My friend, David

I have blogged a few times about this guy, David Pollay. I just got through reading his last couple of posts. The Law of the Narrator - who is narrating our life? Is it ourselves? What are we saying? What are we telling others? More importantly, what are we telling ourselves? Bring out your best narrator.

The Goal of the Hallway - What matters most? Family. Period.

Happiness Label - Like calorie labels on desserts, we make choices every day for what will bring us the most (true) happiness.

Thanks, David. I've never met you. I intend to someday. You're my kind of guy. Keep it up!

Robert Browning quote

"Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life,
for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith, "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half;
trust God: see all, nor be afraid."

Oceanside -#604

Okay, so I know that over a MONTH has passed and I haven't actually posted my race report. Things have been pretty busy, and Facebook pretty much takes up all my time (okay not ALL my time). So here we are, Rich and I with the pre-race picture. It was still dark when we wheeled our bikes over to T1 about 5:30 in the morning. I had my usual oatmeal, juice, yogurt, and nerves for breakfast. This time around I had my COOL tri-bag that Rich gave me for my birthday. I was excited.

Here we are just about to start. Green caps. I'm ready. Feeling good. Ready to race. So how was my swim. NO FREAKIN better than last year. I guess that is better than doing worse than last year but I was disappointed. For some reason I just couldn't get into a rhythm. I couldn't find someone to follow, I wasn't enjoying the salt water, my goggles kept fogging up. Oh well, better time next year. My mom was certainly glad that I didn't drown.

Now it was time to ride. I was excited to see how well I would do riding Donkey this year. I opted to forgo the Zipp wheels as I wanted to simply compare bike to bike. The first 20 miles or so you are going pretty fast. With the wind, and flat. So you think you are having a great ride. Then you start hitting the hills and I was slowing down. About 38 miles out, Rich came up beside me and said that we were barely over 19 mph thus far. CRAP. Time to kick it big time. So for the next 18 miles I went hard. Really hard. I felt good great. Rich says he had a hard time keeping up (but I don't really believe him). As always, the road support was great. I really enjoy racing through the military base and have all of the soldiers cheer you on.


Here we are coming in to T2. It was such a beautiful day. I couldn't believe it. Time to run.

So new this year was running on the beach. Although this is supposed to be "cool". It was NOT. Beach running is hard. Running up hill on the beach is even harder. But with a cool breeze and the ocean right there, I can't think of a better setting. My goal this year was to not stop. Last year I had never even run 13 miles. It was tough and I hated it last year. This year? I rocked. I didn't keep my sub 8:00 min pace that I wanted to but I didn't stop. I am a much stronger runner and I'm only getting better. Anyone that says that they can't run is fooling themselves.

Here we are just after the finish. We both felt great. Crossed (rolled across) the finish line once again, together and 45 minutes faster than last year. I was just as hungry (ate about 10 pieces of pizza, a few oranges, cookies, soda, and whatever else there was) but I wasn't dying like last year. It was a great day. A great race. Already signed up for next year and looking for another 45 minutes off my PR. If you want a fun 70.3 this is it.

Oceanside - Second time around

Okay, I have a number of events coming up so I'd better get this report out. First of all, I had a great time. Second I had a great time, and last of all I had a great time. If you don't like long blog posts then you can just read this first paragraph and move on. Long story short, I bettered my time this year by almost 45 minutes over last year. I know that I can do better. I really like Oceanside and I hope to race there year in and year out until I'm 80. Okay, there you have it. Move on OR Read on.

TriRich and I packed up the Burb and headed out Tuesday evening. We drove about half way and stayed the night in Vegas. Our Vegas stay was short and as always memorable (and this time educational). I'm so lucky to have a friend like Rich. I hope all of you out there in Triathlon world has as good of a training partner as I do.

The next day we arrived in Sunny California. So good to be there. I could (and maybe should) live there. The Beach and I are....... We went out for a run along the beach.

Did I mention that I could (and should) live there? Here I am shortly after a nice 5-6 mile run celebrating in front of the Oceanside pier.

The next day, it was time to take Donkey out for a ride. The race bike course is mostly on Camp Pendleton which is off limits to civilians. So instead we rode south along the coast past Carlsbad and had a nice 30+ mile ride. Did I mention that I could live there? Donkey was ready. My legs felt great.


Later that day we registered and walked around the Expo. Last year the Expo was a big deal. All the vendors, people, excitement. This year it seemed not quite as exciting. Now don't get me wrong, I still bought my share of IM merchandise. One of the booths we stopped at was a contraption to help you be a better swimmer. Must have worked for Rich because he beat me out of the water by 2 minutes on Saturday.

After visiting the Expo it was time to hit the water. We wanted to get out and swim and get accustomed to the water. The waves were pretty rough but we managed to swim up and down the coast for about 40 minutes or so. Then it was time to play. Did I mention that I could (should) live there? I really could.

After dinner we walked around the harbor where the Start/Finish line and transition area is.

Our last activity before the race was an afternoon trip to Knott's Berry Farm. I hadn't been there since I was a young boy. I wasn't too keen on standing in long lines and walking around a day before the race. However, as short as the trip was, we all had a great time. There are a number of fun roller coasters.

Lines? What lines. There were NO lines. Now, this is probably a young persons dream but I for one can only take so much of constant coasters. We were getting our fill and we were getting it fast.
Here we are relaxing in the sun. It was a beautiful day. Did I mention that I could (should) live there?

We finished off the day with a nice dinner at Claimjumper. Check out this cake. Holy cow. Did he eat it? Nope, it was just a camera moment. Guess how many calories are in this tiny slice? 3500 freakin' ones! Wow!

This concludes the pre-race activities and preparation. Game on! Let's race.

Oceanside 09

No, I'm not in this video but it is cool! I will be posting a recap soon!