It’s not too often that I race an inaugural race, but once I saw that there was going to be a 70.3 race in Lawrence, KS that was “driveable” from Denver, I had to sign up.  More importantly, my wife and I had the opportunity to race together and have our friends watch the boys that morning.  We drove half way on Friday and got into Lawrence on Saturday, checked in, and dropped off our bikes at the lake.  I was surprised to see my picture on the side of the timing truck from the 2006 Halfmax National Championships! I think I got a lot of strange looks when people saw me posing next to it.  It was very hot and humid, but I felt ready to go and battle the heat! As always I was very happy to see many other Timex teammates racing including Ritchie, Andrew, Alex, Adam and Kim. 

We stayed in downtown Kansas City with our friends the night before.  We got to sleep late and planned to get up at 3:15 AM, always a fun time to get up I might add.  However, when travelling with kids you just never know what will happen.  So at 1:30, Spencer started coughing and since their cribs were right next to us, we were up for about an hour.  He was alright, but 3:15 came quicker than I thought and we were on our way to the lake with a little less than 4 hours of sleep! 

After we got everything set up in transition, we watched the Navy Seal skydiving team (the leapfrogs – http://www.leapfrogs.navy.mil/)  parachute into the water.  It was very cool as they landed about 50 feet from us.  Before I knew it our wave was called and I was off!  The swim went pretty well, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking about the lack of sleep I had.  Never before had I gone into a longer race losing sleep, but when you have kids, anything can happen and I am OK with that.  I passed the waves that left ahead of me (I was in the 7^th wave of 8) and got out of the water in 27:47.  On the bike I didn’t feel the best,  but kept pushing on through each of the 3 out and back portions of the course.  My Powertap (www.saris.com) was giving me some good info so I tried to keep upping the wattage.  The midwest is full of hills and this course was no different.  I kept a good rhythm and lead my wave though the bike and finished in 2:24.  The run was a two loop course through the campgrounds in Bloomington Park.  I felt good on the first loop and by the second loop I saw that I had a sizeable lead over the next amateur.  At mile 11, my claves were starting to cramp a little, so I tried not to push it to hard to avoid it getting worse. I finished in 4:17 and was 1^st in my age group and 1^st overall amateur by 6 min.  I was 13^th overall with the pros.  I was happy with the result and now know I can push through a race with limited sleep.  It’s good to learn something new right?  Next time I’ll try to stay up all night and see what would happen on no sleep.  

I saw Nikki many times out there and she was looking great (see picture).  She placed 3^rd in her age group and I was so proud of her!  It was her 1^st ½ Ironman in almost 3 years.

Thanks again to all of my sponsors and athletes on the Timex team.  You certainly make my races memorable and fun.

Thanks for reading!

Tim

One of my favorite ½ marathons in Colorado has to be the Steamboat Springs ½ Marathon.  It’s a great little town about 3 hours northwest of Denver and well worth the drive.  This past Sunday was my 3^rd trip up here for the run and I was hoping to have a good race.  It’s a point to point run and all 1000 competitors are shuttled out 13.1 miles.  You run to town while surrounded by snow capped mountains and green rolling farmlands.  It’s one of the prettiest and scenic courses that I know of, but it’s hard to enjoy the scenery when you’re racing.  I won this race in 2006 and was 2^nd in 2007, so I was hoping to do well this year.  As the gun went off I just focused on my own pace and immediately settled into a good rhythm around 5:50 pace.  Right away there were three of us in the lead.  By mile 4, one of the guys pulled ahead and was leading about 1 minute up.  I could tell he wasn’t completely running away from me so I knew that I could catch up.  At mile 6, I pushed to catch him and we soon found ourselves running together.  As we started to go up one of the final hills, I pushed to create a gap ahead of him and it worked.  I pulled away and saw that he had dropped back considerably.  At 3 miles to go I just kept pushing to hold the lead.  I soon saw the finish line and I broke the tape 1^st overall in 1:16.57 and 50 seconds ahead of 2nd place, a new personal best for me in an open ½ marathon. 

Soon after I finished, I immediately took over all babysitting duties while Nikki went on a 2 hour trail run.  All in all it was a great day and I was so happy to achieve my goals and a new PR!

A huge thanks to our teams clothing sponsor Zorrel for a great running top (www.zorrel.com) , and to Profile Design for the best running shorts I have ever run in (www.profile-design.com).  Also, thanks to Saucony for a great pair of Saucony Fastwitch racing flats (www.saucony.com).  All are superb products!

Thanks for reading!

Tim

Every now and then I like to do some shorter triathlons.  I love the long training rides and runs, but sometimes it’s good to get in races shorter than a ½ Ironman to maintain the speed in my legs.  So I decided last week to race the Tinman Traiathlon held this morning in Ft. Morgan, CO.  It was a 1000m swim, 36 mile bike, and 10k run.  I was really looking forward to it because it’s in a new place and the ride was right smack dab in the middle of the Colorado farmlands. 

The weather was great for racing: sunny and just under 80 degrees.  The swim was 2 loops in a chilly 56 degree lake.  It was a time trial start so we began every 10 seconds until we were all on our way.  I felt pretty good for the entire swim in my Blue Seventy TST wetsuit (www.blueseventy.com) although it was hard to get into a rhythm since each loop was 500 meters prompting us to get out after each loop.  I soon was out of the water and hopped onto my orange Trek (http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/2008/triathlon)  which always seems to make peoples heads turn because of the color.  It’s a point to point ride and a lot of it was with a tail wind.  I felt very fast as I imagine a lot of people also did simply due to the nature of the course.  My CycleOps power meter was giving me a lot of info I was happy to see, and I was happy to finish the ride 1^st off the bike with the fastest bike split of the day in 1:20 equaling a 26.9 mph average!   The run was hard as I rarely run a 10k either in a race or in an open running race.  I ran the two loop course in 37:24.  Not my best running time for a 10k but certainly good enough for the overall win by over 6 minutes.  Final time 2:12.27.  It was a fun day and I was so glad my family was there to cheer for me!

Thanks for reading!

Tim

 After many seasons of racing, Ironman racing, I have never experienced a race quite like the Strongman Japan.  It was one of the most rewarding and enjoyable trips I have ever had involving a triathlon.  The race consisted of a 1.9 mile swim, 96 mile bike and 26.2 mile run. It is just shy of the Ironman distance with 1500 participants.  It is held on a little island south of Tokyo called Miyakojima, which is actually closer to Taiwan than Japan itself.  My teammate, Rachel Ross, who won the Strongman race in 2007, told me how much fun it was.  After being contacted by the race committee last fall, and being asked to race as an “invited” athlete, I immediately jumped at the chance. 
 We left Colorado the Monday before the race April 14th, and after 15 hours of flight time, Nikki and I landed in Miyakojima and were greeted with 80 degree temperatures.  Myself and six other invites athletes, were all on the same flight.  I was the only American athlete along with three from Australia, two from Germany, and one from Austria. Our athlete coordinator, Gary Sato, explained to us that the “press” was at the airport and were planning on taking our pictures once we left baggage claim.  To my surprise that is exactly what happened.  The media swarmed us and put our picture on the front page the next day.  You see, there are not many people outside of Japan that come to this race, or the island for that matter, so we were considered a considerable news story for the media. The media coverage would be a trend that would last for the duration of our stay.  After leaving the airport we got to our hotel, the Miyakojima Tokyu Resort.  It was probably the most beautiful spot on any island I have ever been to.  The water was crystal clear, shallow, and there was virtually no boat traffic.  It was a swimmers paradise!  After we got checked in we had a meeting with the mayor and gave him gifts from our countries.  
 On Thursday and Friday we had our school visits.  The international athletes are invited to elementary schools to talk about triathlon and answer questions about our countries, with a translator of course.  They welcomed us with music, dancing and even gave each of us gifts.  It made me feel so good that I could share my culture with them and teach them a little about why I do triathlons and how being physically fit can help them in their lives.  We played games and I gave out a bunch of Timex hats which they loved.  Here is a picture of the kids and us at Fukumine Junior High School wearing their new hats.  Thursday night we had a dinner with the local Rotary club and exchanged flags.  We played more games and laughed together almost the whole night.  Other athletes that were invited were the Taiwan and Korean triathlon teams, who all were super friendly.  They were so welcoming to us and truly appreciated the fact that we came to their island to see their lifestyle.
 
On Saturday, the day before the race, Nikki and I took a boat ride to one of the neighboring islands named Irabu.  It’s an island which I’m sure no tourists go to, let alone Americans.  There was not much there except for the occasional farmer working in his tobacco field giving a passer by a bow or wave.  We stopped by a convenience store and picked up a bottle of Pocari Sweat (kind of like Gatorade) and headed back to Miyakojima.  I checked in my bike and soon prepared my pasta dinner.  We ate in our room overlooking the water and to keep with Japanese tradition, I ate my meal with chopsticks.
As race morning came, I couldn’t have been more excited to race.  I was a little nervous, but more anxious to see what the race would deliver and how I would feel.  I felt very confident in my training and thought about all of the great workouts I had in preparation for the race. I knew what I trained my body to do, which was to go fast for long distances.  As I headed down to the start we saw Gary and the rest of the invited athletes and got ready for the gun to go off.  Little did I know that the former Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junichiro_Koizumi), would shoot the starting gun.
The swim went very well.  I immediately found myself in 2nd place overall and one other guy was about 30 seconds in front.  I guess the winner of each leg would get 50,000 Yen (that’s about $500 US to you and me) so that certainly crossed my mind.  I tried to close in, but he finished about 1 minute ahead of me.  As I exited the water, I found myself in front of many, many cameras.  The Japanese press takes things seriously and they were all over the place!  I hopped onto my orange Trek (one of many Trek OCLV models, although the only orange one) and tried to catch the leader.  I passed him after 5K and was soon leading the race.  Soon after that I was passed by Bevan Leach, one of the Aussie athletes from our group, and a great guy.  We made our way around the island and saw some spectacular views.  I was passed a few more times, but made my way back to T2 in 5th place.  The run was 13.1 miles out and 13.1 miles back - pretty cut and dry.  I felt very good out of transition, caught one other guy, and soon was passed by the eventual winner.  I felt great until the last 5K where my quads felt very tight. However, I managed to make it to the finish locking up 5th place overall with a 3:03 marathon and the mayor giving me my finishing medal.  Total time was 7:58, just 14 minutes or so from the winner.  I was very pleased!  The award dinner was very special.  They honored the top 10 overall and I felt very proud to represent the USA so well in a large race where there were less than 5 Americans. After the race, Nikki and I spent a few nights in Tokyo and had a blast exploring the city together.  Yet, we’re ready to head home to see our kids. 
It was a tremendous experience for us and one that I will never forget.  What I noticed was that the generous people of Miyakojima treated the Strongman race as a celebration of life and fitness.  What I did not see was people getting caught up in pre race hype such as split time talk, age group placings or overall times.  I witnessed athletes gathered together happy to simply participate in an event where they could just enjoy themselves.  To me, it was a very cleansing feeling that made people feel good about themselves.  I hope to go back again next year and do it all over again.

 
Thanks for reading—
Tim
 

 Check it out…..

 http://www.ironmanlive.com/events/ironman/worldchampionship/results/agegroupwinners/fran-arfaras-profiles-2007-womens-30-34-age-group-winner-rachel-ross-of-honolulu-hawaii