Yes, I have a basement, and I was in it doing laundry after driving part way to the race, thinking I saw an ex and then taking the next exit off the freeway.

The extent of the emotional/psychologial torment I went through in the break-up was pretty substantial- and that is a polite understatement.

The person I broke up with is a cruel, manipulative person who willfully acted to inflict emotional distress on me, and briefly succeeded.

So I will go ahead and exercise my choice to not even chance being in geographical proximity to her, as I truly despise her and her conduct speaks for itself.

In (some perverse version of) fairness, she probably says the same thing about me.

And, as far as my participation in the sport, I was doing triathlons in January this year outside the U.S. And November. And March. I've raced either 9 or 10 times since November.

So, I figure I'm entitled to a "personal day" off.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Oh, and by the way, I might suggest (and prefer) you don't refer to these people as "losers".

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

And thirdly, thanks for your kind credit for me spending two hours with a customer to insure they knew how to use their bicycle safely and competently, I appreciate the plug.

-No good deed goes unpunished.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Tom, my similar comments in the Nautilus post were intended as a joke, and I do hope that you did not take them otherwise.

Sorry Tom, I was kidding. Except about your basement.

The losers statement was in reference to a radio ad in which a fraud motivational speaker starts out with, "I'm here to motivate you losers." It was in reference to your unique motivational style. Certainly not in reference to anybody who tris. I guess I listen to too much WWJ.

I think Jill sort of appreciated your motivational psy-op, even though she might not admit it. You may have been the only person in the world who could have gotten her to do that race.

We also talked about how valuable you would be as a TnT coach, which I know you considered. We could use a coach who does more than assign a workout mileage schedule.

As for not wanting to share the same square mile with this ex, I guess I can understand it, but if you would just point her out, I think the rest of us, who appreciate your tri attendance, could persuade her she would rather be elsewhere.

On the other hand, your no-show allowed me to finish solidly in the top half of my age group, 17/35. Thanks!

ahh, you know you guys are all cool.

And, slow as I have been, we're in different age groups. With Ariano Rosa, Jeff Morrow and a bunch of other very fast 40+er's out there I am kind of consigned to the bottom half of the top ten in my AG at best. At least this year.... :)

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

You keep referring to yourself as "slow" and I'll continue to feel comfortable with the term "loser".

I feel pretty slow and porky this year. At least I have something to work on over the winter.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Tom -

When you exited off the freeway en route to Clark Lake, you should have turned north and headed to Interlochen. You were there in spirit because people were talking about you. Let me explain.

First, as I have a new swank Bikesport skin suit, whenever I see another one on the course, I yell a few words of encouragement. I got a thank you from "Michelle" and her parents after the race for my words of encouragement. I remember her name because my and her share the same one and my wife is from near where Michelle and her parents now live.

Next, when "Bonnie" caught me on the bike leg, she said that she thought I was you. I think she was just being nice to me because of my outfit as my pitiful biking in nothing like yours. Her entree into my little peleton was quite eventful as she promptly starting informing the other bikers that they had to spread out. She and I were both a little pissed at the drafting going on - especially because we were doing the work. Bonnie also mentioned that she is craving a Bikesport skin suit as she thinks they are cool - - - and was raving about her new and improved bike fit courtesy of you.

Third, I briefly met Eric Fernando, who had nice things to say about your shop.

Thought you would get a kick out of that info - I did.