What a week!

Hi everyone! So this past week was a doozy! Natalie and I entered into our 12th consecutive week of training. We're tired and worn down, but trying to get through it. We trained hard Saturday with a 13 Miles run, 10 of it with our good friend and awesome runner Ken Charity, then Sunday we took a much needed rest day. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we trained hard logging over 6000 yards of swimming, 10 Miles of running and 20 miles of biking those three days. Thursday Nat was feeling a bit under the weather so she took the day off, but I had my first pre-Iron Man race.
I participated in the Lifeguard Challenge called the Mega Colossus. This extreme lifeguard endurance even has no prizes, just bragging rights for where you finished. Now it might surprise some of you that even though I was a lifeguard for over a decade I never actually competed in the Mega before. Honestly I was never in good enough shape, only able to do short bursts of speed, never the long distance that the Mega demanded and it had always been a dream of mine to race in the Mega. So, after all of Natalie's pep talks about how I am a distance runner now I bought in and showed up at 5:30 am for the Race Thursday morning. There were a lot of people I knew at the race and I got to chatting with some former co-workers.
The race bega and I paced my run (1.5 miles) to get to the first swim. It had been a long time since I swam in the ocean! I entered the first swim and thought to myself, 'man, this is gonna be a tough race'. After I exited the water on the first swim I was tired, but not too tired so I set an even pace and started my next 1.5 Mile run to the pier. At about Tower 15 I hit the AID station and took some water from a friend of mine, Matt "King" Karl who gave me some words of encouragement! I had a great entry at the pier and zipped right up the rip current that runs through the middle of the pier. I was around the end in no time and swimming strong on the North side of the pier towards the Beach. Then an awesome thing happened. I was in perfect position to catch a wave to shore and I rode one almost to the shore passing several people. I was stoked so I got into my running grove once more. At about Goldenwest Street I hit the next water station and as I ran through this guy in front of me threw his water on me. It was kind of comical, and it was more comical when I realized that it was Greg Lutrell, the Junior Guard Instructor from HB City. Greg is a stud, he works with the "Captains", the highest level of Junior Guards (15-16-17 years old). We ran about two miles together, traversing the Bolsa Chica Jetty which sucked several people into it, but Greg and I timed it right and swam straight across.

Then we hit the hardest part of the whole race, the large grained "quicksand" part of the beach. This is where the big boys have trouble because we sink into the sand. Greg is a little older than me and we both weigh in close to 2 Bills so we had to make some adjustments. Our goal was to keep enough speed to not get passed through this section. We shortend our stride to quick short steps and put our heads down. When we entered the water at the Bolsa Chica Headquarters Buoy we were both happy to have finished that section. I paced Greg the entire swim and we exited the water almost at the same time with Greg a little in front of me. I felt good and only had a little less than a mile and a half to run. I was going to make it.

So, there we are, I'm looking ahead at some people and I want to get them. Greg realizes this and tells me to go. I told him I'd see him at the finish line. I passed two young kids, 16 and 18 and then a HB State Rookie was built even bigger than me. I told him to keep it up and I charged forward. Then I passed two more women and finally I saw Steve Wolfe just ahead of me with about 400 yards to go. I caught up to him, gave him some words of encouragement and passed him to finish with a time of two hours, eight minutes (on my watch, the official times are not out as of this writing). I was super happy when I crossed that finish line. It was a great event and I think I might even do it again next year when I should be in even better shape!

Thanks to John Rodgers who put on a great event and to all the Lifeguards who made it possible: Matt "King" Karl, Elizabeth Bray, Matt Harrington and all the others who I didn't know.

Post Script: The one drawback to this race was such: I had not swam in the ocean in almost a year (since Greece) and my feet were not used to being wet and running on corse sand, so as a result I have a huge blister on my right big toe. I took yesterday off and today, but tomorrow we are in for serious punishment: 40 Miles Bike in the Am and 15 Miles Run in the PM. Gotta make those goals!

I hope that these posts help motivate you in your training or fitness goals. If you need any tips, please ask, between Natalie and myself we have coached 6 sports and have competed in at least that many. Good luck and good training!