Kill Kuato

Coeur d’Alene June 22 2008

A Very awsome experience.

I was dumbfounded at the swim. My friend Brian Travis was doing it with his whole family. A family of triathlon freaks. His father had turned 60 this day and was doing his twenty something IronMan. The swimming event was the best. An insane amount of people started, like 2300, jumping into the blender together. Brian had got hit in the eye, someone hit his ear and broke his ear drum, he was nauseous and dizzy the whole swim. They cut the swim off at 2 hrs 20 minutes. If you cannot finish it, you nicely get the axe from the race judges when you exit the water. We were witness to about 4 people that got cut out of the race because of that. There is also a bike cutoff time and a run cutoff time. Brian’s mother Carol came in about 1130 pm. 58 years old.

Total the swim is 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and a marathon=26 mile run.

IronMan is my ultimate goal of 2010. I will register next year 2009 this time. 500 dolores 8(. But well worth it considering the last end of the gantlet run when you pass spectators cheering you on and some guy on a mic yells YOU ARE AN IRONMAN. They cut the race off at 12 midnight due to safety reasons. The last person is was a 60 something male with a gut. He made it in about 11:59, with the whole crowd singing and dancing the Y M C A song.. We cheered him in. Ten minutes before, some delirious 40 something guy was running in, dizzy smiling slapping fans hands then 10 yards before the finish line, BAM fell on his chest and bounced off the ground like a fish. He stumbled onto his feet and crossed the line; every one cheering him on. He was smiling.

This is the swim.

A total BLENDER.

I found a pic on the site, this is what you would look like if you crossed.

More pix of the event here on flickr. Check out the ending shots with parents crossing over into heaven with their kids and family at their sides.

Here is the a partial video of the start of the swim. The gun went off pretty fast, and I did not get the very start.

Also, I ended up splurging some cash out for a top of the line suit. A 2xU suit, Their homepage is here.

Brian with his mother, father, and brother did the Ironman together. A family Affair!
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Me in my new Batman at sea suit. Peter, a young and upcoming triathlete like me and the stepson of my friend Brian were trying out our suits in the cold water of lake Coeur d'Alene.

Did another Duathlon today. The Moses Lake Spring festival. I used my green machine bike I built, and FLEW!
I actually felt ok during the 2nd run too! The bike was actually better than my first duathlon. I had to do that on my mountain bike, and it was an 18 mile bike, not a short 12 like todays.

I have been working out between alternating biking and running up a canyon hill behind my home. It has really built up my resiliency, and made the whole physical and mental aspects of the duathlon, EASIER!, Fotos soon..

Afterwards I went Carp Bow fishing with my dad around Marsh Island. Bowfishing has been a family past time for the last 25 years. Separate post soon.
Here are some images of the event. My father had the opportunity to use his photography skills with the D100.

Before the race. There were not a lot of Duathloners. More fun run types.

Well, an eight month project has come to an end. My friend Brian gave me and old mid 90 specialized road bike frame. I decided to Frankenstein it and build it up with mid level components off of ebay. I ended up getting it powder coated granny smith green. I am planning to ugrade to some durace downtube shifters and a shortcage derailleur on the back so the components work smoothly. I will buy a new bike in 2 yrs but this will due for now. And I will be faster than the yellow clunker of a mtn bike I used for my duathlon and sprint triathlon last year.

Pues si, aqui mi Frankenstein bici, asi lo voy a usar hasta compro un nuevo en 2 anyos.

Pues si, aqui mi Frankenstein bici, asi lo voy a usar hasta compro un nuevo en 2 años.

Today at the Marathon, during the Half, I saw a 70 something running way behind. He appeared to limp run on one side. He looked like he had some minor hemiparesis. Point is. He was doing it because he could. Being at these events and seeing amateurs compete makes one thing, hell WTF am I complaining for.

I’ve been trying to encourage some people to do beginner triathlons and mini runs. I’m getting pretty tired when I hear people tell me, “Oh I’m too old, my stomach hurts”. etc. Now if my friends told me, “Well man, I weigh 600 pounds”-then I might cut them some slack. The guy below in the vid sure won’t.

Quite the inspiration here.Hoy en el medio maratón que corría yo, había uno de sesenta algo señor que tenia algo de hemiparesis. O sea. el lo corría en el medio maratón porque podía. De estar en tales eventos notando que los secos, los medios secos, rellenos, ya hasta los muy rellenon se va competiéndose.

He estado tratando de animar mis amigos de hacer triatalons y me dicen cosas como, “ay no puedo, me duele la panza, soy viejo” etc.
Pues si, si me dijeron que pesaban 600 libras, entonces los entendería, pero el chamaco abajo en el vídeo no.

Que inspiración aquí.

Woke up at 7am for the Wenatchee Half Marathon today. The gun goes off at 8, so I peel out of bed and seen it snowing. Visions of slipping down a hill and compound ankle fracture bone sticking out with drops of snow melting upon its hot surface. Arrival to race start area around 745. Light snow, yet only wet streets. I headed to the back of the line, not wanting to get ran over. There were about 100 people. I started following this hippie looking dude that looked that looked straight out of a Grizzly Adams Nike advertisement.

On Grizz's ass near the end.

I ended up sprinting past him about 100 yards from the finish.

Off we went down Wenatchee Avenue. We even ran red lights. We turned right at about 1 mile to head onto the loop. My pace was semi slow steady. I felt alright. @ Mile 3 the group was thinning out and I was behind with about 10 others. One was a 40 someting guy I semi know from the UK. He had a thick sweater on. There were three sets of 2 girls running together. I tried to keep up with them. I held sturdy yet strong behind the UK and a set of girls I called Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Kinda fancy girl runners with their little baseball running caps, running tights and pony tails bouncin.

We crossed the south Wenatchee bridge and hit the 5 mile marker. I unzipped my wind breaker a bit. Sweaty. I felt ok. I felt stronger on some of the small hills and past some peeps, yet UK and Tweedle Dee/Dum were still ahead. I passed my IronMan friend Brian at about Mile 5.5, he was about 1.5 miles ahead of me. I half shouted to him that I felt like my perriwinkle had novacaine in it. I couldn’t feel anything due to the cold. Tingly. The turn around was mile seven. Full Marathoners cruised passed me and shot on through the “GU” water area.

At mile 8 I heard steps upon my head (that’s what it sounds like with one ear) possibly coming up behind me. A guy was running off the pavement in the gravel and the sound was driving me nuts.

sham sham sham sham. Across the bridge @ mile 10 I decided to check my watch. 1:10 WOOT! I was cruising!

Thinking back to the beginning, there was this symbiotic couple with there friends making it all look easy too, they would take breaks, cracking jokes and talk about the latest Dr. Phill episode. I barely passed them at the end when the dude was tying his shoe, yet they took breaks along the way and passed me like five times. I don’t think I was enjoying it as much as they were. Their cackles were annoying to my one ear.

Couple goofin' round'

I decided to push it a little more to catch Tweeddee n dum. All of a sudden I saw my chance to pass UK! I saw him hopping through the sagebrush towards a stack of apple crates. Yes! Saved by the bladder!@

Tweeddee dum though were still ahead, with a steady cheerleader squad pace. We crossed back over the bridge. Sham sham sham sham still in my head, “DAMN Dude, pass me already”, I was thinking.

Tweedle Dee and Dum trotting along making it look easy

He zoomed past me on my right. Gravel crunching. I didn’t bother to look back for UK, hoping he didn’t have to use sagebrush for number 2. At mile 11 or so, I decided to push upon Tweeddee dum. They were trotting hard and it was pissing me off. A sudden vision of Disney movie WE ARE SIAMESE IF YOU PLEASE, cats strutting around all snobby like. I decided to check my watch, 1:10 WOOT! WTF! My watch had stopped working somewhere back probably at mile 5 8(

@ Mile 12 I felt someone behind me, a skinny guy w/ tattoos on the calves, passed me. He even passed Tweeddee dum. After mile 11 I decided to stretch out my stride to catch Tweeddee dum, but at mile 12 I had lost them; only a blurry vision in the distance of two baseball caps with bouncing pony tails. I stretched it out at the end-semi nausea setting in. Strong finish at the end. Time. 2:07.53 -was kinda dizzy.

About 200 yards to the finish!

Photos: John Brunk