them again only to have to pee and get passed. i dug in another time, caught one of the runners and tried to chase the other down but decided that i wanted to enjoy the rest of my trip and just jogged it in. 

it was a pretty cool finish line, with all the buildings lit up, with all the people watching and cheering. it was a bit lame to watch all the folks finishing the half in 3:35, most of them walking the last mile.... i mean, not because they didn't train or whatever, it was more so that there were sooooo many people on the course, you couldn't run if you tried to. i ended up doing a 5k cooldown walk/jog and took a lyft home to join folks in the hot tub for beers.

the next morning i decided to sleep in. thomas and i hit up the crag afterwards but it took a good 90 minutes to find everyone. i got on one climb and realized i was too tired to climb, so i just hung around, took photos and chatted people up. 

later that night we hit up lotus of siam. it was amazing food. we ate all the things, and all of the things of all of the things. even the white people ate all of the things, i was impressed with my new friends. 

red snapper by: myself, deirdre, aaron, jacob, and ayaka


red snapper by: thomas, kristie, martin, and johnny
don't worry, we helped them finish their red snapper. we also ate both pad thais, soft shell crab noodles, pot of soup, pineapple fried rice, papaya salad, stuffed chicken wings, shrimp salad, pork belly, and then had some bubble tea. i'm pretty sure the bubble tea was what pushed me over the edge. we got back, redid hot tub and beers, and everyone crashed early. 

tuesday morning involved some cleanup and we all departed the house. kristie and johnny hit up the strip to explore. the rest of us decided to boulder, and boulder we did. i ate all kinds of crap and didn't scend any of my projects. but i was happy to be in nature, among new and old friends. 

i think someone is tired.....

the croo checking out potato chip boulder

how the hell does this girl climb in those?

pork chop boulder, super fun problem

the pearl v5, my new favorite project

sick shot


martin on monkey bars traverse

jacob, finishing the climb

this is why bouldering is better than ropes... ha ha

of course, we finished the trip with ramen and i hit up the lounge for a few hours with jacob, deirdre, and ayaka whilst i waited for my flight to board. 

all in all, i didn't get nearly the amount of alpine climbing i wanted to get done, i didn't get on any of the hard sport problems in the sport crags, nor did i scend anything higher than v3. but considering i didn't climb for 3 weeks and i'm still nursing tears in my dominant wrist.... well, i'll take it.

super stoked that i made new friends, ticked off nevada, got to see kristie and johnny (and brooke! who we bumped into leaving the 2nd pull out), and got to eat at lotus of siam.

as for vegas marathon: if you think running 7 miles out of 26.2 on the strip is worth it, do it. otherwise, there are likely better marathons in nevada. it's one of those bucket list items that only kinda sorta live up to it.










Tuesday, September 27, 2016

That one time I visited hell, and came back.... IMChoo 2016

Every triathletes goal is to get to kona (the ironman world championship) at one point or another. Some are smart enough to not set goals they can't accomplish and aim for a lottery slot (now legacy spot), others (ie; myself) will just plug away and try. After finishing my first 2 ironmans i though that i would have a chance. my 3rd one gave me confidence as i con't to shave another hour off (that's 1 hour off each ironman. i chose ironman choo (aka chattanooga) because it is known to be an "easy" ironman. with the exception of florida (and maybe maryland), i don't really think there is such a thing as an "easy" ironman. each course has its own challenges.
i chose choo because swimming is my worst discipline and i knew the swim was current aided (yeah, so what about it). i had a feeling whatever i gained on the swim, i would give back d/t lack of wetsuit, poor sighting, the extra 4 miles on the bike, and the humbling run. but then again, everyone would be racing the same course, so as long as i negated as much of my weakness as possible i would have an outside shot at kona.

i had done immt 5 weeks prior. i know, not the best idea, but it was good to get the long swim under me, the bike was a great ride. i knew the courses were going to be similar so immt would help me judge where i was. the run was easier at immt, but i wanted to use it as a long training day (again, i know, stupid).

the weeks following up to imchoo were uneventful, i trained well with my teammates (holla DRINKmaple crew), and i "raced" reach the beach with the channel 4 news team (ASSEMBLE!!!!). i pushed a little harder than i should have, and drank a little more than i should have, but whatever, i love my teammates and it was a great time. needless to say, i felt fine after a few days and i don't think it affected me race day.

week of the race i felt good. i flew in thursday and just hung out. checked in, explored the city and just tried to relax. i looked at the athlete guide, was bored at my air bnb, so i decided to check out some of the times of the other AWA folks (didn't even realize i was AWA, aka i race a lot so i score points, i'm not actually fast). immediate i found 5 guys who had gone sub 9:35, and another 5 who have gone sub 10... i pretty much thought, well, my kona shot is GONE.

friday i moved into a larger airbnb with a few folks i met at st. croix 70.3 in 2015. we became friends and i was able to lure some of them into racing imchoo with me. the place we rented was great, it was around 2 mile from transition and was right down the street from a bike shop, an awesome organic juice/breakfast joint, a great coffee shop, and most importantly, an authentic mexian street food spot.

my sister flew in late thursday night. so friday we spent the day exploring the city, trying out as many coffee and juice shops as we could, and seeing as many sites as i felt was ok for me to walk. i decided to hold off on running all week and use walking as an alternative.

pretty cool rock gym they have here. "outdoor" climbing, ha ha. 

the aquarium is pretty

it was pretty warm thursday night... i knew race day was going to be a scorcher

i know i'm going to get flamed for this.... but bluegrass grill just wasn't that good. i mean, it was good, but it was typical breakfast joint food. bacon, eggs, hash, sausage, grits and biscuits.. nothing "special", not worth the 25 minute wait. go across the street and have an acai bowl from the local juice. 

our airbnb host left us a bottle of whiskey. i mean, heck yeah to southern hospitality. 

impromptu marching band! remember when you were a "loser" if you were in band? damn, people are so mean in high school. i thought these kids were rad as hell. 

legit mexican food. i ate here 3 times on monday before my flight.... 

i finally found a whole foods, so trish and i went and grabbed some healthy food to make for dinner (though i still nabbed 2 tacos, ha ha). roasted some sweet potatoes, made broccoli rabe with ginger and tumeric root, some brown rice, fresh caught grouper, guac, and some red wine. 

and... the moment you've all been waiting for. the real race report. 

to start, i made a few mistakes. i picked up a new pair of bike shoes, and new cleats. the shoes were a bit more aero (yeah, i was looking for all the marginal gains), but after talking to my friend brendan (who vouched for their comfort) and a pro from slowtwitch (thomas gerlach), i felt it was a good decision to give them a shot. well, on the test ride, i couldn't clip into my pedals. figured i just installed the cleats improperly. i took them to the bike shop and they said i was just too light for the walkable cleats d/t the newer springs being harder. darn, back to the old stanky shoes. 

mistake #2. i forgot my aero bottle. i ended up buying a new bottle cage with a side entry. i knew it was going to cost me a few watts, but after learning so many fast guys were in my AG, i figured my shot was gone anyways. so whatever. 

mistake #3. i bought a bottle cage that was a side entry, never used with a side entry. 

anyways, the night before, i'm all prepped and finalized my nutrition. i knew it was going to be 95 at peak temps, so i opted for more liquid nutrition. i tend to be hungry often, so i knew i would want 350-500 calories per hour (yes, that's normal for me, i ate 500 per hour at immt), and upwards of 1200mg of sodium per hour (i took in 800 at immt and it pretty much rained and was cold for half of the bike. 

the red bottle had another 400 calories are carbo pro and 2 roctane salt tabs in it

race morning: 
we agreed on a 4am alarm. i woke up, ate 2 hard boiled eggs, drank 8 oz of fresh beet/apple/ginger juice from the local juice shop, had a gluten free bagel with fresh ground peanut butter on it, a bottle of green juice (kale, spinach, apple, kiwi, lemon, all kinds of grasses), 10oz of cold brew, and a kind bar. i also put half packet of skratch ultra hydration in 12oz of water and carried it with me. 

we get to transition early, everything is setup and i meet with folks and we get on the bus to take us to race start. 
everyone happy and goofing race morning

i get to race start and get in line for the pooper. i'm pretty proud of myself, 2 good poops before the race. we sit in line and wait. and wait and wait. i decided to check my goggles and realized i still had my di2 battery.. my heart sank. i took it off because i didn't want it sitting in the sun. when i moved my morning bottles to my run special needs bag, i forgot to move the battery. it was a pretty shitty feeling. luckily, jonathan was there and he was able to take the battery and get it to me at bike out. yes, i realize this is probably poor form in terms of the rules...

swim: 
goal time: 1 hour (that would be a 20 min PR)
real time: 1:08
with about 20 minutes to go, i really had to pee, but figured, i would just wait till i entered the water. bad idea, i just couldn't swim/pee. i grabbed the first kayak i saw and tried to pee. i still couldn't pee, my tri suit is pretty tight (i sized down to be as aero as possible), so i had to pull myself out and use my hand to gap the suit in order to pee. it was the LONGEST piss of my life. i literally gave up 3 minutes peeing. ok, i'm done peeing and off i go. i was told that i should swim in the middle as the current was strongest there. well, i suck at sighting, so i aim for what i think is the middle. i'm just all over the place. sometimes i'm with a ton of people, other times i'm solo. the one thing i didn't realize was how poorly the sleeves would work in the swim on my kiwami suit. each stroke my arm was a parachute for water. apparently i needed to size down 2 sizes for my arms..... regardless, i don't think it cost me more than 2 minutes. the swim didn't feel fast, in fact, it felt long. mostly d/t the fact that i felt lost very often. the tennessee river is quite wide, thus there were swimmers far right, and far left of me. at times the water was choppy, but i figured that mean there was a current, so i tried to stay in that type of water. all of a sudden, it was gone. i just gave up and aimed for the buoys. about 40 mins into the swim i had to grab my 2nd kayak. my regular race goggles broke (at the nose) so i wore my backup pair, some ones, but i lent them to my roommate all season so i had to re-adjust the tension. it felt fine at first, but after swimming my left eye socket felt like it wanted to pop out. i stopped once more to fix it, but just gave up. all in all, the imchoo swim is a fast swim. minus my mishaps, with better open water training/sighting i'm very confident i could have gone sub 60 minutes on this swim course. this was with only 6700 cfu released race day, vs upwards of 14000 in past years. a guy in my ag said he did a 47 minute swim... that's gnarly. regardless, with a 68 min swim, i still felt i was in the mix for a podium since i tend to race well in the heat. 

t1: i got out of the water thinking i swam a 1:30. i thought, kona chances are gone for sure... i still wanted to PR, so i moved my way into transition. i ran pretty hard, but took my time to make sure i grabbed all my nutrition, ate my cliff beet/bananna packet etc. i could have gone faster, but overall, i'm pleased. i wanted to go 3.5 minutes and ended up taking 4.5ish

bike: final time: 5:54 (garmin)
goal time: 5:10
i had one shoe (left) on the bike and i ran out with the right one in my hand. i snagged my bike and raced towards bike out where i saw jon and snagged my di2 battery. i plugged it in, put my shoe on and got on the bike and pretty much charged out of the gate. i knew i had some ground to make up, but with my generally slower than average swim, it meant a lot of cyclist in front of me (even though i was lined up pretty far up front in terms of the swim line), that means more slingshots. a few miles into the bike we crossed some train tracks. the course was still congested, so i was on my horns. as i hit the tracks, the left ziptie on my bta snapped and the bottle flew upwards. i quickly grabbed it. i didn't panic as this has happened in a race before (never with a new zip tie though). as long as i stayed in aero, i knew it would be fine as the right sided 2 zip ties were still on strong. i took it as a sign to stay in aero. 5 miles, 10 miles, 15, miles, 20 miles, 25 miles, 30 miles. i feel the temperature rising. no biggie though. i started with solid nutrition (i can't perform when my stomach is empty) so i ate two halves of a cliff bar, took in 3 salt tabs, and had a gu. by the time 35 miles came i snagged my first sip of my concentrated bottle in the down tube (red bottle from photo above). everything is feeling great. somewhere between mile 40-43 i had just taken a sip of said red bottle when i saw lump in the road. i was moving at a good clip, so i knew i had to get in aero to keep my bta from ejecting off. i quickly threw said red bottle in the age and got in aero. i hit the bump. no big deal.
- mind you, i'm also wearing a brand new aero helmet (the POC helmet), which has no vents. 
i reach again for the red bottle at 45ish for a quick sip and boom. it's empty. that's when i realized that i probably didn't get it in all the way at the bump and lost it. by this time the temps were climbing. i had 2 salt tabs left and i had the blue bottle. i still had 4 gels left (two were powerbars with 200mg na2+), but still not enough salt for what my body demanded. i decided that i needed to save the blue bottle for the last 25 miles of the race, so i left it where it was. 

by the time 55 miles came around i was starting to feel off. my power was down, my effort was down. a female athlete that was yo yoing with me asked if i was taking enough salt because my back was covered in salt (that has never happened before in a race). i thanked her and took another gel. looking back, i really should have reached for my blue bottle. the 2nd lap was pretty much the hardest 58 miles i had ever ridden. i know non ventilated helmets don't change core temp as long as you stay properly hydrated, but god damn. perceived temperature is a mental hootannani. i had to take the POC off and pour water on my head at one of the stops. all in all, i came to a complete stop 2 more times because 2 bottles of gatorade i got still had the safety seal on them. no biggie, kona was out for me and the volunteers were champs for even being out there. 

every water stop for me was dump bottle on my back/body, refil water, grab gatorade. 

by the time i hit mile 102-104, i saw a friend that i had just met the day before. he was pulled over with a flat. i asked if he needed anything and he mumbled some words. i decided that i wanted to help him. again, by this time my bike was just shot. 5:54 ride was just garbage. i gave him my pit stop, i had no idea how to use it, i explained the best i could (picked it up at expo since i flew in) and just rode off, hoping i wouldn't flat the last 10-12 miles. those were some haaard miles. i was really feeling the affects of the heat, it was about 2pm, at the peak of the sun and i was just roasting. i was out of salt, out of gatorade, out of gu, and just had some warm water. i just wanted to get off the bike. to give an example of how hot the ride was... i rode THROUGH the sonara desert in AUGUST with an 80lbs bike when i cycled across country (going through new mexico, arizona, and southern california), this was easily wayyyyy hotter.  

in case you wanted to figure out how hot it was. temps peaked at 97 w/ humidity at 87. this chart shows the heat index in shade. in direct sun, it says to add 15 degrees. it felt like an oven out there, i don't know if it was 170 deg, but it sure felt worse than 118 (when i rode through sonora desert). 

t2: i got off the bike and was surprised to feel so good running. i ran into the tent and when i sat down to grab my shoes it just hit me. i was sooooooo hot. the guy next to me was just staring into the roof of the tent, volunteers were just dumping ice and water onto him. i got all my shit ready and started to head out. until i saw pretzels. i stopped, grabbed a cup, sat there and ate it. grabbed ice water. put a punch of ice down my shirt and then covered myself with sunblock. for those who know me, that'll give you an idea of how hot it was.... i NEVER wear sunblock. for me to put it on, that means i was actually scared of the sun. 
expected time: sub 3
real time: 6:xx

run: this was my 7th ironman, NEVER have i seen people WALK out of t2. people are always running, excited because of the crowd. i saw people walking.. i thought, oh man, there is going to be some serious carnage out there. i tend to run very well off the bike, so i was going out fine. i had to remind myself to slow down. walk the hills and water stops. i talked to thomas gerlach briefly before the race and he reminded me how horrible racing in that type of weather could be for your body. the first 4-5 miles of the run were some of the hottest miles of my life. the course started off on the freeway and i felt the pavement just reflected even more heat. each water station i dumped 4-5 cups of ice in my suit, dumped 4-5 cups of water on my head, took in water, gatorade, and coke. i supplemented salt with base salt, mixed with roctane salt and salt tab salts. when i was running, i was doing 8-8:25 pace pretty comfortably, it was just hard to get motivated to run knowing that my goal of kona and/or pr were pretty much gone. oh, it was also really hot. miles 12-22 were the darkest miles of my life. i wanted to cry. i gave up my whole entire year to qualify. my body didn't hurt, i just didn't want to run. i literally didn't care. i wanted to just quit at lap 1, but saw my sister who encouraged me. a little kid ran up and asked for double high 5's, that kinda just helped me move on. he was sooooo stoked to get those high 5's. at mile 14, i regretted carrying on. like a lot. my water stop walks were getting longer and longer. at around 16 i totally just gave up and committed to walking. i stopped on the grass to stretch a little from time to time. i tried power walking, but i just suck at it. i was more fatigued power walking at 15min pace than i was running 10 min pace. 
- i've done my fair share of "hot" ironman races and "hot" marathons, i have never seen the carnage i saw on sunday on the run course (i was told the bike course was bad too), at least 15 people were carted away in golf carts/ambulances. i saw 10-15 laying on the ground with medics etc... i know it was epic in terms of heat/etc, but i'm confident that a lot of people could have saved themselves a lot of misery had they trained more in the heat, and actually understood proper sodium intake. 

my friend darryl (flat tire dude) caught up to me at around mile 21ish? right past the bridge, at the start of the barton ave climb. he thanked me, we shared a few words and he scurried along. i thought, well, i'm going down hill, i should at least run. i caught up to him, passed him, then jogged up the hixon pike before taking a bathroom stop. darryl passed me again while i was peeing, when i came out he was about 100 yards ahead of me. i was feeling ok, so i decided to jog up to him. we jog/walked and at around 24 i had enough. i was pissed, i just wanted to go home and shower. i regret not sharing a few words with him. idk what happened, i just snapped and took off. i jogged hixon and barton, ran over walnut bridge and con't to run hard to the finish line. about 20 yards to finish, i stopped fully in my tracks and acknowledged the crowd. it was an epic day for everyone, not just the racers. 

goal time: 3:30
final time: 5:05 

post race photo

i snagged 2 slices of pizza and a coke, just to get some calories in. i raced home showered, got a 15 minute cat nap in and headed back out to cheer on the rest of the gang. i didn't actually see anyone cross, but it was good to get post race photos. my friends were asking me how i had so much energy, as i was dancing to the finisher shoot songs and goofing around.. well, i was supposed to run 26.2 miles, i only ran about 10 of it at race pace, and the rest was walk/jog, lol. 

i didn't even care to check my final results. but the next day, i was surprised to find that i came in sub 12:30. final time of 12:23:xx.... it was over an hour slower than mont tremblant, which i did at 80% im effort as a training day. so many lessons learned....

the next morning we all woke up, cleaned up the house, returned to the local juice for some good stuff. and made our way to lookout mountain and ruby falls. PSA: do not wear shorts and a tanktop to ruby falls. it gets cold when you are over 1000 feet underground. if you go to ruby falls, try going when the tours are the smallest. it's really hard to enjoy mother nature when 50 people pull out their cameras and are flashing the shit out of everything. 

it's not really purple, they use colored lights

i'm like a mini buddha, except i can eat organic and vegetarian (most of the time) and not be a fatty like buddha. 

chattanooga, you were a hoot. loved the city, loved the course. you put me in a pretty dark place, you made my rethink my desire to race again, you made my rethink my desire to do another ironman, you made me walk in a marathon (that i didn't plan to walk) for the first time in almost 4 years. but thanks for showing me what hell is like, no more bad words (after this blog, that is).

good news though, i'm feeling pretty good. that means i went to the rock gym today to boulder a bit, and i'll start running again this week. time to set an open marathon PR and crush rock climbing season.

special thanks to the DRINKmaple crew for training with me all season long. never would have the fitness i have without all of you. good luck to folks racing maryland and kona in the upcoming weeks. 

thanks to my sister for coming and supporting me. it was really good spending quality time, very happy you were able to get a closer glimpse of what makes me tick. i greatly enjoyed the talks, cooking together, being my personal sherpa, and you putting up with all my crap. 

big ups to acosta for being an ultimate sherpa, for making some dynamite coffee every morning. believe it or not, i was much less stressed race week, simply knowing you were around. 

stacey: IM #6! i'm not sure how much longer i can stay ahead of you. keep up the positive attitude, your energy is infectious. 

daniel: it was great meeting you brotha. sorry you had such a rough day on the bike and run. knowing you, i don't think you would change it for anything. it's races like this that define your character. super proud that you stuck it through and never gave up. i still remember bumping into you at mile 18 and the words you said. it kept me from dropping out. 

tj: YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!! congrats on popping the cherry. friggang A man. i know you said you'll never do another one. but i swear, they are usually not this hard... plus, don't you want to know what it's like to have proper nutrition and do the whole race without throwing up? ;-)

jen: YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!! ditto what i said above (minus the throw up). perhaps next time, you won't PR a half marathon the weekend before, or run 5 miles the day before in 90 degree heat.... perhaps is the key word. 

edwin: it was great seeing you on the course, congrats on the PR. to do it on a day like that.... that's all character man. 

darryl: too bad about the flats man. glad you were able to get them worked out. it was great running side by side for the hardes 4 miles of the course. maybe we can do it again sometime, minus the heat.

john/jeff: congrats on finishing, i'm sad i didn't get to see you guys on the course, we were all probably zombies as we walked by each other. next time?

lastly: thanks to TOPO for sporting me with a pair of magnifly's for the race. 95% of my milage this year has been in TOPO's and i could not be happier. i know it's cheesy to thank a brand/company that gives you free shoes. but this is one of the rare companies that gives me free stuff that i would gladly pay for at full price (and those who know me know how rare it is for me to actually pay full price for anything). as a seasoned triathlete, as a physical therapist that has a special spot for gait analysis, i cannot recommend a better pair of shoes. 

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Bike numbers for us "shorties"

I see it all the time at races. People with numbers taped poorly on frames. Draped over the top tube to the point where you can barely see the numbers, crammed onto the seat post, then covered by a saddle bag.

Those bike stickers were just not made for folks with small bike frames. The number is important, how else am I supposed to find photos of myself for facebook?!?!?! (moderate sarcasm there).

Personally, I have been cutting around the numbers and placing them on my frame in locations where race officials will not complain. Oftentimes, its the bottom triangle, others it's right at the end of the seat stay, under the seat.


Here is a photo of me cutting a race number. Notice how I taped it onto my frame (sideways). This was at patriot, the numbers were not sticky and I had forgotten packing tape, so that was the best position I could find.
At WTC races the numbers can really get STUCK onto your frame after a really hot race and leaving them on for a week (lets admit it, we all forget to take them off immediately). A neat trick is to put the number on a piece of packing tape (sticky side on sticky side). Trim the number again. Once you have done this, you can now place the sticker onto your frame and place packing tape over it. This will ensure a few things:

1) the number will be in the MOST visible spot, for photographs and what not
2) the number will not get in your way in terms of hitting your thigh
3) the number will not flap in the wind (which can be quite annoying during longer races)
4) the number will not have an aerodynamics drag penalty
- the last reason is especially true for slower cyclist. remember, the longer you are on the course, the more (in terms of total time) drag affects you.

My teammate, Jay Powell wrote up a nice piece regarding chain waxing. I won't echo him so here it is. I also added:

"i just started waxing my chain as well. Jay Powell i had great success with an ultrasonic cleaner. it's 70 bucks and i run it at 50 deg C for 15 minutes and the chain comes out silly clean. from there i run it through some denatured alcohol. 

for the wax, i use a slow cooker. i also suggest heating your chain in the oven to 120 degrees (or under 200) before you put it in the wax, this allows the wax to penetrate better. as the wax cools (when you take it out) the pressure will cause it to sit into the links.

for post wax cleaning, just use CLEAR mineral spirits and shake until it stays clear....

i personally rotate 4 chains so i can wax once a month. i find that each waxing lasts about a week and change for me (that's about 300-350 miles).

you can also add teflon powder at the end of your waxing treatment to give it an extra little boost.

for those who don't want to go through all this effort... try squirt lube. it's within .5watts of waxing your chain. "



Happy riding, everyone!

Monday, August 29, 2016

Ironman Mont Tremblant 2016 Race Report


TLDR: great race, with great friends, family, and amazing venue. if you have a chance, go to quebec and do this race. skip to the end for meaningful non race talk.

i've been bugging my friend lindsay to do an ironman together for a few years. after florida she has been waiting for the perfect time. then she got engaged, had a wedding and well, you know how that goes. we were planning on boulder, but it filled up rather quickly, so we kept bouncing ideas around. eventually, we chose tremblant. fast forward a month and my friend robin flew up from st. croix for my b-day and i was able to "convince" her to sign up for immt, her first full distance. and then... well, that's what this blog update is for.

my goal all season was to try and qualify for kona at imchoo. i can't say i have a great chance, perhaps 10-20%, 40% if i have an amazing day and a few studs don't show up. immt isn't the best race to do 5 weeks prior from my A race, but the chance to do a race with good friends is hard to pass up. all in all, i had about 10+ friends up there racing, it was great to share the experience with everyone.

i rented a condo not too far from transition, about a 10 minute walk. robins mother, my father, and stepmom came up to be our support crew/sherpas. we drove up early thursday, with stops in hanover and burlington for food. it was a long drive, but we got up to mont tremblant at around 5:30pm. we got settled quickly and met up with my friend bike to ride the duplessis section. it wasn't bad, my goal was to ride it easy up and hammer down, to practice the lines i would take on race day. we got back and i went out for a short run. i won't bore you with details on the next few days leading up to the race, pretty typical stuff. meet up with friends, practice swim, gear setup, registration, stare at all the bike porn.


me and robin, goofing around


robins mom, it doesn't get more tourist than that... adorable

the venue is just fun, you don't see this at another ironman

love the athletes village, lots of fun little shops, tons of food

wildlife was abundant, and friendly

Race morning: woke up at 4:15am, friend an egg, had a sesame bagel, 20oz of water with a scoop of skratch (aka 2 servings, d/t stupid skratch ratios). i also drank 1 boathouse farm liter of vegetable/apple/green juice stuff, it was tasty. i sat for 15 mins and went back to bed for 20 mins. wokeup, got dressed and had a banana on my way to transition. i got to transition pumped up my tires. i immediately lost my friends and decided to just make my way down to the swim start and get my wet suit on. got to the swim start and barely got my wet suit on in time to get a 2 min warmup swim. i got in line and my wave was about to start.

swim: goal 1:10. result: 1:20
i'm an awful swimmer, always BOP. but for the first time in my life, i have been training for the swim. it's not a lot, but 100K yards for this IM, which is more than all my previous IM combined. the first 500 yards were great, i'm generally in back looking at caps, but i was in the middle of it, feeling good and taking a good line. i would say around 750 yards i noticed the water getting more choppy. no big deal, i'm ok. by the time i hit the turn the chop got worse. i never gulped any water, but i was definitely working harder than i had expected to. my pace slowed considerably as i was trying to site and find feet to follow. at one point some big guy swam up to me and literally punched me in the back of the head, i was pretty pissed as i was in open water, off to the side. the bad news: i swim slow, the good news: i wasn't tired at the end of the swim, my back didn't get tight. i was moving much faster towards the last 700 yards, i def didn't put the proper effort in.

transition: goal: none. result: 7:xx
transition was a bit long, but not bad, i passed a ton of people on the way to the tent. once there i decided that i should try off a bit and prioritize not getting sick, afterall, it was a training day for me. i slapped my shoe covers on, since i knew it was going to rain, and i put a trash bag laid flat, inside my suit. 

bike: goal: no time goal, just keep average ftp at 150, NP under 150: hr zone 2-3ish, no power spikes over 400. my ftp is 204watts, i weighed about 56kg (123ish lbs) race day. not ideally race weight, but i didn't want to starve myself to get lower. with it being a colder/rainy day, i figured the extra insulation would help. result 5:27

the bike got off to a fast start, i started swim wave 1 or 2, so i was able to start the bike dry. 20 miles in i decided to ditch the trash bag... ugh, bad idea. i also had gloves that i stuffed into my chest.... then... just as i did that.. the rain started. it never stopped by the way. 2:41 first lap. i kept power low. the climb at the end of the first lap wasn't bad, i did my best to keep the power dry up the climbs, i ran 11/28, but wish i had a 30, just to keep the power a little lower.

there was a lot of drafting the first lap, especially at the turn around on 117, i fought a pack, they passed back, i fought again. this went back and forth a few times. it was stupid of me, i should have learned after cozumel, you can't beat 10 cyclist. it wasn't until the duplessis that i was able to ditch them. it was raining, but i managed to stay in aero pretty comfortably coming down. riding it the day prior helps, being further up front in the course helped too. kept the skittish cyclist away, i guess.

the 2nd lap saw things spread out a bit more. i really wanted to hammer hard on the bike, but figured it wasn't worth getting injured, or burnt out, i only had a week to recover afterall. 2nd lap was more and more rain, hard to the point where it hurt your face and shoulders. thank god for the full suit. the wind and rain was considerably worse the 2nd lap, especially at the 117 turn around. honestly, i loved every second of it. until i had to climb duplessis again. it was definitely more difficult. i was happy to finish the ride. at one point i was riding with some guy at the legal length. it was amazing. we were both pushing 27, it totally made me feel/experience the "pro" race. i didn't think the draft was that strong at 6 bike lengths, but at that speed, it's there! we yo yo'ed each other for a good 15 miles until some guy pulled right in front of me, sat, up and started eating. i backed off so i wouldn't get a draft penalty, by then, it wasn't worth the watts to catch up to the other guy, i was pretty annoyed at this n00b. 

t2: 3mins. didn't rush it, but wasn't taking my sweet ole time either. 

run: goal: 9-9:30 pace, stretch a lot, not get hurt, it's a long training run. result 4:20:xx. i started the run with some guy in my age group. it was his first IM, he looked like a strong athlete, we ran together for about 2 miles at 7:35ish pace. i immediately shut things down and told him good luck, left him with the advice of "you can make up time, but you can never make up energy". at mile 3 onwards i walked every water stop, took in plenty of nutrients/fluids, walked the hills and stretched at every other water stop. i saw lots of friends on the course, the out and back was great. the crowd support was awesome, despite the rain. i ended up running most of the marathon with female pro caroline M. it was fun sharing experiences and how doing 2 im's 5 weeks apart is a bad idea (she was toast d/t doing one 5 weeks ago.... uh oh, for me... lol). 

the run course was great, after the first lap, i couldn't wait to run down that finish chute, the crowd was amazing.

final time: 11:19:xx. good enough for 53rd? in my age group. not bad for a training day. 

i felt great post race, of course the sun comes out as i'm eating and changing, ha ha. i saw my dad, snapped some photos and head back to the house to get in the pool to stretch and eat. i headed back out to the course to cheer on friends. i saw robin, corrine and deidre finish. i ended up staying out and staying for the midnight final finisher. it was great, the crowd was epic and i saw my friend terry finish in time to snag a medal. 

epic race finish, after 6 im's, finally made it to the midnight finish

tremblant was a great race for many reasons, but mostly because i was able to share it with friends and family. my father was pretty stoked to see me race for the first time in his life. i think it meant a lot to the both of us. making up for lost time as he said.... good news, he said he would pay if i did a race in china.. Ironman taiwan 2018... it's a done deal ha ha. i can't wait to eat everything tiawan has, then fly to china and eat everything there. do they let fatties on the great wall?

lindsay: we finally did it, captain! now you can go get preggers and do all that adult stuff. i'll keep carrying the torch

robin: i couldn't be more proud of you! i know you'll break 12:45 your next one, fix that knee injury asap! solid day, welcome to the club, girl!

john yen: so much for being one and done... solid day as well, sad i didn't see you on the run course.

mike: killer day man! congrats on your first 140.6. couldn't have asked for a more epic day.

corrine and deidre: holy cow, you gals killed it. 5th and 10th in age group at your ironman debuts? i hope the other ladies in your division are paying attention!

terry: i'm so proud of you. being on the course for 17 hours is no small task. way to come back and tackle the distance after being pulled off the course at immd just a year ago. i'm guessing your IM high is still not done.

mike ricci: pfft, this is your 5th one? you get no praise.. lol
rick, jeff, and walter: welcome to the club boys! i think you all went faster than expected! congrats, sign up for your next race yet?

rich: congrats on #2

pamela: congrats on #3, or 4? so proud of you, especially after a long string of injuries.

amanda: w00 h00! backing up a strong IMMD with a stronger IMMT!

amber: well, i think it was ironman #17th for you.. no big deal. congrats on the 4th place finish (female pro 4th place mind you). crush cozumel, remember to eat at burrito gorditos and tell tony the guy who wanted a torta in 2013 and his crew says hi!

last but not least, to my old man. glad you finally got to see what i waste so much time in my life doing. now only if i can get you to stop smoking, maybe, just maybe one day, you can be my on course cheerleader!




the croooooooo

me and my dad 

female pro caroline martineau, we yo yo'ed and took turns cheering each other onwards

i'm tired of typing, gonna have some chips. i hope my legs have something left for imchoo in 4 weeks....

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

New Orleans Marathon race report

Soon after the savannah marathon was over Ben and I had plans to sign up for another race. We knew we wanted to do a race in a state neither of us had run in, and we knew it was going to be a RnR series since we had free admission d/t the savannah marathon being cut short d/t sever heat.

4 days later, we settled on the New Orleans marathon. We chose it for a few reasons, it was far enough away where we could chill and get back into shape, it was in NOLA which neither of us had been to, and it was an east coast race which allowed us to reduce vacation time taken.

Not long after we chose the race, I talked Matthias into coming. He had planned to do his first half marathon in jan/feb since i convinced him to sign up for a half ironman (having never done a tri and not knowing how to swim when he signed up) and thought NOLA fit in perfectly. From there, I sent an e-mail out to a bunch of folks gauging interest. During the same time frame, my DRINKmaple crew had a few e-mails going out regarding a marathon in arizona and other west coast locations. i might have dropped the idea of NOLA (or it was already floating, i can't recall 100%) and it sort of took off. a week later we had roughly 10-13 people going. It didn't take long, but we soon had Julia interested. First, she was coming to cheer and eat, then she said she would do the 5k (ok, so i lied, there was no 5k, tee hee), then she said she would do the 10k. next thing you know she is signed up for her first race since high school and first half marathon ever. ahhh, i love positive peer pressure.

I generally gain 20-25lbs over the winter and run a whopping zero miles. I really wanted to make sure I put in a solid effort, mainly to start my triathlon season off strong. I was just sick of spending the first 2 months of the season dropping the 20-25lbs i had gained over the winter. I knew i wanted to improve my run this winter and the only way i was going to do that was to run often. i decided to set a goal, run 80 days out of the next 100 days. day 1 was december first. I also realize my limitations, that is, i just don't hold myself accountable, that and i'm lazy. so i decided to make a fb group and invited a bunch of like minded individuals that would keep me socially accountable. the grew started with a few people. there were no rules, you could set your own goals, but a lot of people really jumped on the 80/100 bandwagon and off it went.

you can see my training log here

my thought process is quite simple. i believe that volume = success in the marathon world. not just any volume. coming from a triathlete background i believe that complimenting cycling, overall fitness, and a strong core results in success. my best time in an open marathon had been 3:40. my pr in the ironman marathon was only a handful of minutes more. that could be 1 of 2 things. 1) i run INSANELY well off the bike, or 2) i am leaving a lot of time on the table in my open marathons.

i personally feel it's a little bit of both. my plan was to run often and slowly increase volume weekly. i did not do any specific speed work. almost all of my runs were of descending pace (negative splits) or even splits as close as possible. i rarely went out hard and slowed down for the latter part of the run. i also DO NOT believe in long runs. over my career (as an athlete and professionally) i have yet to see/find/feel the benefits of the long runs (runs over 15/16 miles). i personally feel that one is better off running 8 miles 5 times a week, than it is to run 5 miles 4 times a week and do a 20 miler on the weekend. i firmly believe in what i call "aggregate running". with that said, i did one 15 mile run. it was on the treadmill before work. I did it 3 weeks out from the marathon. the primary reason was because i wanted to get a larger volume in that week and i was out to NH on friday so i wasn't going to be able to put in any decent volume. overall, i put in 12 weeks of training. 4 more weeks than i have ever trained in past.

fast forward to race week. i flew into NOLA on friday and met with julia, we rented a car and got to the house where we shortly met up with ben, brian, and i got to meet nora. the house was nice, it had a rustic feel to it, yet was quite modern. it was also equipped with an outdoor, heated, saltwater pool.



Once we got settled, julia and i head to 1000 figs for lunch, we crushed some falafel and other "yummies" as she would say. from there we made our way back to the house and just hung out and relaxed for a while. not long after jay and ashley showed up we went out to dinner and had paella at a local restaurant. it was quite delicious. we came home, hung out a little and crashed. the next morning we picked up tim and matthias from the airport and headed to the expo.

julia picking up her first race bib since high school


matthias picking up his first half marathon race bib

after picking up the bibs, i found my way to purchase my obligatory race pint glass. by this time we were all getting slightly hangry and decided to wander the big easy to find food. it took a lot of yelping, a lot of walking but we finally settled on a specialty cheese shop that sold some craft chocolate and honey. the food was pretty good, solid choice and exactly what i needed for lunch pre race. we finally made our way home, relaxed a little, probably ended up in the pool and then all went our separate ways for dinner. julia, matthias, and i found our way to Peche and had a little of everything. the star at this restaurant is the whole grilled red snapper and no doubt, the smashed sweet potato, it was to die for. don't get the oysters, they are not as good as new england oysters. afterwards we hit up whole foods to pick up breakfast items. we bumped into the maple crew there and snapped a group photo.
that's a solid looking bunch!

we came home, talked a bit of running and what not and head to bed. i set my alarm for 4:30am (yeah, i know, it's not an ironman) so i could eat food. i had some almond yogurt with granola and dried cherries. i also drank 8 oz of kombucha, a banana, and a bottle of suja juice. i went back to bed. and just laid down and relaxed. my alarm rang again at 5:45. i immediately got dressed, went out and chugged a can of stumptown nitro cold brew. i had another half of a banana and just wasn't feeling like eating anymore. i went on to increase my power to weight ratio and we called and uber. unfortunately there were 6 of us (jay, tim, and ashley left earlier to get to the race earlier), so that means 2 of us had to sit in the trunk.
brian and i getting cozy in the trunk

we got dropped off at the race, found our way to the bag drop off and sort of lost each other. i waited with ben and nora for matthias and julia but eventually gave up. i decided that i wanted to get into the corrals and stay warm with a bunch of people. on my way over i bumped into the DRINKmaple crew and we snapped a sweet pre race selfie!
the crew minus jay and timmy
i walked with folks and we exchanged our good luck hugs etc when they got to their corral. i worked my way up to what became the front of corral 2. i stood in the cold for a good 10 minutes, watching my HR fluctuate between the high 70's and low 90's. i could tell i was a bit nervous at times. the national anthem was sung, she did a great job and the first waves were off. i had never been at the front of a wave before, but next thing i know, i was at the front line of corral 2. my good friend brad callow once told me years ago that "you can always make up time, but you can never make up energy". that has something i have held near and dear to my heart and race day planning. the idea is that if you run a perfect race, your first half time should be the same if not a hair bit slower than your 2nd half. ie; a perfect 3:30 race would be 1:46 first half, 1:44 second half. my goal was to run 3:30. i knew/felt i was in 3:15 shape, but i'm also realistic that a lot can go wrong and shaving 25 mins off a PR is pretty unheard of. not to mention i have bigger aspirations this year, this was simply to have a good time with friends, tick off another state, and getting a pr was just the cherry on top.

as the gun went off i caught myself for the first 50 yards keeping up with folks. i immediately knew this could only mean that i was going too fast. i checked my watch. sure thing 6:47. i gut checked myself and slowed down. one by one, people who looked much slower than me started blowing by me. by mile 1.5 i was near the back of the 2nd corral. by mile 1.75 i could see corral 2 distancing me and by mile 2 i was being overtaken by the corral 3 folks. am i really running this slow, or is everyone going out too fast. i kept asking myself that. i checked, rechecked, and then checked my watch again.. nope, i was on pace. 

my pace/goal was to run an 8:05 pace for the first 13 miles. coming out to 1:46ish. from 13-16 i would pick up the pace to 7:50 to even out the 5 seconds lost by going 8:05. from 16-20, i would pick up the pace a little more to 7:45. from 20-26.2 i give myself 2 options. 1) go all out, it's 10k, race it as that. 2) run 20-22 at a higher pace, then let loose at 24-26.2 if you are close to any time goals. 

racing with friends is great. i saw timmy and jay at around 3.75ish as they were coming the other way. we exchanged waives and quick words of encouragement. by the time i had reached the turn around and made my way back 4.5ish miles were already banked. at mile 5.5 ish i saw ben. he was rocking his head phones and in the zone. he looked good, i called to him, but he didn't hear me. not long after that, when i was at around mile 6.5-7ish, i saw matthias and julia. they both looked great. i also saw kate, then demello and they were looking strong as well. 

i was feeling strong, i kept checking my garmin to keep my pace in check. at around mile 8.6 i felt my left calf tweak. it was a sharp pain, middle gastroc. felt like the fascia between the two bellies tore. it was not good, but i figured i wasn't limping and would either run it off, or completely blow up. i let it go, took some salt and next thing i know i was at mile 13, still feeling strong. at the turnaround, i saw kate again and i also caught a glimpse of kimball.

from 13-16 i decided not to up my pace too much, i moved to try and hold a 7:50 or slightly below pace. i felt comfortable the whole time. i started to use gu in addition to my water and gatorade intake at each aid station. miles 13-17 were quite uneventful. they followed the western border of the park. once i finished mile 16 i decided to up the pace a little bit. i found a few folks that i caught up to, hung with for a second and decided to leave since they couldn't pace and were running 30-45 second pace swings. i think for most people mile 17-22 were the most difficult. the course was the most exposed here and there were some overpasses etc, making for mini "hills" perse. i caught timmy running the other way when i was between 18 and 19 miles. he was looking strong (apparently not feeling strong though) at around mile 20ish (after the turnaround) i saw kate, then john, then lynn who screamed to me that the 3:30 pace group was right in front of me, then kimball doing the kimball shuffle.

i knew the 3:30 pace group was not far ahead, i thought i was running a 3:30 pace and they were going fast. especially when they were a whole .5-3/4 mile in front of me at the turnaround. i decided that since it was mile 20ish i only had a 10k to go and would drop the pace and try to catch them. i was in quite the dilemma though, do i drop down to a sub 7 pace and risk blowing up before i caught them, or do i say more conservative, trust that i will catch them and drop only to a 7:30. that indecisiveness is the reason my pace was a 7:38 that mile. after that mile i was feeling strong and decided to go a little faster until i caught them at 23.4ish miles. from there i hung with them for a few seconds. the group, which was 30 strong at first dwindled down to the 2 pacers and 4 others, 2 were barely hanging on. the pacers had gone out too fast and blew everyone up. their pacing was terrible. i pushed onwards as i was feeling great. i decided that i had a chance of running 3:25 if i held my pace. i wanted to finish strong and run hard, but i also didn't want to shred my legs. i opted to find a good balance at the low 7's which i held to the finish. the last 1/4 mile i decided to just let loose and run a tad harder. i was able to find a good stride with little effort. my favorite quote was "go MAPLE, you're killing it....." followed by "ooooh shit, and he's doing it with the MANBUN!" as the crowd erupts in claps, cheers, and laughter. in the end, i crossed the finish line at 3:25:13 (garmin) and 3:25:57 (offical time). i had set a new pr, by over 14 minutes and i had run a 5 minute negative split. my final 5k time was sub 22 minutes and my final 10k time was sub 45 minutes.

i dropped to sub 6 to cross the finish line. not because i was chasing a time, i stopped looking at my watch, but because i was feeling good and i wanted to put an exclamation on my race. i finished, was greeted by julia, matthias, nora, and brian. we shared some laughter and comments and waited to cheer on ben. one by one my friends crossed the finish line. it was really great to see folks finish and share stories, struggles, and more laughter. 
seeing these two finish with such great times was a really awesome feeling. i wish i could have been there to scream at them as they crossed as they did for me. it was just awesome hearing about their race experience. just love it when people lose their race distance virginity.

lynn finished, then stayed in the gates and chatted with mark and me until kimball finished. that's what friends are for!


kimball post race, he's had better days. lol


making our way to get clothing bags, happy crew!

after hanging out a little bit i was starting to get stomach pains from the lack of food. i worked my way home alone (2 mile walk) and it was really nice to just reflect on what got me to the finish line.

thank you matthias for all those times you got on the bike with me when you didn't want to, thank you for all those times you got out and ran with me, at my pace, despite your heart rate being in the 190's. thank you for not complaining once, even though you have every right to. 

thank you julia aka "fisheater" for making sure i was well fed pre and especially post race. i'm know to travel for races and gaining 5lbs, but now, when i travel with you, i will be known to gain 10 lbs.

thank you to the DRINKmaple crew. from summertime century rides, to bricks, to the billion e-mail chains that end up costing me hundreds to thousands in race fees, to the awesome family of like minded individuals that opened their arms and brought me in. thank you for allowing me to be part of this great group.

thank you brad callow, chad vest, robin seila, sofia and her husband (i'm not going to refer to you unless you speak more in social settings, keith), and julia stoner for all your support and encouragement throughout the process of this race, it definitely means a lot. thanks to maureen for the 6 pack challenge, i'm sure the extra core workout helped me during the race worthy of a shout out. thanks to bethany for asking me a billion questions, which require a billion answers, which helps me reinforce why i train the way i train. thanks to all my dog walkers, you guys make my life so much easier!!!

big ups to the "did you run today" formerly secret facebook group and everyone in it. i made the group to make myself socially accountable. thanks to ya'll, it was fitting that i completed my goal of running 80 days out of 100 days and that the 80th day of running came on marathon day. there were moments (many of them) that i didn't want to run. there were moments i wanted to run 2 miles, or 5 miles when i ended up running 5 miles and 10 miles. it was you guys, posting your daily morning runs as i was still on the treadmill. it was you guys, who posted your evening splits while i was just doing a warmup run before climbing. it was you guys that i put in more miles than i ever had. 

special thanks to ben gebo. brother, you are such an infectiously positive human being. so much so, that i think you are on psychedelics, like.... all the time. which is highly possible i guess. lol. i'm pretty sure i could sell you the idea of running a marathon through syria as long as i smiled whilst doing so. acadia, savannah, and now new orleans.... iceland 2017 for sure! i still technically owe you a marathon of your choice and i am highly contemplating vermont....

i'm sure i'm missing a whole bunch of people. it's 1:30am and i really wanted to get this RR out before i just gave up and skipped it all together. i apologize if i missed anyone. you guys all kick ass. and honestly, if you don't want me to forget you on my RR, just come to the race and run with me! haha.

total tally for new orleans training:
dec 1st - feb 28th.
80 days run out of 90 days
95 runs in 90 days
(not including marathon on 90th day)
345 total miles run 
4.37 miles per day run
3.67 miles per run