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.

More Racing

Gina ran in the Seafair Torchlight Parade 8K race on Sat. night. This race takes place just before the big parade and part of the race goes on 4th Ave, the parade route. Spectators for the parade are all along the route so it's fun and exciting to have such a crowd to run past.

Gina ran a really good time of 41:59. Good for 4th place in age group. The winner, a name we haven't seen before, did it in 36:41 Yowza ! Anyway, that's a great run for Gina. She decided to do it a couple days ago when she noticed the weather report called for cool temp's. Usually that race is very hot one.

Me? I was at a party. What can I say? duty calls. The host is my buddy Everett who subs for me at my volunteer gig at Bailey Boushay whenever I need.

We did put in some gym time and a swim today. Next up is the Danskin triathlon. As coach Lesley says, "we will turn our endurance into speed". Gina and I are still looking for that toggle switch.

Changing Floyd's name.... to DOPE

Jeez, just when you think you've got a "Feel Good" sports story... you get punched in the old bread basket. ( now there's an old timer term)

I want to believe ol Floyd. Really, I do. But I don't want to change my name to Dopey.
Maybe there's an explanation. Let's hope. Maybe these bicyclists should all move to Hollywood when they get suspended. They are so believable telling us they didn't / wouldn't ever do illegal drugs. I don't think the Academy drug tests for the Oscar.

It seems Arlene, Floyd's mom, is able to stay calm and rational about all this. If she can keep up that act thru this mess, well, then maybe the whole world should become Mennonite.

Peace.

Race Pictures by Val Ritchie, photographer extraordinaire

photos: rumor has it, if you click on the photo it will give a larger version. then click the Back button to continue.
The full narrative is after the photos. I think. I never know in what order these things will appear.



5:00am, two bikes

6:00am, lots of bikes

which way to the beer garden?

gina cruising along, looking good

ann's sprint finish

ann happy to be sitting

gina not sprint-finish

gina subtracting 12 minutes from the race clock for true finish time.

and then I had to walk...

let me just check my lap times.

not too tired to laugh

Ironwoman Coach Lesley with Tinman (half- iron) clients

All cleaned up w/ Finisher medals

Race Report

" Pulling a Brian Kirk"
F.Y.I. Brian Kirk is an old family friend who used to do these Ironmen races and write 4 page single spaced very detailed race reports. And we cracked wise about it. Now here I am doing the internet version.


As Krissy would sweetly say, " I DID it ! " Well, WE did it. Gina and I completed our first, and possibly last, half Ironman triathlon on July 23 in Lake Stevens, WA. Ironically we picked this particular race because it had the best chance of having cool weather. NOT !!! It was close to 90 degrees by the time we got to the running portion.

First the GOOD NEWS..... neither of us had a flat tire. So the day was a success in my book.
We wanted to have a finish time around 7 hours. I did 6:58:38 and Gina did 7:11:14.

We arrived at the site at 5:00 a.m. to set up our transition area, get body marked, get chip timers and have time to mill around, get nervous, use the porta potties about 100 times. Our age group was to start the swim at 7:12 a.m. All the younger, supposedly faster (OK, faster) people go off just before us.

The swim was out and back, and I still managed to go offline, so I'm sure I swam 1.5 miles instead of 1.2. More bang for my buck I guess. Once out of the water we stripped off the wetsuits and used the PPotty. In the transition zone, we put on a biking shirt, shoes, helmet, sunscreen, etc. One would think we also had brunch and made phone calls by looking at how long it took us - about 7 minutes. The serious folks do it all in under 2 minutes. so hurray for them.

Then we were off on our bikes. I started a few minutes ahead of Gina. My biggest worry, lots of fast riders on the road, whizzing by on the downhills, did not materialize. We practically had the road to ourselves. I loved it! Just pedalled along and every so often passed someone. Since we started last, virtually no one passed us. The bike portion was 2 laps of 28 miles each for a total of 56 miles. Shortly before the end of 1st loop, Gina came speeding up. I was wondering when she would show, as she is a slightly faster rider than I. We rode kind of together for a bit, then I took a short lead. At the end of the loop was a water bottle exchange. Being an idiot, I stopped and got one. Doing it the proper way, Gina grabbed one on the go. I never saw her go by. Then as the 2nd loop went along I came around a corner and who do I see up the hill? Gina. So I chugged on up, got ahead, and we rode the rest of the course that way. It works out great that we are about equal ability on the bikes.

On the 2nd lap there was more traffic on the road and a few sirens. We heard there were 3 bike crashes where they took people to the hospital. We passed one of the accidents; someone was on a stretcher. And another lady right in front of G, on an uphill, gear change ended in a slow-motion crash. That same lady had almost crashed into me. I called out the biker lingo "On your left" so of course she veered to her left. Yowza ! She was ok though. After that we decided to be really careful going down the hills. We both logged speeds of 40 mph down some of the hills ... very scary indeed.

At one corner on the 1st loop, one traffic cop gets a radio message and hollers to another cop that the Lead riders were 5 minutes away. He says this just as we pass. I got a big laugh from the crowd as I uttered that famous Bush-ism "Shit" . I did not want us to get lapped.

We had estimated an approx. 4 hour bike time, but I did 3:38 and G did 3:35, so we are really happy with that. The highlight for Gina was the deer that crossed the street right in front of her. I saw a couple of rats ... one alive and one dead.

We cruised into the transition area for another 5 minutes of PPotty break, more sunscreen, and shoes & shirt changes. We've been told that a lot of competitors pee while on their bikes so as not to lose time, but I will not/cannot pee while riding.... ick.

Coach Lesley was waiting to run with me. I immediately felt a not so little twinge in my knee. Something totally new and painful, and I knew that it was going to make the 13.1 miles very hard. UGH. But off we went and it was hotter than you know where. The 1st section of the course was a brutally ugly, hot, section of town. Imagine the part of town where they put the dump. Add to this the fact that there was almost no shade on the entire course. We saw guys (young, fit looking guys) walking. Bad sign. The run portion was also a 2 looper so we had to go out to the 'dump' twice. I stopped at every water station to drink some, pour over my head, and just to walk. I hate to walk. There were several spots that neighbors had their hoses out to sprinkle runners and that was a lifesaver. Lesley was great and encouraging. She headed back at one point to run a few miles with Gina then came back for me. She must have run about 18 miles. Of course our pace was way slower than her normal one. I thought about walking the last couple miles into the finish cuz my knee was aching, oh and for sure a blister had to kick in at mile 10. Every step was unpleasant but at mile 12 a gal passed us and her leg marking was 50. My age group! OMG! I never let same age-groupers pass me. So all of a sudden I reached into my suitcase of courage and found the means to run a bit faster. Lesley was surprised until she noticed the lady's leg and knew what I was thinking. It was hard to keep up but in the last few hundred yards I totally sprinted and passed her. I felt bad but those 10 seconds could have meant a podium place. :)

It didn't, as I placed 4th in our age group. Gina came in 6th out of the 10 50-55 year-olds. But I think we should discount the ringer from Calif. who finished in 5 1/2 hours. Don't you agree? A freak of nature that one. Below is the link for all the results if you wish to peruse them. We of course totally analyze every little #. Well, Gina analyzes for the shear enjoyment of it all. I just look to see who I beat and who beat me.

http://www.pem-usa.com/racedata/LS06age703.html

Our good buddies Kathy and Val were there to support us. They had a viewing spot on the run course that we passed a few times and it was great to hear the cheers as we went by. Val took all of the photos you see here. Thank you Val!! Val and Kathy were our podium girls, even though we were not on the podium. So you see what good friends they are.

We packed up our gear and bikes and drove home. We had a little dinner and crashed about 7:30 p.m. zzzz We're actually doing quite well; not too sore. My blistered toes are a pain. I think soon I'll be left with only 4 toe nails. Now there's a pretty picture. I'll post it.

Changing my name to Floyd

Well, aren't we having an epic little Tour DAY France ?! More excitement, and a tad bit of Panache, which I guess the French news media thought Floyd lacked.

Well, I have it from an eye witness reporter that most of the French folks really are a bunch of Snooty McSnootersons. Excepting of course any of our relatives that are French. I would never include Mary or any of her gang in that, or Phillippe, for sure.

No, don't call me Floyd. Or late for dinner. But we will certainly try to remember his grittiness while we are out on the course tomorrow. And after 22 days, I will certainly be hearing poor ol' Phil Liggett's voice in my head.... as I'm tapping out a rhythm on my pedals, reaching into my suitcase of courage, and climbing like an angel up the Col du Macchias Cutoff Road.

We're having an early dinner, the bags are packed, the drink bottles are refrigde-ing, bikes are racked, ( a quick little last minute checkup at the bike shop after I thought I was hearing things in the gearing, I wasn't / or I 'was', but fortunately the mechanic spotted that my front tire wasn't really on properly.. EEEK ) Had a little swim this morning. I think we're ready. If one can ever be ready for a 4:00am wake up call.

I must go read more of Floyd's interviews. You should hear Gina do her imitation of his "director sportif" LaLange. Quite good. And that guy is amazing his own self. Drives the car, holds the route chart in left hand, the microphone in right and drives with his knees. and sometimes 2 microphones and a water bottle. Probably flipping thru cd's, too. All without picking off any of the crazy spectators that love to stand on the road and jump away at last second. As if a photo of Floyd, taken with a mobile phone will ever turn out .

Good night. Did I mention Floyd is back in yellow ?

Who names their kid Floyd ?

WOW !! Today was tres exciting in the bike race. Landis did what he had to do... attack, escape, lead, and win the stage. And make up many of those bonked minutes from yesterday. I might not have picked Floyd at the beginning, but he sure is making it hard to not like him. He never dogs his dog of a team. Just says he had to fight for them , for all the work they've done for him. It was best he just had his team car there and didn't have to depend on other riders for food and drink.

We were going crazy in the living room... yelling for him, grateful that the other teams did not have an answer. Unlike his wife, I could not watch the descents, that he took at high speed. Go Floyd GO !! and cautioning Sastre to be very careful. :) Slow down, Carlos !!

I don't know about the rest of you, but Gina and I get very emotional watching some of these sporting events. What do you mean, it's like golf on tv? (which isn't too bad, by the by) We are glued to the tv. Have promised to get Tivo for next year's Tour. So we don't have to get up at 4:00am, or videotape and make sure we wait til "live" version is over.

And just to emphasize our obsession, yes, we sometime watch the replay version later in the day, to hear the other 2 announcers' call of the day's race. Yes, that is sick but it seems there is no cure for us.

Today was a brief 25:00 swim in the a.m. Then a 3 mile run with some pickup minutes. Tomorrow is a rest day, with a trip up to the race site for packet pick up, get a lay of the land, parking wise.

I've had my seat ( excuse me, proper biking lingo is saddle) changed out and adjusted. Let's hope it causes no major problems. I've lost a couple toe nails this week. But I think that's a good thing.

Below is a link to a news article about the race. I'm not sure about this linking process, but if you get to the article be sure to read all the way to the last paragraph.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/snohomishcountynews/2003135685_triathlon19n.html

oh, yeah, the photos of Alp de Huiz

runaway sheep and sheepish sheep dog fuzzy, cute and yet scary little mules
the hairpins of alp de huiz

In Search of a Life

Well, the real countdown has begun. 5 days til we race the Lake Stevens 70.3 Triathlon. And I use the word "race" loosely. "Attempt to finish" is more like it.

We are now in the taper phase. All training distances are shorter. Although, a couple 30 miler bike rides, 8 mile run, 5 mile run, a couple mile swims...... doesn't really seem like a taper, but it is.

I decided a week before the race to adjust the seat on my bike. To quote the Guinness commercials, "BRILLIANT !! " not. last week's adjustment at the bike store led to immediate pain in some part of the hamstrings, which were already barking. So, met up with the bike fit guy, who made some appropriate adjustments (and suggested a new seat for the numbness in that sensitive area). So, now I have the new seat ( ka-ching $! ) (you pay thru the nose for comfort in zee 'zone') and will go have him put it on at proper height and angle. And we'll see how much I'm suffering post race.

Shall I mention my toes with the blisters under the nails?? I think a foto has been posted once before.. More of that. great.

Hey, you guys that read this blahhhhhhhhhhgggg probably can't wait for this race to be over, too. Don't worry, I'll hand off the camera to the coach so we'll have some photographic evidence of this fiasco and keep my verbosity to a minimum.

Well, the boys are off to Alpe de Huiz tomorrow. We'll be up at the crack of dawn to watch. You know we rode that route last May. (in a car, BRILLIANT !!) We've got to keep an eye out for our runaway sheep and cute donkeys, on the lead up to the town of Bourg "something French" Oisans and le Alpe.

I'd better add the photos.

The Legends Live !!!

Last Sunday we ran a marathon in Bellevue. As a relay team. 4 of us.... Gina started us off strong on the long, hilly portion. Pam, the speedster, sped thru 5 hilly miles. New gal, Shannon Fitzgerald, had the Irish wind at her back as she cruised thru 7.5 hilly miles. And I gave my best thru the 6.8 miles of "down hills". As a team we ran a 3:56 marathon. That's a nice average of 9 minute miles. Not bad for a bunch of 50 year olds.

Did I mention that the course was hilly?

The night before the race, Gina led us thru our pre-run instructions. All thoroughly noted in a spreadsheet; what time to get up, to get the car, to drive to relay point, how fast to run, etc. etc. We drove a portion of the course to decide where to park the car between legs 2 and 3.

I took the shuttle bus to my station. That was good for a story afterwards. Obviously, the bus drivers could have used a training session with Gina, and one of her spreadsheets. The bus I got on was the wrong one, cuz I wanted to go to relay point 3 (which is Leg 4). The terminology got a lot of folks messed up. The drivers did the rest. They were heading to the wrong spots, and the maps they were given took them to points on the race course that they could not cross. Of course, she sat there for an eternity thinking the cop would let them thru when there was a gap in the runners. That doesn't happen. Fortunately, a person on the bus knew the 'hood and got us to our spots. But it was nerve wracking. But I have a low b.p. and couldn't let it bother me. I was too busy trying to remember what time my spreadsheet said I was supposed to warming up.

Anyway, we're pretty sure we won our age group. Although they only posted women's, men's , co-ed, and corporate divisions. We were 6th out of 16 teams in the women's, and I'm pretty sure the other 5 were not 50+.

I was thinking that the 4th person should wear a shirt that says something to the effect of "I'm on a relay team, I just started, I have fresh legs, Sorry I'm dusting you in your 23rd mile" . I really felt guilty. Not that I had fresh legs or was really dusting anyone.

Then we beat feet to go watch the end of the World Cup game. What a disaster for France. I know some people think it's necessary to defend the honor of their mothers and sisters, but not with such a violent act. and at the expense of your team and the game. Trash talk is just that. Deal with it at an appropriate time.

But I still do not like Italy. Bunch of ruffian, melodramatic divers.

Then we went to a surprise party for another buddy who turned 50. Jeez, this group is getting OLD.

Just spent the last 5 hours watching a taped version of today's Tour. I LOVE Thomas Voeckler !! Or should I say "poor old Thomas Voeckler", as Liggett calls him. What a courageously stupid venture he went on. But I always like to ride like him cuz he's so easy to imitate.

Discovery Team is done. (Coach is holding out hope for Jose Acevedo)
Floyd's the man. Perhaps he took a sip of water in Lourdes as he passed by to help his ailing hip bone.

Biking Blog

Well, today was the "last"50 mile bike ride. until race day.... Coach asked if we had a great ride? I asked "is there such a thing as a great ride?". They are all a pain in my butt, and elsewhere. But we shall meet her early tomorrow morning for a long swim.

Then we've got to rest up. We're doing a marathon on Sunday. Not to worry, it's a relay gig. There are 4 of us, and 8 is the maximum mileage. Team name...... Legends. You might recall that from our basketball playing days.

Pam Banks is our sprint specialist. Gina is figuring out all the details (it's a numbers operation and that is her gig) Val Ritchie (of triathlon and bbq-ing fame) was supposed to be our fourth. But she is at the California Tri Camp. aka, her mom's house in Ventura, where the sun is shining, the waves beckoning, and mom is cooking. We'll miss her. We made a desperate search for a 51 yr. old to take her place. Pam is young (and good looking) , and the team average has to be 50 years so the 4th had to be at least 51. A friend from the gym suggested another gal from the gym, Shannon Fitzgerald. Who could complain about having a lucky Irish lass on the team? I should say, another lucky Irish lass. :)

I'm trying to make a pick on le Tour. I'd like to say Hincapie but all the "talk" is Floyd Landis. But I know nothing of him except his Mennonite roots, and an odd time trial position on the bike. Of course I don't know too much about George H. but by all reports he's a nice guy. So there you have it, I'm saying Hincapie.

But really, have you seen Robbie McEwen at the sprint finishes ??? dude is spectacular ! But he and his wife named their son Ewen. Ewen McEwen. that's not right.

I'm beat. Good night.

Orcas -- killer whales

Twins !! Here we are in our wet suited glory.
On me, the P Flex refers to my puny muscles.

The real workout is getting into and out of these snazzy little numbers. exhausting.

Today we did a 1.5 mile swim. We joined Coach Lesley, so there was no leisurely sidestroke or back floating. 42:00 of swimming. We had to alter the route a bit, as an armada of geese were blocking the way at one point. Don't want to mess with them.

Tomorrow we'll go off on a 60 mile ride. Will it never end??? :) We shall do the entire Lake Washington loop. We're heading out early with hopes to be home in time for Brazil - France game. This morning we left with Argentina up 1-0 , figured they had it in the bag. Nope, Germans pickpocketed that bag, tie-ing it up and winning in PK's.

Tour de France starts tomorrow, too. Who shall we root for?? Jan Ullrich? nope... Ivan Basso? nope... Blood dopes. or at least they are "suspected" of such bad behavior. More on this in future postings. wow !

4 weeks to go

This past week has been a "down" week for workouts. What with the colonoscopies, and all. Hard to exercise when you can't eat and then have to flush your bod of all you didn't eat. Hey, it was nuthin.

But today we ran a 10K race. with a 4 mile warm up, of course. Gina and I placed #1 and 2 in our age group in the Pride Race. Gotta love a race with not too many participants. Makes for a good shot at the ribbons.

We did test drive the wetsuits on Friday. This time we entered the water near the American fishermen, who seemed glad to see us. Although, as we got out I gave a wave to one of my Russian guys, and he seemed happy to see us,too.

Tomorrow we are doing a 1 mile swim race here at Green Lake. Should be interesting. A chance to swim hard for that distance (without running into a wall, or a fishing line or a kayak) and with lots of other swimmers thrashing around. Kind of triathlon race start training. Followed by a quick 25 mile bike ride.

Hopefully, we'll be home in time for half of one of the soccer games. Or at least the Mariner game.

Riding Fools

This was from the day AFTER. I think we rode up there.




This is Coach Lesley, from last year's sunny , hot ride.



Well, we went to Lake Chelan to participate in the Century Challenge. a 100 mile bike ride. of course, we were only going to do 60 miles. (Coach did the 100, she's an Ironwoman , we're only Half Ironwomen) We thought it would be good to go to the hot, sunny part of the state for some warm weather training. right. Saturday morning was cloudy and cool. And then it got wet and cold. Oh, and those 60 miles. a bit of elevation was involved. You know it's going to be a hill when the signs are pointing to the ski area. That part was great. That hill was 40 minutes of climbing.

Of course, what goes up, must come down. And I'm sure you're all sick of hearing me whine about going downhill. But please, this was a winding, steep descent. In the pouring rain. Like I trust my brakes in that. and did I mention it was freezing out? Because we do not believe in riding in inclement weather, we don't have the rain gear. We've needed it several times now.
We sped back to the hotel to jump in the hot tub.

But no flat tires. Even tho I was ready !!

So, I shouldn't have dissed the Canadians regarding the World Cup, because the US played like it wasn't in it , either. PPP, pretty poor performance.

Today we watched soccer, rode the bikes indoors for 90:00, HARD. watched another soccer game , then hit the pool for a million laps.

Coupe du Monde

Yes, folks, it's yet another sporting event for some of us to go GAGA about. and spend hours in front of the tellie. At least we'll be spinning on the bikes when we watch.

FIFA World Cup. that's soccer to you Americans and hockey / Stanley Cup lovin Canadians.

I, of course, hate soccer when played at any level other than the World Cup or Olympics. My intro to World Cup was 8 years ago (wow) when I was spending a month on the couch after my achilles tendon surgery. I saw every game. Vive le France and Zinadine Zidane !! les bleus I would have seen every goal, too, except as we all know, those soccer b------s only score when you've finally hobbled on crutches to the bathroom . But my God, those games are exciting. Just because there is no scoring.

Anyway, our soccer LOVING friends in California are way excited. Traci has given me the name of a book, The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup. No, it's not similar to The Idiot's Guide to the W. C.. I've just started, but each country is written about, and I don't think the guys on the team are even mentioned. Well, I've only read about Angola. But it seems depending on the author of each chapter, there will be something historical, sociological, or political, or even hysterical. The appendix, of course, has W.C. stats. But also demographic info on each. I've just noticed that the United States is in the lead in Executions per year. and 18th in Literacy. The Aussies lead the way in that category. Go figger. :) just kidding. I'd comment on where Canada is in one of these categories, but, oh yeah, the book is just about the 32 countries that made it into the tournament. GO OILERS !!!

Those crazed Californians (traci, denise, and annalise) will actually be in Europe for a good portion of the tournament. Ah, yes, to be in Paris, and spend 6 hours a day in front of a tv. A tv chattering away in a foreign language. Have I mentioned Denise Bender who was on the Original U.S.A. womens world cup team ?? Check out my earlier posts for fan fotos.

First game tomorrow morning. USA vs. Czech Republic on Monday morning. check your local listings.

omigod, i just found the world cup web site. There's a page on each of the 736 players. I'm sure you'll hear about some of them. I've already seen a photo album of players' wives or girlfriends. An unbelievable number of these guys are dating models. who'd a thunk it? It's as if they were NBA or PGA or baseball stars !

gotta go !

Fixing Flats

On Saturday we had a brief lesson from Coach Lesley on how to change a flat tire on our bikes. It was a it of a fiasco for me. I figured if I ever get a flat in a race, I might as well chuck it. (the race and the bike) Or Pick the bike up and run it in.. Does that count ?? Gina had no problems, as it brought back how she used to change flats on her bike, as a kid. I can say with some certainty that I never had a flat tire as a kid. Am hoping that luck carries over and thru adulthood.

But, yesterday, with no tutors to pitch in and help, I sat in the back yard and practiced. I think I've got the part about getting the tire off the rim and the tube out, and a new one in. Now, I've got to work on the "quick release" of the whole wheel from the frame, and "quickly" putting it back on. And for sure, there is nothing quick about it. YET !

Of course, doing this all in the middle of a race with soaring heart rates, and adrenaline rushing, and on the side of the road, will be a totally different scene. And for sure there won't be a cold beer there once I am successful.

But I shall give it more practice.

And we now are the owners of new, full wetsuits. We are pro's. We hope to give them a trial swim this weekend. I'm sure there will be photos .

And tomorrow I will run 8 miles. A new mileage high for my running. Am I happy or what?

Oh, Yeah, THE M A S S !!!

I think I had sent a few of these pic's in an email, then forget when posting all to the blog. ooops.