94

Do you want to live that long?

I'm betting yes but only if you are able to still live on your own, drive a car, bake your own homemade beans, run the new upright vacuum you just purchased on your own because the canister vacuum was "just too big to lug around" or perhaps, head out for a snowshoe on Christmas day?

Meet Tom, my freak of nature grandfather. I don't mean that in a disrespectful way mind you, but pictures speak a thousands words.... Like they say on Slowtwich, pictures or it didn't happen.

I hope your holiday was all that you wanted it to be and the coming new year brings you peace,health,love and happiness!

It's A Marshmallow World

It's only December and we are just on the cusp of the first day of winter yet we've already passed the mark for the entire accumulated snow fall of last season here in Boston.
Plainly put: We are getting BLASTED. The commute has been a bear, and lets not even talk about trying to run outside in this. The sidewalks are an ice tundra now covered with just enough snow so you can't tell where the whip-u-on-your butt-ice patches are. Oh well, if you can't beat it, might as well join in for some winter time fun. Shoot, it's only here for 3 more months!

Looking Back

2007 will just be a distant memory soon. (Sigh) Hard to believe another year has come and gone. I thought I'd post a synopsis of my 2007 season. I'll try and be brief. Feel free to hit that little blue arrow up top on the left hand corner of your screen, or that red X opposite the little blue arrow when your eyes start to glaze over with boredom. I am so very fortunate to have had a fun, injury free year.
I don't take this for granted and I'm thankful every day that I can participate in sports. Special thanks to my husband who daily, has to put up with my whining and unrealistic obsessive compulsiveness that daily life should be perfect, every hour accounted for, and always wanting to be one step ahead. Also my coach Josef Brandauer, for helping me meet my goals and also having to endure some of my whining.

January 2006
One Hour Swim - 4345yrds
(This is one of the most mentally painful swims you can do in a pool. The first 30minutes of this is pure torture. It takes FOREVER to get there but then the last 10 minutes fly as you are trying to get in that last bit of yardage)

February
2007 New England Masters SCY Championships 1650 Free 1st (40-44) 21:40.26
(This meet always makes me nervous. The highlight was having my sister there and having the final lap bell ringing over my lane during my heat!)
April
Wrenthem Duathlon
2nd (40-44) 1:09:33 (1st in our age group: 1:09:32 I was a fire breathing dragon singeing the hair on the back of her neck!)

May
Florida 70.3 Triathlon 5:07 5th (40-44) ( This race is no walk in the park coming from cool weather New England. The run is like an Xterra trail run on sandy open fields in the heat of the day with about 5% on pavement. Fun fun! Note to self: NEVER EVER wear racing flats with no socks in sandy trails with wet feet. My arches are permanently scarred from the deep blisters with that dumb ass move)

June
Mooseman International Triathlon
9th woman overall 2nd (40-44) (Any race my friend Keith Jordan is behind is top notch) Endorfuns race management rules period.

July
Great Harvard 5 Mile Road Race 6th overall 3rd (40-44) 34:56
(Oh.. the hills)
Old Colony YMCA Triathlon 1st overall 2:20:21
(All the fast girls stayed home?)
Nautica NYC Triathlon
2nd (40-44) 2:20:54 ( I loved this race! Free entry thank you Accelerade! How many can say they swam in the Hudson River and didn't run into any dead bodies or biked on the West Side Highway?)




August
Timberman 70.3 Triathlon 5:09 2nd(40-44)
(Keith.. I love you. Need I say more?)
Cranberry Country Triathlon 5th overall 1st(40-44)
( Always a race I like coming off of Timberpaloosa fitness)

September
Laborious Labor Day Ten Miler (Good god, Why? Why do I have to pick these courses riddled with bloody mile long hills?)
3rd rubber legged woman 1:10:35

CROSS SEASON!!! September-December( every race a learning experience)
SuckerBrook
Amesbury
Bedford
Gloucester
Biddeford
Canton
Plymouth
Lowell
Palmer
Wrenthem

New England's Finest- Girl Style

Congratulations Mo! A bit late posting this as it happened last weekend (Dec 3rd)

Bruno Roy rides to a weekend sweep and the verge MAC title


photo: Carl Waltrip


Maureen Bruno Roy came and conquered not only the season-ending Capital Cross Classic, but also the 2007 Verge MAC SRAM season championship.

Bruno Roy became the third woman to sweep both halves of Verge MAC's three weekend doubleheaders. Kerry Barnholt swept both the Granogue and Wissahickon races in October, and Georgia Gould swept both days of the New Jersey weekend in November. But Bruno Roy, fresh off her World Cup debut and another seventh place finish in France, not only swept the final weekend, but scored highly in all six races against the best in American cyclocross to win the Verge MAC title.

Striped Socks

Not just any striped socks, these are now considered my lucky cross socks.Does my face look distorted? It is. From the brain numbing cold. Yikes.. by lap 4 of the MRC Wrentham Cross race on Sunday, my feet were attached to my pedals but I could barely feel them. I had chemical toe warmers in my shoes prior to the race, but they must have been old because they were submarginal in putting out any heat.

Minuteman Road Club did an amazing job in putting together this race. Very well organized and our results were up and posted on Sunday night. Wow! Thanks to Rob for his huge effort in getting that together so quickly. I've come accustomed to having to wait 3 days before seeing cx results posted.

This course was a second for me. I did it last year for the first time. It was very different from last weeks Palmer race which I loved. Nothing technical except for a set of uphill barriers right after a tight
right hand turn downhill section.
I was worried. I haven't done well on courses like this one thus far this season. To name a few, Bedford and Plymouth. A power course I overheard someone say. Ugh. I'm not a power course/grass crit rider.

Oh well... Stay upright and don't blow up after the first lap I said to myself. Try and stay on a wheel or two and don't get upset or give up when you're out there riding solo. It's most likely gonna happen.

Surprise! It didn't!!! I stayed in the mix. My last race of the season panned out exactly the way I wanted it to. Honestly I have to thank my friend Sally McInnis. She is one I always target to try desperately to stay with and never can. Yesterday she was no where to be found at the starting line. I looked over at her husband Brian and we were like.."where is she?" She was still out on the course and missed the darn start. She jumped in with the junior riders I believe who started a minute after the 3/4 women. There she was though, making up time. I spotted her behind me on the end of the first loop and I was runnin' scared. "Sally's gonna reel me in like a flounder", I thought. I rode as hard as I could through the wooded section that was flat in the biggest gear I could handle and also on another flat section near the finish area. In the drops, trying to keep her from bridging the gap on me. I tried to power out of all the turns that I could and tried not to make any major mistakes. Come to find out, Sally had raced the day before in East Hampton in even tougher conditions and didn't have a chance to strip down and felt over dressed during our race. Still, the fact that I could see her back there made me ride just a wee bit harder perhaps?
I got lapped by Elite rider, Rebecca Wellons out on the open field area. She was commenting on my socks as she flew by me and I quickly asked if she was the first (123) woman to confirm that soon I would be done! "Yup" she said and I started to crank it up just a bit more to get to the finish fearing I'd be passed again.

7th in the women's 3/4 race. I'll take it and quit while I'm ahead!

Last Up -Wrenthem Cross

Tomorrow is it. #10 on the cross circuit for me. Time to chill and eat magic cookie bars and drink steaming mugs of hot chocolate after a 4 month long Cx season. It's freakin' freezing here today and the wind is still whipping. Hopefully it will die down before tomorrow. I can just imagine myself dressed like the StayPuf Marshmallow guy just to get through the race. I just get way too cold too quick these days.

Yesterday I snagged a BlueSeventy long sleeve Helix wetsuit for 288 greenbacks(retail price $525) and here's the kicker, I was going to order it (size med) on line at www.SBR.com but my friend Dede who's about the same size as me forewarned me to try on both the Med and the Med/small at our LBS before ordering it online. Thankfully I did and she was right, a medium would have been too big in the chest and arms and I wouldn't have been able to return it to SBR. Lucky for me the LBS matched SBR's price and I didn't have to pay shipping. Whaaaaa!!! What a HUGE difference in the arms and shoulders in this wetsuit design. My Orca Speedsuit always fatigued my arms when I swam in it. Hellloooo Ebay!

One less thing to buy this spring for CDA. I tried hard to divert my attention from the carbon Guru frames hanging on the wall calling... "you need me..plez take me home" My plan is to nag Dede once a week from here on out until I wear her down to a stub so she will give up one of her Guru's to me if she gets another new one this coming season. What are friends for? :-)