JWT - A (Long) Post-Mortem

After arriving home, yesterday, after the triathlon and post-triathlon celebration, I barely was able to keep my eyes open to watch the end of the Giants – Eagles football game and then put together my race report for the team.  I then slept for 15 out of the next 18 hours. Since I worked so hard yesterday, I am going to give myself a little break and use my race report as my post-race blog (albeit slightly edited).  I will follow up with another blog in a few days with a little post-race perspective.  However, before turning you all over to my race report, I will answer the one burning question that I know that you were wondering about… “To pee or not to pee… that is the question.”  Well, the answer is, I didn’t have to go over the entire course of the race.  I might have been slightly under-hydrated, though, as you will see in my race reports, I had some muscle cramps.

Wait, that wasn’t the questions?  Well, read on for more answers:

RACE REPORT:

Saturday Night: In bed at 8:00pm, in the bathroom at 8:45pm, back in bed with eyes closed after shooting out an email at 9:00pm.  Still in bed at 10:00pm, check weather report at 10:20pm and fall asleep sometime soon after.

Sunday Morning: Up on my own at 3:30am (?!?!), turn off my pre-set alarm at 3:45am, get ready, get ready some more, eat something, bathroom trips (x5), almost forget to take asthma meds, remember to take asthma meds, pump  bike tires, get everything to car, type memo re: last night and this morning (blogger’s disease is VERY dangerous), go to car, rack my bike on the back and get the music going.  It's race day.

There are almost no cars on the road and it is completely dark at 5:00am, but at the end of Playland Parkway there is an explosion of lights and people.  I arrive in the Rye Playland parking lot and see my teammates.  I head to Transition (the “T” as it is known), which is where we leave our bikes, sneakers and other race gear, and pick them up when we come out of the water after the swim and then return to after we complete the bike course.  I get my race number, 199, sharpied onto both arms, legs and thighs by a volunteer, and my age (34) on the back of my left calf.   I rack right next to Ronnie Ram and across from Nick, two of my Team In Training Teammates, who are both in my age group.  They have been great competitors, teammates and new-found friends over the past five months.  I put down my daughter's Tinkerbell towel (I grabbed the first two towels that were in the hall closet and ended up with a pretty, solid pink towel and Tinkerbell – ah, the life of living with girls!!!) and get myself all set up at the T.  I then head back to my car to meet other teammates to say morning prayers together.  When prayers are completed, I don my wetsuit, grab my swim gear and head towards the TNT tent for our team picture.

As I see the team gathered together for our team photo it really hits home how much of a team we are, having spent five months training together.  I run down to the beach and jump into the water to get a feel for the water and prepare for the swim.  It feels good, with the water being a nice temperature.  Leon Zemel, a teammate of mine who I have spent dozens, if not hundreds of hours training with and Shaun Meller, my TNT Mentor, who I have also spent tons of time training with, getting advice from and, not to mention getting 5:30am rides to swim to swim trainings up in Greenwich CT,  are in the water, too.  The national anthem is sung and we are all ready to line up, with Pros going out at 7:00am sharp. 

Wave 3 Red Caps (that’s my wave!) go out at 7:06am.  After the Pros launch themselves into the water, the Yellow Caps go out and Red Caps line up on the beach. 30 seconds, 10 seconds.... I set my watch's timer and go...  a few feet of funny running in the water and a dolphin dive/kick and I am away into the swim.

I am pretty sure I zigzagg through the swim, crashing into people left and right.  This is not my finest swimming performance.  My concern with bumping into people and attempt to avoid swallowing more water (blech!) makes the stitch in my side less of a focal point, so I guess that is good.  In short, my swim is sort of a mess.  However, I soon see the shore and stand up when the water is waist high and wade in to shore, slowly, spurning Coach Regan's dolphin dive and funny run advice.  Why do I spurn such sage advice?  Well, I am kind of dizzy and in no condition to run out of the water.  As I slowly wade out of the water, one of the race referees looks at me dead in the eye and asks, "do you have your sea-legs?"  "Yes," I lie.  Actually, I don’t say yes, because I am not thinking coherently enough to reply with a quick “yes”, so I give a thumbs-up.  I feel like I am drunk, stumble-walking up the beach, boardwalk and to the bike.  I feel like a mess, but I am out of the water in 31 minutes… then again, I may have hit the pad four minutes later. I have no idea. [I learn later that I crossed the swim-timing line at 32+ minutes].  

I drink some water and try to clear my head in the T.  The T is kind of a blur, but luckily I have everything laid out well, so I can't mess up my transition to my bike.  It seems like a really slow transition, but the bike, speed, air, water and some Goo (Goo is a complex carbohydrate gel) got to clearing my head pretty quickly.  Did I mention that a lovely puff of albuterol helps out with the breathing? [It actually was a slow-ish transition, around four minutes long, which isn’t bad, but not where I would have liked it to have been].

Man! What a pleasure it is to ride on a street with cops holding back traffic!  Can we set that up for every time that I go out on a bike ride?  I try to keep my head down in aero position and push through a little pain.  No need to wait for lights.  That keeps my momentum moving forward coupled with my intimate knowledge of the bike route, having traversed the course with TNT for the past six weeks.  I am completely prepared for every turn. 

I feel good throughout the course save for the big hill on Riversville.. [I guess I could have moved a little faster, but my time of 1:17 was a heck of a lot better than the 1:35 that I expected to bike in just two months ago].  Claire's Climb, another large hill, isn’t too bad, and not having to do a repeat is even better.  [When we practiced biking the triathlon course, as a team, we would always cycle up Claire’s Climb and then ride back down to the bottom, doing at least three “hill repeats” each time].  After the climb I am really ready to let ‘er rip and the remaining mostly-downhill course was fast moving from there.  As I head down the final stretch on Playland Parkway, I see my wife's car sitting in traffic and I yell, wave and give a thumbs up to them as I pass by. [I learned later that my six year-old daughter saw me as I passed by and yelled to my wife, “There’s Daddy!!!” much to my wife’s surprise, who then watched me as I moved down the road.]

I arrive back at the T, rack my bike, put on my sneakers and rush out... I quickly find that I have cramps in both my right and left quad, and my right hamstring.  What I don't have is my albuterol inhaler, which I left on my bike... not so good.  Leaving my inhaler isn't a “go-back to the T and get the inhaler dealbreaker", since I am already almost a mile in to the run, but I know that I have to manage my breathing and nurse my cramps more carefully.  The run is a slow-go, and I see Leon on my way back from the Rye Playland turnaround.  As I pass him, I yell at him that he needs to catch and pass me (Leon started in a wave 12 minutes behind me)... and he eventually did...

Just as I start to feel the cramps loosen up a bit (breathing is still rough), I hit Hill St.  Unfortunately, Hill Street is not an ironicly named road that is perfectly flat; it is, as promised, an upward ascent.  And the cramps return.  Let's see... the next couple of miles to the country club turnaround (there are a couple of country clubs lining a road that we run down and back) go something like this..."ow, ow, ow, why am I doing this? ... ow, ow, ow... can't I take a short walk-break? ... no, because I will not be able to start running – if what I am doing is considered running - again..."  Before I forget, it is SO nice to have water stations along the running route, and the kids handing out the water are awesome, but dear heavens, how do you run and drink at the same time?  I learn that I can only ask for water at these stations because I when I take Gatorade at the first station in end up a sticky mess, since I am able to pour only half of the cup in my mouth... and the rest ends up on my face and body.

At the country club tennis courts, Leon catches and passes me.  I look at my watch and see that I have a 2:35 race time at that point, and we have just under two miles to the finish line.  I know that Leon started 12 minutes behind me, meaning that he has a shot at finishing in under 2:40.  Just then, my quads loosen up and I get a kick, allowing me to catch up to Leon.  When I pull up along side Leon, we talk for a second about time and our chance to finish in times that we both would be thrilled with.  After a minute or two of running side by side, I realize that we are moving, but not fast enough.  I know that I am not going to hit a 2:45 or 2:50 race time, but Leon has a shot.

I remember something that Shaun Meller said (lovingly) when the three of us (Shaun, Leon and I) were out on an early morning swim in Connecticut, with one of our volunteer coaches, Coach Chris Kortland.  "You have a problem, Leon," Shaun said.  "You always have to be first, no matter what."  With a mile  or so to go, I look at Leon, knowing I have enough in me for at least a short sprint, and say, "Leon, you are going to have to catch me."  I sprint ahead and built a decent lead over Leon.  Sure enough, in a few moments, Leon picks up his pace, passes me, and like Forest Gump, "he just kept on running."

I never can catch up with Leon, even with Coach Dawn yelling me to catch him, as we turn into the final .2 mile stretch, “C’mon Avi!!! Catch Leon!!!”  I am thrilled to see Leon cross the finish line in 2:39 (holy smokes!) - he worked amazingly hard and deserves a strong showing and a fast time.  I cross the line a few seconds after Leon in a time of 2:51 (even though I was a few seconds behind Leon, I got a 12 minute head start because of when our respective waves left).  My wife and kids are at the finish line and see me finish, though it  does take a few minutes to finally connect after crossing the finish line – I walk to where I saw them standing and my wife goes to the finish area. I am really proud of my time and it is great to have my family there to share the moment with me (my mom, dad, sister, sister's boyfriend, mother-in-law and father-in-law arrive soon after).

Ronnie Ram (a.k.a. Frack, of TNT’s Frick & Frack), “General” Robert “E. Lee.” Friedman and others finish up soon after, followed by Rocco (a.k.a. Frick of TNT’s Frick & Frack) and Brad “I want to do a half-Ironman,now” Scher (sorry if I forgot anyone).  I make my way up to the corner of the park where Coach Dawn, Diandra & Jincy (from the LLS Westchester Office) and other TNT mentors are cheering TNT members on to the home stretch.  After yelling and cheering for a bit, I head back out on the course to run some team members in.  Shaun Meller, who took a spill on his bike, was gutting out a solid performance when I find him about .4 miles from the finish line and I have the honor of running him to the park, where the chute leading to the finish line begins.  Over the course of the triathlon bike ride, every now and then, cyclists will crash.  Taking a spill (in addition to Shaun, Rocco took a spill, too), pop back on your bike, keep riding and then run 6.2 miles is really rough.  Your body absorbs a serious impact caused by the speed of the bike, the weight of the cyclist and the fact that the fall is cushioned by concrete (yeah, nice and soft!).  Even if you think you are alright right after impact, the mental and physiological impact can take a while to set in.  Shaun was my triathlon mentor; he spent time preparing me physically and mentally for the triathlon and running him in to the chute, where hundreds of people were waiting and cheering on the finishers, after all that Shaun did for me, not to mention the courage he showed in the race, is an amazing honor.
I go back out on the course again, and after being refused by some true, solo-warriors (go David Blumenthal, soon to be a fantasy baseball league champion!) and running another person or two in, I find Beatriz Nivash.  You may not know this, but at the first TNT training, I ran 1.5 miles and thought I was done with my run for the day... until Beatriz yelled to me, "Are you done already?"  Apparently, I wasn’t; we ran together another 2+ miles (I didn't know Beatriz before then, though I knew of her).  Beatriz finished last year's triathlon in 5:45, and she didn't get to do a portion of the race that probably would have taken her up to another 15 minutes.  As a result of training for last year’s triathlon, Beatriz completely changed her lifestyle, making exercise a major part of her life.  About a mile away from the finish line, I meet up Beatriz...
"Would you like some company?" I ask.  "Sure!" she replies, so I join her.  After a few steps I ask her, "What is your goal time for this year?"  "Four hours," she says.  We figure out that she started six minutes behind me, and based on my stopwatch time, which I never stopped when I finished (luckily!) I figure out her current race time.  Now, I don't know if Beatriz means she wants to finish somewhere in the four hour time frame or in right around four hours, but we are actually at the tail end of three hours.  Beatriz has no idea what her time is, so I am excited to give her some good news.  Not thinking that Beatriz is up to a big push (I was totally not ready to do it...) I say, "I have great news!  You are looking good for a finish of 4:05, but if you push it, there is a shot that you come in just at four hours."  To my surprise, her response is, "Yeah?!?! Let's go!!!"  Beatriz hits a new gear and starts really moving, pushing me to move faster than I am actually prepared to, but I want Beatriz to meet her goal, but clearly not as much as she does!  As we chew up real estate (she had a little more than a mile to go when I met up with her), I keep looking down at my watch and what seems unlikely becomes more and more possible.  I cannot believe my watch or the extra gear that Beatriz has.  We fly down the side of the park and turn into the park with a minute and 30 second, or so, to traverse .2 miles.  Beatriz pushes and pushes to the last second.  I stop at the top of the chute and watch her run down into the crowed, yelling furiously, staring at my watch, trying to will time to move slower and give Beatriz an extra second or two to cross the finish line in a time that she didn’t dare dream of.  I have her crossing the line on my watch at 3:59:54.  [Her official time was 4:00:06.  I still contend that she finished in sub-four hour time.]  She is amazing and inspirational. 

I go back out on the course, again, and find Miriam Parness, a little more than a mile from the finish line.  She is walking when I meet her, because she slammed her toe while going from the beach to the transition are after her swim.  “I hurt my toe,” she tells me, “so I am walking.”  I didn't know (and clearly SHE didn't know) what her toe looked like at the time... and I know this because when we hit a bit of a downhill slope she says to me, "I can run here," and she does.  I am amazed by her spirit and fight, running the portions that she can, even though she is walking most of the way.  After the race, she showed me her toe – had I known, and had she known what it looked like, I would hope that one of us would have stopped her before she got on her bicycle.  From half way down her toenail on her big toe to the bottom of her toe is COMPLETELY purple and blue – a deep, deep purple and blue.  I am amazed by how tough Miriam is, as we run together... when I see her toe after the race, I think that she might just be bulletproof. [After the race, Miriam went to see a doctor.  She reported to us that not only did she have a broken big toe, she had also broken another toe a few weeks earlier, during training.  She didn't go to the doctor until after the race because she refused to be told that she could not compete.  Seriously.]

There were a few especially touching moments that I see involving family (this is in no particular  chronological order).  It was awesome seeing Rob Friedman and then Elana Minkove getting escorted in to the finish line by their young kids - very, very special.  Later on, a couple of TNT members and I are out on the course and find Ellie Chefitz a mile from the finish. After running with her less than half a block, we see her husband and one of her sons who came to meet her and run her in.   Her husband, Allen, had run the triathlon, himself, but has the honor of escorting his wife to the finish with his son.  Last but not least, I go out with Coach Chris Kortland and Skippy's Team Captain Rob Friedman to find our last TNT member, Doug.  We find him a little more than a mile out from the finish.  Doug looks great and is moving at a solid clip.  Rob and I comment to each other that our calves are making it a little tough to keep up with Doug’s pace (Doug moved through the course at a nice pace, but was in one of the last waves to go, thus he was the last TNT member out on the course).  We run him in to the .2 mile mark where we meet a ton of TNT members at the edge of the park.  Everyone runs Doug to the very edge of the chute and then we run alongside him on the outside of both sides of the chute, a purple wave, the color of LLS and TNT, moving towards the finish line, symbolically finishing the triathlon all together.  This amazing TNT tradition underscores the powerful bonds and friendships that we have built as a team and our team's unity and strength.  It is truly amazing the way TNT turns triathlon from an individual sport into a team sport.

That is the race report, from me.  The post race party was great, delicious and filling.  There is more that can be written, but I think this is more than enough.  Thank you for your indulgence, your support and your readership.  It has been an honor.

Thank you coaches, thank you TNT, thank you teammates, thank you Skippy's Team. This was amazing - every painful and arduous step of the way, all five months long...  Thank you all.

Goals!

Goals are important.  How important are they?  You might want to ask Andres Cantor, because he thinks that goals are a very big deal. 

Just under five months ago, I set three goals for my triathlon experience, (i) to raise $3,333.33 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, (ii) to lose 33 pounds, and (iii) to complete the Westchester Triathlon in 3:33:33.  Today, three and a little more than half a day before I compete in my first triathlon, I have a goal update for all of you.  Just as a warning, in three sentences I will be making a blatant appeal for you to donate a couple of dollars to LLS.  But, don’t worry, I am only $130 short of my goal (for those of you who are math gurus and have looked at my donations page and see that it appears as if I am $180 short, you are right about that, but I have sent in a $50 check that still has to be processed; thus, I am only $130 away from my goal).  So, are you prepared for what I hope is going to be my most blatant and, hopefully, final request for your generosity? Here it is: Please support my five-month-long (very painful and time consuming!) triathlon training by clicking here and donating to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  If for some reason  you were about to donate and see that I already reached $3,333.33 don’t put your credit card and mouse away – keep typing and clicking and give to a very important cause.  Thank you, again, to everyone who has already donated!

Ok, enough about you and your money… it’s time for me to look in the mirror and see where I am at in terms of my weight and race-time goals.   Let’s start with weight…

I will save my explanations, disclaimers and caveats for later in the paragraph, and I will just come out and say that I have not met my goal of losing 33 pounds.  I have lost 20 pounds and my before-and-after pictures (yes, I have them; no, I am not posting them) are significantly different.  One major contributing factor to my failure to reach my stated weight-loss goal was that weight loss became a secondary focus about two months into my training (here is that explanation-disclaimer-caveat section that I was talking about).  I was coming home from trainings sore, tired and all-sorts-of-grumpy, and the feeling persisted throughout the day and sometimes into the next day.  I asked a friend of mine, who happens to be very knowledgeable about the subject of sports nutrition, about why I was feeling so dead.  He asked me about my nutrition, training, etc.  In short order, he explained that in my effort to lose weight, I was driving my body crazy.  After a long, strenuous workout, my body was craving protein and carbohydrates, for the repair and rebuilding of muscle structure.  Salad was not cutting it, so my body was going after any and all protein that it could find, including what was available in my muscle fiber, etc.  So, while I was losing weight, I was also losing muscle and, because useful protein was not easily available when it was needed, I was also failing to build as much new muscle as I could have been.  As you might guess, after that I changed my diet, adding calories (good calories) and a lot more protein, I stopped losing weight at a fast rate.  While I hate to whiff on a goal, I am confident that I made the right decision to move off of my weight loss goal… and for those of you who read my previous blogs, I do fit into my little black dress (for those of you who have not been reading my blogs and have no idea what “my little black dress” is, PLEASE, read this post before coming to any conclusions.

Don’t worry, though, I have some good news!  Taking a (boring) trip back in time, I picked the 3:33:33 time goal to keep in line with my theme of “3” (then again, so was my 33 pound goal, but let’s forget that for a minute).  To be perfectly honest, I had a real personal goal of finishing the race in 3:15, which was based on the times of friends who I knew who had completed the triathlon last year, and the fact that my asthma is usually at its worst in September because of my allergies.  Flash forward back to today, and I can tell you that my strategy to gain muscle vs. lose weight has paid off, I think.  I am pretty confident that I will finish the triathlon in under 3:15, but I am going to go a step further and I am going to say something stupid, which I think I will regret…

Here goes…

In honor of everyone who has donated to LLS in support of my training, and as a penalty for not dropping all 33 pounds, and ONLY if I get another $130 in donations so that I reach the $3,333.33 goal (have I lost you yet?)… drum roll please…  Then, I will work my tail off to finish the triathlon in less than 3 hours (this is assuming that we have dry race course conditions – if the roads are wet, I am going to slow down on my bike and stay safe, meaning all bets are off).

You might be thinking, “Three hours, big deal!”  So, here is some context.  No first-time triathlon runner from Skippy’s Team finished the triathlon in less than three hours, last year.  I believe that the fastest time was around three hours and ten minutes.  Keep in mind that last year’s Skippy’s Team included people who have ran marathons, half-marathons and have trained for and competed in endurance events prior to participating in the Westchester Triathlon.  I have NEVER competed in an endurance event... and have I mentioned my asthma (have I ever failed to mention my asthma?).  Furthermore, based on my current timing (:36 swim, 1:28 bike, :58 run + :08 total transition time), I am looking at a 3:10 race time – and I have never completed all three events back-to-back-to-back in training, so 3:10 is purely theoretical.  What that means is beating a 3:00 time will require a lot of adrenaline, luck and some pain, too – but, I am going to go for it.

So, in what will probably be my final pre-race blog post, I want to thank all of you for racing alongside me, supporting me and laughing at me.  This has been an amazing experience and I thank all of you for being a part of it.  See y’all at the finish line!

P.S. – The real reason why I need to finish in less than 3 hours is Richard Cantor, of Scarsdale, a man who I have never met.  I need to finish the triathlon in a sub-3 hour time because I need to finish the triathlon faster than Richard Cantor.   Why do I care about finishing before Richard Cantor?  Well, last year, at age 67, Richard finished the Westchester triathlon in 2:55.  So while I’ve resigned myself to the fact that, at age 34, I am going to get crushed by a bunch of 40 year-olds, smoked by a plethora of 50 year-olds and beaten by a handful of men in their early 60’s.  However, if I can’t swim, bike and run faster than all the 65+ year-old men… well, that means that I just need to work harder.  Good luck Rich!!!  I am gunning for you!  Oh yeah, did I mention that if I finish in over 3:05, I will be in danger of having a slower race time than 76 year-old John Cook, of Stanford, Connecticut, who finished last year’s triathlon, at age 75 in 3:04.  Truly, awe inspiring!

Sharks & Vampires (The Good Kind)

As some of you know, despite my best efforts to keep this fact a secret, I am an attorney.  Therefore, any and all abuse that I heap on the legal field in this blog post should be considered lawyer-on-lawyer abuse and I may be labeled, appropriately, as a self-hating lawyer.  I am comfortable with that label, since I think it is one that many lawyers wear proudly.  Lawyers will usually laugh first and laugh loudest at jokes that label our brethren as either blood-sucking vampires (What is the difference between a lawyer and a vampire? – A vampire only sucks blood at night), sharks (What is the difference between a lawyer and a shark? – Ummmm… yeah, I can’t think of any differences, too) and, my favorite, catfish (What is the difference between a catfish and a lawyer? - One is a rabble sucking bottom dweller, the other is a fish).

However, it seems that every once in a while, people find reasons to love a lawyer.  Whether that love is a result of a lawyer getting them out of a speeding ticket, setting up a trust that saves them a bunch of money in taxes, saves them money on their property taxes (hint, hint), etc., people realize that not all lawyers are the personification of pure evil; well, at least that attorneys aren’t the personification of pure evil all the time. 

Well, now I have another reason for you to love a lawyer.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to love all lawyers, just a bunch of them, and you only have to love them for a second or two.

The law firm of Troutman Sanders LLP, a large, Atlanta, Georgia-based, international law firm, has generously donated over $15,000 to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, through LLS’s Team-In-Training program.  Now, I know that some cynics and skeptics out there might want to downplay the generosity of this donation or point to ulterior motives for the donation.  However, my simple response to any and all doubters/haters is (i) LLS is not the only worthy not-for profit organization that the firm supports, so this donation is not the total “give” from the firm; and (ii) Troutman could have easily given less money and still achieved any and all of its PR goals and/or ulterior motives – a $5,000 donation to LLS would have been more than generous.  As for me, I have no connection to Troutman Sanders LLP, other than the fact that I worked for a peer firm for two and a half years; the only potential benefit that I can see gaining from writing this blog post is that Troutman will continue to support LLS in future years, which I hope will be the case (as an aside, I probably didn’t have to tell you that I am an attorney at the beginning of this blog, since you would have figured it out based on the fact that I (i) used Roman numerals to delineate my points, now twice in a paragraph; (ii) placed a disclaimer at the end of this paragraph; and (iii) have used four semi-colons in single paragraph – and yes, each one is a good reason to hate me).

So, now that you have thought kindly of Troutman Sanders LLP and their attorneys for at least a second or two, you can go back to abhorring every single attorney in existence.  But, at least you should agree with the fact that, unlike vampires, the attorneys at Troutman Sanders have a heart and a soul… well, you’ll agree with that fact as long as you aren’t sitting on the opposite side of the table from them.  

9/11 on 9/12

Sorry everyone, but I have to write a 9/11 post.  I really didn’t want to join the minions of writers and bloggers who have said everything there is to say about 9/11, and who have said it better and more intelligently than I will.  Then, while watching TV, last night, I saw a couple of things that pushed me to the edge, and then a little internet research pushed me over – way over.

Let’s start here: http://www.firehouse.com/news/911news/fdny-study-confirms-rise-cancer-after-911.  In short, a credible study, published in The Lancet (a highly reputable medical journal) has found “a modest excess of cancer cases in the WTC-exposed cohort [firefighters employed after 9/11]” (http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)60989-6/abstract).  You may have noticed in the first article, the third leading cause of death from cancer, impacting those firemen who were responsible for digging through the rubble at the WTC, was identified as blood cell cancer (non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma & leukemia).  Ten years after 9/11, the impact of the two planes ramming into the Twin Towers are still felt.  Though the video footage is nowhere near as dramatic, and there are no mega-memorials at athletic events, the men and women who are dying from cancer are just as much victims of terrorism as those who died on 9/11.

I was led to research this issue by a clip on CBS 2’s 9/11 look back show, which I flipped to while I watched the Jets – Cowboys play on Monday Night Football.  I happened to catch a piece on NYPD’s Ladder 1 Company, which somehow didn’t lose a single firefighter on 9/11, despite being one of the first firehouses to respond to the WTC.  However, last year, one firefighter passed away from AML, which his doctors attributed to carcinogens he inhaled while working “on the pile” at the WTC.  As I flipped to another station, I saw a clip of family members reading the names of lost loved ones.  I then thought of the opening ceremonies of the Monday Night Football game, with a huge, unfurled flag and 70,000 fans chanting “U-S-A”.  Then, I was reminded of the fact that this year, in honor of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, 9/11/11 was appointed as a “national day of service”.

I hate to say it, but I didn’t do anything specific for the national day of service, and I am willing to bet that I am in the majority of the US population.  I had my daughter’s birthday party, yesterday, not to mention the all-important NFL football games to watch.  I also woke up real early to train for my triathlon.  I am sure that we all have good excuses and we don’t always have time to be of service on a day specified by the US Government (or be romantic on the exact day that Hallmark has told us we need to be regular-Romeos) and I don’t mean to suggest that we shouldn’t have memorials, commemorations or even spectacles with gargantuan flags to commemorate 9/11, either.

What I do suggest is that we need to remember that many of us are lucky enough to chant “U-S-A”, watch a mega-ceremony put on by the NFL or watch a show on TV on 9/11 and then resume our regularly scheduled lives on 9/12.  Those people who have lost loved ones don’t get to walk away from 9/11 on 9/12.  There are also many people who are a step closer to 9/11 every day that they are removed from it, because with every day they are a step closer to a date with cancer that is a direct byproduct of 9/11.  Those direct responders and their family members will not get to walk away, be it in a few months or a few years.

Now, I want to take a moment to say that I am not trying to downplay or be insensitive to a lot of people that I know who were in Manhattan on 9/11/01, who were directly impacted, physically and/or psychologically.  Plenty of people who watched the events of the day either live or on TV bear some real emotional scars, and I recognize that.  I am sure that a large segment of the population has some close connection to 9/11 through friends and/or family who worked in the WTC or the Pentagon, were a first responder, were involved in the aftermath, etc.  Personally, other than watching the events of the day unfold on TV, I have marginal intimate connection with the actual events of the day, other than my years of working and going to school in NYC and spending many hours photographing the Twin Towers for a photojournalism class.  I know how much that day impacted and continues to impact me and I can’t imagine what the impact has been on others.

What I hope to accomplish with this post is to remind myself (and maybe you) of the ongoing nature of 9/11; that we can’t just let the events of the day go because it’s now September 12th, 10 years after the fact.  I also hope to inspire you, my readers, to take some time to do some good in honor of 9/11 – it doesn’t matter what the actual date is, it matters what is in your heart.  I also want to alert you to the fact that there is something that you can do that might save a life from 9/11/01 on 9/12/11.  The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is on the front line of research for blood related cancers.  There are firefighters and police officers who will be impacted by cancer that research indicates has a likelihood of being caused by the events of 9/11.  While there is no guarantee that a cure for blood cancer will be found in time to save first responders, every dollar makes it more likely. 

You can donate to the LLS, and sponsor my triathlon bid here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/wch/wchtri11/aspiraq31y

As I have said before, if you have a favorite charity that you have a connection to, this is a great time to donate to that charity.  It is a terrific and important way to remember the events of September 11th, and with a little bit of luck and the grace of G-d, maybe, just maybe, we can find a cure in the near future so that we don’t have to have to lose another of our brave members of the FDNY to the ongoing tragedy of 9/11. 

If You Can Dodge a Wrench

Last Wednesday evening’s TNT open water swim (OWS) was lightly attended, mostly because team members were on summer vacations.  However, another possible factor (and by possible, I mean like a .000001% chance) in our low turnout rate was that the weatherbugs on the team realized what most of us did not, namely that the 14 mile per hour winds that swept across the Long Island Sound would result in pretty choppy conditions.  By pretty choppy, I mean consistent 3 to 4-foot swells and an occasional 5-foot swell, for good measure.  If you are skeptical about my claims, take a look at this report for Friday, Saturday and Sunday of this week (note (i) the wind speed chart and then (ii) the wave height chart, below it). 

I was taken back around 16 years, when I used to do a bit of boogey boarding off of Long Beach (yes, that Long Beach, which was on the news all weekend during hurricane/tropical storm Irene coverage).  I tried to get out to the beach on windier days, when the waves were larger, even going out once when the waves were gigantic (8 to 10-foot swells), thanks to a hurricane off the coast of North Carolina.  Yeah, I was one of the idiots out there that the news reporters love to point out “those maniac surfers who just won’t listen to the authorities”.  In full disclosure, the Long Beach lifeguards were on duty and, not only were they on duty, it was the first time and last time that I have ever seen every single lifeguard not only actually out of their chair/station, but they were actually standing in the ocean with the water up to their calves.  Last Wednesday’s waves were not hurricane-esque waves, but I can say confidently that they were equal to the ocean’s churn on a windy day (minus the hard break of the waves at shore).  As a result, our coaches cut our planned swim routine in about ½, a few people headed back to shore early and there were a few cases of seasickness.

Fortunately, last night’s OWS presented a kinder, gentler Long Island Sound.  Those of us who were at last week’s OWS could barely recognize the placid water that presented itself to us.  We swam long and hard, with little drama, other than the fact that I swam into a sizable branch, head on - undoubtedly a parting gift from Irene.  After swimming back to shore, those of us who were at last week’s OWS commented on how nice and easy it was to swim this time around.  I guess the saying is true - CLICK HERE! 

For a more extended clip, and for those of you who haven’t seen “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story”, you can CLICK HERE.

My Heroes

Sunday morning’s Team in Training training was washed out, thanks to Irene.  This caused some triathlon training problems for me, since Sunday morning trainings are my most intense, so missing the training meant that I needed to figure out how to make up the time and intensity of my training elsewhere.  But, it is important that I take a step back and be thankful that my family and friends are safe and sound and, save for some water in my unfinished basement and downed tree limbs around my house, my home was spared and we have electricity!!!.  Here are a few notes from my weekend of Irene:

My Basement:  We use our unfinished basement for storage, since the basement takes on marginal amounts of water when there is a heavy rain.  My neighbor, whose backyard is a watery mess, decided that rather than put drainage in his back yard he should grade his backyard so that all his excess water drains into my yard (and basement), so heavy rains often result in water in my basement.  Spending money on a sump pump seems like a waste of money because we rarely get significant flooding in the basement and, in deference to the water that sometimes does inhabit the basement, we store most everything in our basement in plastic storage boxes.  In the end, we depend on a French drain mechanism to funnel out all the water that comes into our basement. 

At 11pm on Saturday night our basement was dry.  At around 2:30am, with the rain picking up steadily, I decided to see whether the basement was taking on water.  I assumed that there was some water, with the steady and heavy rains, but I had no idea how much.  As I headed downstairs to see whether my French drain was working, or not, it occurred to me that anyone depending on anything French to defend property or land should not be surprised when the French defense is quickly and completely overwhelmed and then requires US and British assistance.  Sure enough, my French drain was not up to the task of handling the water that Irene and my neighbor decided to dump into my basement.  Luckily, after I had to move a whole bunch of boxes and repositioned some non-waterproof items that were being threatened, the French drain eventually recovered and the only remnants of Irene is some dampness and a little moisture on the floor.  

New York Sports Club:  At around noon on Sunday, when the rain from Irene subsided, I called up New York Sports Club in New Rochelle to see if they might be opening up (I hoped and prayed!) in the afternoon, AFTER the brunt of the storm passed.  It turns out that they were open; they were open since   7am – yes, 7am, which is when the gym usually opens on Sunday!

If you weren’t tracking the storm, the epicenter and most powerful portion of Irene hit the New Rochelle area at around 9am, and some of the strongest bands of rain were pelting the area from 4am – 11am. 

Imagine waking up at 5am, looking outside, seeing a raging storm and thanking heavens that you are not an essential worker, like a policeman, fireman or EMT – someone who might have to go out in the mess that was Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene.  After all, you work in a gym, and why should would anyone risk life and limb (people were killed during the storm from falling tree limbs, etc.) to open up a gym for some crazy fitness nuts… even fitness-crazies would understand, right?  So, you dutifully call in to NYSC of New Rochelle to confirm that the gym is closed and WTF!?!? – You find out that you need to get to work.  And no, you don’t get to wait until after the most dangerous part of the storm passes by; you need to get to work now, by 7am!  Otherwise, some tri-wacko isn’t going to get his workout in and may go from 5% body fat to 5.01% body fat that day. 

In any case, I got in a pretty decent workout (21 miles on the bike and a 3 mile run).  So, thank you to the brave employees of NYSC in New Rochelle.  Without your dedication to my health and fitness and your disregard for your own safety, I would have lost a most crucial day of training.

My Little Black Dress

As you may know, at the outset of my triathlon training I set three goals for myself.  The theme for these goals was the number “3” – fitting for a triathlon.  My target goals were (i) to raise $3,333.33 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (donate here); (ii) to lose 33 pounds; and (iii) to complete the triathlon in under 3 hours, 33 minutes and 33 seconds. 

Here is an update on my progress: I am just under $500 away from my $3,333.33 goal and I think that if I survive the open water swim (more on that in a future post), I will be able to complete the triathlon in under 3:33:33.  

Now you, as an intelligent individual, probably picked up on the fact that I didn’t mention where I am regarding my weight loss goal of 33 pounds.  Yeah… That goal…

So, it’s not all bad news; I have lost 19 pounds, to date, and I would like to think that I have added some muscle mass, which has mitigated some of my weight loss.  However, clearly I am not where I want to be regarding my weight loss, which leads me to my little black dress.

Before I go any further, I want to be perfectly clear: I DO NOT ACTUALLY OWN A LITTLE BLACK DRESS.  Despite having three degrees from New York University and spending years upon years in Greenwich Village, I have never worn a black dress of any kind (little, big or otherwise); I do not own a black dress; I will not own a black dress; I do not wish I owned one.  The “little black dress” is purely metaphorical in nature.

Now that I cleared that up, as you probably guessed, a “little black dress” represents a specific outfit, be it a wedding dress, a strapless gown, a bikini or an actual little black dress, which is too small on a buyer (usually a woman) when it is purchased.  The buyer (let’s go with “she”) then sets out a diet and exercise regimen and/or goal date when she will be able to fit into that dress/gown/outfit, and look fabulous in it.  You’ve seen this concept in commercials for “Special K” cereal and the like, where a woman looks in the mirror while holding up a dress that is too small for her against her body, as she shifts from side to side, dismayed by the fact that she can’t fit into the fabulous dress.  The shocking and amazing conclusion of the commercial has the previously-forlorn woman glowing as she magically fits into the previously-too-small dress, thanks to said-product-being-advertised.

Well, I have a “little black dress” that comes in the form of a cycling jersey.  If you have never seen or worn a cycling jersey, you should know that they are meant to be form fitting.  Extra jersey or t-shirt material can get caught in the wind, as you bicycle, creating a parachute-effect or “drag”, which means that a loose-fitting shirt or jersey can slows you down by “catching” the air that you move through.  Sure, there are some more forgiving/looser jerseys, but the real, hardcore jerseys have little margin for error (flab) when it comes to squeezing in to them.

I happen to have a size medium, baby blue cycling jersey, which was gifted to me (this is not one of the 11 jerseys that I won on Ebay, discussed in my post from last week).  To give you some background on my couture sizing (I love calling my decade-old, free t-shirts couture), prior to training for this triathlon I inhabited size large t-shirts and even size x-large t-shirts, on occasions (you know, because I have broad shoulders).  Thus, when I started training for this triathlon, I designated my baby blue cycling jersey as my own “little black dress.”  Four months ago, I clawed, crawled and battled my way into the jersey, just to see what it looked like on me, and I practically needed butter and oil to get myself out of it.  Today, well, I can get in and out of the jersey, but there are still a few too many bulges and tight spots to say that I am “in”.  But, I am getting there. 

Fitting into my little black dress is especially important to me because it represents more than just a weight loss number; it represents fitness, muscle tone and overall body shape.  It considers the muscle that I have added in addition to the weight that I have lost.  So on race day, even if I don’t hit that magic 33 pound goal, I will be a happy man, so long as I can really fit into my little black dress.

Just so you know, though, I am going to make up for any weight loss shortfalls on my part by lowering my 3:33:33 tri-time commitment.  Keep in mind, my time and my weight loss are completely under my control, so I take full responsibility for those commitments and impact me, personally.  My fundraising goals impact LLS and people fighting against blood cancers.  This is where you can make an impact.  Please join my blog readers (and those who have donated so that they do NOT have read my blog) who have already donated and ensure that I am able to hit my fundraising goal by donating here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/wch/wchtri11/aspiraq31y.  Thank you for all of your support!