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August 2, 2004 Festival of pain
The Rattlesnake Sprint adventure race was a smashing success for anyone who enjoys major doses of poison ivy. Team Van Guard (David and Georgia) put the smack down on Team TopRope (Paul, Suz, Grant and Kelly) as they plotted coordinates corectly, followed rules and didn't stop for potty breaks, essentially raced like a well oiled machine and brought home a third place mug. Team TopRope had some issues with the navigation, pickly, thorny, stinging and poisonous vegetation, but did not loose any members due to drowning, bludgeoning or fatigue. Some highlights: Kelly thinking that (before the race) when I hid behind a car door and announced that I was going to "drop trou", that I was about to take a dump. Although I wasn't privy to these conversations during the race, becaue I was 50-100 yards ahead of the rest of my team, Grant Suzie, and Kelly were making fun of how mad I was getting at the map case, and when I found a check point, they were pondering if I had "made up" with the map case. I got so pissed off, I threw my passport at grant telling him to throw it away. (I thought it was the park map, which proved useless after the start of the race). Suzanne and Kelly working on their fencing skills with the kayak paddles. (no one was impaled). We only had water in our camel backs and let our gatorade heat up to that quenching 107 degrees in the vehicle, so we snacked on salt and vinegar potato chips before the kayaking. All told we finished this "sprint" race in 6 hours 38 minutes. We did manage to get in before the torretial rain and will let you know how well we enjoyed the race after the poison ivy blisters are all healed. — Paul June 20, 2004 Father's Day 2004
I'm sitting here at suzie's computer, wearing new Fox bike shorts that she got me yesterday at the bike shop. We kinda splurged and blamed it on father's day. we are doing an Urban Assault Race today and then going to a wedding tonight. we have been pretty busy lately doing races and such and not much climbing. Last night I found myself in a quiet house after suzie and retta had gone to sleep and I ended up reading for about 45 minutes. I read up on the impending tour de france and tyler hamilton and lance armstrong. I used to hate it when the tour rolled around here in austin and everyone had a hard-on for "lance". He showed up at the dirty duathlon a couple years back and everyone was tripping over themselves and then the next year, about a week out they changed the date of the race for "Lance". Whatever, I am alone in this opine, but where was I? Yes, so 45 minutes of reading is like a night on the town. Going to diner and a movie, well, that would be like mardi gras, or better yet, carnivale at the parmer auditorium. But not that I mind. I could opt not to do the training, stay up later, get babysitters and all of that, but it's cool like this. If a late night means suzie and I take Retta and the pugs to the pool until 9 pm and then reading 4 or 5 books before going to sleep, that would be fine by me. Everyone says how kids grow up so fast, and they do. Our baby is now a little girl, soon to be a girl, young woman, and yes, a woman. She likes doing the stuff we do, and hopefully that will continue so that maybe she will end up riding centuries and doing big walls with her old man. — Paul May 17, 2004 My first trip to E-Rock
Enchanted Rock. For me, it was a better trip. An eye-opening experience. The creaking and chirping and intermittent spells of black silence.
Suzanne and Paul continually open me up to places and people and experiences I wouldn't otherwise see. — Charlotte Moore May 11, 2004 Balance Bar Adventure Race Soaking in a mud bath for 6.5 hours? Being pulled around the lake while lounging in a canoe? That's how Melissa and I spent Mother's Day!!! (sort of) We also ran nearly 9 miles thru weeds, sewage and swamp. We were greeted by a surprise open water swim about 500 feet into our run. Not only did we have to swim in cold water with all of our clothes on, but we had to hold on to each other while we did it. All while trying to avoid being kicked in the head by the swimmers in front of us. (I'm very thankful that the girls in the Danskin won't be wearing shoes.) After a few gulps of lake water we really did make it. And then we had to do it AGAIN an hour later. When the running was over we did special task: mud-roll-while-holding-friendship-ring. Muddier that the Muddy Buddy! And poor Mel was picking mud out of her teeth all day. Then Melissa had her maiden voyage on a rocky mountain bike trail. The first 4 miles were the hardest. Especially with insane screaming FAST TEAM COMING THROUUUUUUUUUGH bikers that we would have liked to throw rocks at. In a single track where passing is tough a little courtesy is appreciated. And the loser girl in the middle was being towed! (Paul, will you tow me in the Georgetown race? Pretty please?) At least it was really only one elite team we now HATE. After that we got in our canoes. Grant and Melissa in one and me solo. We tied together and then Grant did all the paddling. I tried to help but after the first 10 minutes I was no longer "allowed" to help. Even tho I secretly threw in a few strokes b/c I felt plain silly just sitting there while he did all the work. Next special task: Lucky we didn't break any ankles here. We did the ol' three-legged thing except we used tie wraps. Grant in the middle. We climbed on dangerous platforms and maneuvered Grant into a handstand. And then we somehow all emerged from the box. (Thanks for the super secret beta, PJ) And then TWELVE more miles of mountain biking. By this time Melissa was an old pro and sick of walking her bike up and down every hill. We raced hard at this part to keep the ONE REMAINING team behind us. Hours later we finished and the jolly fellow at the transition area was still there waiting for us. I still can't believe we didn't pose for a picture with him. He cheered for as the whole race thru!! Finally, completely drained of energy we did a silly "climbing wall" and then we had to figure out how to scale a 12 foot wall. Throw Melissa up and toss her the rope, of course. And somehow we all "sent it". And holding hands, Team RopRope RAN across the finish line to a crowd that really was cheering wildly. (Much thanks to the 10 people that were left when we finished the race!) Can you imagine coming back to the parking lot that was filled with about 800 cars that morning to see yours is the only one in the middle of an empty field? Y'all, we laughed so much! And we never cried. It was so much fun and I'd do it all again. With the same team. — SBJ Feb. 17, 2004 Loaded Mexico Style So when we were leaving Mexico yesterday my brain may have been fuzzy because I pulled out about $300 worth of cash from the ATM instead of around $30. I don't know, I wasn't too good with decible points at the time. I don't see how climbing bums don't get bored with being climbing bums. A lot of the people on extended vacations down there seem to lack much drive or purpose, sure, learning to build african drums is an admirable pursuit, and I am sure it is a sure fire conversation starter on the old resume, but after you have built your first dozen or so African drums, then what? Bottle caps are pretty fun to collect when you are in the potrero. Don't drink the water and don't pet the prego kitty at the Posada. — plj Jan. 20, 2004 Marathon Fun So Bjorn and I had hardly trained for the Houston HP marathon on January 18. My training, and subsequently, my motivation was derailed by an injury and Bjorn trained with a 12 mile run the Monday before the race. So we went into the thing, just deciding to have a good time despite all of the misery. We talked about drawing some abs on our guts like our hero Strong Bad we did just that, and it was a hit. Almost everyone we ran by laughed at our goofy self deprication, some people doubled over with laughter, others pointed and told friends, check out the abs. Nice, abs, nice six pack, you guys are ripped, at the end, certain fans had seen us several times on the course and started hooting and hollering when we approached. it really helped push on through the aid stations and not walk. I gave several hearty, "thank you, thank you very much"es and waving. Anyhow, I have never had so much fun running a marathon and laughing, mostly at our selves, and getting others to laugh. Next year we are thinking of growing some mullets and mustaches and running in cut off jean shorts. — plj Jan. 14, 2004 where's george v. geocaching Just before I left for Argentina I stopped in Walgreens for some Kodak disposable cameras. They sucked, by the way. And I won't be buying anymore. I also wanted to change a $100. The coolest thing: In my change I got two $1 bills that had these Currency Tracking Project stamps on them. I copied down the serial numbers and planned to spend them both while abroad. I gave one as a tip to our cocktail waitress in the Buenos Aires hotel and somehow didn't get the second one spent. Darnit. Then I came home and accidentally washed it in my jeans pocket. Darnit again. But I logged onto the site to track my bills and found the funniest link about all this controversy with geocaching.com and how their rules conflict and blah blah blah. Now if I didn't know what geocaching was I'd be like, "what the heck?!" But I do. We cache. Ha ha. We even found the only cache in Argentina on our visit. If you're not into this nonsense, you should try it. It's way nerdy and this little nerdy rules controversy is a hoot! — sbj More blogs: 08/03 | 09/03 | 10/03 | 11/03 | 12/03
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