Futenma Tetsujin Triathlon 2009 Results

September 28th, 2009 Scott

Hey, I cut two minutes off my time from last year, but I had trained for a 5k run. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a 10k run again this year. I still did better, but maybe I’ll focus on the right distance next time.

Futenma 2009 Triathlon

10k run + 18k bike + 175m swim

September 27, 2009

— ROAD BIKE —

Place Name Age Gender Time

1 Joseph Galvin 37 M 1:04:58

2 Yoshiyuki Mikami 33 M 1:13:18

3 Kevin Inca 24 M 1:13:42

4 Koji Tokumine 39 M 1:13:46

5 Shingo Toume 31 M 1:14:22

6 Trevor Teeselink 37 M 1:14:27

7 Hiroki Zamami 42 M 1:14:36

8 Hideaki Nakayama 43 M 1:16:05

9 Paul Wilkinson 43 M 1:16:24

10 Trevor Lennard 43 M 1:16:30

11 Rie Tatsumi 40 F 1:17:33

12 Satoshi Nagaoka 51 M 1:17:38

13 Masaru Nakajima 32 M 1:17:38

14 Scott McGlynn 40 M 1:17:48

15 Kevin Avila 37 M 1:18:04

16 Kazumasa Teruya 50 M 1:18:23

17 Tomoki Nakatsuru 36 M 1:18:36

18 Jon Peralta 20 M 1:18:44

19 Darien Pedota 37 M 1:19:05

20 Rachel Anderson 29 F 1:19:06

21 Jon Wolfe 47 M 1:20:31

22 Forrest Poole 38 M 1:20:50

23 Kyoko Toyota 34 F 1:20:54

24 Nozomu Miyagi 34 M 1:20:58

25 Derek Gillette 39 M 1:21:02

26 Matt Mayer 26 M 1:21:09

27 Akira Mezashi 42 M 1:21:15

28 Goji Toyohira 38 M 1:21:55

29 Chris Bateman 33 M 1:22:18

30 Andrew Kingsbury 36 M 1:22:26

31 Tatsuji Wakita 33 M 1:23:13

32 Michael Kerschbaum 27 M 1:23:19

33 Yuki Funakoshi 38 M 1:23:47

34 Tadakatsu Yamada 33 M 1:23:51

35 Preston Gabaldon 20 M 1:24:09

36 Rico Quispe 40 M 1:24:19

37 John LaBanc 54 M 1:24:31

38 Koichi Nakamura 33 M 1:24:49

39 Morihide Ota 41 M 1:24:55

40 Yasunori Kobori 34 M 1:25:01

41 Naoki Yamada 27 M 1:25:38

42 Hideto Nakandakari 33 M 1:25:40

43 Takeshi Shingaki 37 M 1:26:11

44 Yukiko Delatte 46 F 1:26:14

45 Lie Seiko 38 M 1:26:16

46 April Noke 33 F 1:26:25

47 Hayato Nakazato 30 M 1:26:45

48 Mike Grubbs 42 M 1:26:53

49 Sophie Knight 34 F 1:26:59

50 Masafumi Ishigaki 31 M 1:27:04

51 Daniel McKernan 37 M 1:27:08

52 Jeffrey Norris 19 M 1:27:49

53 Robert Shafer 43 M 1:28:08

54 Seiji Matayoshi 44 M 1:28:13

55 Kevin Craig 36 M 1:29:20

56 Marc Austin 26 M 1:29:27

57 Kazumoto Nakama 42 M 1:29:36

58 Giff Bloom 26 M 1:29:54

59 Reuben Jones 28 M 1:29:58

60 Skyler Altenburg 14 M 1:30:03

61 Shinji Kinjo 46 M 1:30:19

62 Tsukasa Kinjo 33 M 1:31:28

63 Kiyotomo Toyama 35 M 1:31:32

64 Sean Hulsey 31 M 1:32:03

65 Kimberly Julka 23 F 1:32:28

66 Ben Pangborn 41 M 1:32:33

67 Anthony Owens 37 M 1:32:47

68 Yoshiyasu Toyama 44 M 1:33:03

69 Aya Enatsu 29 F 1:33:37

70 Toru Nakajima 46 M 1:34:06

71 Todd Marable 29 M 1:34:11

72 Tsukasa Miyazato 40 M 1:34:17

73 Ritsuko Maejima 44 F 1:34:59

74 Takahiro Namizato 37 M 1:35:03

75 Jed Soberal 19 M 1:35:28

76 Nobuyuki Kawagishi 29 M 1:35:41

77 Shinyu Iha 50 M 1:35:41

78 Greg Cummings 23 M 1:36:26

79 Greg Gaudet 26 M 1:36:46

80 Dennis Rice 35 M 1:37:28

81 Lorri Phipps 43 F 1:37:47

82 Holly Gillette 38 F 1:37:56

83 Masato Yonaha 38 M 1:38:05

84 Motomaru Iha 34 M 1:39:14

85 Chinatsu Uezuka 34 F 1:39:52

86 Mitchell Krauss 46 M 1:40:03

87 Satoshi Shimoji 43 M 1:41:26

88 Steve Everett 38 M 1:41:50

89 Kenji Ishikawa 28 M 1:42:02

90 Yasushi Kaneshiro 30 M 1:42:38

91 Fumito Takagi 33 M 1:42:44

92 Tsuyoshi Yamada 35 M 1:43:20

93 Mitsuru Ushiroyama 39 M 1:43:39

94 Michihito Yamauchi 33 M 1:43:54

95 Robert Pellosma 43 M 1:44:39

96 Susie Koza 33 F 1:44:54

97 Naoki Moriyama 42 M 1:46:20

98 Ana Aschenbrenner 36 F 1:46:37

99 Yuichi Tamayama 35 M 1:46:56

100 Sadao Nakamura 59 M 1:47:03

101 Tiffany Powell 40 F 1:48:32

102 Satoshi Miyagi 41 M 1:49:31

103 Donald Delatte 41 M 1:49:46

104 Jeff Brewer 31 M 1:50:54

105 Hitoshi Kume 54 M 1:51:27

106 Masahiro Shimabukuro 39 M 1:51:32

107 Yoshimasa Kikuyama 44 M 1:52:30

108 Kerri Quispe 39 F 1:52:38

109 Jonathan Delle 40 M 1:52:45

110 Henry Dockins 45 M 1:53:23

111 Osamu Wakinaguni 50 M 1:54:25

112 Joseph Bobb 27 M 1:56:07

113 Minoru Oshiro 42 M 2:02:06

114 Taku Sakugawa 32 M 2:07:54

115 Jeff Norman 41 M 2:11:04

116 Fukuei Teruya 51 M 2:11:32

117 Jamie Walsh 28 F 2:11:37

— MOUNTAIN BIKE —

1 Takashi Yoneyama 32 M 1:17:47

2 James Dollard 35 M 1:27:32

3 Benny Volkmann 29 M 1:28:36

4 David Silva 37 M 1:28:58

5 James Calbough 37 M 1:29:40

6 Darrel Nevells 32 M 1:29:49

7 Masahige Yamauchi 54 M 1:31:46

8 Yoshihiro Sata 36 M 1:34:37

9 Brendan Bogan 36 M 1:36:03

10 Brian Phipps 32 M 1:37:29

11 Keita Sunakawa 29 M 1:38:15

12 Jesse Burkleo 22 M 1:38:55

13 Andrew Barron 26 M 1:39:50

14 Yukiyasu Uezato 33 M 1:41:09

15 Nathan Rohn 27 M 1:41:17

16 Ryusuke Kyan 27 M 1:44:29

17 Dylan Pash 34 M 1:46:00

18 Megan Diaz-Freed 28 F 1:46:20

19 Mamoru Unten 44 M 1:57:33

20 Tsutomu Machida 39 M 2:00:10

21 Angela Viers-Costello 36 F 2:01:38

22 Katsunori Taira 40 M 2:03:00

23 Christopher Marsh 24 M 2:03:06

24 Tomohira Sugama 34 M 2:03:24

25 Hiroki Fujihao 26 M 2:03:53

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Kumejima has really big spiders

September 6th, 2009 Scott

Gina and I flew to Kumejima, a small island that’s about a 25 minute flight away to the west of Okinawa. Our Japanese language teacher grew up there and we decided to go visit. It takes about 45 minutes to drive all the way around it at 25 mph and only 10,000 people live there. To say this place is laid back is an understatement. Farming and scuba tourism appear to be the primary industries. There is likely some healthy amounts of fishing happening as well. This morning, we hiked to some waterfalls that flow up when the wind blows. There wasn’t enough water to really get the effect today, but there were some really big banana spiders there. This one pictured was about 10 inches from end to end. Each square in his web was about 1/2 an inch to give you some perspective. His web was about 6 – 8 feet in diameter and would move back and forth some 2 – 3 feet in the wind. This made it challenging to get a picture and also made him float uncomfortably near my camera a couple of times. We had to be careful of a few of his brother’s webs on the walk in and out of the observation area from the parking lot. I’ll have many more cool pictures and details later. Enjoy this one for now:

Posted in Okinawa, Photography, Travel | 2 Comments »

2009 Kinser Triathlon Full Results

August 17th, 2009 Scott

I like this one…finally an age group win!

4th Annual Kinser Triathlon
Overall Finish List
August 16, 2009

5k run + 15k bike + 400m swim

Road Bike
1 Joseph Galvin 37 M 0:50:11.2
2 Shingo Toume 31 M 0:54:15.2
3 Ura Takeshi 26 M 0:54:15.9
4 Koji Tokumine 39 M 0:55:58.0
5 Scott McGlynn 40 M 0:56:05.6
6 Jason Self 34 M 0:56:26.1
7 Shuhei Odoriba 27 M 0:56:35.2
8 Trevor Teeselink 37 M 0:57:20.8
9 Hirokazu Shimoji 28 M 0:57:29.5
10 David Wright 26 M 0:57:51.0
11 Kevin Inca 24 M 0:58:00.0
12 Seth Lewis 30 M 0:58:06.5
13 Rico Quispe 40 M 0:58:11.4
14 Kazuki Nakamine 20 M 0:58:35.5
15 Rui Moriya 21 M 0:59:10.5
16 Paul Wilkinson 43 M 0:59:26.8
17 Kevin Avila 37 M 0:59:31.5
18 Hatsue Yokoya 31 F 0:59:34.5
19 Mat Luebbers 49 M 1:00:10.1
20 Michael McKenzie 31 M 1:00:36.4
21 William Schrader 39 M 1:00:58.7
22 John Labanc 54 M 1:01:16.5
23 Nozom Miyagi 35 M 1:01:17.2
24 Yuto Oshiro 29 M 1:01:34.9
25 Yuichiro Tamaki 39 M 1:01:35.6
26 Derek Gillette 39 M 1:01:40.9
27 Jon Wolfe 47 M 1:01:52.8
28 Rachel Anderson 29 F 1:02:04.8
29 Sakura Kawabata 23 F 1:02:05.3
30 Takashi Yoneyama 32 M 1:02:07.6
31 Goji Toyohira 38 M 1:02:10.2
32 Adam Leggio 33 M 1:02:14.7
33 Yoshinao Koshida 35 M 1:02:21.7
34 Tadashi Kiyokawa 28 M 1:02:28.4
35 Eric Williams 28 M 1:02:37.3
36 Yuuki Funakoshi 38 M 1:02:37.9
37 Kyoko Toyota 34 F 1:02:43.3
38 Tomori Tadashi 36 M 1:02:43.7
39 Toshiaki Fukishima 46 M 1:02:50.2
40 Ermond Dila 28 M 1:03:07.6
41 Skyler Altenburg 14 M 1:03:27.8
42 Sasaki Nobuhiko 34 M 1:03:43.9
43 Hiroki Iha 21 M 1:03:51.7
44 Hiroshi Sato 51 M 1:03:54.5
45 Nakazato Hayato 29 M 1:04:26.0
46 Shunsuke Okamura 24 M 1:04:29.5
47 Forrest Poole 38 M 1:04:35.6
48 Naoki Yamada 26 M 1:04:39.4
49 April Noke 33 F 1:05:04.4
50 Ryan Lathrop 42 M 1:05:41.8
51 Akira Mezashi 42 M 1:05:42.2
52 Aya Enatsu 29 F 1:05:43.1
53 Michael Kerschbaum 27 M 1:05:44.7
54 Mike Conover 39 M 1:05:48.8
55 Osamu Ogimi 30 M 1:05:51.1
56 Brian Vanhoose 31 M 1:05:53.6
57 Tadashi Shingaki 36 M 1:06:08.5
58 Tatsuji Wakita 33 M 1:06:12.2
59 Kiyotaka Hayashi 38 M 1:06:20.8
60 Hidato Nakandakari 33 M 1:06:29.7
61 George Crowley 32 M 1:06:37.9
62 Sophie Knight 34 F 1:06:41.1
63 Takahiro Namizato 37 M 1:07:10.4
64 Jessica Powell 14 F 1:07:27.8
65 Junichi Kinjo 38 M 1:07:31.7
66 Yukiko Delatte 45 F 1:07:59.6
67 Yoshiyasu Toyama 44 M 1:08:25.0
68 Nagayuki Saino 37 M 1:08:41.8
69 Greg Cummings 23 M 1:08:45.5
70 Anthony Owens 37 M 1:08:52.2
71 Manabu Saito 35 M 1:09:03.7
72 Moritaka Nakata 31 M 1:09:14.0
73 Rick Yamashita 53 M 1:09:17.9
74 James Baker 25 M 1:09:31.2
75 Takumi Sato 13 M 1:09:34.7
76 Kazutomo Nakama 42 M 1:09:46.7
77 Jennifer Tucker 25 F 1:09:54.5
78 Jeffrey Norris 19 M 1:10:32.3
79 Chinatsu Uezuka 34 F 1:10:50.3
80 Kevin Craig 36 M 1:10:51.5
81 Mike Wimmer 28 M 1:11:03.2
82 Kiyotomo Toyama 35 M 1:11:04.4
83 Kimberly Julka 23 F 1:11:09.0
84 Brandon Bert 26 M 1:11:10.1
85 Nakao Yoshinori 25 M 1:11:20.4
86 Jed Soberal 19 M 1:11:43.1
87 Dai Yamashiro 20 M 1:11:46.0
88 Haruki Kakazu 19 M 1:12:02.8
89 Yasunori Tokuda 37 M 1:12:11.7
90 Nobuyuki Kawagishi 29 M 1:12:33.1
91 Sean McPherson 40 M 1:12:43.7
92 Jusen Garcia 27 M 1:12:55.8
93 Brian Kline 23 M 1:13:20.7
94 Shinji Kinjo 46 M 1:13:29.1
95 Brandon Lauret 26 M 1:13:36.9
96 George Crosson 25 M 1:13:42.0
97 Yasunori Kobori 34 M 1:13:52.0
98 Mike Short 37 M 1:14:00.9
99 Gabriel Powell 12 M 1:14:08.8
100 Yutaka Higa 44 M 1:14:14.7
101 Douglas Peterson 42 M 1:14:19.7
102 Kentaro Yokota 18 M 1:14:26.7
103 Sadao Nakamura 59 M 1:14:56.0
104 Michihito Yamauchi 33 M 1:15:06.0
105 Tetsuo Oyama 37 M 1:15:09.5
106 Iha Motomaru 34 M 1:15:24.8
107 Yuko Yamada 37 F 1:15:34.7
108 Tetsu Oshiro 43 M 1:15:57.0
109 Shannon Kimminau 31 F 1:15:58.1
110 John Fugate 39 M 1:16:01.5
111 Makoto Yamanishi 32 M 1:16:10.1
112 Okamura Emi 36 F 1:16:14.8
113 Lorri Phipps 43 F 1:17:06.9
114 Jenny Sokol 37 F 1:17:07.4
115 Ikuko Oishi 37 F 1:17:16.3
116 Carrie McKenzie 28 F 1:17:22.8
117 Meagan Quispe 10 F 1:17:38.4
118 Yukino Nagai 15 F 1:17:56.8
119 Mitchell Krauss 46 M 1:18:08.8
120 Kory Aschenbrenner 38 M 1:18:16.3
121 Tsukasa Kinjo 31 M 1:18:19.9
122 Kimberly McDonough 36 F 1:18:43.3
123 Eizo Hanashiro 48 M 1:19:13.9
124 Tomonari Shibata 18 M 1:19:34.6
125 Quetzolcont Jimenez 52 M 1:19:38.6
126 Mark Bonicillo 28 M 1:19:43.7
127 Robert Pellosma 42 M 1:19:47.6
128 Hitoshi Kume 54 M 1:19:59.4
129 Ana Aschenbrenner 36 F 1:20:09.2
130 Yoshimasa Kikuyama 44 M 1:20:14.4
131 Shimabukuro Hiroshi 35 M 1:20:28.6
132 Christine Sheehey 19 F 1:20:44.7
133 Masahiro Shimabukuro 39 M 1:21:04.5
134 Kalo Tovar 23 M 1:21:26.0
135 Christina Butler 26 F 1:21:30.3
136 Michael Butler 25 M 1:21:47.4
137 Tetsuya Kurane 54 M 1:21:57.6
138 Satoshi Shimoji 41 M 1:22:22.3
139 Tomoe Gima 24 F 1:22:40.5
140 Andrew Otero 39 M 1:22:42.7
141 Oshiro Minoru 42 M 1:22:57.8
142 Kenko Yagi 41 M 1:23:06.4
143 Tammy Dockins 47 F 1:23:29.9
144 Tsuyoshi Yomada 34 M 1:23:37.7
145 Henry Dockins 45 M 1:25:22.8
146 Kenji Ishikawa 28 M 1:26:20.9
147 Kerri Quispe 39 F 1:26:25.6
148 Kazuhisa Date 34 M 1:27:01.3
149 Donald Delatte 41 M 1:27:06.0
150 Chosho Teruya 58 M 1:27:33.6
151 Jonathan Delle 40 M 1:28:26.9
152 Yoshisuke Kumasawa 32 M 1:28:35.2
153 Yuichi Tamayama 34 M 1:28:37.6
154 Masayoshi Kikugawa 34 M 1:28:44.1
155 Makoto Higa 37 M 1:29:31.1
156 Misako Shimoji 47 F 1:31:13.5
157 Kazuyuki Nakaema 58 M 1:31:13.8
158 Kazumune Namizato 43 M 1:31:46.8
159 Akihito Kuninaka 29 M 1:33:24.3
160 Justin Hauffe 25 M 1:37:51.5
161 Sofya Galich 24 F 1:40:37.8
162 Tomohira Sugama 34 M 1:43:42.2
163 Christopher Marsh 24 M 1:45:12.7
164 Ryoji Nakazato 29 M 1:59:31.2

Mountain Bike
1 Yoshi Awa 35 M 0:57:56.1
2 Mouze Terazawa 39 M 1:00:45.1
3 Ashley Yaggi 23 F 1:02:56.6
4 Masaru Nakajima 32 M 1:04:47.8
5 Kaname Arakaki 29 M 1:06:26.3
6 Jesse Burkleo 22 M 1:09:36.0
7 Hideki Saito 34 M 1:10:13.2
8 James Calbough 37 M 1:11:37.9
9 Masahige Yamauchi 54 M 1:11:47.0
10 Dillon Garretson 22 M 1:11:51.7
11 George Baker 51 M 1:12:08.1
12 Satoru Tamaki 55 M 1:13:01.9
13 Stuart Mountcastle 27 M 1:13:10.4
14 Andrew Barrow 25 M 1:13:44.7
15 Masafumi Mukayama 49 M 1:14:32.4
16 Michael Skarzynske 20 M 1:15:03.4
17 Mathew Burns 28 M 1:15:20.8
18 Brian Phipps 32 M 1:15:29.0
19 Noriaki Tsubota 50 M 1:15:52.6
20 Yoshihiro Sata 37 M 1:16:03.8
21 Edsel Whitesinger 33 M 1:17:44.9
22 Derek Shea 19 M 1:19:10.5
23 Keita Sunakawa 28 M 1:19:27.4
24 Ian Brady 33 M 1:20:12.2
25 Alex Otero 11 M 1:20:14.0
26 Tomoya Nohara 31 M 1:21:13.0
27 Mathew Pitcher 26 M 1:23:23.8
28 Peter Hutson 39 M 1:23:25.9
29 Jose Mendez 29 M 1:23:46.4
30 Kazunori Komine 54 M 1:23:58.5
31 Amanda Brady 32 F 1:24:29.1
32 Masato Yonaha 38 M 1:28:04.8
33 Miki Arakaki 17 F 1:29:14.8
34 Yasushi Kaneshiro 30 M 1:30:22.3
35 Mamoru Unten 44 M 1:31:50.5
36 Rachael Hensen 15 F 1:32:36.3
37 Tsutomu MacHida 38 M 1:32:47.9
38 Yoshitaka Nakama 50 M 1:33:15.1
39 Katsunori Taira 39 M 1:34:18.8
40 Hiroshi Ueno 40 M 1:34:27.8
41 Isao Higa 40 M 1:38:31.3
42 Rachel Giacobozzi 23 F 2:12:39.5

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How to WIN a triathlon.

August 17th, 2009 Scott

Those of you who follow my blog regularly know that I had post from June this year called “How NOT to win a triathlon”. This post will be a fitting counterpoint and end to the summer as it appears that I’ve got my health issues under control and finally put together a quality race effort. Of course the title gives away the drama of the post, but the details might still be interesting for you to read.

Yesterday was fourth annual Camp Kinser Reverse Triathlon. Many of the Marine Corps bases here on Okinawa host these ‘reverse’ triathlons. They all start with the run, then the bike, and finish in the swimming pool. The pool is the reason for the reverse aspect of the race because starting 200 athletes all at once in a single lane of a pool would be quite chaotic. By reversing the order, the racers are usually spread out quite a bit by the time they hit the pool and that alleviates the potential for crowding.

The race was a 5.2 k run, followed by a 15.5k bike, then 8 laps in a 50m pool (400m total). Kinser is a long skinny base with a section down on the ocean and a section up above on a higher level. The run and bike both climbed a short hill straight away, then the rest of the course was long straight stretches of road among warehouses with the occasional turn to another long straight stretch. The roads were open to traffic but most of the intersections had crossing guards. The run was one lap and the bike was two laps. The transition zone was ideal for the race. It was a long narrow parking lot that paralleled the race course so you entered and one end and exited out the other. The racks were clearly marked and there was plenty of room for gear between the bikes. Overall, this was the best organized MCCS Triathlon I had done.

The race started at 8:00 AM with dead calm air. Normally that would be a good thing, but when that air is 85 degrees and 80% humidity, a little breeze goes a long way for some comfort when running or spectating. That’s a heat index of 97% if you are wondering. Very uncomfortable, but typical August weather here. There were just over 200 racers this year, up quite a bit from previous years. Only the first 100 got tee shirts (I was 106).

My goal was to run as hard as possible, then do whatever I could on the bike. I had done a stand alone 5k two weeks ago at 19:45 without maxing out, but the conditions were less brutal when I ran it at 5:30 AM. At the race, my goal pace was 4:00 minutes per kilometer to end with a 20 minute 5k. My new Garmin 310xt allowed me to see my current pace at any time, and it recorded my pace for each kilometer as I ran. I strived for a negative split so I tried to take it easy at the start. My heart rate for 5k at race intensity is usually maxed out at 175. I was above that before 200m had gone by, but I felt fine so I kept going. My first split was 4:06 with the hill so I was pleased with that. The next three splits were all around 4:12, a little slow but my heart rate was at 178 so I knew that was all I should put in at that point. The people I had been pacing with started falling away after 3k. I was well behind a group of about 20 that pulled away from everyone early on, but I ended up running the last k at 4:05, so I accelerated to the end instead of fading. That was good. I usually fade hard on runs. My heart rate for the final k was 182 and I felt great. Normally 182 is above the redline for me. I finished at 21:22

I tried leaving my bike shoes clipped on to my pedals for the first time in this race. I did practice several mounts and dismounts last week and felt very comfortable doing it. During the race, it worked great. I didn’t have to run in my bike shoes and it was a snap to get my feet into the shoes after getting some speed on the bike. My total transition time was only 60 seconds. That’s a huge bonus in a short race like this to get through that quickly. I’ve since figured out a couple of ways to shave another 10 – 15 seconds off that time.

The bike went well. In the race simulations I had done leading up to the event, I found out that my cycling legs took a while to come around. My first 4 or 5 k typically felt awful, but after that I regained some strength as my legs adjusted. During the race I didn’t notice being heavy at the start of the ride though. I was able to power up the hill and catch up to some of the leaders pretty quickly on the first lap. I didn’t see anyone in front of me on the second lap so I knew that rest of the guys up there were keeping clear of me. I averaged a heart rate of 172 on the bike, which is great for after the run. I typically can’t get that high of a rate on the bike after a swim or run. The race director setup several water stations for the bike leg, but they were all in the middle of straight flat sections. I wasn’t interested in slowing down from 28 mph for a cup of water. They figured out throwing the water on you worked too. However, I found out that a cup of water in the face hurts like hell if you keep your eyes open. After that first one, I closed my eyes for each one after. I’m not sure what my split was because a software bug in the Garmin locked it up during this part of the race and corrupted the data file. Hopefully a firmware update will fix the problem. I know that I had good speed and I didn’t fade either. At the end, I took my feet out of the shoes about 500m before T2 and had a smooth jump off the bike and run back to the rack. I grabbed my goggles and ran to the pool to discover three guys all getting in the water right in front of me.  So much for being spread out at the pool.

In the pre race brief, they did tell us to stay to the left side of the lane and pass on the right in the pool. We had to swim 8 laps by going down in one lane, then moving over and coming back in the next. You end up zig zagging through the entire pool this way. The swim has historically been my weakest leg. It’s also the one that is easiest for me to redline on and get freaked out. When you can’t breath and you then can only breath when the stroke lets you, panic can set in quickly. I also have found that my steady, smooth, strong pull technique will often times be faster than when I try to sprint. Today, all my practice time in the pool paid off because I found that immediately I was faster than the three guys in front of me. That’s great, but passing in the pool is tricky; especially when two or three or four of you arrive at the wall together. I was able to rest a bit behind them after the first turn and sprinted around two of them before the second turn. I chased down and passed the next guy after the fourth turn. At the next turn, I looked around the pool to see that the next closest guy was two lanes away so I just settled into a steady rhythm to the finish. I couldn’t believe that I actually passed guys in the pool. I’ve never been faster than someone else in the water. That was exciting.

After finishing, I looked around and didn’t see very many guys in the finish area and it finally occurred to me that I might have had a high finish. Gina confirmed that she thought I was fifth and after looking at the pictures she took, I agreed. This morning I found out from the organizers that I was fifth overall, and first in my division. Regardless of my finish, I was pleased with the race because I finally got everything right. I maxed out my heart rate without blowing up and didn’t fade on any section of the race.

Oh yeah….and I didn’t feel like I was having a stroke during any section of the race. That’s always a bonus

Posted in Military Culture, Triathlon | 4 Comments »

Snorkeling at Okuma

August 4th, 2009 Scott

Gina and I were invited for a weekend at Okuma with a friends of ours. Steve and I rode the 50 miles up to the Okuma Resort (run by the Air Force for DoD personel) while his wife and Gina drove up. Steve and I rode long rides of 40 – 60 miles every morning and Gina and I explored some snorkeling just off of one of the two beautiful beaches there.

Posted in Okinawa, Photography, Sports | No Comments »

I just found the ultimate “rain” bike

July 28th, 2009 Scott

For people who are serious about bicycling, a rain bike is a luxury item that actually has some tangible benefits. Such a bike is used for rainy days so you can still train but not get your $15,000 unobtanium gold plated carbon fiber kevlar laced super deluxe Schwinn all wet and rusty. I suppose you could just upgrade all the bits that rust to titanium and not worry about it, but I don’t know if you can get titanium bearing races or not.

At any rate, most rain bikes are simply lower end model race bikes so that the expense of replacing rusted out parts is less painful. I wanted to pursue something even more efficient by using a internally geared rear hub and no derailleurs.  This arrangement is very clean (looks like a single speed) and at the same time fairly water proof to the tricky little expensive bits (like integrated shift levers and $300 + a pop). So I was going to build up a bike based on a single speed frame and use a Shimano Nexus rear hub. In the process of doing my research, I found that someone had already built my dream rain bike. The only problem is that they only sell it to walk in customers. Since I live in Okinawa and their shop is in West Newton, Mass., it’s unlikely I’ll get there. Hopefully I can talk them into selling it to me over the Internet.

Posted in Health and wellness, Triathlon | No Comments »

Lot’s of interesting pictures

July 21st, 2009 Scott

I’ve taken a lot of pictures with my iPhone that I thought would be interesting to blog about but have negelected to get them on to the blog. So, I have a collection of several photos dating back to last November that I’ll post here and give you a caption for each one. Enjoy.

Posted in Okinawa, Photography, Travel | 3 Comments »

Anti American Demonstration at Camp Hansen

July 18th, 2009 Scott

I live a few miles south of Camp Hansen on Okinawa. It is one of several Marine Corps bases on the island. From time to time some of the bases will be the object of local demonstrations objecting to the presence of the bases or complaining about the noise around the air base. Two days ago I rode my bike up to Camp Hansen to use the pool there for my swim workout. Everything was normal on the way in but when I left there were about 30 or so Okinawans lining either side of the driveway to the main gate with various signs that read:

“Go home marines!” or “No more War!” and other similar slogans. As usual with these demonstrations, the people were very courteous and polite. There was a TV news camera set up but they weren’t recording anything. I think they were there just in case something video worthy present itself like a foolish American getting out of his car to make a scene. I don’t think this ever happens though. We get emails from the command from time to time at work letting us know about these type of demonstrations and what their impact of traffic will be as well as any potential safety concerns there are about Americans being near the event. I would estimate that we get notification for about 10 or 15 of these demonstrations/rallies/parades per year and almost all of them are very peaceful and organized.

It does make me stop and think about my presence here though. I remember my first day on the island looking at the base with it’s high fence and guarded gates to keep people out thinking it odd that we possessed a piece of property in a foreign country for our own military uses (yeah I know, we are here for the Japanese defense too). Imagine if you had a foreign (truly foreign) military base sitting right next to your home in the USA. Would that strike you as a little odd? Well, there are some Okinawans who feel the same way. They consistently site that a majority of the US bases in Japan are all on Okinawa while the island itself only represents a very small portion of Japanese land. Over the last several years, many of the more valuable areas once occupied by bases have been returned to the Okinawans and a huge move of marines from here is supposed to occur in the next 5 – 10 years. This change should alleviate some of the tensions currently in place, but the bottom line is that the native people here have been putting up with either Japanese or American occupation for the last 400 years or so and they many of them likely long to go back to being an independent region doing nothing but farming and fishing. Things have changed significantly here in the last 50 years since the war though and that transition would likely be much more difficult than many people would be willing to undergo.

Back in the early 70′s, before the reversion of control want back to Japan, there were some fairly violent riots as evidenced by a recent photographic exposition Gina and I went to a few months ago. Scenes of car fires, angry mobs with Molotov Cocktails, and general unhappiness were photographed over and over again. The reversion from US control back to Japanese control appeared to cause some issues as well. The change in currency from dollars to yen created a huge vacuum for businesses that relied on US soldiers for a customer base and they suddenly saw that base disappear. There are business districts on the island that are still frozen in time from 1972 because that’s the day they stopped operating and the areas essentially dried up economically. Outside of Gate 2 of Kadena AB has some areas that show this effect as well as some areas right outside main gate of Hansen. There are also many areas that have shown amazing recent growth as well. The Okinawans have little hesitation in creating new land to make shopping malls, factories, or other business centers. There is a constant movement of earth from land to the ocean around here as the island grows little by little with each bucket of fill. I don’t think the EPA would allow us to do such work on the coast lines of the US.

Posted in Military Culture, Okinawa, Okinawan Culture | No Comments »

A stroke or something else

July 11th, 2009 Scott

On June 14 while competing in a triathlon in Gamagori Japan, I had a sudden loss of balance and coordination hit me as I ended the bike leg of the race. I was unable to control the bike or even stand up for a few minutes. It was very scary and my initial diagnosis was dehydration. Upon return to the states some two weeks later, I visited my doctor and failed one portion of the neurological exam with him(my eyes bounced around while looking at his finger to an extreme left or right). He ordered an MRI of my head and several blood tests. The blood tests showed that I have hypo thyroidism and am significantly low in my vitamin B-12 level. Both these conditions can create neurological issues so I had hoped that might be the end of it. Then when I returned to discuss the MRI with him, the results showed a 15mm x 5mm object in my cerebellum that was indicative of a stroke event. This was not good news. We scheduled an appointment with a neurologist for two days later and he ran a full set of neurological tests on me. I didn’t fail the eye portion this time, but when he put a tuning fork to my head, it sounded lower in pitch and softer in my right ear. It also was louder in my left ear when he held it centrally on my head.  His review of my MRI was that I had an unusual blood vessel in one portion of my cerebellum, but that it was not indicative of a stroke event. Because of the tuning fork result and his assessment of the MRI, he feels I have a problem with my right inner ear.

So, the good news is that my head is okay. The bad news is that either I have Meniere’s Disease or they don’t know why I had the issue. Either way, I’ve been cleared to exercise however I’d like and that I need to get a couple of audio tests done on return to Okinawa to rule out Meniere’s. I have done some research on this disease this morning and it’s an ugly, ugly disease involving debilitating bouts of vertigo lasting minutes to days and there really isn’t a cure or 100% effective treatment available. Hopefully it will turn out to be something less significant that is wrong with my ear that can be treated.

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San Francisco is a good tourist destination.

June 30th, 2009 Scott

I’m sitting in the San Francisco Airport waiting for my flight to Seattle to start the next leg of our brief two week visit to the USA this summer. We flew into San Francisco Thursday morning around 11:00 AM and after visiting Gina’s grandma we spent the rest of the day recovering from 22 hours of travel from Okinawa. Our flight left Okinawa at 11:00 AM Thursday and we arrived in S.F. at 11:00 AM on Thursday. Too bad it didn’t really happen that fast.

We jammed a full day of sightseeing in on Friday for San Francisco and had a genuinely good time. We don’t normally go for the typical tourist fare much, but it was done so well here that we really enjoyed it. Here’s the schedule we hit for the day:

8:00 AM
We departed our hotel in the theater district and grabbed a cable car over to fisherman’s wharf. If you’ve never ridden a cable car, it’s an amazing adventure to watch 1880′s technology at work. The job of operating such a car is manual and primitive. Using three levers and a pedal, he had to manipulate two different types of brakes as well as grip or release the cable to operate the car through the city. Very cool adventure. I’ll post video later.
9:00 AM
Breakfast at O’Sheas where they are famous for their Irish Coffee (for good reason…it rocked) and Crab Cake Benedict. Very good breakfast indeed. We shared a table with folks from Pennsylvania and had a great visit.
10:00 AM
Ghiradelli Square; lot’s of little shops and lots of food with chocolate.
11:00 AM
Fisherman’s Wharf culminating with Pier 39. There all types of shops in this area enough that any interest could be covered. I even found a landscape photographer’s gallery there that feature huge prints from his 8 x 10 view camera. Excellent stuff.
12:15 PM
Tour of the bay on the Blue & Gold boat; we had 60 minutes and went under the Golden Gate Bridge as well as around Alcatraz while getting narration from a cheesy Captain Nemo voice. Very nice views and good stories from the narration.
1:15 PM
Lunch at Boudin’s Bakery which was clam chowder in a sour dough bowl. It seemed like at least 100 restaruants featured this menu item but our guide book recommended Boudins. Good stuff.
1:45 PM
Walked to Lombard Street, then hiked UP Lombard Street and then back down Hyde street to catch the F Train street car. Lot’s of HILLS!
3:00 PM
Street Car ride around the Embarcadero to the theater district and back to our hotel.
5:30 PM
Dinner at a great Yucatan restaurant near our hotel.
8:00 PM
Spamalot! at the Golden Gate Theater. It was pure silliness, but it was done so professionally you didn’t even consider how goofy the material was.
11:00 PM
Taxi back to the hotel and bed!

Overall, it was an amazing day. Staying right downtown and utilizing all the different forms of mass transit was great. We also had a Bart station close by so getting in and out from the airport was a snap. We didn’t even have any transfers on Bart.

I’ll post links and video later when I have time. I’ve got University of Phoenix homework to work on right now.

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