Alex Allen's Birthday Party

Gavin's friend Alex had a birthday party in Golden this year at this park that is ringed by a river coming down from Allen's Park.  It makes the perfect location for tubing and can be down right populated on a hot summer weekend.  Here is Gage taking down one of the rapids and you can see all the people staging in the background to follow him.

Tara wasn't about to pass up on the cool river run and was joined by friends Jen and Emily for a few laps on the river.  If you can get past the crowds, it is a pretty awesome place to hang out on a nice late summer/early fall day.

Gage in Goal

For several years, Gage has wanted to play in goal as a goalie but I have mostly restricted the choice.  I wanted him to continue to focus on field skills and sometimes pegging a kid into a position like this would stunt his overall development.  However, Gage has become a strong field player and still has the desire to learn the keeper role so I relented.  This year, he is on the first Gold team, which is the second of five teams.  This was a move up from the second Gold team last year.  What is interesting is that the team above him doesn't have a dedicated keeper so there may be opportunity later on to move up further if he stays with it.  The above picture shows Gage warming up with the assistant coach before a game.

Here is Gage during the game playing in goal.  Probably needs to work a bit on keeping his hands up when the ball is this close to goal!

Goalies are restricted from punting for another year or two (to cut down on headers and head related injuries), so here is a lofty toss from Gage down the field.  I am very proud of the way he has played this year and he seems to be progressing quite well as a solid keeper.  So fun to watch!

First Day of School!

It's hard to understand how time can seem to fly by so fast, but these guys are ready to start 4th grade and 6th grade.  Tara still can't believe we have a middleschooler in the house.  It definitely feels like a big transition from elementary to middle school!  These guys take on each new challenge with great enthusiasm though.

Here are the guys holding fingers for what grade they are in.  Gage says that he was excited and nervous to see old friends and meet new friends.  This will be the first time our boys haven't been at the same school in quite a lot of years.  I am sure they will miss seeing each other passing by.

We have a Peanut!

Gavin has been talking about getting a lizard or gecko for quite some time after he learned that some of his friends had one and almost everyone at least has some sort of family pet.  We finally caved in and let him get this baby crested gecko which was aptly named "Peanut".  Here is Gavin on the first day home ready to put Peanut into his cage.  Quite the excited one isn't he!

Here is Peanut exploring his cage after being released.  Gavin had quite the amazing little glass enclosure built for him to play in!  He is mostly nocturnal, so the best views of him are at night once he settles in.

Unfortunately, on day two of ownership, Peanut wedged himself between the screen and some sticky tape that was on the cage to keep a plastic piece secured on the top of the cage.  My mom (Grandma Mike) was actually watching the boys and I received a frantic call at work about Peanut being stuck.  He was literally hanging by his face and his arm that were stuck on the tape.  We quickly determined the best course of action would be to take him back to the experts at "Scales and Tails" to see what could be done.  We acted like they would have never seen this issue before, but to our surprise they said "No problem, we see this all the time...".  Certainly makes you wonder, but they brought out some banana oil and lubed him up and he wiggled himself right off of the tape.  Who knew it would be that easy!  I thought for sure we would be working on Peanut #2 that day.  Thankfully, the experts came through in the clutch and Peanut was back on his merry way in his cage.

Ironman Boulder 70.3

This year's big race for me was Ironman Boulder 70.3.  This race was interesting to me for many reasons.  First, I had a total meltdown during the run portion of my only other race at this distance last year (Harvest Moon) and I wanted to see if I could do any better when given a second chance.  Second, this would be my first attempt at an Ironman branded event.  I didn't really understand the difference going in, but I now have a much bigger appreciation for the feel and excitement around participating in a race like this.  From a cost perspective, an Ironman 70.3 is almost twice as expensive as a local race of the same distance ($175 to almost $350 dollars if you register early).  

The whole week leading up the race has a pretty awesome build up feel.  At Ironman Boulder 70.3, there were almost 2,100 registered with around 187 in my Age Group (40-44) alone.  You have several days of activities before the race starting with a Thursday Athlete briefing that took place at the Boulder Reservoir with an enormous tent city of vendors and Ironman products.  The next day, Friday, you come and check in your bike into T2 and leave it overnight which is the first time I have had to do this as well.  It's actually kind of crazy finding your bike among the other thousands, but thankfully I was able draw a fairly good spot close to the end of one of the 50 yard long racks.

As race day neared, it was quickly apparent this was going to be a hot race with temperature projections continuing to rise and peak near 96 degrees and full sun by late afternoon.  This seems to be a common theme for my long course races so far in my life.  Additionally, the water temperature was right at the 78 degree threshold for wet suits.  I was actually hoping it would be wet suit illegal, so that we could all race without them and not overheat.  However, they seem to somehow end up miraculously right on the temperature limit to make them legal.

Race morning was quite early with arrival time at the Boulder Reservoir at ~4:30 am.  I went through my normal process to setup and check all of my stuff, got my wet suit on and grabbed a bottle of cold water to pour down my wet suit while waiting for the swim start.  It's impressive to see that many people lined up.  At the advice of my coach I jumped into the 30-32 minute corral so I could get as early of start as possible.  They released people two by two in a rolling start rather than releasing by Age Group categories.  This spreads out the field a bit more but you have no idea where people are in relation to each other this way.  I started out my swim fairly strong hanging with most of the people that were around me but it was probably a bit of a fast pace as I was feeling the effort in the last 4-500 meters.  Overall, my swim time was 35:10 which put me 27th in my AG.

T1 was fairly uneventful.  I found my bike among the madness and started the 100 meter run to the bike exit.  T1 time was 3:33.

The bike course is mostly a single loop 56 mile course, but there is a 10 mile out and back section that you start and end with.  The first 6-8 miles proved to be the most difficult to navigate as people were still a bit compact together.  I spent the first bit just working my way through and around people and trying not to join in the drafting parties that were forming.  I had to push higher watts during this time quite a bit but in the end I punched through and was able to set off mostly on my own or working with two or three other guys that were clipping along at a good pace.  I was trying to hold about 190-200 Watts for the day but knowing the first half of the course was more uphill, I was working the hills closer to threshold and then would back off the power over the last 20 miles.

 

This seemed to work well and made sure I got down a full bottle of concentrated Infinite (5 scoops) and two bottles of water.  Finished the bike feeling really strong and with a time of 2:26:17 (22.97 mph) and 9th overall in my AG.

T2 was fairly uneventful as well.  I found my bike stand, parked my bike, grabbed my running gear and made my first real mistake of the race.  I had staged a small bottle of Infinit with my run gear to take along with salt, but I didn't feel like my stomach could handle more sugar so I left it and only grabbed the salt. The run was changed this year from the old course to a new 2 lap course that takes you across the dam four times.  I didn't (and don't now) really like the change as it puts you away from the crowds more and I think the sun/heat exposure is worse having to cross the dam twice as much.  In any case, I started my run and clipped along at the 8:15 pace I had planned.  

I passed my coach, EK, at about a mile and half and told him I felt great.  I had ice in my suit, I was wet and the legs felt pretty good.  The heat was coming though, that was certain.  I kept this pace, but started to slow a bit around mile four.  This was not unexpected because of the heat but it was a controlled decline.  However, at about mile six or seven I started to really feel fatigued and sick to my stomach.  I was taking salt every mile, which is what I thought I was supposed to be doing and drinking a bit of water but not that much.  By mile eight or nine, I started throwing up or dry heaving and ended up essentially walking almost a mile or more.  I started to recover a bit by mile 10 and jogged in the last few miles but the damage had been done.  Though somewhat differently but somewhat the same, the back half of the run was my downfall.  I finished the run in 2:16:59 which was 75th in my AG.

This put me overall in 30th out of 187 in my AG or 280th overall out of 2,046.  Total time was 5:23:58.

It's a bit hard to take, considering I was holding a top-10 AG position mid way through the run.  There is no way to run what I did and hold that position.  I feel like I am getting closer to figuring this race out, but it's hard with only one attempt each year at this distance.  In talking with my coach, it sounds like you have to take in calories and more water on the run than I was doing.  Salt alone is not enough and in fact I was probably taking in too much salt.  It was a hot day, that is for sure.  Many people suffered, so I was not alone by any means.  I think I still want to try a half somewhere that it isn't 95 degrees on race day.  Emotions definitely swing a lot in these races where you go from suffering to accomplishment and back and forth.
 

If I can take away anything from this race, it is the feeling of success from pushing through and persevering when it would be easier to give up.  These races have a tendency to always become an internal battle rather than an external one.