Sea Otter, not just a race, a realization...

The sea otter is like the Daytona 500 - the biggest race of the season is the first race, so this was a great test of fitness. Usually after a race, when I think-back on the experience, I know there are sections where I got lazy mentally and let the tempo down for a bit. Not in this one, this was more of a fight for survival, for a way to make the most of a situation, bad or not. That's not really what this post is about, though… it's more about how much everything has changed in the past 5 years. It's pretty wild that as you crest one hurdle, another appears before you, another goal becomes evident. without Jennifer in my life, I'd still be wasting wknds in the bar, throwing darts, waiting for life to find me. She's given me the strength to tackle life w/o hesitation. With us happily expecting our first child later this summer, I'm anxious… anxious for another great hurdle to appear before us, one that will certainly have effects we cannot even begin to imagine…

For those of you who don't know, each 19.4mile lap of the muddy sea otter course ends on a 5mile climb with a section referred to as "puke hill" by the locals - i found some pics online of me cresting puke hill. since my buddy Doug is a professional photographer, i can't just steal those images and post, it'd be uncool to have such a lack of respect for the folks working hard out on the course... so you'll just have to use your imaginations... Point is, sometimes, when I see myself these days, especially when on a bike in a race, I hardly recognize the person, other times it seems to make perfect sense… all I know is that I wouldn't be the guy in those pics w/o jenn, w/o her support.