Nats Clinch!!!

The Washington Nationals won the American League East Division on Monday night, and Michelle and I were there to be a part of this historic achievement. Some friends of ours had two extra tickets and were nice enough to invite us to go with them. The tickets were ground level, in center field, right behind Bryce Harper! As the season in MLB draws to a close, the teams that are in playoff contention start figuring out how many games they would have to win or that the closest contender for their playoff spot would have to lose. This number is called the 'magic number' in baseball. Going into Monday night's game, the Nats' magic number was down to 1. This meant that if either the Nats won or the Braves lost, the Nats would become champions of their division and clinch a playoff spot. The Nats were down most of the game, and they did in fact end up losing the game. Right at the end of the bottom of the eigth inning though, right before the Nats went out to bat to start the top of the ninth, the anouncer informed the crowd that the Pirates had just beat the Braves, and that the 'Division Champion Washington Nationals' would be going to bat. All the scoreboards and monitors throughout the stadium showed that the Nats were division champions, and the crowd basically went crazy. It was for precisely this moment that I had wanted to attend the game. It was fantastic! Of course, it would have been nice if the Nats won their game and then celebrated the division championship, but this worked too. When the game was over, and the Nats were back in the locker room, the monitors showed them celebrating (despite losing). I am looking forward to playoff baseball more this year than in any other past year that I can remember. I am even thinking about buying a Bryce Harper jersey (they're not cheap!).

50 States Bike Ride

Yesterday, September 22nd, I participated in the '50 State Ride' that went all throughout Washington D.C. In a nutshell, this bike ride was 66 miles long and took each cyclist for a ride through all 8 districts of our nation's capital and - at least briefly, but sometimes for a significant distance - on each of the 50 streets that have are named after each of the 50 states that make up the U.S.A. We literally traveled to every corner of DC, along bridges that crossed the Potomac River in a couple places, weaved our way in and out of some of the richest and poorest neighborhoods, and through many gorgeous parks and areas of our nation's capital that I otherwise probably never would have known existed.

 

My favorite places were riding along Pennsylvania Avenue and riding right in front of the White House, riding along the Potomac River and seeing all the fresh seafood vendors at the National Harbor, criss-crossing in and out of the heavily wooded national parks such as Rock Creek Park, and any time I could see one of the beautiful monuments or memorials such as the Washington Monument as a backdrop while I was riding.

 

The ride started at Adams Morgan, which is 10 miles from where we live. Thus, I had an extra 20 miles total at the beginning and end of the 66 mile bike ride. I am glad I did the whole ride and stuck it out to the end, but to be honest it was really a really gruelling bike ride. Doing this type of mileage in a busy city, with no roads closed, requires a lot more energy and fortitude than it would on a trail or traditional bike path. Specifically, the constant stopping and going at stoplights and not being able to hit a consistent speed or stride due to traffic, stop signs, and the many turns made it a challenging bike ride. I believe that this type of bike ride required just as much mental and physical fortitude than a 100 miler - if not much much more!

 

While there were hundreds of us that all started out at the same time and place, as the miles and hours passed the group of us at the front got smaller and smaller. By the very end I was one of a group of just 5 that led the way and finished first. As the ride went on - it ultimately took about five and a half hours to finish - our group started to chat less, hang our heads and pant heavier while stopped at stop lights, and became more and more anxious to just finish the ride. I never even got my fellow cyclists names, but by the end I know our small group felt a sense of comaraderie, watching out for each other on the streets and signaling to cars where we were going. When we finished at Adams Morgan where we started, 66 miles and five and a half hours later, it was kind of a strange feeling that it was all over; we had just spent so much time and energy informally working as a team and watching each others' backs, and then it was just, "well, seeya layer!" The ride officially ended with everyone going to a nearby bar and everyone celebrating, but obviously that wasn't for me. I was anxious to get home to Michelle and Mason and spend the rest of the day recovering with them.

The link below is a map of the 2011 50 State Ride, which was more or less the same as this year's, in case you are interested in seeing how we were able to navigate our way through the city and get to all 50 State streets.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/51850216

Training and Ironman Update

I have signed up for what will be my third 'Ironman,' each in a different calendar year.  I did the Chesapeake Man in 2011, I did the Coeur d'Alene Ironman this year, and in January 2013 I will be participating in the HITS Full (Ironman) Distance Triathlon in Naples, Flordia.  I like the fact that each of the Ironmans will have been in a different year.  It is my goal to do at least one Ironman every year for...well...for forever!

I thought my next Ironman was going to be the NYC U.S. Championship in 2013, but after I volunteered at it this year and signed up for it for next year, they sent out an email saying that they rushed into opening registration for next year's event and that they had to work out some logistics as well as how much it would need to cost before opening registration up for the event.  They sent out full refunds to all who had registered for next year's race, and to be honest, I am really glad I got my refund.  The race was extremely expensive, way more than I ever thought I would pay just to sign up for the race, not even counting transportation costs or anything else.  I had signed up for the race because I felt it would have been silly to have gone all the way up to NYC and volunteered at the race with the intent to sign up for next year's race and not go through with signing up, even though I felt sick when they told me how much it was going to cost.  After reflecting on the whole experience and the cost of the race, it was welcome news when I got the email saying they were suspending registration and all would receive full refunds.

This experience led me to reflect on my future in the sport of Triathlon and the potential costs involved with it.  As I have grown and progressed as a Triathlete, the sport has become more and more expensive.  I do not plan on slowing down, but I do plan on choosing races more strategically; otherwise I don't know how I would afford to do at least one ultra distance Triathlon a year for the rest of my life.  At the same time that I learned I would be getting a refund for the 2013 NYC Ironman, I got an email from a new Triathlon company called 'HITS.'  They sent out an email saying that while some companies that put on Triathlons were starting to take advantage of the growing demand and charging more for registration, they would conversely be making their events affordable and more open to all athletes by offering an extremely low price for the Full Triathlon distance if you signed up over 4 months in advance.  This price is a mind-bendingly low $150!  It may not sound like it, but that is unheard of cheap for a 140.6 mile Iron distance Triathlon.  It took me all of about 0 seconds to get over not doing the 2013 NYC Ironman and instead sign up for the HITS race in Florida in 2013.  Furthermore, the course in Florida is 'flat and fast,' as they say, and will be conducive to me reaching my goal of finishing the race in under 11 hours.  This is a goal I am taking very seriously.  I have incorporated lower body weight training to give my legs the extra strength to keep going towards the end of the race that you can't get from just logging tons of miles on the bike and running.  I have also started doing interval training while running to also help build more strength for ultra endurance events in my legs.  I consider this to be part of a more advanced, technical training that I was not ready for earlier in my career as a Triathlete.

Having said that, let me bring you up to date on my mileage for the year in training:

Running: 784.9 miles

Biking: 4,498.65 miles

Andrew's Wedding in Nauvoo

 

 

It was our good fortune to spend the last week of summer break in Nauvoo, Illinois and then Indianapolis, Indiana, attending my brother Andrew's wedding and spending time with our new extended family.  Seeing my little brother Andrew get married to his beautiful wife Lauren in the Nauvoo temple was undoubtedly the highlite of the trip, it was even one of the proudest and happiest moments of my life.  Congratualtions Lauren and Andrew!

Spending time in Nauvoo was incredible!  We lived near Palmyra, New York, for a year and got to visit all the Church history around there many times.  I thought Nauvoo would be more of the same type of Church history -- not that that would be in any way bad, I just thought I would be seeing the type of stuff I had already seen before.  I was totally wrong.  Nauvoo is such a special, unique place.  One thing I certainly didn't realize going into the trip was that Nauvoo is still a very very small city, and the layout of the city that the early Church members created is still completely intact.  You can walk down all the same roads they did, and visit many of the shops and buildings they created (either the actual origianl building or restorations).  Nauvoo was different than any other Church history we've done (Missouri, Ohio, New York) because the history is the entire city; you don't have to drive from point A and then drive to point B, you are literally experiencing Church history the entire time you are in the city.  It made the sacrifice of the early Saints so much more real to be in the city they built, but had to abandon. 

Visiting Carthage Jail was an amazing but heart-breaking experience.  Carthage jail, being the place where Jospeh Smith and his older brother Hyrum were encarcerated when a mob stormed the jail and murdered them both, holds a lot of emotion.  It was sureal standing next to and looking out the window Joseph tried to escape out of when he was shot twice in the back and twice in the chest and then collapsed through the window.  It was similarly sureal looking at and touching the door that the mob shot down and broke through to get to them.  The bullet whole is still in the door where a member of the mob shot Hyrum in the face, killing him nearly immediately.  Visiting Carthage Jail was an unforgettable experience; my admiration for Jospeh and Hyrum was great but grew even more after seeing and envisioning the way they boldly and fearlessly left this world, standing by everything they had preached that led to their deaths. 

Masons' First Baseball Game

Last Friday we went to the Nationals baseball game with our good friends Chance and Jenny. It was Mason's first baseball game.  He had a lot of fun, but was pretty worn out. He slept almost all day the next day. :)  We had a lot of fun too! The Nats won the game in a great comeback in the 8th inning.

Mason's Favorite Toy

Here is Mason playing with his favorite toy.

Two Months Old!

Mason turned two months old yesterday. He is growing so much and learning so quickly! He now weighs 12 lbs and is 24" long (or two feet tall as Chad likes to think of it!) He has become much more playful and alert the past couple of weeks. He loves to play with the toys on his vibrating rocker (meaning staring at them while kicking his legs and waving his arms and making cute sounds). He has even been able to grab onto the toys a couple of times (although he only does it when Chad is looking). He smiles a lot too - huge, happy, open mouth smiles. It is so cute! Of course, he hardly ever smiles for the camera. I guess he's shy. We love him so much!

                                         Newborn                                                 2 Months

Mason fell asleep during tummy time. He worked so hard!

Mason LOVES his Daddy. He gives him the biggest smiles!

Mason is getting so good at standing!

Mason's new game is to hit daddy in the face.

Mason loves relaxing.

Mason's favorite toy

Summer Out West: Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming

One of the great things about being a teacher is getting summers off.  Having said that, it seems like each summer break (we have had three of them now) is defined by something like a long trip to somewhere or a big project we finished.  In past years, we have used our time off to go to Peru, finish grad school, spend time with family and friends in other parts of the country, and train for specific Triathlons/marathons.  This year's summer break will be defined in my mind by the month we spent out West.  We are so blessed to have had this opportunity to spend time with mine and Michelle's family in Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming.  As a side note, little Mason has logged a lot of miles both flying and driving in his short but eventful 7 weeks!

Idaho

The first big event on our schedule was the Coeur d'Alene Ironman that I participated in. This was such a blast, but it definitely wore me out. After this, we did a lot of fun and relaxing things like heading up to the mountains for swimming in the lake, riding the 4 wheeler, and cooking smores over a campfire. I also got to go mountain biking twice with some guys that do it regularly in Boise. Boise has tons of hills and mountains that are perfect for great mountain biking. I really hadn't been mountain biking in years, so this was a real treat. Even though I log hundreds of miles on my road bike each week, mountain biking was still a true challenge and workout. Not only was the elevation something new, but it requires a different set of skills and even muscle groups to go mountain biking as opposed to what I am more used to. One thing I can tell you is that mountain biking 20 miles in the hills of Boise is a heck of workout! Michelle and I have made some good friends in Idaho, so it is always nice to see them. She also has some friends that she has been close to since high school, so it is always a wonderful occasion for all of them to get together. Coincidentally, it seems that Michelle and almost all her friends have had baby boys all within the last couple months. As an added bonus, some of our friends ended up going on vacation to Sun Valley while we were in Idaho, so we made a day trip to visit them in the gorgeous resort town. We watched 'Sun Valley Serenade' at a local theatre and visited some of the sights that Sun Valley has to offer. Hopefully we get to go back and spend more time there someday. A special treat for us was Mason's baby blessing in Michelle's home (church) ward. It was a real blessing to get to perform the blessing on my newborn son.

Washington

After the Coeur d'Alene Ironman, we went with my parents back to their house in Washington.  It was a lot of fun getting to know Seattle and the surrounding area.  Washington is a a beautiful place, with lots of fun and exciting places to go and see.  My cousin lives in downtown Seattle so he was able to show us around.  He took us to all the places that you would want to see while visiting this city: the fun outdoor markets, the harbors and locks that go out to sea, some great local restaurants, views of the mountains and tall buildings, the original Starbucks, and a really crazy alleyway that people have covered (literally) in chewed up gum.   We went out on a limb and tried going to a small Mexican food restaurant; we were greatly rewarded for this with the best Mexican food any of us had had in years.  Who would have thought we would find this in Seattle?

Wyoming

Visiting my aunt and staying at her amazing house out on her farm in Wyoming was a real treat.  I hadn't been to my aunt's farm since they built their new house.  It was so great to see more family and stay at their place.  It was a completely unique and wonderful experience to get to visit Wyoming.  My aunt and her husband have a massive farm wth goats, chickens, horses, burros, sheep, all kinds of farming equipment, their own herb store where they sell tons of great natural/organic foods that they grow and make themselves.  It was a lot of fun to just spend time at the farm looking at the amazing views wherever you looked, riding a dirtbike on trails on their land, and learning about (and eating) what they farm and how they make their delicious natural organic foods.  Another highlite of being in Wyoming was visiting Yellowstone National Park and seeing Old Faithful, one of the many geysers on display at the park.  Somehow they know what the schedule of eruptions from the geysers will be so you can plan out when to come and watch the geysers.

It was really sad to say goodbye to our families, but at the same time we know we are blessed to have gotten the opportunity to visit them and spend so much time with them.  We took lots of pictures though and more importantly, we made lots of memories that we will never forget. 

Being A Daddy is Fun!

I am loving being a dad.  These are pictures of some of the things my son and I like to do:

Mason Trying to climb over me.  Look at his strong legs!  He will be an athlete for sure.

Mason spit up on my chest...its basically no big deal at this point.

Even as a newborn he was a lot of fun.

This is us going on a walk through Rock Creek Park in D.C.  I really like carrying him in his Baby Bjorn.

Just me and Mason hanging out.  He is in one of his awesome pajamas.

Another shot of us at Rock Creek Park.  When Mason was really young he liked to put his face right up on my chest, it didn't seem like it could be comfortable but he liked it that way.

Us sleeping.

Us hanging out.  He is able to keep his head up for a little while on his own now.