Tulasi went with me for the last two days of the Games. On the way to Carnegie Mellon for the track and field events, I was expressing to him the intrepidation I was feeling about the 800 meter (1/2 mile) run I was registered for. I was seriously, at least emotionally, considering not doing it. When we walked into the stadium and saw hundreds of spectators, I was even more convinced I shouldn’t do it. Part of my reasoning was the avoidance of embarrassment and the other was the concern that my time would be so slow that I would hold up the schedule of events. My conditioning hadn’t gone as well as I had hoped for since signing up and running the whole distance wasn’t going to happen.

I went consciously early to the venue to be able to absorb the mood. At first, it was not good. Men and women were streaking down the track. After about an hour or so I saw that between events they were leaving a little extra time, so the too slow excuse drifted away.

When it was time for the 400 meter (quarter mile) 50-59 women, one of them jogged for about 20 meters and then stopped and basically strolled around the track. 400 meter is once around the track, 800 meter goes twice. As she came into the home stretch, the crowd was cheering loudly. That decided it for me. If she could do it, I could do it.

I went down to the infield to get my number, which was 7, for lane seven. I did my warmups and stretching, hydrated and conversed with other guys to pass the final minutes. I used to get a little jittery before a soccer game or whatever as the adrenal gland would start anticipating, but it has been so under worked the last few years it has gone soft and wasn’t helping much.

The organizer called us over to give us the last minute instructions. He looked at my number and said he would have to change it to 8. I took that as a good sign. Whenever I had a choice in the soccer league, I would always get the number 8 for my team shirt.

The starting pistol went off and I started chugging away. I went about 50 meters before I had to drop down to a walking speed. After that, I would walk for 20- to 30 meters to catch my breath, then jog for 20-30 more. I alternated like that for the rest of the way. Just before the end of the first lap, the winner of the event blew by me but he was the only one who lapped me.

I jogged the last 30 meters before crossing the finish line. The crowd was cheering and to give them a little thank you I did a kirtan dance move, a triple twirl at full speed moving forward before taking the final step across the line.

If I were to do this again at the next Games in two years, the goal would be to at least jog the whole race. Plus I would be moving up in class from 50-59 to 60-69 age group, though the guys running that class weren’t any slouches this year either.

I wasn’t planning on doing another Transplant Games but they announced at the Closing Ceremony it is going to be in Madison, Wisconsin in 2010 so I am considering it as my wife has family near there and it is close enough to some of my extended family so they might be able to attend.

FYI, my wife was working in the transplant unit in Madison as a nursing assistant in 1970. They were doing kidneys at that time and the success rate was low. She actually helped some doctors who were still experimenting on dogs. The hospital was next to Sterling Hall and she was working when the bomb went off. It shattered windows in her building.

After we left CMU we stopped at a restaurant for some carbo loading for the 20 K bike race the next day. A couple of Team Pittsburgh members were there and waved when we entered. Each team wore distinct colors, so we recognized each other. After ordering I went over to talk to them for a moment. They asked how I was doing so I told them about my 800 meter and how I was inspired by the lady’s 400 meter.

It turns out that the woman at the table was the lady’s post transplant co-coordinator (an RN who oversees your care, the person you interface with) so she knew her back story. The woman had had a double lung transplant and suffers from asthma, so simply finishing her 400 meter was a huge thing for her.

The next day was off to North Park for the 20 K (12 mile) bike race. I had gone there once before and done a test lap so I knew there was a bad hill. It goes up for a mile nonstop then a couple of hundred meters at the top that are really steep. It was two 10 K laps, so that meant tackling the hill twice. I went with the idea that I wasn’t going to be able to finish the race — my goal was to finish one lap.

Two things fell together. First, it wasn’t humid at all, which meant my on board cooling system (sweating) was going to be effective, and the temperature was reasonable, about 80 F (27 C) which wasn’t bad. The second thing was the race start had been changed to the foot of the hill, so the worst thing was if I couldn’t make it the second time, I could simply turn around and coast back home. I was leaving the door open for the second lap.

About halfway through the first, the young studs starting lapping me, whizzing by. These were young guys who were kidney recipients, though in at least one case, a liver transplant, who were athletes before their transplants and obviously recovered fully. Quite a few of them passed me and, just before the end of my first lap, the leader in the women’s group lapped me.

At the end of the first lap, i stopped and got off my bike, but I was feeling decent and had decided to tackle the second one. I drank up and did a breathing exercise Balarama Candra had taught me. He is friend of mine who is a yoga instructor. I felt my rear tire was a little low so Tulasi hustled up an air pump and tightened it up. After a couple of minutes, off I went again.

Both times I had had to dismount for the last couple of hundred steep meters on the hill and walk up. The second around I took another two minute break and did the breathing exercise again.

I did manage to finish, in 1 hour, 50 minutes. Out of 60-70 bikers I beat two women. One had a twenty minute mechanical breakdown that required repair. I beat her by 5 minutes. I beat a 70 year old woman by 20 minutes. So my results weren’t stellar but I exceeded my goal of one lap by finishing both so I was happy.

More on the Games tomorrow.