“While some attempt to win every lap around the track, it is crucial to remember that to
succeed you have to be around to finish.”
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015
Morning Summary: Crude oil, dollar and the stock market are all higher to start the day
as the European Central Bank leaves rates “unchanged.” Here at home economic data will
pick up with most traders focused on U.S. housing numbers and corporate earnings. The
FHFA House Price Index for August is expected to show a slight +0.5% gain. Year-onyear, that would put home prices up close to +6.0%. September Existing Home Sales data
will also be released and is seen rebounding by +0.8% to an annual rate of 5.35 million.
That would follow a pretty steep decline of -4.8% in August so an increase in this report
could help lift investor sentiment about the U.S. economy. As for earnings, there will be
over 200 companies reporting results today, including Alphabet (Google), Altera, Amazon,
AT&T, Caterpillar, Capital One, Dunkin Brands, Dow Chemical, Dr. Pepper-Snapple, Eli Lilly,
Juniper, McDonalds, Microsoft, Piper Jaffray, Raytheon, Southwest, T Rowe Price, Under
Armor and Union Pacific. I should also mention we seem to be moving forward somewhat
on the political front as outgoing Speaker John Boehner sets dates for the new speaker
elections. Republicans will hold their own internal vote next Wednesday, October 28 with
the full House election following the next day. Paul Ryan is still trying to gain support from
Conservative caucus members before tossing his name in the hat, but seems a step closer.
Current Vice-President Joe Biden also formally announced yesterday that he would NOT
be running for the Democratic nomination. Lets also not forget the deadline for raising the
U.S. debt ceiling is right around the corner, November 3rd, and without new leadership
current Speaker Boehner may have a tough time uniting party members in a deal. There
is also concern that Republicans have made no real advances in developing a plan to deal
with the debt ceiling or the budget deadline in early December amid their preoccupation
with the Speaker race...meaning things in Washington could get a bit more interesting in
the coming weeks. As for me, I’m still having a tough time justifying how this market can
continue to be lead higher by the bounce in the energy sector. The energy sector simply
doesn’t address the larger longer-term looming concerns surrounding monetary policy,
strength of the U.S. dollar and the slowdown in the emerging markets. My belief is large
investors are simply shifting risk and trying to add some type of “value” to their portfolios
rather than holding a handful of cards that bank exclusively on “growth.” I still believe
there’s more troubles ahead in the energy sector which ultimately may keep the stock
market from surging higher.
Met’s Daniel Murphy Sets Record: Even though I’m a Cub’s fan, I have to tip my
hat to Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy, who won the NLCS MVP by hitting a home
run in six consecutive playoff games. He also joined Lou Gehrig as the only players in
baseball history with seven straight postseason games with a hit, a run and an RBI.
Huge Build In U.S. Crude Inventories: The EIA says U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 8.03 million barrels to 476.6 million barrels, the highest level seen since the
end of May. An increase was expected as refineries are still in maintenance season, but
the jump was more than twice what many had forecast. The increase also came amid
a slight uptick in refinery capacity, which rose to 86.4% compared to 86% the week
before. Crude production was basically unchanged at 9.1 million barrels per day.
What Does Canada’s Gloomy Outlook Mean For The U.S.? The Bank of Canada
left interest rates “unchanged” yesterday, saying the economy was rebounding slightly
from oil-price-driven contraction in the first half of the year. However, they downgraded the economic outlook in the face of “complex” aftershocks of lower prices for oil and
other commodities. “Lower prices for oil and other commodities since the summer have
further lowered Canada’s terms of trade and are dampening business investment and
exports in the resource sector,” the bank said in its statement. GDP is now forecast
in 2016 at 2%, down from a previous 2.3%, with 2017 cut to 2.5% from a previous
2.6%. The bank also noted that growth prospects may continue to deteriorate due to
“capacity destruction”, some of which may never come back. If realized, the pessimistic forecast is likely to put on hold any interest rate hikes the central bank had been
pondering, just as the U.S. Fed is moving closer to raising rates here. That could mean
an even lower Canadian dollar - now trading at around 77 cents to the USD - which
raises the price of U.S. imports. Remember, Canada is our largest trading partner,
importing over $330 billion in U.S. goods and accounting for over $630 billion in total
trade. Certainly something to think about...
OPEC Close To Curbing U.S. Crude Output Growth: After a year suffering the economic consequences of the oil price slump, OPEC says they are finally on the cusp of
choking off growth in U.S. crude output. The nation’s production is almost back down
to the level pumped in November 2014, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries switched its strategy to focus on battering competitors and reclaiming
market share. While cratering prices and historic cutbacks in drilling have taken their
toll on the U.S., OPEC members have also paid a heavy price. A year of plunging government revenues, growing budget deficits and slumping currencies has left several
members grappling with severe economic problems. The fact that the U.S. oil boom
kept going for about six months after the group’s November decision also means OPEC
has so far succeeded only in bringing the market back to where it started. Still, Mike
Wittner, head of oil markets research at SocGen in London says, “The bottom line is
the re-balancing has begun.” I should also point out that several analyst are worried
that any type of setback in global demand would complete send then energy sector
into a complete meltdown. (Source: Bloomberg)
Weather in the Desert Southwest continued to see heavy rains fall in parts of Arizona,
Colorado and New Mexico yesterday. Mild, dry weather covers the remainder of the West.
Soil moisture shortages remain a concern with respect to Northwestern winter wheat
establishment. On the Plains, rain is developing from Nebraska to Texas, bringing much
needed moisture for winter wheat establishment. In the northern Plains, dry, mild weather
continues. In the Corn Belt, late-season warmth and dry conditions continue to promote a
rapid fieldwork pace. Dry weather also favors Midwestern winter wheat planting. Like we
mentioned all week, a slow moving storm system emerging from the Southwest will provide significant drought relief but also cause flash flooding in the south-central U.S.. Fiveday rainfall totals could reach 2 to 5 inches on the Southern High Plains; 2 to 6 inches in
the western Gulf Coast region; and 3 to 7 inches on the southeastern Plains. Showers will
overspread the northern and central Plains, though totals from Nebraska to the Dakotas
will be mostly an inch or less. Scattered showers will also reach the Ohio Valley and the
Midwest, but mostly dry weather will prevail in the southern Atlantic States and the Far
West. The 5 to 10 day outlook for October 26 - 30 calls for the likelihood of warmer than
normal weather across the western U.S. and the lower Southeast, while near to below normal temperatures will cover the southeastern Plains, mid-South, Midwest and Northeast.
Near to above normal precipitation across most of the country will contrast with drier than
normal conditions in parts of the Midwest.
Possible Major Flash Flooding in the Southern Plains: Flash flood watches have
been issued by the National Weather Service for parts of west Texas, eastern New
Mexico and western Oklahoma. Much of the rain in these parts and the surrounding region will be beneficial to winter wheat, however, Texas cotton harvest could be stalled
and may even see some localized damage/quality declines. Below is an estimation of
the rainfall in inches for Thursday through Sunday evening.
Corn traders are being lulled to sleep by narrow trading ranges. There’s simply very little
fresh or new to report right now. The U.S. harvest is coming out of the field extremely fast
with very few complications. The crop in South America is being planted and there’s still a
ton of time and weather uncertainties ahead of us. Weather bulls are talking more about
dry-pockets starting to form across a larger portion of the U.S. corn belt. Obviously this
isn’t a problem as of yet, but if we don’t start seeing some increased rainfall it might be
another bullish card in the deck come early-2016. We also have the talk and uncertainty
surrounding second-crop corn acres in Brazil. How many acres will get planted and will the
weather cooperate allowing strong yields? Remember, there’s some question as to how
much money producers in both Argentina and Brazil will have in their budget to throw
at the upcoming corn crop. In other words if they don’t get ideal weather we could see
some substantial yield drag....stay tuned! On the demand side ethanol production here in
the U.S. remains strong at 951,000 barrels per day. I’m also hearing more talk from the
eastern corn belt that ethanol plants are bidding up aggressively in some are for new-corp
corn, some folks talking about +35 to +45 cent premiums. As a producer I’m still looking
for some possible momentum to form in late-2015 or perhaps early-2016.
Soybeans bulls continue to talk about strong demand from the Chinese and more uncertainty regarding politics in Brazil. There’s starting to be some more heated talks and
debate circulating inside the trade that current President Dilma Rousseff is moving closer
to being impeached. On the other hand, most all of the bears seem content discounting
the current political uncertainty, fears regarding delays in Brazilian planting and South
American weather complications, deeming it simply too early and not nearly dire enough
to be fearful. The bears also continue to talk about the fact many analyst inside Brazil
are thinking if weather cooperates they will once again produce another record crop. Last
years record crop was just over 96 million metric tons, a lot of people are thinking the upcoming crop could shatter the record and end up somewhere between 100 and 103 million
metric tons, essentially an extra 150 to 250 million bushels more. As both a producer and
a spec, I’ll be keeping a close eye on prices the next few sessions as we start approach
more heavy technical resistance between the $9.20 and $9.40 area. A breakout beyond
this area would certainly change the dynamics of the game!
Wheat continues to hover around the $5.00 level as the bulls question upcoming production in the Black Sea region, parts of Australia and areas inside the U.S.. The bears on the
other hand continue to stick with the argument of ample global supplies and extremely
suspect U.S. export demand. There’s also talk of better rainfall being forecast for dry areas in Ukraine and the southern parts of Russia, still some arguments being made that
the crop is going to go into more extreme winter conditions not very well established. Like
I’ve said several times the past few weeks, we seem to simply be caught in a tug-of-war
between the two camps with neither seeming to have the noticeable upper-hand. Yes, the
USDA might have Australia’s crop estimated some 3-4 MMTs too high and several areas
inside Russ and Ukraine are having trouble getting the crop in the ground, but with such
burdensome global supply the trade really doesn’t seem all that concerned. Conditions this
winter will obviously need to be monitored, but I’m starting to think it might be more like
the 2nd Quarter of 2016 before we get a chance to reduce additional price risk. Meaning it
might not be until weather uncertainties are confirmed during April and May that the bulls
get more excited. I’m still seeing strong technical resistance up in the $5.20 to $5.30 area.
2015 Fall Harvest Insurance Averages:
Corn $3.84^4
Soybeans $8.92^4
​ ​American’s Are Driving More: Over the last 12 months ending in July (latest data
>
available from the U.S. Department of Transportation), for example, miles driven in the
U.S. are up 3.2% and July itself posted a 4.2% advance from last year. These trends have
been in place since last December, when oil prices began to drop, and the last time comps
were +3% was 15 years ago. Data from the U.S. Department of Energy for gasoline consumption confirms that Americans are driving substantially more, with product supplied
up 3.0% year over year –growth rates more consistent with the 1990s or early 2000s than
anything after 2004. So what’s going on? We can point to two factors. First, most Americans commute to work by car (85% in all) so perhaps the U.S. labor market is stronger
than the official data. Second, lower gasoline prices seem to be encouraging travelers to
drive rather than fly. Google searches with the words “Drive to” are up +50% since 2012,
while “fly to” searches are basically flat. Unfortunately, the last time miles driven grew by
3-5% (the range of year on year comps in 2015) for this many months was in 2000, right
at the end of the dot com bubble. Road trip anyone? I call shotgun. (Source: CONVERGEX)
> Ethanol Production Week Ending October 9: Weekly ethanol production averaged
951,000 barrels per day, up +0.21% from last week and up +6.14% compared to last
year. Stocks rose to 18.872 million barrels, down -0.44% from last week and up +5.20%
from last year. Total corn usage was estimated at 99.86 million bushels.
> Farmland Index Shows Orchards Top Returns: The National Council of Real Estate
Investment Fiduciaries (Ncreif) farmland index showed US orchard land delivered higher
crop returns and price appreciation than arable land over the three months to September
30. The index showed that total returns for farmland investments ran at 2.45% over the
period, comprised of 0.96% land price appreciation and 1.49% income return from crop
sales. This is up from 1.45% this time last year, and 1.16% in the previous three month
period. Although Ncreiff said the expansion in farmland prices “has matured”, total annual
farmland returns ran at 12.74% over the last year, comprising an income return of 8.08%
with a price appreciation of 4.42%. Permanent cropland, which is land planted with trees
or other perennial plants such as orchards, yielded higher returns than annual cropland
like corn, which is replanted each year. Permanent cropland yielded 3.26% over the period, compared to 1.80% from annual cropland. Over the past year, permanent cropland
had a 23.98% total return, which is more than five times the 4.54% total return for annual
cropland, according to Ncreiff. (Source: Agrimoney)
> El Nino Unlikely To Cause A Spike In Global Ag Prices: In its latest Commodity
Markets Outlook, the World Bank says the current El Nino weather pattern is unlikely to
cause a spike in global agricultural prices because of ample supplies of most agricultural
commodities and weak links between global and domestic prices. This is consistent with
the limited impact on global markets of past El Niño episodes. To date, global agricultural
prices have declined while those of key domestic markets have not shown large deviations
from trends due to El Niño. However, El Niño could be a source of significant local disruptions in the most affected regions, the Outlook says. In particular, the weather pattern is
likely to have a greater impact on more isolated local food markets, which are not linked
to international markets. The full report is available for download HERE.
> Chinese Sugar Imports Up +80%: China’s September sugar imports were up +80.1%
in September at 660,000 metric tons. Traders told Reuters that up to half of that could
end up in bonded warehouses as buyers failed to get customs permits. The government is
trying to limit imports in 2015 to 3.8 million metric tons, which means the excess may not
be allowed into the country until next year, which could keep a lid on 2016 buying.
> China Crude Stocks Rise For Fourth Straight Month: China registered a crude stock
build for the fourth straight month in September at 784,000 b/d on an increase in net imports and a decline in refinery throughput, Platts calculations based on recently released
official data showed. The crude stock build compared to the 47,000 b/d rise in August.
China does not release official data on stocks. Platts calculates China’s net crude stock
draw or build by subtracting refinery throughput from the country’s crude oil supply. The
build in September resulted in an average of 755,000 b/d of stock build, or total 92 million barrels, over this stockbuilding wave that started in June -- higher than the 572,700
b/d, or total 68.72 million barrels, in the previous four-month wave seen over November
2014 to February 2015. Plants expects the wave to extend to November. (Source: Platts)
> Syngenta’s CEO Steps Down: Mike Mack has resigned his position as CEO of Syngenta, effective the end of October. CFP John Ramsay will step into the role on an interim
basis. The announcement sparked speculation that change could prompt Monsanto to rekindle their bid from the company, but a source told Reuters that Ramsay is not a member
of the board and not likely to become one - meaning the original attitude toward a takeover isn’t likely to change, at least not with Ramsay.
> GMO Apples And Wendy’s Policy Statement: Environmental group Friends of the
Earth issued a press release this week announcing that fast food chain Wendy’s confirmed
it would not be selling the genetically modified Arctic Apple variety. FOE included in the release comments from Center for Food Safety, another environmental group, that praised
Wendy’s “commitment.” To be clear, what Wendy’s later actually said was, “At this time,
the varieties of apples we use in the U.S. are all non-GMO and we have no plans to change
our sourcing.” Neal Carter, president of the apple’s developer Okanagan Specialty Fruits,
pointed out that currently isn’t enough supply of the Arctic Apples for any restaurant to
use them, and there won’t be for some time.
> World Life Expectancy: The World Life Expectancy website has an enormous amount
of information regarding human mortality. Click HERE to check out a real-time interactive
map of the one shown below. If you go to their home page, there are many other available
data sets that delve into various causes of death around the world, health rankings and a
ton of research on aging and longevity. Very interesting stuff!
Central Iowa – We’re almost through harvesting the best crop we’ve ever had. We
should be around 10 percent higher than our APH on both corn and beans. We finished
up harvesting beans early last week. It was a little slow going as the stems stayed green
even though the beans were dry. That made it a little more difficult and slower going to
get them cut. We should finish up shelling corn over the weekend. We’re having a little lull
in the action today due to our first rain in a month. It only amounted to a few tenths, but
anything helps as we’re a little dry and dusty here.
Western Wisconsin - About a week ago, some of our beans with little to no pods, green
stems, etc. were hit by a hard freeze, ultimately killing them. Found out from my brother,
who heads up our farm, that they were SB and B food grade from North Dakota. It was a
very early maturity bean and upon talking to the rep, he told of lots of green stem syndrome this year. It must have only been in the food grade beans apparently because I
haven’t heard about any other problems on this site. The beans are to bring $4 a bushel
more than Chicago because of the reduced yield. We have a little left to combine and it’s
looking like they will come in between 25 - 30 bushel per acre. On a side note, we had a
different variety of foodies across the road and they look awesome. Started there over the
weekend, but the moisture was almost 17%. Evidently, the food grade beans take longer
to dry, so we’ll try back there again tomorrow. Needless to say, we are probably going to
give up on raising food grade in the future.
Texas Panhandle - We actually got a little moisture as a front moved through and
dropped about an inch and a half of rain last night. It will probably shut guys down for a
couple days. It would normally shut guys down a little longer but it has been very warm
and the wind has been blowing quite hard. We have been cutting corn and milo for the last
few weeks. Our dryland milo has made some pretty unbelievable yields this year. Most of
our milo has made between 3000# to 5000# per acre, with the normal yield being down
around 1500# per acre. The lower yields are typical when we don’t get the rains like this
year. The corn acres that we have are all irrigated. In this part of the country we can have
some good corn yields if we can catch some rains to help the pivots. This year was slightly
higher than a typical year. Our corn yields across all farms were right at 250bpa.
What Does Argentina’s Election Mean For Crop Production? Sunday will see Argentina go to the polls, in a presidential election that is likely to prove crucial Argentina’s
agricultural prospects. The winner, who will take power before the end of the year, will
be faced with the choice of whether or not to unravel a web of currency controls, export
taxes and trade barriers. The moves could be dangerous in an economy where the threat
of consumer inflation looms large, but as Agrimoney explains, one group who are likely to
be hoping for a loosening of restrictions are Argentina’s beleaguered farmers.
Climate Change Slams Global Economy In New Study: A novel analysis of temperature records conducted by Stanford and Berkeley shows climate change could cause 10
times as much damage to the global economy as previously estimated, slashing output as
much as 23 percent by the end of the century. The study looked at national temperature
records through time, then compared various countries’ economic output in average years
with that in warming years. Once they calibrated this analysis, the researchers took the
second step, applying it to the mostly widely accepted climate change scenarios. They
found that if the economies continue to respond to heat the way they have in the past,
most of the world is in for a rough ride. Read more from Bloomberg.
Why Do Some Great Athletes Choke? The “Bounce” by Matthew Syed is an interesting look at the science of success, filled with stories and interviews of some of the most
recognized names in sport. One of the big questions was why would an elite athlete suddenly play like a beginner? According to Syed, It comes down to the two ways your mind
functions when completing tasks; it uses explicit and implicit monitoring. A novice will use
much more conscious or explicit monitoring as they are learning, trying to focus, and trying to remember. An expert has put in the time and gotten to the point where there is a
switch to the unconscious or implicit mind. It’s when these two get confused that athletes
greatly struggle. IN fact many studies found the athletes problem was not a lack of focus,
but too much focus. Conscious monitoring had disrupted the smooth workings of the implicit system. The sequencing and timing of the different motor responses were fragmented, just as they would be with a novice. They were, effectively, beginners again! There’s
a great article by Shane Parish on the Farnam Street website where all of this came from.
I encourage you to give it a read.
What You Learned In Preschool Is Crucial At Work: For all the jobs that machines
can now do — whether performing surgery, driving cars or serving food — they still lack
one distinctly human trait. They have no social skills. Yet skills like cooperation, empathy
and flexibility have become increasingly vital in modern-day work. Occupations that require strong social skills have grown much more than others since 1980, according to new
research. And the only occupations that have shown consistent wage growth since 2000
require both cognitive and social skills. Some economists and technologists see this trend
as cause for optimism: Even as technology eliminates some jobs, it generally creates oth-
ers. Yet to prepare students for the change in the way we work, the skills that schools
teach may need to change. Social skills are rarely emphasized in traditional education.
Read more HERE.
You Won’t Believe This Badminton Rally: You’ll have to take a quick second and watch
this incredible back and forth between Lee Chong Wei and Wei Nan at the end of the 2015
Denmark Open. While I don’t watch much Badminton this 43-shot rally kind of reminded
me of myself back in the day:) From what I understand Wei Nan ended up going on to
beat the former number one Lee Chong Wei and winning the Denmark Open. Click HERE
Chinese Soybeans... The “GMO vs. Non-GMO” Debate Continues
We know China is the largest importer of soybeans in the world, however a new study
by Scientific Reports shows that China is in a struggle to balance public concern over the
safety of genetically modified crops (GMOs) with a rising demand for affordable food.
China continues to see domestic soybean fields shrinking -- which by law are non-GMO
beans -- all the while massive imports of cheaper soybeans that are the very genetically
modified crops consumers and officials supposedly profess to shun pour into the country.
The price of domestic non-GM soybeans can obviously not compete with that of imported
GMO soybeans, thereby leading to a decline in the amount of area devoted to soybean
production in China. Interestingly, researchers from Michigan State University who undertook this study found that food safety concerns are important to the Chinese consumers,
but in this case they seem to be pretending not to notice. How drastically would the game
change if China started allowing producers to aggressively plant GMO soybeans, or the
government was pressured hard enough by the public to start limiting the imports of GMO
soybeans. Below are a few additional interesting facts about soybeans:
• Chinese soybean imports exceeded exports for
the first time in 1995 and have been growing
ever since. By 2010 the Chinese where importing well over half of the worlds available soybean exports.
•
• 80% of al the soybeans consumed in China this
past year were believed to be imported, primarily from the United States and Brazil.
•
• By 2007 over 90% of all soybeans produced
in the U.S. where genetically modified. That number is now closer to 95%. Brazil is
thought to be about the same with 95% genetically modified. Argentina is closer to
100% genetically modified.
•
• Since 2000 soybean acres in the U.S. have increased from around 74 million to more
than 84 million; Brazil has gone from 34 million soybean acres in 2000 to now close to
80 million; Argentina soybean acres have gone from around 24 million to now over 51
million.
CrowdMed Can Help You Cure Your Ailments
When you feel your suffering from some type of weird medical symptom that doctors can’t
diagnose, you have a new place to turn for help. CrowdMed is a site that harnesses the
“wisdom of the crowd” to help solve truly baffling medical problems. Think of it as “House”,
but on the internet. Patients that are battling confounding medical issues can submit their
symptom information, including full medical history and records, and for $50 a group of
medical detectives will attempt to solve the case. The detectives include physicians as
well as other contributors that have backgrounds in research, medicine and education.
Since launching in April 2013, the site has resolved over 1,000 real-world medical cases,
with around ​60% of patients claiming the service successfully brought them closer to a
correct diagnoses. Co-founder Jared Heyman knows from experience how frustrating and
financially devastating a mystery medical condition can be. His sister Carly began experiencing strange symptoms when she was just 18. Her parents took her to no less than
16 specialists and racked up over $100,000 in medical bills trying to find an answer. An
interdisciplinary team of physicians at the NIH Undiagnosed Disease Program in Bethesda,
Maryland were the ones to finally give her a correct diagnosis and all of her debilitating
symptoms disappeared with the use of a simple hormone patch. Her condition is extremely
rare, and therein lies the issue with finding a diagnosis sometimes. There are over 13,000
recognized medical diseases. Over 7,000 of those are considered rare conditions, meaning less than 200,000 people on the planet are affected by them. There is no conceivable
way one person could be even remotely familiar with most of these conditions. And the
more rare a disease is, the less general knowledge there is floating around about it. Heyman had seen first hand that “the wisdom of crowds” was a powerful tool in this arena.
The phenomenon has shown that large and intellectually-diverse crowds tend to be much
smarter than even the smartest individual experts in the world. The site also utilizes a
performance-based reputation system to vet their medical detectives, which means they
must prove their diagnostic skills in order to gain influence. The whole thing seems like an
ingenious idea and could potentially be a life changer for people that have long suffered
from a mysterious illness. Check out CrowdMed for more info!
Unbelievable Ironman Feat!
As if a full-blown “Ironman” competition isn’t enough, how about completing fifty different
courses, in fifty different states, in fifty consecutive days? That’s exactly what James “Iron
Cowboy” Lawrence has done. If you’re wondering how he got the name “iron cowboy,” it’s
because he likes to do all of the events wearing his cowboy hat. Keep in mind each ironman
course includes a 26.2-mile run, a 2.4-mile swim and a 112-mile bike ride. Lawrence supposedly did this crazy feat to help raise awareness and funds for a non-profit that combats
childhood obesity. At the end of every running portion
of his Ironman’s, he invited supporters from around
the U.S. to join him and run the final 5K of the race.
The marathon of mega-marathons kicked off June 6 at
midnight in Kauai, Hawaii, and concluded July 25 in the
native Utahan’s home state. Along the way, Lawrence
raised $68,000. Think about this, he essentially biked
5,600 miles, ran 1,310 miles, and swam 120 miles all
in just 50 days. Lawrence said it was absolutely grueling because he didn’t completely factor in how long it
would take him to unwind and fall sleep. Most of his
team estimated at best he was only getting around 4
hours of sleep per night. He was asked which states
were the toughest and he said Arizona and Tennessee.
Why Tennessee? He said he fell asleep and fell off his
bike and crashed at around mile 30, then had to finish
the ride with a lot of nasty road rash. I thought it was
also interesting when he told reports he drastically underestimated the damage it would do to his feet. He
said his feet were just destroyed – blisters in between
his toes, and toenails constantly falling off. From what I understand he was completing
each Ironman course in about 14 hours. His best time was posted at his last event in Utah
where he finished in about 11.5 hours, with an extremely strong 4:23 marathon time. I
almost forgot to mention, James Lawrence is the proud father of five terrific children and
will soon be turning 40! If you would like to learn more you can visit his IronCowboy website or his Facebook page HERE.