WOW!  that's all i have to say Thorney...                    

One of my buddies, former teammates, and Texas Longhorn All-American just finished his 1st Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii....

He went through the swim (2.4 miles!) in 1:08...   he sat in 809th place.

He biked 112 miles in 5:29...  moved up to 622nd place

Finally, he ran a marathon (26.2miles!) in 2:51!!!!!!  He moved alllll the way up to 122nd place!  UNREAL...

I get a lot of credit for doing the decathlon and most times it's because they think i do what Joe just did.   it's hard to imagine what you go through during one of these things.  that's a lot of free time to sit and think about "Why am i doing this to myself?"  i rarely experience anything like this during a decathlon.  there's never a point in time where i'm running, or throwing, or jumping thinking to myself "man, this hurts, i should stop, why am i doing this to myself?"  the kind of mental toughness and preparation it takes to train for the ultimate test of endurance- let alone complete one in the intense heat of a Hawaiian lava field- blows my mind.  i have the ultimate respect for people that can make a living doing what Joe does.  i'm so proud of him... not only as a friend, texas ex, and a runner, but as a competitor who loves a challenge.  he flat out dominated!

proud, proud, proud,  can't wait for you to get home so i can shake your hand Joe.

here's a link to the results: click the "T" to find Thorne

http://ironman.com/events/ironman/worldchampionship/?show=tracker&rid=261&year=2009

Hey everyone!  so this is my first blog on the new treyhardee.com...

not sure what to say, i don't have much on my mind these days except training and Berlin.  i've tried to preoccupy myself with simple distractions and sight-seeing.  Koln (Cologne) was great.  couldn't have asked for a better facility and the city was thriving, full of history, and most importantly, it was simple.  there wasn't anything that got in the way of the reason i'm here in the first place.  there was a great group of americans there training and i got in some really good sessions.  i feel more confident this week than i did the week before, and it's been progressing like this for a couple months now.

i arrived in Marburg, Germany yesterday and really like the town so far.  i encourage you to google image search "marburg, germany".  there's a completely modern city surrounding a quaint, stereotypical "grimm's fairty tale" town.  the town or "oberstadt" is also 8 or 9 stories above the city.  you have to litterally take an elevator to get to it, and when you walk out of the tunnel off of the "aufzug", you can't help but be impressed that this sort of preserved environment still exists.  although it appears ancient, there are banks, bakeries, trendy clothing stores, toy shops, and everything you'd expect from a market today.  it's really a cool place to walk around, which we did!  my coach, mike marsh, his wife, and i just spent about an hour walking all the way around the entire oberstadt!  we went to the top of the hill in the middle and overlooked the entire valley and down again.  it was a nice little active recovery for the day.

well, that sums it up pretty much.  a lot of other team members just showed up and we're going to go to lunch.  i'll try and post some more soon.  however, it will more than likely be a video blog from the Oberstadt!! 

Test, TEST, test

Test, TEST, test

Test, TEST, test