I woke up at 4:00am Saturday morning after only a few hours of sleep.  As much as I tried to calm myself the night before, my mind was already in race mode.  Unlike every other early morning workout where I had to wake up long before the sun, this time I got out of bed easily.  No arguing with myself about hitting the snooze button.  It was time to do what I had been obsessing about almost every waking moment of the last 6 months.

I took a quick, hot shower and ate a simple breakfast of a bagel with peanut butter, a banana and bottle of Powerbar Perform drink.  I needed calories, and had planned on eating more, but my stomach wasn’t in the mood to eat.  I wasn’t nervous yet, but I was very anxious.

My wife and I made our way to the transition area so I could look over my bike one last time and make sure everything was set and ready to go.  Afterwards we walked to the start of the swim to join the other 2700 athletes with their families and friends.  The area was packed with people and full of energy.  Loud music was playing from speakers near the starting area and everyone was going about their pre-race routine.  Some were jogging around, some stretching, some just talking with friends and family and others seemed to stare off into the distance – probably visualizing the long day ahead.

After getting my arms marked with my numbers we made our way to the waterside and sat down to take it all in.  I stretched a little bit, but mostly just tried to relax and conserve energy.  The swim was set to being with a mass start in the water – 2700 athletes all starting at once.  Pretty soon the announcer welcomed the pro triathletes who were competing and asked for everyone else to start making their way to the starting area.  I got into my wetsuit, put on my goggles and pulled my lime green swim cap over my head and walked over to the starting area.

I found myself on a ramp with a lot of others steadily walking into the water and swimming out towards the middle of the lake near some big red buoys marking the starting line.  Since there were so many people, we had to tread water for almost 20 minutes before the gun went off while everyone got into place.  Luckily, the wetsuit gave me a lot of buoyancy so I didn’t waste very much energy here.  I chatted with others in the area a little but mostly tried to keep myself in an area with enough room to prevent getting pushed under at the start.

Number of miles covered each month while training for Ironman Texas.

After the Pros started, the speakers near the water ramp started blaring Ozzy Osbourne’s “Ironman”.  Everyone went crazy and I remember noticing that I had a huge smile on my face.  They did a short count down and the race began.  I don’t remember if they used a gun shot or if it was a buzzer, but suddenly we were all thrashing forward in the water.  Hands grabbed feet and legs, faces were kicked and people climbed over each other in a reckless attempt at making forward progress in an area of water too small to hold the crowd.  I don’t know if I hit or kicked anyone (probably did) but I remember several times when others swam/crawled over my back and across my legs.  My head was kicked twice, causing me to almost lose my goggles the second time.  I did my best at keeping my focus and eventually found an area at the side where I could swim.

As we progressed down and back up the lake I kept having run-ins with others.  I would find an open area to swim in and within minutes others had slowed or speed up to fill it in.  This happened the entire swim so I was never really able to stretch out and glide.  The last portion of the swim brought us through a canal into the transition area.  This part was cool.  Both sides of the canal were lined with people cheering us on.  Finally, I made it to the exit and entered the transition.

My goal for the swim had been to complete it in 1:20 – I finished it in 1:09:53!

Upon exiting the water, a few of the race volunteers stripped my wetsuit off me, handed me my bike gear bag and assisted me with making sure I had everything I needed before grabbing my bike.  The volunteers all over the race course were amazing!  They were the reason the race went as smooth as it did and they were definitely the reason I saved time in the transition.  I had allotted 10 minutes to get out of my wetsuit, get all my bike gear together and on me and get my bike – I made it out of the transition in less than 5 minutes!

Now on the bike, I’m 15 minutes ahead of my goal time and focused on calming myself down.  My heart rate was at 164 as I rode away from the transition area – way too high!  Fortunately, the beginning of the bike course was mostly downhill so I had a great opportunity to keep up some good speed without much effort, which brought my heart rate back down into the low zone 2 range (around 120 bpm).  On the bike, my nutrition strategy was to eat a Powerbar Energy Gel every 20 minutes and alternate Powerbar Perform drink and water to wash them down.  I had my watch set to go off every 20 minutes to remind me to eat/drink and in between I focused on keeping up my cadence and maintaining a low heart rate.

Almost every bike ride I had done in training consisted of hills – tons of them.  This course was hilly, but nothing compared to the Texas Hill Country north of San Antonio that I had been used to.  During the race I found that many times when someone passed me, I would almost always catch up to them, and pass them back on the hills.  I hated the hills in training, but I was loving them now.  Overall, the course was great.  It wound through the Sam Houston National Forest and through a lot of farm land.  Wind was supposed to be bad, but there was a lot of tree cover on most of the roads so it must have blocked it for us – I don’t remember ever having much difficulty with wind.  The entire way people were parked on the side of the road cheering for us and holding up hand drawn signs on poster board – awesome community support!

My goal for the bike was to finish in 6 hours, maintaining an average of about 18mph (I figured the hills would slow me down as much as the Hill Country hills always had).  I finished the bike in 5:49:23, just over 19mph averaged!

Entering the transition to prepare for the run I was about 25 minutes ahead of my goal time.  Once again, the volunteers made things incredibly easy for me and I ran out of the transition area in 5 minutes flat, putting me 30 minutes ahead of my goal time.

My strategy for the run had changed somewhat in the last week before the race.  About two weeks before, I started having terrible pains on the outside of my right knee.  I did everything I could to heal it before race day, but I knew there was a real possibility that I would have issues during that final leg of the day.  My goal time allowed me enough time to finish the run with a moderate amount of walking, but not a lot.  In order to beat my goal, I had to run the majority of the race.  So, my strategy for the run was, during the first hour, to run the first 3/4 of each mile and walk the remaining 1/4.  I figured if I ran the first portion at a 9min/mile pace, then I could walk the remainder and average a 10 minute mile.  After the first hour, if the knee was ok, I’d run a few miles without walking to test it.  If it was clear at that point, I’d run the rest of the race.

For the first hour, I stuck to my plan.  Six miles went by and I had averaged just under a 10 min mile on each.  Unfortunately, in mile 7 when I started back running the knee pain came back.  And it was bad.  I immediately started walking again and kept walking for about a quarter of that mile.  When I started running again I found the knee had become crazy stiff and running was near impossible!  During this time my mind started flooding with thoughts of missing my goal time and I was getting frustrated.  Mile 7 was walked mostly with some short painful runs mixed in.  I thought as long as I could run/walk, maybe I could get close to my goal.  In mile 8 I found that the more I walked the stiffer my knee got.  Bending my knee even just enough to walk through the stiffness caused a tremendous amount of pain!  Somewhere in the middle of that mile I caught myself wondering if I was going to be able to finish at all.  Almost in the same instant I got really angry at myself for thinking like that and forced myself to start running.  I can’t describe how badly it hurt to run.

They say that God works in mysterious ways.  Before the race I had prayed and prayed for something that would keep me motivated to run at the end of the long day.  At the point in mile 8, where my knee hurt too much to walk and I began painfully running out of sheer frustration, something happened.  After about 30 seconds of running, the stiffness in my knee loosened up just enough and I found a way to keep going.  I found that if I just used my right leg as a crutch, sort of landing flat footed, then used my left leg to push myself forward over my right leg, I was able to keep going and minimize the knee pain.  The instant I started to walk or change from this awkward stride, my knee started getting stiff and screamed at me.  If I walked, I wouldn’t finish, much less hit my goal time.  So the decision was made, I would run (awkwardly) the rest of the way.  My motivation to keep running didn’t come in the form of something positive and uplifting, but rather in sharp pain that made it impossible to walk – the need to keep the pain away kept me running.  As far as I’m concerned, my prayers were answered.  Not necessarily in the way I would have liked, but answered with a desirable result at any rate – I guess beggars can’t be choosers.

I am so thankful that the run was set to loop 3 times around the course.  -Since it was a smaller area, the entire course was lined with people yelling and cheering.  Complete strangers, along with family and friends, offered encouragement the entire way and it kept me motivated to try and slowly pick up speed.  Every so often I glanced at my watch and found I was keeping up a pace under a 10 min mile (the majority were between 9:15 and 9:30).  Around mile 20 I realized if I kept up the pace I would kill my goal.  I pushed as hard as I could and dealt with the occasional sharp knee pain from losing my form until I had 1 mile to go.  That last mile was awesome.  The people screaming on the course seemed to be yelling louder and I was running faster and faster that entire time.  -My last mile was under 8:30.

When I ran into the last 100 meters of the run, it was full of people.  Everyone was yelling, loud music was playing and it got emotional.  This was the moment I had thought about every day, through every workout and every time my alarm clock went off for the last 6 months.  This was the moment I had sacrificed so much for and I couldn’t hold it in.  The last 25 meters I yelled as loud as I could and threw my arms in the air as I crossed the finish line and became and Ironman.

I used every ounce of energy, determination and endurance I had that day.  After crossing the line, once again, the helpful volunteers were there – this time to catch me from falling.  I gave it my all and didn’t even have enough left to stand.  I sat in the provided wheelchair for a few minutes, unable to hold back tears and couldn’t believe I had done it.  Then I saw my time.

My goal at the beginning of training in January was to beat 13 hours.  I cut down a good portion of the time being fast through the transitions and fast on the swim and bike, but if it wasn’t for the run during the last 18 miles, I wouldn’t have been able to cross the line at 11:25:38 and secure a top 10% finish!  Killed the goal and became an Ironman.  I did it.

The Finish

My official time sheet for Ironman Texas

Course Elevation Chart

Flat Rock Ranch is a huge chunk of land northwest of San Antonio off Interstate 10 with a ton of hills – most of which are pretty smooth and flowy. The course has it’s technical sections (especially the upper loop) but for the most part, it’s a really enjoyable ride. The race, called Miles of DisComfort, had two options, the long race was 52 miles, the short race was 26. I chose the 26. While most of the course is fun and flowy, 26 miles of hills is still tough and this was only supposed to be a training ride.

The race started at 9am (awesome, I got to sleep in) and was pretty crowded. There were about 200 people total – about 100 in each race. I started in the middle of the pack and just focused on keeping my cadence high and my pace constant. I noticed the first change in myself after I completed a steep and twisty uphill segment known as The Pipeline. The last time I raced the course, this section kicked my butt in hard. This time around, I navigated through all the uphill switchbacks and had a smile on my face at the top. It was going to be a good day.

I passed a few people and found a group that was riding about the same pace I was. I stayed with them for most of the rest of the race until one of the riders in the group and I slowly left the others behind. In the upper loop section of the course, about 3/4 of the way through, I noticed that I was still keeping up my cadence and pace. I was definitely tired (it had been over 2 hrs by this point) but my legs weren’t cramping up and they felt noticeably stronger in this area compared to the last time I raced there.

At the end I finished with the guy I had pulled away from the other group with and felt satisfied. My fitness level had improved dramatically – this was a confidence boosting day for sure. After loading up my bike I remembered to go check my race results – I ended up placing 13th over all! I missed the top 10 by only a few minutes! Not too bad for a training day!

Special thanks to Erin DeMarines and Tri3bar.com. Their Cocoa Crunch Energy bars provided some great fuel before the ride and a perfect blend of carbs, protein and fat for recovery afterwards. Awesome stuff! Thanks!

So for the next 4 months I tried to get used to waking up around 5am every day, pushing myself to where I hoped I needed to be. Then taper week came. The workout load was scaled back, I felt confident and plans for race day were being put together. It was at this point when I heard more about the race course…and how unbelievably hard it is.

Emma Long Park boarders the Colorado River (which is freezing cold even in 100+ degree August weather) and is mostly – no, not mostly -it’s all rocky hills. And not the flowy, smooth, pedal up hard and coast down fast type, but the super technical, rocky, stair step ledges that have been known to break bones and bikes. I learned that a portion of the course used to only be open to dirt bikes – motorcycles – because of their superior suspension and power to maneuver the obstacles. It was only four days before the race and I was now not only questioning whether I could still place, but if I had even done enough work to finish in the top half.

Pre-Race Day. Since I had never seen the course before, and especially because of all the crazy stuff I was hearing about it, I decided to pre-ride the course with a group on Saturday, the day before the race. I had expected to take it super easy and just get a good look at everything. I wanted to see all the tough spots and find the easier way down/up them so I wouldn’t have to try and make a split second decision about it during the race.

We started the pre-ride and stopped to wait on someone to fix their pedal. Then we started again and stopped to wait on another group to catch up. Then we started again and had to stop for the pedal again. Then we started again and stopped because of a flat tire. Then we started again and realized that we were on the wrong trail. The we started again and stopped because…. This kept happening. Three hours into a ride that was only supposed to last 2 at the very most, and we had only gone a third of the way through the course. I was pissed. It was 100+ degrees outside and I was burning up energy that I knew I needed for the race and I wasn’t getting a good view of the course. I decided that I had at least seen enough of the course to have an idea of what to expect for the race and quit the pre-ride a third of the way in. I was worried if I spent too much more time out there I’d be exhausted in the morning and my muscles would be tight instead of relaxed.

Race day. I woke up with a better attitude than I had after the pre-ride the day before. I decided that as hard as the course was, we were all going to be riding the same course and I was going to continue with my goal of trying to place in the top 10. I knew that my strongest part of the race would be the run at the end and that my weakest point would be the bike. I’m not a great swimmer, but I’m comfortable in the water and my form is ok. So my strategy was to try and stay up with the lead pack in the swim so that I could try and pace with them on the bike. On the run I would over take anyone that over-exerted themselves on the bike and hold off anyone else that caught up.

The swim started in the normal washing machine fashion with arms and legs slapping and kicking everywhere. I’m not sure but I think I may have crawled over someone and a few people might have crawled over me. By the first 100 meters we were settling into our pace and I was at the tail end of the lead group. The swim was 2 loops at about 1/2 mile each and had this weird section where we had to get out of the water, run up the beach about 25 meters and then get back in for the second lap. At the end of the swim I got out of the water around the back of the lead pack and headed into the transition area.

I left transition on the bike right with a couple of the semi-pro guys and was really encouraged. I felt good. I hadn’t used up too much energy in the swim and I was right where I wanted to be at the start of the bike.

Somewhere along the first mile or two of the bike course my head slammed up against a cedar tree that hung out into the course and I broke my helmet. The inside portion that tightens around my head broke and i couldn’t get it tight. The helmet was rattling around on top of my head and kept trying to slide off backwards. So I stopped. I rushed to try and fix it. The stop cost me 30 or 40 seconds at the most. Then less than 5 minutes later I slammed my head against another tree and it came loose again. Stopped, fixed it and continued on.

By this time I was a few minutes behind the semi-pro guy and a couple of people had caught up to me. One of them was right at my pace so I stayed with him for about the next four miles, until my seat post broke. Crap!! I was beyond frustrated at this point. Two stops already and now another one? Luckily, the seat post hadn’t broken, the top joint just came loose. I had a multi tool in my pack so I fixed it as fast as I could while I watched 3 other people pass me.

Back on the bike, I tried as hard as I could to put everything behind me and refocus. I was getting into the rest of the course that I hadn’t been able to ride the day before. It was every bit as hard as everyone had talked about. I decided I wasn’t taking risks with my energy level (or my bones – I had already heard the sirens of an ambulance coming in for someone else) so instead of powering up all the technical pieces I got off and ran the bike up a bunch of them. Same with some of the decents. As I caught up to a few people in front of me (and as others caught up to me from behind) I noticed most of the others were doing the same thing.

I finished the ride in the time I had estimated and made it into the transition. At this point though, I had no idea where I was with the top ten group. I had passed some people and others had passed me. The transition was quick and I was off running down the side of the river headed to the cliff.

Yes, the cliff. The beginning of the run had a cliff that had to be climbed. Actually climbed – they had a rope and everything. Side note on this – what was the race director thinking? By this point most everyone’s legs are trashed and they expected us to climb up a cliff?? This was very challenging at best, incredibly dangerous at worst. I feel bad for the people who registered for this race to be their first triathlon. Ok, rant over. So I made it up the cliff and the rest of the run wasn’t bad at all. Lots of shade and mostly flat, single track trails for running.

On the run I wanted to keep anyone from catching me and catch anyone I could in front of me. At this point we were pretty spread out and I couldn’t see anyone in front of me. It was in the high 90s outside by now and thankfully there were a bunch of water stations. Someone had even brought their kids to splash us with water as we ran by. That was awesome. Eventually I caught two people and crossed the finish line without anyone catching up to me. I left everything out there and was exhausted. Whatever place I finished in, I gave it my all, executed on my strategy and did the best I could.

After cleaning up my area in the transition I saw the race officials posting the results of the first wave of finishers. As I walked over to find out where I paced among them, I told myself not to be disappointed. I just knew that the the stops I had on the bike course and not being prepared for the technical parts did me in. But I tried to tell myself that I did the best I could and that this race brought out more serious competitors than any other races I had competed in. It was a great day no matter what. I tried to tell myself that.

Much to surprise and extreme happiness I found my name on the list, 6th place in my age group! I got my top 10 finish! My race strategy worked. The hours and miles of preparation paid off. I even finished ahead of some of the semi-pro guys! I did it.

Nice watermark huh?

The morning of her delivery was bittersweet for me and my wife.  We were excited that we were going to be able to see her, but pretty depressed that we were not going to be able to take her home for almost a month – or even hold her for longer than a few minutes after delivery.

Thankfully, Katherine arrived almost 2 lbs heavier than the doctors expected and very healthy.  She never went to the NICU and was able to come home with us after only 2 days in the hospital.

The happiest moment of my life was in the delivery room after they weighed her and announced her weight.  She’s perfect!

Just got back from a vacation on Grand Cayman Island – it was awesome. White sand beaches, crystal clear water. It was very relaxing and a ton of fun, and I almost died. That’s right. I almost died.

Over the six days we were there I went scuba diving 5 times. One of the times was at night and we had to use flashlights to navigate. It was a crazy awesome dive. We got to see bioluminesent plankton, squid that flashed different colors, and a few box jelly fish (also known as a sea wasp). On the way back in, I brushed one of the jelly fish with my left forearm. Immediately the area of my arm that touched it started to burn like crazy. At this point, we were about 25 ft under the surface and I wasn’t sure if this was serious or not (I didn’t know it was a box jelly or how dangerous they are), so I decided to finish the dive and tell everyone I got stung when we surfaced.

Once we surfaced (5 – 7 mins later), I mentioned my encounter with the jelly fish and how my arm was on fire.  The dive master started rushing everyone out of the water and back to the dive shop. He said another guy had hit one a few months earlier and went into anaphylactic shock, stopped breathing and was in the hospital for a while, just barely surviving.

We made it back to the dive shop and he started spraying my arm down with vinegar, but by this time my entire body was experiencing surges of intense muscle cramping and sharp pins and needle type stinging pains. It was terrible. I don’t think I have ever felt anything remotely like it and hope I never do again. Every single nerve ending was on fire and every muscle was cramped up. Then everything would go away and I’d get another surge of it all another minute (or less) later. The place on my arm that hit the jelly fish got so hot from the chemical reaction with the venom that the pores in that area were actually sweating. I still have some wicked cool red scars where the venom burned my skin.

One of the guys that dove with us was a doctor and told me to monitor my breathing. He said that if I started wheezing or found it difficult to breath, get to the emergency room immediately. He said I was experiencing the beginning stages of anaphylactic shock. Great. He also mentioned that the first few hours would be the worst and if I made through that time ok, I’d probably be fine.

So, like a responsible tourist in a foreign country, who is on the verge of dying, I chose to go back to the condo and hang out with my wife and friends instead of going to the emergency room as a precaution. Very responsible.

Back at the condo, I did the best I could at keeping myself relaxed and focused on breathing. After 2 or 3 hours, the pain wasn’t any better but the surges were starting to spread out. Instead of every minute, it was every 5 minutes or so. I decided to go to bed and for the rest of the night I was kept awake by the surges of pain that were slowly fading out. By 7am the next morning the surges stopped and I felt fine.

Over the next hour I ate a light breakfast, drank a bunch of water and made the decision to go out on another 2 tank dive. hahaha!

Special thanks to Rob at Don Foster’s Dive shop in Grand Cayman for being quick on his feet with the vinegar. I was told later that if I hadn’t gotten sprayed down that quickly, more venom would have entered my blood stream and everything would have been much worse.

Click her picture below and click on the “VOTE FOR ME” button that looks like this:

You can vote once a day, every day until August 3rd. Vote Now!

Sophie’s pictures were taken by Marty Gast. Check out his portfolio here: http://www.martysphotography.com/.

If you’ve never heard The Cinderleaf, your ears have been missing out. In heaven, they play ‘leaf songs over the loud speakers on repeat 24/7.

If you would like to purchase one, or all, of these fine custom made, iron-on-letter shirts, click the BeanaritaShirts tab at the top of this page.

The t-shirts below are 100% cotton, pre-shrunk and the letters are real authentic iron-on letters – yes, I said iron-on. Standard colors are white with black letters, but if you want a different color combo – let me know and I’ll make it happen. They come in men’s size M, L, XL and women’s S, M, L. Each shirt is $15 + shipping (free shipping if you’re in San Antonio).

Those who see me regularly know that most of these shirts are a part of my regular, every-day wardrobe. Now, they can be part of your’s too!

To place an order, email me at webmaster@beanarita.com with your t-shirt size and which t-shirt(s) you want. I use paypal’s billing tool so you never have to share credit card data with me or anyone else except paypal. -Do NOT leave credit card info in the comment section below this post.

Contact me today for your BeanaritaShirt!

Nope. This isn’t my van. But, I see it just about every day and thought, “This is such a great deal, why not open it up to everyone that visits Beanarita.com?” So here it is!

This colorful Chrysler minivan has been upgraded with stainless steel hand rails for easy mobility while pumping gas and accommodating skateboarders who just want to hang on for a ride down the street. Nice!

How old is the van? How many miles are on it? Really, why the hand rails? Who cares?! It’s a Chrysler! That means, since Chrysler’s going under, it’s as big of a collectors item as a 10 foot asparagus!

You probably can’t tell from the shoe polish washable, attention getting, deal making, advertising pen that has partially rubbed off the windows, but this beauty will easily sell for close to $5,000.

But wait! Here on Beanarita.com, we’re always looking out for a deal. So, for you, the loyal visitor – $4,990! No questions asked, no financing available, cash only! What a hell of a deal!!

If you want to quit being such a D-Bag, start driving a real vehicle today and buy this van!

Leave me a comment below so we can close this deal together!

The boat is named The Flying Monkey

496 cu in. big block

In this video we’re just idling around. The important part of this video is the very beginning. Make sure to increase the bass levels on your speakers and turn your volume up loud.

In this video, the sound is only good until the boat picks up speed – then all you can hear is wind. Cool shot at the end though and the boat sounds awesome getting up to speed.

Just a cool shot of the back of the boat to catch the sound again.