Working a "traditional" job is so over-rated!  Take it from me.  I've been on both sides of the fence, and now that I'm fortunate enough to work at Endurance Magazine I'm certain that the grass is NOT greener on the other side.  Why, you ask.  Well, here's just a sampler of some of the perks & benefits (bennies) that life at EM HQ affords us: flexible work schedule, open exchange of great ideas, free race entries, coffee breaks at Starbucks just a few yards away from my desk, mid-day group runs/rides, Joe's music, Steve's extroverted nature, Mandy's calm nature, Justin's jokes, open-door policy to kids and dogs, awesome Endurance Mag race kits (see Joe's latest blog), networking with local celebs (elite athletes, coaches, business owners, and just overall amazing people), etc. 

Speaking of perks & bennies, the latest case in point is a free pair of Newton Running shoes that I just scored in exchange for a product review that we'll run in the magazine.  I've heard a lot of great things about these kicks and I can't wait to take them out for a spin. 

Have you heard Endurance Magazine is looking for a superstar sales person? 

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The Endurance Magazine team was out in force at the Mission Man triathlon this weekend with our events director, Thys, taking second place overall.  Having done this event every year in its existence, I have to say it may have been the best weather to date.  Either that or the extra shade on the new run course made it seem that way!  Oh yeah, we turned a few heads in warm-up with our new Team singlets.

 

 

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Great minds think alike.  I recently discovered one of our blog readers "invented" copying Hemingway's style for Endurance Sports Writing long before I did.  In fact, he dooes it much better than I have...  Check this link out and scroll down for "The Old Man and His Wetsuit."

http://triguyjt.blogspot.com/2008/03/hemingway-and-holly.html

 

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Dancing with Matt Harding - world changer of a different variety. 

Guaranteed to reset your perspective at any time of day.  Check out this video!

 

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Sunday the 13th of July started early for me.  I arrived at Lake Crabtree at about 6:15 AM to take part in the Triangle Triathlon.  Joe and Steve had other commitments so I was there to represent Endurance Magazine the best I could.  The race went well and I enjoyed hanging out with my good friend Ricardo (November 2007 cover and star WindSpeed client) afterwards.  Just as a side note, Ricardo told me about how he's "building" a bike, which to me means you just order a frame and a bunch of components, bring them to a local bike shop, and have them puzzle the bike together.  No, Ricardo is actually building a bike, as in designing a frame on the computer, creating molds for a monocoque carbon fiber frame, using epoxy and fiber glass tape, etc.  Pretty impressive!

Anyway, now that I'm home relaxing in the A/C, I am probably doing what the 890 other participants are doing (or not), which is checking to see if Set Up Events has posted the race results.  At this point in time they aren't up yet, but don't worry because I am checking every 2 minutes!  What is it that make race results so great to look at?  The funny thing is, once you finally get to look at them the build up simply doesn't live up and you end up feeling sort of let down.

With my thought patterns now officially stuck in the "how about now?, how about now?, now?, now?,..." loop, I thought about a hilarious bit that the well-known comedian Kevin James did about the frustrations of unlocking the driver side door while your passenger keep pulling up on the passenger door handle.  Fast forward to 4:25 in the video.   

 

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A dock ran out into the sound just behind the beach house where the children played and swam and each day chased the lizards from the worn planks that grew hot long before the sun was fully up in the midday sky.  It was midsummer and other fathers drank and played cards while their children napped in the afternoon, but I mixed a bottle of Gatorade Endurance and sprayed Bullfrog on my back and shoulders and began my run.  It was a cheerful beach town and people waved and said hello as I ran along the road on my way to the beach where I would run to the pier and back.  It was a windy day and the ocean was choppy like it is in The Gulf Stream painting by Winslow Homer minus the sharks though I knew they were really there because I had seen them before.  The soft sand worked my calves too much so I ran closer to the ocean where the sand was firm.  Still, the heat and the sand and the wind made the run seem harder than it should have been for that distance.  It felt good and I ran past the pier without caring that I didn't have enough Gatorade to run this far.

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The funniest question I ever heard at a triathlon pre-race meeting was "how deep is the water?"  Everyone chuckled because obviously the time to worry about not being able to stand in open water is NOT 2 minutes before the swim start!  It was very funny to me, of course, because I spent most of my early twenties surfing the Pacific Ocean in Southern California.  I surfed a couple of El Nino sized waves and fought some pretty tough conditions on many occassions just to make it out to the surf line-up beyound the break, so I've always been a bit cocky about open water swims.  It wasn't until I was on my first training swim in the Gulf of Mexico at Ironman Florida, however that I finally understood the feelings of the person who asked that "silly" question we all laughed about. 

 During my first training swim prior to the race, I swam out to the first buoy, about a half mile and as is my tradition on long triathlon swims, I punched the buoy as I swam around it.  Just as I was about to put my face back in the water and charge back in to the beach, I caught a faint glimpse of the shore... a faint glimpse.  Holy cow!  It was so far away, I was kind of scared.  I lost my breath and instinctively looked for the Gulf's sandy bottom beneath the surface.  I couldn't see it!  Just then another swimmer rounded the buoy and without thinking of the silliness of the question, I asked him this:

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   Joe sent me a random link this week with a subject line that read "Check out this guy...."  I opened it and was introduced to a guy I have never heard about, but certainly should have. Now I know that Marshall Ulrich is the man! No, I mean THE man (if you're into feats of endurance). Marshall is gearing up to run across the country in record time with another amazing athlete, Charlie Engel. As a warm-up, he completed the Triple Crown of Endurance by completing 116 ultramarathons, climbing the highest summit on every continent, and completing 10 expedition-length adventure races.  Want more? He also completed the Leadville Trail 100 and the Pikes Peak Marathon on the same weekend. He's the only person to finish the self-contained, unaided, Badwater Solo run pulling a 220-pound cart 146 miles from Badwater to the top of Mount Whitney - 77 hours 46 minutes. The cart contained everything he needed for his crossing, including all of his water. In his free time (whatever little is left), he writes books, guides expeditions, does motivational speaking, and raises funds for a variety of charities.     

Marshall's example is one that reminds us all once again that endurance really is an attitude!

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A great article on the Outside Blog called Old, Drunk Man Lost at Sea was the inspiration for this inaugural edition of my weekly column -- Training With Hemingway.  Check back every Wednesday to read about my current training for the Duke Half Ironman written in the style of the greatest writer ever!

My first installment is a cycling piece about the new group ride I attended in North Raleigh last night.  When told the average pace was 20-21 mph, I should have known better... but unfortunately I have the spirit of Hemingway in me (minus the Mojitos).

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Steve has been busy designing some very slick race kits for our team to wear at upcoming triathlons and running events. While we all enjoy competing, none of us are elite athletes. Instead, it might be more appropriate to refer to us as "endurance citizens". We are part of the same community that we also work so hard to inspire. Without giving away too much, these race kits will embrace that notion.

On a separate note, I am an immigrant. So, before I can become a legitimate endurance citizen, I should probably become an American citizen first. Fortunately for me, I don't have to give up my Dutch citizenship entirely as I now have the ability to become a dual-citizen. I have been procrastinating for entirely too long, so here we go. Step 1, download the application, fill it out, and send it along with a large check. Then wait for potentially as long as a year. In the meantime, I'll keep racing with my greencard in my back pocket.

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