1. 5k – Bettering my 04′ PR of 17:23
2. 1/2 marathon – Bettering my 03′ PR of 1:24:45
3. Marathon – Bettering my 04′ PR of 3:06:39
4. 1/2 Ironman – Bettering an 05′ PR of 4:45:23 and attempting to go sub 4:30:00 at Ironman 70.3 Lawrence
Well, here I am a little more than a year later not having met any of those goals! I tried pretty hard at the beginning of 2008′ to break my PR in both the 1/2 and full marathon but wasn’t the wisest in how I went about it. For the 1/2 marathon attempt I gave it a go in the Sedalia Half Marathon with a 1:25:24 and then tried to break my marathon PR a week later, giving my self another sub par performance with a 3:08:11. Had I instead chosen to race one race, and made it be a flatter 1/2 marathon with a larger more competitive field I probably would have improved my 1/2 PR.
Shortly after my Olathe Marathon experience I got the urge to buy a house instead of renewing my lease that was up for renewal. Since I’m cheap and am not scared to try my hand at just about any handyman project, I found myself closing on a $20,000 fixer upper at the beginning of May. I also happened to start dating someone in May so between the new fixer upper and a female, training time quickly vanished along with most of my early pre-season fitness gains.
After peaking fitness wise for the year in early May, I continued to race and try to juggle time between the house, training, and my girlfriend. Somehow I still managed to race 29 times and ended the year with a total of six wins, a second overall place in the Ultramax Championship series, as well as first overall in the St. Louis Triathlon Club series.
I also managed to spend around $10,000 on tools and supplies working on my house which has just paid off this month with my recent house appraisal coming back at $40,000! Since I had purchased the house with credit cards, I’m now able to take out a home equity loan and pay off all my credit cards, locking in a 5.75% interest rate. While I’m still not finished with my house, I am at a point where I can comfortably live in it while I re-focus back on training! Well, I really need to finish my kitchen so I have a functional kitchen sink, but it sure is nicer then when I was sleeping on the floor and peeing in a cup because I had no functional bathroom…