New Post...Not...Ready!

OK, we're getting into the homestretch of the big Sedro Woolley to Corvallis move now. Over the next few weeks, as me and my family are essentially homeless, new posts on the famous Two R's may become a bit sporadic...even ragged. Try to hang with me as best you can, while I type away with one hand, abusing Burgerville's free Wi-Fi and noshing on their amazing waffle fries with my other hand.

Only a couple of weeks until we say "Adios" to the Skagit Valley...I wonder if we'll have to sign something in Corvallis when we buy a house there like we did here in Woolley. A form that basically says "You're living in cow-country now, so you've got no right to complain about the stench or the flies."

Let's hope not.


Need a photo of a cow? Who doesn't, right? Well, head over here. Thanks to Jordan McClements of Ireland.

Flippers? I mean, come on, filppers!?!

To get ready for triathlons, it's always a good idea to get out into the open water and do some lake swimming or some river swimming or, God forbid here in the NW, some ocean swimming. Even so, you're going to be in the pool more often than not. It's just the way it is. Hundreds and hundreds of hours of pool laps will always be the norm with a couple hours of open water swimming mixed in.

And let me tell you, there's nothing more boring than swimming laps in your normal 25 yard/meter pool.

So how do you spice up the laps? Well, much like sneaking a look at the guy on the treadmill next to you and nodding knowingly when you realize he's running 0.1 mph slower than you are, in the pool, I have to race the person in the next lane whether they know it or not. Anything to pass the time, right?

So what is the only thing that can ruin my fun? Yeah...flippers. C'mon! Why are you swimming laps with flippers on? How am I supposed to feel superior when the 80 year old grandma beside me, with the HUGE flippers, is keeping up with me?

It's just not right.


Thanks to Bahama Rentals for the photo. Next time you're in the Bahamas, be sure to look them up.

The heat, my God, the heat!

The summer weather is finally here, my friends. Now get out there and run...and take an outdoor swim, at last!

RACES FOR WEEK OF JULY 14th TO JULY 20th

July 19th /Deschutes Dash Olympic Triathlon, Olympic Duathlon and 10k Run / Bend, OR

July 19th / Crown of Queen Anne 3.3 mile Run / Seattle, WA

July 19th / Willamette Valley 10k Run / Eugene, OR

July 19th / Kla Ha Ya Days 5 Mile River Run / Snohomish, WA

July 19th / Frankie's 5k Run / Gig Harbor, WA

July 19th / Samish Bay Bivalve Bash Low Tide Mud Run / Bow, WA (the toughest 250 yards you'll ever run...this one is run through serious mud!)

July 19th / ChelanMan Half Iron Triathlon, Oympic Triathlon, Half Marathon and 10k / Chelan, WA

July 19th / Tiger Tri / Colville, WA

July 19th / Capital Lakefair 8k and 3k Run / Olympia, WA

July 20th / Deschutes Dash Sprint Triathlon, Sprint Duathlon and 5k Run / Bend, OR

July 20th / ChelanMan Sprint Triathlon and Try-A-Tri / Chelan, WA

July 20th / Steve Omi Memorial Open Water Swim / Coeur d' Alene, ID

July 20th / Seaside Beach Run 10k and 5k / Seaside, OR

July 20th / Whisky Dick Triathlon / Ellensburg, WA

I'm seeing rainbows...

I love watching triathlons on TV. Well, actually I love watching triathlons in person. Well, actually I love competing in triathlons in person. But I'm pretty slow. Probably not all that fun for others to watch. And frankly, you're most likely pretty slow too, not to cast judgement or anything. So I don't really want to watch me or you doing triathlons all that much. But elite, yes "pro", athletes are a different story. I love watching elite triathletes compete. But there's been exactly one elite race in Washington (Bellingham) in the past...well, ever, and there was one in B.C. a few weeks ago, but now you need a passport to get up there, and I don't have one, so basically I don't see elite triathlons in person.

Which brings me back to TV. I love watching triathlons on TV. The elite triathletes are awe-inspiring and amazing. Watching them never fails to get me fired up and ready to go do a workout myself to attain a level like 17% as good as the last place finisher in an elite event. So when I heard that the third and final qualifying race for the Olympic Triathlon Team was today, I went straight to the TV schedule to see when it was on. Well, I'm not a total idiot, I went to the TV schedule to see if it might be on, like a weird cable channel, maybe MSNBC, or the Food Network, or something. Of course, it wasn't. So I went online to see if I could find some results. After about 30 minutes of surfing, I found it at ESPN.com, under "more" then "olympic sports" then "more" then "other headlines". Of course, they were happy to tell me, on the front page, that Pacman Jones wants to be called Adam and not Pacman in the future, but of course that was important news, so clearly it needed to be front and center.

Yes, I'm fully prepared to stay up until two in the morning during the Olympics to catch the triathlon, since the 400 prime time hours will be spent on features of gymnasts and how they sacrificed their 7th grade end-of-year dance to make the team.

Sigh...

Um, corn dog on a stick with melon chutney?

Yes, once again, for the 89th time in the last 100 days, the "blog of note" for blogger.com was a food-related blog. Of course 9 out of the other 11 were fashion blogs, leaving plenty of chances for a quality blog on running and/or writing to break in.

If you can't beat them, join them...

Clif Bar Mojo Honey Roasted Peanut - Tasty
Balance Bar Rocky Road - Nasty

Power Bar Harvest Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip - Yummy
Power Bar Triple Threat Chocolate Caramel Fusion - Sounds so good, is so not

Clif Bar Cool Mint Chocolate - The best tasting bar there is, bar none (nyuk-nyuk)
Odwalla Superfood Bar - Yeeech

Odwalla Choco-Walla - Super nummy
Power Bar Banana - Gagariffic

Clif Bar Black Cherry Almond - Way good, like most "almond-anything" bars are
Clif Bar Carrot Cake - I wouldn't eat it as cake, why would I eat it as a energy bar?

Power Bar Berry - really good if you sit on it for about 10 minutes, so it's nice and soft
Zone Perfect Mango Orange Delight - Just a bit...off

I've only run one marathon in my entire life and the only thing that caused me to nearly collapse before I got to the finish line was a warm, banana-flavored goo that they were passing our around mile 20...I almost lost it right there. Please, race directors, do not foist anything banana-flavored on poor, unsupecting runners at the tail-end of a marathon. Thank you.

Something's Not Sitting Right...

I'll spare you the recipes for today...since I really need to get up another race calendar. Your lucky day, but tomorrow it's a quick and easy recipe for Clams Casino...Chef Recommends!


RACES FOR WEEK OF JULY 7th TO JULY 13th

July 12th / Clackamas River Runoff Off-Road Duathlon, Triathlon and 15k and 8k trail runs / Estacada, OR

July 12th / Hagg Lake Triathlon and Duathlon / Forest Grove, OR

July 12th / Fairhaven Runners Chuckanut Footrace 7 mile / Bellingham, WA

July 12th / Run of the Mill 5k / Mill Creek, WA

July 12th / Run for Your Rights 5k / Bellingham, WA

July 12th / Smith Rock 15k and 5k Summer Sunrise Classic / Terrebonne, OR

July 12th / Clear Lake Sprint Triathlon / Clear Lake, WA

July 12th / Ocean Shores Big Weekend Half-Iron, Olympic and Sprint Triathlons / Ocean Shores, WA

July 12th / Let's Climb a Mountain 34.3 mile solo and relay / Spokane, WA

July 12th / Bill Burby Inspirational 10k and 5k / Vashon, WA

July 13th / Coburg Run in the Country Half-Marathon / Coburg, OR

July 13th / Vashon Island Off-Road Triathlon - an XTERRA race / Vashon, WA

July 13th / Nautilus FitJam Marathon Relay and 5k / Vancouver, WA

July 13th / Langley Half-Marathon / Langley, WA (Hey, it's Matt Simms' race, remember? Get over there and run it!)

July 13th / Battle Ground Milk Run 10 mile and 5 mile / Battle Ground, WA

July 13th / Ocean Shores Big Weekend Half-Marathon, 10k and 5k / Ocean Shores, WA

Thanks to the Seychelles Fish Bar for the menu image...they don't seem to have Clams Casino on there, but they do have Skate and Chips as well as the ever-popular Spam Fritters...urk!

Get ready for a "shrimp on the barbie" post...

Just so you know, when you Google "running writing", the first site that comes up is the South Canberra Tuggeranong Athletics Club site. In case you couldn't figure it out by the "Tuggeranong" and the "Canberra" which are two words, much like "kangaroo" and "boomerang" that bring to mind one place and one place only, this is a site from Australia. Apparently, this is a small running and/or athletics club that no one outside of the Tuggeranong area (yes, it's an area) could possibly be aware of.

I know what you're thinking...why isn't "The Two R's" first on that Google list? You weren't thinking that? Well, I was.

I was also thinking, "out of 27 million hits, why isn't The Two R's one of the first, oh I don't know, 25 million on the list? I may have to start writing more about food...the blog readers seem to love the food...

Siberia, here I come!

One day after the Seattle Times ran a front page article about how Siberia has had more seventy-degree days this year than Seattle has, we finally get a sunny 70 degree day! YES!

RACES FOR WEEK OF JUNE 30th TO JULY 6th

July 3rd / Firecracker 5000 5k / Seattle, WA (This one is a fun one to run - the race starts at midnight on the 3rd and you finish on the morning of the 4th...if you've never run in the middle in the night, give it a try)

July 4th / Butte to Butte 10k / Eugene, OR

July 4th / Down and Dirty 7k Mud Run / Fort Lewis, WA

July 4th / Foot Traffic Flat Marathon and Half-Marathon / Portland, OR

July 4th / Carnation Run for the Pies 5k / Carnation, WA

July 4th / Ridgefield 4th of July 10k and 5k / Ridgefield, WA

July 4th / The Great Sedro-Woolley Loggerodeo 5.17 and 2 mile Footraces / Sedro-Woolley, WA (Ah yes, the hometown 4th o' July race - come on up, it's a good one. Nice and flat.)

July 5th / Righteous Richland Sprint Triathlon / Richland, WA

July 5th / Newport Clambake Half-Marathon and 10 mile / Newport, OR

July 6th / Race the River Sprint Triathlon / Coeur d' Alene, ID

There oughta be a law...

So the world-famous Fremont Fun Run 5k was held last Friday the 6th and if you haven't seen the results, well...they're a bit sad and depressing. People that run 2:15 marathons and qualify to run in the Olympics for countries that they don't even live in, should not, I repeat, SHOULD NOT be able to run a 14:48 5k. If you're that fast at one distance, you shouldn't even get to race at any other distance. It's just not right.

And yet, there's Uli Steidl, 38-time winner of the Seattle Marathon, running a 14:48 Fremont 5k. Don't worry, I'll run the numbers for you...that's a 4:54 pace. Holy Crapoly.

Nice job, Uli.

Get your race on the web already!

So do I just list all races that I can find? No. There's getting to be so many during the summer months, that it's difficult to list them all. So how does a race director get a fancy-dancy link on the moderately-famous Two R's blog? Well, try getting a website up. I don't list any races where runners have to call, or e-mail, or send a piegon out to figure out how to sign up. Come on, it's 2008, put up a website. Second, I don't list races that take more than 3 or 4 clicks to get to the information. This causes some problems for a few city-run races, as they sometimes don't update the front page often and/or ever, so you have to go to "events", then "cowpie festival", then "races", then...well, you get the picture.

But I do check all my links and make sure they send you somewhere you want to go, unlike a few running sites I could mention. Hope it helps you find a great run.

RACES FOR WEEK OF JUNE 23rd TO JUNE 29th

June 28 / Noah's Quest 10k and 5k / Sandy, OR

June 28 / Tesoro March Point 10k and 5k / Anacortes, WA

June 28 and 29 / Pacific Creast (OK, deep breath...) Half-Iron Triathlon, Endurance Dualthon, Marathon, Half-Marathon, Olympic Triathlon, Olympic Duathlon, 10k and 5k / Sunriver, OR

June 28 / Five Mile Lake Women's Sprint Triathlon / Federal Way, WA

June 28 / Lake Padden Competitive and Recreational Triathlons / Bellingham, WA

June 28 / Bridle Trails State Park 30k, 10k, and 5k Trail Runs / Kirkland, WA

June 28 / HotFoot 5k / Port Orchard, WA

June 29 / Reach the Bridge / Portland, OR (Start whenever you want! But the bridge goes up at 9:00am, so don't start too late)

June 29 / Mountains to Sound Relay / Snoqualmie Pass Summit, WA

June 29 / Seafair Marathon and Half-Marathon / Seattle, WA

June 29 / Shore Run 6.7 mile and 5k / Seattle, WA

June 29 / Summer Scamper 5k / Gig Harbor, WA



Thanks to Jason William, of the U.S. Navy, for the great Tri photo. It's from the World Military Triathlon, held annually in Califormia.

How 'bout some fries with that shake?

Oh, man, check out my white-boy-dance-moves that my Nike+ Mini-Me is laying down.

I only wish I could shake my moneymaker like that.

Hey, there's a new SpongeBob on!

Or, Diary of a Standardized Test Scorer, Part III

OK, let's get right to it. After reading hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds...and hundreds of standardized test writing responses, I've come to this conclusion: 1.3% of American children are reading books and 98.7% are watching T.V. Jeez, parents...just turn the stinking thing off for a moment, will you? There's so little original thinking in the writing I'm seeing - it's all just re-hashed episodes of T.V. shows and movies. Want to help your child become a original thinker, writer, dare I say...imaginer? Then get their eyes off the screen and make them read and play and bike and run and write and paint and swim and fish...and you get the idea.

OK, I'm stepping down now. The soapbox is available for anyone else that needs it.

The Pac NW Black Cat...

So I was getting ready to head out the front door today and go for a run. Since it's the Pacific Northwest and since it's June, it looked like this outside my front door.



Yes, rain, rain, and then, for a change of pace, a little more rain. As I was just about ready to head down the steps, I almost walked on the harbinger of doom and despair, the wily slug. Man, that's like watching a black cat walk across the trail...you just know your run is going to be a wet one.

I really need summer to get here.


RACES FOR WEEK OF JUNE 16th TO JUNE 22nd

June 20 / Summer Solstice 10k and 5k / Salem, OR ( Yes! A Friday Night Race! I love Friday Night Races! )

June 21 / Pump and Run 5k / Albany, OR ( This looks like an interesting one...you have to do the bench press before the 5k, and the more reps you can do, the more time you get subtracted from your race time! )

June 21 / Berry Dairy Days 10k and 2 mile run / Burlington, WA

June 21 / Data Logic 5k / Eugene, OR

June 21 / Beach to Chowder 10k and 5k / Long Beach, WA

June 21 / XTERRA Solstice Triathlon / La Grande, OR

June 21 / Swede Day 5k / Rochester, WA

June 21 / White River 5k / Buckley, WA

June 21 / St. Andrew's Legal Clinic's Race for Justice 5k / Portland, OR

June 21 / Cascades Edge Olympic and Sprint Triathlon / Enumclaw, WA

June 21 / The Deputy Saul Gallegos Memorial Run / Manson, WA

June 21 / Run with Cops Not from Them 5k / Redmond, WA

June 21 / Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure / Seattle, WA

June 21 / Summer Solstice Six Miles for SW / Vancouver, WA

June 22 / Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon and 5k / Vancouver, B.C.

June 22 / Siuslaw River Sprint Triathlon / Mapleton, OR