Last time I updated C&C with a new entry, I discussed my trip back to Philadelphia this summer (June 2012) to participate in the 2012 Philly Tri. Good times. That leaves us with only two more catch-up topics on this list:
(1) Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Ft. Sumner, NM
(2) Hexy finally gets his drink ware
(3) Philly Tri back home in Philadelphia, PA
(4) Traveling to San Francisco, CA and my swims in the Bay
The Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon and the Kings winning the Stanley Cup both happened in the beginning of June. That was a long, long time ago, my friends, but I will do my best to recall as best as I can. I'll rely on Mr. Internet to fill in any blanks.
Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon
The 2012 Chasing3 New Mexico Open Water Triathlon Series began with this race in Fort Sumner, NM. Race day was scheduled to be Saturday, June 9th. Luckily the day before was my Friday off and I took off for Santa Rosa early in the afternoon. Reserved a [cheap] room at some no-tell hotel in "downtown" Santa Rosa. It was a gem. Hit the streets looking for a grocery store (or anything) to procure the necessary nutrition for race morning. It was slim pickings. Luckily I was able to dig up enough after a couple stops, headed back to the hotel and called it a night early. Never been to Santa Rosa? Yeah, you're not really missing much.
The transition area, just outside of Fort Sumner at Sumner Lake, was about 30 minutes or so from Santa Rosa. The ride down was very pretty as the sun began to rise in the east. Not a whole lot going on out there. Just one ranch after another. You could almost imagine seeing Billy the Kid and his gang rolling through on their way to Fort Sumner.
A little history on Fort Sumner. Any fans of the wild, wild west may recognize the location as a frequent stopping point for the legendary William H. Bonney, AKA Billy the Kid. I'm not much of a historian, and you can find much more detailed information just about anywhere else on the history of Mr. Bonney, but the name of this race came from the fact that Billy the Kid's final resting site is located in Fort Sumner. I had good intentions to check out his grave site after the race but was derailed by some parade going through Fort Sumner which blocked my path. Instead of waiting it out, I flipped a U-turn and headed back to Albuquerque. Maybe next year.
The race started with a 1500m swim in Sumner Lake. It was a deep water start that was a two-loop, out-and-back course. Between the lake and the transition area was a steep-but-short boat ramp (that was nothing like the "wall" at the Cochiti Lake Triathlon). I finished the swim in about 37 minutes and headed up the ramp to T1. Although it was a wetsuit legal race, I went sans wetsuit.
Standard length for an Olympic triathlon bike leg is 40K, which is roughly 25-some odd miles. For whatever reason, the bike leg on this race was short. I don't recall the actual mileage. No biggie. Sometimes you have to take what you can get. Usually there are some tight space constraints and race organizers just can't squeeze out enough mileage. Understandable. Except for the fact that this race was in the middle of the desert with gobs and gobs of space! What gives? If races in the middle of a busy city (see Philly Tri and ITU San Diego) can find the real estate to make the bike leg a legitimate length, why can't we get that done out here? Boggles my mind. Any who, I digress. I was on the bike for about an hour with an average pace of 18.8 MPH.
The run was an out-and-back course with some nice rolling hills. I call them "nice" now but recall they were beating me up pretty good back then. This race had both Sprint and Olympic lengths, so there were two turn around points for the two lengths. At each turn around there were refreshments and ice-cold sponges. In the hot desert heat, they felt amazing. Cruised back to the finish line after the 10K race in about 53-1/2 minutes (8:37/mi pace). Total race time was about 2.5 hours. Here are the itty-gritty details:
Swim: 37:10
T1: 1:27
Bike: 1:00:11 (18.8 MPH)
T2: 1:34
Run: 53:28 (8:37/mi)
Total: 2:33:50
Overall it was a fun race and probably at the top of my list for repeated events next year. Plenty of things to do differently next year, including finding a better place to stay the night before, and definitely visit Mr. Bonney's burial grounds after the race.
Hextall's Cup
Growing up a hockey fan in suburban Philadelphia it was hard to not be a fan of Ron Hextall. He was everything a sports figure in the City of Brotherly Love should be: tough, blue collar, passionate and exciting. He was, also, on hell of a goaltender. The Flyers have been looking for a solid, franchise 'tender ever since. Is Ilya that net minder? Ummm....
So it's November of 2012 and there is no NHL hockey being played due to the lockout. Major bummer. You'll have to think back all the way to June if you want to remember the last time a puck was dropped in a professional NHL hockey game. It was the 2011-2012 Stanley Cup Final as the Los Angeles Kings faced off against the New Jersey Devils.
I had mixed motions on this match up and went back and forth on who to root for. First off, the Devils are the Devils and, as a Flyers fan, it's hard to root for the bastards. However, they beat the Flyers in the playoffs and, to some extent, you want the team that knocked off your team to do well. But again, it's the Devils.
Now the Kings, well the Kings were another story. Some called the Kings the "Flyers in the West." That referred to the high number of ex-Flyers within the organization, most notably, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne and John Stevens. The first two were the biggies. Flyers let Richards (their Captain) and Carter go (to separate teams) because they felt the Flyers were unable to win the big one with them in their lineup. Richards went to the Kings and Carter to the Blue Jackets. A mid-season trade sent Carter to the City of Angels.
I was indifferent on the move. Richards was a hard nose player with some solid skills and the rumor mill was fun to listen to in regards to Carter and Scott Hartnell's wife. I digress. The players/picks that the Flyers received in return for Richards and Carter were great additions to the Flyers that produced many points. However, Mike and Jeff had some good chemistry together and were hard to count out once it came time for the playoffs. Their experience in the post season proved beneficial as the Kings dominated their opponents on the way to the Cup.
In the end, I felt pretty good with the Kings hoisting the Cup. Once the sting left after watching Richards and Carter hoist the greatest trophy in sports, I came to terms with the result. The ointment that soothed the cut was the fact that Ron Hextall was in the front office of the King's franchise. He's currently the Vice President and Assistant General Manager for the Kings. After all those close calls and amazing games between the pipes for many teams, Ron finally got that big prize. Way to go!
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