Weekend Fun

Sarah Emily arrived Thursday afternoon, which is pretty impressive since she found out that morning that she didn't have a ticket. She spent some time in the Portland airport convincing Muhammad that she needed to be on the plane. It worked and she made it on the plane. Way to go, Sarah! We spent the weekend doing some fun things around town. We also tried to eat all the foods that Sarah likes, but can't find in Maine (Chik-fil-a, bar-b-que, & Mellow Mushroom....mmmm!) We did catch the Auburn v. MSU game on TV. I know Sarah was a little disappointed in her Tigers, but I was excited about the Dawgs. Finally, an SEC win on the record...Hooray!
Us in Centennial Park
top picture: War Eagle!

Sarah at the Parthenon...where they parth, of course.

Ready for the game

Cute gibbon at the zoo.

Scott did a bit of training in preparation for next weekend's half Ironman and then built shelves for the basement. We're about to get lots of boxes from Scott's parents, so we needed to have a good system in place. Scott designed the shelves with some helpful input from our very handy friend James.

The boys working in the yard

Building the shelves

the finished products...nice, huh?

Visitor on the way!

Sarah Teaford is flying in Thursday to visit for the weekend. Well she's flying in to visit Bec, while I'll spend my weekend building big shelf systems in the basement. We (I) cleaned the house Wed night in prep for her visit while Bec finished a paper and worked on her talk for class tomorrow (today). All good. Then Bec wakes me at 5:45 am to get up and get a dead rabbit off the back porch. Nick wanted to bring it inside with him. Evidently he cornered it, killed it, and ate the guts out overnight. Good thing it wasn't a skunk! I found a fur pile in the yard, but no guts, so I guess he indeed ate them. Bec was a champ and got the shovel out and scooped and tossed the remains over the fence into the pasture while I continued to sleep in after my long night working in the house. Good job done by both of us!

Last night while cycling with some buds, a dog hit me. He sort of attacked us on the way out onto our loop, but he came and charged me pretty hard when we returned. I grabbed a bottle as I thought he might chase me, and squirted him with water while he ran full speed at me. I didn't accelerate too much, because I didn't think he'd really charge. I was going probably 20+ mph, and he hit my rear wheel. Good thing it was the rear as he just bounced off it and I kept riding. Took about 30sec for me to realize I almost got taken out by a stupid ass dog, then I freaked out a bit. Well, I plan to get some pepper spray stuff that postal carriers use and give it a good dose in the face. If that doesn't stop it, Animal Control will.

Hopefully I'll survive in one piece to get through the big race in 10 days.

Sat Sprint tri day

Great day for a sprint triathlon.

Rained onsite over night, high humidity, wet roads, and a great short course for all out racing. I lost winning my age group last year by 0.7 seconds, so I was pumped and a bit cocky going in. I've never felt so prepared and not nervous before a race before.

Course: 400m swim, 1.5 mi run (first 200m uphill), 12.8 mi bike, 1.5 mi run (couple rolling hills and ends on a long hill). I got no swim warmup, but I got in the lake to get wet and I stretched and had to be ready to go. I drove in after a couple steps and was out of the water in 7:22 (4th fastest swim out of 46 in age group). I fell twice trying to get up the slippery boat ramp, just after I heard the announcer say, "help folks that might slip getting out of the water." Nice. No one helped me. Anyway, I got on my socks and shoes in super fast time, put on my race number, and started running, then took off my swim cap. I ran with my goggles around my neck and swim cap in hand to the bike transition area. Saved a bunch of time doing this.

Ran the first 1.5 miles in 12:14, which is pretty fast considering the hills and having jumped out of the water and started running hard. My transition to the bike was super fast and I had the 4th best bike time (avg 21mph, which was pretty darn hilly). I had the the 3rd best transition between the bike and run and did the last 1.5 miles in 10:30 (7 min miles).

Final time: 1:08:07, which put me 2:05 faster then last year!! I was faster on just about everything and knew I would be. So this time would have given me the age group win last year, but this year my worst fear was realized. 5 other super fast jerks showed up and even though I smoked the course, I was only 6th in my age group (out of 46)!! They combined the beginners with the age groupers since 2 beginner males had times of 1:02 and 1:03 (sandbaggers).

All in all I was 24th overall out of 448 total racers. I was 23rd overall last year. I brought my "A" game and raced really well, but the competition was wicked today. Not much I can do about that.

I did beat all women as usual.

http://www.team-magic.com/results/OHT07_AG.htm

Enjoy some goofy pictures of me my lovely wife took:

Swim start, dive in baby!!

One of two speed bumps at end of bike that I had to jump, not cool.

Heading out for last run, looking very speedy.

Almost home!! I played leapfrog with the ACME guy on the bike (passing him on every hill) and we ran side by side the last 0.75 miles. I took off at the end and I jut couldn't keep the pace. He started 2 min after me and even though he beat me in the run finish by a few seconds, he beat me over all by about 2 minutes. Arf.

All done. Phew that sucked.

Slow go

Not much happening on the Somershoe homefront. Bec is in school and working, while Papa Shoe is working and looking forward to the half Ironman on Sept 23rd. I can't wait until the half IM is over because I want to eat a whole cake and wash it down with a case of beer. Plus it'd be nice to sleep in past 6am on a weekend and not have to go ride 4 hrs and/or run 10-12 miles. I'm looking forward to upcoming trips to Starkville for Homecoming, a wedding in KY that should have alcohol, and some camping with my lovely wife for ourfirst anniversary. Camping? A real fancy first anniversay trip, but by then we'll be broke and camping is cheap and fun and we haven't gone in a long time.

Tomorrow (Sat the 8th) is a sprint triathlon (400m swim, 1.5 mi run, 12.5 mi bike, 1.5 mi run) and I'll post results and some picts hopefully shortly after the race. This is the race where I lost winning my age group by 0.7 seconds last year. I am fast and a smarter racer now and should shave a minute or two off my time, so look out competition, I'm going to break your legs tomorrow.

Missed weekend trip

Bec and I were planning to go to Huntsville to see B and J and little John Henry. However John began puking his guts up Friday and continued all night, hence we bailed as everyone at their house was exhausted, Betsy had no clean clothes since she got thrown up on at least 7 times, and we didn't want to get that stomach virus.

I ended up doing the usual training for the half Ironman on Sept 23 (riding and running a lot), while Bec got motivated and cleaned closets out. I've managed to sacrifice some old favorite T-shirts and several pairs of jeans that are way to big for me (I wore bigger jeans back when I needed a waistband that was a few sizes larger then I am now). Things are organized, but of course my organized piles are gone and I have no clue where anything is. House does look good.
Major props to Bec!!!

I mowed the lawn this weekend, which consisted of me using the weedwacker for 5 minutes to hack back a couple spots where grass has grown this month, i.e. around the mailbox and the end of the driveway. We haven't actually mowed the yard since July sometime, however the crab grass is growing strong onto the driveway. It grew probably 18 inches onto the driveway, but I hacked it back.

Two of my buddies finished Ironman Louisville (KY) yesterday (yes that is a 2.4 mi swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mi run)!!! Watched online updates on where they were and saw Scott Bourne finish live online. Pretty cool.

I'll post picts of the new washer and dryer eventually.

Olympic Distance Tri Sunday Aug 19th

Olympic distance triathlon at Fall Creek Falls State Park (0.9mi swim, 24.5 mi bike, 6.2 mi run)
All done!!
Major props to Bec for the fantastic photos!!


Lake was pretty clear and clean. I could see 10 ft or more. Some algae, but otherwise good. Crazy mass start, but I settled into a rhythm quick after fighting for position. I ended up just getting to the outside and I thought there were 40 folks ahead of me. I swam very well and was out of the water in 23:50 (no way it was a full 1500m). We had a "shoe area" as once you get out of the water, you can put on shoes and you have to run all uphill 400m to the transition area. Took me 4:36 once out of the water to run uphill and get on bike.

"Shoe area". Looks like I'm just catching my breath, but alas I have no clue what I was doing.

24.3mi bike, avg 21.0 (1:10:13). Rolling hills, nothing too bad, but a couple "slow" hills.

6.2 mile run. Felt good and had extra motivation as Bec said I was second in my age group after T2!!! So I worked it hard. There were only 16 people ahead of me after the ride (I counted riders after the turnaround). Ran first 2 miles in 15:36, much of it was downhill or flat. One guy in age group caught me and we ran side by side for a mile. He was ripped and I was afraid he'd drop me on the hills. At mile 2 he stopped at the water station (while I kept moving and grabbed the tiny cups they had) and I gained 20m, then up hill and I gained 10 more meters. I kept checking and he was gone. Ultimately I beat him by probably 3-4 min. Will have to check results online. One guy in my age group blew by me and he was gone. My left ankle was killing me at mile 3.5 or so all the way to the end. I stopped for a second to rub it it hurt so bad (left hammy cramped a little). Hurts right where it was sprained almost 3 years ago. Never healed properly. Anyway, last few miles were rolling and last 0.7 miles were basically uphill. Not steep, but hard. I held off this guy in a yellow shirt for like 4 miles (no clue what age group he was in), but only one guy passed me on the run!!! Last 4.2 miles in 34:30. Not speedy, but it was tough. Fortunately the run was almost all in the shade.
Final stretch!!

Just about there.
Final time: 2:28:47. Far exceeded goal from looking at previous times on this course!!!! Possibly a PR (personal record) in an Olympic distance race.

http://www.racedayevents.net/2007Results/FCF_07_Splits.doc
Ended up 18th out of 148 overall!! Two women beat me. Not cool.

http://www.racedayevents.net/2007Results/FCF_07%20Age%20Groups.txt
See age group 30-34 male.

I ended up 3rd in age group out of a modest 12 guys in my age group. I won a long towel that has a hole for the headrest in your car. The towel is long enough for the whole seat so after a ride, etc. you don't scum up your seat.First placement in age group (top 3 that is) in an OLY race ever!!! Sweet!!

We're lame

Not much going on lately. Hit a wedding in Memphis over the weekend, but otherwise we're boring. We did have to get a new washer and dryer, so not completely blah on the home front.