Okay, I survived and I’m going to copy 3 posts from another link where I posted my eventful weekend onto another site so that I don’t have to type all this again. It’s long, but very funny and eventful:

Message: Well my first Olympic down, and it wasn’t that bad! Now the swim…..sucked. I have got to get a wetsuit! I was one of only a handful that didn’t have it, and someone told me it would have probably cut down 8 or so minutes in the swim because of the conditions. I don’t know. Everything was right on target except the swim. I was expecting a 36 minute one, but I went to the wrong bouy for our first turn and had to cut back, probably cost me around 5 minutes…..and I did it again at the end but not as bad…probably cost me another minute or 2. Plus I hit some logs and weeds in this river (Ohio). It was nasty as crap….oh well. Mark it down as learning.

Now I will say I never got passed on the bike or run today and did a lot of passing. That was a first that I never got passed, but I think some of that was due to me being in the back after the swim. I’ll post more later about the whole experience, but it’s late and time for me to hit the sack. You can see my times below, and I put out to the side how I did out of the 158 in the international distance. They also had a sprint at the same time.

SWIM: 44:41 (136)
SWIM TO BIKE TRANSITION: 2:50 (66)
BIKE: 1:20:07 (89) 18.9 mph…should have been a little faster but the roads were really bumpy, my brake kept sticking, some headwind on the way back, and few unanticipated hills…oh well again.
BIKE TO RUN TRANSITION:1:21 (24)
RUN: 49:33 (63) 7:59 pace personal best….my 1/2 marathon pace was 8:13 previous personal this 7:59 was actually better than my sprint paces…go figure. I guess it takes me more than 3 miles for my legs to warm up.
FINISH 2:58:30 (100)

More swimming in the off season and wetsuit!

Message: Oh and probably one of the best parts was I got a random girl to add me on myspace that was from Louisville. I sent her a message and asked if I knew her and told her it was random because I was currently in Louisville. She replied back and said I know, and I hope you don’t get mad, but I’m the girl working the front desk at your hotel and thought you was amazingly handsome so I searched for you on myspace.

The funny thing was, I thought the same about her (beautiful not handsome) when I was walking to my room hitting myself on the forehead wondering why I didn’t say something to her besides thanks and the normal customer/worker talk.

Great weekend all around! haha

essage: Read if you want, but some folks wanted to hear the whole weekend:

Friday, got to Louisville and went out friends. Didn’t reallly sleep, just had fun since my event was on Sunday.

Saturday, got up took a short jog in a neighborhood to enjoy the weather. Checked into the hotel and this is where it all started to get crazy. I thought the hotel deskworker was cute, but I never say anything never have the confidence, eventhough Friday night was intersting and should have built up my confidence. Oh well, so I just checked in went to my room. She added me as a friend on a website that I’m apart of sorta like “myspace,” gave me some compliments and such, and I sent her a message back the next day when I was checking my race results giving her compliments and my number.

Sunday, got to downtown Louisville early to prepare. Hit the water, almost drown, got off course, kicked a log that was floating in the river, got tangled in some weeds in a shallow part, got the crap knocked out of me by a girl, got off course again, and eventually made it out anyhow. One of my friends surprised me by being there and yelled as I was running from the water to the bike. That gave me a 2nd boost and got me pumped. Headed out feeling good on the bike and then hit some decent hills, and that road was like riding off road. Took it kinda easy not wanting a blowout or anything worse. Made it through the bike, even after being almost hit by a car or better yet me almost hitting a car that passed me and then stopped as soon as they went around. Well run transition started, did well and came out with legs that felt pretty good. I just ran like Forrest enjoying the downtown and the stroll across the bridge. Never really felt bad on the run and was actually talking and pumping up others that were struggling and yelling at some others that I knew and saw coming back. I then finished. Like I said earlier my bike (besides the hills and rough road) felt good, and my run felt better than ever. I actually set a new PR for me in running by breaking an 8 minute pace.

Sunday after the race: My friend that I was staying with Sunday night wanted to go to Best Buy. We loaded up and headed down the street just to witness a head on collision where one car went off in a ditch. He looked at me and was like, “What do we do?” I said, “Drive over there to that ditch.” I got out ran towards the car just to see an elderly gentleman trying squeeze out of his door. He was yelling help me I’m stuck. So I got down beside his car and grabbed his hand was pulling the door open farther, and pulled him out. Well everyone was okay including him, and we had to stick around a little bit to tell the cops what we saw. The rest of the evening we just chilled, ate, and watched a movie.

Monday: I decided to run back by the hotel on my way out of town to either leave a note for “the girl,” or to actually see her and talk to her for a minute. I thought to myself, “Hey, let’s make her at least remember you when you leave.” I couldn’t find a flower shop, the roses at the gas station were dead, so I saw a greenhouse that said 50% off. Haha, so I bought her this like 4 foot plant/vine thing that had these pink flowers all over it, and went to the hotel. She was there and I gave it to her and we chit chatted and laughed about it and stuff. I headed out to come home, and I just got a message from her with her number and thanking me for the flower and how she was going to plant it and watch it grow, and that no one has ever done anything like that and the impression it made. haha So all in all this was good and I will see her again in the future, but nothing to get too pumped up about just yet with 3.5 hours between us.

The final of the story. I don’t know if you all heard about the snipers in Louisville, but you can research it if you want to know more about it. I was watching the news last night while I was up there and heard about it and how they said if you see anything suspicious at overpasses contact 911. On my way home, I was thinking about the weekend and driving, then I see a white car on a overpass just sitting there. I was like oh crap, what if this is a shooter. So I start swerving from lane to lane like a drunk man, creeping up and down in my seat (I know laugh, but hey what would you have done). I made it past the overpass without any shots, haha. So I called 911 and told them what I saw and said that it may be nothing more than an abandoned car, but I wasn’t taking any chances and thought they should know about it. So if you hear about a white car getting busted around mile marker 92 on the West Kentucky Parkway, then you have your crimedog solver right here. haha

What a weekend!

John