Strawberry Century (Ironweek 13)

I learn't my lesson yesterday at the Strawberry Century - keep the HR down, or pay the price!

The event itself was very similar to last year's - same course, same SAG's, pretty much the same windy end as well. So you can look to the link of the description of the '07 race to get the picture. The difference was...my race-buddy Excel Man showed up this year.

If you don't already know, Excel Man is the consummate over-distance trainer. 130 mile weekly bike rides are nothing to this guy. This Century - yawn... So I was a little bit apprehensive as to what he was going to do to me on Sunday, and all I can say is, well, he done it. Yes, I will blame him for my woe's.

We started out in the realm of sanity. HR was under 140, actually in low 130s some, and we were not drafting at around 19 - 20mph. Cool. Then we get to the first SAG at around 19 miles, and we are all alone for a while. I say a while, cause in a couple miles, along comes this train of 20 riders hauling serious butt. Curt jumps on and I tag along for the ride.

These yahoos were cranking along at 23 - 24mph, in a fairly organized draft line. The problem was that this course has many, many 4 way stops, Rail Road crossings, and major intersections with street lights - so lots of slowing (to like 19) and then mad sprints to bring the line back together. The accordion effect was insane! Every time the sprinting would ease off, and we'd get into a draft rhythm, with my HR back into the low 150's (yea, I know, way too high even), we'd find another track or turn or stop sign and do it all over again. This was my world from mile 20 to mile 63. By the time we got to that SAG, I was TOASTed.

Nice...those 63 mile roadies went in to get some chow, most of them done for the day. Curt gave me that look - like, "you aren't really gonna quit on this century, are you?" - honestly, if he wasn't there, I probably would have called it a day. 38 miles to go, already wasted, was not the day I was looking forward to. With stops, we had averaged 19.8 to that point - it felt a LOT faster.

Nicely, the wind picked up and it was pretty lonely out on the course for the final part of the ride. I tried to lead out, but after 5 miles or so, Curt got tired of my slowness, and jumped ahead of me. Of course he didn't say anything, but I wasn't arguing either - I was grateful for the wheel! I'm admitting for the world to hear - I sucked that wheel for the rest of the ride - had I not, I may still be out there! 101 miles total and with stops we averaged around 17.5 mph. So, lesson learned, by all means, keep that HR down below 150, heck even the low 140s for the Ironman ride, no matter how good I feel! Hey, it's done, as is IronWeek 13.

Speaking of Ironweek 13 - I had my highest training volume week ever this past week, with a total of 14hrs and 40 minutes of swimming, biking and running. The only negative was some serious knee pain on my "long" 9 mile run on Saturday. It didn't hurt when I ran, only after, and hurt it did - enough to wake me up a few times that night! I was fine to bike in the Century the next day, but it does give me cause for concern for future long runs.

As March comes to a close, I think I also had my biggest bike volume month ever, with over 500 miles logged. I'll have to look to confirm, but going into St. Anthony's I feel pretty good about my training for a change. Top 10 - it could happen!

B-Fit Birthday Challenge

What the heck was I thinking? Roman throws out this B-Fit Birthday Challenge and it all SOUNDS well and good. Then I see that being 44 this year, I have to swim the first number in miles (that would be 4 miles, Nytro...) then bike the total number of years in miles (44, duh) and



then follow that up with an easy run of 4 miles, the last number in my age. The swim, in a word, sucked.

My longest swim ever prior to this was 3500 meters. This one would be 6500 meters. Smart? No. Especially on a diet of 2k to 4k meters per WEEK of swimming up to this point. But, I figure I'll just take it slow and steady, plus....I had my new fangled swimming I-Pod setup to keep me company. For 3 hrs. Sort of.

Quick product review. In the Birthday spirit - Di got me the Nano...Dad got me the Earphones, and Mom got me the case. Thanks, everyone, for my birthday gifts! The H2Audio waterproof gear (case and headphones) for the Ipod Nano worked like a charm. Nano is easy to operate in the case. Easy to see, and most importantly, it stayed dry. I have a set of tri-shorts with a big pocket in the back for nutrition....and for I-pods it turns out. The waterproof headset also worked great. Well, actually - I don't have a big noggin - but I had to have the headset pushed out to it's max settings to get the buds in position for my ears.

The headset comes with these black ear "inserts" that cup around the buds and then insert into the ear, in an effort to seal the ear of water. These work...not so much. Probably a function of the shape of the ear canal, but I could not get a good seal, and as a result, could hear when I turned my head to breathe and my one ear drained, but as soon as that ear went back in the water, the ear would fill and the sound would go away. Well, not totally away, but it was very muffled. The directions suggest using swimmers' ear wax and form some sort of cone-dealy...I'm willing to try it for good tunes while swimming. I'd adjust during breaks and get a few laps of good clean sound in - I'll tell ya, it really made the laps go by faster! Good rocking songs with plenty of Base worked the best. Folk music with girly tunes could barely be heard (sorry Trimama)

And I had 3 hrs to mess with it.

I read, a little too late, that a "swimmer's mile" is 1500 meters or 1650 yards. I should have swam 6000 meters, but I did 6500 meters or 7108 yards 'cause I did the math, and that's what it came up to for 4 miles. I don't know...towards the end I did one set of 500m in 13:09, so if I take that off of my total swim time, I'll have 6000 meters in 2:38:24. With 17:12 in total breaks. If you keep the other 500 in, just add that time and another 1:28 break. Good grief. About 2:20 per 100 yards. Did I mention I started slowly?

T1: 1:16:00 - time to eat a hearty lunch at Boston Market (mmmm...1/2 rotisserie chicken, green beans and potatoes...) and drive the 23 miles to Flatwoods, my training loop.

Everything else was fairly uneventful. I was thoroughly smoked from that self-imposed Chinese water torture and had nothing to give to the 44 mile bike other than some easy turning of the crank. I could tell my ass was still sore from the Century only 2 days prior - wearing the still damp tri-shorts was probably not the best idea. I went 2:21:43 for 44 miles; an average of 18.63 mph. Winds were steady at around 12 mph with gusts approaching 30mph. Nice.

T2: 3:15:00 - yes, that's 3 hrs and 15 minutes. I thought I had to work at 5pm, so I didn't brick that last little run. Turns out, no work, so before American Idol started and my Chinese food got delivered, I knocked out the neighborhood lap times 4.

Oh yea, I tore it up! 41:23 for 4 miles; yes, yes, that's only a 10:20 per mile pace - hey - absolutely NO records were harmed in the completion of this Challenge!

And for everyone wondering, yes, the next day, my shoulders are like rusty gates. I'll see tomorrow if I can still do a swim-motion. After a day of lawn work, they really feel much better then they did when I woke up. At least my perception of swim distance has taken a paradigm shift to the extreme. 4k ain't shit anymore!

Ironweek 14

This week had the makings for a great week. Instead, it was so-so. I swam. I biked. I ran. I guess that's all you can ask for, when you are OLD, like me (turning 44 today - crap!)

I capped the week off with the Clean Air Century on the Withlahoochie Trail. Picture an old rail-road line paved over with lots of wooded areas covering the path. Flattened for the train, the trail is cut and raised through the rolling hills of Central Florida. It passes through a couple of really small towns but for the most part, it goes 46 miles from top to bottom in the middle of nowhere. The hardest part of the ride were the 8 miles off the trail that went up and down the hills on normal roads...that was the Central Florida I was used to!

I showed up to the Clean Air with an un-charged Garmin. Of course, I took it off the cradle when I left the house, so how it was uncharged remains a mystery. 100 miles on Perceived Effort is kinda cool - but I still would have rather had the data. I did it in 5:54 - no records were set in the posting of this blog. My first SAG stop was at least 10 minutes - the bathrooms were set back off the trail in a park that we had to walk back to...I really really had to go! I stopped at two other SAGs just for water and cookies - mmmm....cookies.

I guess I went out pretty slow, and came back in even slower, but actually felt like I could run afterward if I had to - and that was a first for me on a century. I also did zero pack-riding; another first. For $25, I got a t-shirt, a medal, 3 aid-Stations (for 6 possible stops...) some food before we left, and some good chili, hot dogs, and drinks (no beer....oh well) at the finish line. It was worth traveling 50 miles one-way for this one!

So...I got a longish run of 10 miles in - and that was it for running. 2 swims for a whopping 4483 yards - but the water is becoming my friend again. Lots of bike this week - 174 miles - for a total training time of 12:52. Coming up I've got the Strawberry Century on Saturday, The B-Fit Birthday Challenge on Tuesday, and some training in-between. It will definitely be a good swim week (what with my 4-mile swim tomorrow...jeesh), and a good bike week (44 on Tuesday, 100 at the Strawberry, plus...) and I'll be sure to get in 20+ on the run. Only 13 weeks to go!

The Ben Hur of Podcasts

It took a while, but it's out.

Episode 6: The Ben Hur of Podcasts. The longest podcast about absolutely nothing you'll ever enjoy. Get your long bike ride ready, and listen up.

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We've even got MP3 versions available at our Podcast Site, http://bigun86.podbean.com/ - if you can navigate those pages, good luck to ya!

Thanks for listening! And remember, we need a name for our Pyramid Shaped Planet where the Hallowed Hall is located.

Ironweek 15

Leaving this blank would just about do this post justice. I got an ear infection, probably as a result of the heavy waves at my first Tri of the season, which manifested on Thursday. Friday was a bust. Saturday's Long Ride....nope. Sunday - nothing.

So, all I managed was a 5 mile run, 62 miles on the bike and 2625 yards in the pool. 1 run, 2 bikes and 1 swim for nearly exactly 5 hrs of training. Lets put last week behind us - between the ear infection, the CdA house falling apart, and crummy training week, Ironweek 15 is one I'd like to forget.

At least the ear is now all better. I think the CdA house will sort itself out - it looks like a combo of hotel rooms and friends with folks who backed out of the race will be the answer for us. I started this week out with a 10 mile run on Monday - so the week begins with a bang. Time to get off the computer and get to work!

One last thing. I know the Tacboy and Bigun Podcast usually comes out every other Tuesday. That's tomorrow. Um. Yea. I don't think that's gonna happen. Wednesday, at the earliest, could be Thursday. Sorry Commadore, and all our other faithful die-hard listeners. You all are the best, and we here at the TB'nB production studio are working diligently to provide you with quality programming and a humorous show. I'm sure, however, you would not want to hear the 2 hrs that currently makes up Episode 6.

TriGirls aim to please....

Edit: These are not the.Bigun's photo-shopped pics - these are stolen from Lana's site - she's the art-eeest!

There are those of you out there that feel that The.Bigun was a bit harsh when dealing with Lana in the Tacboy 'n Bigun Podcast for her grievous transgression that was: Unauthorized Header Change.

In her malicious attempt to garner support and incite discord in the Hallowed Hall, a poll was established, the results of which indicate a general agreement with Lana and a lack of support for The.Bigun's ruling. That hurt, people. Really.

Time heals all wounds, and people are quick to forget the anarchy which followed Lana's coup attempt. Like TriSherpaDi (as seen here to the left), who seems to think that Lana should be given a "get out of TOS forever card" (women, sticking together). My trusty sidekick (oops, I forgot, I'm the sidekick) Taconite Boy made it known that he would be ok with a 1 year TOS (Tomb of Shame) free card, and also tries to allude to the likes of Lana and her supporters that he had nothing to do with her TOS stay last month (women, sticking together). Superhero...ha!

Granted, Tac's pass includes the stipulation that Lana keep the new header up - once the header is removed, the pass goes away. I can almost live with that.

You can see why. I say "almost" because It's a fabrication. A fake. A phony. In the immortal words of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, "Ain't nothin' like the real thing" baby. Trimama with the goggles, Lana with the sunglasses looking like Paris Hilton, and Iron Jenny, with the sultry swimming cap on - with those skinny arms, those girls couldn't swim a lap, let alone 2.4 miles!

The more I think about it, the more duped I feel. Here we had a header with unretouched photos depicting a "real" athlete with "real" abilities and "real" attributes. This world is full of glamor mags with skinny, non-athletic girls with their bony arms and knobby, non-muscular legs - to think that Lana would stoop to such levels is, well, its a crime.

Ok, who am I kidding? Lana's new header is hilarious and was the perfect retort to my constant harassment. My fave is still the one to the right, the "old" header, the one she changed and landed her rightfully into the TOS, and can't for the life of me figure out why one would change it - but I'm certainly one for comedic content above everything, and would be happy if "Trigirls Aim To Please" stayed up. Just not for the same reasons as Taconite (...pervert). I'll fight the 1 year exemption to the TOS however. Anyone with that kind of power could wield it for evil, causing all sorts of problems with no recourse. Just look at her....oh yea, she's got an evil side. You better believe it!

Pics!

Um, yea, I really do need to lose weight. I guess that's why I didn't get upset when I was talking, post race, with my lovely bride TriSherpaDi and Green Eye'd Lady, explaining my claustrophobic wetsuit feelings, when my oh so wonderful wife-ee-poo turns her head off to the side and says,

wait for it

oh yea, she did

"lose weight".

If I'm lieing I'm crying.

Enjoy some shots she took of the Bigun at the most overpriced ripoff of a race there ever was. Click on them to enlarge.

trying to get my frozen feet in my bike shoes after my 4 min T1...

Click and you can see The.Dot.Bigun is in serious need of a Shave Rave (tm)!

Excel Man dismounting...yes, he does take off his parka for the run. I come in just a little bit behind him. Here you can see the two Tacboy and Bigun - approved dismount styles...

Excel Man finishes with a smile...little did he know he'd be going to Alcatraz!

I actually had both feet off the ground during the run for a change. And this was at the finish even!

Now what?

We just had our deposit returned for our CdA rental house. It seems the owners lost it to foreclosure. Gosh that really sucks for them.

So now we're scrambling for a place to stay 15 weeks out from Ironman.

There are still plenty of options left....25 - 30 miles away from the city. Motel 6 has rooms available, but I'm not very keen on staying at a motel when sleep and comfort will be a premium. Especially a $60-a-night Motel 6.

Crap.

Escape to Alcatraz Florida Race Report

Fun times! On the way over to Clermont for this sprint, TriSherpaDi and I watched the thermometer on the truck go from 44 at my door to 38 at one point, then miraculously back up to 44 once we reached Lake Louisa State Park. With the time change, we had an 8am start - the presence of daylight did little to help the temps!

We had 324 Finishers, and for $100, would you believe there were no finisher's medals? Yes, we got t-shirts, and they are a nice, tight weave cool-max, but for the most expensive sprint I've ever done, I kinda expected a medal. Pizza at the finish line - nope. Some poor kid flipping hot dogs that we waited in line for - I'm not sure what's worse for you, hotdogs or pizza? Shoot - the Mad Dog Sprint is $85, and they have Pizza, a live band, and a BEER TRUCK! Race Officials? Must have been too cold - there wasn't a single one that I saw, and since it was a 2 lap bike, I had most of the pros and elites racing zoom by me. Only saw one pack - but then again, there were only 324 people racing.

The RD (same one who stole my $5) may have overlooked a few things you'd expect in a $100 sprint, but he sure can sing. He belted out the National Anthem at the start. After I got kicked out of transition, I sauntered down to the water's edge in the face of a serious wind coming in directly over the lake. Going out - some nasty in-your-face waves that reduced more than me to some breast and side strokes in order to get some air that didn't come with a wave chaser. It was about 400m out, 100 m 'over' and then 400m back. I came in at 21:48 for 1000m - I must have made up some time swimming with the wind.

I struggled getting my suit off, as usual, and then dressing up for the bike ride, putting a dry long sleeve shirt on to a wet body - not fun. Even the gloves gave me fits. T1 was all of 4:06, an insanely long time to be putzing around with clothes!

The bike ride in Louisa Park is hilly and wind exposed. They cut back much of the trees - it looks barren for most of the ride. Barren means no trees blocking the wind. All I could muster was 18.3 mph average on a 17.09 mile course with 642' of climbing according to my Garmin. Over an Ironman distance, that would be about 4220 feet of climbing - not really that hilly compared to Coeur d'Alene....

I got off the bike with frozen solid feet - I was surprised that they were all that was uncomfortably cold on that ride. I couldn't shift to my smallest gear (I thought I had that fixed...) so on down hills and flats I really didn't get the speed I could have. No biggie - it was all for fun. T2 was actually pretty speedy - 1:35 - I didn't try to take off the long-sleeves or the gloves - so I probably looked silly on the run course for a while. I did see a bike helmit about a quarter mile into the run course on the ground...that brought a little chuckle.

I never got into a groove on the run. It wasn't bad really, just not even as fast as my last 10k pace. Lots of sand and ruts on part of the off-road course. A couple of hills, but not bad, really. I was 26:41 for what they said was a 5k - actually, my Garmin has it as 2.9 miles. I took 4th in the Over-40 Clydesdales - missed 3rd by a good 10 minutes. I've got some work to do before St. Anthony's Olympic!

On a good note (yea, this report is very negative so far...sorry about that!), we waited until the end of awards because Excel Man wanted to get in the raffle for the Alcatraz race - they asked how many folks wanted to go and 27 raised their hands. All 27 got a slot, and now Excel Man's pretty excited about going to San Fransisco! No, the Bigun can't afford it this year - once is enough for a while.

So, good grief, no police needed in a closed-Park bike course and run Course. No aid stations on the bike, one on the run. One coming in to T1 off the swim. No race medals. No officials. No after-race party or eats to speak of. If it were a $30 or $40 sprint, it would have been great. For a hundo....if I didn't feel ripped off before, I really feel like it now! Fortunately, that was my last "Z" race.

No get off the computer and train, Bigun.

Wish list

"You never tell me what you want!"

Well, that's a true statement - I'm bad about letting my Christmas or Birthday wish list known. Usually, I've got a big purchase that's at the top of mind, and I can't really see beyond it. This year...not so much.

While I haven't been logging uber-yardage in the pool, my time has finally come, and I really know that I can hardly stand the long, dreary sets that make up a swim workout. These will really help to make those mornings go by much quicker...


And these would make all workouts...swim, bike and run...fly by. Plus, then I could actually listen to mine, and others' Podcasts while I train. Neat concept. BTW - I need the NANO too...

Here's a little item I just came across. I'm not sure if my current aero-drink bracket will work with this one - it looks like it may - but with the caps and the added liquid volume...this could work for me.

I've been scouring e-bay and slowtwitch classifieds for either

this or this.

Not sure which I'd prefer, but it has to be tubular, and of course I need it NOW. I guess I'd rather have the Deep (Hed Jet 90 is the new version...) because I could use it at every race, hilly or not, windy or not, but who am I kidding? I can use a Disc in the windiest of races with no problems. It would take a monsoon to blow me over. These are the "big ticket" items currently on my mind - really, I could just get the wheel covers like I had last year (tip: plastic wheel covers do get brittle and crack over time, mine lasted 2 seasons, but I'm hard on stuff...).

All this listing reminds me that I'll be 44 soon. Yes, Mom, you'll have a 44 year old son! Ha (she hates that...)! I'm pretty sure we are having a Toga party here at the Bigun residence - which will be a first for me. This party will come after my B-Fit Birthday challenge workout of 4 miles in the pool (WTF?), 44 mile bike and 4 mile run. I am sooooo looking forward to that (can you hear the excitement in my voice?)! I may wait until after the party (my B-day is on a Monday) in the hopes of maybe using my new NANO et-al in it's inaugural workout.

A rant, of sorts...

I may be way off base. The lack of character in the actions of this RD (who will remain nameless) astounds me, but I'm open to dissenting views.

Here's the situation: I sign up for this race a day before the published document says that the price will go up. The company with which I did this transaction was Signmeup.com - a first for me as I am used to using Active.com - and for some reason Signmeup was using GMT as their web clock, and at 9pm my time (eastern) it was already the next day according to their website. I immediately shot an e-mail to the RD expecting that he'd be happy to know about this messed up situation and that he'd also take steps to refund my overcharged $5.

Right. The RD's response: "Sorry, Marc, I have no control over the time that Active changes the price on the date that I specify" Wow. I wonder if he has control over other mundane things, like Police directing traffic or First Aid stations?

My quip back: "So does that mean that you won't be sending me the $5 extra dollars I spent on your race?" was followed up with his ever-so-kind, "Yes-" and that was all he said. Of course, I'm angry. I really feel like this guy is stealing $5 from me; it just seems like it should be obvious.

I write him back, "Of course, they (SignMeUP.com, not Active) sent the extra $5 to you, and you do have control over your hand which signs checks - I guess the "easier wrong" in this instance is to do and say exactly what you said in your e-mail, but the right thing to do is to simply write a check for $5 and mail it to me. You have $5 of mine that you shouldn't have.

Now you also have a triathlete who will never sign up for another of your races (I think I've done 2 or 3, plus this one coming up), and will tell all his buddies on his blog and podcast that you could care less. Maybe even make some noise over at Slowtwitch. Sure it's only $5...but it's only $5 for you too. I wonder who all else will agree with me on this subject? I'm disappointed.

Marc"


Am I making too big a deal over this? This is an experienced RD with 20 years of managing events. He's probably good at it - he manages events for NA Sports among others. When a person of his influence shows such a careless attitude towards my hard-earned dollar, and is nonchalant about his own integrity, then I really wonder how else he's effecting ethics in the Triathlon Community. This really erks me.

Later that day, I got another e-mail from the RD - "Sorry, I am not able to refund your $5.00. I would be glad to offer you a $5.00 discount on any other NTC Race in the future. Just print out this e-mail and send it in with a printed application. They way you do not have to go through the on-line process."

You know, had an Internet vendor overcharged me for some bike tires or an aero-helmet, I'd have gotten an immediate refund of my money, a sincere apology and most likely a discount coupon in an effort to keep me as a customer. With this businessman, I had to rattle his cage before he finally offered to discount me money I've already invested in his company in the off chance I'd ever spend another $100 on one of his races. As if I'd want to go through the mail in process and waste the stamp that he's so reluctant in using.

My promise never to do one of his races again was made in a sincere protest of being treated like my future business meant nothing - his offer of discounting me my own money only serves to infuriate me more. I had honestly hoped that this adult....this man would snap out of whatever character-flawed-haze he was in, realize that his integrity was at stake, and do the right thing. No go. Didn't happen. It's amazing how $5 turns my perception of a man I've never met from being a person respected in the industry as a competent Race Director to a man barely worthy of the bottom of my foot. A stealer. A man of no Character.

I've already paid for this race...so I'll darn well do it. And have fun while I'm at it. But I won't participate in this man's income any longer.

Unfortunately, this promise forces me to withdraw any further attempts at making the EvoTri team. This is in no way a reflection of the EvoTri team or any of it's members - good people all! I cannot, in good character, fulfill the one race requirement of EvoTri team membership - what would it say of me if I ignored a statement I made solely for personal gain? The more I think on this, the more I'm certain it's the right thing to do. For me.

Episode 5 - Gone to the Dogs

For you non-subscribers out there, the newest shenanigans of your favorite Tri-Superheros are published on I-Tunes. Greyhound has graciously allowed an interview, and Blink and Di now have Superhero alter-egos. We found the lost Tri-Dummy interview and have included it as well. Lana voices her objections to getting thrown into the Tomb of Shame, and they fall on deaf ears, of course. Well, we were listening, but I don't think we were hearing her.

This is a very long Episode - perfect for folks out on longer runs or bikes. Unbeknownst to me, a very funny piece was torn from the final production - sorry TriBoomer. We'll have to listen to your Bling-Swing tips in Episode 6 - let the controversial sex talk continue (much to Tacboy's chagrin).

Enjoy the show, and thanks for listening!

Ironweek 17 (again)

Yes, you read that right. Today, Monday, there is just under 16 weeks left until CdA - 15 weeks and 6 days. So last week, then, had to be week 17, right? So, as usual, I've been messed up in my posts all along and must make a correction. A course correction perhaps.

My impression of me last week:

Gol-dang I'm sore!

Gosh I'm frigging hungry!

Holy-Moly, every thing's sore!

Hey Di, you gonna eat that?

I now blissfully enter a recovery week, one that I feel I desperately need. This week will put the Marathon completely behind me, and let me soak up these last two weeks of good training volume and intensity. Ahhhhh. Normally I go three weeks on, then take my recovery week, but before all these joint aches become pains and injuries, I'll listen to my body and relax a week.

Speaking of Marathon: Kudo's to Johnny Tri who finished his first Marathon with a 5:14 time! Hip-Hip....Hooray!

So...I got in 12.5 hrs of training last week, consisting of 145 miles of biking, 21.6 miles of running and a whopping 1760 yards of swimming. Yea, you read that right - 15 laps was all the pool time I could muster last week. I know! I need to fix that ASAP! The LONG BIKE was up to 83 miles with some hills thrown in the middle for good measure. Jetpack came out and met me for the last 10 or 12 miles of it which was way cool. He gave me a little grief for giving him guff in our Podcast, but that was to be expected.



Thanks for all the Clydesdale/Steeplechase jokes - you folks are the bomb! Di has graciously allowed me to forgo the day at the track (reality - our free tickets never materialized) and we signed up for the Florida Escape to Alcatraz. Please know, I have no intentions of somehow qualifying to go to San Fransisco, in fact, I registered in the Clydesdale Category, in which the "real" race does not even have - so I'm just going to have fun with Excel Man and Green-Eyed Lady and TriSherpaDi, put my speed cap on and see what I got.