Brian's Next Blog Attempt

Gurujan says that every race is a success as long as you learn something.  Well, I've been to two events in the past 2 weeks and have learned things at each.

First up is Vineman Half.  I didn't actually do this race, but I did learn several things:

• Be prepared for every type of weather.  This race was WAY colder than everyone expected.
• Don't drive home the day of the race.  I thought it would get me an extra day at work, but instead I slept all day and was really stressed about staying away all night to get home.
• A double shot latte at 9 pm will keep me awake and alert enough to drive (kinda) all night, yet still allow me to sleep in the morning.
• Not doing the race is the best way to participate in the event. :)

There were many good times had over the weekend, but the best story for sharing is the start of our trip home.  We left Guerneville the day of the race at around 7:30.  There's a nice windy road leaving the town and I'd already driven it more often that I'd wanted, due to the fact that T2 was several miles away along this very road.  As I was driving along, I was relishing the fact that this was the last time I'd have to drive this stretch when suddenly Dana realized she had Sandra's ID.  So--we had to turn around and go back.  Sandra did agree to meet us half way, but it did mean more time on this stupid road. 

As we're driving back and forth through the twists and turns, Katie starts to feel motion sick.  This isn't helped by the fact that she ran out of food and hasn't eaten in forever.  While we cruise along, Katie tries to sleep to keep herself from throwing up.  Eventually her tummy starts to feel bad so she unbuttons and unzips her pants to relieve some of the pressure that's making her feel even worse.

Finally we make it to a Whole Foods just 10 minutes before they close.  We walk in and I immediately head over to order a coffee.  Dana, having just finished the race, is limping around the store looking for food, but eventually makes her way over to order a sandwich.  Katie wanders around the store looking like someone who has just stepped off a 24 hour torture session of riding the world's most puke inducing rollercoaster.  After getting my coffee, I head over to Dana and try to hand her an environmentally friendly reusable bag I'm carrying under my arm.  To do this, though, I need to set my coffee down.  Now picture one of the nice refrigerated sections at the grocery store.  You know--the kind with the nice rounded glass front where they had the coleslaw and potato salad.  Well apparently when I set my coffee down, I didn't entirely place it on the flat part on top, but rather on the rounded area, so as I'm handing the bag to Dana, my coffee starts to slide down.  I notice this just in time to try to catch it and end up juggling it a bit before it turns upside down and douses the entire front of the case and quite a bit of myself in coffee.  The workers are now all looking at us in disgust as one of them says "Guess I'll be cleaning that up."

So--I head off to the bathroom to rinse the coffee off myself and, once there, look in the mirror to see that my hair is an absolute mess.  It's sticking straight up and is really quite frightening.  But, I head back out, get another coffee, round up the girls and head out.  Once we get to the car, Katie suddenly realizes that she spent the entire time walking around the the store with her pants unbuttoned and unzipped.  So, we spent quite a while afterwards trying to figure out what the people in the store must have thought of us.  We finally decided they thought we were a gimp, a slut, and a klutz. :)

In the end, I drove most of the way home, though Dana relived me for an hour so I could sleep through the grapevine.  Eventually we made it back to Dana's at 5 am.  Somehow even though Katie slept the whole time, she looked even worse than I did, while Dana, who mostly stayed up to keep my company looked totally fresh and alert:
(Sorry girls--I just had to post that. :)



Then the next weekend I did Solana Beach Triathlon, which was my first sprint distance.  From this I learned how to pee in a wetsuit.  Yes--I finally did it.  It took me 20 minutes standing in the water to relax enough to get it done, but it certainly helped me out once the race started.  Once I got going, I was even able to pee while standing in the water talking to a friend. :)   I also learned that I can finish in the top half of my age group and I reconfirmed that my run sucks, but that it's all mental.  I did manage to race another guy the last 200 meters (and beat him), proving that I still had the energy to run harder--my problems on the run are all mental.  That sprint also proved to be quite useful as I managed to beat Ryan by just 1 second, which I wouldn't have done had I not sprinted. :)

The best part of this race is that I got this photo that I absolutely love.  I look like I'm working hard and it's a great action shot of me in front of the guy who I beat to the finish.

In the end, I really enjoyed this race and although I had originally planned to do IB sprint as a total fun race, riding a beach cruiser with an aero helmet, now I kinda want to do it for real just to try to improve on my Solana Beach time.  Guess I'll see how I feel on race day...