In 2002 I stood on the shore for my first ever triathlon in Dorr, MI at Johan’s Trifest. It is an Olympic Distance Triathlon with .93 miles of swimming, 24.8 miles of biking and 6.2 miles of running. Last weekend I stood on the shore once again and in by far the best shape of my life. The swim went very well and I finished in 30^th place with a time of 25 minutes for a supposedly 2 minutes extra long swim. Nice to know that all of the swimming is paying dividends. On the bike I had a little big of a struggle getting things going as well as I was in a few of my training tests but still the pace was pretty good until 15 miles into the ride I heard the loud BANG as my rear tire flatted. The change went pretty well and in 4:45 I was off an rolling again. Finished the ride feeling ready to run. Bike computer said 1:09:30 nearly a best for the distance. Official time was 1:14.15 still not bad and over 20 mph avg! I hit the run and was cruising along pretty well. Caught a few people that passed me and finished in 2:26.34 only 1:30 away from a PR and less than 3 minutes from first place in my AG! Not bad and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

The North Country Trail Relay is more than a race; it’s definitely a Chandler Adventure. This was our 3^rd time at this race and our first overnight trip without Amelia… We arrived in Cadillac and had dinner with the full crew of 12 (2 teams of 6) plus a few ride along spectators.

Next, we were off to the annual go-kart racing and ice cream, which is a load of fun.  There are a couple of really fast cars that make the racing a little tough but the rest of us had some good competition including one spin-out and some smoking of the tires during the skid!

I had the first leg of the race, which started at 6 a.m. I took off with 45 other racers and quickly settled into about 14^th place. I ended-up passing 4 other racers during the segment and ended-up in 10^th place. My 2^nd leg was a few hours later and just the right amount of rest. I took off down a dirt road for about a ¼ mile where Pete was waiting at the trail entrance. He said, “There are two up ahead of you and one more if you really hustle”. It took me a good 2 miles of hard running to catch the first two and then with about 1 mile to go when I started to relax the pace just a little I spotted the next runner so I had to ramp it up even more. I made the pass and was pleased with my effort. My last segment was an easy and short road segment. I ran pretty well but the top end was gone from the previous efforts. Overall, I ran my best ever NCTR and finished all of my segments with a sub 7:00/mile average.