The Gillens.net

Sarah and I went out to San Francisco (SF) this past weekend so I could “Escape From Alcatraz”. But before I jumped off the boat, we had the opportunity to do some nice sightseeing. We did a leisurely, romantic hike along some coastal bluffs on the Peninsula south of SF. We also drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, braved the strong, chilly winds, and took in some amazing views of the SF skyline, Alcatraz, and the bridge from the Marin Headlands. Then, after driving the bike course, we warmed up by enjoying nice hot clam chowder in a bread bowl on Fisherman’s Wharf. We even squeezed in a quick trip to Ghirardelli Square to buy some chocolate before boarding our 2 hour sunset cruise on the bay. Despite the lack of a true sunset, it was very romantic and a definite highlight of our trip. Believe it or not, this was all on Friday.

Saturday, we slept in and enjoyed a nice big brunch at one of our favorite Bay Area breakfast joints called Hobee’s. Then, we drove back up to SF for the race festival so I could pick up my race packet and goodie bag. After attending the pre-race briefing, Sarah went for a nice jog while I hopped in Aquatic Park for 25 minute practice swim in my wetsuit. Afterwards, we walked around Alamo Square as Sarah had never seen the Painted Ladies.

Sunday was race day. 3 or 4 times during the swim, I’d stop and take in the amazing and incredibly unique perspective of the city skyline, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate Bridge from water level. Words cannot describe the view or feeling, but these pictures taken from a competitor last year do a pretty good job. The 1500 racers crowded on to a short course with steep hills and pot-holed filled roads made for a tough bike. The run was sheer blast as most of it was run on trails with great views of the coast and Golden Gate Bridge. Overall it was great experience. If you want more details, you can read my full race report here.

This was my first true triathlon adventure and I couldn’t have done it without Sarah’s support. She was absolutely great all weekend. She’d wait with my huge bike case as I’d take care the rental car. She’d drive when I needed to focus on the bike course. She waited in line for me at the festival so I could walk around and see the exhibits. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful and caring wife, and I never take that for granted.

More pictures here. You can also see a short 30 second video of me crossing the finish line. Click on the broadband link on this page, and then look for me towards the middle to end.

-David

I had been accepted this spring into another TRIO training program, this time in New York! I didn’t want to pass up the offer, even though I had just barrelled through finals, gone to San Diego, and am planning to leave for San Francisco in a couple days for David’s race, since NYC can be a great location to mix work with some fun.

The training took place at The Roosevelt Hotel on 45th and Madison Ave. Theater, shopping, Grand Central Terminal, and Central Park were all within reach. I’m not a big shopper, but I did have a blast strolling through FAO Schwarz picking out cute items for Molly and gawking at $7,500 hand-carved rocking horses. (Sorry, Molly, no rocking horses from FAO for you!) I spent the majority of my free time, though, either looking for new places to dine or running at Central Park. I did a short 4-miler on Thursday, followed by a 10-miler on Saturday. Within those two runs, I expect I dodged roughly 1,000 bikers, 5,000 other runners, 900 strollers, 700 dogs, 8,000 walkers, 20 horse carriages, and a few, unexpected taxis. I didn’t get an exact count, but that felt about right. Wow! Am I blessed to live in Flower Mound where a “busy” running day means I shared the side walk with 4-6 others, or what?

Of course the highlight of the trip was taking a short visit on Friday to West Point to see Clint. I was easily able to catch a train at Grand Central to Garrison. A couple of taxis were waiting to cart passengers to WP. Knowing that the next day was graduation, I didn’t completely realize how busy post would be the day before. I thought I had left the mayhem and people in Manhattan…but I guess they followed me! Clint and I met up at Thayer Statue and headed to find his pick-up and get away from the crowds. We took a short drive to see the new rugy complex, and I did manage to get a couple of pictures. (It’s my habit to forget to take pictures.) I offered to treat Clint to lunch, and the thing he had his stomach set on was chicken fried steak at Chili’s. So, we went. It was a great opportunity to spend a couple hours visiting about all kinds of things - the war, family, his coursework, and, of course, a few well-animated stories about various “crazy characters” he’s encountered lately.

Although the trip to WP as short, it was excedingly worthwhile! It was a tough realization afterwards, though, that not only was this one of the first times in the past few years that I had this much alone-time with my brother to talk, but it may have been the last before he graduates. I will definitely try to make it a priority to get out at least one more time to share some good conversation time before he is assigned to a mission.

More pictures here.

After a long and tough semester, Sarah had earned a well deserved vacation and we decided to go visit my sister in San Diego. Cyndee had to work on Friday, so Sarah and I went to our favorite attraction, the Zoo! We absolutely love this place, especially the hippos and the polar bear exhibits. There is something really cool about seeing such majestic and large animals underwater and up close! The elephants and sea lion show were also a lot of fun. After the zoo but before Cyndee got home, Sarah and I drove to La Jolla cove so I could get in a practice ocean swim in preparation for my Escape From Alcatraz triathlon in 3 weeks. After that, the three of us grabbed some burgers and then went to see Spiderman 3.

After a Saturday morning run, we went to eat a really popular brunch place called the Hash House. We then drove down to the Harbor and Seaport Village to see a street performers competition. The performers themselves were not as interesting as simply the scenery down there. We then went the Birch Aquarium and “Children’s Pool” in La Jolla. Children’s Pool is this small protected cove where a whole bunch of harbor seals lay around and play. After another nice meal at 60s diner called Corvettes, we just chilled at Cyndee’s place. It was a great, albeit short vacation.

More photos here.

My sister, Cyndee, finally moved out of the state about 2 months ago, and this weekend was the first time I had an opportunity to go visit her. She found a really nice 2 bedroom apartment in just a couple of days of searching. It’s in a great location near Balboa Park, the zoo, and couple of major highways. Her commute is about 30 minutes which seems long for her, but it pretty reasonable for SoCal. In short, she’s done quite well for herself, and I’m really proud of her.

I drove her to work on Friday AM, and then I drove to Del Mar and walked around the beach bluffs. It was very pleasant despite the overcast skies. It was my first time to see the California coast since I used to live in the San Jose, and it brought back found memories of many hike/jogs along the coast. I then drove up to Encinitas and walked around a little more and saw some high quality beach volleyball play at 9:30am and I thought that was really cool and something you’d never see in Texas. At 10am, the triathlon shop, Nytro, opened up, and I went it. It had a lot of very nice and top of the line tri bikes, but it was quite a bit smaller than Richardson Bike Mart. After the tri shop, I drove south to Torrey Pines State Reserve and went on a really scenic hour long hike along the coastal bluffs again. After grabbing a little to eat, I drove back east to the Poway area, and went on a nice 2 hour trail run that had incredible views of the Poway and Ramona Lakes nestled up high in the mountains. It was definitely one of my most scenic trail runs.

I picked Cyndee up and drove to La Jolla Cove. Cyndee and we threw the frisbee around for little bit, and then I changed into my wetsuit and prepared for my first ocean swim ever! I was a little nervous, but honestly, I was more excited because the ocean wasn’t that rough and they were plenty of people out there swimming, so I was pretty confident that I’d be safe.

After diving in, the very first thing I noticed was how cold the water was on my face and forehead. It was a very sharp and intense pain right on the top of the head as it moved through the water. I was really worried about this, but thankfully it went away after about 4-5 minutes, and after that it didn’t even really feel that cold. We regrouped at the quarter mile buoy and it was nice to rest for a few minutes and chat with the other triathletes. I was shocked how little I had to tread water b/c the wetsuit and the salt water. It was really quite pleasant. Just hanging out there in the middle of La Jolla cove, treading water was really cool and one of the highlights of my trip.

On Saturday, Cyndee and I slept in and then walked 100 feet to a really nice coffee shop and had great Californian breakfast. We then drove to Balboa Park and walked around. We went to the photography museum which turned out to be really small and little disappointing.

Balboa Park in and of itself is the best attraction. We had great time just walking around. We then drove over to Point Loma and the Cabrillo National Monument which had incredible view of the entire San Diego area. This was definitely another highlight of my trip. I absolutely love walking around areas with scenic overlooks of a city!

On Sunday, I drove to Del Mar again and swam with the San Diego Triathlon Club again. This swim was quite different however because the surf was really up. Some of the breakers were about 8-10 feet, and swimming out past them proved quite difficult, and some of the swimmers didn’t make it. I just tried to dive under them, but they seemed to just keep coming and coming, and after what felt like 15 minutes (4-5 minutes real time) I was still battling them. I knew wasn’t make much ground, but I kept on pushing and eventually I made it past them. I was still pretty rough past the breakers, but this was good practice for the Alcatraz swim b/c it’ll be rough there too. Getting back in thru the waves was just as difficult. They’d crash over your head and you’d get washed around for few seconds. Then I’d try to come up and swim, but then the undertow from the wave seemed to push me back out to sea! It really felt like I was caught in the trough of the waves, getting pummeled from one side and sucked out by the undertow on the other side. Again, I knew I wasn’t making much progress on getting to shore, and I almost started panicking and I wanted to swim frantically against the undertow, but somehow I remained calm and I just thought that I’m not in a real hurry, and I’ll get to shore eventually. Just relax. You’ll make it! I felt much better once I relaxed, and I did in fact make it to shore! One the triathletes put a GPS unit in his swim cap and it measured 1.07 miles. Afterwards, some of the locals said that it was a unusually rough day for the area!

More pictures here.

I had kind of put races on the back-burner since classes, work, study, and home-life have kept me very busy this spring, but it was finally time to get out and get a couple more races (and, hopefully, awards) under my belt before I move into a new age group. Over the past few years, I have gotten comfortable being in a fairly non-competitive age group (women 25-29). However, turning thirty next year means I move into one of the most competitive age groups for women - ages 30-34. I’m hoping to learn a lot about getting stronger and faster from this new group…but it will be humbling.

So, the Big D Texas Half came up as a race to compete in because a fellow-student, Adeil Sanchez, from my Chemistry I class was running in it, too. It was his first, large organized road race, and I thought it’d be great to see him on the course and at the finish line.

David drove me to the Fair Park grounds, and I’m very glad he was there. Because of a very sad, unfortunate car accident that killed one woman and injured another man on I-30 only two hours before the race start, the highway was shut down. David did a great job, though, navigating through trucks and other cars to get me to the start on time.

The race start was delayed 15 minutes because of the highway conditions, but David and I visited, walked around, and stretched until the event started. And at 7:45 a.m, we were off!

I felt really good the entire race, slowing down to take Gatorade every now and then and to stretch a little. I conserved enough energy for the end, and I really tried to keep a consistent pace throughout. Early on, though, somewhere around mile 3, Adeil, the “rookie,” flew past me on a down-hill, looking very focused and strong. After another 6 or 7 miles, he was pretty much out of eye-shot!

The 13 miles really sailed by, and I’m always surprised at the end of a half marathon how quickly they really seem to go. At the finish line, I heard David cheering for me and saw him snapping photos. I also heard the announcer call my name. For probably the first time ever, I actually looked over at the clock to see what my finishing time was. I remember it reading something close to 1:43:05.  Unofficially, though, I was listed as second in my age group out of 148, and I received a medal at the awards ceremony.

Adeil finished 10th in his age group (males 20-24), with a time around 1:40:38. David and I look forward to seeing him at more events.

I really enjoyed this race for a number of reasons. 1) It’s just the right size to not feel overwhelmed by people before, during, and after the race. 2) The awards for best aid station really seemed to get the volunteers motivated and energized when we came through. 3) The Fair grounds are a great venue because of plenty of parking, lots of space to walk around, and plenty fried snickers bars and hot dogs. 4) The announcer/director, whose name we still don’t know, is a genuinely nice man and very encouraging to the runners at all his events we’ve attended.

You can see photos here.