Shawn's Ironman: Shadow Creek Ranch Triathlon Results & Photos

By accident, I decided to sign up for the Shadow Creek Ranch Triathlon hosted by Troika Productions. This is a second year race, and I must say that Bryan & Colette Kraham have done an amazing job organizing this race. I got to know both of them pretty well during the packet pick up because the let me pass our fliers to generate more votes for www.sendshawnsironmantokona.com. You can tell how good a race is by the people that show up for the race, and the Houston "A" list showed up to compete in this race. Here is how my day went:

As most of you understand, I started training and racing to become "Shawn's Ironman". Shawn was my inspiration, but now I get to race for so many other families since we started Shawn's Anomaly. Liam was born with half a heart and has virtually lived in the hospital for his entire life. He is now 18 mos old. I was told about his story by a friend of mine because he was trying to get to Texas Children's Hospital for treatment from Tulsa. He underwent a heart transplant, but unfortunately he has had complications from that surgery that has lead to swelling in his abdomin and pretty much his whole body. Of course the older that he gets, the better chance that he has to survive, so getting treatment at TCH is our ultimate goal, but he has to become stable enough for the doctors to accept the transfer. Prayers are the ultimate thing that is needed, plus it is really expensive on the family. The mother, father, and grandmother have had to give up their careers to continue treatment for Liam in the hospital. We are doing what we can to help them. Although we are limited financially, we try to make up for it by providing education and hope.

I decided to dedicate this race to Liam Lyon. It was the least that I could do, but it was at least something. I was very proud that my wife and I could wear the "Team Liam" shirts at the Shadow Creek Ranch Triathlon. It gave me a great chance to talk to other families that have gone through congenital anomalies, and ultimately bring awareness to Shawn's Anomaly's mission: Education, Hope, & Help.

I got into the water for the first time since Ironman. I can tell you how great that it felt great. With all the rain that we have had in the past week, the water temperature was nice for a July race. I took my place at the far end of the course, and then the gun sounded. I started off great, but I started to get tired. In all honesty I have trained barely at all for this race, so I really did not expect much, but I ended up finishing the swim in the middle of the pack.

As I got of of the water, I was able to show off our new Champion System Shawn's Anomaly kit for the first time. It is definitely easy to spot and as my friend Aaron says, "It looks like a rainbow threw up on it." Champion System did a really great job putting this kit together and I am sure it will be our kit for years to come. I am really excited about that.

I finished T1 in a super fast time and started off on the bike. The course was very flat that consisted of two loops. I love courses like that because you get to see the spectators more than once. With the absence of wind, it became insanely fast. I had my fastest bike split that I have ever had. It was great, and I felt confident going into the run.

I hit T2 feeling pretty good, until I started off on the run. That is when I realized that I had left my watch on the bike and did not have a way to regulate my heart rate with my cadence or min/mile. I decided to just trust my instincts instead of turning back to pick up my watch. I soon realized that was a huge mistake. I was still in IRONMAN mode which just simply means that I spent the whole run storing energy in the tank instead of giving all I had to the short course. After I finally figured out what I was doing, I noticed the finish line and it was too late. Oh well, the run was not perfect, but it was still so much fun to be out there racing.

So here are my results:

Swim
11:39.4 2:19/100 Yds
T1
01:13.7
Bike
47:29.6 21.0MPH
T2
01:07.4
Run
33:31.7 10:23/Mile
Total
1:35:01.9

No matter what, this was a great day for me in so many ways. I got to see some great friends and met several new ones today. This has reassured me that our ultimate goal of spreading the word about Shawn's Anomaly is getting accomplished. That is a victory regardless if I receive the invitation to get into the Ironman World Championship. Of course, don't let that stop you. Please keep voting till Wednesday every day and share the link: www.sendshawnsironmantokona.com with all your friends.