Last year I bitched and moaned about having to do the Mt. Rainier duathlon because it was all the way over in Enumclaw and had a 2 mile hill that sucks ass to climb. Jason Jedi mind-tricked me into racing and I ended up taking 3rd in my age group. This year I did the duathlon again, and since I’ve been hitting my workouts pretty diligently and am training for a fatty Ironman, the race was one of my best ever. This year to prep for the duathlon, I ended up riding the course four times in one day (gotta love those long long long training rides) and got to know the Mud Mountain Road hill quite intimately. I also did a bike ride with some girls over Teresa’s bachelorette weekend that included an absolutely absurd 6+ mile hill that took me an hour to climb. After wimpily conquering that, Mud Mountain Road felt like a piece of cake. Throw in some good track workouts to improve my runs and I felt pretty good waking up at the butt crack of dawn on Sunday morning to race. Last year I raced a 1:36:37. My only goal this time around was to PR and to try and bike 50 minutes or under (I biked a 51:22 last year). Jas and I showed up and set up our transition areas. It was cold but sunnier than last year, and it ended up warming up fairly quickly so I just raced in my usual tri gear and threw on some arm warmers for good measure. Some of my training buddies raced in bike shorts, which I cannot fathom how comfortable it is to waddle-run with a huge cushy load near your ass and taint. Most of my teammates raced the long course but five of us represented Team Shorty. We started the race and I pushed myself to run a good but not super strenuous first leg so that I wouldn’t feel like collapsing once I got to transition. After the first 1.6 mile run I grabbed my bike and embarked as fast as I could. I felt pretty good and kept mentally telling myself to push it during the bike part of the race. When I got to the Mud Mountain Road hill, I had my best climb to date. Don’t get me wrong, it was still kind of crappy and I got passed by better climbers, but I felt pretty good and steady and was able to scale it without feeling like I was going to crap myself afterwards. (Plus, I re-passed just about everyone who passed me on the hill, so suck it.) When I got back to transition, a couple of my teammates who weren’t racing that day shouted some words of encouragement and told me, to my surprise, that I was the third female to finish the bike portion. I clickity-clacked into transition to rack my bike and pull on my Zoots, and Jason’s parents cheered me on. Jason’s mom said, “I think you’re the first female!” When I responded with, “I heard I was third,” she said, “Oh…those must have been some manly looking women then.” I chuckled and started run #2. My pace felt a bit fast but steady, and I just kept thinking push push push. I still felt good and just wanted to have a good race. At one point I passed a female and got excited, but then another female went blowing by me and I never caught up to her. She ended up beating me by about 30 seconds. *shakes fist* Anyway, I was maybe less than a mile from the...

K-Swiss has a new commercial that I stop to watch whenever it airs (quite a feat considering I buffer most shows so I can fast-forward through ads). Here it is: Aside from how jaunty and fun it is, I love that K-Swiss is giving triathletes mucho love in this commercial. My favorite moments: The triathlete warming up his arms before the swim The K-Swiss-clad dude sprinting with a bad-ass look on his face The swimmers emerging from the water, with one sporting a cheeky shark fin attached to his back The pack of triathletes busting it out on their bikes, with the guy in red passing a group and looking behind him before turning back with a wry little smirk on his face (so adorable) And, of course, Chris Lieto coming down the chute towards the finish, pointing up towards the sky and starting his victory celebration. My heart swells and I get a lump in my throat every time I see this part as I think about my (hopeful) finish at Ironman Canada this summer. I think this ad is a great branding effort by K-Swiss to show consumers that they offer a vast array of apparel and footwear aside from standard tennis shoes (which is what I thought they primarily specialized in). Showing tennis players, runners, triathletes, young people having fun and looking stylish, and other scenarios mixed in paints K-Swiss as a fun company that can help you train hard, have fun, and look good. So far I’ve taken the bait — I’ve bought a pair of blue Ironman running shoes (the K-Ona S) that are pretty awesome, and I want to follow suit with these bad boys (Jas already has a pair — I call them his ruby red slippers). So good on ya, K-Swiss. Way to give triathletes some love and make yourself look like a fun, energetic company. You’ve done what few commercials have accomplished nowadays: busted through my formidable...