It's Bike to Work week! So naturally, I rode my bike to work this morning. I also rode yesterday. I didn't ride Monday because on Monday nights we shoot video for Project M, which means I could be in the office until 11pm or later. I didn't want to ride home at 11pm or later. I guess if I was really hard-core, I would have rode home at 11pm or later. I'm not that hard-core.
But I have given myself a little bit of a challenge for Bike to Work Week. Starting on Tuesday - it's "Car Free" week for Pat and possibly for the entire Gallagher household. Yesterday was the first of our car-free days, me by bike and Laura by bus and walking.
So far the challenges haven't been that great - Laura regularly busses to work and I ride to work on a fairly regular basis. For exercise Laura walks/runs the Pheasant Branch Conservancy and for exercise I ride, run and/or swim, all of which can be done without having to get in the car.
I did have to run a couple errands over the past couple days - dropping off some donations at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society office on my way to work yesterday, adding a mile or so onto my morning commute and dropping off the mortgage on the way in today, adding a couple miles to the commute.
Tonight I'm meeting my friends Matt & Julie to ride the ironman loop, which would normally mean driving out to Verona with the bike in the back of the car, riding the loop and then driving back home. There was a bit more logistics to consider this time out - with no car (ironic - it's easier to train on my bicycle if I have access to a car??). I will ride to Verona, where I'll meet Matt & Julie, then I'll ride the loop with them until I hit Cross Plains, when I'll split with them and ride home (no way would I have time to ride back to Verona with them and then ride home after). But before I made that the plan for the evening, I had to make sure they were BOTH going to be able to ride - not wanting to leave one of them to ride the last 1/3 of the loop alone - not that they couldn't handle it, it just seems kinda rude.
So, with that figured out, it's day 2 of the car-free week in the Gallagher household. Not sure if we can go the whole week, I've got an out-of-town meeting tomorrow afternoon and I have to be back in town for an early evening event, so I'll have to beg a ride from someone (hey - it still counts, I'm carpooling and not starting my car), and I know we can't make it through the weekend car free - we're headed to Green Bay to run the Green Bay Marathon with Team in Training. While I could ride to Green Bay, it would take a couple days & I don't think I would want to run a marathon and then ride back to Madison again.
This year, Madison's Bike to Work Week coincides with the National Bike to Work Week - May 14-20, so you'll see lots of cool things happening around BtWW. It doesn't matter if you are a daily bike commuter, or if you are riding to work for the very first time - there's something for everyone during Bike to Work Week.
And it doesn't matter where your ride to work takes you - the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin will be there to take care of you with Commuter Stations each morning next week so you can "fuel up" on your ride to work. All of the Commuter Stations will be open 7:30 - 9:30 each day.
WEST SIDE: On the Southwest Nike Path near Camp Randall Stadium
EAST SIDE: Ingersoll and Wilson on the East Isthmus bike path
DOWNTOWN: Capitol City Bike Path - just west of the Monona Terrace on all days except Tuesday. On Tuesday the Downtown Commuter Station will be on the Square, where Pickney and King Street intersect
So, what else is happening with Bike To Work Week?
Tuesday: It's a mass ride, with cyclists gathering at 8am on the Southwest Bike path at Glenway and riding to the Downtown Commuter Station for refreshments and a Press Conference.
Wednesday: Madison By Bike Neighborhood Rides. The neighborhood rides will become a regular feature on the cycling calendar this summer & will highlight different Madison neighborhoods with each ride. These rides will be very casual, intended to teach people some fun, safe places to ride in Madison. This first ride will start at 6pm at the Wil Mar Center and will feature a group ride to East Town Mall and back again. The ride will also include a short bicycle safety education presentation.
Thursday: Planet Bike's 6th annual "Bacon on the Bike Path!" They say everything is better with bacon...and that includes bikes! From 7-10a, the bacon will be sizzling and the coffee will be flowing. Pedal on over to the Downtown Commuter Station and join Planet Bike and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin for "Bacon on the Bike Path!" The folks at Planet Bike will be serving up breakfast goodies (fruit, donuts, juice, coffee from Just Coffee andd Nueske's bacon) for all bicyclists. There will also be bike tech support provided by Willy Street Bikes.
Friday: The Madison Bicycling Party! Do I need to say anything more than Pizza, Beer & Bikes?!?! The party starts at 4pm in the parking lot at Willy Bikes West on W. Washington Avenue and goes until 7pm. Come on out and show the world how important (and fun!) bicycling is in Madison!
Sunday: Vermont Church Bicycle Breakfast - enjoy a variety of Vermont-style pancakes, fruit sauces, meats, rifle range coffee and other drinks. Proceeds benefit DreamBikes.
And there are a couple of deal for cyclists all week long...
FREE B-Cycle all week! Grab any of the B-Cycles during Bike To Work Week and the 24 hour member fee will be waived. If you use the bike 30 minutes or less, your entire trip is FREE. (after 30 minutes usage fees apply).
Join the Wisconsin Bike Fed! Become a member of the Wisconsin Bike Fed during Bike To Work Week and you'll receive a FREE annual membership to B-Cycle for FREE ($65 value). Join the Bike Fed online and use the discount code BCYCLE2012 or register at one of their events this week.
Finally, if all of that wasn't enough...Bike To Work Week would be a great time to join the Wisconsin Bike Challenge. Whether you ride your bike 1 mile a week or 50 miles a day, register your miles and you can earn great prizes during the Wisconsin Bike Challenge, May 1 through August 31, 2012.
Actually- it's a little Christmas romance, but I'm sharing this on Valentine's Day.
And if you want to get technical- it's a little romance that started in the '50s. When my parents were students at East High School. My Dad had a crush on the girl who would eventually become his wife and my Mom. My Dad was (and is) a pretty good artist- so he drew a picture of the girl he had a crush on...and presented her with that picture.
It worked.
They started dating, eventually married and had two kids- me and my sister Shannon.
Fast forward about 50 years and my parents are going through some of their old stuff. They find that picture that my Dad drew in high school. Yes, you read that right- they still had that picture all those years later.
But that's not the end of the story.
A couple years ago- a few weeks before Christmas, my Dad snuck that picture out of the house, had a high-quality copy made, added a little message to the picture and had it framed. He then returned the original picture and my Mom never knew.
Meanwhile- my Mom snuck the original picture out of the house and had it framed. And again- Dad never knew.
You can probably guess where this is going.
Christmas Eve- we're opening presents and Mom opens a gift from Dad- yep, the picture, all nicely framed. And then of course- Dad opens a gift from Mom- and again, the picture all nicely framed.
So, there you go- a little romance to take you through your Valentine's Day.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
I couldn't find that picture without breaking into their house to steal it- so, here is their Wedding picture.
The Bike to Run transition was another disaster. Good news is, I can improve my time by a good 10 minutes, just by having decent transitions. I fumbled around looking for stuff in my transition bag, spent way too much time deciding to change my socks, and then even more time actually changing my socks. Like I said- a disaster.
Once I got out on the run course, things were better. Just 26.2 miles to go! If I can do a 4 hour marathon, I can still reach my goal. I can do a 4 hour marathon. Just not after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles.
The plan was simple. Run.
Well, there was a little more to it than that. I would walk through all the aid stations and up all hills. Part-way through the run I also decided that I would also walk whenever I came upon a friend/teammate who was walking. This should give me plenty of opportunity to stay fresh during this last, long stretch.
Seems like everyone makes the goal of getting out on the run before the first finisher comes across the line. I was able to do that- I was at least a mile into the run, when I passed the lead runner going the other way. There's one small victory.
Shortly after seeing the lead runner I noticed a pro racer ahead of me. As I got closer, I noticed that it was Heather Gollnick. Several years ago I volunteered at Ironman Wisconsin- my volunteer job was to ride my bike in front of the #2 female runner. Heather was second off the bike, so I got to lead her around the course for about the first 1/3 of the marathon. It was an amazingly cool experience and it was one of the things that inspired me to do Ironman. So I speeded up a little to catch Heather and I told her my story. She remembered that it was the second year of Ironman Wisconsin and she went on to win that race.
I was feeling good, so I continued on and left Heather behind (she was on her second lap- but I'll still take that as one of those little victories). Through the stadium, out to the lakeshore bike path, over Observatory drive, through the aid station where I worked last year and a bunch of my friends were working this year, up State Steet, turn around- back down State Street, back through that aid station and back out to the lakeshore bike path. On the bike path was were I finally ran into my training partner, Julie, for the first time all day, she was heading in the opposite direction, just about to hit Observatory. This was odd- in that last time she beat me off the bike and I caught her a little after the stadium. We expected that I would beat her off the bike this time- but not by that much. We're about even in the swim and close to even on the bike- I might be a little faster- or she might be- just depends on the day. Something must be wrong. As we passed- she jokingly asked me to wait for her, so I stopped and said I'd wait right here. Apparently some people around her actually thought I was going to wait there for her. Thankfully she knew I was joking. We passed again a little before I got to the stadium on my second loop- she was heading in on her first. This time we stopped and talked for a while- turns out something was wrong- she got kicked during the swim. So hard that she was fairly certain that she broke a rib. And I thought I had a bad swim,
For the rest of the run I was kind of in that in-between place- nat fast enough to catch the fast people and too fast for some others. So, I would run with friends for a while and then they would tell me to go ahead.
The Ironman Perform sports drink continued to bother me through the run- so there were unsuccessful stops at pretty much every porta-pottie. The sun went down with about 2 miles left in my race and I yelled out "Someday I will finish this race in the daylight!" to which somebody replied "Yeah, and someday they'll start the race at 5am!"
So, I came out of the water with a big smile on my face. As I said, it was a "that's finally over" smile, not a "wow, what a great swim!" smile.
It was also a "now I get to ride my bike" smile.
I am first and foremost a cyclist and was very much looking forward to getting on the bike. Although I would have to wait a bit longer than I had planned.
I got into transition- no wait, let me back up a little. I was walking up the helix (that curly-cue drive way that leads up to the parking in the Monona Terrace) when I got body checked by some guy sprinting up the helix- "Get out of the way!" is what I heard as he sprinted towards transition - "F--k You" is what he heard in return. Another local team did an experiment- walking the helix once and running it once- they compared heart-rates and times with each try. If I remember right, the difference in time was somewhere between 15 and 30 seconds depending on how briskly you walked. And it definitely was not worth the spike in the heart-rate for that 15-30 seconds.
So, on to transition. I grabbed my transition bag and headed into the men's changing area. The plan was to drink and Ensure, put on shoes and socks, grab my helmet and sunglasses and get out of transition.
The problem was, I couldn't get my transition bag open. I handed it to a volunteer and said "I tied as simple of a knot as I know how" and he thought I was done and started to take the bag away from me. I explained that I couldn't get into it, so he untied it for me and then was super helpful. "Here's how we do it.." he said, as he dumped everything on the ground- let me grab what I needed and then he packed everything up and sent me on my way.
Next stop- sunscreen. At Ironman, the volunteers do EVERYTHING for you. Everything except race. Yes, there was a volunteer to slather sunscreen on me. I reminded her to get the "tramp stamp" to which she replied- "oh, looks like you forgot last time." Yes- I have a very attractive tan/burn line on the small of my back.
On to the bike. The ride starts by going down the helix opposite from the one we just ran up. This is a no passing zone, so you can really take it easy in the helix. From there, out on to John Nolan and down around the coliseum and finally out of Madison, heading towards Verona. The main goal on the first lap of the bike course was to ride smart. Not too fast. If I feel good, I'll speed things up on the second lap.
I passed my friend (and training partner's sister) Angie coming out of Verona and probably confused her when I passed her again about 5 miles later. I had to stop for a bathroom break. The Ironman Perform sports drink wasn't sitting well, so there were several bathroom breaks in my future.
Other than the Ironman Perform problem, I felt good on the bike and rode exactly as planned for the first loop. The second loop started with a stop at the special needs bags (and another bathroom break, of course) where I had a bottle of chocolate milk and a bagel with peanut butter waiting for me. I downed that stuff and took off on lap two.
Lap two, pretty much the same as lap 1.- truly nothing to report here, just a nice smooth ride, with a few pottie stops. The only cramping came really late in the ride and I was able to back off just a little and it went away.
I didn't quite hit my goal on the bike. I was hoping to go 6 hours or under, I went 6:19, but I was still looking good for my overall finish at that point, so I was happy.
All the pregame festivities went well. Thursday morning I went for a swim with my regular open-water swim class, followed by a short run with a few members of the Endurance House team. From there we went out for breakfast and then back to the Monona Terrace for registration. I actually wasn't planning on doing registration on Thursday as a good chunk of the people I regularly train with were doing it on Friday- but when I got there, the line was short and I ran into a few friends, so I did it. And am I glad I did- the lines on Friday were long and slow moving.
After registration I made my way through the Ironman store, bought a couple of things and headed home to rest up.
Friday started with a swim with a few of my friends, including my training partner Julie- Julie and I spent the first few minutes in the water discussing where we should start on Sunday. That conversation freaked out a few of the others- as we were discussing how badly we got beat up in previous years and where we started for those swims and how from a completely different spot our friend Tara got her nose broke. I don't think anyone really wanted to hear about that- and I'm sure Julie and I made it all sound worse than it really was. It's kinda fun scaring people who have never been through that swim before.
Another post-swim breakfast and then the rest of the gang went through their final registration and from there we did a short (10 miles- on the nose) bike ride. Once again, the rest of the day was spent with my feet up, relaxing. Well, mostly relaxing- I spent some time packing up my transition bags.
Friday night was the athletes dinner. The Endurance House team met before the dinner for a few pictures and then went in for some pasta and to share stories of the year of training.
Saturday- 3 things on the agenda...1) Check in transition bags, 2) Check in the Bicycle, and 3) Dinner with my family at my sister's house. And again, as much of the rest of the day as I could, I spent with my feet up relaxing.
Sunday morning came quick- the alarm went off at 4am. I actually slept like a baby until that time- my wife said she got a good 90 minutes of sleep. I put down a big breakfast and then my cousin Brad and my friend Mike showed up for their ride downtown.
We checked our "special needs" bags and pumped up our bike tires. I have a ritual on race-day that also includes taping GU packets to the top tube of my bike and of course using the porta-potie 20 or 25 times. No- no nerves here.
O.K.- on to the swim.
We got down to the water and slowly swam out to our starting spot. We picked a spot about half-way between the corner buoy and the ski-jump and back just a little bit. There were a few rows of people right up front and then a nice empty space and a whole bunch of people back further- we went to the front of those people who were back a little ways- so we had a nice open space in front of us.
Good decision.
To start.
When the cannon went off, we started swimming and for about the first 50-100 yards had a nice clear path. I instantly got into the rhythm that I wanted- breathing very comfortably on both sides, no problems sighting, long-smooth strokes. This is going to be a great swim!
And then the entire field of 2800 swimmers descended on that nice clear area that I had.
I know that's not true- but that's what it seemed like. It seemed like everyone wanted to swim in the same place I did. And they were all willing to swim over me, push me under, kick me or do whatever it took to get to where they wanted to go.
I panicked. Bad.
I stopped swimming and looked around for a way out. There was no way out. And the swimmers just kept coming at me. I talked to a friend the next day who said at about that point he rolled over on his back and started crying.
When I realized that I couldn't get out of there, I decided that I would just have to swim. It wasn't pretty. The long-smooth strokes were gone. The breathing easy on both sides turned into gasping for breath on the right side whenever I could manage to rotate enough to do that. The easy sighting was gone- replaced by basically swimming wherever the rest of the pack was taking me.
My plan all along was to break up the swim into two shorter swims- swim one lap and then stop and rest for a bit, get my bearings and do another lap. I'm not the strongest swimmer in the world and I figured that breaking it up into more managable chunks would make sense. I didn't realize that it would be a necessity.
I finished the first lap and stopped- as planned. I looked at my watch and I was about 39 minutes in. Not bad, considering how rough that first lap was. I can still come in under 1:20.
But I didn't.
Somehow the second lap was just as bad as the first. Usually things start to calm down by the second lap- the swimmers start to get spread out and that creates a little more room. Not this time.
I finished up the second lap and headed in- looked at the clock as I exited the water...1:29. While I was disappointed in that time, I had a huge smile on my face. I was done with the swim and ready to bike. And...I was racing Ironman. That alone kept a smile on my face for most of the rest of the day!
Over the weekend I finished my third Ironman Wisconsin race. For those who are not familiar, an Ironman consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run.
For those who are not familar- yes, all in the same day.
Ironman Wisconsin is a great race. The spectator support is nothing short of amazing. The backdrop is perfect- riding out in the Wisconsin countryside, running through the UW Campus and of course finishing in front of the state capital. Your couldn't ask for a better setting.
Well, you could- but you have to qualify for Kona. And apparently that's not in the cards- more on that later.
Or right now.
I set some goals for Ironman this year. They were pretty lofty goals, but not out-of-the-question goals.
Here's what I wanted to do...
Swim: 1:20 (that's about 5-7 minutes faster than I've gone in the past, but I'm a much stronger swimmer now than I was then)
Bike: 6 hours or under (I can definitely do that distance in that time- but this is a tough course and I have to do this between a long swim and a marathon run)
Run: Somewhere around 4 hours (I never know what to shoot for on the run- because it's hard to predict how your body will react to that swim and bike)
Total time: Around 12 hours (again, it's hard to predict what's going to happen on race-day, so I keep that prediction pretty loose).
Here's the odd thing- I didn't hit any of those goals, BUT- I'm still very happy with my performance.
I'll get into the specifics of why I didn't hit those goals over the next couple days, but I'll say now that I had a good day, overcame some obsticles and in the end heard those words once again...
"Pat Gallagher...You. Are. An. Ironman!"
For the rest of this week I'll break down the race, event by event. Tune in tomorrow for all the gorry details of the swim.
As I walked down the hall earlier today, a coworker grabbed me and asked "Who's Tony Orlando? and what song did he do?" I told her that he was best known for "Knock Three Times" and he was the leader of the group "Tony Orlando and Dawn." I explained that they had a variety show that everybody watched when I was a kid. In return I got a blank stare from my coworker. That's when hit me- she has no idea what the variety shows of the 70's were like. You remember the shows...seems that every cheesy duet in the 70's had one. Tony Orlando and Dawn was actually a trio- but the rest of them were duets- Sonny and Cher, The Captain and Tennille, Donny and Marie. They were all the same- a song and dance number to open the show- interupted by friendly banter between the hosts- usually consiting of one of the hosts making fun of the other (Cher teases Sonny about being short, Donny doesn't understand Marie's obsession with County music, Tennille teases the Captain about his baldness, etc.)- and then, after the appropriate amount of teasing and one of the hosts pretending to be REALLY UPSET- back to the song/dance number.
Next up, a couple of mildly funny (I'm being kind here), very family friendly (although they acted as if they were very edgy) skits. Gotta have another song/dance number- this time from a special guest (think we can get Bobby Goldsboro to sing about how that tree has grown? What? He's got his own variety show? What's Anne Murray up to? If we can get Ray Charles, we can tease him about being blind!). Next up- a couple more family friendly skits and of course then it's time to wrap it all up with another big song/dance number. Oh, did I forget to mention the costume changes? Sometimes several within one song. Hell, Cher would completely change her costume and hairstyle 3 times in the course of a 3 minute song! So that's the 70's variety show. Not sure exactly when they went out of style. And I'm sure I would not watch them today, even if they were on TV. But they were fun at the time- if for no other reason, than for a young boy to watch for Cher's inevitable wardrobe malfunction.
This weekend on Triple M we're playing some of the greatest live music ever recorded! Every hour will start with another cool live song. So, I thought it would be fun to put together a list of my favorite live albums of all time...
1) Cheap Trick...at Budokan. O.K., so Cheap Trick has been my favorite band since I was a kid, so this is no surprise. But it is a great album. I love Cheap Trick's studio albums, but they really shine live. I've probably seen them 40 times over the years- I didn't include any other live Cheap Trick albums on the list- but I do have to point out that I was in the audience for the recording of "Music For Hangovers" and in the audience for the video shoot for the song "Say Goodbye." Also, if you like what you hear here, you might want to search for "Bun E's Bootlegs" a series of live recordings from various parts of their career- there's some interesting cover songs and a few of their own songs that they no longer play live.
2) Marques Bovre & The Evil Twins...Live @ The Pres House. I can't remember if this is even an official release- I think so, but I'm not positive. It was recorded at the Pres House here in Madison- I believe the guys at Audio For The Arts did the recording and did a fantastic job. I don't remember the exact circumstanses here, but I think Marques was about to take some time off, maybe for surgery? Anyway, it was a great performance- again there were several songs that don't get played live too often and again I was in the audience for this show.
3) The Neville Brothers...Live On Planet Earth. I actually lost this CD on a flight to Jamaica several years ago. I was BUMMED! I know exactly where I left it- in the seat pocket, where they put the bad in-flight magazines. I was listening to it and then popped in another CD and left the Neville Bros in the pocket of the seat in front of me. I have since burned myself a new copy of the CD and I love it- from the very beginning where they are introduced as "The Mighty, Mighty Neville Brothers" all the way through the very end and their stellar version of "One Love/People Get Ready." Other highlights include "Voodoo," "Congo Square" and of course "Yellow Moon."
4) U2...Under A Blood Red Sky. Do I really have to say anything beyond "This is not a rebel song...this is 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday'?" O.K. I will. I remember walking down the hall of one of the dorms in Platteville several years back and hearing this blaring from one of the rooms. I stopped in to find out who was playing it...and I ended up marrying the girl who had it on her stereo. Not right then and there, but several years later.
5)Little Feat...Waiting For Columbus. Several years back I had the opportunity to introduce a Little Feat show at the Barrymore Theatre. I walked out on stage, stepped up to the mic and said "Please join me in welcoming...let's hear it...F...E...A..." and so on- just like on the record. Later that night while I was standing in line for a beer, somebody said that they knew I was going to do that- I asked how and he said "because that's exactly what I would have done." Oh, and then there was the night that I got drunk with Richie Hayward and about half of the New York Yankees. I won't bore you with the details- I'll just say we got kicked out of the bar and haven't been back since. On the record itself- I love "Dixie Chicken > Tripe Face Boogie" and "Time Loves A Hero."
6) The Allman Brothers...At Fillmore East. No idea how many times I've seen these guys over the years. One of my favorites was at Alpine Valley- Elijah Blue Allman was playing with the band at the time- the show was over and we were hanging out backstage when the phone rang. Someone on the crew answered and yelled for Elijah, as he walked away I joked that Cher was on the phone- and then as the crew guy handed the phone to Elijah, he said "It's your Mom." So yes- Cher was on the phone. As for the album- a 22 minute "Whipping Post" - gotta love that. I also love the live versions of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "Stormy Monday."
7) The Who...Live @ Leeds. It wasn't until this album that I realized how much Cheap Trick was influenced by the Who. I know, it should have been obvious- but this is the album that made it obvious to me. I hosted a show on Public Television a few years back- it was a live performance from the Who and my cohost pointed out the similarities- I wasn't going to argue with her there on live TV, but I didn't really see it. So I went home that night and dug out "Live At Leeds" and listened. Oh, now I get it. The Who really did influence Cheap Trick. She was right. I was wrong. That happens (more often than I'd like to admit).
8) Bob Marley...Babylon By Bus. I know, the "LIVE" album from Bob Marley is the classic one. But I became obsessed with this album when I realized that the tour that the recordings came from came through Madison. I can't remember now where it played- possibly the old Capitol Theater or the Orpheum? I wasn't there, I just always thought that it was cool that the tour came through Madison. A few years ago a did a little research on it, actually making calls to Jamaica and some museum that tracks all of that stuff and found out that none of it was actually recorded in Madison. But it's still cool. Musically- I love the way the album opens with "Positive Vibration" and from there- it just keeps up a great vibe through the entire recording.
9) Talking Heads...Stop Making Sense. No great stories to go with this one. I just love Talking Heads and I never had the opportunity to see them live. I really hoped that when they played for their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony that they would have a ball and decide to tour again. I could see from the first note they played that night that it wouldn't happen. I'll have to be happy with the live album.
Day 2 of the Centurion weekend was fun for me- I didn't race on Saturday, but I spent the day playing the part of the race announcer and of course watching the races.
The day started at 6:30am with me and my wife (who is forced to be my assistant whenever I am a race announcer) getting our instructions from the Centurion folks. Lots of notes on the day's schedule, race rules, sponsors to thank, etc. We went through the notes and set up our own little plan of attack. We had a couple of important times to be aware of...pre-race it was all about making sure everyone knew the rules and what was expected of them and of course getting in those sponsor mentions. After we started the race we thought we'd be able to rest for about an hour. It was a 25 mile race, so surely it would be at least an hour before the first rider came in, right?
Wrong!
About 50-55 minutes later, the first bunch of riders crossed the finish line- averaging more than 27mph! And it was a steady stream of riders after that. The next part of the day is trying hard to announce every rider as they cross the line. A bit of a challenge when they were coming so fast and furious. Sorry if I missed you or mispronounced your name. This was the big part of Laura's job as my assistant- she would keep one eye on the finish line and another eye on the computer and do her best to feed me names as people finished.
At one point during the race we noticed (or it was pointed out to us) that several people were completely missing the finish line- racing down the other side of the road and never crossing the line. This is a problem as the event is chip-timed. If you have ever been in a chip-timed race, you know that you are told over and over again "no chip...no time." In other words- if for some reason you are not wearing the chip that you were given, the timing system will not read that chip and you won't be timed. What they don't tell you is that if you don't cross the finish line, you also won't be timed. When we figured out what was going on we also realized that it wasn't the fault of the racers or of the race organizers. Somebody had parked their car in front of the sign that pointed the racers towards the finish line. The racers didn't see the sign (it was blocked by the car) so they just kept riding. When we figured out what was happening Laura had a new job- head down to the point where people were getting off course and get them back on course. And I had no assistant. Not a big deal, as everything in this race was computerized- so I just had to read names off the computer. The guy from the timing company had the really tough job- he had to figure out who missed the finish line and try to get a good estimate of their finish times- all while being asked the usual questions- "did I win?" "what was my time?" "is my girlfriend in yet?" etc.
As soon as we finished the 25 mile race and the race awards, it was on to the kids race.
Cutest. Race. Ever.
The kids had a choice- either go 1k or 5k. It's o.k. for Mom and Dad to ride along if you want. The 1k race was a short loop that the kids rode through once, the 5k race was a long loop that they rode twice through. The best part of the race itself was the littlest kids not really understanding what was going on. They would go the wrong way. They would not go at all. And most often, they would stop well before they made it to the finish line. One kid in particular stopped about 10 yards from the finish. His Dad and I stood at the finish line trying to coax him across. He stood there with a look on his face that said "wouldn't it be easier for you to come to me?"
The real fun started after the kids race.
AWARDS TIME!
Every kid gets a medal. Every kid gets to come up on stage and get their name announced. Every kid gets their medal placed around their neck by Graham Fraser (the guy who started Centurion Racing- and I believe Ironman too). Every kid gets to step to the edge of the stage and get their picture taken. Yes it took a long time, but it was a whole lot of fun. As each kid came to the stage I asked them to say their name into the microphone- of course 1/2 of them were too shy to do that, so they told me their name (or Mom told me their name) and I announced it and then tried to ask each one about their experience racing that day.
Me: "Did you go real fast?"
Kid: "Yep!"
Me: "Well, then you deserve a medal"
...and on to the next kid.
Well, on to the next kid after the papparazzi finished taking pictures.
And the next generation of bicycle geeks is born. Your welcome.
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Good dental hygiene is important for your health and your confidence! It is for these reasons that one must know the proper steps needed to keep your mouth in good shape.
Brush your teeth twice a day.
Use fluoride toothpaste.
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As a Beatles fan, I like to think I'm pretty well-versed in Beatles history.
So I was a bit puzzled when I saw something on twitter that had been re-tweeted by Paul McCartney. It was from some one named Percy Thrillington who wrote: "Percy...
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Our challenge was to re-write our own version of On Wisconsin. Everyone was REALLY creative. As much as we didn't really think it was a great songwriting challenge, it sure was entertaining to see what people came up with. Tough decisions ahead...
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It's probably not a big surprise to any one who knows me, but I was never a big disco fan. I never even owned a copy of "Saturday Night Fever."
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