The Fireworks I Never Had

Hey guys,

So, recently, I went to the North Carolina State Fair with my girlfriend and a group of her friends. To be very brief, the fair wasn't all that great for me, to start out with. First of all, due to my ongoing brain injury, it immediately ruled out riding any fair ride, because all those rides do is make you dizzy, which I am dizzy enough already without the rides. So, as soon as we got there, my group went to the rides. I waited patiently while they had fun, watching the ground to avoid the constant strobe and bright lights of the fairground activities. It wasn't all bad though, I became the guy who stood in line for my friends while they rode other rides, and I held a spot for them! That's the life right there, for real. But we got done with the rides after a few hours, and we got to the real reason I came, for the food. We indulged ourselves on funnel cake, fried oreos, lemonade, and ice cream, a great night. Also, I had a Krispy Kreme burger, a hamburger patty in between two original glazed doughnuts, which was actually phenomenal. It really was good, to be honest.

Now, I thought that was going to be the end of the night. But, as I stood there sipping a three dollar small lemonade(crazy) and standing in the freezing cold(like 60 degrees(crazy)), I heard a loud bang. This was unlike the turkey shoot bangs and the Shoot-Out-The-Star game bang, but a massive, booming bang only one thing can produce at the State Fair-fireworks. I turned around, and over the skyline of the fair tents and ride structures, rose beautiful rockets which exploded into a spiral of white, gold, red, and blue. I watched, mesmerized by these beautiful explosions, and stared into them for a very long time. Only when my girlfriend had been looking at me and asked, "Are you having an emotional connection with these fireworks?"did I know that I was indeed having an emotional connection. These were the fireworks I never got on the unfortunate Fourth of July, the fireworks that I almost died for to not see. I stood there, surrounded by people coming and going, not noticing the fireworks, but I did. I waited for the very last firework to explode, after a fantastic finale of gold and red, blue and green, orange and yellow, white and purple. It was one of the most touching moments of my life, and I am very glad that I was there to experience the fireworks I never had.

So, in the grand scheme of things, when something means a lot to you, you can't let that opportunity pass. I stood there, close to tears, thinking about how far I've come since that day and how lucky I am to be able to go out to the fair and watch these fireworks. It really was a special day, so special I thought to share it with you all.

Happy training, guys.

The Conference Meet- It's Not About the Time

Hey guys,

So today was my last cross country meet of my junior year of high school. I had a great season, and I had a lot of fun. However, one of my best friends, Caussin, is a senior and it was his last cross country meet in his high school career. We are great friends, and I even got him started in triathlons earlier this year. Anyway, today our coach wanted us to do well, and was pushing us to run fast. I wanted to do well for coach, but I also wanted to have one last race with one of my best friends. But remember I'm still coming off of my broken wrist, and have not been running that much recently, so I was pretty unprepared for a high-performance race today.

Regardless, we toed the line, and the gun went off. I stuck to my race strategy, going out slow and then beginning to negative split, but my first mile ended up too fast, due to becoming swept up in the field of athletes as we ran down the hill at WakeMed soccer park 5k course. My first mile was 5:20, about 20 seconds faster than my usual mile one time, but I continued with my plan to increase speed. But, something I did not account for happened, my wrist started to hurt a good deal with each stride, due to the pounding of running. I did my best to push through it, and kept on keeping on, running up the hill and moving into better position. But, as is life, my wrist started to hurt a lot. I started to slow down just before two miles, and had been reduced to a jog as I cradled my arm and watched as my teammates and people I'd passed earlier in the race run by me. I was encouraged to keep going, but there was something more important on my mind than running well: to support my friend. I kept up a slow jog and tried to get my breathing and pain under control, and just calmed down. Shortly after I started jogging, Caussin caught up to me. He ran by me, saying "My homie," and we started to run, side by side, just like the old days of last year, when we would not leave each other's side during a race.

We got to the bottom of the hill, and shared a very sentimental moment. You see, when we used to run workouts at WakeMed, we would say "honey badger," because the honey badger was a pretty intense animal, and didn't care about anything or anyone. By channeling the honey badger, Caussin and I were able to get up the hill a little easier. So when we approached the bottom of the hill, I said "One last honey badger for the road?" He replied "Hell yeah, let's get it," and we started up the hill. As we ran, I tried to pull him up the hill, using hand signals we invented 3 years ago at one of our first cross country races together. We got close to the finish line, and we were very close to breaking the 20 minute barrier. I turned around and yelled at Caussin, saying how long we had and encouraging him to get across the line, and we did! His last race ended up being a 19:55, and we were both happy.

After the race, on our cool-down, he told me "Jarod, when I saw you waiting for me in the woods, I choked up. Like for real, the tears were coming. I love you homie," and it really meant the world to me. He's one of my best friends, and it was my best race of my life.

Guys, you can't be serious about racing all the time, because there are sometimes things that are more important. The feeling I got for helping Caussin out was as great as winning a race, and although everyone asked what happened to my race, I had to respond with "It was one of my best races." It really was a very special day, and I'm very glad that I made this decision. My season was great, and my whole team really was awesome. We had a great year, and I have to say, I'm going to miss our seniors, Caussin especially.

Moral of the story-don't leave your friends behind. Your friends often are your support team, your training partners, your transportation, your cheering section, and everything else, and if you take advantage of them, they'll go away. So take a moment and thank your friends.

Happy training guys!

ECU Pirate Invitational-A PR + A Comeback

Hey guys,

So, over the past few weeks where I have not been blogging(my bad), I was racing a good amount of cross country races around the area, and the day before Tri the Worx Triathlon, I traveled to Mr. Overton's house to run the ECU Pirate Invitational. Yes, you did hear me, Mr. Overton himself, of Overton's, the marine store.

We arrived on-site, which happened to be Mr. Overton's backyard, and were greeted by around 15 other teams starting to set up on the grassy field where the start and finish were supposed to be held. Some of my buddies helped me carry our school tent to our spot, where we set up and then got to warming up. As we ran together, me and some friends discussed our goals for the race: we all wanted to break 18 minutes for the 5k. Not an easy task, by any extend of the goal, but we wanted to perform really well at this big meet. The course was mostly flat except for a big hill you had to climb at the start, again at mile 1, and again finally coming into mile 3. We started to get hyped for a great race.

We were running along, when we heard the gun-the girls went in the first race, and so we were able to watch our friends do extremely well under high pressure conditions, and they really did perform well! The girls ended up getting second overall, in the overall points rankings.

Now, for the guys race. We got up to the line, and they shot the gun. A pack of myself, and  those 4 guys from my school all went out together, trying to stay away from going out too fast and to stay on pace for just below 18 minutes. As we came through the crowd of spectators, we looked great-a pack of 5 Middle Creek runners going by and looking strong. But, as we got closer to mile 1, I realized we weren't going as fast as we needed to in order to break 18. So, I started to pull away from my group. They called me back, saying I was going too fast, but I yelled back "We're off pace!" and kept running. As I ran, I picked off runners ahead of me, and started my race strategy: to negative split. I got closer to mile 3, and I looked at my watch, almost discouraging myself, because I miscalculated and thought I wouldn't make it under the 18 minute mark. But, as I neared the finish line chute, I saw I was still under 18! I gave it all I had left and sprinted in to a 17:40 5k, a PR for me. Also, this had been one of the major runs since my accident. At the end of the day, all that extra effort that went into negative splitting and passing people helped put me in the top 10, finishing 9th in a big field of runners from all over the state. I was very pleased with this, and I am hungry to continue racing and improving very well!

Good luck with all of your winter training guys, because the sun is starting to hide from us.

Happy training!

Lake Royale in Review(My Apologies)

Hey guys,

Like I said, I was going to do my best to get better at updating my triathlon-life, but, I'll go ahead and say it: Life is hard. You can't always stay true to your promises, but hear me out! I've got a good reason for not updating this past week. Long story short, I got broken.

So, last weekend was the Lake Royale triathlon in Louisburg, NC. It is one of the last races of FS Series, and it really is an amazing race, I highly recommend everybody reading this to try it one day, it really is a great, inspirational events, by far one of my favorite triathlons, if not most. It is a sprint, at a 500 meter swim, 15 mile bike, and 5k run, as per usual.

Anyway, I got to the race morning, and, being a 4-year veteran of this race, was shocked at the conditions. It was absolutely gorgeous, with a temperature much, much warmer than previous years and a calm, quiet day. Perfect for racing. Let's break it down:

SWIM:

The swim is a fun kind of point-to-point-to-point swim. We went out to a buoy, turned right, swam to another buoy, and then angled in to the transition area. I have always been successful in this particular swim, and so when they fired the gun, I moved out into open water quickly and confidently. By the time we had turned the first buoy, I had about a 5 second lead, and I opened that gap to roughly 15 seconds by the time we left the water. My sighting and strokes felt strong, and it seemed to be going well. 

T1 and BIKE:

My T1 was absolutely fantastic. I saw real correlation to practicing transitions and then putting them to use during a race, with my T1 time being only 14 seconds, flying fast for this particular transition. Now, onto the bike. First of all, I have to tell you, last year at this same race, I led for about 3 miles, and then, right as I pulled onto the larger roads, where there is a lead car for you to follow, the guy who ended up winning the race last year passed me, and he got the lead car. So, I had the opportunity for a redemption ride here. I left transition with about a 20 second lead, and after the bike ride of my life, I returned to T2 with a 4 and a half minute lead over second position, a massive amount of time for such a short distance. I was able to average 23.1mph for a very hilly bike course, something I was happy about.

T2 and RUN:

Now, here is my explanation for not updating. You see, as I left T2(which was great, by the way, baby powder in your shoes works wonders for slipping them on quickly), there was a 90 degree right turn out of the transition area. The Run Out banner, had been the same as the Swim In chute, so it was wet. As I made the hard turn, I slipped and fell, and hurt my knee. It started bleeding profusely, something I was a little worried about going into this 5k run. As each of my strides fell, I could see a lot of blood going down my right leg. I was thinking to myself, "This is not good, this is affecting my run," and as I thought that, I tried to turn my wrist to glance at my watch to see what I was on pace for. As I did so, my wrist screamed out in pain and did not turn. I immediately had a new concern, as you can tell. However, I just grit my teeth and half-limped my way to a 19:11 5k, something I was satisfied about after the fact.

FINISH:

As I came back to T2, I was greeted by a roaring crowd and some of my friends announcing my first place finish, and a new course record. I came across the line with my hands in the air, and immediately cradled my left hand. As a volunteer removed my chip, she asked "How do you feel?" I responded promptly with "I think my wrist is broken." I was on a lot of adrenaline/endorphins from the race, and so I was laughing and enjoying the win, even as I was put in a sling and told to go to the doctor. But hey, when you love a sport, it's all worth it.

And by the way, I just was able to get my fingers working, so I can type things now. But that is why I haven't written anything lately, and I am sorry.

But that's what is key, guys. Do what you love, even when the going gets tough or painful. Because, in the long run, if you think it's worth it, then it's a wonderful thing you've found, and don't let it go.

Happy training, everybody.