It’s been a while since my last post… no excuses, no apolgizes, that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

Tina and I recently celebrated our 1 year anniversary.

What will probably be the last Country Jam… at least for the foreseeable future is coming up.  We’ll have to make the best of.

We’ve got 3 consecutive weekends of camping coming up.  It’ll be tough.  The 2.5 days of sun and such really wear a guy down.  Once we get through it, I’ll definitely need some down time to recover.

Tina and I are now triathletes.  We completed our first triathlon yesterday.  It was a tough race (not that I thought it would be easy).  When I first saw the swim course I was a bit overwhelmed.  I can’t imagine swimming the olympic distance.  We were able to watch a fair portion of the Pro race as our waves didn’t kick off until they were basically done.  Some amazing athletes in that group.  And I gotta say watching their transitions was a thing of beauty.  Tina went off first.   Once I got into the shoot I was feeling OK, no real nerves.  I took a quick walk into the water and waded into a swim.  I was both passed and did some passing.  The open water was tougher than I had expected.  I had to use the breast stroke several times.  My rhythm was a bit off and I always felt I was dodging other swimmers.  Half way to the first buoy, I thought to myself.. how in hell am I gonna make it.  Turns out it wasn’t so bad.  I swam much faster pace than I been training.  I finished in just over 15 minutes. I was thinking more like 20 - 22 (which would have been very slow comparitively).  The transition to the bike went well and I was off and pedaling.  I knew I was pacing slow for the bike, but didn’t know how slow.  I finally hit the halfway point and was 6 minutes behind.  I finished 12 minutes off my pace.  Parts of it were a tough ride and I felt like I could have moved a little faster in some areas.  The final transition to the run took a few hundred meters to get my legs back under me and my running muscles in tune.  I ran an OK 3 miles.  I feel like could have run a little faster and cut off a few more minutes of my time.  But I am happy I finished and met my goal of under 2 hours.  Yesterday afternoon I was exhausted, but feel pretty good now.

All in all it was a great experience and I am glad I participated.  Will I do another? Maybe, maybe not.  For whatever reason the Olympic course somewhat fascinates me… but like an earlier post mentioned, I better get swimming!

Special thanks to Jason , Carl and Michelle, and Beth and Ryan for navigating the busy, full streets of the Lake Nokomis area to come down and cheer us on.  And thanks to all of the provided words of encouragement from family and friends.