Catching Up

Tri season is here and I need to catch up on this blog.  Since I last wrote, I've only competed a one race - the Country Music Half-Marathon.  The race was fine.  It, as usual, was crazy hot.  In fact, I had never seen a race where more people needed serious medical attention.  It was worse than Augusta, which was technically about 15 degrees warmer.  Fortunately though, I haven't heard of any serious injuries.
Here are my FB observations from the race:

CMHM Observation #1 - iPods and large races don't mix. I can't tell you how many people almost took me out today because they were futzing with their iPods, or were in their own worlds and not paying attention to where they were going.
CMHM Observation #2 - White spandex shorts probably shouldn't be worn by anyone.
CMHM Observation #3 - Some people will do ANYTHING to get in front of a race photographer. Really? There are about 50 of them along the course. Is it that important to get your picture taken by
EVERY ONE of them?
CMHM Observation #4 - This is more of a suggestion than an observation... When hiring people to shuttle runners back to the start - make sure the driver knows how to get there. My driver got lost going from LP Field to Centennial Park.
CMHM Observation #5 - Every year while I'm running this race (3x so far) I think, "I'm never doing this again." And then when I get home I think, "That wasn't so bad." :-) Thanks to everyone who ran with me over the past few months training for this thing, and a huge thanks to the volunteers. Congrats to all of the runners. See you next year.

And now on to new things... I met 4x Kona Champion Chrissie Wellington this week! She was in town for a book signing so me, Dudley and about 300 other tri-geeks went up to ACME Multisports to hear her speak and buy a book. She seemed very nice, although I had a hard time relating to her because she's SO GOOD. She's never lost an Ironman distance race! It almost became comical as her achievements were listed - she almost wins every race she enters. I KNOW she trains extremely hard and is VERY focused, but the way she described her races was almost "I woke up one morning and decided to race an Ironman - and I WON." She's a legend. It was very cool to meet her.

Dudley and me with Chrissie

The FTP crew with Chrissie

Now, as far as what's next - I have the Mach Tenn tri next week. It'll be interesting to see how I do compared to last year. I know more of what to expect, but my training is so-so. The Preds season really cut into my training time. I tried to fit in what I could, but I know I didn't swim as much as I should have, or ride for that matter. However, thanks to FTP and my buddies at East Nasty, my running is pretty strong - for me anyway. I did two sub 8-minute miles at Tuesday AM training, which I've never done previously. How that will translate to a tri - I have no idea. We'll see!