Do Not Go Gentle...

The Novel so Far - 2 years later

2012-02-01T12:44:00.000-06:00

In October 2009 I reported in this blog about my three year effort to write my novel, "American Jukebox." The novel chronicles the life of a minor league baseball player whose life unravels after he fails to make it to the major leagues. Told against the backdrop of America’s postwar challenges from Little Rock to Viet Nam, it is a story of how youthful decisions, made in haste, can reverberate through the decades, and affect the lives of everyone we love.

I am now well into my fifth rewrite. I know it sounds almost sisyphean to continue to work on the same project for years, but it is a good novel and I think I am getting close.

Meanwhile, during fallow periods I have continued to write short fiction and in the last few months I've had a number of stories published:

The Girl from Yesterday was published by Specter Magazine in January. This story was a chapter in an earlier version of AMERICAN JUKEBOX.

The Bump - Journal of Compressed Creative Arts

Nina's Song - Absinthe Revival

This Train Makes all the Stops - Washington Pastime

The Toll Collector - Boston Literary Magazine

4 A. M. - Eunoia Review

Links to these stories are provided in the table of my published stories at the bottom of the blog.

Ironman C’oeur d’Alene – June 24, 2012

2011-11-12T11:31:00.000-06:00

Last June I signed up for my first (and probably only) Ironman competition – Ironman C'oeur d'Alene, which will be run on June 24, 2012. For years I've had no interest in trying an Ironman. The race is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on the bike, and a 26.2 mile run. I've never swam, biked, or run any of those distances. Two years ago I completed two half-Ironmans and that probably was the half-step I needed to at least start thinking about what it would be like to complete an Ironman. But mostly what I thought was that it would be hell and I wasn't interested.

But last year several of the people I trained with completed Ironmen. I tracked their progress on-line and cheered their success . And surprisingly, when Craig Strong, who heads up Precision Multisport, announced plans for a group effort to train for CDA in 2012, I decided to go for it. I guess I figured if I was going to do that distance, it would be best to try it while I'm still young. Right?

A writer friend of mine insisted that I should write a book about training and competing. She recommended I keep a record of my daily training. So even though I'm technically in the "offseason" I started in September to keep a blog The Road to C'oeur d'Alene of my workouts. It's not really very interesting, but it will be helpful later if I do write a book or story about the race preparation.

So far in the eight weeks that I've been logging the workouts I've trained about 7 to 9 hours per week. Light workouts, not much intensity. When we get into serious training mode, we will average more like 14 hours a week and the workouts will be more intense.

It will all be over in another 225 days.

My Father's Ice

2011-10-27T11:23:00.000-05:00

My short story, "My Father's Ice," has been published in Johnny America - a literary journal. You can purchase the publication online at these stores. Below is an excerpt from the story:

My Father’s Ice

I have come to the Whitney Museum today to find Harry Giles. Not the wealthy investment banker with the beautiful socialite wife. Not the man who read “Goodnight Moon” to his daughter every night for a year. I want to know about the young man who dropped out of Cornell to follow his hero to an abandoned Brooklyn tenement in the pursuit of art. What happened to that boy? The boy who would become my father.

Last week my mother, not the most sentimental of women, sent me a picture of her and my father taken at their senior high school prom. She was getting rid of clutter and this cheesy photograph didn’t make her cut. She’d attached one of her annoying yellow post-it notes, on which she’d scrawled, “Carly – Look at that hemline!!!” Mother loves her exclamations.

The photographer, naturally, focused on my mother, blonde and sunny in a red mini-dress, with her swimsuit-model perfect body. She’s held that beauty through the years, refusing to pass it on to her only child. My father, with a sweep of dark hair covering his forehead, stands off to the side and looks uncomfortable in his rented tux. His hands dangle. He can’t decide what to do with them. Of course it doesn’t matter. No one’s going to notice him.

I am my father’s daughter. Dark. My arms too long, my hands anxious when they have nothing to do. My smile always a heartbeat too late for the photographer’s flash.

My mother thinks I’m shy because I don’t share every opinion that pops into my head. But I’m not shy, just quiet, like my father. He kept his thoughts to himself. Although he once told me it was not a sin to leave a thought unexpressed, I’m sure he never shared that opinion with Mother.

There was a certain sadness about my father. I would notice it in unguarded moments – as he sat at the kitchen table not reading his newspaper or when he looked blankly at a traffic light that had turned green or when he stood in his den and stared at the walls that used to hold Gordon’s photographs.

After months of careful deliberation, I’ve decided to attend the Whitney’s exhibition, “Gordon Matta-Clark: You are the Measure.” Mother will not be pleased.

“You are the Measure?” she’d say if she knew what I were doing. Her face would be crinkled up, her words splashing like sarcasm-filled water balloons. “That’s so typical of the Whitney and their pathetic championing of obscure losers. Gordon Matta-Clark has been dead thirty years. It’s a waste of time, Carly. What do you think you’re going to find?”

Sometimes, when I imagine what my mother might say, I become angry, even though she hasn’t actually said anything. And then, in my mind, I deliver a brilliant retort.

“You know the difference between you and me, Mom?” I would ask her. And in my imaginary world she realizes I am being rhetorical and waits for my answer. “You never understood why Dad ran off to New York,” and then as she gives me that look where she raises her eyebrows as though she’s not sure she likes what she has heard but has to hear more, I look into her eyes and I say, “I never understood why he came back.”

The entrance to the Whitney is choked with middle-aged tourists. They’re not...

The picture posted above is of one of Gordon Matta-Clark's projects. If you are unable to find a copy of Johnny America, please let me know and I will email you a copy of the story.

Story Club - Thursday, October 6

2011-09-29T14:12:00.000-05:00

I will be one of the featured writers at Dana Norris's Story Club at the Uncommon Ground at 3800 North Clark St. in Chicago on Thursday, October 6. There is a nice promo announcement on me on the Story Club facebook page .

The event starts at 8 pm, but open mic aspirants should be there by 7 to put their names in for the five open mic slots. Each writers is given 5 to 7 minutes to read / tell a story. It's a lot of fun, the crowd is friendly and the service and food at Uncommon Ground is exceptional. The beer is good, too.

Hope to see some of you there.

Norman Mailer Writers Colony - 2012

2011-09-14T15:35:00.001-05:00

I just returned from a one week screenwriting workshop at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony.

The workshop was led by David Black, an award-winning journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and producer. His novel Like Father was named a notable book of the year by the New York Times and listed as one of the seven best novels of the year by the Washington Post. The King of Fifth Avenue was named a notable book of the year by the New York Times, New York Magazine, and the A.P.

Among the television shows he has produced and written are the Sidney Lumet series 100 Centre Street, which was listed as one of the 10 best shows of the year, the Richard Dreyfuss series The Education of Max Bickford, Monk, CSI-Miami, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, and Law & Order, which received an Emmy nomination for Best Dramatic Show and a Golden Globe nomination.

It was fun to have a week devoted to discussing films and television shows. And since I’ve watched almost twenty years of Law & Order episodes it was fascinating to learn how a script for that show is developed. We had a great group: Jonathan Rocks (his real name), Asmara B. (concert violinist with a really long Indian name which I can’t remember how to spell), Deirdre Sinnott, Amy Crocker, Kevin Heisler, Kim Howard and Rosary O’Neill. The screenplays that the group were working on ranged from fracking to New Orleans old money, to New York mobsters to an obsession with British royalty and more.

The workshop is held at Norman Mailer’s house in Provincetown, Cape Cod. The workshop participants are housed in condos scattered around the town, all of which have kitchens and living rooms. Plus they provide us with a bike so we can navigate the town and surrounding sand dunes. It’s a unique experience and I highly recommend it to writers who are looking for a different kind of workshop experience.

Norman's Deck

Bike Trail to Dunes

Sand

USAT Age Group National Championship – The Results

2011-08-21T18:46:00.000-05:00

Before the Swim

Yesterday I competed in the USAT Age Group National Championship in Burlington, Vermont. It was, as expected, a well-organized event with great support from the community of Burlington. Suzanne and I enjoyed our four days there – the waterfront area and the commercial areas up from the lake have some nice restaurants and galleries and Ben & Jerry's original factory is just 30 miles away. The weather was perfect, too. Actually maybe too perfect. About mile three of the run, I would have really loved to have had some cloud cover.

When I competed in the Championship two years ago in Tuscaloosa, I set a world's record for the slowest swim time (in my defense it was against the current and the water temp was about 98 degrees so they didn't allow wetsuits – which for some reason didn't bother the other swimmers as much as me) and then after a decent bike ride, I got severe hamstring cramps from dehydration and couldn't finish the race. Not my best day.

The good news on yesterday's race is that I set a world's record for most improved swim time – improving on my Tuscaloosa effort by over twenty minutes. I managed to finish in the middle of the pack – of course I swam with the over sixty year old crowd and some of the pack were in their 70s – but those guys were all serious competitors and a lot more experienced. That's sort of the end of the good news.

Last year I started utilizing a water bottle that fits between my aerobars so that I can sip from it whenever I want without having to grab the bottle from the frame or from behind me. My cycling skill /confidence level is not too high so anything that involves a lot of movement tends to slow me down. This bottle system worked great for me as I could sip continuously throughout the ride and thus could avoid the dehydration that I experienced in Tuscaloosa. The only problem was that I finished the bottle usually about mile 20 and then I had to either go without fluid for the last five miles or attempt to grab the reserve bottle from behind my seat. So this year I replaced the bottle I had been using with a larger one. I raced with it in my last race and at the finish I still had plenty of fluid left.

Yesterday, as I started out on the bike and was headed up the first hill I hit a small bump and the larger bottle popped out of the bracket. It was bouncing around held in only by the heavy rubber band that was wrapped around it as an extra precaution. When I reached the top of the hill, I stopped and pushed it back into the bracket. It held for about ½ mile but again came loose when I hit a rough patch. Two more times I stopped and repositioned it. The third time I took extra time trying to adjust the bracket and I thought I had it fixed, but it came loose almost immediately. I tried holding it, but I found it difficult to steer with one hand cupped around the bottle. I decided that if the rubber band held, the bottle was not going to fall out as it was more or less held in place by the aerobars. I remembered all of the coaching lectures on how we seldom ride a perfect race and that is important not to let these unanticipated problems derail the entire event.

So I ignored the water bottle and got myself mentally back in the game. I raced hard for the last fifteen miles, but those first ten miles cost me at least ten minutes – five or six minutes while I was stopped to try and fix the problem and at least five plus minutes while I let myself get distracted and dispirited by the mishap. I was actually surprised when I finished the bike segment in 1:26. That was eleven minutes off my goal of 20 mph, but at least I had a chance to finish the race in less than three hours. That gave me something to focus on during the run.

It was hot on the run. The first half mile is up a steep hill and it was a tough beginning. I had hoped to run the race at an 8:30 pace, but that first mile was over 9 minutes and the next two were not much better. I did finish with the last mile close to the 8:30 pace.

I knew I was going to be way down in my age group, but I was surprised to see how far back: 43^rd out of 48. Even if I had not had the bike mishap and had finished at my goal time (which I think is realistic) I would have been no better than 32^nd. Of course it's a national championship – those old men are all very good athletes and tough competition.

I guess my goal of finishing in the top ten was sort of presumptuous, but it was fun thing to shoot for. I just wish I had come a little closer.

Date	Total	Swim	T1	Bike	MPH	T2	Run	Pace	Place
GOAL	2:45:00	32:00	2:30	1:15:00	20.0	2: 30	53:00	8:29	15th
ACTUAL	2:59:42	32:51	2:45	1:26:02	17.9	2:26	55:38	8:59	43/48

At the Finish Line
(I know it looks like I'm about to collapse but
actually I'm running so fast that the photographer
almost managed to miss me...again)

USAT Age Group Nationals – Burlington, VT – August 20, 2011

2011-08-17T18:21:00.000-05:00

When I started this blog in June 2009, the stated goal was to chronicle my pursuit of the 2011 USAT Age Group National Championship which I hoped to compete in as a 60 year old. As it turned out I managed to qualify in 2009 for USAT Nationals that were held in Tuscaloosa, AL that year. So in a sense I started this blog by participating in the 2009 Championship (in the 55-59 age group).

I had a less than stellar performance at Tuscaloosa. The swim was in a river, mostly against the current and the water was in the 80s so wetsuits weren't allowed. My heavyweight body gets a serious advantage from wetsuit buoyancy and swimming at that time was by far my weakest event. Still, I had expected to complete the swim in 35 to 37 minutes, but it took me over fifty minutes. I had a very good bike segment, averaging about 20 mph, but when I dismounted I got severe hamstring cramps in both legs. I had probably become dehydrated from all the time I spent swimming.

It took me nearly ten minutes in transition to get ready for the run and then when I reached the first mile marker the cramps returned. I tried to work them out, but every time I would start to run the cramps would return so I withdrew from the race. It was the only race I've ever withdrawn from and I regret doing it. I think if I had kept at it, the cramps would have eventually subsided. Of course the race might have been closed by the time I actually finished.

Vermont is a far different venue from Tuscaloosa. The swim will be in Lake Champlain and right now the water temperature is 72 degrees so we will be able to wear wetsuits. Today I biked about 70% percent of the bike course. It's tougher than Tuscaloosa, some serious hills at the beginning and then rolling hills. It will be a challenge for me to average 20 mph. Later today I'm going to try the run course. There's a steep hill at the beginning and then it looks fairly flat and scenic – with much of it along the lake shore.

My goal when I started the goal was to finish in the top ten for my age group. I knew that would take a time of close 2 hours 35 minutes based on previous race results. My best time (in my last race) was 2:48 – and that was a much easier course – so it is not likely that I will finish in the top ten. My primary goal right now is to actually finish this time and to run a good race. Here is my goal (I am going to try and be realistic):

Date	Total	Swim	T1	Bike	MPH	T2	Run	Pace	Place
GOAL	2:45:00	32:00	2:30	1:15:00	20 mph	2: 30	53:00	8:29	15th

They had been predicting rain all week, but today the forecast has been upgraded and there is only 10 percent chance of rain on Saturday. I'm looking forward to a good race. Tomorrow Suzanne and I are going to tour the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory. I'm looking forward to that, too.

Sewanee Writers’ Conference – July 26 to August 7, 2011

2011-08-13T13:16:00.000-05:00

    A week ago I returned from the Sewanee Writers' Conference at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. I would have posted this blog earlier, but my laptop crashed while I was at the conference and I couldn't get the hard drive replaced until this week.

    I had to overcome many challenges to attend this prestigious conference.

    My first obstacle was the admissions process. Sewanee only admits about one in four applicants and the first two times I tried I wasn't one of the chosen. But I eventually wore them down and this spring my application was accepted.

    It's approximately 563 miles to the campus from my home. I started out at 5 am for the ten hour drive. At mile 16 the engine light went on in my trouble-free Chrysler 300 (the same car that overheated on my last expedition.) At mile 32, after slowing for traffic on the Skyway, the transmission refused to shift out of first gear. I got off the expressway, looked around for a garage that might be opened at 5:30 in the morning and, finding none, decided to drive home and rent a car. But when I got back on I-90 the transmission worked normally so I turned back around before the skyway bridge and headed south again.

    I made it the rest of the way without incident. I dropped my car off at the only garage in Sewanee and Harold promised he'd have it ready by the time I needed to leave.

    The conference is organized into workshop groups: four fiction workshops, two poetry and one playwriting group. There are about twelve participants in each workshop and each is led by two instructors. My fiction workshop was led by novelist John Casey, author of "Scarpina," which won the National Book Award in 1989, and novelist and short story writer,Christine Schutt. Her novel Florida was a National Book Award Finalist and her second novel, All Souls was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. As workshop leaders they made a great team.

    The workshops meet every other afternoon for about three hours. At each session three of the participants' work is discussed. It was an eye-opening experience to listen (mixed metaphor AND a cliche) to the other participants as they critiqued my work and others. Most of the folks were graduates (or attending) MFA programs and they had well-developed critical tools. I workshopped the opening of my novel and their comments have given me much to think about. My contribution to the workshop was mostly to offer an historical perspective.

    The non-workshop portion of the conference was packed with faculty reading and craft lectures. There was something going on from about 9 am to 8 pm. Meals were provided and at dinner sometimes they served wine. Wine nights were very popular. They also had several open mics, which gave everyone an opportunity to read their own work.

    I had time to keep more or less to my triathlon workout schedule as breakfast didn't start until 8 am. The first time out on my bike I had a flat tire (it was a week for break downs) and swim workouts were a little inconvenient because the pool hours were from noon to 3 pm. But I adapted. I had a great incentive to get up early to get my run workouts in, because, despite being on the top of a mountain, it was hot and humid. On my most days it was over 90 by 10 am. And it wasn't a dry heat, either.

    The conference was definitely long enough (at least for someone who isn't use to attending classes) and by Saturday I was ready to get home. I had picked up my car from Harold on Friday and everything seemed to be fine (only cost me $587). Saturday morning I packed up and headed home – skipping the wrap up dance, which I am sure disappointed many. Five miles down the road, the engine light went on and by the time I got to Nashville the transmission problem had returned. I made it home by driving 70 mph and not stopping except for gas. It worked fine until I hit traffic in Calumet City. After that I got off the expressway and took surface streets for the last twenty miles. I took it to the dealership and they replaced a few more parts, which cost me an additional $1,800.

    I've been home for a week and so far nothing else has broken. I was impressed with the conference. It is well organized and both the instructors and participants are engaged and enthusiastic and most are extremely talented writers. It was a great experience for me. Daunting, but very much worth the effort - even with all those extra difficulties.

1st chapter of American Jukebox awarded Honorable Mention!

2011-07-20T15:38:00.000-05:00

Maybe the exclamation mark is overkill, but it was nice to get some recognition for American Jukebox, the novel I’ve been working on for four years.

This week the first chapter of American Jukebox was awarded an Honorable Mention in the New Millennium Writings competition for fiction. The chapter is titled, “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes.” New Millennium will publish the top finishers and a few of the Honorable Mention stories. I won’t know until September whether my story will be selected. I would be happy to send an electronic copy of the story to anyone who’s interested. Just send me an email at leonard.joy@comcast.net.

American Jukebox is “finished,” but right now I am having it read by an editor, Sue Williams, who works through Grub Street, Inc. – a creative writing center headquartered in Boston - to make sure the manuscript is as perfect as I can make it.

I plan to send out agent query letters (again) starting in September.

Evergreen Lake Triathlon Results – July 16, 2011

2011-07-18T15:52:00.001-05:00

While the water was too warm for wetsuits, we did catch a break on the weather. It was overcast and not blistering hot as had been predicted. I was grateful for the cloud cover on the run.

Despite all of the difficulties on Friday, I slept well and had no problem getting up at 4:45 to have my delicious apple juice and carbo-pro breakfast. Ever since having to endure apple juice smells when the kids were little, it has been my least favorite juice. It didn't help that the hotel had run out of ice.

Swim: Without the wetsuit buoyancy I knew my swim time would be slower than it had been in Phoenix. I was satisfied with my performance I just wish it was faster. I swam from buoy to buoy, never veering off-course, and I exerted myself (sometimes I have a tendency to sort of cruise on the swim, but this time I pushed it). My time of 35:51 was basically the same as it had been back in 2008 when I wore a wetsuit and two minutes faster than 2009 when I didn't wear a wetsuit – so it seems clear that my swimming has improved. Just not enough.

Bike: I was hopeful I would exceed 20 mph on this flat course. I got off to a decent start and pushed hard for the entire distance. This segment is about the same length as our Tuesday morning workouts so I knew I had the stamina to push for the entire distance. I finished in 1:10:39, a 21.1 mph pace – five minutes faster than my last race here.

Run: While my swim and bike times have been improving, my run times have been declining. Some of this is probably due to exerting greater effort on the first two segments. In this race I finished the first mile at 8:36, which is not a great pace, but one I thought I could sustain. But each succeeding mile was slightly slower and the last three took over 9 minutes per mile.

I need to build endurance so I can sustain my pace throughout the run and finish strong instead of weak.

Overall: My time of 2:47:11 was 4 minutes short of my goal (mostly due to the swim portion).

This was my personal best for this distance – two minutes faster than my time at Tempe last year.

Next race: USAT National Championships – Montpelier, Vermont – August 20, 2011

This is the race I targeted two years ago when I began my blog. My goal at that time was to finish in the top ten and I figured it would take a time of 2:36 to accomplish that goal.

Vermont is a difficult, hilly course and given that I only finished 5^th in this Midwest regional race, it's extremely unlikely that I will be able to finish in 2:36.

But we'll see.

EVERGREEN LAKE International Distance Race Results

Date	Total Time	Swim	Per / 100	T1	Bike	MPH	T2	Run	Min/Mile
7/19/08	2:56:24	35:49	2:11	2:31	1:21:52	18.2	2:41	53:31	8:37
7/18/09	2:52:20	38:04	2:19	1:43	1:15:51	19.7	3:00	53:41	8:39
GOAL	2:43:00	32:00	1:57	2:00	1:12:00	20.8	3:00	54:00	8:41
7/16/11	2:47:11	35:51	2:11	2:20	1:10:39	21.1	2:27	55:54	8:59

Down and Out in the Land Beyond O’Hare

2011-07-17T10:32:00.000-05:00

The key to a successful race is preparation. I was prepared for the Evergreen Lake Triathlon. On Friday I had checked out all my equipment, done a mini-triathlon training set (20 minutes for each segment) and started drinking Gatorade and water to get ready for the expected heat and humidity of downstate Illinois.

I drove away at 1:15 PM and figured I would be pulling into the race site right after it opened up at four o'clock. I would get my bike racked in one of the coveted outside positions and then check-in to my hotel for a leisurely early dinner.

The route that Google maps had plotted for me went through Chicago on I-94 and then south on I-55 to Normal. There was construction on I-94 and traffic was slow but still moving and I figured once I got to I-55 everything would be fine. And sure enough, as soon as I took the exit off 94 the highway was virtually empty. Until I went around the last bend and then, for as far as they eye could see, I-55 was a gigantic parking lot. We crept along at about 3 mph for forty minutes.

I wasn't worried. It was cool and comfortable in the car and even if I got to the race site at 6 pm, I would still have plenty of time to set up.

Then I looked at the car's temperature gauge.

It was almost to the red zone – the engine was close to overheating. I immediately turned off the air and opened the windows. The needle dropped back a fraction. I figured once the traffic jam ended I would be fine. The airflow would cool off the engine once the car started moving. We continue to creep along and the stream of cars and trucks ahead of me appeared endless. And now it was full-fledged Friday afternoon rush hour and more cars were anxious to join the parking lot. The needle crept upwards again almost touching the red zone.

At 3:45 I called my friend Andy for advice. He owns the service station where I take my car. He said to turn on the heater full blast. He told me why that was a good idea, but it was so loud with all the trucks all around me I couldn't hear. I followed his advice and the needle dropped, slightly. I was sweating like I was already in the race. I started drinking my race day Gatorade.

At 4:20 we turned a bend in the road and I saw the problem. A tractor trailer truck had crashed on the ramp and there were emergency vehicles and police everywhere. After I passed the carnage, the road was relatively clear. I accelerated to 60 mph, expecting the needle to drop back to the normal zone. It didn't. It moved into the red zone.

I called Andy again. He said it might be that the thermostat is stuck – preventing the radiator from providing coolant. I wasn't going to make it to Normal without getting the car fixed. I live in the northern suburbs. It had taken me three hours to get to the land beyond O'Hare.

I need a new plan. I wasn't going to make it 120 miles. I needed to get the car fixed. Quickly. On a Friday afternoon. And I had no clue where I was. I took the first exit I came to. I stopped at a ramshackle gasmart and asked the kid behind the counter if he knew where there might be a garage. He shook his head. Apparently only paying customers were allowed to hear his voice. I just stared back at him hoping I was using the look that my daughters said used to scare their friends.

Finally he told me there was a Broadway station up the street. I drove there. It was another gasmart. I asked the counterman if he knew of anyplace that could help with an overheated car. He pointed down the road. AutoDoc on Highway 83, he said. I pulled into AutoDoc at 4:55 PM. It looked promising. Multiple bays with real mechanics and a guy working the front counter, with "Mark", embroidered on his workshirt.

Mark was friendly and professional, but he told me they couldn't get to the car until Saturday. He asked if I wanted to leave it. I asked if there was a rental car nearby. My luck had changed. Next door (literally) was an Enterprise location and they had a small SUV that would accommodate my bike easily. It was $132 per day, and I had to rent if for the whole weekend. I told Mark I'd leave my car, and then switched all my gear to the rental car and was back on the road by 5:30 PM.

I made it to Evergreen Lake minutes before they closed down for the evening. I racked my bike and got my race numbers. I drove on to my hotel, checked in, and then hustled over to Steak and Shake for a pre-race meal of cheeseburger and fries (I only ate half). I was four hours behind schedule.

I told myself that I wouldn't let the disruption affect my race performance.

Sometimes I listen to myself. Sometimes I don't.

Next Race: Evergreen Lake International Distance Triathlon – 7/16/11

2011-07-15T10:45:00.042-05:00

Christine Anderson - 2010 Evergreen Lake Triathlon
1st Place Finisher - Women's Pro Division

Tomorrow morning I am competing in the Evergreen Lake International Distance Triathlon, just outside of Normal, Illinois. I always look through Google images for photos of previous races at the venue where I am going to compete. The course is not classically scenic so this picture of Christine Anderson finishing in 2 hours 12 minutes last year was the best picture I could find. I never see anyone like her on the course when I'm racing but that's because they've all finished and gone home by the time I get across the line.

It's going to be hot and humid and right now the water temperature of Evergreen Lake is 82 degrees, so unless there is an unexpected rainstorm, wetsuits won't be allowed.
Two years ago when I raced here and didn't use my wetsuit it took me over 38 minutes. I think I can do a lot better now, but I probably won't be below at the 30 minute pace that I achieved in Arizona earlier this year. I figure the wetsuit probably makes me 3 to 4 minutes faster. Of course I will save about a minute in transition as I won't have to take it off.

This morning I did a mini-tri – 20 minutes in the Lake Michigan (water was great, just a little chop), then 20 minutes on the bike and a 15 minute run. My hamstring has been sore for the last week, but it felt great this morning. This is a flat course so I should have my best time ever on the bike. I'm hoping to finally average over 20 mph. The table below shows how I did the last two times I raced this course and my goal for this year.

Date	Total Time	Swim	Per /100	T1	Bike	MPH	T2	Run	Min/Mile
7/19/08	2:56:24	35:49	2:11	2:31	1:21:52	18.2	2:41	53:31	8:37
7/18/09	2:52:20	38:04	2:19	1:43	1:15:51	19.7	3:00	53:41	8:39
GOAL	2:43:00	32:00	1:57	2:00	1:12:00	20.8	3:00	54:00	8:41

I'll post the actual results on Sunday.

Ricky Byrdsong Race Against Hate - Results

2011-06-21T08:25:00.001-05:00

Suzanne got to the race in time to watch the finish, but for the third year in a row managed to miss MY finish, so we had to settle for this sweaty post-race pic instead one of those great finish line photos

It was a great day for the race. Cool and overcast, but a little humid. I finished 2nd in my age group with a time of 48:19. The guy who finished first in my age group was three and half minutes ahead of me, so I'm going to have to increase my rate of improvement if I want to catch him before I turn 90.

Here are my times for the last three years:

2009       49:15      7:55 pace
2010       48:48      7:52 pace
2011       48:19      7:44 pace

My goal for the race was 47:59. I ran the first half at a pace of 7:41 and the second half at a 7:46. The fourth mile was my slowest at 8:06 and I finished strong, which was good.

I started training this month with the Evanston Running Club and even though I've only had a couple of workouts with them it definitely helped me prepare for this race. And during the race I shadowed two of the other club members for as long as I could, which helped me to keep my pace steady.

Next race: Evergreen Lakes Olympic Distance Triathlon - Bloomington, IL July 16, 2011

(note: I reposted this because there was a problem with Blogger posting the images to Facebook;)

ChapeauNouveau

2011-06-20T14:15:00.000-05:00

Elegant Burgundy Wool Cloche

This is one of the featured hats In my daughter Nicole's ETSY store: Chapeau Nouveau

Ricky Byrdsong Race Against Hate - June 19, 2011

2011-06-18T09:38:00.002-05:00

The 11th annual Ricky Byrdsong Race Against Hate will be run tomorrow, June 19th.

About the Race

On July 2, 1999 Ricky Byrdsong, the former coach of the Northwestern University Men’s basketball team, was shot and killed while walking with two of his children a half-block from our home. His murderer was a white supremacist who had randomly decided to drive through our neighborhood. After a weeklong spree of shooting violence in which he killed a Korean-American student and wounded several Orthodox Jews and three black men, the neo-nazi took his own life.

His widow, Sherialyn established The Ricky Byrdsong Foundation with the mission to “arrest the growing epidemic of hate in violence in our society by and against our youth.” One of the first events that the foundation sponsored was the Race Against Hate, which was started in 2000.

My Goal

I've run this race every year since it began (except for one year when I showed up an hour late). Three years ago they added a 10k race, which is what I will be running tomorrow. My previous results and goal are shown below:

YEAR            TIME             PACE

2009               49:15                7:55

2010               48:48                7:52

GOAL            47:59                7:43

I am going to try and go out a little faster than I have in previous races. I’d like to do the first two miles at around 15:10 and then try to hold my second mile pace.

September 30, 1966

2011-05-18T14:16:00.000-05:00

I grew up in Canandaigua, New York. Close to Rochester, but not so close that we were a suburb or anything like that. It was a small town, but not real small. It was on the northern tip of Canandaigua Lake and there were lots of places to go and things to do. When we were younger we had the Goodie Shoppe on Main and the movie theatre where we could meet girls without having to ask them out and Little League baseball and Sonnenberg park where we played important character building games like tetherball and jarts, without any adult supervision.

When we moved on to high school we spent our summer days at Kershaw Beach where we could meet girls without having to ask them out and then later, when we had mastered the fake IDs, we could go to Clarkie’s Bar to meet girls or the drive-in theatre if we actually had a date. We also had high school football.

Our house was across the street from the football field. I started going to games when I was ten and, while I loved all sports, the one thing I wanted to do above all others was catch touchdown passes for the Canandaigua Academy Braves. I wasn’t crazy about the contact part of the sport – didn’t like getting hit all that much – but I loved to catch passes.

Sophomore year I was playing for the Junior Varsity, and the coach would have five or six of us JVs suit up for the Varsity game just to give us that experience. The first three games of the season I watched from the sidelines. But in the fourth game, we played Eastridge High School. They were overmatched. By the fourth quarter Canandaigua was ahead, 33-7, so the coach put the JVs in the game.

I can remember stepping on to the field for the first time. It felt like the field was electrified. My legs trembled. We ran a couple of inept running plays and lost about twenty yards. That pissed off our coach and he yanked the JV quarterback and re-inserted Tom Elliott, the varsity QB.

Elliott called a pass play to my side. I ran a corner route and I was wide open. Tom waved at me to go deeper and as he hurled the ball down the field. I remembered thinking, damn he's thrown it too far, but I leaped high and managed to tip it with one hand. I kept running and caught up to the ball and suddenly there was nobody between me and the goal line and I was going to score on my first varsity play, and I was preparing to celebrate when someone grabbed me from behind and I went down on the 13 yard line. It was a 63 yard pass play.

It was two more years before I actually caught a touchdown pass. I think, if I worked at it, I could attach some heavy metaphorical import to that catch, positive or negative depending on my mood, but I prefer to just remember the play.

A couple days ago for my sixtieth birthday my sisters presented me with a dvd, which they had made from my dad’s home movies. They extracted all of the footage he had taken of our football games. Dad was a good photographer, but he never got the hang of the movie camera and most of the film is pretty much unwatchable.

But he did have “the catch.”

Tempe International Triathlon - Results

2011-05-16T09:38:00.000-05:00

My sister Carol and her sign

Last Saturday when I ran in the Wisconsin Half-Marathon. The weather was supposed to be cold and rainy, but it turned out to be a pleasant 50 degrees with spotty sun. I remembering thinking around mile six, that this race was actually sort of fun. While it got less fun in the second half, I have to say that when I was on the run segment of the Tempe Triathlon yesterday, that fun notion never popped into my head.

The start of the race was delayed for 45 minutes so I went in the water at 8 am instead of 7:15, which meant that I started out on the run at about 10 am and instead of 9 am. The temperature was in the high 80s by then. Anyway that's my carefully constructed excuse for the poor run.

I didn't have a great race, although I did finish 2^nd in my age group (out of 7). I had a strong swim, but I went too wide on the return and swam farther than I needed to. If I swam the course more expertly, I'd have made my goal time of 30 minutes. I had the same bike time as last year, but on the run I just started slow and got slower. I know I can run a lot better than a nine minute pace.

YEAR	TOTAL	SWIM	/100	T1	BIKE	MPH	T2	RUN	MIN/MILE
5/16/10	2:49:19	33:13	2:01	2:10	1:18:31	19.1	1:50	53:32	8:34
GOAL	2:43:00	30:00	1:50	2:00	1:17:00	19.5	2:00	52:00	8:19

5/15/11

2:52:18

31:09

1:53

2:54

1:18:35

19.1

1:47

57:51

9:15

Next race: Evergreen Lake Triathlon July 16, 2011

The New Age

Temple International Triathlon – May 15, 2011

2011-05-13T13:08:00.000-05:00

I am out here in Phoenix for the Tempe International Triathlon at Tempe Town Lakes.

I ran this race last year so I know what to expect. The temperature will be in the 70s when we start but probably in the 90s by the finish of the run. It will be sunny. The only real unknown right now is whether they will allow wetsuits. If the water temperature is above 78 degrees they won't be allowed. The wetsuit buoyancy improves my swim time by a minute or more. Last year we got to wear them and I am going to assume for my goal setting that we will do be able to do so again.

Here's my goal:

YEAR	TOTAL	SWIM	/100	T1	BIKE	MPH	T2	RUN	MIN/MILE
5/16/10	2:49:19	33:13	2:01	2:10	1:18:31	19.1	1:50	53:32	8:34
GOAL	2:43:00	30:00	1:50	2:00	1:17:00	19.5	2:00	52:00	8:19

I didn't swim very well last year, got a little off course, but I'm much more confident in my swimming this year and I know I can do that distance in 30 minutes. The bike course is flat and again, I need to hit it a little harder at the beginning. I've had weeks of training on the computrainer and I know I have the strength to push for 25 miles.

Last Saturday I ran the Wisconsin Half-Marathon and my time at the 10K mark was 50 minutes, so I don't think 52 minutes is an unreasonable goal for the run.

I will find out on Sunday, which happens to be my 60^th birthday.

Nicojoy Millinery

2011-05-08T12:28:00.001-05:00

My daughter, Nicole Joy - the founder of Nicojoy Millinery - is displaying her line of eco-friendly hats - Chapeau Noveau - at the Green Festival in McCormick Place, Chicago next weekend. You can check out some of her creations on her "Chateau Nouveau" Facebook page.

Wisconsin Marathon

2011-05-07T15:00:00.001-05:00

This morning I ran in the HALF Marathon component of the Wisconsin Marathon ("the world's cheesiest race"). Last year, my first attempt at this distance, I ran the course in 1 hour, 49 minutes. I had entered it to help me get ready for the Half-Ironman races that I had later in the year. So this year I had a better idea of what to expect. My goal was to run it into 1:47 and I was well ahead of that pace through the 8 mile mark, but again, like last year, I faded in the stretch. I had plenty of cardio reserves, just couldn't get the legs to move as fast as I wanted. Could be an age thing, but more likely it's because I don't do much long distance running.

I finished with a time of 1 hour 48 minutes. A pace of 8:14 per mile.

It is a nice race, well organized and the volunteers and crowd were friendly and supportive. The weather forecast was for rain and 49 degrees, but the sky was clear and the temperature was in the 50s and there was no wind. Perfect conditions.

I finished 250^th out of 2057 competitors. They don't provide age group results, but as I scanned the totals, it appears that I finished 2^nd in the 60 to 99 year old category. But the guy who finished ahead of me was only 61 and he was 6 minutes faster, so I have some work to do, to catch him next year.

Here were my split times:

MILE	2010	2011
1	0:08:36	0:08:10
2	0:08:09	0:07:53
3	0:08:17	0:08:00
4	0:08:02	0:07:56
5	0:08:10	0:08:07
6	0:08:02	0:08:02
7	0:08:10	0:08:11
8	0:08:14	0:08:11
9	0:08:17	0:08:15
10	0:08:27	0:08:21
11	0:08:33	0:08:29
12	0:08:40	0:08:27
13.11	0:09:31	0:09:58
TOTAL	1:49:08	1:48:00
Pace	8:19	8:14

I can't believe that my last mile was that slow. I was trying to go faster. Maybe they measured the course wrong? No action pictures this year, either. I drove up by myself and was home before my official photographer was out of bed (almost.)

My Next Thirty Years...are just about over

2011-04-27T10:39:00.002-05:00

“My Next Thirty Years”
Lyrics
by Tim McGraw

(not Len Joy)

I think I’ll take a moment, celebrate my age

The ending of an era and the turning of a page

Now it’s time to focus in on where I go from here

Lord have mercy on my next thirty years

Hey my next thirty years I’m gonna have some fun

Try to forget about all the crazy things I’ve done

Maybe now I’ve conquered all my adolescent fears

And I’ll do it better in my next thirty years

My next thirty years I’m gonna settle all the scores

Cry a little less, laugh a little more

Find a world of happiness without the hate and fear

Figure out just what I’m doing here

In my next thirty years

Oh my next thirty years, I’m gonna watch my weight

Eat a few more salads and not stay up so late

Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers

Maybe I’ll remember my next thirty years

My next thirty years will be the best years of my life

Raise a little family and hang out with my wife

Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear

Make up for lost time here , In my next thirty years

Music Video

Ménage à Trois

2011-04-14T12:10:00.000-05:00

A couple months ago I entered a writing contest where the challenge was to write a story in four sentences so that the four sentences could be rearranged in any order and the story would still make sense. I came up with four really long sentences about two ladies, a guy and a bartender. I didn't win.

But not winning did not deter me. I found a publication, Northville Review, that said they were interested in "experimental" writing. I figured this story (stories?)qualified. To make it more interesting I borrowed some bar pictures I found on the internet to illustrate the scenes.

Northville accepted the story, but said they couldn't use the photos as they were protected by copyrights. So I commissioned my daughter, Nicole, to photoshoot the story using her friends as models. They agreed - and I didn't even have to buy the drinks. They did, however, have to return to the bar several times to get the shots just right.

The story can be found here: Menage a Trois

Some of this is True

2011-03-28T10:51:00.001-05:00

My short story, "Some of this is True," has been published by The Linnet's Wings . It starts on page 47.

The issue has stories by Tyler Bigney, Cherryl E. Garner, Stan Long, Abigaile Louise LeCavalier, Nonnie Augustine, Chris Castle, Charlie Britten, J Scott Harden, Townsend Walker, Kaye Linden, Bill Frank Robinson, Andrew Olsom, Rebecca Burns, Maureen Wilkinson, Tom Burton, Linda Simoni-Wastila, Bobbi Laurie, Len Joy, Bill West, Oonah Joslin, and Marie Fitzpatrick.

My story is fiction, but was inspired by a real event.

Lake Havasu Triathlon Results - 2011

2011-03-20T18:28:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, as planned I competed in the Lake Havasu Triathlon. We start and finish the run race by running over London Bridge pictured above. Lake Havasu is a big spring break destination, but none of these girls were interested in watching us compete.

It was a good first race of the season for me. I got a break on the weather, as it was cloudy and cool so I didn't face as much of a climate-adjustment challenge as I have in some years. I've entered this race for the last four years. The first year I made a mistake on the swim course and had to disqualify myself, the second year I made a wrong turn on the run and ended up running an extra two miles and last year I ran a good race, but my legs started to cramp on the run so I wasn't able to finish strong. Nevertheless I did manage to finish 3rd in the 55-59 age group.

This year I graduated to the 60-64 age group and finished first. Of course my pleasure at being number one is tempered by the knowledge that there were only two entrants. But I did beat the other guy by about forty minutes. I didn't achieve my goal for this race, but I was very pleased with my swim time. I averaged 1:52 per 100 yards and that's the best swim performance I have had (last year they cut the swim course short by about 200 yards so it took less time to complete the leg but I wasn't as fast).

I've devoted more time to swimming this winter and it is nice to see the results. I keep hoping that I will be able to post better run times. My biggest opportunity for improvement remains with the bike. This was a challenging bike course with lots of difficult hills. I did well on the uphills but I remain too cautious on the downhills so my overall time suffers. On a flatter course with more training I hope to achieve my goal of 20 mph.

This race qualifies me for the USAT Championship which will be held in Vermont in August. My quest when I started this goal is to finish in the top ten for my age group. It's not an impossible dream, but I need to make some serious improvements in all three categories to have a shot.

Below are my results versus for Lake Havasu versus the goal and last year's results. Because last year's swim course was shorter, I actually think these results are slightly better than a year ago overall.


Year	Total	Swim	/ 100	T1	Bike	MPH	T2	Run	Min/Mile
2010	2:51:46	27:28	n/a	3:30	1:23:41	17.93	2:00	55:07	8:49
GOAL	2:43:30	31:00	1:54	2:00	1:19:00	19:00	2:00	49:07	7:55
2011	2:54:35	30:39	1:52	2:44	1:24:34	17.90	2:32	54:04	8:39

Lake Havasu Triathlon – March 19, 2011

2011-03-12T13:57:00.002-06:00

Next Saturday I'm competing in my fourth Lake Havasu Triathlon. The race often coincides with Spring Break for the college crowd. I had hoped that there would be sort of a Girls Gone Wild scene with throngs of cheering thongs lining London Bridge as we finished the race, but apparently college kids don't get up before noon.

I am hopeful that this year I will have a good race here. The first year I cut the swimming course short and had to disqualify myself. The second year I made a wrong turn on the run segment and had to run an extra mile. Last year I finished 3^rd in my age group and had a decent race, but my legs were cramping on the run and I wasn't able to really push myself.

This will be my first race in the 60-64 year cohort. But, of course, I am not even close to 60 yet. Still have over 2 months to go. But by tri rules that's my age group. So I should be the youngest. No age excuses. Unfortunately the guys still competing in their 60s have a lot of experience.

This is a difficult race for me to predict my performance because the weather conditions can be so extreme (and my performance so erratic.) Plus last year when we swam the official who told us where to swim made the course about 200 yards shorter than it was in previous years – which is why my time last year looked so good on the swim leg. So while I'm reluctant to make a prediction it's no fun if I don't, so here it is:

Year	Total	Swim	/ 100	T1	Bike	MPH	T2	Run	Min/Mile
2010	2:51:46	27:28	1:41	3:30	1:23:41	17.93	2:00	55:07	8:49
GOAL	2:43:30	31:00	1:54	2:00	1:19:00	19:00	2:00	49:07	7:55

I know that I am stronger on the bike and in the water than I was a year ago. I've had intense workouts for the last two months. My legs feel good so I'm hopeful that I can do better than this goal. I'll report back after the race.

Triathlon Workout

2011-02-26T13:21:00.001-06:00

Since this blog is in theory about my plan to compete in the USAT Championships this summer I thought I should probably report on how I am training to reach this goal.

My primary triathlon coach is Craig Strong. Each week he sends me my weekly training program. I am racing at Lake Havasu on March 21 so Craig adjusts my training regimen as the race approaches.

It’s important not to overtrain and Craig’s workouts always call for a tapering off as the race day approaches.

My training so far this year is more arduous than it was a year ago. Two reasons for that. First I am participating in the Masters swim program at the Evanston Y (Craig builds that into my program) three mornings a week – and I am pushing myself more than I have in the past. My times are coming down as a result. Now I can sustain workouts at 1:50 per hundred pace for an extended period.

The second addition to my training this year is that through the initiative of my chiropractor Tony Breitbach (The Wellness Revolution) and Craig Strong there is now a computrainer set up above Tony’s offices and training sessions are held several mornings a week. I work out Wednesday and Friday mornings with a group “ride” managed by Alicia Riggs, who works with Craig.

Here is the workout for the week just ended:

Sunday – Basketball 7 to 9 PM with a group of old guys that I’ve been playing with for the last fifteen years. I guess we weren’t that old when we started.

Monday – Spin 7 am to 7:30; this is just an easy spin to stretch out the sore muscles from basketball the night before;

Monday – Strength Workout – 7:30 to 8 am with Nibra White, my personal trainer at the Y. Nibra varies the workout each week. We focus on core strength and balance.

Tuesday – 6 am to 7:15 am – Master Swim with Craig Strong at the Y. We usually swim about 2,000 yards in combinations of 50s, 100s and 200s and 400s.

Tuesday – 3 pm – one hour run on the treadmill; speed workout on slight incline;

Wednesday – 6 am to 7:15 am – computrainer workout led by Alicia; she mixes it up but everything she comes up with is tough. Lots of intensity. There are usually four or five us riding;

Wednesday – I was supposed to have a strength / stretching workout on my own, but I went to see Tony B. as my neck was stiff. He gave me some exercises to do to help stretch those muscles;

Thursday 6 am to 7:15 am – Masters swim with Joe Agnew;

Thursday 3 pm to 4 pm – Ran outside; after warming up, ran 12 minutes at 85% effort, cruised for 4 minutes and then ran another 12 minutes at 85%; Overall ran about 6 miles at a better than 8 minute pace, which pleased me. I want to be under an 8 minute pace for the Lake Havasu run.

Friday 6 am to 7:15 – Another computrainer workout; this time we did something I thought would be easy; after some warm up riding we did 10 seconds all out and then 20 seconds no pedaling and we repeated that ten times. Then we went 20 seconds all out and 30 seconds easy spin and we repeated that ten times. I was wrong. It wasn’t easy.

Saturday – normally on Saturdays I do a mini-triathlon workout. Masters swim – then a run and then I finish with a spin class with Heather. But today, Craig had me working on transitions. So I swam five minutes in the pool, then ran upstairs in the Y to the spin bike and rode for 15 minutes and then ran 10 minutes on the treadmill. And then I repeated that two more times. It is sort of pain-in-the-ass to have to jump in the pool three times, but it helps get my body used to switching gears from one sport to another.

Saturday Massage – and for my final workout of the week I treated myself to a massage with Arawa. She’s a great masseuse and also a spin instructor at the Y. I’m planning another massage after the Lake Havasu race.

And tomorrow I am going to sleep in. Not get up until 7 am or maybe even 7:30.

Mary Bryan Cake

2011-02-23T09:28:00.000-06:00

In the spring of 1962 my family took one of our motor-home vacations to Florida. On the way we stopped at the home of Harley and Willie Hurst. Harley had been in flight school in Arkansas with my dad during World War II.

They lived in North Carolina and had a daughter named Mary Bryan (she's the blonde girl on the tractor.) To my recollection we never met Mary Bryan again, but she remained forever in our memories because she made a super-delicious rich chocolate cake with fudge frosting and gave the recipe to my mom.

After that trip, for every birthday and special celebration or just for the hell of it, my mom made Mary Bryan cake. She made hundreds of them over the next four decades.

I loved that cake.

Mom’s 94 now and she doesn’t bake stuff anymore. They don’t allow stoves in her assisted-living facility. A couple of months ago I asked her about Mary Bryan and she said that she’d had a hard life. Badly injured in a car accident in her 20s, she never quite recovered and died a few years back. It was hard to accept - for me she would always be that little girl on the tractor.

In December I entered Zoetrope’s Flash Factory contest to write a story based on a photo prompt. The photo they supplied was of a 4th of July celebration, probably from the 60s. There were a bunch of people in the picture and one of them reminded me of Mary Bryan. So I wrote a story called “Mary Bryan Cake.”

The story has nothing to do with my family or actual events. Or the real Mary Bryan. It was just published (along with all of the other Flash Factory winners) in the Foundling Review.

You can find the story here: Mary Bryan Cake

Sibling Week

2011-02-20T11:25:00.001-06:00

It used to be "Sisters Weekend." My three sisters would congregate at Carol's home in Phoenix for a winter getaway. A fews year back they decided to include me and the spouses and it became "Sibling Weekend." And now with some of the sisters and spouses retired, we have extended it to a week. Two feet of snow will do that.

Six of us grew up in Canandaigua, NY and graduated from Canandaigua Academy in 1965 (3), 1966 (1), 1969 (1) and 1970 (1).

Tom and Don, who married sisters Kendra and Carol, were born in the same hospital about twelve hours apart on February 7 and 8, 19xx. That gave us a good excuse to enjoy several birthday drinks and desserts.

It wasn't all play however. I had to spend hours supervising Al (Christine's husband) as he re-assembled my tri-bike which I had shipped out to Phoenix for my race next month. (And I would have actually ridden the bike after he finished assembling it, but I forgot my bike shoes.)

We did lots of hiking in the mountains around Carol and Tom's house. Some of the guys played golf. I got a chance to run outside in the mountain preserve.

It was great to run without cold-weather gear (even though on my last run somehow I managed to trip on a rock and fall on my face and scrape up my hand.)

We even went to a couple of matinee movies - "The Fighter" and "The King's Speech."

And next year we are going to spend the week at our timeshare in Kauai.

Our Great Hosts: Tom & Carol

Kendra & Suzanne

Al & Christine

Blizzard!

2011-02-07T11:12:00.000-06:00

Okay I know I’m a little late reporting on the blizzard put I was tired from all that shoveling.

For me the most amazing aspect of the storm that hit Chicago and vicinity last Tuesday night was the amazing accuracy of the weather prediction. Three days before the storm hit, I started reading internet headlines about the massive storm that was going to “paralyze” Chicago.

I scoffed at those scare headlines. Chicago doesn’t get paralyzed by weather. We’re not one of those wimpy places like London (where they cancelled my daughter’s flight days before Christmas because of a few inches of snow) or New York, which takes a holiday whenever the sidewalks get wet.

I wouldn’t have had any concerns about the storm because bad weather is not really that awful if you don’t actually have to go outside and normally I don’t have to go outside if I don’t want to. But we were scheduled to fly to Phoenix on Wednesday morning so I was hoping that the weather forecast had been a little hyperbolic.

But it hadn't.

Fortunately I had prepared for the storm. I sent daughter Nicole out early in the day for provisions – frozen pizzas and extra beer and wine (just in case we really did get snowed in for a few days) and then we all stayed inside and watched.

It was an impressive storm. High winds, thunder and lightning. My snow shoveling plan was to shovel frequently because it's easier to shove six inches out of the driveway four times than to try and shovel two feet all at once. It was a great plan, but it’s really hard to shovel snow in a hurricane so I gave up and waited for the storm to pass.

I got up early on Wednesday morning and rescheduled our flight which had been cancelled and then prepared to shovel out the driveway, sidewalks and patio (so the animals could get out of the house). The problem with my plan was that it was still snowing and blowing.

I waited until 8 am and then, sensing that the storm was letting up, I began to shovel. We had about two feet in the driveway, but at least it was not wet snow. I figured it would take maybe an hour to finish the driveway. But it didn’t actually stop snowing for another hour, and by the time it stopped completely the parts of the driveway that I had shoveled first had another four to six inches of fresh snow so I had to go back and reshovel.

I finished the driveway in about three hours but the sidewalk and patio took much longer than I anticipated. There was a three foot drift on a section of the sidewalk which I hadn’t counted on. Finally at 12:40 I hung up my shovel and retired for the day.

Now we are in Phoenix and while the weather has been unseasonably cold, I am not complaining.

Very proud of this driveway

Too tired to actually clear the patio - Sammy the dog wasn't too impressed

Sidewalk - sort of obvious I guess

Thirty Seven Years

2010-12-29T14:55:00.001-06:00

Suzanne and I were married December 29, 1973. Gas prices had skyrocketed to nearly a dollar a gallon, but you couldn't buy gas on weekends so we took a Greyhound bus for our honeymoon trip to Montreal. The bus was packed and we didn't get to sit together. I sat in the last row of the bus with a couple of convicts who had weekend passes and were hoping that the bus would be oversold so they wouldn't have to return.

Later, as we got closer to Montreal and people got off the bus, I was able to move up to Suzanne's row. I sat behind a Hasidic Jew who was reading the January 1974 issue of Playboy. When he got off he left the magazine so I took it. It was the 20th anniversary issue of Playboy - a keepsake issue. I still have it.

Hugh Hefner was 47 in 1973.

Last year I dedicated this blog post to Suzanne as a special anniversary gift.

This year we're going out to dinner.

1970

1973

1982

1985

1996

2000

2008

Recent

The Old Fashioned Christmas Spirit

2010-12-22T10:53:00.000-06:00

My short story, The Old Fashioned Christmas Spirit has been published on the ezine, Apollo's Lyre.This issue features poetry, reviews and flash fiction by Debbi Antebi, Linda Courtland, James Dalrymple, Farida Samerkhanova, Edith Y. S. Harris, Len Kuntz and Brad Nelson.

Nicole is 23

2010-12-14T11:20:00.000-06:00

Nicole is in what we think is the last year of her undergraduate Art program at the School of the Art Institute. It has taken her slightly longer than anticipated because she switched her focus from Fashion to Fashion Accessories.

When Nicole started her second year of school I bought a condo near the school and leased it to her and three other Art students. This would have been a shrewd financial move if I had done it ten years earlier and leased it to accountants instead of art students.

The good news is that this fall, since all of the surviving roommates had moved out, we leased out the condo to four guys who do not appear to be art students and Nicole has moved back home, temporarily. And she brought her cat, Soche who has been warily accepted by Sammy.

It’s been great having her home. She does all the cooking – makes great meals and does all the dishes, too. Well she doesn’t do all the meals, more like one a week, but she’s a great cook. Although I guess since she doesn’t actually ever do any dishes, she’s probably a chef, not a cook.

Her specialty accessory is Hats. In April she won “Best of Show” in her Advance Headwear Concepts Class at SAIC and she has had some of her hats displayed at the Drake Hotel. Lately she and a couple of her colleagues have been making the rounds of local holiday shows. It’s a learning experience. I think one of the lessons has been that Midway and O’Hare aren’t the best venue for fashion.

Happy Birthday, Nicole! It’s been great to have you back home.

Nicole Modeling Zipline Headgear in Kauai

Christie is 21

2010-12-11T13:13:00.000-06:00

Last fall Christie decided not to return to Pratt for her second year of school. Instead she found a job at CVS and lived at home with us and worked on her portfolio. She liked Pratt and did well there, but it didn't quite suit her artistic aspirations (which I won't attempt to describe.) She applied to several Art schools in New York, Chicago, L.A. and London. Her first choice was Central St. Martins College of Art & Design in London and when they offered her a spot, she readily accepted.

She worked long hours on her portfolio and I was proud that she earned admissions to a great art school. But I was also proud when I got a call from her CVS boss last month wondering if Christie was coming home for the holidays. They missed her at the store - she was a good worker and she had been hard to replace. That was her first real job so it was great to hear she had done well.

Suzanne and I accompanied Christie and her three tons of luggage to London to help her get settled. She did a great job on her portfolio, but not quite so good on the minor stuff like making sure she had housing. It all worked out in the end, but it was a stressful week for uh, Suzanne and Christie. We don't have any pictures from the trip because there was never a time when all three of us were in a take-my-picture mood.

Happy Birthday, Christie! Come home soon.

In the photo at the top of the page, Christie is modeling a hat designed by her sister, Nicole. The girls have always had very different approach to clothes. In the photo to the left, Nicole in her classic silk nightgown while Christie has gone with a more eclectic outfit. The picture to the right was taken in Kauai earlier this year. A few minutes later the girls managed to flip over their off road vehicle during the driving tutorial. The instructors decided they should ride with someone else, which was probably a good decision.

Stephen is 26

2010-12-09T09:21:00.004-06:00

Our three kids were all born in the second week of December. I guess theoretically they are not kids anymore. Especially Stephen who is now 26.

Last year I came up with the idea that a great birthday gift would be to devote an entire blog post to each of the kids on their special day. Of course last year my blog was only read by seven or eight people (including close family members) but now the blog gets fed to my Facebook page so the readership is often in double figures, which makes this gift twice as good.

Stephen is now in the second year of graduate school at NYU where he is a PhD candidate in Chemistry. He teaches undergraduate chemistry and last year he won a teaching award. He’s now living in Queens with his girlfriend Anne. He hasn’t been home much in the last year so I don’t have any new embarrassing stories to report.

Stephen's sisters are both in Art Schools studying high fashion. Stephen has also always been very fashion-minded. Here he is in one of his favorite plaid ensembles.

He has always had remarkable powers of concentration (see picture above), but he's not just another science nerd. He's a science nerd who can build interesting useless devices, such as this Rube Goldberg contraption, which he assembled in his bedroom one winter.

Happy Birthday Stephen!

The Triathlon Goal for 2011

2010-10-25T17:05:00.000-05:00

My plan is to compete at Lake Havasu in March, Tempe Town Lakes in May, Keuka Lake in early June and then qualify for the Nationals at the Evergreen Lake Race on July 17, 2011. The Nationals will be sometime in August in Burlington, Vermont.

I'll need to make significant improvements in all areas to achieve the goal. It is attainable, but it is going to take a serious training commitment.
When I started this blog in July 2009, I set a goal to make it to the USAT National Age-Group Championship in 2011 and to finish in the top ten for my age-group, which in 2011 will be 60 to 64.

I managed to qualify and compete in the Nationals in 2009 in the 55-59 year old age group, but I didn't finish the race, because of hamstring cramps. This year, I competed in three Olympic distance events and two 70.3 Ironman events.

In my July 2009 blog entry I projected that I would need a time of 2 hours 30 minutes to make it to 10^th place in the Nationals. Based on last year's results, I think that a time of 2 hours 34 minutes will be good enough. Here is how I did this year and my what I think it will take to qualify for the Nationals:

RACE

Distance

Date

Total Time

Swim

Time / 100

Bike

MPH

Run

Min/ Mile

Div Place

Lake Havasu

Olympic -Tri

3/20/10

2:51:47

0:28:48

1:45

2:10

1:23:51

17.9

1:50

0:55:07

8:49

3/6

Tempe Intern'l

Olympic -Tri

5/16/10

2:49:19

0:33:13

2:01

2:10

1:18:31

19.1

1:50

0:53:32

8:34

12/22

Keuka Lake Tri

Olympic -Tri

6/6/10

3:05:29

0:39:13

2:37

2:29

1:26:39

17.3

1:50

0:55:18

8:55

6/7

Musselman

70.3 Ironman

7/11/10

6:21:40

0:41:43

1:59

2:50

3:07:26

18.0

4:07

2:25:34

11:07

14/28

Steelhead

70.3 Ironman

7/31/10

6:09:29

0:39:21

2:03

4:42

2:59:26

18.7

4:14

2:21:46

10:50

27/44

Wisconsin

Half-Marathon

5/1/10

1:49:05

8:19

257/1948

Ricky Byrdsong

10K

0:48:48

7:52

4/22

GOAL

Burlington, VT

Nationals

August

2:34:00

0:29:00

1:46

2:00

1:13:00

20.6

2:00

0:48:00

7:53

10th

Without a Trace

2010-10-22T15:26:00.002-05:00

My short story, "Without a Trace," is now published on the webzine, the Foundling Review. This issue features stories by Elaine Chiew, Doug Campbell, Mel Bosworth, Ethel Rohan, Jason Jordan, Ajay Vishwanathan, Nathaniel Tower, Gay Degani and Jack Swenson.

Age Limits

2010-10-15T13:02:00.001-05:00

Why do they ride for their money

Tell me why do they ride for short pay

They ain't a'gettin' nowhere
And they're losin' their share
Boy, they must've gone crazy out there

Son, they all must be crazy out there

“Night Riders Lament” by Garth Brooks

“Why?” is a common question for endurance athletes. If we’re not asking it of ourselves someone else is asking us why we do what we do. I used to think that someday I might compete in a full Ironman, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I tell myself that it just takes too much training time, but the truth is I’m starting to think I’m too old for that distance.

There is no denying age in the triathlon world. One of the attractions of the sport is that you compete in your own age group. The only good thing about turning sixty next year is that I get to move up to the 60-64 year age group. I won’t have to compete against all those 55 year old kids.

In the past as I planned for an upcoming season of competition I usually predicted improvements in all events. That wasn’t totally unrealistic. I am relatively new to competitive swimming and my instructors don’t seem to have run out of suggestions for how to improve my stroke. This year my swim times improved significantly. Same thing with the bike. When I started doing sprint triathlons five years ago, my average time on the bike was around 17 mph and that was for twelve miles. This year at the Steelhead 70.3 Ironman I averaged nearly 19 mph for 56 miles. Better equipment has definitely helped and finally this year I actually got out on the road and trained with other competitors. It does make a difference.

Running is where I’ve broken down. Tight hamstrings, sore feet, tired legs. At Steelhead my run time was at an average pace of 10:50. That’s a good walking pace. My goal had been to run that segment at a nine minute pace (or better), but I didn’t come close in either race. I had cramping issues, but even when I overcame them my legs didn’t seem inclined to move very fast.

Denial has always been one of my better qualities. But it’s getting harder to invoke with all the nagging injuries and ailments. I’m not ready to give up, especially not when I get to be the young guy again next year, but there are some days when I ask myself why.

Maybe Garth is right.

The Novel So Far - One Year Later

2010-10-08T09:46:00.000-05:00

A year ago (October 9, 2009) I posted on this blog a report on my three year novel-writing endeavor. I concluded:

So it has now been three years since I started working on the novel. I’ve learned a lot in those three years, and managed to get several short fiction pieces published (including one of the chapters of the novel.)

Over the last couple of weeks I thought about whether I should continue with this project or start fresh on a new novel. I decided I’m not ready to give up on it yet. I’m going to hire another editor to give me a fresh perspective and then I’m going to write it one more time.

Hey - it’s only been three years—and it’s nowhere near the size of a Chicago phonebook. And I don’t look as old as that guy in the picture. Not yet, anyway.

So I started rewriting in November and by the time I attended the summer workshops at Skidmore and Norman Mailer I had another forty thousand words written. The workshops helped me to see what was working and what wasn’t. When I returned from Provincetown I had a clear vision of how to finish the novel.

I finished it (again) last month and have sent copies out to a couple of trusted reader / writers for feedback.

I have also hired Marita Golden who was my instructor at The Norman Mailer Writers Colony to give the manuscript a critical reading. I am hopeful that she will identify the novel’s weaknesses and provide me with some ideas on how I can make it better.

It’s a good novel. I have a lot of confidence in the work, but I’m not satisfied that it is as good as I can possibly make it. And until it is I’m not going to send it out. I think I am getting close.

While I’ve been waiting for the feedback, I’ve been working on the query letter that I would send to literary agents to persuade them to represent me. Here’s my latest version:

Dear Ms Agent:

Dancer Stonemason hadn’t always been considered a failure. Fifty years ago he had a free-spirited pregnant wife, a son (Clayton) who thought he was perfect, and an offer to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals. Baseball was Dancer’s life, but when he upheld the honor of the game, he lost everything – his career, his marriage and Clayton’s belief in him. Now Dancer’s a recovering alcoholic living in a trailer park on the outskirts of Maple Springs, Missouri, washing cars for his younger son. He’s reconciled to the world, but not to Clayton. When Dancer fails to show for his granddaughter’s wedding rehearsal he sets in motion a series of events that force Dancer and Clayton to finally come to terms with their imperfect lives and with each other.

Told against the backdrop of America’s postwar challenges from Little Rock to Viet Nam to Iraq, AMERICAN JUKEBOX is a mainstream novel (74,000 words) about how the decisions we make when we are young can reverberate through the decades effecting the lives of everyone we love. It will appeal to readers who enjoy Elmore Leonard, Richard Russo and Tawni O’Dell.

An excerpt from the novel was published by Annalemma Magazine in October 2009. In recent months I have had stories published in Pindeldyboz, Hobart, 3AM Magazine, The Daily Palette (Iowa Review) and Slow Trains.

I have attached the first chapter and look forward to hearing from you.

Len Joy

So I guess now I’ve been at this for four years. I hope by next October I won’t need to make another status report.

Leaving Home

2010-09-24T10:30:00.000-05:00

Leaving Home - I

Three weeks ago, Suzanne and I accompanied our youngest daughter, Christie, to London to help her get settled into her new school – Central St. Martins School of Art and Design. Two years ago Christie had enrolled in The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She did well her first year, but wanted a program that had more of a fashion design focus. One of her professors had suggested she apply to St. Martins and the Royal School, both in London. So last year she stayed home, got a job as a cashier at CVS and worked on her portfolio and her applications to art schools. She was accepted at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and Parsons in New York and then to her surprise at St. Martins and the Royal School. I had been secretly hoping that SAIC or Parsons would win out but she chose St. Martins.

I had really enjoyed the year she spent at home. Probably because she had been gone for a year and so I’d already had a chance to experience the empty nest (although our house is definitely not empty even when nobody is home.) She doesn’t drive so I would chauffeur her to work most days. We usually did the grocery shopping together – she’d take of the produce and cosmetics and I’d get the beer and wine. We were a good team. Her friends hung out at our house a lot (we had cable and they were all True Blood fans.)

Everyone tells me how exciting it is for Christie to have this experience – and intellectually I absolutely agree. But I will miss those silent rides to work, and the grocery shopping grand prix and all of those young people taking over my television. I will miss the casual encounters with Christie. Visits aren’t the same.

Life goes on. We don’t own our kids – we just rent them for a couple decades.

Leaving Home II

Last week I helped my sister move our mother into an assisted-living facility. My mom is 94. When my dad died two years ago, we didn’t want to rush a move, but figured sooner rather than later Mom would need to move out of the house that she and Dad had lived in since 1972.

Mom had other ideas. She didn’t mind living alone, although she was seldom alone for long. My sister Kendra and her husband Don, called on her every day and her neighbors checked in often. When I visited, I was surprised at the number of calls and visits that she had.

She continued to drive her car. Short trips for groceries and to the hairdresser. I told her no driving during the summer – too busy in town – I figured that would buy us some time. But while she agreed not to drive, she forgot that she agreed and continued to drive whenever she needed.

Last month we were notified of a vacancy at a great assisted-living facility six miles from Skaneateles. We took the room before someone else got it. Mom was not happy. In fact she was angry. Every day she would call each of her four children to complain. And this was highly unusual because Mom was raised in the era when “Long Distance” meant your phone conversations were about as wordy as telegrams.

However I think my sisters wore her down, because when I showed up last week, she was resigned to the move. We loaded up her bed and bureau and few chairs and Kendra helped her pick out clothes and on Sunday while Mom was at breakfast with her granddaughter and great-granddaughter, we moved the stuff in.

The room is only 350 square feet, but we managed to get things arranged so it looked cozy, not crowded. Still it’s just a room, not a big house with a view of the lake, like she had in Skaneateles.

We drove her up on Monday morning and she was cheerful. The other residents were welcoming and the staff was helpful. When I left her she was on her way to lunch with her new neighbors.

I know this is the right decision. But I will miss coming to visit Mom in her house. It was fun to be there and just hang around, watching television, having our own Happy Hour. Letting Mom read me the obituaries and listening to her rail about the delicate language like “passed away.” (I assured her that we would make sure that she doesn’t “pass away.”)

But life goes on.

On Wednesday Mom called my sister and told her she wanted to come home.

Materhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War

2010-09-09T09:24:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading “Matterhorn,” by Karl Marlantes. The novel encompasses two months in the life of a Marine 2nd Lieutenant who has been sent to Viet Nam in the fall of 1969. It is the most compelling impossible-to-put-down novel I have ever read.

Karl Marlantes had been trying for some thirty years to get his 1,600 page manuscript published. No one was interested, until El Leon Literary Publishers in Berkeley convinced him to cut 800 pages from the manuscript.

They were proceeding with the publication of the 800 page novel as a paperback priced at $25. Prior to publication date, Marlantes entered the novel in a contest for first-time novelists. It was discovered by a buyer from Barnes & Noble who passed it on Morgan Entrekin at Grove / Atlantic. He loved the book and Grove made a deal with El Leon to co-publish the book as a hardcover. The book was released in the spring with a first production run of 60,000 hardcover.

Materhorn was on the New York Times Bestseller list for several weeks. This link to El Leon, provides a smattering of the critical acclaim that the book has garnered: El Leon Literary

This book is great on many levels. It’s a riveting suspenseful, heartrending story. It has great diverse, well-drawn characters. (No tropes. The soldiers all sounded, smelled, acted real.) It has a cinematic scope that allows us to see events unfolding from the perspective of the grunt on the ground getting killed and from the perspective of the officers all the way up the chain of command that make the “tough” decisions.

But I think the most impressive aspect of this novel (for me) is the way Marlantes is able to convey to the reader the personal, individual terror that these kids endured day after day after day. And he shows how and why, despite that terror, they went forward following their orders, expecting to die, not for their country or some cause, but for each other.

The Marines sometimes lost all hope, but they never gave up. They never surrendered. Neither did the author.

Norman Mailer Writers Colony

2010-08-21T10:57:00.001-05:00

I just returned from Provincetown, Cape Cod where I attended a weeklong workshop at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony.

After getting my rejection notice from Sewanee in early March (thankfully they rejected me rather quickly this year) I went looking for another summer opportunity. I saw an ad in Poets & Writers for the Norman Mailer Writers Colony that had workshops and fellowship opportunities throughout the year.

I checked out the website and it looked pretty cool, a small group working out of Norm’s house right on the Bay. I figured it was worth a $20 application fee. I wasn’t clear what the tuition cost, but I figured they would let me know if I got accepted.

A month later I found out I had been accepted and the big surprise was that they don’t charge tuition – everyone accepted is a scholarship student. They charge a $250 administration fee and they don’t provide meals – which are not cheap in Ptown, but they put the students up in very cool, spacious condos (mine had wireless and cable and a kitchenette and I could see the beach from my front porch.)

During the summer months, they have one workshop each week at the Colony with 8 or 9 attendees. My workshop leader was Marita Golden, a novelist and essayist. ( I highly recommend her novel, “After” – a story told from the perspective of a cop who mistakenly shoots and kills an innocent man.)

Marita ran an excellent workshop. Everyone submitted thirty pages (a short story or novel excerpt) in advance by email so we could all read the work before arriving. Each morning we met for three hours and Marita set up a schedule to review two of the manuscripts each day.

Marita was very well prepared. She did not run a typical workshop where everyone comments on what they liked and didn’t like about the story. Instead she had each writer read specific sections that she selected and then she helped us to analyse the pieces using as a framework the tools available to the writer: plot, narrative, character, dialogue, atmosphere. She led the discussion through a Socratic approach – i.e. she asked questions of the class. She maintained control of the discussion – but not in a controlling way.

While she was focused on the specific writer’s piece she was able to draw lessons from the writer’s work to help us see things in our stories that could be improved. We only spent about an hour on each ms but I think everyone felt that their work was given adequate attention.

Marita also assigned published stories for us to read. We discussed those stories before moving on to the participant manuscripts. Breaking down a successful story helped us to see why the story worked. For example we read one of the Olive Kitteridge stories as an example of how to use narrative voice effectively.

Narrative was Marita’s big issue. (The N word as she described it. ) “Narrative informs the reader of the weight of something. It allows you to tell something from the inside of your character.” (She said a lot more about narrative, but I’m not a great note-taker.)

This narrative lesson was especially helpful for me. I have sort of a minimalist approach with “Show don’t Tell” beaten into me. As a result my writing suffers in places from a serious narrative deficiency.

I’m starting to understand how I can use Narrative more effectively. For one of the writing exercises, I wrote a prologue that was all narrative – no dialogue – and I think it worked well. I’m going to now revise / revisit all of the work I’ve done to date on my novel with a fresh perspective.

On the last day of the workshop we all read five page pieces that we had written during the week from prompts Marita had assigned us based on our writing excerpt. Listening to everyone read their pieces was my favorite part of the week.

During the week we also had a one on one hour with Marita to discuss our work and career aspirations. And because Marita was the only instructor on site – unlike the large conferences where sometimes I get the feeling the primary reason the instructor is there is to re-connect with old friends and fellow workshop leaders - she was quite accessible – joined us a couple of times for wine and beer on Norm’s deck.

Provincetown and the House is a great venue for a workshop. They gave us bikes to tool around the area – it is not easy to drive – not many places to park. The swimming in the bay was great – but I was the only student to take advantage of it. And the woman next door liked to swim topless, but that wasn’t why I swam ever day.

Happy Hour was fun too.

Steelhead Ironman 70.3 - The Results

2010-08-02T16:04:00.000-05:00

As we pulled into the parking lot for the Steelhead Ironman 70.3 at 5:30 AM it began to rain. The parking lot was a mile from the race site and neither Suzanne nor I had an umbrella. Suzanne is not what I would call a morning person, but she didn’t really complain about the bad weather, perhaps because she was still asleep.

It took me about half hour to arrange my gear in the transition area – it takes longer when it’s raining and still dark out – and then Suzanne and I started to walk to the swim start. In this race, the old guys were scheduled to go off first (well right after the pros) so my wave started at 7:04 AM. It was a mile walk to the swim start and I made it there about thirty seconds before the start. No time to get nervous.

I had a pretty good swim – kept a steady pace and was out of the water in 39:21 – close to my goal of 38 minutes. It was raining, but that was only a problem for the spectators.

The transition area was twice as long as Musselman, and so even though I pushed it, my transition time was 4:42 – well above my goal of three minutes.

I mounted the bike and then ran into my first problem. I had inadvertently pushed the shift lever when I was getting out of my wetsuit and when I bega to pedal the chain fell off. I dismounted, slipped it back on and then remounted and but it fell off again as soon as I started to pedal. I finally realized that I needed to push the shift lever back to the right position. After I did that the chain stayed on. That glitch cost me about four minutes. I’m not too good at the mechanical aspects of this sport.

It was raining lightly, but soon let up and the weather was actually great for riding. Cool and not much wind. I tried to maintain a speed of more than 20 mph and, with the exception of some of the hills, rode consistently between 19 and 22 mph. I finished the bike segment in 2:59:26, which was just one minute and 26 seconds short of my goal. If I hadn’t lost the time with the chain I would have been on goal. I averaged 18.7 mph on the bike and it would have been 19.2 if not for the chain snafu.

Again it took me over 4 minutes for the transition, but as I headed out on the run I felt good. I had completed the first two legs in 4 hours and forty-eight minutes so I still had a good chance of achieving my goal of 5 hours 47 minutes. And if not that, at least finishing in under six hours.

I started out at a nine minute mile pace, but then a half mile into the run, as I was figuring out what my overall time would be if I kept at that pace – my left quad started to cramp and then as I slowed to try and work that out, I got a severe cramp in my right hamstring. I came to a stop. I pushed hard on the muscle, but the cramp persisted. I stared down at the ground, somewhat in dismay. Not sure what I should do.

It was a short walk back to the race site. I didn’t want to quit, but I didn’t want to try to fight through leg cramps for thirteen miles. It would take hours. Suzanne had the car keys. I’m sure she would have waited. Pretty sure.

I started to walk back. I didn't cramp up, so I turned around and started to walk the other way. Then I started to run, expecting the hamstring to immediately spasm. It didn’t so I kept running. I was slow. I don’t know if it was the effect of the cramp, or pushing it on the bike or because I had only had three weeks since the last Ironman 70.3, but my legs were heavy. Tired.

The good part of being in the first wave is that you get to start before everyone else. The bad part is that most of those younger folks catch up to you. On that run I felt like I was passed by everyone in the race, maybe twice. But I ran the whole thing – even up the hills where lots of folks walked. And in the end, as bad as my run time felt to me – it was five minutes better than my time at Musselman. I finished the run in 2:21: 46 – well short of my goal of 2 hours and five minutes.

My total race time was six hours, nine minutes, twenty six seconds. Even though I failed to achieve my goal, I’m somewhat encouraged. I have made some strides in both swimming and biking and I think I can continue to improve my times in both of those areas as I become more skilled. On the run, I need to build my endurance for the longer distances – right now I’m sort of unraveling at this half-Ironman distance. I know that I can run much faster than the times I have obtained in the last two races.

Now I have to decide what to do as far as training and / or races for the rest of the year. But for the moment I’m just looking forward to a relaxing week. Just a few easy workouts.

                                    ---Steelhead----
            Musselman       Goal     Actual
               ----------         -----     ------
Swim          41:43            38:00    39:21
Transition     2: 50            3:00         4:42
Bike         3:07:26         2:58:00    2:59:26
mph        (18.0)            (19.0)     (18.7)
Transition   4:07              3:00        4:14
Run         2:25:34        2:05:00     2:21:46
Min/mile   (11:07)          (9:32)      (10:50)
---------     -----              ------        -------
Total       6:21:40      5:47:00     6:09:26

Steelhead 70.3 Ironman – July 31, 2010

2010-07-29T12:22:00.000-05:00

I’m racing this Saturday in Benton Harbor, Michigan at the Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Ironman . This will be my second 70.3 Ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) in three weeks. After this I’m taking some time off. We’re going to accompany our daughter Christie to London in early September – she’s restarting her fashion education at the Central St. Martins College of Art & Design – so I won’t be racing again until after we return.

Here is what I did at the Musselman 70.3 Triathlon and my goal for Steelhead:

                                   Musselman                 Steelhead - Goal

Swim                                41:43                         38:00
Transition                           2:50                         3:00
Bike                               3:07:26                     2:58:00
                                      (18.0 mph)                 (19.0 mph)
Transition                          4:07                             3:00
Run                              2:25:34                        2:05:00
                                     (11:07/mile)                  (9:32/mile)
---------------           --------------------               -------------------
Total                            6:21:40                          5:47:00

I’m ready for the race. I’ve had some good training sessions especially those early morning group bike rides with Craig Strong when I have to get up at 4:30 to make it to the group start. I’m getting very good at riding in the dark.

Now I know I can finish a half-Ironman so this time I will try and be more aggressive on the swim and bike. The swim course is more or less a straight line so there’s a pretty good chance I won’t get lost this time.

And the run course is reasonably flat – no cliffs to scale like at Musselman – and the weather should be cooler. There’s a fifty percent chance of rain, but I’d settle for cool and cloudy.

I will report on the results next Monday.

The Musselman Half-Ironman

2010-07-13T10:35:00.001-05:00

Before the Race

I finished my two weeks at the Skidmore New York State Writers Conference on Friday and drove the two hundred miles back to my mom’s house in Skaneateles.

It was my plan to post my anticipated (or perhaps hoped for) results for the upcoming Musselman Half-Ironman Triathlon on Saturday before the Sunday race. But Saturday I had to drive forty miles over to Geneva, pick up the race packet, attend a pre-race briefing meeting, go to the local bike shop and get my bike tuned up and then drive the 56 mile bike course so I would have some idea what to expect on the bike segment. By the time I got back from Geneva I had to go to bed so I could get up at 4 am and drive back for the race. So there was no pre-race blog predicting how I would do.

If there had been, I would have reported that my hope was to finish the race in 6 hours. If I swam straight I should be able to get out of the water and on the bike in 45 minutes. If I could finish the 56 mile bike course in about three hours and ten minutes that would leave me two hours and five minutes to complete the thirteen mile run. Earlier this year I ran the Wisconsin Half-Marathon in1 hour 48 minutes. So I thought six hours was possible.

But it wasn’t. Not this time anyway.

I had a good swim. Started slowly and really concentrated on swimming from buoy to buoy. When we got to the channel (the first half was in the lake the second half in the boat channel) I picked up the pace. Passed a number of swimmers and was on the beach in 41 minutes and on the bike in under 45 minutes.

The bike segment was actually fun. Beautiful scenery, much of it along the shores of Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, and the breezes were favorable. There were some hills, but not as steep as I had encountered in the last couple of weeks while I was riding around Saratoga. I finished the bike segment in three hours seven minutes, which was 18 mph – better than I had done at Keuka at half the distance. I was on target to finish in under six hours.

I didn’t actually feel too bad after getting off the bike. I had been worried that I might not even be able to stand up straight, but I felt okay. I just didn’t feel like running 13 miles in 98 degree heat . Okay it was only 85, but it was a really hot 85 and there were no clouds.

I started out running nine minute miles, but slowed to ten and then we left the lake and started climbing. I was worried that I would cramp up, but I didn’t. Probably because I was running so slow. It took me over 13 minutes to finish mile 8, which was a ten thousand foot climb over steaming hot asphalt with no shade.

Well, at least that is how it felt. According to the map it was only an 800 foot climb. Whatever it was I was really happy to see that next aid station. Water never tasted so good.

After mile eight we started back towards the lake and the finish line. I was able to pick up the pace, but was still only running at a 10 to 11 minute/mile pace.

I finished the run course in 2 hours 25 minutes. My total race time was 6 hours 21 minutes 40 seconds. I was 497th out of about 800 other crazy people. 14th out of 28th in my age group. But those old guys are really hardcore - hard to beat them.

It was a well run race and the crowds all along the course were really supportive. I especially appreciated those folks with the garden hoses.

I didn't finish with the time I had hoped for, but I was satisfied for my first race at that distance.

I’m supposed to compete in the Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Ironman in Benton Harbor, Michigan on July 31st. I wasn’t looking forward to that race when I finished on Sunday. But two days later, I don’t know. I might be ready. And six hours? Maybe.

At the Finish Line

(It doesn't appear that I'm actually running, but I am. Sort of.)

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

2010-06-29T13:46:00.000-05:00

Skidmore College

For the last three days I’ve been living at Skidmore College in one of their “lightly” air conditioned dormitory rooms. I’m a participant in a Masters Class in Fiction, which is part of the New York State Summer Writers Institute. When the program ends next Friday (the 9th) I’ll drive the two hundred miles back to my mom’s house in Skaneateles. Then on Sunday the 11th I’ll travel to Geneva, New York and compete in the Musselman Half-Ironman Triathlon. This will be my first half-Ironman.

When I got the acceptance to Skidmore last April, signing up for Musslman seemed like a really clever way to schedule my time. I was already out here for the conference, why not try that race?

My coach thinks I will be okay for this race as long as I swim straight (which I didn’t do in my last race), but it’s his job to be optimistic. They have good athletic facilities here and yesterday I swam a mile in the pool (the half-Ironman swim is 1.2 miles). Today I was supposed to do a strength building bike ride, but after weaving through the streets of Saratoga for half an hour and finding nothing but traffic and traffic lights, I gave up and returned to campus. I guess it might have been a good idea to find a map or maybe even ask someone for directions. I’ll have to think about that.

My workshop leader this week is Joseph O’Neill. He introduced himself and told the class he’s never attended a writer’s conference or participated in a workshop. But his latest novel, "Netherland" won the Pen/Faulkner award so we all figured he probably had something to offer us aspiring writers.

In a workshop (this one has fifteen people) everyone submits about thirty pages of writing and each day two or three of these excerpts are critiqued by the class. It’s a good group, lots of diversity of backgrounds and experiences. Their feedback should be helpful. So far the stories have been a pleasure to read and comment on.

I also signed up for Skidmore’s manuscript consultation program, so a month ago I submitted the first 150 pages of the novel I’m working on to be read and critiqued by one of the Institute’s fellows. Today I got her feedback on what she had read.

The consultation process is a little bit like doing a twenty mile run through the hills on a hot and humid day. On the day of the race it should pay dividends, but it’s not a really fun experience.

I just hope that there is a “race day” in my writing future. It’s a long slog.

Mile 8 - Musselman Half-Ironman

The Race Against Hate

2010-06-21T12:12:00.000-05:00

Ricky Byrdsong

On July 2, 1999 Ricky Byrdsong, the former coach of the Northwestern University Men’s basketball team, was shot and killed while walking with two of his children a half-block from our home. His murderer was a white supremacist who had randomly decided to drive through our neighborhood. After a weeklong spree of shooting violence in which he killed a Korean-American student and wounded several Orthodox Jews and three black men, the neo-nazi took his own life.

His widow, Sherialyn established The Ricky Brydsong Foundation with the mission to “arrest the growing epidemic of hate in violence in our society by and against our youth.” One of the first events that the foundation sponsored was the Race Against Hate, which was started in 2000.

In 1978 I tore my ACL playing basketball. I had the knee surgically repaired, but it was never the same and I was unable to play basketball at the level that I had before the injury. I decided that if I couldn’t play basketball I would become a competitive runner. I’m not sure why I made that decision, but from 1980 to 1986 I “trained” for five and six mile races. My goal was to finish a race at a pace that was under 6 minutes. In July 1986 I ran in the Corporate Challenge along Lake Michigan and finished the 5K in 18:46. That was a pace of 6:02 and I decided that was close enough. We had a two year old by then and more kids expected.

When I learned that there was going to be a race in Ricky’s memory I decided to enter even though I hadn’t run a race in fourteen years. I didn’t train and was out late the night before drinking with some friends. The race morning was hot and humid and I finished in 23:28 (7:37 pace). I was in agony for the final mile.

But that race spurred me to try running again and the next year I finished 2nd in my age group. Three years later I started training for triathlons and by 2005 my time was down to 21:12.

Last year they added a 10K race and I decided that would be a better race for me. I finished with a time of 49:15 in 2009 and yesterday I ran the course in 48:48 – a 7:52 pace. Fourth in my age group out of 23.

This is my favorite race. I guess because it has created something positive out of something evil.

Ricky Byrdsong’s death was senseless and heartbreaking in its randomness. Events like The Race are small measures by which we as a community can fight back against the hatred.

Searching for the Silver Lining

2010-06-07T09:51:00.000-05:00

About mile twenty of the bike segment of the Keuka Lake Triathlon the clouds returned and it started to rain. For an instant I sort of hoped it would start lightning and the race would be canceled. That’s a terrible admission, but as a writer I’m trying to be more honest. The moment passed and my wishing didn’t bring any lightning. In fact the sky cleared up so it could be hot and humid for the run segment.

I had a terrible race. I got off-track on the swim, which is really hard to do, but I almost missed a buoy and had to swim several hundred yards to get back on course. The swim took me ten minutes longer than I expected and I had gone out fast, intent on not ending the race with too much left in the tank. That was the only goal I accomplished as I was whipped by the time I got on the bike and it took me longer to recover on that segment which hurt my time and when I got off the bike I had nothing left. My run time was the poorest I’ve ever had. A combination of expending so much energy on the swim and bike compounded by the difficulty of trying to push the run when I know the race has already been ruined by the first segment.

It’s like having a triple bogey on the first hole. I’m supposed to forget about it and move on, but I never was able to do that on the golf course either. All through the bike and run I kept coming back to the swim and how I screwed it up. I can’t even blame the weather. It rained hard before and after the race, but not during the time I was on the course. The water was perfect, 70 degrees and smooth as glass. Lots of volunteers who did a great job, too. I can’t come up with any good excuses.

Anyway it’s over and my next race is the Musselman Half-Ironman in Geneva, NY on July 11, 2010. This will be my first attempt at a Half-Ironman. I will be at the Masters Fiction Class of the New York State Summer Writers Institute at Skidmore College from June 28th to July 9th so it is going to be a challenge for me to prepare for that race. My goal will be to finish in good form (meaning I don’t walk to the finish line) – it will more of a training exercise. And I’m going to really study the swim course in advance so I don’t get lost.

I hate to post these numbers, but here are the official results:

                     2009 Actual           2010 Actual
Event            Time      Pace        Time    Pace
------------    ------- -------       ------ -------

Swim:             34:31     2:07         39:13     2:37
Transition:        2:20                       2:29
Bike:              83:02  18.75 mph 86:39    17.3 mph
Transition:        1:42                       1:50
Run:               50:40    8:06          55:18     8:55
                 ----------               ---------
Total          2:52:15                    3:05:29

Age Group Place: 5th                 6th (out of 7)

Keuka Lake Triathlon - June 6, 2010

2010-06-04T09:23:00.000-05:00

I drove to my mom’s house in Skaneateles, NY on Tuesday for the Keuka Lake Triathlon this Sunday. Took me 11 hours 37 minutes for the 670 mile trip (including 27 minutes for three stops along the way). This beat my last year time by over 30 minutes. I’m hoping for a similar improvement in the race.

I’ve had some minor difficulties this week. I managed to lose the little magnet that goes on my bike wheel to measure speed and distance traveled so I won’t have that feedback during the race. Not a big deal. I know the course and I’m going to push it as hard as I can, so it doesn’t really matter what the speedometer says.

A bigger potential problem has been a pinched nerve in my neck/back which I got while biking in Wisconsin last weekend. There were some challenging hills and I had to work hard to get up and over them and my neck muscles have pinched the nerves. Usually the dull pain goes away in a few hours but this has persisted. I found a physical therapist in Skaneateles and have had two treatments. The therapist gave me a series of stretching exercises that should eventually fix the problem (I hope). It’s an annoyance, but it doesn’t bother me on the swim or run and while there is some pain on the bike segment, there are so many other pains (legs, lungs, hands) that I don’t really notice it. It won’t affect my race day performance.

I think I will have a good race and I expect an improvement over last year’s time. I have more endurance this year, my swimming is more skilled (and the water temp is in the 60s instead of the 50s), and I have new race wheels that are much faster than my old wheels.

The key for me is to use more of my energy. A triathlete is like a hybrid car. We are constantly depleting our battery and then recharging it, but with each successive recharge (active recovery) we don’t completely restore/recover a hundred percent. A common mistake of younger triathletes is to go out too fast and use up all the battery power so there’s nothing left. That can make for a really long gruesome race or a failure to finish.

I have the opposite problem. I’m too cautious. I keep too much in reserve because I put a big premium on finishing the race. I don’t push as hard as I should. That’s been especially true on the swim – as the consequences of running out of gas in the middle of the lake are more critical than on a bike or run trail.

I have had personal best times in my two races this year and in both races I finished with more than adequate reserves – my battery was still probably 50% charged. I need to see if I can use up more of my reserves and finish with the battery almost empty.

It’s easier to say than to do, but I’m going to try. Here is I how did last year and my goal for this race:

                     2009 Actual               2010 Goal

Event              Time    Pace              Time     Pace
------------    ------- -------            ------ -------
Swim:               34:31   2:07             33:00    2:01
Transition:          2:20                         1:45
Bike:                83:02 18.75 mph      77:00   19.5 mph
Transition:          1:42                         1:45
Run:                 50:40   8:06              50:00     8:00
                    ----------                   ---------
Total              2:52:15                      2:43:30

Age group place:    5th                            3rd

Tempe International Triathlon - Results

2010-05-17T19:02:00.006-05:00

Near the finish line (I'm the guy on the right)

I competed in the Tempe International Triathlon yesterday. It was a nice day with low humidity and the winds were light. The event was well-organized and there were plenty of great volunteers to hand out water and gatorade along the run segment. That was much appreciated, especially for all of us in the older age groups, as the race is run in waves and for some reason most triathlon organizers figure it's best to let the younger folks go off first. I was in the last age-group wave (50 and over) and we didn't go in the water until 7:15, which meant that when that picture above was taken it was about 10 am and 95 degrees.

It's a dry heat, but the dryness is way overrated.

I was satisfied with my race. I finished each event strong with some reserves. I was probably a little too conservative because of the heat. I had a good pre-race hydration plan and I had enough gatorade/carbo pro on the bike segment to stay hydrated. I felt good on the run but I was a little concerned about leg cramps and didn't push the run as hard as I had planned.

Here is how I did compared to my goal:

GOAL ACTUAL

Event Time Pace Time Pace

------------   -------       -------             ------              -------
Swim:             36:00          2:11              33:13              2:02
Transition:        2:00                                 2:10
Bike:              80:00         18.75 mph      78:31             19.1 mph
Transition:       1:30                                  1:50
Run:               49:00         7:53                53:32               8:33
                    ----------                         ---------
Total             2:48:30                              2:49:16

Age group place: 4th                                 12th out of 21st

A little disappointed in the 12th place finish, but it was good competition. Definitely room for improvement.

Next race: Keuka Lake June 6, 2010

Len Colin Tom

Tempe International Triathlon - Sunday May 16, 2010

2010-05-13T13:41:00.000-05:00

My next race is Sunday at the Tempe International Triathlon. After the Havasu race in March I left my tri bike in Phoenix and trained at home with my road bike. That saved at least $200 on shipping charges for the bike.

I’ve been out here in Phoenix since Tuesday staying with Carol (sister #2) and Tom. Tom and Colin are racing in the sprint edition of the Tempe Tri and I am in the Olympic distance. I have been trying to come up with a realistic goal – but it is difficult because I haven’t raced this course before. I am certain the bike course will be less challenging than Havasu, but all of the swim times I’ve studied are longer than at Havasu, and I think perhaps my personal best swim time of 30 minutes at Havasu was because their course was short. Or the current propelled me. There won’t be any current in Tempe Town Lake so I’m not expecting a sub 30 minute time.

Havasu is a challenging bike course – lots of hills and turns and it took me about 83 minutes to complete. Then on the run, I had concerns about leg cramps and took it easy so it took me about 54 minutes. I know I can do better than that.

Here is my goal for this race:

Event           Time     Pace
------------ ------- -------
Swim:           36:00   2:11 per 100 yds
Transition:       2:00
Bike:             80:00     18.75 mph
Transition:       1:30
Run:               49:00    7:53 min/mile
----------
Total           2:48:30

Age group place:       4th

This would be a personal best by over 3 minutes. I’ll report back on Monday with the actual results.

"Respect the Cow!"

2010-05-05T14:57:00.001-05:00

I ran in the Wisconsin Marathon / Half-Marathon on Saturday in Kenosha. My goal was to complete the half-marathon in one hour 46 minutes.

At the eight mile mark I was 30 seconds ahead of the target, but I faded in the stretch and ended with a time of 1:49:05. It was my first race at that distance, but since I plan to complete two Half-Ironman races later this year, it's important I get accustomed to the distance. This was a good start.

In the all-important age group of athletes over 58 years, 11 months, I finished first. In the normal age grouping of 55 to 59, I finished 5th. I also finished 257 out of about two thousand participants.

I trained for the race with a group from the McGaw YMCA in Evanston organized by triathlon coach Craig Strong and shepherded by my personal spinning instructor, Heather Collins. The group did well and I ask them to share with me their impressions of the race.

This is what John Cleave (the only other guy in the group) wrote:

A long race is an excellent opportunity to reflect on how much variation there is in the human body. Beyond simply short and tall, skinny and fat, there were small, compact butts and big; round ones, thick muscular thighs and thin ones; wide shoulders and narrow ones; long and short arms; long thin legs and short squat ones; big, little, wide, narrow, squat, and long heads; long thin necks and short squat ones.

Similarly, I saw a lot of variation in running style. Some runners were rigid and tight: arms held in close, hands clenched, short choppy strides; others ran loose and gangly, like they were made of rubber.

One guy ran in a cow suit. The temperature was in the low 70’s, so wearing that suit took some fortitude. And the guy beat me by a minute . When he passed, I shouted “No cow is going to beat me!” and he said, “Respect the cow!” Everyone around us laughed.

I saw him after the race and told him I respected the cow.

There were a huge number of Navy guys there to cheer us on. I yelled “Go Navy” at almost all of them. Many responded “Hoo-ah.” I’ve heard this before but didn’t know it’s significance so I looked it up:

“Hooah (who-ah), adj., U.S. Military Slang. Referring to or meaning anything and everything except "no." A masculine guttural sound often used when at a loss for words.

A free beer and brat at the end of the race was an excellent thing. That beer was some of the best I’ve ever had.

Focus

2010-04-30T11:58:00.001-05:00

Nicole Stephen Christie
1994

Last week I was invited to be a guest blogger by Tamara Linse on her blog: Tamara Linse - Writer, Cogitator, Recovering Ranch Girl . She asked me to do a piece on how triathlon training complemented my writing efforts. The following was posted on her blog earlier this week and I thought it was an appropriate reminder as I get ready for my first half-marathon tomorrow in Packerland.

I was honored earlier this week when Tamara invited me to be one of her “Cool Person Guest Bloggers.” I’m definitely a cool person. One of my daughters once told her mom that “even Dad is cooler than you,” which is pretty solid evidence, I think. However, just to be safe, I’m completing my guest assignment before Tamara has second thoughts.

In my blog, “Do Not Go Gentle,” I chronicle my efforts to become an age-group competitive triathlete and a writer. While the activities have obvious differences, the endeavors do complement each other and my triathlon experience has helped me to develop as a writer.

Five years ago, on a whim, I signed up for a sprint triathlon (400 yards in a pool, 12 mile bike ride, 3.1 mile run). I figured it wouldn’t be that difficult as I knew how to swim, bike and run. I just hadn’t ever had any reason to do all three at once. It does make a difference. As Donald Rumsfeld liked to say, there are things we know we don’t know and then there are those things that we don’t know we don’t know. Before my first triathlon I didn’t know there was such a thing as a triathlon suit so after my swim, I changed from my soggy swimsuit to running shorts in the, fortunately not very populated, transition area.

Not knowing anything is a big advantage when you’re getting started. Ignorance allowed me to enter the race and by the time I finished I was exhausted, but hooked. Started reading about the sport – learned important stuff such as don’t wear socks and don’t bother drying off after the swim and use shoelaces you don’t have to tie.

All on my own, I improved. In my second year I finished in the top three for my age group in all my races and even took a first in one of the smaller local sprints. Of course I’m in the 55 to 59 year age group so there are only a few survivors still competing.

Three years ago I decided to try an Olympic distance race (.9 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run). I signed up for the Chicago Accenture Triathlon – the largest triathlon in the country with over seven thousand participants. Swimming was my weakest event. The sprints all took place in rec center swimming pools. The Accenture was nearly a mile in Lake Michigan. I bought a wetsuit and decided I should probably try it out before the race. So one morning I got up early and drove to the lake. The waves were a foot high so I went home. The next day it was calm, but then I discovered I needed someone to help me zip my wetsuit. I recruited an early morning jogger to help me and was able to get one practice swim in before the race.

The open water swim was a learning experience. I learned I should have waited for everyone to start so they didn’t all have to swim over the top of me. And I learned a mile is a long distance to swim. I was so happy to survive the swim that I got on my bike and start pedaling like it was a five mile race. And I had a really good time for the first five miles, but unfortunately the course went on for another twenty miles.

It was noon by the time I started the run. It was hot and I wasn’t prepared to run six miles after a long bike ride. It took me over three hours to finish the race, almost an hour longer than the top finishers in my age group.

After the race I thought about what I needed to do become competitive and realized I had no idea. So I hired a coach. Craig Strong (Precision Multisport) happened to be the instructor for the Masters swim class at the Evanston Y. With Craig’s guidance I’ve learned how to train, upgraded my equipment, even started to pay attention to nutritional needs. This March I took a 3rd place in the Lake Havasu Triathlon and later this summer I plan to compete in my first Half-Ironman triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 52 mile bike, 13.2 mile run).

My writing career has followed a similar arc. Six years ago on a whim I took a writing course at the University of Chicago’s Writer’s Studio. I’d always had a vague desire to be a writer, but needed a push. After the first course, I was encouraged enough to take another course and then another. That summer I went to the Iowa Writer’s Festival for a week and a year later to Tin House (where I met Tamara). This year I plan to attend the New York State Writers Institue at Skidmore and I won a scholarship to the Norman Mailer Writers Colony in Cape Cod . That should be fun.

As it was with triathlons, when I started I was benevolently ignorant. After that first year I thought I was ready to write a novel, and I did. Four years later, I’m still writing that novel. I guess I’m not going to be an overnight success.

But like training for a race or raising kids, the reward is in the journey.

Christie Stephen Nicole

2008

Cheesehead Marathon - Kenosha, Wisconsin - May 1st

2010-04-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

Packers Fan

Okay, it’s actually the Wisconsin Marathon , but apparently if I was willing to wear some cheese-oriented apparel I could race for free. I’m thinking of buying a Bears jersey, maybe the Urlacher one. I hear they love the Bears up there in Wisconsin.

I’m going to compete in the half-marathon, not the marathon. I’ve never raced at that distance before. Later this year, I’m going to compete in two half-Ironmans: Musselman Triathlon in Geneva, New York on July 11 and then Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon in Benton Harbor, Michigan on July 31. I'll have to run the half-marathon for those events so this race will be a good test.

I’ve had a couple of 12 mile runs in recent weeks so I’m confident I can do the distance, but hoping I can sustain a decent pace. My goal is to complete the race in 1 hour 45 minutes, which is an 8 minute per mile pace.

Week:    3/21     3/28    4/4     4/11    4/18     4/25
Weight     185      188     186     186    186      186
HOURS
Swim        1.0       1.0      3.2      3.1      2.2       4.2
Bike         2.0        2.5     2.4       4.4      4.1       2.5
Run         1.0         3.3     4.0       4.8       4.1      3.0
Strength   1.0         1.0    1.0                   1.0
Chiro       1.0                                                     1.0
Basketball 2.0       2.0     2.0                  1.0       2.0
Massage                                                 1.0      1.0
Race        3.0

Total      7.0        9.8     10.6     15.3    13.4     13.7

Panty Lines and the Bush Doctrine

2010-04-21T15:42:00.001-05:00

From time to time I am posting some of my flash fiction pieces which have been published, but are not available on line. This story was originally published in Bannock Street Books last year. It is inspired by the years I spent in Phoenix in the engine remanufacturing business. It would probably be considered "R" rated, meaning I fixed some of the language when I read it to Mom.

Panty Lines and the Bush Doctrine

Quigley’s upset. I can tell by the way his face is scrunched. Or maybe he’s confused. Hard to tell with Quigley, but he’s usually not confused. Not many grey areas in his universe.

As I head towards the corner-booth where he’s wedged, I consider the possibilities. Accounting might have challenged his expense report – that always sets him off. Or perhaps it’s because our waitperson’s a guy – he does like the ladies. Or maybe he’s still bitter about the City Council’s ban on smoking. It’s been six months, but Quig doesn’t let go easily.

“How’s it going?” I ask.

Quig’s hand dwarfs the bacon-double-cheeseburger he’s shoveling into his mouth.

“Couldn’t wait,” he says. “Here’s your salad.” Slides the plate to my side. “That shit’ll kill you.”

He finishes his burger, cracks his neck. Stares out the window. “Got email from Ralphie,” he says.

Ralph’s retired. Cruises the net for good porn to share. Family man – no hardcore stuff. Likes women with large breasts. Last week a naked gal driving a Beemer down I-94.

“Convertible gal?”

“No. This is a video.”

“Not that patriotic bullshit again?” I ask. After 9-11, Ralphie went all red-state. Started sending slideshows of marching bands, flags, parades. America the Beautiful as background music. I’m as god-fearing country-loving commie-arab-hating as the next guy, but that stuff gets old. Took awhile, but by the time we marched into Iraq, Ralphie was back to sending tit pics.

“This was a weather-girl video,” Quig says.

“Topless?”

He shakes his head, turns sideways trying to get comfortable. “Chick’s some hotshot weather-person. Got on a tight-fitting dress that clings to her boobs.” The server comes over and fills Quig’s water glass. He’s a guy so Quigley doesn’t bother flirting. “She’s doing her weather thing, hi-low temps, five-day forecast, the usual. When she’s done, the news-anchor invites her to sit down for some happy-talk bullshit. Camera zooms in.”

“Zooms?”

“Like instant replay.”

“Got it. Zooms.”

“She sits down and I swear to god she’s not wearing panties. Un-fucking believable.”

I swear Quigley’s blushing.

“Do you think she forget them?” he asks.

“Maybe the panty line thing?” I suggest.

“Exactly.” He slaps the table, rattling his ice glass. “She figured, this dress makes my ass look great. Don’t want some panty line ruining my look. Exactly what happened to Bush in Iraq.”

I stare at him.

“Bush had the right idea,” he says. “Looked good on paper. Take out Saddam, show Bin Laden we can fuck him up. But he didn’t think it through. Didn’t figure on those goddamn Sunnis and Shiites getting into it.”

He pauses. This is where he would have lit a cigarette.

“Weather-gal looked great moving that high pressure around the map, but she hadn’t planned on a sitdown with the anchor. Didn’t expect them to have a camera filming at pussy level. Didn’t consider all the possibilities.” He pokes the table with every word.

“You’re right,” I say. “Exactly like Bush.”

Quigley nods. Pushes the bill to my side. Squeezes out of the booth.

“Know what scares me?” he asks.

I shake my head.

“A thousand weather-girls out there and nine hundred and ninety-nine are wearing panties. Every goddamn day. So how does this girl get caught?”

“Unlucky I guess.”

“Hah!” he says. Gives me a look like I’m a salad-eating wienie with no idea how the world works. “They’re watching us.”

“They are?” I ask.

“Every move we make my friend.”

And with that he grabs his keys, heads to the exit. When he gets to the door he turns and points to the security camera.

He mouths the words: “Every move.”

Training April 5 to April 11

2010-04-12T12:45:00.002-05:00

1954

Three weeks until the Wisconsin Half-Marathon. Sunday I ran 11.2 miles in the morning and played basketball for two hours in the evening. I wasn't very good - but I survived. My left foot gets sore about an hour in to my run and my right hamstring doesn't feel quite right, but no serious problems. I've had treatment from Dr. Tony Breitbach The Wellness Revolution and today I had a massage from Arawa McClendon (Arawam@yahoo.com) and she concentrated on the problem areas.

I'm hoping to complete the race in something less than an hour and fifty mintues - I'd like to average close to 8 minute miles - and I should be able to, if the hamstring doesn't flare up. That's my goal anyway.

Week:              3/21           3/28           4/4         4/11
Weight              185.5         188.0        186.6      185.9

HOURS
Swim                  1.0            1.0              3.2          3.1
Bike                   2.0            2.5              2.4          4.4
Run                    1.0            3.3              4.0          4.8
Strength             1.0            1.0              1.0
Chiro                                                                    1.0
Basketball                           2.0                             2.0
Massage
Race                  3.0

Total Hours      7.0           9.8           10.6          15.3

Norman Mailer Writers Colony

2010-04-09T12:10:00.002-05:00

Last month after I learned I wasn’t accepted for the Sewanee Writer’s Conference (see blog post, “Disappointed, Not Discouraged – March 14, 2010”) I looked for alternative conferences to attend.

Reading through Poets & Writers magazine I saw an ad for the Norman Mailer Writers Colony. I checked out their website and it really seemed too good to be true:

• great location in Provincetown, Massachusetts (Cape Cod area)

• small group setting – only seven attendees per workshop;

• great rooms - everyone stays at Mailer’s Provincetown estate

• no tuition or board if you’re accepted;

The last part was hard to believe. Most of the conferences cost over two grand. It cost $20 to apply, so I figured it was like buying a lottery ticket for a chance to win a really cool summer vacation.

I filled out the application, sent them my writing sample, and forgot about it. Yesterday I got an email telling me I had been awarded a scholarship to attend the weeklong seminar I had applied for, Fiction: The Protagonists, which will be hosted by Marita Golden who has written the memoir “Affairs of the Heart” and whose novel “AFTER” received the Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

I will be attending from August 8 to August 15. It should be fun.

Riding a Greyhound Bus into the New World

2010-04-06T17:16:00.001-05:00

I noticed a couple of days ago that the link to my short story, "Riding a Greyhound Bus into the New World" did not contain the entire story. I also realized that some of the links are not to the story, but to the publisher's website. Over the next few weeks, to break up the excitement of my training logs, I am going to post those stories here on the blog.

I decided as an experiment to try and video me reading a story, using my never-before-used webcam. After attempting this for over an hour, I have a much much greater appreciation for those folks who read stuff in front of camera. Very difficult. You can't go back and correct mistakes like we can do in the writing world. I gave up after six takes.

I made the font on the story really large so I could read it without my glasses, and I tried to look into the camera but I kept losing my place. Also I don't think my nose is as big or my eyebrows as browy as they appear in this video. I blame the camera. And I don't like how that arrow is pasted over my mouth:

Training Update

2010-04-04T17:02:00.000-05:00

1969

It has been two weeks since the Lake Havasu Race. My next race is the Wisconsin Half-Marathon on May 1. This is a run, not a triathlon and it will be the first time I've attempted that distance. The last two Sundays I've run 10 miles at a pace around nine minutes per mile. I'm hoping I can run closer to an 8 minute pace for the race.

Weather is turning warm in Chicago so it should be easier to complete the planned activities like bike rides. Last two Saturdays, I've cut my ride short - two weeks ago because it was 40 degrees out and my hands started to ache, and yesterday an hour into the ride it started to rain and the temperature had dropped from 70 to 50. I guess Phoenix has spoiled me.

Week Ending:           3/21/2010          3/28/2010         4/4/2010

Weight                       185.5                 188.0                186.6

HOURS
Swim                             1.0                    1.0                   3.2
Bike                               2.0                    2.5                   2.4
Run                                1.0                    3.3                    4.0
Strength                          1.0                   1.0                    1.0
Basketball                                               2.0
Massage
Race                              3.0

Total Hours                     7.0                  9.8                    10.6

Lake Havasu Triathlon - 2010

2010-03-21T14:07:00.002-05:00

I competed in the Lake Havasu Triathlon on Saturday for the third year in a row. Two years ago, amidst rough waters, I missed a couple of buoys in the channel, which gave me a really good time for the swim, but also disqualified me. Last year, I managed to become the first person to ever get lost on the run course and ended up running an extra couple of miles and finishing last in my age group. But at least I finished.

I rode out to the race with my brother-in-law Tom and his son, Colin. When we arrived on Friday afternoon, the winds were gusting up to 30 mph. The lake had whitecaps. It didn’t look promising. But Saturday morning, the wind was gone and the water, although cold (about 61 degrees) was smooth. The wind increased later during the race, but overall the race conditions were very good.

This year I went around all the buoys and paced myself for a stronger finish. I was out of the water in less than 28 minutes, which was six minutes faster than the year before.

The bike course is challenging – generally uphill for the first half, with some side trips where the hills are relatively steep. Not hard to scale, just hard to make time on. Then on the return portion there is another side trip with very short, very steep hills. You have to hit those hills hard and gear down quickly to make it over them. I failed on the first mini-hill – had to walk my bike up the last ten yards – but after that I did well on the hills. It was a great feeling to complete that section because the last eight miles of the course is generally downhill with the wind. I finished strong and averaged 18 mph, which was 3 miles per hour faster than last year.

On the run course I felt good, but my right leg started to cramp, when I slowed down to grab a cup of water at the first aid station. I managed to keep running and decided to not disrupt my running rhythm by slowing down for any of the water stations.

I didn’t want to ruin my race by not being able to finish due to a leg cramp. I had hydrated well enough on the bike segment that I didn't have a need for any water on the Run course. I took it easy, running nine minute miles and finished with a time of two hours, fifty-one minutes.

I finished 3rd in my age group (out of six old-age survivors). Tom finished 3rd in his age group for the Sprint race and Colin finished sixth in his age group (which has a lot more competitors that in the old guys groups).

It was a good race for me. I did a lot of things right, my fitness level was good and I made some nice improvements in both swim and bike. I need to find a drink supplement (maybe salt?) that will help me to avoid cramping on the run.

Next race: Tempe International – May 16, 2010 – Tempe, Arizona

Disappointed, Not Discouraged

2010-03-14T14:20:00.002-05:00

Well, maybe a little discouraged.

One critical component of my plan to become a writer is to attend a professional writer’s workshop each year. In past years I’ve attended workshops at University of Iowa, Tin House (Portland, OR) and Squaw Valley, CA. The Iowa program is open to all, but Tin House and Squaw Valley require a writing sample before they accept you. Last year I applied to the Sewanee Writer’s conference in Tennessee. It’s a great program, several of my writer friends on Zoetrope have attended, but more selective than the other programs I’ve attended. Last year I didn’t get in, so I re-applied to Squaw Valley and had a very productive week.

This year I considered boycotting Sewanee to punish them for denying me admission, but decided to be mature and give them another chance. While I professed to having low expectations, the reality is I never have low expectations. Before a race, I always predict my time and I’ve never once beaten my prediction. (I like to think I’m optimistic not delusional.)

And this year I had so much more to offer Sewanee – more publications, a new improved version of my novel and I had completed over a hundred reviews of other people’s work (on Zoetrope). I was certain the Sewaneeans would recognize the great contribution I could make to their conference. How could they not?

Obviously they found a way. In fact they found it a month faster than they did last year.

This blog is about writing and training for triathlons. While the two endeavors are in many obvious ways different (which is why I like the combination), they are similar in that for me to get better in either one I need professional training (not to be confused with professional help).

I can swim 2,500 yards every day, but I won’t improve significantly without someone to help me with my stroke mechanics. Bootstrapping to improved performance is almost impossible unless you are a very gifted athlete (or writer).

When I go to a Master’s swim class and my time for a hundred is 1:45 and the guy next to me is swimming 1:10 – it’s clear there is great opportunity for improvement. I can hire a swim coach and he or she can videotape my stroke and show me what I’m doing wrong and what I need to change. It’s not easy to make the changes, especially since I have to unlearn decades of bad form, but I can do it. And the improvement is measurable – the times come down. It is so simple. So objective.

Writing is different. I can read “Olive Kitteridge” or “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” (my two most recent Kindle reads) and see that they’re better than anything I’m doing right now. But how are they better? What do I need to work on to make my writing better? I could hire a writing coach, but I believe the conferences are a much better use of my resources. At a conference I usually get some individual help (not much – an editor or writer hired by the conference will usually critique 20 or 30 pages of a manuscript), but I also get exposed to what other writers are doing, hear a variety of craft lectures, listen to good writers read and discuss their work. Out of all that, I always learn something that helps me improve.

It’s not as neat and tidy as having a swimming lesson, but that reflects the nature of the challenge. My dream is to write a great novel (or two). My goal is to simply improve every year. I don’t know if my writing “times” will ever be as good as those novelists whom I love to read. All I can do is keep trying.

So now I need to find a new place to go for my summer writing vacation. I’ve applied to Breadloaf and to the Norman Mailer retreat at Cape Cod, but I’m not optimistic. No – this time I’m really not optimistic.

But it’s not me – it’s them.