Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Silence before the Storm

The popular saying is always “The Calm before the storm”, but I find that laughable. There is nothing calm about anyone before the big storm goes down, so I’m renaming it “The silence before the storm.” Everyone in the room sees the 800 lb gorilla trying to blend in and mingle with the bow tie and slacks on. But we all know he’s there, and we all know why. That’s a lot of how I feel about Ironman Coeur d’Alene this Sunday. There may be silence, but I know what’s coming. And oddly enough, the emotion isn’t fear, or even relief that it’s gonna be over in one short week. Nope, the dominant emotion is silence. Is that even an emotion, you ask? Well, it is now.
See, I know it’s gonna hurt, I know I’ll be tested and stretched and maybe even hurl a few times. But I signed up for this, my preparation has been absolutely flawless, and there are no excuses coming into this weekend. I’m gonna “run what I brung” fitness-wise, and see where the cards fall. If you are curious on Sunday, I’m number 287 or 288. Now how I got 2 numbers for the race, I’ll never know. Maybe they’ll let me bring a friend to jump in and do the race. Any takers? But for sure, the lady at Ironman headquarters told me no dice on getting 2 schwag bags. God forbid I get 2 license plate holders!
Anyway, I just wanted to take a quick second as well to thank all of you for the well wishes and votes of confidence for this weekend. No matter how many races you do, or where you fall in the race results, its always a big confidence booster to hear people are excited for you and will be cheering you on. Thank you, really. I can’t say it enough.
As for Sunday, the storm is coming. Whatever takes place in the week before doesn’t take my eye off of the 800 lb gorilla waiting to throw down on Sunday. I may be silent and calm now, but come Sunday…it’s on.

Thanks for reading

Monday, June 9, 2008

Banned in the USA!!!


I figured I would hit up a little 2Live Crew in the title, and it may explain what exactly went down this weekend. If you'll look above, you'll see the REAL results of the Heatwave Triathlon in Ridgeland, Mississippi. However, if you went to the awards or looked online, you'll notice that my name is inexplicably left out of the results. How could this be, you ask? Well, it seems that USAT has McGruff the crime dog as an official. He deemed my Pimp daddy Jens Voigt Bell helmet illegal for this race. Now McGruff, being from the slow speaking part of the south(R_I_D_G_E_L_A_N_D, M_I_S_S_I_P_E_E), could not fathom that this helmet was not bought illegally by me and smuggled across the pond. No, this inbred Einstein was blown away that it was actually Jens' helmet(since his name was all over it), and was given to me as a gift. And no way could a helmet not for retail sale in the US could have a CSPC sticker (which it did). But the largest flaw in this whole fiasco, other than this guy's lack of tact and awareness of personal hygiene, was the fact that no official was at transition before the race to even check helmets. If he would have told me no way before the race, no matter what, I would have gotten my back up helmet. Instead he waited till I was out on the run to google the entire world of helmets so he could present his judge and jury verdict deeming me expelled from the race. Nevermind those silly iPod's people had on the course, or that he only checked my helmet. Even more curious was the "winner" of my age group was also from R_I_D_G_E_L_A_N_D. Interesting....

Anyway, aside from the assinine crap, it was cool to race with Jeremy and Will again. The swim was great (the blurry photo says 9:37, 11th fastest o/a), the bike was decent, even though I was still feeling pretty flat from the 1st week of taper (read, I didn't feel human yet, but not like I was run over by stampeding cows as was the situation earlier in the week). The run, well, I got to stop 3 times in the first 2 miles so I could remind myself why we don't mix strong gatorade for a short brutal-fast race. Silly rookie mistake, after 5 years in Triathlon. Maybe I'm the slow one? After I finally got rid of the stitch, it came together well. My "race" was good enough for 4th place overall. Before the McGruff incident, of course.

And yes, Jeremy beat me by 30 seconds. I outswam and biked him. But he got me BAD in the transitions, and on the run. So the belt was passed on to him. Even though I got beat, it was nice to see that spikey, gelled up club hair back in the transition area. Rivalry renewed!

After that episode, it's back to focusing on Coeur d'Alene, and getting mentally ready to go to the well for Ironman on the 22nd. Looking back now, it's just crazy that the race is here, and we're so close to dropping the gloves and gettin' it on. I feel that my preparation was as good as it can be. Now I just need to be patient (I know, it's a virtue...I don't have), and make some really good nutrition decisions so I don't pack on any Fattie McTaper weight. I also need to apparently wear a McGruff AND USAT approved helmet for CdA.

And as for someone calling me the "Bad Boy of Triathlon"? I have a bike with skull and crossbones on it. You think that's an accident?....