WHERE AND WHEN
We all have that one route we look forward to hitting, that amazing trail or country road, share and share alike.
Tell us about a stellar run, or a funny experience that happened while out and about, times you got lost, or a run in a new location, like while on vacation.
When and where God met you on a run, the beauty he showed you or the small still voice you heard.
The crazy weather you encounterd, the storm that blew in on you, or that perfect day.
How about some race reviews, the wheres, whats, whos, great finishes or the crawls across the finish lines.
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March 18, 2010 at 9:30 am
warrst
Limp accoss the finish line, you couldent have got it more right. 37 miles of bliss, fun, pain, perserverence, a few tears, and one of the best buddys a guy could ever have, MY FIRST EVER ULTRA, yippy feakin A
it was a great day for the event, overcast with a few breaks in the clouds letting the sun peak through, around 25 crazy folks out there getting ready to traverse from nine mile to the state line along the centennial trail. the very unofficial start was a few minutes late, with Ken saying its 7:03 lets go, so we went. pretty uneventful for the first 9 miles to the first aid station set up by my Foxy wife, then shortly there after we ran into Tina, Jan and Russ from out saturday am running group, VERY COOL, as they plodded along some of the miles with us, Ken caught up to us again at the top of doomsday and got to spend some milage with him to riverfront park,
did well up to the half way point, got some soup broth, never underestimate the soup broth, woooweee that was good stuff!!! then started doing some galloway method with David, good times for all, through and past the marathon distance, OK so then mile 29, i started to fall apart physically and mentally, uggghhh this sucks, my IT bands were like a boyscouts knot tying partice rope, big golfball sized knots, i tried running through it, without much success to say the least, finally at around mile 32.5 or so I started to do some pressure point therapy on my legs and slowly started to get some relief, and the last couple of miles went much better, and Thank you Paul for sticking with me, you dident need to do that you know, just shows what a great Friend and Training Partner I have in you!! so 6 hrs 41 minutes and 31 seconds later we finished, and what a surprise when I saw the video I was smiling when I finished.
Now a hugh kudos for all the support from Brenda my Wife, Sandra Pauls wife and all the excellent folk from team blaze they are the best of the best!
and congratualtions to all who made this journey for whatever reason.
so question, Whens the next one?????
March 20, 2009 at 7:11 am
warrst
TRI TRI AGAIN…
A STORY ABOUT MY FIRST TRIATHLON.
This is a story from 2005, yes I know thats awhile ago. But it gives a history of sorts I suppose.
When I was in high school I considered myself to be a lean mean running machine and ran track and cross country for Northwest Christian High. After high school I got a brand new state of the art Motobecane road bike, well it was state of the art for its day at least. So road biking became my new passion, it was fast and less demanding on my joints, this was cool. Well time passed and mountain bikes came on the scene, now this is what I was all about, where were these babies when I was building jumping bikes out of old Schwinns as a kid and breaking myself up? Ok all this to say I always thought of myself as being at least somewhat athletic. Then my breakfast of choice and my ice cream bowls got bigger and bigger and bigger and so did I, OH MY. I knew I was not in peak shape but was also in a bit of denial until I saw a picture of myself at my oldest daughters graduation, that can’t be me I thought, so I looked into the mirror, I mean really looked. Sad to say it was me, all of it. I set out to reduce the amount of me staring back at me, but wondered how can I get back into shape and make it fun and fresh? Well we got some great friends who live on the west side of Washington who had been competeing in Triathlons and suggested that I give it a Tri. (yes pun intended). What have I got to lose, Oh yeah about 35 pounds thats what; so I set off to train for a sprint distance triathlon for that June of 2005.
Yes I know that was a long intro to tell you about my first triathlon experience, and if your still with me here we go……
The morning of the event was very wet, cold and windy. The temps had dropped to an unusual (for that time of year) 48 degrees. The rain was coming down in torrential sheets. The wind was relentless. I knew I was undertrained, mostly in the swim leg and completely inexperienced in what I was about to undertake. But at least the swim was in a pool indoors and was only 500 meters. 500 meters are you kidding me!! (At that time 500 meters was a hugh distance and intimidating to me) So I got ready to start my swim heat, just dont take off too fast I told myself, slow and steady gets you through. The horn blows and off I go, like a jack rabbit in water, my stupid competitive nature had got the better of my good judgement. Needless to say that did not last long. After I made about two laps I was moving more like a water soaked log! Onto my side I went to finish out with a nice slow side stroke. Just get to the bike leg became my montra. Then around the 16th lap I felt hairy legs instead of the pool edge, ugghh, I guess some contestant wanted to soak his feet in my lane! Well that so took my mind out of my concentration and montra, which at that time was all I was hanging onto. Soon after that another participant decided rules were to be broken got into my lane to warm up and of cousre a head on collision nearly occured. Afterall I wasent looking for someone to be swimming right at me! WOW did that muddle up my already poor swim, but I just kept on keeping on and finally dragged myself out of the pool after about 14 minutes.
On to transition one, no more swimming, yippy, as I approaced my staging area, the person next to me figured I was so slow that I probably wouldent mind if they tossed their gear onto my towel. Right there on top of my gear was their helment, shoes, gloves, etc, so I kindly tossed them over to them, smiled and got ready to ride. Now this is my time I thought, the bike leg is going to be my strongest of the three. The I can attitde started to rise in me. Well the transition for this race is indoors in a field house, and I had forgot about the weather outside, hopped onto the old Motobecane. Yes thats right my 1980 road bike, yup my 25 year old road bike, ok you get the idea. I went out the door into a sunami!! well at least thats how it felt. By the end of mile one I was 10 pounds heavier with the soaking I was getting and felt like I was stiffening up like a board. BRRRRRR. I pushed on into 20+ MPH headwinds, just waiting to get to the turn around and get the tail wind for the way back. Phew that time finally came. Eventually I was getting close to the end, (afterall it was only a 10 mile ride) but I was glad it was coming to an end and with about a mile to go, into view came a short steep hill, a overshift on my part and pow!!! My rear derailer went into my spokes, my rear dropout bent into a 90 degree mess and I was stopped dead in my tracks! I dismount (at least I didnt go down) look up and to my delight I see my beautiful, wonderful angel of a wife with our friend from the west side who was there to support me with the SUV just ahead, so I picked up my poor old road bike and threw it, yes you heard me right, Threw it onto the bike rack and thought OK so the run may be a little longer than I planned but I’m still in this until the bitter end.
This was my first experience at the thought, “Where are my legs? I can see them but I can’t feel them and what are these rubber bands where my legs use to be.” Just keep going man; I thought, you have done two of the three, well thankfully it was only a three miler, plus my extra mile or so to get back to the transition area, so I trudged up the hill, looking and feeling like a soaked rat. By the time I got to the transition I could almost feel my feet under me and no one said anything to me coming in without a bike so I threw off my helment and kept going. (I was wearing my running shoes on the bike leg) Just go as far as you can I kept telling myself over and over. I did keep going ad lo and behold I finished, soaking wet and feeling kinda sick but I crossed that line! Not only had I finished but I beat my goal of 90 minutes by 9 whole minutes. WOW I had done it! And all I could think to myself was……
THAT WAS SOO MUCH FUN…..AND…..I CAN’T WAIT TO DO THAT AGAIN!
And so I did, and still do
So the moral of this tale is, as the title puts it….just TRI TRI TRI AGAIN.
Note, the incidents with the other contestants were not intentional on anyones parts, this particular race is designed for first timers and we were all in the same boat, confused, nervous and out of our comfort zones, so no bad feelings. Well on that day it would have been nice to be in a boat. HA HA
Also the Motobecane was resurrected I was able to have a new dropout welded in as the frame is chromium steel, I dont race on it any more but its on my trainer at home and still serves me well. So in the long run (disclaimer time) NO BIKES WERE (PERMANENTLY) HURT IN THE MAKING OF THIS STORY.
Happy days
Steve-o
PS hope to hear some fun stories from all of you out there
March 9, 2010 at 3:32 pm
trimoot
Hey Steve-o, that was a great story! Sorry it’s taken me this long to read it!
This is another event that you can use to toughen up the head when things get tough….like they probably will when we do Ironman this year!
Good job on finishing and good job on the story! Great read!
Paul
March 17, 2009 at 6:10 am
warrst
MARVEL COMICS SHOULD BE CALLING
GIVE THE MAN A CAPE
Help me congratulate TRIMOOT ULTRA MAN on finishing his first ultra marathon earlier this month in fine fashion. 37 miles in the cold snowy and windy month of march. You can read all about it and see some pictures by checking out his blog, there is a link to it in our Blogroll.
GREAT JOB TRIMOOT YOU DID US PROUD!!!
Steve-o
March 9, 2010 at 3:34 pm
trimoot
Well Jeepers…guess I should have read this last year! But guess what? You’re doing the Ultra this year too! YAHOO! Can’t wait! Can’t wait to see us limping accross the finish line after (hopefully) finishing 37 miles…oh ugh!
March 12, 2009 at 11:53 am
warrst
Just got back from an easy 5.5 along the centennial trail, it was crisp out and icy in places…..but, i saw sunshine, yea sun, canadian geese, robins, lots and lots of robins, and marmots darting to and fro…sooooo….thats gotta be a good sign don’t you think, huh springs in the air?
Steve-o