The Journey's End.........Or is it????

I know I have said “thank you” 100 times over the past few months, but with your help I was able to achieve a personal goal, and together we helped raise over 75,000 dollars for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.

Some words to think about: “IF WHAT YOU DID YESTERDAY SEEMS BIG, YOU HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING TODAY” I’m thinking…………. Half- Ironman in May of 2008- I’ll be in touch………………………….

SOMA Quarter Ironman- Race Weekend

The weekend started Saturday with a quick warm up swim in Tempe Town Lake. This is where it is all going to happen tomorrow morning at 6:30AM sharp. My honored teammate Mike Carbajal and I did an out and back warm up of about 800 yards just trying to ease our nerves and get a little more comfortable with the lake. Then a Team in Training pre-event Pasta Party and it’s off to bed for a good nights sleep. Yeah right! Someone must have forgot to tell the Soma organizers that the night before our event was the ASU Home Coming and that the entire town of Tempe would be rock’n all night. I finally dosed off around midnight and at 3:00am I was awaken by a thundering pounding on the hotel room door, so I jumped out of bed and stormed over to see who it was, saying to myself “who the F@%* is that, don’t they know I have to get up in 1 hour?” So, I peered though the peep hole and saw 3 very large, drunk, ASU meatheads, and decided that it was time to go back to bed.
Caraline walked me over the course at 5:15AM and I entered the 70 degree water at 6:15 to get ready for the gun to sound. BANG! 300 of us are off and I let’em have, it’s like a boxing match with your eyes closed, your trying to swim but, BOOM another shot to the face, POW another kick to the chest, and now the panic starts to set in. So, I pulled up and did a little breaststroke. I’m going to let these Amazon swimmers go ahead, and I’ll have some smooth water. Nope- here comes the next wave of 300 simmers and the are gonna run me over. So after about 200 yards of doing battle and trying to get into a rhythm, I put my head down and started swinging, I mean swimming. I finished the swim in 28:41, that’s 1:19 ahead of schedule.
I came out of the water and headed for the transition area, I was ready to bike. I ripped my wetsuit off and started to get my gear on. I had a little trouble with my socks, but got through T1 in 4:03.
I mounted my bike and headed out on the course. This course has several hills and U-turns, which made for a tough ride. I would power up a hill at 6 miles an hour, make the U-turn and OH YEAH hit the downhill reaching speeds over 30 miles an hour, only to have to slam on the brakes and make a sharp turn to back up another hill. There was no real areas where I was able to enjoy the coasting rewards of a good downhill. After passing several people with flat tires and other mechanical problems (including my own teammates) I thanked God that I had not any problems. I completed the 29.2 mile bike course in 1:51:18, which was 8:42 ahead of schedule, and I now have almost a 10 minute head start on my goal of finishing under 4 hours.
I hit the transition area (T2) and slammer jammer baby, 1:46 and I’m gone, off for the 6.5 mile run.
The Run, It’s just over a 10K, 6.5 miles, no big deal, one trip around the lake with a short out and back on the north side. I had set a goal of 1:30:00 and I was going to only walk 1 minute per mile. My mind was focused and my legs were moving, the first 3 miles went really well, But then the mind games started, and this is were I started to fade. My feet were numb, sweat was dripping into my eyes, and I started complaining to myself and the runners around me. The short out and back on the north side, turned out to be ¾ of a mile out and ¾ back, and I was not happy. During the out and back I would run and then walk, and there was a young girl (race #1300) who would pass me and then I would pass her. We did this several times until one time she ran up next to me as I was walking and said “I think I’ll run next to you, beings we seem to be going the same pace” And I said great and started to run next to her. Together we set little goals, let’s run all the way to the next aid station, let’s run over the bridge. Then as we rolled into the final mile I said to her “I really want to beat the 4 hour mark” she looked at her watch and said “well, I am at 3hrs and 40 minutes right now”. Knowing, the women started about 10 minutes behind me, that only gives me 10 minutes to finish the last mile. Considering I was averaging roughly 15 minutes per mile I needed to kick it in gear. There was going to be nothing left in the tank at the finish line. If I was going to miss the mark by 1 or 2 minutes, I was going to collapse at the finish line. I put my head down and called on all the motivation I been given during the past 3 months. All the stories, the heart attack jokes, Marty wishing he had more hair, my honored teammates who had battled cancer. My mind was racing, I pulled from everywhere, but then I came out from under the bridge and headed up the hill to the final turn. This is where my daughter Chelsea was waiting for me, she had her “GO BRUCE” T-shirt on and she was pumping her fists in the air. She had waited almost 4 hours to run the chute to the finish line with me and she pulled me across in 3:59:47- GOAL ACCOPLISHED! The kiss from Caraline at the finish line was pretty nice too!

I finished 538th out of 593 in male overall, and 67 of 72 in my age group.