ttt - sunday - mad adventure

the day started cold. as i wake up in the campers with my teammates, we were all felt like it was an autumn morning. we started to kind of discussing whether we should wear arm warmer for the race.
i started to eat my regular race breakfast again; bagel with peanut butter, honey, and banana. at this point, coffee was not even entering my mind.
after getting all our stuff ready, we headed over to transition to set up our stuffs. within a couple of minutes, the race was about to start. obviously i was not too concerned, since it's a time trial start and my teammate and i have the last race number. we got ready with our wetsuit, since the water was cold. we started the swim pretty well. i was not trying to go very fast. drafted a couple of people that i can find in front of me until i couldn't see the 3rd buoy because of the sun. but then as we were about to start the 2nd lap of the swim, i heard somebody said that that 3rd buoy that i cannot see was moved. and, guess what? it was true; it got moved closer, so i thought, yeach, this is great....came out of the water at about the time that i wanted and felt pretty good, not too cold. then we got to transition to get ready for the bike.
the bike started good, no problem, since we did a training camp last april. so i kind of know what to expect, even tho i did not remember everything. all i can remember was hills, hills, and more hills, and seems like a never ending hills....we were able to execute our plan until we got to about the last 1/8 portion of the first loop, i went kind of fast, but not too fast, since i knew i was waiting for my teammate to come to my side every time we were on the down hill, or a decent fast flat. as i went ahead off my teammates, i knew there was one other guy that was drafting us, i was on the aero bar, but then there was no sign, or warning about certain decent size of potholes on the flat; i hit that pothole a little too fast, that made me was not able to make the turn ahead, therefore the front tire of my bike hit about a foot high of grassy area, and i went over the handle bar, and landed on another grassy area, roll over on my side a couple of times. at that moment, i could hear my teammate yelled,...s***....then after all that, i jst laid there for a minute, until my teammate came over to my side to check on me and we jst laughed. at that moment, i knew i was fine. i knew there was nothing broken on my body, and i did not feel any pain whatsoever. thank GOD for the protection.
the guy that was rite behind me checked on my bike and kind of help fixing it. first it was the little bent of the brake lever, which pretty easy to bent back. then, he started to play with my wheels, back and front. then he realized the break probably bent, so he took it off to see if it would work, but to no avail, it was more than that, it was the wheel that was bent.
after being 'patched' up (a little cut on the knee) a little bit by the EMT, i sat on the side of the road thinking about the most likely possibility for me to quit the race. i cried for a while on the side of the road just as i was thinking about quitting. but then, i started to check my bike in detail and found out it was the front wheel that was the major damage. it was bent. knowing that i was indeed all rite, nothing broken and no soreness whatsoever...thank GOD for that......i started talking to my teammate, matt, about the strategy that we were going to do with certain possibility that we could have. at the end of discussion, we decided if we can have somebody lent me a front wheel, we would go on and finish the race. at this time, i did not know there was a cut off time for the course, so i waited until the support vehicle took us back to the transition area.

i hate quitting; out of all the things that i had learned from triathlon, the number 1 thing that i told myself to never do in life is to never quit. i would only stop racing if i truly cannot go on, or the race course is close, or until the race director told me i cannot race anymore.

as soon as i got to transition, i saw an old friend, bob. i asked him for help to kind of fix my bent wheel. at this point, i wasn't thinking about finishing the race until bob asked me whether i wanted to continue on, or not. off course, i answered yes, then he jst took off his aero front wheel from his bike and put it on mine. i asked him to help me put the front brakes back, but he said there was no time. at this time, i jst suddenly felt there is hope. i have a chance; i have a window of opportunity. and off course, i was not going to let that get away. seize the moment. and then, obviously, matt and me went out for the 2nd loop of the bike with about 3 min left to the bike cut off before you can no longer go on for the 2nd lap.
at the start of the 2nd lap, i started thinking about the answer that i gave bob. was that really me talking, or was it the adrenaline? a this time, i started to doubt about my decision; started to think maybe i should jst go back and quit. but then, i realized and remember abt my decision to never quit a race. that definitely got my spirit back up to really really want to finish the race.
as we got closer to the end of the 2nd loop of the bike, we found out matt have some problem on his seat on the bike. we stopped to kind of tried to do something abt it, but to no avail, nothing we can do abt it. i could see his seat was wobbly, but yet, he didn't complaint, and we kept on riding; even tho i tried to offer a co2 to spray the area where his body sat on the seat, but oh well....after abt more than 2hrs on the 2nd lap of the bike, we got back to the transition, and i thanked bob for the help and tell me and matt to go and get out for the run and shanon, the race director told us that the run course still open, therefore we kept on going. we started with walking a little, but then i thought to myself;...gotta try to run.....so we ran. along the way, we finally saw out other teammates (storrs and keller) on run course as they were finishing the 2nd loop of the run. at this time, i jst thought to myself, oh my goodness, we are going to finish the last one of the race. but guess what? at the end, i kept trying to run and walk with matt. trying to fight the hills, the bugs, the flies, the horrible taste of heed, the sun, the heat, and all the other stuffs along the course, we actually did not finish last. thank GOD for that.....
along the way on the run, i saw a couple of people that we saw on the bike course and for the whole the weekend, chatted a bit, giving encouragement to each other, i actually felt that i was used by GOD to give inspiration to some of the people on the course. to give encouragement to anyone that see and know what had happened to me earlier on that day on the bike course, i still raced and finished it.
thank you GOD for all the abilities, the health, the strength, the spirit, the encouragement, the angels, and the protection that U had given me to be able to do all these. thank GOD for team and teammates (matt butterworth, for the most helpful encouragement along the race; matt storrs and rebekkah keller for the first ever very fun camping experience in my life, and also for your encouragement as we pass along on the course; mike brewer, the coach, for visiting us in times of muddiness with the 'care' package, encouragement, help, guide, and pix; all other teammates' encouragement thru e-mail and facebook). thank GOD for the person that always prays with me and for me.