Left Arm Bandit

I'm a huge fan of books and articles that have alternate titles. So I'm making a alternate title blog post of my own blog post.
Portland Triathlon is the last tune up race before ITU World Championships and I was all set to have a great race. I had been swimming the course almost every Thursday for open water practice and felt fairly confident about it. Also I received a new wetsuit from Paul at one of my new sponsors Fit2Race (F2R) The suit is a huge improvement over the seven year old Ironman suit that I have been wearing. Coach Lara has really got me working on sponsorship stuff and I've been able to get a few. More on that in another blog post.

On the bike I was using a different set of wheels, real carbon race wheels. I've been riding on a set of alloy wheels and what a huge difference carbon and a deeper profile makes. The run course was a two loop course that covers a section of one of my standard training runs so I knew that one too.

The swim was awesome! I made the turn at 17 minuets and headed back. The return trip took only 15 minuets. Total time 32:02! That's almost 4 minuets faster than I've swam any open water 1500m before. (Except for the Hudson at Nationals but with the massive current that hardly counts).

I had a reasonably fast transition except for someone putting their wheel spokes around my breaks that I had to untangle. The bike section was a slightly technical three loop course with some good climbing and nice down hill. I rocked it.

Now comes the bad part, the run. It was bad. I cramped up in my abbs so badly that each stride hurt to land. I'll summarise to say that I almost didn't even finish and a 54 minute 10k is not a good time for me at all.

Next week is Hood to Coast and then I'm off to the ITU ParaTriathlon World Championship.  Wish me luck!!

Hi Friends and Family,

I hope all of you are having good a summer as I have been.  As you are probably aware, I was in a horrific skiing accident in March of 2007 which paralyzed my right arm.  Since that time, I've had a lot of surgery and physical therapy to re-innervate the paralyzed muscles with varying degrees of success.  I currently have good elbow movement, but my shoulder, wrist and hand don't work that well. 

Last year I decided that I wasn't going to let my disability get in the way of being active and started to run again.  In October I completed the Portland Marathon, in September I got back on my bicycle and in November back in the pool swimming with one arm.  Since then I've been doing a lot of hardcore triathlon training.  July 26 was the US National ParaTriathlon (like ParaOlymipcs) Championship.  It was my fourth triathlon this year, and the first time I have competed against athletes with the same kind of disability that I have.  It was an incredible experience, and I won my category by over 5 minutes! 

My time from US Nationals qualifies me for the ParaTriathlon World Championship in Gold Coast, Australia on September 12 this year.  I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to compete on the world stage representing the USA.  However, there is a cost of about $3500 to go.  That is something I simply cannot afford, so I'm asking for some help.  If you would please use the "Help Sponsor Joel" Pay Pal donation widget (on the right and it takes a little bit to load) to donate $10, $15 or whatever you can I would greatly appreciate it.

Over the next months I'll be blogging my experiences as I prepare for the World Championship, as well as periodic updates on my other adventures.  Stay tuned!

Edit: The widget to the right is not working for some people so you can use this button as well


Thank you for your support,