Tri-als and Tri-bulations

Well, there are good reasons and bad reasons we haven't posted in a while. I finished the Wildflower Olympic distance triathlon in May, and it was rather eventful.

How so? The first event was the swim; that went, well, swimmingly. It was the best part of my race. But then there was the bike. It started with a steep climb...followed by a nice long downhill. I was really enjoying the speed when WHAM! A waterbottle rolled in front of me and was smashed to bits by my front tire. Shrapnel hit my legs (no cuts, though), my bike, and, I presume, my back wheel, because five minutes later, I noticed the flat tire! I had to get off the bike twice to finally get that bleeping tire fixed, and yes, it was the back tire, the one that's slightly smaller than it should be and is IMPOSSIBLE to get back onto the rim. The silver lining is that I was well rested when I finally resumed my ride. Despite all the steep hills, it was actually a fun ride. The only problem is that I didn't drink enough while I was on the bike.

In fact, I drank so little that when I started the run, my hamstring cramped up. When I stopped to stretch it, the rest of my leg froze up. This was pretty awful. Now what I should have done is walked to an aid station, had Gatorade, and waited for my muscles to get some electrolytes back into them. Instead I basically ran-walked the entire 10K. I saw a lot of people passing me and talked with a lot more people who were taking walking breaks than I normally would in a race (that normal number being approximately zero!). In triathlons, they usually write your age on your left thigh and your race number on your arms. Under USA Triathlon rules, you have to put down your age according to what it will be on Dec. 31 of that year. So I cracked up when a woman passed me with the following on her leg: "40 NOT REALLY." Finally, I did really finish the race but took far longer than anyone expected me to.

And since then I haven't been able to run. I have this pain in my upper right leg, probably where the sciatic nerve is. But medical science being what it is today, the conclusive diagnosis from my doctor, physical therapist, chiropractor, and orthopedist is...well, see if you can guess:
A) piriformis
B) sciatica
C) osteoperosis of the back
D) All, some, or none of the above

And the answer from the esteemed, modern, educated, highly sophisticated medical establishment is D. I'm convinced that eventually science will develop the ability for people to live cancer free and for over a hundred years, but we'll all be limping because they can't figure out what's causing our aching backs!

To wrap this up, since Wildflower, and since Sandi's asthma got worse, we've only dreamed of being able to do triathlon training. But we will find some way to continue. Stay tuned!