UTAH!

Since I've been out of school for my 3 week break before summer term starts, I've had the chance to get some good hard training in. Last Wednesday, I did the south mountain loop in which I ride south past the new Draper Temple, up and over the blistering Traverse Ridge road down into Utah County and back past point of the mountain on the frontage road into Salt Lake. It was a 2 1/2 hour ride with a brutal head wind the entire way back. I was pretty spent by the end of the ride when I flatted 4 blocks from my house. Since I was so close, I just decided to walk barefoot the rest of the way, leaving my shoes clipped to my pedals (it's extremely awkward to walk on concrete in bike shoes). No more than 30 seconds after I started walking, a nice couple pulled up next to me in a minivan and asked if I needed a ride. I thanked them and told them I was only a couple blocks from my house. After they drove off, I got to thinking what a great place Utah is. I've ridden my bike all over the world and the United States, and I can safely say that the people of Utah are the most caring and compassionate people I've ever been around. There have been times when I've been stranded in the middle of nowhere after flatting on my bike, and there is always someone willing to lend a hand. One such time was a few years ago on the west side of Utah lake. I flatted and couldn't get my flat fixed, so I started walking. Within minutes, a couple guys drove by in their pickup and offered to give me a ride all the way back to Provo. I have never experienced a kinder, more caring population in any other state of this great union. While I'm not a native of Utah, and home still means Nevada to me, I love this state and the people in it. So here's to Utah! The state with the best economy in the nation, lowest unemployment, most stable real estate market, and most charitable people on God's green earth. I couldn't be more grateful for the great people of this great state.

A Little Common Sense

A Patriots Manifesto

I attended one of 2 tea parties held today in Salt Lake. There were at least 500 people there protesting the Bush-Obama push toward socialism. There were about 2 dozen passionate speakers of all ages and backgrounds at the event. I stand here today to proclaim that I reject the reckless spending of Washington! I reject the inflation of our currency! I reject confiscatory taxes! I reject the federal government taking control of private enterprise and financial institutions! I reject the redistribution of wealth! I reject the fairness doctrine! I reject cap and trade legislation and "global warming" hysteria! I reject Obama's claim that we are merely a nation of citizens and not a Christian or Jewish nation. I reject socialism and central planning! Now is the time to stand up and be counted. Stand up for liberty and economic freedom over socialism and tyranny. Stand up for a strong national defense. Stand up for strong borders. Stand up for strong American and family values! Now is the time to stand up for these things. If we wait too long, there will come a day when we speak fondly of the days before socialism and government control. Call your congressman, read the Federalist papers, read Thomas Paine, and share the principals of economic liberty with your friends. It's time to put government back on the side of the people.

An Ironman's Manifesto

I was reading last month's issue of Inside Triathlon Magazine, The Ironman Issue. The Manifesto by TJ Murphy epitomizes what I've been unable (maybe unwilling?) to express to those who have been questioning my sanity since I started Ironman racing 7 years ago. Perhaps it's a "pearls before swine" thing which has prevented me from being able to adequately express to those who ask between gulps of 32 oz sodas and reruns of "The Bachelor" why I do it.


"One steaming summer day in Iowa a long time ago-I had just finished high school-I was running a six miler at a pretty good clip. The sun was burning me up, but as midwestern athletes can tell you, if you've adapted to hot, sticky weather, running in it is a tremendous feeling. If you haven't adapted, you suffer like a dog, but at the time I was over the hump of acclimating and loving every step.

I recall the run because while I was ascending a short hill, two friends of mine, neither one of them athletes, passed by in a car and screamed hellos. I waved back and continued on. Later they expressed their astonishment at my smiling while I must have been in pain. They lived with the assumption that exercise was agony. That someone could run, bike or swim for long periods of time and enjoy it was, to them, an unfathomable mystery.

Such assumptions are common from those outside the world of endurance athletics. Often I've listened to people as young as 20 or 30 explain how they could never complete a triathlon, a long bike ride or even the shortest of running races. With a mindset like this screwed into place, it can be a waste of time to tell stories about 70-something triathletes finishing Ironmans in less than 13 hours, or 60 year old triathletes recording Ironman times less than 10 hours, or all the other myth-busting triumphs over the myriad boundaries long assumed to be grim realities of aging and life.

Triathlon has become a place to escape the trap set by society that largely counts on turning people into television addicts and super consumers. Even in the TV broadcast of the Olympics, you sense the message directed at the citizenry, that being an athlete is off limits; you might as well give up and lose yourself in a Quarter Pounder. Let the Olympians fly in the rarified air; commoners should stick to pushing limits on credit cards and waistlines. For those of us clinging to it, triathlon is more than a sport. It's a refuge where we can cast aside labels and breathe in the fitness lifestyle. It's our sacred underground where everyone is welcome regardless of age, talent or background."

Amen TJ Murphy!

My Passion Play

Who was I kidding? You can take the athlete out of the Ironman, but you can never take the Ironman out of the athlete. 4 months ago, I decided to hang up racing for a while and concentrate on grad school. After 1 semester, I've realized that I'm not cut out for this sedentary lifestyle. Grad school is still my priority, but no matter how much I try to ignore it, Ironman is in my soul forever. For me it's more than a race. It's a metaphor for life - the eternal struggle between spirit and body. Subjecting the body to the will and awesome power of the spirit to accomplish something great. The desire to be proven herewith. It's transcendent. It's spiritual. Set against the backdrop of life, it is my passion play.

May the question never be posed again: Why?

What's wrong with the world today?

This is seriously the coolest thing I've ever seen