Epic Adventure Part II

This is the second part to My Epic Adventure. The first part is posted in the articles section of my website. I figured I would just post this next instalment as a blog.......





The flight across the Pacific was for the most part very enjoyable. I had an entire row almost all to myself where I could stretch out and get a good sleep in. But I wasn’t quite ready to sleep yet. I had a ton of nervous energy so I thought I would start writing in the journal that my friend Wadley had given me. He is a very creative character and is always drawing things or making really cartoonish cards for people. Wadley had also given me a set of pens that I would assume were with the intention that I would be as creative. So I gave it a try and found myself reflecting on how I got to where I currently was. It was quiet interesting to look back because if you had asked me a year ago if I would be on a plane to go train for triathlon in New Zealand I would have told you that you were nuts!




In fact, when I first started triathlon for fun I encountered a HUGE number of injuries. I think part of that was because I did have the running background but I didn’t understand that I would have to build back up to it slowly. I developed two stress fractures straight away. One in the foot and one in the shin. After those buggers healed I went for a run and caught my foot in the loop of my shoe and went down in mid air (COMEDY) fracturing two ribs. I couldn’t believe it!! I was 5 min from my house and was just going on an easy jog. I laid there in the middle of the street with the wind knocked out of me for a good 10 min. Broken ribs are one of the most annoying fractures you can get. Nothing you can do for them and they hurt ALL the time. But luckily I heal fast and they were under control in no time.




I figured I was out of the woods with injury. I mean, how much dumb luck (I don’t really believe in luck) can one person have? All these injuries were postponing my debut at the ½ Ironman distance. I was frustrated because I really wanted to do one. The next race that I could get into was the Vineman ½ Ironman. So of course I signed up with the belief that everything would go smoothly now that I was free of broken bones. Hillary was excited and put me on a pretty intense (intense for the then) plan. Things were rolling along and I was getting better with my longer rides. She had me down for a 3 hour ride every Wednesday. Since I had a flexible schedule with my work ( I was a massage therapist at the time) I always did that ride in the middle of the day.




It was the Wednesday before Memorial Day Weekend and I had gotten up and started to get ready for my ride. I usually rode from my house on Olympic out to the Pacific Palisades and back. It was a nice ride and at the time one of the only routes I knew. For some reason I felt very unmotivated that day. I kept putting the ride off until later and had the hardest time finally getting out of the house. When I did I had all these strange feelings that made me want to turn around and go home. I think we do have some intuition in us, but at the time I just thought I was being soft.




It was pretty congested for a Wednesday afternoon. As I rolled down Venice Blvd a car parked on the street swung it’s door open and almost took me out. I freaked out and couldn’t believe at how close I came to just being tagged. This didn’t help the mood I was in. I stopped the bike for a second and thought “just go home and call it a day.” But then I remembered that I actually wanted to get good at triathlon so I go back on the bike and continued rolling. I made it all the way to the beach with no interruptions. Things were starting to get better but I still had this “feeling” that I can’t quite explain.




I took the bike path until it dumps you out in Manhattan Beach. Once there you take roads all the way to the turn around. I had about another 15 miles until that point and was now on some small surface streets. The sun was out, the ocean looked crisp and clear and I had started to feel like I wanted to ride!




Then it happened. Another parked car without any warning flung its door open and I went flying into the door. I had about a split second of time to react and I do recall trying to crash the bike on it’s side. Luckily I didn’t go through his window but my right hand went into the door so hard that when I got up you could see the hand was shattered. It was completely limp and the metatarsal of the middle finger was close to ripping my skin.




I was in a world of pain. I couldn’t believe how quickly my thoughts started to race. Not only was I in shock that this happened and that Vineman would most likely be off but I was also able to understand that my job as a massage therapist was now over. I tried to remain as calm as possible. It wasn’t easy when the guy that opened his door started yelling at me! Of course being the hot blooded Italian that I am I yelled right back. It was as if he opened the flood gates of my emotions.




While we were in our screaming match I had gotten on the phone to 911. I knew I needed some help and was giving the dispatcher the details in between my rants of “You fucking asshole have you ever heard of a side mirror!” Anyway, as I am on the phone with 911 he gets in his car. “Where the fuck do you think you are going!?” I said. He looked at me and just said “It’s not my problem you ran into my door.” I hung up with 911 because I was going to need my other hand to kick this guys ass.




He starts his car and begins to maneuver out of the parking space. My bike is still in the street. My phone has been thrown to the curb and now there are a few people gathering around. One woman had called the cops and was yelling at me because us “stupid bikers” are always causing trouble. She basically got a big “Fuck off” from me. I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t want this guy to get away and now my phone was too far away to take a picture of his plate. So what would any irrational person do? I jumped in front of his car. He started revving the engine and inching forward. “What are you gonna do? Run me over?” I told him that he wasn’t going anywhere and then I took off my shoe and told him that if he doesn’t put the car in park and get out that I was going to beat his hood with my shoe. I had speed plays at the time and the metal would have been pretty damaging. You obviously get the idea that I was extremely pissed at this point.




He did get out of the car and the cops and the paramedics came. Did the fire department really need to bring the big truck with the ladder? How embracing! I gave my report to the cop and then got taken off to the hospital where they confirmed all the fractures in the hand. Here is the ironic part. Before I started working as a massage therapist full time I was working in a rehab clinic that only dealt with hand trauma. The head therapist there, as much as she drove me crazy, was the best in town. I knew I would be in good hands. No pun intended.




The point of this tangent is two parts. The first is that I truly believe that I could sense something was going to happen to me that day. The second point hasn’t really been described yet. It is that this incident is part of the reason I was on that plane to New Zealand. The guy that opened his door on me was 100% negligent and my friend Geo that had pushed me to do triathlon in the first place just happened to be a kick ass lawyer.




The broken hand forced me to take a new direction. It also gave me some funds allowing me to take that new direction. I don’t think I would have stopped doing massage to go attempt what I was about to do. For one thing, it was really comfortable. I made plenty of money, had a great schedule and was becoming set in my ways. It would have been hard to give that up with out a little universal intervention.




Universal intervention is exactly what I think happened. On the inside I wanted to go do something like this but on the outside I didn’t really see how I could. Breaking my hand proved to be the best way. Go figure. It was a long road to recovery as I had to have it reconstructed and after that I had to regain use of it. I am very fortunate that I am able to do the things I can today. Seeing many cases in the hand center I knew that full function may never be a reality.


Hillary couldn’t believe what happened. We were so bummed but I thought “We still have some time for Vineman” I had my surgery and ignored many of the doctors orders. I was on my bike trainer with a bag of ice on the bandages trying to keep my fitness. Once out of the bandages I was running on a treadmill holding my hand above my head. Anytime the hand went below my heart it would throb and start to burn pretty bad. But honestly I think that the exercise I was doing was in fact helping the healing process. I was creating high amounts of blood flow while keeping it elevated to reduce swelling. People at the gym thought I was nuts….but everyone in LA is nuts.




Several weeks later it was time to get the bandages and cast off. I was so excited to get my hand back again. I knew from working in the hand center that once bone was fixed by plates and screws you were pretty much good to go and would not damage it. What I forgot was that all the other stuff in the hand probably wouldn’t work.




Geo came to the doctor with me for the unveiling of the hand. I remember sitting there excited to see how it looked. The hand surgeon was not just the top hand surgeon in LA but was also a very prominent plastic surgeon so I figured it would at least “look” good.




He slowly unwound the bandages. Once completely off, the hand looked so skinny and pale. It was just resting there and he made some comments about how good it looked. He then asked me to move my fingers. This is when the freak out occurred! I can’t really explain it, but I felt like my mind had no control over my hand. I had no ability to move anything. As hard as I tried nothing worked. Of course I had seen things like this in the hand center but to me it felt like it was never going to come back.




He put me in a smaller splint type cast and told me to take the hand out every so often and try to move it. The nerves were just damaged and it would take some time to retrain the fingers. Of Course after some time went by the fingers did start to come back. But the real problem now was that the scar tissue was building up in a rapid manor and I couldn’t close the hand at all.
My friend Lana, who many of you now know as the murder victim of Phil Spector, had broken her hands in a bad accident and lost all mobility of her wrist. As hard as she tried the scar tissue was too dense and she was forever left with “Kung Foo” hands. She was never upset about it though and always made jokes by going “HIIIII YAAAAH!” Man I miss her…..




Anyway, I thought that my hand would do the same thing so I went into my old work everyday and had one of the therapists wrap that hand down to the point of tears and dip it in the hot wax. Those were some painful days but I was never going to be able to ride a bike again if I couldn’t make a fist. At this stage I wasn’t even close to being able to hold a tennis ball.


Weeks of rehab slowly got the hand to come around. I had made a special splint to swim in to protect my wrist as that was damaged as well. I was just doing some slow swimming trying not to loose what I had gained. It wasn’t easy but I think that it was well worth it and helped my rehab.




Vineman ½ came around and I went up and did it. I had not been outside on the bike since the accident and didn’t feel like I was ready but I couldn’t handle one more missed ½ Ironman. I wanted to get my first one out of the way!




The race was fine, minus my huge panic in the swim causing my legs to cramp. I had to stand on the river front for about 10 min before I could walk. Again, I thought “Are you kidding me? I am not going to be able to finish this thing!!!!!” I did finish and biked about a 2:33 and then ran a 1:33. What a hard run that was. I couldn’t walk right for several days. My overall time was 4:51 and I was about 15th in my age. At least the first one was done!




About this time, my law suit was settling the first part of the case and the insurance company was going to pay out on his policy. The money I received was a big reason why I was on that plane reflecting about my journey. Granted, I did have a friend at the time help me with the ticket but living in NZ was going to cost money and now I had some.




You really do have to be careful about what you wish for. I wanted to be able to quit my job and do triathlon. Not being a top dog I sure as hell wasn’t going to get sponsored so I guess the universe came up with this plan instead. Thanks! But how about next time a less painful route?


After my period of reflection on the plane I came to the realization (again) that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I shut the journal and decided I would try to stay up a few more hours and then hopefully sleep the rest of the way. It isn’t hard to keep entertained on these long flights. Every seat is very big and has their own TV so I decided to watch “War of The Worlds.” Fun special effects but pretty lame overall. Tom Cruise doesn’t help with the lame factor. Is anyone really buying what he is selling?




After my flick I took advantage of the empty seats and stretched out. I was asleep for about two hours when BAM! The plane hit some seriously harsh and unexpected turbulence. I was thrown on the floor and a few of the luggage things pooped open and dropped out some bags. The plane was bouncing around and I was racing to get my seatbelt back on. Next time maybe I will listen to the captain when he suggest you were it at all times!




We were hitting these air pockets the made the plane drop huge amounts. It felt like we would zero out for a second and then there would be some massive shaking and then we would be taking G’s in the seat. It was very uncomfortable and lasted way longer than anyone wanted. I was looking around and could tell that I was not alone in my “oh shit” feelings. I do know that this kind of thing is somewhat common on the higher flights and that the risk is still pretty low…..BUT STILL!




The plane made it out of the turbulence and we all had a big sigh of relief. The flight attendants were putting luggage back while the rest of us pooped pills and ordered booze LOL! So much for sleeping the rest of the way. I went back to watching bad movies and just figured I would sleep when I got into town.




I had a layover in Auckland. It seemed like I would have plenty of time to catch my next flight but I had to get all my stuff and go from the international terminal to the domestic which was about 1,000 miles away. With my luggage and bike case it was like having two small children with you. I couldn’t believe how far I had to walk and how cracked out I felt. I had no clue what time or day it was. All I know is that is was light out and it felt like it should be dark out.




I made the connecting flight down to Christchurch and got a few Z’s on the short ride. Once in I started to wonder if anyone was going to be there to pick me up. This guy Mike that owned the lodge had said he would but we didn’t make contact with each other before I left so I was a bit uncertain. I had no idea what he looked like or how I would find him. So I just went and got my stuff.




The bags came first and then I went to odd sized to wait for the bike. There were a few of us waiting on bikes. I kept looking around for someone that maybe had a sign on it with my name. All I saw was this guy standing on the wall that kept looking over to all of us waiting on bikes. He was a taller guy that had a mustache and hair that was thinning a bit but looked totally normal on him. It seemed as if he was trying to hear what we were saying. In fact that is exactly what he was doing. Once he heard me speak he knew I was American and came over and asked if I was Brandon. I said yes and we introduced and started chatting. A very nice guy but I couldn’t understand a word he was saying! He had the THICKEST Kiwi accent LOL. He was a bit of a talker and I had to laugh and tell him that he wasn’t making any sense to me. He found that amusing but really didn‘t slow the speech down at all. I turned on the “uhh huuh’s and noods”.




When we got to the van I of course got in the drivers seat on accident. Mike was doing something at the back and came around and laughed at the mistake that I made. It was weird to drive on the other side of the road again. I hadn’t been in a country that did that for a while now. The ride to the lodge was pretty quick. I got out of the van and had my first impressions of everything. It was interesting to say the least. He showed me to my room that was quite small with a single bed, desk and drawer.




I wasn’t too sure what I thought of everything. It all looked so different to me and I was very exhausted. I told myself I wouldn’t make any judgments until I had a good sleep. All I knew was that whatever I thought, this would be home for the next four months.

Big Kahuna Race Report

The Boulder Crew plus Lori (Palm Springs) went to Santa Cruz this last weekend for the Big Kahuna 1/2 Ironman. It was an awesome venue and we all managed to take home some hardware.

Before the race I was a wreck! I basically slept for three days up to the race as I felt totally blah and had kinks in my back. No doubt it was in part stress but I also think that when I got to Santa Cruz my body just wanted to absorb all the big training we have been doing. Teressa mentioned that even though we took a few days to "freshen" up for the race, that none of us were actually fresh.

Two days before the race we were over at Denny's hotel getting ready to go for a ride. We all must have been a bit tense as there was a clear opportunity to pick a fight with the hotel manager and it seemed each of us wanted a piece of him. He was yelling at us for having bikes in the room and made absolutely no sense with his argument. Denny was in a wheel chair room so clearly things roll on the carpet. I was letting him have it (which I don't normally do anymore) and then Denny took over. I got a kick out of seeing Denny tell him off. The guy was a whack job. We all laughed the next day when the hotel was flooded with bikes....I'm sure his head was exploding.

The day of the race the pressure was on. I had sent an e-mail to the race director requesting that Denny, Marky V and Albert Boyce be put in the first wave as we are most likely 4 of the top seeds. We sure would look like idiots if didn't perform well. Then of course you have Miss Jones showing up. It never feels good when you get chicked even if she is a world champion. But honestly, the way we train, we shouldn't be getting chicked anymore....EVER.

The first Transition was a gazzilion miles from the swim so it would be a long run from the beach. There was no carpet and the I HATE running barefoot on hard surface with pebbles etc. Especially after the foot injury, I am very hesitant to do that.

The run to transition was going to be made a whole lot worse. None of us had actually gotten in the water before race day. Denny and I get down to the start and I am in my sleeveless because I swim like crap with a full on. I figure it can't be that cold. WRONG! I have never come so close to not starting a race. Denny had to slap me around a bit as I was having brain freeze and felt like my arms were going to fall off....and if they did I wouldn't know it!

I got out and just went to start line. Denny starts in the back AS USUAL. I am right behind MJ thinking I might be able to hang on her feet. This big hawaiian looking guy that only had a speedo on steps in front of her. The look she gave him was comedy! He was actually a decent swimmer but how he got in that water naked is beyond me. Well he was as big as the sealions that had sowed up to watch the race so I'm sure he would be fine. Poor Terssa though. She has zero body fat and was most likely the sealions target for an early AM snack. I wasn't real excited about how many of them were in the water. We had seen them at the pier the day before and they are NOT NICE AT ALL! I was ready to box if they came near me! I don't like any sea creatures unless they are in a tank or I am on a boat.

So the gun goes off and I run in and keep walking as long as possible. When it is shallow you can walk just as fast as people can swim and then you can take some time to pick the feet you want to get on. When I did get in, the water felt better than it had. I was flooring it! I wanted out of the water as fast as possible and because it was so cold I could get my body temp up pretty high and not feel it.

The swim went out and around the pier. Denny can swim circles around me in the pool. Why does little Meeker show up next to me 1/2 way in the swim? I look over and see him next to me. Our breathing was in sync on opposite sides so I kept seeing his face. I was giving him a lecture in my head. "SEE YOU NEED TO START IN THE FRONT! You could be almost done and out of the lame ass cold water by now!" I even stuck my tongue out at him LOL.

He did pull away from me on the way back. I came out with a PR swim of 26:50. That was a good feeling but the run to T1 was NOT. If you look at my T1 time compared to anyone in the front of the race you see that I took twice as long. Nothing on my body worked. I was a Popsicle!

Once out on the bike everything felt like major crap. I was flat and had no ability to push hard. It never changed the whole ride. I was pretty much on my own for the ride. There was nobody in my scope so I had some issue with staying positive. MJ, Denny, and Marky V were so far off the front. When I saw Marky V on the way back I checked my watch to see how far back I was. He was leading the race and when I hit that same point I was 10 min down. Not too bad but with the way I felt he would probably put another 5 into that and then the only thing that would let me catch him would be a major blow up on the run. He was riding REALLY well and it was good to see him leading!

When I got off the bike I hadn't had much in terms of calories. I took one gel and had about 1/2 a bottle of Gatorade during my ride. It was so gloomy out that I just never felt like I needed anything. And I pissed twice on the bike so I must have been hydrated. So I get off hoping that my legs will feel good. Not really the case.

I started out a bit slow as my right quad was really sore. I think it was due to the cold. Nothing ever felt warmed up and I am notorious for not performing well in the cold. I felt like I was so far back and had crappy legs that I wanted to stop. But again I couldn't entertain that idea. All those thoughts went away when I saw my first victim. For me, the hardest part is being out there alone. If I don't have anyone to race or I am not leading then I tend to push less. But since I saw someone I just focused on taking him down. Once that happened I realized their might be hope to salvage this race. AND NOT GET CHICKED!

Once I got a bit further into the race I got to see a quick blip of Marky V. He had completed an entire section of the run that I had not. Catching him was out of the question. But up in the distance I would soon see the skinny pink dot that is Michilie. Denny came past me in the other direction and looked strong. I still had a way to go until I got to the turn around and wasn't sure if he would be catchable. MJ flew by and looked strong. I still felt like crap but was pushing pretty hard.

I hit the turn around and found that I could still see MJ in the distance so I made it my life mission to not get beat by a girl today. It took me about 2 miles to catch her but when I did I felt alive again. Now I had to run really hard to gap her so that she knew it was game over with me. My surge was fast enough for me to get one last person in my scope. That was training buddy Denny Meeker.

I wasn't sure there was going to be enough road to get him. I could tell that I was making ground but it was going to be REALLY close. I was now pushing very hard and was concerned that if I did catch him I would shut down and have nothing left to overtake. But you always feel like that and must remember that they are working hard too.

We have less than a mile to go and Denny turns around to look. No doubt he could hear me moaning. I thought "oh great, he is going to go with me and we are going to hit the sand portion and I won't be able to hold him off." I am a horrible sand runner. It is my cryptonite in running. But I did hold him off and we finished 4th and 5th overall. Again, another close finish between us. Back at Buffalo Springs we started in separate waves and had finish times only 10 seconds apart! It's funny because everyone that had GPS watches on said the run was 13.5 miles rather than 13.1. If that was the case Denny got screwed because he would have nailed me at 13.1 Denny and I have only raced each other 3 times. I have manged to pull all three of them but I think Hawaii is going to be double or nothing! Of course our competition is of the healthiest nature and I am always rooting for him to have the best race ever!

I have never been so happy to have a race done with. We all did great and it was a great close to my 1/2 Ironman season. We celebrated on the beach in front of the boardwalk with some nice red wine (wait, I spent 5 dollars on my bottles LOL). From here it is all about the big dance in Kona.

Great job to everyone that raced!

Marky V : 2nd overeall, 2nd age
BDC: 4th overall, 1st age
Denny: 5th Overall, 2nd age
Albert: 10th Overall, 1st age
Teressa: 7th Overall for the ladies, 1st age
Kristin: 9th overall for the ladies, 1st age
Lori: 14th Overall for the ladies, 2nd age

Here is a link to Mitch Gold's CpC website that has some pics on it....I will post some when I get them loaded...I'm too lazy right now and really need to build my bike.

http://www.counterpartcoaching.com/minibb17/index.php?action=vthread&forum=1&topic=1594

The World Without Us

Here is a pic of the Boulder Res where we swim Tuesday/Thursday at 6:15 freaking AM!

This is my proof that I showed up haha!

One of my favorite questions to ask people is "If there was a button, that if pressed, would zap all of humanity off the planet, including yourself, leaving only the animal life and plant life would you press the button?" The question is also under the idea that there is no after life so you don't need to consider that in your decision. We just disappear and the world goes on without us.

When I was in New Zealand I had been discussing this with a friend and we were talking about what we thought would happen. When the button is pressed everything that we created remains. So if you were driving a car when the button was hit, your car is still running. Would the earth bounce back from us? There would be nuclear power plant meltdowns, crashed planes, fires out of control, and giant human structures abandoned of our care.

I'm not sure if I would push the button. Some days I crave the button but others are filled with a sense of hope that we will figure out this mess that we call humanity. Luckily for me, I don't have to press the button. I can now read a book on it.

I got back in today from a swim workout and there was a package waiting for me from Amazon.coooooooooooooooooom. I didn't order anything but my friend Tom and I had this conversation the other day and he told me about this book called "The World Without Us." That sneaky Tom was off to Italy for a month but managed to order the book for me. I am so excited to read it as it covers all of my crazy fantasies about this in a very scientific way. I hope Alan Weisman doesn't disappoint with his tale of a post-human earth!

I am off tomorrow to go race Big Kahuna 1/2 in Santa Cruz. Hopefully I will have the book finished by the time I get back to give a review. I'm thinking this could be the start of the "The BDC Book Club." Oprah who?

One last thing- I am a hoooorible friend. I totally forgot to give Carol Sharpless some props in the last post. She raced IM LV and was 4th in the female race and tore it up in the swim with a 48! Yowsers. Looking forward to hanging when you get to Boulder this month :-)

Ciao,

bdc