5-11-09 Part 4 (The End)

Running Portion:

After gulping down the thick chocolate gel packet, i washed it down with a cup of water. Thrown the garbage to the side of the road, now focusing for the rest of the run. About a mile into the run, i already felt the tiredness of my legs which were are pretty much used up from the last bike hill climb. As a result, i was not able to run at the pace which was used to. By now, i had to jog with little steps and not able to run as quick as Usain Boltz. Not only was i jogging slow, i had to jog in the scorching heat and on a trial road. It was so unexpected to run on a trail road because i was so used to running on city roads and track fields. I guess what made the course harder was the uneven pavement and the elevation of the course. So running and running along. Cheering and hollering became quickly noticeable, besides the pounding of shoes on the running course. Looking more closely, those cheering and hollering were the Cal Poly volunteers for the event and were handing out cold drinks and whatnot. Not only did i got some fuel, they hosed me down with cold water. It was nice for a quick moment, the cold breezy sensation, but regret came quickly afterward. Now all soaked and wet, my gears became heavier and this means more torture....sigh...and i just passed the 2 mile mark. Lesson learn, never get hosed down.



Running in soaked gear sucks. So now, I'm just irritated with the sticky feeling of the water and sweat. Yet, i just had to deal with this problem for the next 4 miles. So my leg continued to chomp away on the course. Tired and exhaust, now feeling a little stiffness in my lower leg muscles. Fortunately, it was just an on and off thing and not a major cramp. Anyhow, i just had to walk a little so my legs could stop stiffening up and potentially preventing from finishing the race. It just sucked badly, feeling how much harder the sun beats on your body when you're at a slower motion. From time to time, i begun to run and stop, run and stop. What motivated me to start to run each time was when people began passing me, which means i don't want to be the last one.



Forwarding to the 5.5 mile mark. Damn, I'm currently tired as hell. Hot, sweaty, drained. My legs were beginning to slowly give up, while running up this last damn hill. What had happen before this 5.5 mile mark was that a spectator told me, when i was at 4 mile mark(not knowing), he told me that it was just less than a mile to the finish. Already a mile into where i spoke to the spectator, all i saw was more hills and deserted road. In my head, i was just cursing the hell out of that person who just fu*k me over. I hate that guy badly because i used my last real strength to climb what i ought to be the last hill, but damn was i screwed. Back to reality, the 5.5 mile mark, just walking up the last steep hill. When i got the top, i began to slowly jog again because the rest was really just flats and down hill. Since i was on top of the hill, i was able to look at the rest of the course.




Running and running along. I passed the camps of where we stayed, which was coincidentally close to the running route. By now, i jogged pass the same scenery which i saw right before the race(the sun between the two green hills). As i was jogging down, my stomach began to cramp up which left me no choice but to walk some of the downhill. A cliff note is that I actually suck at running down hill and i get cramps easily on the downhill. Anyhow, just about 400 meters away from the finishing line, i hear the spectators. The sound of their voice just gave me a boost of energy to run the last part of the course. As i get closer to the spectators, i began to see the flags waving ferociously. At this time, i felt like i was in a damn Olympic or something because there were so much foreign flags, including CHINA! Now running through the flags, towards the finishing line. Clock ticking away, 4 hours and semi-minutes. Getting closer and closer to the finish and bleachers, i heard my name over the announcer, "From all the way from San Francisco, we have Danny Tan". About this time, i began to do the "raise the roof". The crowds got rowdier. Finally, i cross the finishing line with a smile. Happiest moment of my life and the rest was history.

5-10-09

Grandma's+Mother's family dinner.........





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After watching this video, it makes me want to do the San Francisco Marathon again. The only thing that's holding me back from doing this year's SFmarathon will be the San Francisco Triathlon, which is 16 days before the marathon. I just don't know if i could recover in time before the marathon, i'm still thinking about it....Anyone wants to join me for this marathon???



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Happy Mothers Day and "Mothers' to-be" to all!?!?

5-9-09

R.I.P. Fay-teen and Ah-wong....forever loved and never forgotten....

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Found an throwback picture from my friend's page....

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Recap of last night's early mothers day dinner....

5-8-09 Part 3

Now, made the U-turn, drank some Gatorade, and heading back to the start. The rest of the ride, back to the start or the last 12 miles of the bike portion, was somewhat exhausting. Due to riding on a clear sunny sky, the sun was just penetrating our skin constantly. In addition, my upper leg muscles were wearing out, due to all the hills which we came down from were the same exact hills we needed to climb back. During my way back, i saw several people with blown out tires and tubes. It would of sucked to be in their position because they might not have carried their spare parts with them,for repair, and we're riding at a hill billy deserted place. Anyhow, mechanical failure was the last thing anyone would want at a deserted location. Needless to say, i rode pass every one of them because I'm not a bike mechanic myself and I'd rather keep my spares, in case anything happens. So it's the final hill before coming down to the slope and back to the start. I just cruised down the last steep hill, so i could save some leg strength. As i got close to the bottom of the slope, loud cheering were noticeable. It only meant that we're that much closer to the finish of the bike portion (25miles). Done, Finito. Unclipped myself and dismounted from my trusty ol bike, Cervelo p2c. Running along side with my bike and arrived at the transition zone, where i the hooked the bike onto the rail of my transition area. Stripped off my bike shoes, gloves, helmet. Then strapped on my running shoes, hat, and took a few gulp of water and Gatorade. Now finding myself lost and searching for the starting line of the running portion. Founded. Again, back to the start.



Running Portion:

Running slowly, trying to recover from the jittery motion of the bike. Now distancing myself from the start, passing the rowdy spectators, and recovering the numb feelings from my leg. While leaving the start, i grabbed a cup of water so i can consume my gel pack(which i had from the start), which I hoped to revive my legs. Yum, chocolate flavor, my favorite.....sigh...The gel pack does't not have an instant effect, like Popeye the Sailor man with his spinach, but it did taste extremely good(like chocolate milk).

To be continue........(early family dinner for mothers day)

5-7-09

Just came back from lunch, at Taravel's Tennessee Grill. The food was mediocre but $8 for sirloin steak, potatoes+grave, and boiled vegetable wasn't too shabby, especially for bargaining lunch price. While leaving restaurant, i paper wrapped my left overs(bread+butter) for the homeless guy whose panhandling outside. I gave it to him because i know what it feels like to be hungry, broke, and in despair. Coincidentally, before i went into the Tennessee Grill, i had no cash on me and i had to go through several restaurants before they've accepted my debit card. Anyhow, i guess it just hit me that doing something sincere was the least thing i could do for the homeless guy, since i couldn't give out cash any. Before this belt busting meal, they serve large portions, i was at the sava pool. Yes, i finally resumed my training after 3 days of resting. It was nice to finally get back in the water and paddling away in a STRAIGHT line. Yet, some old geezers there were just as fast as i was, some +60 years old swimmers manage to be swim even faster!?!? It's just outrages seeing how fast they could swim, i guess they have a stronger heart and the mentality of "the little engine that could".



To be continue with story later today or tomorrow, I'm stacked with school work.

5-6-09 Part 2

Now, running through the lines of spectators and crowd, and back to transition area. Initially i thought someone took my bike because my bike slot was empty. But with the help of the Avia volunteers, they help me realize that my bike wasn't gone and that i was just on at the wrong place but at the right aisle. Yup, the swim pretty much got me displaced, on top of that with the chaos of whats happening in my surrounding. Everyone was scattered in the area to look for their bikes while many were stripping out of them heavy tight wet suits. So i finally got to my bike, changed into whatever was needed for the bike portion; bike, helmet, gloves, sunglass, shoes, and gummy food. The bike course was semi-long, about 25 miles, so food was somewhat important, if i felt the hunger. So off i go, running next to my bike onto the start of the bike route.

Bike portion:

Excited to finally make use of my leg muscles and now able to rest my tired arms, i'm in a state of relief. I hopped on the bike and clipped on my cleated bike shoes...clack...clack...Passing through the spectators, going into the aero-position, smoothly rode away from the start. It was quite a pleasant ride for the first quarter mile, until I had to struggle to climb up this very very steep 1 mile hill. From the first hill, i must say i was beat, by the time i got to the top. When i was on the top, i had to put my front and rear gears to the lowest gears, so i can ride more easily and recover my leg strength. About 2-3 miles into the ride, my gears were acting up so i had to hop off my bike to check what was wrong. Apparently, my bike chain just needed some hard knocking to get the chain back into the gears. Once the chain was in place, i hoped back on my bike and continued to chase back up and ride behind the rest of the pack of cyclist.



Throughout the bike portion, i was having a couple minor hip cramps, due to standing too long on one leg(while other clip on the bike) at a slight hill during my chain incident. Anyhow, i didn't let that stop me but it did cause me to ride slower than usual. So riding and riding along. Now 11-12 miles into the course, i heard Tony yelled from the opposite side of the race course, we where riding on opposite sides because he was faster than I was and later in the course we needed to make a u-turn, which i thought i heard he said "Go eat shit Danny!?!?!?". But after the race, he told me that i miss heard what he said, and what he said was"Good shit Danny!?!?!". I guess the cross wind and the Doppler effect was what i had experienced, like two trains speeding pass each other on opposite sides and not being able to make clear what the opposite said. After the 13 mile point, the u-turn, i had to grab some water which the volunteers' were handing out. I grabbed a cup of water and splashed it on my face, it helped cooled my face a little(it was about mid 70 degrees heat) . I later grabbed a cup of cold Gatorade for rejuvenation.



To be continue....(on lunch break, follow by homework)

5-5-09 Part 1

Please excuse my poor Engrish when you see improper Engrish, I'm Chinese after all.....

Whelp i knew i should of blogged about my first time ever experience in a triathlon event. Sadly, i was too tired to blog or do anything productive, after returning home from an exhausting event but still fun. Where should i start?!? i guess I'll just have to start from the night before the race.

Saturday night:

As 8pm was approaching, when the sun sets, the sun light begun to dim. Before returning to the camp, Ramon and I headed down to the festival for some dinner and dessert. Just before we were about to return back to the camp, I got me some Gelato w/waffle cone(Chocolate chip mint+ reeses' pieces peanut butter flavor), i wanted it so badly because I've never had an ice-cream in the middle of no where, better yet in a desert. But what can I say, it makes a good "final meal", if anything had happened during the race. Anyhow, after some late night snack, we head back to the camp by hopping back into the transportation bus, it brought us back to the camp site which was half a mile away from the festival(steep hills). As we got back to the camp, the sun was down and the sky was pitch dark. As soon as we arrive back to the tent, we all went to sleep quite early, about 9pm. Although we all tried to sleep early, no one was able to fall asleep because we were all extremely nervous about tomorrow's race. But with 3 hours of good music, from my ipod, my eyes finally laid to rest and my mind fell into a deep coma.



Sunday mourning:

Holy shiznit!?!? It's race day which I've been anticipating for months, hoping all of those hard weeks of training would pay off. So i got up at 6:30 in the mourning but the race does not start until 9am. Quickly i washed my face and got suited up into my race gears, ate a cliff bar and orange juice for breakfast, then headed off to the race zone. As Tony and I walk our bikes to the slope of the hill, i was having all types of feelings in my head and stomach; butterfly, joyful, legend in the making. As we rode down the steep hill, my nervousness went away when i saw the spectacular scenery which no words can describe. The sun was rising below the lake and the rich green mountains on both sides. It an unbelievable sight, you must be there to understand what I've experienced, from the smell of the trees to the sight of divine clarity. As we came closer to transition area, i was just full of myself when i had the thought of "legend in the making", when i saw +3500 participants packed in the transition area, which was like a typical size of a Walgreen store. The transition area is where we strip from our wet suit onto our bike and where we hop off from our bikes and onto our running shoes, and where we place all our race gear for that day's event. As 9am was approaching, i strapped on my wet suit, cap,goggles,and ear plugs. There i go, off to the start, below the massive Avia Wildflower balloon.


At the start 9:10am Light Blue cap 3rd wave

The countdown on the microphone and the +1000s of spectators 10...9....5....4....3....2...1.....bBoOoGgG(sound of the air horn)



After the air horn went off, competitors jump, ran, and roared into the water. Hands and feet were flying all over the place. There we go, off the starting line. The start was intense, all of the swimmers had the mentality of a warrior and no way in hell could anybody stop them. Everyone swam as hard as they could, some were ahead, while others were behind, like myself. But we were all swimming in a pack, until the half mile point, where everyone swam at their own pace/rhythm which help kept our breathing at a consistent and comfortable pace. By the time of the half mile point, my arms were already getting tired. During the swim, all i saw under the water through my goggles where algae, just chunks of algae rushing pass my goggles. It made me nervous at the start because i didn't want to get sick from accidentally drinking the dirty lake water. While i was getting tired from swimming, i took my mind off the mentality of swimming by thinking about my baby cousins(still swimming physically); Ceres, Belle,Paypay, and Dada. The thoughts of my baby cousins help calm my nerves, just thinking about the good times we had. Somehow, these thoughts made me think about my entire childhood and high school memories, like a flash back of my entire life. Also it made me thought about why am i doing what i'm doing, swimming in a dirty ass lake. I guess these types of moment really exist, having strange thoughts when you're doing extreme sports, where fatal accidents can occur at anytime.



With all them strange thoughts in my head, i came back to realization as soon as i lift up my head to see where i was at. Then it struck me, i went off course a little, i knew i was off course because i was a bit far from the buoys and i was away from the pack. Buoys where those orange float's that were used to map out the swimming course. At that moment in my head, i was like "this is hella embarrassing". Then of course i swam back onto the course. Slowly but surely I looped around the last buoy before heading back to shore, which was still a little less than half a mile away from where i was located. At this moment, my arms were slowly giving up on me so i had to use more leg strength, usually swimmer use only their arms to swim. Finally,10 minutes after the last buoy, i heard cheering and all types of hollering. All i heard throughout the first half of the swimming portion was splashing and loud breathing. Those rowdy noises only meant one thing, I'm almost back to the shore and close to finishing the swimming portion. It was such a relief to finally hear civilization calling again, their cheering voices got my adrenaline's pumping again. As a result, i begun to swim faster than my regular pace, as i came closer and closer to the big ol lovely orange balloons. So I was just a few more strokes away. There I was, looking through my goggles and saw the slope of the concrete shore. Finally i was back on the edge of the earth, so happy that i forgot how hard it was to run out of the water. Now getting out of the lake, using all my might to take off half of the wetsuit, at the same time running back to the transition zone. While i was running on the slope, with my mind still somewhat displaced from the swim, the cheering got louder and louder, as i distanced from the shore. And then names were hollered, then someone yelled my name, "DANNY!?!?". Initially i ignored it because i thought it was for someone else, but I heard the name Danny being yelled a few more times. I turned towards the direction to whomever was hollering my name. Then to my left, i see Ramon doing all types of movements to capture my attention. Then and there, pictures of myself was being snapped and i reacted by throwing up a peace sign.



to be continue........(busy with school work)

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It's Cinco de Mayo,but i'm reppin China to the fullest!?!? Go Beijing!?!

5-4-09

I'd like to rock the violin too!?!? Love my old Nokia ringtone Canon D Rock!?!?

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Swimming portion(0.95 mile), where it all began...........

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Had this song in my head during the race

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Found a very inspirational clip. This clip was well put together, even though it's a commercial, it sure doesn't look like no commercial. Anyhow, i found this clip really moving and meant a lot to people who've been doubted all their lives. Yet behind every story, there's two sides. But we're mainly drawn towards the most favored side of the story and neglect the other side of the story, which may even be more impressive or moving then the favored side. Moreover, we should all open up our minds to things, things which may seem impossible.

5-3-09

Too tired to blog but this picture will summarize my weekend

5-1-09

Welp, just returned home from my Chinese written exam. Everything went well, i think i've probably scored some high score on the test, since it wasn't extremely hard. Anyhow, i'm just now doing some final packing and checking off some "to bring list" items, so i won't have a panic attack if i have forgotten to bring something to the event. Ummm...besides my little update before the trip, i guess i won't be posting any new entries for couple of days, since i will be nowhere close to civilization. This camping event had got me thinking again, a flash back of my 8th grade class trip to the Yosemite National Park. That 8th grade trip was so vivid in my memory because of all the wild life features, such as; the waterfall, steep+wet hiking trip, the camp fire, and the cabin/log foods. Sometimes i just want to return back in time or even develope some type of technology, which can bring you back (not-physically but mentally "serial-like") to the same time and place of your past experience. My idea's like a theropy session, but everyone knows that it's hard to draw back memories unless you commit to savoring the moment....sigh...i'm probably just talking crazy right now, but i guess this happens when there are probabilities that I won't be returning home. But i won't give up, even when something goes wrong.Nevetheless, i hope everything goes well and it'll be a memorable experience of a life time. Good Bye.

Danny T.