Eustace Pioneer Day 5k

Last Saturday I ran in the 5th annual Pioneer Day 5k run in downtown Eustace. It's very close to where I live and draws out some of the area's local high school runners. I was on a hard week since I am gearing up for Ironman Buffalo Springs 70.3 right now. My goal was to break 16 minutes. I got off to a very fast start with two guys and we were taking turns taking the lead at least for the first half mile before they fell off. They stayed with me for the first half mile then fell off, I hit the first mile in 5:04 and all by myself. Tired legs were setting in by half way, I quickly ran some ugly miles after that, but held off for the overall in 16:48. Good job to Gene Myers and Josh Sypert who organize and direct the event.

I'll be making the trip out to the Ironman Buffalo Springs 70.3 in Lubbock this weekend. The top triathletes in the world are going to be there Craig Alexander the 2008 and 2009 Ironman World Champion and Chris Lieto, the top American. Joining them will be Luke Bell the course record holder and Terenzo Bozzone who has won several races already this year including Ironman Texas 70.3. This one is known as one of the hardest 70.3's in the country and it will be a hot one.

Play Tri Fest

It's been awhile since I've last posted. Don't worry though, I am still here and here to stay. I've been busy working, training, and taking naps during the day since school ended for the spring semester, but summer semesters are here and I am very busy once again.

This weekend I went to Dallas with my swimming/training partner Lance, and did the Play Tri Festival olympic distance triathlon. It was his first olympic distance and he put it on the line and did great. I am very proud of him about the way he races. We had a great host, my buddy Derek Bender, who also took the most of the photos below. The photos of his are an example of his services he wants to offer single athletes or small groups who would rather have a photographer focus on them alone out there on the course for them. That is what Derek Bender did for me. You can even see more photos of the event on his or my facebook page.

The night before the race we heard Ahmed Zaher speak at Hully and Mo's bar in downtown Dallas about his horrific bike crash in Hawaii last year when a truck's side mirror hit him and cracked 6 ribs, clavicle, and collapsed a lung then 9 months later he is competing in the Hawaii Ironman World Championships. Zaher owns Play Tri and is one of fastest triathletes in the DFW metroplex. He also dominates his age group at Ironman events. His speech of the accident even caused one guy to pass out and paramedics has to be sent to the bar. The guy was alright.

After the speech we/I was starving and ate at the Olive Garden. I loaded up on way too much salad and breadsticks and barely finished my spaghetti and meatballs. I will have to be sure not to make that mistake again. Because I paid for it.

It was an unreal humid morning. My warmup jogg had me soaked in my own sweat. You could see the smog over the downtown Dallas skyline. About the only thing I go good for me was my swim and even that is not that great. I swam the 1500m in 21:06 which is a smashing PR if it is legit, but I think the course was short. I got in the pack and got a good draft and barely sighted for most of the swim. The guy I was swimming with put some distance on me at the last turn which was a long straight shot back, but after that I kept our distance about the same, but I was working a lot harder to do it. I surprised myself when I beat Michael Dawdy out of the swim.

On the bike I could never get my legs going in a good rhythm for whatever reason, they finally started to feel decent by the end of the bike, then it was too late. The bike course had a few decent hills in it. Overall I think it was a fast course, and I did it somewhere around 58 minutes for 24 miles. But Michael Dawdy rode like a beast!!! He passed me as if I was sitting still. I tried to keep him in sight but lost him when there was confusion at a turnaround point midway.

The run was terrible for me. I think over eating at Olive Garden caused me to have some serious side cramps. These cramps where very intense. I slowed my run down to a slow trot by the first mile and was debating dropping out, but I knew Ahmed was in front of me and I never beat him before. I kept on. I worked on my breathing hoping the side cramps would go away. The run was 2 out and backs, by the time I started the second one the pain was subsiding somewhat and I was able to pick it up and caught Ahmed and held on. The overall and runner-up, Tyler Johnson and Michael Dawdy were too far ahead for to me make and I ended up 3rd OA. With a time somewhere around 2:00.36 hrs.

Special thanks to! Derek Bender for being an awesome host and photographer, Lance Vernon for getting me to Dallas and back. Most of all the good Lord for keeping us safe out there in those humid/hot conditions. Thanks to my Sponsors to include: blueseventy, that speedsuit is very fast!!!, Brandon Perry and Monavie, keeping my joints healthy!!! Brooks for the shoes! And everyone else family and friends for your support!!!

Next up this month I am doing a local 5k run, Pioneer Day 5k in Eustace, Tx, on June 19th and June 26th I am doing Buffalo Springs Ironman 70.3 again for the second year in a row. I have also added a couple of races in August so be sure to check those out.

Thanks for Reading!!!

Cheers!

William

P.S. Enjoy the pics.

Where the Old Cowboys Stadium used to be.

The physical therapist who had cold towels for us at the finish line and we met them the night before at the bar.

Me and Lance.

Me w/ Rachel and Ahmed Zaher

Starting the bike.

Derek Bender Photography

Dealing with stomach issues on the run.

Derek Bender Photography

Derek Bender Photography

Derek Bender Photography

On a mission.

Derek Bender Photography

Coming out of the swim

Derek Bender Photography

Derek Bender Photography

Derek Bender Photography

Historic McKinney Kiwanis Triathlon

This past weekend kicked off one of four triathlons for Play Tri's North Texas Tri Series.This first one was a 300 yard pool swim, 13 mile bike, and a 3.5 mile run, held at the McKinney High School. Honestly, I was fortunate by the Grace of God to be alive that weekend and make it to the start line. (Right Tracy?). I had a great host for this event. A friend from college, Tracy Bailey let me stay at his place and we went to the Grapevine Mills Mall to shop for our mothers, but ended up buying stuff for ourselves. Funny how that works out. (Sorry Mom). Long story short, we leave the mall on a busy freeway, when Tracy says, "This road sure is bumpy". He switches lanes and it get's worse. I say, "I don't think it's the road, I think you might have a flat". He merges over and we see the passenger rear tire roll past us on the drivers side. The tire pretty much came completely off.

Once we got back, Tracy cooked up this great pre race meal. Baked chicken topped with red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, placed on a bed of (non-salt) seasoned brown rice. served with a spinach salad with advocados, tomatoes, and carrots. Also with whole english green beans, corn bread and a boiled egg.

The race itself was low key, but good, and organized. It was a 300 yard pool swim with swimmers going in both directions in each lane. I was out of the water at 4:30, for the 13th fastest swim. Off to my bike next for the 13 mile bike portion, it started flat in town but ventured off on some country back roads with some rolling hills and some sharp curves thrown in. I didn't see anybody for awhile on this road and was wondering if I was lost, missed a turn or something. Finally, I came up on Pedro and then once I got close to Aaron the lead cyclist, I backed off the last 2 miles and did some soft pedaling. Even with slowing down a lot the last 2 miles I still averaged 24.4 mph on the course for the fastest bike time by 0.9mph. During the run portion my calves were cramping right away, but I ran through it until it went away, the run was quite hilly with one hill after another, especially the first 2.5 miles. We ran from the high school to downtown McKinney and back through a park and back. The course was supposedly 3.5 miles, but my Garmin 310xt measured 3.6. It was showing the mile markers as being right on with the course mile markers until the very end. Either way still finished in 20:27, my splits were something like this 5:42, 5:45, 5:34, and just under a 5:30 mi/pace the last bit, for an average of 5:40 mi/pace for the fastest run. The race benefited the McKinney Kiwanis which supports the youth and other variety of charities.

Thanks to my Lord for another good race and Tracy for being an awesome host and cooking up a delicious meal! I am excited to start another block of training tomorrow. I already have my water bottles filled and in the fridge. I won't race again until June 6th at the 2nd North Texas Tri series, the Play Tri Festival. I am doing the intermediate distance race then.

Thanks for everyone's support!

WILLIAM

Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 TEXAS

Last weekend, I raced in the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 TEXAS that I was super excited about getting to do, not knowing how the legs would respond to a half ironman this early in the season. I made the trip down with my buddy Lance on Friday since he was racing the Lonestar sprint on Saturday. Due to high winds that morning caused his swim to be canceled and they just did the 12.5 mile bike and 5k run. Lance ended up setting PRs with an average of 21.75 mph on a windy bike and tire that was going flat near the end and he also ran his 5k PR off the bike in 21;22, with only a couple of weeks ago running in the America's run 5k he went 21:44. He left it all on the race course, crossing the finish line with dead legs and bugged out eyes looking like Frankenstein. Congrats to him!!!

The conditions for the 70.3 were a lot better, but still had a lot of wind. The 1.2 mile swim was trapezoid shaped with with a cross current on bothsides and facing the current on the long stretch. Some say the swim was long and due the current most people had slow swim times. However, my swim times were right where they usually are, so hopefully I am making improvements. I positioned myself on the far outside to avoid getting run over and that seemed to workout good. I found some feet in the last 1/3 to draft off of, he was a strong kicker too which made it easy to follow. It was good because I got to rest up for the bike. Going towards T1, I got my wetsuit past my hips before the strippers, but then my timing chip came off and spent what felt like forever trying to get it back on.

I had a strong bike with challenging wind conditions heading out. It was mostly a flat right with a couple of over passes to go over and I swear the section just after the turnaround was a deceiving hill. Going out I managed a 23.22 into the wind. I caught some faster swimmers before halfway and thought man I must be having a good day. On the way back, I was expecting more of a push from the wind but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The wind shifted mostly from the north, but, still managed to go 25.89 on the way back for a total bike time of 2:17.14 for 24.48 mph (just 3 minutes behind Andy Potts split, but who's counting ;) it was good enough to be fastest age grouper bike split.

Even though, I've been getting a lot of compliments for the bike spilt, I also had a my best half-marathon run split off the bike in 1:24.31 (6:27 mi/pace). The course was a 4 loop mostly flat run course around Moody Gardens, however it does get hot with the heat radiating off the concrete and multiple 180 turnarounds and sharp turns did not help. The good thing though it was easy to keep an eye on the competition. Coming out of T2, I stayed relaxed and try to stay on goal pace, but 29 year old Weslie Anderson passed me, while I let him go initially, because I knew he was pushing, I also just tried to keep him in sight. Things started to go downhill for me around mile 5, when my legs got so tight it felt like I could barely move. I walked through part of the aid station, and Tyler Johnson from Dallas passed me. I through my cup down and went in pursuit and tried to keep him in sight as well. Then a 40 year old runner passed me and I got in on his shoulder and went with him. We ended up catching up to Weslie who got in on the run draft too. Then somehow I lost the 40 year old man and Weslie passes me and get on his shoulder and we caught Tyler with a mile and half to go. Weslie increasing the pace and slightly pulling away the last mile and beating me out of 3rd age group by 20 seconds. Looking back I wish I had sucked it up and tried to out kick him at the end. Lesson learned.

Afterwards I did a short walk and started vomiting. Thanks to Jarrod who walked me to the med tent and stayed there for an hour or so with 3 bags of IV. They wouldn't let me leave because my temperature had dropped to 93.9, they had to wait for it to come back up some. They tried wrapping me in a foil blanket and giving me heating pads. Overall, it turned out to be a great day! I got 4th in a very competitive 25-29 age group, 22nd overall including the pros, and 7th overall age grouper with a time of 4:21.00 and I got a spot for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships later this year in Clearwater, FL.

I'd like thank my sponsors Monavie (Brandon Perry). I thought a 13 mile run on all concrete would shatter my legs. I've been taking Monavie Active for the past month and went for an easy run yesterday and had no aches, just some slight muscle soreness. Also to include blueseventy for the swim apparel, Brooks I.D. program for running shoes! Big thanks to my coach Brent Poulsen for developing the plan (and it's still early season) and Colonels Bicycles in Fort Worth for getting me on a sick bike, that I refer often to as the "Spanish Beauty". I'd also like to thank my biggest supporters, my mom and dad for coming all the way out from Carthage, Texas, Lance Vernon who booked the room and drove all the way down, while I stretched out slept and rocked out. My former roommate Justin O'Keith Higgs and Rachel Siders both in the Houston area who made it out to support. A huge thanks to Adam Booth and his family for hosting a carbo loading dinner their ocean front condo, if it wasn't for the abundance of delicious pudding I probably wouldn't have done as well (Adam, Timo, Jeff, and Cody know what I'm talking about). Also the good Lord, for giving me the strength and the will to stay focused and get it way done!!! Without him I would be nothing. Congratulations to all my old friends and new friends out there, there are too many to name all, I would leave somebody out if I tried.

I am racing yet again this weekend, but I am super-excited and ready to kick-off the North Texas Tri Series with Playtri.com for the McKinney Triathlon.

Here are photos from the weekend I'd like to share! The first seven photos come from Justin O'Keith Photography, if you need some professional photography work done to enhance your portfolio, then click on his website for more info. All remaining photos come from my mom, lance, Rachel, and Anthony, or me.

None other than 2008 Olympian, 2007 Ironman 70.3 World Champion. Andy Potts first out of the water. He won Ironman 70.3 New Orleans a week ago and finished 4th at Ironman 70.3 Texas. Courtesy of Justin O' Keith Photography.

me with both feet on the ground. Ran my personal best half marathon off the bike. Courtesy of Justin O'Keith Photography.

The 2nd Overall 2009 and first American at Kona Ironman World Champs in 2009, Chris Lieto. Finished 3rd in the early season race. Courtesy of Justin O'Keith Photograhy.

Me and this guy, Wesley Anderson, battled it out for 3rd in the 25-29 age group, he ended up taking it by 20 seconds. Courtesty of Justin O'Keith Photography.

in Pain!!! Courtest of Justin O'Keith Photography

Coming out of the water, must keep going forward. Courtesy of Justin O' Keith Photography.

Amanda Stevens, 2nd overall and first American!

Samantha McGlone from Canada, 1st OA!!

Chris Lieto (3rd) and Terenzo Bozzone (1st) holding up Andy Potts who finished 4th overall, but also won Ironman 70.3 New Orleans the week before.

Top 3 males with overall winner Terenzo Bozzone from New Zealand in the middle, Chris Lieto 3rd on the left, and Tim O' Donnell 2nd on the right

Terenzo Bozzone passing Chris Lieto for good by mile 11.

Samantha McGlone on the run!

Tim O' Donnell catches Lieto and tries to run down Bozzone!

Terenzo!

Chris Lieto, of course had the fastest bike split by far 2:04!!!

Jelly fish on the shore of the Galveston beach.

Playing with the waves on he beach, post race!

with my 2 greatest supporters! Mom and Dad!

Picture with 1st place Terenzo Bozzone!

Top 4 Male Terenzo Bozzone, Tim O'Donnell, Chris Lieto, Andy Potts - solid world class field.

Lance's remarkable fall out...I mean finish ;)

Lance Hi-5's 2nd OA Female Amanda Stevens!

me on the run! from Rachel's iphone.

a shot by Anthony Limon of me on the bike at mile 45.

After a warmup swim trying to avoid getting cut on a live oyster bed that didn't workout so well.

yep, that is blood on my thumb!

view from the condo where we ate pasta.

the paramedic that rushed over to Lance's finish.

Lance enjoying getting worked over.

East Texas Triathletes team dinner!

loaded with liquor and whiskey!

T2.

Heading out for the 13.1 mile run.

DONE!

CASA-Athens 5K

Thanks to Amy Strange and Gene Meyers I got talked into doing the Casa 5k in Athens this weekend. I showed up to volunteer after running 3x1 mile repeats on 2 min. rest. (5:13, 5:15, 5:14) early in the morning. I barely got first overall on tired legs in 17:39, it was more of a progression tempo for me, my roommate Josh was in it and he was 2nd overall for the day just seconds behind me. Congrats to him. He started pushing me the last mile, we were getting faster every mile. The good thing is my coach didn't kill me for doing it. The CASA 5k supports and helps children who have been abused. The county I live in, Henderson County Texas has the highest abuse rate in the whole state. To learn more about Casa check out this link www.casaforchildren.org

After the race some buddies met up for a hilly 2 hour ride, then me and buddy, Brandon did an hour swim following that. Today was a big fuel day. I live on sports drink, energy and protein bars, and gels. Tomorrow is a "small" brick and then recover for Galveston next weekend! Good luck to all my friends racing NOLA 70.3 this weekend.

I've also been growing an awesome handlebar stash this week for Galveston, but an old roommate, Justin is going to be out there and he is an awesome photographer, so it may have to go. I can't until next weekend, I am going down there with my buddy Lance who also has an awesome handlebar.

The handlebar stash is strong and ready to go.

Josh on the left, my buddy CJ in the red, and I am behind him.

Lots of people showed up, hopefully the race will start bringing in some faster runners for next year.