Softball 2013
April 27, 2013
Today was the 1st time in over 8 years that I have played softball….and man do I feel it!
It was 8 years ago that I had finished recovering from a ruptured Achilles in my left heel caused by playing basketball and decided that I would have to give up all those start and stop sports. It’s when I started lifting weights again and running, lots and lots of running. Then someone at work mentioned I should consider doing that “Triathlon thing”. I had heard of it but really didn’t know anything about it. So I started looking into it but since I was in good shape I decided to pickup my 1st love of sports, baseball. Well…I would have liked to do baseball but that really didn’t seem to be an option at the age of 50, so I opted for an over the hill, ah, I mean over 50 softball league.
Again, didn’t know much about that, but I went to the 1st practice and learned that there were two 1st bases and 2 home plates to prevent collisions and injuries. So I thought..how hard could this be?!
I played like I was a teenager again. Chased down every foul ball, backed up the other players on every play, just none stop hustle. One of the veterans pulled me aside and warned me about doing too much too soon since it was the 1st time I had played softball in many many years. I told him that I’m in pretty good shape since I’ve been training for triathlon, but still he warned me that they lost 5 of their starters last year from torn and pulled muscles. I told him I would be careful, but in my mind I really didn’t listen and just continued to play hard.
The next couple practices I did the same thing and was warned again. During one of the games I noticed my right heel had some pain in it. Afterwards I did the typical check for injured Achilles, and sure enough I had slightly torn the right Achilles! STUPID STUPID STUPID!
Flash forward to today, 8 years wiser and many times slower. But you know what? It’s STILL a ton of fun.
I met only a few of the players today, and all of them are around my age and pretty darned relaxed about playing and winning. They said they usually win about half their games, and don’t really care to do much more. Easy does it, it seems, is their motto.
I’m okay with that. I was able to go out and jog to passed balls, run at an easy gait to try and catch fly balls, and throw the ball (1st time in 8 YEARS!) nice and easy. I think I can live with that. 
Ah…getting older is …..interesting.
Later,
TriMoot.
Boston Marathon 2013
Boston Marathon 2013
Congratulations to all the 2013 Boston Marathon runners today!
As I’m watching live today from work, I can’t help but recall it was only two years ago that I was able to run the Boston marathon officially and complete a life time goal.
As I listen to all the cheering and watch as hundreds turn onto to Boylston Street for that final push to the finish line I remember my finishing …..walk.
What a feeling.
My Dad of 86 years and my wife were waiting right at the finish line. It was as I would realize later, the last time I would run.
The above was written just minutes before two bombs went off at the Boston Marathon!
OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!
I AM STUNNED! SHOCKED!!!!! IT IS SO HARD TO IMAGINE!
WE WERE RIGHT THERE! RIGHT THERE TWO YEARS AGO! HUGGING AND CRYING WITH PURE JOY AT FINISHING A LIFETIME GOAL…and now..now..I just can’t believe this is happening.
I’m watching the news right now as stunned runners who have been told the race has been cancelled are walking around with emergency blankets wrapped around them with stunned looks on their faces.
I am so shocked!
Mainlining!
Arrh Arrh Arr
h! Now THIS is a manly post!
I actually worked from home today just so I could check out all the cool sights and sounds (and oh MAN was there sound!) of the construction work taking place on our street.
First I’ll post some of the pictures, then I’ll add links to the video’s that REALLY capture what it was like being next to these large construction vehicles as they went about destroying our street.
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- Looking West towards Sherman. You can just barely see them starting.
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- This was on Monday. Didn’t take long for
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- BIG pipes loaded along the road.
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- Oh yeah..feeling manly now!
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- Moving the pipes they had stacked on our lawn to the other side of the street.
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- Moving the pipes they had stacked on our lawn to the other side of the street.
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- Moving the pipes they had stacked on our lawn to the other side of the street.
So most of those were taken on Monday, but today, Tuesday is when the real work began. Let’s take a look a couple of these video’s. I apologize for the quality of them as I was watching what was going on rather than what was being captured in the camera. And if I could find a free video editing software program I would try and clean them up, like take some of the jitter out perhaps edit out some of the audio….especially the places where I was making the sound…like this monster pieces of equipment need my help in impressive they are.
The reason I went out to look at what was going on was this amazing thudding sound that was coming through the floor of the house. I knew it was the construction but I didn’t know what might be causing it…the video will show you.
Stay tuned for the video..I made it in Movie Maker and it’s taking FOREVER to ‘Plublish’ to Google. The next two I might just copy up.
Winter Ride 2013
Did a quick ride this morning in Riverside State Park. I was hoping it would snow while I was out there but I guess that’s not due till later here in Spokane..sigh. Love riding while it’s snowing (or running while it’s snowing..that’s the BEST!).
Parked up above the Bowl and Picture on Aubrey White Park drive and headed down the rather steep hill. Well, it seems steep when there’s snow on it and your brakes don’t work as well as they should and you have to drag your feet to slow your decent. Yeah…need to tighten those brakes!
There was fresh snow on top of old crusty snow on the Centennial Trail (CT) so that made for some challenging riding. You’d be riding along on a track and all of a sudden it would hop you over to a new unseen rut, fun. I found the left side to be the best and went carefully down the steep part of the hill and there in front of me was the 38 ? marker…not sure what that’s for. Certainly not the mileage as the CT trial is only 37 miles and the end is up North and 9 mile. But whatever it is, it marks the entrance to “my” trail and I take it and soon find out how deep the snow is.
It’s actually not too bad. At some point a cross country skier or two has taken this trail and as long as I attempt to stay in their old tracks I’m able to ride, however, it doesn’t take long and I have to stop as it’s too steep.
Here’s what it looks like at his point:
Just before I was able to get my phone out to take these pictures either an eagle or osprey was flying just below the cliff. Sometimes I wish God had given us the ability to zoom in with our eyes. Once I walked my bike up the hill and onto the flats and was riding again the bird flew very close to me and I saw clearly it was an Osprey. Not sure why it was eyeballing me?? Although I might have reminding him of a rabbit as I had to hop on and off my bike to stay on the trail.
I know this trail well and it didn’t take long to get to my 1st destination…My Tamarack Trees.
In the fall these turn a beautiful yellow!
From here I continued riding underneath the cliff until I came to Trail 10 which took me down towards the CT trail at a rather FAST pace! It was pretty scary and I had to ride side saddle and drag my rear foot. I REALLY need to tighten my brakes!
I made my way down all the switchbacks and to the valley floor and meandered through some single and double track trails while tree limbs dumped snow on me as I passed. At one point I saw fresh boot prints which was unexpected as I hadn’t seen nor heard anyone else the entire ride. The only tracks were of a medium sized coyote which I had followed right after leaving the Tamarack tree area. Don’t know why, it sort of spooked me. But just a few minutes later I saw someone off to my right cutting some small limbs down and on the back of his jacket he had a big red cross and the words Search and Rescue. I didn’t want to stop as it would have been hard to get going again but I presumed he was out practicing. He did ask if I was having fun and of course I gave up a WOOHOO! You BET!
I finally found the CT trail and as I made my way South back to my car I saw the coyote running along the ridge right next to the river! So cool! He wasn’t on an all out sprint but he was making good time! You could hear the guns from the range across the river and I would imagine it was spooking him a bit. Again I wish I had a built in zoom. So cool.
Of course I stopped as quick as I could to see if I could get a picture of him but I never saw it again. But what was interesting was the noise from the guns. It was almost like thunder as it rolled across the valley. I’ve been at this same area many times before and never heard this kind of sound. It was like crunching snow or ice but it rumbled all across the area in front of me. At one point I tried to capture the sound by recording a video. Here’s a link to the video/audio: (Here)
All in all, it was a great way to spend Sunday morning, and I was able to get home in time to go out with everyone for breakfast. Now THAT’s TIMING!
Herrrrrrrrre’s 2013!
Here’s how we started the new year… A brief swim in the VERY cold waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene. Normally you keep all your clothes on until the last minute then strip down to your swimming suit and run like crazy into the water, screaming the entire time. You have to run faster than everyone else or you’ll not find enough room to dive into the water, and if you don’t dive in or you have to hesitate, then you just might talk your self out of doing it, because once your feet hit the water your mind quickly wants to say woh, stop! But we had made up our minds and in we went…. TWO TIMES! Yup, twice. But not for Rachael, she went THREE TIMES! What a bunch of crazy kids!
Old News
Well, I’ve been going through and looking at some of my old post and noticed that I have a few videos and pictures that I’ve never posted. Mainly because my TriMoot blog account was hacked and I couldn’t get into for a year. So the following will be some random stuff that I haven’t posted in some time. Sorry for the long delay.
Centennial Trail 37 mile Ultra Spokane …March 5, 2011
I wasn’t able to run this time due to issues with my knees so instead I decided to do some support along the route and capture some of with the camera.
I love this run and hope to someday do it again. I’ve done it twice and the direction they’re running it in this video is the one you want to do if you ever think about doing it. It is mostly downhill although at the end it’s very hilly UP HILL.
I captured the start and then left them after a 1 mile to go setup an aid station around the 12 mile mark.
This is just before the start: (here)
Here’s the link: (here)
Aid station at Mirabeau Park: (here)
Aid station at Mirabeau Park: (here)
Valentines Day 2011
Just a silly video of my wife and I walking along a trail in Palisades Park (N. Rimrock Dr) just west of Spokane. It over looks Spokane and was part of one of my favorite running trails when starting from the Indian Canyon Golf course parking lot. Besides being silly we were talking about our upcoming trip to Boston to do the Marathon.
Silly walk: (here)
Speaking of silly, here’s a video of my son doing a impromptu rap: (here)
BikeWalk….or, How I took my bike for a walk
November 3rd. A ‘perfect’ day for riding the trails of falls colors here in Spokane.
Perfect? Define perfect.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t “perfect”…in fact it was down right TERRIBLE! But fun all the same!
So I decided to try an new route for riding the fall colors and headed out to the Iller Creek trail head off of Dishman Mica road out in the Spokane Valley area. Now I had hiked this area with my family and friends this past summer and always thought it would be a great (challenging) area to ride it.
I had mapped out the area with Google Earth and had a pretty good idea of where and how I wanted to go so I headed out there and was on the trail by 9:30ish AM. (Kinda late but wanted to wait for the rain storm to pass by us…bad decision). I wanted to get to the top of Tower Mountain so I could ride the ridge. There are two bowl like areas that have a nice ridge trail and you can look over into the Palouse Valley on one side and the Spokane Valley on the other.
I parked short of the hiking trail head and choose this trail to start:
The area around the trail looked promising but the weather…not so much. Although at the start it was just overcast and cool, but not cold.
As I started up trail, I had gone about 100 yards when I completely ran out of breath! It was a little steep but I am certainly not in the shape I used to be in, so I got off and walked until I had recovered a bit then hopped back on…and rode about…… 10 more yards. Ugh..THIS was going to be a long tough ride!
As I hopped off and on my bike for the next 30 minutes the weather was starting to turn from nice fall weather to wet and slick…not something you want on a steep mud trail, but at this point it wasn’t as steep as it was going to get.
I continued with the off and on again routine of my bike to the point it was silly. I’d ride for about 20 yards, hop off and walk for 10, then hop back on and ride for 10. Finally I gave in and just decided to give the bike a rest and let it walk along side me….HA! So up and up I went walking the bike. As I traveled the trail it zig-zagged up the hill and the rut in the middle became deeper and deeper. Pretty soon my right arm felt like I had it raised to ask a question. The rut had become so deep that my bike towered over me as it rolled along on the smooth part of the trail that was about 16″ above the rut.
During one of my many rest stops I felt like someone was watching me and sure enough there was a buck with tiny horns watching me from above the brush.
Can you see him? You might have to click on the photo to enlarge it, but right in the center is the small buck.
At some point the trial had turned extremely slippery and each step was a challenge and the rain and really started to come down. I was looking for an intersecting trail that I could take that would get me off this ridiculous one that was climbing straight up the hillside! Even if it wasn’t raining, and I wasn’t riding a bike, I’m not 100% sure I could have climbed up this way without needing some hand holds it was that steep! Also, the rut was starting to fill up with water and the more I climbed up the more the water flowed over my trail shoes.
I finally spotted some animal trails off to the right and I climbed out of the rut and headed north on the deer trail. It soon petered out and I found another trail and bush-whacked my way a little further but I wasn’t really getting closer to where I was headed. So I headed back to the ‘rut’ and tried again to climb but it was just too wet and slippery and way too steep. So I took another deer trail off to my left, which was South, and found the going a little easier. Although that wasn’t to be the case for very long.
As I continued my bush-whacking…oh, by the way, I CLEARLY understand that term now, because that’s exactly what I had to do! As I continued on the “trail” (HA!) I had to push my way through bushes and yank my bike through, climb over dead trees, all the while scaring up deer who were at one time, hunkered down to wait out the storm. (Sorry guys). What a bike ride! HaHaHa!!
This picture really doesn’t capture the ‘moment’. I had just struggled through a clump of bushes and hauled myself and the bike over the logs you see there and was completely out of breath…and laughing! Just laughing at how absurd this was. Here I was trying to make it to the top so I could ride the ridge and having to haul my bike through bushes while they were doing their best to yank off my rain poncho! I laughed so hard! I just had to get a picture of it. But of course it doesn’t show how hard the rain was coming down and how the wind was blowing and how cold my hands were and impossible it is to get a ‘smart’ phone to work when everything you own is soaking wet! It was a miracle that I even got this picture!
I continued to struggled upwards to the top. Around 11:15 my wife called and wanted to know my eta as she was heading out and I needed to be home. I told her I hadn’t even made it to the top yet and as far as ‘riding’ goes, I really hadn’t done any! I said I would continue on and if it doesn’t look good I’ll turn around and head back down. (yeah right..that’s assuming I could find a trail that I could ride!)
Finally the bushes started to thin a bit and I could just make out the ark of the hill near the top and I thought I could see some power lines. As I got nearer, yes indeed, I saw power lines! Yahoo! Certainly there will be a trail there and it will be clear. WRONG! Just more bushes and while there was a trail, it was heading down, not the direction I needed.
As I pressed up further up the hill the wind started to really pick up and the rain was pelting my face. I finally took off my glasses as I wasn’t able to see a thing there was so much water. It had become so steep I was having to side steep up, then haul my bike upwards, take another side step up, and repeat. But it seemed the horizon was clear of trees and I knew I was about to break out of this mess.
Finally a tower came into view and then a building and a dirt road!! Whew, what a relief. After almost two hours I was finally able to ride more than a few yards. But the wind was blowing very hard and visibility was about 25 yards as the clouds and fog were covering the top.
My poncho was just about useless as it had gotten torn up while climbing through all the brush, plus it was blowing all over the place and all I could hear was it flapping in the wind.
I stopped under a tree and tried to get my phone to work so I could see exactly where I was and figure out the quickest way down. But with all the water and everything I owned being wet it just would accept my finger touches. I would touch on one thing and something else would launch. I would try and get back to the home screen and email would come up…it was so strange. I wasn’t even able to make a phone call, although I’m not sure who I would have called. I guess someone who could have popped up a Google map might have been helpful.
So I was standing just down hill from the large tower on Tower Mtn. and I kept taking one trail after another trying to figure out which one would be the best. But visibility was nil and and all the small trails I started out on didn’t give me a good feeling. Like, no..this isn’t right. This is a mistake. So then I went back to the small tower thinking I could take the service road down but when I got there the road had been blocked off and it was obvious that it hadn’t been used in quite some time. So I didn’t think that was a good choice, so I went back to the largest tower and decided to take that service road down even though I could tell it was not going to take me in the right direction. I was afraid I would be taken down the other side of the mountain and then I would have a heck of a time getting back to my car. But I needed to make a decision as I was starting to get cold since none of my ‘water proof’ gear was water proof any longer and I was drenched to the bone.
I took the service road down from the largest tower and quickly learned I had little to no brakes. GIVE ME A BREAK! Seriously..I need a brake. HA! As I was heading down the dirt road it quickly became steep and my speed picked up to a point where I was very uncomfortable and I had my brakes squeezed as tight as possible but I was still picking up speed. I finally swung my right leg over to my left side and used my foot to slow my decent. It was actually kind of fun. It’s like when you were a kid and you would ride up to your group of friends, and just to be cool you’d swing your leg over and just glide up to them then hop off. The bad thing was, I had to stay that way for so long my left leg was starting to get tired and my back was starting to really complain!
I finally made it down to a paved road and I stopped in front of a house hoping that perhaps if someone saw me they would ask if I needed help. I mean come on…wouldn’t you? If you saw someone with a torn up poncho blowing allover the place and snot running out of their nose and being blown all over the place, wouldn’t you come out and help? 
Again I tried to use my phone but nothing was dry enough to let me wipe off the phone or my hands, so I put it way, looked longingly at the house and rode on.
Finally I came to a major intersection, Palouse and Jamieson but I was cold and confused and didn’t know where I was. Even though the sign said the Palouse, in my mind I still had myself on Dishman Mica and thought if I turned left I’d hit a gas station and that red coffee shop. But the truth was I had come down the other side of the mountain and was south of Moran Prairie area but I couldn’t ‘picture it’.
I was shivering and cold and really couldn’t think straight so I tried to use the phone again and this time I was able to make a phone call and called my wife who told me where I was.
After starting off in the wrong direction I got myself turned around and headed back into Spokane past Moran Prairie school and down 57th to home. Whew.
A long day, with very little riding, but fun.
Oh…yes…I’m going to get those brakes fixed right away!
Fall Ride 2012
Yup, it’s that time a year again when I head out to Riverside State Park here in Spokane and enjoy miles and miles of beautiful trails, trees and rivers. What a grand place we live in!
Today was a mild foggy rainy day, just what fall should feel like, although a warm sunny one is good too,
For once I decided to actually research and view the map of where I was planning on going so I could get a better idea of where I’ve been and perhaps where I wanted to go for some new places to see. (Whew..that was a mouthful!) So here’s a link to “Map My Ride” with where I rode: (Here) Not sure what you’ll see if you click on that but hopefully a map of where I rode.
I try to do this each year and it never gets old. I also try and go a little farther each year and explore new places. This year I found an old shack about to fall down, and took some interesting pictures of it. I always love the texture of old wood and this had plenty of that.
Where I started was right off of Government Way and the trail-head put me right on an abandoned railroad track (without the rails) right up against the side of a wall of volcanic rock, with a steep cliff that fell away on the other side. The trail overlooks the state park and you can see the Spokane River winding it’s way through.
Since it was foggy, cloudy and drizzly, it was just perfect for puttering my way through the park and allowing me time to stop and take LOTS of pictures.
I’ve gone this way before, but the first time I found this trail was on foot and I was well below it and had to scramble up the steep hill to get to it. It was one step forward and two steps back for a while and I was on my hands and knees trying to get up the very steep slope. Here’s a picture during that crawl two years ago: (Here) But this time I was able to park right next to the start of the trail and missed all that crawling and grunting.
The first 2 miles were all along the volcanic cliff and the view overlooking the park was great. Like I said before, a bit cloudy but it adds so much to the autumn feeling.
As I continued on, I came to a place that I absolutely love; it’s a tunnel of fall colors and to me it always feels like the grand entrance to my yearly fall ride. (You can click on it to see a bigger version)
At the end of the tunnel is not a pot of gold (although that would be grand!) but a wide open field of wheat and wonderful views:
I stopped here for a break and enjoyed the wide open view. It was two years ago and just a little ways further down the road that I stopped at an apple tree that had beautiful red apples, sweet, juicy and delicious. What they lacked in size they made up in flavor: (Here) Yum! But…for some reason I didn’t see that tree this trip, or perhaps I just blew right by it.
I was continuing on down the abandon rail road track and spied an old shack about ready to fall down, so I hopped off the trail and took a couple of pics:
As I continued down the trial it bends around to the South and one day I will continue going South, although I think I’d only find myself back in Spokane. So instead I hopped off the trail and followed a paved road for a few miles to a dead end with these views:
You have GOT to click on each one of those pictures to get the full effect! Go ahead…I’ll wait until you’re done.
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……………….. Done?
What’s funny about this field is, you can’t wait to tear into riding it, but man oh man is it rough! I mean, rattle all your teeth out, rough! But each year someone mows a large swath that allows us to get out to the edge of the cliff so we can continue to enjoy the views.
So at this point I’m about 9 miles into my 20 mile ride and in the past I usually work my way down to the bottom and head back. But I wanted to go a little further and try and see something new so I continued on, but wow, the going was tough. There was no ‘groomed’ trail and the wheat or hay was way past my waist and even up to my shoulders which made navigation very difficult as I was not able to tell what was underneath all that grass. I was riding slowly since I was right near the edge and I didn’t want to fall off my bike on the wrong side. (That did actually happen, but thankfully I was going very slowly and the bike stayed on the top and only I rolled down a small part of the hill. But it WAS steep! WHEW!
So I carefully made my way through the wheat field and picked up a really cool single track trail that wound through the woods, although I wasn’t able to see the valley except for peaking through a few trees once in a while when the trail took me closer to the edge.
Finally the trail petered out and I found myself in someone’s back yard, so I bushed whacked my way around the back of their field trying to stay as far away as I could and after climbing over some downed trees and a couple of fences I worked my way down to the valley only to find myself stuck on the wrong side of a small river, well, more like a creek with “No Trespassing” signs all over the place…YIKES!
I wasn’t about to climb back up the hill I just came from so I was skirting the edge of the hill side staying as far away from houses as possible. Finally after going back and forth I decided I would just have to cross the river and then figure out how to get back to Riverside SP. Just as I was looking for the shallowest spot, I heard someone yell, “HEY! THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY!! YOU HAVE TO GET OUT!”…uh-oh. I sure hoped they didn’t have a gun with them. Right then my phone rang, but I thought I had better deal with whoever it was yelling at me rather than whoever it was on the phone.
I told the guy (at least I think it was a guy…long hair and pajamas…well, they LOOKED like pajamas!), “Oh, sorry, I am terribly lost and have no idea where I am or how to get back to Riverside Sate Park!”. That seemed to put him at ease and once I crossed over the stream he told me how to get back on track.
So I headed back over to 7 mile and took the cut off for trail #25 and followed that all the way back to my most favorite spot in my fall ride, “The Tamarack Display”
Well, for some reason the slideshow is showing ALL the files I uploaded instead of the ones I told it to…sigh. Too tired to figure it out.
Anyway, a wonderful ride in a wonderful place. Thank you Jesus for Spokane!
Google’s New Mini-Waffle Maker!
They say it’s a Dick Tracy like device, but actually it’s a mini-waffle maker! What do you think?
http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/02/google-patents-smartwatch-with-flip-up-display/
Long Bridge Swim 2012
Yes we had a blast today (August 4th, 2012). Not without some up’s and down’s….that’s just part of our life, but over all it was fantastic. I’m so proud of my wife…..She swam 1.76 MILES! That’s a LONG LONG way, especially when you do it all with the breast stroke!
When we started out and our toes 1st hit the water..OH MY GOSH! The water was so COLD! And here Sandy was with no wet suit! NO WET SUIT!! AAAAAHHHH!!! NO WAY! She started to swim and was hardly able to breath at first..I thought she might turn around. I know I would have if I didn’t have a wet suit.
Speaking of things I didn’t have…I FORGOT MY GOGGLES!!! DUH!!!!!! Couldn’t believe it! Our daughter Cassandra dropped us off at the start and we were getting all our gear on and things ready to go into the bag that they would take to the end for us and I kept looking in my bag and getting more and more nervous, and finally I said ”I FORGOT MY GOGGLES!!!” Couldn’t believe it. Right away Sandy said to call Cassandra but it was such a nightmare with all the traffic, plus she would have to leave Beth alone again, I was like no…, no way. I looked around and shouted, “DOES ANYONE HAVE AN EXTRA PAIR OF GOGGLES!” Sure enough, the nice lady #362, gave me her extra pair. I was sooooo thankful! I just couldn’t imagine having to swim all that way with no goggles. (Turns out Cass had her phone off so she would not have be able to get me the goggles in time anyway)
So there Sandra was, hardly able to breathe due to the coldness of the water. And I’m like, no way is she going to be able to handle this for this long. But she dove in again and started swimming. I kept going ahead and then stopping, waiting for her because I was so nervous that she might have some kind of difficulty, but she kept saying she was fine. But still I would swim ahead and then stop and let the current take me back to her just to make sure. Or sometimes I would just stop and check and make sure she was coming along, and she was. She was never very far behind.
So finally I checked one more time and then took off. I did stop one more time and climbed up this metal cross thing that was attached to one of the bridge pillars and checked. I waved but she didn’t see me so I thought she would be okay. She appeared moving along with no problems.
I finally got into a rhythm and just sailed along. Felt so good. There wasn’t a ton of people so I was able to immediately find a grove and settled into it. I wasn’t pushing too hard because I knew I had a race the next weekend that was even longer (A new race called CDA Crossing. They take the swimmers on a large boat over to the other side of the lake and then they swim to the CDA golf course on the other side. 2.4 miles, just like the swim portion of the Ironman….can’t wait!) But I did find myself whenever I sighted trying to catch up to the next person and pass them. But I kept fighting the competitive urge back because I didn’t want to over do it. Although I have been swimming (it’s about all I can do) I really haven’t been “training”. So I just relaxed and enjoyed the water (it felt nice by then) and sunshine and the great feeling of swimming and NEVER having to stop at the wall and turn around like you do in the pool. Really, if it wasn’t for breathing you could fall asleep. The swimming is so relaxing.
But eventually I came back to earth and my left shoulder started to hurt (I did something to it on the 4th of July while kayaking in CDA… don’t know why it still hurts.) So I took my time, and even once in a while stopped and looked around because it’s so pretty up there. Blue water and green mountains…and bright bright sunshine…just a perfect day!
Finally I did start to get tired right near the end and I stopped sighting so much and wound up going all over the place. (Did the same thing at Ironman) Finally got to the finish and as usual, had to be the funny guy, so I just kept swimming until I was all the way up on the beach sand. Then I looked up and asked the folks who were standing there and cheering, “Am I there yet?” They all chuckled. But there was a gal there who was almost yelling at me, “Come on! You’ve got to cross the timing mat!” I’m like, who cares. This wasn’t a “race”, it was a wonderful day at the beach. Just wonderful!
So I grabbed 1/2 of banana, retrieved my bag and called Cass. Wanted to make sure everything was okay, because the last 30 minutes or so I had been hearing sirens and was concerned. But she said everything was cool and they had eaten breakfast and so I ask her to go ahead and check out as I wasn’t sure how much longer Sandy would be. It was 11:00 and they had let us do a late check out at noon. (Poor Cass, we left the hotel in a mess as we had to drive into town earlier to check in and attend a mandatory safety meeting…so she was left with the chore of picking up all our stuff.)
So then I went back out to try and find Sandy. We were allowed to choose our cap colour so we both chose bright orange. So I’d swim for a while and then pop up and look for a bright orange cap to see if it was her. Man there were a lot of orange caps! Finally found her about 1000 meters back and checked with her to see how she was doing and she said, “Great!”. Wow..I was so glad. So I swam with her for a short while but she was so focused that I really didn’t want to bother her so I swam over to the shore and just walked along. Then finally I left her and called Cass and Beth and they were on their way down to the finish.
Not too much longer, here came Sandy and she had certainly kicked it up a notch once she saw the finish line. (I was fighting off a little kid who thought it was funny to keep splashing water on me. I kept splashing him back and while it was fun, I really just wanted to be left alone so I could cheer on Sandy. FINALLY his mother came over and pulled him away. (It might a been cause I told him I was going to hold him under the water )
So there she came swimming away, and Cass, Beth and I where cheering loudly (Beth louder than most! HA!) Actually everyone was cheering her on. Once she got close enough to stand up…she couldn’t! HA! She fell down and started laughing cause she had been swimming for almost 3 HOURS! Her body didn’t know how to stand any more! HA! So funny! I KNOW that feeling. I’m always so wobbly after a long swim like that, I’m kind of glad she got to experience that as she now knows what I and all the other triathletes and swimmers deal with after a long swim. Anyway, I went over and helped her get up and across the finish line where she promptly fell into a chair.
But she recovered quickly and walked over and grabbed a couple of snacks and pats on the back from all of us. We were all so proud. Here this 50ish year old person, who had NEVER swam this long in her life far just finished 1.76 MILES!! That my friend, is a VERY GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENT! So proud!
All and all, a super great trip!
So, what’s next? Well, the CDA Crossing is this weekend, August 12th and it’s the innagural event which I’m excited about although I’m nervous too. I haven’t done 2.4 miles since June 2010 so it’s going to be a push, but fun too (I hope!). I mean we get a FREE boat ride to the other side of the lake! And then get to walk on the beach at the CDA Golf Course…how cool is that? HA! I’ll report back here once it’s over.
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