Running of the Bulls, I'm a shitty husband

Hi, I'm Greg, I run and stuff. Melissa and I competed in another 5k. Kelley, Kaden, and my Mom ran the 1 mile fun run. We had a lot of fun. I managed to break 30 min, I ran a 28:41, which is about a 9:15 pace. I was happy with that. Melissa ran slower. Kelley did great on the fun run, now that her arthritis is better thanks to the meds she is able to run farther and farther every time she runs. I think she was surprised at how far she was able to run. She smoked the fun run. Kaden did well too. He did more walking than running, but that was okay because his old dad was pretty tired. All in all we had a great time.

Kaden and I on the fun run

Melissa finishing the 5k

Super Kaden

New Shoes

Gaga

The Huntsville Sprint Triathlon, Greg gets his swim back

My last triathlon didn't go so well, at least the swim portion didn't. But one week later I had the chance to redeem myself, sort of. This swim would be in a pool. I do that at least twice a week so I was pretty sure that it would go okay. This triathlon is designed for those of us who are new to the sport, its a 400 m swim (in a pool), 7 mile bike, and a 3 mile run. It's still not easy, especially if you approach it like my friend Steven tells me, "IT'S A RACE!".

I signed up in the clydesdale class, which is for those of us men who are over 200 lbs. I have to admit that I ate poorly the last couple of weeks prior to the race so that I stayed just over 200lbs. I could've dropped below it, but my wife's pot roast made sure I didn't. Now I just have to break that habit...


So first was the swim. Let me explain that race numbers were assigned based upon your ESTIMATED swim time. Some people REALLY REALLY suck at estimating! I passed 10-12 people on the swim, and got held up for over a minute trying to get past a gaggle of people that were blocking the swim lane. I think I grabbed someones butt and kicked someone in the face. Sorry about that. Look, estimating may not be easy, but I assume you would've tried to swim 400 meters in a pool prior to the race, timing yourself in practice is a useful activity. This was especially bad when I overheard someone over 100 numbers AHEAD of me saying that they had no idea how fast they could swim 400 meters. By the looks of it, 3 days.

The Pool

Here I go

Hi Gayle, (my swim coach)

Hey guy with your head up, you estimated wrong

Making the turn

Kaden supporting his daddy

Making a pass

Get out of my way

Coming to the finish

Done

Damn Im sexy

Heading to transition

The transition area

So my swim was okay. It was a little slower than I would have liked due to the people in front of me, but it was something I can live with. After the previous week's swim I was in much better spirits. Time for some bike action. It was only 7 miles, but it was wet, and I met an old foe. The swim people who were well ahead of me in line, but not in ability, were creating a log jam in the bike lane. That kinda sucked. Eventually I got around them and didn't even wreck!

Kaden waiting for Daddy

Here I come

Sexay

Approaching the dismount line

What an Ass!

After the bike, it was time for 2 1.5 mile loops for a total of 3 miles. It's amazing the thoughts that go through your head when you start pushing your body like this, mostly it's things like "QUIT YOU BISCUIT!". But I persevered and kept one foot in front of the other for 3 miles and finished. I finished 135th out of about 600 people. Not too shabby.

Loop 1

Hitting it like a biscuit

Only 1 foot on the ground Steven!

Chick is trying to drop me, oh HELL no

Smokin Bitches

Rock it

Afterwards I had the pleasure of doing something that usually happens the other way. Steven was running with his son Caden, and I had the chance to cheer them on as they finished. Steven is the one who got me into a lot of this, and he is A LOT faster than I am in all phases of this shit. So it was nice to get to cheer him on for once. One day I will do this because I smoked his ass like a sorry ass piece of pork on a big green egg. That day is coming motherf****er.

Running it like they own it

Caden running 3 miles after biking 7 miles, at 8 years old. Eat that fatties

Setting the example

Walking with my #1 fan

On to the next adventure. Whatever it may be, the Howards will work it like a cheap $5 whore on Governors!

Mountain Lakes Triathlon

Dear God what have I done. This whole fitness thing is great and all, but just where is this taking me? There is a limit after all, and I may have found it.

Okay, so maybe that's over-dramatic. I did almost drown 5 times. The swim was WAY harder than I expected. But, overall, this was a fun event. It was harder than I expected, largely due to the shitty swim conditions and my panic attacks. But, I survived. I'm number 294, that number was assigned based on my estimated swim time. WOW, did I totally miss that whole estimate!

Tattooing up

Ignore the stupid face, concentrate on the rad bod

Damn Im skinny

Getting the bike off the Benz

Steven and I are going somewhere?

Look, no pretenses, I totally fucked the swim up. I had a series of panic attacks swimming in the ass water that is Guntersville lake that I stopped at 5 different kayaks to rest and try to regain my breath. It was incredibly embarassing, but this shit is hard. If you dont think so, or you want to snicker at my attempt, fucking try it first. It's dark and deep, you can't see anything, people are punching and kicking you in the face and you can't fucking breathe. You start to panic because you have a fear of drowning because you are a smart human. Next, your breathing accelerates because of the massive amount of adrenaline that is injected in your system by the fear in your heart. You try to contain it, but you can't. You can't freaking breathe and your body is getting tired. You have 2 choices, rest on a kayak or die. I chose to rest on the kayak. Perhaps you should also realize that drowning is one of my greatest fears. I've jumped out of more than one airplane and that fear was nothing compared to what I felt getting into the water this morning. Laugh all you want, I didn't see you out there.

Practice swim, didn't go well

Im sexy in blue

Heading out to face my fears and almost die

Triathlon swim!

Im here somewhere

So the swim sucked for me. But I have to put that behind me. I conquered my fear. I didn't quit, I came damn close, but I persevered. Sometimes it's not how fast you do something, or who you beat. Sometimes beating your fears and conquering the demons that present themselves in your minds is the hardest battle of all. I faced that. Some of you might understand that, some of you might not. For those of you who don't, let me take you to the grassy waters of Lake Guntersville and let you swim 600 yards in one try. Then tell me how you feel.

After the swim came the bike. It was 16.2 miles of rolling hills. Unfortunately for me, I had used A LOT of energy in the swim, especially in my legs. But I tried to hit my goal. Initially I thought I was doing well, I was averaging 20 miles an hour, then I realized I was going downhill. DAMNIT!

The bike went pretty well. I averaged almost 18 miles an hour, which was good since my legs felt like total ass by mile 8. The swim really cooked my legs more than I had planned. But I pushed on. Meanwhile, Kelley and the kids waited.....

Daddy is so slow on the bike that the kids went to sleep

After 16.2 miles of biking, I then had to run 2.97 miles. At first my legs felt like total goo. I had injested too much energy supplements and felt like throwing up. When I started my run I thought my legs where going to give out on me. But I struggled through it and kept on running. I ran a slow 11 min a mile pace, but I kept on running. My finish wasn't what I had hoped, but I finished. In the face of my fears and a disappointing performance I still kept pushing myself to do the best that I could. I don't know what else anyone could ask of me.

Coming to the finish

Give me water

Taking off my timing chip

Heading off into the sunset

 Overall it was a great race. I learned a lot that will help me in my future races. Yes, that's right, I'm gonna do this again. I don't back down from challenges, and today showed me how far I have to go. But that's alright, because we all need goals to keep us motivated. This is what life is all about, finding out where you fall short and working to make up the difference. I won't win my next race, but I will do better!