Category: Sports

Daily Flip 5 – SGTRI

Well, I did another triathlon last weekend, the SGTRI.  Actually, while a different race, it was the same venue from my first full tri which got cancelled due to weather after the swim.  This time wind and waves got the swim start delayed, and then cancelled as well.  I’m not having good luck at this venue.  So, the race organizers turned it into a run-bike-run event.  It turns out this was a really hard course, both the bike an the run.  They were much harder than I had expected.  I bombed on the last run, but finished, so I guess that’s something.

I did the tri with my friend, Matt, and my brother, Cory.  Matt lives here in Mesa and Cory lives in Park City, UT.  Matt and I had planned on having me fly us up to St. George, UT, where the event was.  That would turn an 8 or so hour drive into a 2 hour flight.  Then my brother asked if I could come pick him up near Park City…so of course, I agreed.  After dropping Matt and our gear off at St. George Airport (KSGU), I got back in the plane and flew up to Provo, UT (KPVU) and picked up my brother.  Then we both flew back to Hurricane, UT (1L8) where our rental home was as well as the actual triathlon (Hurricane is about a 20 minute drive from St. George).  Matt and I got to fly over the western edge of the Grand Canyon both ways.  Here are a couple of pics from that.

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We stayed in a great house that was only a couple of miles from the start of the race, so we were able to ride our bikes in on the morning of the tri…no parking or waiting in long car lines necessary.  It was great!  My friend, Jen, from high school and her husband, Marcello, drove up from their home in Las Vegas to cheer us on and take some great photos.

We had a great time.  I wasn’t happy with my performance, but that just gives me some additional motivations in my training…I’ll improve for next time.  Even so, I got to hang out with a lot of great people, got to race in a triathlon, and got to do a lot of flying!  A great weekend, indeed, despite Sandy Hill.

I dedicated a daily flip video to the experience.  It’s a little long for a daily flip, but I hope you enjoy it.

Daily Flip 4-Training

Matt and I are competing in the St. George Triathlon this Saturday, May 9th, so today’s daily flip was a nice easy training ride we took yesterday.  I’m not as prepared for this tri as I was for my last one (physically), but I think mentally I’m even more prepared.  No matter, it should be fun.

I’m flying Matt and I up to the event on Friday and flying home on Sunday in the Skylane.  We were lucky enough to be able to rent a home very close to the Tri venue and not too far from the small GA airport that we will be flying into in Hurricane, UT.  Should be pretty convenient.

Enjoy today’s daily flip of Matt and I goofing around on the bikes, enjoying the outdoors, and generally having a fun ride with very little pain.  That’s a first for a while.  Some of it is jumpy when I was doing a point of view charging down a hill in the wind…but that’s what it feels like on the bike sometimes…so I left it in.

Daily Flip 3-Not a Belly-Itcher

Today’s daily flip comes from the weekend warrior files.  For the second weekend in a row, my wonderful wife, Crystal, has organized a softball game for a big group of our friends.  Today, for some reason, both Crystal, and later myself, both had our quads start to seize up on us.  Is it a sign of age?  Crystal and I are both fairly active.  She plays racquetball and works out at the gym all the time.  I’ve been training for a triathlon.  Still, though, lately playing softball and spending an hour at the batting cages recently seems to be taking a toll on us.  As it turns out, we’re not alone.  Many of our compadres were feeling a little stiff tonight during and after the game.  Maybe we are just getting old…who knows?  One thing I do know, though, is that once your at the field, pain or not, there’s no NOT playing…so there we all were, having a blast.

We got some Gyro’s from George’s before the game, and Todd and Rachel broke out donuts afterwards for Todd’s birthday.  Also, a lot of fun softball under the lights in between.  I hope you enjoy today’s flip video.

Getting excited for ASU Football

It’s August, and that means we’re in the month of the first ASU game of the 2008-2009 college football season.  In Arizona, it doesn’t really feel like football yet because it’s still so hot…but I know it’s coming, and I’m starting to get excited.  The group of people that I have season tickets with has grown once again…so I think we have a group of 12 or so, now…so it keeps getting better and better.

This is a huge season for ASU, too.  It’s the sophomore season for (not so new anymore) head coach Dennis Erickson, and after a phenomenal debut season last year for him, expectations are high.  Add to that a couple of returning players who were injured last year as well as a maturing team that didn’t loose too much talent, and we have a recipe for a great season.

While every game is important, and because the PAC 10 is so competitive and is structured in such a way that everyone plays everyone (unlike, say, the SEC or the Big 12) it’s even more so, there are a couple of games that stand out.  First, of course, is USC.  Once again, USC is expected to win the PAC 10…but hopefully Dennis and friends will have something to say about that.  But if we head outside of the conference, there’s an equally big game with top ranked Georgia.  I’m already having flashbacks to Nebraska and 19-0, but I’ll try not to get ahead of myself.

In any case, we’re in for an exciting year, and I personally can’t wait for it to get started at the end of this month.  Here is the Sun Devil 2008 schedule.

Date Opponent Home/Away Time
8/30/08 Northern Arizona Home 7:00 PM
9/6/08 Stanford Home 7:00 PM
9/13/08 UNLV Home 7:00 PM
9/20/08 Georgia Home 5:13 PM
10/4/08 California Away TBA
10/11/08 USC Away TBA
10/25/08 Oregon Home TBA
11/1/08 Oregon State Away 7:15 PM
11/8/08 Washington Away TBA
11/15/08 Washington State Home TBA
11/28/08 UCLA Home 7:30
12/6/08 UA Away TBA

GO DEVILS!

Obie Loves the Sun Devils

This is my friend, Obie, having some fun at the wildcats’ expense when we found an abandoned U of A cap after ASU beat them on December 1st.  Don’t worry…the Calvin impression he’s doing is all special effects…but gets the point across.  Besides…this was a home game, and he wouldn’t defile Sun Devil Stadium like that.

Sorry for the small sized pics…but this was taken with my camera phone at night…lots of camera shake and a small sized photo to boot.  I think the idea is clear, though.

GO DEVILS!

The Holiday Bowl

Well…its official.  The Sun Devils, even in a tie for the PAC 10 title with USC and a fabulous 10-2 season, were snubbed from the BCS.  Oh well…you can’t control it, so you’ve got to roll with the punches.  We take on a very respectable Texas team on December 27th in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.  I’m trying to get a party bus together to drive down (and when I say party bus, I mean several 30-something dads who have to get permission from their wives to rent an RV an drive to San Diego right after Christmas).

Tickets are available now.  ASU and Texas have, believe it or not, never played each other…ever.  That’s something like 105 years of football…and they’ve never met.  Should be a great game…and a win in this bowl game will be a perfect cap to an unbelievable season for the Devils.  Could have gone better…but we’ve gotten used to much worse over the past 5 years.  String a couple seasons like this together…and Dennis Erickson will have earned his money and his accolades.

Great job this year, Sun Devils.  One more to go.  Go Devils!

sparky



Not undefeated, but still in it

My Sun Devils are no longer undefeated, but going to the Rose Bowl is still in our own hands!  Our only loss came in Autzen stadium to Oregon, so both teams are tied for 1st place in the PAC 10 with a record of 6-1.  Oregon holds the tie-breaker because our loss was against them.  That puts them in the driver’s seat to win the PAC 10 and go to the Rose Bowl…assuming that they win out.  Since they are now ranked number 2 in the BCS standings, though, they will go to the National Championship game if they win out…leaving ASU (again, assuming no losses against USC and UofA) to represent the PAC 10 in the Rose Bowl.  Assuming ASU wins out and Oregon suffers one more loss, again, ASU would go to the Rose Bowl as the sole PAC-10 champs.  The only thing ASU has to do is win their last two games!

The next game is on Thanksgiving day at home against USC.  This will be the big test.  On December 1st, ASU faces Arizona at home.  This is a very winnable game, but Arizona, with nothing much to be proud of, will base their season on this game…so the Devils will need to be ready.

Okay…now on to more College Football Poll insanity.  Okay, I can buy the top three teams in the BCS Standings (LSU, Oregon, Kansas).  They deserve to be there.  I would swap LSU and Oregon, though.  Kansas is a tough one…they are the only major conference team to be undefeated right now…but their schedule is laughable this year (not playing Texas, Texas Tech, or Oklahoma).  They definitely deserve to be in the top 3…where they go, that’s tougher.

Now, on to the rest of the top 10.  This is where it gets just plain silly.  I’m going to compare all these teams to ASU, since that is what I care about…but it helps demonstrate the absurdity.  First, why is Ohio State ranked above ASU at this point (and now I’m talking about the human polls…because that’s where the tradition garbage comes in).  Let’s see…both have one loss, but that’s where the similarity ends.  One of those teams plays in a terrible conference.  One of those teams lost at home to an unranked opponent from that terrible conference.  One of those teams has no notable wins at all.  The other team plays in arguable the best or second best conference.  That team lost to the number 2 team in the nation who is from that powerful conference.  Figure that one out.  What about West Virginia?  C’mon…the Big East?  West Virginia lost to South Florida who was exposed recently as a mediocre team with their 3 game loosing streak to non top 20 teams.  And some of their wins are against teams like Western Michigan, Marshall, and East Carolina (where the freak is East Carolina?).  There is no logic that should rank them above ASU.  Missouri plays in a decent conference, but the Big 12 North is much weaker than the south…and Missouri probably won’t even win that half of the conference to play in the title game?  We’ll see, but if that’s the case, how can they be ranked ahead of ASU?  Oklahoma is a good team…and probably deserves a top 5 or so ranking…but they did loose to an unranked team that ASU beat handily…so again, should they be ranked above ASU?  These rankings really need to have more to do with what has happened on the field and less to do with where the voters think they should be based on where they were ranked last week, when was the last national championship, and what color uniforms they wear (and other irrelevant things).  What happens on the field matters.

That’s it…