Great Weekend in Columbia

Well, we just got back from Beth's Olympic Distance Race at the Columbia Triathlon. She did great!!! She took almost 4 minutes off of her time from last year when she was the top amateur. Unfortunately, she ended up 2nd this year by 19 seconds. But, all in all, a good day. You can read more about Beth's results as she posts her own race report on her blog.

My personal highlight of the day was the result of my usual running around cheering Beth on and letting her know where she stood relative to the others in the race. To be up front, I love running around because I think I would get really bored if I just sat in one place for the entire 2-plus hours. Anway, Beth got out of the water and I let her know her place and time behind the leader. Then, I had the idea to run up to the top of the transition to see her leaving on the bike. No problem so far.

But, then I got the crazy idea to then run up through the parking lot (grass field) of cars to catch her as she was leaving to go out on the main road. However, as I'm sprinting through the field, I notice that there is a fence in my way. (See photo of the fence taken after the race).

As you can see, it was pretty high as it came up to almost my hip (about 3 feet). I had a full head of steam coming flying through the field and had to make a decision.

What to do?

1) Do I stop and just cheer from there? It's only about 10 yards from the road (see picture)
2) Do I slow down and crawl over it since it's kind of high?
3) Do I make like a gymnast on the pommel horse and vault over it?
4) Or, do I go full speed ahead and **hope** to make it over so I can cheer on Beth from right beside the road.

Well, in the heat of the moment, people don't tend to make the most rational decisions. So, of course, what do I do? I hurdle it! (see reenactment of event below) And, I made it! I cheered on Beth and then, slowly crawled back over the fence in a more sane manner to catch up with my mom and sister.


At this point, I didn't think too much of it--you know, you just do stuff with a little bit of adrenaline during the heat of the battle. But, afterwards, one of the people that finished near Beth named Maija (we loved your cute dogs Frito and Cooper!!) was talking to Beth and I after the race. She suddenly realizes why she recognizes me and says something to the effect of, "Hey I saw you jump that fence. That was crazy!!"

Then, Beth chimes in with a similar comment and we all got a good laugh out of my questionable reasoning of jumping a fence. If I had to do it 10 times, I bet I only would have cleared it six or seven. But, you know what? I cleared it the time it counted!!! Who says I'm not a solid jumping coach during the track season? Heck with the distance running, maybe I should go out and work on my slam dunks! (Don't forget I'm only 5'10")

Other highlights include our friend Eric Limkemann finishing as the 5th pro, Beth having a chance to meet and get a photo with her favorite pro triathlete Desiree Ficker, and also getting a chance to hang out with my mom, sis, and brother in law.

In other news, the Penguins are going to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1992 and the Pirates have made it to one game under 0.500 four times since Monday. Of course they then promptly go out and lose the next game each time, including today. At least today, they only lost 4-3. Every other time this week, they got blown out.