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470 days ago
Travelled to Morton for the annual Logger's Jubilee and did my usual triathlon, lawnmower races on Friday night, the Jubilee 10k Saturday morning and dancing at the Moose Club in the evening. Another standing room only crowd for the mower races and there was a ton of racers too. Enough for eight heats and five mains. Checking in, I was handed a trophy that I evidently won in the C Main from the previous year. I joked that I should have just took it and left while I was ahead. I timed into the 5th heat, with heat 8 being the fastest guys. Brothers Andy and Ted timed in slightly slower after trials but both won their heats. So the pressure was really on me. I started in lane three and somehow got the lead into corner one. I was increasing my lead when on lap two the mower started stalling for a couple seconds each lap in the south corner. (nearest the beer garden.) I managed to hold off the competition with some tricky driving but with one lap to go I stalled again ...
483 days ago
My friend Charles is training for a triathlon in British Columbia next month and I'm doing a few sprint triathlons during the summer so he's been joining me now and then for my open water swims in Lake Washington at Seward Park . There's a great cove there with several bouys and lots of people do their swim training in that area. Most people just swim out and back to the first one but I hate it when it's crowded so I've started swimming in a triangle course around them. Charles mentioned that he's always wanted to swim completely around the park which juts out into the lake. It's about 2.4 miles, beach to beach which is the distance he'll have to swim in the Iron Man in BC. I was hurting from running the Seafair Torchlight 8k the night before (I bonked at the 2-mile mark, it was so warm out and I had to trudge to the finish line down a parade route lined with 300,000 people) but I thought the water might actually make my sore legs feel better. It did! One more ...
488 days ago
Well I completed another sprint triathlon, the Seafair Triathlon last Sunday in Seward Park and I was pretty happy with my results. I set a new PR, finishing in 1:21:40, which was 53 seconds better than my previous best, set in 2003. It was also almost seven minutes faster than last year's time so I was really happy. I did the swim in 14:40, which was also a personal best by 1:20 (also set in 2003) but had a sluggish transition to the bike, going 2:50. It's stupid but I had a sock inside out and I actually took the time to take it off and put it on again rightside out. Kind of stupid and I'm not sure why I couldn't wear it inside out, kind of funny. I was really concentrating on the bike portion and I really pushed hard and missed another personal best by just 23 seconds, finishing that in 37:58 which was way faster than every other year except 2003. I might have done better if my breaks hadn't been sticking and squealing and I've got to get a roadbike before next ...
496 days ago
I love the headlines on MSN today involving crappy Seattle investments....(pun intended) First the city is trying to sell some really expensive self-cleaning public toilets which ended up being used mostly for drug deals and prostitution. They're trying to sell on eBay but so far no takers. This even made New York Times website. Here's the MSN link. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25721700/>1=4300 Speaking of New York, the Yankees are picking up some other expensive Seattle crap, the $50 million dollar flop of a first baseman known as Richie Sexson who was battling the Mendoza Line again this season . (hey personally I have no problems with the guy but he stinks it up on the field.) Of course the Mariners will pay the majority of his $14 million owed this season while the Yanks will kick in $390,000 as the pro-rated minimum. He may turn it around in the Big Apple playing only part time but if he continues playing like he did for us, he will get eaten ...
499 days ago
In news from Eastern Lewis County.... Over the past weekend, French president Nicolas Sarkozy along with 40 leaders launched the Union for the Mediterranean . One of its aims will be to bring fresh energy to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations process. Okay, you're asking how does this tie in to Lewis County? Well it's a stretch but one world leader missing the Union Meetings was Jordan's King Abdullah II . Why wasn't he attending? Not really sure but on Sunday afternoon he may have been eating lunch in Randle, Washington , a small town on the White Pass highway . A tipster alerted me that while she was eating lunch in a Randle Cafe (after attending her White Pass High School reunion) the place was overrun with state patrol officers and secret service agents. The staff was tight lipped but later it leaked out that the King was passing through the area. Did he stop to eat or was it just the staff dining? Not really sure about that but it was exciting for the ...
