Monday, November 6, 2017

Hurricane Championship Swim

This might be the first year that I've been able to successfully complete all three of the local races in the Triangle Open Water Swim Series. Last year I did the first two and the 3rd one was cancelled thanks to Hurricane Matthew. This year it was game on. Sunday, 10/15/2017 for 1.2 miles of open water fun at New Hope Overlook boat ramp in Jordan Lake.

Foggy day!

FS Series getting it setup

Can't even see the first buoy

Ready to swim
The FS Series organizers asked at the beginning if anyone could sing the national anthem, I think they were having trouble streaming the copy they usually play. I stepped up to sing with no warning, no warmup, and no practice! At least the second half of the song sounded pretty good. For a singer, performing the national anthem in front of this many veterans, there's no such thing as a good performance. You either do it right or screw it up. I think I did it right, it's an honor when you do it right.

Eventually we did start swimming at 8 am. It was really foggy outside, but the fog burned off pretty quickly after we started swimming. You couldn't see much further than the next buoy, but at least there was some direction in there. And the water was like glass. No kind of current or chop at all.

There was an unexpected sand bar out there, so they positioned the return buoys in a little bit and suggested we keep them on the left. The 2.4 milers had to go back out for a second loop, and when I kept those buoys on my left, once I looked up to see a couple of those 2.4 mile swimmers heading directly at me! Surprise!

I finished in 34:54, good enough to place 52/101 overall, 31/53 men, and 2/6 in the 40-44 age group! I'll take an age group award any way I can get one.

The finish line when I was done

the non-selfie version

happy to have that bread

RAM swimmers

With my AG award!

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Hello October!

And goodbye. Wow that month really flew by. Why is it that the really hot months seem to last forever, but the comfortable favorites fly by in the blink of an eye? This October was no exception. I was finally able to run again consistently, the kids went back to school, everything really fell in line.

Swim: 26,400y 8 swims 1 race
Bike: 36.9 miles, 3 rides
Run: 49.1 miles, 9 runs
Strength: 5 times
Yoga: 7 times

That's a pretty solid month! It just went by too fast. I mean, my running wasn't fast. Still waiting on the endurance and speed to come back. But I did get out on my favorite running route to the state capital building and back last weekend. The endurance certainly was not there, but it felt so good to suffer again. I also got back into the older routine with my morning workouts. No more joint pain means yoga is back on the mat!

I had one swim race in October that I haven't written about yet. It was awesome and I took 2nd place in my age group. Also coming up this weekend I have a 10k running race, the City of Oaks. Last year I did the full marathon there, and it was my last full marathon but I still don't want to admit that I've gone a whole year without marathoning.

surprised with the new sunglasses

in desperate need of a haircut & beard trim

with my age group award at the swim race

Kelley got a picture printed on wood so it's suitable for outdoor display

Got the fountain setup into permanent placement

Beginnings of a patio

We got grass to grow!

There was a Diwali celebration at work

Got to meet my newest cousin, only 4 weeks old

Family lunch at a cracker barrel

Halloween! The kids did their own costumes this year
See? the month went by so fast I only got 11 pictures. For Halloween, Lena was a zombie Amelia Earhart, and Ella was some video game character I can't pronounce from Undertale.