Hello All!
First I'd like to thank all of you who donated to ETS through my Janus Charity Challenge (JCC) Campaign. With your help we raised $840 dollars for ETS, with the $750 bonus from Janus that is a grand total of $1590! I am training for Ironman Wisconsin in September and will have my JCC site setup for that later today.

Well, Ironman Arizona (IMAZ) didn?t go quite as planned. It started off excellent; I had a good swim, didn?t get beat up too bad and was out of the water ahead of the time I wanted? that?s where the day took a turn for the worse! I had my first flat tire before I left the transition area, my second around mile 3, third around mile 10, and the forth and final before mile 50 of the bike! That was the day for me; it took me over three hours to complete my first lap (38 miles), an hour longer than it should have. By the time I started my third lap, I was having problems keeping anything down. I decided that after I didn?t have enough CO2 to fill my forth flat, my day was over. It could have been worse; at mile 5 I heard screaming I looked up and found a pro laying in the street, she had been hit by an inattentive driver and her ankle run over by his horse trailer! When the ambulance showed up, the paramedic was a recent graduate of my Paramedic Program? on her first call as a paramedic!

Now, those of you that know me, I don?t go into anything unprepared much less under equipped. IMAZ was no different, my bike was equipped with band new tires and tubes, and I carried 2 spare tubes with me as well as 4 CO2 cartridges! If it wasn?t for neutral support I would have been done much earlier in the day? I had 2 more spare tubes, 4 CO2 cartridges, and another new tire in my Special Needs Bag (a bag each athlete can put their own nutritional needs and anything else the think they may need) at mile 60 of the bike? but I didn?t quite make it that far. Sometimes you can be prepared and equipped as much as reasonably possible and not be ready for the circumstances provided for you!

The day wasn?t all bad, or over. Since I had come to run, and I paid my entry fee I decided that I was going to do the marathon anyway? along side my father who was there competing in his 7th Ironman distance triathlon. All in all it was a good day, I didn?t get a finisher?s medal or t-shirt but I was still a good day!

Thanks again to all!

The new donation Website is: http://www.januscharitychallenge.com/WI06/equipped stay tuned for more information <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />