Frederick Cook

For most of the Spring, I had a minor hamstring injury. It hurt the most while running, though I could feel it some on the bike. Assuming it was something running related, I cut back on run training, bought new shoes, and tried made several changes to my running technique.

The lack of run training resulted in a disappointing 3:41 at Shamrock Marathon, though it didn’t have a huge affect on my speed or endurance for the two half-iron distance races this year (1st overall in Gainesville, 5th overall at Kinetic Half). Still, throughout the course of the Spring semester, it was getting worse. I remember a couple days before Collegiate Nationals (which also went pretty poorly), going out for a run, getting a few steps outside my house and turning around and walking back in because it hurt so bad.

The week after Kinetic Half, I did the race ride here in town, and the next day could barely walk. Both hamstrings were worse than they had been all Spring, and I was completely off training for several days. It was then I decided to start looking for a coach, and get to the root of the issue. After having messed with my running for a couple of months, I was beginning to suspect it may be something bike-related, even though hamstring issues are not typically associated with biking. In the meantime, in an attempt to take some time off to get healthy, May was by far my lightest training month yet this year. Not good with Ironman Louisville at the end of August.

I looked back at my training logs, and the first time I had written about hamstring pain was literally the first day after I rode my new Quintana Roo TT bike which I bought back in January, and I recorded it regularly after that. Maybe I went to too aggressive of a position (too bent over for good aerodynamics instead of sitting up somewhat) too quickly?

Anyway, in the last month since Kinetic, I decided to get a little more help with the issue. I had been considering getting a coach for a while, simply to have someone to consult with on laying out a workout plan, but with the hamstring problems, I decided now was the time. I decided to go with a local gentleman who came highly recommended by two friends and excellent triathletes, Sam Froelich and Crystal Pruitt. Jim McGehee of One-on-One Endurance agreed to work with me, and has been helping me for the last two weeks or so.

After less than a week with Jim, after explaining in depth what I’d been doing that may have caused these issues, he hooked me up with T.J. Stites, a local physical therapist and pretty good triathlete himself (10th at Smith Mountain Lake, 1st in age group). T.J. came by my house, looked at my position on the QRoo, looked at how I couldn’t touch my toes when I bent over with my legs straight, and immediately told me the problem was with my hamstring flexibility.

I’ve been stretching my hamstrings 2-3 times a day now for about a week, and can feel a huge difference. Biking yesterday, the only time I felt my hamstrings was while pushing hard bent over in the drops, in a pretty compact position comparable to my time-trial position. I’m confident that a couple more weeks or regular stretching and I’ll be good to go again. Running has felt better too, and I’m up from a long run of about 20 minutes two weeks ago to an hour this week. Still a long way to go in the 11 weeks between now and Louisville, but being healthy, and with my coach to guide me, I should definitely be able to get that long run up there over the next month.

In summary, STRETCH! For cycling, you only using a limited range of motion of your legs, and it is very easy to lose flexibility with leads to injury. Trying to combine this with a stretched out time trial position led me to several months of training with an injury. (I am currently doing about four different hamstring stretches, each for 45 seconds to a minute, when I wake up, when I go to bed, and immediately after workouts.)

From Blacksburg, thanks.

Two weekends, two sweet races. The first was Smith Mountain Lake Sprint Triathlon (SML) at Smith Mountain Lake State Park. Since it was only an hour and a half from Blacksburg and a 9am start, we decided to drive out that morning. It seems like no matter how early I get to a race, I’m always rushing around at the last minute to get down to the beach. Today wasn’t any different, but I did get in a 20 minute or so warm-up on the bike first.

One thing I really like about Set Up Events races is that they always start Men 34 & Under or Men 39 & Under in the first wave, so you’re usually competing directly against the fastest people in the race (though it isn’t unheard of for 40+ year-olds to win some of these smaller races) and you have a really good idea of where you are compared to them the whole time.

At SML, right from the start I was at the front of the 750 yard swim, and after the turn at the first bouy, it was myself and one other guy (eventual race winner Lewis Jackson) side-by-side in the lead. He dropped to draft for the middle portion of the swim, but I felt good and kept pushing the pace. At the final turn to head to shore, he came back around and we were side-by-side the last several hundred yards. We hit the beach together, and I beat him to the timing mat to record the fastest swim in the wave. (This was the 4th fastest swim overall, two old guys had faster splits. This is the down-side of wave starts, who knows if I could have pushed hard enough to keep up if anyone had been in front of us.)

The 12.5 mile bike was relatively uneventful. I was a couple steps behind my swimming partner coming out of T1, but he stayed ahead of me and I lost sight of him after the first couple miles. I held 2nd until the very end of the bike, when I was passed just before T2 by a guy in a Navy uniform, Sam Dannenbring.

I felt strong on the 5k run, and pushed harder than I had in a very long time. I held on to be third to cross the finish line. A couple minutes later a 39-year-old crossed the line to edge me off the podium, giving me 4th overall, which I was quite happy with. They gave me the 1st in the 20-24 age group too, since Dannenbring, who beat me in the age group, was given an overall award.

Kinetic Half played out quite differently for a very similar outcome, fifth overall. From the start of the swim, two guys went off the front and I knew I couldn’t keep pace with them. I hung with two others who were strong swimmers for most of the first lap of the 1.2 mile swim, but lost them at the end. I swam the second lap by myself, dodging swimmers from the other age groups along the way, and heard the announcer call my name and say I was fifth out of the water as I entered T1.

After a quick T1, I was still in fifth but could see the two riders ahead of me as we climbed through the park (Lake Anna State Park) and out to the country roads that made up the two-loop, 56 mile bike course. I passed one of the riders ahead of me, Kevin Walton, another VT Triathlon member, and kept the other in sight as we got out on the main roads. The sun had come out for the first loop which made for a beautiful bike course. At the first water hand off around 15 miles in (speed and distance on my computer were working only sporadically, so no idea where anything actually was on the course) I missed getting a water bottle, and had run out completely by about 3/4 of the first loop. I was a bit concerned, but I made the other two at miles ~27 and ~40 so I hoped that I had caught up enough for the run. I don’t recall how exactly the placing worked out during the bike, but I know I was in fifth again coming in to T2, and came out of T2 right at the 3 hours.

Though I didn’t have a goal time, I would have been pretty happy with a 4:45, and I figured that a 1:45 half marathon was definitely within reason. The run was definitely tough, but mostly overcast, and went by quickly. It was a three-loop course, so I knew how I was doing time-wise finishing each loop. My first was around 31 minutes, my second around 33 minutes, and my final was around 33 minutes, giving me a 1:37 half marathon, which was pretty slow for how well I did overall. I was only passed once, by a familiar face from SML, Dannenbring. I’m not sure how many I passed, but I think I was in fifth or so coming into the finishing chute.

There were a bunch penalties with the top guys (results), and Dannenbring was pushed behind me in the general classification. The first 10 or so of us out of the water apparently missed a 1-mile jig at the very beginning of the bike that wasn’t on any of the course maps or even manned by a volunteer when we came through, so we were given 3-minute penalties. I was happy with the final shake-up though, and was given a bottle of Lake Anna Winery merlot as my 1st in age group prize (along with a a Newton’s Cradle, which they must have found a few dozen real cheap on eBay or something).

Above is my good friend Doran Bosso (3rd in men 25-29, @doranbosso on twitter) and I with our local wine prizes. Two awesome weekends, two great races in two beautiful locations. Now a couple months or so of training in Blacksburg, with just Montclair Triathlon June 28 and maybe Colonial Beach on July 11/12.

From Blacksburg, thanks.

It’s a pretty amazing thing when everything seems to fall into place exactly when it needs to. I don’t remember a time in the last three months when I haven’t had some nagging injury, and a week before this race I was at the campus health center with a fever, but Sunday morning, everything was perfect.

The VT Triathlon team traveled to Gainesville, FL for an early season olympic-distance triathlon to try to sort out who our top seven men and women would be to send to Collegiate Nationals this year. Having already earned myself a spot on the team, I did the “Long Distance” race, which was twice olympic distance: 3k (~2 mi) swim, 80k (~50 mi) bike, 20k (~12.5 mi) run. There were only 15 other people signed up for the “long” race, with about 100 doing the olympic distance, 20 or so from Blacksburg.

The race had a beautiful venue of Lake Alto, outside Waldo, Florida, which is apparently the speed trap capital of the country. It was put on by State of Mind Sports, a pretty small production company, but very smoothly run race. I was a little sketched out about watch timing instead of electronic, but they had the results up faster than most races that use chip timing systems, and they look pretty legit.

The olympic and “long” started at the same time, so I was near the front of the swim pack with some faster people in the olympic race for the first two loops of the swim. When they got out and I kept going for two more loops, I found myself completely by myself, and definitely way out in the lead. After the swim I had put several minutes on the next people behind me, and carried that lead into the bike. The bike was an out-and-back, completely flat, to be completed four times, which I actually kind of enjoyed. Somehow it seems more managable to break a race up like that, plus I had some friends who came to watch so it was nice seeing them fairly frequently.

After the first couple loops the olympic distance people cleared off the course and I was able to start to keep track of how everyone else in my race was doing. I timed about a four-minute gap to the second place person on the third loop. It was a women in a pink jersey, and I had been pretty sure I had more than four minutes on everyone coming out of the water, so I wasn’t excited about that. However, when I clocked it again on the fourth loop, she was about 7:30 back, so I had put some time into her there. The next person was about 11 minutes back, which means they’d have to run nearly a minute per mile faster than me to catch me on the run, which seemed unlikely if I didn’t blow up.

Off the bike, the first few minutes of the run were pretty tough. I felt my quads start to cramp, a little more with each step. Fortunately, after a couple minutes slow and chugging some water, the cramping started to go away, so I just kept pushing it. The two sweet things on the run were the race director’s 12-year-old son was leading me on a mountain bike for the whole run, and the whole VT team screaming at me as I came around for every lap. Despite it being almost 80 degrees and sunny the whole time, these things made the run pretty fun, and go by pretty quick.

In all, there are two things to which I attribute feeling great all day. The first is my boy Aaron’s (our homestay in Gainesville, FL) Sealy Posturepedic bed (amazing, he slept on the fouton downstairs and lent his bed for the weekend, thanks buddy). The second is Hammer Nutrition Endurolyte Powder, which I loaded my water bottles with (and tasted like drinking saltwater all day) and I attribute to being able to even-split the run in 80 degree weather when three days before I was biting ice off my water bottle riding in 20 degree (seriously) weather in Blacksburg (and hadn’t trained above 60 degrees yet this year).

Anyway, very fun race, and I couldn’t have traveled to a nicer place for the weekend to get my first overall 1st place in triathlon. Results (Long Distance). Congratulations to the rest of the VT Triathlon team for outstanding performances in the Intermediate (olympic) race (everyone with Blacksburg, VA beside their name).

Thanks to everyone for the support.

Hokies Memorial Marathon (2007 Marine Corps Marathon)

This is the second of a two part series in which I will discuss my experience on April 16, 2007 at Virginia Tech, and its influence on me. Part I discussed the shooting.

The couple of weeks or so after the shooting were not very productive in Blacksburg to say the least. Though class resumed the week after, there wasn’t a lot of work given and most exams were canceled or optional. I remember playing a lot of golf with friends Billy, Cory, and FJ those first couple weeks, between visiting with friends and family who had come in to town. I was a terrible golfer, but it was relaxing getting away from Blacksburg and relaxing during those first hectic days.

In early May, during exams, I was talking to a runner friend, Liz, who told me how some people she knew were organizing a run called the Hokies Memorial Marathon, and they had 100 spots for people to run the Marine Corps Marathon in October 2007, and each person would raise $1000 to meet the minimum of $100,000 required by the Virginia Tech Foundation to endow a scholarship. I immediately contacted one of the organizers and expressed my interest. In fact, four of us from Dr. Librescu’s class had all heard about it separately and signed up.

Now, it wasn’t like I was coming straight off the couch into marathon training, but I certainly wasn’t an endurance runner. The previous summer I had gone on a couple of longer runs with a friend, and had competed in a couple of local 5k’s, but my longest run was still under 10 miles, and I’d only done that once.

A marathon was one of those things that you always say “Yea, I’d like to do that someday.” Well, after my experience, it was blatantly clear that “someday” was now. In Lance Armstrong’s first book, Its Not About The Bike, he talks about how a cancer survivor wrote to him shortly after being diagnosed saying “we’re the lucky ones,” and that he did not initially understand what that meant. I do.

Through the group I got my hands on a 20-week marathon training plan and set out. I spent that summer working at a naval base at home in King George, VA, and did most of the early runs in my neighborhood. I would run a six-mile loop two or three times a week, and swim other days as cross-training. Weekends were for long runs, and I jumped right up to about 14 miles to start with. A local coach, James DeMarco, was volunteering for the group and put together our workout schedule and provided support during the long runs, which I would drove back to Blacksburg for several weekends that summer. Training continued like this into the Fall semester.

Meanwhile, I reached out to everyone I knew to do the fundraising. A reporter at the King George Journal, my hometown paper, was more than willing to help out and published a couple of articles talking about my training and fundraising. People from all over the county and my naval base donated money, but by far the largest pool of donors were alumni of my fraternity, Pike (Pi Kappa Alpha, VT Pikes). I was able to get a message out on our alumni listserv, and a good friend, Tom Tillar, helped me contact numerous other alumni of Pike from the 70s and 80s and members The Cotillion Club (became Pike at VT in 1970). Through this support, I was able to raise just over $14,000, and our group as a whole raised over $140,000, far exceeding our goal. To everyone reading this who helped or contributed, thank you so much for your support. In writing this, I went back to the spreadsheet I had kept of donations and it brought tears to my eyes.

The last six weeks or so before the marathon I started having IT-band problems and had to significantly cut back my running miles and increased cross-training. The marathon was an incredible experience, and I was relatively happy with my time, 4:00:02, given my injury.

The very next weekend, back in Blacksburg, I stopped by the Pike house late Saturday evening where we were hosting a Halloween party. I had been at another formal event earlier and went by to say hello to some folks I hadn’t seen since the marathon. In the downstairs hallway, I ran into Doran Bosso, and Brian Schoenberger, both of whom had been doing triathlons for a couple of years, nothing longer than sprint and olympic distance (1 – 2.5 hour races). I was telling them about the marathon, and Doran comes out with “I think I’m going to sign up for Ironman Florida tomorrow.” Not to be shown up, Brian agrees, “if you do it, I’ll do it.”

(Note: An Ironman is a triathlon involving a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run.)

I ponder this a moment: I’ve just run a marathon, and I’ve been a swimmer my entire life, I’d have one year to learn to ride a bike. I trained for the marathon while keeping up with school work and everything else. There was no reason to hesitate. “If you guys do it, I’ll do it.”

From Blacksburg, thanks for reading.

Is there something wrong with Virginia Tech?

After the shootings on 4/16, 2007, though the question was asked, the expected answer was already known: of course not, it was a random act of violence by a very sick individual.

Many times during the last few months a similar scene has played out in my life: I’m at a dinner party with extended family, or back home visiting with the family of an old high school friend. At the end of the evening, someone who may or may not know of my specific connection with the events pulls me aside and quietly asks “So, how is the campus doing?” I explain that while it will never be the same, things are back to the way they used to be. Fall and Winter revolve around football and basketball, but the university community is probably a little closer-knit than it was two years ago, as we all went through this together. The question they don’t ask, but that I fear they are thinking to themselves is, “Is there something wrong with Virginia Tech?”

I have vehemently tried to convince myself that that thought is ridiculous, and no, of course there is nothing wrong with Virginia Tech. After 4/16 I had no desire to leave Blacksburg, could not wait to return the following Fall, and hardly hesitated when I was offered the opportunity to stay for graduate school. I love this place.

But two months ago, when gunshots were reported in a dormitory on campus, I did what has given me the most peace and solace since 4/16: I rode home from campus on my commuter bike, got on my road bike, and rode out of town. I remember telling myself that if there really is another shooting with multiple casualties on campus, I wouldn’t go back. I’ve got a degree in engineering; I can go make a life for myself anywhere. I don’t have to live like this. That incident, of course, turned out to be some kids playing with a nail gun cartridge or some-such, which I discovered when I stopped for water on that bike ride and decided to return a couple of the many missed calls I had.

This week however, after getting done lifting at The Weight Club, I hear on NPR driving home that there has been a murder at the Graduate Life Center on Virginia Tech’s campus. I stopped my car short of the stop light I was approaching and dug around for my phone: sure enough, several missed calls, text messages, and voice mails. The report (Collegiate Times, Washington Post) was that there was a stabbing and a suspect was in custody, so I went home and made chili with a good friend, which she said was therapeutic.

As it was an isolated incident with the suspect immediately apprehended at the scene and identified by witnesses, the next day was not too abnormal. (Have we as a campus become so numbed by violence that a murder within a few hundred yards isn’t too abnormal anymore? Is it that both the victim and suspect are of another nationality that allows us to distance ourselves from the event?)

So once again, I fear that people are whispering the question to one-another, “Is there something wrong with Virginia Tech?” Of course not, it was another random, bizarre crime by a deranged individual.

…

My heart goes out to Xin Yang and her family. We know what you’re going through, and understand that no consolation will lessen your grief. From Blacksburg, thank you for reading.

Part II
- marathon training and fundraising
- signing up for the ironman

Part III
- ironman 70.3 florida training and race
- summer triathlon season and ironman training
- where we are now

This is the first of a two part series in which I will discuss my experience on April 16, 2007 at Virginia Tech, and its influence on me. Part II will discuss training for the Hokies Memorial Marathon. I will tell the following story as best I recollect it now, 20 months after the event took place.

On April 16, 2007, I was in a Solid Mechanics class taught by Dr. Liviu Librescu at 9:40am. The first indication that something was happening was a series of extremely loud bangs coming from the room next to us. My first thought was that it was a nail gun, or some other classroom demonstration was being done next door. The loud bangs continued, and after a few moments, someone let out a scream. At that point, all 15 or so of us in Dr. Librescu’s class were fairly certain that the loud bangs we were hearing were gunshots, and that something was very wrong.

A couple of kids ran out of the room into the hallway, then we closed the door and scrambled around to find places to hide, which was difficult, since the room only had those standard metal desk/chairs found in 1960’s classrooms. After what seemed like a minute or so, another student, Jessie, yelled “we can go out the windows.” He pulled the screen off one of the windows, pushed it open, and disappeared outside. The classroom was on the second floor, and there was probably a fifteen foot drop out the window to the grass below. I was on the opposite side of the room, and watched as other students made their way to the windows and disappeared out.

Students called and beckoned for Dr. Librescu to come, but he stayed where he had been since we had closed the door, steadfastly planted in front of it. I remember from where I was hunched behind a desk in the back corner of the room making eye contact with Dr. Librescu. Both of us were terrified, as the shots had not stopped this entire time. We both knew what was going on out there, and what would likely soon happen to us. My next thought inevitably saved my life. I thought. “They went out the window, and are safe. They’re going to live. I’m still in this room, and I may not.” With that, I ran across the room, and peered out the window. A student was lying on the ground, and a couple others were limping away, obviously injured from the fall. I took one more look back at the door, at Dr. Librescu, like a rock, between the door and us. Then I climbed carefully out of the window and started to try to scale down the Hokie Stone wall.

Immediately after I had climbed out and was hanging from the ledge, the shots were suddenly much, much closer. I let go of the window and jumped to the ground. I scrambled around a moment, thinking if it would be best to hide near the building or run. I chose to run, picking the nearest adjacent building, Patton Hall. On the way, I met another student from our class who had the wind knocked out of her by the fall from the window, and together we made our way across the yard to Patton.

The rest of the day, even that week and month are a blur. The one thing that stands out to me is the outpouring of support from my close friends, relatives, distant friends, fellow Hokies I had never met, and the rest of the world. Though I have before, I would like to take this opportunity now to thank everyone for their support, then and now. The strength of others kept me going in those days and weeks, and I hope that someday I can provide that same strength for another.

Links:
Virginia Tech Remembers
Liviu Librescu: Courage Under Fire

Ironman Florida 2008 Race Report
by Frederick Cook

After three days of sitting around Panama City, Florida condos, half-heartedly attempting to contain nervous energy, Saturday, November 1, 2008 arrived much quicker than any of us imagined it would. These three days of on-site preparation, checking and re-checking bike tire pressure, tightening every bolt on the bike, packing and re-packing transition bags and special needs bags, seemed of paramount importance to us, though we all knew deep down that the only thing that would matter come race day was the years of athletic training, and 12 months of Ironman-specific training that had brought us to this day.

The high was a balmy 70 degrees, a far cry from the frigid temperatures we left behind in Blacksburg earlier in the week. For Virginia Tech triathletes Brian Schoenberger, Doran Bosso (an ‘08 alum), and myself, it was exactly what we were hoping for after spending the final two weeks of preparation bundled up for ever bike and swim. Waiting for the first crack of sunlight to break the horizon, which would occur minutes before the gun would go off, none of us had any idea what to expect from what we hoped would be the most significant accomplishment of our young lives.

The swim start was a spectacle. 2,300 people – athletes – simultaneously charging into the water, knowing that the harder you can push the first 500 yards, the less likely it will be to get your goggles kicked off your face. The 2.4 mile swim was two laps – a half-mile out, a couple hundred yards across, then a half-mile back. A brief run on the beach, then back out for a second lap. Being from a swimming background, I quickly pushed ahead of the main pack and found myself with a group of fairly talented swimmers. It was easy to stay on someone’s feet with so many of us out there, and I was able to draft most of the first lap. By the second lap our group had thinned out significantly, and I spent a good part of it out by myself. The last half mile in to the swim finish I pushed pretty hard, passing several people who had been out in front of me for the better part of it. Charging out of the water, I had no idea what my time was, but I knew I had swam hard and would be one of the early ones out on the bike.

After quickly pulling on a pair of bike shorts over my triathlon singlet, I grabbed my helmet and sunglasses, trotted out to find my bike, and sprinted out of the first transition. I remember at least one professional male passing me in the first couple of miles. The pro field had a 10-minute head start on the age-groupers, so this confirmed for me that my swim split had been a pretty healthy one. I let him go by, knowing that I had a very long day ahead of me and pushing it this early would be disastrous. The 112-mile bike was a single loop, contrary to most Ironman bike courses that have you do multiple laps of a shorter distance. The Florida course is known for being extremely flat, and it absolutely was. Except for maybe 3 rollers, the entire race course was on a single plane, which for a Blacksburg kid was not pleasant.

The first 25 miles I was largely by myself, occasionally being passed by a rider or two. About 35 miles in, a large group of riders began passing me. Drafting isn’t legal on the bike, but there is still an advantage from riding the legal distance of four bike lengths behind the person in front of you, so after a long, single-file group of about 40 riders passed me, I jumped in behind the last guy and found a good tempo. This lasted until about the half-way point, at which point the group got broken up coming through to pick up our first special needs bag (which athletes prepare themselves before the race). The entire rest of the ride I was more or less on my own, passing people and being passed only occasionally. Around 70 miles in, I started to feel my stomach rumbling. After assessing my food situation, I realized I was significantly behind on what I had planned on eating during the ride, a consequence of pushing myself a little harder than I had planned for. I slowed down for a bit and tried to eat a bit more, but the damage was done, and I finished out the ride with a slightly upset stomach and with a several-thousand calorie deficit.
Second transition was a blur. The amazing race volunteers really pamper athletes, and in T2, they take your bike from you as soon as you get into transition, find your bag, and help you with any equipment you may need help with. I basically dropped the cycling shorts and slipped on my running shoes and was out.

Starting the run I wasn’t exactly sure where I was in my age group, but I assumed I had to be top five at this point, having only seen one person from my age group pass me on the bike. My run and bike splits were both very good, and I knew I had the potential to run an amazing race, though with a marathon in front of me, clearly nothing was certain.

The 26.2 mile run course was an out-and-back affair, to be completed twice. 6.55 miles out, then back, then out, then back. The first 6.55 was miserable. My stomach was screaming at me the entire time, and I pretty much just took in water to keep it quiet. After making the first turn-around, I was feeling good enough to try to put some food in me, and I had a couple gels on the second leg. This felt great, and as I approached the second turn to begin my second lap, I was feeling very optimistic about the last 13.1. My legs, however, had different plans. Right at the turn, a year-old IT-band injury crept up on me, and I knew these last two legs were going to hurt. Still, I had had a great race up to this point, so as long as I ran the entire time, I would still have a decent finish, and barring some disaster, I would make my 11-hour goal time. Well, disaster sure made a grand attempt. The second half of that marathon was spiritually painful. IT-band, stomach, quads, everything hurt. It seemed as though every time a new pain came up, a mile didn’t go by before I forgot about it as something else started to hurt more. The last three miles, however, I truly pushed myself, realizing that I was so close to finishing and thinking about all the people who were cheering for me and supporting me.

Crossing the finish line was very emotional, and the atmosphere there was incredible. With friends and family to greet me, and thousands of cheering fans, the sense of accomplishment was complete and overwhelming. I’ve put the results of the three of us below, but those simple numbers that are the public record of our event do not do justice to what each of us sacrificed to stand at that finish line. Though Ironman was an extremely humbling experience, all three of us have signed up to stand at the starting line of at least one Ironman in 2009, and this sport will likely shape each of us for the rest of our lives.

From Blacksburg, thanks to everyone for their support.

Links:
Virginia Tech
VT Triathlon News Article
VT Triathlon Results Page
Ironman
Ironman Florida