The $6 Million Dollar Man – 2016 version

Here we are well into 2016 and the year has gotten off to a great start.

Not that I am into resolutions but one of the things I wanted to spend time on again in 2016 was my blog. My last entries are from the 2014 Sochi Olympics and while that took some recovery time, I know two years is a bit ridiculous. After Sochi I moved pretty quickly into my normal running & triathlon shooting schedule, which was great.

My knees, which have undergone years of abuse really started to give trouble in June 2014. Without going into the gory details, in August I began the process of having my left knee replaced. In mid-November at the end of my 2014 race season, I had surgery.

Recovery was going great until 8 weeks when my right knee locked up. From there, the rest of the 2015 season was just managing to get through the travel, the day, the event and back. I had great support from my PT’s at Orthology and my docs, Aimee Klapach and Scott Anseth.

I was able to get where I had to be, but there just wasn’t anything left in the tank so to speak for anything extra. Finally 52 weeks to the day after the first knee was repaired I received my 2nd bionic knee on November 16th. Although I am still not quite at 100%, I am so much better than I was a year ago; it is really exciting! And, I am 5/8ths of in inch taller.

With all of that in mind I have been excited to get the 2016 race season moving. I was in San Juan at the Puerto Rico 70.3 last week and on Wednesday I leave for the California 70.3 at Oceanside.

If you happen to be interested here is my full schedule. (Cue the Indiana Jones Music, I am hitting the road for a season of adventure).

I don’t want to give the impression that I suffered and barely made it though the last couple years. I have been able to have my normal travel schedule and a couple of great cross country moto trips shooting landscape photos.

Finally, this January and for the second time one my images was selected by Triathlon Business International as the Best Published Photo for 2015!

2015 Triathlon Business International Best Published Photo

Thanks to my friend Dr. Allan Torres, I have a couple of shots of me in San Juan and indeed I am back in the saddle.

I was able to arrange an amazing driver, David Ashe and the BMW Dealer in San Juan loaned us a new R1200GS for the weekend.

It was a great race and we were able to get some great shots.  

2015 Winner Sarah Haskins along the water front.

2016 Winner Tine Deckers – putting time on her group.

Tim O’Donnell returned to the top of the podium for the 3rd time in 2016.

Check out our galleries on Triathlete.com

Next up is the California 70.3 at Oceanside which has a great field and always seems like the real beginning of the North American Race season.

If the technology allows for it, I will be tweeting images from the course. Follow me @CompImagePhoto for the earliest look at the snaps of the day.

See you at the races – More Soon!