C2C Randolph-Macon College

John Shimkus and I did our third Congress to Campus visit at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, VA, October 8-9. RMC was a great host; students were engaged and interested, and I am now a big Yellow Jackets soccer fan with an actual jersey. We also spoke to the Women in Legislative Studies Conference hosted by RMC on October 9. The college's summary of the visit is here.

Running for the Bulls 10K

For completeness, I'm putting this race on the blog, even though this was a mistake. It was a law firm group activity, and nobody else did anything other than the 1 mile walk with a dog. Meanwhile, I'm slogging through a 10K 3 days before a 4-day East Coast trip, with an extra day trying to get back home with an overnight stay at DFW because of a flight cancellation, and it probably helped me get an incredibly persistent case of the flu. But I finished, and 2nd AG (because there were only 2 of us). 1:16:22, 40/50 overall, 28/33 gender, 2/2 AG. Official results here.

Devereux "Trusted Advisors"

Devereux ran a series of "trusted advisor" posts on Facebook and LinkedIn to spotlight members of their center advisory boards, like me on the Devereux Arizona Advisory Board. Here's the Devereux national Facebook and LinkedIn posts, and here's the Devereux Arizona

FB and LI links.

Sun Devil Classic

The Sun Devil Classic in Tribute to Hannah Henry was supposed to be a triathlon, but heavy rains led to water discharges in the lower Salt River dams, and the water quality (and opacity) in Tempe Town Lake meant it was switched to a duathlon. Not my favorite, as the swim is my (relatively) best event, but I've had a long recovery from the flu and it's probably best I wasn't in the water - especially not that water.

It was a beautiful day once the sun came up, and while the race was a slog - OK run 1, satisfactory bike, OK transitions, and a not great run 2 where I had to run-walk the 5K - I'm in a great age group, and finished 3rd AG (even ahead of the guy who finished fourth). I'll take it. Results here:

Run1 11:02.7
T1 3:50.8
Bike 49:21.6
T2 4:26.5
Run2 38:29.4
Division 3/4, 71/72 gender, 118/120 overall

I Have an Op-Ed

As a member of the ReFormers Caucus, I'm the Arizona point person and have an op-ed piece on protecting elections and election workers that just went up on AZ Central and will be printed on June 3. Hope you like it.

Cactus Man Triathlon 2026

This was the last Cactus Man in Tempe, and it was a hard race for me. I was traveling the week before, probably went out too hard on a taper ride the day before, and we had stiff winds (10+ mph) that made the bike ride tough and made the first half of the run a real slog (I did better on the second half, especially once I had the wind at my back). I'm in a very robust age cohort, 10 people had signed up to race in 70-74, and 8 did show and finished.

I thought I'd be right in the middle of the group, but officially came in 6 out of 8. Two weird things about the results. First, the finisher right ahead of me reportedly did a sub-50-minute 10K, at age 70. I think that has to be wrong, he only did one lap or something. If so, I did get 5/7 again this year.

But even if someone who was 11 minutes slower in the swim, 7 minutes slower on the bike, and 2 minutes slower in transitions somehow did a 49:41 10K, I have to be pleased with my result because I finished 0.8 seconds faster than the guy in 7th place. He's got to be really pissed.

Swim 35:51.8 (wetsuit)
T1 5:45.2
Bike 1:10:25.3
T2 3:25.6
Run 1:21:10.5
Overall 3:16:38.6
Division 6/8, gender 178/188, overall 232/250

Results are online but no photos yet (and maybe never).