Hermosa Beach IRONMAN 2012

RUN PADDLE CHUG

 

 I was probably the only world record holder participating and deffinetly the only person with a beer a sponsorship. 

(since "Lance " isn't allowed to compete)

I had hoped  to spin you  a triumphant tail of how a scrawny runner dude  was able to to beat out the yoked masses of surfer, however, my ego was over inflated, and  confidence had become arrogance 

but 

"You get what you get and you don't get upset."

President Obama had to wear a disguise in order to participate.  

The cowboy hat kind of gave him  away and I knew instantly it had to be him.

Every 4th of July for the passed 38 years Th South Bay Honors America with a tradition like know other. 

Welcome to the Hermosa Beach Iron Man.  Where contestants must run  a mile, paddle a mile and then drink a six pack of beer with out throwing up on their mom, priest,  or anybody else for 15 mins.

The event has one rule. 

 "And by the way  Michelob Ultra is not Beer."

It had been less than 72 hours after running 94 miles on the soft sand at the Hermosa 24 and I was back at the beach hoping to win another race.  My legs felt way better than I ever dreamed they would. I ran 2 miles on Monday the day after race and another  2 miles on Tuesday. The only thing really bugging me were my toes  I had about 6 deep blisters all of which had popped putting exposed flesh into sand while trying to grind out some miles inst the smartest of ideas but I've done a lot of thing stupider than this. 

Last year  I arrived late to the event after running another race earlier in the morning I was out of town for sign ups and my buddy Dilg who got me registered told me the event started an hour later than it actually did

Nice purse dude! :)

This year I dragged Dilg (also the custodian of my Surf Turd) with me extra early to be safe.The race use to start at 10 a.m. then last year they moved it to 9:30 a.m. and this year it started at 9 a.m.  The Marine layer was thick and it felt more like wintertime than the 4th July.

When I went to find my judge I found Chris Brown the 4 time defending champ (maybe more) carrying the clip board with my name on it.  Then upon further examination  I noticed his ankle was wrapped up in an ace Bandage.  It turns out he would not be racing.  This instantly increased my chances of winning but to be the best you got to beat the best and a win today would not be as meaningful.

 As usual the race officially began as soon as the National Athem was done being sang by the former mayor.  Unlike last year this time I was ready.  Surely I would leave everyone in the dust during the run? 

"Wake up dude your not that awesome!"

Although my legs felt good (not broken)  I had no speed what so ever.  It's just a mile in the sand but I could not keep up with the young blood in front of me.  When we got to the turn around point  about20 dudes were already  in front of me.

Then I made a bone head decision?

I U-turned to my right instead of my left meaning I would have to run the soft sand on the return. (I should know better) I thought maybe I could cross through the pack runners still heading out to the turn around but their was way to much testosterone to plow through

Compared to the field I was doing well but in regards to my expectations I was sucking. There was still plenty of race left and there is always a chance of puke! (the great equalizer)  In the few 100 yards of soft sand it takes to run up the beach (to pick up my  Surf turd) and back I made up a lot of ground .  

When I hit I hit the water there were only a few guys a head of me.  unfortunately for me I'm a runner and a drinker not a paddler This is my 5th time competing in the Ironman and surprise its my 5th time on surf board in the last decade. ( most of my real competition had probably been on board 5 times this week)

I may of the wimpiest arms in this whole competition (hard to believe huh) but I'm tenacious!  In an effort to conserve energy I took an inside route to the turnaround point (how'd I become smart all of sudden?).  This served me well on the paddle back avoiding the traffic heading out and kept me from paddling any extra distance.  I held my ground respectively only allowing less than 20 paddlers to pass me.  At this point I felt like I still had a chance to win.

Time to drink some Beer

In case your wondering did I drink Stone Ale?  I wish!.  Beer must come in a can and since Stone only uses Bottles I went with key"STONE" Light.  

Bummer.

When I got to my coral it seemed the party had started with out me there was about 6 people already drinking and the dude on the far right was on beer number 5.   It wasn't looking good for me.  I got my first 3 beers down in about minute  while dodging puke from the dude to my left.

Congrats Dude!!!

As I cracked beer four the winner Jeff Bellandi finished his sixth  Beer? (that's not beer)

At this point I began to struggle a bit as the foam in stomach rose up through my esophagus.  For the first time ever in the Iron man I thought I might puke.  It was hard but  kept it down.  In the mean time two other dudes also finished their  beers a few seconds before I was able to finish number 6.

There was still a chance that maybe a puke fest would develop?  One of the three guys in front of me had hurled a bit earlier (not enough though for disqualification)  But the other two dudes were in pretty good shape.

Each year there seems to be controversy about who the really winner is.  Did so so really finish all their beers? What exactly constitutes throwing up? Did he or she cut the course on the Paddle or Run?  And is it possible to win if your not  in the elite group?  There is a fine line between cheating  and being smart.

Add in the fact that everyone now is little tipsy and well who the real winner is,  

is anybodies guess?

As for the women

About a minute after I was done Andrea Bates the defending Champion blew away the competition.  Finishing easily in the top 10 out of all competitors. 

If you want to win the IRONMAN you need to finish in under 20 mins.  For most people it takes well over 30.

Dilg made himself useful by becoming a judge for another group. "Thanks for helping out dude."

As my adrenaline wore off and the alcohol entered the blood stream it was time watch the spectacle unfold around me.  

Traditional South Bay Music

IRONMAN's version of a Kick me sign.

Right of passage?

It wouldn't be the IRONMAN without Annie Seawright.  

During the commotion former mayer of Hermosa beach Bergie snuck off with his prize.

"We'll miss you Annie"

Gold old Stupid Fun and agreat day to be alive

Check Out my cool new shades I found buried in the sand.

I have now finished 7th, 2nd, 4th, 3rd, and 4th.  

I still have'nt figured out how to win this damn thing but I'll keep on trying till it happens.

Maybe next year I won't run 94 miles less than 3 days before?

Hopefully it will be more like 110

:)

Archive

2011 IRONMAN
2010 IRONMAN
2009 IRONMAN

Manhattan Beach 5k Yet Another Barefoot Win

Time to hit the sand once again.

 Manhattan Beach 5k Run 

My mother was more than happy to come cheer me on.  She turns 70 this year and has been playing volleyball on sand of Manhattan Beach (Marine St.) for over 50 years.

The race starts at 7a.m. the weekend after or before the Summer Solstice.  It wasn't quite low tide but there was pleanty of room to run and this was the lowest I had seen in it in my 3 years of participation. It starts by the water at the Manhattan Beach pier and heads out to El Porto and back.

2008

The first time I ran this race was back in 2008.  At the time it was my very first 5k I ever ran my only goal was to beat the first place woman.  As she slowed down through the finish line knowing she first in her gender wrapped up.  I closed 100 foot gap in the last 150 feet to sneak in in front of her with 2 steps remaining. (what a dork)

2009 Race Report

In 2009 I was in pretty good shape.  But was over training for the San Diego 100 and strained my left hamstring pretty bad two days prior to the 5k.  Against better judgement I decided to still run the race and I won. 

 (This pic was taken by my buddy John Moriello (I spelled his name wrong but am too lazy to look it up) who was working for patch.com and remains my favorite pic taken of me running)

2010

 I was injured with bum IT BAND

and

2011 

They held the event the same day as the Hermosa 24, Part of me wanted to participate in both events but that would have been silly.

My nephews also came down to run in the kids race afterwards check out there cool shirts from the 100 mile club summer program 262 also check my awesome vegan body builder shirt my buddy Ravi gave me.  (pretty amazing I could fit into the thing with all my gigantic muscles?)

Pre race dinner

Whole wheat tortilla, garlic hummus, onion, cabbage, cherry tomato, orange bell pepper, mushroom,avocado, jalapeno, kalmata olive and sriracha. Served with salt and vinegar chips and washed down with an Oaked Arrogant Bastard

There is Avocado in it but it needs more to be to consider it "cado loading"

I'm don't like to say no to free beer but is Michelob Ultra really beer?

On to the race

Every year it amazes me how many runners wear shoes? It's pretty hilarious watching them scramble away from the incoming tide as we line d up to race.  In years past it was a serious disadvantage.  Since the course  is a there and back route you are you are forced against an onslaught of runners on the return trip.  If the tide is high you 2 choices, either run in the water or the soft sand, with the water being the easier option.   Part of the reason I won back in 2009 was than most of the runners who had a chance at beating me had worn shoes an didn't wan to get them wet.

Going into the race I was pretty confident in my chances although my legs were still beat up from the 5mile race I ran less than 36 hour prior. At registration the day before  the dude signing up people at the running store was just out of high school and told me he wanted to win.  I was anxious to see what he was capable of.

On your marks, Get set, Go.

I forgot my hat, and took the lead from the get go as usual.

I thought I was distancing myself from the other racers when up strolls the race director Jeff Atkinson) at about the 1/2 mile mark.  (Jeff holds the mile record at Stanford and ran in the 1,500m at the 1988 Olympics)  He was only running the first mile and I guess it was nice to have some company.

Because the tide was lower than normal the sand was softer making the course pretty slow. (yep I making excuses) I ran the first mile just under 5:30.  When I hit the turn around I din't feel very fast and had no clue how big my lead was.  I turned out to be about 150 feet.

(pretty comfortable if I was feeling good but that wasn't the case)

Nothing to do but grind it out (for a whole 8 mins) and hope I could hang on. the cheers from the other runners helped encourage me to a strong finish and they also let me now that the 2nd place runner still had some work to do since there was a pause in the claps.

I was much slower than the last time I ran this race.

But I was still able to come in first.

And 

remember that kid I told you about I met the day before he came in 2nd just a few steps behind me.

Article from the Easy Reader

Former World Record holder and Race director for the Hermosa 24  Christian Burke was in town to run in next weeks Ultra marathon.  I think he was with 5 minutes of winning. :)

 

After the the 5k they had an inaugural backwards run. it was supposed to be a mile but was closer to half that distance. Can you guess who won?

Shhh!

This event actually did occur.  I did make sure Christian saw me though. He was a good sport and went tumbling over me.

Another Icon of Hermosa beach showed the talented and Beautiful Annie Seawright. 

(she will also be competing in the Hermosa 24 but on a relay team.

Now it was my Nephews time to run

In an effort to limber up Lucas attempted the splits luckily he was unsuccessful.

The kids proved to be smarter than most of the adults by going out barefoot.

My nephews ran stride for stride on the way out

But on the way back the older one out strided his little brother

But I was equally proud of both of them.

.Next up were the really small kids

It doesn't get much cuter than that. This little dude was bringing up the back of the pack running barefoot in his Pj's.

I won a lee majors doll for the backwards race and 1st place cookie for the 5k.

Another great day living in paradise running races with my family.  

Life is good....

Oh yeah what about that free beer?  I could either go have a drink and walk home or get a ride and no beer. What to do, what to do?

If I say no to the free beer then maybe they won't offer me one next time.

Looks like i'm walking.

Well how bout a barefoot jog on the wood chips instead.

Bring on the Hermosa 24

Watermelon Solstice 5k 2012 (Don't forget to check your knots!)

On and off the last 15 years I have spent the majority of my Thursdays at El dorado Park in Long Beach California.  Back in 1997 shortly after graduating High school I started playing frisbee golf.
 (some people call it "disc golf" but  wammo illegally pattended the name "frisbee" so I use that term in protest.)

(Old Disc Golf trophy)

Part of the reason I chose to go to Long Beach State for college was that my home course at EL Dorado was only 1 mile away meaning that in between classes, before and after school I could play frisbee golf. Throughout college I supported myself by gambling on just about every round of golf I played often times 7 days a week up 10 rounds in a day.

I could go to El Dorado at anytime or day and find friends to golf with from homeless dudes to doctors and important people such as teachers and less important people such a lawyers. It has served as my home away from and I even used the screen name Teameldo for years and still have the email address teameldo@gmail.com.

El Dorado 2003

I have been taking my nephews to El Dorado since they were babies.  One of them even had a birthday party when he was 5.

As recent as last month I took my other Nephew to the archery range at Eldo for the very time.

"Hey Lucas stand very still while I shoot that Bulls Eye."

"So close, at least no blood was spilled."

El Dorado even plays a part in my Ultra Running career. (career Ha!) On the river bed bike path just outside the park I won my first Ultra the "2008 Orange Curtain 100km" Also they only time I have ever received a bouquet of flowers and the first time I met Barefoot Ted.

A few weeks ago I came across this flyer for a race.  "Thursday night at El Dorado and free watermelon! How could i resist?" Chances are I was gonna be there anyway to golf.  Upon further inspection of the flyer. I noticed that the late John Pagliano was a sponsor.  John was my foot Dr. who went out of his way to take care of me,  he saw me at his house and even snuck me into his office free of charge for X-rays.  To say he was a nice guy is an understatement.  He loved helping younger runners succeed and did a lot of pro bono work for those that could not afford to see a Dr.  Sadly he lost his battle with cancer just a few months ago.  I would run this race with thoughts of him in the back my head.  John was world renowned Dr. and I considered him a friend.

Race day

As expected I played 3 rounds of frisbee golf prior to the race.  The weather was beautiful and I had a few Stone Ales in the car on ice for after the race.  Although I was quiteparched I did my best to refrain from drinking before the race,

El Dorado is huge park. from reading the flyer it looked like the starting line was next to the archery range where it cost $6 to park.  It's about 1 mile from the frisbee golf park so I decided to walk in order to save a few  bucks.  It was about 5:15 when I left, the race started at 6:00 and I still needed to sign up.

When I got to the archery range the place was empty? Instead they had a series of signs directing traffic to the other side of the park, about 2 more miles away by car. (uh oh) If I knew the final destination I could take a short cut but since I had no clue I was forced to follow the road jogging barefoot to the starting line.

I made it there with a few minutes to spare but in my rush I forgot to but on my compression sleeves and check the knots on my Luna Sandals.

 Well the entry fee was $35 (kind of pricey for what you got) I normally pay around $.15 a lb for my melons so let's see if I eat 334 lbs I'll be turning a profit. I better get to it.  I'd only had yellow watermelon once before and it was nice surprise.  Before the race started I ate about 2 lbs of each only 330 more to go. 

If only they had some Watermelon music

One of my all time favorite songs

When you finish do you metal?

Nope!

You get a melon I thought that was pretty cool.

I have no pictures of the race yet so I might is get on with what transpired.  In the past I had ran some of the bike paths through this park before but in this race we'd be running on the street and I wasn't sure how confusing it would be but I was't too worried.  The course consisted of  a 2 mile lap on the North side of the park then 1 mile on the southside before repeating the first loop a second time.

From doing a little research online this race draws some fast runners .  To win it normally takes an average of between a 5:05 to 5:10 mile.  My body felt like it could do 5:30 pretty easily a5:15 if all went good and 5:05 if something magical happened.

The starting line was full dudes wearing onesies for various track clubs (I found out after the race from a few the runners that would gladly give there track club for the Stone Ale Gargoyle.) Anyway these guys meant business and I was excited

With so many good runners we were packed in a tighter than i would of liked at the start.  I recognized a few faces from races I had ran in Orange and San Diego County's last year.

On your ,Marks get set, Go.

It was pretty warm out my legs felt a bit beat from playing disc Golf all day along with the extra couple of miles to the starting line but all that was behind me once the adrenaline started flowing.  It took a few hundred yards to break away from the main group (who honestly I thought would be going out at a faster speed) I ran the first mile just a little bit over a  5 min pace and found myself tailing one guy who looked to be of masters age. 

This dude knew how to run but  with that came a really loud heavy breathing. His gasps were encroaching on my bliss so I ran a little faster and jumped out into the lead which I held for the better part of the first lap. It was then that some track super stud came out of nowhere and left me in the dust.  During the second lap  a couple other guys pulled up next to me during the first half of mile three and we took turns jumping out in front of each other but we were about 150 behind the leader.  At about the halfway my right sandal started to feel loose?  The only other time I have felt this sensation is when I had my one and only blow out (knot coming undone or tearing off)


There was no time to check it it.  It felt like the lace was still stick through the sandal and I hoped it would hold up to the finishline.  I was running strong, the sandal felt awkward but at this point it wasn't hindering my pace very much.


All of sudden the leader out in front of  us pulled off the course? It turned out he was a bandit just out to get a few miles in. Personally that pissed me off a bit! He hadn't payed to race and his running had effected my strategy for better or for worse.


I was now in the lead  by about 10 feet over two strong runners.  Just as we passed the 3 mile mark my presumed blow out when from bad to worse and my sandal flopped off  to the side of my foot, still holding on the by the laces traditionally wrapped around my ankle.  Fixing the sandal was out of the question I would have to run with one barefoot for the final two miles and I would have to stop to untie the lace.


It felt like it took about 20 seconds to get the sandal off (realistically it took less than 10) the 2 runners i was battling soared out in front along with a third runner.


Once I finally got the sandal off I started to sprint. The road felt fine on my bare skin and I was going at about 4:30 mile (way to fast)  I caught back up to the leaders in about 90 seconds but I was  shooting my load too early and my pace slowed as quickly as it started closer to  a 6 min mile than a 5 min one.
 
The two runners regained the lead and I began to run a little more caution.  The discrepancy between the two feet made running awkward. I'd of been better off completely barefoot than in one sandal and I really did not want to hurt myself.I had another race planned  less than 36 hours away and the Hermosa 24 in less than 10 days and really this race was not that important to me.

Eventually the third guy passed me and I finished the race in 4th place running with my sandal in hand.
Results

Time for some more watermelon.

and

What do you wash watermelon down with?

Watermelon juice (really it's mostly High Fructose Corn Syrup I presume) I drank half a cup because all the other kids were doing it.  

The highlight of the day was seeing my friends Laura and Tracy (you may remember them from my trip to Catalina back in January)  They are both big fans of Luna Sandals and they came out to watch me run.

Tracy the woman on the right is no slouch she has won a 100 mile race outright and also has the unofficial world record for women by running over 250 miles in 72 hours. She also does ceramics for living ans made me a few custom pendents and then cooked up sweet vegan dinner in exchange for a few Stone Ales.

Thanks Tracy and thanks Laura for putting up with her for over 12 years.

If you need some custom trophies or awards for your next race I highly recommend using Tracy.

Marvelous Mud

http://www.marvmud.com/

I lost my race and my streak of wins had been broken once again.  Who cares I'd be racing again over the weekend and the outcome would be different.  :)

Time to watch the kids race

These little dudes look fast

How dare she stick her tongue out at me?

 :)~

Flying.

This little dude made a rookie mistake by forgetting to lube his nipples.

On to the awards

What was I gonna win this time?  I thought for sure I had won my age division(maybe second) the winner looked younger than me 2nd place was deffinetly a master and third place I could of sworn he was around 50 years old

but

 I was wrong.

Third place it as oh well, the flyer said merchandise prizes for 1,2,3.  First place got a pair of shorts (kind of cool) 2nd got socks (Ehh not too bad) and 3rd?  WHat would yours truly recieve .

They actually gave me choice.  Either bottle of antibacterial soap (something I try not to use) Or cheap plastic jug (something I try not to use).  I decided to be gracious and take the jug (gave it to my sister)

At least I got water melon.

My car was still a few miles away and I spent the jog (with a heavy back pack) on the Course for the Orange Curtain.  It turns out the jug was a perfect prize? As I ran i used it to hit myself on the side of my head as i spoke to myself  "Hey stupid don't forget to check your knot's next time, if you want a better prize your gonna have to earn it."


Luna Sandals
maybe the worlds greatest running sandal but they are far from idiot proof. But this idiot still loves them
:)


 Parting shot:

The race was fun but a bit over priced. The race director seemed pretty stressed out and was unintentionally taking it out on the runners.  Unless yo are capable of eating 100's of pounds of watermelon in single sitting I would not recommend this race to anyone and will not be back next year although I really do have a soft spot in my heart for both El Dorado Park  and for Watermelon.