I DID IT! IRONMAN ARIZONA 11-18-2012

Took almost 16 1/2 hours to get it done, but I got it done!

A little more than a week before my Ironman event was very stressful! Laarni had been dealing with several health issues. We just continue to pray that she’ll be ok!

The Thursday before I was supposed to leave for Phoenix, I decided to do a short swim and try some new drills that I had learned. The next morning, I was hurting pretty bad and my shoulder got totally inflamed! I had been seeing the guys at TEAM Clinic in Santa Clara to help me keep loose and injury free. They worked on my shoulder and it felt a little better. I iced my shoulder all weekend and took some Advil to try and settle the inflammation. It worked, but by Monday, the pain had migrated from my shoulder blade to the top of my shoulder. I saw the guys at TEAM Clinic again on Monday so they worked on it again! They also explained to me how normal it was for athletes to feel injuries during taper and right before an event. Uh, I think they were trying to tell me that I was freaking myself out and that the pain was all in my mind! Either way, it hurt like hell and I didn’t mind paying them to help me!

These guys are great. Dr. Chevalier and Alex Lopez really helped me to stay loose, suggested some exercises to do at home and helped me to find ways to prevent cramping. They have worked with and have successfully helped professional, collegiate and even amateur athletes. Good guys at TEAM Clinic!

Not only did I have this new pain, but I also felt a little under the weather! NOOOO!! I was in denial and really tried hard not to think about being congested or having a sore throat! I drank Cranberry juice and did my nasal flush the next few days just to try and stay healthy. But by Tuesday, I was feeling really lousy and had to leave work early to try and get some rest. By now, I’m freaking out internally, but I didn’t want to tell anyone that I was feeling lousy…I wanted no excuses…not at this point and I really tried hard to stay positive so close to my event!

Many know that I attempted IRONMAN Canada in August and didn’t quite make it to the run because of some severe leg cramps. I decided that I needed a lot of help so I hired a personal coach (Coach Tom) 4 weeks prior to my event who gave me a ton of tips that proved to help me tremendously. He suggested that I eat canned soup during the week leading up to the event. It would supposedly help to keep my salt levels high. Perfect, I loaded up on Progresso’s Chicken Soup with Wild Rice. I used it not only for the sodium, but to help me feel better from this cold.

I flew out to Phoenix on Thursday morning (11/15) and arrived right at noon (Laarni and the kids would follow later). I got my rental van and went to the hotel to check in and was able to get a room early so I dropped off my luggage. I then headed straight for packet pickup and registration at Tempe Town Lake.


Getting my assigned Bib #206



Since I was a late entry for this event, I didn’t have a pre-assigned bib number so I got assigned #206 when I arrived. Cool, I really didn’t care and was just glad I got an entry into this event that has been sold out for a year! To give an idea on how popular this event is, the 2013 event sold out in 40 seconds when it opened up to the public just one day after my event!

Raceday Transport - Attention to Details

I got all my registration stuff and went to pick up my bike from Raceday Transport. I have to give props to this new company! Their attention to detail and the fact that they got me a spot in their truck just weeks prior to the event was much appreciated! I got my bike and went back to the hotel to drop it all off.

I had scheduled a sports massage with a local massage therapist that afternoon. When I arrived, the massage therapist asked how I was doing and I did tell him about my shoulder as well as my cold. He discouraged me from getting a massage because he said that getting a massage would probably make me feel worse before I got any better. It would allow me to recover faster but he obviously was skeptical that I would feel better prior to my event on Sunday. Since I was starting to feel better on my own, I decided to take his advice and skip the pre-event massage. I was very impressed with this young man as he could have easily looked the other way to earn some money for a massage but he too was looking out for me.

Now that I had some extra time, I decided to go to Walmart and shop for the things that I needed for the event and the rest of the week. PB&J, bread, bananas, water, pickles, etc…

I then went into downtown Tempe and had an early dinner at Gordon Biersch…weird going into a brewery without actually ordering a beer!! But their flatbread pizza’s are so good!

Kids and their mentors getting ready for the swim start

Got to sleep early on Thursday so I could wake up early on Friday to go check out a kids triathlon put on by Chances for Children. This organization is a non-profit that helps underprivileged children obtain the opportunity to a healthy lifestyle and on-going fitness. In fact, this is the organization that allowed me to get a last minute entry to Ironman Arizona in exchange for doing some fundraising for them. With my awesome friends and family, we raised over $3,000 in just 4 short weeks! Amazing! But in reality, the kids are the ones who were amazing! I had so much fun watching these little athletes do so well! The best part was that one of my good friends, Chacha, who also did the IM event, and her sister, met me out at the kids’ tri so we could watch it together! Fun times for sure!

The kids’ tri was over at around 10am so I headed into Tempe to check out the Ironman Expo. I met up with a couple of former TNT teammates, John and Mark. We hung out for a little bit but it was starting to warm up. I wanted to stay out of the sun so I left before noon so I could go back to the hotel to have a light lunch. What’s for lunch? Progresso’s Chicken and Wild Rice soup and cranberry juice.



Transition and Special Needs Bags



After lunch, it was time to put some of my transition bags and “special needs” bags together. For those unfamiliar with IM events, each athlete is given 5 large plastic bags. All the stuff you need to change into for the bike and the run has to fit into one large plastic bag. Then during both the bike and the run, you are allowed to have one special needs bag that you could put anything you want into it so you could have it at the halfway point of each the bike and run. I’ve seen people put things like pizzas or sandwiches or coke bottles in there! Probably one of the weirdest things I put in mine? Pickle juice! I’ll explain later why I used it. The 5th bag was called our morning bag and would be used to put my morning clothes into it after I changed into my wetsuit first thing in the morning.

I’m telling you, putting these bags together takes several hours…if you forget one important thing it could ruin your day. Or how would it feel if you went to your Transition #1 bag and you opened it up to find your run stuff when in fact it should have been your cycle stuff! I made several checklists and labels to make sure I had it all right!

Friday night dinner was supposed to be an Athlete’s dinner in Tempe with the race organizers. They also take this time to go over the race rules and the race circuit. But I got a better offer from one of my good friends Kristy. She invited me over to dinner at her place and since several folks I knew were skipping the dinner put on by the race organizers, I decided to bail on it as well. It proved to be a good choice since dinner and time with Kristy and her family and friends was a lot more fun! Ironically, Kristy was my very first coach who helped me when I joined the TNT Cycle Team back in 2009. I had no clue what I was doing (not that I do now) but Coach Kristy helped me to fall in love with the sport. Kristy also did her first IM back in 2009 and I remember how crazy I thought she was for doing one…it happened to be IM Arizona too!

It was a quick dinner at Kristy’s house since I had to go to the airport to pick up Laarni and the kids. They arrived around 7:30pm. Went to the hotel and hit the sack early!

Loved having the kids with me at the event!

Saturday morning was the practice swim at Tempe Town Lake plus I had to check in my bike into transition (this has to be done the day before event day). Hana and Marcus came with me to help watch my stuff while I did the practice swim. In the meantime, Laarni went to the airport with Zachary and Kailie to pick up our good friend Danielle and my mom! Funny story, my mom got to the van, opened the door and saw Danielle sitting there. My mom said with her Hella Pinoy accent, “Oops, I’m sorry, wrong car”! Ha ha!! I forgot to tell my mom that we adopted another kid named Danielle!

The practice swim was good…I had heard that the lake was cold so I wanted to see how cold it really was. You can’t really tippy toe in…you have to jump into the water since the only entrance into the water is a set of bleachers. I got in at around 9:45am and it definitely gave me a shock when I first jumped in. But once I started going, it wasn’t that bad. I went out for about 10 minutes and then headed back! There were already a lot of people in the lake during the practice swim so all I thought about was how race day would truly be like a washing machine! But hey, I’ve made it this far, no turning back now! Stay positive is all I thought!

By the time I got out of the water, got the bike and gear bags to transition, it was around 11AM and Laarni was on her way back from the airport to Tempe. She picked us up and we went to lunch. We had a great lunch at Red Robin. Well, I had a light lunch and was very tempted by the fries that everyone else was eating! But I was good and stayed away.

It was time to head back to the hotel so that I could get off my feet. Very good advice given to me by all my TNT coaches. Laarni and Danielle decided to go and check out the IRONMAN Expo back in town.

I got all my nutrition stuff together and made sure I marked everything so I knew where each item would go first thing in the morning on event day. I’m so glad I did this because so much is going on in the morning that having everything marked made it easy to put stuff in my transition bags and reduced the risk of me putting something in the wrong bag.

I can’t even remember what I was watching on tv, but I was pretty much kicking back the rest of the afternoon. My brother and his family made it into town by around 3pm. They got a room right across from ours so our kids and my brother’s kids got to hang out together. Laarni made me a light pasta dinner that I ate at around 5:30pm while everyone else ate pizza. I tried to go to sleep at around 8pm but that never works. But I have learned to relax before an event and simply just lie there and rest even if I can’t sleep. I tried to avoid looking at the clock but I do remember peeking and seeing the clock say 9:30pm. That’s the last I remember until I woke up the next morning.

Sunday, event day – alarm clock goes off at 4am. Our goal was to be out of the hotel by 5am to go pick up Martin from his hotel in Tempe. I changed, got my stuff together, ate breakfast at 4:30am and headed out on the nose at 5am. All 11 of us! Yup, my kids, my mom, my brother and his family, all headed out! I am so lucky to have so much great support. Laarni dropped off Martin and I right at transition while she and the rest of the gang parked the cars. I got to see Coach Ron and Danielle that morning…they stayed at Coach Kristy’s house the night before and I knew Coach Kristy was going to be at the event with her family as well!

Family shot right before the swim start

I had a checklist/schedule that I followed that morning. I’m so glad I did this because so much is going on and I wanted to stay efficient that morning! I put my nutrition in the appropriate bags, got air in my bike tires, went to the bathroom, got my wetsuit on, stretched a little bit, posed for some pictures and then it was time to get in the water. We were allowed to get in at 6:45am for a start of 7am. I decided to get in right away to get used to the cold. I started to second guess myself since I felt like I was treading water for a long time. I also noticed that there were so many people who had not jumped in yet and had decided to simply wait on dry land.

Even though I was starting to second guess my early entry into the water, I was pretty calm about it and decided to have fun. I looked around at all the people watching and just took it all in. The National Anthem was sung while many of us were in the water and we would be off in just minutes. Funny thing is, it was a game-time decision as to where I was going to start the swim. I had one coach who told me to stay towards the buoy line on the left side and then another coach gave me the advice to stay way to the right away from the buoy line (it was a counter-clockwise rectangle that we had to swim). I got in and EVERYONE was so spread out. I found a little opening right in the middle so I decided to stay there. I also noticed that I was literally about 5 rows from the front row racers. So, I was a lot closer to the front than I thought I would ever be! Oh well, we’ll see what happens.

The countdown begins…the cannon goes off at 7am sharp!! GOOOOOO!!! It was definitely a rough start but that was to be expected. I didn’t get punched during this swim and I found myself drifting off to the right. I can only breathe to my right side so I guess it made me comfortable to see shore on the right as well as all the tall buildings so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I drifted to the right. To my surprise though, once I got to the right side, I felt like I had a ton of room and no one else around. I got so comfortable that I did feel like I wasn’t getting the benefit of drafting other swimmers so I decided to try and drift towards the middle. I went for it.

Swim at Tempe Town Lake - 63 degrees

I also felt like I was doing SOME new things that I learned from Coach Tom. My left arm pull has always been very weak…more like non-existent. He told me to think about scraping the bottom of the pool with my left arm when pulling. I kept thinking about that and I believe it helped. I also had the opportunity to reflect, while swimming, how far I’ve come in my swimming. I still remember and laugh about my first open water swim practice in Gull Park in Foster City. Both Coach Dan and Fairn were so patient with me but they had to do some heavy yelling at me to get me to calm down when I was freaking out in the open water! I didn’t make it very far that day but I sure learned a lot from that experience! But again, it made me crack up during my swim!

Ok, I saw the big triangle buoy ahead so that meant it was time to make a left turn and I would soon be heading back to the start. I love this because I know I’m going back…so much easier and a confidence booster! I got behind some other swimmers and tried to draft but I did find it difficult because I couldn’t get a good rhythm behind anyone. I must have been picking swimmers who were even sketchier than me! One guy was just all over the place and I was following him at first. I decided I better just stay on the buoy line. That was the right thing for me. I stayed on it and I coasted all the way back into transition!

I finished the swim in 1 hour 46 minutes…super slow, but faster than any other 2.4 mile swim I’ve ever done so I’m good with that. Most people who got out of the water seemed to get help with their wetsuits right after getting out of the water…I decided to get away from the crowd and ran a little bit towards transition where I found some volunteers who stripped my wetsuit off for me. Funny thing is that I happened to pick a spot right where my mom was standing in the spectator area. I got to see her cheering me on! Very cool!

Big smiles all day long!

Got my cycle jersey on, cycle socks, cycle shoes and of course some butt butter to get me through the 112 mile bike ride. As I was leaving transition, I saw Laarni and my brother and I remember looking at them smiling and yelling, “See I’m still smiling”! I really was having fun!

Ok, bike time! I was so ready for this! I wanted so bad to prove that the bike ride that kicked my butt in Canada just three months prior was not going to happen again! I was not going to cramp and even if I did, I was going to beat it! I did! First of all, the bike ride at Arizona is VERY different from the bike ride in Canada. Arizona was 3 loops. It was about 9 miles on city streets and then there was about a 9 mile easy climb through the desert. I say easy because it didn’t get very steep…but it is well known for swirling winds. I was on the hill and felt like I had a tailwind and then halfway through, I would feel like I had a headwind. I just kept the bike in a low gear and just tried to spin in a high cadence. I admit, I had to use my granny gear (lowest gear) on a simple 2% grade. I wanted to save my legs and really tried to prevent cramping.

Hmmm…speaking of cramping. One thing my friend Martin taught me was to “Embrace the Suck”! Why do I get so worried if and when I do cramp. Why not just accept that I’m a “cramper” and then embrace it and welcome the cramp to the party! I did! I didn’t cramp but I did feel spasms starting around mile 50. I started to laugh and even welcomed the cramp to the party like Martin suggested. I couldn’t wait to get to my special needs where I knew I had one of my tools in my toolbox. Pickle juice! I got to about mile 60 where special needs was and I got off the bike and wow, almost locked up! A volunteer held my bike while I dropped to the ground and I immediately started to massage my legs and used a topical lotion called Cramp 911. It’s simply a magnesium roll-on that helps keep the muscles loose. The volunteer asked me what was wrong and I said I was starting to cramp. He was nice enough to get my water bottles filled for me while I took in my pickle juice. I also ate half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I got up and got back on my bike. The volunteer asked me, “Are you still cramping”? I quickly replied, “What cramps”? I was so proud of myself on how I was handling this familiar obstacle!

Twinges would come back once in a while but nothing really bad. I got used to putting the Cramp 911 stuff on my legs, both my quads and my calves, while I was riding the bike. I also started taking some salt tabs but I was cautious with the salt tabs because I think they adversely affected me when I was in Canada. I got through the bike in much shorter time compared to my Canada time. I was off the bike after 7 hours 36 minutes. Again, super slow, but I was happy because I knew that I would have around 7 ½ hours to get the marathon done! Let’s do this!!

Holy smokes!! A marathon??? I’ve never run a marathon before. I had no idea how my body would respond to such a long run. But again, having 7 ½ hours took the pressure off. I knew I could run and walk and still get in before the 12 midnight time limit! My plan was to walk the first mile out of transition no matter how I felt. I wanted to let my legs settle after the bike ride and then start running after a mile. The run was also 3 loops but it was really 3 figure eight loops which meant that I would see my family multiple times during the run. Fun times!!

I got to about 3/4 of a mile and decided to start running slow. My watch tracks my average minutes per mile so I tried to keep it under 14 so that when I needed to walk, I could maintain at least 15 minute mile. I got to about mile 5 and kept a good pace and I saw Laarni and Danielle sitting and cheering me on. I asked Laarni, just to confirm, that if I maintained a 15 minute mile, I should make it right? Danielle yelled at me and said don’t even think about that and just keep going! LOL!!! I cracked up because she was so right! Why was I even worried about that at this point! Thanks Danielle!

I must say that the funnest part of this grueling day was the run! I had so much fun seeing and cheering others on. I felt really good as my energy level was very high! I had my tools in my toolbox and they were working. I had another flask of pickle juice at the start of my run so the spasms were under control. I did feel pretty hungry on the run for some reason. I didn’t feel like eating the Gels that I had so I actually ate some potato chips from the aid stations. I also had some sunflower seeds that I ate. Coach Tom recommended the seeds since they are high in sodium and I love sunflower seeds!

If there was anything negative on the run (and it wasn’t really that negative) was that I had to go pee…a lot! I probably stopped at every rest stop after the first 5 miles to use the restroom. There was a rest stop about every mile or mile and a half. I’ve heard of some athletes going pee while they run…sorry, not this dude. I used the facilities each and every time. But again, I didn’t feel pressured since I had time. It wasn’t until later after my event when going over my notes that I had taken from Coach Tom that maybe I was in fact low on sodium. I was drinking a lot but it was just going through me. I probably didn’t have enough salt in me to absorb the liquid. Again, I was gun shy to take too many salt tabs because of what happened to me in Canada. Oh well, live and learn.

At my special needs about half way through the run, I actually sat down and went through my special needs bag. I decided to take my shoes and socks off so I could dry my feet with a towel. I applied some Glide to my toes and the bottom of my feet and then put on a fresh pair of socks. I have heard of people getting blisters because their feet were wet so I decided I wanted to prevent that. Plus it gave me a chance to sit and relax and take it all in! I had a personal cooler in my special needs where I had ice packs and I stored half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a half bottle of frozen Coke and some frozen pickle juice. I thought I was so clever to do this to keep this stuff cold. Uh, I think I outsmarted myself because when I grabbed my coke and pickle juice, to my surprise, they were both still frozen! Ha! Oh well, I decided to just take it with me and hold it in my hands to let them melt over the next couple of miles. I also had some mustard flavor pretzels that tasted oh so good! Plus the mustard supposedly helps in preventing cramps because of an ingredient called Tumeric.

Coach Kristy ran the last 4 or 5 miles with me towards the end of the run. It was so awesome! She asked me if anything was hurting and even though I was feeling some spasms, I said, “NOTHING”! I was having too much fun at that point! I even told Kristy that I didn’t want the night to end and wanted to take my time and maybe come in right at 12 midnight. She said I better not because she and others wanted to go home to go to sleep! Ha ha! Ok, I guess I shouldn’t milk this feeling too much! But I was having fun!



High 5ing Mike Reilly in the Finishers Chute

The spectators were amazing! Strangers rooting and cheering me on while I ran in the darkness. I could hear the folks at the finish line and I could not believe that I was so close to finishing this race! The finisher’s chute was so much fun, people going crazy, I heard Danielle yelling my name, I saw Mike Reilly (the voice of IRONMAN) swinging his white towel trying to get the crowd into it!! I heard him call my name! As I crossed the finish line, I looked up into the clouds and thanked two very special people who I was thinking of and I knew they were looking down on me and helping me cross that finish line! Run time 6 hours 39 minutes…not bad for all the stops I made, including my little picnic that I had (that's what Laarni called what I was doing at Special Needs)! :)

Total time = 16 hours, 23 minutes, 46 seconds!

What an AWESOME feeling. After working so hard and training since November 2011 to get this done. The journey certainly didn’t go as planned as I thought I would be an IRONMAN in Canada…but like so many people tell me, not everything could go as planned during an event…it’s how you handle it that will get you through. Well, I think that same advice applies to everything! I could have easily given up and not try another IRONMAN. But with the help of my coaches, with the support of my teammates and my family and friends, I can now say that I DID IT! I AM AN IRONMAN!

Can’t wait until the next one!!

If you’d like to view the more than 100 pictures that we got of this event, you can view them here:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbsWjFk3YsWr6g

You don’t need to sign up to view the pictures, simply hit View Album after clicking on the above link. Then you could “Play Slideshow” to see the captions that I added to each picture!

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Team DeGuzman Goes IRON!!

Huh? Iron? As in IronMan??? Yup, that's right!  We have really gone nuts and joined the TNT Iron Team! We recently celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary (8/31). So in trying to figure something "special" to give to the love of his life, Harold decides to buy Laarni a registration spot for IronMan Canada in 2012. You see these spots go on sale one year prior to each event. And, the spots usually sell out in 24 - 48 hours. Harold was ready with his credit card and secured both of them a spot!

Ok, so Laarni has done a couple of triathlons and Harold has done plenty of century bike rides...uh, but to go for an IronMan...2.4 mile open water swim, 112 mile bike ride and last but not least a full marathon (26.2 miles). That's a total of 140.6 miles! How in the world are we going to do that?

It's been two years since we've found Team in Training. It's a great organization that helps people train for an endurance event. But more importantly, we raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We have lost too many people to cancer and specifically Harold's stepfather who we all called Uncle Joe. We remember the struggles he went through and finally succumbing to the horrible disease in late 2006. We had to do something in his honor! Now we try and raise funds for a lot of other people. People who we have met during our trainings. Yup, even people on our own team! We save people's lives by helping raise funds for the Cause. We didn't want to stop doing that!

So, this will be our third year to raise funds...but we knew that to motivate and inspire our friends and family to donate again, we would have to step it up ourselves. Well, what better way to step it up but to join TNT...but this time to do an IRONMAN! This will be our toughest challenge yet. This will test our will, our discipline and honestly our organizational skills! Having 4 children and juggling all of their homework and activities, and then to have to train for 9 months straight, 6 days a week...it will definitely test us! But we're up for the challenge. Nothing in life is easy and nothing compares to someone who has to fight cancer. This is the least we could do!

We hope that you'll continue to follow along our journey...we appreciate all the support that many of you have already provided. Please visit our Team DeGuzman TNT website at:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/ironca13/teamdeguzman

The donations make a huge difference in people's lives and of course your words of encouragement help us tremendously to keep going!

Go Team! Go IRONTEAM!

I did it!!

Lavaman is officially over!! After 5 months of training and worrying, the event has come and gone and is now a wonderful memory! Thank you to everyone who supported me and gave me words of encouragement that I could get through my first Olympic distance triathlon... and that I did! I can proudly wear my Lavaman attire and say, "I did that!"

Here's the details of the day before the race and of course, race day....

Saturday, April 2:
We had a scheduled early morning practice swim at 7am in Anaeho'omalu Bay (aka "A Bay"), the official location of the swim. I was not looking forward to the practice swim at all. I was very nervous... the same feeling I had carried with me for quite some time, which was magnified by the fact that I could not swim during our open water practice swims. I was a bit relieved to know that there were safety folks out in the water during this practice. They even set buoys up so we had a course to practice. However, seeing the buoys from the shore was scary and made my stomach flutter like I was going to be sick. It wasn't even the buoys for the race, just set up for our practice. I heard it was about a 400 yard distance. What I also heard was the tsunami created a stir in the water conditions so it wasn't as clear as in years past. Hearing that initially freaked me out as well since all we've heard was how warm and clear the waters in Hawaii is and how different it is from swimming in our local waters. This may have been a good thing since I wasn't quite sure whether I wanted to see that deep.

Martin, one of our captains who trained me all season and who practically saved my life during the last open water swim stayed with me since he knew how nervous I've been. Everyone who felt nervous was told to swim with a buddy so Martin was mine! The first thing I hear as we are about the get into the ocean was, "there's coral so don't walk out, swim over." Wow, in shallow water??? This was not the way I had imagined gradually getting into the water. So I just jumped in, swam over this alleged coral & began swimming but I felt like I hadn't swam in a long time! I thought, "oh my God, the last week of rest now I forgot my technique." I even sucked in some saltwater again so I was gagging and choking. I could hear Martin the entire swim and we eventually got to the buoy we were supposed to turn around at. Before I could make the turn, Martin forced me to stop in the middle of the ocean & just float so I could take it all in & breathe easy. He told me I was breathing too hard & I needed to relax. Yeah right, easy for him to say being the strong swimmer he is! I sort of calmed down, even took some pictures with teammates as proof! LOL! But I didn't want to just "hang out" so I decided to go back & ended up swimming back to shore w/o him. He asked if I wanted him to come with but I told him I'd be fine. As I was making my way back to shore, I was trying to remember to take the experience for what it was. I felt like my pace & strokes were coming back to me so I was settling in but then I freaked out on some coral that I swam really close to & even brushed against. It really scared me because I didn't want to get hurt the day before my race. One of my teammates stepped on a sea urchin a few days prior so being in the ocean with the unknown gave me yet another worry. Finally got back to shore, unscathed & realized it wasn't that bad and there would be even more folks in the water for assistance on race day.

That evening we had our inspiration dinner where we heard yet another talk from someone who had to deal with hearing a cancer diagnosis and had to battle the disease. Just one of the many we've heard over and over again and fortunately, a great ending since the speaker was in remission and had the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to thank which included everyone on Team in Training who raised funds for this cause. Just our Silicon Valley team which consisted of 120 people raised about $450,000! Collectively, all of the chapters (there were 15 from across the country) present at the Lavaman event which consisted of 575 people raised over $1.2 million!!! It was really exciting to know that I was part of a team of individuals who are truly inspiring and doing something worthwhile for the health and wellbeing of others.

Sunday, April 3rd:
I had been feeling relatively calm the day before once we got the swim out of the way and by the time I woke up, I was still feeling calm. Good karma was truly being sent my way! The team was meeting at 4:45am and I bounced out of bed at 3:30am (thank God I was still on California time!). I actually felt rested as if I had a decent night's sleep. My first thoughts this morning was of Uncle Joe & his fight with cancer as well as all of my teammates who battled the disease too. I headed to the bathroom and the tears just fell. At that moment I had a purpose & remembered why I was doing this triathlon to begin with. Game face on!

We got to the lobby at 4:45am and Harold was like the bike mechanic on duty. A few of my teammates had some early morning tire issues so he was right there helping them. Triathletes aren't so well versed in tire changing and bike mechanics!! :o) I'm sure many of the difficulties were attributable to nerves more than anything! We then rode our bikes to transition which was not really smart since the group we were with did not have safety lights. At this wee hour of the morning and in Hawaii, the roads are pretty dark so we carefully manuevered our way over.

We arrived into the transition area at 5:30am. We got our areas set up. Many folks got body marked the day before but I waited until race morning. Race number 683!!


When I saw the swim course that morning, for a moment I got worried since we only swam 1/4 of our actual distance at yesterday's practice. But it was just that, a moment... I felt good about what I was about to do. Water temp was 77 degrees, and funny enough, was actually wetsuit legal. I did not have a wetsuit. Most people did not. This water temp was about 30 degrees warmer than our practice open water swims in California. My game plan was to focus on the people in canoes & surfboards and not the far buoys.



I'm amazed I'm in this group of pink caps!

The start of the swim began in the water so we were essentially treading for a few minutes before the gun went off. I don't tread well but this time things were different and I was not in a panic. Gun went off and I swam so comfortably like I've done it many times. I focused on the shorter distances but even the distance of the buoys were not an issue. I didn't swim nonstop but when I took breaks from the freestyle stroke, I was still making forward progress. I didn't stop at any cute Hawaiian boys on surfboards! I didn't need to hold on to anything or anyone! If anything, the technique was there and I even took advantage of drafting swimmers! All the months of practice definitely paid off at that moment. I even saw some pretty fish! My coaches told me to live in the moment and not worry about the next leg. That's exactly how it was. I was swimming and swimming my best. I got out & raised my hands like I was finished with my race! :o) I even heard Harold cheering for me! I conquered my fear of the open water! I ran out of the water and headed up to transition. Harold ran up to see me in and out of transition and to say, "you kicked butt on that swim!" Yup, that's how I felt too!! Official swim time 43:35.

The bike is my best event & after that swim I was on top of the world. I thought for sure I could make up some time on this leg. We rode on part of the infamous Ironman course & the view of lava rock & the ocean in the distance was stunning! As we expected the course was windy so that made for a difficult ride. There was some discouraging moments on the bike since I thought I could do better but I just kept going back to how awesome that swim went. Life was still good! When I came back into Waikoloa, there was Harold again cheering me on!! So awesome!! Official bike time: 1:32.

I had already started to feel cramps on the bike but I got in & out of transition quickly to go on the run. Last leg...As soon as I started the run the cramps in both calves got worse. It was over 90 degrees & I didnt even think that I was dehydrated. Harold was riding his bike alongside me so when I told him about my legs he told me that I should stretch. I stopped to stretch them but then my hamstrings locked up! I kept stretching but at that moment, I decided to walk for a little bit. At that point it was one mile at a time. Harold stayed with me on the run course for as long as he could which was a nice distraction from the heat. Ugh! The ice at the water stops was definitely a nice touch!! I thought I had a game plan, running for a mile & then walk for a minute. Just passed the mile 4 marker began a ridiculous trail run along the ocean. You'd think... girl, what are you complaining about, you're running alongside the ocean! The path was literally a foot wide (I'm being generous with that measurement) and then we had to run on lava rock. All of that... I walked! I thought I was going to twist my ankle. Then we were running through the hotel but then more lava rock, then sand (yes sand!) it was a very long 2 miles!



Harold, my biggest supporter!!

Finally crossed the finish line at 3:46 & was I so happy! I wanted to be done under 4 hours so I was pleased. With Harold & a bunch of teammates at the finish cheering me in, it was truly a finish that will be remembered! I can't believe it's all over!

Once again, Team DeGuzman says Mahalo for your contributions to this cause. We may have had these endurance events that we've accomplished but without your continued support, there would be no inspiration or motivation.

Please see the link to more photos from this awesome event.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=426247168407%3A1572435&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee

Aloha,
L

March 12, 2011 - Event Day in Solvang!!

Event Day - Before the 100 Miles

Wow, I can't believe event day has finally come and gone.  What a fantastic ride!! All of our team members finished the route and we all had enough energy to party it up on Saturday night!  The weather could not be more perfect. 

We started the weekend with a little shakedown ride on Friday afternoon.  It was a little windy but the sun was out so it seemed we were in for a nice weekend.  Friday night was the inspiration dinner where we heard from a cancer survivor who was tearfully thanking us for everything we were doing. She was near death and doctors tried everything to save her.  Her last hope was a bone marrow transplant.  The process is just so grueling that I'll spare the details.  It always amazes me when a cancer survivor who has gone through so much takes the time to thank us for what we are doing!  They are the true heroes for taking the time to share their story with us...yes, it is very inspiring to say the least!

Ok, so Friday evening was about getting everything ready for the next morning and then getting a good nights sleep!  It never happens though!  I still get excited before a big ride so it was tough for me to get to sleep, but that's ok...if anything, adrenaline will get me through!  :)  I ended up getting about 5 hours of sleep on Friday evening. Better than some of the first time participants.  One participant told me that she pretty much saw every hour on her clock throughout the night!  She still did fine!

The team met at around 6am and our goal was to get on the road at 6:15am.  Well, you know how that goes.  But, we did get out shortly after our goal...right around 6:30am!  It was a gorgeous day...check out the pictures that I took (see link below) of the fabulous views!

We were all warned about Foxen Canyon a nice little climb that got pretty steep...the kicker was that it came at around mile 85!  But we were ready for it..we took it on and rode like champs!  It really was another perfect day of riding...I feel so fortunate to be able to ride the way I do, both mentally and physically.  It is a "high" for me to help the newer participants accomplish this huge accomplishment. And I do feel very lucky that I have the amount of support that I do from my family and friends!

Having Fun!

Both Laarni and I want to thank all of you who generously donated to the cause.  Together, you and Team DeGuzman raised over $8,000!!!  We helped our little Silicon Valley Cycle Team of about 30 raise over $72,000!  That money will go a long way to help in the battle against blood cancers! 

While riding, I definitely thought about all the donors who were so generous with not only their wallets, but with their support towards Laarni and I!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

I got a ton of pictures during the event and during the after party!  I hope it makes you feel like you all were right there with us since this journey could not be accomplished without all the great support from our family and friends!  Enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for more reports from Laarni as her triathlon event is coming up in a couple of weeks!  GO TEAM!!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=352265618407%3A1117347607&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee





Event Day - After the 100 Miles...All Smiles!!



2/19/11 Tri Training: Open Water Swim



Today was our open water swim in Redwood Shores. When I woke up this morning there was snow on the hills that can be seen from our house. I knew it was going to be cold... When I got to Redwood City, it was already feeling very chilly and we weren't in the water yet. After a mini transition clinic, we got our wetsuits on and got into the water.   



Allesen, Kai & I... smiles, pre-swim



Brrrrr..... OMG and probably some other expletives that I won't say! Okay, I'm not good with being cold so just getting in was a huge achievement for me.

The first thing we were told was to allow the water to get into our wetsuits in order for our body heat to heat the water to provide additional insulation for us. As cold as the water was, allowing water in was not comfortable but I have to say, I understand what that all means. I could not get calm from being so cold. All I kept hearing was, "don't worry, eventually your hands and feet will go numb." Seriously, that's insane!! My hands and feet never went numb, they just hurt.



Proof that I was actually in the water

I've trained now for almost 3 months so swimming shouldn't be a problem, right?? Wrong! I put my face in the water and I could not get my breath together to swim. I felt like I was breathing so hard and I hadn't even taken 10 strokes. So onto my back again... I hadn't been on my trusty backfloat position all season and here I am in open water and on my back. It was pretty frustrating which made for a discouraging day. I even had a few moments of feeling the need to throw up. Imagine, the taste of salt water, nasty smelling salt water and the fact that the water is not clear. Nothing about today's swim got better. I went back and forth the short distance twice but nothing to write home about. We were probably in the water for about an hour. As soon as we could, I got out.

It was so difficult to pull the wetsuit off with frostbite fingers. Fortunately because of a suggestion by one of the mentors, I had some warm water to pour on me. It helped for a moment but it took all day to thaw out and bring my body temperature back to normal. This was by far one of the top things of what not to do in the middle of winter.

Our next open water swim is scheduled for March 6th. I decided to try this again since I had a terrible experience. It's probably still crazy since what makes me think the water temperature will be any different in a few weeks??

We were told the water temperature in Hawaii today was 82 degrees. :o)

Aloha,
L

2/12/11 - 80 Mile Santa Cruz / PCH Ride

Man, it's been a while since I've posted anything to this blog. I have not been feeling good at all lately.  The last real ride I did was the Calaveras ride.  Last weekend (2/5/11), I did ride, but it was awful!  It was only a 50 mile "buddy ride" (non-TNT supported ride) but it felt like 200 miles. I started out really strong, trying to stay with the faster guys. Well, at about mile 20, both my quads started to cramp.  Nothing bad, but I did feel it coming on!  Not good!  So I kept a high cadence the rest of the way...but at like mile 48, both quads decided to totally lock up!  I was on Foothill Expressway in Los Altos and I just had to wait at a stop light and just try my best to stretch out my legs.  But just doing that wasn't easy since both legs were locked and it was difficult just to get off the bike!  Needless to say, I barely made the 50 miles.

7AM Start at Natural Bridges - Santa Cruz

So why the cramping at only 20 miles?  Dehydrated?  Went out too fast?  Nope, it was new medication that my doctor just put me on to try and get my blood pressure lower.  I've been having some blood pressure issues since last summer so my doctor has been trying to get me to get it under control, including different meds!  When he heard what happened to me on the ride, he took me off of the new meds right away.  It worked because I kicked butt on today's ride!  Yup, 80 miles and I felt like I could have gone another 80 when we were done.  Climbed about 4500 feet, so nothing totally big, but nothing to sneeze at either.

Pigeon Point - Site of our Last Rest Stop at Mile 54

All I could say was what a gorgeous day!  And the weather was fantastic!!  Enjoy the pictures.  Only two real rides left...a buddy ride next weekend and one more 80 mile ride...then the event!  Can't wait!!

H

Great Looking Team (H, Daniella, Dori, Coach Colin, Greg)

2/5/11 Tri Training: Burgess Swim/Bike

It was another coached brick workout at Burgess. We started off the day with an honoree speaker. Today it was John Garza. I have known John for about 6 months or so through Harold and knew he had lost a daughter to leukemia. He shared his story and I found out that he lost his daughter, Marie to leukemia 3 days after she had collapsed during a walk with her husband which was also the same day that they found out she had the dreadful disease. It took her that fast! Marie did not have the opportunity to get any aggressive treatment or chemotherapy in order to give her a chance to live. It was such a heartbreaking story and another reason why I continue to be out at a practice that I really wasn't looking forward to.

A swim workout is dreadful to me due to the weather, the temperature of the water, being wet, fearing I won't swim well... yadda yadda yadda. All the many excuses but yet, hearing a story like John's and seeing my teammate Natalie who is awaiting test results on whether or not she has leukemia is the reason I force myself to go to practice and work hard to finish this event strong! Also, for my many supporters that continue to give me the motivation by their wonderful donations towards this very worthy cause!

Beginning of the snake swim

It was a beautiful day and the swim workout ended up being great. I got more takeaways that I can continue to learn from. We did that snake swim again for 20 minutes and I managed to get through 26 lanes. There were moments where I felt fine but other times I felt like, "wow, this is neverending and we have so many more yards to swim in Kona"... then I panic and my breathing is all off again. It'll be interesting for our next swim practice... open water! Well, I will certainly be putting my swim practice to a test.

Then it was off on the bike... my best place to be out of all these events. I started off with a couple of teammates but as soon as there was a opening, I decided to see how fast I could get through the route. It took me 1:45 to do 23 miles which I think could've been better. I'm hoping to be on the bike no longer than 1:30 when we're in Hawaii. The little inclines (and they were little) were killing my legs which worries me since we would typically be running after. Again, the reason why we train. :o) Overall, it was a beautiful day for a ride!! Although, another only, lonely ride after leaving the two I started with until the end when I caught up to two other teammates and we rode back to Burgess together.

Finally, it was off to pick up the kiddos from Nana. She was kind enough to watch the kids AGAIN for free! Well, as we did the last time she was so generous with her time, we donated the money and we're doing that again. She truly is an angel and the kids love spending time with her! Delia and Lupe are like family to us, caring for our kids as if they were their own grandchildren. She really makes the kids feel special which makes us so happy that we have her in our lives!

Aloha,
L