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One of Harper's friends from work, DJ Jeremiah, is on the cover of the Datebook today. Been meaning to go see him.
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June 28, 2007
June 27, 2007
June 26, 2007
June 25, 2007
Finished!
After six months, thirty pounds, and too many hours (and dollars) to count, it took me three hours, three minutes, and fifty three point seven seconds to swim from Alcatraz, and bike and run my way to and through the Presidio on Sunday.
I can't believe it.
It was a fantastic race and against all my expectations I had a wonderful time. I finished twenty five minutes ahead of my goal and felt great at the end. I had the idea that I would try to keep my heart rate below 170 the entire time, well below my lactate threshold, and I finished feeling like a million bucks. Sore? Yeah. Tired? Most definitely. Completely exhausted? No.
I began this as a way to do something, however insignificant, to honor my friend Lisa who has A.M.L.. That morning I grabbed a Livestrong bracelet and put it on to help me remember her and in some small way take her with me during the race. I wore another for a boy who is a cancer patient in Harper's hospital. I wanted the race yesterday to not just be about me, and in my mind, at least, it was not.
But I had not expected how much it was going to change my life. I feel like a different person, living in a different body than I did six months ago. I feel like I can do anything I set my mind to; I can pick a seemingly insurmountable goal and with a lot of work achieve it.
It also felt incredible to me that my dad flew all the way out here just to see this, that Harper provided me with so much support, that my friends Andre and Amber and Jeff and Aimee (with their week old baby!) came out early in the morning to come cheer for me, and for all the phone calls, emails, text messages and the like from my friends and family all over the country. It was amazing. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I feel like I have a lot more to say about all this but I am, quite honestly, still pooped and a little slow mentally today.
Again, thank you!
I can't believe it.
It was a fantastic race and against all my expectations I had a wonderful time. I finished twenty five minutes ahead of my goal and felt great at the end. I had the idea that I would try to keep my heart rate below 170 the entire time, well below my lactate threshold, and I finished feeling like a million bucks. Sore? Yeah. Tired? Most definitely. Completely exhausted? No.
I began this as a way to do something, however insignificant, to honor my friend Lisa who has A.M.L.. That morning I grabbed a Livestrong bracelet and put it on to help me remember her and in some small way take her with me during the race. I wore another for a boy who is a cancer patient in Harper's hospital. I wanted the race yesterday to not just be about me, and in my mind, at least, it was not.
But I had not expected how much it was going to change my life. I feel like a different person, living in a different body than I did six months ago. I feel like I can do anything I set my mind to; I can pick a seemingly insurmountable goal and with a lot of work achieve it.
It also felt incredible to me that my dad flew all the way out here just to see this, that Harper provided me with so much support, that my friends Andre and Amber and Jeff and Aimee (with their week old baby!) came out early in the morning to come cheer for me, and for all the phone calls, emails, text messages and the like from my friends and family all over the country. It was amazing. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I feel like I have a lot more to say about all this but I am, quite honestly, still pooped and a little slow mentally today.
Again, thank you!
June 22, 2007
June 21, 2007
June 20, 2007
June 19, 2007
The New Hottness
My race is this weekend, and nightmare scenario number one is getting a flat 1. To that end I went to Sports Basement yesterday evening and got some new tires, and put them on last night before dinner. It was goodbye to my old Continental Four Seasons, touring tires that have taken me upwards of 2,000 3,000 miles, and hello to shiny new Continental 4000 Grand Prix, racing tires. Red racing tires. 205 grams.
1. Actually, I guess it's number two. Number one is getting eaten by a shark. Silly, I know, but I saw Jaws at a formative age.
June 18, 2007
You Are Getting Old: How to Tell
I have watched, in alarm, as the hair on my head has begun to grow grey. Yet it is a silent alarm, and thanks to the slow spread, ongoing for ten years or so now, not something I get worked up about. Perhaps I'm not alarmed at all. Perhaps I'm merely peeved.
But there is a new development that I do view with worriment. Something that I wasn't really expecting yet, that has arrived (unbidden and unwelcome) a decade, perhaps two, earlier than I had anticipated.
Oh, Andy Rooney eyebrows, where do you want to fly, today?
June 14, 2007
What's In Your Dock?
June 13, 2007
June 12, 2007
June 11, 2007
Swim Bike Run: Sprint to the Finish
After nearly six months of non-stop training, I can finally call myself a triathlete. I raced in the Tri For Fun Sprint Triathlon this weekend at Rancho Seco Park near Sacramento, and it was absolutely one of the best things I've ever done. The race was a half-mile swim, 18-mile bike, and three-mile run. I finished in 1:34:46. I rode at 18.5 miles an hour, and ran an 8 minute mile pace. It was brutally hot, at least by my coastal northern California standards, and I felt like I gave it all I had, nearly puking after I crossed the finish. Want to see pictures? They are here.
On race day they had me listed as finishing 98th, which I was incredibly excited with, but the results posted online (which I assume factor in the various start times for different heats) list me at 140 out of 531. Oh well. That was a bit of a bummer, to drop 42 places, but I'm still quite happy with that finish which puts me (almost) in the top quarter. I'm still waiting for the results to post to see how I did in my division. I don't expect it will be that well; it's a tough division: Four out of the top ten finishers were in the 30-34 age group (including the only female) twice as many as any other. [Update: I placed 19 out of 47]
I had hoped to use this sprint as a dry run for Alcatraz coming up in two weeks, and to that extent it was a great success. I learned a lot. Although I've practiced transitions, and of course all three events, relentlessly, nothing compares to the real thing. Here's where I messed up:
- When I started out on the swim, I was completely jacked on adrenaline and just killed it as soon as the horn blew. I sprinted way too far, and found myself exhausted and gasping a few hundred yards out. I then had to pop my head up and tread water until I caught y breath. I would have been much better served to start strong until I got out of the scrum and then drop back immediately to my race pace. Rookie mistake.
- I ran through my transitions several times in the hotel room the night before, but when I got to T1 I completely lost my head. I had a plan of action to do everything in methodical order: Wetsuit off, helmet on, socks on, shoes on, etc. But when I got there, I didn't think, and just ran through things as they occurred to me. This didn't always make sense, and I also wasted time doing dumb things like drying off. I also floundered a bit with my wetsuit, which was completely unnecessary. I need to focus, and not let my head wander.
- I had forgotten to untie my running shoes when I set up my transition area. So at T2, when it was time to go from bike to run, I wound up spending extra time untying and then retying my shoes. Dumb. Yesterday, I replaced my shoelaces with laces locks.
- When I set up my transition area, I was really worried about being able to find it. So I put my bike on the end of a completely empty rack in the corner. A little more investigation would have showed me that Iw as setting up in the far back corner of the transition area, about as far away from the bike and run starts as I could get. I think I lost more time getting to and from there than I would have spent scanning for my bike.
All in all, I felt like I could have shaved another three or so minutes off just by racing smarter. I'm going to try to take those lessons with me in two weeks. But it was a phenomenal experience, and I'm proud to have finished it.
It was also incredible to have Harper there with me. When I was running out of juice at the end, seeing her and hearing her cheer for me, helped me pick it up again at the end. She suffered through two long drives, an incredibly early morning, and I couldn't appreciate it more. Making her proud means more to me than just about anything else in this world, and I'm so glad to be able to do it. Thanks, Harper. I love you.
