A Triathlon Recap – Macon, Georgia

It was a whirlwind weekend going up to Georgia for a concert in Savannah Friday night and then a sprint triathlon in Macon Sunday morning. Concert, great. Savannah, pretty. Triathlon, hard.

One of my favorite photos from Savannah, Georgia

From Savannah, it was back on the road west to Macon for the Rock ‘N Rollman Sprint Triathlon and I’m proud to say I finished it with a personal best in running! This was just my third race. I remember after the first one (Tallahassee Red Hills recap), it was so hard that when I crossed the finish line, I said, “I’m never doing this again!” But then I did it again in Marianna, Florida (Freedom Springs recap). Then again with this one in Macon, Georgia. OK, OK, I might be getting obsessed. This was also the first race with an absolutely beautiful Trek Domane… my new bike! I will always love my (very) old bike, I say that every time I can. 😃🚲❤️

The Swim. What’s the slowest fish in the sea? An eel? A whale? A manatee? Even a manatee is faster than I am. For some reason, this swim was a struggle which surprised me since I seemed to improve in my last race. I think I saw a manatee pass me swimming backwards. I finished 500 meters in 13:43, a pace of 2:44 per 100m.

The Bike. This part was fun. I LOVE my new bike and it helped me pedal hard, fast, and smoothly up hills and down. The course was challenging, the hardest part was going uphill for the entirety of miles 5 through 10. I completed 15 miles in 50:35, which is 3:22 per mile.

The Run. The run course was uphill on the way, then turning around halfway, downhill on the way back. That helped me get a personal record for a triathlon 5K. My time was 23:10, under 8 minutes per mile.

Recap. I can sum this race up with one phrase: Room for improvement. And lots of it. Eventually I’ll probably break down and get a swim coach or join some sort of swim training because that’s the area I can improve the most. For biking, more leg workouts, longer rides, and pushing my legs to be stronger and faster. Running, keep pushing and training for a time under 22 would be a great thing to accomplish.

I haven’t done the same race twice yet so that will be a memorable experience, most likely happening with the Red Hills race in Tallahassee in 2024. Until then, my excitement grows daily and I’m pumped to swim better, bike harder, and run faster.

-Out of the Wilderness

Is there a Dr. Pepper QB curse!? Caleb Williams might prove it exists…

Dr. Pepper made USC quarterback Caleb Williams the face of their Fansville campaign and some people are now calling what’s happened since then a phenomenon called The Dr. Pepper Curse. It’s like The Madden Curse but the college football version. Here’s the most recent ad… an ominous, possibly foretelling, commercial from Dr. Pepper and Caleb Williams called “Superstitious.”

There will be all kinds of opinions about this but facts are facts. Here’s a great recap from a Reddit user about the ongoing situation…

So what happened recently is that USC lost to Notre Dame partly due to multiple interceptions thrown by Caleb Williams. He did not look like a Heisman hopeful in that game. Was it just a bad performance? Or was it the curse? All I know is that because of this curse and not wanting my performance to suffer, if Dr. Pepper comes to me with a sponsorship deal, I’m definitely absolutely taking it. I might be a little superstitious but I’m not a fool.

-Out of the Wilderness

The Lincoln Serena Williams Commercial – The Music and More

When I think of Lincoln, I think of Matthew McConaughey (or Jim Carrey, if you know you know) but this latest commercial might wipe both of those guys completely from memory and replace them with Serena and this song. Check out the commercial then scroll down for more info…

I’m not sure why car brands are using these emotional songs lately (See: Jeep Drove All Night Commercial) but it’s working for me. The song in this Lincoln ad is called “Too Close” by Marvin Brooks, released in 2021. Check out Marvin’s backstory here.

-Out of the Wilderness

The Snickers CHEFS Commercial – Does This Remake Hit the Mark?

In a world where people get sick of remakes pretty quickly, Snickers is trying to break the mold. Sure, it’s TV and film that mostly get a bad wrap when shows and movies are repackaged as something new when the originals were just fine. But can that be said for commercials, too? Before the 2023 reboot, here’s the original Snickers CHEFS commercial from 1996.

SO Nice They’re Doing It Twice. A critical mistake, a funny catchphrase, and a grumpy old man add up to a great commercial. Now, decades later, Snickers gave the commercial a makeover. Check it out…

There’s No I In Team. But there’s definitely an ‘I’ in CHIEFS. It’s a great premise for a commercial, especially when ‘i before e, except after c’ is a rule of thumb people always get wrong. Just ask me to spell the word wierd and I’ll get it wrong 50% of the time. Somehow though, the creators of this ad managed to take something that was funny and make it… less funny. Weird.

Choo Choo All Aboard. Everyone’s riding the Kansas City Chiefs money train (especially since Taylor Swift single-handedly put Travis Kelce on the map!) so it makes sense Snickers would hop aboard, too. But what they’ve done is the equivalent to movie studios taking an animated classic and turning it into a live-action remake. “But why?” is a question you’ll hear a lot. The new Snickers commercial basically copied the original almost shot for shot but they forgot one thing, the humor. The sound design is poor, as well. Background audio is too low, which adds to the disjointedness of the conversation and the voiceover. The original commercial shines with great comedic timing and seamless flow, things the follow-up lacks entirely.

In fact, the only funny part in this failed attempt at a remake is the CHIEFS misspelling. None of the other jokes hit. The grumpy old man in the original is so frustrated when he says “great googly moogly” and then the player doubles down by mentioning the spelling AGAIN, just hilarious. The young man in the new ad says “great googly moogly” with no emotion at all. Not even dry humor, if that’s what the attempt was.

Snickers, you’re not yourself when you try remaking a classic.

-Out of the Wilderness

The Jeep Drove All Night Commercial – The Music, The Crush, and More

This might be– no, this IS my favorite version of “I Drove All Night” and who knew it would come as the soundtrack of a Jeep commercial? Check out the ad then scroll down for the name of the singer, and more info!

The Singer. Performing the iconic Roy Orbison song is a woman named Francesca Blanchard. If you look for a full-length track, you won’t find it unfortunately. But you can check out more of her music on Spotify (below) and follow her on Instagram.

This is originally a Roy Orbison song but you might know it from a few other stars who’ve performed it. Here are a few great performances of this song including my childhood crush, Cyndi Lauper.

Also, don’t forget about Jeep.

-Out of the Wilderness