Today I was on the other side of the race scene, in that I assisted with the running of the first annual Grimaldo’s Mile; a one-mile open water swim from Brighton Beach to Coney Island.

The race was put on by a group called Cibbows (www.cibbows.org) – Coney Island/Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers. I am part of the group that helped the founding of the organization and participated in organizing the race.

My responsibilities for today’s race included the provisioning of electrical extension cords, chairs, tables, fluffing of the buoys and a whole lot of schlepping. I was also an assistant timekeeper, responsible for marking down any swimmers who did not complete the race.

I also managed to get Prudential Douglas Elliman and Asphalt Green to sponsor the race as well as my side enterprise www.runnyc.com.

The race went off without a hitch on a perfect day for an open water swim. 97 swimmers started the race and all but two completed it. Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn Borough President was in attendance to hand out awards, as well as a Parks Commissioner.

Next year we plan to put on more than one race. These include a swim from Staten Island to Hoffman Island, a swim from Coney Island to Breezy Point and a swim across the Narrows.

I hate when I forget things. It drives me crazy and is a complete waste of time when it requires you to double back for them.

As I’ve been getting older, I’ve discovered that two types of forgetting exist. The first kind is simply aggravating. It is of the nature of when you forget to take something with you as you run out the door. You knew you needed to take it and realize your mistake soon after you leave.

The second kind of forgetting is a bit more scary and shocking. It is when you don’t even conceive of needing the item, until you get to where you are going. This type of forgetting means you didn’t even think of taking the item when you walked out of the door. This has been happening to me more often lately.

I have started to compensate for this by leaving things right in front of the door to my house. This serves two purposes. The first is that I can’t avoid the item as I leave, the second serves as a way to trip any burglars that try to enter my home.

Sometimes this method works for me, sometimes it doesn’t. While I was in Lake Placid to do the Ironman, I had left my wetsuit on a hanger, right next to all of my transition bags. This stuff was right as I walked out the door and couldn’t be missed. That didn’t stop me from walking down to the start of the race without my wetsuit. Fortunately, I was walking down to the start with a friend who asked if I had my wetsuit with me. I was completely shocked when I realized I forgot it – I didn’t even think of taking it with me as it wasn’t even a thought in my brain.

I feel as though I’ve let my reading public down. I noticed when reviewing my sitemeter statistics, that someone arrived to my blog page after searching for Ironman USA Lake Placid elevation information.

I am usually quite diligent about posting such information, but I suppose in the days after the race, all I really wanted to do was rest and relax. So in order to make it up to future generations that may arrive at my page, I am now posting this information.

For the record, the bike portion had me climb for 6,640 feet. The run had an ascent of 1,385. The total ascent for the day was 8,080 feet.

The following chart shows the elevations graphically.

Elevations of IMLP from Bike through Run.

I found the following email chain between ST and myself in one of my folders. I felt it worth sharing with the world. I spoke to my coach about it. He said the following:

Just tell him he needs a good coach! ’06 will be even harder for him to
swallow – sort of like wasabe without the sushi. It brings tears to your
eyes, but provides no nutriment.

nlc
————————————————————————
Neil L. Cook
SLB Coaching & Training Systems
Asphalt Green Triathlon Training Institute
http://www.slb-coaching.com

——————————
Here is the email chain…

—– Original Message —–
From: “ST
To: “BEAST
Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 6:24 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Math Lesson

Uh, no. Did I write it?

No-longer-Super-Todd,

Todd

PS Charlie the Tuna is going DOWN in 06 (my new signature).

—–Original Message—–
From: BEAST
Sent: Jul 30, 2005 3:31 PM
To: ST
Subject: Fw: Math Lesson

Remember this email?

’nuff said.

Beast

—– Original Message —–
From: “ST
To: “BEAST
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 5:38 PM
Subject: Math Lesson

Actually Miss Beast, I’m 5-6 minutes faster than you in the swim and nearly 20 minutes faster in the Run. If the tables were turned you’d be renting billborads in Time’s Square to announce it to the world. I quietly assert my superiority, with class and humility.

Biking, you got me by 12 minutes. Proportionally 5 minutes in the swim is like 30 minutes in the bike and 20 minutes in the run. Assuming the bike norm is 6 hours and the run norm is 4. I win 2 events to your 1, sad yet?

Your stand alone marathon time beats mine only by 10 seconds or something…where did you do it? Out in Jersey in some flat as a pancake uncrowded course. Oooh I’m scared. My best half-marathon time: 1:25 in Prospect Park (4 loops). Yours? I win yet again. I can’t wait for Placid so that I can put all this “who’s better at IM?” to bed, forever. Please Charles eat right, take yr vitamins and try to keep your delicate girly body healthy so that I can run past you at Placid and not slow down to see how your feeling as you shuffle home. Remember: please stay healthy so Super Todd can have a tasty Beast snack in the mountains.

See you in the park.

The (Far) Superior Athlete,

ST

—–Original Message—–
From: BEAST
Sent: Apr 16, 2005 12:45 PM
To: ST
Subject: Re: Today’s Ride

S.D.T (D for Delusional) -

My god man 165 pounds!!!! That is Athena class, which is sincerely how I think you should enter yourself with your girlie running form. Biking for that matter as well.

You will never catch me on the bike. Never. It is a fact, get over it. As for the run; let me just remind you of which athlete has the faster marathon PR. That athlete would be me, posted only last year when I was not Nearly in as good of shape as I am now.

Yes, your lone IM marathon posting may have been faster than my two IM marathons. However, it is simply a matter of me getting my nutrition right. I will be working out this problem in race conditions while you tool around Prospect Park endlessly.

For now I concede you the swim. Take your extra 3-4 minutes and have fun. I will save that time in transition alone. Work up a good appetite my friend. You will need your calories to have any chance of catching me this year.

Beast

—– Original Message —–
From: “ST
To: “BEAST
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 12:09 PM
Subject: Re: Today’s Ride

Hey Beast:

I had a feeling you were in deep recovery mode so I rode on. I did 60 miles and then went over to R and A to have the creeking sound checked out. They greased up the seatpost and tightened everything, so far so good. I’m right at 172lbs, which is good for me this early in the season. Getting down to 165lbs will be a breeze in the coming weeks with these 16 (+) hour weeks, up to 20 (+) come May and June, whew! I am so going to kick your ass at IMLP, especially on the bike (swim and run I could kick your ass right now). Thank you for understanding. Tomorrow is a brick day for me. 4 hour ride, 1 hour run or 2 hour ride 2 hour run. I’ll see how the bike feels tomorrow. I’ll be out early to avoid all the yahoos, who seem to take over the park after 9:30 AM. Idiots! Letting their little children swerve into the bikes, people crossing the road without even looking and then shouting at you when you shout to warn them. Idiots!

ST

Click here to find out how many more days until ST takes another whooping!

Normally, when I think of an observation, it is a discovery I made with my eyes. Today, however, it was my nose that made a very unpleasant observation. I was sitting on the steps leading down to the subway platform at 57th Street and 6th Avenues, minding my own business and reading a book. The station was hot and steamy and the still air was stifling. This station for some reason has no benches, so I decided that I was going to sit down and risk a ticket (fine).

This proved very unfortunate for my nose. While I was sitting on the antepenultimate step, a woman with a rather large ass decided to lean against the hand rails. To be fair to the woman, describing her ass as quite large would not be doing her justice. It was enormous.

I would imagine that having such a large ass poses difficulties when it comes to wiping it. From the smell that rose up into my nose, I could tell that this was the case with this particular woman. Maybe the stall she defecated in was just too small for her to maneuver her girth and she just couldn’t wipe all the crap away. I am still struggling now to get the smell out of my olfactory sense as I ride home on the air conditioned train.

The smell reminded me of another and even more unpleasant experience I had with a lard ass back in my youth. This memory was safely buried away in the forgotten recesses of my mind until today.

It involved a neighbor who was also generous in his size. He was an electrician and a friend of the family. He was asked to come down to my house to help fix a problem we were having with a wire that delivered TV signals throughout the house. Unfortunately, the problematic wire happened to be in my bedroom.

To fix the wire, Mr. Lard Ass Electrician sat on my bed. He didn’t bother to move my pillow before he deposited his shit stinking ass on it. After he fixed the problem and departed, my pillow, the thing that I rested my head on each night, stunk like an overflowing cesspool in the heat of summer. I have no problem with people being fat, but if that is how you want to be, please do try to wipe your ass clean after you get off the bowl.

When the day arrives that I qualify for and complete my first Kona Ironman race, I think I will get myself an M-Dot tattoo. The question is would I be foolish to do so? By getting this tattoo, am I simply being sucked into the hype of being an Ironman Triathlete or is this a heart felt way of expressing what you love to do?

I have just returned from IMLP with my family. My wife found the atmosphere surrounding the race environment and the Ironman experience as completely bizarre and cult-like. I on the other hand love the experience and feel as though I am among a community of like-minded folks.

I do agree that some people take the whole thing a bit too seriously and do not take the time to enjoy themselves. Having a wife that is a turned off by the environment, did manage to put a damper on my week, but not so much so, that I didn’t appreciate being there and sign up for next year.

So, back to the original question… M-Dot permanently etched into your skin – Cool or Fool?

The worst part of racing has to be the days immediately following the race. I am continually racked with intermittent feelings of intense depression and don’t know what to do with myself to get over it. I can’t even go out for a decent run, since my legs are too tired to generate much of a pace and the subsequent exercise induced endorphin flow.

I am sure other athletes experience these feelings. After all of the noise and hoopla surrounding the race is over, you are left with a profound silence as your ordinary work day routine returns. The passion that drove you for so long has to take a temporary backseat, while you return to your daily work grind.

I so much just want to go out with my family and swim, bike, run, hike, climb and play. I wish I could make a living by simply playing with my kids and training all day. I can’t wait for Friday to arrive so I can enjoy my children and the sun without the burden of training and work.

In reply to Walter…

Walter -

You had a great race. The problems you had were small and only due to excitment and lack of experience with racing. As you get more confident with racing, you won’t make such mistakes.

During the race, I was uncomfortable and miserable for the entire time. However, I knew I was having a good day and felt I nailed it. I couldn’t have done it any better. i didn’t think I could complete it until I crossed the line with my children.

I did well for my AG, but I knew I wouldn’t qualify for Kona, so I didn’t stick around. I have no idea how close I would have come. I will be pissed if I find out I gave up a spot.

I already signed up for next year and I will probably sign up for Florida as well.

Right now, I am really struggling to battle off post race depression. I just do not want to be at work right now.

I trained today for the first time since the race. I went out for 3 miles, but I think I only ran about 2 in 25 minutes. No strength in the legs to do much of anything right now. They are not sore, just tired. Maybe I will swim tonight.

Charles
—– Original Message —–
From: walter
To: Beast
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 10:27 AM

charles, having time to reflect on this first ironman here r my thoughts. First the swim start was wild and feel confident my swim technique will improve but i was happy with the time. first transition sucked put my top on first before the bib shorts and had to then take everything off and start over. the bike was fairly straight forward. Neil said hold back and i did maybe should of gone a bit harder. neext transition was ok except the volunteer dropped my top with all my pills and nutrition and much to my dismay on mile 1 i realized i had no electrlytes with me.I was able to bum some off someone on the run, but it was few and far between. The splits on run were 2hrs and 3 min and 2hrs and 43 min.I think my wife could of run faster. Overall a fun day and i did cross the line with a smile and the thought of how much faster and better the nent one will be. How close to hawaii did u get?

While I was doing this race, I found it to be as pleasurable as dipping myself naked in honey and lying on an ant hill. I was uncomfortable and suffering for almost the entire race. I did not have that magic moment when I knew I would be able to cross the finish line. I didn’t know if I could, until I saw my kids waiting for me by the finishers shoot to cross the tape with me.

I did run a very good race. I held back on the bike through the first loop, which set me up for a strong second loop and an excellent run. For the first time in a Long Course Triathlon, my run was the strongest segment. I missed breaking 4 hours in the marathon by 4 seconds, only because I slowed down to run with my children across the line- 4 seconds very well spent. My swim was also good. I did the 2.4 miles in 1:02:54, which is over 5 minutes off my previous best. The 112M bike was in 6:01 – a bit slow, but oh well.

I pretty much knew I wasn’t going to be able to qualify for Kona on the first loop of the bike. My time was much too slow to give me the time I needed. I wasn’t riding poorly and could have gone harder. I knew if I did though, I would suffer on the second loop of the bike, and probably have a much slower run. To keep myself in check for the times when I felt the urge to push, I would sing to myself self the song “Relax, Don’t Do It” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. It worked.

Even though I knew Kona wasn’t going to be in the cards, I did have some other goals for the race – Set a PR, break 11 hours and most importantly, beat my friend Todd. Todd had given me shit for the past year that he was a better athlete and would beat me in the race. I knew if I could stick to my race plan that he had no chance of doing so. I told him I would pass him on the bike and he would never catch me on the run. This is exactly what happened. At the end of the race, 11 minutes separated us.

Todd and I had a bet on the outcome of our race. Todd will now have to wear a T-Shirt stating that I am the better athlete and that I kicked his ass in Lake Placid. I invite any ideas for colors, wording, etc.

Here are the records for my 3 completed Ironman’s.

2004 IMLP – 11:28:01, 460 Overall, 109/344 for the Age Group (M35-39)
2005 IMAZ – 11:21:20, 278 Overall, 66/348 for the Age Group (M35-39)
2005 IMLP – 11:11:25, 251 Overall, 51/382 for the Age Group (M40-44)

I am going to sign up for the 2006 IMLP. I am sitting at a restaurant as I type this, furious hitting the refresh key on Active.com for the registration to come up. My parents came with me this year and the entire family had a very good time. Next year will be the year I qualify.

I don’t know if it has any significance, but my race number for Ironman Lake Placid is the same number I had for Ironman Arizona – 992. I tried to find a numerology website to see if the number has a special meaning, but I wasn’t able to find a site where I can just submit that number and get results.

All I have left to do is make my fuel bottles and go to sleep. No time like the present to get that done.

992