Las Vegas Triathlon

So what's next. Increase in distance of course. We went to Lake Mead to do an Olympic/International distance Triathlon. That's a 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run.

Here's a picture of our bikes in the transition zone - it was still dark when we set it up.

Here's a photo of our buddy Daniel getting ready for the start of his Half Ironman distance triathlon.

He's getting ready for the Arizona Ironman in November (that's the one I want to do next year)

And here's Daniel crossing the finish line. It was excrutiating HOT.

A lot of people dropped out due to the heat.

Jacques and I at the start of the swim by Lake Mead.

Daniel and I before the start of the race.

Those things floating way way out there. That's the buoys we had to swim to. 1.5km is freaking far, let me tell you!!!!

Here's a photo from our hotel looking out to lake Mead. If you zoom in you can acutally see the buoys for the swim part of the triathlon.

We all finished really strong and can't wait to do our next one!!!

Lake Arrowhead Triathlon

The day before the San Diego Half Marathon we did another sprint triathlon.

This one was at Lake Arrowhead close to Big Bear. Dare I say the elevation was a challenge, not to mention that the route is one of the toughest sprints in this area. VERY hilly - obviously everything but the swim.

The swim was 550 meters with a 10 mile bike ride and 3 mile run.

Here goes Jacques on his first triathlon.

Here I am diving into the water (the one with the pink stripe down the wetsuit).

Here's the two of us in the transition zone getting ready for the cycle.

And off we go to my favourite part of the triathlon....

Jacques on his way out to conquer the hills.

After the cycle it's the run, which was a 1.5 mile uphill and then turnaround 1.5mile downhill.

It was a killer after the cycle.

Here's Jacques coming in to the finish.

To my surpise somehow I managed to get 1st place in my agegroup.

Here I am after getting my medal.

San Diego Finest Half Marathon

In August we had the oppertunity to run the San Diego Half Marathon. What a stunning race to run. It's a point to point race. You take a bus to the beginning and run through beauthiful San Diego on a summers day.

Here's Jacques with Pieter our buddy - this being Pieter's first Half Marathon. Yep - we got him hooked too now!

Solana Beach Triathlon

In July I did my first triathlon. I was petrified to think that my first one would be a swim in the ocean, but my only saving grace was that it was a "sprint" triathlon, which means a short one.
The swim was 400m in the San Diego Ocean then a 10km cycle and a 3 mile run.
It was just AMAZING - enough to get me hooked.











Jacques decided to do the duathlon - a 1 mile run, 10 mile cycle and 3 mile run. He wanted to wait a bit with the ocean swim.

Here he is coming in to the finish.

Holcomb Big Bear Forest Trail run

This is the finish of a 15 mile trail race we did in Big Bear last month.
If the trail didn't kill you the altitude made sure you suffered!







Here I am with a fellow runner coming out of the forest to the finish.

3 Harbours Century ride

Here we are at the beginning of the 3 harbours Century road ride in Ventura. It's a 100 mile ride from Ventura to Santa Barbara, past 3 Harours and back.

Since it was the day after 4th of July, I thought I'd dress accordingly.

Heart in concert

Remember the group HEART???
Well now, you'd have to be a 70's and 80's kid...









We got to see the live at the date festival last week.








They don't quite look like this anymore, but they sound GREAT!!!!

Bob Hope Chrysler Classic

This January we were lucky to have the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic Golf tournament include our Golf course again.

We got to see a few celebrities like:

George Lopez


















Taylor Hicks



































Samuel L Jackson




































Michael Bolton
























Meatloaf! My favourite.

Here is Meatloaf with Alice Cooper! Rock on....

Here we have Luke Wilson

kyle maclachlan from "sex in the city"

kevin nealon

Kenny G

jummy fallon, anthony anderson and robert gamez (pro)

jimmy fallon

Big Bear (again-we know)

We're trying to milk every last bit of snow we can get out of the season. Our Snowboarding is just getting better and better.
It was pretty warm these past two days - check it out: Jacques is in a short sleeved shirt!

I was just having a BLAST!

It's just been great to learn something new and actually improve!!! Less bruises the second time around!

Mountain Bike excursion

So here we go again. On Thursday we tried some snowboarding, on Friday we did some skiing, on Saturday we did this mountainbike ride and the next day we ran the Palm Springs Half Marathon.

Our bodies felt like they went through a mincer!

Here we are with a few members of our mountainbike club at the top of Highway 74 and we're heading down as much single track as we can find for the next 7 odd hours......

Some of terrain was pretty tricky. These turns were even too tight for our experienced downhillers!

No lack of downhill or rocks....That's me heading down. I guess Jacques must trust my skills to be standing at the bottom of the trail with a camera....

Do ya see those little spots on the road - That would be our cycling buddies...

And we're getting closer to them..

What would a cycling expedition be without a flat!





I love this stuff!

With all that downhill, we had some short steep climbs just to spice up the day.

Just one mistake and you loose your line and it's so steep, there's no getting back on the bike.

Did I mention the little rain we had gave the cacti just enough energy to grow along the single track like crazy and shred all our legs and arms to pieces.

I'm still taking thorns out of my shins.

Here's our "lunch place". It used to be a place where Indians once migrated through. See that hole in the rock just to the left of the dude in the red shirt.

That was where they used to grind corn.

Grinding gears...

The rain and the rise in temperature we have now is turning our desert a shade of green.

This would be the river crossing that I decided to give a shot. It ended up banging up my only good knee. So I ended up running the Palm Springs Half marathon with two blue knees and cacti in my shins!

Remember the corn grinding tools I was talking about earlier. Well here's a close up!