12k's of Christmas

 

Gilbert, Arizona

I wanted to make sure I did this race for one reason. This race is still using the word 'Christmas'. I would support the race for that alone. It is just a bonus that it is a few minutes away right here in Gilbert. This was the last race of 2012. That wraps 2012.  12k’s is about 7.5 miles. The forecast was for 90% showers for the race. That did not seem to deter anybody however. The good news was that although it had rained for several days before the race it was not that cold. As it turned out, we ran in a very light sprinkle. The race conditions were actually very nice, especially for a big fatty like me. The hardest part of the race was that much of the course takes place on dirt track, but today it was mud which made running more difficult. You could swing wide and onto the grass, but it was pretty muddy and soggy too. My calves were burning after just the first mile. I was grateful for asphalt or cement when available. There was also a lot of puddle dodging going on. I ran this race a lot slower than last year but I was just glad to be able to finish running strong. I haven’t successfully run more than 3 miles since Deuceman in early September.

Hot Chocolate 5K

Scottsdale, Arizona

This looked like fun. I am certainly a chocolate fan, especially for a guy. My tastes have turned towards the deep dark chocolate as I have gotten older. Christian and I signed up to do the 5k since we finished up a triathlon yesterday. I have never run a 15K and if I were in better running shape I would have done it just for that reason alone, but alas I am not in that kind of running shape. Besides I figured that the 5k’ers were going to get to the finish line to enjoy all that chocolate a lot faster than the 15k’ers. What a difference a day makes. It was cold this morning. Christian and I were having trouble staying warm in our parkas. I felt sorry for all those other severely under prepared people. This was actually a pretty good race. The chocolate theme is a fun change of pace. There were a lot of people and I got jammed up a few times on the course which cut into my time. I had a pretty good run considering the congestion, my current weight and that I raced yesterday. I got some good stuff for my Mom who is a chocolate lover.

 

 

 

Holiday Classic Triathlon

Anthem, Arizona

I couldn’t believe how warm it was today. The bike portion of this race and I have a history. Last time I did this race I was directed by a Sherriff working the race to go the wrong direction.

I had a good swim. In fact, the fastest I have ever swam that distance. I bested my personal best in a 400 meter pool swim by 2 whole seconds.

A few minutes into the bike course as I began to scream down this downhill portion of the course, I flatted. In almost three years of racing I have never flatted. All things considered I felt pretty lucky. The tire flatted slowly enough for me to slow down and bring the bike under control. I certainly did not need another crash, especially at that speed. That is pretty scary. Front wheels are easier to fix and it was a nice morning. I had a luxurious side walk to sit down and fix my flat. In fact I was actually joined by and English woman and her nephew who were out on a morning walk. They took great interest in the goings on and asked me a bunch of questions.

I took my time changing the tube. I wanted to get it right, especially since I wanted to build some positive history and confidence for the future. I do hope I go another 3 years however. After about what seemed like 20 minutes I was under way. I had to stop again because I was experiencing front brake rubbing issues. I followed the fastest swim split in my division with the slowest bike split in my division. I was just happy I was able to fix the flat and finish. My history with the bike portion of this race continues. Next time!

The run leg of this race is a slightly more difficult than average 5k. I remembered that from last time I did the race. I remembered right. It has a steady uphill grind for the last two miles of the race.

 

Arizona Skin Cancer 5K

Scottsdale, Arizona

This was a nice little race. Both Christian and I liked the course and the location. DC Ranch is a nice place. I had one goal and one goal only for this race: Cross the finish line before Christian. I woke up and ate more than my usual carbs in an effort to insure I had good energy. When the gun went off, I immediately moved ahead of Christian and attempted to stay there. I wanted to show him how things were going to go down in this race. He quickly pulled up beside me. Christian is almost as tall as I am and weights 125 lbs. I currently weight 245 lbs. I am hauling 120 lbs. more than him. He hauls one Christian and I am hauling 2 Christians. This means I have to work a lot harder than he does. We hit a steady incline and I know he does not do well on climbs so I pushed which started me red-lining a bit. I was trying to stay just under my threshold. No one will ever know the depths of pain I must endure to beat that kid. I do not think most people appreciate how much a 5k can hurt.  Sure it is only 3.1 miles, but run that entire distance as fast as you can and you will find pain. Of course you are not sprinting all out, but you have to run hard and continue to do it for what gets to seem like a very long time. I have to run it in a zone that starts to slowly put me into oxygen deprivation. The oxygen debt grows as does the pain.  The pain starts to become greater and greater and I have to constantly force the body not to drop off in intensity as the body naturally starts to ease up in response to the bad things that begin to happen as oxygen gets scarcer and scarcer in the cells. You must stay very vigilant forcing the intensity further and further as the body rebels. Your body begins to hurt on a cellular level. Easing up a little becomes so tempting. I have to fight it with every gram of my being. I do things like envision Christian right on my heals. I have to tell myself that all the pain I have already endured and suffered will be for nothing if I don’t continue to endure even more. Don’t waste the pain you have already endured, I tell myself, by giving in to the pain now. As the oxygen debt reaches greater and greater levels, the body begins to divert blood and oxygen away from non-essential areas. This creates pain and difficulty thinking as one of those areas becomes your brain. Sometimes you begin to fear you might just totally collapse.

I stayed ahead of Christian until we reached the top of the incline. At the top of the incline there was a turn around and I know would get a chance to see how much distance I had put between me and Christian. At the turn around I was disappointed to see that I had only put 20 yards between us. I had already paid a costly price climbing the hill at such intensity. I looked at my watch and I was just over an eight minute mile. This was good time for me considering my running shape and the fact that we were running uphill. I worried that it may have been too fast and cost me too much. I still had two miles to go and I was already hurting more than I wanted to at this point.

The last 5k race we did Christian was about 20 yards behind me a mile into the race and we also had a turn-around where he was approximately 20 yards behind me. In that race he quickly closed the gap, passed me and there was nothing I could do to answer. I knew that Christian would have a psychological boost seeing the race playing out exactly the way it had last time we raced this distance.

Seeing Christian only 20 yards behind me meant two things: 1) I was going to have to concede this race and vow to lose weight before I could give him a run for his money, or 2) I was going to have to suffer some incredible pain to stay ahead of him. I chose the latter. We hit a downhill portion. Sometimes Christian fails to use the downhill portions of races to his advantage. Christian like many runners, see a downhill stretch as an opportunity to recover a bit, or just a welcome the release from the pain climbing induces. They keep their normal pace and suddenly it feels easier. Psychologically they feel good about their running because they are maintaining their pace. Just as on the bike, I use gravity to my advantage. On the bike I work incredibly hard during downhill portions. In a 5k I do the same on downhill portions. I maintain the intensity and the pain. I seek to make sure the downhill does not feel any better than the hill I just climbed. This translates to increased speed. Because I am so heavy this only works for me on slight down hills, anything steep and I can’t run it hard without risking injury. This was downhill but not steep and I worked it hard. Christian would later tell me that this is where I got away from him and he got discouraged. I never look back so I had no idea that I had put some more serious space between us. After a mile of some slight downhill and a couple of flat spots we hit the third mile. I had expected and mentally prepared for a downhill finish. This was a common thought among some of the others runners I spoke to after the race. We were not prepared for the challenges the last mile held.

When we left the start area we climbed for the first mile, so somehow I was expecting the last mile to mirror the first in the other direction. After all, what goes up must come down, Right? Apparently we had lost all our elevation in the second mile, because the third mile was a series of short but steeper inclines. Now these were not killer hills, but I had been running in oxygen deprivation for over two miles and even small hills can destroy a cardiovascular system when it is already been pushed to its limits. Oh those hills hurt. I took them with a concentrated effort not to slow my pace. I never run with a heart rate monitor for a good reason. I would look down at moments like these and see my heart exploding and back off for fear of having a heart attack. With no heart rate monitor to warn you, there are no limits.

I pushed myself into a place no one wants to be. I was fearful that Christian had been conservative and waiting for the last mile to hit the gas. His air light frame could climb these hills much easier than me if he was willing to hurt a little. I also knew that the last 400 yards was a significant downhill run to the finish where Christian could defiantly out sprint me. I had to leave him behind with no hope of closing the gap on these hills. Excruciating pain on a cellular level engulfed my body. Although it was a cool morning and I had only been running for 20 minutes or so, sweat was flying off my elbows as I swung my arms to the rhythm of my legs. Ascending those hill I felt like I was in danger of passing out. The lengths a father must go in order to save face.

I managed to cross the finish line 14 seconds ahead of Christian. I know he was chasing me hard because he collapsed on the ground right after he crossed the finish line. I ended up with an 8:03 per mile average which isn’t too bad considering my weight, my fitness and the hills. It took me a full 10 minutes to recover. I was deeply anaerobic by the end of that race.

Christian never pushes himself harder than when he is racing me and visa versa. I am not sure if it a healthy father son relationship or not, but in these races neither of us wants to lose to the other. Our competitive relationship does to bring out the fastest times in us both. Christian placed 1^st in his age category of 13-19. I fell short of a medal with 4th in my age category. There were only 11 people that crossed the finish line in front of me in this race and half of them were in my age category. Two of them got pulled out of my age category because they were in the top three over-all. I hate my age category. At least next year I get to move up to 45-50. I will be a young guy in and old category as opposed to an old guy in a young category that just happens to be consistently the most competitive age category out there.

 

Southwest Valley Family YMCA Thanksgiving Day Triathlon

Goodyear, Arizona

            Christian and I have done this race for several years now. Although I was in no shape to seriously compete this year, I wanted to do this race. I had planned on just enjoying the race. This race is a reverse triathlon, which means that the order is reversed. Christian and I lined up at the start line for the run and after the gun went off. Within a few moments I realized that Christian is consistently running much faster than I can. I tried to stay with him but he was quickly pretty far ahead of me. I quickly went from trying to enjoy the race to working at 100% effort trying to catch Christian. Despite my effort, it did not take long before I could not even see him. My running has become pathetic.

Then a shocking realization hit me. The bike ride is only 12 miles. When Christian realizes that he is so far ahead of me he may taste victory and ride that bike like a demon to beat me. Prior to my crash, Christian was riding no longer riding significantly slower than me. Now don’t get me wrong, I am still faster than he is, especially as the miles wear on, but this race is only 12 miles. I had no idea how much of a lead he had. The shocking realization I had, was that if I didn’t crush the bike course, Christian may beat me, and I would never hear the end of that. Even the thought panicked me.

Long before I reached transition, I knew that I was going to have quickly get out on that bike course and catch Cjristian. I had to change shoes, I knew that he did not, which was another time advantage he would have to put even more distance between us. I would be changing shoes while he was riding 20 mph away from me. I shouted like an inpatient pro at the World Championships at the people who had set up camp just past the bike mount line and were blocking my way.  I jumped on my bike and began to crank. Breathing like a freight train, I redlined my heart rate and began to pass rider after rider as I hunted the boy. I put 50 riders behind me and still I could not see him. My legs were beginning to burn. I wondered how long I could ride like this before my legs started to give out. One thing about a reverse triathlon is that you can burn your legs to cinders because you don’t have to worry about having to run after getting off the bike.

I had taken in no water during the run. I tried sipping some water on the bike but I was working so hard that I kept burping it up. That never happens on the bike for me.

The bike course is three 4 mile laps. By the end of the first lap I could finally see Christian ahead of me. That brought me some relief. As I approached him I backed off a little to let some strength return to my legs. When I passed Christian, I wanted it to be definitive. I wanted him to believe I was much faster than him and there was no point in trying to pursue me. I hit the gas and passed him, only my 4 mile sprint had cost me and I discovered that my legs had paid a heavy price. I was not able to pass Christian with the show of strength that I had hoped for. Damn! 8 miles to go and he is going to believe he can stay with me. I didn’t look back, but I just knew he was pursuing.

Having put Christian behind me I tried to relax a bit until I had another troubling realization. When I began to envision my T2 transition, I realized that my transition area was basically the bike mount line.  I always do this because I want to shorten the amount of time I spend running in bike shoes. But I had forgotten that this was reverse triathlon. I now had a long run in bike shoes all the way to the bike mount line which was as far away from the pool entrance as you can get. (I wondered why no one was grabbing what is normally a coveted spot when I set up - now I realized why) Christian had set up with the fast guys just because he wanted to be like them. Christian also did not care about bike shoe issues since his run would be in his running shoes so he had set up right at the pool entrance. To make a long story short, I realized that Christian had already put all his transition travel in and just had to pull off his shoes and helmet and he was right there ready to enter the pool. I on the other hand had over 100 yards to run in bike shoes to my transition and then another 100 yards to run back to the pool entrance. In other words, I needed to get a serious lead on Christian during the bike in order to insure that he did not beat me to the pool.  And so ended any thought I had about relaxing.  

I accepted my fate and knew that I was going to have to hurt. I told myself that the pain I would experience for the rest of the race would be more tolerable than the pain of losing a TRIATHLON to Christian. With legs burning and lungs heaving I continued to pass scores of riders. The course was now littered with slower riders beginning their first loop. I could tell that many of the riders could hear my breathing long before I pulled up beside them. I pushed and pushed having no idea how close or far Christian was behind me.

I hit the transition and ran as fast I could in my bike shoes to my transition area. I tore off my gear like it was on fire and burning me. I grabbed my goggles and went running full bore to the pool. I think a few people were a bit startled to see this huge man running barefoot as fast as he could towards the pool. As I hit the entrance I could see Christian reaching his transition area. We met face to face as I turned left towards the pool. I was glad that I go to see him, otherwise I would have wondered the whole swim whether he was in the pool ahead of me. When we saw each other in transition I think we both knew it was over. Christian has become a great swimmer, but there is just no way that he can take me in the pool without a lead.  I swam hard anyways because I love erasing all those runners and cyclists who managed to get ahead of me. I finished and then sat on a start block very tired. That was a rough 59 minutes. I ended up finishing only 2 minutes in front of Christian.

Although I had not planned to race at 100% effort, Christian forced me to race all out. Having raced at 100%, the results are very telling for me. My run was near exactly 1 minute slower than last year. 15 extra pounds can explain that. The more troubling numbers are my bike times.  I was over 3 minutes slower and a full 2 miles an hour slower than last year despite absolutely giving everything I had on that ride.  My swim was about 15 seconds slower also. Over-all I lost 4 and a half minutes from last year. 

Out next triathlon has a longer run, which will give Christian even more advantage. I am suddenly very motivated in my training and my weight loss. I guess I should thank Christian for keeping me from getting soft or complacent.

 

IRONMAN Arizona Volunteering

Tempe, Arizona

I was supposed to become an Ironman on this day, but I had to settle for volunteering again. Christian and I worked the finish line as what they call catchers from 6- 9 p.m. which is the time frame I would anticipate finishing. So these were people like me.

Volunteering this year was an incredible experience. This 140.6 miles trial that these people have undergone strips them down to some kind of very human core. They have spent many hours out there surrounded by many but alone in their heads. Many have spent the last hours of their journey alone with themselves in the dark. They have spent the day with their doubt and their fear. When we catch them at the finish line it is like a welcome back to a safe place. The only way I can describe it is that they become like little children.  Some of them become utterly dependent and make no attempt to disguise it. One lady just put her head on my shoulder like my little girl does when she is tired. Others would just look into my eyes and cry. When I had to ask one lady questions, I had to reduce my questions to yes or no, as all she could do was nod like a child. Strong men fell into my arms like little boys and made no attempt to hide their dependence or their gratitude for my supporting arms. You could feel their honest and sincere gratitude as they cried when they thanked you. One finisher wanted to introduce Christian to his wife and take pictures with him.  I held them while they threw up. I held them while they lost control of their bladder. If you ever want to feel like you really helped another human being in a moment where they truly needed you . . .  go to the finish line of an Ironman and catch these incredible people as they finish something that strips away all their protections and makes them so human it will touch you in a way you cannot possible expect.

One addition is that it was probably not the best idea for me to catch with my recovering collarbone. I actually had 12 different people completely collapse on me and I had to prevent them from hitting the pavement until medical personnel could arrive and take them away. Christian was laughing at me. No matter how strong they initially looked, I seemed to draw the collapsers.This can get difficult when you are coming off a broken collar bone.

Gilbert Days 5K

 

Gilbert, Arizona

 

            This is a rare Friday night 5K and it is right here in Gilbert. Christian and I did this race last year. This this year Vayden and Lori joined us. They did the 1 mile run and Christian and I did the 5K. Despite my best efforts, Christian beat me. I know that I am out of shape and still recovering from everything, but I still wanted to beat the kid. I stayed ahead of him for the first two miles and then he made his move. He saw me on a turn around and then he knew that he didn’t have much distance to close on me. He just pulled up next to me and without a word passed me by. At first my goal was to just keep him close, but my body couldn’t even do that. There was one last out and back where I saw that he was about 50-60 yards ahead of me. I could tell he was satisfied with his lead.  I thought maybe his complacency would allow me to close the gap. Try as I may I couldn’t do it. I picked up the pace and my body started shutting down. It wasn’t a pain management issue.  It just wouldn’t listen to me. I crossed the finish line panting and knew I had given it everything I had today. It just wasn’t enough. Despite how crappy I felt during this run and how hard it was for me I was only about a minute slower than last year. A minute is a lot of time in a 5K, but it could be worse.

Desert Grande Triathlon

 

Casa Grande, Arizona

 

          Somehow this race has managed to escape my radar for the past several years. It is a Saturday race too. At first I was just going to bring Christian to the race and cheer him on, but then I decided I would just wish I were doing the race.  I could have made excuses, after all Dr. Myo told me I am not supposed to be riding a bike for 3 more weeks.  

          It was a good race. I liked the swim. I always prefer 50 meter pool swims to 25. After passing a few people who lined up wrong in the first two lengths I had a clear lane for the rest of the swim. My left side did well and I even managed to place 2^nd in my division in the swim. Not bad for having surgery 5 weeks ago. 

          The bike was unremarkable but a decent course for me. I thought I was working it hard. I even got a stomach ache from some lactic acid build up. I was shocked to learn afterwards that it took me over 36 minutes to complete 10 miles. My average was 16 mph. Wow, my fitness has declined substantially over the past two months. Today was the first day I actually road a bike other than once around Garden Circle last night just to see if I could remember how to ride a bike. I just can’t believe I only had a 16 mph average after how hard I was working on the bike.

          The run was my favorite part of the course. Now I did not particularly enjoy the run today because I of my lack of fitness. By the time I got to the run my body was having issues. How sad is that. I was struggling on a sprint triathlon. I liked the run because it went through the desert. My run was horrible however. I managed to run the entire 3 miles which was and accomplishment all by itself, but my average was 10 minute miles.

          I definitely want to do this race again, especially when I am in better shape. This race did wonders for pulling me out of my injury induced depression. I have been struggling to eat right and even stretch let alone work out lately.

More Clavicle Information

I had so much response and many questions about the information I posted about my clavicle break and surgery that I decied to add a little depth to what I posted previoulsy.

 

I fractured my right clavicle for the first time in 1990 when fell off a motor bike at a high speed in some sand dunes. I am very lucky I did not break my neck in that collision. I do not have those X-rays anymore, but I remember that my clavicle was broken into several pieces. I was treated by a family physician for this injury. I did not see an orthopedist. This fracture took several months to heal and knowing what I know now, I know that is a miracle that my right arm works as well as it does. Thank goodness I was young and my Father in Heaven saw fit to return me to my original strength.

 

Below is my present day right collar bone.

 

 

Below is a diagam of a posterior view of the clavicle showing the ligaments, and if you look at my X-ray above you can see how the ligaments pulled the breakage down.

 

 

My second right clavicle break happened ten years later and looked something similar to the diagram below. Surgery was not an option because of the proximty of all the ligament attachments. I was once a gain lucky that it healed properly.

 

 

Below is an X-ray of my more recent left clavicle fracture before surgery. Can you believe that that at the ER they could not find a fracture? Having broken my right clavicle twice and knowing exactly what that feels like I actually demanded that they take me back to get it X-rayed a second time after being told that they did not see a break. After the second X-ray session they saw what I have marked in red below and determined there was a crack. The red arrow points to what was determined to be crack in my clavicle. Keep in mind that the bone is completely ripped apart into two pieces.

Take a look at the second X-ray. My clavicle is in virtually two equal pieces.

I also had another bike crash crossing the street in the fall of 2001 about 6 months after breaking my right collar bone for the second time. I rode across a construction zone in the dark and managed to ride into an open hole in the road and broke my left thumb, left wrist, the radius head in my left elbow and two ribs under my left arm. That was a 5 bone collision. Ironically I was on my way to the store to buy a light for my bike.

I mention this crash because it was another example of ER mis-diagnosis. After the crash, when I got up, the first thing that I knew for sure was that something was not right with my left elbow. That is why I went to the ER. Because of the intense pain in my elbow, I did not even notice that I had broken my wrist, my thumb or even my ribs which would completely fracture all the way through later that night when I went to lay down. The ER found the wrist and thumb fractures but told me that my elbow looked ok. They had casted my thumb and wrist and were about to street me when I insisted that they X-ray my elbow again. It was then that they found the lateral radius head fracture that traveled lengthwise on my radius.

Based on several experiences I do not trust the ER anymore. My advice is to go see a good orthopedist. This latest crash puts my broken bone count in the double digits. I am starting to think taht I know as much as the people in the ER. I sure hope I am done with breaking bones. I feel like I have had more than my share. 

Below is a close-up of my Acumed plate installed.

 

 

My titanium plate has locking screws. Locking srews were recently developed because prior to the use of locking screws sometimes screws would work themselves out of place over time. To combat this problem locking screws are often now used. There are several types of screws, but the most commonly used in a situation such as mine are corital and locking screws. Below there are two examples of  locking screws on the left and one example of a non-locking corital screw on the right.

 

You can usually identify locking screws on an X-ray by their tightly threaded appearance. The most recent advances in plate technology involve locking plates. Locking plates utilize a combination of locking and non-locking screws or all locking screws. A locking screw has a threaded head which locks the screw into place in the plate itself. The plate has corresponding threads. The example below demonstrates a plate that can accept both locking and non-locking screws. The locking screw is depicted on the left, while the non-locking screw is depicted on the right.

  

Below is a close up of a locking screw and plate.

 

 

IRONMAN 70.3 Austin

Austin, Texas

          I was unable to compete do to my injuries. I am really bummed I missed this trip and this race. I really enjoyed it last year.   

Blue Water Triathlon

 

Parker, Arizona

          I was unable to compete due to my injuries. What a heartbreaker, I love this race and I love this trip. No swimming in the river, no three story slide, no prime rib this year. The good news is that I was able to roll our registrations forward to next year so we are already signed up for 2013. Mountian Man Events is awesome in my book for that.

 

 

Tour de Scottsdale

 

Scottsdale, Arizona

I was looking forward to doing this race this year, but my injuries prevented me. At least I was able to roll our registrations forward to 2013 so we didn’t lose money on this race.  Christian and I are already signed up for 2013 thanks to the kindness of DC Ranch.

Arizona Half Marathon & 5K

 

Goodyear, Arizona

          Last night was the first night I went to bed without pain medication. I didn’t take any all day yesterday either. I wanted to be able to drive this morning so we didn’t miss this race. Dr. Myo said it would be ok to walk a 5k so I transferred my registration from the half marathon we didn’t waste the money on another race and so Christian could at least run this race. I have been unable to compete in all of the other races I had registered for this fall due to my accident.

            Today was the first day I could tie my own shoes. I walked outside and loved the cool 70 degree morning air that greeted me. It has been almost a month that I have been trapped inside bed ridden mending my broken body. The weather has changed from a furnace to nice fall (at least Arizona fall weather). I couldn’t help but long to be training in the wonderful weather for Ironman Arizona.
            It was very humbling to have to walk the entire race with a button up shirt on. I can’t even get a T-shirt on yet. Guess what?  Walking a 5k is no picnic. At least it wasn’t for me. It has only been 9 days since my surgery so I am sure that had something to do with it. I hated having to walk across the finish line. It was embarrassing for me.

            I am glad we did this race however, because this race is part of a series called the Hometown Race series. They put on a race in Goodyear Arizona, Lake Havasu Arizona, Temecula California, Vista California (both a little inland from Oceanside) Gilroy California (near Santa Cruz) and Laughlin Nevada, They all take place on Saturdays and have a 5k associated with them. They are about half the price of the Rock & Roll Marathon series and all within drivable distances. Some of the locations like Lake Havasu and Laughlin are awesome destination locations. Goodbye Rock & Roll Marathon Series . . .  Hello Hometown Race Series!

Nathan Triathlon

 

Tempe, Arizona

I missed this race this year due to my injuries.

Bike Crash & Injuries

Gilbert, AZ

I went down on my bike on September 15, 2012. I broke a few things including my left clavicle and some ribs. But by far the worst break was my heart. I will have to wait another year to complete Ironman Arizona. I had surgery on my clavicle on September 26, 2012. This is an X-ray of my titanium plate on the day it was installed:

The picture below is my plate. How cool is that it is blue? The company that makes my Locking Superior Distal Clavicle Plate is called Acumed. Acumed color codes their plates. Blue is for left clavicles, and green for right clavicles. Now even under my skin my color scheme remains blue. I have 10 screws. Not all the holes have screws in them.
 

Installed below: 

 

 

Basically the surgery involves opening your shoulder up and screwing in the plate. Below is and illustration. The illustration does involve my particular plate but you can get the idea:

The plate does have some depth and I can feel it. Below is picture of another Acumend model installed on a clavicle:

By the way, in all my research of those who have experience with clavicle breaks, none of them had three to their credit. I guess that makes me a virtual expert on the subject. I have had three different types of breaks, in three different decades, with three different treatment approaches, on three different types of bikes – Motorbike, Mountain bike, and a road bike. That has got to qualify for the collarbone hat trick.
 

I shouldn’t forget the ribs, especially since they were by far more painful. Imagine Driving a railroad spike into your back and twisting it. I marked below in red where my ribs broke:
 

 

By the way, from my research I learned that Lance Armstrong has exactly the same plate as I do. He broke his collarbone into 4 pieces so they used 2 more screws than mine. Lance has 12 screws, and I have 10 screws, but the plate is the same. Armstrong’s plate is the right clavicle while mine is the left. Here is Lance Armstrong’s X-ray:

 

My orthopedic surgeon, Dr. George Myo did a great job and I would highly recommend him. I saw him 11 days after my accident. I wish I had seen him earlier. He took X-rays at his office and went over them to me. I had been severely misdiagnosed in the Emergency room. He explained things and went over my options. Once the decision to go forward with surgery was made, he had me scheduled for surgery the very next morning. I had a bad experience with staples after a surgery years ago and asked Dr. Myo if he would make sure to use sutures. He went one step further and used dissolvable sutures and left me with an incision site that a plastic surgeon would be impressed with. Thanks Dr. Myo!  

Deuceman

 

Show Low, Arizona

          I signed up for this race because a guy from church wanted to do it and talked me into it. He ended up dropped due to an injury, and as I was packing the car up in the pouring rain, I was wishing I hadn’t signed up and could enjoy an easier weekend. I kept telling myself not to be a wuss and just go do what I do. Just because the weather was bad and forecasted to be bad the whole weekend down in the valley doesn’t mean the weather up in the White Mountain’s would be bad. Mountain weather is so unpredictable anyways. When I lived in Missoula Montana I never bothered to watch a weather forecast. They were worthless.

            As it turned out, the weather was great for the whole weekend. It was nice to be out of the heat. In fact, I don’t think I could have asked for better weather for the race. The weather cooperated perfected, played to my strengths and as you will see actually helped me.

Swim

            The swim went well. I started out easy, but managed to stay right behind the lead pack with little effort. I gradually built up my speed and did not have any issues with elevation. The water was a good temperature and I did not encounter any congestion. My right shoulder was hurting me considerably though. It has been bothering me since the 10k swim. I did relatively well for the elevation and my shoulder issue. My T1 Transition was slow. Running up the hill to transition winded me terribly and then I had difficulty with my helmet.

Bike

            I was glad I opted for the black bike. I almost brought the blue one. I certainly needed my apex gears for the hill at the close of the ride. The bike course was a nice ride. There were some stretches of road that were my kind of riding. I had over a 20 mph average up until the last 10 miles, where the course turned into a steady grinding climb. We had some scattered cloud cover that kept it relatively cool. I took in close to my normal fluid intake. When I say normal, I mean the intake that I had been taking in over the past summer with 3 very hot races: Hawaii, Buffalo Springs, and Vineman. Apparently I was not sweating as much as usual, because the last 15 miles of the ride my bladder hurt and made the ride uncomfortable. I thought about peeing on the bike but I couldn’t seem to relax grinding up that hill.

Run

            I started the run with legs as heavy as lead from the last 10 miles of that bike ride. The grind of that long cat 3 hill turned my legs into heavy metal. The run course starts out pretty rough. I joked to a guy next me that I thought the Xterra race was on Sunday. We started out running in gravel slightly up hill and it felt like I wasn’t even moving. I spoke with several other athletes after the race who felt the same. The course then hit dirt and even some rocks as you have to traverse a dry river bed. My average quickly rose above a 10 minute mile and continued to climb as the run wore on. The elevation and that 10 mile bike climb made me feel like I was made out of lead. I stopped concentrating on my target pace and just tried maintain a steady run. Even that became difficult as we hit inclines. There were only two significant hills on the course and both of them were not very long. They were just tough hills at 6,000 + feet and after 60+ miles of hard racing. I focused on just continuing to run, questioning why I signed up for this torture. The first hour of the run my bladder continued to trouble me. I convinced myself that the water would be absorbed since the sun was making things hotter. I was doing fairly well time wise and I had studied my competition. Prior to the race I had looked up past results and this year’s competitors.  After that I looked up each competitor’s racing histories on Athlinks.

            I knew enough about my competition to know that I was still in the mix for a place on the podium. A little over 5 miles into the run my bladder was becoming a real distraction and affecting my ability to run. I knew that I did not have time to stop and pee. My competition was too close. I would need every second. So I did something I have never had to do before. I passed an aid station and dumped a lot of water on my head and then grabbed a bunch of sponges to mask what I was about to do. After I cleared the aid station I just peed myself while moving. My bladder was very full. It just kept running down my legs and I was running in soggy shoes leaving a trail of foot prints on the hot asphalt.  Oh well, I felt much better and then I could run normally again.
            The course was basically a two loop 10k course that had an extra mile in the middle. The extra mile was an uphill/downhill out and back that gave me a look at all my competition. One guy was leading me by a good ¼ mile. I knew there was no way I was going to catch him the way I was feeling. I just didn’t think I could run any faster without completely breaking down. Behind me were 4 more challengers hot on my heels maybe 200 yards behind me looking strong. From what I could deduce, I was in second place with 7 miles to go.  I winced as I thought about the fact that my competition had seen me and now knew that I was in reach. They would be chasing me hard and I knew that if I wanted a place on the podium, I was going to have to go through tremendous suffering over the next hour. I resolved to pick up my current pace a bit to discourage them. That began to take a toll very quickly and the suffering increased. The heat was beginning to become an issue. There was no ice offered on the course and I thought to myself about how I tend to do better in heat than most. Maybe the guy in front of me would breakdown in this heat. Sure enough, about a mile later I found him walking through the now scorching river bed. As I passed him I said something about the heat and ran by him in a display of strength designed to crush any thoughts he had of giving chase. Several miles later we went down this long dirt road and turned around. I got to see my competition again. I had not made any ground on them, but they had also not made any ground on me.
            I focused my mind on the fact that I had forced down good nutrition and stayed hydrated. They had to be discouraged that they had made no headway against me. I told myself that I was stronger. I am a good closer. I picked up my pace to crush their hopes.
            I don’t know how many people can truly appreciate what it takes to run your last hour with that kind of pressure. Your mind betrays you listing all the reason you should back off and how a stupid trophy is not worth the agony you are experiencing. 67 miles into a hard race, the exhaustion and pain threatens to swallow you and you have to fight your mutinous body and mind with your spirit. It is a constant battle that begins to drain even your spirit. I prayed for strength as I had continually throughout the day. I really wanted to finish first in my division with Christian watching.
            There was a big hill about a half mile from the finish line. I knew that it would be a challenge. I ran up it until my heart rate was in the red. Then I walked backwards to check out my competition. They were nowhere in sight. I had broken them. I felt a huge relief. Now I still kept running, and running hard.  I wasn’t taking any chances, but at least I could enjoy the last half mile knowing that they could not catch me and I would cross that line safely in first place.

            For me this was a great race.