Cold Blues
So I'm sitting in the kitchen Friday night watching SNG make some chicken and sirloin stir-fry with about 1/4 cup of cayenne pepper and I start sneezing-- and sneezing, and sneezing. At first we thought it was the pepper in the air, but after dinner I was still sniffly and then my throat started to hurt and by bedtime I was full-out sick with a cold. Or maybe allergies, I can never tell the difference.

I don't get sick very often. I probably get food poisoning more than I get flu & colds combined. Part of the thrill of business travel is the uncertainty of restaurant cleanliness standards-- Salmonella Roulette! Anyway, I don't get sick very often, but when I do, it lingers for weeks. Good timing. I've got 5 straight weeks of travel, and if you've ever flown with a headcold you know it's an experience in pain like no other.

This is definitely some kind of avian-bird-flu-SARS head cold thing. I felt too bad to workout on Saturday so we just hiked with the dog in the woods out back. We probably walked 2 miles, but Goofch ran about 5 or 6. The woods are full of deer. It's nice to see that he's getting some of his fitness back. This time of year is so nice because it's still green, but there are very few spiders or bugs. It's the Golden Mean of the forest, that balance of the hot and cool forces, when the sky is a rich shade of blue and the squirrels are fat.

Sunday we took the tandem out for the 2nd time in over a year. First time was a couple of weeks ago when we discovered that the left-side gear shift lever was broken and we were perpetually stuck in the granny chainring. It's now been repaired, and I figured riding the tandem meant if I started feeling rotten, I could let SNG take up the slack. It was a good call because I needed to drink about every 10 seconds and on the tandem I can just let go of the handllebars the whole time if I want to. Besides, the view is nice where I sit...

Last night Peace and Fuzzy came over for dinner and a movie. They brought over The Third Man-- an old B&W murder mystery/con film set in post-WWII Vienna. It was written by Graham Greene, who is really good at developing quirky characters that have a certain awkward realism that came through even under the veil of late-40's-movie elegance. The main character was really good at blundering his way through every situation leaving a trail of destruction all the while apparently oblivious to the role he played.

So today I'm back at work after about 4 hours' sleep last night. On the upside? I did get our spanish homework done about around 2:30 this morning. But you know how your nose gets all raw when you have a cold? I've got vaseline slathered all over my nose and lips and it probably looks like boogers but I swear it's vaseline, and I should probably work with my door closed today. Not only for the ick factor, but because when I'm sick, I worry about being Too Much Information Girl. And while you, my cyber-friends, certainly want to hear about clever tricks to drain hard-to-access sinus cavities, I doubt that my coworkers do.

It's winter already?
It was 41 degrees this morning!!! It's still October. It's still hurricane season! It can't be 41 degrees.

So when it's this cold, I don't like getting on my bike. Jogging is much nicer in the cold because there's not so much wind. Maybe if I ran faster there'd be wind. But the way I run, I only feel wind when someone passes me. ;-)

Spanish class is coming along OK. It's fun and all, but last night we spent almost the whole class reviewing homework. It moves along pretty slowly, and I'm afraid that by the time the Spain trip rolls around, all I'll be able to say is "What time is it" and "The professor is tall" and "I have a hardworking piece of chalk." I still don't know how to ask for the bathroom. "Donde esta la toilet?" Or is it "Donde es la toilet?" Is a toilet always a toilet? Does it meet the requirements of geographical-location-means-verb-change? Oh drat. "Ou sont les toilettes" is just so much easier.

I wonder whether more Spaniards speak French or English?

The people in my class are a hoot, and some of them seem pretty cool. I wonder how many will take the level 2 class next semester. Heck, I wonder whether I'll be able to, with the travel schedule that looms on my horizon. I was just lucky that this semester all my business trips start on Tuesday or Wednesday so I can take a Monday night class.

And speaking of travel, last week in Boston I visited the museum of fine arts. It was terrific. I'd recommend it to anyone headed up that way. There was a free exhibition called "Things I Love" which was a collection of William Koch's art and other nifty things. Koch (I didn't know who he was, either) is a wealthy tycoon who raced in and won the 1992 America's Cup race. He sounds pretty arrogant, to tell the truth, BUT what was really really really cool is that out in front of the museum were THE SHIPS that took 1st and 2nd place in that race. The winner was Koch's ship, America3, and the 2nd place was a ship called Il Moro de ... (something in italian). Right there, in the MFA's front yard. Words can't describe. They were so beautiful.

There was also an Ansel Adams exhibit, but it was $22, so I skipped it and looked at the pictures that were made into postcards in the gift shop. It looks like it would have been a great exhibit, if I'd had enough time to make it worth $22.

But the best part of visiting the MFA was the concert. As I was walking around looking at the Asian and Islamic art sections, I could hear faint music, like bells only kind of like strings, too. Gradually the music became louder, so I went to find where it was coming from. Up in the musical instruments collection they had set up a small platform where a group of about 15 musicians were playing various ancient chinese percussion-type bell and stringed instruments. The music was different from anything I'd ever heard before. Little by little all the visitors to the museum made their way into the little room to listen. The people watching was almost as good as the concert.

This week I'm in the office (except for the lunch date in DC Wednesday) for the last time until late December. Next week: Chicago. I'd like to catch a jazz show or a few museums while I'm there. Any suggestions? I'm staying downtown just a few blocks south of Navy Pier.

Stocking Stuffer!
Whoa, y'all. Check this out. One of SNG's friends at work saw this bike for sale in a shop in Italy for about 1200 euros (about USD1500). Check out what it retails for here.

SNG summed it up best when he wrote "Holly Carp!"

Holly carp indeed.

So, who thinks I should bring a few bikes home from Europe this winter? I could always use another bike...

I know that people like to be festive, and I'm certainly the LAST person who should be critical of others' holiday decorations, but...

I CAN'T STAND THOSE INFLATABLE LAWN HALLOWEEN CRITTERS!

It's just so obvious that the FatCat Executive of Creative Ideas sent a memo along the lines of, "If we have the sweatshops use the same dies for cutting nylon Christmas gewgaws but cut orange fabric instead, and then silkscreen jack-o-lantern faces on them, Voila! We'll have a fresh new profit channel! They'll sell like hotakes in February!"

The locals are just MAD about those inflatable halloween yard critters, in all of their 8-foot-high glory. My neighbors (a.k.a. The Woodspeople) haven't put up many of these, but I suspect that's just because they don't decorate for anything.

Like all the lawn inflatables, the Halloween critters have their charm while they're on, but by morning they're just a bunch of sad puddles of dead rip-stop, lying there like Oz witches after a storm.

OK, now that I got that out of my system, I sincerely apologize for offending any of you who may have one such critter on display in your yard. Go enjoy your lovely lawn thingie. Even if it is an exact replica of the Snowman critter, only orange-and-black.

Tomorrow I'm headed for Boston, where it'll be cold but the public gardens are still good for jogging any time of year.

Since my cousin has brought up the topic of embarrasing holiday candy-related-topics, I have to take this opportunity to admit to something slightly embarassing.

During October, the cafeteria at work (the World's Best Cafeteria, complete with live pianist, no joking) has candy corn as one of the toppings at the frozen yogurt/sundae bar. I love candy corn. And being too ashamed to just get a scoop of candy corn in a cup, I have been getting a teensy dab of frozen yogurt and scooping a few spoonfuls of candy corn on top. Yeah, that's a sundae, really. Oh just ring it up already. I'm just here for the candy corn.

But if I bought a whole bag of candy corn, it wouldn't be as good. The Forbidden/Rare Treat is so much better than the plentiful harvest. Besides, I can justify 10-15 corns. I cannot justify a whole bag in one sitting. Oh yes, in one sitting.

So anyway, with the candy corn harvest in full swing comes pumpkin season. I tried a new recipe for pumpkin-chicken stew that has hard cider, apples, and parsnips in it. It's based on a beef stew recipe my MIL sent to me. It's so good that it deserved a fancy name. I've decided to call it Pumpkin Poultry Parsnip Pomme stew. Just has a nice ring to it. Email me if you want the recipe. It's outta sight.

Back to mildly embarrassing things people do in 4th quarter, I'll be having lunch in DC National Airport on Oct 26. Just lunch. Off the plane at noon, and 55 minutes later leave again. Why? Because I'm 2 segments short of Platinum status on that airline, so I found the cheapest round trip 2-segment in Q4, and that's it. If you're going to be in DC, perhaps you can join me. But it'll be a real eat-and-run thing. Lunch: $78+tax, fees, and market price for a lobster roll at Legal Sea Foods. Platinum Status Perks for 2006: Priceless.

I think this act will, once and for all, land me in the category of Road-Warrior-With-Borg-Looking-Perma-Bluetooth-Earpiece-Geek. Except I don't have a borg-styley bluetooth earpiece.

WEEKENDS! WEEKENDS! I WANT MORE WEEKENDS!

We had SUCH a great weekend. I was so sad watching the sun go down yesterday because it meant the weekend was over. SAD! BLUE! We mountain biked Friday, rode a Ridge Rd loop Saturday, did all our house chores, went to work and got some stuff done, biked some more Sunday, went kayaking and open-water-swimming in Lake Jordan, made about 8 QT spaghetti sauce, cooked 2 pork loins and a mountain of veggies in the dutch ovens over an open fire in the backyard (yes, we ARE the "bubba" neighbors who burn stuff in the yard) and slept with the windows open.

It never got over 81 degrees, and never got below 68 degrees. The sky was blue. At one point there was candy corn falling from the sky, and it had no calories.

And now it's Monday. We have spanich class tonight. Or, as we've taken to calling it, Espanich class. In classic Cat&Tony style, I did my homework Tuesday last week, and have been fiddling with it to get it "just right" ever since, and SNG still hasn't done his. But it's OK, because I will let him cheat off me on the exams. 'Cause I hear that he puts out.

Did I say that out loud?

I'm in town all this week and next week. I was actually supposed to be in Austin this week, but that class was cancelled. And if I had gone, I would have had even MORE fun this weekend. Mom & dad went to a huge "Thank you" party for the city of Austin that was thrown by Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crowe last night, and it must have been some party, because every one of my phones has a voice mail of my mom hooting and hollering while Sheryl Crowe sings live in the background. What fun! We should have been there!

Finally, a big congratulations shout-out to my dad who handily took home the Texas state championship road race title for his age group in the Senior Games on Sunday. For bicycling. As if you had to ask.

PS- Blogger has been giving me a hard time with comments lately. If you don't see a comments field below, try again later- it'll be back.

A Pig Of Beauty Is A Joy Forever.
No, it's not a phrase spied on a t-shirt in Tokyo, or something that emerged from babelfish. It is the sign introducing you to a Red River Hog at the San Diego Zoo. And it may have to become my .sig file.

The Red River Hog has hairy ears like my grandfather had. I suspect that when he's old and wrinkly, SNG will have them, too. But for now his ears are super-cute. And an SNG of beauty is a joy forever.

This week I went open water swimming with a colleague who's really into boating but had never tried kayaking before. So I let him use one of our 'yaks to shadow me and keep the powerboats from plowing over me. It was quite a symbiotic thing we had going-- I was slow enough that he was under no pressure to pick up Mad paddling skilz in a hurry, and I needed a human shield. I swam for 90 minutes, with about 15 of them hanging onto the bow of the boat watching the clear blue sky fade into a purple-and-orange sunset. Did I ever tell you how nice it is in NC in the fall?

No trips for a couple of weeks. Instead I'm supposed to be writing a course for a customer that is contingent on their signing some legal document, which was due last Monday, but is still not yet signed, so I can't start the work yet. And if they wait much longer, I will be on the road again and their course will have to wait until next year. So in the meantime, I'm catching up on all the nifty programming projects I had put off for the last few months.

OK, that was seriously boring to most of you so I'm going to exit stage left. Have a great weekend! It's a PERFECT 10 on the weather channel's Fitness Forecast for this afternoon, so by the time you read this, I'll be cavorting with the birds and the trees!

It's been awhile since I've posted because of all this traveling. Last week I was in Rockville/DC where we shared the booger experience together. No need to thank me, I know you're grateful.

I am left pondering why it is that I get these booger harvesters and many of my coworkers don't. I am sure that it's just that other people don't notice. They have the same rate of nosepickers, but their detection system is insensititive to all but the most blatant of excavation activities. I recognize that my measurement device is quite sensitive, and like a good neural network with adaptive learning capability, becomes better attuned to subtle variations in methods for digging concealment. Perhaps I can get a job with some super-secret intelligence agency finding and rooting out terrorist booger-depostion activities. You know, track down where terrorists are wiping their boogers off in public places, like underneath seats at airports, on commuter handloops in subway trains, things like that. But it would be dirty work.

This week I flew out to San Jose, CA (as opposed to San Jose, Colombia-- where I nearly boarded) for a conference. I gave 3 presentations: a half-day course and 2 50-min paper presentations. But the most exciting work I did was over coffee and lunch with an old grad school friend of mine I make a point of visiting whenever I'm in the bay area. He's one of those rare clever types who appears to have an inexaustable supply of neat ideas. We spent some time talking about a paper idea (actually, 2 ideas) that we could collaborate on. I need friends like this, who come up with ideas for research papers that other people might be interested in reading. I can be a great workhorse when I have the time to devote, but my ideas usually entail finding the hard way to do something, such as coming up with a new test statistic that is less efficient than what's already implemented in the software, and by the way you have to program your own matrix language code to get it, but gee, isn't that neat?? I know you're itching to hear more, but I don't want to be scooped, so I'm keeping the details to myself. Because I know you were all just waiting to scoop me. Dianaverse is aways trying to steal my research paper ideas and publish them in some tier-2 journal where she can use the puppy-pornography data example. And kiltman does worse than that-- he takes my ideas and comes up with better titles than I can come up with and so everyone reads his version of the paper instead of mine.

This whole silly mood I'm in must be from jet lag or something. I'm currently in the kitchen at my BFF Lizard's house in San Diego. Thursday night I flew down here to spend the weekend, and SNG flew in from RDU. We've been having so much fun. The weather here really is a pretty as everyone says, but (I think I've posted about this before) the traffic here is really nuts. Not quite Chicago-traffic-crazy, but I think it's worse than Atlanta traffic. Which is also really bad. But the weather is the least of the reasons we're here. Lizard has been stationed and otherwise occupied all over the world in very hard-to-reach places most of the last 10 years, and until she and her SO moved to the mainland this year I had seen her a grand total of 1 time in 10 years. This is the person I used to smoke ciagarettes and eat big-grab chips and mini-muffins with in my car before school started every morning in high school. She was the other half of prom double-dates. She was the maid of honor at my wedding. And not even having a coffee with her for years at a stretch? It's just not right.

Anyway, so now I'm having a cuppa at her kitchen counter, and SNG is sitting here waiting for me to take him for a jog.

Better run. We're going to the zoo later! Yay! If I get any good pics I'll post them when we get back.

I'm teaching in Our Nation's Capitol this week and I just have to get this off my chest...

PLEASE STOP, I CAN SEE YOU!

It's DATA mining. Not nosemining. And I'm not a TV.

Last weekend was the MS150, which, for those of you who might be wondering whether that is some sort of giant strawberry festival, is a 2-day bike ride to raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis advocacy, programs, and research.

This year we decided 75 miles a day was for babies. The route is nice and flat, but since it's near the coast, there's usually some wind to contend withand this year was no exception. With hurricane Ophelia brewing just to the East, we had bands of 20-30mph winds that blew into or across our route most of the time. Luckily, there are so many people on the ride that we usually had someone in front of us to act as a windshield!

Day 1 we finished the 100-mile ride in a little over 5 hours, at an average speed of 18.7mph. Three stops: mile 38, mile 50, and mile 78. We both felt great pretty much the whole time. And we met some really fun people. Whose names I promptly forgot. And Boy, howdy was it ever windy. I felt my bike being swooshed all over the road at times, and really worried that I'd be blown right over.

Day 2 we had an announcement from the Local Weather Guy (LWG). LWG told us that because the hurricane was getting closer, the wind would be even worse than on Day 1, and there was a possibility of some really severe weather. As a result, they were going to need extra volunteers available to drive SAG wagons in case riders were being blown off their bikes and stuff. So they cancelled the century loop on Day 2. (!!!) There was nothing for it. We rode the 75 mile route instead. I think day 2 was much harder than day 1, and not just because of the 100 miles we'd already put on our legs. We felt really pretty strong in the morning, and skipped the first 2 rest stops. Which was a mistake, because almost everyone stops at the 1st or 2nd rest stop, even if it's just to use the portajon, so the only people on the road in front of us (or right behind us) were the Serious hammerheads going 25mph into the wind. So in spite of our best efforts to hang on with the big kids, we rode alone for the next 15 miles, until we reached stop #3, the lunch stop. There we grouped up with some of SNG's office buddies and got some protection from the (by now Howling) headwind. The group stopped briefly at mile 55, but SNG and I just wanted to KEEP GOING! The skies were getting darker and darker, and I really hate riding in the rain. We finally finished, averaged 18mph, in just over 4 hours. And no rain.

We made it to the finish in time to eat our weight in BBQ and fixins before heading back to the in-laws' to shower, eat some more, pick up the dog, drive back home, and eat some more.

The whole weekend we slept like rocks! Which is saying something, since I tend to get nervous insomnia before any kind of big event. I guess since this isn't competitive, there's less to worry about. And we ate! Oh did we eat. Friday evening SNG's folks made a birthday dinner and Blueberry-peach pie! Oh, yeah! And Saturday evening we had as many brownies as we had plates of pasta-chicken-vegetables-salad. And I mentioned the Sunday BBQ business...

Now that we've finished our longest rides of the year, SNG and I will need to get out of the habit of measuring our dinner portions with a shovel, and go back to using kitchen utensils like everyone else. And sweetheart, your daily ice cream ritual? needs to go on wintertime hiatus. *sigh*

A side note: I had a masssage on Saturday from a guy who claims to hold the world record on longest running chair massages-- 52 hours. Can you imagine? He gave me a table massage, and at the end did this funny thing where he grabbed my ankles and shake-a shake-a shake-a shook me all around until everything was all loosie-goosie. Try it with a friend- it's a pretty cool feeling. He didn't do as good a job on my shoulder as Lal, my regular massage dude, but the shake-a shake-a business was fun.

"Dites- Que fait ton ami?"

OK, it's time to talk about something else. The email blizzard burying my Inbox from the non-Gulf-Coast contigent of my family gets uglier by the day. It's turning into a darned flame-war! The problem is that you simply can't be a moderate in my family. If you have a view, it has to be FIRMLY and FIERCELY held, with no wiggle-room for any competing perspectives.

And if you ask me, exactly half of them are RIGHT and the other half are WRONG (I am still, after all, a member of said family and no exception to these attitudinal parameters). :-)

But that's beside the point. The point is that I don't want to talk about the GC right now.

So I'm changing the subject. In my Pimsleur Speak and Reach Essential French 3, they teach you how to quickly change the subject in conversation. They say that if you start a sentence with "Dites!" (which translates to "Say!") that this is a "polite way to change the subject." It's funny to formalize something like that in a language lesson, but a useful thing to know. Val will have to tell me whether this is the best way to politely change the subject or whether I should try something else (perhaps something equivalent to "Soooooo, anywaaaaaaay....").

Dites! Our cafeteria at work makes the only tuna salad that I can stand to eat anymore. I'm not sure when or why, but at some point I stopped liking tuna. Fresh or canned. But the SASeteria has a recipe that transcends tuna. I don't know what's in it. Maybe it's full-fat mayo? Yeah, that's probably it.

In other news, the MS150 is this weekend. Or, as we've taken to calling it, the MS200. Weather permitting, we're going to attempt the double-century (100 miles Sat and 100 miles Sun). Saturday is also my birthday. Since biking 100 miles is kind of a crappy way to spend your birthday, I get to have a rain-delay birthday. Also, since I'm giving up my real birthday to ride 100 miles, I get 2 rain-days to make up for it. SNG doesn't know that yet, but he will as soon as he reads this.

Last year we started a tradition with friends where birthday outings are celebrated with "fake-sport-and-food." Real food, not fake food. We've done bowling, billiards, lazer-tag, miniature golf, skee-ball, I can't remember what else. Food has mostly been pizza, with some BBQ, some gelatto, some other random stuff. This year I want Ice Dancing as my fake sport. I have to be careful calling this a fake sport- my mom used to be an ice dancer, but it's not as sporty as figure skating or speedskating. (Thank goodness she wasn't a synchronized swimmer- then I'd have all kinds of eggshells to tread) I think we should all dress in period outfits from a decade with great music and go to the ice rink and ice dance! Food will be sushi. It just seems appropriate for ice dancing somehow. Of course, not everyone eats sushi, so it's an "Ice Dancing and Sushi or something else from Whole Foods' deli case" party. Um, and since not everyone dances, it's OK to put on skates and slip-slide around on the rink as long as you wiggle your tooshie as if you're trying to dance. Or at least look cool hanging out by a pinball machine.

The best part is I have a whole mess of free passes to the ice rink. They might be the B.O.G.O. kind, but that's at least 1/2 price.

Consider yourself invited-- shoot me an email and I'll give you the details.

But On A Lighter Note:
(lifted from the St Petersburg Times Q&A)

Is there going to be a shortage of Tabasco sauce, too, since it comes from southern Louisiana?

Apparently not. The McIlhenny Co., makers of Tabasco, has its headquarters on Avery Island, La., west of New Orleans. The company reports that Hurricane Katrina took out its Web site but not its operations and there will be no interruption in the processing of the hot stuff.

Whew! There will be no interruption to my daily omelette-soaked-in-pepper-sauce ritual.

I know I just posted a plea for donations to relief agencies-- but it bears repeating. If you haven't done it yet, please consider donating to one of the relief agencies working to
- evacuate the city
- rescue pets and other animals
- clean the toxins and poisons that will likely disrupt the ecosystem in ways we can only begin to imagine
- search for the dead in homes, under debris, in the streets
- find places to relocate the million-or-so people who are suddenly homeless (think about that for a minute)
- bring food, water, clothes, schoolbooks, and other supplies to proud people who are now, by no fault of their own, begging for help and counting on the mercy of people who are geographically more fortunate
- (eventually) clear away the old destryed buildings and rebuild a city that will be more resistant to weather catastrophes in the future
- care for the sick and injured

Remember, everyone from New Orleans-- not just the people who stayed behind-- is homeless and facing an uncertain future. New Orleans is one of the poorest cities in the country, and most of the people who stayed did so because they had no way to leave, and if they could have left, had no place to go. The small number of idiots who are looting TVs and causing violence are FAR outnumbered by people who are scavenging for food, water, and dry clothes, for medicine and first aid supplies, for dry land. They may be poor but they are proud and small sacrifices on all of our parts will add up to a large helping hand for many people.

So please, if you haven't already done so, give what you can plus a little bit more. If you don't have money, donate some water. Donate tools or workgloves or blankets or clothes thatyou won't need.

You can find a list of charitable agencies here and here.

Really Long Rehash of This Weekend's Triathlon... you've been warned.

Saturday was the Endurance Challenge sprint triathlon. I have posted some pictures along with running narrative here. View the slideshow to see the captions.

This was my first race in reasonably warm water and in a pool. And since the swim has cost me SO much time on other races, I had high hopes that the pool would make everything better. And to make it even better, I had a cheering SQUAD this time instead of a cheering GUY (but I really love my cheering guy-- SNG, you're the best cheerleader EVAH!). Our friend Marc showed up to watch the race (I think he was most interested in all the super-fit women in swimsuits, but he's way too polite to admit that to me). That was more motivating than I had expected it to be. SNG's boss was there, too. He's an Ironman triathlete, so that lent a little bit of gravity to the race. Um, I think he finished the race before I even got into the pool...

I made the mistake of seeding myself in a slower swim class than I should have, and spent most of the swim trying (unsuccussfully) to pass people. Funny, I didn't think anyone was a slower swimmer than me. Well, there was that one guy who died in the lake last time...he was pretty slow. Anyway, I lost a few minutes there. I'll know better next time. Finished the 500M swim in 13:49, 94th out of 110 overall. I know I could have done it in 11 minutes without the no-passing issues.
(apologies for the gallows humor, but if that kind of thing bothers you, then you probably found this blog by accident)

It was really fun and invigorating to be able to swim properly, since the last 2 races (in cold open water) I had to make do with either backstroke or a wierd hybrid dogpaddle-breaststroke thing in a miserably tight wetsuit. And since there was no wetsuit this time (and since my start time was around dinnertime), I was also able to warm up properly before the race. I am sure that it helped.

The only complaint I have about the bike was that they added the first transition time to the bike time. Grr. I am a slow transitioner. Nonetheless, my bike time was 11th overall and 3rd in my age group. It was a 16-mile route with continuous hills, averaged about 19.5mph, and the bike computer said 48 minutes (not including transition time). On the entire ride, only one person passed me. He was kitted out in full TT regalia, complete with $5000 racing bike and foil helmet. I passed a few dozen people on everything from racing bikes to mountain bikes, some in tennis shoes with toeclips and t-shirts. But I'll take my downward social comparison wherever I can get it, dabnabbit!

The 5K run course was gently hilly (nothing steep) and took two figure-8 loops around the sportsplex. My time was not as good as I'd hoped: 31 minutes, but my goal is 30 minutes so it was close. There's no way to finesse it: I run slowly. It's OK, the run is kind of a recovery from the bike. If a tiger were chasing me, I'd probably have run a little bit faster.

Since the bike is the only part of a triathlon that is at all ego-tied, I was really happy with the race. It was lots of fun, and sprint distance is definitely the way to go. It just feels like a fantastic workout. Any longer and it starts to feel like work...