Alright, loyal readers of mine, I would like to start off with an apology. I'm going to mess the chronological order up here on C&C and it's not meant to throw you off. I'm sorry in advance. As I promised in my last post, I will catch everyone up on the happenings of the last few glorious months. And I will. But not in this post. Like the man in the stall said to the man waiting: give me time.
Those in my generation may recognize the title of this post as lyrics from a song called Garden Grove by Sublime. It's the first track on the self-titled Sublime album released in the summer of 1996. Ah yes, the summer of '96. Seems like yesterday. Kurt Angle won the gold medal for the USA in wrestling at the Olympics in Hotlanta while I goofed off and probably did nothing with my life as a typical 15 year old kid. But I digress.
A few weeks ago Sublime rolled into the desert and put on a show for the Land of Enchantment here in Albuquerque. You may be thinking, "What? Sublime? But Brad Nowell died years ago!" Yes, he did. But the rest of the band lives on (except for Lou Dog, RIP) and they've created other bands (see: Long Beach Dub Allstars) in the past 16 years. Most recently, they (the original drummer and bassist) started playing with a guy named Rome Ramirez. They started doing some shows going by just "Sublime" until Nowell's family caught wind of this and got pissed. Sublime isn't Sublime without Brad (I agree) and they took the fight to the courts and won. So instead of just Sublime, they are called Sublime with Rome. Now you're all caught up. Allow me to slightly modify the first sentence of this paragraph and say, "A few weeks ago Sublime with Rome rolled into the desert..."
As a big Sublime fan I jumped at the chance and procured some tickets. Along with Sublime with Rome (SWR), Pepper and Cypress Hills was on the card. I never heard Pepper before but...Cypress Hills? Insane in the Brain? Yeah, them! Apparently in the 100 years since Insane in the Brain was popular on the radio Cypress Hills has continued to perform and record together. Who would have thought?
Prior to Pepper warming up the crowd a band called Huntington Beach Surround Sound took the stage for a quick set. I didn't catch much of their show. All I can say about them is Huntington Beach is one of my favorite spots in southern California. Good surfing.
Hearing a band for the first time live is a great experience. That's how I feel about Pepper. They put on a good show. A classic three-man-band with both the guitarist and bassist sharing the lead vocals. They had a very Sublime-like sound and were entertaining. Some cool coconut-punchers. I was impressed enough to buy a few of their albums on iTunes. If you haven't heard any of their stuff, I'd recommend them highly.
And now for something completely different...Cypress Hill took the stage. I'll be completely honest: I didn't see any of their show. Well, just bits and pieces from a distance. I left the seats after Pepper to meet up with some friends also at the show and decided to relax on the sidelines and listen to CH instead of crawling through a dozen drunk-and-high fans to get back to said seats. Yes, they did play Insane in the Brain, and a bunch of other songs. Yadda yadda. During the break I got back to where I belong to catch the main performance.
Sublime with Rome put on a good show. I'm not going to lie, though, they played a lot more classic Sublime than I expected. They only played three song from Yours Truly. (Luckily for me, they did play my favorite track from that LP: Take it or Leave it. Thanks guys!) The rest was old school Sublime (with a Nirvana cover, Drain You, off of Nevermind thrown in there). In addition to Rome on the guitar and vocals, original Sublime bassist Eric Wilson hung out on the side slapping his bass and adding some backup sounds via a keyboard. For the most part Eric just played along, smoked a cigarette and gazed out at the crowd through his sunglasses. Very low key. On drums was a guy named Josh Freese. You may be thinking, "Josh Freese? That doesn't sound right!" You are correct, my friend. Josh isn't a Sublime original. Bud Gaugh was the original drummer. And he did, for a while, tour and drum with SWR. However, he had a change of heart and left the group. He was unhappy with playing Sublime music without Brad. I don't blame him. SWR also had some guy on the 1's and 2's.
They ended their show predictably early and left the stage for a few minutes as the crowd chanted for more. Everyone knew they were coming back out. They hadn't even played Panic (hit track from Yours Truly)! They came back out and played a few more tunes before dropping their instruments and leaving for good. Satisfied (somewhat), the crowd dispersed into the desert night, ears ringing and heads nodding.
In other news, what is this?
Hidden in the title of this post is another topic I'd like to ramble on about here for you, my loyal readers. As Brad said, he had a "deuce deuce" in the trunk of his car, referring to a firearm that uses .22 caliber ammunition. Balling. Twenty-two (22) was also the race number I wore for the triathlon I was in last weekend up at Cochiti Lake. I'm switching topics here and I hope I don't lose you. Stay with me.
Last year around this time there were some wicked fires up in the area of Cochiti Lake which ended up cancelling this race for obvious reasons. This year things were cleaned up and the race was on like Donkey Kong.
The lake is only about an hour north of Albuquerque and I decided to just get up early and commute back and forth to this race instead of finding other lodging options. Left around 5a and got to the race site in plenty of time to set everything up and get ready to roll. Transition area closed and headed to the beach. And by beach I mean area by the lake with sharp, painful rocks. You'd think in the desert we'd be able to make a beach with sand, yeah? Think again.
The 1500m swim was a triangular course that we had to do twice. Water was warm (71 deg F, I believe) and I went sans wetsuit. At the first buoy I took a foot/fist to the face which nearly knocked my goggles off my head. Luckily they stayed partially on and I just had to tread water briefly to get the water out of them and get them back over my eyes. Other than that, the swim was pretty uneventful and straight forward. Think my final swim time was in the 33-min area.
Transition went well and I hopped onto my Cervelo P2 and headed out to the course. Now the transition area for this race was located at the bottom of a boat ramp. A long, steep boat ramp. Coming out of the transition area the first thing you hit is said long, steep boat ramp. Once at the top of the boat ramp, the hill continued. Nice way to start the bike. Eventually we got to the top and turned onto the dam service road. This supplied some gorgeous views of the lake/dam and surrounding area. The road was a rough gravel-like texture but flat and fast. This lead back to the main road for a quick downhill burst before climbing back up to start a second loop. After completing the second loop we headed back down the hill and boat ramp to the transition areas (good thing the brakes were working) and changed into my Brooks for the run.
Ah yes, remember that long, steep boat ramp and hill coming out of the transition area? It was there for the bike and didn't go away for the run. Except when heading out for the run I had 26-some miles of biking on my legs and lactic acid was already kicking in. Running up those hills was not fun at all. At times I felt like I wasn't even moving. After what seemed like an eternity I was at the top and onto a much more flat section of the out-and-back run course. But the damage was done. My legs felt shot, and I wasn't the only one. I've never seen so many athletes walk on the run leg of a triathlon as I did at this race. I joined them. There were a couple times where I just needed to walk it out for a few seconds. The dry heat, heavy sun and killer hills really took it to everyone out on the course. But eventually I was at the top of the hill again and heading back to the finish line. Was nice to be able to coast down the hill and boat ramp to finish the race. Somehow I was able to put one foot in front of the other and let gravity take me home. My final race time was just a few minutes under 3 hours. Definitely a challenging course. Probably the most challenging I've been in...so far.
Hung around the transition area for a little bit after the race, socialized and had some food before loading the Jeep up and heading back to the Abq. Gorgeous day and a fun, but challenging, triathlon makes for a great Sunday.
Here are my results:
Swim: 33:25
T1: 2:50
Bike: 1:23:25 (18.0 MPH)
T2: 2:06
Run: 54:53 (8:51/mi)
Total: 2:56:39
My next race isn't until August 19th, but it will be a big one. I'll be traveling to Gilford, NH for Ironman 70.3 Timberman. Can't wait!
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