As we come to the end of a decade, it is time to reflect on the past years.  Taking a cue from some fellow bloggers, I have put together a summary of the past 10 years.

2000

Still in high school and starting my senior year of XC.  The joys of being a senior – lots of freshmen to do your bidding.  Ran Varsity in a few meets mainly because we didn’t have a huge team and earned my letter.  I was running more for the fun we had as a team than for the running itself.

2001

All graduated from high school and on to college.  The break from running begins.  I had a few friends on the college XC team, so that kept me in the circle of running.  However, they all seemed too hardcore for me.  I did stay fairly active though: nightly pickup basketball games in the gym, intramurals, rollerblading and even the occasional 3 mile run.  I did my best to eat healthy and even gave up pop completely for over a year… that didn’t last though.

2002

I started a job over the summer (which is actually at the same company I still work at) and found out that running was a good release from the stresses of a work day.  I moved off campus at the beginning of my sophomore year.  One of my roommates was a former runner as well, and we spent some time running together.  At the end of year, some friends from college decided to set me up on a blind date with my now wife Jennie.

2003

Jennie was so repulsed by me after the first date that she transferred to a completely different college across the state (Ok, ok, the transfer was actually in place before we even met, so maybe it wasn’t me.) I continued to run, much to Jennie’s confusion.  Many were the winter nights that I would end a phone call with her so that I could squeeze in a night run in the freezing winter air.  I still wasn’t doing anything competitive; I was doing it for my health and sanity more than anything.

2004

Proposed to Jennie in the summer.  She said “Yes” (obviously).  I finished up college a semester early in December because I started with almost a semester’s worth of credits my freshman year.  I got my first real bike this year. I had bikes growing up, but they were all Toys R’ Us-esq bikes and nothing special.  For my birthday, my dad got me a Trek mountain bike—definitely the nicest bike I had owned to this point.

2005

Got hitched! That’s the best thing that happened this year, so that goes first.  Running-wise, I completed my first 25k, followed by my first marathon (Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City, MI).  It was one miserable experience followed by another (the runs that is, the wedding was amazing).  About 8 miles into the 25k, my left knee started to bother me. I pushed on and managed to finish.  I took it easy the next week or so, but decided to still do the marathon which was only 3 weeks after the 25k.  My knee lasted till about the 5 mile mark of the marathon.  I managed to keep running for about the first half, but the second half was mainly walking and jogging when I could.  After the marathon, I couldn’t run more than a mile or two without excruciating pain.  It ended up being IT band issues, and I decided to just rest it.  I took about 3 months off of running and did things like rollerblading and biking instead.

2006

After a year in the apartment with my new bride, we decided to upgrade to our first house.  After taking time off from running, I eased back into it.  It was basically like starting from scratch.  I slowly built up my mileage and was able to run the River Bank Run 25k again; without pain this year though.  Lots of projects around the house kept us busy, but I still continued to log the miles.

2007

Early in 2007, I decided to tackle the marathon again.  I needed to overcome my disappointing race in 2005.  I chose the Chicago Marathon.  I spent all summer training.  Jennie biked alongside me on a lot of my runs, which was extremely helpful—especially on the long runs.  In the end though, disappointment, again.  The 2007 Chicago Marathon was a disaster.  It will probably go down in history as one of the worst races in history.  Blistering heat led to the race being cancelled halfway through.  I did finish though.  I was at about the 20 mile mark when the race was cancelled, so the shortest distance back to Grant Park was to continue on the course.

After the Chicago Marathon, I did the Grand Rapids Half Marathon and had an amazing run.  I vowed to come back and do the full marathon at some point in the future because the course and organization was so good.

2008

I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next (Gladiator).  Ok, maybe that is a little overly dramatic, but I was not going to give up on the marathon distance without a fight.  I decided to find a smaller marathon, start training, and not sign up until just before the race.  This helped to remove the stress that can go along with signing up for a race months in advance and worrying about how training will go the entire time.  I started training with the Glass City Marathon in mind.  Training went great, and just a couple weeks before the race, I registered.  It was amazing.  The weather could have been better, but I finally had a good marathon and finished in under 4 hours.  Finally.  Victory.

Shortly after completing the marathon, I began to swim.  The first recorded swim I have was in May, and I lasted all of 26 laps.  I have to admit, when I first starting going to the pool, I was way out of my element.  I didn’t even have goggles for the first couple of weeks.  I just took off my glasses and let the chlorine burn my eyes.  I know, not very smart.

I also started biking more.  I pulled my dad’s 1976 Fuji Dyna 10 out of storage, cleaned it up, and started riding it instead of my mountain bike.  It took a while to get used to, but it was much smoother and faster than the mountain bike.  I did a few rides out to Grand Haven (35 miles), but that was about my maximum distance.

My first triathlon was in July, and I quickly followed that up with two more sprint distance tri’s (here and here) later that year.  I was hooked.

Oh yeah.  And I started this crazy adventure called blogging in 2008 as well.

2009

And we have come to the end.  What a way to end the decade.  Two marathons (both PRs), 5 triathlons including my first half Ironman, a new bike, and a slew of other races.  I started off the year with the now annual River Bank Run 25k.  This was my 5th time doing it, and I have gotten a bit faster each year.  This year was my first year under the 2 hour mark though! I also did the Sunburst Marathon in June and then the Grand Rapids Marathon in October.  The summer season was triathlon season though, with the main event being the Steelhead Half Ironman in August.  I finished in just over 6 hours, and while I was happy with how I did, I still want to do more.

So, in 2010, the journey will continue.

Stay tuned!

Grab a beverage, sit back and enjoy!

Saturday Night

Our weekend started off with a trip to Spring Lake for a house warming party for a friend of Jennie’s from college.  After spending some time with them, we headed north to my boss’s cottage (aka The Brady Bed and Breakfast) where we were spending the night before the race.  On the way, we stopped and got a Hot N Ready Little Caesar’s pizza and breadsticks.  Mmmmm… Excellent pre-race food.  We got to the cottage around 7:30 and spent some time visiting with my boss and his boss (wife).  They were very accommodating by letting us crash there for the night.  By staying there, we were only about 30 minutes away from Ludington rather than almost 2 hours away from our house.  The cottage is a beautiful place right on Lake Michigan.  We were lulled to sleep by the sound of waves crashing on the shore – very relaxing.

Race Day

Even though we were relatively close to the race site, it was still up at 5:00AM to get ready and head up to Ludington.  I am glad that we got there when we did because it was still fairly empty when we arrived.  It filled up quickly though.  After I did packet pickup and body marking, the line for body marking grew to about 50 people.  The transition area was very well organized and not congested at all.  There were 7 bikes to a rack max, which is a nice change from trying to cram 8 or 9 bikes on each rack.  I got lucky and my assigned row had flag/banner above it, which made it easy to find my row after getting out of swim and back from the bike.

They certainly had an eclectic variety of music booming as we all got ready.  It was mainly a collection of Jock Jams with some random songs (eg. Paula Abdul) thrown in between. They even played Sexual Healing… really??? Is that really a good pump me up song?  Maybe for a different activity, but not for a triathlon.

  
Setting up my transition area and checking out the area. 
The clouds look much more ominous than they actually were

The weather was quite chilly still; the effect of having cold and rainy weather the past few days.  We were assured though that today would be sunny and warm.  It sprinkled a bit while setting up my transition area, but that ended quickly and the sun started to poke through the clouds.  Like Tri Del Sol, everyone was anxious to get in the water because the water temperature (about 70 degrees) was warmer than the air temperature.

Swim

We got a bit of a late start for the swim.  They had to wait for the SS Badger to leave the harbor before sending us on our way.  The swim was located in Lake Michigan, but it was in between two breakwalls, so the water was very calm- almost like swimming in a pool.

 
The left picture is the water in between the breakwalls (where we swam); the one on the right is the open water.

As we made our way into the water, we had to walk carefully because there were a lot of sharp rocks that wanted to cut up our feet and stub our toes.

 
Waiting to get started and carefully making our way into the water

The swim was only 1000m rather than 1500m, so I guess this wasn’t a full Olympic distance race like I had previously thought (the bike and run were the correct Olympic distances though).  It was a rectangular course; 450 yards out, 100 yards over, and 450 yards back.

I started off fairly well.  I was hugging the buoys like I wanted to.  However, about 200 yards into the swim, my right goggle started to leak.  They felt sort of loose when I first put them on, but I didn’t want to risk fiddling with them right before the race.  At first, the tiny bit of water was actually helpful because it acted like a windshield wiper and kept my right goggle fog free.  Unfortunately, it kept getting worse and worse and eventually was more of a hindrance, making it harder to see.

The second half of the swim didn’t go nearly as well as the first half.  For the life of me, I couldn’t swim straight on the buoy line.  I was also having trouble seeing the finish line on the shore, so I didn’t even have a good point in the distance to aim for.  I ended up finishing the swim in 22:05 (which includes about a minute run to the transition area).  After the race, I did hear some other people speculating that the swim was actually a bit longer than 1000m.  I was comforted by this because my pace was way off compared to other races.

  
Finishing the swim and running up the beach.  Finally a good post-swim
picture where I don’t look like I am going to die.

T1

The first transition went very well.  Because the flag at the end of my rack, I was able to find my bike quickly.  I took my time to brush the sand off my feet and put socks on.  Usually, for a shorter race like this, I wouldn’t bother with socks, but it was still kind of chilly and there is nothing worse than frozen feet while on the bike.  That happened to me at Reeds Lake last year and was just downright annoying.  It was a small transition area, so I was still in and out and 1:38.

Bike

After jumping on the bike, I headed out at a good clip.  The first few miles were very flat, so I got right up to 20-21mph.  I was in the first swim wave, so there weren’t a lot of people on the course yet and I had the road pretty much to myself.  The course was fairly well marked.  However, there were a few corners that had volunteers who weren’t very vocal about what you were supposed to do.  I got into the habit of yelling out a question as I approached the corner – “Olympic turns here???”  Once I started doing that, it was a lot less confusing.

About 7 miles into the ride, some jackass tried to run me off the road.  He was pulling out of his driveway, stopped at the end of the driveway, looked directly at me, and then gunned it, trying to make it out in front of me.  I had to slow down a bit, but I was anticipating it as I saw him start to leave his driveway.  I had a good feeling that he wasn’t going to have any regard for anyone else on the road.

The roads themselves were very smooth.  A couple of the corners had some loose gravel, but nothing too slippery.  It was a relatively flat course with a few rolling hills.  I did my best to stay aero as much as possible and even succeeded at staying aero on some of the inclines.

I passed a couple people here and there and got passed by a few as well, but overall there was very little bike traffic on the first part of the course.

Once we got about 15 miles into the course, however, we met up with the sprint course riders.  This part of the course was on a road that leads into the State Park.  The road was lined with sand dunes, so I had to be sort of careful not to hit some of the patches of sand.  I did see one rider drift too far to the right and end up crashing into the dune.  I slowed down to make sure he was alright and he said he was – I think he was more embarrassed than anything.  The ride into the park was on a slight incline and directly into the wind.  It took a lot of mental work to KMF (keep moving forward).  I chanted that in my head over and over as I made my way to the turn around; KMF, KMF, KMF.  With the sprint riders, there were more people to pass, which made it seem like I was moving fast despite the wind.

Once we got to the turn around, the wind was at our back and it was downhill from there.  I was flying for about 2 miles at 25+mph with hardly any effort.  My upper legs and gluts were aching towards the end of the ride, and I was worried that it would affect my run like it did at the Grand Haven Tri and Tri Del Sol.  Nevertheless, I continued to push myself as hard as I could.

I ended up finishing the bike portion in 1:13:33, a 20.2mph pace!  I am thrilled with this time.  It is my fastest pace for the distance and only the second time I have broke 20mph in a race.

T2

T2 was very quick; only 54 seconds.  I did have one accident though.  I stepped on my goggles with my bike cleats on.  It sounded like they cracked, but I can’t find any damage to them now.  I grabbed a water as I headed out on the run.

Run

The run was amazing.  I had almost no brick feeling from the bike.  We started out with the sprint and full distance runners all together and then parted ways after a mile and a half.  It was hard to see who was in what even for that first mile and half, but after that, I didn’t get passed by anyone on the run.  At first, I didn’t think I was going to be passing anyone because I couldn’t even see the runners in front of me.  Eventually, though, I started to see more and more people and ended up passing about 10 or 12 runners.

Headed out on the run and feeling great

My one complaint about the run was the aid stations.  They had water and Hammer HEED sports drink.  The Hammer HEED, however, was clear (or nearly so).  When I thought I was getting water, I got the Hammer HEED, took a huge gulp and nearly gagged.  It tasted awful.  It was sweet and salty at the same time.  Even after getting water at the next aid station, I was still licking my lips and tasting salt.  I am just glad that I didn’t dump it over my head.  It should be a rule that non-water should be colored (like Gatorade).

The run course itself was beautiful.  The middle 3 miles was primarily on a paved nature trail with some unpaved sections.  I flew through this section of the course, and it was just downright fun.  After the trail, we popped back out to the main road.  At this point, we had a mile and half to the finish.  This entire portion was a slight downhill on a straight section of road.  Because of this, it was possible to see the final turn the entire way down the hill.  It was a great motivator to be able to see the finish in the distance.  I was able to pass a couple more people on this final stretch, including a guy I had been chasing for about 2 miles.

 
Starting and finishing the run

  
Aren’t these pictures great?  Thanks a ton to my lovely support crew of one

I finished the run as my best leg of the race.  Lately, the run has not been as good as I would have liked it to have been, but today finally lived up to my expectations.  My time was 46:41 for a 7:31 pace.  This is where I picked up most of my ranking by placing 26th out of 87 on the run.

Post-Race

The post-race was excellent.  Not only did we get medals, but they had great refreshments.  Trays of sub sandwiches, fresh fruit, bags of chips, and Blow Pops (random, I know).  I am thinking that the person who chose Sexual Healing for the soundtrack must have also picked the Blow Pops.

 
Getting my post-race food and making a charming, mouth-full-of-food smile.  

Other Race Notes

There was a course record set for the men (1:48:31).  That is ridiculously fast – and he make it look effortless.

I am starting to see more and more people I know the more races I go to.  I saw D again today (he was doing the full distance as well) along with lots of other familiar faces.  Lots of people wearing Millennium Triathlon shirts as well, so I wasn’t the only one making up for that lost opportunity.

Also, My Team Triumph was at this race.  I have mentioned them in the past, but basically they are a group of athletes who tow, pull, and push people with disabilities so that they can enjoy the thrill of completing a triathlon.  Today, Team Michael made their way to the finish.

Team Michael headed towards the finish

Post-Post-Race

After enjoying the post-race food, I headed back into Lake Michigan for a quick “bath.” I got out and changed into my street clothes so that we could hang around Ludington for a bit before heading home.  The lake bath actually worked better than I thought.  It isn’t the best I have ever smelled, but it was better than my post-triathlon aroma.

We had lunch at House of Flavors, a diner with their own brand of homemade ice cream.  We were both craving some nice greasy food and end up getting orders of chicken fingers and fries.  They disappeared in no time.

MMMmmmm – Greasy food!  It was all gone in about 5 minutes.

After finishing lunch, we headed back to the beach and walked along the breakwall out to the lighthouse.

 
Stopping for a picture and Jennie striking a pose

Trying to not get wet from the waves crashing into the breakwall

Results

Finally

The best sign of the entire day. 
“We have Ice Ice Baby, 2 Cold 2 Cold”

I finally signed up for the Ludington Triathlon for this weekend.  This is sort of my makeup race for the canceled Millennium Triathlon.  It is an Olympic distance triathlon rather than a Sprint.  I really haven’t backed off my training much since Steelhead, so I should be ready for it.  I am hoping that I can best my Grand Haven Tri performance, which shouldn’t be too difficult because there won’t be the long run between the swim and transition area like there was in Grand Haven.  That alone should cut 7 minutes off my time.

We haven’t finalized our plans yet, but we may take my boss up on an offer to stay at their cottage on the night before the race so that we are bit closer to Ludington on race day.  Either way, I am sure that we will spend some time relaxing in Ludington after the race.  We spent some time there last summer, and it is a very fun and relaxing city.  It has a great touristy Main Street, but isn’t overwhelming.  Plus, there are lots of good eateries that we will have to decide between.

More details to come as we figure them out!

Steve in a Speedo recently posted a list of 85+ reasons of how to tell if you are a triathlete.  I am reposting the list below and taking a cue from Steve by bolding the ones that apply to me.  Which ones are true for you?? Enjoy!

1. When asked, how old you are you answer 20-24.
2. When asked how long your training was today you answer: three to four hours.
3. Your training is more limited by available time then how far you can run.
4. Your first thought when you wake up is how high your rest HR is.
5. You go for a run even though there’s a thunderstorm and you enjoy being wet and dirty.
6. You think it’s natural to do your ‘business’ behind a tree in the woods.
7. You go for a 5 km cool-down run after a 5 km race just so that you can call it a training session.
8. You consider work “regeneration time” between training sessions.
• Nothing like an lunch swim followed by a two hour rest at work and then back out on the pavement for a run
9. That “something hard” between your legs is usually a pull buoy.
10. You have a water bottle when you drive your car.
11. You’ve forgotten how to drink out of cups.
12. You spend your 2 weeks annual vacation at a training camp.
13. You know inside out how much Protein each energy bar has.
14. You seriously consider applying for citizenship in Tonga, Jemen or Tschad so that you can participate in the Olympic games.
15. People praise you for being able to run 15 miles, but you feel insulted.
16. In the summer your legs are smoother than your girlfriend’s.
17. In the winter your legs are still smoother than your girlfriend’s.
18. You need a picture for a job application and you only have race pictures.
19. You use running T-shirts to clean your bike.
20. That charming "cologne" you wear to work is chlorine.
21. You take more showers in a locker room than at home.
22. 6:30 am is “sleeping in.”
23. The dog runs and hides when you get the leash.
24. You think there are only two seasons during the year: racing and off.
25. You shave way too many body parts for a guy.
26. You can’t change the oil in your car but you can completely rebuild your bike in 45 minutes.
27. You spend more $ on training and racing clothes then work clothes.
• I really don’t have to buy work clothes though, so that is my excuse
28. You spend 7 days going to 8 stores in 4 towns before buying a pair of running shoes but you take 1 afternoon to go to 1 car dealership and walk out with a new car 4 hours later.
29. When you see some lady watering her flowers and ask her if you can borrow the hose for a minute so you can fill up your water bottles.
30. You clean your bike more often than your car.
31. You’ve been stung be a wasp or bee in your mouth but carried on running or cycling because "your split times won’t go down by themselves."
• Not the mouth, but experienced the middle-of-the-ride-sting
32. Your car smells like a locker room.
33. You have everything needed in your car to be swimming, biking or running with 5 minutes notice.
34. When asked to mow the lawn in 90 degree heat, you say that it’s too hot to do that (and you mean it) and then an hour later you go on a century ride because it’s so nice out.
35. You tell your co-workers that you are going to "do a long brick" on Saturday and just expect that they know what you are talking about.
36. When a co-worker asks if you are racing this weekend, you say "yeah, but I’m just running a 10k, so that is not REALLY a race".
37. You consider you bike saddle your "couch."
38. You consider Clif Bars as one of the four food groups.
39. You are sick to your stomach at 2:00 in the morning and check the back of the Pepto Bismol bottle for caloric content and grams of carbohydrates, fat and protein.
40. You have plenty of water bottles, safety pins, and t-shirts.
41. You have trouble keeping lunch under 2000 calories.
42. You usually wake up at 4:00 in the morning but do not get to work until way after 9:00.
43. You like going swimming the day after a race with the permanent penned number still visible on your legs and arms because the feel like a medal.
44. Your car has at least one Power Bar wrapper and two sets of work out clothes!
45. You have a $3000 bike strapped on top of your $1500 car.
46. Your laundry continually smells like someone locked the cat in overnight.
47. Instead of Marie Clare, People, and Cosmo, you have piles of Runner’s World in your bathroom.
48. You leave your apartment or house in the morning with your swim bag on one arm, bike on one shoulder, a change of clothes in another bag, and your running stuff in another bag in case you can get away at lunch for a workout.
49. You wave at other cyclists, because all triathletes are friendly and if they are not, they are probably purist cyclists trying to get into triathlons and they do not know that triathletes are friendly.
50. You have not one, not two, but three permanent chain ring scars on your right calf. \
51. You are walking along a street and you signal left.
52. You have far more pairs of shoes in your closet than your non-tri wife does in hers.
53. The one "suit" you own has “Orca” written on the chest.
54. You wear your heart rate monitor during sex….
55. …and you keep within the right HR zone.
56. You hear "T2" and don’t think of the film.
57. When "foreplay" is 15 minutes on a turbo trainer.
58. Your living room has the "swim pile" and the "bike pile" and the "run pile" and the "weight room pile" and you pick and choose kind of like a cafeteria on your way out the door.
59. Your kitchen cupboards are organized into "protein", "carbs" and "etc."
60. Your company announces mandatory unpaid shutdown days – every other Friday throughout the summer – in order to cut costs and stay in business. Your response is "Great – now I can do two long workouts on the weekends and still have an easy day."
61. Your 8 year old comes home with the school record for the mile and says he took it out in a nice pace he could hold… everyone else died.
62. You can ask your mom and your sister and all other girlfriends for shaving advice…
63. …no wait, THEY ask YOU for advice!
64. You say that you went to a race last weekend, and somebody responds "running or biking" and you are again forced to explain.
65. You wear your bathing suit under your work clothes to make a fast transition from work to swim on your lunch hour.
66. You show up at the neighborhood pool on your bike in a Speedo and embarrass your teenage daughters.
67. Your idea of fast food is a Powerbar and Gu.
68. Somebody hands you a cup of water and you have to restrain yourself from pouring it on your head.
69. You catch yourself about to blow a snot rocket while walking around the office.
70. You have no FRIGGIN idea what to do with yourself on your off day.
71. You feel like you took the day off because all you did was swim 3000 meters then go for a short run.
72. At any given moment you know exactly where your heart rate monitor and your swim goggles are, but cannot remember where you left you car keys. (turns out 90% of the time they are in your bike bag)
73. When non-racer friends tell you they ran/rode, you automatically calculate their pace to see if you’re still in better shape. 
74. Cars pass you on the road when you’re driving and you either drop back to get out of draft zone or speed up to attack!
75. You have no trouble converting mph into kmph.
76. You’ve stopped buying high-heels because your feet are too swollen from long runs to fit in them anyways.
77. While your less athletically-inclined girlfriends are gorging themselves on plates of lettuce, you’re occupying yourself with a plate of pasta and chicken (white meat, of course.)
78. Having a period has become less of a nuisance since menstrual cramps don’t feel that bad when you’re hunched over a bike.
79. You’ve stopped wearing dangly earrings because they just get in the way when you’re ripping off your clothes to squeeze "just one more" workout into your already cramped schedule.
80. Your girlfriends are insanely jealous of your tan legs. Until they realize that the tan stops at your bike shorts.
81. You’ve given up trying to go on training runs/rides with your boyfriends because they don’t take it too well when you kick their butt.
82. A female friend gets a new bike and tells you that it’s a really pretty shade of blue…
83. …you get a new bike and can tell her the chain ring ratios.
84. When checking out people on the street, your friends notice eyes, hair, build…
85. …you notice if they have shaved legs, if they have runners/bikers legs, and if they’re wearing a race t-shirt.
86. (from Beth:) When you keep your nails trimmed so you can put on your wetsuit without tearing it.
87. (from Marit:) The "Check Engine" light comes on in your car and you ignore it for a few weeks. But AS SOON as something feels "off" or goes awry with your bike, you bring it into the shop ASAP.
• My Check Engine light has been on for years

This morning’s Millennium Triathlon was canceled due to the weather which is a bummer.  I got up at 5:30 and headed out to the race for packet pickup and to get setup. As of 7:15AM, the race was still on, but they weren’t making the final decision until 7:45.  During setup, there was a few sprinkles, but nothing too severe and it actually looked like it was clearing up at 7:40 when I headed down to the lake.  However, due to weather that was coming, they decided to cancel bumming out about 800 athletes.  Thankfully, a nice guy down at the beach let me borrow his cell phone, so that I could let Jennie and her mom know that the race was canceled.  I quickly tore down my transition gear and headed back to the car hoping to beat the crowd.  It was a zoo getting out of the muddy field where everyone was parked. 

On my drive home, at about 8:20, 20 minutes after the race was scheduled to start, there was some flashes of lightning and then it started to pour.  So, they made the right decision.  It would have been very dangerous to have people in the water or on their bikes in that kind of weather.  When I got home, I quick grabbed a snapshot of the radar from Weather.Com.

The storm was moving west to east, so you can see that the worst of it was
probably over, but by that time, the race would have been well underway.

It doesn’t look like they are going to be rescheduling the race, so I am looking for another tri sometime this month.  The Ludington Triathlon looks fun and offers the option of an Olympic distance.  Plus, Jennie wouldn’t take much convincing to make a trip up to Ludington and possibly on to Traverse City after that.

Stay tuned…