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While I am not a fan of virtual races, I will always do them to help support those that have supported me. Having received extensive JAWS (screen readins software) training from Donka, I was happy to run with them when asked.

As I am Visually Impaired, I need at least 1 guide when I race. I am ALWAYS looking for new ‘eyes’, so a guide-In-training also ran with me on Sunday. For the race, Kathy was my main guide and Dave was the guide-in-training. Kathy and I have run multiple times over the last couple months, which gave her a good idea of how to pace me for the race.

Sunday’s virtual 5K was my first Naperville Half/5K race. I had attempted to run the Half in 2016, but was unable to do so. I believe that unreasonable hurdles were put in place by the Race Director, so I ended up finding another race to run that fall.

We met as a group in Veterans Park in Naperville to run. We had 8 people of Team Donka show up to race together, in a socially distanced manner. Myself, Kathy, Dave and Jodi all ran while the rest of the group walked.

Over the last 5 years, I had run this section of the trail many times, so I was familiar with the course. We did have one minor ‘obstacle’ along the way in the form of a stop light. This added about a minute round trip as we waited for traffic.

In the past, my issues have been with pacing. In that I will end up running an extremently fast first mile and then be spent, positive splitting 2, 3 and 3.1. Over the last month, I have been focused on starting off slower and then negative splitting. While I don’t have the exact split times, I believe that I did accomplish that.

The route itself was mostly flat during the first section (start to first stop light) and then a lot of hills (first stoplight to second stpolight / turnaround point). Knowing that, I focused on keeping a steady pace out, knowing that a small part of the back would be a run/walk due to the hills. This is essentially how it all played out.

It was a really fun day, and we were fortunate to finish before it started raining. After the 5K, we added on another .4mi to satisfy a 3.5mi race I needed to do. I look forward to running with Team Donka again in 2021!

If you’d like to donate to Team Donka, you can do so here!

Six months ago, I decided to use Nutrisystem as a ‘temporary’ solution through the summer. I had thought we’d be back in an office by the fall, and I’d be able to be back on the more ‘normal’ nutritional path from earlier in 2020. At this point, I’ve seen enough of the benefits from it to strongly consider keeping it in place even when I’m back in an office.

Now that’s not to say that I do things perfectly. I’ll admit to adding in meals that may not be perfect ‘flex’ meals — including the weekly ‘safety valve’ pizza from the local Domino’s. But even with all that, I am still seeing results because the number of times I’m on track outweigh the times I’m not. And once I’m back in an office, I believe that I’ll see even better results.

If you’re interested in giving Nutrisystem a try while saving $30, please comment with your e-mail. These comments will not be seen publicly, and I will send you the $30 coupon directly through Nutrisystem’s site.

Because of my vision, I am never able to make out the course maps. I depend on my guides to let me know where we need to go, and at times what type of elevation to expect. And while I knew that there would be some hills, I didn’t realize that there would be that many. But I guess that’s why it’s a good Boston training course.

Given all those hills, what John suggested was power walking up them and running the downhills/flats. I’m extremely glad that he did, or I wouldn’t have made it through mile 1; let alone the first hill. And this was a plan to success!

As I’ve metioned in many past blogs, one of my issues is pacing. I’ll have a good 1st mile, and then it will positive split. That’s definitely NOT what I want, and something that I’ve been working hard on. For this race, I was able to achieve negative splits for at least the main 3 mile portion — I don’t remember the pacing for the last .1. This meant that I was able to shave 11 seconds off my 2020 PB, even with all of those hills!

I am extremely grateful to The Morton Arboretum for keeping this an in-person race! Even with all those hills, it was an extremely fun race. Maybe I’ll be crazy enough to do it again in 2021… 😉 🙂

David Kuhn Camp Olympia (where Camp Catapult was last year) has a 25ft platform for jumping off of. Someone got me up there in the daylight by telling me it was only 10 feet… LOL So night platform jumping was jumping off it in the pitch dark, not being able to see a single thing. The first time, it was scary, as at about the 8-10 second mark, my mind asked ‘WTF is the water’ — and then I hit it a second or two later.

I was essentially on what would be the lane divider. Several times, vehicles would try to push me out of the way and into traffic coming from the other way. I will be looking for distintive markings today, and may follow up with NPD if something like yesterdy does today. Think of it as an 18 wheeler trying to play chicken with me, and then continuing to do so even as I moved out of the way for the asshat…

As fall starts to turn to winter, it’s obvious that the overwhelming majority of my outdoor races will be virtual. As I’ve said in the past, I’m OK with doing them to support those and organizations that have supported me.

After the BTN Big10K race in July 2014, I was looking for other 5Ks to do in the fall. One of them that I found and did was the Naperville Noon Lions Turkey Trot. At the time, I viewed it as just another 5K. In fact, it turned out to be an EXTREMELY imiportant event.

in 2014, I did not have a guide pool. It was essentially reaching out to friends and trying to see whom was crazy enough to run with me… So, when I decided to do the Turkey Trot, I still needed 1 guide. The Lions Club found someone for me, and I thought I was all set. Then about 2-3 weeks prior, I was told that they had broken their ankle.

They did help to find another guide, Terri. At that time, I did not know how crucial that connection would be. If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you’ll know that she was my first Triathlon guide, and helped to guide umpteen times for me during the first few years. And without her help, I wouldn’t have been able to do races during the early days when Art Black (of Oswego Cyclery) generously let us use his tandem.

While I had done the Turkey Trot a couple of times after the 2014 race, it was just too hard to get up that early on Thanksgiving. So I am happy to be able to do it virtually in 2020! I hope that you will join me this November! Your support will help people (like me) with visual disabilities.

You can register online here! Or if you’re not a runner but still want to support the Lions, this coming weekend is the Candy Day weekend! Look for Lions throughout Naperville Fri-Sun!

As I’ve said many times in the past, I am not a fan of virtual races. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say I hate them. However, I will gladly do them to help support organizations that have supported me.

Thankfully, this was an in-person race. It was my first in-person event since March, and my first in-person running race since January. I am grateful that PDC found a way to keep it as one.

Going into the race, one of the key objectives was to keep the pacing slow for the first mile so that we could finish strong. Kathy helped with ensuring that the pacing stayed in line, and mile 1 went well for the most part. There was a hill at about the 1 mile mark, and a long bridge shortly afterwards that gave me some difficulty.

But because we had kept the pacing for the first mile, the last 2.1 went smoother than it had during this year. I did have to walk in a couple of places on the way back (at about 2.25 and 2.75), but we still finished strong. And while I’m still about 4 minutes off of where I was during the 2019 season, this 5K was about 2 minutes faster than my last one (done as part of the Virtual Chicago Triathlon).

Even though it was an entirely different feel from 2019 races, it was still an EXTREMELY fun day! As I said earlier, I am extremely grateful that PDC kept this as a physical race, and to Kathy for guiding for me!

To view the post-race photo, please click here!

As I’ve said in prior blogs, I am not a fan of virtual races. In general, I will just do them in support of organizations that I want to support or that have supported me. To this point, they’ve all been 5Ks. However, last weekend I did my first virtual Triathlon.

While I’ll go into the details from each of the legs below, I want to say two things — (1) A virtual triathlon is nothing like the actual thing and (2) I look forward to seeing a substancial crowd at the Ron Jon Tri (SE Regionals) next weekend so we can have a ‘normal’ 2021 season.

While I’ve done running since the Pandemic occurred, I haven’t done much on the other two physical legs. I was able to get back in the pool about a month ago, but the last time I was on a tandem was in November 2019 in southen CA.

Leg 1 (Swim)
Since getting back in the pool, the longest sets prior were 200s. It was a planned build back to doing longer sets. But this needed to be a 750, and I found a way to do it.

Looking at the data afterwards, I went out too fast (-27s of CSS) and paid for it midway through. I do remember having to take extra time on the wall at 15, 17 and 19. But by about 21, I felt the rhythm again and was able to finish strong. Overall, the total was only about a minute off of the 2019 CSS paces. Not bad for being out of the pool for 5 months.

Leg 2, Take 1 (Bike)
As with every new pilot, we’ll do fitting and then ride around the parking lot to ensure that everything’s solid before we go out. During those test rides, we kept hearing an odd noise only when we were both on. As he went through all the checks, we found that it was spoke tension on the rear wheel.

As neither of us had the tools to address it, we had to temporarily scrub the bike. I then took a nap before what would have been the final leg.

Leg 2, take 2 (Run)
When I went out to get ready for the bike, it was a cool and cloudy morning — the perfect weather for a run. Thankfully by the time we were supposed to run, it was still overcast.

In the past, I have paid dearly for going out too fast. And a lot of the time it’s not even conscious action. So for this run, I told my guide to make sure that we kept mile 1 fairly slow.

While it wasn’t the run that I had hoped, the pacing did help. Mile 1 was still faster than I wanted, but slow enough that I had gas for most of the race. The overall time was about 5 minutes slower than 2019 times, but 3 minutes faster than 2020 races.

Leg 3 (Bike)
When my pilot returned, he brought a working tandem with him. After doing the proper fit, we went out on a 15 mile, mostly hilly ride.

At about mile 7 or 8, I felt my left leg sieze up as we were in the middle of an intersection. We were able to make it through, and after about 1-2 minutes, the cramps passed. We made it back to my condo without any other incidents.

I’m grateful to everyone who helped so I could complete the virtual Tri. I’m definitely looking forward to physical reacing in 2021…

[Photo Description: Paracord Tether at top, SP1belt swim tether below, race belt run tether below, key card swim tether and hand run tether at the bottom.]

Because of my vision, I rely on others’ eyes when I train and compete.  For both the swim and run, we’re tethered together.  I thought it would be helpful to others to discuss that evolution and what currently works best for me.

During the first few runs, I believe that I did them untethered.  I had more sight at that point, and I believed the very visible vests were enough.  While they were early on, I knew that the vision would eventually necessitate tethers. 

The first iteration of the running tethers were hand carried.  While it wasn’t a perfect system, what I found worked best was one of the ‘child leashes’.  I found that it was easiest for the guide to hold the handle.  And while they worked for a bit, I quickly learned that I needed something else.  Simply put, too much focus ended up being put on arm stroke or worrying about losing the tether.

On the swim side, the first tether I used was built by Dare2Tri’s staff.  It was a waist tether consisting of a piece of bungee and 2 hotel key cards.  Early on, this worked great, and I was able to feel the responsive tug as the guide maneuvered us through the course/around traffic.  However, after about a year, they got to a point where the swim tether would continually slip during the race.  Because of that concern, I started looking at other swim options.

While the initial swim waist tether wasn’t perfect, it did lead to solutions on the run side.  What I found worked best was two of the Triathlon race belts with a piece of bungee connecting them.  That has been my run tether since, and it led to the next iteration of the swim tethers.

Prior to Leon’s Triathlon that summer, I overheard someone from SP1belt talking about creating a swim tether using two of their belts.  I was intrigued and looked into it more.  As a result, before the race started, I had a new swim tether that didn’t slip.

I continued to use that tether for about 2 years.  During that time, it became clear that the current tether wasn’t responsive enough.  Meaning that I would be too far from my guide before I would feel it go taut and correct.  At that point, I was introduced to the Paracord tethers. 

These have a two part connection point (waist and thigh), and are connected by a length of paracord.  Because of the double connection point, I stopped having stroke interruption on whichever side the guide was on.  It worked well during the 2019 season, and I’ll be looking at another version for 2021’s season.

So to review, what I’ll be using for the 2021 season is a run tether that consists of 2 tri belts connected by bungee and a Paracord constructed swim tether.  I will be going to smaller paracard so that I’ll have a lighter swim tether.

If you’re interested in being my eyes for training or racing in 2021, please reach out.  The projected schedule includes Indoor Triathlons, Sprint Triathlons, an Olympic Triathlon, Sprint Duathalons, Sprint Aquathons, 5Ks, 10Ks, Half Marathons and 70.3s.  If you are, I only ask these two things:

The first is that you’re extremely proficient in the discipline(s) that you’re going to guide for me in.  Typically, your worst speed should equal 90% of my estimated best.

The other is that you have a good attitude and are willing to learn.  Before the first time out, we’ll spend at least 10-15 minutes talking to ensure that we’re both on the same page.

Since beginning this journey 6+ years ago, I have become part of many different organizations. They all play a different and important part towards helping me succeed.

Catapult has provided me with opportunities to push my own boundaries while still being safe. They have also provided support so that I could improve in the swim discipline.

I am extremely grateful for their support, especially in this chaotic 2020 season. I am also extremely grateful for the opportunities that they provided for me in 2019. Feeling normal as I went night platform jumping has and will always stick with me.

This is just one of many reasons that I’m honored and proud to be part of their 2020 Ambassador team! And while I haven’t been able to be back in Houston yet, you WILL see me in Catapult gear during the fall/winter 5Ks that I have planned.

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.” – Robert Burns

It has been a challenging year from a lot of perspectives. I’ve discussed my frustrations in previous blogs. However, the focus now is moving forward.

Now that doesn’t mean being reckless. I had struggles during the early part of the 2019 season due to medical issues. And the incident in Pleasant Prairie later that summer (having to be pulled from the water) magnified how important it is to be physically sound when racing. What it DOES mean is being careful, smart and not living in fear.

I do realize that there’s a pandemic going on, and that ROs, RDs and many others are going to err on the side of caution. To this point, this has mean cancellations and deferrals of umpteen events of all sizes. But I believe that there are ways to have races while ensuring everyone’s safety.

I also believe that the only way that we’re going to have athletic events in general is if they happen and the sky doesn’t fall. For them to happen though, people have to be willing to show up and race. To that point, while the Ron Jon Tri is no longer the Toyota Paratriathlon Nationals, I truly and sincerely hope that it’s a sizable and successful event. When it is, I believe we’ll have a full 2021 Triathlon season.

While I won’t make the trip for a Regional event, I am focused on local events. I will do the virtual Chicago Triathlon and several in-person 5Ks this fall.

The bigger picture for me though is 2021. I have sent a proposed schedule to my coach that has 10 packed months of racing on it. To the point of being smart — the overwhelming majority of it is planned in the midwest, where we can drive to the events. We’ll see what of that planned schedule actually happens. But all I can do is properly plan and be ready to race.

One other part of moving forward is working on communication. This includes social media, e-mail and the web site.

I realize that the blog -> e-mail piece has not worked in approximately a year. I appreciate everyone’s patience with the tests over the last week as I tested it. If you are no longer interested in receiving the e-mails, please just reply with an unsubscribe request. I will honor those ASAHP once received.

And stay tuned for a new web site late this year / early 2021…