adventures « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

adventures

Chattahoochee Challenge Sprint Tri

Got to the race in plenty of time. Got to the front of the swim start line, which was the plan. Had a decent swim, for me. But this is relative. If you’ve read about my triathlons here before you know I’m lousy in the water. But I took some time off my previous best in this particular river swim.

The Yankee was very fast in the water, as usual. I didn’t see her again until the run.

My bike leg was OK. I ride this route better when I ride it easy than when I ride it at pace, which I find amusing. My ride should have been better, but I dropped my sunglasses and decided to stop for them, which seemed silly in retrospect. It took what seemed like forever to get back up to speed after that.

And then when it was time to run I couldn’t find my legs. I was tired. It was hot. The run portion of this particular race is a good one. Scenic, historic, nice and flat. But there’s no shade. And I could have really used some shade today.

So my overall time was not good. But we had fun!

adventures / cycling / Friday — Comments Off
17
Jul 15

Ride Columbus, ride

Riding in Columbus this evening. It was very warm:

We’re doing the Chattahoochee Sprint Tri tomorrow. And, as we always do at this particular race, we rode the bike course the night before.

I road so fast the sticker on my rim fell off!

That’s twice I’ve done that now. It has nothing to do with speed and a lot to do with adhesive, I assure you.

And now off for the pre-race pasta dinner.

adventures / history / London / maps / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
16
Jul 15

The tank banks

I saw this piggy bank at Stonehenge. At the time I had no idea about the history behind it, which is, like most history, rather interesting.

It comes from a World War 1 British fund raising campaign. Six tanks toured the countryside promoting war bonds. You have to remember this is in the fall of 1917 and tanks were still the high end of war marvels. The public was fascinated to see in person what they were just starting to read about.

The tank rolled in with soldiers and artillery alongside. Airplanes dropped pamphlets, speeches were made. The tank was put through its paces before spending several days in the town with a table inside where people were giving money. They raised millions of pounds, nationally. Soon a competition emerged to see which place could raise the most money and “win” a tank. West Hartlepool would win and Egbert — they do know how to name things, don’t they? — stayed in the town until it was scrapped in 1937.

After the war was over, the government gave 264 tanks to towns and cities in 1919. Most just rusted out over time and sold for scrap. All but one was gone before the end of World War II. The town of Ashford still has their tank, the only one left. It is now a registered war memorial, though without its engine or gearbox and with replica armaments. You can see the tank here:

That tank, one of 1,200 Mark IVs the British built for that particular war, is thought to have never seen combat. Only eight remain. The Mark IV carried a crew of eight and traveled at seven miles per hour.

adventures / cycling / I do not know what is happening. / photo / running / swimming / triathlon / weekend — Comments Off
12
Jul 15

Chewacla Tri

The triathlon that we thought about just riding our bikes too.

And then we each thought “I don’t want to carry all that stuff on my bike,” and wisely decided to drive.

This was the first local triathlon, a nice easy sprint, and we were so proud to take part. Our local bike shop ran the thing. It was small, first year and all, casual and a lot of fun.

I was terrible in the lake. I’m always terrible in the swim.

Don’t get me wrong, I can swim, I’m not a threat to drown or anything, but I’m not a distance swimmer. Lately I’ve been getting advice from a very patient coach. And it probably helped for about 100 meters. It all comes down to breathing and how I tend to not do that.

You know, while riding or running, if you don’t breathe you just stop moving or remind yourself about the in-and-out nature of respiration or, at worst, black out. In the water, when the body realizes the lungs aren’t breathing correctly the lizard part of your brain tends to take over. At that point, my swim is basically over. So, I’m terrible in the swim.

Apparently, though, I was third on the bike course. (I do not know what is happening.) I’ve been riding pretty well lately, but that is a surprising result, if the times were accurate. The route was basically my home roads, though, so that’s probably part of it.

I would pass the occasional person, give them the “Good job!” and warn them of a pothole just ahead. That’s probably annoying in retrospect.

Didn’t have a very good run. I’ve only run that route once before, last weekend, and didn’t think it was too hard. Foolishly, I forgot to add in the bike and swim exertion in that one trial run. But that bad run up the mountain let me meet a guy who said he was just two weeks from knee surgery. He’s racing next weekend, too. Make sure you tell the surgeon about this, I said, impressed.

“Yeah, doc, let’s get this thing fixed. By the way, I’ve run in two sprint triathlons the last two weekends.”

On the way down the mountain I ran into a guy who was here just to measure himself for an upcoming Olympic distance race he’s going to do. Don’t think he was too pleased, so I spent the last quarter mile of our run trying to convince him that this will scale up well.

Now this one, she had a great race. She’s clearly in mid-season form, having finished just outside the podium:

Later, trying on my sweet new tri shirt:

adventures / Friday / links / London / memories / photo — Comments Off
10
Jul 15

In Tower Bridge

Here are a few photos from a terrific day in London. See more of it here.

Except for the pedestrian sidewalk, I did not know you could walk across the Tower Bridge. You can do it indoors, across the top. And there are places where you can stand on a window and look down at the bridge and the Thames:

She did a handstand there, but I don’t have a copy of those pictures.

We walked across the pedestrian part of the bridge, too. Got photobombed for our troubles:

And here’s the bridge in the background, as seen from London Tower: