A hellacious ride

This weekend some of us completed a grueling, 100-km ride around Camp Arifjan in honor of the "Hotter 'n Hell Hundred," an annual race held each summer in Wichita Falls, Texas.

The story in the local paper is here:

http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2008/aug/23/bringin-heat-worldwide/

And pics from all three events we staged are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/dapowellii/HH100

The race's organizers sent me dozens of shirts this year, so some friends and I decided to sign people up to earn them through either a two-hour spin class, or the bike ride. The first spin class was on Thursday night, Aug. 21, and the second one was this morning starting at 0530. I taught the first spin class -- both classes saw 40 participants each.

Saturday's ride started at 4 a.m. We had about 25 mountain bikers, who rode for about 15 miles, mostly on dirt and gravel roads around the camp's perimeter. Five intrepid road bikers braved the dry heat for four hours, all of us completing the 100-km (62 mile) ride with only a couple of incidents. The sun started breaking over the horizon just before 6 a.m., and before long the temperature started climbing. We took a break when the mountain bikers finished and handed out their shirts and water bottles. Before that, one of the road riders wiped out coming around a corner at about mile 26 -- but she toughed it out and finished the ride. Another person had a flat tire about at about 40 miles, but he had enough emergency supplies with him to fix it long enough to get to his room and replace the tire and tube, then he completed the ride. The temerature at the end was right at 100 degrees -- not quite hotter than hell, but close enough.

In all we had well over 100 people take part in the events, and a good time was had by all!

It is finished!

At 1145 a.m. Kuwait time today, I completed the last 30 laps of the 21-mile "English Channel" swim contest -- and won the event in my age category and overall, by a good few miles.

The entire swim took just five minutes shy of 12 hours. I surpassed my goal of six days, once agin surprising myself. My strategy was to swim the 756 total laps by doing 120 laps every morning, then as much as I could at night -- in the first three days, I swam 200 laps per day. This morning I swam 126, then went back at lunch to plow through the last 30. I should get some sort of medal and a t-shirt in a day or so; a pic or two will be posted later.

I certainly wasn't the fastest swimmer out there, maybe just the most determined. A twentysomething soldier in my unit was always out there too, having swam in college a lot more recently than I. Another older gentlemen started swimming in our lane the other day, and introduced himself only as Mark. When I protested that I didn't want him to get in the way, he told me to keep up. He doesn't swim much more than 60 laps a day, but boy is he fast! I can't keep up for more than a couple minutes. Turns out he's 50, and he's a one-star admiral who used to swim at Annapolis.

I guess sheer determination, lots of Red Bull and Power Bars, and my waterproof iPod case were what fueled my quest. Sometimes I didn't know where the energy came from, but I slugged it out. Oh, and I decided not to go for the 100 miles. Time to get back to a normal routine.

Killing time when I should be sleeping (or working)

It is once again time for me to start "swimming the English Channel" -- 21 miles in a pool with 23-yard lanes. This year, the contest spans 43 days, from 6 August through 17 September. Since I've been back in Kuwait, I've been training for this at an average of about 10 miles per week.

Last year, I did this after a nearly 20-year hiatus from any type of swimming at all (besides coaching the kids' team in Korea). I surprised myself by finishing in 12 days, winning the 30-39 male category (despite some 30-year-old guy who swam his way through college, started the contest late, and finished with over 110 miles). This year, I plan on sprinting through the initial swim in at most the first 6 days, swimming only in the early morning or at night. I have every day in the contest mapped out as to how many laps I'll swim; when it's over, I will have completed over 100 miles. Time will tell how those plans go!

Additionally, some friends and I are planning on a long bicycle ride in honor of the "Hotter 'n Hell Hundred," a race in Wichita Falls, Texas, on 23 August. The race organizers sent me about 100 t-shirts last November, which I handed out. This year, they want to know if we're going to ride. Some of you know I have my road bicycle here now, and have ridden around Camp Arifjan a few times in the early morning hours. I only know of three others who also have road bicycles, and they're game for the long ride. We'll probably only do 100 kilometers, about 4 hours of riding.

So by the middle of next month, I will have completed over 100 miles swimming and over 100 miles biking.

I still hate running.