Last weekend I raced Ironman Texas for the 3rd time, finishing 4th overall.

I will keep it simple.

It was Hot.

I am sure you have heard as much if you followed the race at all. While the swim and bike proved to be somewhat normal, the run was more about out-surviving one another in such extreme heat. I started the run in 4th, moved to 3rd for quite some time, spent some time in 2nd for a good chunk, fell back to 3rd for another long stretch, and ultimately finished 4th after James Cunnama ran by and on his way to 2nd place late in the race. My good friend, Ian Mickelson, and I did the whole run with a standard deviation of about 30 seconds to one another, but he stayed on the better side of that range in the end and closed out a hard fought third place.

I did all I could to try and put myself in a position to win. I left it all out there and tried to close it out, but I’ll have to return next year to give it another try.

However, what I really want to write is a Thank You note. Some time last offseason, I mentioned to Brooke that I  wanted to start a fundraising campaign for the Wounded Warrior Project in conjunction with Ironman Texas. My father is a disabled veteran who was severely injured in Vietnam at the age of 22. When I was growing up, my father was always an adult in my mind, but as I sit here at 32 I can see how young 22 is and I’m sure that will only increase as I grow older.

I found myself empathizing with a mind of a 22 year old and what the world must have looked like to someone that would be ever changed by the devastation of war. I am sure that fear, sadness, anger and other emotions would overwhelm me, while optimism and hope might fall by the wayside. However, history has proven this to not be the case for my father as he has gone on to achieve countless successes in a variety of ways and I want that same hope to reside in today’s wounded heroes.

When I started the campaign, I was not really sure what to expect. Brooke and I put together a goal of $1967 to begin with, but we found ourselves nearly meeting that goal in the first week. To our pleasant surprise, by the time we reached race day we had $5625.20 to hand over to the WWP.

What was so gratifying was seeing the names that came up on the list of donors. I saw family, friends, people I’ve worked with, trained with, coached, and some I have yet to meet.

And as I saw all these names I became grateful for the all the wonderful people that have come into my life. All of your kindness and support is what has led to this being such a successful campaign.

So with all my heart:

Thank you.

-Justin

Latest article on Endurance Corner:

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I am collaborating with the Wounded Warrior Project to raise money for wounded veterans. My goal is to raise $1967.00 by the time I race Ironman Texas on May 18, 2013.

You can find my donation page HERE

Below is a copy from my donation page:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In May of 1967 my father was serving his country in Vietnam, as a Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, when was was severely wounded. He was 22 years old and was faced with a life of permanent disabilities. In spite of his injuries, he went on to become a successful lawyer, executive, professor, cyclist, and above all else, a wonderful father.

However, the wounds from war are real and they do not go away. There isn’t a day where my father is not affected by his injuries and I often find myself wishing I could bear those burdens, even if only for a moment.

Today, many servicemen and women come home with permanent injuries, both physical and emotional. I can only imagine the fear and anxiety that comes with facing the unknown road ahead, but they should not be alone in doing so. The Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) is a nonprofit organization that was created to help veterans and their families with this next stage of their lives. The WWP works tirelessly to honor and empower wounded warriors in order to foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation’s history.

This is my first year collaborating with WWP and my hope is to raise $1967.00 by the time I race Ironman Texas on May 19, 2013. I hope that my efforts can help support wounded veterans as they move forward to have successful families, careers and to live their dreams, whatever they may be.

You can help me in my efforts by making a donation to the WWP, no matter what amount. Take a sack lunch to work, gather the change in your car; every dollar counts in helping our wounded veterans and their families.

Thank you for your generosity and support,

Justin Daerr

I won’t be racing this weekend, but here is a course profile I put together for the Endurance Corner site:

http://www.endurancecorner.com/Course_Profiles/galveston_half

I traveled out to Puerto Rico over the weekend to race San Juan 70.3. If you follow me on twitter, you’ll know that I posted about having a cold over the weekend as well. Unfortunately that turned out to be the main the story line on Sunday.

I woke up on Friday morning at 4:00 a.m. to catch a 6:45 a.m. flight(s) to PR and I was about 12+ hours into a new head cold. I was a little hesitant to even go the airport as I really wasn’t feeling too well, but I thought there might be a chance that this would be short-lived and I might feel better by Sunday morning.

The trip was long and tedious (about 11 hours+ from door to door), but I got to PR and got in bed as soon as I could.

I woke up on Saturday morning and felt even worse (terrible really), but I tried to just stay positive and proactive about getting better. I was drinking lots of fluids, using the nasal wash, everything I could to get better. I didn’t do any normal pre-race workouts throughout the morning as I really wasn’t up to it. Eventually around noon I went down to the hotel gym and did a very light spin on the exercise bike, just to get moving again; that went alright, so I followed it up with a quick 5-10 minute swim as the gym is right next to the swim start.

After a pro meeting and a couple other things, I went back to the hotel room, ate dinner and was in bed early (around 8:30) to try and get a little more extra pre-race sleep.

On Sunday morning I woke up and hadn’t fully recovered, but I decided to give the race a shot, as you never know how things might turn out.

The swim kicked off and I didn’t feel too bad, eventually settling into the second pack. Around 300 meters-to-go, someone in front of me got gapped off and I tried to go around and close, but I really just minimized the loss and came out about 15-20 seconds behind those guys. All in all, I thought it went alright and that the cold didn’t seem to show itself much at all. Although, the long run to transition (about 500 meters) felt pretty terrible (but when does that ever feel good?)

The bike, however, was a mixed bag. I never really felt great, but never felt terrible either. And most of the ride, I had the good fortune of riding with some other strong riders so I could focus on racing with them, as opposed to how I did or did not feel. I was tiring out in the last 1/3, but that can easily happen in good-health racing as well.

As I came into T2, I saw I was actually a couple minutes quicker than 2011 so I thought the day might end up being better than I might have expected in the end. However, within only a few hundred meters of the run I knew that probably wasn’t going to happen. I really started to feel lousy and the run quickly turned from a normal stride into a jog and stayed that way to the finish line.

I didn’t really want to go to PR for a learning experience, in fact I would have happily learned nothing (or even unlearned something!) in exchange for a good race, but that’s what I ended up getting.

Until next time,

j

I never got around to recapping Panama 70.3 from the first weekend in February. It had less to do with having a subpar race; I was just hammered with a lot to do immediately after the race when I got home; and then I got sick; and I then I drove to Tucson; and then I started up with Cliff’s training camp; and then I had to make unexpected trip to Houston for personal reasons; and then I had to direct+coach the Endurance Corner Tucson camp; and then I drove back to Boulder.

And finally things started to calm down a little bit before I head off to San Juan this weekend.

So….

Panama: I decided to do this race for a couple reasons:

1. I wanted to have extra motivation to get the training done in January (which can be difficult in Boulder).

2. I have a friend who lives in Panama City and I wanted to travel somewhere new and different.

The race itself proved to be more than I could really handle at that time of year. I do think I was in better shape than I normally am in late January, but this race is challenging: both in terrain and weather (Hot!), and its not a race you want to float through. I did enjoy the trip and the experience, but the race was more of brutal awakening instead of a pleasant experience!

At any rate, I came home and headed to Tucson for a two-week training camp with my coach, Cliff English, followed by hosting my own training camp for Endurance Corner.

I enjoy the training camps that Cliff puts on for his pro athletes. Its nice to catch up with some of the athletes that I only see for a couple weeks/year and the training is solid. Training camps are always more directed, and more challenging, than normal training blocks and they should be. Getting together with others and getting that extra 2-3% out of one another is what its all about. Its even more paramount with age group athletes that travel to training camps and its why Endurance Corner puts them on. We believe in them.

If you want to read about the details of each day at Cliff’s camp, I suggest you check out Chris Bagg’s blog:

http://chrisbagg.com/news/

He does a great job of recapping all the details and his skill as a writer makes it all the more enjoyable to hear his perspective.

Following the Cliff Camp, I put on the sixth annual Endurance Corner Tucson camp. We had a solid 6 days of desert training and it was great to see the progression of some of our repeat campers. The great thing about seeing these athletes improve is that I know how much work they must have put in from last year to this year. It never gets old seeing other improve because of their drive and work ethic.

After the camp ended, I headed back to Boulder and had to pleasure of navigating through a blizzard in the final hours of the trip. Fortunately, while long, the trip was uneventful.

I have only been home for a week, but its about time to hit the road again. I’ll be heading to Puerto Rico to race San Juan 70.3 for the second time. I raced there in 2011 and decided to have another go at it this year. I decided to opt out of racing Galveston in favor of this race and as I prefer the SJ course over Gtown’s.

I’ll be back quickly after SJ with a report so check back in around Tuesday next week.

-j

I chatted with IMTalk yesterday about my recent Endurance Corner article: Show Up and Blow Up

You can find the podcast HERE.