MyIronWorks

Loran is recovering from Buffalo Springs 70.3 triathlon. Loading up the car at 6:30am on Friday I knew I was in the company of some fast triathletes (more to come on that later). TJ Tollakson, Mike Morrison, Micah Moore, and myself were ready to roll on the 15 hour car ride to Lubbock, TX. Several pitstops later we arrived in Lubbock on schedule at 9:30pm just in time to unpack and go to bed. Saturday morning included the normal pre-race routine with the rest of the day devoted to rest and mental prep work for what was ahead on Sunday. Lake temperatures dropped a "magical" 5 degrees overnight making the race wetsuit legal, insert huge sigh of relief here! Bang, gun goes off and it is racetime. Back to the part about my fast carmates, TJ leads a good part of the pro race, comes off the bike in 2nd to Chris Lieto, and runs well enough to go 4 hours flat to get 4th overall professional. Mike Morrison goes 4:20 good enough for 4th place in the toughest age-group (35-39 age group had 4 athletes in top 10, 5 athletes in top 13), and earns a trip to Kona, congrats Mike! Micah Moore competing in his 2nd ever 1/2 Ironman races a great race to go 4:24 and 6th place in age group! My race, OUCH. There is a saying that goes, "some days you have it and some days you don't". Well, I had the latter of the two but rest in the peace that I gave it what I had for that day, and stay thankful for the fact I have been given the ability to compete in a sport that I love. To end the story, we stayed around in Lubbock so Mike could "punch his ticket" to Kona, started for home at 8pm on Sunday night to drive 15 hours through a great rainstorm/lighting festival in Texas/Oklahoma, made a pitstop in Missouri to purchase some 4th of July festivity makers, and arrived home to the loving arms of our kids at Noon on Monday! All-in-all, I would call that a great weekend!