Life is funny or crazy depending how you look at it. On June 13th I spent 7 hours in the emergency because I was sick. I was very nauseated, had no appetite and I was loosing weight. For all I knew the doctors were going to tell me I had metastatic cancer. They ended up telling me a had an intestinal parasite called Giardia. Within two days of getting on the right treatment I started to feel better. So good in fact that on August 4th, 7 weeks later I was setting my personal record in the half ironman.

After I started feeling better, the first thing I did was start training with Marion. This was fun. It was fun training with her again. She is my wife and I love her. She has really turned into a very good cyclist and I enjoyed seeing her do so well with it. She was training to do the 56 mile bike loop on a relay team at the Steelhead Half Ironman in Benton Harbor. I was scheduled to do the whole course.

Because of my illness I was very appreciative to be able to swim, run, and cycle again. I just loved being out there. Everything was fun. When we arrived at the race I had no idea what shape I was in. I was just happy to be there! Marion and I stayed in a hotel in St. Joseph, Michigan and enjoyed that town very much.

For two days we ate great food and watched a lot of funny movies. We all got a beautiful race day with temperatures in the 60’s. My plan was to enjoy the swim and enjoy the bike until mile 30 and see how I felt. Throughout the swim and the first 30 miles of the bike I wanted to feel no tension. In other words, pace myself so I would have energy for the rest of the bike and run.

I did my plan and then at mile 30 I just followed on the bike an overweight woman dressed in pink. She was cycling the perfect pace for me. I stayed 3-4 bike lengths behind her. Basically when she passed someone I passed them and when she took a break I took a break. Throughout the whole race I had no idea of my pace. I taped up my speedometer and on the run I didn’t have a watch on.

When I got off of the bike it was the first time in a long race I definitely had my legs. I got into a rhythm on the run and basically passed people for 1 hour 44 minutes. This was the time it took me to complete the 13.2 mile course. I was ecstatic when I crossed the line in 5 hours 17 minutes. Basically beating my previous PR by 40 minutes. It felt awesome!

What I learned from the race is the following:

Racing for me is very mental. I have to stay mentally relaxed the majority of the race. My mantra during the race was to have fun. Whenever I wasn’t having fun I slowed down. This strategy worked great.
Have fun in training. Training is about having fun also. Fun should be the priority. When you have fun you do well. When something feels like work, performance will go down.
Have a plan and stick to it. I did it in this race.

What is next? Ironman Florida. Hopefully I can do the training and continue to have fun. If I continue to enjoy it I am sure I will do well.

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