At this point its not totally clear who I’m writing this for; you or me. Or should I say I’m not sure who will got the most out of this the writer or reader.
The “ordeal” I’m currently in all started back in August of 2006. Two different things started in that month that slowly landed me where I am today.
The first happened on a Saturday evening in Seattle. That night was the Torch Light Parade, it had been years (15+) since I’d ventured out to the parade. I was really going just to be entertained by those that were there to see the parade. Prior to the start of the parade I saw the end of the Seafair marathon. In the past, running while not being chased didn’t really appeal to me, that evening though something connected and I want to see if I could run an event longer than a 5k fun run.
The second event that month that was instrumental in my current condition was meeting Harmony. (Please Harmony, don’t take that the wrong way) Harmony had a bicycle and in the past has compeated in triathlon as well as completed a 1/2 marathon. While sitting on her deck enjoying a sunny Seattle afternoon Harmony asked if I had any interest running the Seattle 1/2 marathon in November. For the record…I was really enjoying getting to know Harmony but if I truly would not have seen the end of the Seafair marathon my answer to Harmony most likely would have been no. From that afternoon on I was committed to running 13.1 miles.
At this point I need to speak a little more about the Seattle Marathon. This event has the reputation of one of the more “unfavorable running events.” Its ran on Thanksgiving weekend, the course is quite hilly and generally features some miserable weather. 2006 was no exception. It was cold, wet & snowing for much of the course. Harmony and I ran the first 8 miles together till we split up. My finishing time was 2 hours, 15 minutes & some change. Throughout the run I felt strong but it did take me over three weeks to recover & feel up to running again.
Some other things happened in the late fall/early winter of 2006. I met a group of Harmony’s friends that are really involved in Triathlon. I must say that Sara, Bo, Chelsea, john & Alex are some of the greatest people I have had the opportunity to meet. Around this same time I also purchased a new bicycle, I thought I had given up carbon fiber in my motorcycle days but I found myself drooling over that beautiful little gray & black pattern again.
Now people that have known me for a long time can attest to this, I sucked at the traditional sports. I was never foolish enough to try football, basketball was laughable & baseball wasn’t much better. But on the other hand there were some nontraditional sports I excelled at and really enjoyed. Snowboarding, I can hang with anyone getting down the mountain and show some show some nice riding. Rock climbing, this was a sport that was introduced to me pretty young & stuck with me on and off for quite some time. I would say my proudest moment was climbing a 7 pitch trad route up Icicle Buttress in Leavenworth with Matty. The rout was really only a 5.5 to 5.7 but we placed all our own pro and the 6th pitch was just slightly overhanging. This seems like a good time to add another fact about myself that will help paint my picture. I can take some serious amounts of pain or uncomfortable situations. For example, I waited two days to go to the hospital with a collapsed lung. After getting the hole plugged I mentioned to the doctor that it had happened before and never sought treatment. Their response to that was it could not have happened. Years later and multiple collapsed lungs I did have a doctor confirm my left lung had in fact collapsed without getting treatment.
Lets get to the meat of this writing, I think it was in December I decided to do a triathlon the following summer. Another personality flaw I have is jumping in to things and not going the slow route. I registered for a 70.3 mile triathlon that was scheduled for July 8th. This is an event thats half the distance of an ironman. (I hate calling it a “half ironman”) The event breakdown would be 1.2 mile open water swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run. Not only did I want to finish the event but I wanted to finish it with a respectable time. I had also scheduled some shorter prep races in the spring.
