rob balucas

Catalyst. Creative. Triathlete. Speaker. Cigar Aficionado. Amateur Behavioral Psychologist. Fresh Spring Roll Addict. Paraplegic at the moment.

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Kona IRONMAN World Championships | Race Recap

A week goes by really fast. Wow. A week ago I was in the race. I’m back home after an amazing time in Kona.

What happened…

(I didn’t make it to the finish line)

I honestly don’t know what happened.

I had a decent swim by my standards.. It was tough, really tough. Gauging from how everyone else described their swim, mine was equally challenging.

My transition wasn’t great, but at least I had everything with me that I needed.

There’s a period for the first few miles of the bike where your body is still in transition from one sport to the next and you’re just trying to find your rhythm and settle in.

I just never found that place … for the next 9.5 hours.

Somewhere in the first 10 miles my chain came out of my rear derailleur and got jammed while I was going 30+ mph on a wonderful downhill.

I had to stop, get some help, dig into my flat kit for my chain breaker, break the chain, fix the problem, reconnect the chain, and then pack up my flat kit. That cost valuable time.

And then after that, I just couldn’t find the sweet spot. I couldn’t maintain the watts (power) necessary to make the bike cutoff. My chain derailed twice more. I missed it by a whopping 75+ minutes.

Did I not drink enough water? All the locals say this year it was way more humid than usual. My paralyzed body is very affected by weather and I don’t like to admit it. My neuropathic pain jumps through the roof when the weather shifts. I still don’t believe it when it happens.

I knew at the midway point at Hawi (mile 60) I wasn’t going to make it back in time. The speed I’d have to maintain wasn’t possible given I had to go right back where I came from through the same rolling elevation and climate.

It became about not quitting. It became about getting ‘home’, on my own power, whether I get to keep going on or not.

At a certain point it was almost doubtful I’d make it back before sundown. But I did.

I could go on and on. One of the other handcyclists here didn’t finish his first Kona IMWC (this year was his 5th). Carlos Moleda, a legend of IMWC and 5-time Champion didn’t finish his first either.

with Bob Babbitt
Breakfast with Bob Interview
Breakfast with Bob Interview
Poncho Man - Breakfast with Bob
Name wall
IRONMAN World Championships

Many have said this just fuels you for the next one. And that might be true at some point.

The thing for me is: I don’t know that I have this level of training in me again. I’ve said before how incredibly intense the training has to be. It has come at the cost of every other part of my life. Anyone who’s been in the orbit of someone training for an IRONMAN knows this fact.

My business has suffered. My relationship and our home has taken lower priority.

It comes at significant financial cost. Many have supported me in this and I don’t want to keep asking for that support.

AND .. I hate that this will be the story if I stop here. I had a DNF in Kona. I had a DNF at the 2019 IM 70.3 World Championships in France. That track record sucks. And I hate that it’s mine right now.

I know there is a lot more in this than that. I know that there’s a victory in just getting to the starting line. I know there’s a lot of value in the journey to get there.

But I didn’t put in all this work just to show up. I didn’t work this hard for years to just get out there.

I didn’t also didn’t do it to win.

I did it for what I thought was very reasonable for me, my athletic ability, and resources.

I just wanted to cross the finish line.

I wanted to hear, “You are an IRONMAN” from Mike Reilly even if I was the last person.

Sure there will be more paratriathlon in my future. Shorter distance stuff for fun and staying fit. But my track record on the big races will be DNF. And that fucking sucks.

But let’s be honest. It’s a blessed life. To have a partner in Erika who supports this journey. To have a community – a tribe – who support me as you have. There’s so much to be grateful for; and I most certainly am.

One of my favorite books speaks of “Finding your edge, and not faking not.”

I found my edge that day. I did the best I possibly could in punishing conditions at the biggest stage in triathlon.

As much as I wish it did, it did not happen any other way.

October 12, 2022

Rob Balucas: 2022 Breakfast with Bob from Kona

Rob Balucas was an accomplished age-group triathlete, preparing for his first 70.3 when he crashed on his bike during a training ride in 2015 and was paralyzed. It’s been a long journey, but he is finally here in Kona ready to take on the Ironman World Championship.

Our 11th year of Breakfast with Bob from Kona is brought to you by Master Spas, SFuels, HOKA, Zoot, FORM Smart Swim Goggles, Quintanaroo, Zoot, and our @Challenged Athletes Foundation

October 4, 2022

Wheels Down in Kona

It’s happening. It’s really, really happening this time.

We are wheels down in Kona. All the bags are here.

Saturday was about getting in and getting the handcycle and race chair put together and making sure everything was intact. My battery-powered tire pump bricked on the second of 6 tires needing air. But nothing a quick trip to Lowe’s couldn’t remedy.

Today, Sunday, was an early morning swim for Erika; a nice post swim actual ‘breakfast with Bob’ and Heidi Babbitt, Aussie Paralympic silver medalist Lauren Parker and her Mum and her coach; then back to our place for lunch with family and pumping up tires.

It’s warm. It’s humid. I vascilate between excitement, zen, being present, and all all out imposter syndrome anxiousness .. on a moment to moment basis.

One of the IRONMAN staff said, ”If I wasn’t going through these waves, it would mean I’m a sociopath.”

He’s got a point. This is a big deal and that rollercoaster is only human. … I once heard a great TEDx talk about surrender …

But I’m ready. I have faith in my training. I’ve had the benefit of an additional year of training because of last year’s race postponement. For those who know, my VO2 max is double what it was when we started measuring 4 years ago. So at age 45, I’m the most fit I have ever been.

For those who’ve been asking, here’s how to track me:
(There are text links throughout this info to go direct to the spots)

105 is my bib number.

There is an IRONMAN app where you can track my progress.

The race is this Thursday.
I’m scheduled to start at 6:27am local time / 9:27am Pacific

There is Facebook / YouTube coverage of the women pros that day and we start right after they do. So there’s a small chance you might catch us in the coverage.

After the pro race, the coverage turns into a single stream of the finish line. My goal is to finish between 8pm and 9pm local time … so you might catch my 15 seconds of fame there.

Of course you can find my updates on Facebook and Instagram. I think you might be able to view my posts on Instagram even if you don’t have an account.

On Tues at 8:15am local time / 11:15am Pacific, I’m going to be interviewed again on Breakfast with Bob, live on YouTube. Bob Babbitt is the hall of fame ambassador for the sport of triathlon. He interviews all the professional condenders leading up to the race .. and me!

Wear your #teambalucas shirt this week? 🙏🏽

Here’s also something I would love: do you have your #teambalucas shirt from 2016? Would you post a picture of it this week? I would love to continue to make the statement “You Create Your LIfe” this week as I hit the climax of this story.

For those who got #teambalucas wine, it is in production! The bottles are being labeled this week. I am excited to be sending this to you. It’s legitimately amazing Cab too. If you know the Housley’s, you know how special and amazing they are. I’m incredibly grateful for their support and friendship.

Thank you to everyone who contributed. It takes a lot of resources to pursue this goal. I don’t like asking. But not coming out the other side in debt takes a big piece of the stress out of the equation. For that I am VERY, VERY grateful.

More to come … stay tuned …

October 2, 2022

coffee love | year 7 update

Seven years ago today was the day I suffered a paralyzing spinal cord injury.

As you know, I had started a streak of celebrating with food .. that has not held up.

Year 1 was chicken fried steak and eggs, 
year 2 was a fancy milkshake, 
year 3 was fresh spring rolls,
year 4, 5, 6 .. I’m sure I did something, but I didn’t write about it and subsequently forgot.

This year I have nothing planned on this day, but I did smoke tri-tip with my cousins last weekend and that’s going to count.

Today is a big day of reflection for me. I’ve been reading my annual anniversary updates and looking back through pictures of all my exploits. 

For some reason this picture from the day before my injury sticks in my head: 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rob Balucas (@robbalucas)

It represents my normal routine back then, working from a favorite coffee shop in the city. It also represents finding joy in everyday things like this coffee cup.

I believe that taking a minute – before getting on with work – to recognize and relish in such a small moment is a key component to the attitude and underlying character that allowed me to quickly get back to living after paralysis.

It’s a choice to take a minute. A choice we all are capable of making.
(And this is the whole thesis to this writing and most writing I do.)

Which brings us to today.

We’re 7 years into this wheelchair journey. 
I’m 45 years into life as of last week.
We’re 31 days from the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona.

The biggest thing that has been coming up in the last year is what I call ‘Cynicism Creep’.

Reading my past entries, there’s a LOT of positive. A lot of excitement and a lot of high vibration. But last year I missed writing an annual update. I wrote about the circumstances in last week’s blog. 

Add to that the pandemic, the state of conflict both in our country and around the world, and – this particular week – the HEAT wave here in the west.  The tone of our world gives plenty of reason to get cynical.

So where does that leave us? 

Here’s where it leaves me: Focus on what we can control. Create beauty, create smiles where we can.

What if we all were more attentive to our Cynicism Creep? Could we change the course of things big and small in our world? I think so.

Some experts also think so:

Kona, this blog, and pictures of my coffee cup are my efforts.

What are yours?


So about the wine

I tried to NOT ask for support this year. But I’ve found most days are battle to decide which gets more attention: training/rest/recovery or work. Working for myself, I only get paid for the time I work. Travel, physical therapy, tires, tubes, little incidental things – they have been adding up.

So one last time for my personal journey.

Any contribution is welcome, if you’re willing and able! It means a ton financially – and I kid you not – emotionally it means just as much, if not more.  Links are below.

And if you’re down with great wine, at $200 we’ll ship you a bottle of Housley’s Century Oak Winery 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon with a custom #teambalucas label (shown above).

Details below. Links here:

works too (better actually) »

contribute now »

Use this link to send me your mailing address – click here.


progress report 88%

$5,000 of $5,000


Details:

Shipping: If you are in Southern California and we’ll most likely see each other soon, you can subtract $20 in shipping costs if you choose. 

Timing: we may still wait until favorable wine shipping weather (read: not so hot). But expect it before Halloween.

If you don’t want wine or want to contribute less: that’s perfectly fine too. Just send me a message/email/text if you don’t want the wine.

How the wine came to be: read about my connection to the Housley Family.

September 5, 2022

2022: The Year of Doing


40 days until I’m at the start line of the Kona IRONMAN World Championships.



10 days until the 7-year anniversary of my spinal cord injury.


I haven’t written much at all this year. I’ve been caught up in the doing and struggle to keep doing. I’ve found myself to be my own cliche of someone training for IRONMAN who can’t do anything without thinking / talking about / bringing up IRONMAN.

I found it very true that for the average person it takes A LOT of focus to train for something like this.

I set this goal in 2017.

I qualified for Kona in 2019.
I strategically decided to go to the half IRONMAN World Championships that year because we didn’t believe I was ready.

In 2020, all races were canceled.

In 2021, I qualified again and took the ticket Kona. But again, the race was canceled – or postponed – due to the Omicron surge for another year.

Here we are in 2022 and in the final stretch.

It’s been an exceptionally long road. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve had to deal with exhausted feelings of giving up since last year when Kona was postponed and then my ‘substitute’ race that same month – IRONMAN California in Sacramento – was canceled the morning of the race due to a ‘Bomb Cyclone’ storm throwing down cold and rain. Oh and then I got a shoulder injury the following winter.

I constantly have to take it back to my ‘why’.

Why did I want to do this?

1 – I want to be a man who does what he says he is going to do. Especially when the doing is hard.

2 – When my accident happened, I knew there were two buckets I could fall in. One is the victim bucket of despair where no one will argue. Living from a wheelchair is hard. The second bucket is one of perseverance. Where people choose to make the best of what they’re given, no matter the circumstances.

That second bucket contains a secret in plain sight about joie de vivre (enjoyment of life).

That secret is this: sussing out the joie de vivre in every circumstance has a momentum, a reciprocity to it. The more you seek, the more you find. And the easier it is to find more.

AND, you do in fact, attract other people who seek the same.

So (insert grin) this is going somewhere, follow with me:

In 2019, I went to the half IRONMAN World Championships in Nice, France and didn’t finish the race. I still haven’t told the complete story, but in short, I missed the bike cut-off because of a technicality.

I was incredibly pissed, disappointed, and angry.

When I got back to town and Erika handed me my phone, the first message I saw was from a college friend, Arik Housley. He basically said something to the effect of, ‘you inspire us in turning your circumstances into something positive.’

Hearing that from him completely changed my perspective in that instant.

You see Arik and his wife, Hannah, lost their daughter in a mass shooting during her first semester away at the same college where Arik, Hannah and I had graduated decades earlier. A man walked into a popular country line dancing venue and opened fire.

From that immense loss, Arik and Hannah have created a foundation that supports mental health. They ask an incredibly powerful question: what if we were just more kind to one another? Could that change a stranger’s path?

My feelings of anger changed in that instant to gratitude. From, ‘I DIDN’T GET TO finish the race’ to ‘I GET TO race this triathlon; in the French Riviera; supported by my partner, Erika, and whole host of friends and family.’

This is what I mean by the perseverance bucket’s reciprocity. At a moment when I was low, others in this bucket lifted me right up.

This is where wine comes in.

You read that right.

So Arik and Hannah’s family are in the wine business in the Napa Valley. They are supporting #teambalucas with a special edition label of Housley’s Century Oak Wine. (2017 Cabernet Sauvignon, for those who are wondering)

To assist in raising the last minute funds to race the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona and beyond, we are offering the special edition bottle shipped to your door for a minimum $200 contribution.

If you are in Southern California and we’ll most likely see each other soon, you can subtract $20 in shipping costs or leave it in for on-going training and coaching expenses.

The label is being designed and finalized by yours truly. With 41 days left, we need to start the campaign before it’s finished!

Below you can contribute the PayPal fundraiser or use Venmo.

You can use this link to send me your mailing address – click here.

If you don’t want wine or want to contribute less or more – that’s perfectly fine too. Just send me a message/email/text if you don’t want the wine.

Thanks once again. I couldn’t do it without you!

Last logistic note: after the production run, we may still wait until favorable wine shipping weather (read: not so hot). But expect it before Halloween.


progress report 88%

$5,000 of $5,000


contribute now »
works too (better actually) »

Use this link to send me your mailing address – click here.

August 26, 2022

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