My Journey Through Hip Labrum Recovery: Entry 6 - Eight Weeks

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not obtained by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
Standing on what too long we bore,
With shoulders bent and downcast eyes,
We may discern-unseen before-
A path to higher destinies!
~Longfellow

Today marks the 8th week (plus 1 day) after I had my hip labrum repaired and my iliopsoas lengthened. People keep asking how I am doing, which I've found to be a tough question to answer. Do I feel sick? No. Can I walk? Yes. Am I back to working out? Sort of. Does it still hurt? Sometimes more than I think it should. Is it healed? Some days I can say yes, and others I confidently say no.

Physical therapy for my particular recovery began the day after surgery. I had the surgery, took a couple hydrocodone and was back in the hospital for a post-op 17 hours later where they plopped me on the table and stretched my leg out. From what I can remember, they were able to get 10% range of motion in the joint during this visit and the scope holes were cleaned. My next PT appointment was more formal and I met my actual trainers at the Ironman Sports Medicine Institute 3 days later. This is when the real fun began.

Let me just get this out there without a sugar coating: physical therapy sucks. Really sucks. On my first visit with my new best friends, they picked me up, put me on a stationary bike and told me to get to work. Up to this point, I had not moved the leg from 180 degrees in three days in fear of doing damage to my doctor's artwork. After a couple of revolutions of the pedals, there was an immediate release of pressure in the joint and I felt relief for the first time. I got in 5min of slow spinning and then laid on a table for a 30 min evaluation of the joint, the iliopsoas and all of the surrounding muscles/tendons in my leg. I was released and told to come back in 2 days. The 48 hours that elapsed between my first and second visit to the IM Institute were excruciating, both physically and mentally. The lack of use of my leg was causing sever muscle spasms, the 2 holes in my leg were constantly throbbing and I felt like someone stuck a knife in my lower abdomen. Not to mention the band-aid glue had given me a rash and  the meds were making me emotional and giving me headaches.

On the second visit to PT, I gave them a briefing of what I was feeling, which immediately led into a 45 min stretching session that bent me like a pretzel. I found out afterwards that the guys had visited my doctor and he had given them direction to "release" the tendons and to break up the "junk" that had built up in my hip after the surgery. Dead tissue + platelet therapy blood + drilling holes through my quad + sawing down the iliopsoas = massive fluid and debris build up that has nowhere to go. Like a guest who stays at the party too long, I was glad to see it leave and the feeling I felt upon release is indescribable with words. I was feeling much better.

Over the next 3 weeks I would graduate to spinning longer, stretching more, walking on my own, using the row machine and begin to do squats. I was also cleared to get back into the pool when my stitches were removed during week 3, so swimming with a pull buoy became a regular activity. For every bad day, there were two good ones and I was finally starting to sleep through the night.

By week 6, I was able to frequent the gym, focusing on weight training, swimming (with buoy) and higher velocity spinning. I was also doing crossfit-esque workouts with kettle bells, dumb bells, medicine balls, etc. etc. I also began jumping rope for 30 second intervals. The pain was still there but centralized on the muscles that stabilized the hip rather then the hip itself. I was sleeping again, albeit more sore from working out, but getting 6 hours a night without pain medication. My 6 week post-op appointment with Dr. Adickes was a success and I was given a PT prescription to prepare for running in 4 weeks. Feeling great and getting stronger.

Week 7 PT activity ramped up to the point of squatting with weight, jumping rope, short-distance jumping, lunges, and all of the above workouts combined. I was also going through "release therapy" whereby my iliopsoas was being released at each visit. Pain level was 3/10 and I was getting stronger on the bike, swimming with kicks and working out harder in the gym. Sleep was good and no more pain meds.

At the beginning of week 8 (this week) I was feeling good about my progress and was gaining confidence in my ability to jog a little (10-20 feet) and keep the pain subsided. As I was putting on my pants on Tuesday morning, I felt a snap as I lifted my leg and there was an immediate soreness in the abdomen, groin and hip area. I made it through the day by taking some pain meds at lunch and took it easy the rest of the day knowing I had PT on Wed morning. My trainers had a full 1:15 workout planned which was derailed when they listened to what happened the day before. It was immediately back to the table for an evaluation and I spent the rest of the session stretching and trying to release the sore tendons. Apparently the iliopsoas had tightened up to the point that it was rubbing on the front of my hip (which is why Dr. Adickes cut and extended it) and it took over 30 min to get it to release by pushing through my abdominal wall and lifting my leg straight up into the air. Needless to say, this is a setback at this point in the process as I am scheduled to resume jogging on the 20th of Dec. We were supposed to be ramping up calisthenics and instead are making sure the muscles get some rest. I have a tough PT workout scheduled for Monday the 9th and am hoping I can maintain the 3/10 pain level until then. So now I would say, 3 good days to 1 bad day.

When I made the decision to have the surgery back in September, I had visualized being up and running by mid-January. As of today, I am still on track, although the pain I feel when I jog across the room is eerily similar to the pain I had pre-surgery. This tells me I am not ready just yet. The non-vascularity of the hip joint makes the healing time doubly longer than normal injuries. And given the way it tightened up on me this week, it's not ready.

I thought a weekly activity summary might be helpful for folks having the same issue, just to know what to expect. I wish I had known prior to my experience....

Week 1: Stretch, stretch, stretch, rest.
Week 2: Stationary bike, rowing, upper body weight training plus above
Week 3: Walking, swimming (pulling) plus above
Week 4: Body weight squats, jogger stretches plus above
Week 5: Tendon release therapy plus above
Week 6: Jump rope, crossfit, high velocity spinning plus above
Week 7: Deadlifts, weighted squats, lunges plus above
Week 8: All of the above

Week 9 - 10 forecast: treadmill, side-to-side motions, stair climber, power cleans *and hopefully* jogging....

If this was a test of my metal, I'd no doubt say that this is just piece of the continual journey that I am on. It's the off-season and I am recovering. I have toiled upwards in the night while others have slept. The inspiration I'd like to impart would be to never quit. Don't just say it casually or read it off of a motivational poster...Never quit. Anything (unless its smoking or doing illicit drugs, etc.). Remember, the finish line doesn't move or change--it's always there and waiting to be attained. It's the person that chooses to move forward or give up.

Big news about 2014 racing to come...For now, keep moving forward.

Kelly

My Journey Through Hip Labrum Recovery: Entry 5 - Two Weeks

Moving on.

I had my 2 week post-op visit with Dr. Adickes last Friday and my stitches were removed. The incisions are gnarly and the Band-Aid glue has been helpful in providing me with a nice rash. We discussed the rehab protocol, weaning from the crutches and the forward plan. We are moving on.

Physical therapy has been grueling and my body feels more tired than in the hours post-ironman. No matter your fitness level, everything is twice as hard when you have little muscle memory in your quads and adductor, and I find myself getting frustrated with how difficult the simplest exercises are to complete. The therapists know this and reward me with trips to the stationary bike as an end to the sessions. I can still spin 100+ rpm's consistently for extended time periods without my breath laboring. That's when I'm in my element and feel good about where I'm at, the proverbial trip down the finisher's chute. I find recovery from the therapy sessions takes much longer than I am used to and am having to re-learn patience and trusting my body's cues as to when it needs rest and attention. Both elements that I took for granted not more than a month ago.

I have completely removed myself from the pain medications and choose to only medicate with the daily arthritis preventative and the compound cream that I received as part of rehab. I find the combination of these two keep the headaches away and allow me to move about freely without too much pain. The CPM machine is gone. Sleeping is difficult. I wore the "shackle" brace the first two weeks and am finding that removing it is helping me sleep better. You never really appreciate how much you move in your sleep until you are restricted from doing so (get the theme here?). So instead, I have been building forts with pillows and sleep in a pillow-box to keep from rolling over. Reversion to adolescence?

I am back at work full-time and am in the process of moving my office furniture back to pre-surgery design. It is extremely comfortable to sit like this (although not very functional):

I have to get up and walk multiple times throughout the day to keep the blood flowing in my legs. Sitting and standing are the most painful activities because you cannot help placing your hips into angles that it does not want to be in. The comments about the creaking crutches have stopped, and now the joke is centered around how I "can sneak up on people again." The ladies in my office still insist on bringing me bottles of water and laffy taffy even though I've told them multiple times that I am not a quadriplegic. I'll take all the love I can get....

Therapy is now centered around regaining muscle strength in my legs, more specifically, the quad, groin, hamstring and glute. I am tasked with going to the gym everyday to ride the stationary bike, do box squats, leg extensions, calf raises, leg press (avoiding 90 degree angles) and all of the upper body lifting I can handle. I cannot use free-weights just yet, so everything is done with a machine. There is also a very strict regiment of planking and bridging that I am tasked with everyday. Never thought I'd say it, but I miss the pool. And the pavement. And the sweat. Maybe even the spandex, just a little? Here is my first visit to the stationary bike:

My mood swings like a pendulum as each perceived victory is followed by a succession of defeats. I keep telling myself that I am lucky and things could be much worse. I pray, knowing that there is a lesson to be learned from all of this. Still I find myself on twitter reading about races and training, and hear my friends talking about progression and I feel lost. Something that was both inspiring and soothing was taken from me and my soul hurts. I say "sorry" more than I used to as I am often times offensive and bitter. It's difficult to mask the amount of physical pain, let alone the emotional pain that comes with not being able to fully function. I have a new found respect for those who are permanently crippled...they win a race everyday.

The pain in my hip is deep and it aches. But I am getting better. I can walk without crutches, albeit slowly. For all of the bad information on the web pertaining to this injury, the best thing I read about was the super-extensive recovery time. This is not a knee injury--they heal faster. Being a non-vascular joint means there is no blood flow to the injury or the repair, so it is taking my body much longer to absorb the work that was done. At this point in the recovery, my doctors are estimating a return to light jogging in mid-January and a return to pre-injury status in May-June. This gives me 2-3 months of preparation for the USAT nationals in August which I plan on attending. But for now, I will just take an hour without pain. Maybe even 30 minutes.

"Let it go. Let it roll right off your shoulder. Don't you know, the hardest part is over. Let it in. Let your clarity define you in the end. We will only just remember how it feels."

My Journey Through Hip Labrum Recovery: Entry 4 - One Week

"He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light" (Job 12:22)

I was just thinking last night about how it had been a full week since my surgery and that I needed to take all of the inspirations from the past week and begin writing. It wasn't until I began reading through my emails and noticed a quote that I felt I had enough to get going. "Life is often lived forward, but understood backward."

The above scripture and quote pretty much summarize how the first week of this journey has been for me. After the spinal tap wore off and I began weaning myself off of the 4 medications I was prescribed, life got more interesting by unveiling what had actually been done to my body on Oct 10, and more importantly, what had been done to my body over the last two years. I suspect that it was coming down off of the meds that filled me with the realization that I was now completely helpless and 100% reliant on outside things/individuals. Pain. Depression. Panic. Of course once you start to see the darkness you continue to toe in deeper and deeper until you are totally encompassed in negativity and self-doubt. My thoughts were consumed by the prospects of never walking, let alone, running again. Is this pain was always going to be here? Was that a pop I just heard? Is this pain normal? Should I call the doctor? I hate laying in this bed hooked up to this machine . I hate having to call Emily to come lift me up so that I can go pee. I hate being stuck indoors. I hate my email notification noise. I hate everything....

I actually cried for the first time in many years. Then some very powerful words that I have used over and over again hit me. "Dig deep. Keep moving forward. Surprise Yourself. Be the Best." The personal mantras that I wrote about several months ago were still there. What was most surprising is that they were as effective, if not more, in this life scenario vs. their normal triathlon scenario.

The day before my surgery I had dinner with some very dear friends who live in our neighborhood. Not sure if it was the fear in my eyes or them sensing the stress and worry that I was harboring at the time, but they said something to me that was punctual for the moment, but did not truly resonate until I went through the dark place mentioned above. 'You are going through this and when you get out, you are going to appreciate your body and what you have been able to do with it even more. The universe has its own way of giving back.'

God has a way of communicating to us and I truly believe that most of the time we miss it. In this moment, the succession of events had to be perfect for me to understand the message. I had gotten to a place in triathlon where it was becoming easy and I was unappreciative of the fact that I could not only finish the race but that I could finish in the top 10 of my age group. I was unappreciative of the fact that training was no longer grueling and laborious. I was unappreciative of my body. Further, if I didn't finish well, I was angry with myself, training had become a process and I never sat back and evaluated how my body was reacting to the stress.

Please see the metaphor in all of this. All of these actions were transpiring in my life outside of this sport as well. You are not a different person in each facet of your life, it is impossible. You are who you are, and you will be who you will be no matter what you are doing. That's why it is so important to live a healthy life in everything you do. I had taken this too far, too fast, and no longer appreciated the hard work or the machine used to do it. God was reeling me back in.

As for the less important message, my body is still healing. I was able to get into the Ironman Sports Institute for physical therapy and could not be more pleased with the facility and my trainers. I am hurting and I can tell that things are not right in my hip and adductor, but I have faith and I put my full trust in Dr. Adickes' ability to heal. I have trouble getting out of bed, bending my torso anywhere near 90 degrees (putting on shoes, putting on pants, petting the dogs, etc. etc.), and need help carrying anything that will not effectively travel in my backpack. I do hear popping and snapping noises. As a result of the adductor reposition, I have no muscle memory of lifting my leg, or holding it elevated with my quad. My abdomen hurts. My butt hurts. My hip still hurts. And more worrisome, my other leg is aching in all of its joints from taking on the burden of my dead leg. Oh, and I still cannot feel certain very crucial areas of my body after the spinal tap (use your imagination). No red flags or alarms need to go off just yet for any of the above as they are all part of the process.

I am optimistic.

Take away the tangibles from the surgery but also understand the most important lesson in all of this: be very cautious as to who and what you serve. We go through the dark places because we lack focus and judgment. God wants us to be successful, but our success must positively impact others. Not just ourselves.

My Journey Through Hip Labrum Recovery: Entry 3 - Recovering

This morning marks day 5 of the recovery process since the surgery to repair my hip. When I was told this was my only option to run with the same intensity ever again, I started the process of doing research to better understand the mechanics of the surgery, the aftermath and any tips athletes had to offer from their experience. Along with what my research uncovered, I now have my own set of universal truths that I would like to share in hopes of educating those going through the same thing.

• First of all, it's not the end of the world. More than likely, you will be able to resume your pre-jacked up hip activities. The flip side is that it's not days or weeks, but months before you can do so. Learn to accept this and build upon your patience level (which the majority of triathletes have zero, so this is a good place to start).
• Opt in for the spinal tap before surgery...it will save you 12 hours of misery afterwards.
• Realize that you are going to need help doing the normal, mundane things that are typically taken for granted and understand that you will absolutely have to ask for help... Sitting up. Sitting down. Putting on underwear (or just go with gym shorts full-time). Putting on socks. Showering. Moving pillows. And last/most important/most personal, going to the bathroom (which by the way is a marathon in and of itself). This is not a training run, you cannot do any of these by yourself.
•  The CPM machine sucks, You have to wear this thing for 6 hours/day and it is loud, uncomfortable and monotonous. Imagine the worst amusement park ride ever built: it takes your knee up to the angle you choose, then back down. And does it again. And again. And just when you think it might deviate, it does it again. But wear it to prevent atrophy in your leg and protect those quads that you have worked so hard to build up,
• Medications...I have 4 prescriptions for pills and 2 prescriptions for topical compounds. There is absolutely no way that you are going to remember to take 1 pill every 4 hours, another every 6, another once a day and another only if your stomach hurts (and then every 2-3 hours). That and you need to rub a NSAI cream on your hip. I built a spreadsheet, no joke.
• Stay hydrated. You will wake up with hangover-esque headaches otherwise...I use coconut water, G2 and tons of water.
• Crackers are a life saver when your stomach is aching.
• Larabars have become my breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• Crutches suck. I went to amazon.com and bought these things called "crutcheze" which have been extremely helpful in preventing sores on my hands and underarms.
• Start physical therapy immediately, otherwise you will start getting sore on parts of your body that didn't have holes punched into them.
• Get plenty of books and magazines to read.
• Load up your ipod with music that can play while you doze in and out of consciousness.
• Those geek socks that race directors give away in their swag bags are awesome to sleep in.
• Count your blessings...

I am hanging in there and progressing quite well. I am able to put weight on my foot while on crutches and I have my first physical therapy session this afternoon, so things are turning around for the best. The pain is manageable and I am getting better at managing the logistics of getting around. I owe all of my progress, from the surgery to now, to the prayers and thoughts of all of my family and friends. There is absolutely no way to do it otherwise!

Will follow-up after PT this afternoon. Thanks for keeping up with my adventure.

Kelly

My Journey Through Hip Labrum Recovery: Entry 2 - Post Op

My day started off at 7am when I got up, packed for the weekend and took what would be the only shower I could take in the next 3 days. I had made the decision earlier in the week to stay at my awesome in-laws' home to avoid the 3 sets of stairs at our home in the Heights. We arrived at the Ironman Institute promptly at 10am, signed a 5" stack of paperwork, swiped my debit card for the 10th time and then waited for about 15min before being called back to my pre-op room. My attending nurse, Debra, was a lovely and energetic person who was a believer and wished me good luck over and over again. She was also a runner and had backpacked through Europe, so her stories were entertaining and consuming.

Dr. Adickes was behind schedule for the day by over 4 hours, so the nurses brought me a DVD player and I was able to watch Argo while we waited. The best part of the waiting came when the anesthesiologist came by to prep for the spinal tap that I had pre-approved to aid in the recovery process. A few drops of magic into the IV and I was in an alternate universe with no recollection of what happened in the movie. Is Argo the name of the movie or the name of Ben Affleck's character? No clue. At approximately 230pm. the anesthesiologist assistant, Terry, came by and administered another dose of juice and the anesthesiologist, John, came by and stuck 2 holes in my back and my leg started twitching uncontrollably. I felt nothing, but heard him say "perfect." 30 seconds later I was being wheeled back into the operating room and transferred to the table.

I can remember one of the nurses asking me about Ironman and telling me that she was just starting to begin running as a hobby, and the last thing I remember was me telling her to "pick a different hobby." Probably not my best moment, but at least I was being honest...Oxygen mask on, lights out.

When I woke up, I immediately pulled down my gown and blanket to see how many incisions I had. The attending nurse came over and asked what I thought I was doing and I told him I was checking to see how bad the surgery was. He told me it was the best case scenario: that they had only been in for 1.5 hours and that the repairs were successful. After chugging 4 glasses of water (hadn't had anything since 9pm the night before and it was 630 pm), I was wheeled out of the post-op room and fitted for my crutches. The Breg brace was handed over along with a bag full of meds, and I was wheeled out to the car. Quick and easy.

The night was long and painful. My leg was slowly coming back to life from the spinal tap and all of my muscles were twitching simultaneously. Since everything from the belly down was numb, I felt like I had to pee all night. Getting out of bed and onto the crutches was a chore and I needed help lifting up my foot because I had no strength (or feeling) in my upper leg. The vicodin and valium regiment kept me comfortable and I was able to make it until it was time to leave for my follow-up appointment at 745am the next morning. Traffic was typical for Houston and we made it just in time to make the 945am appointment. Here are the pics from the surgery showing the torn labrum being trimmed and the metallic spacer being put into the adductor:

Dr. Adickes has to be one of the nicest and most direct doctors I have ever encountered. He explained exactly what he did, went through all of the pictures and told me the causes of the injury. Hip was impinged through riding bike in aero position, stretching the hip adductor and then immediately lengthening the adductor by running afterwards. The injury should be avoided by the repositioning and stretching that the doc did, along with minor adjustments to the bike setup and a through stretching regiment when racing/training. Made an additional appointment for two weeks out to have the stitches removed and then left to meet the CPM salesman at the house.

The CPM machine is terrible. Imagine 6 hours of buzzing noises and your knee moving up and down, over and over again. I have to do this everyday, for 14 days. Here is the a-hole at work:

Physical therapy begins immediately, which for me means Tuesday since that is the earliest I can get in. I have been instructed to ride the stationary bike everyday and begin water running after two weeks Total therapy time is 3x/week for 4 weeks. The anticipation from Dr. Adickes is the utilize the crutches for 21 days, remain home from work for 1 week. Swimming with pool buoy and water jogging after 2 weeks. I was told to not even think about running until March 2014....

So as of this first entry, I am in a good place. I'm sore but I am confident. Having my red raiders on TV right now and being able to watch full coverage of the Ironman World Championship in Kona has helped to alleviate some of the worry.

Special thanks to my mother-in-law who is "supermom" for driving me all over town. Special thanks to my wife for waiting on me hand and foot. Special thanks to all of the doctors and nurses at the Ironman Institute. Special thanks to Dr. Adickes. Special thanks to mom, dad, brother and sister-in-law for prayers and texts. And last but definitely not least, thanks to countless family and friends who have emailed and called to wish me luck and check in with me. Especially Jamie and Nikki who dropped off the most amazing care package one could ever imagine! I am truly blessed!

Now back to my coconut water, football games and IM Kona. Follow-up blog on the way...

Kelly

My Journey through Hip Labrum Recovery: Entry 1 - Pre-Op

I am posting this entry coming off of an 8th place finish in my last race of the 2013 season, the Galveston 5150, in which my effort qualified me to race in the 2014 Hy-Vee WTC National Championships in Milwaukee, WI. We accomplished so many things this year, conquering Ironman, finishing in the top 10% of each race thereafter and qualifying for Hy-Vee. The journey was everything I had hoped for spiritually, physically and emotionally.

On July 31, 2013 I was well into a 6 mile planned run when I began to notice what felt like a side stitch on my right side. Since I was only a couple of miles from home, I decided to keep on trucking, told myself to suck it up and drank some water. The pain turned deeper over the next few days and was covering my lower abdominal wall, groin and quad. I started the self-diagnosis a week later and concluded that I had developed a sports hernia (WebMD is super scientific). I called the Ironman Sports Medicine Institute and they referred me to Dr. Mark Adickes, a very well respected hip and pelvic surgeon who has worked on many of the professional athletes here in Houston. After three weeks of dealing with the pain, I was finally able to see Dr. Adickes who immediately diagnosed hip dysplasia with possible sports hernia and ordered an arthrogram with four MRI's of the pelvis and hip.

The arthrogram was fairly uncomfortable as they basically take a 9 inch needle and gradually push it into your hip joint while injecting a dye which can be seen on the MRI's. The radiologist who did my arthrogram told me that he was confident there was "trauma" but would not elaborate as that was my doc's job. After four hours in the MRI machine, I was finally able to head home. I didn't hear back from the ortho's office for almost a week, so I finally called them and got the update (Adickes was out of town and was going to call the next day, sure....). It was not what I wanted to hear...torn labrum in the hip, negative sports hernia. Surgery recommended. Here is a simple diagram of the location of a labrum tear:

The next part of my journey is bittersweet. It's the blood, sweat, tears and dedication to the sport that transformed my life for the better; it's also the cause of the injury. My surgery is on October 10, less than two weeks, and I will know when I wake up the extent of the damage and potential recovery time. Two scars, best case scenario, five, tough hill to climb. Most athletes take 5-6 months to fully heal (think Ed Reed of the Houston Texans) which is an eternity for endurance athletes who work out everyday. The physical therapy will be the key to recovering quickly and I hope to be in treatment the day after the surgery.

I plan on keeping this blog going through the entire recovery so that others out there like me can see what it takes to get through the repair. Stay tuned.

2011 - 2013: In retrospect and the Ebbs and Flows

In Retrospect

2011
Exactly two years have passed since I completed my first triathlon, the 2011 TriPearl in San Antonio, TX. What a disaster. I breast-stroked the majority of a 300m pool swim, then hopped on my mountain bike for a 13 mile bike ride and polished off a 5k run with a 10min/mi split. I remember rounding the corner to the finish line and thinking how awesome I was for completing a triathlon. That, and how badly I felt like I needed to throw up. I was overweight, miserable in my job and unhealthy.

2012
After taking several months off and "focusing on getting stronger" (drinking beer and watching TV), I signed up for my first triathlon with an open water swim, Kemah 2012. This was a pinnacle moment in my entry into the sport. Emily had posted a picture of me completing the TriPearl on facebook, and a good friend saw the photo and told her husband, who happened to be a fraternity brother of mine, that I was doing triathlons just as he was. We were able to connect prior to the Kemah race, discovering not only that we enjoyed doing these things, but that we had purchased the same exact tri bike before the race. After another disaster (for me, Jamie actually won his age group), we kept in touch and began planning out our first official race season.

Three short-course races later, we had officially formed our partnership and signed up for the Oilman's half-iron distance race in October 2012. Since we were so awesome at this sport, we decided to only do one long training ride (56 miles) and skipped the planned 30min brick run to eat monster burritos at Freebirds. Again, we were awesome at this sport so it was all good. Race day nearly killed both of us and I am pretty sure that Jamie hacked up peppermint stick flavored gel for an entire week afterwards. That was the end of the 2012 season, but turned out to be just the beginning of the journey for us.

At the end of November 2012, and after much prayer and pondering the ramifications, we got the brilliant idea to sign up for Ironman Texas 2013. I can remember that being the most difficult click on my computer mouse ever and when I received the confirmation email, it became very real. We bantered about the race over the winter and concluded that if we were going to do this, we were going to do it the right way. So we each signed up for training plans and went to work in February 2013.

2013
The 2013 season kicked off with racing Kemah again in March. Determined to do better than 2012, we swam in a monsoon and ran sub 7's, finishing side by side. The training had paid off so far. The next race on the calendar was Galveston 70.3 in April and would be our mid-term exam of how well we had progressed in our training for IMTX. Stellar races from each of us, finishing in our goal times and  most importantly, nailing the nutritional components of the race. Four weeks out from IMTX, we were putting in the hours and feeling good.

May 19 showed up (as it does every year) and we were doing the death march down to the swim start of IMTX along with 2,500+ other lunatics. We jumped in the water at the same time, swam, biked and ran 140.6 miles, and ran through the finishing chute for an experience that you cannot possibly fathom unless you do it yourself. We had achieved what we were meant to do.

For endurance athletes, meeting goals and obtaining success only brings about hunger to do something more spectacular. We are Type A people: often stubborn, retentive, stress-driven and actionable in nature. So after a month's rest, we decided to jump back into the water and set our sights on qualifying for the USAT age-group national championships in the Galveston 5150 race being held in September 2013. 

Success at Bridgeland and Towne Lake paved the way for what would become of our effort in Galveston yesterday, September 22, 2013. We raced hard, facing 23mi/hr sustained headwinds on the bike and winding, hilly conditions on the run. We exhausted our bodies of all that we had and left nothing on the course. No regrets. It wasn't until the race director taped up the results and we scrolled down to our names that we are able to truly understand what we had accomplished: 7th and 8th place, separated by 41 seconds. We had done it.

Ebbs and Flows
People most often only recall their wins, the positive things they have done. In reality, it is impossible to win at everything you do and failure is not only part of the process, but is where the true inspiration lies. The above represents my positives, my wins. What it doesn't speak to is how much time I have devoted to the sport and taken away from other aspects of life. How painful, both physically and mentally, the races are (and they are actually the fun part). How many times I have been tempted to hit snooze, make up an excuse or just flat out skip an early morning training session. How each day I am more sore and tired than the last, but I am not satisfied, so I wake up and do it again the next day. How things go wrong on a training ride, and worse, during a race.

I had to be a broken man before I could be given the gift of a great friend, confidant and training partner, along with this great hobby. I had to fail miserably in this sport multiple times before I found success. I am injured and I am having surgery on my hip, but I am healthy and have prolonged my life. I am tired, but I am happy and my life has positive meaning and purpose, which I project to those around me. I have faith and am not afraid to share it along with the story that is my journey.

If you have not found your passion, keep looking. You will know when you have found it because it will become part of you and you will not be able to live without it. It doesn't have to be athletic in nature, but it must make you a better person and those around you better for knowing you. "You have become what you were meant to be." I knew I had achieved my purpose when my brother told me this, and I can only hope to continue becoming who I am meant to be. The next report will be after my hip surgery on October 10. Thanks for reading and go out and inspire someone today.