El Camino Real Double

     Ultraman training is now in full swing.  Just wrapped up a tough 4 day weekend that started at 5:37 am on friday morning when I hit the water at the RBAC.  10,000 yard swim workout.   Then, in the evening a little trainer session to get me ready for a big saturday--the El Camino Real Double Century ride.  http://planetultra.com/portfolio/camino-real-double-century-poker-run/

Saturday morning rolled around too early.  Left the house at 5am and got to Irvine by 5:45, checked in, strapped on as much food as I could carry and started off with the main group at 6:15am.  A little cold the first 20 miles through Irvine and down Newport Coast and up Laguna Canyon.  Then it was down to Oceanside, up to Fallbrook, back down to Oceanside and then up to Foothill Ranch, Coto de Caza and Santiago Canyon.  9000 feet of climbing and riding in dark.  I finished around 8pm, for a total ride time of 13:44 and moving time of around 12:30.  A ton of traffic lights made it even tougher, but got to ride on roads I'd never been on.  The weather was friggin' awesome.  It had to be close to 70 degrees when I finished.  Best weather I've had in ages for an event.

Probably the best part of the ride was getting to the 171.4 mile mark (Day 2 of Ultraman) in one piece and well under 12 hours.  The last rest stop was about a mile later, and the group I was in had been riding with our lights on for the past 90 minutes.  After pounding two cokes and inhaling a sandwich, and filling my bottles with coke, I took off for the last 29 miles in total darkness, save the light on my bars.  We were up at the top of Santiago Canyon near some steakhouse (could I get someone to pick me up there and drive me to my car?).  I think I was just too tired to think about riding in the dark. My good friend Brent loaned me his lights, which worked awesome.  Fortunately, the last 29 miles only had another 1000 ft climbing, hardly any cars, and a very wide bike lane almost the entire way.  You gotta love the OC.  

And the worst part of the ride (besides my aching butt) was at Mile 150 when I was 200 yards away from my in-laws' house.  Hmmmm, if I could make it up Beach road hill (at dana point), I could have them drive me to my car.  What made it tougher was we had to stop at the traffic light, so I had plenty of time for devil Barryman to pop up on one shoulder and angel Hillary to pop up on the other--you know the conversation.  Hillary won, and I motored on--oh, I could so have used a motor.

Great ride and would be fun to do with a group.  Riding solo was tough, but that's how it is in a race, but everyone out there was so helpful and when you found yourself in a small group, everyone was very friendly, pointing out the directions and hazards.    Wheelbuilder Rich asked me the next day "you aren't going to become one of those endurance old guys who does a double century every two weeks, because if you are..."  I may do one again, but that distance is checked off my list!  I did a double metric at Cool Breeze years ago--130 is not 200.

Sunday had some fun stuff, as did monday.  Today is a rest day.  Afraid to look at what the rest of this week has in store for me...

Ultraman and Smile Train - I am all in - Please Support Me.

A few years ago, while looking at Ironman online porn (triathletes know what this is, and it's not what you think), I came across an interesting race which had some unique distances and which covered three days of racing.  I then remembered seeing the Ultraman course markings while doing Ironman Canada in 2010.    The UltraMan is an invitation only race, i.e. you have to apply, and it consists of:

     Day 1 - 10km swim (6.2 miles) plus 90 mile bike
     Day 2 - 171 mile bike
     Day 3 - Double marathon 52.4 miles

Each day must be completed in under 12 hours.  There is Ultraman Canada, Ultraman UK, Ultraman Florida (new this year) and the Ultraman World Championships in Kona Hawaii.

     In early November I applied for Ultraman Canada up in Penticton Canada, the home of the original Ironman Canada which I had raced in 2010.  I decided I would wait until after Coach Hillary aka UltraMan World Champion finished Ultraman World Championships on thanksgiving weekend before I would let her in on my latest aspirations.   I didn't want to distract her with my drama.  When I finally broke the news that I applied, Hillary was totally pumped about this endeavor (I knew she would support me).    Having to wait 60 days to see if I would get in was a little strange.  Some days I wished I would get in, and some days, I rationalized that maybe it's for the best if I don't get in.  Well, last Saturday, the day before the Surf City Marathon I got the news.  I'M IN.  Holy crap.  I better get training.  I ran through the house looking for Trophy Wife Johnna like a kid who just qualified for American Idol. 

     So, why do I want to do this race?  For a variety of reasons, really.

     First, because it's there.  No way I'm ever going to Everest.  This is my Everest.  Second, my biggest challenge in ironman has been the run.  Doubling the distance, but getting a night's sleep before will be an interesting twist for me.  Will I be able to rebound?   Third, I've been wanting to do some fundraising, but I wanted something epic (for me anyway) to wrap it around.

    To make this even more interesting, I've added some complexity.  I call it my UltraMan Sandwich - Ironman Couer d'alene in June, then Ultraman Canada in August and then Ironman Arizona in November.  I am not sure how good this sandwich will taste, as I am sure that the many gallons of Infinit I will consume between now and November will not taste good after awhile.

    Way more important than the races I will be doing this year, is the charity I will be racing for--Smile Train.  Smile Train is an international children’s charity that provides free surgery to poor children suffering from cleft lip and cleft palate. Children born with cleft cannot eat or speak properly, aren't allowed to attend school, and as they get older, it's difficult if not impossible to get a job.  These children face very difficult lives of shame and isolation, pain and heartache. Some children are even abandoned or killed—all because of the way they look. Their clefts usually go untreated because they are too poor to afford the simple repair surgery that takes as little as 45 minutes and costs as little as $250. Yet with your help, we can save these children and give them the life changing surgery they both need and deserve.

   Personally, charities for children pull my heartstrings the most.  St Jude's Hospital for Children is one of my favorite charities as is Smile Train.  One of the things that caught my eye about Smile Train is how a contribution has an almost a direct impact on a child's life.   My goal is to help as many children as possible--I am hoping that family, friends and fellow athletes will support me in this cause.  Here is the link to my fundraising page -- http://support.smiletrain.org/site/TR/AthleticsEvent/General?px=3506353&pg=personal&fr_id=1350

    Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you all on the roads or in the pools at the races this year.

Barry

Train Hard, Get to the Start Line in One Piece, and Smile, Smile, Smile the Entire Way.

Run Run Run

After the Ironman Lake Tahoe/end of season recovery, we began our dive back into training.   In December we did the Santa to the Sea Half Marathon and then four weeks later the New Year's Half in downtown LA and up to Dodger Stadium.  Both good tests of my run fitness.  I liked Santa to the Sea with it's great energy, small race type feeling.  Plus it was sooooo flat.    I ran next to the Elf on the Shelf Kegel, who uncerimoniously dropped me around mile 11.    I rounded out the runfest with a the Surf City Marathon on super bowl sunday.  Beautiful day.  Was having the marathon of my life, but faded in the last 6 miles.  Although not a PR, a great race experience from beginning to end.  The trophy wife did the half mary and we met up at the finish line.

After the race we did something pretty cool.  We donated our medals to an organization that visits children cancer patients at hospitals and gives them the donated medals.  The lady who was running the booth started the effort after her son was killed by a great white shark while boogie boarding  by UC Santa Barbara about 2 years ago (I remember when this happened).  A few weeks before he was attacked, he had been visiting ill children at various local hospitals, and his mom was continuing this in his memory.  I don't know if was post race lows or just silly weepiness, but I was so choked up, I could barely walk back to the car.   I feel so lucky on so many fronts.