This is one of the most emotional things I have seen or read in a long time. If you have a meeting or somewhere you have to be shortly, I would wait til later to read the story below as it will probably bring a tear to your eye.

[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.

Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life;” Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an Institution.”

But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want To do that.”

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore For two weeks.”

That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, It felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”

And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

“No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a Single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?”

How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you Think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992–only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.

“No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” One doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.” So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

“The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”

And the video is below….

or if having problems with the video above you can click here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE

I am sure a lot of you consider people who do Ironman triathlons crazy, but I bet you have no idea what kind of mental toughness the pros have to have. Like anything else, you have to first do something in order to fully appreciate the level that professionals are operating on. If you already appreciate the physical toughness of professional Ironman athletes, read the article below from one of the professional women and you will have a whole new concept of what it means to be “mentally tough” as well. Click the link below to read more.
Read the rest of this entry »

So…if you are wondering what it is like to be a triathlete and finally get a warm day to go cycling…this pretty much answers it.

Cycling with Frazz

I know some of you think I am crazy for doing an Ironman, but check out what these people are doing or have done…

Run across America

Astrid Benöhr (she has a great idea on how to make sure you get a good night sleep the day before the race)

The day finally arrived…D-Day…or should I say Iron-Day. It had been over a year since I first decided that I wanted to do Ironman Germany, and over 3 years since I first started doing triathlons. My first triathlon was way back in August 2000, and it consisted of a 1/2 mile swim, 10 mile bike and 3 mile run…and now I was about to do a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.1 mile run…amazing how things change. So…on to the Race details…everything from Thursday through the finish line. I hope you have set a little extra time aside for this, and hopefully it is worth it.

Thursday
Thursday is what I consider the start of my Ironman weekend since this is the day that I have to get all my triathlon gear packed and then head to Frankfurt. Of course, nothing goes as planned when trying to pack, and you feel like a scattered brain trying to remember everything you need. However, contrary to my normal procrastinating, non-planning self, I decided to print out a “Race Checklist” a few days earlier so that I wouldn’t forget anything. As I went through and slowly checked off the list the nerves of course began to build up as I was thinking how close the Sunday 7am start actually was. The only real struggle with packing came with trying to get my bike inside the trunk of the car, which is not normally a problem, but I was taking Kymba, which meant I couldn’t put both back seats down. After managing what seemed like a hundred or so different positions, I finally got the bike frame in the car, and the rest of my gear packed. Kymba was of course anxious to go (as she always is), and I was too since I hadn’t seen Barbie for a few days. Well, as the old saying goes…”Haste leads to waste”. After finally leaving and getting about 2 hours outside of Munich, I realized I had not gone through my race checklist one last time…hence I had forgotten my Bike Helmut. I wasn’t about to turn around to go back and get it, and I had been thinking about getting a new helmut anyways, so I figured this was the sign. After an unenventful ride up, Kymba and I arrived at the hotel. Barbie was there to welcome us with open arms, and it was quite a thrill to see all the other athletes checking in also. Race weekend was starting!

Friday
Friday morning Barbie had scheduled for a massage for me in order to get the muscles loosened, and probably to also relieve some any stress. My parents were arriving from the States, so Barbie went and picked them up while I got one of the best massages ever. The lady knew all sorts of styles, and knew not to kill for the race. Apparantely she had done a professional triathlete in the past, so I felt fairly comfortable and could just relax and enjoy.

Friday afternoon Barbie and I went down to the sports expo to try and find me a bike helmut. Barbie had wanted me to get a red, white and blue helmut, but none were to be found. I ended up with what I consider a fairly nice helmut for a good price, and as my friend back in Munich would later tell me…”It’s about time you got a proper road bike helmut.”

Anyways, after the helmut search we went and got my Race Packet, which included all my stuff required for the race (race number, stickers for the bike, race chip, etc.), but it also included a very nice Ironman workout bag with the Ironman logo on the side! Afterwards we were needed to go to the pre-race briefing, and luckily I asked one of the helpers where it was, because they had actually moved the location from what the brochure had said. Anyways, the briefing was pretty uneventful, other than being able to laugh at some of the stupid questions that people would ask. You would think that for some, this was their first triathlon ever. I mean some guy actually asked if the drink bottles for the bike would be glass instead of plastic!

Prior to dinner, I got a big surprise as Barbie was checking her email in her room. Apparantely my mom had gone through the great effort of creating Team Graver shirts, and had sent them to everyone in the families (Barbie’s and mine), and had them take pictures of themselves wearing the shirts so that they could email them to Barbie so she could create a big collage. I wasn’t supposed to see them til race day, but it didn’t matter, I was thrilled. The shirts had the words “Team Graver” on the front, along with the USA flag, and “Miami, FL” under the flag. On the back was “Ironman”, “July 11, 2004…Frankfurt, Germany”, along with the olympic logos for swim, bike and run. The shirts were just awesome! Check out the pictures to see them. That evening my parents, Barbie, and myself went to a nice little Italian restaurant that the hotel recommended. Unfortunately I think I got the worst plate…some sort of Tagliatella. In case you didn’t know, I had to “Carb-Load” for the 3 days prior to the race to make sure my glycogen levels would be full for the race. If your glycogen levels get depleted, then you “Bonk”…which basically means you are completely exhausted, and walking is even a chore. This is what happened to me in my first marathon. After dinner, it was bed time.

Saturday
The only thing on the schedule for Saturday was to buy a spare tube for the bike, and also to check in my bike at the race start. So, after breakfast Barbie and I proceeded to go through the race checklist once again and make sure all my necessities were put in the right bags. For the race, you had three different bags. One for Transition 1 (swim to bike), one for Transition 2 (bike to run), and finally one for after the race…basically warm clothes and such. I had to check in both transition bags as well as the bike, so everything needed to be in order. After going through the checklist, I realized I had also left my race belt (which holds your race number on your waist) back in Munich. Luckily I just happened to have a spare, although it was blue, and not nearly as nice. Once again…”Haste leads to waste.”

Eventually we were done and headed down to the Race start with my parents. My dad and I were dropped off, while Barbie and my mom went to pick up Betty and Rick (aunt and uncle) from the airport. Surprisingly enough, they had bought their plane tickets only 2 days before, and were heading to see the race as well as part of europe. It’s great to have a supportive family! The bike and bag check in was pretty much uneventful…check in the bike, put your bags in the right spot, then pray you didn’t forget anything. I did get to see Tim Deboom (2-time Hawaii Ironman Champion) check in his bike and bags, so that was kinda cool, especially since he was the only professional American in the race.

Afterwards my dad and I headed back to the hotel to meet up with everyone, and to have an early dinner. Unfortunately I didn’t take Barbie’s advice to get reservations, so the italian restaurant at the hotel was completely booked, so we had to eat in the lounge and didn’t get finished until around 8 or 9pm. Of course, since I had to get up at around 3:30am the next morning, I went to bed, and prayed that I would be able to get to sleep and wouldn’t be like a kid the day before Christmas. Luckily it only took me about an hour and half to fall asleep, so I still got about 5 hours of sleep.

Sunday (RACE DAY)
Pre-Race
Race day began around 3:30am with about five different alarm clocks going off…Barbie was insistent that we didn’t oversleep. We then headed down to breakfast, and were greatly surprised to see my parents and Betty and Rick also awake and downstairs…you have to remember they were still fighting jetlag. After breakfast, I went back to the room to gather some final things, and get some much needed support from one of my biggest fans! Afterwards, I headed back down to catch the athletes shuttle to the race. Unfortunately there were tons of athletes, and no buses to be found anywhere, except a bus for the media, that wasn’t letting any of the athletes on even though it was going to the same place and was almost completely empty. They tried to ease our minds by saying the athletes buses would get there sooner since the media bus would not have access to go through the detours…which would later found out was lie. After waiting about 5-10 minutes, and no buses still in sight, I jumped in the cab with my mom and Barbie and headed to the race start. Unfortunately the cabs had absolutely no privileges around the detours, so we ended up having to walk about a mile to the swim start…I guess you could call it my warm up. After finally arriving at the swim start, I was able to put the finishing touches on my bike (air in the tires, brake check, speedometer reset, etc.) and begin my mental preparation for the race…of course, I did have to say my final goodbye’s to my fans first and let them know the best spots to be since I had been there last year and knew what to expect.

In the transition area I was able to find Stefan (training partner, friend, and colleague), so that helped ease the nerves a little, especially since he was able to translate what the guy was saying over the loud speaker. After getting our wetsuits on we headed to the lake. This is the part where the German organization failed. For some reason they race organizers thought that having 2000 athletes file through a chute about 8 feet wide would be a good idea…you know, go under the big Ironman banner, great photo oppurtunities, everyone has to go over the timing mats, yada-yada-yada. However, it ended up being a big bottle neck as 2000 athletes ended up standing there waiting to get into the water because the starting chute was jammed pack. As Stefan said, we probably looked like a bunch of penguins all wearing black wetsuits, slowly waddling down to the waters edge, then falling in the water. You’ve all seen this scene on the discovery channel…the only difference is that it wasn’t snowing. Well, this delay ended up causing the race to start about 10-15 minutes late…so hopefully they will fix this next year.

The Swim (3.8km / 2.4 miles)
The swim is a two loop course with a mass start, in other words, all 2000 athletes start at the same time!! The only people that get an advantage are the pros…they get a 50 meter head start (like they need it!). The reason for the mass start is so that there is one cut-off time for everyone, and it makes it easier for everyone in the end, but it sucks for us in the beginning.
I was literally in the water for about 2 minutes when the starting gun went off, so I didn’t really have a chance to fortify (I don’t use that word lightly) a position for myself prior to the start. I figured the beginning of the swim would be rough with people pushing, kicking, pulling, yelling, etc. for the first 500-1000 meters, but then I thought it would thin out….boy was I wrong. The first 500-1000 meters was everything that I expected, and I did my fair share of all of the above, and definitely received the same in return. At one point a caught a full kick in the face….luckily it caught me where my goggles were and not across the chin, so I just had to stop for a second and readjust my goggles. The swim was mainly about finding a position, then getting overrun by other people swimming crooked (or was that me?), then trying to find another position, only to repeat the process over and over again. After about 800-1000 meters or so I noticed there were a bunch of people on my right swimming the other way. I knew that I was supposed to go to a buoy and turn around, but there didn’t seem to be a bouy anywhere ahead of me anymore, and everyone else started turning around and swimming the other way, so I did so also thinking we were supposed to turn around at the buouy before. The guy in the canoe/kayak wasn’t telling people not to, so I turned around, and headed back to shore to finish the first lap. Come to find out later, I ended up cutting the course short by about 100-200 meters. Apparantely the final buouy was a boat, not one of the big yellow buouys that were used previously…oh well. Well, the fighting and struggling did settle down a little bit, but it was still a battle with people all around you. At one point on the swim back I was bringing up my left arm in my stroke, and another guy next to me just happened to be bringing his hand down, which ended up hitting mine…talk about too close for comfort. Well, normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but it dislocated my left pinkie again! I spent the next 20-30 seconds trying to pop it back into place, but my hand kept slipping, and there was no canoe or kayake to be found. Then I gave one quick jerk and it just happened to pop back in…for now on, I am taping my finger, as this is becoming a regular habit during my races.

After a while I saw the big yellow exit on the shore and continued to swim in its direction. After a while I noticed people kept cutting me off and swimming at about a 45 degree angle to my right. First I thought that they had no idea how to swim straight, but when I ran into my third guy, I thought I better see where everyone was swimming to. Unfortunately I was headed to the exit for the 2nd lap, and the first lap exit was to my right. Luckily I didn’t go too much out of the way, so it didn’t cost me much time. I ended up exiting the water and looking for “Team Graver”, but to no avail, as they were fortifying (there’s that word again) a spot at the exit chute for the 2nd lap.

So, back into to the water, and back to the battle. The first part of the 2nd loop was relatively simple as there was a big yellow buouy to head aim for. However, after the second buouy things got fuzzy again. I was able to stay along the “lane lines” after the first buouy for a while, but then they stopped, so I was stuck looking at a red buoy on the right, and blue one on the left. This guy and I both happened to stop at the same time and ask “Where do we go?”, although mine was in English and his was in Deutsch. I said let’s head for the red buouy, and so off we went. However, in the words of the guy from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”…’I chose poorly’ since we should have been heading to the blue buoy. I don’t know when the other guy figured it out, but hopefully he wasn’t too upset with me. After the blue buouy we headed to the infamous boat/buoy that I missed in the first lap. If I didn’t have to go around it the second time, I don’t think I would have really known that I cut the course short…although I definitely wasn’t the only one, as I later would see the video and the huge mess that the boat/buouy caused on the first lap. I think there were just as many people that went around the buouy as those that missed it. Anyways, after that buouy I was on the home stretch of the 2.4 mile (3.8km) swim, and this time I knew exactly where I was headed since I was aimed at the 2nd lap exit on the first lap by accident. I eventually exited the water, which I prefer to call the “Battle Scene” and took a look at my watch…to my amazement, it read 1 hour, 3 minutes and change…I was hoping for a 1:10 swim, so needless to say I was quite happy with my swim. Even with another couple of minutes for missing the first buouy, I was still way within my target! So the race had started off well!

Transition 1 (Swim to Bike)
After exiting the water you are greeted with a wonderful 200 meter hill that you get to run up. Luckily there are thousands (later estimates suggested 5000 spectators at the swim start) of spectators all lined up on both sides as you run up this hill, so your adrenaline is high…not to mention you have just completely 1 of 3 stages of an Ironman. About halfway up I saw “Team Graver” with their red shirts and flags going absolutely crazy. I think it was probably the most excited I have seen my mom in a long time, if not the most excited…I mean, I couldn’t get the image out of my head for a long time. Anyways, as I came to the changing tent the volunteers handed me my transition bag and showed me the way to the tent. Upon entering the tent, another volunteer came up, told me my swim time (estimated) and proceeded to completely empty my transition bag, organize it, then quickly help me pull off, or should I say snatch off, my wetsuit in a matter of seconds. I felt like I was a king having all his needs catered to. After finally getting on my biking shoes, clothes, helmut, etc. I was out of the tent and heading to the bike, after a quick pit-stop for a nature-call. All in all the transition (with pit-stop) took about 6 minutes…not bad, could be better, but I was satisfied.

The Bike (180km / 112 miles)
After exiting the transition area I hopped on my bike and headed out. Sure enough “Team Graver” was there waiting for me (apparantely they took my pre-race spectator advice), so it was a final wave goodbye and off to ride 112 miles around Frankfurt. The bike starts with a 12 km ride from the Lake to the finish line in downtown Frankfurt, then 2 loops of about 84km each that winds through the small towns on outskirts. As is the case with all my races here in Germany, I get passed left and right by these German riders who make me feel as if I am on a tri-cycle and they all have scooters. The only difference with this race, was that I was planning on saving myself, so I didn’t feel to bad in the beginning when everyone passed me, but the relentless passing never seemed to cease. My only consolation would come when a rider would pass me, then I would see them on the side of the road in the penalty box, which is riders are forced to stay for 6 minutes if they are caught drafting another rider. Of course they would eventually catch me again later on after their 6 minutes was up, but that is another story.

Anyways, the bike has about 3 or 4 hills and is a completely closed course, which means “no cars”. Luckily I was able to ride the course about a month or two ago, so I knew what to expect and wasn’t nervous. However, what I wasn’t fully prepared for was the wind. During the bike ride you literally weave in and out of these small towns, and the residents are absolutely great!! There is usually a huge party going on in each of the small towns, and thousands of people out cheering you on. The first hill I got to was called “the Beast”, and it probably has the fewest spectators of all the hills, but since it was in the beginning and my adrenaline was still on a high, I really didn’t care. After motoring up the hill slowly but surely, we went through another small town, and then to a hill simply called “Hell”. The hill is not so bad as far as being steep, but the thing that makes it hellish is the fact that it is over cobblestones! I literally felt like a can of paint in the shaking machine as I rode over the cobblestones. The only good thing about this hill is that it was short, and that there were thousands of people cheering me on. After finally recovering from the jackhammer-like vibrations, I get to relax and head out to the country side. There are definitely some hills out in the country, but nothing too bad. At one point I was cruising along and a guy came flying by me (what’s new), and yelled “Go Litespeed!!”. For those that don’t know, this is the name of the manufacturer of my bike, and since it is a USA company, there are really a lot of them here in Germany, so it was kinda cool to hear it. After about 60km I finally get to the infamous “Heartbreak Hill”, which even has its own sponsor…”Powerbar”. This is the steepest hill on the entire course, but I didn’t feel it since there was literally about five to ten thousand spectators on this hill cheering me on!! It was literally like the Tour de France, with people lined up on each side of you yelling, screaming, and unfortunately, blowing whistles! The whistles are absolutely fine when you are flying by them at 20mph and they are a good 10 feet on the side of you, but when there is literally only about a 8 foot wide path that you are riding up, and they are right next to you, a loud whistle in your ear is no fun. The spectators crowd the entire hill so much, that it is impossible for more than two bikers to ride up next to each other. it was basically like a no passing zone, b/c you had to part the sea of people to get around someone. Of course this was probably one of the best experiences since I couldn’t even tell I was struggling up a hill…it was just awesome!

After finishing with “Heartbreak Hill” it is about a 5-10km flat/downhill track back to downtown Frankfurt where I get to start the second loop of the bike. Of course, everyone continued to pass me, and I got to go over the “Beast” again, along with the cobblestones at “Hell”, but this is where things changed. Apparentely mother nature blessed us by not having any rain so far, but she made up for it with the wind. Once I got back into the country side, it was like I was in a wind tunnel the entire ride. Wind is like the worst thing, probably worse than hills, because it is so mentally draining. I would be on a flat straightaway, and look down at my speedometer and see that I was going about 3mph slower than I was used to. Of course, I tell myself it is because of the wind, but after an hour or two of this, it just becomes a drain. Hills come to an end, but the wind didn’t stop. And to make matters worse, we got about a 5-10 minute rain, which caused me to be somewhat cold for about 20 minutes after it stopped because of what else…the WIND! Finally, I reached “Heartbreak Hill”, which basically told me I was all but done with the bike once I got to the top. Apparantely this gave me some sort of adrenaline rush because I was actually able to pass about 5 people on the hill, despite the fact they had just passed me a few minutes prior. Of course I almost ran over a few spectators in the process, but they were able to get out of the way in time, and promptly punished me with those darn whistles again. Anyways, after getting to the top I knew this was the last aid station on the bike, so I wanted to make sure I got two good water bottles for the future…since you get to keep the ones on your bike. I actually started looking at the volunteers and which bottles they were holding so I could get the ones that said Ironman on them…cheesy I know…but worth it in the end. Finally the bike was over and I was heading down the last stretch of road to the transition area, and there was “Team Graver” on the side of the road cheering me on. I raised my arms to show them I saw them and they went nuts…what a great energy boost to see them right before the run. I passed them, and then headed the last mile down the street to the transition area. As I got off the bike, I checked my watch, and sure enough I had my second goal of the day…under 6 hours…5:57:13 to be exact. I would later find out that my 2nd loop was a whopping 19 minutes slower than my first, but I chalk it up mainly to the wind even though I was probably a little more tired also. In the end I had drank some sort of energy drink every 10 minutes, eaten 5 powerbar gels, and only eaten 1 powerbar.

Transition 2
Upon entering Transition 2 I got the luxury of being able to just hand them my bike and they took and racked it. Then I heard a loud voice yell my name, and sure enough Betty and Rick were there to cheer me on. Unfortunately when I turned to look at them I started to go the wrong direction and got yelled at by the helpers to go the other way, but hey, it was worth it to acknowledge “Team Graver”. I then got my T2 bag (after running by it the first time) then headed to the changing tent. Again there was someone there who helped me change and I seemed to get out of there in no time. However, before I started the run, I had to have another pit-stop…drinking something every 10 minutes for 6 hours will do that to you. Onto the run…

The Run (42.2km / 26.1 miles)
The run is by far the most challenging and difficult portion of triathlon for me. I have no misconceptions about my abilities to run, so I planned on a 4-5 hour marathon. I ran a 4:45 marathon back in February without the swim and bike, but that was mainly due to lack of fueling. This time I had my fuel belt, and there was aid station about every mile (1.5km), so as long as I continued to eat/drink something I should be OK physically. As I took off out of the tent I was feeling great, my legs were still alive and well, and the spectators were absolutely great. The run consisted of three 14km loops along both sides of the river (cross the river, run alongside it, turn around, cross back over, then run alongside it again, turn around…repeat.), so the spectators were everywhere on the course…which is just great, and you get to pass your fans twice on each loop. My first loop on the run course was great, I felt good, was fueling well and I was just sucking in the moment. The only downside is that you get a colored band to wear for each of your loops (black, red, then yellow), so it was kind of depressing to see some people on the red and possibly yellow arm bands, but other than that it was great. I even got passed by about the top 5 pros in the race, so it was really interesting to see how fast they were running. Of course the only one I cheered on was Tim Deboom since he was the lone American pro. Anyways, I eventually made way back towards the end of the first loop and saw “Team Graver” right where I asked them to be! It was great seeing them, knowing that my extra food and drinks were where I needed them, and also knowing where my support group was so that I could look forward to it.

The second loop started and I noticed I was getting a little tired since my heart rate and pace was dropping, but I was OK. As I passed “Team Graver” again I waved and smiled and continued on. However, at about the 20km mark I was in for it. It wasn’t a physical bonking I was experiencing, but a mental one. My mind kept telling me I was tired and to stop and walk. I was able to convince myself I was OK and to keep jogging for another 2-3km, but then the brain won, and hell began. I spent the next 5km (~3 miles) fighting my mind, being physically tired, and just mentally drained. It took me a whopping 48 minutes to go those 5km, which included a pit-stop, and a couple Ironman wobbles, where you almost fall over! Anyways, after a while I finally gathered myself mentally, and told myself that if I could just maintain a 7minute per kilometer pace, then I would reach the end (42km) in under 12 hours. Of course I walked up the final hill before I started jogging, but then it was time for me to just go. Unfortunately this started just under a mile from where “Team Graver” was located, so when I passed them I ended up not even being able to acknowledge them because I just “had to go”. I thought they would be upset, but I would later find out they understood and weren’t too upset. So after every few kilometers I would check my watch, and I was on pace, with a minute to spare. I would take the occasional walk through the aid station to get something to drink, but other than that, I was jogging…slowly though.

Eventually I made it back to “Team Graver” and was able to get some new drinks for my fuel belt and told them I would see them soon enough. After that I think I had something to drink every aid station of the final 14km, although I never actually touched the drinks I had just gotten…go figure! Anyways, I continued on, and eventually made it to the 40km mark with a minute to spare if I kept up my pace. Unfortunately my pace started to slow through the next 1.5km. I thought I could just mentally tough out the pace at this point, but I was sooo tired. Finally I got near the finish chute which starts with you running down the street by a grandstand that probably holds about 1000 people, then you head down the final carpeted area, where there are thousands of fans all along the rail cheering you on the final 200 meters, along with a grandstand that seats 5000+ people, and was completely packed with people going nuts. The only bad part about these last 200 meters is that they were 200 meters further than I expected to go. I thought a marathon was 42km, not 42.2 km, so when the finish time scoreboard came into view I was already over my 12 hour mark. Oh well, it didn’t make a difference, I was at the finish line of an Ironman!! First I saw Betty and Rick on the left side cheering me on, then came my parents another 50 meters or so down, then came the finish line! I had completed the Ironman in 12:00:43…43 seconds higher than my goal, so I will never ever forget from now on that a marathon is 42.2 km! Anyways, waiting at the finish line was a volunteer that immediately gave me my finish medal, then took my arm and put it over her shoulder and started to take me to the Athlete’s Garden. However, before that, there was Barbie waiting for me with open arms. It was great having her there at the finish line, as she is my biggest supporter, and was my “Coach” for the Ironman, always making me continue to train even when I felt to tired. Did I mention she is my wife…so that makes it kinda special also.

Finish
After finishing the race I got to go to the Athlete’s Garden, where I was able to sit in a hot tub, take a shower, get a 45 minute massage, eat, drink, get my Finisher shirt, and basically reap the rewards of being an Ironman finisher. I had accomplished pretty much all of my goals…the only one I missed was by 43 seconds. All in all the day was absolutely wonderful, “Team Graver” was great, and we all got to go out for pizza afterwards! It is amazing how your body craves specific types of food after such an event. There is no doubt what you are hungry for! Anyways, here are my goals, times, and the link for the pictures, which I am sure will be continued to be added to as more and more get developed!

1. Finish (mission accomplished)
2. Have a good time (mission accomplished)
3. Finish in 11-12 hours (missed by 200 meters and 43 seconds, but I’m still happy!)
4. Finish swim in 1:10 (mission accomplished…swim time: 1:03:37)
5. Finish bike in 6:00 (mission accomplished…bike time: 5:57:13)
6. Finish run in 5:00 (mission accomplished…run time: 4:51:31)

Well, I am now less than 2 weeks away from competing in the Ironman, and the anxiety is really starting to build. Luckily, I am now in the Taper phase of training, which means I get to take it easy and not do anything too dramatic in regards to training. I must say that I have been looking forward to this for a while, especially since last week was pretty rough. Here is what I did last week to get my last hard training week under my belt…needless to say I am little tired.

• Sunday: Erding Race (Olympic Distance)
• Monday: 50 minutes swimming (3km)
• Tuesday: 2:30 run (~17-18 miles)
• Wednesday: 2 hour bike ride
• Thursday: 3:45 bike ride in rolling hills (66 miles)
• Friday: Free
• Saturday: 4 hour bike ride (~70 miles)
• Sunday: 5:15 bike ride (100 miles)

Yesterday (Sunday) was the Erding Stadt Triathlon, which is roughly an Olympic distance race (1.5km swim, 48.5km bike, 10km run). This was my first race ever in Germany last year (read last years post), so I pretty much knew what to expect, which is a rarity since the only other Triathlon that I have ever done twice is the Huntington’s Beach Sprint in Miami. Anyways, the weather forecast for the day was horrible, and wouldn’t you know it, they finally got the forecast right. It was about 50 degrees and raining. Needless to say I wasn’t really looking forward to it, but I knew I needed the speed work. That’s right, these distances are now considered speed work for me…which I guess is a good thing. Onto the race…

Pre-race
The start for my wave wasn’t until 11am, but they required everyone to have their bikes checked in by 9am since there were other races that started just after 9am. However, what I didn’t know was that they didn’t want you hanging out in the transition area after 9am either, so when I got there at 8:50, I ended up only having 10 minutes to get all my gear organized for the race. Needless to say, with the rain, confusion, and hurriedness, my transition area left much to be desired, as would be indicated in my transition times. After getting everything settled, I watched the start of a few of the races, then headed back to the car to hang out for an hour or so until my race started.

Swim
The goal of the swim was 25 minutes. Last year my swim time was 30 minutes, but that was without a wetsuit. I figured I had a wetsuit this year, and was better trained, so I should be able to reach that goal. I started by warming up in the water for a few minutes, along with a bunch of other people from my wave start, and ironically the water seemed warmer than the outside temp, so it was quite enjoyable. Anyways, after I was done I was standing on the shore waiting to start and noticed there weren’t nearly as many people as before, and the start was only 2 minutes away. Sure enough, I was in the wrong are, and had to go back up this small hill and come back down through the Timing alleyway so that the computers would know when I started. I was probably about 30 yards from where I was supposed to be when I was warming up, but couldn’t see where I was supposed to be.
So the swim finally starts, and I’m on my way. I fight through a bunch of packs of swimmers and finally find a nice groove and just coast. I push myself pretty good since I know the swim is fairly short, and sure enough it seemed to pay off. After a fairly uneventful 21 minutes, I am out of the water 4 minutes faster than my goal. Of course I am happy, but I also know that I can’t really swim that fast, so my conclusion is that the swim was a little short of the 1.5km. Either way, after looking at the results, I am in the top 3rd of the list for the swim…which is a lot better than I could have expected.

Transition 1
As I said earlier, my transition area leaves a lot to be desired. Couple that with the fact I have no idea what to wear b/c of the weather and you can understand why my Transition time takes a while. First I get my bike shoes, along with shoe warmers on. Then I start to put on my running shirt, which I was going to wear under my short sleeve bike jersey, but decide against it and have to take it off (I will pay for this in Transition 2). Then I put on the jersey and decide not to wear a long sleeve jersey over it b/c I am warm at the time. Then I decide to try and find my gloves just in case…and yada yada yada. Finally I take off, and upon leaving one of my gloves falls out of my pocket, so I have to stop and go back and get it. Needless to say all of this took me almost 4 minutes of time, whereas last year I was done in 2:30.

Bike
I’m on the bike and heading out for the ride in the rain, but I can’t seem to get my shoe cleat to clip into the pedal. I must have ridden for a good mile or so before it finally latched on. After that, the ride was pretty much fault free. However, after about 3 miles of riding a group (4-5) riders catch me and start to pass. It is illegal to draft in this race, so you have to stay about 10 feet behind the bike in front of you, as to not get any penalties. Anyways, this group passes me and then proceeds to get in front of me and not really pull away. So there I am, caught with a guy on my immediate left, and 2-3 guys directly in front of me. Sure enough the “official” comes by and starts yelling at me for drafting, when all I did was maintain my pace the whole time and just happened to have this group pull in front of me right when he was coming by. Unfortunately he said it all in Deutsch so I didn’t get the full details of what he was saying, but I definitely got the jist of it.
After this the group eventually pulled away and I notice myself and this other guy were going about the same speed, and we would start passing each other back and forth. This cat and mouse game literally lasted for the next 15-20 miles or so, and I really think he was getting annoyed. However, unlike in times past, I was the one who finally pulled away and left him in the dust….which really felt good. As good as I felt though, I noticed myself start to tire out a little bit after about the 25th mile. Luckily there was only another 5-6 miles to go, so I could maintain without to much loss of speed.
My goal for the bike was to average 20mph, but that was assuming good conditions. The course definitely has some hills to it, but nothing like my last race, so it didn’t seem to bad. After finally getting to the end, I looked at my bike computer and saw that I met the goal of 20mph, so I was glad…although the run was next, so who could be too happy.

Transition 2
Once again I’m like a lost puppy dog in the transition area. My clothes are everywhere and things are a mess. I quickly take my bike shoes off and put on my running shoes. Unfortunately my hands and arms were a little more cold than I realized, so tying my shoelaces were a bit of a chore. Then I had to find my running shirt, which was now inside out since I had already put it on and off in T1, then I had to try and put everything back in place so everything wouldn’t get soaked, and the next guy wouldn’t be ticked that my clothes were everywhere. To top things off, when I think I am ready to go, I take off and within about 20 seconds realize I forgot a Gel/Gu. As I said in my last race, I forgot one there also and started to bonk, so I didn’t want to do that again. So…back to my bike to grab my last gu, thus wasting another 40 seconds or so in total. Finally, another 4:00 minutes gone by and I’m off to the run.

Run
My goal for the run was actually a combination with the bike. My goal for the two combined times was 2:15. The reason for this is that I felt if I went hard on the bike, then I would be slower for the run obviously, and if I held back on the bike, I should have more for the run. I was thinking a 1:30 bike, followed by a 45 minute run, which would be the 2nd fastest run ever for me on a 10km…but you gotta have high goals! Well, I finished the bike in 1:29, so that meant I needed a 46 minute run to match the combo goal, but I still wanted the 45 minute run time…which equates to a pace of about 7:30min/mile. After about 2 miles I was feeling good and only seemed to be about 10 seconds off of my pace, but I felt if I pushed myself any harder I might crash and burn, so I maintained with the hope of a last mile sprint to make up the time. However, around the 3.5 mile mark I noticed my energy dropping rapidly…luckily I had the Gu/Gel that I went back for, so within about 5 minutes of eating it along with something to drink my energy was back. For the first time in a long time, I noticed I was getting passed by a ton of people on the run…but that I was passing people. Don’t get me wrong, people were still flying by me like I was standing still, but not nearly as many as usual. Anyways, with about half a mile to go I started to go all out. One of the great things was that our friends from work were in the crowd so I was able to give them a high five down the stretch as I passed by. Then came some of the greatest words I have heard during my triathlon life…”Und hier kommt Don Graver aus dem USA, Wilkommen!!” …which means “here comes Don Graver from the USA, Welcome!”. Needless to say given the conditions of the world today, I felt a sort of patriotism go through me. Anyways, after crossing the finish line I looked down at my watch and saw a run time of 45:43, which is 43 seconds slower than my run goal, but 17 seconds faster than my combo goal.

Conclusions
At the end, just like last year, they handed me a very nice Weiss beer glass, only this time it wasn’t a shock for me to see everyone drinking beer afterwards. Of course, I have since learned they are drinking alcohol free beer, but it was still cool to be able to join in the festivities and have a nice cold one.
So, although I met my goals for the race, I still finished in the bottom half of everyone, which means I am below average when it comes to triathlons…but then again, who cares…I was happy with how the day ended up. The funny thing is that I told Barbie my goal was under 2:45, and my stretch goal was 2:40. She laughed and said you are not that good as to pinpoint your abilities that close. Well, I ended up with 2:42:54, so I guess I am that good.

• Erding Results

Last Sunday (June 6th), I participated in my second 1/2 Ironman distance triathlon. The scary part of it is that it was only a training day for me, which means I didn’t really rest before hand, other than on Saturday. I had full workouts throughout the week, including a 2.5 hour bike ride on Friday. Actually, I wouldn’t have done the Friday ride if I knew that the race was going to have a hilly bike ride (3000+ feet over 56 miles), but I didn’t find that out til Friday on the bike ride. My goals for the race were the following:

• 35-40 minute swim
• Average 18mph on the bike
• Run under 2 hours for the 13 mile run
• Total time between 5:30 and 6:00

Pre-Race
Well, Barbie, myself and Kymba all arrived in Passau on Saturday (about 1.5 hours outside of Munich). The weather was absolutely horrible with rain forecasted for all day Saturday, and also on Sunday. After finally finding a hotel…long story that I won’t go into…I went and picked up my race packet, then headed back to go out to dinner with Barbie. Of course since it is the evening of the race, we are going out to italian so I can get pasta. Well, we drove into Passau, quickly found a restaurant, and proceeded to eat the worst tasting Italian food ever. The food and sauce were so bland that we couldn’t figure out how they managed to actually take out all the flavor. Either way, I ate what I had to. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful…go to the hotel, hang out and go to sleep.
The morning of the race everything went off without a hitch, except that I forgot my tri-shorts. We got to the start, and immediately happened to find Wolfgang, who just happened to have a one piece triathlon suit that I could wear…thanks Wolfgang! Well, I got everything organized, stretched a little and warmed up, then it was time for the race to start. Unfortunately Kymba had to be left in the car for the race start since she was going nuts for all the kids running around.

The swim
As stated earlier, I wanted to swim about 35-40 minutes at an easy pace, but I also wanted to practice drafting people. The water was cold according to some, but having done races in the Pacific Ocean, this wasn’t anything to complain about. After the gun went off I took off, fought for position, then finally got into some sort of a groove. The entire time I was looking for faster swimmers to trail, but it is a lot harder to do than you think b/c the water is murky, and not everyone swims in a straight line. If I noticed that I was swimming the same speed as someone, I would actually slow down a little bit and start to trail them as sort of a rest. My theory being that if we are going to swim the same speed, I might as well get the benefit of drafting. Once they got tired and started to slow down, I would pass and continue on until someone else came along. This actually worked out pretty good b/c it gave me slight rests. The entire swim I felt strong, which is good, and shows that all those laps in the pool were worth it.

T1
Not much happened here, other than trying to figure out what to wear since it was cloudy, but wasn’t raining. There is nothing worse than being cold during the bike ride, but I took and chance and only wore short sleeve over my one piece skinsuit. I also noticed that I had beaten Wolfgang out of the water, which is odd since he is usually a faster swimmer in the pool. I did see him come out a couple minutes later, so it wasn’t by much.

Bike Ride
The bike course was basically 3 loops consisting of 56 miles. My plan was to not go all out on the bike, b/c I wanted a strong run at the end. If I tried to go all out on the hills, I would be walking on the run. Anyways, normally you think “what goes up must come down”, well that is true, but there are different variations of this. This course consisted of one main down slope (12% grade), and then the rest of the time you spent slowly working your way back up the hill. The worst part was that at the bottom of the huge down slope, of which I would get to 40+ mph, there was basically a 180 degree turnaround, so you had to start hitting the brakes about half way down, which kills all your momentum. Anyways, in the beginning I quickly got passed by Wolfgang. I tried to keep up for a while, but to no avail. I also noticed that there was a girl who I kept passing and then getting passed by. The odd part was that she had legs as thick as me! Normally she would pass me on the hills, and I would catch her on the flats or slight downhills. This basically continued back and forth for the first half of the course, but since it was mostly up hill the entire way, she eventually got away. Anyways, I was making sure to drink or eat something every 10 minutes in order to keep up my glycogen…no since in repeating what happened in my last 1/2 Ironman or my marathon. Well, on my 2nd lap the leader eventually lapped me, and was he flying. We were on an uphill and it looked like he was on the flats. Unlike most of my races here in Germany, I actually didn’t get passed by too many, but I didn’t do a lot of passing either. Eventually the bike ended, and I had done 2:47 roughly, but that included transitions, and was about 4 mile short of 56 according to my bike odometer, but the point is that I averaged 18mph, which is what I wanted for the hilly course.

T2
By the time transition 2 came around, I had to use the restroom, but there were none available. So I quickly got everything ready, or so I thought, and took off. The one thing I forgot was a Gel packet, which would come back to hurt me a little bit. I did however bring my fuel belt so I could have my own drinks…I didn’t want another marathon episode where they only have carbonated water and hot tea!

Run (20km or ~13 miles)
About 2 minutes into the run I pull off on the side (hidden away) to use the restroom. Unfortunately I have never worn a one piece triathlon skinsuit, so it literally takes me 3 minutes to finish b/c I had to take off my running shirt, race number belt, fuel belt, and then the one-piece in order to use the restroom! Of course I have to put this all back on again, which takes time, so it ended up costing me about 3 minutes according to my watch. I consider this Transition 2.5 . Anyways, I start running and am feeling quite strong. As I pass one of the turn arounds about a mile into it I see my co-worker Peter, who is doing is first 1/2 Ironman, coming the other way. He is an exceptionally fast runner, so it doesn’t take him long for him to catch and surpass me. The rest of the first 7 miles is pretty uneventful, as I was able to maintain a good pace and felt strong the entire way. The worst part of the run is that it consisted of exactly two laps, which means they made you go back to the finish line, and then back out again. Talk about depressing, you get to the finish line and then have to go back out. They should at least have you turn around somewhere a little ways away so you don’t feel so crushed mentally. So, onto the 2nd lap, and I could tell my legs were starting to get tired. About this time I would have appreciated to have my Gel for an energy boost. Either way I was able to press on for the next 3 miles without walking, then I saw an aid station and decided to get some water. Of course I first asked if it was Still Water and not carbonated, at which all the volunteers laughed as if I was asking something so off the wall. Apparantely they didn’t volunteer at my marathon. This ended up being my only walking point, and it was for about 20-30 seconds while I drank water. About this time the Olympic distance triathlon competitors were on the run course, so I got to see the top runners fly by me. At this point in time I completely realized that I will never be able to compete for a win in a triathlon. These guys were absolutely flying, and were running faster than I ever could. They had to go 6 miles, but looked like they only had to go one lap around the track! Either way it was cool to see everyone trying to catch the leader. So…108 minutes later after starting the run I finally crossed the finish line.

Conclusions
I had beaten all my goals and finished in a time of 5:20. My swim time was right on track, my bike pace was perfect, and I beat my goal run time by 12 minutes. Needless to say I was happy with the results, and I still felt strong at the end. The hardest part was knowing that in just a few weeks I would have to do it all over again, only this time it would be twice as long.

p.s. In case you are wondering, yes, they had plenty of Beer available at the post race party.

p.s.2. Thanks to Barbie and Kymba for being the support group during the race, even though they would hang out in the background since Kymba can be a little wild in large groups. Either way I was able to spot the Weisse Deutsche Schaferhund in the distance and be able to wave to them.

This weekend I set two new personal training records for myself in swimming and biking. Unfortunately, I didn’t do any running, but I think the swim and bike was good enough. On Saturday afternoon I went to Olympia-schwimhalle and swam 3.6 km (2.25 miles). I didn’t do it without rests, but it was close. The Ironman distance requires 3.8km for the swim, so I was close and could have done it, but it was not part of my training plan. I swam a 400 meter easy warm-up. Then I did three 1000 meter pyramids. Basically, 50 meter swim, 5 second rest, 100 meter swim, 10 second rest, 200 meter swim, 20 second rest, 300 meter swim, 30 second rest, 200 meter swim, 20 second rest, 100 meter swim, 10 second rest, 50 meter swim…then repeat the whole thing after 15 seconds of rest. It worked out pretty well, and I definitely got tired, but my 3rd 1000 meter pyramid was only 1 minute slower than my first, so that was good. I finished the day off with a 200 meter cool down.
Sunday I went for what was to become a fairly long bike ride. I ended up biking 113 miles with some friends (4 of us), at an average speed of just over 18 mph. Unfortunately I was definitely the slowest of the group for most of the time, until my one friend started to bonk with about 20 miles to go…but that is understandable since he ran 24Km followed by a 60 mile bike ride the day before. We basically rode through the South of Munich until we got to the alps and turned back. The ride wasn’t what I would call extremely hilly, but a decent amount of rolling hills throughout. I guess at some point we got decently high since my top speed was around 40mph. I must say that my legs were definitely exhausted by the time I got home, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have made it through a marathon afterwards. Then again, my race is 10 weeks away…so I’ve still got some time.

p.s. The bike in the Ironman is 112 miles, so it is good to know I can do it.

Yesterday I decided to bike into work since I kinda of slacked the day before on my biking duties. I only biked for an hour instead of 2 hours…then again I did run about 12 miles a few hours earlier, so hopefully you understand.

Anyways, the weather was nothing to write home about…unless you have a blog like myself, then you can write anything for the web. The Temp was -5 degrees Celsius (23 Fahrenheit), with a “feels like” of -8 degrees Celsius (17 F). Also, to make things more fun it was snowing. It took some time for me, and Barbie, to finally convince myself to bike the 16 miles to work on the trail that runs along the Isar river, and boy was I was in for it. I proceeded to get to the Dam by our house, make a right turn and half a second later I was on my back, and my bike a few feet away from me. Apparantely water freezes on concrete also. The worst part of the entire ride was not the cold, but having to concentrate on staying on the “tire” paths along the trail…since anything outside these two small paths was about 6 inches of snow. Needless to say I had a few run ins with the bushes and another near misses of falling, but I survived!

That evening I went to Dantebad to swim, and noticed there was one extremely fast guy swimming…too bad it wasn’t me. Wolfgang proceeded to let me know he thought it was Faris Al-Sultan… a german professional triathlete who is about my age, and finished 7th in the 2003 Hawaii Ironman. Everytime he would pass me I felt like a tugboat trying to compete with a torpedo! If I ever race against him, I am just going to grab his ankles and hang on, b/c I think him pulling me would still be faster than me swimming by myself.