The Year in Review. The Best and Worst.

2009 is over and 2010 arrived last night and kept me awake at the firehouse since about 3am.  Many people think we are into the next decade, but in truth we are just finishing up a decade (in our method of counting years, 1 AD followed 1 BC.  There was not a year 0 AD or 0 BC.  Therefore the decade ends at the end of 2010).  2009 brought about a lot of changes (I actually hate using the word change though, because 2009 changed the denotation of that word).  Here is my year in review:

I sold my mountain bike and fixed gear bike and was able to buy a new road frame (then sold the Giant road frame) and upgrade most of my components on the road bike and CX bike.  Limited the number of rides I had but the quality improved.

Always check your child's homework was one of the funniest pictures I found on the internet and reposted it here.  My dad even thought it came from one of my kids, but of course my wife doesn't work at Home Depot.

Check your child's homework

My brother was kind enough to find old pictures at my parent's house, scan them and post them on Facebook.  Some were of us racing, some of us hanging with friends in the current fad styles, and one was of me dressed as a girl.  These pictures ended up framed and hanging in my fire station.

 

 

Click here for other pictures and the full story

We promoted the first Smithfield HAMmer Fest 2-man TTT in June.  This was a big deal for me.  I stepped out of my comfort zone on this one by holding a race on large open roads not closed to traffic.  The only problem was that I wasn't able to race (or any of my team for that matter).  It was a success though (people had fun, the team made $8 so it wasn't a money maker success).  It will be back in 2010.  Jeff Lawson was probably the only one who did not enjoy himself.

http://firebike.blogspot.com/2009/06/smithfield-hammer-fest-2-man-ttt.html

I had a strange day at the beach on one July afternoon.  I got involved in a rescue of a drowning man and saw the Hilton catch fire....or at least I thought.

strange beach day

I went hunting for the first time.  The result:

 

 

Here's how it happened 

 

 

In addition to all that stuff, I got promoted to Captain, I graduated from ODU with a degree in Exercise Science, I received my NSCA Strength and Conditioning Specialist Certification, I started working part-time as a trainer/coach.  (taking a breath)  My youngest daughter started Kindergarten which is all day so both of my girls are going to school all day long.  My wife started working part-time as a pre-school teacher.  I really enjoyed myself in cross season this year even though I sucked at it.  My team promoted a CX race which meant we promoted 3 races in 2009 (not bad for a team of 6, but it is more for 2010; up to 9 now).  I lost weight early in my base building season and have trained hard through the fall and winter.

 

2010.....bring it on!