Tough Day but you will bounce back strong. The effort you are putting into this triathlon thing is so strong. A big lesson on racing when your ill, but most of would do the same thing as you and go out and go for it. Keep pushing!!!

Ken

Hey, you were sick.  Give yourself a break.  If this were easy to do then it wouldn't be such a big deal when people do it.

Have you ever been to a Highland [Scottish] Games?  There's something called a caber toss where strong men (and sometimes women) pick up a honking huge tree and flip it end over end.  Or at least, that's their intention.  Most of the time it doesn't work.  But when it *does* work, holy mackeral, it's something to see.  But what I like best about this competition is that the people show up and try anyway, knowing perfectly well that their chances of actually succeeding are minimal and the most likely outcome is public failure.  But they show up anyway.

You showed up.  That beats DNS any day.

By the way, Nyquil is crap.  If you've got a head cold you need to take pseudofed, and maybe tylenol or advil or aspirin.  If you've got viral-triggered asthma you can try a bronchiodilator, but other than that all the lung stuff isn't going to do anything for you except maybe give you diary.   Drink lots of water and maybe tea, and feel better soon!

Gwendal

Chris, for what it's worth, you're an inspiration to me.  To think that, not only did you go through what you went through, you went public with it.  You didn't hide out, but you put it out there for all of us to see.  You have completed more tris than I have, and you had an experience that you can learn from and feed on, the next time things get tough.

As others have said, you were sick.  Most people wouldn't have even started the race sick as you were.  Hell, MOST people aren't doing what you are doing.

And forget what your head is telling you --think of those people cheering you on in your prior tri, and Amanda, and what they think of you.  You can tell a lot about a man by the quality of his friends.

Chris

Quit beating yourself up! Chris, you were sick!! AND the momma in me is coming out, you shouldn't have been out there...and I only say this because you were SICK!!! And apparently stubborn too! BUT got to love the "a" for effort though!

Hang in there!!

K

I saw you on the bike course yesterday. FWIW, I figured you were having a bad day or had a flat or something. I honestly don't know anybody who has ever attempted a triathlon to look down their nose at somebody else at a race so you need to let go of your shame. Disappointment? Sure. Ashamed? You really shouldn't be.

I know this sounds funny, but I think you need to look at the positive side of your experience. You didn't crash your bike. You were clearly in no condition to ride safely so you stopped. I call that good judgement cuz it is pretty hard to continue to train if you're out of commission due to an injury.

When is your next race?

You people!

I mean!

You absolutely rock. I am better mentally today. I am much sicker than yesterday and last night, our A/C went out!!! WOO HOO!

Thanks of the NO nyquil advice. I will get the other stuff today, since I am getting worse and not better.

My next race is Try Andy's Tri in Sugarland texas.

I am going to try and get this yuck out of my system and get back to training. The funny thing is, this training thing is fun to me.

Good news is, I had my weigh in today. I am down to 387 pounds. that is a total of 27 pounds lost since begining my tri training.

Thanks for the notes.

Train fun,

Chris