apologies and more to come. . .

my goodness my blogging license should be revoked, I've been so "absent" these past 6 months or more.
I finished my triathlon on Saturday with a respectable, yet not too impressive time. Kyle was there and took no less than 80 pictures of me! Tomorrow he promises to download software onto my computer which will allow conversion of these gems to jpeg which is a much more publishing friendly extension.
till then I'll give you a little narrative.

Friday night after work I had a quick bite (Randy was in Tahoe so it was a night alone) and then decided to get totally organized. Kyle had lifted my bike into the Expedition the night before so all I had to do was collect all my other gear. Swim cap and goggles, bike shoes, helmet, teeshirt and number, sunglasses and running shoes- hat if I could find one to fit my enormous head. It took a little time but before long all was collected and bagged along with towels, a footwash basin, water etc. In my nervous nellie phase I put the key in the ignition to "make sure" the car would start . . . don't you know, it didn't! SWEAR WORD.

Picture this now- Randy is in Tahoe, Kyle is out and what am I to do? I have a portable charger for just this occasion. Hooked it up (using a flash light because by now it is totally dark) and , drum roll please, this is dead too! Now, do I try to jump the Exped using my little Miata and possibly draining that battery? HELL NO.
Instead I move everything over to the Miata. How does my bike fit? Top down and crammed into the seat with the wheel sticking up in the back, that's how.

Off to bed . . . lots of very bad dreams about how the race will go.

Up and at em (sort of) at 5:45 am. (prime sleeping time) and on the road by 6:00am. Kristi and I arrive within moments of each other and we are off to find a perfect staging area. Time evaporates and before we know it, it's time to line up to begin the swim wave. I stick to the front/center of the pack knowing I can stay ahead of the crew behind me. Into the water (murky,dirty and full of fowl feces) we run and off we go. Now, swimming SHOULD be my strongest leg- for the first time ever I have a mild panic attack. I can't breathe, there are people ALL AROUND me, oh dear. I sprint out a little, flip on my back and swim 90% of the event on my back! Despite my unorthodox approach my swim time is slightly faster than last year. Out of the pond, a quick shoe and shirt application and off we go on the bike segment.

Oops . . . I forgot to make sure the bike was in the lowest gear before I took off. The bike portion begins with freakin hill that I cant get up. I'm starting to get nervous when Kyle runs up and helps me gear down. Okay, I wasted a couple of minutes there. The first 1/3 of the ride was uneventful- then my chain came off. Calmly I stop, fix and restart. About the 2/3 mark it happens again. DAMN I'm losing time on the bike instead of gaining as I had hoped! Back to the park, sneakers on- off to the run.

I ran the WHOLE run this time, excepting two hills I walked up, each about 25 yards. So, why is my run time SLOWER than last year? My guess is that I didn't complete the whole run last year as one loop was totally new to me this year! Regardless I only added about one minute (which isn't bad as I also added about .25-.50 miles!

My overall time was 45 seconds faster than last year.
Next year, I'm going to make that even better . . . just wish I didn't have to wait until next September to give this a go again!

pictures will follow, just wanted you to know how it went!