The small opening that I had to fit the car into, as you can see clipped the backend of the Expidition and broke the tail light, but it could have been a lot worse.

The UPS driver actually told the police that he was on the correct side of the road and that he never parked on the incorrect side of the road. Yet in this picture, you can clearly see his tire tracks in front of the mailbox pulling back onto the road.

The damage to the front end after the accident.

Another view of the front end.

Also got the back end, must have got the back end of the parked car with it.

We will be taking the car tomorrow to the shop to get a quote of the damage. Hoping we don’t have any issues with UPS paying for the damages.

The Dash Poem
by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
And spoke of the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,
The cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard;
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
And more often wear a smile,
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

Orange/Banana/Pineapple Smoothie
(this makes roughly 24oz)

• 1/8 cup Sugar (we use Splenda and that works as well)
• 8oz Orange Juice
• 1/2 cup Vanilla Yoguart
• 1/2 banana
• 6-8 pineapple chunks (we have used from the canned pineapple, if you are using fresh pineapple, you may need to adjust based on size.)
• 4 ice cubes

We will also add some vanilla protein to this after a workout. It’s a great way to get fruit into your diet especially if you don’t like fruit. We have actually gotten the kids to drink these from time to time! Another twist on the above recipe, we ran out of pineapple and had bought some raspberries. So I added about 6 raspberries instead of the pineapple and it was still really good!

We where lucky in the power area. We only lost power for about 8-9 hours, where most folks where without power in our area until Wednesday night! The biggest bummer was that we lost cable/internet services until just this morning.

We have heard that wind gusts where near 85mph and sustained winds in the 65-70mph range! That was the most helpless feeling I have ever had, just sitting there listening and watching my house rip apart and not a thing I could do about it. As I said to Spring and the kids though, now try and imagine wind speeds of twice what we got hit with and that was near the winds that hit Texas along with rain! At least we didn’t have any rain with ours or it would have been miserable. We are hoping that we can get the siding done in the next couple of weeks, but all the roofers/contractors are so busy now after the storm I don’t even have a date scheduled or a quote yet.

So yea, we aren’t really pleased with mother nature or hurricane Ike at the present time.

Finally getting around to putting up some of the pictures from the damage. The house has finally been fixed, but it took until just before Thanksgiving before it was complete!

I had a great transition from swim to bike and then about 4.5 miles into the bike by back tire popped! Not a huge deal, I carry an extra tube just for this reason and all the required tools to change the tire while out on the course. I knew that my sub 1hr 30min race time was going to be shot but at least I would change it and still finish the race…or so I thought. I get every thing safely changed and tucked away and start off again and POP! I was like you HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME! At this point I am out of tubes and out of CO2 to pump it up also, so I am now officially out of the race. Had to get someone to drive me back to the transition area and turn in my chip.

So the official results haven’t been posted yet but it was something along the lines of a 30 minute race for me…

Next race isn’t until August 3rd I think so I will be getting the bike into the shop and having it looked over very well tomorrow…what few pictures Spring took of me will be posted today or tomorrow.

If you get time drop her an email and congratulate her, she has worked hard and we are all so proud of you for finishing up your degree!

We will be having a combination graduation party and 4th of July party on Friday the 4th, hope to see you there!

July 6th – Caesar’s Creek Triathlon (Sprint Distance)
July 20th – Columbus International Festival Triathlon (Olympic Distance)
August 3rd – East Fork Lake Triathlon (Sprint Distance)
August 17th – Vermilion Harbor Triathlon (Sprint Distance)
August 24th – The Great Buckeye Challenge Triathlon (Sprint or Mini Distance)
September 3rd – Portage Lakes Festival Triathlon (Sprint Distance)

The Portage Lakes race is the big race of the year. This is the final race in the series championship and the point totals are all doubled. I don’t expect to place in the series, but hey stranger things have happened in life.

Currently I am in a tie for 16th after two races. (I didn’t participate in the first race, but will be doing the last 4)

Total time: 1hr 30min 9sec
Overall: 121/199
Age Group: 8/13

Swim (820yds): 16min 12sec
T1: 1min 4sec
Bike (14.29 miles): 44min 12sec
T2: 1min 15sec
Run (3.1 miles): 27min 26sec

Overall I was extremely happy about this race. Again going into the race I was really hoping to get a sub 1hr 30min race, but my transitions just stunk for some reason. Had my transitions been sub 1 minute like normal and I would have easily had my sub 1hr 30min and I would have moved up one place in the standings to 7th place. I need to get my speed laces into my running shoes so that I don’t have to mess with tieing them.

The swim was a beach start, meaning that everyone in my wave started on the beach and when the horn sounded, we all raced into the water and then started swimming. Yea that was fun to say the least. Ever try diving into water with about 45 of your closest friends attempting to do the same? One of these days I will post an article of what it is like to do an open water swim in the race, suffice it to say that is very similar to a wrestling match, except it is under water and if you forget to breathe you could be in trouble.

After thinking about the race over the past few days, I took a very aggressive route in the swim, sticking very close to the buoys. This has two side effects, one it is the shortest route on the course, but two, everyone else wants this route also. So it gets a “little” bumpy.

The swim started out ok at first, but then about 50 yards or so into it I started to panic for some reason and I started having breathing issues. I just couldn’t seem to slow my breathing down, so I popped my head out of the water and did the breast stroke for a few seconds to calm down. Once that happened I was able to get my head back in the water and get a good stroke going and I didn’t have any issues during the rest of the swim. I would pop my head up out of the water every 10-15 strokes just to make sure I was still on course and not headed in the wrong direction.

The entire swim I had the biggest smile on my face. Yes you can actually smile and swim at the same time. See for those who may not have read all of my other race reports, less than a year ago I could not “swim” the swim portion and they where taking me somewhere around 25-30 minutes for a 820 yards swim! That is a very long time in the water incase you where wondering. I was so tired after the swim that it was amazing that I had any energy left to even complete the other two legs. So to be able to actually swim and to complete it in about 15-16 minutes was fantastic! I even passed a few folks on the swim, which would never have happened last year.

The bike portion I spent a good portion concerned over my back tire. I had gone out to pre-ride the bike course with a friend on Saturday morning and I suffered two flats in less than 7 miles! I didn’t have any other tubes or CO2 cartridges and ended up having to call Spring on my cell phone to have her come pick me up on the course because I couldn’t ride the bike. We then had to take the bike to a shop in Toledo that afternoon and have it looked at and the tube changed out. So for the first 6-7 miles of the bike I was worried that it was going flat again. Once I figured out it was holding up fien I was able to settle in and get going.

The bike course was flat, flat, flat!!! There was not a single hill anywhere on this course. This meant three things, 1-It was going to be very fast, 2-There wouldn’t be any hills to wear you out on and 3-No hills means that you NEVER stop pedaling! We where on country roads for the most part and they where very exposed and there where a number of spots where we got some cross winds or head winds. I really rode this course way to conservatively. I really could have pushed a lot harder and probably had an average speed of 20+mph, but for me an average of 19.4mph is pretty fast anyways. Problem is that most of the folks where averaging around 24-26mph.

I almost had yet another first in this race for me. I almost wrecked on my bike going around a corner! This guy was coming up on me and he was taking the turn pretty sharp, so sharp that he cut on the inside of the cones (against the rules) and I went wider than expected to give him room. At the speed I was going I wasn’t going to make the turn so I had to either lean and try to turn sharper and risk hitting one of the many pebbles on the road and dumping the bike, or slow down and go off the pavement onto the shoulder and risk dumping the bike in the ditch. I opted for the second option and hit the sand and grass. Luckily I was able to keep the bike upright but it did give me a scare. It was the only issue I had on the bike for the race.

The run was absolutely the best run I have had to date in a triathlon, both in time and how I felt. I just felt strong coming off the bike still so I just ran. Usually I will look at my computer on my arm to see how fast I am running and I will hold back early if I feel I am going to fast. Today I just ran, I know this sounds simple, but at this point in the race you are tired, you are in pain and you don’t really want to push to hard to early for fear of walking 3 miles. So I just ignored my computer and I ran as fast as I could until it really hurt, then I tried to keep it at that pace. The course was setup great for fan support. Normally the run is a pretty solitary leg of the race with no fan support on it, but today we passed all the fans a total of 4 different times. Let me tell you the energy coming from the fans was fantastic and really helped keep you going. Seeing Spring during the run portion for a changed really made things that much more fun.

My 2nd mile was a bit slower than the first and third miles. I actually lost about 30 seconds there again because for some reason I slowed down some, had I kept the same pace again I could have reached my sub 1hr 30min mark easily. I did have another bout with my left calf cramping up again right off the bike. I got about 1/4 mile into the run and my left calf just locked up on me again. This is two races in a row this has happened and it is getting old. I had to stop for a few seconds and rub it out before I could continue on. Once I rubbed it out I didn’t have any issues with it the rest of the run.

Over all this was the best race I have done to date, both in speed and how I felt I did effort wise. I left a bit out on the bike course I know and mabye a little bit on the run, but not much. I just need to get my transition times down under 1 minute and push harder on the bike and I know I can get that sub 1hr 30min that I am wanting. My next attempt at reaching that goal will be on July 6th at the Caesar’s Creek Sprint, stop number three on the Wheelie for Fun Series by HFP. I am getting this mark that race no matter what!

Pictures will be up on the site here soon.

This race distances are as follows:

Swim: 750yds
Bike: 16 miles
Run: 5k (3.1 miles)

The goal again for this race is somewhere near 1hr 30minutes. From what I have heard the bike course is very flat which should help out my times. Pictures should be posted from the race along with a recap sometime either Sunday night or Monday.