Since 2019, Catapult has provided amazing opportunities and support for me. This has included TIR, Camp Catapult, being an Ambassador and more.
I am grateful for all of their support to this point. I am also grateful for the Grant support again in 2021! This will go towards swim coaching, and will help immensely as I continue to move forward.
A few years ago, I saw something that I thought would be fun. This was the EndureIt! 2 person 10K Team Relay.
The first time round, I made mistakes. Prior to that race, I had been doing consistent 2-2:15 quarter mile repeats at camp. I thought that if I had one of my faster Dare2Tri teammates as the other half, we’d have a decent time and I’d still be able to recover. What I didn’t factor into that equation was that it took about 25-30 seconds to get off the track, get water and get back to the exchange point. This meant that I would typically get about 40 seconds to recover, which was never enough.
Knowing that, for 2021, I looked to find a parter whose 1/4 mile splits were closer to mine. The original person had schedule conflicts, but we were able to find another on short notice.
While the recovery part went better this time around, the actual race part did not. I was struggling on the laps after about the 4th or 5th one and they were almost all walk/run laps.
Even though it was a struggle, it was still a great and fun event. Thanks to John for guiding and Jeff for being the other half of the team!
Earlier this year, I was presented with an opportunity to obtain a new piece of equipment. While it took a month before I was able to get assistance with putting it together, I wanted to introduce everyone to Archie (formally Archie L.).
I am extremely grateful to Challenged Athletes Foundation and ElliptiGO USA for providing the equipment for me! I look forward to getting used to it first on the stand and then taking it on the road.
I am visually impaired, and I realize that the last part of the prior paragraph will make my family nervous. But one of the biggest things that I was looking forward to when the ElliptiGO aarived was getting my independence back. It’s been about 30 years since I’ve had the confidence (and vision) to be out on a single bike by myself. But I look forward to the challenge — and the freedom.
Much, much more to come as I get used to Archie.
“Why don’t you go play in traffic?”
I’m sure you’ve all heard that in the past. And you’ve probably said to others. But that’s exactly what I was doing the last two days. All to help support the local Lions Club!
I became a Lion in 2015, and volunteered to help with their Candy Day for the first time in 2015 or 2016. Because of my vision, the prospect of being out in traffic was a little bit scary that first year. But because most were respectful (not trying to run into me or push me into oncoming traffic), it worked out well and I was hooked.
This year was at least my 5th year out on the streets near North Central College (NCC) in downtown Naperville. As in the past, I was able to volunteer for both days because of community service initatives that my current employer supports. I am extremely grateful for and appreciative of that!
Because of the current conditions, we were all in full PPE (masks and gloves) throughout the collection period. I believe that helped people in their cars feel more comfortable about rolling down their windows to donate. And with the lower numbers overall, I’m sure that that decision helped out overall.
Prior to this year, Friday was an almost constant stream of cars and people. Whether it was students going to NNHS/NCC, the commercial traffic or people going about their normal tasks, I would say a vehicle would come through the intersection every 3-5 seconds. And there was also the pedestrian traffic as NCC students walked to / from classes and dorms. Past Saturdays were roughly the same, but without as much commercial traffic. There would be even more pedestrian traffic on Saturday if there was a home football game. But of course, this year was different.
On Friday, the early morning was slower than in years past. But it did start to pick up to normal levels by about 10AM. And starting at about 2PM it was back to ‘normal’ Friday levels. On Saturday, after a couple of brief spurts in the late morning, things really seemed to slow down. Even though traffic wasn’t as heavy throughout the two days I was out there, I did notice people being more generous. So it may have evened out overall. We’ll see in the next couple weeks what the final numbers show.
One of the downsides of it being much slower on Saturday was that I ended up standing in one place for long stretches of time. This meant that by about 1:30 PM, my back was starting to spasm. From that point through about 3:30, I did what I could to try and stretch it every 30-40 cars. But by 3:30, it was painful enough that I had to take a walk to try and relieve it. Even though I was in a great deal of pain, I wasn’t going to tap out. Thankfully, the walk helped and I was able to make it through the last part of the day.
While there were a lot of generous people (including the two who said ‘this [large bill] is all I have, so that’s what you’re going to get.’, there were still the normal share of assholes. This included an 18 wheel truck that seemed to want to play chicken with me in the road on Friday. I get it, not everyone wants to donate. No one is forcing you to, and in fact there’s enough space to where you can just stay right to go past us. However, to try and push me into oncoming lanes of traffic is just absurd. And while I deal with this BS every year, I will still be out there year after year.
I am grateful to everyone who came out and donated throughout the past two days. I believe Lions will be at Casey’s today if you want to donate in person. You can also donate online here. Or if you’d prefer to support the Naperville Noon Lions Club in other ways, you can do so by:
Registering for their Virtual Turkey Trot.
Purchasing Raffle Tickets for their annual raffle.
Purchasing Poinsettias and Amaryllis bulbs.
** For the Poinsettias and Amaryllis bulbs, delivery is only available within the Naperville area. **
I will be doing the virtual 5K to support them. Read more by clicking here (Gobble Virtually blog)!
I understand and accept that no race is going to go off perfectly. As a RO/RD, you can plan for every eventuality, every contingency and even put pre-emptive Darwin Awards measures in place. But it won’t stop [X] from happening — specifically [X] that no one could ever think of happening. When something like that does happen, it really hasn’t been a big deal. They did everything right, and something out of their control just happened. HOWEVER, The Blacklight Run Chicago does not fall into that category.
To begin with, their ‘free’ race was not really free. This ‘free’ race registration required you to make a mandatory donation to a charity in addition to paying a facility fee. Quite odd to mandate this, as well as then charging you the registration percentage on it. But looking at it as a 5K for < $15, I went along with their process.
I had registered for both this race and a similar one that they did in May. I had believed it would be a very simple conversation about my guide, especially since it appeared that they wanted people there. If not, then why do a ‘free’ entry that kept getting pushed? However, it took me having to reach out to the Chicagoland Speedway before this RO got the message that the ADA needs to be followed. I’ve got the e-mail chain to show just how unhelpful their staff was initially. And then within a VERY short time of calling the Speedway, it was all resolved.
The next issue with this event was the parking. I remember seeing something early on from the RO along the lines of ‘Parking is $20 (cash). We have specifically told the tow companies to watch for people parking on side streets. You will be towed if you do.’ IMO, that sort of message smacks of bullying. But we went along with it. I’ll admit that I did get some satisfaction from handing them a bag of change to pay for the $20 BS parking.
As I had to do packet pickup that evening, we arrived in plenty of time. Once it started to get dark, we moved towards the starting area. As usual, we seeded ourselves far enough back to ensure that it could be a safe, good run. As they were sending people off in waves, I thought we’d be even better off.
However, things did not go well throughout the race. I would estimate that at least 90% of the people were walking. There were some others running, but they were having the same issues that we were. You would be able to run for about 150-200 feet and then a pocket of people walking across the ENTIRE path would stop your progress. I don’t have an issue with people walking. But the overwhelming percentage of people go with walk right, run left. So overall, we were able run about 1m total.
The Blacklight zones on the course were interesting, and lived up to what they were supposed to be. On the other hand, the aid station did not. To that point, every single aid station in the 100+ events (Tri and running) that I’ve done have had COLD beverage options, pre-set and ready for people to grab. Hell, even during the Half where I had horrible calf issues and we were beyond the race finish, there were still cold jugs of water for us to self-pour from. Last night, their idea of an ‘aid station’ was to set up empty cups on a table, then have you wait in line. When you got to the front of it, someone filled the cup with warm water from a garden hose. Utter, utter BS.
The final straw of the evening was how their staff acted post-race. I’ll admit that I was beyond pissed with the cummulative BS of the evening. When I talked to the Assistant RD, he said that (a) the RD was out on the course, (b) the RD wasn’t reachable and (c) I’d have to go through their ‘helpful’ CS team. Again, I’ve NEVER seen a situation where the RD is unreachable. I’m quite sure that Marconi didn’t just invent them today…
I have already reached out to their CS for a FULL refund. And I’ve also contacted the SPeedway. I truly hope that the Chicagoland Speedway takes the appropriate actions to ensure that others don’t have to go through this absurdity. It was the Blacklight Walk, NOT the Blacklight Run. Had it been promoted as what it ruly was, I would not have wasted the almost $38 that I did.
Finally, if you want a well organized, fun and TRUE night run, I strongly suggest the GloRuns done by AllCommunityEvents. I believe Amita Health is the title sponsor for these races that are held across the country.
Last August, I was given an amazing opportunity to be at the OPTC for the first Visually Impaired (VI) Talent ID Camp. Even though I struggled during that camp (see last year’s blog post), I still learned a tremendous amount from it.
Even though there have been unexpected and unplanned bumps throughout this season, I’ve seen an upward trend. I had hoped to have the opportunity to be there again this year. While I wasn’t given a spot initially, I was fortunate to be given one off the wait list.
Last year, I suffered from the altitude adjustment and from trying to do a long bike ride in Tri shorts. Going into this year, I intended to do a run in CO pre-camp and had bibs for the longer ride. So after running errands Wednesday morning, Larry and I went to the track and ran 2 miles. As expected, it was absolutely, positively no fun. Even doing 1/2 mile repeats was a challenge since my body wasn’t yet acclimated. However, it was worth it in the long run.
Something that I’ve said before and will say again is that you can’t do this sport without a lot of trust. You’re putting your life in someone else’s hands, especially on the bike. For me, as long as my guide is an experienced Triathlete and has a good attitude, it’s all going to work out. I’ll always share what I need with a new guide before we do a practice or race. Taking that small amount of time leads to success, even if they’re a first-time guide.
The first full day of camp was packed. We started on the Colorado College track for a strenuous workout. I was glad to have done the warm ups the day before with Larry. Because of that, the first session with Jace went much better. That’s not to say it was easy by any means though. We ended up doing a warmup followed by dynamic stretching work and then 3x 400/200/400/200 (run/walk) with a focus on negative splits. During that last session, one of the coaches showed me a way to improve my run strike/run stride. It was odd and a bit painful at first, but I knew / know it will pay off long-term.
After a strength session and lunch, we were in the OPTC pool for the first time. While the altitude created some struggles for me during the early set, it wasn’t as bad as last year. I would say that I wasn’t feeling it that much by about 500-600 into the set. The main set was full of drills, during which I was trying to watch/focus on the left arm catch. While the right is usually OK, the left has far more drag — and is something that I’ve been working on with a private coach as well.
After the swim and time to finish bike builds, we headed out to do bike skills. For safety reasons, they had the pilots ride over solo while the stokers were in the vans. I’m sure that drivers in Colorado Springs had some interesting comments when they say 10 tandems ride by with just one person on them. After working out some minor issues with starts and stops, Jace and I went through all of the different drills without incident. He was able to successfully maneuver us around those small two legged obstacles. Once done there, the day ended with a Sports Psychology classroom session.
While the next day only had two sessions, it was more challenging than the previous day. It started with 4.8mi Gold Camp repeats. Even with losing 20-30 minutes having to address a tire puncture, we made it up / down almost twice. The van turned us around about 80-85% of the way back up the 2nd time because of time constraints. It’s a long uphill climb, where you feel like you’re going through mud a times. But it’s well worth doing and an amazing hill workout. Oh, and coming down Gold Camp is a tremendous amount of fun. 🙂
The afternoon swim session was an Open Water Skills (OWS) session. It included a warmup, drills and all of the standard things you’d do in open water in a race. We also had the assistance of two coaches (Beck and Kelly) that were there for the PT Coaching Certification Clinic during the session. It ended with us doing two full race simulation laps.
In 2007, when Coach O put us through the paces like we new recruits during the first day of spring ball, I remember walking around the IPF track in a daze post-workout. My brain was fighting my body at that point. I had a similar feeling after these two sessions, and it took a good deal of sugar to get me back to ‘normal’ so that I didn’t fall asleep during the classroom sessions.
The next day included the Triple Brick session and another pool session. Each of the bicks was T1->bike (5K)->T2->run (1mi), with a focus on negative splitting per brick. Throughout our sessions, the transitions kept decreasing, the runs were about constant and the bikes were on target.
The meat of the swim session was a 16×50 workout. These were broken down into 3 ‘active recovery’ and 1 fast. For me, I can do a fast 25 okay. But after that 25, the motor dies a bit. Even still, we made it through the workout, which finished with a coach/guide race.
The final day was an optonial swim workout. It was a good opportunity to practice the drills that we had done throughout the camp. It also had more of the 4×50 drills…
I am truly grateful to have had this amazing opportunity again in 2019. While it’s a short stay, I always learn a LOT at the camps I’ve been at at the OPTC. And what I’ve learned has helped me to improve across all phases of Triathlon.
THANK YOU to everyone that made this possible, all the coaches for their time and sharing their knowledge, Larry for his help in getting to/from Denver and Jace for guiding for me. He did an amazing job as my guide and I hope to work with him again!
Last year, a broken crank sidelined me from the race. I tried everything I could to make it work,
but had to eventually throw in the towel.
So I was really looking forward to this year’s race.
Upon getting to the race site, I was surprised in the dark. I thought that I knew where my ‘stalker’ was
at that weekend. But they surprised me
by being there. Their note pre-race was
‘finish faster’.
In past years, we’ve been immediately behind the elites. While it’s been a privilege to be that far
up-font, it’s come at a price. Simply
because we’d have those able to do 5-6 minute swims swimming over us. To counteract this, we seeded ourselves
towards the back of the pack. This
helped some, but didn’t solve all of the issues. Especially since it seemed like they went
from a lane-line barrier to a more solid one.
Even with a couple of hiccups, it was still a decent swim.
After doing a reasonably quick T1 for the distance, we headed out on the
bike. As in Lake Zurich, we passed a
tremendous amount of people on the double loop.
I was hoping to see the Para Relay team while we were on the bike, but
we didin’t. It also got a little hairy
towards the turnaround on the 2nd loop.
At this point, the participants of the Kids Tri were on the bike
course. While some weren’t as familiar
with the rules, Lee was able to keep us safe and [eventually] get them to ride
properly so we could pass.
Arriving back in T2, I drained about half the bottle of Skratch before we
headed out on the run. While I
remembered most of the course from 2017, I had forgotten about an important
hill on River. Even still, the portion
through the woods and over the bridge was solid. So were spurts along River. However, when we hit Aurora in the heat and
humidity, things broke down a bit.
While it wasn’t a perfect race, I did end up shaving 14 minutes off my 2017
time.
[Photo credit – Claudia Ani]
“Send lawyers, guns and money. The shit has hit the fan.” – Warren Zevon
This year, Dare2Tri split the PT Training Camp into two, a beginner and an advanced camp. With all of the racing that I’ve done to this point, I was at the advanced camp.
Day 1 started with triple bricks (3 mi bike/1 mi run/rest x3). The bike felt really good, and more importantly so did the runs. While GPS wasn’t great because of all the trees, I was able to be at and under pace for the first 2 runs and at for the 3rd. The pace that I set for myself for these runs was 30 seconds faster than my current normal run pace. Not just to get faster, but also to get a measuring stick towards the <35 5K I need to hit before summer’s end. After lunch, we were in the water for skills and drills. The day finished up with recovery, during which I had a chance to try an amazing product.
Over the last couple years, I’ve had intermittent pain in my upper right arm. The only thing that’s really helped prior was getting worked on by a PT. But after about 5 minutes in the arm sleeve that’s made by Rapid Reboot and things felt great. Hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to use their products more in the future.
Day 2 started with swimming the course, and continued with a course overview. After some bike handling skills, the day finished with a breathing session and an ice bath experience. Last year, I had had an opportunity to do the contrast bath course (cold/hot/cold/hot). The cold sessions were in about 40 degree water for a total of 10 minutes, so I thought this 1:15 would be just fine. And outsize of the first 5-10 seconds, it wasn’t that bad. Meditation in 30 degree water is interesting to say the least…
There’s nothing fun about 3A wakeup calls, but that’s what was required for race day. After meeting up with Dave and getting transition set up, I felt really good. We poisitioned ourselves far enough back in the wave to avoid getting run over by people like Jack and Owen, and had a great start. Then at about 175-200, I started to feel the carbon dioxide start to build up. Using a drill that Stacee had taught me the day prior, I was able to get rid of a bit. At about 225 though, it came back and we had to head to the floating podium so I could try and clear it. At about 275, it was back and severe enough that I had to go to the boat. They gave me some water and it felt like the throat cleared. However, less than 10 strokes later, I had to tap out of the water. I felt true distress between when I told Dave I needed to and as we were swimming to the boat.
Because of HIPAA, I won’t go into much of what happened between when I was pulled from the water and when we walked to the finish line to cheer teammates in. All I will say is that too much fluid in the lungs was the culprit behind this. Post-race, I’ve had a chance to talk through this more with coaches and teammates that I trust. As a result of those conversations, I’ve got a few different things to try to help minimize this going forward.
As many of you know, I don’t believe in DNFs. In fact, Pleasant Prairie (2016) was the race where we walked the bike back 3+ miles so that I wouldn’t have to tap out. But this one was unavoidable for safety reasons.
While this was a disappointing day — not just in the water, but also having to scratch both of my A races — it wasn’t all bad. I know that as I continue to move forward, there are going to be bumps and setbacks. While I don’t ever want something like this to happen again, I’m glad it happened at a local race.
I still have a huge chunk of my season left, and I will find ways to work this out. I will also find a ‘replacement’ A race to focus on. And while this is a setback, it will NOT be a permanent one. I WILL find a way to fix all of this prior to the start of 2020’s seaons. And I WILL be in CA next summer.
“He’s a rebel and a runner. He’s a signal turning green.” – RUSH
While I haven’t done it in the past 2 years, the Shamrock Shuffle is a special race for me. This is the race where everything Triathlon-related started for me. And while I know that last sentence sounds odd, it will all make sense in a moment. Keri Serota, who is the Executive Director of Dare2Tri, is also the AWD coordinator for the Shamrock Shuffle. The short version of the story goes I told her I was going to do my first Tri in Aug 2015, she told me about Dare2Tri and invited me to the PT camp; the rest is history.
After Columbus, I felt really good going into Shamrock Shuffle. Instead of 3 loops of hills, I knew I’d only have one major (Roosevelt) hill and that I’d only have to do it once. So going in, I had two real goals: (1) To make it out of the tunnels before the elites caught up to us and (2) to not walk outside of aid station and at most 1/3 of the Roosevelt hill. Having burnt out in mile 1 in 2016, I knew that my pacing had to be better. Lisa kept an eye on this throughout the entire run, and that helped immensely.
Goal #1 was achieved during the 1st mile (I believe they caught us at about .65 or .7). From that point through the first aid station (about 1.6), the pace was fairly consistent and I had two guides with me. Then at close to 2, I unintentially dropped a guide. We tried to keep them in sight as they caught their breath and regrouped, but it just didn’t work for them to re-join. And while it wasn’t intentional, yes, I did still feel bad about it happening. All of the guides I run with give up their time and race to run with and look after me. I try my hardest to return that. Keri (Achilles) joined us about a half mile later so that I had two guides again.
Shortly after the 5K spilt, I started to look for the aid station. Given where the first one had been and the race distance, I expected it at about 3.25. However, it didn’t appear until almost 3.7. I’ve stopped running with a bottle on 5k/8K/10K races, so I was struggling a bit between where I thought it would be and where it was. Mostly in terms of trying to get enough lubrication so I could swallow.
After you make the turn at about 3.9 or 4, it’s a straight shot to the turn at Roosevelt, hill and finish. Having run that stretch several times, I remember it being clear sailing. So I didn’t expect or see the divot that caused me to trip and fall. Luckily I caught myself and really only hit the pad of my palm hard. After taking about a minute to regroup and about a minute to walk, we started off again towards Mt. Roosevelt.
While I didn’t succeed in running it completely, I did succeed with goal #2. In 2015 and 2016, I had to stop after about 100 feet and walk it. This year, I made it about 1/2 way up before I had to stop and walk for 30-45 seconds. Once I got my breath back, we kept running and finished strong (1:03:25).
I look forward to running it again in 2020. Thank you to Achilles for their support and to Lisa, Keri and Jen for guiding for me! Also thank to you Dare2Tri for facilitation the AWD support!
“And the magic music makes your morning mood.” – RUSH
Last year as I was planning out my Nationals qualifying races, I stumbled across an Indoor Tri in Columbus. Having family there, I decided to give it a try. And while the run was a bitch, what sticks in my mind from last year was crushing the bike when good music came on. Even though I can’t remember if it was Welcome to the Jungle or Paradise City, I do remember hitting 28 or 29 on the bike when GNR came on.
So going into this year’s race, I was really hoping for several solid songs together. I knew that that was the only way for me to make it off the bike in 20 minutes and ultimately to having a chance at 1:18. I also knew that facing the hill in practice would make it a little ‘less worse’ on Saturday. We got in a full lap along with some swim and ‘bike fit’ before calling it a night.
Based on how practice went Friday night, I was confident that I could qualify Saturday IF T2 was less of a maze. And as we got into the pool, I was confident that I could come close to a 16/2/20/2/38 split to achieve the 1:18 I needed.
While I felt good on the swim, it did not go as I wanted or needed it to. Results show that my 100s averaged about 45s slower than they should have been. And Robin mentioned that there were a lot of straight arm strokes. Definitely something that needs to be addressed before the next race…
When we made it to the bike, I had no idea that I was 5 minutes off my mark. I honestly believed that I was at worst in a 2 minute hole. In any event, I was ready to try and keep a 30mph pace during the bike. To that end, I had 2 full bottles of Skratch and a Clif bar to eat towards the end. I figured by doing so, I’d keep the mph and have a little more for hill hell.
While that was a great plan, it didn’t fully come to fruition. Even though I was able to spike to 29-30, I wasn’t able to sustain it for more than a minute. There were a couple of really good songs that helped the average. But during a couple, I could definitely feel the mojo draining.
Knowing that I was at about 54 minutes headed out to the run, it became purely about pride. I know I can’t run 7 minute miles on the best days. So there surely wasn’t any way I could run 7 minute miles in hill hell.
I can and will continue to call the run hill hell because of the river -> Premier part. When you come out of T2, you’re in the middle of two hills. The one to the right, where you start up, isn’t that bad. Let’s call it a 1/4 mile gentle uphill. However, the one to the left is a PITA. Let’s call it a 1/4 mile that starts with a ~25 degree uphill for 150-200 feet, followed by a steeper gradual uphill for the rest of it. And to add injury to insult, you have to slow/stop your legs at the bottom of the downhill to turn. Not fun trying to restart your engine AND go up a steep grade.
Lap 1 was okay; lap 2 was meh; lap 3 was a struggle. After 2 laps of struggling with the steep hill, I had little left for the uphills in lap 3. So it turned into staggered run/walk to just get through it. Even though I had to walk in parts, I was able to nail the 5K pace that I wanted.
And while I just spent two paragraphs saying how frustrating the hills are, YES I will be back in 2020 to race it again.
Thanks to Robin for guiding for me again this year! And to #EagleCheerleader and family/friends for coming out to cheer us on!