Mountain Man Triathlon

After years of being a poor graduate student, I was finally financially capable of buying a nice bike a few months ago, thus allowing me to seriously compete in triathlons. Yesterday I completed in my first Olympic length triathlon in Flagstaff, AZ. It consisted of a 1 mile swim, 26 mile bike, and a 6 mile run. It was called the "Mountain Man" triathlon not only because of the beautiful San Francisco Peaks that surround Flagstaff, but because the run had a horrific, long, agonizing hill in the middle of the course. Many people ended up walking parts of it. My goal was not to walk any part of the run which I successfully achieved.

This picture shows some of the bike course and gives you an idea of the parking nightmare (no vehicles were allowed on asphalt).


Here are some pictures of me before the start. Notice I'm one of the few people without a wetsuit. I really thought the temperature of the water was reasonable the day before. I quickly learned during the swim that I was wrong and my swim time suffered for it! :(






Here some pictures of the start of the swim:




The swim to bike transition when smoothly other than my muscles trying to thaw out.





And the tedious run:




This guy was taking the 'Mountain Man' theme seriously with his coon fur hat!



I was definitely tired by the end!


Geoff and Pico as well as other folks from Kingman were a great support. Now I just have to try and convince Geoff to do a race with me! :)


The bloody truth of going sockless:



I was pleased with my time which was 2:42. I came in 4th place out of 21 women in age group and overall placed 84th out of 248 for Olympic length (all ages, sexes, and relays combined). I'm looking forward to the next one and will definitely be looking into a wetsuit!!
Love,
Janice

Critters and Such

Hi All,
I thought you all might enjoy some of the critters we have seen on some of our adventures and around our house. You may have seen some of these pictures on other blogs.

Lizard on our screen door. And Todd I don't know what kind. :) :)



Dazed female ruby throated or black chinned hummingbird.



A frog that looks like a toad. I did know the name but forgot. Sorry Todd. :) :)



I believe this is a spiny lizard.



Unhappy bat.



Wild horses that have been walking by our house the last 10 days. There is one kind of loner and then three that like to hang out. They are less then a stones throw away from our back yard.





One of the locusts that completely destroyed our tomato and pepper plants. We could use poison but we are looking for other options.



A few days ago Janice and I were driving to the BLM office at 2:30 am to do willow flycatcher surveys. About a half mile from the house we saw this big boy or girl.



Here are a few pictures of the one we saw this morning after we got done running. Just hanging out on the wall of our house. Yes, it is a tarantula.







On Saturday I neglected Janice and Pico and headed up to the Haulapia Mountains. I was put into contact with a climbing club called the Leaping Lizards. This guy named Tim has put most or all the routes up in the Haulapias. Here is Tim on our first repel of the day. You can see what is called the front porch about 100 feet below him.



Here is Matt and Tim gearing up for the first repel and climb.



This is Matt getting his rope ready for the next repel from the front porch.



From the top we repelled about 180 feet down to the front porch and then another 170 feet down. Then you have to do a class 3/4 scramble back to the front porch.



Then it is a 5.9+ climb back to the top. Here is Matt belaying Tim.



We then packed up our stuff and headed to another part of the mountain. Here we did a 100 foot repel down to a place called the sidewalk. Here is Tim walking from one set of anchors to another on the side walk.



Here is me belaying Tim on his stroll. It is about a 100 foot drop off the edge to the left.



Here is me coming down the sidewalk.



It was then another 100 foot repel and a hike out. What a fun day.
I do want to respectfully apologize to Janice and Pico for being neglectful. :) :) :)

I hope this message finds everyone doing well.

Peace and Love,
Geoff

Long Weekend Fun

Hi All,
I hope this note finds everyone doing well.
Well, Janice had a long weekend because of the fourth so we decided to pack up Pico, our camping and climbing gear, our bikes and running shoes and go explore the Prescott area. We found a great campsite outside of town about 10 or so miles in the Prescott National Forest to set up our base camp. The next day we headed out to a place called the Granite Dells area to climb. Now the Granite Dells is a good size area with a lot of climbing. The place we went to was called Watson Lake.

Here is Pico the rock dog.


Here is Pico enjoying the views.


We did not get any climbing pictures at Watson Lake because it is hard to take pictures when you are belaying or climbing. We were thinking if we could train Pico to take pictures.
Watson Lake is a cool place that is a somewhat newly developed climbing area. Some of the ratings of the climbs were suspect though. We got on a 5.10c that spit me off (I fell) a number of times. Then right next to it was a 5.11a and I had an easier time climbing. Welcome to out west climbing. Great fun though. We can't wait to go back.

The next day we headed up into the mountains and biked and ran on some trails. I would rather run on a steep, rocky trail then on the road any day. Near the end of our run it started raining and ended up pouring on us for awhile. We all loved it. The monsoons are here in the desert. One of the highlights for me on this day was as when I was riding my bike in the mountains I saw a coyote on the side of the road. I thought he(?) saw me. There were cars coming from both directions and when they passed me the coyote started to cross. Coming right at me. I thought he was going to run into me. He saw me at the last minute and looked about as scared as I was. It was cool.

The next day we packed up camp and headed back to the Granite Dells. This time a place called Repel Dells.

This is Janice on a very cool 5.10a.


This is me on the same route.


Janice up a little higher.


We really need to get some friends to go with us to take pictures. :) :) :)

We hope everyone had a great 4th.

Peace and Love,
Geoff