The Race Results

Okay Race Results are in.  Thanks everyone for all of your support and donations.  According to what I know we raised just shy of $200 for this race. So according to all the comments I have been getting, you really want to know how I did.  The race was a 400m swim, 10mile bike, and a 5k run.  The official times are as follows

Overall          Swim           Swim       Bike+Transition       Bike           Run           Run           Overall
 Place              Time            Place               Time                 Place           Time          Place            Time       

                      Min:Sec                                                       Min:Sec                                                               Min:Sec                                              Hr:Min:Sec
150               9:26              200                39:55                 157              26:01           157              1:15:22

There was a total of 442 participants in the race.  I was so excited to do as well as I did.  According to my results of the last sprint tri I did, I should have finished the race around 1 hour 17 minutes.  I had a friend do this race the year before and he did it in 1 hour 15 min and 48 sec.  So, being me, I had to beat his time. So I set a goal for 1 hour 15 minutes.  I was surprised to see how close I got.
My biggest fear was the swim.  I knew that would be my slow part since the pool I was training at closed three weeks before the race.  Here I am getting ready to start and swimming.  The water was heated and felt nice to get in after standing in line forever.

The bike time may look slow but the time included both my transition times, which are really slow.  I need to work on transitioning fast a lot more. Here I am coming in from the 10 mile bike ride.  The guy in front of me is the only person who past me on the bike and he passed me right at the very end where it is only single file and I could not pass him again.

My run was below and 8.5 min/mile which I was surprised by since I never ran that fast during trianing.  Maybe it was the energy gels.




I had previously posted about those before and how much I loved a certain kind.  Well the night before the race I realized that I was out of gels.  I tried to run to REI to get more but by the time I got there it was closed.  So I ended up a Sports Authority.  Let me say for a sport store I am disipointed in how small a selection they have.  I ended up getting GU's Strawberry Banana.  I had never tried that before but it looked the best to choose from.  I planned to take a gel at each transistion which I did and it helped a million.  The Strawberry Banana was actually pretty good.  I got lucky.  It is always a bad idea to try something new on race day, but luckly this time it worked.
Here I am with my brother at the finish line.  My brothers work sponsered me in the race and I owe a big thank you to them for doing so.

 And last of all here is me with my motivation and support crew.  She was waiting at the finish line cheering me on to completion.  Just seeing her here how can you not love her.  I am proud to be her father and am greatful to be doing all of this for her.

Big Day

Okay so it is 11 o'clock at night and yes I know I should have been in bed 6 hours ago, but I thought I would post a quick comment.  This is not my first Tri but man I am so nervous for tomorrow morning. The big day of my first race for 'cause I Tri has finally come.  I am ready, but so not ready.  Anyone else ever feel that way?  Anyways got to go hit the sack.  I got a 4am wake up call to be ready for.

Energy switch

It seems like most of my training is about biking.  Well probably because right now that is what I love doing the most.  This weekend I went with two friends on a 22 mile bike ride.  It was a really flat course and we were able to maintain an average speed of about 20mph.  I thought we did pretty good.
Let me also tell you I am now sold on energy gels.  The last several rides I have ditched the energy drink and used only energy gels about every 10 miles.  They work great.  This last ride I tried the Hammer Apple-Cinnamon energy gel.  The flavor was great.  The best I have had from any energy gel.  To me it tasted like eating some apple pie.  Like I said it was the best flavor I have had so far.  I still need to find another flavor I like so I can switch out between the two.

Another Picture

Yes, so I have not posted very many pictures yet.  So here is another of me and Brinley.  This is just after a fun ride around our neighborhood on my mountain bike.

I think it would be a blast to take Brinley along on the race with me. But in all reality I think it would be scary on my Road bike with her. Plus I don't think the race will allow me. But I am considering running with her in a jogger. That is if I am in enough shape and the race allows me to at least do that.

Pink Speedo?

Okay, so last night I got a call from my Brother-in-law. He stated that he would match the highest donation....if and only if....I run the my next entire race in a PINK SPEEDO. I respectfully declined. Just think of my white chicken legs, why would you even consider? Crazy kid. Creative, but crazy. Just so the rest of you know, I will not be wearing a pink Speedo nor will I consider any color of Speedo for the race, no matter how much you are willing to donate.

First post of Training

Nothing eventful happened today. Just got up on a beautiful day and went and rode a fun 20 mile loop with a friend. I like this loop a lot. It is the hilliest loop you can probably find in the whole valley. At about 12 miles around the loop there is a massive hill nicknamed by bikers "Heartbreak Hill". It really is not that massive. It is about 3 miles long climbing about 650ft. I survived, but thank goodness for a granny gear.

Donation Poll - Please vote if you donated

Since donations are going to be completely anonymous to me, I have created a poll on the left of this page to show completely anonymously how much has been donated. Honestly all I am asking is $10 or $20 from you. If you would like to donate more then that, the more power to you. Unfortunately, I have not found a widget I can add to the page that can show a running total of how much has been donated. Sorry but this is the best I got. I will be looking at the poll daily to get my inspiration for training. Thanks again for donating. Update what you have donated on the poll since this is the only way I will know how much has been donated 'cause I TRI.

What Is this all about?

My name is Kai Nelson and yes you may not know who I am but all I ask of you is to hear my story.

This organized fundraiser is the result of two wonderful girls in my life and about my love for them. In the winter of 2008 my little two person family brought into this world a precious spirit named Brinley (girl #1). Do to some events at the time of birth she spent the first couple of weeks of her life in the NICU. But after constant monitoring and several loving doctor's care, she was finally released to go home with me and my beautiful bride (girl #2). Brinley had improved to good health and appeared to be life’s normal little child. My wife and I just loved having her home and enjoyed every moment we had with her. By her two month doctor visit our doctor shared with us his concern of her delayed head growth. Several checkups and a CAT scan later we found out that Brinley had severe Brain Damage. I remember being so scared of what that meant. I knew this was going to change so many dreams and hopes I have had for my precious girl. Worry and wonder was definitely in mine and my wives hearts. But with what little hope we had we knew it would all turn out okay. Brin is now 1 ½ years old; she still cannot walk, crawl, sit up, eat properly, hold anything, or even take care of herself. But, through it all my wife and I have learned that she is still the pride of our lives. She recently has learned to smile and is finding so much joy in her little life, which in turn has elevated so much love between us as a family. Her weakness, I know, has brought strength to our little family that is immeasurable and we could not be any more grateful for her in our lives.

My beautiful bride has been the super champ of this story. Between work and school I am away from home majority of the day. My wife has taken it upon herself to drop all she had done and take care of Brinley’s now ever-growing needs. I am so thankful for the blessing of such a wonderful spouse. She is more then just a mom in mine and Brinley’s eyes. She is a Supermom. On a weekly basis Brinley has at least one doctor’s appointment to be at, three different therapy sessions to attend, and needs a daily therapy session at home. With me gone, my wonderful wife steps to the plate and has these completed to exactness. I love her and am extremely grateful that someone so wonderful is in my life.

Recently I had been feeling down for not being near as great. I was concerned over the fact of what little I was actually doing for Brinley. One early morning while biking, these thoughts were flying through my head, 'what was there that I could do more?' 'I have no special talent in order to be the hero.' 'What could I do?' This is when the inspiration came into my mind. There is something I know I can do, I can Try! That is all it takes to be anything, just stand up and try. My brother had recently called me and asked me to participate with him in an upcoming triathlon in Casa Grande. I had already agreed and saw this as my opportunity to TRI.

As part of my Tri I am doing a little more. I am asking everyone to support me on this race by donating $10 or $20 to a wonderful organization Brinley attends, Foundation for Blind Children (FBC). This nonprofit organization has provided Brin with Physical and Occupational therapy for more then a year now. They have done so much for Brinley and helped my heart more then I ever dreamt would be accomplishable. They deserve more than I can give, but what little I can do, I hope represents how much I care for what they do. You can donate by check and send it to the address below or donate directly to FBC safely online through PayPal by selecting the donate button on the top of the page.

All I am asking from you is to donate to this wonderful organization ‘Cause I TRI!

Sincerely,
Kai Nelson- A “Tri”er

Address:

Foundation for Blind Children

1235 E. Harmont Drive

Phoenix, AZ 85020

Don't forget

Make all check payable to FBC and put 'Cause I Tri in the memo section.