I once ran a 5.6 for 50 yards.
I've run a 4:44 1500m, a 17:35 5k and a 68 second 400 hurdles. All on the same day.
I've run under 60 seconds for a 400.
I've run 11:20 for the 3000 steeple on the track. and an 18:12 5k on the same day.
I've run 35:35 for 10k, 16:54 for 5k and 1:23 for a half marathon.
I've run sub 6:00 pace off the bike many times.
I've biked 25mph for 40k.
In middle school I was the fastest kid in my class.
I've never been caught stealing a base on a straight steal in baseball.

Simply put, I am a fast twitch athlete. My strenghts lie in the short fast events. Many people as they get older, go longer. For me, that's not neccessary. In 2001, I raced to a 10:30:25 Ironman. I was 33. I had the perfect day racing. I decided that was my 4th and last ironman. I knew what I was good at and wanted to stick with it (short course racing). But somehow I got sucked into following the crowd, going for the elusive ironman Kona slot, year after year, after year. 10 years and 9 ironmans later, here I am. I just finished my 10th ironman at Great Floridian, and even though I was well prepared, was having life time best workouts before the race, I went slow. I went slower than my first ironman (11:46) and I may have won my age group, but slow is slow. Yep, it was a tough day and a tough course, but I realized something out there that day and I am going to tell you a little secret that I've known for a long time: I don't like racing ironman. I like to go fast. I want to go as fast as I possibly can pushing my heart rate and lungs to the absolute limit. I don't want to have to save anything for later in the race. I want to go as hard as I can until I blow up. And if I do blow up, so what? That's the part I love! Feeling like you are on the edge and knowing you can't possibly go any faster.

This past year I joined forces with Danny Suter and Craig David. Danny planned out my training and Craig dialed in my nutrition plan. Together this was a great combination and I couldn't have asked for a better complement of teammates.

In September, whilst in the midst of ironman training, I raced the Oktoberfest Sprint triathlon. I haven't done a 400 on the track in 2 years. I haven't done a sprint tri in even longer. Danny had me so dialed in that when the gun went off I went as absoutely as hard as I could for the next hour. I swam, biked and ran at my absolute best effort. When I stopped and saw the clock at 1:01:55, I was shocked. I beat everyone 30 and over. Four 20 something year olds beat me. The course was legit and I ran 6:24 pace off the bike on dirt with a nice rolling hill in the middle. That's at altitude and being 41.5 years old. I knew then what I wanted to race in 2010.

So, why was I chasing the ironman Kona dream if I wasn't even good at it? Probably because all the cool kids were doing it. But with age comes wisdom. I don't need 20 hour training weeks or 4 hour bike rides. What I need is to do what I love. Train hard, and go fast!

So, in 2010, I'll be racing short course. I am going to race one Half Ironman in Boise, for a base builder, but the rest of the season will be sprints and olympic distance races. So if you want to race me, you'll know where to find me. Come catch me. If you can.