Racing to Save Lives

When I was little I saw the Ironman World Championships on TV and then it immediately become a dream of mine. I have completed 3 marathons and began doing triathlons last year and then they announced the start of the first Ironteam so I knew I had to be part of the team. When I tell people I will be swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles and running 26.2 miles for a total of 140.6 miles in one day they tell me I am crazy and ask me why I am doing this. I explain that it is a dream and tell them because I can. There are people out there who are dealing with cancer who can't run, bike or swim but I can and if it takes me completing and ironman to raise funds then I am in. The pain I go through is small compared to what they deal with everyday. I am determined to complete this challenge and in the process raise money for a great cause. I would be greatly appreciative for any donation you can make. I am commited to the training and completing this event in hopes that the money I raise will help find a cure. Please join in me in my ironman journey by donating to the cause. I will be providing updates throughout my journey so check back frequently.

If you are interested in learning more about one of our honored heroes please go to youtube.com and look up living is winning. It is a movie written about Andrew Johnston.

Thanks for all of your support.

Cameron Thomas

March 6, 2011. This is my second month of training and looking back I cannot beleive how far I have come in my training. We train seven days a week which includes 3 swims, 2 runs, and 2 bikes. I never realized how much time this has taken up but I am enjoying ever single minute of it. Yesterday we biked 40 miles in the rain and cold and I ran 7 miles this morning. I am fighting through some injuries but overall I feel great. I will check back in a few weeks. Have a great week.

April 3, 2011. We are in the heart of our training and the past couple of weeks have been tough. Last week we met up for a ride in Cartersville and ended up getting caught in the middle of a thunderstorm. Luckily everyone made it out of the storms with no issues. This weekend we did our first open swim in Lake Lanier. I have been in water that cold but have never actually had to swim in water that cold and boy was it a shock. For the first couple of minutes I could not even breath but finally my body went numb and I got into my stroke. The swim was probably not the best idea because I have been fighting a cold all week but as hardheaded as I am I did it anyways. Afterwards I began my 10 mile run and knew right away this was going to be rough. I was about 30 seconds off of my pace but luckily one of my fellow teammates, Amy Dyer, helped me push through it. Today was just as rough. We went out for a 60 mile ride and I flat out was not into it from the start. I was sore from the workout the day before and I just did not feel like doing a bike ride however I pushed through it. This was probably one of the toughest rides I have been on but again I had some teammates drag me through it. Well I will talk to you next week.

April 10, 2011. This week was by far the roughest week of training. The swim, bike and run was by far the longest we have had thus far. We had a 2400 meter continous swim, 62 mile ride, and a 10 mile run. I was exhausted all week and I am really glad to have a recovery week. I think the highlight of the week is to see our coach cross the finish line in Ironman South Africa. I cannot wait to do the same in November. Have a good week and talk to you soon.

October 16, 2011. Sorry it has been a while since I have updated my page but life in general has gotten busy. Let me give you a quick summary of what I have been through and where I am at today.

June and July was just training every weekend. Some weekends were good and some were bad. It took me about 2 months to figure out my nutrition plan which I figure out is very important in Ironman racing. We biked up to 80 miles and ran up to 15 miles during this time.

Ironteam went to Blowing Rock North Carolina for a Epic training weekend back in August and it was just a overall amazing weekend. The training was tough but the time spent with my teammates was probably one of the most rewarding experinces I have been through. We all greatly appreciate everything our coaches did for us that weekend.

In September we completed our first 100 mile century ride (Cartersville Century). The ride went through the mountains of North Georgia. I luckily had a great ride that day and at that point I knew I was going to be able to accomplish Ironman. One week later we competed in the Augusta 1/2 Ironman. This was considered an end to our recovery week. I never thought that a 1/2 Ironman would be a recovery workout but I also never thought I would be doing a Ironman. The biggest Challenge I was faced was more mental than physical. I knew I could do the distance so that was not an issue. The year before I tore my calf muscle coming out of the swim so I kind of had a fear that I was going to do the same thing this year. I had a decent swim and came out of the water with no issues. Thank goodness. I had dead legs on the bike and run so it was not the best I could have done. However, I still had a better time than last year. I realized no matter how good of shape I was in I still needed to taper for a race.

In October we just continued to train but this was going to be the peak of our training period. This month we completed a race distance swim, 3 century rides, and (2) 18 mile runs. We completed the final 18 mile run today and now we are heading into a recovery week. After the recovery week we have one more set of workouts then taper for the race. 5 weeks from ironman. Talk to you soon.