New Years Day Run

The second annual New Years Day invitational was successfully held this morning. Participation was up a whopping 100% over last year as I was joined by Fernando.

It was cold at the start, with temperatures around 40-41. To be honest Fernando looked pretty bad when I arrived. He told me that he had been at a party the night before and didn't get home until 4:30. He had also had a bunch of beer, which is not known as good way to carbo load. I thought, who knows? Maybe I'll be able to take him for a change. Of course, it was not to be.

I had measured the course via Google earth and Fernando and I both had GPS units (my Garmin and his Timex). I don't know why but mine went haywire right after we started. It started clicking off miles every minute or so and it ultimately said we had run over 30 miles. Not too shabby.

In any event, we ran from the Jefferson overpass to the bridge at the end of the causeway and back. According to Google, that's exactly 13.1 miles. My Garmin gave me a total time of 2:03:34, which translates to 9:25/mile. Of course, Fernando pulled away from me in the final mile and finished about a minute ahead. I'm not sure what I have to do to beat that guy. Whatever.

Considering that last year was 2:10:39, or 9:57/mile, I guess I met my goal. Maybe next year I'll break 2:00.

Benjamin

The race heats up!

2007 Ford Ironman 70.3 California Entry Fee
Fernando Hernandez	$210.00

T-Shirt Size	Large
One Day USAT Insurance	yes - $10.00
USAT Membership Number
Emergency Contact	Yuman
Emergency Contact Phone	323 290 2235
Occupation
Please list any other significant medical information:
List any past half or full Ironman events in which you have participated:
Will California Half Ironman be your first Triathlon at this distance?	yes
Personal Insurance Carrier	Kaiser
Policy Number
Company
Race Classification	Age Group For Awards and AG Kona Slots
Have you ever dropped out during a race for medical reasons?	No
Age Division	M 35-39

That's right. Mr. Hernandez is in - competing for awards and Kona slots.

GPS

I take my Garmin with me on business trips. I'm trying to collect routes from all over. Here are some from the last year. Click on them to see the maps at a decent magnification.

1) Legendary Central Park. It was nice, but I'd go crazy if that was the only place around to run. I don't know how NY'ers do it.



2) West Palm Beach. Eerily deserted last week. And the ocean was on the wrong side.



3) Chicago. Very cool. Lots of tri folks out swimming along the edge of the lake. Mile markers and everything. Really very nice.



4) Washington D.C. If not for the idjit living there, running near the Whitehouse would be nice. Too humid though.



5) The famous Beverly Hills High School. Not very far away but it is a different city.



6) Dallas, Texas. A pit. Hot, ugly, and boring.



7) Orlando, Florida. A city that's just a huge strip mall.



8) Philadelphia, PA. Right past the Rocky steps. Pretty nice.



9) San Francisco. I love that city. I'd gladly move there.



Happy New Year everyone.

B.

Desire

Not too long ago, I challenged my good friend Jason to run his first half marathon. He begrudgingly accepted, and in October Stacie and I paced him to the finish of the Long Beach Half Marathon in under 2 hours, 45 minutes. An excellent time for a guy who never ran more than 6 miles only a few months prior.

But I wasn't satisfied. If Jason didn't cramp, we would have finished close to the 2 and-a-half hour mark. So I issued another challenge: finish the inaugural City of Angels Half Marathon in under 2 hours, 30 minutes. He gamely accepted.

We arrived at Griffith Park this past Sunday ready to demolish our Long Beach Time. The conditions were perfect: it was nice and cool, and the course, a point-to-point route ending in downtown, was very scenic. We had a game plan: follow the Galloway method and take one-minute walk breaks every five minutes. I was confident that we would accomplish our goal. But it was not to be. Although described by the race director as "flat and fast," the race featured more than twice the elevation gain of the Long Beach course.

We maintained the requisite 11:30/mile pace up until mile 11, but as we trudged up and down the rolling hills of Sunset Boulevard, Jay was attacked my massive cramps. I knew then and there that 2:30 was not possible, but he battled through the cramps, and thanks to an epic pain-filled sprint to the finish (see picture inset), we broke 2:40 (2:39:52, to be exact).

It was humbling to see my friend scream, grimace in pain, and continue running with the finish line in sight. That's what I call desire.

For the half marathon's course profile, click here. My entire flickr photo set can be found here.

The Dangerous Dance

Riding your bike aggressively during rush hour along a main thoroughfare is an exercise in faith. You place your life in the hands of the hundreds of strangers who share the road with you. You have to trust that drivers and passengers won't open their doors as you ride only inches away. You pray to God that the bus won't clip you as it passes on your left. You hope that the guy signaling to make a right turn in front of you checks his mirrors and sees you approaching.

Yeah, I suppose you could ride conservatively, but where's the fun in that? You can't get your heart rate up by riding like a granny (no offense to the grandmothers out there). There's something to be said about the rush you get when doing the dangerous dance called bicycle commuting.

Well, my faith was shattered today when BMW in front of me on my ride home from work tonight was cut off by a bonehead in a pickup. The BMW stopped on a dime. I didn't, and I ended up sprawled out on its trunk. I know what you're thinking, but let me assure you, the bike is fine. I just need an allen wrench and 10 minutes to get her back in riding shape. On the other hand, I suffered an extreme blow to my ego. Rear-ending a car while riding your bike is pretty damn embarrassing.

Note to self: Use more caution when drafting off of BMWs. They have really good brakes. Now excuse me as I read this Bicycle Commuter's Guide.

Meet my new addition

Long, long ago I saw a Cinelli bike in an ad from Supergo. This must have been about eight years ago. It was so beautiful that I've remembered it ever since.

Fast forward to the beginning of this year. GVH Bikes in Oregon is one of the few US dealers that sells Cinellis. They have a beautiful frame that's just what I loved. I downloaded a picture and kept it on my desktop for a while. It was too expensive to justify though.

Fast forward to last week. GVH has lots of frames on sale, including my bike! (Note, they don't carry lots of sizes, etc., for each frame. So there's a lot of luck involved.) In any event, I did the deal today. The frame arrives next week.

Here's a pic of my new baby:



I'm thinking Campy Chorus . . . .

Changing the Discourse

It has come to my attention that most of my postings on this weblog are disparaging to my good friend and training partner Mark. So I thought I would change the discourse in this post, especially since Mark has made some significant improvements in his triathlon performance this year. At the 2006 San Diego Triathlon Challenge, Mark posted a swim split of 42:22, a bike split of 3:44:11, and a half marathon of 2:55:30, for a total half ironman time of 7:22:03. That's almost 23 minutes faster than his previous half ironman!

Great job Mark. So instead of trying to find some witty way to poke fun at my friend, I thought I'd focus on current events in the world of triathlon. Specifically, I'd like to celebrate the accomplishments of Rudy Garcia, a CAF athlete. A double above-the-knee amputee, Rudy finished his first half ironman, the Ford Ironman 70.3 World Championship this past weekend in Florida. Garcia is truly an amazing athlete. Here are his splits:

Swim: 31:41
Bike: 3:57:06
Run: 2:30:53
Total: 7:16:33

Contratulations, Rudy!

Here we go again

This message is generated as confirmation of your recent registration on Active.com. You have been successfully registered for the following:

Registration: 2007 Ford Ironman 70.3 California
Purchase Date: 11/14/06
Category: Entry Fee
Event Date: 03/31/07
Name: Mark Hardiman

Stacie? Jen? Hope?

The Wonderful Manatee

I'm a horribly slow swimmer. How slow? Well, according to the official results, I finished the 1.2-mile swim at the San Diego Triathlon Challenge in 41 minutes, 17 seconds, making my average race speed in the water approximately 1.7 miles per hour.

In order to describe how slow I swim to people who inquire, I like to say that I am manatee-slow. I mean, what's slower than a manatee?

Apparently, I am. According to savethemanatee.org, these animals, commonly called sea cows, "only swim about three to eight kilometers (three to five miles) per hour."

In other words, a manatee can kick my ass. How depressing.

Some other fun manatee facts from the manatee educator's guide:

-Manatees sometimes groan when they stretch.
-Manatees don't necessarily have daily routines or cycles. In general, they will feed, rest or travel at any time of the night or day.
-Flatulence is common in manatees.

Hmm, these characteristics sound vaguely familiar.


Mark = Manatee?

SDTC: Official Results and Pictures

As promised, here are the official results from this year's San Diego Triathlon Challenge:

Mark Hardiman
Swim: 42:22
Bike: 3:44:11
Run: 2:55:30
Total: 7:22:03

Arnold Pamplona
Swim: 41:17
Bike: 3:25:58
Run: 2:28:23
Total: 6:35:38

As you can see, I narrowly beat Mark by a mere 46-and-a-half minutes. Maybe next time I'll really trounce him (note that according to my bike computer, I spent about 13 minutes stopped at red lights/stop signs throughout the bike leg).

For context, double-leg amputee Rudy Garcia did the swim in 23:39. Olympic Gold Medalist Amanda Beard did the swim in 19:54, only about three-and-a-half minutes faster than Garcia. And Robin Williams' smoked the bike leg with a split of 3:04:33. Mark and I can have limited solace that those celebrities were on relay teams.

I didn't take many pictures of the event, but luckily the fine folks at Brightroom did.

An aerial view of the transition area and finish line:


Beautiful La Jolla Cove:



There were plenty of celebrities on hand, including Sarah Reinertsen (The Amazing Race) and Robin Williams:


Me (covered in kelp) getting a hand out of the water:



Mark was annoyingly right behind me out of the water:




Me mounting the bike with shoes already clipped in (in like a pro); contrast with Mark's rookie mount:


The first hill was right after the swim-to-bike transition:


Mork is an animal on the bike!


The run seemed to go uphill forever . . .


And I thought I'd share some photos of the amazing challenged athletes who showed tremendous courage: