Back to Anthem to 'Tri' Again

The Edwards family returned to Anthem to see if they could improve their time from last year's event. Dana ran 3.1 miles, Ryan Biked 12.4 miles and Sarah swam 400 meters in a reverse Triathlon format. We arrived early, but barely found a place to rack our bikes. Lots of competitors including many more youth this year. We remembered almost everything we needed except for an Allen wrench to fix Ryan's bottle holder. One of our competitors loaned us theirs - Triathletes are the best!

Poor Sarah was feeling under the weather with a nasty cold, but she was hanging in there. This year they had two starts, one for the men, then 15 minutes later the women and relay teams. I wonder if the change was so that the women wouldn't have to look at 'speedo guy' (A competitor from at last year's race) He was ...um...unusual, shall we say a bit too enthusiastic in his warm up stretching. Anyway, no sign of him this year.

The race started and it wasn't too bad, all down hill for the first mile or so, but the climb back was tough. It took me just over a minute longer than last year. I handed off the chip timer to Ryan and he was gone! This year I decided to do the whole thing so I changed shoes, put the helmet on and tried to catch up to Ryan - wow, he has gotten a lot faster, it took me almost 4 miles to catch him. Sarah caught a couple of pictures of us riding by. I finished the bike section and got ready for the pool. It felt nice to jump in, but after a couple of laps, I was getting really tired. Oh well, no stopping now. By the time I was out of the pool, Ryan had finished his bike ride and Sarah was closing in on me.

So how did our team (The Crew II) do? In spite of her cold and a crowded pool, Sarah bettered her time in the pool by 11 seconds. Ryan bettered his time on the bike by a whopping 4 min 50 seconds! Thanks to Ryan and Sarah we beat our old time by 3 min, 50 seconds - OH YEAH!

(click for larger image)

My individual finish time was 1:27:36.

Enjoy the pics!

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National Bike Month

Yes folks, May is Bike Month , time to get on your bike and ride! The weather here in Phoenix has been fantastic for bike riding. Go ahead you can do it - pick a day and try it out. Hey if I can do it anyone can!


BTW lots of changes since the last post - here's the super-condensed summary, I'll make more detailed reports when I get a chance.

1) Ragnar was really great!
2) Did a mini Triathlon in Pima Arizona
3) Now working in Chandler, 38 mile bike ride is challenging and fun!
4) The fat I lost found me again

Let me know what you want to hear about and I'll write about it first.

Ready for Ragnar?

I'm feeling pretty good about my preparation for the 203 mile Ragar Relay Race this weekend. I have run a few hills and done a few miles - so far everything still works and doesn't ache, throb or cramp. I had a great run with my brother Scott last Saturday in Fountain Hills - we practiced his final leg of the race. Whew! some of those hills were pretty steep. He finished in good form and posted a respectable time. He only started running a few months ago and has been very persistent with his training - I'm proud of you Scott!

Our team is called "Can somebody please...CALL ME A CAB!"I have been staying up way to late and obsessing over the decorations for our vans - but they will look awesome! (don't get me started on my costume) I made some flashing lights and speaker mounts. One of the other team members came up with the logo and lettering - we will have a cape for the van too. Here's an artists conception of what it might look like...



I appreciate my family supporting me in this, especially my fabulous wife. I know I keep my insanity under control most of the time, but every once in a while I get carried away, this is definitely one of those times. She is a really good sport and will be volunteering at exchange 23 as one of the race officials. Come out and cheer us on!

Go run a hill

Holy cow! It's been over a month since the last post, lots to report - here goes...

Bike - I was just 70 miles short of my goal of 5000 miles last year, but I feel pretty good about it. I know it helped me get in shape and feel better - the saving on gas and vehicle costs was a bonus.

Running - Since the start of the year, I've gotten more serious about running and gotten off the bike more or less. I'm in training for the Ragnar relay at the end of February. Our team has gotten together a couple of times to plan and run - we have a great group of 12 (6 men, 6 women) Our team name is "Can someone please...CALL ME A CAB!" Watch for us, our costumes and vans will be sporting a taxi cab motif. Pam has also signed up as a volunteer race official. She will be working one of the exchange points early Saturday morning.

I have been running some hills to make me speedier. My new favorite is North Mountain - it is steep! I have been working on it a while and can report that I was able to jog all the way to the top today for the first time. I have noticed that running on flat ground is much easier since starting the hill training. Give it a try!

Bike Service Project - Part Deux

Here's the belated report on the fun bike service project we helped with a couple of weeks ago.

By the time we got there Saturday at 8:30 AM, most of the first 1500 bikes were already put together! I had never seen so many bikes at one time, it was like a sea of boys and girls bikes. We were able to help do a final check on the assembled bikes and tightened the seats and handlebars as well as checking the tires to make sure they had enough air. Ryan was a test driver and rode the bikes down the hill to where they were set up for the give-away. I was impressed at the hundreds of volunteers who showed up early to make this happen. We made some new friends including Roger and Sandy who were fun to work with.

There were another 35oo bikes that would be delivered later that day, but we couldn't stay and wait. The sight of that many bikes would have been awesome. Almost as awesome as seeing the thousands of happy kids riding them away.