Bob the runner

Be Monumental! That was the goal for Indiana (state number 10)! I was afraid of the weather starting about 10 days out. High 20s with 18 mph winds.  I kept checking my weather channel app but the forecast did not change.  Finally I prepared myself for a cold windy run and lowered my expectations. My wife and I flew into Indianapolis on Friday and it was cold, windy and raining. We had planned to check into our hotel "The Alexander" and walk to the expo. The walk would have been a little less than a mile. The problem: once we arrived to check in to the hotel they wanted $27 for us to park our car there. "What a ripoff" we thought as we refused their offer and consulted with one of the locals who told us we could park one block away on the street for free after 6pm. We checked in then drove to the expo and parked across from the convention center for $1. The expo was in the convention center and was decent size, very organized, and had  plenty of vendor

State Number 9 (Nebraska) is in the books! When I moved to Colorado in 1988, Nebraska was the enemy!  The University of Colorado actually had some decent football teams in those days and beating Nebraska was always the goal.  Colorado didn't win many of those games and  I developed a distaste for Nebraska, even though I hadn't spent any time there. After spending the past weekend in Gering and Scottsbluff, that distaste, just like the old rivalry, is gone.  The people in Nebraska are so friendly and the Monument Half Marathon was top notch.  The expo and everything about the race was so well organized and fun.  I would definitely recommend this event and a visit to the Gering/Scottsbluff area. On Friday, my wife and I drove 3 hours to Gering and checked into the Monument Inn and Suites. The hotel wasn't fancy but the price was right and it was real close to the race start. The highlight of the trip (other than the race) was seeing the scenery just outside Gering and

After Conquering Our First Century Ride!!! You guys are probably thinking, Bob has gone totally bats!  Why would he want to ride 100 miles on his bicycle in one day?  What will he try next?  I love the way Ryan Wood  puts 100 miles in perspective (http://www.active.com/cycling/articles/how-long-is-a-century-ride): A 100-mile century ride is not something any Joe Schmo can hop on the bike and crank out. It takes training, it takes sound nutritional preparation (before and during the ride) and it takes some physical and mental toughness.  If you want to put the century-ride distance in perspective, consider: 100 miles is roughly the distance between Philadelphia and New York City. It's also the distance between Hartford and Boston, which could send you through three states depending on your route. Chicago and Milwaukee are just about 100 miles apart, too. It's like biking around a high school track 400 times. Several countries, including Portugal and

I did it!  On Sunday I completed my first Olympic Distance Triathlon.  TriRock was held at Aurora Reservoir in Aurora Colorado and included a 1500 meter swim, 24.8 mile bike ride and a 10 kilometer run.  This is my biggest accomplishment since the marathon in January and I'm feeling quite happy with myself!  On July 1st, I visited Endurance House for their weekly group run.  They were giving a free entry to TriRock away and I was hoping to win.  Unfortunately I didn't win, but did receive a nice discount and a free TriRock technical shirt, so signed up for the event.  While at Endurance House, I also won the raffle for one of their technical shirts.  Normally, to earn the shirt, you have to attend ten of their group runs, so I was quite fortunate winning on my first visit. On Saturday, my wife and I drove to Aurora to pick up my race packet at the Expo.  There were a handful of vendors there but nothing like typical Rock-n-roll race events.  The race packet included a nice

Today I accomplished a new milestone by swimming 1.2 miles in open water.  This was the longest swim I have ever done! The event was called Cancer Sucks and was held at Grant Ranch.  There were about 182 participants in the event.  My wife did the swim with me as well as 3 other folks from the Arvada Triathlon Club.  It's always more fun when you have family and friends at an event.  There were two courses, 1/2 mile and 1.2 mile.  The distance options were 1/2 mile, 1.2 miles, 2.4 miles, and 4.8 miles.  Most participants did the 2.4 mile course.  You could swim in a wetsuit if desired and there were no awards.  I chose to swim with the wetsuit.  Since this event was for charity and not a race, the atmosphere was well organized but also very low key.  This was great for me as my focus was on finishing the distance not racing for time.  We entered the water around 730am and the swim started at 735am.  There were only 58 people doing the 1.2 mile swim so the water was not crowde

I finished my first sprint Triathlon of 2014 on Sunday.  TriBoulder was a fun event and I finished faster than the time I predicted for myself.  The race was held at Boulder Reservoir.  The weather (70) and the water (72) were perfect. For the swim start we were facing right into the sun.  This made it impossible to see the buoys so we were pretty much hoping the faster folks led us in the right direction!  The wave before mine veered way to the left away from the first buoy and probably cost themselves a minute or so getting back on track.  It was quite entertaining watching everyone follow the leaders in the wrong direction.    The start for my wave was announced by a countdown and then we ran into the water and began swimming.  Personally I found the entire swim to be quite congested as I was constantly either smacking, kicking, bumping, or getting it done to me.  The leaders in my age group took us in the right direction and the swim went OK for me.  I was slightly disap

The theme for the Casper Half Marathon was "Run With the Herd" so I guess that's what I did!  13.1 miles and state number 8 (Wyoming) is in the books! This race was a small scale race (174 half marathoners) but very organized. There wasn't any communication from the race directors before the race, but they did have a list of registered runners on their web site, so I had some confidence that I was truly registered.  Also in the last days before the race, some communication appeared on Facebook. This was the first destination race where I traveled by myself.  My wife had to work, so I decided to take the short flight to Casper and go for it.  I stayed at the host hotel called the Ramada Plaza Casper. I decided to stay here because the race finished on the side of the hotel, packet pickup was here, and they had a free shuttle to the start.  Once I arrived at the hotel I checked into room 209 and went to packet pickup.  Packet pickup was well organized and there