How to shovel snow

I saw some jackass cleaning his driveway that was FULL of snow with a putty knife! It was awesome.... two hours later I drove by and he was still scraping ice and snow. The best part of all was that he was scraping all the snow and ice into the center of the driveway! I was laughing out loud as I drove by both times.

October 3, 2009

So I kept saying this was my last marathon! Well on Saturday I got up early and took the early bus. As a result they entered my name in a drawing for some pretty cool prizes. You'll never guess what I won. Free entry into next year's marathon. Of all the prizes. It couldn't have been the week long stay at the local spa, no. Couldn't have been the cash, no. Had to be the free entry into next year's pain cave. So I guess training will resume in a few weeks. I'll work a little harder this year and see if I can't qualify for Boston. Again. In the cold, wind, & rain. Again. It's just 26.2 miles, right? But this is my LAST ONE!

The ER

Hopefully Star doesn't read this or she'll prolly kill me. She flew out from OK for conference late last week. The morning after her arrival Julie and I met her for breakfast. On her way to breakfast she called and said she wasn't feeling well, had some tingling in her right arm and face. So I talked to her while she drove and when she got to the restaurant she looked fine, but had a REALLY hard time talking. She still had some numbness, mostly on her right, but her face wasn't droopy, but she couldn't talk, and it was getting worse. She had a hard time remembering names of family members, which made her start crying, and that's when I got nervous. I thought maybe it was a blood sugar problem, since she'd flown in late the night before and hadn't eaten dinner or breakfast yet. So she tried to eat, but was so upset she couldn't. She tried to drink and dropped the glass. I thought she might be having a stroke, but she's only 28! Then she was mumbling worse and I asked if I could take her to the hospital. She let me drive her first to the insta care, but they recommended we go to the ER. As we were walking in she was getting dizzy, having a hard time walking without help. I was afraid there'd be a huge wait, but much to my surprise, they rushed her into the CT scan room while I filled out the paperwork. After the CT scan came the EKG, and they were able to rule out stroke, THANK GOODNESS! But, the neurologist had been called in because the CT scan wasn't good. The left side of her head was really hurting her so they gave her some meds for the pain, and to help her sleep. Turns out she had poor blood flow on the left side of her brain. That caused a migraine, and her reaction was not typical, but understandable. She felt dumb for going to the hospital, but it was the right thing to do. We were there for about 7 hours and her brother Jack showed up after noon to keep me company. She's fine now, says she feels a lot better. Star, if you're reading this: Take better care of yourself!! Manage your stress and put yourself first for once... you scare me! She was at the hospital about one hour after she first started feeling sick, which, if it was a stroke, would've made a difference, according to the neurologist. So remember, if someone you know has numbness on one side of their body, their face or mouth is droopy, and they're having a hard time talking, take em to the ER now! I've included an attachment to the American Heart Association's website with info about stroke victims, just click on the title of this post.

SGM

The St. George Marathon was this morning and once again, it was FREEZING!! It was windy, cold, and raining sideways. My feet were saturated before the race even began. There's bonfires in the morning and the wind was blowing so hard people had to stand WAY back. Anyway, this was my first marathon that I didn't cramp up, so that was nice. I ran with a friend from work, Stu Short, 22 years old from Sacramento, and a friend from High School, Dr. Tyler Carlson, 32. Stu ditched us at mile 3 for a 3:02 finish which qualifies him for Boston. I ditched Tyler at mile 7, he then caught me at mile 24, and we ran together til the last 2 tenths of the race. Tyler finished 3:50 and I finished with a personal record of 3:52. I'm really happy with my time, my overall performance, especially considering the conditions, it was MISERABLE! This is the best I've ever felt during a marathon. But I think it'll be my last, triathlons are the way to go. They don't hurt nearly as bad.

Kokopelli St. George Tri

Julie and I both competed in the Kokopelli St. George triathlon yesteray at Sand Hollow reservoir. Julie did the sprint, 750meter swim, 20K bike, and 5K run. I did the Olympic version, 1.5K swim, 40K bike, and 10 K run. I was scheduled to start first at 7:38 and Julie at 8:17. My goal was to beat her across the finish line and I did, but just barely. She did really well. To start, the water was really great, warm & clear, you could see to the bottom! We swam the same course, Olympic-distance athletes doing two laps, I swam without a wet suit for :40. My transition time, or T1, was uber fast! I was on the bike and on my way in less than two minutes. Unfortunately, less than a mile later I was sliding across the asphalt on my leg & elbow at 30MPH! Coming out of T1, it was a long sloping hill, I had a lotta momentum from all my table muscle so I was cruising, and there was a sharp turn, two guys ahead of me doin the same speed... didn't see it coming but we all three went down trying to make the sharp turn. THIS IS WHY BIKERS SHAVE THEIR LEGS!! The cleansing & healing process is brutal, it hurts SO bad! Anyway, I jumped on my bike and sped off. The adrenaline kept the leg & elbow numb, but I'd torn muscles in my left shoulder and to get down on the aero bars hurt, so I took turns on the hoods and on the aero bars. I really killed the bike, there was a steep 6% grade at mile 2 that lasted for a mile. I was so mad about falling down that I was able to really hustle up that hill and all the way thru the bike course. On the bike course alone I was in the top 10 in my division, males 30-34, not including elite athletes. Coming back down that big hill, doing about 35MPH, I saw Julie going up. I was glad cuz I was nervous she might give up on the swim. Another uber fast transition time, less than 2:00, and onto the run. The run was in the sand which REALLY sucked for two reasons. First, your feet sink and your legs already feel like rubber. Second, I swear sand emits more heat than asphalt. I ran the same course as Julie, doing two laps in :56. Not thrilled with my run time, but not really disappointed either, just because of the sand. I crossed the finish line and the pain set in. About 15 minutes later Julie finished with a LOT of noise from her fam!! My total time was 3:01 and Julie's was 2:24 (I think). It was a good time and we're both ready for the next one. Two weeks from yesterday is the St. George marathon, aiming for a finish time of about 3:30.

Ogden Valley Tri

The Ogden Valley Tri was yesterday at Pineview Reservoir. It went pretty good, I'm happy with my results. In my division I was #39 out of about 72 guys, which is a big improvement for me. This was a 'hybrid' tri. In other words, it wasn't a sprint distance, and it wasn't an olmpic distance triathlon. The swim was 1000 meters, the bike was 15 miles, and the run was 4.2 miles. My total time was 1:53:55 and I'm happy with that. My swim was relatively slow, 24:46, bike was fast :45, and my run was fast :37. I'm even more excited for the St. George tri next weekend... I'll be more aggressive in the water and in the transitions. Look for another update next weekend.

LOtoJA

This weekend we supported a friend that competed in the bike race LOtoJA. It starts in Logan, UT and ends in Jackson Hole, WY, 206 miles. Non-stop. Uphill. Regardless of the weather. On a bicycle. CRAZY!!! Anyway, our friend Dwaine took second place in his division and his cousin was first overall, 9:15. Another friend, Tyler, also competed, he finished 11:15. It's such a pretty course, and of course thousands of people do this, so there's lots of support, but why? Just to say you did? This has got to be worse than running a marathon. They all say it's not, but it has to be. I've sat on a bike seat for like 4 hours at a time, I can't imagine 11 hours. I doubt I could walk for the next three days. Anyway, it was fun and Julie finally got to see Jackson Hole.