Yesterday (Saturday the 15th) Diane, Bill, Larry, Martin, Paul and I did the Muncie Endurathon, a half ironman (for you non-triathletes it’s a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run). Word is that one of the swim buoys drifted from its anchor making it a longer swim than 1.2 miles and my bike odometer and Martin’s GPS measured the bike at 54.49 miles so I guess it all works out.

The water was 80 degrees and, accordingly, no wet suits were allowed so that, coupled with the longer distance, made the times higher than they would normally be. As has been the history of my races since the bike wreck, my swim was at least 10 minutes slower than I swam in the past. I have had my swim stroke reviewed by Olympic swim coaches and they all say that I have developed “swim suckitis”, a non-fatal but debilitating illness that only affects swim times. The rest of the group all came out of the water within a couple of minutes of each other.

The bike course was flat and fast. Except for the last five or six miles it was on smooth roads without much wind. The bike times were all good with me bringing up the rear as usual. Larry had a close call when he dropped a water bottle from his front carrier which went through his wheel, sheared off his stem extension and flatted his tire. As luck would have it, he was within a few yards of an aid station. One of the guys helped him take out the broken piece with a jack knife and Larry just happened to have a spare in his bag. He put it on, blew up the tire with a CO2 cartridge and away he went only losing about 5 minutes.

The run was a different story. the temperature was anywhere from 89 to 94 depending on who you asked and it made the run a suffer-o-rama. I’ve never seen so many people walking in that kind of race and I, not wanting to be left out, walked some too. Larry ran the entire run, Bill ran most of it and walked a few of the hills, and Diane went to a walk run mode where she would run at a good pace until she couldn’t any more, then walk until she felt good enough to run, then repeat. Martin is in his early training for Ironman Florida and didn’t want to overdo it, so he walked some too.

Paul ran out of gas and I caught up with him. We ran for a while and walked through the aid stations until I got nauseous around the 9th mile. By the 11th mile I felt better and we ran the last two miles at around a 9 minute mile pace and felt great. All recovered quickly and no one visited the medical tent, so we marked it down as a success.

I did the race as a training day for IM Wisconsin and learned a couple of things. 1) When I came out of the swim I knew it was a horrible swim even for me and I had a really bad attitude. I got on the bike and within the first mile I started talking to myself. I said “Jack (I know my real name is John, but I know myself as Jack), so you were 10 minutes slower than you thought you would be. It’s a 6 hour race at best so get over it. Don’t let it ruin the rest of your day. Get in the game and have fun”, so I did. 2) When you get in trouble as I was on the run with nausea, think about it and try to figure out what you did to get you there and what you can do to get yourself back. That worked too so I look at the race as a valuable experience.

I will admit that halfway through the run I was thinking about how I could get on the internet Sunday morning, cancel my entry to Ironman Wisconsin, and at least get $150.00 of my entry fee back. I have until July 31st to do that, but as of now, it’s not an option.

Short e-mail today ‘cuz the computer room is hot.

Just (Why Didn’t I Use Sun Screen Yesterday–OUCH!!) Jack