OMG! A while back I had seen the Boilerplate book in the local comic shop, and while I didn’t pick up the book at the time, I was very interested in it, and still am. Well, it looks like Boilerplate is going to be a movie! J.J. Abrams will be doing this one.
Stephen Hunt’s home on the Web.
I’m amazed that I’m still able to post this from a dirt filled shack of a “Barracks” in Iraq, but here goes!
If you happen to have $300, go support one of the artists on Etsy, and pick yourself up the Narrow Bridge Steampunk USB Drive! It’s a good looking piece of artwork, one that would make you the envy of all your Steampunk compatriots.
See it at ChipChick
Some of you may have noticed a marked decrease in posts for the past few months…. like none. It turns out I’m a little busy with the Army for the next year or so. I should hopefully be posting up things now and then, but don’t be surprised if nothing is heard of me for a few months at a time. Things should hopefully resume back to a normal schedule sometime in 2011. Till then, I shall be looking for signs of the Necronomicon and the Mad Arab in the Cradle of Civilization.
I have swam, biked, and run the 2009 Inagural Augusta Ironman 70.3 and have lived to speak of it!
It has taken a lot of training, and a lot of time, to get to the point where I could feel comfortable with my level of fitness to compete in this event. It has also taken a lot of time and effort to get everything needed and ready to get ourselves down to Georgia. None of this could have been done without the support of my awesome wife Tiffany! 
So now the race…
It was a bit hectic and stressful, getting to transition, setting up the gear, then jogging the 1.25 miles back to swim start in flip-flops with 15 minutes to my wave start. Things were finally starting to calm down for me. I hear someone say “Did you feel the water? It’s freezing!” I laugh to myself. I felt it the day before and it felt just like the water in the pool at the Y back in Salem, MA. These southeners don’t know about cold water. 
Then, as I was standing there with 2 minutes till wave start, something dawned on me… I realized, “Hey… where do we get the timing chips?” One guy says “I don’t know” (I don’t think he got timed at all). Someone else says “Way down there under the bridge”… “Holy crap!” I think, and immediately set about to sprinting 100 meters in a full wetsuit on a 68 degree morning on rough asphalt in bare feet! I grabbed my chip, strapped it on, and started sprinting back to the start with 47 seconds to go. I got there just in time to see my wave already 20 meters out, dropped into the water, and procedded to feel like I was going to die!
Never, ever try to swim after sprinting 200 meters in a wetsuit! For the first quarter mile, I was panting so heavily, I started feeling feint. I wanted to unzip my collar, and kept reaching for my collar, and kept forgetting the wetsuit zips from behind. (Thats how panicky I started getting) I actually stopped to tread water and look for a kayak, with thoughts of “Do not DNF! Do not DNF!” (Did Not Finish) and “I’m totally gonna pass out and drown!” in my mind. Fortunately, I noticed someone floating on their back, and decided to back stroke till I caught my breath. The last mile of the swim went well enough except for my tendancy to drift back and forth across the channel, instead of straight ahead. Despite all this, I still managed to come in at half an hour instead of the hour, I thought it would take. (Thank goodness for the helpful current!)
The run out of the water to Transition 1, was a rather painful run with wet feet on more rough asphalt. grabbed the spare water bottle, washed the feet off (Great idea!), and was quite thankful I opted to swim with my cycling jersey on under the wetsuit, as they are very hard to put on when your skin is damp. Oops! I forgot to un-velcro the shoes and loosen them to save those few seconds! Oh well, it wasn’t too bad of a transition. I grabbed the bike and headed off for the ride.
The 56 miles of cycling turned out to mostly be through South Carolina. I was told it was a very flat course, but holy cow, those hills were rolling and long. I’m used to the short steep hills of Massachusetts, but these long hills were killing me. Still I managed to keep it at an average speed of 18mph, 1mph faster than my planned goal. It also helped that all over the place were soldiers from Fort Gordon, mostly new recruits, who were like my own personal fan club when they spotted my “Army Strong” jersey. I was a bit worried about tiring myself out, but the ride went well, and was very fun, with comments and jokes tossed around between riders here and there, and beautiful country side all around.
Transition 2, went decently, although I did have to make a port-a-potty break before heading out. I guess I hydrated a little too well on the bike ride. I’m not sure why the transition took as long as it did, but maybe it was the extra gels I loaded up into my pockets.
The run… The run was the killer. There were two major issues with the run. The first: Apparently, I need a new endurance electrolyte mix for the bike stage, because the EFS gave me a serious case of gas and diarrhea. Ever try running with that? It’s not fun for 13 feet, and it’s even worse for 13 miles. The second issue, is both my knees, the Iliotibial Bands more precisely, decided to go and invalidate months and months of training. My mind and body were ready to slog out a nice slow jog for 2 hours and 12 minutes… My knees (and stomach) had other ideas. Fortunately, and a life saver to me (as well as to him), I immediately out of the gate, ran into a great guy named Jeremy, from Texas. My issues and his cramps/seizing nuscles happened to be completely in tune for the entire 13.1 miles, and we kept each other company, and kept each other going. We may not have been able to run the last couple of miles, but it was still quite the experience.
Thanks to Tiffany for being there for me, and helping me accomplish one of my life goals. Thanks to Jeremy for helping me push myself on the run, past the pain. Thanks to my friends and family for all the well wishes and help. And thanks to the 500+ soldiers of Fort Gordon who were there with little bits of motivation through the bike and run phases!
I may not be able to bend my knees, or to really walk right now, but I did it!
So what’s next? 140.6 miles? I kind of doubt it, but maybe it’ll happen. Once you inflame the IT bands, especially seriously, they become a plague upon the knees. I foresee many sprint Tri’s being done. I see a 70.3 tattoo in the works. I see other accomplishments to be done. I see myself fondly retelling how I almost died in the Savanah River.
Swim: 32:52
T1 Swim-to-Bike: 5:40
Bike: 3:05:06
T2 Bike-to-Run: 4:06
Run: 2:43:42
Total: 6:31:26
Age Group: 240/537
Overall: 2064/3318
This past Sunday, I raced in my first Triathlon, fittingly, at the 1st Annual Gloucester Triathlon! It was a blast! From 600+ athletes singing the National Anthem before the race start, to the final crossing of the finish line, it was a race to instill the urge for more.
The race distances were .3 Mile swim, 15 Mile bike, and 3.2 Mile run. Something that suprised me a whole lot was even though I felt absolutely drained and felt like I was jogging at a walking pace, I actually ran 3.2 miles in 21 minutes! That’s faster than a 7-minute mile pace!
Lessons learned:
You can find my results at CoolRunning. Look for me in place #229
I have to say, as excited as I was when I first heard the news, I am equally unexcited upon seeing the details. Oh well. If you want to read the details, you can find them at PocketGamer UK.
On a more Lovecraftian note, if you want to experience some Lovecraftian creepiness, go to a beach with lots of sea weed. Play with the sea weed, then go walk around in the water. Is that the bulbous tendrils of the sea weed drifting past your ankles? Or is it something else, something old and living, softly caressing your limbs, waiting for the right moment to pull you under?
Have fun at the beach!
Well, I’m back from the California desert. Man was it hot! Up to 132 degrees where the main camp was, and up to 136 in Death Valley!
I’m still a bit overwhelmed with trying to get caught back up, and I’ve got zero backlog of comics, and no ideas for new ones, so things are pretty hectic. Hopefully, everything will be back to normal next week, with resumed postings on Lovecraftian and SteamPunky goodness!
By the time you read this, I’ll be off doing Army training in the deserts of Southern California. Whee! This of course means that posts will be temporarily delayed till I get back at the end of July. I’ll try to keep my eyes open for anything questionable and Lovecraftian out there in the SoCal wastelands.
