Catch Up Post

Well we had a great weekend in Iowa. I survived the Drake Relays on the Road Half Marathon. I will give it proper attention in a full write up later in the week.  There are a lot of other stories I needed to follow up on. I apologize I am so far behind.

Lance and Mike in Boston

The Boston Marathon was a few weeks ago. You may remember my joking about Lance Armstrong becoming an Ironman competitor a while back. It seemed to make sense to me as he is obviously strong in the bike, and his marathon times keep creeping down. That along with the fact he actually started his career in tri’s before moving to a full time professional cyclist.

He finished race just over 2:50 minutes. I am pretty certain that is his PR, but not quite as good as he had hoped to do (I think he was hoping for something in the low 2:40s). Still for Boston, which is a fairly hilly race, that is a great job. I will be interested to see how he does in NYC this fall.

Also running in Boston was former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. His day did not end so well as he had to drop out of the race with runners knee (an IT band issue). I guess he needs to spend more time running, less time running for president. A problem we all run into from time to time.

Liz Rocked St. Anthony's
Last week I wished my friend and classmate at ND Liz Berls good luck on her first tri. She did very well (Swim: 25:38, Bike 1:33:49, Run: 59:22, Total: 3:07:43!). Yes, Liz is a very good swimmer. What I wouldn’t do to get out of the water in 25 minutes.

She wrote a cool summery of her weekend. I will steal a little bit of it for those of you who are thinking about doing a tri, or more importantly thinking of doing an endurance event for a charity.

"This was truly one of the best experiences I’ve ever had and am proud that I not only completed this physical and mental challenge but also surpassed my fund raising goal by raising more than $5600 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society."

Yep, that is over $1000 more than her goal. Great job Liz. I have done a few events for charity, it really adds to the experience. I cannot say enough good things about Team in Training (the endurance sport training wing of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society). Not only is my father in remission from lymphoma, but my good friend in Kansas City Emily runs one of the Team in Training groups. They really do a great job raising important research dollars and getting people trained for triathlons, marathons, and century rides. If you have never done one of these events and are thinking about it, look up Team in Training.

For those of you who didn’t donate to Liz’s fund, here is your last chance. Click here.

Sharks
Very sad story out of California.  I man was training for a triathlon lost his life to a shark attack.  I must admit this has always been a slight fear of mine.  I am not a good swimmer. I have enough to thinking about while swimming. I have a small fear of the ocean to start with… now we are hearing about more shark attacks. This story is tragic, but according to the experts, you have a better chance of dying via car accident on the way to the beach than you do by shark attack.

In other news, while there may be cougars roaming Chicago, there are no reports of great white sharks in Lake Michigan.  So I am safe for now.

Hy-Vee Tri Looking Better All the Time
It is a rare occasion when a law is passed that completely make sense, one where you want to call your local representative and say “Thank you.” Well that happened in Iowa recently. The state senate made an exception to the rule disallowing acholhol served on the state capital grounds at any time. And the one acception… the finish line for the Hy-Vee Triathlon.

Oh, we going to booze it up! Margarittas with the Govenor Culver! Would you like another martini Lt Gov Judge? I can only assume that they will have beer instead of Gatorade at the water stops right?

Wrong, but it will be fun to have a little bubbly if I make it to the finish line.

Payout for Des Moines?
Lastly, I thought I would bring some attention to this article from Tuscaloosa, which discusses how much money they brought in for having the tri there. Hopefully there will be a similar revenue flow headed Des Moines way for hosting the Hy-Vee Triathlon in June. I am a big fan of the Hy-Vee event, and I hope it continues to grow it as the years pass.

Hoops Team Report
My rec basketball team won our second game on Monday. It was the first win in which I was in town to play. I knocked down a bunch of free throws at the end of the game to seal it, apparently earning my new nickname “Ice Cold.” [I would really like to put an Outkast song in here now, but despite the use of the phase “ice cold” I don’t think the rest of the song would impress many of the readers.]

Workout Report
Last night was a killer one at the Chicago Blue Dolphins practice. We were in the long 50 m pool, where I worked out with the “transition” group. Believe me, I was fine with that. The Group 1 was doing repeat 300, which was just a little too aggressive for me. I was just fine doing my repeat 150, which might as well been repeat miles for me.

Swim:
1700 M, 1.5 Hours