New place. New plan. Same old pace.

It's been quite some time since i started this blog and quite a lot has happened since then.  Where should I even begin?  

Well, I left South Korea somewhere on the 12th of September I believe and headed home to New Jersey with the intention of stopping over in Chicago (for the record, this is my second home. I freaking love this place.) for a visit.  Turns out returning back to the USA from an overseas location isn't exactly a party in of itself.  

"We can only fly you to your next duty location or whatever is cheaper for Uncle Sam.  Thanks for serving across the Atlantic/Pacific/Suck places in the middle east for X number of years and being away from family and friends for X number of years and missing X number holidays, birthdays, weddings, deaths, etc.  We cannot fly you to your place of preference for Leave.  Only to another place to be away from said people above. Again." 

Anyway, after crossing some time zones and landing in Atlanta for a layover and then to Texas for another plane to Chicago, I finally made it!  2 weeks here and I came away with some real good "memories".  I even managed to bike Lake Shore Drive and the magnificent mile and other places of interest.  I left here in a daze.... 

Off to NJ and straight into the Jerseyman Half-Distance Tri.  First of many US based races here.  I cut my teeth into these things in Korea and considered everyone from BeerBelly bike club to be some incredibly fast riders.  How would one fare here?  

I'd say that race alone was the most punishing race I've ever endured.  It rained from the morning swim with rumors of swim cancellation murmuring in the crowd through 95% of the bike leg.  And it rained HARD.  Like it was raining upside down with the force and amount of it hitting the ground.  This was much more brutal than Ironman Korea where the temps and conditions were ideal.  

Transitions at Jerseyman were held in the middle of a grass field and grass + rain + people = mud fest! 

It was basically a mud pit coming in from the swim.  Mud made its way through every component on my bike, but at that point it didn't matter.  I had some trouble with my shoes having much in them and had some even more trouble clipping with the mud all over the cleats.  I even lost my computer coming out of T1.  Sucks.  I pedaled for 56 or so miles without any idea of how fast and how long.  Nutrition was out the window.  I relegated to counting seconds in my head.  

Running with mud in our shoes let alone wet shoes gave me some really nasty blisters with scars to this day.  12 miles of rolling hills and wet equipment made it seem like 12 miles with a backpack.  

I didn't make my sub 6 hour time.  over 30 minutes pass goal time.  

Am I disappointed?  Not in the very least.  Factor in the environment and I think I did pretty well for what it's worth.  

Ill post the rest of my vacation later ... too tired.