Monday, October 12, 2009

An Ironman!

After 14 hours, 41 minutes in the heat and wind of western Hawaii, I finally crossed the finish line. The swim went well, and I felt pretty good about my time. The bike segment was going OK until I ran into the headwinds while heading north to the turn around at Hawi. They then shifted (as they often do) to become headwinds as I returned south! The umbrella my sister was using to protect her one-year old from the sun was actually inverted by a gust. Not suprisingly, my bike time was longer than I had hoped at 7 hours, 11 minutes. After that long ride, I headed out in the afternoon heat to start the marathon, which took 5 hours and 46 minutes. Half of it was run in near total darkness as there are no street lights as soon as you leave Kona. Thankfully, I had a lovely note and a picture of our sweet Forrest waiting for me in a special run needs bag at about mile 16. In that bag, I also had my father's tie. A tie I have worn or had present at most major events of my adult life. I carried that tie the last 10.2 miles and held it high as I crossed the finish line at 14 hours, 41 minutes and 1 second. In a field of top 5% finishers in qualifying Ironman races (plus 149 other lottery winners), I placed 162 out of 192 in my age division and 1501 out of 1853 overall. More importantly, I learned something about my inner resolve I did not know before, met some inspiring and encouraging people and raised over $4300 to help cure ALS. All of this has made every hour of training and every mile of distance covered worth it. Now, I think I will take a nap...

4 comments:

  1. Congratulations Tim....your smile says it all!

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  2. Fantastic accomplishment! Thank you for helping in the fight against ALS. We are putting together a team for the 2010 NYC Triathlon (with guaranteed entries) to raise money for ALS research. Shoot me a note if you'd like more info.
    In solidarity,
    Warren
    Co-founder MDA's Wings Over Wall Street®
    http://wingsoverwallstreet.org
    wjschiffer (at) yahoo (dot) com

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  3. Tim

    Congratulations on a great accomplishment, on behalf of so many In many ways, you are a real inspiration to me

    Take care

    Matt

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  4. Dr Scearce
    As a patient of yours for 5 years and more, we both know of the importance of challenging yourself, 'to climb the mountain within me'; this was a huge accomplishment for anyone, much less for someone with a demanding career and i know or can appreciate how hard your worked for the acheivement of this 'pointless endeavor'. Congratulations!
    JimO

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