Sneakers

Over everything else, the most important item you need to do a triathlon is good running sneakers. Jessica's were way old and worn-down, so on advice from Karen, we went to JackRabbit in Union Square. What makes JackRabbit particularly awesome is that they film you running on a treadmill, then analyze the footage to see what kind of a runner you are -- and then recommend the appropriate shoes. And there's no obligation to buy, which is good 'cause I'm cheap.

Check out the nifty lil' camera by the bottom.


Jess jumped on the treadmill first.

Jess ran for a few minutes and then let out a whine: "I RUN LIKE A GIRL!"

I had no idea what this meant, but I decided not to say anything. This is one of those lose-lose situations in a relationship.

Here I am taking my turn on the treadmill.


It turns out that the sneakers I have are pretty good for the type of runner I am (slight overpronator), which is just dumb luck since I only picked 'em 'cause they looked nice.

Jess bought her sneakers and I tried on a bathing suit, which was incredibly small. I'm used to bathing suits that hang down to my knees. This one...not so much. Jess squealed, grabbed the camera and took pictures of my butt, which I will not post here. Not yet, anyway. I still need you to donate.

Here's a pretty nifty close-up of the camera where they do all the analyzing, frame by frame.

I highly recommend this place -- prices are reasonable (sneakers are expensive everywhere!) and the staff is quite nice as well.

The First Step of Many

Saturday, January 9th: Jessica and I officially sign up for Team in Training and the 2010 Nautica New York City Triathlon!

The idea of doing a triathlon had been rolling around in my head since September, when I did the NYC Century Bike Tour, completing my first 100-mile ride (a little more, to be exact). Jess got me hooked on bike riding a couple of years ago, and since then, I keep looking for bigger and better goals to cross. A few conversations and suggestions with my buddy (and triathlete extraordinaire) Mike Graffeo sealed the deal. I picked up a book he suggested and started reading, but felt like I'd be more interested in training with other people. I'm just one of those people who functions better in athletic endeavors when being motivated by others.

My friends Sarah and Jared had both done endurance events with Team in Training, and couldn't say enough positive things about the experience. It seemed like a win-win: train hardcore with excellent athletes, and raise money for a charity.

I signed up for a Team in Training informational session in early December, and I admit I was surprised when Jessica said she wanted to join me, as I've done most of my endurance rides on my own. But I should know better by now than to be surprised by anything Jessica does, and away we went to the meeting...which was both awesome and inspiring. The only thing stopping us from signing up was that the meeting was to register for their spring season endurance events, and we were attending one of the last information sessions -- and training had already started. So we decided to hold out until they started recruiting for the summer season, which brings us up to now!

The meeting was held just 10 minutes from our house, which was extremely appealing since nothing we do seems to take place in Astoria. Karen Satterthwaite (one of the Campaign Coodinators) led the meeting, and once again we were completely inspired. And so we signed up! We paid our registration fees, got our t-shirts, and felt awesome about the whole thing.

We have some time until training starts, so right now we're starting to focus on the most important part of the entire event: fundraising. Participants are challenged to raise $2700 each for the cause, which is a lot of money. Jessica and I are faced with an even bigger challenge in that many of our contacts are the same. However, we are both completely optimistic that we'll be able to raise $5400 minimum -- but we have every intention of surpassing that goal as well!

So now it's off to figure out our fundraising strategy, make lists of all the awesome people we know who will be willing to donate to the cause, and to get our proper gear for training! We don't know what we're doing yet, but we do know that Team in Training is totally going to prepare us for the entire thing. And we can't wait.

Oh, did I mention we plan to blog the whole thing? With photos and everything?

At the Astoria meeting in our new shirts, 1/9/10

We totally made Karen pose with us, most likely against her will, but she's nice so she let us get away with it.