New day, New Adventures & Columbia Recap

I wanted to do a quick follow up on Columbia and update the blog with the rest of the pictures. It was a rainy rainy day, and all of my gear, self, car, life was wet and covered in dirt by the time it was over. I vaguely recall flying down the hills on my bike saying prayers that under one of the puddles wasn't something really slippery that would throw by bike and send me flying over the handlebars (once again!). Luckily, I was a combo of safe, and yet aggressive.

Although I seemed to loose all sense of how to swim during the first portion of the race, I was fairly happy with my bike. I improved by about a minute over last year in conditions that were less than ideal. I was so thankful that most of the people seemed to make it through without an issue. I only heard of a couple of scrapes and scuffs. Considering it was just a downpour through most of the 25 miles, that was a small miracle.

The run was the highlight for sure. I came off the bike feeling a bit tired in the legs, but still hungry to get after it. I kept singing my new favorite Jay-Z song "on to the next one" in my head while looking for girls. My thoughts were quick turnover, quick turnover and my legs didn't want to go up the hills, but they still did it anyway. I came through the first mile in 6:20 and then after that the ups and downs came rolling in. I ran mostly by myself, only passing a few girls in the first 1-2 miles, and then pretty much just trying to stay focused. That's what happens in the "open" wave. It was a lot of fun, and I got to see legends like Natasha B. out on the course. I cheered loudly for her as she ran by and she gave me a great big smile and thumbs up! Love her!!

If you're wondering where some of those amazing pictures came from, they were taken by Kyle who was out on the course as my spectathlete extraordinaire! He was a great support, and we're working as hard as we can to try and work this thing out. Thanks for the pictures K!

The overall pro's were amazing. Andrew Yoder from Columbia, PA won the race for the men, and Laurel Wassner from Hoboken, NJ finished first among the women. Great job to both of them! Laurel gave a very touching speech, as did Andrew (and he's only 20 years old!).

Natasha is one of my favorites. She's just so exuberant and fun!! She got third - Way to go!!

Tim Deboom was in the top six men, that man is a LEGEND!

The open women rounded out with my very good friend Beth, who busted her butt to get that fifth place! Way to get that podium spot Beth!!

Last weekend it was time to get back to the long rides and I had two friends to help me get it done on Saturday. My friend Jason from St. Croix lives North of the city, so we decided to head up to Moraine State Park. It was very hot after our swim and I swear there is something MAGIC in their pool. We did a 2200 yard strait swim in the middle of our set and I did a 29:20 or so.. seriously.. really? Why don't I do that during a race darn it!

Jason brought his friend Ryan who is just getting started with his new bike! He's a great swimmer, so he'd be perfect at Tri, I'm going to try and convince him!!

Ready to head off in our helmets!

Jason riding down the highway to Moraine State Park!

Then we hit a little bump in the road. Well, more like a piece of bridge that was missing. We didn't know any other way to get into the park, so we had to make a quick assessment, and then just get to it. We grabbed the bikes, and made it happen... shhh.. I don't know who took down that orange barrier :)

Oh man.. this could get ugly!

But we made it, and I was happy (until we had to do it again on the way back when I was tired!)

We had a great ride and it was hot, hot, hot, just like Buffalo Springs Lake Texas will be in 4 weeks! I had an awesome T-run, and mostly, I was just happy to be out seeing the sites and feeling the wind and sun on my skin! What a day!!

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend and honored those that help us keep our freedom every day!