I won!

In the matter of Steve Tomac v. Jonalee McLaughlin, I am victorious!

Even though the Judge didn't give me the entire amount I was asking for (either I didn't do a good enough job explaining it all to him, or he had his own thoughts), he agreed that I was NOT at fault.

I wonder if this means that SHE was at fault, she is subject to tickets/police action, etc. since she caused an accident, which is an infraction of Missouri law.

It probably didn't help her either when she AND her husband/partner-in-a-big-law-firm-lawyer both admitted to not providing insurance information when requested as a result of an accident (which it is a crime not to do so in Missouri) and THEN she testifies to the judge as part of her case that she "refuses to break the law." Ummmm, perjury, anyone?

Anyway, Jonalee can now pay for the damage she caused to her front bumper, too.

na, na, na-na-na!

So is it wrong to have the song Ironman stuck in my head? I submit that it is not.

Here's a quick and dirty recap - a full one is coming very very soon, I promise! I've just had to deal with a ton of other stuff - my court date, my yearly performance review, and a mishap at the bank that resulted in about $200 of fees that required some immediate attention.

OK - so the swim was good, despite the CRUSH of humanity - 2100 people all at once. Imagine the thrashing and kicking! Anyway, I got a charlie horse in my left calf about 1/2 mile in - so it hurt like hell to try to swim it off when I couldn't really stop to do anything about it. And when I got out of the water, both calves charlie-horsed up. I think the cold water was the main culprit - I hadn't done any cold-water open swimming, and my wetsuit had no sleeves - it was just a bib.

So I could barley walk through the first transition, let alone try to move quickly. I did manage the swim in 76 minutes - about 4 minutes below my goal time, so I was very surprised (OH, and I also overswam the turn, so to come out when I did was AWESOME!)

T1 took me about 12 minutes to get ready for the bike - I was trying to get my calves to cooperate with me the whole time. I headed out on the bike, and I just have to say, the throngs of people cheering us on was nothing short of inspiring!

I spent a lot of my time on the bike trying to get my calves to stop screaming, so when I finished the first lap with an average speed of about 19.5 mph, I was pretty happy. But part of that was the wind blowing us back into town on the way back from the out-and-back loop - I averaged close to 30 mph on the way back. But then A) it got warm, B) the wind started shifting, and C) I started hurting. I stopped at one of the aid stations on the second lap to slather on vaseline on my neck from the chafing the collar of the wetsuit gave me, despite putting on bodyglide. I stoppped at the half-way point to eat - I had to stand upright as I could not get the food to settle in very well. The HammerFuel I had with me started tasting like crap, too. I shouldn't have tried to flavor it myself.

On the third lap, the wind had completely changed, so the way back was fully into the wind. That slowed me down. I also had to stop a few times on the lap to stretch out my back - it had been hurting the whole week leading up to the race, and it was screaming at me to get off the bike and get upright.

I got in for T2, took my time changing because my back, legs, and shoulders were killing me. I knew with the blown calves I wouldn't be running much, so the question became how far off from my goal time of 13:30 would I be? I knew that I could still make it if I walked the whole run course, but that wouldn't be very sporting, would it?

I walked to the first aid station, where they had a cramp/massage station. I knew I needed them to work on my calves. Luckily, the day before, I bought a pair of compression running socks and it was the best purchase I made in preparation for this event. After the rub down, I tried to run a few times, but my calves still would have none of it. I ended up walking the whole first lap.

On the second lap, I stopped again at the massage station, this time having them stretch out my entire legs. That seemed to help, along with the walking and the compression socks. A fter walking uphill for the next 1/2 mile, I tried a jogging for a few minutes. My heart rate shot up, but my legs didn't hurt so bad. I knew that once the sun went down, I would be able to push a little harder. I started running for a couple minutes, walking several more, and picked up the pace. The third lap, I was able to run from aid station to aid station, walking through them to give the water and gatorade a chance to get digested.

At the start of the third lap, I started calculating if I could break 15 hours. I thought it would be close. That gave me the motivation to speed up. With about 3 miles to go, I thought I could break 14:45. I still had to stop and walk on the inclines - my calves wouldn't let me run up them - but by the last mile, I was running. The last 300 yards, it seemed as if all the pain was starting to melt away. The last 100 was a sprint for me - I wanted to catch up with a guy in front of me, and once I did, my legs forgot how to slow down - I couldn't stop myself.

I crossed the line at 14:41:44...which was fitting for my number, #411.

As for court - the judge heard our case yesterday, but didn't make a decision - he's mailing it out in the next few days.

More to come very soon!

in roughly 24 hours...

...I *WILL* be Ironman!

2.4 miles swimming. 112 miles biking. 26.2 miles running. The toughest one-day endurance event....and a lifetime of memories made in one day.

Here's the music that has kept me motivated, got my adrenaline pumping, and hopefully I can sing over and over in my head to keep me going tomorrow:

1. Born Too Slow - The Crystal Method
2. You're Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring
3. Troublemaker - Weezer
4. Voodoo People (Pendulum Remix)- The Prodigy
5. Bleed It Out (Steve's Ironman Edit) - Linkin Park
6. Take It Off - The Donnas
7. Why Do You Love Me - Garbage
8. Stronger - Kanye West
9. 'Til I Collapse - Eminem
10. Move Along - The All-American Rejects
11. Devour - Shinedown

There you have it - Steve's Ironman Run List, 2008

T-minus 18 hours...

Almost time. Got a short run in today, and went I got back to log it, here's where I stand in terms of prep work. Not nearly enough compared to others, and certainly not enough to qulify for a Kona spot, but hey, like that was going to happen anyway.

Anyway, since the beginning of my training, I have run over 400 miles, biked nearly 1300 miles, and swam about 21 miles. I've put most of my training time into running, since that is where I am the weakest. Which makes me a little nervous for the swim and the bike. I think if I had to do it all over again, which I DON'T, I'd aim for 500 miles running, at least 2000 miles biking, and 30-plus miles of swimming.

The course looks great. I am ready.

"It's Shrinkage!"

-George Costanza

The river was open for swiming this morning, and when I jumped in, I immediately regretted it. 64 degrees (17.5 C)!!! I immediately thought, 'what did I get myself into?'

It's cold. Very, very cold. And my wetsuit has no sleeves.

On the flipside, on Sunday, that hour-plus of swimming won't be so bad... the water temperature might feel kind of nice once I'm warmed up.

Inspiration

From this year's Ironman World Championship in Hawaii:

Here's the link, If I can figure out how to insert a video, I will

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckFvoGRPiCU

Judge Judy...and Judge Joe Brown

Well, my court case is getting crazier - I got contacted by both these daytime TV shows about bringing my case to them instead of the Platte County court. Calling this an odd case is an understatement.

I'm not planning on going on TV, so don't look for me on daytime TV anytime soon.

Court date is set for the 25th, and I'm sticking with it. The only problem is that the court hearing is the day after I get back from Tempe, and 2 days after the Ironman. So I think I'll be going slow around the courtroom.

in Phoenix...and ready to rock and roll!

Got into Phoenix (well, actually Tempe) today...and my first job (after finding my way to the hotel) was to put together my bike. I shipped it out a week ago to get here (versus paying the airline $175 EACH WAY!!!)



Oh, and it might be a little gross, but I didn't fully clean my bike up - I left a streak of blood on it from the bike accident. That way, when I see it, I know what I had to go through for all this!

I bleed Green (and White)

Like many that complete an Ironman, I plan to get a tattoo to commemorate it. Most get the ironman logo, also known as the M-dot.

But I am going one better by incorporating my alma mater, Michigan State. If you know me, you'll know why. And you'll know why the ink will be green.

Here's what it looks like:

The accident: a round-up on the roundabout

I realize I didn't do what i said I would the other day. So here's a run-down on the accident

All things considered, I got lucky - it wasn't so bad. The worse stuff is all the shenanigans that have taken place since then. So here's how it goes:

I was riding my bike down a hill and into a roundabout (aka traffic circle) when a vehicle came up behind me. We entered the traffic circle/roundabout at the same time, despite it being a narrow opening. I remained in the right side of the lane, keeping a close eye on the car next to me as well as the road, as well as any other vehicles that may also enter the traffic circle. Before I could slow down to allow this vehicle to go ahead of me (and keep me in a safe position away it), it slowed down, presumably to let me continue through the traffic circle. I was about 6-10 feet ahead of it when out of the corner of my eye, I saw the angle of the vehicle change and knew I was going to be struck from behind.

The front bumper hit my rear wheel, I crashed to the ground, getting scraped and bruised, my shorts were tore up on the right side, and my helmet was damaged. (I remember thinking 'Thank goodness I am wearing a helmet because that curb is coming at my head really fast!' I floated/bounced/something over the curb and rolled onto the sidewalk while the car stopped - a Honda CRV.

I checked myself over for serious injuries - strawberries on my right palm, elbows, knees, and abrasions on my hip, knees, and a few other places. Nothing broken, though something very well could have. After the adrenaline wore off, that's when my left knee hurt like crazy - nice deep bruise there, a deep bruise on my upper left arm, and my right shoulder hurt like crazy for he next 3 days, like I'd torn the rotator cuff, or close to it.

I picked up my bike and noticed the rear wheel was damaged. The driver got out of her vehicle, and asked if I was alright. I told her my injuries were minor, and having never been hit by a car before, when she asked if we should call the police, I declined, since I didn't feel my injuries were severe enough to warrant doing so. I figured the police had better things to do. I requested, though, that we trade names, numbers, and addresses in case something came up later; her front bumper has some nice scrapes that showed the blue from the bottom of my shoe, and I knew I didn't cause this accident, and thought i should at least get her information to protect myself. (She actually asked, after looking at her bumper and then my wheel if we should "just call it even." I didn't have a reply to that.)

Turns out, after wobbling to the bike store on a very bad wheel, that it was damaged beyond any repairs they could do at the shop. It needed to get sent back to the manufacturer so they could replace the junked rim. It would take a couple of weeks to do that, and so I had to buy a new wheel so I could keep training (after my wounds scabbed up, of course).

Does it get more interesting? Maybe if you are into Law & Order or a courtroom drama. Stay tuned!

so not motivated

I was supposed to run Wednesday. Did I? No. It was rainy and cold, so I rode the bike for an hour. I thought, "I'll run tomorrow."

I should have run Thursday...or ridden 2.5 hours. Did I? No. I did nothing. And I liked it.

I was supposed to swim 4000 yeards this morning. Did I? No. And I am feeling guilty for doing nothing the last few days. In my defense, it's not the best weather, and yesterday I had to drive to Columbia for an all-day meeting.

Yep, making excuses.

well, this is interesting

I've been using a website called RunningAhead.com to track all my workouts. It is AWESOME! if you want, you can go and look up all my workouts and see what and when I did what I did. my user ID is tri_tomac

If you want to see what I'm up to - just look to the right. How cool is that!

here's a look at the graphed run workouts:

weekly


monthly

20 miles......ouch.

Well, last night I ran 20 miles. Holy crap am I stiff this morning. At about the 15 mile mark I started to wonder why I thought this would be a good idea. At 18 miles, I thought what I would be like on race day - after I already biked over a hundred miles? Let's just say that the thoughts going through my head weren't good. The good news is that the race course is very very flat, and here at home there is nothing but hills. I think that should work out in my favor. It took me 4 hours last night...the last mile was the worst, going uphill most of the way with nothing left in my legs but soreness.

Coming later today - I'll give you a quick rundown on the car accident's particulars. As a preview, I will tell you that now I hate traffic circles and small SUVs. (OK, I already didn't care for small SUVs, but now I hate them even more!)