a great few weeks!

It's been a while since I've posted... mostly just general busy-ness and high school exit exam testing last week!

Several more successful events in the past month - February 22-23rd saw 7 kids and myself going up to Folsom to volunteer at a duathlon and a great time was had by all. Pictures are at http://picasaweb.google.com/hightri/camping The week after that was our second time doing the Tree Fresno race in downtown Fresno. 12 participated -including Eric's family (mom and 4 siblings!) It was absolutely amazing to see them racing! First race for Francisco too which was cool. Albert got 10th place overall, and beat me by about 8 minutes in the six mile race. (I got about 45 mins, so about a 7:30 mile).

This past weekend we figured since it was spring break it'd be cool to do a big camping thing. So I took 9 kids along with fellow teacher Wendy up to Folsom. We borrowed mountain bikes from Jen/CSU Fresno Triathlon Club, and 7 kids did the Chanoko Duathlon either as a relay or individual. (2 mile run, 12 mile Mountain Bike, 2 mile run). I did the six mile trail run and completed it in about 50 minutes which considering the hilly terrain I was happy with!

We will practice this week but not a whole lot... I need a break too! This morning I rode 30 miles and it felt great! I did get a flat tire though. This afternoon I'm going to do some reflection time at Woodward Park and probably do some running as well; Ironman California 70.3 is LESS than two weeks away!

This weekend I was pleased that I felt much more like the coach than previous trips. Last year I focused a lot on mentoring and that kinda thing... this year i feel like I know the kids less, but it is helpful sometimes too because they seem to be more willing to share stuff sometimes too and there's less risk of them telling me something they shouldn't. However I still feel the relationships being developed on this team are incredibly powerful. It gets more complicated sometimes when I go on a trip such as this past one and I know for sure that I have strong relationships with at least 4 of them - tensions sometimes rise if they perceive favoritism and such. But that's life. It was a great trip and after a great time talking with my girlfriend Meagan last night, I'm on cloud nine right now! And my car's in the shop so I'm stuck at home :-)