My first Triathlon

Saturday the 11th of June, I competed in my first triathlon. It was an absolute blast other than the run :)

We registered in the gymnasium, where we got our numbers, bibs, and written on with permanent black marker. Oh fun. I was number 956. Most triathlets wear lots of spandex and speedos, but I went with swim trunks and my Fantastic 7's rugby jersey from a few years ago since it is made out of polyster and wouldn't just suck up the sweat like a cotton shirt. Also while I've been losing weight, modesty is still the buzz word so a form fitting spandex or under armor shirt was a no go. The jersey worked great. The stand-up collar even helped keep the sun off my neck a bit. The day started a bit gray and rainy, had me worried, plus it was cool, in the mid 50's. Reluctantly I backed my bag, hopped on my bike and rode over to the gym, about a half mile away. I set up my bike and helmet in the staging area next to the pool entrance then headed inside. We registered in the gym as I noted before. Then we sat around for 45 minutes until the racer briefing. Most folks took this time to warm up and stretch a bit. My legs were tight. I did some plyo jumps on the rolled up wrestling mats to warm my legs then stretched for the remainder of the time. I did throw in some pushups to warm up my shoulders for the swim. After the briefing we headed into the pool. Since we only have 6 lanes and had nearly 60 competitors they did the start in irregular heats. 2 people swam per lane and each lane had 2 volunteer timers all using synchroed stopwatches. They all began at the same time then utilized the splits to figure your times. I was the second swimmer in my lane. I chose the medium pace lane since I wasn't sure how I'd fare against the others. I could have chosen the fast lane. When my timer said go, I was off like a shot swimming the first full length of the 25m pool without taking a breath, I literally flew down. I hit the wal and spun, the back and forth was a blur until the 6th length, then when my timer said 5, I got concerned. How did I lose a lap?! Anyway, I decided it didn't matter, I was doing sub minute laps and what's another minute in the grand scheme of things during a "fun" triathlon. The laps went easy and I was winded but not tired at all after exiting the pool. I quickly threw on my socks and shoes and shirt and hustled out the door to my bike. I rolled it out of the gravel onto the asphalt and was off like a shot. Since we all started at different times on the swim, passing people didn't necessarily mean anything time wise, but it was stil motivating. I ended up passing 6 bikers on the ride. I hadn't had any outdoor bike practice since I just got my bike out of storage a week or so before. I didn't even put the wheels on until Friday night and tune the darn thing up. Luckily my bike has skinny tires and weighs nothing so it is fast. I'd pedal until I could feel the burn in my thighs, then I'd coast a few seconds and do it again. The only prolonged pedaling was when i was catching and passing other bikers, then that motivation would kick in and I'd pump by. My ass hurt a bunch, now I know why most bikers wear padded shorts. Ouch. I made it to the transition to the run. Hopped off my bike and almost fell flat on my face. My legs were jello and my ass was numb. I struggled to get my legs pumping. I was in front of the crowd, so did my best not to look like a wuss but once I turned the corner, I started speed walking trying to get the blood back into my ass and legs. I tried to keep a running pace but my thighw just didn't like me. I guess I didn't do enough roadwork training. Actual running is so much harder than treadmill/eliptical running. Ugh. I decided I'd do intervals of running at a good pace and then speed walking rather than get into a slow dogged jog. I would run hard for 50 paces of my left foot then walk until my legs felt strong again. Let's just say I walked a lot. The hardest part was not knowing the distances or even the course. We ran down the Alaska Pipeline for awhile then through the woods, along the Richardson and the down the downtown airfield back to the ice rink bike transition. I was only passed by 8 runners, all with pretty good pace. When I hit the finish line it was almost anticlimactic, like "That's it. I can do more." I grabbed a powerade and banana and sat in the shade for a few minutes, when I got up I realized that maybe it was a good length after all! My legs had already started to stiffen up. Racers continued to come in for the next hour and a half, staggered because of the swim lane availability. It was a great experience and I am already looking forward to the next one in August down in Anchorage. It gives me another reason to get into the gym and get out at night for some running and biking and to try to stay fit.

Look at that ghost white leg. Not getting a tan up in Alaska that's for sure.

Listening to Pearl Jam during the warm-up trying to get psyched up.

Rainbow Pics

The left end of the rainbow. I ran over to find the leprechaun but he wasn't there, just a pot of gold.

You can better see the double rainbow on the right end. I wanted to see if that pesky leprechaun was on this end but it landed in the missile defense base area of post, so I couldn't go in.

That's my front door on the yellow house.

Double Doubles

I walked into the kitchen last night to put a dish in the sink. I didn't realize it was even raining and when I looked out the kitchen window the most amazing rainbow was staring back at me. I ran out the back door to see it better and realized it was a double rainbow and that I could see both ends. it was so bright and the colors so vibrant, I was awed. Even the purple showed up clear as day on the main rainbow. I ran back to the office and grabbed my camera and shot these pics. It hung around for almost an hour before the clouds blocked out the sun and it slowly faded.

Look at how vibrant it is.

Look at that purple and even the red is clear. Wow.

Here you can see the double rainbow.

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Maulerfest

Friday, I hitched a ride up to Fairbanks to pick up my 4Runner, which finally made it to Alaska. The check out process was a total of 5 minutes, look around the vehicle, check the dents and scratches. Nothing new. Good to go. We ran off to lunch at the Food Factory, pretty decent philly cheeses. I boogied back down to Delta to retrieve my camping and rugby stuff then drove on down to Palmer Alaska for Maulerfest, a ten on ten tournament. The drive down was amazingly beautiful, I sang songs the entire way with the sun shining looking forward to a little rugby action. I rolled into Palmer about 9:30 p.m. and found the Matanuska river campground. There were a few tents up, but nobody home yet, so I went shopping. When i came back Dave and his family were back at the site, we were the first ones into camp. Slowly but surely through the night everyone else showed up and tents began to spring up like mushrooms after a fall drizzle. We sat around the fire drinking PBRs and talking shop. We finally started to hit the racks around 1 in the morning just as it was getting dark. Midnight Sun is right.

The first match wasn't until noon, so we decided on breakfast at 9 at the Palmer Hotel. We had 24 bodies for breakfast. The portions were huge. Robbie easily had the largest breakfast including corned beef hash and reindeer sausage, something like four 6" pieces for a serving. I had (not green) eggs and ham and 1 pancake, too afraid it would all come up post haste once I started running. We filled 3 tables and 2 booths to overflowing and made a spectacle for the locals and a tip machine for our waitress who was excellent. She was on top of it for sure. Then we headed to the pitch, which coincidentally was next door to the campground, oh how convenient.

The pitch had thick soft grass all over. Reminded me of Savannah in the park, must be the costal climate, all that moisture. Soft grass is a plus, it makes the tackles more bearable. We played 3 matches, 20 minutes a piece. We beat BirdCreek pretty handily 5 trys to none. We came out ready to play and moving well. Then we had a 3 hour break in the cool air. By the second match I was stiff as a board and moving slow. At the beginning of the match, an islander nailed me hard, picked me up and did a driving tackle into the ground, he got a penalty but I was moving even slower after that point and I think the hit put the mojo on the guys because we were all a little slow to react. The second half against the Tbirds (all samoan) we had found our legs and put up 2 trys and kept them to 1 score but they had slowed their pace as well. They walked away with the win though. The third match was a face-off with Kenai, who was borrowing some guys from other teams. We came out the gate hard and scored quickly then scored another pull ahead try, but Kenai found their rythm and early in the second half we were tied. Then in the final minutes they rolled us with a downhill try to creep ahead and held it for the win. It was a tough loss because we beat ourselves more than anything with too much individual effort and turnovers. Our lack of group playing time was evident. My legs felt great by this time by my spirits kept dropping whenever we'd be pushing forward well then an errant pass out would end up in a turnover 20 meters behind the ground we'd just gained. I did have my share of screw ups without a doubt, knocked on a penalty ruck, forward pass on a penalty run, kicked the ball away on a breakaway run. Ugh.

As seen on TV.

Dave and Aaron.

Gerard.

Look at that backline waiting for the ball to come out.

Russell.

What do these guys eat?

Kenai vs Golden Bears

Why do our backs look so small compared to the islanders? Get these boys some pulled pork and heavy lifting.

Schuuuuuuuuuuu. Leading scorer on the team for now. Scrumhalfs aren't supposed to score. Knock it off.

Maulerfest page 2

Matanuska River Park Campground. Only 2 tents per site please, right, try 10!!

Lots of doggies to clean up the leftovers.

Dave chilling by the fire.

Aaron threw together some blackpot hobo stew.

Kayla on the end after a penalty. Haskin looking to take her out (in red).

Heather on a penalty breakaway.

bloody noses were the fashion of the day.

Lara confusing the other teams scrummie, she scored on this run from a scrum.

Charity with the big nose issue.

Look at that bloodstain. She actually went back in the next match and played.

Maulerfest page 3

On the drive back to delta on Sunday I took my time and stopped to see some of the sights. It was a great drive, the fog was in the mountains and almost no one was on the road as early as I was. I saw a moose cow with calf. My first porcupine. A caribou. The glacier. I went down by the river since the salmon are supposed to be running but I must have been too far up, because I didn't see any. Paul was down on the Chitina on this same weekend and dipnetted 40 salmon for saving. Some of the fellas are headed down there this weekend to do the same. We'll see how they fare.

Black Rapids grotto. Next to the Army rock climbing training area. Sweet. I know where I'll be picnicing on a hot July day. 35 minutes from home.

Rock climbing training area.

Avalanche and rock slide risk area!! The road goes right by the bottom of the talus and scree faces.

Glenallen airport.

Matanuska Glacier.

Check out the fog smoke on those mountains. It was so foggy at one point once I got into the valley i was doing 30mph and still couldn't see.

The native designs down around the coastal area is more like you see in BC and Washington, Oregon.

I wanted to try to get a tour of the NOLS farm but it was 6am so I decided to save it for another day. The Palmer valley is amazingly beautiful farm land, green lush, flat and quiet. Just the way they like it.

We had 4 campsites and probably 30 people packed into them to sleep. I slept in the 4runner, quiet, dry and best of all bug free!

Back to Happy Days! Literally, straight out of the 50s.

The Army is currently spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new housing for soldiers to bring their standard of living up to the same standard of those they serve. Basically bringing them into middle classdom across the board. It's called the Residential Communities Initiative or RCI for short. RCI has not made it to Greely. (To be fair, it has, but is just starting, literally). So the housing on Fort Greely is a little, uhm, dated, I guess would be the right word to use. Most of the units were built in 50 or 60 years ago. I however do feel like I lucked out for several reasons. First off I'm on an end unit. So only 1 neighbor to contend with. We share a front entrance which means that our only shared walls are those where the stairwells are located, not too loud for the most part. I am on the road, so the upstairs bedroom in the back can see mountains on a clear day. But the best part is a private roadside entrance that I don't have to share from the parking lot in the back. All in all, I've lived in much much worse.

Shared front entrance to 1400 sq ft of home.

Private side entrance and sort of yard. Doyon dug it up to upgrade electrical service so the yard is not all grass but the upside is the electrical service was upgraded. How's that for a silver lining?!

Heated, yes, heated garage. And all utilities are included in the price of rent. The thermostat only goes to 65 but when its -40 if this garage is 65 It'll will feel like the tropics.

Fort Greely doesn't currently offer Olympic lifting since they don't have rubber bumper plates, so I'm buying us a set so we can continue to do the lifts necessary to Crossfit.  

Here is the living room and dining room. Doesn't look like much, but everything fit in just fine. It's a tad tighter than the condo was, but also easier to heat in the winter. Oh so important.

All three bedrooms are upstairs. As well as the Full bath. The tub is actually about 8 inches longer than our tubs in SC. I think we may be getting spoiled. Did I mention that the hotwater is part of the rent.

Here's the bathroom, but I didn't take a pic of the tub. Definitely some retro styling.

They provide a fire extinguisher. Mission First. Safety Always. Another Army motto.

I think I saw this kitchen on 'that 70's show' once.

Look at those orange counters. I bet my mother in law is itching to do a pampered chef party in this bad boy just to have a flashback to the early 80's. Come on up Carol, the weather is fine. Notice, in sink filter, living the good life now.

The one thing missing is downstairs closet space but the basement is full length and heated with the washer and drier down there and lots of storage. All of the stuff we had jammed in closets, outdoor gear, tools, hunting stuff, whatever will all gladly go down below until it's yard sale time, which happens every month as part of the community activities. There is also a small covered pavilion with fireplace we can utilize. Really, not bad overall. Not Shangrila by any means, but TIA, This Is Alaska, afterall.