Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Titan Marching Band

If you had kids in the Arcadia High School Band in the early part of this century (or were in the Band then, but if so, why are you reading this old guy's blog?), you'll appreciate this essay by our son Ben.  Did you know that he's tied for third-funniest in the family (as is everybody else)?

Vineman 70.3 Half Ironman

Rookie mistake--had too much fun on the swim (fun!) and bike (fun and beautiful, too!) and didn't leave enough for the second half of the run (not fun!)   But I finished in 6:23:51, 36 out of 53 in my division, and well under my "positive" goal of 6:30, and better thus than my "basic" goal, which was finish, and my "satisfactory" goal, which was finish in under 7 hours. But had such fun on the swim and bike that my ego got ahead of my GI tract on the run while chasing after a "stretch" goal. But enough! My first half ironman, and I finished.
UPDATE:  The local newspaper's story on the pro event, with some pictures.  Plus from the event photographer:  Not just photos, but 2 videos, one of the finish and one of me waddling out of the water.

The Jewish News Report on the Century Ride

Here's Marilyn Hawkes's report on Andy's Tahoe ride. The version in the paper has the picture, but without the speech bubbles. Sorry, L.

The Boys Do A Century Ride

America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride, with temperatures between 41 and 47 degrees, rain, plus hail. Maybe it got warmer than that in the afternoon, but then it started hailing again. I never shed any layers during the ride, and it was pretty cold, even going up the switchbacks to Emerald Bay (hence the shower cap to keep out the hail/rain). Not the best day but we did it. Speech and thought bubbles by E. Gordon (now known as L.)

Tempe International Triathlon Action Photo!

Thanks to Lisa Kravetz. The professional shots are usually far less kinetic, at least for us age-groupers.

2:47:47, which is a new PR for the Olympic distance by all of 1 second, but I'll take it. I had a good swim (more, and more visible, buoys next year, please!), a not-bad bike ride, and was just not so slow on the run as to use up all the time I gained in the transitions over my Nation's Triathlon time. (A tri with 10,000 participants means more time in transition; doing an event with 1,000 means a couple of minutes gained just because the transition area isn't quite so huge or so far from the swim and bike courses.) Maybe if we hadn't started 40 minutes late I could have picked up another second or two, it got pretty warm by the end of the run. TriScottsdale won the club championship, plus I was fourth in my age group (out of 14). There are more pictures here.