A couple more pics from the triathlon
The best support team/cheer leader a guy could have, thanks Kelly, your the best!
My knee the night before.Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
TRIATHLON!!
Izena 88 Triathlon!
The finish, my goal! Not only of the race but basically of this past year. I feel as happy as I look.
Lap ??? of the bike, the wind was killer on the bike, luckily I'd been training in wind a fair bit.
Just coming around for the 2nd lap of the run, time to give my all.
Me (in the red) during the swim, you have to leave to water and run back to the start for the 2nd lap.
Me icing, compressing and eating pineapple the night before.
The triumphant ALT triathletes!
Me and the Izena Zeal triathlon team!
The poster my junoir highschool kids made for me, cute little blighters.
My wreath (this one real) for being Izena #1 and a medal given to me by an elementry schl. student. (picture taken after the party and not a few beers)Here is my account of one of the best days of my life, sorry it is very long but I couldn't have said it in fewer words.
Well I’ve done it! Sunday (29th of October) was the 19th Izena 88 traithlon! It was one of the best days of my life, let me try and describe it to you. The story starts on Saturday I suppose. After touring the bike course with the other ALTs (Ben, Perry, Josh, Charlette and Isla) who were doing the triathlon and Kelly who was here to cheer I ran the international friendship meeting. This was a one hour ‘class’ I ran for the international athletes and my students. It was a bit chaotic but everyone seemed to have fun afterwards several of the Americans came and thanked me, telling me it was fun, so I guess it went well. Last year I had no input really, this year I did the whole thing, in fact my JTE disappeared shortly after it started and left me to it. After that was done I went for a little swim with Ben and Perry, that’s when IT happened. On coming out of the water I bashed my knee against barnacle encrusted concrete, ouch. When I looked at the cuts I could see white at the bottom, right on my knee cap. Oh dear I thought, not good for tomorrow! It was bleeding quite a lot and I had to apply pressure to stop it bleeding. There was a moment in the shower when I had blood running down my leg and diluting into the water around my feet making my bathroom look like a scene from a horror movie that I got a little worried. Anyway a towel tied tightly around it stopped the bleeding, I put a plaster on later but it started bleeding again and I had to apply pressure again. I ate a pineapple Kelly had brought (I read it has vitamins/enzymes that help one heal) and iced the knee. In the morning it was still sore and a bit stiff (it had swollen a little), I couldn’t really bent it and had to walk with a limp, I iced it some more to reduced the swelling, still a bit worried. However after I took some painkillers Kelly gave me and after the bike ride to the swim start it felt better. Once the swim started though I think adrenaline kicked in and that and the painkillers made sure the knee didn’t bother me during the race, it did hurt afterwards though! It also started getting windy Saturday night and by Sunday there was a pretty strong wind, not good for fast times. I tell myself not to worry and just do my best, even so it was slightly demoralizing.
Ok so the race! First lets go over my goals for the race: timewise my safe goal was under 6 hours and my goal to aim towards was 5 hours 30minutes (which I didn’t think I would do). I also wanted to be the number one on my island, Nakashima sensei who was done the triathlon ten times was my biggest rival. I also wanted to be the number one ALT (sorry guys but what’s a bit of competition between friends!). So the swim started, I took the advice of my training partner Takuma san and hung back until the fast swimming had started then I was off, my first triathlon! What I have been training for almost a year for! It wasn’t as crazy as I expected, sure people were grabbing my legs and I was hitting peoples legs with my hands but I was expecting worse. Once I got a kick to the head but not hard. I was lucky on the second lap and got a lot of clear water. Out of the swim and I felt great (46:03) and I run to the bike. Nakashima sensei was already there but he hadn’t been there for long by the looks of things. I get my bike gear on and I am off. The knee is a little sore but no problem. I pass Nakashima sensei on the 2nd lap, yes! I have trouble with my first banana, I get it all over my hand but no worries. Another izena triathete passes me but his strongest leg is the bike and I don’t even try to keep up with him, got to stick to my own race plan. Nakashima sensei passes me on lap 4 but I pass him back almost straight away. Later on lap four I have a scare. There is a dangerous corner, a 90 degree bend at the bottom of a steep hill. A woman is going really slowly round the corner, I am breaking but not slowing down fast enough. I have to pass her going round the corner! I come around the outside but she doesn’t see me and drifts outwards forcing me to move out wide as well, there is no more space! At the bottom of the hill/corner there is a big blue clash pad, I hit it! But I have turned enough that I kind of skid along it, then my foot and pedal are scraping along the edge of the pavement (sidewalk), I am still breaking and manage to get my foot out and come to a stop without falling. Deep breath and off I go again. I pass that woman carefully and quickly leave her behind (try and get her at a safe distance!). I take it a little easier on the last lap of the bike, rolling down the hills so that my legs are good for the run start. I am still on good time for my goal of 5hrs30 so I don’t want to go crazy. I finish the bike in 2:23:21, about 7 minutes faster than in practice, not bad. I pull on my shoes, they feel a little tight, I think it is because of the socks I am wearing which are a little thicker than the ones I usually use, no time to worry. Off I go! The last leg and by far the hardest leg. Everything in the triathlon is basically leading up to the run. Nothing to exciting, I stop at every aid station, drink and sponge my legs. I get a stitch early on (cramp in your stomach) but I run through it. I finish the first lap in just under one hour which is bang on target. In training I could do the run in about 2 hours after doing the bike, so I am looking at getting my 5hrs30min goal! I run on, I feel pretty good, I start picking up the pace. I see Josh ahead of me so I speed up and pass him. I’m an feeling ok so I keep up the pace. I am breathing heavily through my mouth, I guess I am going anerobic but what the heck less than 10k to go! I keep passing people! Whenever I start approaching an aid station I hear my students shouting ‘Craig is coming!’ I keep passing people, I don’t know what’s happening to everyone else but I am running as fast as I can! At around 3/4k to go my abs start to really hurt. It is not a stitch just muscular pain, pure and simple. It makes it hard to sprint but I push as fast as I can. Suddenly I am at the top of the final downhill, I can see the finish gate and there is Kelly! I can barely acknowledge her I am so tired/focused on running! I come down and approach the turn onto the running track. The finish is 600m around the running track! I pass some of my shogakkusei (elementary school students),Ganbatte! Fighto!! They shout, one of them starts running with me. I feel a wave of emotion hitting me at that point. My pains dissolve and I feel like I might cry but I keep the old stiff upper lip and run on. Onto the running track and a teacher put a wreath of flowers (plastic) on my head. My shogakkusei are lining the entire length of the running track. I Hi-touch each and every one of them as I go past, they are all cheering, my other hand clutching the wreath to my head. It is unbelievable how euphoric I feel, as you can see from the picture I go over the finish line with a silly big grin on my face. Kelly is waiting for me there.
She says to me “you beat John’s time!”
“No I didn’t,” I say, I think at this point I have maybe done it in 5hours 20 minutes.
“Look,” she says and points.
I turn around and it is true. I did the triathlon in 5:00:27. I can’t quite believe it at that point but I have to fight back tears again as I cool of in the icy water paddling pool thing.
Somehow I had done the final 10k in about 45 minutes. My official run time was 1:51:03 but I think that includes the transition, I was timing myself and I think the run alone was 1hr45min-ish. That is pretty crazy as the fastest I had run ten km before (when only doing ten km as fast as I could) was 47 minutes. So I went even faster after the 2kswim, 66kbike and first 10k of the run.
So there we go, I achieved all my goals (number one izenian and ALT) and then some, I did the triathlon in a time beyond what I though I was capable off. Oh yeah and the tight shoes,..that is because I packed Kelly’s running shoes by mistake (they are the same as mine just half a size smaller), that would explain the tightness. I will loose at least my left big toe and it wasn’t until today (Tuesday) that I could bend my injured knee fully. But of course it was all very much worth it. My junior high students made a poster for me, ‘Craig never give up’ which was really nice of them. Unfortunately I didn’t actually see it during the race (too focused?) but I went and took a picture afterwards. All the ALTs finished the race and all but one of the Izena traithletes finished too. One crashed on his bike. The after party was a blast although a little sad. I probably won’t see as much of all my training buddies although I a few of them want to do ishigaki with me. I greatly indebted to a number of them. Nakashima sensei and Chibasensei are single handedly responsible for my swim. In July of this year I could barely swim 200m, no joke. I was swimming with my head out of the water and had to rest after every 25m. If it wasn’t for them teaching me I would have got nowhere. Takuma san was also a great help on the bike and gave lots of good advice on eating, strategy etc. Thanks guys! I am also grateful to Mr. John Branderhorst. Sorry I beat your time, but way back last year you were a large factor in inspiring me to do this thing. John always smiles and looks happy while racing and he made the whole thing look so much fun. I paid head to his advice and smiled, waved and said hello to all the supporters around the track. Many of them (my elementary school kids especially) have been cheering me all year and now was the time to pay them back. Today at school one of the teachers told me I looked very happy/genki during the race, so I guess it worked, when I told her I enjoyed it she shook her head and said “ah, young energy!”
So my official finishing stats are as follows:
Swim – 46:03 (194th out of 401)
Bike – 2:23:21 (126th)
Run – 1:51:03 (83rd)
So my final result was:
Izena 88 Triathlon – 5:00:27 (106th -22nd in my agegroup-)
I am grateful to everyone for their support (the emails helped as well!) and congrats to all the other ALTs who finished too, good job one and all.
What’s next?
Ok so the race! First lets go over my goals for the race: timewise my safe goal was under 6 hours and my goal to aim towards was 5 hours 30minutes (which I didn’t think I would do). I also wanted to be the number one on my island, Nakashima sensei who was done the triathlon ten times was my biggest rival. I also wanted to be the number one ALT (sorry guys but what’s a bit of competition between friends!). So the swim started, I took the advice of my training partner Takuma san and hung back until the fast swimming had started then I was off, my first triathlon! What I have been training for almost a year for! It wasn’t as crazy as I expected, sure people were grabbing my legs and I was hitting peoples legs with my hands but I was expecting worse. Once I got a kick to the head but not hard. I was lucky on the second lap and got a lot of clear water. Out of the swim and I felt great (46:03) and I run to the bike. Nakashima sensei was already there but he hadn’t been there for long by the looks of things. I get my bike gear on and I am off. The knee is a little sore but no problem. I pass Nakashima sensei on the 2nd lap, yes! I have trouble with my first banana, I get it all over my hand but no worries. Another izena triathete passes me but his strongest leg is the bike and I don’t even try to keep up with him, got to stick to my own race plan. Nakashima sensei passes me on lap 4 but I pass him back almost straight away. Later on lap four I have a scare. There is a dangerous corner, a 90 degree bend at the bottom of a steep hill. A woman is going really slowly round the corner, I am breaking but not slowing down fast enough. I have to pass her going round the corner! I come around the outside but she doesn’t see me and drifts outwards forcing me to move out wide as well, there is no more space! At the bottom of the hill/corner there is a big blue clash pad, I hit it! But I have turned enough that I kind of skid along it, then my foot and pedal are scraping along the edge of the pavement (sidewalk), I am still breaking and manage to get my foot out and come to a stop without falling. Deep breath and off I go again. I pass that woman carefully and quickly leave her behind (try and get her at a safe distance!). I take it a little easier on the last lap of the bike, rolling down the hills so that my legs are good for the run start. I am still on good time for my goal of 5hrs30 so I don’t want to go crazy. I finish the bike in 2:23:21, about 7 minutes faster than in practice, not bad. I pull on my shoes, they feel a little tight, I think it is because of the socks I am wearing which are a little thicker than the ones I usually use, no time to worry. Off I go! The last leg and by far the hardest leg. Everything in the triathlon is basically leading up to the run. Nothing to exciting, I stop at every aid station, drink and sponge my legs. I get a stitch early on (cramp in your stomach) but I run through it. I finish the first lap in just under one hour which is bang on target. In training I could do the run in about 2 hours after doing the bike, so I am looking at getting my 5hrs30min goal! I run on, I feel pretty good, I start picking up the pace. I see Josh ahead of me so I speed up and pass him. I’m an feeling ok so I keep up the pace. I am breathing heavily through my mouth, I guess I am going anerobic but what the heck less than 10k to go! I keep passing people! Whenever I start approaching an aid station I hear my students shouting ‘Craig is coming!’ I keep passing people, I don’t know what’s happening to everyone else but I am running as fast as I can! At around 3/4k to go my abs start to really hurt. It is not a stitch just muscular pain, pure and simple. It makes it hard to sprint but I push as fast as I can. Suddenly I am at the top of the final downhill, I can see the finish gate and there is Kelly! I can barely acknowledge her I am so tired/focused on running! I come down and approach the turn onto the running track. The finish is 600m around the running track! I pass some of my shogakkusei (elementary school students),Ganbatte! Fighto!! They shout, one of them starts running with me. I feel a wave of emotion hitting me at that point. My pains dissolve and I feel like I might cry but I keep the old stiff upper lip and run on. Onto the running track and a teacher put a wreath of flowers (plastic) on my head. My shogakkusei are lining the entire length of the running track. I Hi-touch each and every one of them as I go past, they are all cheering, my other hand clutching the wreath to my head. It is unbelievable how euphoric I feel, as you can see from the picture I go over the finish line with a silly big grin on my face. Kelly is waiting for me there.
She says to me “you beat John’s time!”
“No I didn’t,” I say, I think at this point I have maybe done it in 5hours 20 minutes.
“Look,” she says and points.
I turn around and it is true. I did the triathlon in 5:00:27. I can’t quite believe it at that point but I have to fight back tears again as I cool of in the icy water paddling pool thing.
Somehow I had done the final 10k in about 45 minutes. My official run time was 1:51:03 but I think that includes the transition, I was timing myself and I think the run alone was 1hr45min-ish. That is pretty crazy as the fastest I had run ten km before (when only doing ten km as fast as I could) was 47 minutes. So I went even faster after the 2kswim, 66kbike and first 10k of the run.
So there we go, I achieved all my goals (number one izenian and ALT) and then some, I did the triathlon in a time beyond what I though I was capable off. Oh yeah and the tight shoes,..that is because I packed Kelly’s running shoes by mistake (they are the same as mine just half a size smaller), that would explain the tightness. I will loose at least my left big toe and it wasn’t until today (Tuesday) that I could bend my injured knee fully. But of course it was all very much worth it. My junior high students made a poster for me, ‘Craig never give up’ which was really nice of them. Unfortunately I didn’t actually see it during the race (too focused?) but I went and took a picture afterwards. All the ALTs finished the race and all but one of the Izena traithletes finished too. One crashed on his bike. The after party was a blast although a little sad. I probably won’t see as much of all my training buddies although I a few of them want to do ishigaki with me. I greatly indebted to a number of them. Nakashima sensei and Chibasensei are single handedly responsible for my swim. In July of this year I could barely swim 200m, no joke. I was swimming with my head out of the water and had to rest after every 25m. If it wasn’t for them teaching me I would have got nowhere. Takuma san was also a great help on the bike and gave lots of good advice on eating, strategy etc. Thanks guys! I am also grateful to Mr. John Branderhorst. Sorry I beat your time, but way back last year you were a large factor in inspiring me to do this thing. John always smiles and looks happy while racing and he made the whole thing look so much fun. I paid head to his advice and smiled, waved and said hello to all the supporters around the track. Many of them (my elementary school kids especially) have been cheering me all year and now was the time to pay them back. Today at school one of the teachers told me I looked very happy/genki during the race, so I guess it worked, when I told her I enjoyed it she shook her head and said “ah, young energy!”
So my official finishing stats are as follows:
Swim – 46:03 (194th out of 401)
Bike – 2:23:21 (126th)
Run – 1:51:03 (83rd)
So my final result was:
Izena 88 Triathlon – 5:00:27 (106th -22nd in my agegroup-)
I am grateful to everyone for their support (the emails helped as well!) and congrats to all the other ALTs who finished too, good job one and all.
What’s next?
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