All Right, Pipe Down!

I don't know if a single comment is enough to prompt me to urge my faithful readers to "pipe down," but I DO know that a single comment is enough to inspire me to post some long overdue race photos! (By the way, if you readers could band together to send me comments like "Clean the bathroom" or "Study hydrology more," every couple days, Pat and my PE results would be very grateful.)

Anyway, pics enroute, but as I battle with Blogger for the big post, here's a couple sneak peaks. First, one of my favorite pics of me immediately post-swim:

Say it with me now... "Awww." Don't I look HAPPY? But where did all those chin and neck creases come from? The chin ones I can blame on the giant grin, but who knew that a smile could run all the way down to your neck? (Good thing that the wetsuit prevents you from seeing whether my triceps are also "smiling." Riiight... smiling.)

And one more preview pic. This might be one of my favorite pictures, even though it documents a bit of technical error in Pat's photography. Take a look:

Okay, so what's going on here is the not-so-unusual film-photography problem of multiple exposures on the same spot of film. (Yeah, yeah, Pat's still shooting film. Talk to Santa, folks.) But I LOVE this picture for so many reasons. First of all, if you look closely, you'll see, slightly left of the very center, my little face staring straight into the camera. It's like Where's Waldo!

But even more so, I love this picture because for me, it was what race start felt like. People milling around, this weird hazy chaos of nerves and last-minute adjustments and straining to hear the announcer. And yet, if you could zero in for a minute on any of the entrants, there was this little pool of quiet. Of readiness. Of focus narrowing down to what was ahead of each of us.

Okay, I'm going straight to the next post. Prepare for more photos!