My Race — SLO Triathalon

Aug 032011
 

The day prior my brother raced and completed is first normal sprint triathlon. Now I had a race of my own.

I was gonna pee, gosh darnit. After several attempts  the day before with no success and the unpleasant use of a catheter. I was ready and I was gonna win this race. I whimpered my way to an upright position then slowly and with a grimace I eeked to a standing position. I wheeled my IV pole to the bathroom, lifted the thin vail that covered my special region and pushed like the dickens….. nothing! I was bummed.

I was not ready to give up, so with steadfast effort I leaned against the wall and gave it the old steady sustained push and eventually a small dribble turned into a glorious stream. It was relief to my ears to hear the sweet sound. I exited the bathroom, hunched over with stomach pain but arms raised in celebration, fully filled bottle in one hand and my IV pole in the other. Very rarely have I ever experience such joy. 

I quickly thought the hospital staff wouldn’t appreciate a crazed patient fist pumping his own urine in the hallway. So I quietly returned to my room, set my bottle down where the nurse could see my success and went for a victory lap around the hospital. I like to think the hospital staff could see the joy in my eyes but they probably felt sorry for me with my hunched shuffle walk.

I returned to my bed and my Dad came. He gave me a fist bump after seeing my proudly displayed bottle and we knew it was only a matter of time before I would be out of there.

While I didn’t get to race in San Luis Obispo, I think I got that sense of accomplishment that finishing my first normal triathlon would give me. Even though it was a bit unorthodox, I finished my race and I was proud of my brother. Now, well after two weeks of light exercising (doctor prescribed), the Running Brothers will be training for their next event.

My Brother Race – SLO Triathalon

Aug 012011
 

I was stuck to a bed in French Hospital and my brother was about to start the SLO Triathalon. I was going to missing my brothers Race. My sister managed to find an Application (Qik Video) for ourAndroid Smartphones which was like a video calling application and as my brother started the race I got an alert from my sister.

After acepting the alert I was pool side, hearing the  splashes and seeing my Brother completethe 36 laps in the pool. He was looking good and halling but especially when I compared him to his lane partner (an elderly lady with a good kick and medicore swimming form). To save her phones battery my sister said she would check in with me every so often as the race progressed.

It looked like such a wonderful day, I was stuck in a hospital bed and it was so great out. Zeb finished the swim and I got my next alert from Lacey. I watched Zeb on his first transition to the bike and watched him pedal off out of site to Orcutt Road.

Lacey’s phone died after that but Zeb looked good and I knew he would finish.

 After about an hour my Mom came into my room and told me my brother would be running infront of the hospital. I had an urge to get up and see if the staff would let me out the front door to watch him but, by the time I knew he was close it would have taking me a good 30 minutes to get disconnected from everything and out the front door. He passed the hospital and went on to finish the race.

He must have immediately crossed the finish line, loaded up his bike and came to the hospital. He was there very quickly with my whole family. He gave me his metal and I got to ask him about the race. He said it was tough and a lot more difficult than he expected, even slightly boring. I wish I could have ran with him to keep things more lively.

My brother did great and I am really proud of him.

Disaster Strikes the Running Brothers

Jul 312011
 

With less than 24 hours the start of the the SLO Triathalon where Rocky is going beat Zeb, Rocky is consummed with stomach pain.

After a few hours of resting with stomach pain and no fever the Running Brother Family meets and decides it would be best for me to see a doctor. My family is absolutely fantastic, they were all immediately on the phone trying to find a place for me to see a doctor without voiding my health insurance. Very quickly we determine their is no Kaiser on the Central Coast and French Hospital is the nearest facility for me to get a check and a quick dose of something to get me ready for my big race.

The CSPA workshop was having their 60 Anniversary gathering. Where my Dad and my number 1 hero was named to the organizations Hall of Fame.  My Dad, Brother and Sister go to the Anniversary and my mom and I are headed to French Hospital.

My mom and I walk into the ER doors and immediatly are talking to the check in desk folks and they immediatly get us to a bed, within 15 mins of walking in the doors our doctor was at talking to use and attempting to diagonis the problem.  He quickly orders a Cat Scan which is completed and sent to the Radiologist.

Within minutes we would have our answer and I was hoping to get a shot or parscription and be out of there. Unfortunently it was not my day… I had an appendicitis which required surgery. My race was over and hospital stay was going to be a lot longer than originally desired.

Fortunently for me the best doctor and anateialogist in the State were called in to perform my appendectomy. We had only walked into the doors about 3 hours before and they were wheeling me in to surgery. My brother, never being a person to miss a joke, gave me a, “if I never see you again….” joke. I was a little scared so while I laughed I didn’t paricularly appreciate it.

I schuffled over to the opposite table and before they could tell me all their names the sleepy doctor had  worked his magic. I was out. I came to in a completely different room and they were wheeling me to my overnight room where my family joined me, here is a picture of as they were wheeling me out of surgery:

My racing goals changed there: instead of beating my brother it was now to pass gas and pee as fast as possible to get out of there and watch my brother race.  I was told I could be out of the hospital the next day if everything went well.

Well everything did not go perfect for me. My body had a difficult time whipping back in to shape. I got the passing gas thing down, but hey needed me to urinate to show I was not retaining water. Either by body knew I was supposed to be swimming or it really liked that hospital water, my body retained water like a champ. After not being able to urninate on command the doctors decided to hold me one more day, which meant I would miss my brothers race.

SLO Triathalon– Jitters or Something Else

Jul 292011
 

We arrived to San Luis Obispo Friday night at about 10:00 and felt great. We stopped for some In-N-Out Burgers in Santa Maria and made it to Lassen Dorms where the CSPA workshop was staying. We meet our Dad and unload all of our gear to our room for safe keeping. Our our heros (our mom and Sister) who made the trek up north were about and hour behind us.

After everyone arrived it was nearly 11:00p.m. and I was paricularly exhausted I resorted to room after saying hello to a few of our long time family friends and was gonna call it a night.

My stomach was starting to get a little upset and I thought, we are still two days away from our race, this can’t be pre-race jitters. So I toughed it through the night with some chills and other discomforts, and my brother was great in getting me something to drink and just being a caring, concerned person.

The next morning we woke up and the CSPA cats (actually volunteer instructors) were heading to Lazy Cats a local resurant in Downtown SLO, that has good breakfest and cat themed decour.

Everybody was getting the breakfast specials with plenty of food, good chunks of bacon and hash browns at affordable prices. I was stilling hunched over from the night before so I stuck with a small fruit cup and a water.

Throughout breakfast we got to decribe how the Running Brothers came about and the success we have had thanks to our Heros. One of our family friend and heros, Fred Schoemehl (editor of the Tombstone Epitaph), began asking us questions about the triathalon. We quickly realized we may be in over our heads.

We didn’t know where or when to check in, what the course was going to be like or even where it went. Maybe we were overly coinfident and didn’t bother to do our research but I like to think its because we have been very busy for the past several weeks. Zeb has started a new company with our Sister and I have, well…. just been busy.

Immediatly after breakfast we decided we needed to get serious. So we had a lesuirly strolled around downtown looking for a place to buy new swimming goggles and then we would figure out how to check in for the event.

The old Copeland Sports which had two locations in downtown SLO is not a Sports Authority with a very wide selection of swimming googles. We picked the $9.99 pair and we were on on our way.

Now, off to check in. Well…. my stomach was hurting and I needed to rest especially if we were going to be racing tomorrow. My brother and sister took me back to our room and hit my bed like a sack a potatoes.

I feel like I am person that never quits, I sometimes don’t give it my best effort, but I never quit. I was really looking forward to this race because I thought I would have a chance at beating Zeb. I have steady lost weight, I am playing Racquetball weekly and I generally felt pretty fit.

So now, I am not feeling that great and our race is in less than 24 hours. So I resort my mind to just giving enough effort to finish and I would beat Zeb on another day.

Our Second Triathalon–Anticipation

Jul 282011
 

We have been gaining some popularity and followers along with a little coinfidence so we thought we would go to our first out of town event. The San Luis Obispo Triathalon. This event sounded exciting, it was a modest sprint triathalon, it was a staggered start because everybody started in a Pool at the SLO swimcenter, the bike took the racers on to Orcutt Road which we were told is a country road with near the busy San Luis Downtown and the run was arround local streets infront of French Hospital and other neat San Luis sites to Sinsheimer Park Baseball Stadium.

The event was held last Sunday on July24 and we were excited. This was our first normal triathalon (the Race at the Base was a backward sprint triathalon) so we were interested to see how we would do with the swim (our worst event) being first.

 The friday before I got of work, meet my brother and we packed his truck with our bikes, helmets and other gear and started on the scenic 4 hour drive out of LA and up the Pacific Coast Highway.

As a family we used to make this trip every year to visit my Dad who runs the CSPA workshop our of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and other family members who live in the city. SLO is also where we started our training program only a few months ago.

So to find out if SLO was slow,  fast, or other to us… stay tuned….

Father-Son Golf Trip

Jun 152011
 

Fathers Day is coming up and it’s time again for the running brothers to go on our annual father-son golf trip. This year we are heading up north to the Oxnard area to play at River Ridge Country Club. We are excited to see a new town, play some golf but most of hang out with our Dad.

Racing in San Luis Obispo

Jun 112011
 

The Running Brothers are returning to their roots. We started our running in one of our favorate Cities, San Luis Obispo. You can read our previous running advantures in SLO, all the way back in December.

That was our first real training day and I think we have come alot. Now we are going back for our second triathalon. The 32nd Annnual SLO Triathalon will be on July 24, 2011 and the running brothers will be there ready to run, bike and swim.

You may have read that our family has a pretty close connection to San Luis Obispo. Our mother grew up in SLO, our father attended the California Scholastic Press Association Workshop and subseqently lead for work show for nearly 30 years. Our parents meet at that workshop at the California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. My brother, Sister and I all attended the workshop. Our family made regular trips to SLO to see our family. So needless to say SLO has a special place in our hearts.

If you want to join us let us know, if you want to make the drive or are a local and want to cheer us on that would be fantastic.

WISH US LUCK!!!

Back To An Old Goal

Jun 022011
 

Now that we have done our first marathon and that was one of my main goals. I want to focus on another one of my 0riginal goals. The 4-minute (actually 4:59) mile! I am feeling great with the marthon under my belt. We are playing soccer once a week and I have recently picked up racketball. Soccer and racketball should be building my speed and the my endurance is increasing everyday.

Aside from spending time with my brother I think the four minute mile is one of the goals that I am personally most excited about.

Starting this week I want to make it a point to attempt the 4 minute mile once a week. Wish me luck!

Sun Protection

Jun 012011
 

Our recent post about skin care may lead you to think, well as long as I wear sunscreen I am doing everything I can. Well… there are more options that I have found and I hope you can help to provide some more.

Sunscreen: Everyone knows about sunscreen. I have found that anything above SPF 30 doesn’t do much more for me than the lower SPF stuff. I really like the new spray sunscreens because they don’t run in to my eyes and dont make my hands feel slimey.

Protective Clothing– Several companies specialize in sun protection clothing. They have come along way it not just long cotton sleeves, these shirts are sophisicated. Coolibar is a company that specialized in sun pretective cloathing. I only have one Columbia shirt that is meant for sun protective athletes and I really like it, it breathes great and I look pretty good in it. But now that I know about Coolibar I think that would be a good recommendation when people ask me what I want for my birthday. Apparently, they even have swim sunprotective clothing. Us pale skinned folks thank companies like Coolibar.

Laundry Detergent– Some companies are making an additive to add to your laundry to increase your clothings sun protectiveness. CRAZY! I have never tried this but it sound interesting.

What other methods do you have for protecting your skin, can you provide our readers with some other options?

Personal skin care

May 312011
 

I have never been an proactive person when it comes to skin care even thought the doctors tell me I am more prone to melanoma (skin cancer). Recently, I have taken a more active approach to protecting myself and I want all of our heros to take care of their skin too. As runners we are out in the sun a lot and need to be more concerned than others about our skin.

Below is a nice picture of my leg and the horrible lobster sunburn I got when I got lazy and forgot the sunscreen:

This thing was painful and for nearly two weeks I was paying for it.

Now that you have seen how stupid I am and just forgot the sunscreen let me give some tips that I have learned from my numerous visits to there dermoutologist about moles and melanoma.

Know your ABCDe’s:

A- Asymmetry — If you can cut the mole in half and it is the same on both sides that is good but if they aren’t get it checked out.

B- Border — A smooth round border is good. Jagged edges are not and should get checked out.

C- Color– Constant color is good. Different shades mean get it checked out.

D- Diameter– Small is good. Bigger than a pencil diameter is…..(you guessed it) get it checked out.

E -Elevation — if the mole is raised from the skin, get it checked out.

I have modified this ABCDE thing slightly to know your ABCDEE’s. There is another E that I think is the most important. EVOLUTION- watch how your moles change with time. Change is not good and whenever they change, that means certain cells are growing and that could be bad. So do a self evaluation and know your moles as it relates to your ABCDEE’s. But with the severity and speed of melanoma if you have any concern, GET IT CHECKED OUT by a doctor.

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