Favorite Tri Memories of the Decade, 5-7

I’ve really enjoyed thinking back over the last 10 years to moments that stood out for me. I’m trying to isolate individual moments and not combine elements of memories to create an uber moment. That feels a bit cheap and forced.

Without further delay…

7) Hug it Out With Gerry: Going into the summer of 2014, I switched to swim with Tower 26 and the legendary triathlon swim coach, Gerry Rodrigues. From around that July through my preparation for Ironman Arizona in November, I swam the most I ever had. I woke up at 5 a.m. for almost all those swims, including beach swims during the summer and fall. It wasn’t easy to rally every morning, that’s for sure.

When race day came, I remember reaching the turnaround buoy in Tempe Town Lake and feeling like I never had before, fresh and invigorated. Ready to crush the second half of the course. I even caught then-teammate Joel, a very good swimmer, at the final buoy. I earned a nearly two-minute swim PR that day.

There was a Tower 26 meet up the week after IMAZ, and when I saw Gerry there, he gave me a big hug and congratulated me. He was truly proud of me, and I was proud of myself. I remember that moment fondly.

The hardest work often yields the best results.

6) “You Ready to Stop Whining?”: Frigid Ironman Lake Tahoe, in September 2013, broke me mentally and physically. It was the hardest race I’ve ever competed in, as a child or adult (more on that below).

My 13:04 finish is still the worst among my 13 Ironman performances. Yet like a dummy, I had signed up for Ironman Arizona just shy of eight weeks later. After a week off to recover — or lick my proverbial wounds — I visited my then personal strength trainer, Corey Enman.

At that time, Corey set up his strength training sessions wherever he could find space. That day we were at a small park in Burbank. As I walked to the basketball court where Corey arranged the yoga mat and weights, he called out to me. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it likely involved an expletive and I know the spirit of it was, “You ready to stop fucking whining?”

That was pure Corey. It still is, I’m sure. Love him. Corey immediately set the tone for the next several weeks of training, and IMAZ 2013 marked the first time I broke 11 hours in an Ironman, beating my near-12:30 PR by more than two hours.

Sometimes, the hardest-hitting truths, revealed without a hint of sugar, yield the optimal result.

5) Mom Saves the Day: Back to Ironman Lake Tahoe. We rode buses in the dark pre-dawn morning wondering if the race would be cancelled. Snow had fallen the night before, there was ice on all our bikes in transition, and the temperature dipped to 28 degrees.

As I wrote in my post-race report at the time, I wanted the race to be cancelled. The conditions psyched me out. I didn’t want to be there.

I’d get get no reprieve.

The entire race was miserable. I came very close to quitting late during the marathon. But the med tent was so overrun with shivering athletes that I’d have to get to the tent myself. It made no sense to quit at that point, just had to gut it out.

My mom and dad saw me around mile 20 and I was shelled. The mylar blanket stuffed inside my race kit wasn’t keeping me warm. The med tent was tantalizingly close.

Enter SuperMom!

Lesley is many things, an athlete is not one of them. Moreover, she’s like any mom — not wanting to see her son suffer. Lesley would have been just as likely to beg me to quit for my own safety. Instead, she did the exact opposite, shocking me, and my dad. Suddenly, with her purse clutched to her chest with both hands, mom started jogging alongside me. Encouraging me to keep moving. Shouting, in fact! Granted, I was so slow it was more like I was keeping up with mom!

But I knew I had to finish that race because of her. For her. So I did.

The will to finish comes and goes in a race like an Ironman. Sometimes, you need and hope for help from the most unlikely of sources to get you through.

Tomorrow, as we wrap up the decade, my four favorite memories training and racing in the last decade!