Cait made chocolate Blue Moons for us to serve
with the Godiva cupcakes.LATEST NEWS: DUXBURY 4TH OF JULY ROAD RACE HIJACKED, OR 'BUSINESS AS USUAL' IN DUXBURY.
In a completely unprecedented move, the Duxbury 4th of July Road Race, which for the past 4 years was put on by Pegasus Elite Athlete Management was the victim of a hostile take-over by the Duxbury Education Foundation with the help of 'senior administration' in Duxbury Town Government. The coup, which was finalized with a permit issued by the Board of Selectmen on February 8th prompted a letter by me sent to the Board of Selectmen and the Town Manager. To date this letter has not been answered.
The move, which has sparked outrage by race directors and event planners across the region has been justified by those who will benefit from this move as a way to "keep the proceeds of this race in Duxbury". Apparently the school children of Duxbury and the 4th of July Committee were deemed charities more worthy than Muscular Dystrophy, Alzheimer's or wounded veterans (problems that DON'T happen in Duxbury?) and the "senior town administration was 'relieved' that DEF had stepped in in our absence" (we hadn't pulled a permit yet).
While there has been a lot of finger pointing and allegations, to date no one has stepped up to take credit for spear-heading the maneuver which we are supposed to believe happened by accident and was completely innocent. And although some members of DEF expressed 'horror' at the way this was handled and hoped that there would be no bad press as a result of the latest actions of an administration that operates behind closed doors, there has been no offer to right the wrong. I was offered an unspecified cut of the race to make me feel better about all this, which I have refused.
Let this be a warning to anyone who has a successful event in the Town of Duxbury that requires a town permit. How does something like happen? In Duxbury, because it can!
(and on a more pleasant note ......) Our Wedding
Mike and I tied the knot on New Year's Eve in front of a small group of friends and family. We had been planning on doing this for a while, but New Year's Eve seemed like the perfect night, especially since it was also a Blue Moon!
Cait made chocolate Blue Moons for us to serve
with the Godiva cupcakes.
Our friend, Chuck Buckley became a Justice of the Peace for our wedding and he performed the ceremony using the vows that we wrote.
Most of our friends were there, and the evening got sillier as it got closer to midnight ....
Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate this most wonderful day of an incredible year!
Hawaii Ironman 2009
Check out the pictures below and I hope they tell at least part of the story of race day. I thought it would be appropriate for MIKE to write the race report, since he's the one who raced, and you can read that at About The Races. Below, please enjoy a few pics. Click on any of the photos to enlarge them. - Beth
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Kona 2009 Part I
Thought I would write the first part of my Kona Blog today, even though the interesting part of our trip starts tomorrow! But we are holed up in the hotel room for the afternoon, trying to keep cool and off “our” feet, so time for me to slow down and start writing.
We arrived at the outdoor airport in Kona on Saturday, October 3rd at 5pm Kona time – 11 pm Boston time. It had been a long flight, but Mike and I had upgraded our seats and the flight was very comfortable. We changed planes in Honolulu, which is where we met up with Cait and Mikaela and all 4 of us flew to Kona together. As I could have predicted, our bikes did NOT make the flight from Honolulu (small plane) with us, and we had our first reminder that we were on “Island Time”.
The line grew as one Hawaiian man slowly took everyone’s information about their missing bikes. While Mike and I waited to describe our bike box, Mikaela and Cait got the car and took the first trip to drop off luggage. By the time Mike and I got to the counter, the next plane had landed with Mike’s bike aboard. We made a few stops – groceries etc. – and then got to our beautiful room at the Sheraton Keouhou Bay around 9 pm. We said goodbye to Cait and Mikaela – they had rented a house with some friends about a mile from us in the hills of Kona.
Sunday morning we got up around 6 am and headed downtown so
I could race a 5k. I thought, what the heck – must be a pretty light field with
all the studs racing Ironman this weekend. As soon as I got to the race start, I
saw Heather Fuhr, Paul Huddle, Mitch Thrower and several
other retired pros. Fortunately, there
were no retired female pros in the 50-59 age group and I got the win!
After I picked up my winner’s shwag, we all went to the swim start and went for a 30 min swim, then Mike and I saddled up and rode 3 hours on the course. As always, it was hot and windy and Mike rode like an animal. I had rented a sweet Cervelo P3 from Bike Works and I was really impressed with the way it rode. My next bike might just be a Cervelo! Sunday night Mike and I went down to the beach at our resort and had a picnic dinner. The picture to the right is our view ..........
On
Monday, Mike and I biked to the swim start for another 30 min swim. Mike had
a short run and I had an even shorter one. Then we rode back to our hotel
and hung around the pool area. I should mention that our hotel is just past
the end of the run turn-around on Alii Drive and it is in a VERY hilly area
of town. So any time we run and ride around here there is a LOT of climbing
involved. Add to the fact that the weather is high 80’s every day and you
get that an “easy” workout is almost impossible. I did one of my short
recovery runs on the treadmill in the air conditioned gym at our resort –
otherwise it wouldn’t have been “recovery”.
Tuesday was more of the same, but this time Mike rode by himself on the Queen K and then met Cait, Mikaela and me at the swim start. Each day gets busier at the swim start – and basically anywhere on the course – so a little hanging out goes a long way! After our workouts, Cait and Mike went to registration at the King K. Some of you may have heard that Active.com made a “small mistake” and had entered MY name into the race instead of Mike’s, so bib # 576 was assigned to Beth Kenney. We had been assured by everyone connected with the race that it would be taken care of, but Mike still had a pink swim cap in his bag and as he left registration and checked his chip it registered “Beth Kenney”. We will see what happens tomorrow! I might end up with the race of my life!
I forgot to mention that every day since we arrived, Mikaela has been surfing. She ran into “Kona Mike” (a surf instructor she had met last year) at the 5k on Sunday and they have been surfing together every day since. I tried to get a candid picture of them, but K-Mike and his buds noticed my camera and started a "pose-down"!
On Wednesday, Mike, Mikaela and I went snorkeling at Turtle Beach. It’s not really called Turtle Beach. The real name has an H, a K, and L, six vowels and two apostrophes, but we call it Turtle Beach. Cait had meetings with Oakley and Power Bar while we were playing. Turtle Beach is loaded with all kinds of tropical fish and of course, sea turtles. Mikaela is very funny when snorkeling – she floats along the top like a water bug – but she was thrilled to finally swim with a sea turtle. Wednesday night Cait and Mikaela went to a Saucony party, and Mike and I wandered around downtown. We had dinner at Lava Java’s (great for any meal), went to Borders to browse through books and came home for an early night.
Yesterday after the workouts we
went to the expo and hung around while Cait signed autographs at the Triathlete
Tent (with Cameron Brown and Luke MacKenzie). This is a really cool expo for
anyone who is truly into triathlon. All the famous names in triathlon then and
now are here, either giving speeches, signing autographs, or offering last
minute tips. Each day we bump into more friends that we know from the mainland
as well, many who we only see at triathlon, and also many from Massachusetts.
Last night Mike and I got his bike and race bags ready and went over last minute
details – especially the nutrition. We piled the bags and bike by the door for
check-in the next day. 
Today the girls met us at our hotel and Cait and Mike had a carbo load breakfast, while Mikaela and I had normal breakfasts while marveling at Cait and Mike. Mike then went to hang out with the girls while I did a 3 hour ride on the course followed by a 15 min run. I was amazed at how many people who are racing tomorrow were out there hammering on the course. I knew they were racing because they had their numbers on their bikes. Not a strategy I would employ, but to each his own.
The course was still hot and windy but I had a delicious tailwind coming back into town and hammered away, enjoying one of the last long bike rides I’ll have in summer-like weather this year. I finished my ride at the King K, where Cait and Mike dropped off their bikes and bike bags and took a tour of the transition area. Slowtwitch and Triathlete were taking the usual survey of bikes (I think Cervelo is going to come out on top, with Specialized coming 2nd).
We are now back at the hotel laying low. Dave DeSantis just flew in. He is racing in Maui on the 25th, having qualified for XTerra Worlds and is here to watch the Ironman World Championship. He has been texting me each time he sees an Ironman celebrity in town. We have been getting “good luck” texts and emails from all our friends and we are remarking how lucky we all are. I never like to wish any time away, but I can’t wait until tomorrow. Take care and I’ll talk to you all soon.
Until then, Aloha and Mahalo for your good
wishes!
Beth
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A typical training weekend .....
I happened to have the camera with me one weekend, so I thought I'd pass along a few photos taken during our training ...
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Two degrees of separation .... I'm just saying ........
Beth
with Kevin Livingston (left)
Kevin Livingston with Lance (below)
B2B 2009
Well, what can you say about B2B? First of all, for the uninitiated, it's a bike ride with 150 miles of climbing that starts at the Harpoon Brewery in Boston and ends at the Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, Vermont. I started to write about the day, but by the time I was done, it would have taken you as long to read it as it did for me to ride it, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves ....
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Weekend in Lake Placid
This weekend was actually a typical summer weekend for me in that it was spent watching clients race, and training with clients. It started very early (4:30) on Saturday morning when my daughter Mikaela and I headed to the Cape from Duxbury to volunteer at the Hyannis Sprint Triathlon and watch Keryn Murphy and Rachael Desantis race. The Hyannis Sprint gets nearly 900 athletes and about 850 of them are new to the sport, so it’s always a good check on the state of the sport.
Even though the water was nearly glass-like, the race director, Rich Havens had shortened the swim to 1/8 mile due to cold water. As everyone in New England knows, we have had a very mild (read: cold) spring and the water temp was probably about 65 degrees. Not everyone who does the Sprint wears a wetsuit and since many are beginners, he was probably concerned about people getting hypothermia.
Anyway, it was a good chance for Mikaela and I to see athletes we hadn’t seen in a while and Keryn and Rachael had great races and were very happy with the way things went. After the race, I met Mike at the basketball clinic he runs on Saturdays and we headed up to Lake Placid for our annual training weekend. This year Neil and Tucker Withington and Charles Williams were joining us. Lake Placid is a 6-hour drive from Duxbury, but it’s a pretty straight shot, and because Lake Placid is home to 10 year’s worth of happy memories, I never mind the drive.
We got into town at about 6pm and checked in to the Golden Arrow. I can never get into the Golden Arrow during the Ironman because it’s always sold out well in advance, but we always stay there during our training weekends. The hotel is one of the “greenest” places I’ve ever stayed. One of their roofs is covered with plants, and the beach is made of crushed limestone, which protects the pH of Mirror Lake.
We had an early dinner with Neil and Tucker and left a message for Charles and then headed off to bed. Neil, Charles and Mike were doing a half marathon in the morning and we wanted to get to bed early.
The Lake Placid Marathon and Half Marathon started at 8 am in front of the Olympic Oval so the 5 of us met in the lobby and walked down the street at 7:30 am. WAAAY more low key than the Boston Marathon! Tucker and I were on our bikes as we planned to bike around the course while Neil, Charles and Mike were racing.
The marathon and half marathon course is essentially the same course that the Ironman marathon is run on, which means there is only one hill, but it’s about 3 miles long! The race starts with a slight uphill and then around Mirror Lake and proceeds downhill for about 3 miles and then flat, flat, flat until mile 10. It’s such a pretty town and there are views of Whiteface Mountain and the Olympic ski jump along the way. The final 3 miles are uphill into town and then up the back way to the oval (the same way you go down on your bike out of T1).
While the runners were
running, Tucker and I scooted around the course on our bikes and got some good
hill work in. I am an expert at zipping around this course from years of
practice, so we got to see our people at the beginning, half-way through the
race and at the end. I actually saw Mike at mile 10 as well as I was able to get
around quicker than I thought. The weather was absolutely perfect for running
and was just starting to get warm at 10 am, and by then everyone from our group
was done. Everyone did great and Mike got a real chance to preview the course he
will run in July. Charles has done Lake Placid a couple of times, so he’s an old
hand at the course. 
After the race we went to
Charlie’s for a huge breakfast and then a little relaxation before meeting on
the beach to swim in Mirror Lake. By this point in the day it had really
started to get warm (upper 70‘s?) and we knew it was pouring back home, so we
were really getting cocky and taking pictures of the brilliant sunshine and
thinking we were the luckiest people in the world to be swimming in Mirror Lake.
For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, the lake is usually smooth as
glass and it’s only open to swimming and non-motorized boats. There is a cable
that runs the length of the rectangular Ironman swim course (2-loop course) so
you virtually never have to sight. Tucker got in the kayak, and the rest of us
got into our wetsuits to swim. We all went off in different directions. I
decided not to follow the cable and to just shoot off in random directions,
since I always swim following the course. After about 20 minutes of swimming
fairly close to shore, I decided to swim the course in backwards direction
hoping to bump into one of my training partners. As it gets closer and closer to
Ironman, more and more people will be swimming in the lake, but on this day
there were only two other people besides us. I bumped into those two, but could
only see the kayak at one end and Mike’s arms at the other end of the lake. We
had 
been
swimming about 40 minutes when the sky got dark and the lake actually got a
little choppy. It was fun swimming in the chop, but I was a little worried
because I couldn’t see where everyone was. Mike knows that “mother hen” side of
me, so he swam quickly over from the other side of the pond, checked in, told me
not to worry and took off again. I then saw the kayak and two sets of arms –
Neil and Charles, so all was well. All in all we spent about an hour swimming
in the Lake and really tired ourselves out, so by this time a nap was in order.
Hey, no one said these training camps aren’t grueling!
After a nice long nap, we met for an early dinner at The Carriage House. This is a place that we found along with Tim Walsh last year when we were up here training. They have a really nice outdoor patio with a view of the lake and patio heaters because it gets cold at night in LP. After dinner we walked back to the room and collapsed into bed after agreeing to meet for breakfast at 7:30 with plans to be on the bike course @ 9 am.
Morning rolled around and it was back to Charlie’s for breakfast and then out on the bikes to do the entire 2-loop 112-mile course. The course starts with a bit of a climb out of town, and then a really long down-hill before heading east on route 79 towards the town of Jay. When we were driving into town we noticed the condition of the roads was not good, and because the course was open and we’d be in traffic, we had planned on taking the downhill very cautiously. Neil and I let the guys go on ahead of us because they were going to descend faster than us no matter what. Just as we got to the beginning of the long descent, we noticed signs for road closures as they were working on the roads. Only one lane was closed however, so we decided to give it a try. Neil and I ended up getting stopped for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only 10 minutes as the line of traffic coming into town was allowed to pass. While we were waiting we talked to the flag man who told us that they were paving ALL of route 87 (yeah!) and would be done in time for Ironman. We also got to see two bald eagles soaring above us. When it was our turn to go, he let the line of cars go first and then Neil and I. So cool! We had the entire descent without one car as traffic was stopped in the other direction now, waiting for us! On our way down we saw wild turkeys slowly making their way across, and two white tailed deer quickly making their way across. It’s so hard to describe how beautiful that ride is. We met the guys at the bottom of the hill and took off towards Jay. This is a very flat section of the course and even though this time we had a head wind here, it’s usually quite fast. It was really getting warm as we started to climb out of Jay and towards Hazelton and the out-and-back. For some reason the ride really seemed to be going fast, and we made good time on the out and back too, which was good because at this point we were starting to notice darkening skies again.
We told the guys to head back to town and start their second loop and Neil and I were making plans to take a different route the second time around. Right at the bottom of the final assent into town (the section know as The Bears) it started to sprinkle. By mid-way up The Bears it was raining pretty steadily and we saw cracks of lightening in the distance. Neil was starting to get a little cold although for some reason I was not cold in my cycling singlet. My only concern was that it was white – not a great choice in the pouring rain! Oh, well.
The rain got heavier and heavier as we continued to climb and now rivers were
running down past us and my Oakley’s were working overtime to stay clear. I was
hoping that the guys hadn’t made it into town yet and started the gnarly descent
in this weather! My plan was to make it safely to the car and go out on the
course and fetch them as it was not showing signs of letting up. When we got to
the top and the final turn into town we saw the guys standing under the overhang
of the roof of a log cabin! They were waiting to make sure we made it safely up
the hill 
and
they had wisely scrapped plans for a second loop.
The rain was relentless as we made our way into town and we were riding through nearly pedal deep water if we stayed to the right. We rode as fast as we could back to the hotel and our cars, and got off the bikes just in time for the HAIL to start pounding us.
We all sat in our cars with the heat on high, trying to dry off and warm up. When we were dry enough to get out of the wet stuff, we changed clothes, waved good-bye from the safety of our cars and headed out of town. As much as I love that place, the weather can be crazy and unpredictable! Let’s hope that the unseasonably cool spring gives way to a blazing hot summer and we have nothing but blue sky the next time we are in Lake Placid!
