There's Good Press....then there's the Wine Press

Today, Raise the Bar has an article in the local Covington/Maple Valley Reporter Newspaper. It's a nice article - with a picture of RTB's most prolifically printed pretty face, Rick Osborn.... whom his friends refer to as "Front Page".

Find the article here: http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/cmv/business/38586834.html

While enjoying that little bit of RTB fame today, I got 2 phone calls. One from Kevin at the Seattle Thunderbirds.....wondering if I wanted tickets to the T-bird game on 3/6 for some of my customers. Well, sure!! Kathy's already got the word out on that one. You get a ticket and a free beer for $18. (email Kathy if you want in on that).

Just a few minutes ago, I got another phone call from a gal wondering if I was hiring bartenders. Huh. We have a theme going today with the drinking of the spirits. I don't HAVE any bartenders on my staff right now, I told her. She seemed nice, I was sorry i didn't have any openings. Kathy could probably do it anyway - even though she doesn't drink. She can do everything else.

I asked the unemployed gal where she got my number. Turns out Raise the Bar is now in the yellow page listings under Bars and Pubs. As a Catholic girl, I consider this to be good juju. And any press is good press.

At 5AM this morning before I met 21 committed athletes at the swim workout I coach, I was buying Chardonnay at Safeway for the Raise the Hope meeting at our house tonight. And as that meeting gets rolling, we could have probably used that nice gal. Thank goodness Kathy will be here.

Lindy Haffner's Goofy Challenge

First of all, if you didn't read Joe's sweet post, and don't know what Goofy's Challenge is, it is a Half Marathon on Saturday and a Full Marathon on Sunday, they also have a 5K on Friday for the ambitious (crazy) which we did as well. I somehow convinced my friends Regan and Diana to sign up for this crazy weekend in January 2008. My friend Kim came too but she is an old pro, having done the Goofy’s Challenge for 3 of the 4 years it has been offered!!We have been planning this race for a year and a half. It is a big commitment financially and physically. Just to register for the Half and Full Marathons came to $250!! I trained with my friends Regan and Diana. We logged some seriously twisted runs, including a back to back 8 mile/16 miler, a 5K race one Saturday morning followed by 15 miles in really cold weather then 12 miles on the treadmill on Sunday because of the snow and then hosting a taco dinner for a family Christmas celebration right after my treadmill run!! We ran in 6 inches of slush for 8 miles and it took us almost 3 hours (picture running in really cold sand for 8 miles!!) When there was a lot of snow, we would run a portion on the treadmill and then meet to run for the rest of the mileage. There was some whining as we were literally freezing our butts off and comparing this training to what we would experience in Florida! But how much whining can you really do when you are going to Florida in January!! My friend Kim has done the Goofy's Challenge for 3 of the 4 years it has been offered. We relied on her wisdom and insight in planning our trip. We didn't seek her advice on training, however. She ran a 5K and a couple of 5 mile runs in between last year's goofy and this year. That is crazy. We saw shirts on the course that said "Running Stupid! I didn't train for this!" We thought Kim needed one too. But she finished all 3 races and didn't seem any worse off than we were.

The 5K starts at 7AM so we were up at 5AM. Which feels like 2AM Seattle time. We had taken a red eye on Wed night though so we had no trouble going to bed by about 10PM Florida time on Thursday night. We did the 5K and then went to Hollywood Studios for the day. We rode the Aerosmith Rockin' Rollercoaster (twice), Tower of Terror, and several other rides. We posed with some power rangers and had a lovely dinner at Mama Melrose's. We came back to the hotel, got our clothes ready for the Half Marathon and went to bed. We were up at 3:00AM (yes Florida time, so feels like midnight!) and we caught the bus to the start at 3:45. The race started at 6AM and Regan and Diana and I all started the race together. Kim ran with her friend Tony who she runs with at all the Disney races (he carries a US flag the whole way!). We got our pictures taken with several characters including Pooh, Cinderella and family, Goofy, Mickey, Donald, Pluto and Chip and Dale among others. We spend a lot of the race trying to get around walkers (and stopping for photos didn't help our cause). We crossed the finish line together, holding hands at 2:48:41. We ran through the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. It was nice weather with a decent breeze and we had a great run. We finshed, I found an instructor at the massage booth who wailed on my IT band for about 20 minutes (I paid for 11 minutes) and we headed off to shower and sit by the pool. We all felt pretty good except the bottoms of my feet were sore. I wore old shoes because I accidentally washed (and DRIED) the shoes I was scheduled to wear and they were a size too small. So I chose less cushioning old shoes over losing toenails. We got up Sunday Morning (same time) to do it all again (but twice as far!) I wanted to take it pretty easy on Sunday and we stuck together for the first half of the race. I had Regan's camera and I asked her if she wanted to take it and go ahead with Diana or if she wanted me to hold it. She said I could hold it. Well Diana and Regan just had more left at the halfway point than I did and they kept up the pace. I just did what i could. It was hot and muggy and my feet hurt. So once they were off I just enjoyed the race and got as many pictures with characters as I could. I think I counted 25 pictures with characters over the whole trip and 2/3 must have been during the races. I figured if I was taking my time, I might as well take pictures. I even had to wait a long time in Epcot to get my picture taken with Aladdin while a mom complained about how you have to walk all over the park to get pictures with characters and she wasn't even taking a picture of her daughter, then when her daughter was done and it was the runner ahead's turn she had her daughter go back for a picture because "we never see Aladdin!" So that added some time!! So when we get all the pictures from Regan's camera I will actually post a photo more recent than 1979 on my page.
Diana and Regan finished in 5:44 and I finished in 6:44 just 10 minutes ahead of Kim who didn't train!! Kim's mom and aunt were down there and we happened to get on the same bus to the hotel as they did. They bought us each a drink at the pool side bar and we enjoyed our cold beverages before we even showered!! That was the best drink I have ever had. Nevermind that it was only about 1:30 in the afternoon (we won't count it as 10:30 Seattle time!!).
So we had a wonderful dinner at Wolfgang Puck's that night and my very sweet husband jumped through hoops (more than you would have thought necessary) to have the restaurant give me a congratulations card and buy a round of drinks for us Goofy Girls! We slept well that night. On Monday it was my birthday and Kim had balloons in our room when I woke up and a big Happy Birthday sign. I got to wear a Happy Birthday pin and got into Epcot for free (free admission to a disney park on your birthday in 2009!) Everyone at Epcot wished me a Happy Birthday and it was a truly magical day. We wore our Garmins (GPS tracking) while at Epcot on Monday and we logged almost 13 miles (and that didn't count our indoor miles) on our rest day! We all had so much fun.
So what I have taken away from this weekend is that anyone can do this. I don't care if you can't walk or run, you can do this. I saw a guy out there on crutches (he probably injured himself training but wasn't willing to quit). I saw people who were concerned that they were going to get picked up by the sag wagon (if you don't hit certain mile markers by a given time, they pick you up and you can't finish the race). I don't think everyone has to do this but I think everyone should challenge themselves to do something out of reach. Maybe it is a longer distance race, maybe it is consecutive races, I don't know. But I do know it feels great to have completed the challenge that seemed so big. Now I better get my shoes out and start thinking about the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon (my 3rd marathon in 8 months) in June!! Run on friends!

Freaky Things are Happening

Sometimes life throws little weird occurances your way....

1. Lindy Hafner, not only a member of the RTB team, but also a member of our women's group Raise the Hope, completed the Goofy Challenge last weekend in Orlando - finishing a 5K on Friday, a Half Marathon on Saturday, and a Full Marathon on Sunday. Today, she is frolicking at Disney World.

I don't even know how to address that.... I thought Raise the Bar encouraged balanced, reasonable athletic endeavors. Apparently some cog has slipped in the system.

2. Between January 1st and January 15th (the day registration opens for our 2009 team), there are officially NO members of Raise the Bar. The team simply doesn't exist. In light of this, we had 25 runners show up for a team run on January 3rd and 42 (WHAT?) folks show up for a team swim and aquajog at Covington Aquatic on January 10th.

Here we were all worried that with the crappy economy no one would come and play in triathlon land this year. We lowered registration fees, we upped the benefits..... I'm fairly certain 2009 is going to kick 2008's _______. And I'm even slightly fairly more certain that RTB in 2009 is going to kick......oh never mind.

3 Days till registration. Don't miss the boat!!

Dear Economy,

You are stealing jobs away from our friends and making our houses less valuable. You are lengthening the time between now and our retirements, and causing otherwise positive people to whine. And we are sick of it - but you can't discourage us that easily.

Perhaps you haven't come up against us triathletes before. We aren't afraid of much. We embrace the challenge that you are throwing at us!! Our jobless friends with a little extra time on their hands are TRAINING!!! They are learning to fill out online job applications from their stationary bikes. AND..while on those bikes, they've turned down their thermostats thereby saving money. HA!!!

Think you can scare us with a little rise in the gas prices, eh..... Pfffsssttt - we learned our lesson from you a few months ago. We are carpooling and combining trips and commuting on buses and bikes (weather permitting) and are empowered by the memory of your almost $5 per gallon attempt to dampen our spirits.

Triathletes aren't this easy to beat down, you know. We're used to working hard for tiny, incremental gains. Shoot, we're even used to obsessive, ridiculously hard work and losing ground! So don't think for one minute you've won. Because you haven't.

Raise the Bar is ready to face you on January 15th with a whole new game plan - by focusing on the things that really matter - building community and forming alliances and using a great army of athletes to make your threat of misery and despair a mockery.

And we will. Game on.

2009 Team Workout #1.......and more coming!

25 of us showed up for the first team workout of 2009 at the Soos Creek trail today. WHAT???????? 25????????? That could be one of the biggest non-swimming team workouts EVER. If this is any indication of the commitment the RTB triathlon team is ready to lay down this year, the other teams better WATCH OUT!

Mary Hanna is continuing with her Wednesday morning track workout starting up again on the 7th. You can do your first one for free to try it out. I know this is a tough workout for some folks to make - it's at 6AM and it's usually cold this time of year....but the many athletes that have gone to this workout over the last few years wil tell you that because of Mary's magical powers (or just plain old good coaching) they get faster. So if you're complaining about running slowly (like I do) you should come.

Next FREE team workout is a run/walk this Thursday evening at 6:30 at Lake Morton in Covington - we like to call it the Frostbite Series. Jerry Sommerman is our handsome host. Bring a headlamp or a flashlight or do what I do and run NEXT to someone that has a headlamp or a flashlight. It's lame, but it works. Lake Morton is a PERFECT 2-mile rolling loop and you can do as many loops as you like. If you're late, just wait around for 20 minutes or so and catch the next lap.

And if you're looking for EPIC pool fun, sign up RIGHT NOW HERE for next Saturday's Team Swim at the Covington Aquatic Center from 8-9AM. We will take 36 swimmers MAX. (It's $5..gotta pay for the coach and the pool time). If 36 people are in the pool this week, we'll drop the price to $5 for the next team swim on January 24....and $3 for February 7th. Let's work together here, people.

IF YOU ARE TIRED OF ALL THE TEAM WORKOUTS BEING IN KENT/COVINGTON, then add a comment here or email Patty and make a slick suggestion of what you'd like to see on the calendar. People from the eastside and north of here are emailing me and wanting to see RTB make landfall in other areas. And so do we..... it will take some willing souls to make some suggestions and be willing to host some workouts, though. Some of us southenders will travel around and help populate those for awhile. Again..let's work together!!

Details for everything on the calendar....

See y'all out there!

Checked off the Bucket List.....

I was wimping out on the Polar Bear Plunge until I talked with a 70-year old lady at New Year's Eve Mass last night. I asked her what she was doing to celebrate the new year and she informed me she would be crossing the LAST of her bucket list items when she did the Polar Bear Plunge at Coulon Park this morning.

Huh. 70 years old. Taking the plunge..

This gave me a renewed spirit on the whole plunge undertaking. Never mind that the ONLY officially RSVP'd RTB athlete (Kelvin) opted out this morning with some recommendation from friends that he stay home due to a cold or something. Kristin was certainly behind this.... Doris Klein was there with her family sporting the RTB colors in support....she'll go in next year, I'm sure!

But there WERE RTBers there - with big huge hearts...and goosebumps. Tina Coleman, who was at the Steilacoom 5K this morning agreed to take the plunge after the race....NICE!! Tina has a heart just about as big as they come and she needed it today to get out of that cold water without having an actual heart ATTACK.

Paul Mueller was there too. This, in retrospect, does not surprise me.
Paul lives on Lake Morton and has a hot tub and HOT shower at his beach so that when he does open water swimming in MARCH, he can warm right up.(I'll give you his address but it will cost you...) Future RTBer (I hope) Sherrie was there too... although I don't think the pictures captured her - SORRY Sherrie!!

Best thing about this event was the time involved. Bill and I left our house at 11:45 and were home by 12:20. Done. The shortest event in history. A big shirtless guy in the fuzzy hat gave the rules, and a bit of a countdown, then the 60 or so athletes did a mass beach start. The rules state you have to go under ALL THE WAY. I complied....so did Tina...I'm sure Paul did. But I think every person - including the winner who stayed in the longest - was out in under 40 seconds.

So, Bucket List, TAKE THAT!!! I think I'll write this one back in so I can do it again next year.... Tina, Paul, Sherrie, Doris and family members - SO glad you were there too.

Some photos for your viewing pleasure - Happy New Year everybody. Off to drink some hot coffee!!