Heading to Colorado......

Mary Beth, Parker & I are heading to Colorado tomorrow morning.

YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!

It will be Parker's first flight and his first time in the mountains. I hope he does okay and we are all able to enjoy our time away. I will take plenty of pictures and give a trip recap in a week or so. Until then, we will be living the HIGH (altitude) LIFE. :)

Ironman 70.3 Kansas

Yesterday was the big race. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run.

I woke up around 3:15am (didn't even need an alarm-Parker made sure that I didn't sleep in) and headed out with Ryan (a friend of mine from work with whom I have been training) around 4:15 for Lawrence. We arrived at Clinton Lake around 5:15, along with the rest of the 1900+ competitors. My blood was pumping and my heart was thumping as we started setting up our transitions. It was a little nerve wrecking when they announced that we only had 3 more minutes in the transition area and I hadn't even started pumping up my bike tires, but I was able to get my bike ready and still had plenty of time to calm the nerves before the swim start.

Ryan and I were in the largest start wave because they combined the 20-24 males and the 25-29 males, so it was basically chaos for the first 400 meters. I was getting hammered by other guys, but I also did some hammering myself. :) My swim was slower than I expected-coming in around 39 min, but I think it could've been due to the fact that I just couldn't find my rhythm in the midst of all the "traffic." Happy to be finished with the swim, I hustled to my bike and tried to down some chocolate covered espresso beans while I put on my helmet and shoes. My transition was mediocre, but not terrible, so I started the bike feeling pretty strong. Going in, I was most worried about the bike section because the furthest I had ridden in training was 40 miles. Now I had to go 56, so I was expecting a tough 3 hours. I was pleasantly surprised when my legs felt like they were getting stronger as I went on, but I thought surely I would fade at some point. I don't know if I just had too much adrenaline or if the 4 GUs, 2 Nuuns, 3 Gatorades and the Clif Bocks were kicking in, but I never faded. I ended up averaging just under 20 mph for the bike (much faster than I expected).

As I came in to the run transition, I dismounted the bike and my legs felt like jelly, so I thought-uh oh, I probably pushed it too hard on the bike and won't have anything left for the run. The first mile was really tough, but when I looked down at my Garmin, I noticed that I had run a 7:48 mile-not bad, but I knew that wasn't sustainable and decided to slow it down to around an 8 to 8:15 pace. I passed quite a few people on the first half of the run, but the quads started getting tight around mile 6. Not long after I started hurting I saw MB, Parker and MB's Mom cheering for "Daddy" and my quads suddenly became an afterthought. :) Seeing my family cheering for me was all that I needed to push through the second half of the run. I continued at the ~8 min mile pace for rest of the run and finished the half-marathon in 1 hr 47 min, with a total time of 5 hr 23 min. (7 minutes below my goal time of 5:30) I feel like all the hard work in training really paid off and I am definitely stoked to have had an almost picture perfect race. Below is a shot of me coming down the homestretch to the finish. I have to thank everyone who supported me at the race-MB, Mom, Dad, Marilyn and Little-P. I especially want to thank MB & Parker for allowing me to take those 2 hour training rides and hour long runs on Saturday mornings over the past few months. I had a great time training with Ryan and getting to know him better-so thanks Ryan-having a training partner really helped keep me on track. All in all-it was a great experience even though I am really sore today. It was worth it.

I am continually amazed at what the human body is capable of accomplishing, and I thank God that I have the ability to get out there and compete. I was really amazed with some of the other athletes-I saw one man who lost a leg in Iraq and he was out there "pounding the pavement" with his prosthetic leg. I saw another man who was blind and he completed the course with minimal assistance from an escort. I even saw a 77 year old woman, who was still running at a pretty good clip midway through the run. I think my race pales in comparison to these people. They are the ones who really inspire me to want to go harder the next time. I am not sure when I will do another, but I know I can't stay away for long. I am already setting my sites on a sub-5 hr race next time. We'll see about that....Thanks for reading.

For results, check out http://www.ironmankansas.com/ and click on the results link. Bib# 1177

A little bit a "Chicken Fried"

I have been listening to the radio waiting for this song to come on, so I just decided to search the web for it. Check it out. (song doesn't start until about 1 minute into the video) Songs with the blugrassy-country style always get this "Missouri Boy" fired up!

Zac Brown Band - Chicken Fried

Daily Shoe-In Winner!

Let me preface by saying, I still haven't received anything and I am hopeful that this isn't a hoax. I entered the Daily Shoe-In contest on Facebook by becoming a fan of the Montrail Facebook page. They are giving away a free pair of Montrail trail running shoes every day. I received an email today that I had won and just needed to respond in order to collect my free pair of shoes. I have been wanting some trail shoes for a while, but haven't wanted to pony up the cash to buy them. One of the pairs that I have been interested in trying is the Montrail Masochist, which won the Outside Magazine-Best Trail Shoe Award this year. They are very light, but also very stable for the uneven terrain, and they have received rave reviews on almost every website I have visited. I am so stoked to get a free pair of shoes, and not just any free pair, but one that I actually like. Check out the shoes below.

I am going to put these babies to the test when we head out to Colorado at the end of June for Tristan & Tarah's wedding. I am already planning Parker's first 14er-most likely Mt. Bross or Mt. Democrat-I'll keep you posted and surely take some sweet pics. (Don't worry Mom, we'll go with the easiest 14er we can find and we'll remember to put plenty of sunscreen on Parker. :)) If you have a Facebook account you should join the Montrail fan page and you could win a pair for yourself. Take it easy.