All American

 

I have been pursuing this Triathlon thing for a few years now that some serious crashes put a quick stop to my bike racing "career".  It has mostly been a fun journey, but so humbling in many ways.  Learning to survive swimming longer distances in the middle of lakes, holding back some on the bike so that I can run effectively afterwards, and extending out the distances of what I thought I was capable of competing and racing in have all been a journey.  While I feel that I have a good handle on Spring and Olympic distance events, the 70.3 and longer are still a work in progress to figure out.  However, I was able to have enough success last year to earn the distinction of being a USA Triathlon All-American. This is done by a earning a ranking in the top 10% of your age group across the US for the year.  For my age group (40-44), there were almost 5000 scoring individuals across the nation that completed at least three triathlons to join the ranking system.  For me, it's a great honor and is another thing that I can celebrate for my hard work.  I certainly wouldn't be here without the help of my coach Eric Kenney and my Boulder Racing teammates that have pushed me and taught me how to get better.

Gavin's Artwork

Gavin continues to love art and use some of his free time to draw things either from school or things he has seen other people do online.  Here is a nice sunset picture with some mountains and a shoreline in the shadows that he drew with colored markers.

This one kind of looks like a series of water droplets but also looks a bit like a wet footprint in the sand.  I guess you can decide what you think it looks more like.

 This is another picture he pained with water colors using a technique he found in a youtube video.  He has painted a series of these, but I think this one was the best.  Pretty amazing!

Boulder Res Hike

Tara was away with some friends so we decided to take a hike out around the Boulder Reservoir.  With COVID considerations, we parked closer to Gunbarrel and took this back roads trail that headed over to the west toward the Res.  We found some fairly cool weeds along the way that quickly became makeshift weapons.

Here is a nice picture of us boys out for the hike.  It was a bit chilly but not too bad with a few extra layers.  I'm still rocking the mustache strong style!

This is the rocky Northeast shore of the Res.  This time of year the water is usually quite low so you can walk way out on this extended lake bed and find lots of cool things. 

 We spent probably an hour alone just skipping rocks into the water and searching for things that we could find and investigate.  As these clouds started to roll in, we decided to start the 2.5 mile journey back to the car and head home.  I love getting outside with these guys and just enjoying nature and a bit of fresh air and freedom.