Pi: September 2008

When trying to think of an original, unique, witty title for my blog I was thinking "distrahere" fit all of those things. Well this past weekend was meant to encapsulate the good distractions I had hoped to write about in this blog; the distractions that take us from our repetitive daily lives and transport us to a world where hobbies, past-times, and recreation become our number one priority.

On September the 6th I competed in my second ever olympic distance triathlon. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, I had trained somewhat but there has never been a lot of rigidity to my training. This was for fun, and I was looking forward to it.

The swim was going to be interesting, as Paul and I have always been really good with money and the picture of provident living, we deduced that by not spending money on wetsuits that we could pay for our first child's first semester of college given the time value of money and a modest return on investment. Of course we knew we would have to reallocate the hypothetical investment to adjust for changing risk tolerances. Alright so we're a little cheap and just didn't want to deal with renting wet suits, but perhaps a $40 expenditure would actually amount to our child's first semester in college!??

It wasn't long before we realized that our thriftiness wasn't a sentiment shared by too many others. There were few others who decided to swim without wetsuits. And most of them had "extra layers". In the end it didn't really matter, I warmed up quickly and the water temperature wasn't an issue.

Paul and I were within a minute of each other getting out of the water and onto the bikes. The bike ride was great! It was a loop that went out into the foothills surrounding the Columbia River. Paul and I just stayed together enjoying the exercise and "distraction" from our typical weekend. It was however at this time that the word "distraction" took on a different meaning. Instead of concentrating on the road I was distracted by the scenery and as the road gradually turned to the left I continued on my straight course. By the time I realized I should be turning it was too late, I tried to get back on the road but the combination of a gravel shoulder and raised road proved too large or an obstacle for the tires. The tire lost any footing it may have had and the bike went down.

Paul was behind me and witness the whole thing, as did a farmer working in his fields with his dog. I was okay but the bike was done, it could have been fixed but I didn't all the right tools.

I had to get a ride back to the transition spot in the truck and take the walk of shame down the hill into. Walking, my now, crippled bike.