A Ride to Remember

I was in a cycling crash a little more than 2 weeks ago.  It was the beginning of a group ride in Brenham, TX.  We had just gone over a hill and were descending towards a metal grated bridge.  The bridge was still wet from morning dew/fog.  The last thing I can remember was approaching the bridge.  Next thing I know I am being lifted up on a backboard onto an ambulance.  As soon as the realization hit of what was going on I was struck by a moment of what can only be described as sheer panic.  I looked down at my feet and have never in my life been so happy to see my toes wiggle.  I don't remember the crash but from what I gather my bike lost traction going over the bridge, and came out from under me.  I fell directly on the left side of my body dislocating my shoulder, breaking a bone in my wrist, severely bruising my left hip, fracturing 3 bones in my cheek and causing a significant concussion.

After the crash, I spent much of the first week in bed on pain meds.  The following weekend I had surgery to fix the three fractured bones in my face.  Although my face is still a little swollen and in some pain I am feeling much better.  My shoulder, hip and wrist seem to be almost entirely recovered from the crash.  It feels like it has been much more than 2.5 weeks since the accident as I have spent much of this time in bed.  Although I am itching to get back to training I understand how lucky I am to be in the condition I am in.  Needless to say it could have been exponentially worse.  A big thanks to my parents for helping to take care of me, friends and family for the get well cards and gifts and my training buddies for getting me a new cycling helmet (the other one is now retired in my garage).

I'd like to leave you all with two things to take away from my experience:

• ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET - You never know when you are going to hit a bump wrong, lose traction, or even worse, have a run in with a car.  No matter how far you're riding or what kind of bike you are on, wear your helmet.  I will still wear mine even though I fully intend on riding a tricycle with a motorcycle helmet for the next month.
• Buy a Road ID - This was my second time riding with this group (Saturdayride.com, they are a fantastic group of people by the way) and most of them probably had no idea who I was.  Thanks to the Road ID the group knew my name and called my parents right after the crash.  The paramedics didn't have to bombard me with questions about who I was or what I was allergic to when my head was in a state of disarray.  This little bracelet is more beneficial than you could know. www.RoadID.com

And Away We Go...

In 1924 George Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest.  His response: "Because its there"  I love this quote.  People ask: Why do you want to beat up your body just to complete this race?  What is the point of running 26.2 miles, traveling 70.3 miles or even worse 140.6 miles?  Why do you care if you hit a specific time goal?  Well... because its there.

I've been at endurance sports for about a year now and have finally decided to start writing about it.  I'll try to share my knowledge, experience, funny stories, mistakes and everything in between.

A Brief History

I have always been somewhat of an athlete.  From when I was young all throughout highschool I played numerous sports including: football, golf, baseball, wrestling, roller hockey and rugby.  Enjoyed all of them but did not truly excel at any of them.  That trend continued into college at The University of Texas as I made a transition into more tame sports such as softball, flag football and tennis.  In college I worked out a few times a week, most of which was in the weight room.  I considered a mile run or a 500 yard swim to be an exhausting workout.  As you can tell, I was nowhere near an "endurance athlete".

Once college came to an end I moved back to Houston and started work.  I lived in an apartment for about a year with a small gym.  This would be sufficient as I was still in "broke college kid" mode.  I would much rather have spent all disposable income on alcohol and food than anything that involved athletic activity (not the healthiest time of my life).  Around May of 2009 I moved out of the apartment and back in with my parents (hate all you want, they were cool and I saved a ton of money).  I still didn't want to shell out cash for a gym membership, but wanted a way to stay in shape...

Enter running.  More specifically enter Memorial Park 3 mile loop.  I can still remember my first time out to run the loop with a friend from work.  We went out with intent to run one lap... I didn't make it.  At mile 1 I needed to slow down.  By mile 2 I was walking.  This was not my proudest moment.  I wasn't overweight or unhealthy, I simply had no endurance.  At this point I decided I'd like to start running more.  After about 2 months I was running 2 or 3 times a week for about 3 to 4 miles per workout.  A friend then approached me about a race called Muddy Buddy.  This is a 6 mile race where you and your teammate take turns biking and running (you each bike about 3 miles and run 3 miles) and finish by bear crawling through mud.  This was just as much fun as it sounded like!  By Monday after the race I was already looking for another race

That same Monday I read an article about training for a marathon.  It gave an example of an 18 week training program.  Later that day I conveniently ran across the website for the Austin Marathon... which happened to be about 19 weeks away.  I thought this through for a minute or two (not exaggerating, I seriously made this decision in a matter of minutes... not anywhere long enough to really consider the repercussions for signing up for a marathon).  By the end of the day I was registered for the 2010 Austin Marathon.

Like all new runners I had my fair share of ups and downs while training.  I learned valuable lessons about running socks, compression shorts and the importance of Glide (who would have thought that something as simple as a t-shirt could cause so much pain).  By the time the marathon came around I had a good amount of running under my belt.  My longest run was 19 miles (although 20 was recommended).

The marathon was absolutely amazing.  I won't recap the entire race, but I'll give a few highlights:

• The night before the race I struck up a conversation with another runner.  I told him my time goal (4 hours) and his advice was to be more conservative.  Told me that 4 hours was very fast and very difficult to do for your first marathon.
• Race Morning.  The energy before the race is unreal.  I'd never been part of anything like it.  Everyone is excited and nervous at the same time.  You know that all these people are about to go through the same 26.2 mile journey as you.
• The wall.  This happened for me at mile 22.  4 miles had never felt so far.  I seriously thought about quitting.
• "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey came on my Ipod at mile 24.  The timing was perfect.  I give a lot of credit to this song for helping me power through those last miles.

To this day I have never been more proud of myself than when I crossed the finish line.  I had to try and keep myself from tearing up down the finishing chute (couldn't mess up my finishing picture).  Once I crossed the finish line and got my medal I broke down.  Took me about 5 minutes to gather myself before I could leave the finishers area.  I had so many people tell me that going from not running at all to training to run a marathon was crazy, that 4 months was not enough time, that I was dumb to train by myself, that my goal was too lofty and 4 hours was unattainable... I finished the marathon in 3 hours 57 minutes and 46 seconds.

My Dad and I

My Mom and I

*On a side note I cannot begin to describe how important it was to have my parents support me through training and on race day.  There is no way I could ever thank them enough.

About two months after the marathon I ran my first half marathon (I never said my training made sense). As I started to train for this I began having problems with my calf.  I was able to work it out before the race, but made the decision that I needed another sport besides running.  I heard about triathlons through a friend.  I thought that swim bike run sounded like a lot of fun.  Granted I could barely swim to save my life and I hadn't ridden a bike since elementary school but that was ok, I'd figure it out (if you're thinking to yourself that I'm nuts... your right... and it gets worse).

I signed up with Team in Training to compete in the Nations Triathlon in September of 2010.  I met so many great people, raised some money and got in even better shape.  I was able to turn my doggy paddle into something that from a distance resembled a freestyle stroke.  I bought a triathlon bike - Fuji Aloha 2.0 (great intro bike by the way) and learned how to ride a bike all over again.  Now if you thought that anything I did before might have lacked some logic, don't stop reading now.

I had my first sprint tri scheduled for early June.  Before I even completed the event I had some friends who were suggesting that I register for this Half Ironman with them.  Once again I showed total disregard for common sense and my well being by registering for 70.3 Austin (wait... it gets worse).  By mid June I had completed this sprint triathlon.  I had a panic attack during the swim and struggled through an easy bike course... but I had a great run (as bad as it sounds I did have a great time at the race).  At this same time this new group of friends were looking to sign up for an Ironman in 2011.  I couldn't miss this chance to do something that made absolutely no sense and risk my health... I signed up with them for Ironman Texas 2011.

The 2010 Season is now over and I do not regret one decision I have made this past year.  I have had more fun and met more amazing people this past year than ever before.  Endurance sports are now a major part of my life and I would not have it any other way.

Races completed in 2010*
Austin Marathon
Angie's Half Crazy Half Marathon
Gren2Green 10k
Tejas Sprint Triathlon
Gatorbait Sprint Triathlon
Clear Lake Olympic Triathlon
Nations Triathlon
USAT Age Group National Championship
70.3 Austin

*A huge thanks to my amazing friends and family!  Without your support all of this would not have been possible.