9. The race is way more exciting with a fanview so you know what the heck is going on

8. It’s the only sport that allows you to bring in a cooler of alcohol.

7. If you’re a loyal Nascar fan you’ll have your driver’s flags on your RV/Truck/Car

6. CVS Pharmacies is the #1 distributor of Jack Daniels in the entire state of Missouri. (okay not really Nascar related but I was surprised)

5. If you have a fanview (see #10) then people will inevitably be asking you the entire race how their favorite driver is even though the info is on the board.

4. Cautions can take up half the race without any exciting crashes or fires to watch.

3. People can sleep even when there are 40 car engines blasting out 130 decibels each.

2. Going to the race solo is awesome if your intent is only to take pictures. You don’t have to worry about slowing someone down or hearing “How many more pictures you going to take?” or “What are you taking a picture of now?”

1. Don’t mention out loud any driver sucks unless unless you want to get in a throw down with a fan of said driver.

Seeing this woman there really touched me because she’s actively fighting against cancer. Cancer impacts so many and breast cancer in particular can be so vicious.

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A lot of the racers wore “In Memory of ” or “In Celebration of” signs and it listed their loved one who has fought cancer.

I know absolutely nothing about this man except than he was waiting intently for someone at the finish line holding the rose.

Two Breast Cancer Survivors

Always make sure your tires are pumped up before the big race.

Part of my bike

Ofcourse I couldn’t post about the bike race without some shots of Amandus and Lucas.

My coworker Dustin was in it as well and I hung out with his two sons – Amandus and Lucas – while he raced. Aren’t his boys handsome?

Dustin figuring a game plan before the race:

Yay Dustin!!!

He was a smart dad and brought toys and coloring books to entertain his boys.

I would have totally won if I’d had this helmet!!

Doesn’t Lucas look just like his dad?

Don’t worry I still have plenty of pictures left from the race to blog about. You’ll be seeing a part 2 post shortly.

Julie’s 2 hour triathlon at Heritage took less time than JUST THE SWIMMING section of her Ironman. Yes I know, she’s officially demented if she chose to swim for that long. If I had to swim for 2 hours straight I think I’d know I’d die. Don’t get me wrong, I can doggy paddle with the best of them but if it takes more than 10 minutes – please party it up at my funeral. Anyway, now that we’ve established her mental capacity she obviously makes up for it physically.

Fortunately it turned out to be a gorgeous day. Although that didn’t change the fact that Julie was swimming in 70 degree weather but that part was her choice so what do you expect with the aforementioned lack of logical reasoning?

Julie before her swim. At least she was smart enough to wear a wet suit.

Can I tell you how hard it is to get a decent picture of someone riding a bike during an event? People are always walking in your shot. Hello people can’t you see I want to take a picture?

Apparently these guys dress up crazy for this event every year.

Here’s Julie’s medal she got for finishing. Way to go Julie!!

We were in a suite which totally rocks since there is free food and drinks. Bonus you don’t have to worry about the inebriated guy behind you screaming blatantly obvious things way too loudly like “HIT THE BALL” or “CATCH THE BALL”. I’m certain the team didn’t realize how to play baseball until you pointed it out tonight. Thanks for pointing that out dude, you should be the coach.

Grudzielanek getting a single.

Mmmm hot dogs!!!

Cheering them on

OK Kansas City you act like you’re so surprised that someone, ANYONE from our region has become “famous” on American Idol. When you live in a metropolitan area with almost 2 million people there’s bound to be someone at some point that gets on the show. More importantly, at some point, there’ll be someone that doesn’t make a total embarrassment of themselves during the auditions.

The ENTIRE morning news today was obsessed with David Cook. I turned on the news this morning expecting to find out the weather. Well much to my surprise all they were showing was the outside of his hotel. The blow-by-blow reporting was mind numbingly painful. “When David leaves his hotel in 42 minutes 18 seconds he will take this route, blah, blah blah. The ‘news’ reported live when he arrived at the local (Fox – big surprise) television station’s parking lot for an interview. It’s like they didn’t have the usual ‘a tree fell in Overland Park’ story to report on…. PEOPLE I NEED TO KNOW WHICH TREE IT WAS.

I don’t ask for a lot I’d just like hear the weather and find out whether I should wear a parka or capris today – this is Kansas City May weather after all – (yeah I should have just worn both because the weathermen have no clue). I digress.

Don’t get me wrong I like David Cook and IF I was going to vote for any American Idol I MIGHT vote for him. However, when every single minute of the morning news is obsessed over every iota of his itinerary…. well we’ve all become those obsessive tween age girls like these (bet you’d given up all hope on seeing any pictures in this post right?)

David threw the first pitch at the Royals vs. Orioles game. Plus he sang ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ during the 7th inning. So of course everyone and their BFF (AKA the lovely news helicopter) were at the game to drool over see him. Oh yeah and to watch a baseball game. Ok now that my obligatory “OMG David I want to be the mother of your children” moment is over the real question I’ve been dying to find out – “Can I lick your stubble?”