Racing to Save Lives

Welcome to my Team In Training home page.

I'm training to participate in an endurance event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thanks for your support!

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9/14: I competed in my first triathlon! Sort of... I just did the swim portion as a part of a relay for my corporate team . I was originally just going to volunteer at the event, but when I went to go pick up my volunteer t-shirt, I starting chatting with one of the guys and ended up volunteering myself to swim. It was my first time swimming in the ocean for a long time and the first time actually trying to swim quickly in open water. The water was a bit chilly for my taste (and the water in SF should be a good 10 degrees colder, haha, sucks for me), but it was still really fun! Now I'm kind of tempted to register for the Arrowhead Day at the Beach Triathlon in Hermosa next month...

This amused me: "It's a given that most triathletes are Type-A people. Who else would willingly subject themselves to hours of swimming, biking and running just to get a T-shirt?"

9/21: This weekend the team took an unofficial trip out to Lake Piru for a couple days of camping and training. Most of us arrived Friday night, so we mostly just hung out around the fire along with some not-so-scary-but-still-amusing stories.

Saturday dawned and we all had a bit to eat before we started our workout for the day. The plan was to do some swimming and then bike. Unfortunately because the lake had been drained several feet, the swimming area was no longer available. Instead, we biked loops up and down the hills surrounding the lake combined with a short run so that we could practice transitioning. Overall, I think I ended biking around 21 miles and running a mile. Eric, our coach, spoke with the head ranger and convinced him to let us swim in an area of the lake that was normally used to launch boats, but was closed. So a handful of us went down to the water and took the opportunity to do a little swimming and try out our new wetsuits. The evening was spent hanging out and eating with some random shenanigans like "Chubby Bunny."

Sunday morning was running day. If you don't already know, the running is the bane of my triathlon life. I hate it, it hates me, and I'm pretty sure I'm terrible at it. Nevertheless I ran somewhere between 3 and 5 miles. Needless to say, as we headed home, we were all pretty tired and when I got back, all I did was take a shower and then head straight for my bed. All in all though, it was a really fun weekend spent with some really awesome people. GO TEAM!

10/12: I finished my first whole triathlon! The team and I headed out to Hermosa Beach for the Arrowhead Day at the Beach Triathlon. The day began at 4am to pack things up and head out to the beach. Transition opened up at 5:30 so Jessie and I got our areas set up. We ran into Eric Hung, a fellow Titan also doing his first triathlon along with Albert Chen who kindly took photos of us both. Since I'm a male in one of the younger age groups, I was in the first wave of competitors. The ocean was pretty cold. I don't know if it was just me, but my head started hurting after I got in and SF is supposed to be around 10 degrees colder, so yeah, that sucks... The run up the beach into the transition area was grueling for a bunch of reasons, including running on the sand and having to strip off the wetsuit. The bike route was pretty comfortable... although in hindsight, that means I probably should have tried harder. Haha, my bad! As for the run, I'm proud to say that I didn't walk, but I didn't run all that fast either. But for me, one who despises running, I think I did a decent job. So after an hour and fifteen minutes of swimming, biking, and running, I ran across the finish line!

Since I was in the first wave of people, I got to cheer on my teammates and see all them all finish! :)