The bike course was only 12 miles. I was hoping to average 20 miles per hour, I came up a bit short. I considered it a pretty hilly course, not that there were any huge hills just a lot of hills in general. There were only one or two hills where I had to stand to get over them. This is not an excuse because even though you have to pedal up the hill you do get the opportunity to make up the time on the downside of the hill. I thought I did amazingly well on the bike despite the hilly course. I think I got passed 3 times, and I would estimate that I easily passed over 100 people. The funny thing is that people at these events take it so seriously. Get over yourselves. Earlier in the week I headed to the mall to buy a bike helmet as I had always been borrowing one in the past. As I was picking out a helmet, I noticed that they had the old fashioned bells for kid’s bikes right there. I couldn’t resist and had to buy it. Here is an image that happened a number of times during the race. I would come up behind someone with a bike that was well over $2,000, all tricked out with the profile bars, new style frame, aerodynamic bike helmet, I would go cruising by them on my bike which Tree gave me a couple years ago and is around 15 years old, and ring my bell. Of course I have a big smile on my face. And normally when I passed someone I would read there bib number which was marked on their leg and encourage them. Something like “Come on 1078 we got this hill. Let’s go.” Then I would ring my bell and take off. These people would just look at me with a facial expression of “Who the hell is this guy?”. Well I thought it was funny anyhow.
One of my goals was to win one of the events. Who am I kidding, I am not going to win the swim, the bike or the run. So what is left….the transition times. The transition between the swim and the bike is a hard one to do well in just because of the switching to shoes and getting everything on. I set my sights on the second transition between the bike and run. You throw your bike on the rack, toss the helmet and you are on your way. I did some planning on this one. At the end of the bike course you have to dismount your bike and then run about 200 feet to the start of the transition area. They have mats placed down that you run across which registers your timing chip around your ankle. I ran up to the mat and stopped and just stood there for about 20 seconds catching my breath. They had a race official standing right there. He said to me, “What are you doing?” I said, “Catching my breath so I can win the transition time.” He just shook his head. If you look in the results, it almost worked, I believe I had the third fastest transition time (1 minute 12 seconds. The best was 1 minute 5 seconds).
Looking back at my strategy of trying to get the best transition time, I don’t think that helped my overall time. I ran at around a 70 or 80 percent sprint through the transition area. This took a lot of energy out of me, and as I started out on the running course I was just dead. I had nothing in the tank for the run. Going all out in the bike probably didn’t help me much in conserving energy. This is were I was very disappointed with my performance. I finished with a 5K time or 27 minutes 58 seconds. 6 minutes off the pace I had set for myself. It wasn’t the worst run I have been on. It was a gradual uphill course for the first mile, then there was a pretty steep hill to the halfway point. The rest was fairly all down hill. My first mile was probably over 10 minutes.
Here are my official times, 8:50 for the swim, 40:23 for the bike, 17.83 miles per hour pace, 27:58 for the 5K run, 9:20 minute mile pace.
Overall I did pretty well. Out of 302 competitors, I finished 43. Out of 140 males I was 36. If you check all of the times, I did have the 3rd fastest transition time. In my age group I was 8th out of 26. That was one goal I did have for myself was to finish in the top 10 of my age group.
This triathlon has me at a bit of a cross roads. I told myself this was going to be my last triathlon for the summer. But I am so disappointed in myself over that run time that I want to do another one. Not to mention that a more respectable run time would get me very close to actually placing in one of these races. If I shave off 1 minute in the water and hit my target 5K time, I finish in the top 3. I doubt that I will ever get too serious about doing these things to not joke around while doing them. Then again, my high placement might just be a product of a poor field.
As I emerged from the water there are other racers around me, they had two race officials in the water that sort of directed you out of the water. I asked them as I was getting out, “Am I winning? How far behind me is the person in second place?” They just laughed and said “Yep, you are in the lead and you have plenty of time, they are way behind you.” As you can see from the picture there are people ahead of me.
Here I am coming into the finish.
The feeling of finishing. Tree by the way didn't run the race. He had been having back problems and is saving himself for the Stu on Stu tourney and the Paddle / Portage. But as we were walking to breakfast afterwards, he mentioned to me that his back really wasn't feeling too bad that morning. 
This one was taken earlier this month. Yes it opens and closes without problem at all.
Proof that boats have gone through my bridge.
Holland dominated their group but gave up two goals in extra time in the quarterfinals.
Croatia also dominated their group but in the quarterfinals lost a heart breaker giving up the equalizer during injury time of the second extra period, then went on to lose in Penalty Kicks. You can cry on my shoulder._fans5000.jpg)
Russia, still alive and set to take on Spain.
My money is on Germany to win it all. They face a Turkey team with too many injuries and suspensions. Then they will walk all over the winner of Russia and Spain. You know I am part German.
I have been watching quite a bit of the Euro Cup. One of my favorite parts of the game is listening to the announcers call the game. Way better than listening to John Madden. They way they speak is so entertaining. I.E. "He has a firecracker of a right foot. Anytime he puts his boot to the ball he strikes it with much venom."
Unfortunately, the sun turned to rain, but it did eventually get nice again. Borky, Tree, TJ and Eric proud to pose with a rainbow in the background. You will note that you did not see my brother, Jon, or his neighbor, Rob. They both said they were going to show up, but pulled up short. Surprised? Not really.
This was the swing that Prince Fielder had on his triple in the 11th inning.
Sunday, the Coonen kids playing hillbilly horseshoes.
Crusher in the back yard.
Erin up in a tree.
Dan got jealous of Erin, so he decided to climb a tree too.
Here are all of my nieces and nephews, Ethan, Jared, Zack, Lindsey, Sarah, Erin, Josh, Joey, Nick and Abby.
This is me and Abby.
Josh and I were having races around the driveway.
Saturday morning was the kids against the adults game for Ethan's soccer team. It ended up being a 7-7 tie. I wasn't in the game at the end otherwise I would have made sure it didn't end in a tie. Here is Haus back on the pitch.
If you are like me, I am sure you are finding this hard to get your head around. But yes one of these "men" in the poll is actually going to become a father. Seriously, this is not a joke, one person on this list is soon to be a father.
Here I am showing Tree how it is done. Listen to Tree commentary. Still makes me laugh. 1/4 of a beer.
Shepard's after the game. Nate and Tree. I think Tree is pretending that he doesn't have a beer, but he had plenty. He can use that as an excuse for his Sunday performance.
Here is Ethan getting yelled at by Coach Steve for his inability to pass the ball. This was going on while the rest of the players were still playing at the other end. Steve is nearly as entertaining as the game itself.
Here is Pickle in his game. Pickle managed to score two goals, one for each team.
