Race reports, adventures, travel, fun, misc...

I just heard that someone got into Ironman Kona this year by submitting a motivational essay. I'll give this a shot when applications open up next year..... I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row. I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru. Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When ...

This was such an in incredible experience that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I shouldn't bore you with the training details that got me here and will just fast forward to race day.   Approximately 2,600 age group amateur athletes and 36 pros started. To avoid the human mosh pit that is synonymous with an Ironman swim start my plan was to wait 60 seconds for the madness to get out in front and then I would start. This race had over 1,000 first timers so many others had the same plan. Gun goes off at 7:00 AM and there are about 100 of us just sitting back and waiting. 30 seconds was all I could take before the adrenaline took over and I took off for the 2.4 mile 2 lap swim. The first few minutes were great. Open water with not too many people around me allowed me to settle into a groove quickly. Swimming the lake a month prior and the day before the race made me comfortable enough not to freak out like I do at most starts. I caught up to the madnes...