Newsflash.....

Jeff wouldn't post this himself so I'm posting this for him. :) He does great things and loves the outdoors as long as it's cloudy and cool...... - like hiking the Grand Canyon (22 miles) and running a triathlon sprint. We are very proud of him. :) Sorry no pictures because he left at 5:30 am and I decided not to wake up the kids - we went to t-ball instead.

THE FLASH

So if you haven’t already heard, I embarked on a new experience last weekend. I decided I was going to do a triathlon. The triathlon I did was a 400 meter swim, a 10.3 mile bike ride and a 3 mile run. I set up a great plan to train and prepare for the triathlon, and true to form I spent a lot of time eating out, drinking too much soda and not getting enough sleep. Needless to say, Saturday rolled around and I was far from competition form. Many people asked me if I was crazy or wondered if I knew what I was getting myself into, but only one person asked me to give up my spot for someone else.

I personally thought, hey I can run three miles (sort of) and I can bike 10 miles so this shouldn’t be a big deal. I didn’t put much stock into the whole swimming part, and had somehow convinced myself I could get through it. It all turned out okay, but I will admit training might have helped me out a bit.

I didn't die, which is a positive result, and I wasn’t super sore afterwards, but the ego took a nice shot to the arm. I started the day by putting myself near the end of the line to start the swim as I knew I would be slower than most… my prediction was right. 17 minutes and 55 seconds later, a short fat man (in spandex!!!… I know sorry, I should have warned you about that… cleanup on aisle nine) rolled out of the pool and today finds himself as the 429 fastest person out of 434 people. Now there is something to brag about.

Later on I was able to pick up some time as I improved my placing with the run and the swim. By improving my placing I do mean that I was 368 in the bike (55:36 - including transition times -I just had to add that as I'm not that slow) and 376 in the run (40:11 - I am that slow), to find myself at the end of the day as the 418 fastest person out of 434 (a grand total of 1:53:42). I was in the top 96 percentile of racers finishing the race. I’m pretty proud of that!

There were other moments not to be so proud of. The sixty something year chubby old woman passing me on the run, while giving me encouragement and ensuring me I was doing fine, made me want to crawl under a rock and die, but I powered on. Maybe powered is too strong of a word, rumble may be a better term for my movements. Ultimately I finished “strong” (i.e. the definition of strong is “crossing the finish line while not tripping and falling or throwing up in front of the whole crowd while having the fast skinny people cheer you on and yell words of encouragement such as “you are doing great”, “good job”, “way to go”… which all in fact translate to good job tubby way to not die today.”)

All in all it was a good time. I encourage each of you to try one. I’ll be doing it again next year and hope to run a few more in the meantime. It really was a lot of fun, and if I can do it, who couldn't. Besides I was faster than 16 people that day. I might just beat you too!