Trekking Through Thailand

I'm in the process of producing a 60 second video for the Chicago area youth of the NAC. The movie will be displayed for all the NAC youth at DOTY 07 in Denver. After it's debut in Denver the video will be posted on youtube for all your viewing pleasure.

OMG somebody's using my blog to send me spam! Like I don't get enough already having a university-associated email account.

Life is busy. Grant applications. Stacks of papers to read. Stacks of papers to grade. And very little time to train. Come to think of it, I don't have time to be doing this either.

- “If God invented marathons to keep people from doing anything more stupid, the triathlon must have taken Him completely by surprise.”

I don't know what happened while I was in Thailand, but not long before I left IMAZ was run, and right after I came back I was able to follow IM MOO online. Both events were exciting, and I got a real kick out of reading the race reports, and seeing montages (especially of the AZ course where there was a stretch of marathon completely lined with posterboard signs).

But there was something else too.

I actually got into triathlon knowing that some day I wanted to attempt an IronMan race. Sure, it was also useful crosstraining for a runner who was always injured or on the verge of injured. But in the back of my head with every workout was the spectre of the IronMan.

Every triathlon distance is hard, and to excel at any of them you're pushing yourself to the extreme. But to the general population, and even to some extent among triathletes, there is a special awe reserved just for the long course. It's an event where just finishing is the first goal. I've heard IronMan champions admit to that. And there's something special to that.

I worked hard on the day after IM MOO to resist the urge to sign up. And I was successful. It's a committment I can't make. Not now. There's too much riding on next year. It was smart not to sign up....

wasn't it?

I've heard, and I fully believe, that you can never really be ready for an IronMan. Not just the race, but the journey to the starting line will tax every part of your life. Just look at IronWill (www.throughth3wall.com) and her journey. Maybe it's not that I've got too much going on. Maybe I'm just not ready for that committment to have my life overturned and shredded.

And I'm OK with that.

This year won't be my year, and probably next year won't either. But the struggle not to sign up, the regret at not making the leap, and the excitement I get from hearing about other people's races all reassure me. One day I will be an IronMan.

http://throughth3wall.com/

I had a decent ride today, but it was nothing compared to THAT!

So, things got hectic in Thailand. Every time I went to the internet café I had to deal with issues with the permit (which the DNP went and freaking LOST and we had to re-submit it) and finding a new roommate since my old roommate got a fellowship that took her to DC. Try finding a roommate via internet from across the planet with only sporadic email access. Not fun.

I didn’t get to run much, although I was constantly active while in the park. I did go for a few runs, trying to modify my form. One day I had the genius idea halfway through my 3 mile run to make it an 6 mile run instead. Only after mile 2 the run turned uphill and left the shade of the forest into open fields and the full heat of the sun. I don’t think I’ve felt oxygen debt like that in a long time.

One lesson I learned well is that if you want to stay more than one month you should really should buy your visa before you get there. You cannot buy a visa in the country other than the 30 day visa on arrival that you get at the airport. So I had to take a lovely bus trip across the border to Cambodia. It’s a 5+ hour ride from Bangkok, then you have to get out of Thailand, walk across the border to Cambodia ignoring all the people trying to scam you. Don’t ask for any help from anybody including people wearing official uniforms. And when you buy your visa, the price is US $20 not 1,000 Baht. (A difference of around 6 dollars). So you stand in the entry line in Cambodia, then move a few feet and stand in the exit line, then walk back to Thailand and re-enter. The whole process took a little over an hour. Then for the 5+ hour ride back to Bangkok. I got it all done in a day, but it was not fun. So when I got back to the park after that little escapade I resolved to leave the park as little as possible.

Highlights:
1) I finally observed the behavior that I was there to study.
2) And got it on video!
3) I got addicted to Spicy Fried Egg Salad and this Cashew dish. Oh, I might have to go out for Thai right now.
4) I saw a few elephants. Both times on the road, but still it was really cool!
5) I got to ride a moterbike back and forth from the house to the forest.
6) It tried to kill me by flatting out going downhill and around a bend, but it was still massively fun to ride.
7) And it belongs to a woman who hates me. Or rather she thinks that my advisor is poaching on her territory and since I was there and he wasn’t, I was caught in the middle of the pissing contest.
8) I got to name over 20 monkeys with names like Phantom, Tamora, Moby and Nob.
9) Several times I saw stupid people feeding monkeys from cars, and it made for good video as well as giving me awesome dominance info.
10) A case of beer costs $12.
11) And that’s for 12, 40oz beers.
12) A handle of rum or whisky is between $3-5.
13) Once I get a bike out there, there are some really massive hills that I can train on
14) You can squeeze the stomachs out of leeches. It’s terribly gross, but quite effective
15) I didn’t get lost out in the forest at night a single time
16) Even when I do check my email, I don’t have to answer anybody because as far as they know I’m out of contact.

Lowlights:
1) I hurt my knee early on and had to take a few days off from working
2) Monkeys have an uncanny ability to aim while defecating/urinating
3) Contact with monkey bodily fluids can give you a deadly disease….
4) that has symptoms similar to the flu
5) I caught a cold on the flight back which seriously freaked me out
6) Eating out doesn’t always agree with my stomach.
7) When you order something off the menu, don’t expect to get what you ordered.
8) The whole trip to Cambodia pretty much sucked.
9) Taxi drivers are HUGE scammers.
10) Asthma. It acted up pretty badly.
11) Bangkok.
12) The 24+ Hour trip home.
13) Arriving to find out that my ride had my arrival time off by 12 hours and I had to find a way from JFK to NJ on my own.

OK, now I'm pissed. Just when things were supposed to get interesting....they didn't. Majorly. G.G. was supposed to call me yesterday so we could get together and chat. He didn't. But that wasn't all that important, so I figure I can forgive him that....
But Ulrich and I need to meet before tomorrow. It's totally not cool that he didn't call yesterday. So at night I went to the hotel where he said he was thinking of putting up his current volunteers. Well the hotel people don't have him registered. *sarcasam on*Just great*sarcasm off* So I sent him an email this morning. Now I know that he has about as much access to email as I do (translation: he can walk downstairs to the internet access in his hotel, or down the street to one of the myriad internet cafes) so I didn't expect a call right away. But that was 7AM, and it's now 4PM and he hasn't emailed or called me yet. And I am getting more annoyed by the minute.
It would have been so much easier if he had given me his number. I had it stored on my old sim card, but that expired and so I lost the number. Ironically, his number was the only one I had recorded in the phone but apparently nowhere else. Perfect.
Really the only reason I'm online right now is because I was hoping for an email from him, but since I paid for half an hour I'm going to use it all, and ranting will serve that purpose quite nicely.
OK, well, I guess that's it. Since none of the things I wanted/expected to occur yesterday actually happened I really don't have much to update. I'm supposed to have a meeting tomorrow and head to the park after that, but we'll see if that happens...

Very shortly, as in this afternoon, I'm going to start having to actually do work. Soon after that I'll be on my way out to the field and start monkey chasing. So just when things get interesting, I'm going to have to stop updating as often.
On today's planner: meeting up with Ulrich, and connecting with G.G. Ulrich and I are going to have to discuss Monday's permit negotiations (and possibly getting me an ID card if at all possible.....) This might get hairy. G.G. wanted me to go the official route for housing so that I don't get his project in trouble - certainly a posistion I can respect. Ulrich wanted me to just show up and try to stay under the radar. I can't go halfway with the official route, but if Ulrich can't get me an ID card, halfway is the best I can do. *sigh* Hopefully there is no need to worry. I get the feeling any arguing is going to be between G.G. and Ulrich.

At least Mr. Advisor hasn't decided to call and check up on me yet.

I think I need a caffeine fix. Mr. Bean here I come. (No joke, that's the name of the coffee shop downstairs. I'm guessing that movie didn't make a huge impression on them)

I think the jet lag is finally over! I am the sleep master! I am now running on a normal night's sleep thanks to a handy sleep aid that I took last night before bed. Problem with those things is that I usually wake up feeling great but about an hour later I get tired again. They just don't wear out the way they're supposed to. Solution, get up, eat breakfast, and retire back to the room to read and rest.
It's wicked hot out today though. I was overwhelmed just walking the block and a half (including 2 flights of stairs) to the mall to get to the internet place. Luckily the place where the monkeys live is about 7-800m above sea level. Sadly, that also means there will be more rain there, but hey at this point I would gladly take a bit of rain in exchange for relief from this heat!
Well, I think it's about time I headed up to lunch. If I get there early I might even be able to get a decent seat in the food court and hang out for a while reading/playing SUDOKU/hoping that my advisor doesn't start calling me every day on my cell since now he has my number.

Wheeeee!! I actually managed 6 hours of sleep last night. And that after a nap that accidentally exceeded 30 minutes and hit a total of 1.5 hours right before dinner. I might actually be able to kick this jet lag thing pretty soon.

And to make it better.....I found the AC control in my room! And I thought I was doomed to swelter until the end of August. Now I get to wait until the 17th to swelter! Excellent.

Sadly, however, Mr Advisor finally contacted me via email asking both for updates and for my cellphone number. ARGH! I don't want to talk to him. This is supposed to be my time on my own where if I have to deal with it at all I get to think about it carefully and respond via email after the initial annoyance at whatever he's said has worn off. *sigh*

Well, now I have to go and figure out what to do with myself now....no plans all day and I've beaten all the interesting games on my cell phone. I might have to resort to my big book of Sudoku.

Jet lag is the current bane of my existance. That and humid air and asthma. My body is so confused that it has just decided that random 2-4hour naps are all it can do, and so I want to sleep constantly, and can only sleep for short periods. It really sucks. Plus, hydration is hard when you actually have to think about going out and buying bottled water.
I have managed so far to: think I forgot 2 very inportant things which I did not forget, actually forget one somewhat important thing that I was sure I packed, stay in two different hotels, buy a cell phone (~$200 US), have said phone break causing a major panic attack, get the phone fixed at the place where I bought it, contact a guy about housing in the park, and ask to set up a meeting with somebody else, who will go with me to meet with an official about getting my permit to actually be here.
Exhausting, right? Well, normally no, but add in high stress from not being able to understand anybody and it is quite hard.
I have also found the two WORST coffee joints I have ever been in (and had 2 cups of each....dang caffiene addiction riding on the stupid jet lag...)
6 days until monkey time! I can hardly wait!

oh, and PS, I totally haven't been practicing my Thai. D'oh!

OK Zen-Tri Army. You have gotten into my head. Officially.

I've been running for 14 of the 23 years of my life, and for the last 12 I have been walking a thin line between injury and health, not always staying on the right side of that line. I've tried orthotics, I've modified the orthotics, I've gotten new shoes, I've cross trained to reduce stress, and I've built up at a paltry 10% a week with every 4th week as a recovery week. Nothing has enabled me to get above 25 miles of running a week without experiencing shin pain.

Now, I know I am very biomechanically incorrect. Well-intentioned doctors tried to fix my pigeon-toed self when I was just an infant and ended up twisting my femurs (or so one podiatrist has said). But it's possible that changing my foot-strike might help. I have a (too-) long stride, and now I am going to try and reteach myself to land mid-foot. Not something that I think I can do with shoes (even when walking I hit my heels on the ground way too hard). So on to trying to learn to run barefoot, at least until I have re-learned how to run and can return to shoes.

I did a total of half a mile of barefoot running today (starting very slowly!) and started a new stretching routine to work out the recently developed hip and back pain (I think I need a new bike fitting as well).

Wish me luck.

I woke up late today, but that's OK because I went out for E's birthday last night and didn't get to sleep until after midnight. As I was cooking my breakfast I thought "I should really do my ride now and go to the office later." There was a flood watch for the area this morning, but it expired at 9:30, and since it was overcast and cool I thought it might be a good day for a really long ride because there would be fewer people out on the lakefront path. So off I went. Headwind from the north, so I'd get 16 miles of headwind and then 16 miles of tailwind. My first 33 mile loop went well, but heading north again for the second loop was a challenge. I stopped around 47 miles to eat some food, and realized that I totally need to be bringing more food on my rides. The good thing I did was set my watch to go off every 10 minutes so that I drank 'enough' but I think I need to get more water cages on the bike, so that I'm not afraid to drink the liquid as I need it.
Randomly, I passed by an old college friend on the lakefront. I knew she lived on the other side of town, but even though I've been living here for a year we've never met up. She was out for a 13 mile run (I'm envious! I want to be able to run 13 miles without breaking) and we stopped and talked for a few minutes, which was cool. But I was really feeling the pain when I got moving again. I had to bail after 65.5 miles. When I got home I drank an entire water bottle of gatorade, ate a peanutbutter sandwich and some thai food, then propped up my feet for a bit. After a few minutes like that, I took a shower and then promptly went to sleep for 2 hours. Now I'm moving again, but just barely. I was planning a century pretty soon, so I think I need to ramp up my bike training.

To Whom It May Concern:

I would be very surprised if this is the first letter to this effect which you are
receiving; I would like to file an official complaint about the Lake Delavan
Triathlon run by Frank Dobbs of Lake Geneva Extreme Sports on June 3, 2006.
My complaint mostly centers on the poor marking and lack of volunteers on the
bike course, and while I do understand that it is up to the participant to know
the course, that does not relieve the race director from the responsibility of
marking the course.

The swim course was the right length, but the race director gave two different
sets of directions, one at the pre-race meeting saying always keep the buoys on
your left, and one right before the race, which not everybody heard, saying to go
out with the buoys on your left and return between the two columns of buoys.
As a result people were very confused in the water, and swimming in many
different directions.

It was the bike course that was a complete disaster. First, and possibly just a
minor problem compared to everything else that went wrong on this day, was
the fact that nowhere in the race’s website, in the race packet, or the pre-race
meeting was the drafting policy announced. As a USAT event I believe there
should be a no-drafting policy, but I asked several people, and the answer that
summed up the entire day was, “I don’t think there are any rules in this race.”

As for the course itself, the Olympic course and Sprint course started out
together then split and rejoined twice. The first split was properly manned with
two volunteers and a sign, so far so good. After that the Olympic course was
supposed to do a small box reaching: an intersection moving south, turning to
the east and circling around to come back at the same intersection moving
north and turning to the west (think: three left turns make one right turn).
There were two volunteers at that intersection too (only I didn’t know it was that
intersection until reviewing the map after the race). They told me, and
everybody around me, to turn west right away. It was about halfway down that
road that I began to think that I had missed something. Most people I spoke to
after the race reported the same thing happening to them. Later in the race
there was supposed to be a very sharp turn way out on the course to bring you
south back towards the race. This was a very important turn and was either
unmarked or marked with a very small sign, because I ended up in a pack of
about 20 people huddled over a map trying to figure out where we had left the
course.

Olympic participants were greeting each other after the race with, “So, how far
did you end up riding?” and getting replies usually ranging from 15 to 20 miles,
although I did hear that one poor participant rode over 40 before finding his
way to the finish.

I freely admit that I do not have the best sense of direction, and if it was just
me, I would probably just get mad at myself for not memorizing the course
better, and plan to tape the map to my aerobars for the next race (something I
still plan to do). But of the 83 people entered, 53 were placed in the ‘non-
standard bike course’ category. The placement of an athlete in the ‘official’ or
non-standard’ category seems to me to be based completely on the time it took
them to complete the bike leg. My placement in the ‘non-standard’ category is
accurate, given my bike split of around 45 minutes, but there are certainly
others in the race posting times of 1:30 that didn’t cover the course, and on the
other end, people posting 2:30’s who got completely lost and went over the
distance. The only places there were volunteers on the course were at spots
where cars might need to be stopped, so I am pretty sure that there is no official
record of who completed the course. They didn’t even make a note of it when
the pack of 20 of us came through and said something to the race director, who
was standing at the entrance to the transition area. I did not find to a single
person who said that they didn’t have a problem on the bike course, and I
sincerely doubt that 30 people actually completed the course correctly.

A single entry fee for this race should have covered enough posterboard and
markers to make large enough signs (with the words Triathlon Course on them
so they don’t look like real estate signs) so that nobody would have gotten lost.

A little effort talking to local schools and universities (not to mention local tri
clubs, running clubs, even cycling groups) would probably have resulted in
enough warm bodies to have one person at every turn.

And even the smallest sense of responsibility on the part of the race director
would have made him feel ashamed at the job he has done. Instead he has
brushed it off. How he could offer official results at all mystifies me.

When an athlete chooses to participate in a USAT sanctioned event, they expect
high standards, but this is not what Frank Dobbs provides. This is not the first
event run by Frank Dobbs where there have been problems, I have spoken with
many athletes who will never run his races again. I agree whole-heartedly with
that sentiment. If I can’t be assured of even a mediocre experience at a race
sanctioned by USAT, there is no reason for me to pay the fee for USAT
membership when I can just as easily participate in a non-sanctioned event.

I strongly encourage you to either revoke his sanctioning, or more closely
monitor his events.

Sincerely...

I participated in the Lake Delavan Triathlon today and I am absolutely appalled at how this event was run. As a graduate student I am on a tight budget, and as you must be aware, triathlon is an expensive sport. I spend my summer doing research abroad, so with my budget and my schedule, I only had time for one triathlon this year. One. And, unfortunately for me, I chose yours.

How can you run a triathlon, charge $99 as an entry fee, and be so cavalier about how it is run? Do you not understand how people put so much of themselves into races like this? Even in a race early in the season you are going to have participants who are doing their first ever race, maybe their first attempt at this distance, or even their A race, and you should be ashamed of the shoddy job you have done.

When you give directions at the pre-race meeting, reversing them at the start of the race is not a good idea. Not everybody heard that the Olympic swim course could return between the buoys. I certainly didn’t, and was very confused when everybody turned right around.

As for the bike course, for less than the price of one entry fee you could have produced ample signs to mark the course. Signs bigger than 6 inches by 12 inches, with “Bike Course” or “Triathlon” written on them so that they don’t look exactly like the little signs posted to show the direction to house for sale. And are there no universities in Wisconsin? At every university in the nation there are groups of students interested in doing community service. Having a warm body at every turn should not be difficult! And, just so you know, telling those warm bodies which way to point is also important. I was actually directed off the course by a pair of your volunteers, and I sincerely doubt it was their fault.

I read through your entire site, and was at the pre-race meeting, and there was never a single mention of the rules on drafting in this race. I asked several people on the bike, and one response sums up your entire race, “I don’t think this race has any rules.” At least 53 people on a ‘non-standard bike course.’ More than one non-standard bike course since, as you well know, there were people going anywhere between 15 and 42 miles.

It should tell you something that there were only 10 people left in the tent for the Olympic results. I stayed because I wanted to see how you dealt with this issue, and I was once again disappointed. Unless you are planning to compile an email to all of the 83 people in the Olympic race (which somehow I doubt) there are approximately 5 people who heard you offer a spot in any of your races in this year, and I have told two others. As you heard from the outburst following your announcement, this is not a solution, although some people may take it. After this experience, do you really expect people to want to participate in another one of your events? And what do you plan to do for the people who cannot attend your other races, like me, even if they wanted to.

As I said before, I will be out of the country conducting research for the entire summer. Since I cannot attend any of your other events this year, I ask that my entry fee be refunded.

RACE REPORT Delavan Lake Triathlon 2006-06-03
In: Delavan, Wisconsin
Run by: Lake Geneva Extreme Sports
Weather: 70F / 21C + Sunny

Triathlon - Other
Total Time = 2h 8m 35s
Overall Rank = ?/? Age Group Rank = ?/?

Warmup
A quick jog of a few minutes, riding the bike for about 5 minutes mostly to check the shifting. Because I didn't intend to go out hard in the swim I didn't concentrate on warming up, preferring to save my energy and warm up on the swim.


Swim
Supposed to be: 1500m Actual Distance: This may be the one thing they got right!
Time: 28:47
The lake was warmer than people thought it would be, but the 'picturesque' and 'spring fed' lake was actually a weedy, duck-poop lake. Smelly. My hands were almost always reaching down into the weeds, and I got lake-weed stuck on my goggles approximately 3 times. The course itself was U-shaped, and relatively calm water except for a few boat wakes.

Start was good, I started in the back on the oustide (to avoid being swum over) and pretty quickly ended up at the front of the pack. I was quite jittery before the race, partially from nerves and partially from my inhaler, so it took about 200m for my breathing to finally calm down. I was still breathing on every other stoke most of the time, but it was a comfortable breathing, not from pushing too hard. I actually caught up with the guys Oly race (started ~2 min before the women). Had issues with drafting though, cause the people I caught were going too much slower for the draft to be worth it.
MASSIVE confusion about the return part of the race. Was it supposed to be 'Go out with the bouys on the left, return between the two sets' OR 'Go around the two sets of bouys so that they're always on your left.' There was complaining after the race too, from somebody who went the long way. I turned around the far bouy and pretty much stopped to see where the race was going. I followed the race, which went back in between the two sets. If that wasn't what the race director said, it should have been, because going all the way around would have been too far. My time was about right.

What would I change?
NOT RACE WITH THIS RACE DIRECTOR (OR COMPANY)!!!!!
Relax more before the race. Draft a bit more at the start.


T1
Time: 1:32
Should have practiced more with getting the shoes on while riding, because I think I actually lost time jumping on the bike compared to mounting with the shoes on.

What would I change?
NOT RACE WITH THIS RACE DIRECTOR (OR COMPANY)!!!!!
practice getting shoes on more. get tri shoes with the nifty little loop to help get them on.


Bike
Supposed to be: ~25 miles. Actual Distance: between 15 and 20
Time: 47:02 (not that it means anything since I don't know how far I went)
Um....there really is no way to know how far I actually went as my bike computer crapped out a few days ago. Shame really, it would be nice to know exactly how much this race director F*#@ed me over.

Scenic with rolling hills. NOT MARKED WELL AT ALL (for the Oly. I'm told the marking for the sprint was superb). At one point the race was supposed to go left and make a little box, come back up on the same intersection and go left again (Going S, turn W, circle around and end up going E). The very well-informed volunteers told me to turn directly from S to E. Missed a few miles there. So did most of the other people. I don't blame the volunteers. I believe that the race director SUCKED @$$ and didn't tell them what to do properly. He certainly did a terrible job of telling the athletes what to do. So from that mistake, there was another, COMPLETELY UNMARKED TURN. WITH NOBODY STANDING THERE!!!!! Now, seriously, is it too much to ask for a few arrows that say "Triathlon Bike Course?" I paid $100 for the entry fee, that ought to buy a few signs, and a sharp turn in the middle of nowhere deserves a volunteer, I think. The Sprint and Oly courses split off about 4 miles into the ride, joined up again a few miles later, and then split off again. I only saw the first split, and never saw another sprinter until the very end. At one point I pulled over with a group of 19 guys and 1 other female all huddled around a map trying to figure out where the hell we were. Once we picked a direction, off we went in our own little peloton. If this race wasn't draft legal (another thing the race director neglected to specify either way) it became so for us. Passing the map back and forth between a few people trying to figure out where to go. We finally rejoined the course, and the guy standing at that turn (VERY OBVIOUS TURN, he should have been at the hidden one) said 'don't worry, you're not the only ones.' ::sarcasm on:: Oh, yeah, that makes it all OK then doesn't it::sarcasm off:: I finished somewhere between 5 and 9 miles early. Some people went 22, some 15, some 19, and one very unfortunate fellow got really lost and rode 42 miles. OH, words cannot properly express my indignation at how horribly this was run!! After the race, Oly competitors were greeting each other with, "So, how far did you ride?" Never a good sign.

Really, signs don't cost that much. Something bigger than 6in by 12in, so you can see it at 20mph, and with something like 'Triathlon' or 'Bike course' on it, so it doesn't look like one of those signs pointing the way to a house for sale.


What would I change?
I am NEVER racing with Lake Genova Extreme Sports EVER AGAIN!!!
If you were thinking about it, DON'T DO IT!!!


T2
Time: 1:06
Fast transition, but I was really confused entering it, since I was obviously several miles short. You just don't ride an Oly course in under 50 minutes. It doesn't happen. Not if you're me anyway. It slowed me down somewhat, thinking, really, I go run now, shouldn't I just stop or something....

What would I change?
FIND A DIFFERENT RACE, where I can actually follow the bike course.


Run
Supposed to be: 6.2mi Actual Distance: ~7mi
Time: 51:03 (boo!)
I felt awful coming off the bike, and was really not up to the mental challenge of 6 times over the same course. It nearly drove me crazy. But it did have one advantage, there was always somebody else nearby for me to try to work up to.

After the second loop I allowed myself to slow down, cause I felt awful (poor nutrition, I think). After the 4th loop I made a deal, I could go as slow as I needed to, but I would not walk. That kept me going a bit. I started trying to use my mantra, the one that the hypnotist gave me that I associate with one of my best races ever. Usually when I recite that I get a little bit of a boost. Didn't work this time.

Last loop I wanted to pick it up a bit, but pretty much instantly after crossing the timing mat to start the loop I had an asthma attack. I slowed somewhat too keep from passing out, and managed to get myself together enough to speed up a tiny bit to the finish (not nearly the devistating kick I used to have).

On a side note, even with the messed up bike resulting in some really disjunct arrivals from the different races, I was not passed by a single female (sprint or oly) throughout the entire run (or the bike, but that might be because no other female took the same course I did, since everybody did their own thing)

What would I change?
FIND ANOTHER RACE SERIES

Not have an asthma attack. Even though I took my inhaler before the race, I didn't really believe my doctor about having exercise induced asthma since all my symptoms went away when the weather warmed up I thought that my only trigger was cold. I guess I have to go back and refill my perscription then, since I let it lapse.

More bricks. My horrible positive splitting in this race tells me that I was not nearly as prepared as I thought I was. Just think how much worse it would have been if I actually did the entire bike course,


Warm down
I finished and got a bit dizzy for a few seconds. I managed to walk to my bike to get my inhaler to stop the asthma attack, and then my warm-down was mostly walking around. Don't think my legs could have carried me much further anyway.

Overall Comments
as far as I am concerned, I would love to organize a boycott of Lake Geneva Extreme Sports.

For the Oly results, apparently only 2 women counted as having finished the course. At least 30 started it. Several guys counted as finishing, not sure how many, but probably 50 or 60 guys started, so it makes sense that a few more of them would finish 'properly.' But who knows who finished properly because there weren't volunteers to note when you went off the course.

BOYCOTT THE LAKE GENEVA EXTREME SPORTS RACE SERIES!!!

AND I WANT MY MONEY BACK. (Yes, I know, it's my reponsiblity to know the race course, but when >75% of the racers get lost, in several different ways, the race director did something wrong)

The race director has admitted this in offering all Oly participants a free spot in any of their other races this season. But, why would I want another experience like this one, even if I wasn't going out of the country.

Now begins the campaign to get my entry fee back!!!

I have a t-shirt that has this question on the front in small, understated letters that you have to get close to read. I bought it at a track meet in high school when the answer on the back was more or less true "because i'm fast."

I've been asked why I run many times, by many people. It never bothered me that I couldn't explain it. Other runners knew why, and they couldn't explain it either. Once you get it, running is just a part of you. But, somewhere in the mental process of kicking myself out the door yesterday to go on a cold, wet ride, that vague notion of why I would even want to go out on such a day didn't seem to be cutting it anymore.

I want a real answer.

The problem is, I think the real answer is so complicated that you can only find a piece of it at a time, and maybe you'll only ever get a vague idea of what the true reason really is. But I was reading Iron Wil's blog today and along with a post about a killer ride, there was a 5 minute video on Ironman. Go watch it for yourself. But in the video they show an athlete about 10 miles from the finish line on the ground with another athlete standing over him trying to get water from people and pouring it into the guy's mouth. You could tell it was getting late in the day, but the sun was still up and the picture was bright. The video moves on to other things, but comes back to this man, and they show him getting up with some help then telling the doctors that he wanted to keep going. Plain enough, right? Not quite. The thing is, by the time he was moving again it was pitch black out. I mean this guy had to have been on the ground for at least an hour, and he kept going. Amazing. I can't even explain how I felt about watching that.

I thought about that when I was running today. Not how the guy kept going, although that is inspirational enough by itself, but how I felt while watching it.
I thought of listening to another podcast where a guy told about how in his qualifying race for an Ironman he was steered wrong by an official, and after riding 10 miles out of his way, turned around and rode back so that he didn't miss any of the course. The race director was so amazed that he turned back and finished the course that he got his qualifying spot. Anybody watching my face while I listened must have been mystified to see the range of emotions I went through.
I thought of taking my two best friends to see Bend it Like Beckham when it came out, and not getting how they didn't appreciate as much as I did. Until it dawned on me that neither of them were the least bit athletic. They were looking at it through different eyes.

If this is what inspires me, how can I do anything other than trying to find that inspiration in myself. In the days where you can just run forever, in the perfectly executed race, in the time when you fall hard but keep limping along because DNF is not an option unless other people are carrying you off the course.

I just found another piece of my puzzle.

After some nice warm weather up here in chi-town we're having a mini cold snap. Mid-40s for the last few days continuing into next week. All the warm-weather athletes have retreated indoors, but I can't say that I mind having the lakefront path be empty again. You know that the people who are out in the drizzle at 40 degrees are serious about what they're doing. They mean business, whether they're walking, run-walking, or running intervals. They know what they want and they're going to get it done, weather be d@#$-ed.

Yesterday afternoon I went for my run and that is exactly what I saw. A lakefront path empty but for a single cyclist and a few people out for a run or walk. About 200m before my turnaround I passed a runner going the other direction. I watched him for a minute and decided that he was moving at what looked to be just a little bit slower than my pace. By the time I turned around he was a little more than 400m in front of me. I watched him around a few turns, and slowly the distance between us lessened. I wasn't trying to catch him, not really, it was just something I watched happen to pass the time. I did catch him, and nodded as I passed by.

Now here is the thing, this guy was a runner. Obviously so. And a lot of guys would have gone on an ego trip when passed on an uphill by a female. Put on a spurt of speed and just try to stay in front of me. He didn't. He just picked up his pace and started running next to me. Not to race, or challenge. He just joined me. We simply ran together. He would outpace me for a few seconds, and then we would switch places, but it wasn't a fight. For a mile we ran this way in silence. No words spoken, and none needed. Then he hit his turnaround, and as he left we exchanged a slight nod, a little wave. That was it, but the whole interchange struck me.

Maybe I'm too new to biking to completely understand the rules, but there seems to be so much less of a bond between two bikers passing each other on a trail and two runners doing the same thing. I have never passed somebody on a bike and had them come up and start riding next to me. Maybe cyclists want to be in a line, not two abreast. But I've had people join me to suck my wheel but they never pull. And swimming, even when you share a lane, is so solitary. Your face in the water, hearing nothing but the sound of your kick, your stroke, your breath. No time to chat.

But there is something special between runners. An common thread from feeling pull of a sport so many people would consider punishment. 'Yes,' we nod to each other, 'I understand.'

That's the sound of time whizzing by, and me not being able to get everything in. I've been trying to put it all into words, and as more time goes by and there's more to say it gets harder and harder to say anything. So I give up. I won't even try to be coherent. Here's a list of stuff, not necessarily in chronological order

1) My brother is getting married in 2 weeks. The decision was made 2 weeks ago.
2) I have a lot of work to do yet no motivation to get it done.
3) I'm hungry all the time.
4) I'm tired a lot.
5) Training is going well, except for a recurring knot in my calf that results in shin pain if I don't rub it out well.
6) I bought my plane ticket to Thailand for the summer. It's real now.
7) My race is in 1 month.
8) My running speed workout kicked my ASS today.
9) I had to stop early and head home.
10) But that's better than sticking it out and hurting myself.
11) Tomorrow is a bike speed workout, hopefully that will be better.
12) I'm learning flip-turns now.
13) I looked like a complete idiot the first workout.
14) I even came up under the lane line twice.
15) I did much better today.
16) But I did get a whole lot of water up my nose.
17) I stopped weight lifting about a week ago.
18) I know it's bad, but I am really having time issues right now.
19) The other day I saw a bike vs pedestrian accident, it was very sobering.
20) I think I'm going to try and get on the path in the mornings when it's less crowded.
21) I got aerobars for Pele.
22) They're heavy.
23) I think the extra weight actually offsets any aerodynamic gain.
24) I like them anyway.
25) At least it's style points at tri.

OK, so I was going to go to sleep, but this story needs to be told to the world. Minouche (pronounced: Mee-Noosh), my cat, just jumped into (or fell into, I'm not sure which) a bathtub full of water. In her rush to get out she knocked over a large mixing bowl filled with soapy water which I use to wipe down my bike, getting herself and my bathroom, even more thoroughly wet.

Completely nonplussed, and with a fully piloerect tail, she darted out of the room at top speed, tracking water down the hall and into the living room. She is sitting there now, her bottom half soaking wet and much thinner-looking than normal, trying to groom her fur back into something presentable.

Poor thing.

Might have to lock her out of the bedroom now just to keep her from getting my bed all wet.