Is summer over?

hey, i know it's been a while. We've been travelling, and well, last night i got caught up in James Bond "Die another day". When did those movies get SO hokey ? I mean, that para-surfing scene was beyond reason. And tonight I've got Andre Agassi to watch. Might be his last. kiss, kiss, bow, bow.... oh, and the all important pre-season Seahawks.

but i'll get on the trip report and photos, soon. sure.

And we've been running... 11 miles on Wed. and tomorrow we've got to pedal 50. Better go fill the water bottles with whatever it was that Floyd used. Today we went to the gym. Re-introduced ourselves to staff and regulars. It's been a while.

Kiss, kiss, bow, bow.

Danskin pictures

our true blue buddies (michelle, pam, kathy and tami) who get up early to come watch our race. THANKS !
Doc Trish(blue shirt, no hat) and her peeps

Podium Pals, how many versions of this do we have? maybe that's reason for my blase-ness

More race BLING ! and then Karen (pink shirt) won a diamond pendant in the random drawing. Now that's real BLING

Another photo op for us. But check out the biker mirror on the glasses here.

Do you think she ran with it on her glasses after the bike portion? tri-GEEK.

Top Ten Finish !!

On Sunday, Gina and I, and 5000 of our friends competed in the Danskin sprint triathlon. This one is a quickie - .5 mile swim, 12 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. For many of them it is a first attempt at an athletic venture. Everybody is totally supportive, nice, friendly, but also trying to do their best. You see all ages, up to 79, and all body types (and I mean ALL ) . Another neat thing about this race is the group that goes off just before us is made up of breast cancer survivors. This year there were about 400. Every year that number gets larger. We have a friend, Trish, who is a survivor, who has done this race several times. This year she did it with friends & family. It was great to see them cross the finish line. Way to go Trish, Lizzie and Margaret, and Trish's sister who's name escapes me!

We got to high five Jean Enerson, local tv anchor, before the race, and of course Sally Edwards. She's the spokesperson / celebrity athlete for the race. She has done every Danskin race. There are about 6 or 8 in various cities across the country, for the last 12 years. Her gig is "She will finish last", so no one woman has to worry about being last place. Of course she's won many big races and done Ironman's.

The national anthem was sung, whilst I was making porta potty stop # 9. Actually quite the workout getting enough out of the wetsuit to take care of business in the confines of the porto potty. Nothing like working up a bit of a sweat before the race.

We saw lots of familiar faces before hand. Shannon, our relay teammate, and new friend was in our wave. Several gals from the gym. Karen, who turns 50 next year. She's tough, and fast, and we really need to have Val convince her how FUN the ELITE group was. Or we shall be bumping down the pecking order next year. Karen and Val manage to beat our times by ten minutes or more.

Did I forget to mention our times?? I did a 1:25:52 which was good for 3rd place. ON THE PODIUM ! And Gina did a 1:26:14, putting her in 6th place. TOP TEN !

I had a little bike chain mishap which cost me about 3 minutes. I was looking for the glove box for the operator manual on how to put it back on. Gina passed by hollering her condolences. I thanked her for her sympathy later as I passed her on the run.

The best part is post race hanging out and shooting the breeze, re-living every moment.
Sorry for the delay on this posting, my blog-a-friends, but Monday we had to ride 30 miles, and I was tired. And today I had to run 10, and I'm tired.

ok so I see the photos did not pop up. I shall go try again. and again. and again. ok,they should be down there somewhere, keep scrolling.

Rest Day

The Master's Rowing Assoc. National Regatta is being held this week, in our front yard/lake. Gina's team, the Conibears, are assisting with the production of this huge event. (1400 rowers)
She's not rowing this year, but felt compelled to volunteer some time with the set up. So we put in our hours of manual labor on Tuesday.

Races started this morning. We grabbed our coffee, binoc's and camera and went to lake's edge to watch. Our side of the lake is the warmup area. Races are on the other side so it's a bit hard to see the real action but at least I can get a shot of the Conibears during warmup. And of course, the mandatory baby duck photo. The blue sky lasted til we came back to the house. Then it rained. Wouldn't want these rowers from all across the country to think it's always nice weather here in Seattle.

Well, we have been busy with our workouts, trying to channel all that endurance that we've built up, into speed. Speed is such a relative term. Our next triathlon is a week from Sunday. Of course it is hard to work on one's bike speed when one's bike tire is busy going "psssssssssssssssstt" Arrghhhh the F word, again. Oh well, just a refresher course on changing the tube.

Time to find some head phones. Gina is whipping up her famous pesto and as much as I love it on my pasta, the sound of the grinding Cuisinart drives me crazy.