Racing the Ford Ironman World Championship

I have had a lot of people ask me about my final update so I am sorry for the delay. Here is my final entry in my blog to summarize my race in the Ford Ironman World Championship.

I initially wrote a very detailed overview of the race, which has ballooned to 25+ pages already (and counting), and I am just starting to wrap it up. I felt that was way too long for anyone to read in a blog. So, I am going to try to condense it quite a bit and add pictures (see flickr photos to the right) on this web site that you can view from the race.

The details on the longer version capture every thought, challenge, feeling, technical aspect of the course, and obstacle that I incurred in the race. I am planning to publish a book on it within 3 months, from what I understand from the people who are going to publish this for me. You will be able to find it at online bookstores such as Amazon.com and I will post this on my blog when it will be available. A large portion of the proceeds will go to my charity Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) to support wounded soldiers. This is the same charity that I was racing for in the Ironman Championships. There are so many details that I want to share which really enriches the whole story, and some are pretty unbelievable. I encourage all of you to grab this when it comes out and support the SOWF and to get a real feel for what it was like for an ordinary triathlete, me, to race in the World Championships.

The race itself was an event beyond my wildest expectations and it can only be told in a much longer version of this blog. It created memories that I will have forever and will always rank right up there as one of the biggest accomplishments in my life. So I will break this down into segments, as condensed as possible, to better explain what happened in each facet of the race.

Pre Race:

I was out of bed at 4am on race morning and I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep. There was no way to sleep when you have been working towards a goal for 6 months (in reality for 25 years) and then it was beginning to come true. Jill and the kids were all still on East Coast time (6 hours behind East Coast time) since they arrived in Kona late in the week so they were already up as well and I grabbed some oatmeal and peanut butter and we all were off to the transition area so I could setup the remaining gear I had such as my water bottle and nutrition.

Transition was heavily secured but with my wrist strap, I was able to break through the mob of people and get in easily. There were TV cameras all over the place from NBC along with the commentators interviewing people; it was a very busy pace for so early in the morning.

I breezed right through quickly had everything set up so all I had to do was wait for another hour. Have I mentioned before that I hate waiting. So there I sat with Jill and the boys just taking it all in.

By 6:30 things were starting to get even more lively. As it became light outside the helicopters that were to cover the race for the live feed and for NBC all started buzzing overhead filming everything that was going on. There was also a Hawaiian band playing various Hawaiian music to help entertain everyone prior to the race.

So the race announcer called or the professionals to get in the water, and for the rest of us to get in the staging area and get ready to enter the water. The pros all swam out to the starting line, which was in about 20 feet of water and 150 feet from shore, and soon the cannon fired and the race for the professionals was on.

The Swim

We all follow right after them to the starting line. I hung back because I knew these were the fastest triathlon swimmers in the world and it’s not fun getting run over in the water. Five minutes to go and the Hawaiian band suddenly started beating an ominous drum beat and helicopters were flying and people were screaming from the shore. It was crazy!!! Then it really got crazy as the cannon went off!

The start line turned into a washing machine as everyone was trying to swim and find water with no swimmers. Eventually everyone eventually found their own space to swim in and for the next 2.4 miles it was elbowing, kicking, punching and swimming over one another. Just another day racing a triathlon.

The swim went very well although it was very slow just because there was always several people in front of me that continued to slow me down, to the point where I had to stop lift my head up and try to find clear water to swim in several times. So my time was 1 hour 30 minutes, where it should have been 1 hour 10-15 minutes easily. No big deal though, the cut off time was 2 hours and 20 minutes.

The 1st transition (T1)

The first transition was quick. Run through the shower station to rinse off the salt water, grab my transition bag with my cycling clothes in it, then hit the changing tent. I went through the transition in about 7 minutes altogether, and then I was on my bike.

The Bike

The bike to me was going to be the easy part since I had concentrated more on the bike than on the other aspects of the race. The first 9 miles was through town before heading out to the Lava fields. While in town I was so excited I was averaging 23 miles an hour and passing a lot of people and my heart rate reflected it. It was well over where I should have been so once outside of Kona I slowed down and got my heart rate back in check and settled in for a long ride.

The bike went well for the first 50 miles. Yes, the day was starting to heat up but it wasn’t bad so far and the wind at mile 30 started kicking up to about 15 miles and hour, still no big deal. At this point it looked like it was going to be an easier ride than I had anticipated. Then I got to the 15 mile climb to Hawi where the turn around was.

The climb was not that steep, probably 6% but it was very long. I am talking about miles long (5 miles at a clip) and on top of that the famous winds of Hawi had kicked up and they were blowing directly in my face at 30 miles and hour with gust of at least 45 mph according to the newspaper the next day.

This was a very, very long ride with both the climb and the winds hammering me. It was really taking a toll on my legs by the time I got to the top at Hawi and made the turn. So now I thought it was time to take advantage of the winds and nail the downhill and make up time. So I got rolling and tucked into an aero position and the next thing I knew I was going 45 mph screaming down the mountain. This was all working out just fine until I was hit with a huge cross wind which blew me across the road to the other side and almost off into the shoulder which was made of nothing more than sharp volcanic rock. I regained control and this happened repeatedly several times until I reached the bottom. Whew, I was glad that was over.

But now it was time to deal with the lava fields. If you recall on the way through the lava fields earlier in the day the heat wasn’t that bad, however, 4 hours later this place was cooking. Entering the lava fields felt like opening an oven door. The heat was stifling and I couldn’t wait to hit the next aid station where I would grab two bottles of water and drink one and pour the other one over my head.

The ride back to the transition area was a battle of dealing with the heat and dealing with the rolling terrain with legs that were working on reduced power. Soon I could see Kona and it was time to start thinking about my next transition.

Transition to Run (T2)

As I came to the dismount line I handed off the bike to one of the bike handlers, and at this point I had enough of the bike ride. I told the lady she could keep the bike because I didn’t want to see it anytime soon after that ride. We both laughed about this but I was partially serious.

At this point it was all about reenergizing my legs before the run so I walked the transition area which is the first time I have ever done this. I thought that in the overall scheme of things, walking for a couple of minutes was nothing, but looking back on this it probably helped me out quite a bit as I got into the run.

I grabbed my transition bag and went into the transition tent and an assistant met me at the entrance and guided me to a chair next to the fan. This was great! He also gave me Gatorade and water and handed me cold wet towel to cool me down. This place was an oasis and I never wanted to leave, but I needed to get on with the run. You could tell I was enjoying this a bit too much because my transition time was 13 minutes.

Hat on, sunglasses on, drop the towel, drop the water, here I go off and running on the course.

The Run

The run actually started out fine. My strategy was to run 10 minutes and run 1 minute. This was to reset my heart rate every 10 minutes and start over again every 10 minutes. This worked out very well for about 8 miles and then my legs were getting tired on a couple of the hills so I changed my strategy to walking every 10 minutes and then walking the aid stations.

This seemed like a running strategy that I could live with for quite a while. About this time I was heading out of Kona and towards the Energy Lab where the heat was rumored to be off the charts. I think no matter which year you race here the heat will always be a factor but it seemed exceptionally hot this year from what heard many people say. Luckily, by the time I would get there it would be dark, so it should be nice and cool, right?

As I headed out of town and it just became a game of keeping my stride going. It wasn’t much of a stride but at least my legs were moving and I was making progress. There was an uphill run for 4 miles heading out of town. Gradual, but very long. After a while on this very long hill, I decided it was time to change up my running strategy once again. This hill was killing me.

So I thought about this for a while and I looked at power poles on the side of the road. They were huge concrete power poles spaced about twice as far as normal power poles. I decided I would run the length between three power poles and then walk one. Then I would be running 75% of the time and walking 25% of the time. After 12 hours of racing it really came down to mind games and things to keep my mind distracted so I would think about the next 14 miles I had to run.

In short this worked and carried me to the Energy Lab where the temperature read 87 degrees on a thermometer at the entrance as I entered and this was in total darkness at this point. The energy lab at night was like running in space. There was no light what so ever. I finally made it to the turn around point where I grabbed my special needs bags and looked in it. Socks, band aids, Fritos. I didn’t need the socks so I stuffed them in the pocket in my tri jersey, I didn’t need the band aids so I tossed them and Fritos. I couldn’t really stomach any food right then but I managed to get a few down and started running once again.

As I exited the Energy Lab, I hit another aid station and grabbed some water to wash down a few more Fritos. I just couldn’t stomach the Fritos any longer and I tossed them on the side of the Highway. At this point after 12 ½ hours, I just couldn’t get any more nutrition down with 8 miles to go. I was so tired of gels,
Gatorade, anything with taste and even water. I ran a couple miles and the at the next aid station I grabbed some Chicken broth in a cup and two saltine crackers. I was willing to try anything at this point. This gave me a huge boost and I grabbed some at the next station.

From this point I was just slowly making my way to Kona. There was a guy who had been running past me and then I would run past him and we played this cat and mouse game for 2 miles and then we both saw Kona in the distance and decide that we would both start running. He was ahead of me at this point as we headed into Kona and started to hear the roar of the crowd 2 miles away.

This is where he picked up the pace and I did as well. I thought, how silly this is we have been racing for 14 hours and now it comes down to having to race someone hard just to say you beat the other guy. No matter what kind of race it is, I always seem to end up in this situation. So game on.

As we headed onto a street that paralleled Alii Drive where the finish line was I picked up the pace quite a bit and I passed this guy. I could hear his footsteps and he was staying with me so I just held the pace because I really couldn’t go any faster. I soon heard his foot steps fall away and I was by myself as I headed down to Alii Drive.

The crowds were tremendous and I was the only one on Alii Drive at this point and every one was cheering me on. The crowds were so huge that they filled the streets and only opened up as I came through. It reminded me of the tour de France as the bikers climb the mountains and the crowds are in the way. I went through this for about ¼ mile with everyone patting me on the back and “giving high fives” and then there were barricades and I finally had space.

This space was lit up with very intense lights for the TV cameras and the adrenaline pumping kept me going at a pretty good pace. And then the finish line. I couldn’t believe I was finally here. 14 hours and 15 minutes and 140.6 miles from when I had started. I had made it and I had actually completed the Ford Ironman World Championship!

The catchers grabbed me (catchers are guys who grab the arms of the athletes and hold you up and walk you to the area to get fluids and foods) Although I didn’t really need it, the last two mile had taken a lot out of me, so I didn’t complain much.

To watch a video feed of me finishifnteh race please click on the link below:

http://ironman.com/events/ironman/worldchampionship/?show=tracker&rid=172&year=2008

So the next five weeks is mandatory recovery time for me according to Coach Sonni. Time to sleep in, eat a lot, actually watch a little TV, and just take it easy, and then plan on goals for next year.

There are so many parts and details of the race that I didn’t include in this blog and I promise to have information posited within 3 months of where you will be able to get this book that I will have finished by them. I will guarantee you that the book version covers the race in much, much more detail and will be quite entertaining on top of that. If you’re a triathlete you will love it, if you know nothing about triathlon you will love it, if you want to know a lot of detail about the course and how the whole process at the Ironman World Championships works you will be fully informed. I will be very excited to share thsi book with everyone.

Finally, thank you all for taking the time to read my blog through this journey and I would like to generally thank everyone out there who helped me out through this process such as my family, Coach Sonni, Coach Lance, and friends in general. If anyone needs to contact me for any reason please feel free to e-mail me at Tweedy1@alltel.net

Update Coming Soon

I will post my final update to my blog sometime next weekend most likely. There is so much to talk about regarding pre-race, the entire 14 hours out on the course and post race. Since I am trying to document details for myself I wanted to take my time and get all details included in this last entry. So look for it next weekend.

Update for Thursday…The Family has Finally Arrived

It was a very late night last night for all of us. Jill and the boys had their flight delayed in Los Angeles for 8 hours and finally arrived at 1:45am Kona time. We were al beat this morning and Jill and I will look forward to sleeping tonight.

Today was uneventful. I grabbed a mile swim and a 18 mile bike ride this morning just to keep everything working and flexible.

Getting ready for this event is very logistical in nature as I talked about yesterday. I have a picture (see pic.) of all the “stuff” I will eat, wear, or use during different facets of the race. I just looked at all of this stuff, and at first I wondered if I really needed everything and, yes, everything I had laid out is critical to the race.

I also have my bike dialed in very well (see pic.). It felt great this morning. Baring no problems on my final shake down ride in the morning, I will turn it into the bike transition area where I have to check it in at 12pm tomorrow for the race on Saturday.

Other than that we all just hung out and took it easy today. Stayed around Kona and let the boys get in the ocean in Kona at the start line (see pic).

Other than that we have a kick of banquet at 6pm tonight for all of us and then we also have the mandatory athletes meeting tonight at 8pm to go over all the critical information pertaining to the race. They will obviously cover all of the rules of the race, and as usual, they will have referees that cover the course very well, to include the ocean! Yes, they even have referees in scuba gear located at certain points to on the course to make sure there is no ankle grabbing, corner cuts or intentional contact between swimmers. Yep, that does happen.

Off to grab a shower and get over to the Banquet and athletes meeting (assuming I can stay awake… still have not adjusted to Kona time!)

Update from Kona on Wednesday

Yesterday evening I went to “The Parade of Nations” where they have all the athletes from each country walk in a parade behind their flags (think Olympics), and the parade ended at the Ironman Village which is where all the sponsors have their tents and booths set up and all the brand new tri toys are there to be seen. It was a lot of fun and it amazing how many countries are represented at this race.

Time is drawing near for race day and the quant little town of Kona is absolutely electric with people training.

It’s amazing going outside at 7am when it’s finally light enough to ride a bike on the streets and there are already tons of people running, biking and heading down to the start line to get a practice swim in.

Today was a biking/running day for me. I grabbed a few miles on the bike and got out on the Queen K highway which is the road that will take us 112 miles which is round trip to Hawi, Hi and back. While it is hilly, the road is very smooth and well maintained so that’s plus. I did learn from another athlete who has raced this before that you never pump your tires all the way up because the heat is so extreme that the air in your tires will expand by 20 lbs of pressure on the road and could possibly blow your tire out during the race. Nice to know!

Something else I didn’t think about before coming to Kona for this race, Volcanoes and earthquakes!!!! Apparently, they have two volcanoes that have become active at the same time which is exceedingly rare. These Volcanoes have created 3 small earthquakes in the last 2 weeks. Here’s the newspaper release from a week ago:

Activity update

Kilauea Volcano continues to be active. A vent in Halema'uma'u Crater is erupting elevated amounts of sulfur dioxide gas and very small amounts of ash. Resulting high concentrations of sulfur dioxide in downwind air have closed the south part of Kilauea caldera and produced occasional air quality alerts in more distant areas, such as Pahala and communities adjacent to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, during kona wind periods.On Sept. 26, scientists got another look at the lava lake deep within the vent on the floor of Halema'uma'u. The lava lake, barely visible from the air, appeared to be deeper than when last seen on Sept. 5. The lake surface is estimated at 120 to 150 meters (about 400 to 500 feet) below the vent rim, and cannot be seen from the rim of Halema'uma'u Crater or Jaggar Museum Overlook. There have also been several small ash-emission events from the vent, lasting only minutes, in the last week.Pu'u 'O'o continues to produce sulfur dioxide at even higher rates than the vent in Halema'uma'u Crater. Trade winds tend to pool these emissions along the West Hawai'i coast, while Kona winds blow these emissions into communities to the north, such as Mountain View, Volcano, and Hilo.Lava continues to erupt from fissure D of the July 21, 2007, eruption and flows toward the ocean through a well-established lava tube. The ocean entry at Waikupanaha continued unabated in the past week and has hosted frequent, small littoral explosions where the lava meets the water.Be aware that active lava deltas can collapse at any time, potentially generating large explosions. This may be especially true during times of rapidly changing lava supply conditions. Do not venture onto the lava deltas. Even the intervening beaches are susceptible to large waves generated during delta collapse; avoid these beaches. In addition, steam plumes rising from ocean entries are highly acidic and laced with glass particles. Check Civil Defense Web site (http://www.lavainfo.us) or call 961-8093 for viewing hours.Mauna Loa is not erupting. Two earthquakes were located beneath the summit this past week. Continuing extension between locations spanning the summit indicates slow inflation of the volcano.Three earthquakes beneath Hawaii Island were reported felt within the past week. A magnitude-2.8 earthquake occurred at 11:25 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 26, and was located 2 kilometers (1 mile) southeast of Pahala at a depth of 8 kilometers (5 miles).A magnitude-3.1 earthquake occurred at 8:18 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27, and was located 7 kilometers (4 miles) northwest of Kailua at a depth of 33 kilometers (20 miles).A magnitude-2.6 earthquake occurred at 3:09 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 30, and was located 6 kilometers (4 mile) north of Ka'ena Point at a depth of 8 kilometers (5 miles).

Great eh? They are talking about how this could affect the athletes in the race if the winds shift. Right now, the high winds I have been talking about, have kept the pollution, from these volcanoes, away from the west coast where Kona is. We’ll see what happens between now and Saturday.

On to a different subject. Today, I finally got to check in, and get my race information and all the associated “stuff.” Racing an Ironman race is a race of logistics. I have two transition bags and two special needs bags. All of which will have been very well planned out as far as the items I will be putting in each bag based on my training to this point. Various type of nutrition for different stages of the race, infinit for the bike …my liquid food, and e-gels for the run…a gooey substance for nutrition. I will also have “glide” in T1 and T2 for chaffing and blister bandages, socks, electrolytes and many other items I will need at specific times in the race. So it very well orchestrated.

After checking in and getting my racing number (#708), I ventured over to the Ironman Village where I got the see Chris McCormick taking question on a stage with a great backdrop (see pic of him seated). Chris is the current world champion and I had the opportunity to talk to him last year after a race at St. Petersburg Florida. I am sure he will win again this year.

Another interesting thing that happened was that I saw Peter Reid in the crowd standing by himself. Who is Peter Reid? He is the 3-time world Champions who stopped racing 3 years ago. I recognized him by his very unique tattoo on his left ankle that I had seen on TV. So I stopped and introduced my self and chatted with him for about 10 minutes getting pointers on the race. Specialized bikes had flown him in to be part of their marketing at the race and he was doing several public appearances for them this week apparently. Again, this is very refreshing to see the top athletes in the sport being so accessible.

That’s it for today. I am waiting on Jill and the boys to get into town at 8:15 tonight. I have touched base with them along the way and everything seems to be going well except Jill accidentally lost the camera on the last flight. So I still have my camera to take some pictures and they will have photographers on the course taking pictures which I will get to purchase after the race.

Talk to everyone tomorrow.

Update from Kona on Tuesday

Wow, what a long night last night. Right after I made my last entry while on the plane over the pacific ocean, there was a medical emergency with a passenger on board and we had to turn around and fly back to Los Angeles. It took quite a while to fly back and unload the passenger, refuel, recheck everything before we could take off. This put me well behind of my connecting flight but I was lucky enough to get on the last flight to Kona. To make a long story short I got in bed at 5am (east coast time) and was pretty tired obviously.

Today was a new day though. I woke up very early (3:30am) still on East Coast time, and decided to assemble my bike. This actually went very smoothly and, yes, the pictures I took while disassembling it came in handy and helped me avoid problems reassembling my bike.

After I finished that I decided I would go into Kona and take a quick training swim. I figured I would see what the water is like here at 7am, the time the race actually starts here. I figured there may be a couple people there so I could jump in and get the swim done pretty quickly.

When I got to the swim start line where I was going to do my training swim, there were several hundred of people already swimming!!! I should have figured a bunch of triathletes who are use to getting up at 4-5am every day would already have been out here at first light to jump in the water.

This was great though and the swim was unbelievable. The first 15 minutes of the swim I couldn’t even concentrate on the swim because the water I so clear I was busy looking at all of the tropical fish below and the barnacles and coral. No matter how deep the water got, you can always see the bottom on the first half mile of the course.

Kona is beautiful and has a quaint little main street with shops, restaurants and bars right at the start finish line. I now can understand why there are so many people in the last mile of the race when you see it on TV.

Lastly, today I drove the bike route of the race. It will be tough. Once you leave Kona, the hills are very long and it is hot and once you get about 30 miles into the ride it gets windy, very windy (see vegitation blowing in pic. near Hawi, Hi on the course). That may be why they have a big wind farm at this point where very large propellers are turned by this constant wind. The road goes through lava fields which are black, absolutely no vegetation and very hot!

Something of interest, in these black lava fields there is a very long history of locals placing these white Lava rocks on the black lava fields to spell words. These white rocks are lava rocks but they are very smooth and do not fit in with the lava fields.

It’s very strange to see these rocks there and nobody seems to know where they come from. I talked to one local who said it has gone on so long that nobody can remember when it started and that it was bad luck to keep these white rocks because they bring bad luck. He told me that the City of Kona receives white rocks in the mail every year from tourist who have taken them home with them only to incur bad luck to the point where they mail the rocks back. Quite interesting.

I am getting ready to take off for the opening parade and the start of the Ironman Village, which opens up at 5pm today (Tuesday). This will be fun to see this part for the week long events that are going on.

I will touch base once again tomorrow.

Traveling with a bike!!! Ugh!

Oct 6th,

Today was/is travel day for me. I have been dreading this for a while because I have been faced with the dilemma of getting my bike to Kona.

A little back ground first.

I first thought I would get Inside Out Sports to ship it for me as they have done for years for many other ironman races. They are a major sponsor of these events (and owned a bike shop in Kona at one time), but I found out that was only out of the Raleigh store and not the new store in Charlotte. So much for that idea.

My next contact was with UPS and FEDEX. Wow!!! They wanted anything from $401.0 to $700.00 to slow ship to Kona. No thanks!!!!! That’s the cost of a cheap disc wheel or 1/3 of the cost of a power tap for my bike which I have been eyeing for a while.

So, I’ve been wanting to get a bike case for a while anyway to travel to more exotic triathlon and adventure races so I went ahead and bought a nice TEAM case for traveling with my bikes.

Great! No problem I bought a nice case for carry my bike. It was one of those very light weight type of cases that would be a bit easier to handle in the airport as I drag it along. The kind that the race teams all use. Perfect!

Everything has a price though! Yes, the case was very lightweight and very unique looking, it was even shaped more like a triangle with the top cut off instead of a huge rectangular box. It made my bike even look faster having a racing case like this (I’ll take anything I can get). But I realized something very quickly when I tried to fit my bike into the case after taking the wheels off…..it didn’t fit! The bike shop said it would fit with no problem at all. What I realized was that I was missing something that race teams have and I don’t..team mechanics!

I had to disassemble the head set, forks, tri bars and all the little bearings and grommets and spacers. I am mechanically inclined so I’m not afraid to dig into this new project of exploring the internal workings of my bike. It actually was fairly simple but I will admit I was taking pictures of every step just so I would remember where all of the pieces go.

I have already called the bike shop in Kona about assembling and tuning the bike when I get it out there. Honestly though, I want to put the bike back together myself because there are a couple small finicky things on my bike I have had issues with before that I personally want to check. Things such as set screws on the rear wheel that they may overlook as far as adjustments go, so I will give it a try first, take it for a test ride and see how it’s running and most likely will not need to access the bike store. I will let you know!

So back to today. I stuffed the bike case into the expedition and off to the airport at 4:30 this morning. The case was actually very easy to carry from the parking deck to the shuttle bus and then onto the airport check in counter. Whalla!!! Much easier than I thought. Now only if it isn’t damaged in transit.

As I write this I have already travel to Dallas and I have been on the flight to Honolulu for about 90 minutes. Only 6 ½ more hours to go before we land and then I have to catch a puddle jumper from Honolulu to Kona (40 minutes) and I AM THERE!!! I can’t wait.

List, List, List...Did I forget anything?!

Ahhhhh, the race is growing close and I can certainly feel the excitement of the race. The level of contact from Ironman USA and the Race Director is increasing by the day about where to be, when to be there, and which roads to avoid during training due to construction. But wait do I have everything!!!!!!!!!

List, List, List. I have lists for everything that I have been working on for, well, months. I don’t really have a sickness and I'm not the Absent Minded Professor type either. The worse feeling in the world is getting to a race and realizing you have forgotten something. It’s happened before. So having lists gives me a peace of mind when I go to sleep at night.

I have lists for each leg of the race, 1st transition, special needs bag (bag in the middle of the bike and the run for nutrition), 2nd transition. I also have a regular packing list for clothes and also for things like my computer, camera and other odds-n-ends that you may take along on a once in a life time event. The goal here is to experience everything this race has to offer!!

Wow! The excitement is building though. I really don’t need the excitement, let me just keep this event tucked away in the back of my mind for a few more days so I don’t get too excited about it. After all, I do need to sleep over the next week, especially since I will not get any sleep at all the night before!!!

Today, I got the first e-mail about entering into the lottery for Kona for next year. I am seriously sitting here contemplating whether to do it or not. This fits neatly into that category of, “beware of what you wish for, it may come true.”

While I don’t know what the race hold’s in store for me next weekend, I am drawn to entering this lottery again. On the other hand, I know the commitment and time away from my family that is takes to get to the level to make it to the start line is incredible. If I were to actually win again, (which it has been done before), I think my family would disown me.

…Maybe next year!

Several things I want to cover since it has been about 10 days since my last update. It’s been very busy with work, my little league Football team, and of course training and prepping for the trip to Kona.

My taper is going well. I am starting to get a bit of the “ I HAVE TOO MUCH ENERGY” syndrome. It’s not bad yet, but I certainly went down to the gym during lunch today and jumped in the water and did the elliptical. I only had a short pool run scheduled actually, SO I NEED to key it down a bit over the next 10 days and save the energy if possible. Next week will be crazy trying to not train nearly as much as I head into the final taper towards the race. I know I will be bouncing off the walls.
Equipment failures are the latest stressor to hit Team Tweedy. My bike computer went out and my goggles now have a leaks in them.

The bike computer dies at mile 52 on Sunday and I have become so dependant on the feedback from the bike computer regarding cadence, speed, distance and time, when it went out I felt a bit naked for the first 5-10 miles afterwards. But then, I got use to it, and just rode the bike at a good comfort level, if there is a comfort level between miles 70 and 85!

The goggles were another matter. Goggles only last for a month it seems like if you’re an active swimmer. If they are stored wrong, packed wrong, dropped on the floor wrong or just aged, THEY LEAK. And no, I don’t think is my funny shaped head either! J

So, I had to grabbed another pair of goggles at Dick’s today. I have found that no matter how much money I spend on specialty goggles that I order on line, and no matter if Michael Phelps is endorsing them or not, Dick’s Sporting goods always seem to have goggles that fit better and are more comfortable than any goggles I buy on-line.

….and if I read about one more manufacturer stating that their goggles don’t fog up on long swims. I am going to SCREAM!!! They all fog up after the 2nd use.

Next is the injury up date for my foot: It’s still attached to my leg, that the positive piece of news. I am not running at all right now on land. I am running in the pool and I did the elliptical today trying to maintain some conditioning. The foot is holding up ok with no pain using those training methods so hopefully it’s healing a bit. I would love to be able to get to 18-miles in the race before it starts hurting. We will see!

The last thing I wanted to cover was that I received a check today from someone I have never met, as a contribution to the charity I am supporting for this race. Her name was Lauri and she wrote a very nice short letter of encouragement, which was absolutely great! This meant a lot to me since I am the world's worse fund raiser. So I got in touch with her to thank her, as I have all of the people who have contributed to the charity, and I quickly found out that she was, and is, quite the triathlete. She had raced Kona twice! And she got her slot through placing in qualifying races and on top of that she ran a 10:59 in Kona.

10:59, Whew! Let’s put this in perspective… I will not be in this range, in this race, period. This warrants huge respect in the Tri world.

Lauri was very nice to talk to and very helpful. I could have spent another hour picking her brain on the race especially since she has raced it twice. She did tell me that she was getting back into the Triathlon scene in NC this year so you guys had better watch out for 2009!!

Lastly, next week is the week I have been working for, for so long. I hopefully will have internet connection ( or I will find one) so I can update this blog on a daily basis starting on Tuesday. There will be so much going on next week, I really want to keep everything documented that is going on so I can keep everything in perspective for years to come and also let family know what I am doing on a daily basis.

See you all next week!