Yes, I’ve been bitten by an alligator this year – twice, in fact. I’ll get to that in a minute. This year was supposed to be my return to a decent training load. I was going to get back into shape, lose some weight, and try to return to form. So far, this year has been anything but.
In December of 2013, I left my job as a public relations specialist and cross country coach at our local junior college. I left because of money – I hadn’t gotten a raise in over five years and I was told that I wouldn’t be getting one. I had been making an entry level salary my whole time there and as much as I loved it, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I had dabbled in the trucking business right out of college so I decided to return to that industry. I spent the next four years driving to South Florida and back three times a week (I live in South Georgia). I made more in a week driving than I did in a month at the college.
Throughout that time, I continued to train, albeit sparingly. A good training week was five hours. I managed to do a few sprint races a year but my times were 20 minutes or more off from what they had been before I started driving. The whole time, I was looking for an opportunity to come off the road. Late last year, that opportunity presented itself. I took over an existing trucking company in December. I would be home every day, back in an office, as my own boss, with time to spend with my family and get a little training in. I even did the HITS Naples race in January, the earliest I’ve ever raced since I started in 2001.
Then the wheels started coming off.
I injured my right calf in late February. I missed five weeks of running. Once I got over that and started easing back into running, I was diagnosed with flu B in mid April. That knocked me out for almost a week. I returned to training and thought I could pick up some momentum for racing season, which for me begins in a week and a half. Then I tweaked my right hamstring doing a non-tri related activity. That was another week-plus out of running and off the bike.
After finally recovering from that and returning to training once again, I decided to catch an alligator in my neighborhood. Down here in South Georgia, we’ve had a tremendous amount of rain in a short period of time. The rain has all kinds of critters on the move – snakes, turtles, alligators, and all sorts of other animals. I live in a neighborhood with three lakes – two small ones and one large one. There are alligators in the lakes but they normally stay hidden. This year, though, the rain displaced a decent sized gator. I had seen the gator several times; in fact, it spent a lot of time in the lake in which I swim regularly. Almost two weeks ago, it decided to roam. It ended up in a driveway of a home near the lake I swim in.
I have 27 years of working with reptiles, 10 of which includes working with alligators. I’ve caught some fairly big ones, bigger than the one I’m talking about now. Those went well. This one didn’t. To make an already long story a little shorter, I ended up getting bitten twice during the capture – once on my left hand, the other time on my right forearm. The alligator was 7-8 feet long, so this could have been pretty bad. Thankfully, my wounds were largely superficial. Doctors didn’t stitch up anything. But I spent 10 days on some strong antibiotics. I was also out of training for yet another week. Eight days after the bites, I started training again. I still haven’t been in the water though – I was told to stay out for at least two weeks. That will expire shortly.
So here I am, with races about to begin, still in rather poor shape. I thought this would be the year I somewhat returned to form. I figured getting back into running shape would be a 12-month process. Looks like it’s going to be longer. My running times are just as poor now as they were back in January. My cycling times aren’t much better. On a positive note, I’m swimming better than I have been since at least 2012. So I’ve got that going for me. This has been a frustrating year but I’m thankful to still be here, particularly with both my arms. My 12 month process is now likely 18 months. I guess I’ll find out in a couple of weeks.
In December of 2013, I left my job as a public relations specialist and cross country coach at our local junior college. I left because of money – I hadn’t gotten a raise in over five years and I was told that I wouldn’t be getting one. I had been making an entry level salary my whole time there and as much as I loved it, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I had dabbled in the trucking business right out of college so I decided to return to that industry. I spent the next four years driving to South Florida and back three times a week (I live in South Georgia). I made more in a week driving than I did in a month at the college.
Throughout that time, I continued to train, albeit sparingly. A good training week was five hours. I managed to do a few sprint races a year but my times were 20 minutes or more off from what they had been before I started driving. The whole time, I was looking for an opportunity to come off the road. Late last year, that opportunity presented itself. I took over an existing trucking company in December. I would be home every day, back in an office, as my own boss, with time to spend with my family and get a little training in. I even did the HITS Naples race in January, the earliest I’ve ever raced since I started in 2001.
Then the wheels started coming off.
I injured my right calf in late February. I missed five weeks of running. Once I got over that and started easing back into running, I was diagnosed with flu B in mid April. That knocked me out for almost a week. I returned to training and thought I could pick up some momentum for racing season, which for me begins in a week and a half. Then I tweaked my right hamstring doing a non-tri related activity. That was another week-plus out of running and off the bike.
After finally recovering from that and returning to training once again, I decided to catch an alligator in my neighborhood. Down here in South Georgia, we’ve had a tremendous amount of rain in a short period of time. The rain has all kinds of critters on the move – snakes, turtles, alligators, and all sorts of other animals. I live in a neighborhood with three lakes – two small ones and one large one. There are alligators in the lakes but they normally stay hidden. This year, though, the rain displaced a decent sized gator. I had seen the gator several times; in fact, it spent a lot of time in the lake in which I swim regularly. Almost two weeks ago, it decided to roam. It ended up in a driveway of a home near the lake I swim in.
I have 27 years of working with reptiles, 10 of which includes working with alligators. I’ve caught some fairly big ones, bigger than the one I’m talking about now. Those went well. This one didn’t. To make an already long story a little shorter, I ended up getting bitten twice during the capture – once on my left hand, the other time on my right forearm. The alligator was 7-8 feet long, so this could have been pretty bad. Thankfully, my wounds were largely superficial. Doctors didn’t stitch up anything. But I spent 10 days on some strong antibiotics. I was also out of training for yet another week. Eight days after the bites, I started training again. I still haven’t been in the water though – I was told to stay out for at least two weeks. That will expire shortly.
So here I am, with races about to begin, still in rather poor shape. I thought this would be the year I somewhat returned to form. I figured getting back into running shape would be a 12-month process. Looks like it’s going to be longer. My running times are just as poor now as they were back in January. My cycling times aren’t much better. On a positive note, I’m swimming better than I have been since at least 2012. So I’ve got that going for me. This has been a frustrating year but I’m thankful to still be here, particularly with both my arms. My 12 month process is now likely 18 months. I guess I’ll find out in a couple of weeks.