Meeting Matt.

Saturday Sept. 25 started out at 4:30 am. My wife and I rose from out bed for the trip down to Fairfield, IA not really knowing what to expect. This was my first triathlon! The temperature was hovering around 50 degrees, so I was not really feeling bad that I was not going to do the swimming part of the triathlon. But I wanted to stand by the water and shake my finger to remind everyone that I was not going to swim.

I then waited around after I registered, we got there a little early. The triathlon was made to be a team event as well, so there was a volunteer that was going to do the swimming portion for me, I got a great lady named Jaqueline to be my teammate, she was 62 years old!

Since I was not doing much, I got elected to help set up some stuff, so here I am helping to carry a boat down to the lake with the organizer of the event Roeland.

A little later, we had our first sighting of Matt Hoover, he came walking in too register with one of his friends. I went and talked with his friend and told him the story about who I was (the traveling shirt guy) and how Matt had challenged me to this triathlon, he friend then took me up to meet Matt. Matt is a great guy, I brought the shirt with me and we shared a few stories about the shirt and he posed for a picture with it and me.

After the picture with Matt it was time for the triathlon to start. All of the people got ready and then jumped in the lake (poor, crazy people). After the people got away from shore one of the people along the lake pointed out the very large water snake that just swam by the starting line (another reason why I am glad I did not swim.) So I waited until Jacquline finished her swim and was ready to go out on my bike!


Matt had finished the swim and was changing into his biking gear as I was waiting for Jacqueline to pass off the timing chip. I took off on the bike and about half a mile down the road Matt pulled up beside me. I was not sure if he was going to just take off and make me eat his dust or what, but he just rode along side me and we had some good conversations along the way while we looked at some amazing looking houses along the nice FLAT country route. We got back and took off for the 1.5 mile run. Matt again ran beside me, even though he killed me going up the couple of hills along the route.



We both finished the race around the 55 minute mark...I had to figure out a way to beat him....so I decided to TRIP him at the finish line....

Actually, that is not what happened, Matt just got tired and I had to carry him over the finish line...

The truth is Matt was a really great guy who ran with me and helped me get through the race, I thank him for that! After we finished the race Matt had to do some interviews and then go into the health convention to hand out the awards. Now Matt did a truly nice thing for me at the awards cermony, he was able to get me a medal, since it was my first triathlon. Here is the medal.
Thanks Matt it means alot!

Next on our agenda was to participate in an obstacle course that was set up by some Army reservists. Matt went up against his friend, I actually went up again the mayor of Fairfield. I lost because of my inability to do the crab walk, which I don't think I have ever attempted since the second grade. Good job, Mr. Mayor!


And then the final event of the day was to go watch Matt speak to the convention. Matt gives a wonderful and inspiring speech and gives an excellent message. I don't want to give much of his message away, but he can make you beleive that anyone can loose weight, they just have to do it!


It was a wonderful day, that I will not soon forget, I am glad I went too the triathlon. I know that I did not complete the entire tri, but now I have a new challenge to keep me going, I need to practice my swimming so that I can complete this entire race next year. Now I am going to spend some time to read Matt's book. Oh, and I also broke out of the 290's...

TODAY'S WEIGHT: 289.6 lbs.

And finally, a picture of my wife with Matt and Matt and I.

Picture updates...Where is the data?

Well, I have not put up pictures like this in awhile, I mean the Biggest Loser contestants had to do this every week. But here is pictures of me this morning weighing in at 300.2 lbs. Notice a difference from the first ones when I was at 332?






I have some post-personal training results. I have worked out with Drew at Core Fitness in North Liberty for the past month. The measurements taken pre-training are on the left, that post-training measurements are on the right.

Age 34 35
Weight 314.2 299.6

Circumference Measurements:
Chest 44" 43.25"
Waist 45.5" 43.75"
Hip 47.5" 43"
Arm 14.5" 14"
Thigh 25.5" 23"

Skin Fold Measurements: (Remember that fun caliper from high school gym class?)
Chest 58mm 48mm
Abdomen 55mm 53mm
Thigh 53mm 59mm (we are not so sure about this one, maybe more muscle!)

Body Fat% 41.32% 40.56% (I think I calculated these right)

Pretty good inprovement for only 10 sessions! I want to thank Drew for helping me out!

I have started Week 4 of my Couch to 5k program, I have done the last couple sessions of that on my treadmill because of the humidity and rain, this is the first time I have ever ran on a treadmill. It is not too bad.

TODAY'S WEIGHT: 300.2 lbs.

The things I do for health or (Who the hell talked me into doing this?)

I just wanted to start out with a scan of the program cover. I noticed this yesterday. I was born in 1975 and I will turn 35 this year. The Bix 7 was started in 1975, but this year is the 36th annual race? Did they run an extra race one of these years or am I just a year older than I thought? (or I may just be bad at math!)

Well, as many of you know, yesterday was the Bix 7 race Davenport, IA. I do not really know how (or why) I got talked into doing this race, but I did it, and completed it and now I am nursing a couple of sore ankles and a sore foot back to health today.

I drove to my parents house in Maquoketa in Friday night in order to meet my sister, Sue, she is the one who wanted to get into the race, and I was easily swayed into doing it because it was right around the time that I was starting the Brotherhood journey. I really had my heart set on having some Obie's Tacos, but we ended up having some Pizza Hut Pasta's to get our carb load for the evening.

I then tried to get to bed, but ended up tossing and turning. I can never get a good nights sleep in any bed other than my own, but I don't think it helped that I kept thinking about the fact that I had to walk/jog 7 miles in the morning. 5:00 am came very quick!

We started to drive down to Davenport at 5:30 am. But first we needed to stop in Dewitt and pick up my neice, Allyson. This would be her first Bix 7 run as well. We ate a Snickers bar from the gas station for our breakfast and continued on our way.

We arrived at the race course around 6:40 am and walked around to take some pictures of me in the Shirt at the starting lines. Here is a picture of me in the shirt at the starting line of the walkers!







The next picture shows the Brady Street hill in the background. This is a wonderful hill that has an 8-9% grade to it and it is about one-third of a mile. Isn't that a wonderful way to start a race?






After we finished walking around for a bit, I felt something on the bottom of my shoe. I thought it was just a pebble at the bottom but when I looked I saw it was a screw. What a great thing to have at the bottom of my newest pair or running shoes! This was the first time I took these shoes outside. I was lucky that I had a swiss army knife in my truck because I could not just pull this out. I had to actually unscrew this screw from my shoe.

We then headed to the starting line. It was raining, but the storm was forcasted to be through the area before the start of the race. The tv station and others were telling to hold off a little bit before the lined up. However, the rain did not let up at all during the race. Here is picture of Sue, Allyson, and me lined up and ready to go. And one of me right before the start. (Notice a few more people starting to congregate)

The race started after the singing of the national anthem, and instead of a starting gun we received (right on cue) one of the loudest and longest booms of thunder that I ever heard. And then the race started....
But I waited...
and waited...
and waited...
then started to see the runners go up the Brady Street hill...in about a minute the road was deserted and then it became a massive wall of humanity....
then I waited...
finally the orange fence was taken away from in front of the walkers and we were off!

During the wait at the beginning we some costumes. A birthday cake, the "Running Elvis'", a group of Marilyn Monroes, and then Mario and Luigi!

My sister claimed that it was a tradition for everybody to run up the hill. In my stupidity, I did that. We made it up the hill. That SUCKED! We then continued throughout the race by walking and jogging. When ever we saw the next mile sign we would jog to it and then we would throw in a few jogs to a stop sign. I figured we ran at least 2 or 2.5 miles of the race.

There is a great atmosphere around the race. There were a few parties and bands by many of the houses we went by, I did like the one that had the Iowa Hawkeye fight sone on a loop as you went by. There was a huge Slip and Slide set up on a hill, it was probably a 2 story drop down that hill. I opted out of the slip and slide since I was already soaked. But I did see Mario and Luigi in line to do it. The turn around point had a great view of the Mississippi River. About the 4-mile mark we walked by the Hostess truck passing out Twinkies and Ho-Ho's....WTF? When then saw a bunch of guys in Santa hats doing the bench press in the middle of the street. And Mario and Luigi showed up to do that too...wait, weren't they behind me? We reached mile 6 and were ready to head down the Brady Street hill when I see Mario and Luigi run by me...I did not make the run down the hill as my ankles started to hurt then. But we did turn the final corner and I had to run the final 1/8 of a mile (after the three of us posed for some pictures by the MarathonFoto.com photographers).




I then crossed the finish line at an official time of 1:47:07. But thanks to this handy computer chip that was placed on my shoe my real time was 1:41:05. I was getting close to my 90 minute goal, but I did not train on any hills and I did not plan to be soaked throughout the entire race (which felt like 10 lbs was added to my clothes). But I was happy with the results. I mean who isn't proud to come in 10,102nd place?




We then headed to the finish line for some food, but I was really dissappointed with the selection. Hostess had a huge selection of goods, as well as Coke. Where was the bananas and apples and Gatorade? We wandered around and then made our way back to the car to head home. All before 10:30 am.

A final picture of my of my Bib number.


My sister did tell me that I do need to come back next year and to the Bix 7 again, because did not get the "complete" expierence. I did not see the crowds and most importantly I did not get to run in the heat. So I suppose I now have a goal next year at the 36th (or is it 37th?) Bix 7.

Here is a link to the race: 2010 Bix 7.

TODAY'S WEIGHT: 312.5 lbs.

Bix Preparation

I was on KZIA this morning and gave Scott, Rick, Clare, and Waterboy and update on my progress. We talked a bit about my Bix 7 adventure tomorrow.

Well, I have arrived in Maquoketa, met my sister and we will meet my neice tomorrow (if she can find the place to meet us) on our way down to davenport! Who in the heck talked me into this again? We ate our carb load pasta dinner, so I am ready!

Here is a picture to proove that I have registered for the race, so if you are in the davenport area check out KWQC TV for live coverage of the bix 7 and look for number 4927. (I am 1 out of 18,000).



I will be wearing a bright pink shirt...look for it!

TODAY'S WEIGHT: 310.4 lbs