Also, on January 11, there will be a Happy Hour at Datz Deli on S. MacDill from 5:30-7:30 p.m. $10.00 at the door buys you a drink plus appetizers.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Thank you again! Betsy, Voices for

Children of Tampa Bay / Guardian Ad Litem http://www.vfcgal.org/

http://www.ismseat.com

..I will be doing 20% off all skin care products and injectables every Thursday for the rest of the year.Thank you! Tammy Sign up for the newsletter or visit the site at http://www.eberbach.com/home

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Team Psych has had a lot of team members complete Ironman races in November. I want to give a shout out to Todd Knowlson for rocking Ironman Cozumel in 12:21:25 on Nov 28. Todd...you are an Ironman! Todd and I crossed bike paths on the Suncoast Trail many times this fall as we logged the heavy miles preparing for our respective races. I followed his progress on Athlete Tracker and could feel his pain on the run without even being there. That's because I completed my Ironman Arizona on Nov 21 and my time in hurt city is still

very fresh.

I've now completed Ironman Florida, Coeur D'Alene, and Arizona and still haven't learned my lesson -- which is to STOP the madness. In the event anyone is interested in doing this race in the future or another Ironman, I offer the following report.

I finished Arizona in 10:36:36, narrowly miss-ing my Ironman Florida PR by just 3 1/2 min-utes. Ironman Arizona is held in Tempe just 10 minutes from the Phoenix airport. The race used to be held in the spring but was switched to Nov a few years ago because the race had developed a reputation for ex-tremely high winds. The shift appeared to work because 2008 and 2009 had very low winds. Arizona's bike leg is supposed to be only a little harder than Florida, so I thought I had a reasonable shot at my PR if the wind cooperated. It did not, but more on that be-low.

The swim is a single 2.4 mile loop held in Tempe Town lake. This time of year the wa-ter is cold... 61 degrees in fact. No practice swims were allowed in the lake except for 9-11am the day before. I didn't see any value in swimming the day before the race. I knew the water would be cold and I would deal with it Sunday morning. The weather forecast for Sunday called for rain, high winds and cool temperatures. The air temp was low 50s that morning but it wasn't raining, just a little breezy. Arizona has an in-water start. There is no beach entry. You had to jump off a boat dock about 3 feet above the water, then swim about 100 yards out to the starting line. I waited until 12 minutes before the 7am start

and made my leap. Yep...damn cold! I swam out to a kayaker about 20 yards off the start and held on for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, Mike Reilly was getting the crowd stirred up with "I Am Ironman". There were 2 bridges just behind the start, both packed with spectators, plus spectators lining the concrete embank-ment for at least a half mile down. Of my three starts, this was the most awesome of all. With 5 mins to go, I let go of the kayaker and moved up just right of cen-ter of the start and about 4 rows back. I wanted to break 70 mins, but most of all, I wanted a safe swim. At Couer D'Alene in Jun, I had a panic attack early in the swim as others were swimming right over me; thought I was in real danger of drowning, and finished the swim in only 83 mins. I had a clean start at Arizona, but the scrum began in earnest at 200 yards. Several times I could feel the fear tensing within myself, but this time worked to consciously relax. By about 1000 yards I was out of the worst of it.

Most Ironman swims are 2 loop affairs, but we just kept going down the lake which is really a misnomer. It is a dammed river only about 200 yards across. So we swam down one side for over a mile and came back the other. Just before the first turn buoy I got socked in the eye, had to reset my gog-gles and probably swallowed the Rec-ommended Daily Allowance of silt (the lake is muddy). Coming back I got socked upside the back of the head, but still felt I was having a pretty good swim. I finished the swim in 1:11:25 pretty close to my goal, and no panic attack! So far

Paul Hough is a dedicated, fast driving triathlete that has

added a new meaning to the term DRIVEN.

so good.

I kept my transition just under 5 minutes and started on the first of three loops for the 112 mile bike. Each loop leads you north-east out of the city into the Sonoran Desert. The first 10 miles of the way out is pancake flat, then there is a steady but gradual climb to the turnpoint. I rode easy on the way out knowing I would pick up the pace on laps 2 or 3. What was not expected was turning back towards town into a steady 15-20mph headwind with gusts over 25mph. Basi-cally, this just sucked. I mentally reduced my goal time from sub 5hrs 10 mins to 5:15 for the total bike. By halfway I was a couple minutes ahead of pace to maintain a 5:15, but on this return trip a narrow squall line was coming in with the wind. I could feel the temperatures dropping back into the 50s

before the rain and some minor hail hit me. It only lasted 5 to 20 mins depending on where you were on the course, but that was enough to get the roads wet and cause some riders to slide out. It hadn't rained in Tempe for over 2 months before this and it had never rained at Ironman Arizona until now. I was still on pace at the final turn back but the wind was con-tinuing to get worse and I lost several min-utes finishing in 5:18:18 for a 21.1mph av-erage.

I have on and off problems with my left il-liotal band and left hamstring. Both were giving me a dull ache the entire bike ride, so when I got off the bike in T2 I could hardly walk and my toes were frozen from the wind and rain. I managed another 5 min transition but wondered how I was go-

http://www.stsbikes.com

http://www.southtampadentaloffice.com

After a hard swashbuckle bashing to the face I get my cosmetic dentistry done at...

Bulnes & Buckenheimer!

HOLIDAYS ARE JUST AROUND THE CORNER Our holiday hours will be as follows; Thanksgiving Day Closed Christmas Eve Closed at 3:00 p.m. Christmas Day Closed Day After Christmas Closed New Years Eve Closed For Inven-tory New Years Day Closed Store hours will remain the same throughout; Mon-Fri 10-7 Sat 10-5

Sun 10-3

ing to run. I generally loosen up as I get go-ing so it was time to face the pain. I started off with my left knee hurting and limping slightly on my left side. Running felt just awful. The Arizona run course didn't help either. It's basically a contorted figure 8 course with 3 loops up and down both sides of the "lake" and it was mostly on concrete. If you do this course, expect to take a beat-ing on the run. I trudged through loop one and found the second loop demoralizing. My legs ached. Then it rained on us...again. Would my torment ever end? About 12 miles into the run, I came off one bridge just in time to encounter Chrissie Wellington about 300 yards from her finish...with her usual mile-wide smile. More on that later.

I slowed significantly in loop 2 but started to get my game back on the final loop. Start-

ing loop 3 was like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. There was still a lot of pain to go, but the end was in sight. Of course, I was getting help all along each time I passed my wife, Karen and daugh-ter, Paula. I was also getting a lot of support from Team Endurance Nation which is an Ironman focused training group that I belong to. Arizona also had some great themed-water stops. Check out this year's water stop from the Phoe-nix Triathlon Club at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1EzekTKgIY . We had Arizona State co-eds dancing for us each loop, and a lot of other nice distractions along the course. Every Ironman race I've done has had memorable aid stations and en-tertainment zones. I've never done any triathlons at shorter distances, including 70.3s, that come close to the full Iron-man experience. I was accelerating the

L

There is still room for cheering squad Bowlers: Jeff, Leslie, James, Nicole Davis, Craig Favata, Mark Davis, Bev-erly Davis Greg and Sandra Chewning, David Young, Lisa Stanley, Juliet Bulnes To sign up email Mark Davis at Mdavis6054@aol.com

Registration for the 2011 Drunk and Stumble Bowling Party begins Tuesday, Nov.16th. The date of the event is:SATURDAY, JANUARY 8th at 6 p.m. until closing !!!!!!! The Themes for this year are as follows: A) Patriotism or B) Pillaging Pirates or C) PLAYBOY'S PAJAMA PARTY Participants $37 Non-Participants $15 Sold out every year since 2005 Room for only 40 teams and 160 non-participants (Sorry-Fire Marshal) Krewes that participated last year have a spot grandfathered until Nov. 31st, then will fill with new teams until full. Food, Fun, and Tons of cash and Prizes up for grabs. New Contests in store this year as well. (Marti Gras and Fantasy Fest inside the bowling alley for an evening.) Send Payments to :Krewe Of Shamrock 15818 Sapwood Street Tampa, Fla. 33624

Train Hard, Race Fast, Party Hard, Give Back

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4

5

Key West Triathlon

Powerman Du

6 7 8 9

Voices for Chil-

dren Dinner fund-

raiser at Caf

10 11

ALS Bike Ride

Largo 25, 60

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Say No To Drugs

5K 10K

19 20

Joshua

House

21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31 Jan 1

December 2010

Team Psych Weekend Bike Ride See Weekly E Mails

See Page 20

Suncoast Bicycle 8:00 am Sundays

40-60 miles Check their web page to see if they have one this

weekend

Carrollwood Bicycle 7:30 am Saturdays

27 mile loop

University Bicycle 10:00 Wednesdays

8:00 Sunday San An

TEAM PSYCH Weekend

Open Water Swim Lets wait til Feb 2011

At least monthly

Bob Sierra YMCA 6:30 M, W YFC

Sat 10:30

New Tampa YMCA Contact

Dave Naffziger 813-727-9693

swimtrekr@verizon.net

Open Water Swim 6:30 Wednesdays Pass a

Grille Beach Not until spring 2011

Track Workouts 6:30 pm Thursdays

Ben Hill Middle School Returns with Daylight Sav-

ings Time in Spring

Bob Sierra YMCA 6:30 pm Tuesdays

Temple Terrace Run 7:00 am Sundays 5,8,10 mile loop

Train Hard, Race Fast, Party Hard, Give Back

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Your Bike Shop for Team Psych Bike Jerseys and Full Sublimated Tech T Shirt

last 6 miles but feeling much better mentally as I neared the end. It was a tremendous feeling to complete the 3rd loop and turn left towards the finish instead of having to start another loop. The sun set just before I fin-ished, but it was still twilight, not dark. Coming down the finish line gauntlet and through the grandstands felt every bit as good as my other finishes.

I cross the finish line and the first person to shake my hand and give me a mylar blan-ket is none other than Chrissie Wellington. To put my 10:36 is perspective, she finished in 8:36. She probably had time to shower, get a massage, eat dinner and catch up on e-mail before coming back to greet finish-ers. She didn't even look like she had just done an Ironman let alone set an official IM world record, crush the 2nd place woman by 29 minutes, and chick all but the top 7

professional men. So it was me con-gratuling her when I crossed. She is not only the most outstanding female athlete on the planet, she is a class act.

Although I missed my IM PR by just over 3

mins, I was happy to run my first sub 4 hr

IM marathon (3:57:01), and to get my

highest overall finish - 202 out of 2361 that

actually started the race including pros. I

gave everything I had on a tough day and

have no regrets. Still, my performance

was not good enough to earn a Kona slot.

The competition doesn't get easier just be-

cause you age up. At 53, I'm still learning

how to race Ironman; and I have unfin-

ished business.

http://www.bostonbill.com/index.html