Why I keep Tri-ing

 

~Posted by Andy Blasquez

“But Dada…why do you have to do your Ironman race?” 

This was asked of me by my youngest son, Jeffrey (5), just 3 days prior to my first ever triathlon. I found myself in the uncommon position of not having words to explain why "I had to” do this race.  At that moment, it felt like time stopped.  I had no response at all!  The best answer I could think of was, “When I was young, I watched the first ever Ironman, at your Great Grandpa’s house. Everyone was kinda freaked out by what they were seeing, but I was just sort of sitting quietly...wishing it was me!  I've wanted to do this for my whole life, so now...I’m gonna do it!”

The deeper, more telling answer certainly wasn't on the surface.  It was deeper. It must have been! I wasn't aware, however, of how deep I’d have to dig in order to find the real answer, but I found it.  In short, I don’t have to do an Ironman.  Ironman; the event, the medal, the emotion, all of it, is really the reward.  The truth is, the training, the pushing, the breaking down barriers, the will, the alone time on runs, rides, and in the pool, and the lonely times…have made me, and continue to make me a better man. 

Ink Grade, Napa, CA

Suffering: It forces you into places where your ego just can’t survive.  It strips you down. It forces you to be raw; to be authentic; to be “you.”  That is why I love this sport so much. This personal evolution or pilgrimage allows me to stand taller!  Not because I finished an event. Thousands have!  Not for the medal around my neck. There are more valuable medals!  But because it brings me peace, or rather…it helps me find it.  In my training, and in the Tri lifestyle, I’m finding balance and peace: Two things that had eluded me for most of my life.  And, yea, it’s pretty awesome to receive those medals too!

I was born and raised in California, just east of San Francisco, in 1966.  My Mom and Dad busted their tails for us. Dad worked tirelessly, and Mom raised four kids.  We never wanted for anything.  We weren't the ‘rich kids’, but we had all the toys we needed, great holidays and vacations, family get-togethers, and nice homes with all of the modern conveniences and luxuries. We had it all.  For me, (please known there is no conceit in this) everything was easy in my life: making friends, academics, sports, playing music, and on and on.  In fact, I never read a book until well after I earned my Masters Degree in Education. (Ironic, isn’t it?)  With virtually no effort, I was still in all the ‘gifted’ courses and earning high marks.  Growing up, it would be uncommon for me not to have been the fastest, the strongest, or the ‘brightest’ in the group.  This is absolutely not something to be proud of.  In fact, these were my circumstances in spite of myself and in spite of my lack of effort.  

But with all of these blessing, why did I have such an ugly hole in my “self?”  Whatever the cause, I often felt myself unconsciously seeking attention.  I found it in less than the healthiest ways.  I may have been that “X-Games” kid, long before there were X-Games, I often found myself looking down some ridiculous flight of stairs, or a steep hill, with a mountainbike or a skateboard, thinking to myself, “This could go one of two ways.  I could make it, and everyone would go crazy…again. OR, I could crash and burn, in which case everyone would go crazy…again!  Either way, it was OK with me.”  These destructive activities increased in frequency and intensity until I felt like “Customer of the Month” at our local hospital.  It wasn’t until after a pretty disastrous motorcycle racing accident that I realized that if I didn’t get to grips with whatever was attracting me to these types of activities, I probably wouldn’t be around long enough to enjoy them anymore anyway! 

Ironically, it was in training for motorcycle roadracing (a sport that I’m still fanatical about) that opened the door to a new kind of suffering.  Cycling!  This “means to and end” was actually socially acceptable.  Now I can have my cake and eat it too! I can, for all intents and purposes, punish myself, and not get looked down at for it!  Maybe someday I can even get to Kona and do the Ironman!  That’s got to be the most brutal event on the planet.

  

So I started dabbling in Cross Country Mountainbiking, then Downhill.  I SUCKED!  Well, downhill was easy!  Go as fast as you can!  I’d been doing that my whole life!  I was competitive right off the bat!  (Top speed on a hardtail: 59.5 MPH, Mt. Hamilton, San Jose, CA.) Cross Country, on the other hand, was really, really hard.  I tried for years, and was just never, ever any good! Wait. That’s a feeling I’m not used to!  I’m really struggling to get good.  No, I’m really struggling to not be completely laughable at this!  And so began my love/hate relationship with endurance sports. 

To make a long story even longer, I registered (albeit idiotically) for the Scott Tinley Adventure Race, to be held in California in October of 2001.  Looking back, I now know I’d never have finished. But, like always, failing would have been epic in itself.   So how did it go?  I couldn't tell you.  I didn't quite make the starting line. Instead, I ended my motorcycle roadracing “career” just two months before the race. In a flash, I was done.  I felt, quite literally, that God was asking me, almost rhetorically, “This was what you wanted, isn't it?  A challenge? Now let’s see you get to Kona, tough guy!  Are you going to grow up? Are you going to show me what you’re made of?” 

So how did I stand up to the accident? Simply put…I didn't break my feet.  In detail though, I did break two metatarsals (fingers) and all of the metacarpals (hand bones) on my left hand, my left radius and ulna (wrist), spiral fracture of my left femur, collapsed cervical vertebrae C5 & C7, and thoracic vertebrae T5 & T7, displaced fracture of right clavicle with a type 3 shoulder separation, 5 rib fractures (2 displaced) and a closed head injury. The truth is that it couldn't have happened at a more important time.  It was well beyond time to grow up, and this was gonna do it.

Fast forward a couple of years.  I’m running again, cycling and swimming too!  My shoulder wouldn’t handle the work load, so we had it fixed.  Restabilization, SLAP repair, rotator cuff, etc.  Good as new.  A couple of years later, still trying to become even a shadow of myself, I ran myself into the ground necessitating Achilles replacement.  Two steps forward and one step back.  But this time, with wisdom and continued growth.  This time it’s with the support of my bride, and the drills and coaching I receive from my MaccaX team mates.  At this point, in my 40s, I not only have a purpose, but a duty to model living rightly. I have the two most precious boys on earth.  

What's my ultimate goal?  To be well.  What would be the icing on the cake?  A Kona slot!  So I will keep Tri-ing! Game on.  

Why I Tri

The decision to blog about all things triathlon was born out of a need to reflect on my own experiences and the result of countless hours of internet reading, which included other blogs about this wonderful and very challenging sport. I began this process recording some notes after my first Half-Ironman race, also referred to as 70.3- the total distance of the race in miles (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). I found myself constantly analyzing my first race in my head and all the mistakes I had made and what I would do differently in my next race. I then began researching and reading anything and everything I could find on the web, which included so many blogs. I was doing all of this on top of the hours I was spending training. Oh, and of course, there are the aspects of my life that trump all things triathlon, family (wife and two kids), and work- more to come later on the balancing act of all of these things. In short, what free time I had was now filled with my triathlon obsession. What surprised me most about many of the blogs I was reading was how very few of them were written by newbie or newer triathletes like me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy reading and learning from those most knowledgeable in the sport; after all, who better to learn from than those who have figured “it” all out. And by “it”, I am referring to the thousands of topics one could learn and master, or at least learn, in this sport. One could spend a lifetime, and many have, trying to figure this sport out. In my online quest to fill my head with all the knowledge I needed, I found I really enjoyed reading online forums from like-minded individuals, which mainly consisted of them sharing their experiences.

I also really enjoyed reading the race recaps and day-to-day updates from the online triathlon community, MACCAX, I had joined several months earlier. I joined this group a few months into my decision to sign up for my first 70.3, with the hopes of learning from other triathletes in the group, as well as the group’s leader and two-time Ironman World Championship, Mr. “Embrace the Suck”, Chris McCormack (also known as Macca). Chris also shares some of his key training sessions in each of the three disciplines by providing how-to videos. These videos are gold for newer and experienced triathletes looking for quality sessions. For me, if I was going to devote a good amount of what little free time I had to this, I wanted to do it right, and the Macca training site seemed right.

Since joining the Macca group, I’ve made some great connections with members across the globe, who just happen to enjoy suffering as much as I do (you’ll hear the word suffering quite a bit when you talk to endurance athletes, and especially triathletes). One connection I made on the site was with Andy Blasquez, a family man who has a real gift for drawing people in and connecting with others beyond just the superficial pleasantries. Everyone loves Andy, is how I initially described Andy to my wife. Andy is about as likeable a person as one can be. What initially struck me about Andy was how honest and forthcoming he was when describing his experiences with triathlons- from financial, to the physical and mental of training and racing, Andy seemed to lay it all out there with relative ease, a "what you see is what you get" kind of guy. Andy and I did the same race as our first 70.3. After the race, Andy shared his experience with the Macca group and I was blown away with how touching and real his race recap was.

When I finally decided to do this blog, I had one of those epiphany moments- what if this blog were written by two instead of one? Two newbie triathletes sharing their experiences with two different perspectives on training, racing, and all other things tri sounded like the perfect idea for this adventure. Immediately, Andy popped in my head. I wanted this blog to be as straight forward, open and honest as possible and Andy was the perfect person to bring on board and make this happen. I asked Andy if he wanted to do this with me, and I was pleased to get a quick response back from him; he was on board! In fact, Andy had been thinking of doing something very similar prior to me asking him. Sounds like, Everyone Can Tri was meant to be.

I am by no means a “blogging” expert. I’ve read countless blogs and even written some blogs for work, but nothing that would indicate I am a “know it all” when it comes to blogging. I hope to learn a great deal from this experience. Andy and I had many conversations about how we wanted this blog to go from the beginning. This is what Andy sent me about this:

To teach and learn, to coach and be coached, to inspire and be inspired, to grow and to nurture, and perhaps more important than any of those reasons, is to encourage people of interests to enter this sport; this lifestyle, and to thrive.


And now you get an idea of why I asked Andy to join me on this adventure. So why would you read a blog written by two newbie triathletes? What could you possibly learn from us if you are new to the sport or contemplating joining? I think there is valuable information one can learn from the most experienced triathletes, as well as the least experienced triathletes. For the beginner, Andy and I are a lot closer to your reality than the expert. The same goes for the person contemplating trying their first Triathlon. Triathlons aren't our full or even part-time job. We are both family men, with work and family as our main focus in life. This blog will be as real as it gets, an unedited account of what it is like to be new to this sport, including all the positives and negatives that accompany the journey. I really have no idea where this is going to end up. Both Andy and I have set out to take on triathlons and hopefully work our way up to the full Ironman distance, and one day hear those words so very few have heard, a title that one gets to claim for life, “Scott/Andy, you are an Ironman”. We hope you will join us on this journey!

Now for a little background on myself and how I got into this sport, and then I will let Andy introduce himself. I always find it interesting how people came into Triathlon. I have asked this question to many triathletes, and I am always surprised at how different each of their responses is. This very question was asked this week by one of the members of the Macca group on Facebook. Below are some of the responses:

Ladies and Gentlemen, out of interest what inspired you to get in triathlon?

•Having been a gym bunny for years, my company at the time sponsored the corporate national series, we were offered training 6 days a week to represent the company and race. I thought this is a challenge because I couldn't swim, bike or run. I thank Australian Unity because now I’m working towards my first Ironman and I hope I inspire normal everyday people to take up tri. 
•Having a cycling and running background I was looking for a challenge, learning how to swim! And also I like that this sport is a numbers game, "how much energy should I spend and when?” And one more thing, this sport allows me to be competitive for a long time. I'm 28 years young now and obviously people can race and be very competitive at 40!
•Never ever thought I could do one and a mate entered me into one. Figured it would motivate me to lose some weight. 
•Stupidity and then it was too late as I was hooked.
•A t-shirt...someone at my run club was wearing a local triathlon t-shirt. I said, “That looks like fun”...and the obsession began. 
•I hit the dreaded 99kg while I was living in Cairns. Always loved to cycle and didn't mind running. Saw an ad while traveling to Melbourne on Jetstar about the original Cairns Challenge. Decided right then that I'd give Triathlons a go!!! Signed up for the Coral Coast Olympic Distance, nearly drowned during the swim but was addicted after that.
•For me it was watching my brother do his first IM. It also suits my OCD disorder, and I love to toys. 
•My hubby kept saying he was going to do a half ironman one day...never did anything about actually signing up.......this went on for months so I just decided to sign us both up for a half....love it, especially the people. •After hitting the old triple figures on the scales and failing a fitness test for a job in the mines, thought I better start changing my eating habits and start exercising. Bought a men's health magazine which had a DVD on Crowie and his recent ironman wins and I was hooked. Since then I have lost over 30kg and turned my life around doing my first 70.3 in October. 
•Needed something to keep me fit after 10+ years of rugby. Thinking back I always liked the idea, when I saw it on TV. Having a growing event in my local town of Huskisson, thought I would give it a go. The bug has bitten. Just waiting for the right time to sign up for my first IM.
•For me, I was always a half decent distance runner in school, then after living the party life for a while grew up and realized I needed to make some changes....But hands down being on the sideline watching Chris McCormack win the 2011 Cairns Ironman by 8 minutes convinced me I needed to get involved in this sport. 
•Never been hugely athletic. Was 110kg 4 years ago. Now 73 kg after a big health scare at 33. Triathlon appealed as I like all 3 events and I think it quite literally saved my life, but not my bank balance.
•The seed was planted by Team Hoyt videos, amazement at what people could do and SHOULD do. We had been running a couple years and had a few friends who did triathlon (CRRRAZY people). My husband thought we should do one together, if he was going to keep with the running thing, he was only going to do it with a bike and a swim, so I caved. Our first was with Team in Training, great cause, coaches and friends from the start. We didn't own one bike, and the only swimming I had really done was a college class 18 years earlier, or wading with kids.
•The sport has too many benefits to list, but the key one is based on something which drives most of my decisions in life, the people.
•Knee injury being a runner. I was beginning to train for ultrarunning and then I slipped on ice. Doctor ordered biking and swimming so I signed up for a 1/10 ironman half a year down. I had biked in the past, but swimming was a total new thing. After the 1/10th I was hooked... Water still freaks me out though.
•The challenge of it.
•My life coach was training for her first ironman and that inspired me to get off my lazy arse. Started with running and was quite happy with that until another mate said let’s do a triathlon together. 
•IT band injury! And the quitting of off-load motorcycle racing. I got hooked with a sprint tri I did two years ago.
•My spin teacher, he was a former pro triathlete. 
•I was fat and the challenge of it all.
•Smoking and drinking too much led to trying to get healthy. Joined a Master’s team, started doing well competing and triathletes kept egging me on. Now, I tri and don't swim competitively anymore. Boom. 
•In 1990 when I was 14 I watched this race on TV, this was a big deal back then. So I learned to swim, got a bike and shaved my legs!
•Short reply = I’ve found that peeps who do tri’s tend to be enjoyable to be around, even here in cyber-land. They/we share information, support each other, understand 'The Suck' and have fun. How I got into tri’s = Thrashed my knees playing Bball, Mountain Running & Ultras, so thought I’d give road cycling a try. Loved the fast bikes, but peeps into the sport were too snobbish & selfish for my taste. I got back into OWS for the heck of it, THEN - I discovered these crazy, flying fast-ass tri bikes! I found that putting swim/bike/run together required a bit of intelligence & strategy so, here I am. 
•Almost died after the birth of my second child. Decided to take advantage of not being dead and do things I'd always wished I could do. After a few years of not really accomplishing anything, I woke up one day and realized I was 38 and fat and squandering my opportunities in life. Started running again, and Read an article in Runners World called "Why Not Try?". I didn't know that there was any other distance than Ironman. Decided to ditch my planned trip to the National Emergency Room Nurses convention (really just an excuse to drink a lot) and told my husband I was going to train for a triathlon. I bought a $500 hybrid bike and my husband had a cow! 10 weeks later I finished my first sprint. The next year my husband joined me! 7 years later I'm a 2x IM finisher, and my bike costs a lot more than $500. I'm a pretty consistent mid-pack athlete, but I'm still here and loving it. Thanks for asking.
•The challenge ... seeing how far I could push myself! 
•I love spending heaps of money, dressing like a fuckwit, self-obsessing about HR zones and food and shit and I love the insane amount of training I do......... by myself......hang on a minute WTF?
•Seriously though when I was a kid I was a swimmer and always loved watching the local tris and Kona on wwsports. I then got into rugby which led me to booze and smokes. About 5 years ago I hit 120 kilos size 42 waist and thought I need to get fit. Once I got fitter I started doing running races and adventure races and eventually got back in the pool and into tris. A sport I’ve always loved and love now more than ever. I got down to 77kgs and I have been between 77-80 now for a few years. Weight loss is one thing but being fit and becoming an Ironman is fn sensation. 

You can see from the responses above, why triathlon is considered a great community to be a part of, and why I personally enjoy this group of people so much. Now for my attempt at answering this same question, what inspired me to get into triathlon? I am going to answer this question by giving a lot of background information on myself. I am doing this for a couple reasons. Number one, as one of the writers of this blog, I think perspective comes from better knowing who I am, as well as, I hope to get to know more of you who decide to read this blog. A second reason, there is something very therapeutic about sharing and reflecting on life. Now with that said, feel free to skip down to the last two paragraph of this section of the blog if you don’t want to hear my life story, I completely understand.

My whole life, I have participated in sports of some kind; it is part of who I am, and without it, I feel lost and partly empty (not that I have spent any considerable time away from it). To me, sports was and still is, like comfort food. As a young kid, I struggled with school. I was diagnosed with a learning disability early on and spent most of my schooling making sure none of the other kids in my school knew about my disability. Humor and indifference was how I mainly dealt with my struggles in the classroom.

From the get go, sports was a completely opposite feeling for me. Sports came easy. I knew I could play sports well and wanted to show off what skills I had. As a young kid, I mostly participated in team sports- soccer, football, baseball, and even a little basketball. I also did the occasional road race, 5k and 10k stuff. My parents would run these, so I decided to give them a try, though I never took them very serious; it was all for fun. My mom still jokes about how I ran the Devil Mountain Run (local race in Northern California) and stopped to play in the sprinklers as the race passed my house, and still was one of the first kids to finish. However, my favorite two sports were soccer and football, which had something to do with the amount of conditioning these two sports required. I always loved to run. In football, I had tough coaches that enjoyed punishing us by making us do lots of running and calisthenics in full pads (wind sprints, stadiums, high knees, burpees, crab crawls, etc.). This was the part of practice I enjoyed most. I wasn’t gifted with size to tackle and run over others (quite the opposite), so this was the part of practice I was most comfortable with. In high school, I started running track after a football friend of mine bet he could run the 400 meters faster than me. It was one of those school-yard bets, no training, just drop the backpack and race. We raced and I dropped him the last 50 meters of the 400… I was hooked, especially since he was our school’s best 400 meter runner at the time. I stuck with football and track through high school.

The summer going into my third year of college, I decided I was going to try and walk on the track team- I was a decent 400 meter runner in high school but not fast enough to land a scholarship in college. I made the team that year, but only had a chance to race in a hand full of track meets due to hamstring injuries. Racing in college was a very humbling experience, to say the least. My last year of college, I decided to work for the track team instead of sitting in ice baths nursing hamstring injuries. This allowed me to be around a group of people I enjoyed, as well as get a large part of my schooling paid for through a scholarship they gave to track managers.

Surfing in Costa Rica

After college, I continued to run, but moved to longer distance road races. I never trained that hard for these races but always did pretty well. While visiting my sister in San Diego one summer, I did a spin class with her for the first time. This was a level of punishment I had not experienced outside of running. Shortly thereafter, I saw a special on triathlon racing and decided I would get a bike and give it a go. Having surfed for 5 years, I figured I could do the swim without too much difficulty… boy I was wrong about that. I purchased my first tri/road bike and trained when I could, mostly in Central Park, since I lived in New York at the time.

I did my first triathlon in the Hamptons, an Olympic distance race. I remember feeling completely out of my element and physically spent after the swim part of the race. I guess this is what happens when you don’t do any swim training prior to race day. I do remember passing a lot of people on the bike and even more on the run, which wasn't surprising considering how many of them left me behind on the swim. I was able to place in the top 5 for my age group and couldn’t wait to race again. It would be more than a year before I would race again, after first moving to Southern California. My second race was also an Olympic distance race in Camp Pendleton, Oceanside. Again, I finished the swim part of the race feeling like I had spent all my energy. However, this time I was able to finish more toward the middle of the pack. During the bike part of the race, I again passed a lot of people, but this time I could tell the level of competition around me was good, and half way through the race, I wasn’t passing that many people. Shortly beyond the halfway point, I got a flat, a REALLY bad flat. As it turns out, I ran over a large bullet casing, which tore a half-dollar size hole in my tire. I tried to change the tube, but it was useless, the tire was too damaged, race over. I didn’t race again for nearly 10 years, until this year.

America's Finest Half Marathon

During the triathlon dry spell, I started back into road races and started going longer and longer distances. I raced a couple half marathons and placed in my age group. I tried to train for a marathon a couple times but got injured, and or lost interest part way through. Inevitably, at some point during the year, I would suffer a running injury, or just get tired of running and look for something else to keep things interesting. This probably had a lot to do with why I first got into triathlons, and definitely why I decided to get back into it so many years later. The last few years, I suffered from a couple different injuries from running, mainly plantar fasciitis and calf injuries. Last summer, after finally getting my plantar issue under control, I kept having debilitating calf issues. I decided to bike for a month and not run, hoping that I could strengthen my legs and eventually get back into running. I mostly stuck to biking outdoors and spin classes. After one spin class a few weeks later, I jumped on the treadmill to see if I could run… no pain at all. I did this a couple times each week for a few weeks, until I was back to running a nice quick pace. Not only did I not feel any more pain, I felt strong on my run. I bet you can see where this is going. I toyed for a while in my mind about getting back into triathlons, but going for the longer stuff with the idea that one day, maybe I would do an Ironman. I made the decision to sign up for my first half Ironman, which was to take place in San Diego nearly 5 months later. For me, I always find it easier to have a specific event I am training for. Without a date on a calendar, I know I won’t be consistent enough with my training. I chose the half Ironman distance, mainly because I knew I could run a fast half marathon. This would be like taking a job because you like the retirement benefits it offers 30 years later.

The Climb up Mount Wilson

To say, training and racing triathlons is hard mentally and physically would be an understatement. As an adult, I can honestly say I’ve never experienced more suffering. Many times, after a tough workout, my wife has asked me, “Why do you do this to yourself?” I write this as I get ready to bike over 5800 feet to the top of Mount Wilson. The answer to my wife’s question is easy to answer, yet very difficult to explain to anyone who hasn’t suffered in this way. It is probably like my wife trying to explain child birthing to me. It’s during moments of great suffering when I feel most alive. On a day to day basis, life can get a little predictable and mundane. Pushing my body and mind beyond its comfort zone allows me to feel alive in a way that I can’t get in any aspect of my life; the greater the suffering, the greater the feel and more memorable the experience. After a while, these experiences become like an addiction and I can’t wait for my next fix. For many, I think this is why triathlons and other endurance pursuits are so addicting. Inevitably, any tough workout, whether training or racing, will include a good amount of suffering. Most people despise or avoid this kind of suffering, or simply don’t allow themselves to be in the moment to really experience it. Once you tell yourself that this part of experience, then you can begin to embrace it, or as Chris McCormack says, “Embrace the Suck”. I am now finishing this section having just climbed to the top of Mount Wilson today. My goal was to push the envelope and make it up to the top from my house in a little over 2 hours. I knew this was going to hurt, and it did. It’s the most difficult moments that I remember the most, those last 5 agonizing miles to the top. Those last 5 miles is what will make me want to get back on the bike and do it all again. This is why I Tri.

I will now hand things over to Andy, so he can give introduce himself.