Monday, October 5, 2009

Winter's, uh, here . . . again

Yes, I have not posted in forever. I'm a little (ok, a LOT) ambivalent about this blog and sometimes (often) wonder, what's the point? Yet, I keep coming back months later telling myself, THIS time I'll stick with it. It hasn't worked so well in the past, leaving me with few, if any, readers, but here I am again. Why, I'm not sure . . .

As one might imagine, lots of things have been happening since my last post forever ago. I did another sprint tri in Grass Valley, with my friend T, who basically got up off the couch (with a little swimming and even less running thrown in) and came in 5th in her AG. Why do I hang out with these people! We had a great time, and I think this is my newest favorite venue. Women's only (not much of an issue for me), extremely supportive crowd and spectators, very interesting course, not ridiculously far from home. Random pics of the event:




T and I, way early, pick out our HUGE transition spots.



Yeah, super early, like the first ones there. This fills in quickly!




After another hour, everyone else showed up!


Now, that's a crappy race report! I really enjoyed the race, and my time was something like 1:55, give or take 5 minutes. Of interest, I did NOT almost die during the swim . . . this represents a huge change. I wasn't fast by any definition, but usually I'm all freaked out and waterlogged by the end of the swim, and this time I just got out of the water, fell down (some things never change) and . . . kept going. No drama. Nice!

In other news, I guess the biggest deal is yesterday there was a knock on the door and Who's there? It's fucking WINTER! We've been dealing with our 4 cords of wood, moving it from the back yard to against the house now that fire season is over, purchased a cord of oak, I cut down my fledgling garden in preparation, but yesterday, wow! Tom and I went to the gym together, he finished earlier than me and drove on home. I worked for another half and hour or so, then started to run my way home, about 3.5 miles. It was a little chilly, in the 40s maybe, but I run very hot so no biggie. About 1/2 way home it starts getting a LOT colder and then Snow! and Wind! and holy shit winter has arrived! I was doing ok with it, but then stopped for a 5 minute phone call. Still ok, I took a right turn and found myself running right IN to the stuff, and suddenly it was too much. Lots of snow flying, 10 degree drop in temperature (my guess, anyhow, it felt like more and might have been less) and 30mph winds. For the first time in my little running career, I caved and called for a ride home. I thought my skin might freeze.

If I'd had a jacket, I would have fared much better. Note to self for next time.

Hello, winter.


3 comments:

Kelly said...

Ew, that weather sounds awful. Sounds like your tri was fun. I need to try another one, but I'm too chicken to try anything but my gym's indoor tri's. Ah well. I have no idea what a good time for a tri is but 1:55 sounds awesome to me!

Just so you know, you at least have one reader, me :D

Happy Monday, good to hear from you!

ShirleyPerly said...

Nice job on your swim and race! I've never seen transition areas that look like parking spaces before. Sure does beat squeezing 6 bikes to a rack.

Sorry to hear winter has arrived so soon over there!

Bootchez said...

Yay, readers! and Commenters!
1:55 is pretty much back of the pack for a sprint tri, but represents a finish, which is all I really care about anyway. I don't think it ever occurred to me to be "chicken" about running tri's, though if I had thought about it I probably would have baled. Mindfully oblivious, I did my first one and just ran my own race then got hooked . . .

This was the first time I had ever seen such transition areas myself, and damn! but it was roomy enough to take a nap (an action that I certainly considered) . . . I liked it.

Thanks for your comments . . . .