The last vehicle I got rid of was a VW, a VW camper van that averaged around 18 very under powered miles per gallon. There’s a new vehicle in the driveway now, I’ve gone back to the VW brand, a 2004 VW TDI Golf. This VW gets 55 miles per gallon.

For some time now I had been looking on the internet for good deals on VW Turbo Deisel (TDI) vehicles. They put the TDI engines in the Beetle, Jetta, Passat, and Golf. The website www.fueleconomy.gov lists vehicles and their respective fuel economy, VW TDI vehicles consistently rank at the top in mpg, upwards of 50 mpg on the highway.

I’ve had mine for a little over one month now. For the most part, I have been doing city driving and been averaging 38 mpg. However, this past weekend I drove to St. Louis and back. On the return trip, I kept my RPMs low and averaged around 67 mph. After returning home I filled the tank back up to discover I had gotten 55 mpg on the trip home.

The triathlon finish line is a lifetime goal for many people. Crossing under the finish line can be a rewarding experience; it is the crowning achievement of an athletic endeavor. In 2006, one triathlete took it to the next level and dominated the Ultramax finish line…

We caught up with triathlete Tony Rigdon in Columbia Missouri shortly after his experience with the Ultramax finish line. “I noticed that everyone was content to just run under the finish line, I didn’t just want to run under it, I really wanted to take it to the next level…” an exhausted Rigdon said. He continued on and told us “a lot of people don’t understand what I do, they think I’m a little strange… I feel that I’ve shown today that all my training has been worth it… I want to thank my parents, all my friends, everyone who believed I could do it and supported me in my efforts, this is one of my crowning moments in triathlons…”.

It certainly is…

For the past two years, Columbia Multisport club has won the USA Triathlon Club Nationals. I had competed in 03’ and 04’, and 05’ wasn’t going to be an exception. The two previous years it had been Boulder Colorado, this year it was Houston, TX. Nothing against Texas, after all I happen to be Texan, but Houston isn’t quite the destination Boulder is…

Todd Holdorf and I agreed to be the bike truck drivers, meaning he and I were responsible to drive a 24’ Ryder truck loaded with 70 tri bikes the 14 hour trip to Houston. Having un-fond memories of the previous year when Kentner and I had gotten stuck with out AC, this time I made sure to specify to Ryder that we wanted working AC. When I picked the truck up, the AC was working, however, at one am on Friday morning as Todd and I were leaving Columbia; we quickly realized that the AC was no longer functioning. Fourteen windy and sweaty hours later, we arrived in Houston. The following day was spent recovering from the drive, picking up our race packets, previewing the course, and doing a little carbo loading.

Sunday morning rolled around and it was race day. After a quick breakfast at the Waffle House, I met up with Todd and we took the truck to the race site. There was a brief scare when the truck wouldn’t stay running, but after multiple restarts and a few breathless moments, it seemed to recover and we made it without any further incidents. Unloading the bikes was scary as enough shifting had gone on to cause several of the bikes to fall through to the bottom layer. I was worried there might be some damage, but I never heard of anyone’s bike being damaged, at least not significantly.

It just so happened that I was the perfect age for this race, not only did I have one of the best racks in the transition area, our age group was also the first one to leave. After preparing my transition area, I relaxed and went through the typical pre-race ritual which always involves several trips to visit with PJ, the porta-john that is…

One of the unique aspects of Club Nationals is that Columbia Multisport athletes show up in mass, on this trip there were 70+ CMCers. The majority of CMC was sporting the new pink club clothing. I however was going to be racing in the “US Half Championship” tri-suit. I was a little disappointed not to be wearing the noticeable pink. Fortunately, I ran into a cute triathlete who just happened to have a pink magic marker. She agreed to write CMC in big letters on my legs, too bad I didn’t think to get her number…

Before I knew it, race time had arrived. While our wave wasn’t all that big, the swim was narrow and it seemed a little crowded. When I finally finished the swim, I was rather disappointed with my time of 16:55. For an 800 meter swim, this came out to be over 2 minutes per 100m. However, what most everyone decided was that the swim was long, 1000 meters seemed to be the agreed upon distance. Anyways, my swim time put me out of the water in 14th place in my age group.

Once out on the bike, I knew I had a lot of time to make up on the front runners. While I was fairly certain I wouldn’t catch up to Ted Zderic or Steve Taylor, I was still hoping for a top 5 finish so I had at least 9 guys to catch and pass on the bike or the run. After the previous weekend’s miserable performances on the bike, I was hoping for a little redemption. While I didn’t blow the course away like I had hoped I would, I ended up with a 23.2 average for the 4th fastest time in my age group, respectable but with room to improve. Coming off the bike, I knew I still had several more people to catch to make the top 5, so I concentrated on not wasting any time and was rewarded with the fastest T2 of all racers!

It didn’t take long for the suffering to start out on the run. Within the first mile I had caught several runners and knew I was getting close to the top 5 of my age group, but couldn’t tell for sure where I was, so I kept on pushing it as hard as I could. There were several out and back sections, but the front runners apparently had to big a lead on me as I wasn’t catching any glimpses of Ted or Steve, both of whom I knew were ahead of me. Finally, after catching and passing one more runner, I heard the news I was waiting for, one of the spectators told me I was in 5th place. This was a relief as the only person I could see ahead of me wasn’t slowing down and I was at least a minute down on him with less than a mile to go. At this point I relaxed and concentrated on maintaining my current rhythm, maintaining 5th place… My run pace for the 5 miles ended up at 6:22 per mile.

For the next several hours I enjoyed cheering on multiple CMC finishers while I chowed down on post race food and drank a few brewskies… Eventually award time came around. The award ceremony seemed to be a CMC dominated event, but when it came time to announce the club champions, the whole crowd was shocked when it was announced that the Houston Racing Club had won, especially when only two of their members were there to collect the trophy. It was a disappointed club that left, which was a shame since we had truly dominated. As it turns out, Houston Racing Club just happened to have more members show up and race, each earning half a point and beating us by the shear number of their finishers.

CMC’ers are hardy folk so by the time evening rolled around, we were ready to party! I think everyone forgot the injustices of the club championship and really enjoyed themselves. I know I did, look for my new website www.karaokeguru.com

Oh, and that cute triathlete who had the pink magic marker when I needed it, I finally did get her name and number… Nikki Reed, I plan on seeing a lot more of her in the future.

Houston, what a great trip…

Ok, I’m going to do things a little backwards and start out with a report of my most recent race, the Columbia Half Marathon.

Had I taken the time to review my training prior to signing up, I probably wouldn’t have entered. Especially considering my longest run leading up to the half was only 8 or 9 miles in the past several months and my weekly mileage was only around 20 miles a week. However, the race organizers had contracted with Ultramax to use our finish line and race supplies so I had to be there to set things up. Since I had to be there anyways, I figured I might as well run…

I arrived at race site at 6am and spent the next hour and a half unloading traffic cones, setting up barricades, and other miscellaneous tasks. Thirty minutes out from the start, I changed shoes and quickly readied myself for the race. Even though I knew I wasn’t in peak form for a half marathon, I also knew that a lot of the best distance runners in Columbia wouldn’t be there. I even thought there was a slight chance I could win it. That thought was dashed at the starting line when I saw Christian Reed. Christian was the obvious choice to win it all. Steve Taylor was also there. Steve had always been faster than me in prior runs and there was no reason for me to think this one would be any different.

At eight o’clock the race started and we were off. Ted Zderic (doing the relay) shot out like a cannon ball and Christian Reed wasn’t too far behind. I decided to pace off Menash who was doing the relay. We were going a little faster than I would have liked, but I had my reasons for wanting to be with the front runners, at least for the first ¾ of a mile.

After my brief foray in the front, I decided to slow up a little or risk blowing up by mile four. I pulled in the reins some and was joined by Steve Taylor. My initial thought was to continue to slow down and let Steve go off by himself, but I decided I would run with him for a while and see how things felt. We crossed the first mile marker at 6:20. My original plan had been to do easy 6:40’s for the first half, oh well…

When Steve and I first started running together, we talked about who was ahead of us. I had told him that Ted and Menash were both doing the relay, but there was also a girl ahead of us that neither of us knew anything about. I said that she was obviously either doing the relay or that we would see her in a few miles when she slowed up because she had gone out way to fast, her first mile was under six minute pace. We decided that Christian Reed would probably take first and I told Steve that he would take second; I didn’t think that I could beat him. We covered mile two in 6:15 and mile three in 6:25, but still no mystery girl…

Mile four included a long steep climb up Campus View Street and resulted in a slow 4th mile, 7:17. Steve and I were still running together and he pointed out that while the mile was slow, we probably would have hurt ourselves more by trying to run it too fast and then paying for it later. Somewhere around four and a half miles, we passed the first relay exchange point. Steve and I looked, but we couldn’t see the mystery girl anywhere, was she still ahead of us?

The next 4 miles were more of the same, Steve and I running together. Every time we passed a mile marker I would call out the splits, 6:44, 6:37, 6:25, and 6:24. After running together for about the first 8 miles, Steve began pulling away from me going down Old Hwy 63. By the time we turned off the road onto the Grindstone Rec Trail, he had a 10 to 20 second lead on me. Initially I tried to pick up my pace and pull him back, but I decided to run my own pace and just let things fall where they fell.

Once on the trail, Steve stopped pulling away. The 9th mile marker wasn’t on the trail, but somewhere around where it should have been, I started making time back up on Steve. Mile’s 9 and 10 I covered at a 6:33 average pace and by the 10th mile marker I was back up with Steve. Once back with Steve we saw Nate Smith and Andy Stewart who were out on their mtn. bikes. They were more than happy to tell us that the mystery girl had come by about five minutes ahead of us… They also seemed to take pleasure in saying that I looked slower and looked like I was hurting more than Steve.

As is typical for me, at the tenth mile marker I checked my watch to see where I was at time wise. My watch read 1:05:27. With some quick and easy math in my head, I realized with a nineteen minute final 5k, I could run a PR. However, I also realized the final 3.1 miles also included a jaunt back up the UMC Rec trail, a rather long drawn out hill. But I figured what the heck, I’ll pick up the pace and go for it, who knows, maybe I’ll drop Steve in the process. While I wasn’t really expecting that, it’s what ended up happening. By the top of the Rec trail, I could no longer see him behind me. My eleventh mile was covered in 6:44, but that included a difficult hill.

After the 11th mile marker, I could see a relay team runner ahead of me. I can usually push myself harder when there is someone ahead of me so for the next mile I concentrated on catching him. The 12th mile I covered in 6:23 and passed the relay runner shortly afterwards. The final 1.1 miles were probably the toughest for me, my legs were dying and I didn’t have any more “carrots” ahead of me. Mile 13 took 6:40 and the final point one took :42 for a final time of 1:25:59.

I didn’t run a PR; my PR is 1:24:45 from the 2003 Drake Relays Half Marathon. But it was my second fastest half ever and on a very challenging course. I did get beat by a girl, Serena Ramsey, but she also happens to be one of Mizzou’s top cross country runners. Besides, on any given day there are plenty of female runners out there that could annihilate me (and most guys) in a run… Second male overall is the highest I’ve placed in a half marathon and with probably the least amount of run specific training; it was a good day.

I can’t believe the end of the season is almost here. I also can’t believe that I haven’t updated this site in over two months! It isn’t like I haven’t had anything going on; it isn’t like there’s nothing to talk about. I’ve raced multiple times since my win in Forsyth; so many times I’ll probably end up recapping several races in one post. But first I need to clear something up…

I forget who made the following comment, maybe it was several people, but the gist of it was “Your website is all about yourself…”

It got me thinking. I started thinking that maybe I am too self centered on my site. Maybe my site is egotistical and I come across as arrogant.

After further contemplation, I’ve come to the following conclusion:

“It’s my website dammit! I can do what I want with it!”

Really though, I’ve looked back through my posts and while it is true that all the posts are about me, I’ve tried to cover a variety of topics besides my athletic endeavors. I’ve discussed homemade video projectors, VW vans, and made fun of my camping abilities. I’ll continue to do my best to have a variety of topics and make the site a better destination, but the bottom line is, it’s all about me…