another 70.3 more journey

it was a weird and fun race to remember.
the day started at around 4am for me. i woke up as my alarm went off. took a quick shower and prepare the coffee, then i grab all my stuffs before i had breakfast. i head out around 5am to the jean klock park. park the car by the railroad and the water tower of st. joseph and had to take the shuttle to the race site. as i got to the transition area, i looked around for people that i know and found no one, so i went ahead to my bike area and set up my transition. it's always a good thing to get to the transition area early, as it allowed me to arrange all my stuffs in a way that i wanted to.
after i was done with all that, i go around the transition area to find people that i know and i found j and dan. talked to them for a little bit then re-check my transition area and head out to the swim course. as i walked along the shore about 3/4 of the way, i started seeing people turn around heading back to the transition area. then, one person said the swim is cancelled; as i found out after the race that the tv news was saying the waves is about 5ft. and so i thought, 'oh well.....' so i head back to the transition area as i knew i need to get ready for a short run, since now it will be a duathlon, instead of a triathlon; in which i don't really like....
after getting ready for the first run leg of the race, i thought to myself, well, i guess it won't be a 70.3 race then, it be come a 71.2 race.
the first run leg started the same way as the swim leg, as all the athletes go by waves. and i was in wave 13. as i waited for my wave, i saw a couple of other athlete went pass me and 2 of them were the pros, which are chris legh and gina kehr. looks pretty cool and nice. when it came to my turn, i started to run pretty easy, not too fast, but not too slow. so i thought to myself, 'well....this isn't so bad.' until about half way to the run, i felt like, 'man.....i need to go to the bathroom for number 1.' so, as i got to transition, i went straight to the bathroom, then quickly looked at my watch. it showed about 17mins, so i thought, 'hm...that wasn't so bad.'
so, i got to my bike and started to walk to the bike start line.
on the bike, i felt ok in the beginning. as i pedal thru the fist half of the bike leg along the M63 highway, i thought to myself, 'man....this area have a lot of berries farm. almost every side of the streets, there are signs of fresh berries all over the place.' i passed thru the first aid station as i was still fueling with the stuffs that i had on me. i sipped some powerbar drinks and about half way i took some powerbar fruit smoothie bar ('hm.....my favorite bike food'). as i get to the next aid station, i threw away my empty fuelbelt bottle (as i planned to) and took in the gatorade endurance from a girl (thanx) in the aid station. i continued on pedaling along the course. along the way, i saw a couple of road signs as i was trying to find out where i was. i knew i was in the south haven area, since i saw an ambulance on the side of the road with a sign said, 'south haven area ambulance'. then i got to a town called bangor. and then, finally i realized i was heading back to the park as i noticed the area was started to be familiar again. at the last aid station, i yelled for some water and took some water from another girl (thanx). i pour the water all over my body, head and mouth to just keep me not dried. as i got closer to the park, this one car just pulled in front of me and weaving around in front of my way. and suddenly the car stopped right in front of me, so i yelled and i think i yelled pretty loud because one of the officials on the road was pointing at me and said to me to relax. so i was able to go around the car and kept going to get back to the transition area. as i got to transition, i looked at my watch again and it showed 2:41, so i said to myself, 'oh wow.....that was great......'
so i got to transition, chance my bike shoes to the run shoes again and this time i don't need to go to the bathroom.
as i ran out of the transition area, i saw j on the side of the road with street clothes and i thought, 'oh my goodness.....u hv got to be kidding me that he's already done with the race.' it turned out he said he had a bike problem, so he didn't finish the race, so i said to him, at least u'r ok and we'll talk later. and, i continue with my run. in the beginning, i felt good. i felt exactly the opposite as i felt in gulf coast on the last run leg, so i said to myself, all rite, let's get to this. as i got to the first turn, i saw a familiar place. and i said, 'wait...wasn't i here yesterday and yes i was right it was a burger place called north shore inn. i visited the area with the family that i stayed in. so i continue on running. until about mile 5, then suddenly i felt something that i had never felt in a race. i was hungry, i was actually quite hungry in the middle of the run. i cannot believe it either. i knew i have 3 powerbar gel on my pocket, so i reached for those and took 2 of them. and a girl just running on my side suddenly said, 'hm....lunch.....' so i said, 'yep...and that was nice....' and i offer to her the other gel and she took it. after a short talk, i leave her enjoying the gel and trying to get to the another aid station as i realized those 2 gels that i took would not be enough for me. as i got the aid station, i took pretty much everything that they offer. i took a banana, a powerbar, 2 powerbar gel, water, ice, gatorade and more water. and i almost ate 'em all, but i didn't. i left the gels and half of the bar in my pockets. but u know the weird thing about that feeling was? as hungry as i was, i knew i was able to finish the race. so, i continued with my run and i felt great. as i kept on running, this one guy behind me was saying, 'hm....i think i know this guy...' as i heard the voice, i knew that was bill and i knew he was on his 2nd lap, so we talked briefly and kept running. as i got to the mile 6 aid station along the M63 highway, i took some gatorade and water. as i was drinking, one of the ladies in the aid station said, 'u know what.....? we are in the triathlon wet t-shirt contest....' so, i burst into laugh and spit all the stuffs that i just put in my mouth on the road.....and i said to her, '.....that was definitely a good one...' as i kept on running for the 2nd lap, i thought to myself of the targets, goals, and things that i wanted to do during the race. and, i realized i was doing it. then i got to the same aid station again that made me laugh, and i said to them, '...this is the best aid station i've ever been to, because this is the only aid station that can make me laugh...' so, i thanked them and hopefully i made their day and put some smiles on them. as i got closer to the finish line, i started to sprint my run. i will always do a sprint finish in my race. as i got to the finish line, i let out a big sigh of relieving breath and everybody that saw me was laughing.....
and as i looked down on my watch, it showed 5:26:44. so, i pumped up a fist and said, 'yes....nice....' as it turned out the actual race result record the time of 5:26:51 for me. still, i am so glad and very happy with the result.
thank God for the race, for letting me finish this journey. thank God for putting me in the position to meet the aagenas family (charlotte, al, marc, brenda, jason, robin, charlotte, kirsten, etc), as the family that took me in their lovely place in st. joseph, michigan. thank God for my coaches and teammates for always encouraging me in whatever it is i'm doing on and off training. thank God for my family and friends that encourage me thru prayer, wishes, text messages, etc. and a special thank God for that special someone that encourage me thru the message that u sent that said, '...be confidence that u can finish the race...' at race morning as it actually pushed me to finish the race. thank u all, i love u all and God bless u all......

trip up north

taking a trip to an out of state race is always interesting. u go thru places that u never been to. especially if u go by car, u'll pass areas, places and points that u never thought existed. i left for the st. joseph on wednesday evening around 7pm. i followed one of co-workers (adopted family members) to the race area as she was from the area and they're going up there to visit the parent. along the road, the area was pretty ok. not much to see except for the green farm field. we stopped by at middlebury, indiana to picked up my friend's motorhome. as we went along the area, i realized the area is filled with so many motorhome, so i thought, 'are people in this area lived in motor home, or what.' as it turned out the area is one of the biggest motor home builder in the country. that was interesting, especially since i saw 1 motorhome with a chandelier inside, so i thought, 'wow....that was definitely something...'
we got the place that we'd be staying around 1am, or maybe it was almost 2am, oh well...didn't really matter anyways. the place is actually my co-worker's mother-in-law's house. it was quite a big house, not huge, but yet it looked really nice and shaded. as i got inside, my place to sleep was assigned in the basement. so, i went down and went straight to sleep, although i wanted to take a shower first, but oh well.....it was 2am and everybody was sleeping, so forget about it....
i woke up around 8 in the morning to meet the owner of the house and the rest of the gang that is staying in it. i met grandma charlotte, grandpa al (sir), jason and baby charlotte. talk to them briefly and went straight to the shower as it was the first that i'm dying to do since last nite. after shower, i started to plan for my day. thinking about what i'm going to eat, what i'm going to do, places that i wanted to visit, etc. as i get to the kitchen to look around for breakfast, grandma charlotte had already took out her breakfast stuffs, from bagel, banana, bread, coffee, cream to honey and peanut butter. to my surprise, those are the things that i was thinking earlier to get at the store. it turns out they have it all.
those actually put me in the position where i realized i missed those times. i guess i never really got a chance to spend a lot of times with my actual grandparents. it was brief and now i realized how those times were the times to be treasured and thankful. i guess a lot of people said that u can get anything in grandparents' house is actually right. thank GOD for them.
after breakfast, the people in the house started asking me what i wanted to do, so i tell them i wanted to swim at the race course which is in the lake michigan from the jean klock park. so, al took me to the park and i swam for about 40mins to get some practice and get acclimated with the water. i felt good and i like the water. it had some waves and current, but not salty. after the swim, we got back to the house and i had my lunch of rice cakes (i made it myself). then i went on to bike around the race course from the house. i rode my bike out and back for about an hour to check out some of the roads, which turned out to be quite rough with potholes all over the place. after the bike ride, i ran around the neighborhood for about 20mins. and, i found out the place actually have a dock to launch boat. so i thought, 'wow.....that's cool'
after all the training, i went back to the house, took another shower to take care of my other cleaning needs. then i took some rest and had a bite of something that i couldn't remember what. then, headed to downtown with some member of the family. and, guess what i found in the downtown, there is a sign that said, 'st. joseph, michigan's most romantic city' (check out the pix at the top) now, isn't that interesting and even my friend that was from the area did not know about that.
then, for dinner, the family took me to a place called 'clementines'. pretty nice, but quite crowded, as it turned out it's a local favorite. and their special was 'perch', which is a deep fried fish, in which in this case and time, i couldn't have it since i didn't want to ruin my diet for the race. the dish is a local fav that the menu said the restaurant served them about 11tons per year. that alone is actually a great reason to come back, just to try that dish, which i will come back just to try that 'perch'. so, what did i have for dinner? pasta with light sauce, which is actually taste pretty good. after dinner we went down to the beach to walk around the area and all the way to the pier. then, we all decided to drive around the city to see some areas that some of us never been to. we went thru benton harbor and an area, in which people called benton 'harlem' (hahha.....) we went thru the back side of the jean klock park, in which we passed thru an old burger place called north shore inn. then, we went home and get some rest.
the next day, i basically went thru the same routine as the day before. except this time i had to go to the race site for check-in, registration, bike racking, body marking, race meeting, and pasta dinner. boy, was it hectic or what? plus, it was quite hot actually with the sun. i stayed at the park until about 5pm, then went back to the house to get myself ready for the race. as i got to the house, i was greeted with many of my friend's old friends from the town and old co-workers. i talked to them briefly explaining who and why i was the only asian there. (hahhaha.......) i went to bed around 8:30pm, yet i think i didn't go to sleep until about 10:30pm. not sure what, but i think it was the anxiety, excitement and nervousness. then again, i think i had a good rest the nite before the race. at the end of this blog, i wanted to thank GOD for letting me be with the aagenas family. thank U, GOD, for using them to bless me in so many ways. i sure hope i was able to be a blessing for them too.
i will never forget everything that they had done for me.
God bless.....