Top 10 List of 2008

WOW - What a season!

1.) I PRed with a 2:06 Olympic Triathlon Distance in April
2.) I PRed with a 2:55 marathon on a very hilly "Big Sur" course
3.) I PRed in all legs of all race distances (Olympic, IM and Half IM)
4.) I PRed in my half Ironman distance twice (4:39 in Eagleman / 4:16 in Clearwater)
5.) I PRed in my half Ironman Run Twice (1:35 in Eagleman / 1:29 in Clearwater)
6.) I qualified for the 70.3 Half Ironman World Championships
7.) I PRed at Ironman Lake Placid (9:59:57)
8.) I broke 10 hours at the Ironman distance
9.) I broke 4:20 at the half Ironman distance
10.) I loved every minute of it!

Look out 2009.

What a week in Clearwater will do to you

It'll make you not want to go back to Pittsburgh. That's what it'll do to you! We've been in the Clearwater / St. Pete area now for six wonderful nights and right now is the very first time we've taken any sort of downtime to sit back, relax, and reflect on the week.

First and foremost was the race. Reflecting back on Saturday's performance I really don't think I could have done much different. Maybe looking back, I could have pushed a little harder on the bike, but if I did that I highly doubt I'd be able to run a 1:29 half marathon off the bike. And seriously, a 23 minute PR? How could I not be pleased.

(Group Photo after the race)

In addition to getting to spend an awesome time here in Clearwater, we also got to spend time with two of my mom's Aunt's that live here and two of our friends that live in St. Pete. After the race Saturday night, Jen and I went to the Awards Celebration and it was really cool. The sport of Ironman continues to put on the most amazing races I've ever done. There was music and even fireworks! What a way to cap off an awesome day.

(Way to go Ironman)

On Sunday we slept in, packed up our gear, and headed down to St. Pete for the Steeler game. Unfortunately the game ended with a Steeler loss, but we still had fun! On Monday we met up with my family and headed out on a boat for Parasailing. None of us had ever gone Parasailing before so it was a little intimidating at first. My parents went up first followed by my sister and I. Jen decided to sit this one out. :)

(Group Photo before we set sail on the boat)

(We were 1200' feet in the air. Pure craziness!)

(You could barely see the boat from up here!)

(Smile for the Camera)

Monday came and went, and Tuesday morning opened up another day of fun. Jen and drove to Honeymoon Island where we boarded a Ferry to Caladesi Island. One of the few completely natural islands along Florida´s Gulf Coast, Caladesi´s white sand shores have been rated as the nation´s #1 best beach. Jen and I rented Kayaks and paddled the three mile kayak trail through the mangroves and bay. It was actually kind of creepy and I kept waiting for a gator to chomp down on the front of the kayak! The guy at the rental shop said it would take around three hours round trip, so of course that turned the Kayak trip into a race. Needless to say, we made it round trip in about 90 minutes!

(Is that a branch or a snake? )

(I think Jen wanted nothing to do with this place.)

(The mangroves finally opened up and we were on open water in the bay.)

After an afternoon on the island we met up with our friends Scott and Christy for drinks on Sunset Beach. As you can imagine, the sunset was simply out of this world.

(Sunset on St. Pete Beach)

(The sun lights up the sky)

(Scott and Christy)

We still have a day and a half to go here in Paradise. And then it's back to the frozen tundra.

Ironman Clearwater 70.3 Race Pictures

(The blast of the cannon)

(I have no idea what kind of face I'm making here. Looks like I was hurtin though)

(Motoring it up the Causeway)

(Nutrition is first)

(Again with the Causeway)

(How sweet it is)

(A new Personal Best! 4:16:18)

(Time to Celebrate)

Ironman World Championship 70.3 Race Report

Swim 1.2 miles - 29:04
Bike 56 miles - 2:12:33
Run 13.1 miles - 1:29:58

Finish in 4:16:18 PRICELESS!

It's had to believe that this race has been 5+ years in the making, but it has. The Clearwater race marked my 9th Half Ironman race, and I've never felt better as this race approached. I knew my training was right on, and I was ready to rock and roll. Since my Kona miss in Lake Placid, this race was my #1 goal for the season, and I nailed it.

Jen and I were up bright and early four hours before the race. I did my typical pre-race morning routine which typically is eating, and we were out the door by 4:45. We arrived in transition around 5:00 AM, I made sure my bike was setup and started to get my head in the game. I had three hours to kill, so we got to watch the Pro wave go off as well as some age-groupers. I've never been on the spectating side of Ironman racing, and it was very exciting.

Around 7:30 I got into the water and did some warm up strokes just to loosen up the arms and it was at this time where I just knew I was going to have a good swim. The fastest I've ever swum 1.2 miles in was 31:04, but I was determined to crack 30 minutes. I started on the inside and at 8:00 AM the cannon sounded and we were off. I've never swam as straight as I did in this race. It was as if every time I lifted my head to sight for the buoy's, they were right there in front of me. I drafted pretty much the entire way and I guess I got lucky and found other guys that wanted to swim sub 30 as well. I exited the water in 29:04. A 2 minute swim PR! I actually had trouble at first with my wetsuit and spent a couple seconds at the waters edge trying to get my zipper down. Otherwise I think I could have broke the 29 barrier.

I sprinted through T1 which was a long beach run and a good 1/4 mile total. I turned around a fast 2:33 transition and I was off on my bike. The bike starts off with a big hill up the Memorial Causeway that separates the beach area from the mainland. Once you go down the other side, the bike course is as flat as a pancake. I've always had trouble on flat courses and fared better in the mountains but not today. Once I got settled and got my heart rate in check I simply flew on this course. I knew I was flying when I hit the 20 mile mark, and my total bike time was only 46:47. I averaged 25.7 mph for the first 20 miles, but the real surprise was when I hit mile 40. Over the course of the next 20 miles, my average speed was 26.5. There was a slight head wind, and fatigue started to set in and I finished the final 16 miles averaging 24.1. This gave me a bike split of 2:12:53 for 56 miles! Almost a 17 minute PR on the bike at this distance.

I motored into T2, and in 2:10 I was out on the run course. Mile 1, 5:57....okay let's slow this thing down a little I thought. I can never judge my pace that first mile. I think the adrenaline gets a hold of you and I just go with the flow. The first seven miles I kept the pace around 6:40 / mile pace, but the second half my pace creeped up to around 7:00 minute miles. My goal was to break 1:30 for the half marathon, and I had two seconds to spare. I finished my run in 1:29:58. This was a 5:20 PR for me in the run. I've never been able to crack the 1:35 barrier, let alone the 1:30 mark. I was very excited.

As I turned the final corner I glance at my watch and was in shock. Never did I ever think I could turn out a 4:16:18 Half Ironman. Before this race, my PR at this distance was a 4:39:52. If you do the math that works out to a 23:44 improvement.

That just goes to show that with hard work and dedication, "Anything Is Possible"! Special thanks goes out to my family foremost for understanding the time and commitment it takes for me to do the things I do. Triathlon is an individual sport on paper, but I couldn't have gotten here with out my team of family and supporters. Also a big thanks to all my biking buddies back in the Burgh, and to Matty M. for showing me how to hammer it on the flats. You all were with me out there every step of the way. I couldn't thank you all enough!

So what now? It's the off season and I'm going to live up the rest of the week here in sunny Clearwater Florida!

T Minus 12 hours - Clearwater 70.3

With only one more night of restless sleep to go, I'm finally about to toe the line of my first 70.3 World Championship. The morning started off with a 15 minute swim, followed by a 30 minute bike across the Causeway, followed by a 15 minute run. My arms felt much better today in the water, and the current and waves were missing from yesterday.

After the mornings activities I got all my gear situated.

After we packed up it was off to transition for bag check and bike check.

Wish me luck!!!

For Real? - Take your event and go elsewhere

As Jen and I were eating breakfast this morning, we happened to come across the article below. I completely disagree with this angry and bitter persons response. Maybe if you're retired and have nothing better to do other than drive around aimlessly Saturday morning, then yes the race will inconvenience you. What substantial and objective evidence does this guy have by saying that this event does nothing for the community. I know this event brings in nothing but revenue for small and local businesses, not a revenue loss. For example, I'm just one athlete, and already I know that my pocket book will open up and help out small and local businesses county wide, especially in a time that has the economy in shambles. For example, the average person has airfare into Tampa, three meals a day at beach restaurants, hotel bills (of which all hotels on the beach are sold out), rental car expenses, and other miscellaneous spending. I estimate that Jen and I alone will spend around $1,000 on this trip, and my family that's traveling down as well (parents and sister) will spend another $1,000. Now multiply that by the 2000 athletes that have worked hours on end to have a chance to compete at this prestigious event. If my math is correct, that works out to roughly $4 million dollars. Trust me, all of this money isn't going into the pocket books of Ironman! As an athlete, I'm here to not only enjoy myself on race day, but also here to enjoy the sandy white beaches, state parks and everything else your community has to offer. Yes I understand that the event is a quick money maker for Ironman, but this IS a World Championship event, and Clearwater should feel honored to host such an event. Hopefully this is only one persons view, and not the view of the entire community and hopefully the race is here to stay in Pinellas County.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/letters/article893366.ece

Take your event and go elsewhere

As a citizen of Pinellas County, I want you people at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship to know that your event is not welcome here. Why? Simply because none of your athletes or sponsors seem to care about anything but their own agenda and have absolutely no regard for the major inconvenience that your event is causing the people of this county.

I assure you that, other than those who stand to make a quick buck from your event (and they account for a very small percentage of the overall population), the overwhelming majority of the people who live, vote and spend money in this county couldn't care less about your event. What does the average Pinellas County citizen stand to gain? Nothing. What price do we pay? Hours of countywide traffic and all of the associated inconvenience.

I would venture to say that the total disruption caused by this event ends up being responsible for quite a bit of lost revenue for many local businesses — businesses here to serve their customers year round.

Once again, I call upon the county commissioners to put the needs and wishes of the citizens and merchants of Pinellas County above those who merely wish to use us, at great inconvenience, for one day's pleasure/profit. Please see to it that 2008 is the last year that the Ironman event is allowed to happen in this county.

Written by Toby Brandenburgh, Palm Harbor

It's a Good Day in Clearwater

Our plane touched down ahead of time, and it finally hit me. I'll be racing the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in less than 48 hours. I would have never guessed five years ago that I'd be where I am. Five years ago I ran my first marathon and barely cracked four hours. Five year's later I've cracked the three hour marathon barrier, ran a sub 10 hour Ironman and Saturday I hope to add to my list of accomplishments.

After we left the airport, it was still too early to check into the hotel so we headed straight to the race site for registration and a swim.

Registration was very well organized and I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. I can obviously tell this is a World Class Event!

We just missed the Gatorade Swim cutoff, but decided to swim anyways. The lifeguard told me that we couldn't swim the course and we had to swim parallel to the beach. I really wanted to swim the course to get a feel for sighting plus to get comfortable swimming again in the ocean. The last time I raced in the Ocean was Kona 2007. I felt good on the swim and didn't push it. I swam the loop in 33 minutes. I was happy considering I got off course a couple of times, didn't have feet to draft off of and I wasn't going all out / race pace!

After the swim we took a quick stroll through the expo booths, but were in a hurry to get back to the car to avoid a parking ticket. We only had 2 hours on the meter. :) As we were walking to the car, the Meter Nazi appeared. We ran to the car and looked at the meter. 11 minutes to go! We had plenty of time. :)

(Our hotel room after about 10 minutes - TRASHED )

We checked into our hotel (a Holiday Inn Express about 5 miles inland) and it's actually not that bad. And who said we wouldn't have a view? It might not be the Gulf of Mexico, but we still see water!

I still had one more worked to round out the day. But first we drove most of the bike course. The course is extremely flat and fast and filled with red lights. I'm used to riding on back country roads with no cars! That wasn't the case today. I rode an out and back section of the bike course from my hotel and was white knuckle the entire way. Cars were whizzing by and one wrong move I'd be a giant speed bump.

Time to call it a night and chill for a while. Two more good nights of sleep and it'll be time for me to bring my "A" game! Don't worry Pittsburgh. I'll be sure to represent.

And Lift Off - Clearwater 70.3 Ironman Worlds

4:30 Alarm. Ouch! At least we weren't on our way to the pool. Instead we're on our way to the Ironman 70.3 World Championship. Destination, Clearwater Florida! Jen and I were up and at em' bright and early this morning. After dinner last night we finished up packing our gear for the week, watched some TV and then went to bed.

The Nissan, packed to the gills, was in route for Pittsburgh Intl Airport. I dropped Jen off at the terminal, unloaded our gear and parked the car. During check-in I whipped out my "NA Sports" free bike shipping voucher and the US-Air agent looked at me like I was from another planet. "I've never seen one of these before", she said. As if I was in the market for conterfitting bike shipping coupons. She had to go and ask someone what to do, and they too were puzzled. After five minutes or so we were all checked in and best part was I didn't have to fork over $100 to ship my bike to sunny Florida.


As for the race, only two days to go. I'm feeling good overall, but started to get this little scratch in the back of my throat. I'm praying that it isn't anything major. On another topic, come Saturday morning you can be sure to track me on www.ironman.com. Actually, they alreay have the website geared towards the weekend, so check it out! Well we'll be boarding the plane in about 15 minutes, so lookout Clearwater. Here we come!

The Packing has Begun

The tear down began this morning. There's still a lot to do!

Here's Mr. DA ready for the bike box.

Hard to imagine my bike is actually in here.

Taper and Pictures of the Week

First and foremost, taper week is driving me crazy. I took off of work all week and really don't know what to do with myself. I made a commitment to myself not to do any "work" this week, but I already found myself logged into email responding to issues. Is there a way to turn off email on your Blackberry, but still have the phone portion work? I may have to do this. :)

So as for today, I have a 30 minute taper repeat run. Basically it's an easy run with a couple 90 second intervals at race pace. I do still have to tear my bike down and pack for tomorrow morning flight, so I guess that will take some of my time. Jen wanted me to do laundry and dishes too. :)

Here's a picture we took from the Tri Party this weekend. I didn't thing to break out the camera until some of our guests left, but here's a group photo anyways of who lasted past 10PM. This was the first party we hosted where the water got kicked faster than the beer and wine. What a great time.

I posted earlier this week about our wall / sidewalk project finally coming to completion. The wall and sidewalk were put in by Chris Raymond who's a local contractor in Pittsburgh. He really did a great job, and we could not be more pleased. If you're in the area and need someone to put in a wall, sidewalk, doors, roof...actually anything you can think of, please give Chris a call at 412-708-3111 or email him at info@capp-it.com . Here's the finished product (minus landscaping - coming Spring 09)!

(Sidewalk leading to front porch)

(Wall and Steps)

(Steps and landing leading down to the driveway)