Clinic presentation, Pittsburgh Marathon relay, and PCNC Night Talk appearance

Since I raced in New Orleans about three weeks ago, it has been all about recovery and getting back into the groove, while still trying to prepare for my next race, which is happening manana. Along the way, I have had some unique and novel experiences for me as I continue on my journey as a triathlete. On Sunday Apr 25th, I spoke at the Pittsburgh Triathlon Club's clinic at the Over The Bar Bicycle Cafe on the southside, and presented a talk geared towards beginner triathletes. The talk went very well and it wasn't nearly as nerve wracking as I was expecting, and I got a lot of good feedback and questions from the audience. Also presenting were Chad and Brodie, and it was very interesting to listen to them speak about their topics as well. Here I am, talking about forgoing socks for a sprint distance tri, or flying dismounts, or some other beginner friendly technique...


Then last weekend, I raced on a relay with some fellow runners from the Hounds at the Pittsburgh Marathon. Initial reports were that we had won the relay category in 2:33:40, although strangely some other team has magically appeared ahead of us just this week in an improbably fast time of 2:17:10. We'll be sure to look into that, but overall I was surprised at the legs that I had in my leg, a 5.9 miler, which I covered at about 32 minutes flat officially, which worked out to 5:25 pace. Had I been running either an open 5k or 10k, I would have had huge PRs! Here I am, suffering on the road with my HR through the roof somewhere in Homewood or East Liberty.
Here is our anchor leg, Mark, one week removed from running the Boston marathon, finishing strong for what should be the relay division win.

Last night I had my television debut, appearing on WPXI's Night Talk on the PCNC channel with Ryan and Kim, to talk about Ballou Skies, the peanut butter sales, and all things related to the the charity and the tri-team. Here are the three of us with the host Mike Romigh towards the start of the segment.
Ryan spoke very knowledgeably and with a great sense of pride about the charity, what they are doing at Ohio State with the research, and generally about all of the big picture stuff.
I spoke about what it means to me to race under the Ballou Skies banner, and what it takes to keep going in a tough race. Thoughts always come back to the sacrifices made, the charity and Ryan, and how fortunate am I to be out there, using my body and triathlon as a platform to raise awareness for Ballou Skies and DMD.
Kim spoke about our marketing efforts, about the website, blogs, Facebook cause, etc., and also echoed what it takes to get to and race in some of these events.

It was an amazing experience and hopefully some of you out there in the Pittsburgh television market got a chance to see some if it during that dismal third period of the Pen's game.

Today is a busy day and then we are off to beautiful Lake Anna Virginia for the Kinetic Half, starting tomorrow morning at 7AM. Race report and updates to follow shortly!