Stones Underfoot

Ohio, or "Ohigh-ah" as the locals say, was the destination of our recent road trip. Friday night Liz and I loaded up the car, buggy and all, and shoved off to the land of the Buckeye. We stayed over in Rochester before finishing up the trip to Conneaut, OH Saturday morning. In Conneaut, Liz's family has a beautiful house overlooking the water, where a walk along the beach was a welcome break from the seemingly endless drive from Albany. We coordinated this trip with Sara and Matt who were were also in town from the beautiful state of California.

Matt, my brother-in-law, is a mechanic for the Attack Kawasaki motorcycle racing team, and as it turned out, was crewing for a race this weekend in Mid-Ohio. So not only did we have the opportunity to meet up with Matt, but we also got to check out a pretty sweet motorcycle race as well. My thoughts on motorcycle racing? Pretty much: "Wow." Words can't describe seeing these guys go full-out on these racing machines. It's totally like cycling on steroids (not to be confused with "cyclists on steroids"). Moreover, it was incredible to meet and chit-chat with, and then see one of Matt's riders, Ben Attard, take a third-place podium finish! Even bigger props to Matt, who used to dice it up regularly with these guys as a racer himself before turning to his current career track. Seriously cool.

After more visiting with the OH-Fam, we took to the road again, this time back to Albany with the addition of our trusty side-kick Andy, my other brother-in-law. Andy is just starting out down the road of college decision-making and career exploration as he's preparing to enter his junior year of high school. He's a brilliant young man with lots of potential in academics and in sport, and we're very glad to have him around this week "on vacation". We'll be helping him check out some local upstate colleges while he's here, as well as getting out together for some trail running and mountain biking.

On the sport side of things, I did manage some nice runs by the water over the weekend, but nothing too structured. This was both good and bad. Good, because a long run without structure is perfect for clearing the head. Bad, because, well, I need the training. Back in Niskayuna now, however, it won't be long before we pick up the swim-bike-run-repeat daily grind again.

See you out there.