DONE!!!!

Beautiful morning for a race. Little chilly at 5:30 am but by 9 am it was probably 70 degrees. Jeff was up early with not a lot to say (which is a good thing). He stayed away from everyone until about 20 minutes before. After warming up they were off. Hopefully have some really cool video of this. Craig - I know you are thinking shut up Carla we just want to know how he did - wait I will just check the website (hehe).

Jeff had an excellent first run (the long portion) -he had the 3rd bike out in his age group - headed out for the loops on the bike which is really cool because normally you don't see much of the bike. He looked well on all the loops - Jeff said to make sure Craig knew he left nothing out on the course (especially skin like some of the guys did). Didn't see it but apparantly he lost a little skin on his back in the dismount area, said he couldn't get out of his pedals fast enough. Headed out for the last run and you could tell he gave it everything on the bike. The one guy that he would love to beat came in 3rd overall. Rebecca and I started to get a little nervous becaue Jeff wasn't in site. Then there he was - he looked good (but spent which is good) and after seeing the posted results he finished 6th in the World's. I think we are all extremely happy with the finish. He was hoping for top 50% and beat that goal.

Words from Jeff - Thanks to everyone that helped me prepare mentally and physically for the bike - especially Craig (Egg). Thank to Mark Crow for coaching me mentally with your Ironman experience. Thanks to Shawn Ellis for loaning me his wheels - they worked out great. Thanks to everyone that has given financial sponsorship- it would have been difficult to be here without it.

Now words from Carla - He is mine for altleast 1 week - no he can not come out and play with you guys.

Saturday

Another beautiful day in Richmond today. Jeff went out for one loop of the bike course. He was lucky to hook up with others riding. Roads are terrible - the rollers were nothing really to write home about - Madcow's are harder. He said is was a very technical loop with lots of turns. His bigget worry is breaking a spoke or getting a flat. Lots of areas to get busted for drafting. If you are penalized for anything you will have a black mark on your name tag on the bike rack - then you are sent to the naughty corner - they actually will have a penalty box that you have to sit in at 2 minute intervals. If you get 6 minutes you get DQed.

This afternoon they had the mandatory meeting for everyone. Jeff asked about discarding trash (empty gel packs) and they will actually have a dumping zone (so Jeff won't get a penalty for that - like Maysville).

Had a great dinner at Olive Garden - got to see somebody get arrested and then cops looking for the empty bullet casings - not the best of neighborhood we had to drive through!

Ok guess I should tell about breakfast. Buffet at the hotel - they lost money today. Jeff went back a couple of times - 1 guy from Canada passed through 4 times - plates full - I have never seen men eat SO MUCH FOOD!

Jeff has gotten to meet some really neat people - I think he is having fun.

Race day tomorrow - got to get lights out for PoPo

Noose

PS - Jeff was afraid I would tell - well of course I will - he didn't listen to my directions leaving Olive Garden and we got lost for over an hour - that is why we got to see the cops in the bad neighborhood.

First Day

Well, we left at 3:30 from TIpp on Thurs and took the grand tour of the Midwest to get to Richmond. I made a trip tix through AAA and it brought us through many small towns at 35 mph. Near Ironton OH we saw a beautiiful double rainbow. We hit the moutains at dark and couldn't see where we were going. Finally got into Richmond at 1:45 am Friday morning. Of course AJ woke up and decided not to got back to sleep until 4 am. After about 3 hours sleep we were up and running for the day. Exccellent buffet for breakfast at the hotel (which is another story about the room - yuck) - the staff is going out of their way to answer questions about the city. Team USA didn't have their stuff together this morning - took forever to get the "parade shirt". The team photo at the Capital Building was awesome. They had everyone yell GO TEAM USA and it echoed through the city - awesome. I have pictures and videa, but Rebecca doesn't have all the software installed for us to attach it It was extremely hot and humid for the Opening Ceremonies. All the countries lined up and it was really neat. Jeff made a new friend - guy in his age group that is a professor in TX. We have lots of video and pictures of this also. Jeff made everyone very proud.

After that everone was meeting at 2 to take one loop of the bike route - the heavens decided to open up - some rode but Jeff decided to run a couple of miles. I think they are trying again tomorrow at 8 am. So, we decided to take a nap - even Jeff did!

After eating dinner tonight we walked around the downtow section with the original cobblestone streets - the buildings are restored - people from the other counties are exremely friendly - I wish I could say the same about some of the US. I know they are here to race, but a smile goes a long way.

Tomorrow brings more political items to take care of - mandatory team meeting -issuing official passes etc. Hopefully it will be a no rain day, while Jeff rides we want to walk the other direction and see the Civil War Historical sites.

More later - night!
Goose

Another Race for the Books

Everyone already knows it was very hot on Sunday and it took it's toll on all the triathletes. On Little Miami's website they said they would have water released to bring the level of the river up. There was a note posted that the core of engineers couldn't do that - no water to release. I could stand almost in the middle of the river to take pictures - not a good sign. This year they decided to start the aluminum canoes with the pro boats - can't figure that one out. One canoe that was ready to launch, the guy and girl were facing each other - people were yelling at them for one of them to turn around.

Jeff and Mark started with 10 other canoes. It didn't take them long to get tangled with the aluminum boats ahead of them. So needless say the canoe portion was very slow. Since they didn't start until 9:04 the heat of the day set in on the run. Emily and I were walking back up the hill when low and behold there was Jeff Coudron and Cheyl Chaney - about the best in the area. Emily and discussed whether we should tell the guys and decided we better. Jeff got to the top of the hill and Mark followed in about 1 minuted. Not many people had come to the top, but we didn't know exactly how many boats started ahead of them at 8:56. They took off what appeared to be strong on the bikes.

When we got to the finish line abut 1/2 mile up the road there was a guy that was just finishing. A couple of more cam through - we didn't know their start times so you can only hope. We looked up and saw Jeff and Mark - no goose honks that normally warn us he is in the area! The heat had affected both of them so we decided to leave. I feel sorry for the people that had a late start time - usually in the fall it is to their advantage.

Got home and the results weren't up last time I looked. Checked them the next morning - they had Jeff's time wrong, which the race director quickly corrected. They killed the field - the next closest team was almost 12 minutes behind, Coudron and Chaney 13 minutes behind. Coudron and Chaney's time blew the other male/female teams away by 33 minutes. I will not say this was a no chain day - Jeff rode his heavier bike and the heat. Good training for 2 weeks from now!

Team USA In the House

Well, I don't know where to start - Sunday things looked down - it looked like Jeff came in 7th and needed to be 6th. Not sure what happened - results aren't up yet but we got an e-mail saying Congrats you are in!!!

Thanks to everyone that has helped - you just can't imagine what a thrill it is for us. Now to come up with the funds - it will happen!!!! Jeff deserves this!

Can you tell that the Noose is excited? Goose is wired