It's Back

A few years ago, I had a nasty crash on my mountain bike and broke my collarbone. Somehow, a week after the crash I developed a drug resistant Staph infection (MRSA). Two operations, a couple months of physical therapy, a month of IV antibiotics and a month of oral antibiotics later everything was great. Well not really, but I got through it.
Fast forward to today. After Kona, I took a great couple of days of R&R on Oahu with Dave and Joanna. We did a great hike through Manoa Falls and a couple trips to the Ocean. I came back and ran a little XC race and I thought everything was great. Well, I was still tired from Kona but having fun. (Picture of Joanna and Me at an overlook on the Manoa Falls Trail)

Later that day, I say a little bump on my leg I thought was an ingrown hair. By Sun, it doubled in size and I had another one on my right quad. Fortunately, I had a doctor’s appointment on Mon. Originally, I had hoped for just a flu shot and my asthma medication but now I had something more interesting.
My doctor took a sample of the puss for cultures and gave me some antibiotics to take care of it. Gradually, over the next few days they stopped growing and started to shrink. Thank God the drugs are working.
On Sat, I ran the another race for BSK and the Running Company. The pumpkin patch 4 miler. It started great but on the second lap my legs exploded and I lost over a minute to the group I was running with. On the bright side, I had a great time with the BSK crew but wow, ironman is taking it’s toll on me.
Later that day, I open my mail and got the test results from my culture. The results are………..Heavy Staph, Methicillin resistant. Yes, that’s right boys and girls I have successfully caught two MRSA infections in less than 4 years. I think this is a record that no one wants to match. Fortunately, they caught this one early and my doctor chose one of the few antibiotics that worked against this strain. Lucky me!
I don’t think this is helping my recovery. I thought I got all my bad luck out for the year with my crash in July. I guess I had a few more sins to pay for this year. Oh well, I am getting better and no hospital stay this time.

Kona 2008

This year’s ironman was going to be an interesting race. It was held 14 weeks after my nasty bike crash where I broke my jaw in 3 places and my elbow. So, I knew going into the race I wasn’t going to set any PRs but thought I could have a solid a day.
The best part about racing Kona is being in Hawaii. This year I was arriving in Wed, racing Sat and then meeting up with Dave and Joanna in Oahu for a few days of relaxation before returning home.
As everyone knows, traveling to a big race can be as much stress as actually racing. Traveling to Kona this year turned out to be interesting experience. Dave Esa was kind enough to volunteer to drive me to the airport at 5AM. Everything went great until I was standing in line and realized I didn’t have my helmet!! I sent a text message to Dave who picked it up from my apartment but he wasn’t getting to Kona until Fri night. OK, the race was Sat so I would have it for the race but I didn’t have for check-in and race training. So, I did the logical thing and tried unsuccessfully to borrow one and then bought a cheap one from Wal-Mart for check-in and returned it after the race. I have 3 helmets I don’t need a fourth.
Everything else leading up to the race was pretty uneventful. I checked out the expo and saw a few friends I hadn’t seen a couple years. I really enjoy big races for that reason. I have moved around the county over the past 10 years and it is great to see old friends.
On race day, Charisa and her entourage gave me a ride to the start line. It was great to have someone to talk to and go through body marking with. After exchanging my helmet and going over my bike, I did a little warm-up, and sat around near my bike talking to an old friend and wasting time until the start.
The start of any ironman has some great aspects but generally really suck. As I walked down onto the beach, it is an amazing feeling to look at all the people watching and your fellow competitors about to hop into the water. For every yin, there is a yang and too many people in too tight a place made Kona this year particularly nasty. I should have know it was going to be a bad day when I moved two times before the race started trying to find some free space. I never really found it. This was the first time I was hitting people while treading water awaiting the cannon.
I new my swim was going to be slower but I didn’t realize how much more physical it was going to be. I spent the entire swim looking for open water and getting hit. I was kicked in the face on at least three different occasions in addition to the standard pushing. The way out to the turn around felt as if it was taking forever, but I kept telling myself it was OK, you might be swimming into a current. Once I made the turn for shore I realized, no current I was just going really slow. Eventually, I exited the water and ran into the change tent. All the chairs were full so I sat on the ground and changed. Once I excited the tent and saw all the bikes gone I knew my swim was ugly but behind me know.
I headed out onto the bike knowing my day was just going to get better. The good news about swimming really slow is you get to catch some of your friends and shout a few words of encouragement as you go by. Just after looping through town, I passed Charisa who was riding strong and started moving my way through the field. For the first part of the bike, the wind was completely calm. However, about the time I was thinking this is going to be a fast day the winds picked-up to a strong gust. I found the sudden build really unique. In my other Kona years, the wind blew hard all day or gradually built up throughout the bike. Not this year, it was almost as if someone turned a switch and the wind appeared.
Once I made the turn toward Hawi, I caught Kim. We exchange a few words where he said it wasn’t his day and I told to stay strong and his luck will change. A little later, I saw Kate moving along and then Patrick on his shinny new Isaac and liteweight wheel both flying toward home and way ahead of me. The wind was strong but I felt OK so I pushed to the turn where Steven and Brian were on the side of the road cheering me along as they awaiting Charisa. As I arrived at the special needs bags, I saw Terry spotted on the side of the road grabbing everything from her bag and not risking crashing while getting her food.
I got my bottles and food and was able to keep rolling along. The wind on the way back is the typical cross-tail until the turn and a few segments pushed me enough to get off the areobars and onto the cowhorns. I was feeling good through about 80 and then my power started moving the wrong way. The next 30 miles took forever, and was not a good feeling. I think this is where some of my injury time showed. However, I was able to keep it rolling and got to transition knowing only a marathon remained.
As I exited transition, I saw 7 hrs on the clock and knew I was way back. I few strides into the run I got a few words of encouragement from Paula and started to think what positives can I pull out of this day. Well, despite how I ended on the bike I was running OK, so I decided to focus on a strong marathon. Nothing crazy because a couple minutes wouldn’t matter but definitely click off a respectable time.
The first part was out and back on Alii, ~ 10 miles, I just keep telling myself to run slow and save yourself for the second half. During this out and back segment, I was able to see Patrick flying along (3:01 marathon in Kona is impressive) followed closely by Daniel. Later I saw Charisa and Terry cruising along and Kim and Kate with, “is it over yet” look on their faces.
Once out on the queen K, the ash from the volcano was blacking out the sun. It was still hot and humid but no blistering run or hot pavement. Strange conditions. I felt OK until mil 16 and then fought myself for the next few miles before gathering myself for the finish. On the run, I just kept telling myself, “14 weeks ago you were sitting on the ground with 4 broken bones and today you’re racing an ironman. Life is good keep going.”
All good things come to an end and after 10 hr 3 min and change my ironman was over. I crossed the finish line and was done! For those of you who don’t know my splits: swim 1 hr 10 min; road 5hr 29 min and ran 3 hr 15 min. Add in some transitions and seconds to get my final time.
Afterwards, I headed over to the message tent and got a brief rub down and some much needed time of simply not moving. After some coffee, I went over for some food and stories with friends. I thought I was doing OK, so I pulled my stuff out of transition and road back to my condo. I got back and started put items away and suddenly I was really sick. My body temp went through the roof and all the food I had eaten came back up. I hoped into the shower and began to cool myself down with cold water....In the past, I have had part hot and cold and then gradually turn off the hot until I can barely stand it. While this time, the hot was off and I was fine in the shower. After 15to 20 min, I cooled down and started to return to normal and enjoy the rest of the evening. I want to say thanks to everyone who made this an amazing season. There are too many of you to list but I definitely couldn’t of done this without you.

The article and off to the big island

The other day I got a great e-mail.  Somehow Don Norcross, a local San Diego writer, had heard about my crash and my plan to still race Ironman. Best of all he wanted to do a story for ironman.com about me.  Seeing as I have only been interviewed a couple times in my life and love to talk, I said heck yeah.  After a couple long conversations with Don, I think I pretty much had told my entire life’s story, he had everything he needed for the piece.  More amazingly, he somehow managed to sift through all the information I have given him and wrote a great story.  The link is here

On Wed, I take off to Kona.  I can’t wait.  Several of my friends and training partners are already there.  I don’t have a lot of vacation time so I prefer to show up late and enjoy myself after the race.  Also, as much as I enjoy the Ironman, sometimes Ironman can get a bit much.  I find that if I show up at the last minute I don’t have enough time for it to get under my skin before the race.  Now, hopefully my taper will be right on and I will have the best race I can.  The one thing I hate about big tapers is you always feel bad until a couple hours into the race.  Now I just have to trust I did my best to prepare and then go out have a great day and lots of fun.  Wish me luck because I will need it.

The Long Road Back

            Well, after the accident I spent 2 weeks with my jaw wired completely shut.  Imagine drinking all your meals through a straw with your mouth closed.  Not bad for a bad or two but gets pretty old after two weeks.  Nothing taste like soup you have to dilute three fold with broth and then blend for minutes before “eating”/drinking.  During this time, no exercise was done and lot of watching the Tour went on. 

            After they cut the wires off my mouth, I began physical therapy—I could only open my mouth about 18 mm, normal person is 50mm.  PT was not fun.  My therapist stuck his hand in my mouth and pried my mouth open.  While I still couldn’t open my mouth much, and don’t even think about chewing, I was free to breath and got onto the trainer and elliptical.  I was so excited to get a workout in, you couldn’t believe it.  Unfortunately, this is where my broken elbow became a problem.  I could only hold onto the elliptical with one hand and the bike wasn’t much better. 

            Fortunately, everything kept improving.  My elbow healed enough for me to feel comfortable on the elliptical after 3 weeks. By week 4 and felt OK on the bike, so I started to sneak out onto the road for rides.  While brave, I thought I would try to have some semblance of sanity by using a full face helmet---you know one of those that the mountain bike/BMW people use.  I looked like a booblehead figure going down the road.  I think my first weekend out everyone I know saw me.  What was even better was too look at the random riders as I road down the coast.  I swear they were looking at me so much I thought they were going to crash!

            Gradually, my body healed and after 6 long weeks I was cleared to run, my elbow had healed enough to start swimming.  The most important thing was I could start chewing food again!  OK, I wasn’t eating steaks or raw carrots, but I could have a banana.  All the PT and exercises had paid off and I could open my moth to over 40 mm and I was free to resume living!!

            As many of you know, living is a lot about racing.  I was registered for Santa Barbara triathlon a few weeks later so I did it.  I was fortunate to have a friend in SB that played an excellent host for the weekend.  They cooked me a great meal the night before and volunteered for the race the next day.  It was great to drive to the race with someone and not have to worry about sneaking out of the house on race day.

            I warmed up and was ready for life to return to normal.  The gun went off and I ran into ocean.  This is where reality met me head on.  I hadn’t been able to swim for 5 weeks and my right arm was still recovering from the break so I was really slow.  This meant I was in the chaos of the start.  Keep in mind I wasn’t completely confident with my jaw and I spent the entire swim looking for open water and not even worrying about the course.  Needless to say, it was the longest swim I have done in a while and felt ten times longer.  I got out in just over 24 min and was off onto the bike.

            The bike course I knew from my time in grad school in SB.  It was 34 miles with rolling hills.  It was also the first time I had ridden my bike with a normal helmet after the crash.  It felt so good to have the wind on my face and not be roasting like I did with the full face helmet.  About 5 miles into the bike, I calmed down from the swim and the fun began.  I road 1hr 34 min and felt strong coming off the bike.  My host screamed some words of encouragement as I ran out of transition and I was off to the run.

            The run is perfect for me.  It is 10 miles with a couple flat miles at the beginning to get your rhythm and then a nice long hill to the turn-around.  I picked up a runner around mile 2 and he stuck to me.  I kept expecting to drop him but I just couldn’t.  Ever little trick I tried just didn’t work.  He stuck to me like glue.  To make it worse, on the way down hill through the neighborhood he, started to push the pace.  I made the decision to push the last 2 flat miles hard and see just how much he/me had in the tank.  After about half a mile, I felt him drop off and I surged like crazy.  I put a nice gap on him and finished in mid 58’s for the run, second fastest of the day! 

            I placed 3^rd in my age-group and 8^th overall.  Not bad considering only a couple months before I was sitting on the ground with 4 broken bones.  I had a great lunch and beer at Brophy Brothers looking into the Pacific with my PhD advisor and thought how lucky I was to be back after everything.  Now for Kona.  It should be fun.