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On Friday May 18th, John and I took off from Washington, DC in my rusty trusty Toyota Camry on an 850 mile drive down to Orlando to participate in the 2007 Ironman 70.3 Florida consisting of a 1.2 mile swim in Walt Disney World's Fort Wilderness Lake, a 56 mile bike through western Orange County, and a 13.1 mile run along the paths of Fort Wilderness. We made it to Savannah, Georgia on Friday night where we crashed for the night before driving the rest of the way down to Orlando on Saturday morning. We went straight to Fort Wilderness in Disney World to check in my bike and pick up my packet for the race the next morning. It was crazy how many people there were competing in the race and how many expensive bikes there were parked in the 
transition area. After check-in, we went over and checked into the Coronado Springs Resort where we were staying for the weekend. Then we rushed over to Epcot in time to make it on all the best rides before closing and walk around the World Showcase getting drinks from all the countries before watching the fireworks over Lake Buena Vista when it got dark.The alarm went off at 4:15 a.m. on Sunday morning. John drove 
me from Coronado Springs over to the parking lot near Fort Wilderness where I took a bus to the race start. It was still pitch black out - see the picture. I got my transition area set up, got body marked, and started the mental preparation required for racing 70.3 miles. There was a large group of professional triathletes competing that went off in the earliest swim wave at 6:20 a.m., and I got to see them transition from swim to bike before I had to make my way down to the lake for the pink swim wave. I was pretty nervous before the start but I had certainly put in my time training so I knew that I was going to make it. The water temperature on race morning was 78 degrees making wetsuits not allowed for the swim in the beautiful tea colored lake.There were at least a hundred of us in the pink swim wave that ran off the beach and splashed our way out into the lake when our start time arrived. I had done a training swim in a lake out in Maryland a couple weekends prior to the race to get 
comfortable with open water swimming this season. The major challenge with open water swimming compared to swimming in a lap pool where I do all of my training is the lack of a black guide line along the bottom of the pool that you can follow when you swim to keep yourself aimed in the correct direction. Essentially, beyond the fact that I am not a strong swimmer, I am a terrible open water swimmer because I just can't keep myself aimed in the right direction and waste a significant amount of time and energy propelling myself in the wrong direction. It seeemed that every time I looked up after 10 or 20 strokes, I was heading off course and had to re-direct myself essentially zig-zagging my way across the swim course in the lake. I eventually completed the 1.2 mile swim loop and made it back to the beach in 44 minutes 17 seconds (2:13 per 100m pace).
It then took me a little over 6 minutes to run a couple hundred meters to the transition area, get my shoes, helmet, and shirt on, and get on my bike. The weather was so nice when we set out on our ride. The course was very flat but there was a strong headwind during several sections of the ride that never seemed to be at our backs. Per USAT rules, drafting is illegal during triathlons so wind plays a major factor during the bike. Nevertheless, the ride flew by as I covered the 56 miles in 3 hr 2 min 29 sec (averaging 18.4 mph) and got back into the transition area where I slipped on my running shoes and my silk Mickey Mouse boxers and set out on a half marathon run after a T2 of 5 min 34 sec.The 13.1 mile run a was a 3 loop course over mostly trampled grass and some paved paths and roads. It was quite a hot Florida day by the time I was out running the course that featured little shade or protection from the sun. I felt good out of the bike to run transition and ran a 
good first lap but it hurt seeing people turn left towards the finish line when I had to turn right for two more loops. The second lap was significantly slower and more brutal, and it hurt much worse seeing people head towards the finish when I had turn right for yet another loop. Thank god for the volunteers handing out Gatorade and ice cold soaking sponges during the run. Somehow I dragged myself around that 4+ mile loop one last time and got to turn left and head towards the finish line. I was so happy to make it to the finish line no matter how long it took me. I wound up covering the 13.1 miles in 2 hr 16 min 54 sec (10:28 per mile pace) and completed the 70.3 mile triathlon in 6:15:29 good for 1207 out of 1997 finishers overall and 90 out of 134 males in the 25-29 age group.
I drank so much fluid after I finished before going back to Coronado Springs to get cleaned up and take a post-race nap. When I woke up, there was hunger and some soreness, and John and I ate an exorbitant amount of food before heading to Disney World to ride some rides and hang out with Mickey Mouse. The night ended with drinks and dancing at the disco club on Pleasure Island (Disney World's center for night time adult entertainment). It was such a great time, and I can't wait to come back to Florida in October for the real deal!
On Wednesday May 2nd, I flew out to San Francisco to meet up with my favorite 11 Georgetown law students to run The Relay, a 199 mile road race from Calistoga to Santa Cruz, California (www.therelay.com). The Relay is broken up into 36 legs of varying lengths and difficulties meaning everyone on a team of 12 gets to run three legs. The first person on the team runs from 
the start line to the checkpoint at the end of leg 1 where the second team member is waiting to take off. The second team member starts running for checkpoint 2 where hopefully the third team member is waiting and ready to run. All the teams ride in vans from checkpoint to checkpoint and stop along the way to cheer on their running teammate. Thursday turned out to be an awesome day - I rented a bike and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge and did 60 miles up in the hills of 
Sausalito and Tiburon. Wednesday and Thursday nights were rather tame but we did get to see the End Up until 4 in the morning on Thursday. Did some shopping and swam some laps in the USF pool on Friday before meeting up with the team Friday night at Chad, Mark, and Lauren's apartment in the Mission very near Delores Park for the pre-race BBQ throwdown. My favorite 11 Georgetown law students are all actually graduated now and are big time lawyers in various cities throughout the country. We were reuniting in San Fran for the race and everyone was very happy to see each other again. So happy the beer and Sparks drinking turned into hardcore boozing and we hit the Castro for a night of shenanigans that should have ended before 8:30 a.m. when it was time to start driving up to Calistoga for the start of the 
race.Our starting time on Saturday was scheduled for 1 p.m. It took us a while to get packed up into the two big vans and get on the road for the couple hour ride north to Calistoga that morning. We got there in time to see the teams going off at the 12:00 and 12:30 start times and to make a quick stop at the grocery store for water, food, and supplies for the next 26 hours. The sexy Chad was led us off as the Rocky theme song "Eye of the Tiger" energized the 1:00 
start for about a dozen teams. It turned out to be a typical beautiful California day and it was awesome following our runners through wine country as we trekked through Napa and Sonoma.I was set to run legs 12, 24, and 36 for our team - meaning I didn't get to run until several hours after Chad started us off but also that I would be running the final leg of the race and get to cross the finish line for our team. My first leg was 4.8 miles, rated hard, with 400 feet of climbing in the first 3 miles and then gentle downgrade over the last couple miles going back down 100 feet. It was pitch black outside at 10 p.m. when Paul Lee came 
running into checkpoint 11 in his reflective vest and headlamp to pass off "the green bracelet" to me (see the picture). I took off on my first run of the day in my reflective vest and headlamp, but no sooner than about 30 paces did my headlamp fall on the ground and bust into a bunch of pieces. I was stuck going the distance in absolute darkness, and it was only by starlight that I was able to follow the white line on the side of the road that kept me aiming in the correct direction as I marched along. As my vision adjusted to the darkness and I could begin to see where I was putting my feet (which is always nice when running), the confidence started building and so did my pace. The hill was challenging but I managed to pass a couple runners on the ascent and then a few more when I took off on the downhill. It was nice to see Chad waiting for me at the checkpoint at the end of 4.8 miles. We had a good time driving and running all night.
My second leg was 5.9 miles, rated moderate, flat for the first 3 miles, then 200 feet of climbing over miles 3 to 5, and then gentle downgrade to the checkpoint. It was about 6 a.m. when I was getting out of the van in the morning to start stretching and getting ready to run. It was quite chilly and the sun was just peaking over the horizon when Paul Lee came running up to hand off the green bracelet. It was a beautiful fast-paced run along amazing scenery featuring a huge lake and mountains in the distance during an awesome sunrise. I was sad to have to stop running and hand off to Chad when I reached the checkpoint. However, with 2 legs down and only 1 more to run it was time to start the Sparks drinking, hula dancing, and tomfoolery. We got asked by numerous folks if we were really running or just drinking and partying the whole way. My final leg was scheduled for 4.7 miles, rated easy, downhill the first mile into Santa Cruz at sea level, across a pedestrian bridge, around 
downtown Santa Cruz for a couple miles and then onto the beach and along the boardwalk to the finish line. I was feeling good going into my last leg and took off at a lightning pace passing the few people in sight in the first half mile. After crossing the pedestrian bridge, the course took several turns through downtown on the way to the beach, and I must have missed one of the turns because I came to beach with no other runners or race signs in sight and everyone I asked responded "What race?". After running in circles for a couple miles I eventually found the boardwalk and ran onto the beach where the team was waiting for me. We all raced the last 500 feet along the beach together and across the finish line at around 4 p.m. after 27 hours of non-stop running. Chad, Paul Lee, and I all jumped in the freezing Pacific together to cool off, and we took a team photo on the beach before heading back to San Fran for margaritas and food.
The cycling season came and went very fast this spring, and the last race of 
the season had arrived April 22rd - ACCC Conference Championships at Wisp Ski Resort in Garrett County, Maryland. I drove up on the night of Saturday the 21st to meet the team at Wisp as they had been riding the Conference Championship Criterium during the day. Everyone was tired and we all made it bed early as the race started early the next morning. It was a chilly morning at 8 a.m. when I got outisde to start getting ready for the ride. Men's C was set to ride a 24.5 mile course in the shape of a lollipop (the loop was 19.7 miles) described as "a road race unlike any other in the conference with over 1800 feet of vertical during each lap and over 600 feet of climbing in the epilogue to the finish". There turned out to be 39 riders that lined up at the start at 9:30 when they finally got organized to begin the race. There was a neutral roll out of the ski resort for about 2 or 3 miles the included a steep downhill traverse that would have been scary to race down. As we turned 
onto the loop, the race was underway and the whole group took off. The course was a nightmare of ups and downs and it seemed to always be going up and never down like some screwy M.C. Escher drawing or something. I just couldn't keep up with the Men's C field this year and this race turned out to be no exception as I got dropped within 5 or 6 miles of hitting the hills. I just don't ever find the kind of hills in D.C. that this course had in store for me (see the elevation map), and I really enjoyed the experience of getting massacred by the terrain. I eventually made it to the finish line crossing in 32nd out of the 36 finishers. I know now where I need and hope to be next year in order to be competitive at this level. It's going to be fun training all fall and winter to get ready for next season. Following the conclusion of this last race of the season, the Georgetown University Cycling Team finished in 3rd place in the Division 2 team standings of the ACCC behind only Appalachian State and Johns Hopkins. Congrats to the team on an awesome inaugural season!
On Friday May 18th, John and I took off from Washington, DC in my rusty trusty Toyota Camry on an 850 mile drive down to Orlando to participate in the 2007 Ironman 70.3 Florida consisting of a 1.2 mile swim in Walt Disney World's Fort Wilderness Lake, a 56 mile bike through western Orange County, and a 13.1 mile run along the paths of Fort Wilderness. We made it to Savannah, Georgia on Friday night where we crashed for the night before driving the rest of the way down to Orlando on Saturday morning. We went straight to Fort Wilderness in Disney World to check in my bike and pick up my packet for the race the next morning. It was crazy how many people there were competing in the race and how many expensive bikes there were parked in the 
transition area. After check-in, we went over and checked into the Coronado Springs Resort where we were staying for the weekend. Then we rushed over to Epcot in time to make it on all the best rides before closing and walk around the World Showcase getting drinks from all the countries before watching the fireworks over Lake Buena Vista when it got dark.
me from Coronado Springs over to the parking lot near Fort Wilderness where I took a bus to the race start. It was still pitch black out - see the picture. I got my transition area set up, got body marked, and started the mental preparation required for racing 70.3 miles. There was a large group of professional triathletes competing that went off in the earliest swim wave at 6:20 a.m., and I got to see them transition from swim to bike before I had to make my way down to the lake for the pink swim wave. I was pretty nervous before the start but I had certainly put in my time training so I knew that I was going to make it. The water temperature on race morning was 78 degrees making wetsuits not allowed for the swim in the beautiful tea colored lake.
comfortable with open water swimming this season. The major challenge with open water swimming compared to swimming in a lap pool where I do all of my training is the lack of a black guide line along the bottom of the pool that you can follow when you swim to keep yourself aimed in the correct direction. Essentially, beyond the fact that I am not a strong swimmer, I am a terrible open water swimmer because I just can't keep myself aimed in the right direction and waste a significant amount of time and energy propelling myself in the wrong direction. It seeemed that every time I looked up after 10 or 20 strokes, I was heading off course and had to re-direct myself essentially zig-zagging my way across the swim course in the lake. I eventually completed the 1.2 mile swim loop and made it back to the beach in 44 minutes 17 seconds (2:13 per 100m pace).
good first lap but it hurt seeing people turn left towards the finish line when I had to turn right for two more loops. The second lap was significantly slower and more brutal, and it hurt much worse seeing people head towards the finish when I had turn right for yet another loop. Thank god for the volunteers handing out Gatorade and ice cold soaking sponges during the run. Somehow I dragged myself around that 4+ mile loop one last time and got to turn left and head towards the finish line. I was so happy to make it to the finish line no matter how long it took me. I wound up covering the 13.1 miles in 2 hr 16 min 54 sec (10:28 per mile pace) and completed the 70.3 mile triathlon in 6:15:29 good for 1207 out of 1997 finishers overall and 90 out of 134 males in the 25-29 age group.
