Run'in Down A Dream

I recently had a chance to spend a little time with Scott Penticoff and Patrick O'Shaughnessy who are training to compete in the upcoming Himalayan 100 stage race.

This will be more than a race for these guys as they have an honorable goal of raising money to help underprivileged kids get into College.

Their 5 day run through some of the most beautiful vistas in the world will be grueling yet rewarding for both the athletes and the charities they're supporting.

For a full description of the race and to donate to their effort just give this Admission Possible link a click.

A brief video interview with the athletes gives you an idea of how things are going and the passion these guys have to do something special. (click the play button and enjoy the video)

Let's Race!

HOTL Triathlon

My three motto's for the day were:

1) I've got great gear so use it!
2) Everyone is in the post race raffle
3) Today I must go hard

Things started out pretty interesting - there was so much fog that you couldn't see the swim course turn buoys from shore. There were lots of swimmers that didn't navigate well and even crossed the course and ended up swimming into the returning field. Other than the fog conditions were calm and water temp was 72 (which prevented the elites from wearing wet suits - they have their own rules at this race and it is not a USAT race but lays claim to the MN State Championship Triathlon) My swim was pretty typical despite a couple brief vectors off the most direct line.

Transition was setup to heavily favor the elites on T2 (see the times) but relative advantage was equal within each age group. I was excited to try the new toy that they guys down at the shop set me up with this week (Zipp Sub9 with powertap) They told me I had to go fast if I bought this wheel. Fast it was - I had a PR bike split - averaging 240 watts hitting a peak of 544 watts on one of the bigger hills. My bike split was 24.1 mph a real breakthrough split for me - and the best part of the bike result was that I outsplit CY on the bike (and she was having a good day winning the race for women and finishing within 20secs of Becky Lavelle's course record).
My recommendation on the Sub9 is "find one, form line, order one".

I came off the bike feeling pretty good and slipped on my new kicks (Asic Hyperspeed2 - very light and fast) I knew I had been flying on the bike so I was worried about how much I had left for the run. Turnover with the light shoes was good and I was feeling pretty strong - at about mile 2.0 I passed JR (super biker in my AG) so I knew I had a shot at a podium spot which fueled me to keep the pace going - around mile 3.5 I caught up to Elite F - JL and she powered up and ran with me to the finish line - nice rally JL! I ended up running 6:33 pace over the 5.23 mi course and capturing a second place Age Group spot.

Besides the wheel on CY's recommendation I worked hard on hydration all week leading up to the race - I think it paid off as I didn't get the classic dehydration symptoms that usually hit me during the race. I also used a profile "between the areo bars" drink system instead of just a bottle and finished it all plus took a gel on the bike. It was awesome to actually feel good throughout the race.

Good day overall - despite a strong women's field I only got "chicked" by CY.

(Vic - thanks for the great Pics!)

My Wife Rocks

It has been an action packed year moving along at a pace that even I'm having trouble keeping up with ;) There has been no shortage of fun and adventure with plenty more on the calendar for the rest of 2008. I've been taking photos like a mad man with Karin's Soccer team "Armada" making the State Tourney, Kiersten doing her first Triathlon (Minneman) and tons of sporting events like Black Dog, TNT, GW Duathlon, and plenty of Triathlons (check out YndeCam for highlights of the top events).

I've managed to stay in reasonable shape and have quite a few races under the belt already this year as well.

Cathy continues to race well this season. She has won every Triathlon she has started in this year and even had a win at the Gear West Duathlon which was a race she was doing just to help make her tough - she didn't expect to win. The last two major races (Hy-vee in Desmoine and Lifetime Fitness in Minneapolis) were against deep fields of women from around the country giving Cathy a chance to test herself against some of the best.

I didn't race LTF since it's such a fun race to shoot so I was able to get plenty of great shots of the Pros and Cathy as well. I even experimented with HD video taped to the end of my 300mm lens which worked very well except for when I flipped the camera between horizontal and vertical shots - oops... I also periodically failed to remember to adjust the zoom level on some of my clips like the one below where Cathy is finishing the race - I got great still footage but didn't get the zoom level right until about half way through the clip. Then near the end of the clip I rotated for a vertical shot but thanks to final cut express I could at least salvage it with a cross fade and a rotation of the video. I shot this in HD Video but of course it is compressed way down for the web and the one downside of uploading to this blog is that it gets compressed even more - if I find the energy I'll post a higher def version on YndeCam. The voice of Jerry MacNeil in the background says it all in this clip.

I'll be back more often for blog updates now that many of my races and photo shoots are behind me but with all this great photo material there are plenty of post processing projects to keep me busy.