Philadelphia Triathlon turned Duathalon

We had to wake up at 4am Sunday so everyone could meet in the lobby of the hotel and ride our bikes about 3 miles to the start line. We were in the transition area setting up our bikes and things when we hear over the loudspeaker from the race director that the Triathlon was just changed to a Duathlon, mean run bike run.

Some very sad news as to why this happend. The sprint distance race was held the day before and apparently a 40 yr old first time triathlete never made it out of the water. Everyone wears timing chips attached to their ankles and after 1.5 hours, they started searching for him. Sunday morning we walked down to the banks and could still see the boats and scuba divers looking for him. Out of respect and to not disrupt their search, we ran an extra 3 miles instead of swimming. They eventually found his body Sunday evening around 5:30pm. Sad.

So anyway, sorry to be a debbie downer but I have told this story about 10 times to coworkers. The first part of the run wasn't too bad because it was at 7am, sun wasn't that high in the sky yet. I ran the 5k in 22 minutes then switched to the bike. My bike time was 1:14 for the 40k two loop course which averaged 20.5mph. Put my shoes back on and set out for the 6.2 mile run. The first three miles were all in the shade but I was starting to feel it. I was still passing people and people were still passing me. Around mile 4 the trees went away and we were out in the open in the 95 degree heat. I was starting to fade... real fast. My 6 splits were as follows:

Mile 1 - 8 min

Mile 2 - 8 min

Mile 3 - 8:30 min

Mile 4 - 9 min

Mile 5 - 9:30 min

Mile 6 - 10 min

EEK! a 10 minute mile? terrible. I was walking thru every water stop, drenching myself with water and drinking gatorade. I just felt terrible. My stomach was in so much pain. I tried to make my feet go faster, to turn the legs over faster but I just couldn't. I ended with a finishing time of 2:35.57 which is respectable considering the intense heat. I think I was 47/170 for age group and 485/1800 for the race. Top 3rd in both but I was really dissapointed in my 10k time.

Then I ate about 6,000 calories.

Before the race started I met up with a guy I went to high school with who I knew was entered in the race. He gained a lot of weight and was racing Clysdale division (men over 200lbs) I see his facebook page and thought he was fast, no, I beat him by 4 minutes. He even has a $3,000 bike, with an aero helmet and whatever... Maybe you shouldn't have gotten fat, asshole!

Marathon training starts tomorrow

Now we wait...

Last night my wife and I signed a contract to put an offer on a house. We found out before hand that it is bank owned. Then we thought, "Sweet, we can get it at a discount because the banks probably just wants to get rid of it." Our Realtor tells us that there is already an offer at the bank but they have not made a decision yet. Then we think, "shit, now we have to make a stronger offer than the other guy or they will just reject it."

A before and after picture of the house. As you can see, it's pretty small but with on me qualifying for it, it's going to have to be small. They did add a very nice front porch and the entire roof is brand new. With no air condition the downstairs does stay relatively cool because of the huge overhang.

It is not my ideal house, but for 120k, this is the nicest house we have seen in our showings. No mold, no falling apart walls and hopefully it will pass a FHA inspection.

Wish us luck! Housewarming party to follow!

Keystone Memorial Triathlon

Saturday I competed in the Keystone Warrior Memorial Triathlon. A sprint distance event at Ft. Indiantown Gap, PA. It was the inaugural year of this even and they did a pretty good job putting the event on.

Friday after work, my friend and I who also was competing drove out there to pick up our packets and run the 3 mile course. It is only about 20 minutes from work so it was doable. We also met up with another friend while waiting in line so there were four of us running the course. I felt the craving for Chinese food for some reason so my carbo loading dinner was a pint of chicken lo mien.

I really wanted to watch the Flyers game Friday night but knew I had to get to bed early because the Tri started at 7am with the transition area opening at 5:30. After I knew the Flyers had it locked up, I went to bed around 9:30-10pm.

The night before a race my mind always keeps me awake, along with the amazing lightening storm I could see through my closed eyelids. I got up two times before I finally fell asleep because I go over the race in my head and kept forgetting things (like my goggles and swim cap). After I packed those two things, I finally drifted off to sleep.

4:30am rolls around and my alarm goes off and I'm up. My brother in law works the overnight shift so comes home around 4:45am. There were 3 out of 4 of us up and moving around at 5am. Doesn't happen too early. We leave around 5:15 and get to the park 30 min later. I walk my bike to the transition area and see all my fellow TnT peeps. I never noticed how nice it is to have friends competing in the same race. Especially a triathlon. We chatted, warmed up together and racked our bikes next to each other. I always feel that I am invading my neighbor's space but it was nice because we were on opposite sides and shared the space.

Around 6:50 we all put our wetsuits on and get in the water for a little warm up. A quote from our Tri Coach "There are two types of triathletes, those who pee in their wetsuit and those who lie about it." I peed twice while waiting for the gun to go off.

About 1/2 way thru the 750 meter lake swim I almost stopped and started laughing. The swim was an upside down triangle and between the first and second boey, this guy cut in front of me and started swimming in the completely wrong direction. Every time I took a breath, he kept swimming further and further away from me. I had to pick my head up several times just to make sure I was going in the right direction.

My swim time ended up being 12:30 and my wife told me I was about 15th out of the water (out of 224 finishers). I have always been a confident swimmer so that part of the race is pretty easy for me. The bike portion is a bit different.

I get to the transition area, wipe my feet off, put my socks and cycling shoes on, helmet, and race belt and I'm off. Immediately I remembered I forgot to stretch my hip flexors which have been very tight the last several rides. Then people start to pass me... and pass me... and pass me. And then it starts to rain... and rain... and rain. It took me about 5 miles for my hip flexors to loosen up (15.5 mile course). I had my sunglasses on to block the rain but they were getting so blurry I had to take them off. I had a nice chat around mile 12 with a guy I kept going back and forth with. He said "you always pass me on the downhills, I got nothing on you." I said "yeah, i have a few pounds on you but as soon as we get to the uphills, you catch me." There was one decent downhill right after that and I never saw him again.

We had to make a 90 degree turn into the parking lot back to transition. There were guys telling us to turn but I also noticed an ambulance coming out. What to do... what to do. The volunteers weren't stopping either the bikers or ambulance. The guy in front of me locks up his breaks and puts his foot down, right in front of the ambulance. Stopping the ambulance and allowing me to sneak around! Needless to say I was in a big gear and cranked it to the dismount line.... rather to the dismount area. My wife said I was pretty much the only one going full speed to the dismount area. There was no "line" to dismount so I kept going around the corner. I locked up my back tire and basically did a BMX style stop like when we were kids. Not so fun on skinny tires while it's raining!

I get back to the transition area and now my dad is there, trying to have a conversation with me while I'm rushing to put my running shoes on. "Are you OK?" he asks. I said "yeah, I’m fine, almost get hit by an ambulance and slide off the road but I'm good." He's a runner and has done triathlons before so I don't really know why he was asking if I was OK or not. I didn't really ask him either.

Running is my strongest discipline. Thankfully. I felt like I was in high school again running this course. It was all gravel roads and grassy fields. One guy passed me on the run course right at the beginning. He was in my age group too! Bastard! But my legs loosened up and I began to hit my stride. I sprinted thru the finish line passing a few people in the last 150 yards. My finishing time was 1:22.02. A PR by almost 8 minutes from last year.

Then I hung out by the finish and cheered on all my friends and made them sprint through the finish line, drill sgt. style! (literally, screaming at them to sprint and pass one more person)

Out of 21 men age 25-29 I finished 10th. Out of 224 finishers in the race I finished 36th.

Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon is June 27th. Double the distance. This was just a warmup!

My first official 'guided house tour'

Last night, after I finished my swim at the local lake, I met my realtor to look at a house for sale. Realizing the previous owner passed away, and this house has not been lived in or cared for in several months, you have to imagine the potential this house has.

First, the setting. This house sits on one acre of a mostly wooded lot. We were standing on the back porch and all you could hear was birds chirping. It was very peaceful. You could barly see the neighbor's house on either side thru the trees. It also help that the house to the right is a beautiful log cabin.

Second, the garage. As you can see from the picture above, it's a two car over sized garage. It can easily fit two cars, a motorcycle, and probably a boat if you angle if correctly. One of my criteria in searching for a house is a two car garage. Not that my cars are very nice but I'm not a fan of cleaning snow off my car or having leaves clog up the drains in my engine.

Third, the basement. There was a distinct odor in the basement and my realtor said some animals got in and did their thing in there so they ripped up all the carpet. It was mostly an unfinished basement with 3 rooms. Family room, laundry room and probably a HUGE 4th bedroom. Just needs a little drywall and it would be perfect.

Fourth, the living area. Not too bad, very dated. The kitchen counters were an ugly shade of mustard on fake wood floors. But again, this house is about potential. The kitchen, as you can see, is pretty big with a nice peninsula/breakfast bar. The window points out back and has a great view of the woods.

This is only the 2nd house we have seen and after watching many episodes of House Hunters, I realized I'm nothing like the buyers on that show. I could basically make anything work. As long as it has a 2 car garage and a nice yard, I could make anything work.

Now I just have to convince my wife to come out and take a look at it, oh yeah, and find money to pay for it.

Fastest 5k EVER

Saturday morning I woke up super early to run a 5k about 30 minutes away. All my other Tri training buddies were in their own triathlons this weekend that I didn't enter (I have one in 2 weeks, and 4 weeks). My goal was to run it in sub-20 minutes which comes out to a 6:26 mile. I don't think I put a time in like that since my XC days in HS.

The gun goes off and about 10 people (kids, well HS kids) sprint out in front of me. I was like, "screw this, I'm not sprinting, I'll just wait for them to slow down." And, by the 1/2 mile mark, they did. I caught up with the smaller group and ran with them. I hit the first mile at 5:51. I say to the guy next to me "man, that first mile was way too fast." The second mile I hit around 12:20 which was more my goal pace. I passed a few more people and only saw one guy in front of me. If I would have known he was in my age group, I would have tried to pass him.

We turn the corner back on the main road and I'm searching for the finish. By this time my legs are starting to burn. I'm starting to hurt but trying my hardest to hang on. I passed a kid around mile 2.5 and when we hit mile 3, they called out my split of 18:32, then I hear 18:37. Shit, he's only 5 seconds back. “This HS kid better not try and catch me!” Only 1/10 of a mile to go and I had 1:28 to run it in. I round the last corner into the parking lot and see the finish... clock is ticking. It's at 19:40 when I see it and at this point I'm not concerned about the kid behind me because I left him in the dust. I cross the finish line in 19:54 (6:23/mile) and hit my watch. The GPS was pretty accurate and red 3.12 (an actual 5k is 3.11). I think the mile splits were off by a few feet but regardless, I beat my goal and survived.

I check out the finisher board and, holy shit, I came in 3rd place. Now, this is a small town race with only 86 entries, but still, I was happy. Then I look closer, the winner, some 15 year old kid beat me by over 2 minutes! Then, even close, I saw the 2nd place guys is also 29 years old. Damn it! I really thought I won my age group. So I'm telling people I finished 3rd overall, not 2nd in my age group because I feel 3rd place overall sounds better than a age group victory.

After the race we are hanging around for the awards, and they finally start congregating outside, about an hour later. Then they tell us all the 2nd place age group awards were misplaced or something and someone went out to buy some gift cards. They called my name for 2nd place in my age group and I didn't even get to go up to the front and get an award. I sat there, while people clapped, and wasn't happy. They told us that we will get it in the mail this week. Honestly, I would have rather gotten a medal because that is actually a tangible object, not $25 to a local pizza joint. (and by local, i mean in the small town 30 min away from where I live, so to use it, we have to drive there).

On baby news, we find out the sex of our baby on June 14th!

our new place

It's official, we moved out. Handed in our apartment keys yesterday. Dropped off the last bit of stuff at storage and we are offically moved in with my sister. It really has not hit us yet because all four of us have not been home at the same time yet. This weekend, with our parents coming in to town, it's going to get crowded. I just hope my wife finds a job soon so we can move on, buy a house and get ready for the baby.

Training wise, this has not been a good week. My schedule has been switched around so much because of moving all the furniture out I wasn't able to get many workouts in. I think I am also going to miss my normal running and biking routes. I do like finding new ones though, but they are not as nice as my normal ones because it's more in the city where my sister lives.

I finally got my team in training triathlon outfit...

First Post

Hi,

Welcome to my blog. I'm new to this so I'm just going to babble for awhile. Still learning the blogging thing. As my title reads, I'm in training to be many several things. Most important, is a new father. My wife and I found out about a month and a half ago that she is pregnant. We have only been trying to have a kid for about two months so I guess everything works. We are due around the middle of November. I am also training for several triathlons and marathons coming up this summer/fall. My wife tells me that my training will be cut back once the baby comes. I love to exercise and told her I need some 'me' time at the gym or pounding the pavement.

So I guess this blog will be about growing as a person, trying to be the best parent I can be, and the best person I can be. I like when other bloggers add pictures so I think I'll get my camera out more often.

Enjoy!

Jason

this is not me but looks a lot like me. I'll have those arms soon!