St. Anthonys Triathlon

Today was the famed St. Anthonys Triathlon in downtown St. Petersburg Florida. I was invited to join more than 50 volunteers to provide Kayak support for the 1.5 kilometer swim portion of this olympic distance triathlon. The way kayak support works is kayakers are dispersed along the length of the swim course in regular intervals on the inside and the out side of the bouys that mark the course. We are there to watch the swimmers and assist them if they have trouble or just need a place to hang out and catch thier breath. This morning at about 6am me and my buddy Mitch packed up and headed for the beach. I brought my home built skin-on-frame kayak and many others were there on boats borrowed from Bill Jacksons in Pinellas Park. Darry Jackson was in charge of the kayak support today. The weather was beautiful today and the water was very calm. Though
there were thousands of racers out there swimming today so we had to keep our eyes open. It was not an easy task, sitting out there just waiting as they all swam by. I had a few tired swimmers hold onto my boat for a little rest but thankfully no emergencies. As I was sitting there feeling a little tired watching the swimmers and facing the sun I saw what i thought to be a cormorant swimming between several triathletes. I thought to myself that it must have just been someones arm and that I must be going a little crazy. I saw it again. I yelled to the next kayaker down the line to see if i was going crazy but sure enough he saw it too. There was the water fowl swimming right along with the racers, within inches of two other swimmers, following the course. Must have been the craziest thing ive seen all day. A customer of mine from Carollwood Bicycle Emporium recognized me out on the water and shouted to me. I thought that was pretty cool. All in all it was a good day and I had a good time.
Later on after I had gotten out of the water to take some pictures Mitch told me that a swimmer had drowned within feet of where we were watching the athletes. Though there were plenty of kayakers near her she had just exhausted herself and did not make it. It is a very sad thing to hear and though im not sure if she made it or not my prayers go to her and her family. What a terrible thing to happen.

UPDATE:
The woman who drowned earlier today was resuscitated in the ambulance enroute to the hospital. Thank God that she is ok and thank God that our job can be considered a success. Here is the story as posted in the St. Pete Times

" "ST. PETERSBURG - Juli Marshall wasn't breathing when a lifeguard pulled her out of the water Sunday during the St. Anthony's Triathlon.

A St. Petersburg fire rescue crew rushed the 48-year-old Illinois woman to shore, where she was taken to Bayfront Medical Center.

Paramedics continued to try to resuscitate her and Marshall started to breathe again just before they arrived at the hospital, said St. Petersburg fire Lt. Rick Feinberg.

Family members of the Chicago attorney, and mother of four, flocked to her bedside and phoned updates back and forth Sunday evening.

Her brother, Tom Wilson of Michigan, said she was "doing better" Sunday night and that some color had returned to her face.

"Her pupils are responsive, " he said. "She's feeling pain on both sides of her body."

Ceceile Taft, also of Michigan, whose daughter is married to one of Marshall's brothers, said Marshall was in a "coma-like state, " but able to breathe partly on her own.

Relatives said her nose was broken, indicating she had possible been kicked during the race. But no one could confirm exactly why Marshall lost consciousness.

"We have no information on what happened, " Wilson said. "If she was kicked, if she had a heart attack, it's just speculation right now."

Bonnie Mason, a Triathlon spokeswoman, said she didn't have any information on the incident.

"We do have a swimmer who was transported to Bayfront, " she said. "I don't know anything about her."

Wilson said Marshall had participated in other sporting events, but he didn't know if she had ever been in a triathlon before.

The triathlon's participant roster listed Marshall with a "Team in Training" group. A national endurance sports training program, Team in Training provides coaches and guidance for relative novices who raise money for charities for their participation.

Mason said triathlon staff didn't take any special precautions for Team in Training participants.

"We give all our participants the same attention, " she said.

She added that Sunday's incident will be reviewed by risk managers.

More than 4, 000 individuals and 100 relay teams competed in Sunday's triathlon. It is an Olympic-distance event with a 1.5-kilometer (0.93-mile) swim leg, a 40K (24.8-mile) bike and a 10K (6.2-mile) run.""

The Trucker

This story was going to start out about a bike that i built at work that i thought was really cool. Well technically i guess it still can... but the story has changed quite a bit. I built this bike at the shop two weeks ago, the bike; a Surly Long Haul Trucker.
With all the talk around the shop about touring trips and commuting the LHT has been a bit of a hot topic amongst a few of us. The Trucker is a touring bike through and through. It has mounts for racks, 3 bottle mounts, a frame pump braze-on, even a spare spoke holder on the chain stay, and a comfortably relaxed geometry. It is built and bred for long distance, fully loaded, touring trips. It also makes a great commuter bike.

Long story short, after all the talk around the shop and extensive thought and research i took this baby home from the shop floor. I outfitted her with a Brooks B17 leather saddle, which I must say is an extremely comfortable saddle (So comfortable in fact I ordered one for my Karate Monkey), i threw on some bottle cages, and I found an old Zefal HPx pump on a donation bike which was a lucky, rare find. I plan on adding racks, bags and fenders, but that process is going to take some time. I have an odometer to hook up to her and I plan on keeping a log of the trips i take.
This is the beginging of a beautiful friendship between me and my Trucker, and I plan on wearing out the tires on her as fast(or as slowly) as I can. Dont worry though I will post all my travellings right here on this crazy ass blog. this is going to be fun :).

Tour Pinellas

Today after church we decided to go for a ride. We've been tossing around the idea of doing some extended touring in the future, so what better way to start than right in your own backyard? For the cost of things we went rather inexpensive, just a short trip from seminole to gulfport and back. We tested some theories and learned a little. Perhaps we will be better prepared for the next trip... but today was a very fun trip.

My brother Christopher decided he wanted to get a tan today so i had to stare at his pale chest the whole ride. The wind was fairly calm, but with all that extra weight from the trailer, and the things we packed in it, the ride was fairly slow going. I used Calebs bike trailer to haul all of our supplies(including Caleb and his bike for a few miles when he got tired). Caleb actually rode most of the 26 miles we ended up traveling but he provided me with some training resistance for a little while. He really is a trooper. He still managed to pull of a few stunts.
We stopped for lunch at our turn around point in the beautiful historic Gulfport. It was a busy day down there and it was flourishing with peeople enjoying thier weekend. It was almost as if we were being greeted at the end of a tiresome journey. The beach was beautiful, the town quaint, and there was some eyecandy as well ;). We decided to have lunch at the Beach Side Grill, a little bar on the south west side of town across the street from the public beaches and the casino. They have a nice outside veranda area so we just parked the bikes and ate outside, threw back a couple brewskies, reveled in todays accomplishment, and dreamed of new trips yet to come. As well as helping an old man with some ideas for his yet to be invented kayak/bike trailer invention... to which i am owed some serious credit if he ever gets that thing of the ground.
All in all it was a great ride, and we do plan to do some more rides of this nature. Next weekend we plan to hopefully ride the Van Fleet Trail to Withlacoochee Trail route. We have been talking about doing this for a while. It would be an over nighter so much more thought and planning would have to go into this trip.

For more information on the Pinellas Trail go to http://www.pinellascounty.org/trailgd/ we put in at the North Seminole Trailhead and went down to the Gulfport spur through the City of Gulfport to Dowtown at the beach and back.

Chore List

My list of chores to do today was written on the magic marker eraser board above the phone. I wrote them down when i got home from church today as a means of getting myself motivated. One by one I would check them off the list as i completed them, it keeps my lazy ass in line... because i wont do it if I just say i will... the list gives me something to work towards. This list read as follows...

Nap...

Clean out Car...

Do laundry...

Clean bedroom...

Wrap Handlebars on road bike...

Nap...

well, I was moving through the list nicely... Got in a nice afternoon nap, check. car is clean, check. Laundry started, check, sorta. Bed room clean, check. Well now when i got down to rewrapping of the handlebar i decided that i wanted to clean the frame too... well since the bars are unwrapped i may as well....... paint the frame, strip the shifters, strip the derailers, rebuild as a single speed... by the time i finished it was 11:30pm and i had a completely different bike than the one that had intended only to rewrap the handle bars.

Well now i have the new stealth fighter which lies here before you, effectively eliminating all geared bikes from my quiver. i cant wait to ride her, thankfully i have off all day tomorrow.

i need to name her... anyone got any great ideas? huh? huh? uhm.....

oh and check out http://cbebikes.com/aboutus.html ...im officially part of the gang now. ha.

Day of Rain

Yesterday was wet, misserable, and cold... for Florida... in april. But what did this retard decide to do? Thats right... dee dee dee, lets go make it even more miserable by playing in the mud! well... it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. reguardless of, or perhaps partly in spite of the conditions... what exactly did I do? the anticipation is killing you isnt it! or if you already looked at the pictures im building you up for nothing... useless. Anyway, my brother Chris and I took a trip out to Lakeland yesterday to ride the illustrious Loyce Harpe Park, better known to the mountain biking world as Carter Road. For his secong time riding a real trail I must say my brother is an incredibly quick learner and a natural born trail munching machine(no not because he ate it). We tackled every trail in the park, and though I could have ridden faster I didnt find myself waiting. Even a few seasoned riders that i have riden with would have left me falling asleep waiting to move on, but he will try anything, even shit that i wont! HA! Well the trails were in decent shape despite the rain of course and some sand in typical spots. Our adventure was made even more exciting by the red neck 4 wheelers getting themselves stuck in the mud. The trails were beautiful, the scenery was even more so, and all in all the ride was a good one.
By the way I started my new job today as the newest mechanic at Carrollwood Bicycle Emporium. It was a great day though wet outside. I am looking foward to making new friends and building a bond with the folks at this new shop. So long as they keep the beer flowing... pass me another Flying Dog!

New Job

So... Catching up a bit on some lost time here. The shop i worked for J&R Bicycles out of Pinellas Park recently closed down operations at the mountain bike/road bike shop. They did so to devote attention to thier online web sales and race trailer sales at BMX races. This means that all attention has been turned to BMX and only BMX. Where does this leave me? I asked myself... my having never raced BMX, nor ever really having the desire I decided that maybe I should persue the option of moving to another profession. Upon further search of the cycling industry i found that long time friend and past race sponsor, Carrollwood Bicycle Emporium was looking for mechanics. I really hated to jump ship to go work for another shop but I decided to persue the application and interview process anyway.
Well... long story short, I got the job! WOO HOO! and it is going to be well worth it to take this step. My first day as a real employee will be this Tuesday. The benefit will be working in a shop that is very big on advocacy in the mountain bike world, as well as a place that will support my desire to grow within the industry and give me the opportunity to obtain more education on bicycles and industry related topics. I am excited to be a part of CBE again and i believe this is the beginning of a beautiful career. so anyway.. i get to work on cool bikes and live closer to the trails, so that should be fun. I think Caleb will enjoy riding the trails more, living in Tampa will put us closer to Morris Bridge and Alafia will be much closer.