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….

Just Can’t Do It!

Jul 112011
 

Earlier this week, I mentioned my plan to run 15 sprint triathlons in 19 days.  Unfortunately, this has proven to be impossible.  Work has picked up immensely in the past two weeks, including two separate presentations which have been taking up most of my time.  I still plan on completing many more sprint triathlons in the upcoming weeks, but I just know that I won’t be able to get 15 in like I had said earlier.

Last week, I ran two triathlons and both were completed in 1 hour and 40 minutes.  I need to improve on that time, so my training levels definitely need to pick up in the next couple of weeks.

Can You Handle Some Brown Trout?

Jul 092011
 

My brother and I are playing softball again and it has been way too long.  We played softball for several seasons with a bunch of his co-workers nearly two years ago when we lost in the first round of the playoffs by one run.  A heart-breaking defeat.  The team has rekindled it’s fire and starting anew with a new head coach . . . Jesse.

The Running Brothers made up the middle of the infield for the first game of the season, Zeb playing Shortstop and Rocky playing Second Base.  Zeb bats leadoff and Rocky is the clean-up hitter.  After not having played for more than two years, we jumped right into the swing of things, Zeb swung at the first pitch he saw drilling a double into the gap and Rocky had an inside the park home run.  Zeb finished the game 4 for 5 and Rocky went 3 for 5. 

Defensively, The Running Brothers held their own with Zeb turning a double play on a ground ball headed back to the pitcher and making a back handed grab and jump throw where he fired the ball to first getting the batter out.  Rocky managed to stay on his toes and made a few great plays of his own.

We ended up losing our first game of the season, 24 to 22, but considering how bad we were two years ago it was apparent that we will have chances to win this year.  Our team name is Brown Trout, because of what Rocky does for work.  In order to find out the meaning of our team name, you are going to have to ask him.

Mystery Challenge Revealed: We Went Paintballing!!!

Jul 062011
 

I was trapped.  The enemy had my position surrounded . . . I had no other option but to shoot my way out.  I was standing behind a tiny building with gunfire raining down on me from both sides of the building.  I started to the left, aiming at my target who was concealing himself behind the building.  I took three shots and turned towards the other side of the building and fired three more at another shooter hiding behind the trees and some brush, I could barely see his mask through the brush but fired anyways.  I returned back to my first target whose body was now exposed, I fired three shots, landing one of them.  He was out of the game.  I returned to fire on the shooter in the brush.  He was ready.  The second my gun came into his view, he fired.  I felt a stinging sensation in my arm and looked . . . green paint.  I was dead.

The Running Brothers and Lacey go Paintballing

We went paintballing for our most recent Mystery Challenge.

Rocky had been paintballing once before and I had never gone.  We also took our sister with us because she follows us around everywhere like a puppy dog or something.  I woke up at 7 AM and bought 2,000 paintballs at Wal-Mart, my brother showed up at the house, we had some breakfast then made our way to SC Village in Chino/Corona.

We picked up our rental guns and masks and awaited our first game.  As we were waiting a 12 year old kid had just been shot and kicked out of the game.  He was crying.  Did it really hurt that much?  What if I start crying?  Man, I was nervous.  That game ended and we walked to the place where our first game was set to begin.  My heart was beating fast, we were given instructions and then off we went, storming a castle against overwhelming odds.  I was the third person to get shot and the cool thing was . . . I hardly felt it.  From that point on, I knew it would be a fun day.

SC Village has a variety of maps that their paintballing takes place on, maps like Kosovo, South Vietman, China Beach, Iraq, Afghanistan and so on.  Each one has it’s own unique style.  Each game lasts 10 minutes or until one team or the other is eliminated from the field.  During the day we played about 10 games and had a great time.  The only downside was that it was over 100 degrees and we were wearing long-sleeved shirts, jeans and masks.  It was hot and uncomfortable, but surprisingly fun none the less.  Personally, I hardly noticed the heat, but I could tell that Rocky and Lacey felt it a little bit more than I did.

At the end of the day we left with some great memories, many bruises and a comraderie between us.  We had taken on the enemy against overwhelming odds and although we got shot more than we shot other people we had a great time paintballing.

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