Grandma Meets Liya

After much waiting and anticipation the weekend of our big trip to Phoenix to visit Grandma Gilbert arrived. After bailing from work on Thursday afternoon, we loaded up the car and headed out of the city in an attempt to miss most of the evening traffic. Our plan went fairly well, but the 91-West was horrible (as usual) and we lost about 40-minutes sitting in stop and go traffic because we were too cheap to take the toll road (and didn't think traffic would be so bad so early in the day). Lesson learned.

We stopped once to refuel and once for dinner at McDonalds (a very rare occasion for this health-conscious family). The 383-mile drive took us right at 7-hours including both stops. Liya was a roadtrip champ, sleeping and playing most of the trip. Upon our arrival we were greeted by Grandma who was ecstatic to see her first and only grandchild. Liya seemed equally excited to be out of the car and see Grandma for the first time.We also got together with Uncle Matt and Aunt Beth for dinner several nights. Fortunately, Liya was in a great mood the entire visit. Everyone who saw her had to squeeze her chubby legs and ask all about her. Liya almost always greeted these inquisitive faces with smiles and her excited kicking.

We had a wonderful time visiting Grandma, Matt, and Beth and can't wait to see them again soon. Though after another 7-hour drive home...we'll look into flying next time!

First Race of '08...Ironman California 70.3

Ironman California 70.3 was my first triathlon of 2008. A huge thank you to my friends and family for supporting my fund raising efforts for CAF's Operation Rebound. With their contribution I was able to meet my goal and raise over $1,500 to help troops permanently injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. In total 61 Ironman California 70.3 participants raised over $168k for Operation Rebound!

The Friday before the race I had the opportunity to go to the Operation Rebound pre-race luncheon and not only meet many of the wounded soldiers who would compete with me on race day, but hear their emotional stories of injury, fear, and ultimately recovery through the help of CA. It was very a very inspiring experience that would continue on race day as several of the injured troops blew by me on the bike and run! Here's a story from the OC Register about Evan Morgan, one of the guy's I met that has benefited from Operation Rebound.

As for my race, despite the forecast it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day in Oceanside. I started in the third wave and had a good swim in the rolling waves of Oceanside Harbor. After a quick transition I headed out on the bike. The first 30 miles were mostly rolling hills, but the last 26 had a couple of major climbs. In addition to the climbs, the wind picked up during the second half of the bike and we faced a headwind back into transition.


Onto the run...the two loop course is very flat and right along the beach. It was a beautiful scene and I had one of my better runs averaging just under 8 minute miles for the half marathon. When it was all said and done, I cut 18 minutes off last year's time to finish in 5hrs 15mins. I had hoped to go closer to 5hrs, but need to work on my bike if that's going to happen anytime soon!