Last year at this time as I was writing my goals out for 2012 and I decided one goal was to complete a half-Ironman. So far with the USATF (USA Track and Field) circuit I have completed:

1998 – 5K

1999 – 10K

2006 – Marathon

2009 – Sprint Triathlon

2010 – Olympic Triathlon

The next step from this was to complete the half-Ironman and on September 30th I crossed the finish line in Augusta, GA. The weather was perfect to start the morning at 70 degrees with a water temperature of 76 degrees for the 1.2 mile swim. The swim portion I felt pretty good as my time was 30:44 and we swam down the Savannah River. Following the swim was a 56 mile bike through the rolling hills of South Carolina and Georgia. I felt pretty good during this part even though it was my weakest by far as it took me 3:31:16. During this part I got passed almost 800 times which really shows you how much training I did for this part of the race. Once we got to the run part I felt great as running was my favorite sport in high school and I knew this would be my fastest area. During the 13.1 mile run I passed 600 people which helped me gain some time back from the bike and finished in 1:54:49. Total time for the race was 6:04:35

 

During a 6 hour race there are a lot of things that go through your mind as music is banned so all you really have is your mind and man my mind went wild. Here are the top 4 thoughts that ran through my mind during this race:

Thought 1

While on the bike all I could think about was how fortunate and blessed I was to have found chiropractic care and recognize the importance of maintaining a healthy nervous system since 23 years old. I would bet only ~20% of the 3,000 participants regularly see chiropractors for when they are NOT in pain and the ones who do get major kudos. During a physically stressful race like this it is essential to have at least had 1 year of regular chiropractic care so that the nervous system is functioning optimally as this is what controls EVERYTHING. What is interesting is most of us put just as much stress on our bodies every single day from sleeping improperly and then getting in front of the computer, iPad, and phone for dozens of hours a day. I am 100% committed to the growth of all of you achieving a healthy nervous system and whether it is through my office or somewhere else in the country or World I can help you. I cannot imagine what is was like for the people there who DO NOT see chiropractors and what those spinal misalignments could have been doing to their body. The unfortunate part is 90% of the people who have subluxation or spinal misalignment do not even know it exists similar to cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Thought 2

My coach Dan Klein for this race told me that if during the run I feel cramping in my legs then drink coca cola. As many of you may have guessed I am the most anti-Coke person in the World as I feel it is destroying our children and creating an obese nation. I have not had the product in at least 8 years and intended to never have it again. Of course it is not 100% Cokes fault as it is not their choice whether you drink it but they could easily get rid of the high fructose corn syrup and use cane sugar like other countries. Still bad for the body but better than HFCS. During mile 6 I began to feel my right hamstring getting really tight and I gave in and had nice cold glass of Coke. Then again on mile 9 and on mile 11 I had even more Coke. This product actually helped me get through my cramping and flushed my body with serious amounts of sugar. I felt so good after drinking the Coke that I am proud to say that Coke is not bad. Just like medical doctors are great for only crisis care, coca cola is great for crisis situations. The problem is too many people rely on their medical doctor for their poor lifestyle habits and get doped up on tons of medications and similar to this is too many people drink regular coke daily or worse yet they drink diet coke.

Thought 3

I would have never imagined years ago that this day would have come but in 2011 when I committed to this goal I knew for sure it was going to happen. I went online and registered and that is when the commitment started. Paying $275 for a race definitely means you will show up and compete. So many of you have told me some of your goals and what you want to accomplish but how are you going to get there. Don’t just think it, ink it. If it is to do a race then go online and register, if it is to build a business then get action oriented and figure out what steps need to happen instead of just talking about it, and if it is to build a relationship then start communicating and coming from a place of integrity so new possibilities show up. Most people let life happen to them but winners make life happen and they tend to have a great life.

Thought 4

If you are someone who is working out right now then it is imperative you know how to train the right way. One thing I saw during this race is so many of these people doing the race were overweight and looked very aged. It was so sad to look around in my 30-35 age group and see how many of these guys looked like they have aged at least 10-15 years and not looking physically fit. When you look at the pros at this race they were all fit and looked very young for the age by at least 10 years. So many of you do not look at your HRV (heart rate variability) to see if you are overtraining, eat quality foods, or do the extra things to make sure your body is aging right while staying fit. These long distance races increase cortisol into the body and people who have too much cortisol tend to gain fat around the abdominal region hence why so many of these people looked like this. If your goal is to lose abdominal fat then figure out how to reduce stress in your life and congratulations to 95% of you since you are doing the most important thing to shut that fight or flight response down which is chiropractic.

Thank you to everyone for their support on this accomplishment and special thanks to my wife, Shira, for coming down to Augusta and supporting me during the race.