I am Broke

I know that when you read the following story you are going to think that this guy is an idiot...but this is how it went down. I was talking to a friend about the tale and he made a comment on how when someone is hurt and they focus on one thing and dont want help from "strangers" because they are hurt and lack trust. I normally would think could be true but thats exactly what happened to me. Whats kinda of funny is I had a cell phone in my pocket the whole time and never considered using it for help. I had one mission on my mind and that was to get home. Home=Safe

The Story

So I was biking home in a not so safe area of austin late at night, around midnight. Then all I remember is being really confused and resting against a wall. My arm hurts like hell and there is a lot of blood on my face. I get up and grab my bike, which is broken. I have no recolection of what happened and my bike is broken. I walk with the bike a ways just kinda walking down some train tracks towards home. I am not sure how far the walk was (anywhere from 2-4 miles) because I kept passing out, going into shock, then waking up and trucking along. Determined to make it home. I eventually ditch the bike, it wasnt rolling very well and I couldnt use one arm, and continue to walk home. I finally reach home at around 5:30am. I wash my face off (still dripping blood) and lay down on my bed. I wake up in a pool of sweat at around 8:00am and look in the mirror. Not a pretty sight looking back at me. I grab a phone and call a friend to take me to the ER. I get to the ER and am saved. On a dside not the people at Seaton Hospital and Brakenridge ER are very nice people. I had surgery on friday to fix my broken clavicle. They put a metal plate and screws in my clavicle and lined her up nicely. Called an open reduction and internal fixation. I probably have a few cracks in my facial bones too, but oh well. I got some stitches in my head. Anyways thats the short of it. What a night...wish I had medical insurance. :)

LESSON LEARNED. Sorry it had to be the hard way.

Special thanks to Rita, Mom, and Dad for taking care of me, the idiot son.

Kona: Race Day

Here is a video of the swim start. Total chaotic fun.

Grant and I got up around 4am to have breakfast and prepare for race day. Even from a spectator's view one can just feel the excitement in the air as all the athletes get ready for the cannon to fire. I have raced an ironman before, but Kona has a different feel. Perhaps its the international athletes, the celebrity status pros, or the rythmic beating of drums in the background that make this race so different. It was an amazing sight.

Grant was all smiles before the race.

Norman Stadler. This was about mile 6 on the run. He was doing well and in the lead....in the end it didnt work out for him. Next year Norman!

Here is Faris rocking the speedo.

Chrissie was all smiles after totally dominating. She got a flat and still was first off the bike. I see a lot wins in her future.

Grant was not all smiles during the run. He had an overall fun time at the race, but hit some problems at the run. I will let you read his blog of the race to get the nitty gritty. You are my hero Grant for sticking to it.

The finish was a much better feeling than the run. Congrats Grant!

Kona: Pre-Race

I handed out some of the Austin Tri-Cyclist limited edition cervelo shirts out at bike check in. Here is Fletch, a Cervelo rep, sporting one. Cervelo had a good day with 415 bikes in the Triathlete Magazine bike count. I ran out of shirts in about 45 minutes. Apparently a lot of people dig Cervelo and free shirts.

I then went to hang out with super cool wetsuit guru, Glynn Turquand, from Xterra. Here is a photo of the new Xterra speedsuit....coming soon. Lindsey Corbin is the model in the photo (she got 5th on saturday). I will also mention that Xterra speedsuits were on the top of their game.

For the second year in a row, the XTERRA WETSUITS – Velocity Speedsuit posted the fastest swim time of the day at the Ironman World Championships. In 2007, Mark Van Akkeren posted the fastest swim split with a time of 49:50. This year, Noa Sakamoto posted the fastest swim split with a time of 47:01 wearing a new version of the XTERRA WETSUITS- Velocity Speedsuit. John Flanagan, (also wearing a XTERRA WETSUITS- Velocity Speedsuit) was only 1 second behind Noa posting a time of 47:02. The XTERRA WETSUITS- Velocity Speedsuit was victorious by more than one minute and 30 seconds faster than the next swimmer Andy Potts.

I just thought this was a funny sign. There is no way that guy is going to outrun that wave.....I hope he is wearing an Xterra Speedsuit.

Kona: First Couple of Days

So for the past week I have been on a "business trip" to Kona to watch the Ironman World Championships. Needless to say the race was AWESOME.

The first thing I did was unpack the bike and go for a ride. The main roads in Hawaii are smooth as glass. I took some back roads up in the hills and saw the numerous coffee farms. I bet there is a coffee house every 800m in Kona. The roads are steep when you are going inland. Nothing like riding 10-15% grades for a couple of miles to make your heart jump out of your throat.

A nice short ride I did one afternoon: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/hi/kona/931345118895

ARGON 18 E-114

Next on my list was to check out the bikes!!! FUN! FUN! FUN! First was the Argon 18 E-114.

I went into this one not sure what to expect. I have heard it was heavy and havent seen a lot them on the roads. Anyways the guys at Argon 18 set me up and off I went down the Queen K.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this bike. I would definately look into getting one. It rode smooth as silk, accelerated quickly, and handled great. What more can you want in a bike?

I have heard that the weight of the bike is a bit on the heavy side. I didnt feel it. I think the bike has a stiffer rear end than most other companies ( I include cervelo) and this extra stiffness makes up for that. I think that if you are the gear masher type then this is the bike for you!

Fuji D-6

Next on my list was the new Fuji D-6. I was able to sneak in a ride before Matt Reed so technically I rode a D-6 before he did. HA! The Fuji had a lot of similiar ride qualities as the Cervelo P3. Since its a new bike I won't go into aerodynamics, but keep on ride quality. It was nimble and quick. I wasnt able to get my fit perfect since i had to ride a 56cm opposed to a preferred 54cm. Overall though I think Fuji is on to something and am interested to hear from the public once these are on the sales floor in Febuary. The "hidden" rear brake was interesting enough and the cable routing for the hidden front was well thought out. I heard another company commenting on how they were going to mimic Fuji's front brake cable routing on future bikes. I will go into this on a different post so check it out there.

Cervelo P4

This bike was the one everyone wanted to test ride. I kept this one for last. I will admit that secretly I went into this ride very skeptical of just how good and different it would be from a P3. I felt it was probably going to be a glorified P3. I was WRONG. The P4 is way better than the P3. Within about 30 seconds I could tell this bike was the SH!T. Its hard to pinpoint what it is that makes this bike so much better. It felt more lively, accelerated quicker, and overall just felt faster! I told Phil White that whatever number he had in mind for the first production run is going to be too small. Once people are ablt to get on one they are going to understand why Cervelo is the number 1 bike at Kona.

More details to come...

Longhorn 70.3

There has been a lot of buzz about the Longhorn 70.3. Tim Deboom, Bjorn Andersen, Simon Lessing, and others will be toeing the line for a no doubt brutal course. Bjorn is supposed to come by and do our saturday ride, so if you are in town for the race come by and say hi.

It will be interesting to see if it is wetsuit legal or not, I doubt it will be. We have had a fair number of people coming looking for swim skins hoping to knock off a few minutes from the swim time. The bike course this year is "easier" than previous years but still going to be a beotch. The new Giro Advantage is now out, so thats another couple of minutes. The comes the hot, no shade run...this where the race will likely be won. Speed laces...20 seconds. So far in my virtual racing I have shaved off 6 minutes 20 seconds and won the race.

I wont be able to go watch because I am flying out to Kona that morning...oh well. The Kona blog is coming up...so stay tuned.