For Those That Follow.....@richterkid's Journey to Kona

This is not the start of my training for Ironman Hawaii, though it may as well be.  With 4 weeks to go before I begin stepping things up to get ready for the big day, today's easy bike ride was followed up by a run in some pretty good heat and humidity that left me thinking to myself, "This is it.  This is what it's gonna feel like for the next 4 months."  And I can't wait.

As I work my way into this training block for Kona, I intend to let it all air out there for you to see.  This is gonna be an inside look into my journey to the start line.  Most of you won't care, but for the small handful that do I plan to post every trick.  No secrets will be kept, just straight up what it's taking me to get ready.  I'll post updates here of a more wordy nature, but follow me on Instagram at @richterkid to get the nitty gritty and most up-to-date scoop.  I'll likely copy the posts to Facebook and Twitter but some posts may not get spread that far. 

Also, Angie's on Instagram now too, and will be posting her side of the story from time to time.  Follow her at @arichter70.  She's taking to Insta a lot better than Facebook, so come race day this will be a better mode to follow the action if you're looking for it.

At any rate, and before this journey even gets underway, thanks to all of you for your support and for making me understand that, on occasion, this stuff actually means something.

Take Homes From Volunteering at the Raleigh 70.3 Triathlon

I got a new perspective on the world of triathlon last weekend and it was a blast.  I got to captain a volunteer aid station on the run course.  It was a lot of work but not as much as what it took to be the race director of the Fiesta Biathlon.  This was a good way to be part of the triathlon action, help a couple thousand folks in desperate need of a sip of water, an ice cube, or a shout out, and it didn't come with the post-event anxiety of what I could have done better and where things went wrong in my epic day that everybody is supposed to really care about but are so screwed up in their priorities that they're probably busy fighting cancer, educating the young, catching terrorists, or savoring something with bacon in it.

Carl Bonner rocking the Superman socks at Run Aid Station 6, Raleigh 70.3.

For those of you that haven't experienced the glory that is running through the oasis that is the Tricredible aid station of the Raleigh 70.3 run course as you crest a whopper of a hill in the squelching sun and find the riches of ice, cold water and electrolyte yucky drink, bananas, pretzels, gels, rockin' music, hot men dancing a jig, and a shady downhill, here's a video of how this goes down from the racer's perspective:

So, back to the task at hand.  As I sip a nice glass of appropriately aged Burgundy out of a Box, here are a few take home thoughts I was left with after volunteering......

Carl Bonner is wayyyyyyy ahead of his time.  Word has it that Usher hired him to choreograph a video but had to let him go because he couldn't perform the moves Carl did.  But don't take it from me, see for yourself......

No caption necessary.

Greg Bennett has a twin brother.  I know this because Greg passed our aid station in first and second place.  This is the first Greg as he approached  our aid station.  I dunno, maybe the second.  As an aside, his wife Laura is hot.  Congrats to both on their wins.

I'm sure bras have come a long way since they were invented using coconuts 12 years ago, but seriously girls......you wear these things all day long?!?!  I give women mad props for typically being the smarter gender, but men rule when it comes to practicality.  Oh yeah, and the lifeguard enjoyed my tan line at the pool today.  Damn it.

Yours truly, in the flesh so to speak.  It is my wish that this is the last image in your head when you fall asleep tonight.

I know, I know, I know.  We needed Coke and sponges.  The Ironman officials designed the course and they decided ours was not the place for those precious items.  Maybe it was in poor taste that I was drinking an ice cold Coke while you guys were all begging for fluids with your "baby giraffe legs" impressions while I sat in the ice bucket smoking a fatty.  I'll try to do better.

Seriously, though, you guys that raced and those that helped out with our aid station were awesome.  It was a privilege to share the course with all of you.  Well done, and I hope to see you again next year!

A few other pics to share as I'm too lazy tonight to write more and the Bachelorette comes on soon......

Frank Fisher comes into Run Aid Station 6 to be greeted with a blast of cold water from his daughter's Supersoaker.

 

 Dave Mirra rocking the Raleigh 70.3.  He led the race in most fakey indian 720 can-can backflips.

CC Wilkins would NEVER allow Ironman to put on an event without gracing it with his presence.  Here he is at our aid station as he nears completing EVERY Raleigh 70.3 that has ever happened.

The death march that is the hill leading up to Run Aid Station 6.

 Richter out. In this case, the Official Ironman Branded Richter Kid.  Collect all the action figures at your nearest Toys R Us.

My apologies to any friends I didn't get a shot of at the race amongst my volunteer duties.  There were a ton of you and you all rocked it out there.  Tricredibles rock!

Do's and Don'ts of the Thursday Night World Championship

With DST a week away, that means the Thursday Night World Championship is just a couple of days after!  I love this ride and the craziness that us wannabe cyclists have made it into.  I know not everyone comes to this ride looking to put everything they have into it, but for those of you that like to ride in the front or might someday want to here are some do’s and don’ts:

1.  Don’t make any attempt to socialize with anyone of different cycling skills, gender, or bike preference in the parking lot prior to the ride.  Triathletes have their area, road racers have theirs, and recreational riders have their spot.  If you’re new, there’s a shitty spot in the corner where you can stand until someone decides to respect you.

2.  Don't ride in your aerobars when you’re behind anyone in a paceline unless you want to crash into the guy in front of you and take all of us down with you (for triathletes only).

3.  Don’t attack or attempt a breakaway at any point prior to where folks turn off for the sissy short loop.  Even if you are successful, nobody will take you seriously and you will be hunted down like a dog as you have violated the rule of hammering during mandatory initial social mileage.

4.  Do let stronger riders in your slot in the paceline if you’re struggling.  It's in your best interest to let them wear themselves out in the front anyway.

5.  Do be prepared at every RIGHT turn for a sudden spike in power.  There are attacks at every right turn.  Every.  Right.  Turn.  These attacks are also mandatory, though not necessarily by the same person.

6.  Do roll through pole position even if you’re not strong enough to take a pull.  Just allow yourself to ease into the pole position and immediately roll off to the left.  Pulling off behind the leader as he pulls off is a sissy move and only disrupts the rhythm of the paceline.

7.  Do give an elbow flick to signal the guy behind you when you are ready to wuss out on your turn at the front.  If you can work a middle finger into it as well, that's a bonus.

8.  Do point out obstacles in the road for us behind you.  We’re getting tired and punchy and we need all the help we can get to stay upright.

9.  Do take the Thursday Night World Championships seriously.  It IS a World Championship and points are being tallied by somebody.  I don’t know who, but somebody. 

10.  Don’t sprint to the Greenville city sign just before Hastings Ford.  We don’t do that anymore.  It’s a miracle nobody got killed sprinting on this section of highway 264.  The last sprint is at Bradford Creek Golf Course.

11.  Do feel free to keep the pace lifted when we turn on to 264 to head back into town, but understand that this is officially the cool down point so nobody will care or feel like you just dropped us.

12.  Do talk all the smack you want.  Refer to #9 if you’re unclear as to why.

13.  Don’t declare that you need to pee and you want everyone to stop and wait for you.  That’s for winter rides and other stuff.  Stop to pee and you just get yourself dropped.  If you catch up though, much respect.

14.  Do have everything you need to fix your own flat.  We’ll probably stop with you to help and make it look like it's a respect thing, but really we're just using you as an excuse to stop because we're exhausted.

15.  Don’t cry like a little girl if you get dropped and you’re all alone and you don’t know the way back.  You should have learned the course, which is posted on EC Velo’s website.

16.  Don't be the smelly guy.  Nobody likes to ride behind you. It's very simple: your clothes should be clean when you put them on.  After that, you're free to soil them as you please.

17.  Do play head games.  Blabbing to everyone that you have a race on Saturday and you're just going to "spin" easy tonight, and then attacking at the first right hand turn with everything you have is just plain good tactics.

18.  Don't take it personal if you are the new guy in a slick racing kit and you feel like all the attacks are directed at you.  They are.  We're just giving you a chance to earn respect.

That should pretty well cover it.  See you at the TNWC!

Taechon Beach First Strokes

 So, this is where I learned how to swim.  Sort of.  I say this because I did swim in that ocean.....eventually.

When I was an idiot kid growing up in Korea, many summers were spent at Taechon Beach on the East China Sea.  Well, back in the 1980's we couldn't call it that over there.  The Koreans weren't so thrilled I guess that the Chinese got their own sea, so they called it the Yellow Sea instead.  I don't know why.  It was far from yellow, though on many occasions I did make a small contribution towards changing it that color.  Actually, back then if you bought an atlas in Korea and turned to the page that would show it, the words "East China Sea" would be marked out by hand and "Yellow Sea" written in its place.  Censorship was alive and well back then.  I even remember Sting's song "Russians" being on the banned list in Korea.  But anyway........swimming.

I'm not sure how old I was, but during the summers they'd have these swim schools for different aged kids to take.  The first one was called "Fish," and I remember very little coaching or nurturing of any sort during the sessions.  It was more like we just goofed around in the shallow water.  At some point there was some kind of graduation, in which we had to prove we could swim from one swim teacher to another.  I knew I couldn't do it.  So I did the ol' trick that everyone's tried at least once - go through the motions of swimming when you're really just grabbing the bottom with your hands and pulling yourself along as you go.  I don't know if I really fooled anyone, but they gave me the graduation badge anyway.  I think I gave up on swimming for a while after that.

Monster Island in the background.  There used to be a swim competition that would go all the way to the island.  I thought it was impossible, and I regret to this day I never ticked that challenge off of my To Do List.

It was years later, during high school, that I was back at Taechon Beach for another fun summer.  By then, I was really into running and was spending my summer staying in shape for next year's cross country season.  I think these were the early days of my endurance junkie-ness.  The cabin had this pile of sorry beach toys, among which was a styrofoam board that looked like it had been whittled by hand into something resembling the front half of a surf board.  For some reason - probably boredom - I grabbed that thing and headed out to the water.  Now, if the tide was out, it was a really long walk to get to the water's edge.  The Yellow Sea has the second largest tides in the world.  So, as I walked down the beach with my chunk of styrofoam I devised a plan to make an epic journey of it: I would use this piece of junk as a float and kick my way the whole length of the beach (the American side - which was, I'm guessing, about 1 mile long) and back.  For me, at the time, it was a pretty challenging endeavor.  I could swim, but not very well.  But I did it and it took me forever.  The reward was that the styrofoam rubbed my ribs raw, and I had two blistered and bloody spots on my stomach when I was done.  What a sense of accomplishment though!

I think back now on those days wishing I had applied myself more in the water.  Keeping up with the swimmers in a triathlon is tough enough when some of them swam all their lives.  Us folks that learned it late in life are already sucking hind tit as it is, and I can't help but be jealous of the ones that complete an Ironman swim in 57 minutes.

I don't know that there's much of a point to this post, other than I just wanted this place to have a part in my blog somehow.  I miss Taechon Beach deeply, and it was a very magical place during my childhood.  You will not find a more beautiful, family-oriented haven that also shares its sands with land mines and gun turrets.  For those of you that did the swim to the Monster, or even the swim to the reef, my hat's off to you!

A Boring Recap of 2012...As if Racing Was All That Mattered

As I sit here gagging on a glass of bourbon, attempting to regale you with the highlights of my 2012 race season, I can't help but picture you nodding off already.  I don't mind.  My exploits are petty at best.  But on the off chance that you haven't been privy to my constant attempts at sneaking in a zinger in about how awesome this race day was or how earth-shattering my time was there, allow me to catch you up.....so you can get back to teaching your son a valuable life-lesson, or plugging in that last part of the formula to solve world hunger, or making the perfect hot dog.

This will just take a sec, and then you can utter that very deep sigh and wish you had these 5 minutes of your life back.....

2012 Triathlete Highlight #1:

Hey, look at me, I PR'd my 5k and snuck one in under 18 minutes!  When you consider I can pop a zit, eat a pop tart and have sex in the same amount of time I squeezed in under the 18 minute barrier, 3 seconds is almost.......if you squint.....impressive!  It happened at the Habitat for Humanity 5K in Greenville if you wish to make a pilgrimage.

2012 Triathlete Highlight #2:

I repeated victory at the Lake Kristi Triathlon!  Truth be told, a lot of the guys I normally struggle to stay ahead of bowed out of this race for some reason or another.  Still, it was an amazing achievement to hold off the masses, and more than twice I was followed around town by paparazzi trying to get a picture of me climbing out of my car without my panties on.  At least, the expression on my face as I exited the finishing chute was exactly the kind it takes to show how fun this triathlon stuff is:

 Drool......!

2012 Triathlete Highlight #3:

I conquered my St Croix Half Ironman demons from 2007.  What the hell izzat?  I dunno, how about being the guy that Outdoor Life Network (now NBC Sports Network) pegged as a shoe-in to wuss out on a hill in front of a camera on the run course and then zoomed in as my fat ass gave up and walked up it?  Anyway, I went back this year to redeem myself......and totally sucked again.  But I ran that damn hill.

 I don't have any impressive race photos from St Croix, so instead here's me crashing the volunteer party after the race.

2012 Triathlete Highlight #4:

I won my first Half Iron distance race!  I totally figured out this distance and the key to winning one and executed my plan to perfection.  What you do is.......find a half iron in the most obscure location you can.  Make sure there are plenty of much bigger races out there that all the fast guys will go to.  Then sneak in and take home all the spoils.  In this case, a plastic molded thing that hangs around my neck.  Rags to riches baby! 

 Coming out of the swim at OBX Half Iron.  The zipper instructions were above my reading level.

2012 Triathlete Highlight #5:

And this one is the Big Kahuna.....cuz I had the breakthrough race of my life at Ironman Florida and surpassed every goal I could possibly have put on myself.  I broke 10 hours and went 9:20, PR'd every leg of the race, and came in 5th in my age group and qualified for the World Championship in Kona in 2013.  I am so thankful, so excited, and eager to get to the Big Island and enjoy this amazing experience.

I can't imagine a mo' betta' year in 2013, but I'm all in baby!  I wish all my toenails could join me next season but sadly 7 passed away during the process of the above achievements.  Cheers to everyone, and I hope you have the breakthrough season you're looking for as well.  Let's go drop some balls on things and impress the world with our Chinese fireworks!

Kona Intentions

Now that the thought of going to Kona this year has sunk in, the reality of how I’m going to approach the event is starting to take shape.  The revelation: my race day intentions aren’t anything like I figured they’d be when I first pondered the notion of getting to the World Championships.  When the idea was hatched a few years ago, I intended to dilly-dally through the 140.6 miles tip-toeing and twirling across the island to stop and smell every hibiscus and pirouetting to turn over every lava rock.  Taking it all in and enjoying the day, so to speak.

Back then, though, well, that was right about when I tackled my first Ironman (Coeur d’Alene, 2008).  And I didn’t exactly lollygag the whole race, but I did dial the competitiveness way, way down.  I had an enormous amount of respect for the distance, and my blood-brother pact with that course only involved the goal of finishing.  In fact, a couple miles into the marathon that day I remember jogging up a long hill where all the signs were that families had made for the racers, and I was reading every one of them to see if I could find the ones made for me.  There was no real grit in me at all.  A friend and competitor was coming the other way – miles ahead of me, and not at all used to that – and threw his hands out and said, “Bruce, what the hell are you doing back here?”  “Hey there, man!  Just reading the signs!”  I was goofing off.

A thought on Kona at the time was purely inconceivable to me. 

I couldn’t imagine racing that kind of distance!  Over the next 3 Ironmans though, I began to believe.  And as the idea began to take shape in my head, I favored the notion of going full-on medieval to qualify, and then showing up at Kona to rest on my laurels and soak in all the hype.

But somewhere along the way when it began to really look like I might actually have a shot at this, three things changed my mind:

1.      A friend of mine did it that way.  His first time in Kona, when the race started and everyone else went in to swarm mode and began swimming over each other, he dove down to look at the pretty little fishies.  He told me the next time he goes there he’ll race it hard.  I took that to mean that he regretted his choice from the first time around.

2.      My buddy Carl has done Kona twice.  The first time he got in through the lottery.  I didn’t want to take that route but I was curious, so I asked him how he handled someone in Kona asking him where he qualified.  His response to them was pure Carl Bonner: “I lotto’d in and I’m gonna kick your ass.”  I don’t want someone that lotto’d in to kick my ass.

3.      It’s a World Championship, and I believe it should be raced like one no matter how you get to the start line.

So, that’s the mindset I’m taking to Kona.  All the craziness I did to prepare for Florida - my strange eating habits, early nights in bed, getting super skinny, the cottage cheese fetish, another season without tailgating - all that will happen again (and maybe some new tricks).  I promise to embrace the hype of race week and soak all of that in.  But when the cannon fires, I’ll treat it like a World Championship and I’ll draw on a ton of hours of hard work to make it as epic of a race as possible.  I want there to be lots of suffering.  I’ll take in the landmarks that make this race such a storied legend, and I might even notice a sign on the side of the road or a hibiscus or two.   I’ll most certainly ham it up at the finish line for what is sure to be one of the most memorable and emotional moments of my life.  But after the fun is over with, I intend for every one of those 140.6 miles to be about how I left nothing out there but the best I could give it.  Some time later I'll figure out the details and the goals for the day, but for now......I just want to wrap my mind around how this kid will play the game.

What I Think it Took

Now that Ironman Florida is behind me and I’ve had a chance to reflect on what was such an awesome day way over and beyond any previous attempts at that distance, here are a few thoughts on what I think contributed to my “perfect” race.

1.      This was my first flat course Ironman.  I live in a flat and windy part of the country.  Why I wasted my time on hilly Ironman courses prior to this proves how much of an idiot I am at heart.  I’m much better suited to tucking into my aero position and maintaining an effort, and I was able to train really well for that here at home.  Now, I had been told that on those hilly courses, “You’ll do great in the hills because you’re a strong cyclist.”  I don’t think I quite get that.  I really am not suited for uphill cycling (though I enjoy it immensely!).

2.      My plan was to crush the bike leg of the race, no matter what the consequences were on the run.  Every prior Ironman I held back or gave up with fatigue on the bike leg, yet felt great on the run.  I told myself “not this time” and that’s how I trained.

3.      Combine 1 and 2, and I was able to nail a few sub-5 hr 112 bike sessions followed by a goal-pace run.  So, on race day it wasn’t a guess.  Those hilly Ironman races prior, I had to show up on unfamiliar terrain thinking, “I guess I can do this.  I dunno.”  At IMFL, I toed the line thinking, “Just do what you did in training.”

4.      I put a lot more time on the bike in training.  In my last Ironman, I only did four rides over 100 miles and the longest was 120 miles.  This time, I did seven and the longest was 134.  My weekly mileage increased too.  During the long rides, there was a clear plan in the form of lengthy intervals (for example, 6x40 min @ IM to HIM pace, w/ 10 min RI) or a complete time trial effort over the entire length of the ride.  None of them were just “trash miles” as perhaps I was guilty of in previous Ironman training seasons.

5.      I dipped down to uncharted territory on my weight.  I got down to 5.6% body fat.  I’ve never been there before.  My last Ironman I got down to about 7% body fat at best.  It was a gamble and it took a ton of sacrifices and perhaps a voluntary eating disorder, but as long as I felt healthy and was turning in good workouts and felt energetic it felt right.

6.      Can I give some mad props to God without turning anyone off?  At the very least, He dealt with me constantly bugging him for a second wind, for the pain to go away, etc.  Maybe He just said, “Fine, Richter.  Here’s your breakthrough Ironman.  Now leave me alone so I can solve this world hunger thing.”

7.      And, finally, I think I put together a lot of little nitty gritty things that hopefully all added up to a second here and a second there.  Those you can piece together in my race report, which occurs below.