First Race of 2010

Jonathan and Chelsea, two of my Centenary cycling club kids, take their warmup run into the fog that was out on the course this morning. It was also 28 degrees out there! Brrrrr!

Jonathan shoots out of transition to begin his bike split. He had the fastest finish of the club members, thanks mostly to his run splits. The boy is FAST!

Of course, I did the race, too. Didn't do too badly.

Jacquelyn, the club president, talks over her race with her dad, Jim, who drove over with the family from Fort Worth to participate.

This morning was the Dustbuster Duathlon and my first race of 2010. I didn't think I was in as good a shape for it as I was last year so I approached today as a training race so there wasn't really any pressure on me. It was a very foggy morning and the temperature was officially 28F...but the good thing was that there was no wind so the cold was tolerable, sorta. Four of my Centenary kids were participating in the race and they would garner two first places, one second place, and one third place in their age groups, so it was a good day for them! I did okay...got second place in my new age group: the men's 55-59 (ouch!) that I moved into this year. However, I held my weight against the youngsters, getting 18th overall of 106 finishers in a time of 57:18. My runs were faster than the previous two years but my bike split was almost 75 seconds slower than last year. Cranked out a 6:47/mile the first run and a 7:15/mile the second time...can't be too upset with that.

Friday night Jonnene and I went to Macaroni Grill, a nice classy Italian restaurant in town. The place itself is classy and the staff are dressed in white dress shirts, ties, and black pants. Jonnene looked great as usual and I could have been a little better dressed but our decision to eat there was kinda last minute so I didn't have a chance to change into a sharp-dressed man. There were a number of customers there who didn't even have as high a dress code as I did...one guy kept his baseball cap on his head the entire time though his date was dressed rather well. Some folks just don't know how to dress for the occasion anymore, even if it's informal. Sometimes I wish guys still wore hats with their suits. It's dated, of course, but it was still a smart style.

As to New Year's Eve, we stayed up until eleven to see the ball drop in New York. Earlier we had been at my Dad's house to celebrate his 76th birthday. I gave him a book called Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin. I think he'll like it. We ate tacos, had some brownies, and visited with some of my "step" relatives. Then it was back home to wait out the end of 2009 and sleep late into 2010. Hope the new year is a good one.