Back to Racing--First Time Trial

This morning I rode the first time trial race since before deployment.  The French call this race contre la montre, against the watch.  It is my least favorite kind of racing--alone, curled up into the smallest space possible and suffering at the highest speed you can maintain. 

This time trial was short, just 11 miles.  It was very windy.  The course was South-North out and back along a road that parallels the beach on the Chesapeake Bay near Delaware City.  The wind was above 20mph with gusts out of the west.  It was a side wind in both directions sometimes turning into a brief head or tail wind when the road twisted.

It was very cold and I got up late so I did not warm up very much--about 10 minutes.  I should warm up for a half hour and some of my best results came with an hour warm up.  I don't know where I finished, but I feel bad enough at 9pm tonight that I know I tried very hard.  

No racing next weekend, I have to play Army.  It will be a whole weekend of change of command ceremonies and awards, so I will be taking pictures for the entire weekend.

Emergency Leave

One of the stories I did not have time to write was a process story about how our unit handled emergency leaves. From the week we mobilized till the last weeks in Fort Dix, New Jersey, soldiers in Task Force Diablo got a visit from their commander and first sergeant to deliver a Red Cross message. In fact, for soldiers who knew the procedure, seeing a company commander and first sergeant together, walking to someone's door, both looking stone faced, almost certainly meant bad news for someone in that room.

The soldier at the center of emergency leaves was Sergeant First Class Lori Burns, the NCOIC of the battalion S-1--the people who handle the paperwork. When the brigade received a Red Cross message, they passed it to our Operations (S-3) section who notified the battalion commander and command sergeant major and Lori. She started the paperwork and the very delicate process of determining whether this emergency was actually an Emergency Leave or not. An official military emergency leave is for immediate family--parents, siblings, children, and spouse. But some soldiers are raised by their grandparents.

As some of you may remember, I was one of the soldiers who received a Red Cross message that did not qualify as an actual emergency.  My mother-in-law died on Mother's Day last year, just a week after I arrived in Iraq.  Because there was space in the leave schedule at the time, I could have gone on emergency leave, but my wife thought it would be better to keep my leave as it was scheduled because we already had plans made.

But other guys who fell into the "not emergency" category that I was in really wanted to go home.  And most got to go home by giving up their scheduled leave.  The company and battalion commanders as well as the first sergeants and command sergeant major all would get the soldier home if they possibly could.  And unless they were off base on a mission, LTC Perry and CSM Christine were woken up and briefed on every Red Cross message.  The company commander and first sergeant delivered the message.

We had more than 50 Red Cross messages during the year of deployment and most of them got home one way or another.  Two soldiers lost newborn children during the tour.  One sergeant who lost his father went home twice.  The first time his father rallied and recovered, the next time was for the funeral.

Life seems on hold during the year of deployment, but life goes on back home.  The people who handle the emergency leaves have to deal with the reality of tragedy back home through the entire tour.

First Time Trial Coming up

On Sunday morning I will ride my first Time Trial since 2006.  It is not my favorite event, I don't have a TT bike.  For this event, I don't even have the special handlebars, wheels or helmet real time trailers use.  But I do have a nice new Main Line Cycling/Bi-Kyle team skin suit.  So if I don't ride well, I will at least look like a real bike racer!

Who Fought the Iraq War: Coming Home the Hard Way

About once a month, I would run into Chief Warrant Officer Tim Blosser on Tallil Ali Air Base.  He is a funny guy in a very dry way.  We would occasionally have serious conversations, but mostly we made rapid fire bad jokes then went back to whatever we had been doing five minutes before.  

Last weekend I called Tim up just to see how he was doing.  He is the sort of guy who can make the best of any bad situation and I expected him to be back into a comfortable life and having a good time. 

He's not.

Tim came back to primary custody of his two high-school age kids and a job that disappeared while he was in Iraq.  The people who rented his house while he was in Iraq left a big enough mess that he is renting an apartment until the house can be repaired.  Worse still for someone who spent a year away from his wife, he only sees his wife two days each month.  She lives in Maine, has two high-school-age children also.  She will continue to live in Maine until they graduate.  Tim wants his kids to graduate with their friends, so he will continue to live in Pennsylvania.

Tim said parenting is about sacrifice.  He and his wife knew when they married that they would only have occasional weekends together for the first four years they were married.  He said that an arrangement like this really makes him appreciate the time he has with his wife.  He even said they plan to continue to have special weekends together when they live in the same place.

He got a job, but it is with a small company and he is the new guy, so he did not sound really secure in his prospects.  But he talked about how the company is expanding and if everything goes well, there could be real growth.

Tim is an amazing guy. 

Tough Mudder Pictures

the event photographer posted some pictures form the event on line.  They found several mud-covered shots of me.  I am looking through their "Lost and Found" section before I order the high-res pictures.  In the meantime, they are here.

I have photos from the event I took after it was over.   It would be a fun event to shoot with all the costumes and mud.  I was so tired after it was over, I hung around for a while, but decided to go home so I would not be sleeping on the side of the road.

Kendra Boccelli, my niece, handled publicity for the event.  I heard about the event through her and my sister.

One of the event organizers with his Dad.  The founders of Tough Mudder are two Brits who like extreme sports.

One of the costumed competitors. Three guys wore blue body paint and yelled Avatar down some of the hills.

The Amish guy had a British accent.

Sophie Pollit-Cohen, who sent email and text updates to competitors about everything from start times to parking.

The water slide--we went down the hill in pairs.  The guy who went down the hill with me ended up on top of me in the pond.


Tough Mudder vs. Ironman, Part 3

Tough Mudder vs. Ironman, Part 2

Tough Mudder vs. Ironman is Here

Second Tough Mudder Report

First Tough Mudder Finish

First Tough Mudder Photos

First Tough Mudder Entry

Ironman Plans

Ironman Training

Ironman Bucket List

Ironman Idea

Ironman Danger

Ironman Friendship

The MRE Video

Here it is in case you had trouble with the link.

In an Article Titled: The Science Of Feeding Soldiers, Video Also

 The Article:

The Science Of Feeding Soldiers | Science & Technology | Chemical & Engineering News

The video is on the right side of the article page.  Just click and watch me talk about canned fruit cake!!