Lake El Reno, OK

This past weekend, I qualified for the amateur race “The Best of the US” in Oklahoma’s Route 66 Triathlon. It was a lot of fun to meet more Oklahomans and find a new, gorgeous lake! Usually, I end up at Lake Hefner for bike/run training, but open water swimming isn’t allowed. Now I know that I have access to practice some open water goodness about 40 minutes away! Score. I’m never sad to get away from the black line. :o)

Unfortunately - Amanda Erwin was in the Route 66 race and she actually got hit by a car. It was/is horrible - I heard that she is having surgery and broke her leg. Tragic. I was 2nd out of the water behind the overall male winner, but she whizzed by me on the bike. Speaking of the bike course, the officials said that it was over a mile longer than a 40K. I wouldn’t have been sad if it was…shorter…but…c’est la vie - I got more leg muscle benefit than I paid for, I suppose. :o) It makes me feel a little better to note that it was extremely windy (ie, twister country), I had no aerobars, and I got the road bike a week ago. But still, reality hits that after all that, the time was a 1:19 = not swift. My swim and run splits were the fastest of the day, and it’s always fun to win! The lake is beautiful, and the director/officials did a fabulous job running it. Hoping for a very speedy recovery for Amanda.

On a cross-training note: Last week, we started the arduous task of moving. As exciting as it is to have a new little house, the short and horrendous process of getting all moved in makes you think twice before ever leaving. Everyone has moved before - obviously, no one actually enjoys moving heavy objects in a time crunch…especially when your moving truck dies close to a dozen times & have to jump it, only to soon find out that your own car’s battery dies 2 days later (today) leaving you stranded before work…not to mention the fridge breaks the day you move in, turning the food into one big hot zone…meanwhile, you’re living in a sea of boxes & feel like you’re caught in an endless treasure hunt…(needless to say, after this fun-filled weekend, every sentence starts to end with “…birds’ heads are fallin’ off…”)…oh, and I forgot to mention that in the midst of the chaos, your wife decides to enter a last-minute triathlon - waking you up at 5:15am so that you can cheer for her and wait in the sun for 5 hours. Although I’m talking about how Stephen probably felt, he seemed excited to support me - what a guy! (I’ll keep him.) :o) After the race, I told him that I’d give him my autograph for half-price since he was such a trooper. (I know - that’s love.) We have no pics from the race since the camera is located…somewhere…in the house…it was honestly enough of a challenge to find the triathlon essentials that morning, so I’m sorry to say that I didn’t race in the proper suit nor sunglasses.

If I knew where the camera was, I’d post a pic with the caption saying something like “This is your brain. This is your brain when you move.” …sort of like the old anti-drug commercial where they fry the egg to simulate your brain on drugs. I’ve never tried drugs, but they surely can’t be more harmful than moving. (Do I need to put j/k here?) But in all honestly, the oven cleaner’s chemicals must have cut our life expectancy by at least 12%, and it didn’t even make us feel good… :o)
Thank goodness we had a couple friends help with the heavy furniture/boxes so that I didn’t snap a bicep. One guy commented that he was surprised at how weak I was, although I look strong. Haha.

Hey - I’ll take it as a compliment…besides, “strength” in ability as a triathlete is not synonomous to lifting heavy boxes. Last time I saw a power-lifter do triathlons was…

Here’s the article: http://www.bestoftheustriathletes.com/news/296

PS: Whoa! I just read Matt’s blog about anything being possible. Maybe my 1:19 for 26 miles isn’t hopeless… :o)
Ciao!