Tag Archives: houstonians

Austin (or, “If you can beat them, join them!”)

November 8, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

_JJC7795 Reasoner Kids for Xmas Card.jpg

I’ve watched OU play the Longhorns at least a dozen times. But it’s always in Dallas, so I’d never been to a game in Austin. By happy coincidence, I was in Austin to go to a reception at the law school honoring Robin Gibbs (the founder of my law firm) on the night before a UT/Texas Tech game. Robin had tickets galore, so I got to see my first Longhorn ballgame in Austin. Actually the most striking thing about it was how eerily similar it was to games in Norman — just change the colors.

Notice my hideous orange costume — I was undercover and/or trying to be at least modestly gracious to my burnt orange hosts, who somehow love their ‘horns every bit as much as we love the Sooners (Reminds me of the Police song from the 1980s — “The Russians Love Their Children, Too”.). The “couple” in the stands is a friend and Gibbs & Bruns partner Jeff Kubin, with his sister Jennifer. The happy family pics are the Reasoners; the pretty girl in the picture with me is my goddaughter, Olivia Reasoner. By the way, the Longhorns won the game easily; but the Texas Tech band killed the Orange band.

Happy Birthday to Shane…

October 1, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

Hottern Hell Hundred — lived up to its name

August 29, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

Another summer means another trip to Wichita Falls for the Hotter’n Hell Hundred-mile bike ride. For the one-millionth consecutive year, Scott and I sported the yellow G&B jerseys, based on the hopeful belief that the lighter yellow color would reflect the sun and keep us just a little cooler. The temperatures were well over 100 degrees by the end.

The lowlight of this year’s trip was the flat tire I had in the first 10 miles. It was still just after daylight, and when I stopped roadside to fix the flat, I was swarmed (and bitten) by so many mosquitos I broke out in hives. Worse, I thought the hives were more mosquito bites (like 1,000 of them!?!); I was a little freaked out. Thanks to my loyal HHH team — Shane, Scott and Mike — for helping me with the flat, calming me down, getting me Benadryl, and letting me draft behind them for an hour or so while the symptoms subsided.

Colorado Multisport Week

July 19, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

Ned’s spending a couple of weeks in Colorado — mostly riding bikes and training for the Leadville race in August. I joined him for about five days. Day 1 we hiked Bear Mountain near Boulder (and saw a mother bear with 2 cubs at a distance of about 40-50 yards). Seeing a mother bear up that close sure is thought-provoking; it made me think: “I wonder if I can outrun Ned in an all-out short sprint?” Day 2 we rafted the Arkansas River near Royal Gorge. The rest of the days we mostly scouted and mountain-biked part of the course of the Leadville 100, and even did a kayak tour of Lake Dillon on the way back to the airport.

Royal Gorge is a suspension bridge about 1000 ft above the Colorado River. Ned was dubious as we approached — scoffing a bit that so much touristy enterprise had sprung up around something that, he said, “frankly doesn’t seem like it’s all that impressive.” Ha. About five minutes later, as we actually drove onto the bridge, he stopped the car dead in its tracks — voice nervously giddy and spewing expletives. Suffice it to say that he was impressed. This was the funniest moment of the trip.

Forgive some of the mediocre photography — this is mostly pocket camera stuff.

Ironman Texas

May 25, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

In a moment of weakness and/or bravado a couple of years back, I claimed that I would do an Ironman on every continent. So, Brazil 2008 (South America: done); Germany 2010 (Europe: done). Last year they announced, for the first time ever, that there would be an Ironman event in Texas — right here in the Houston area. I was bummed — on one hand, if they’re having one in your hometown, you can’t NOT do it, but I’d loved doing them as “destination events” in cool distant places. Worse, they scheduled it in late May — in south Texas where, you may already know, it gets really hot in late May.

And so we did it. My friends / training partners all did great. Scott exorcised his IronMan demons (his last attempt – in Germany – landed him in the ICU rather than the finish line). Shane logged his fourth Ironman (his third within a 12-month span). The one female in our group, Angie, kicked all our butts (in our defense, she’s a fitness “professional” and she’s about three age-groups younger than the Shane and me). All good. Me? I had some unmentionable problems during the bike section, which set me back nearly an hour and gave me my worst Ironman time ever. But hey, I finished, so who cares, right? North America: done.

And my Mom and Dad even came down to watch.

That’s me in the black tank top (#2079). [Update: I added some pics of Scott, too]. I’ll try to gather and add some pics of the others. Here are a few for now.