Tully's Coffee

Tully's is an anomaly to me. Here I sit, mooching their new free Wi-Fi and sucking down a $2.14 steamed milk with Spiced Pumpkin and whipped cream in the heart of Starbuck's land. Some brilliant entrepreneurs thought back in 1992 that Seattle would be a great place to start another major coffee chain, like we didn't have enough places to get our drug! The anomaly is not that they tried, but that they are succeeding. They came to Seattle and set up shop, Starbuck's with a different name. Oh well, free internet; good thing because the one at my house is currently TU.

It is a few weeks past, but I think that the time has given me enough reflection to speak objectively of the half Ironman I completed on September 23rd, 2006. Let me start with the results. You will have to follow the links to them. My race was the Blackdiamond half Ironman held on the 23rd. Most of you, meaning probably 3 people that still read this, don't know that I have been training all summer for this triathlon. I averaged between 8-10 hours of training a week for 3 months. That doesn't sound like much, but trust me, it is. Not enough to be really competitive, but enough to feel it. I would swim a few times a week in Greenlake, maybe get a couple rides in and a couple runs. It was like a part time job and looking back I am glad and sad it is over. The goal, if I am around, will be to finish a full IM next summer. Wish me luck. Let's skip the details of the training as that would be quite an endeavor, both for you and me, and go right to the race day action.

The race took place down in Enumclaw, WA, at the base of Mt Rainier. 1.2 mile swim, 61.87 mile bike and then 13.1 miles of running. As all of you have seen by now, I was 42nd overall, not bad. 5:44:42 is a decent time. For hard core triathletes, you may be saying that my overall time isn't that impressive, just remember the extra 6 miles on the ride equates to about 20 minutes, 5:24 isn't bad. Here is how the race went:

It was a 9:00AM wave start. All the men, followed after 5 minutes by the women and relays. Swimming is certainly not my strongest event but I am very happy with 36 minutes. By comparison, my training partner, Alyssa Smith, did the same swim in 26 minutes, but she swam in college were as I played intramural soccer. I came out of the water not very winded, I tend to hold back in preparation for the bike. They say you will never win a triathlon in the swim, but you can definitely lose it there. I jumped on the bike and headed out. Now is a good time to mention the other competitors Grant Jaffarian and Jeremy Allen. They are friends of mine.

Welcome back.

You will have noticed that I beat both of them out of the water. Grant by only 2 minutes. I was hoping to beat him by a lot more than that, at the time it didn't mater because I didn't know, I just knew I was in the lead at that time. Grant you will also noticed, kicked my but overall. Smoked me by 28 minutes. Before the race my goal was to beat him. I knew he was stronger than me in the run but I had him on the swim. It was the bike that was going to make the difference, I figured I would have to take him by at least 10 minutes on the bike. I figured right, but road wrong. I watched grant pass me about 20 miles into the ride and never saw him again. At that point, I will admit, my raced changed from a competition to a completion. Now I didn't let up, but I certainly wasn't going to kill myself. After he passed me, I settled into my race grove, pushing myself as I do. It was a good ride. I averaged 19.5 mph, not bad for 62 miles, especially considering the large hill at mile 35. They measured the hill as a 500 foot elevation gain over 2 miles. Yes, it isn't the tour de France, but I am no Floyd Landis. (I know of no time in my career that I have willingly done any sort of performance enhancing drugs. Does Flinstone vitamins count?) Looking back, I probably could have road harder, but I have a very good excuse.

Right from the beginning my right knee was acting up. I have short ITBs and if I do not stretch enough, my knees will be utterly painful, to painful to run. Well, that morning I was rushed and hence did not stretch enough. No one to blame but myself. Even in the swim I could feel the tightness and knew that things weren't looking good for the home team. During the bike I was always trying to stretch my legs, but it was no good. I started the run and only 2 miles into it was reduced more or less to a shuffle. The few down hills saw me pick up the pace, but anytime I had to work at it, I was useless. I walked up most of the hills and through all the aid stations. You could say I was disappointed on the run. So much so that by the time I finished the race, I was even winded. Certainly my body was drained and my muscles thrashed, but my lungs could have kept going.

Over all, no complaints. The most promising thing is that a few days after the race, I was thinking about the next one, considering how my training is going to change, and how I will definitely get to the race much earlier next time. Compare that with the marathon I ran in 1997, I didn't want to even think about running for probably 6 months.

Weekend America interviewed Dean Karnazes today. He is a runner of runner, running 40, 50, 60 hours, hours not miles, hours at a time. He said near the end of the show something about how we in Western Culture are lost. We do not have anything to struggle for in life and hence we don't have purpose (He didn't mention the purpose part, I inferred that). He uses running as a source of struggle, and I will say he is accomplishing something like struggle. Right now this dude is in the middle of running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days. Crazy!!!

Since the race I haven't done much. A few rides, a few swims, no running. I am taking a month or two off. I deserve it.

Switching gears...

I was talking to Adam Avitable the other day. We were talking about blogging and how I haven't been. It reminded me that I have been blogging, some, what I haven't been doing is posting those blogs. I save them on my computer, but at this point have never gone back and posted them. I am going to try and do so now. Let me warn you that if I can figure it out, I am going to post them with their original dates so you diehards will have to go back and search them out. Not that hard.

It has been good typing with you and maybe next time I will actually tell you how I am doing.

It is tomorrow.

Jason