I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.

-
SUPPORT THIS SITE
Wanna help support the site? You have two options. The first is to use Clever Training with the link and 10% off everything coupon below:
Alternatively, for everything else on the planet, simply buy your goods from Amazon via the link below and I get a tiny bit back. No cost to you, easy as pie!
UK based here! Canada! Germany! France! Spain! Italy!
-
Catch me on Facebook
Ray Elsewhere
Did you know I write a weekly column over on Slowtwitch?
Check out my Product/Electronics posts in Ray’s Sports Electronics Mailbag - they are packed full of gadget goodness.
FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- Will you test our product before release?
- Are you willing to review or test beta products?
- Which trainer should I buy?
- Which GPS watch should I buy?
- I’m headed to Paris – what do you recommend for training or sightseeing?
- I’m headed to Washington DC – what do you recommend for training?
- I’m from out of the country and will be visiting the US, what’s the best triathlon shop in city XYZ?
- What kind of camera do you use?
- What are your least favorite countries/places?
- What are you favorite countries/places?
Follow me on Twitter
- RT @OnevFoto: today's #potd http://t.co/uDgQnIPvV2 by @tfrank_de via @cyclingtips #, 37 mins ago
- @luisap Yeah, GC has a long and storied history with IE. Some of the right teams are actually talking as of few weeks ago. #, 1 hour ago
- RT @TriMagJene: It costs $3 to fill up a buoy https://t.co/O6ZqI2RjhD #, 3 hours ago
- @chriseidhof Not this summer, perhaps in the fall. #, 4 hours ago
- @Lokoto Read my post from last Friday for details. #, 4 hours ago
- @vettenrannalla I see nothing good coming out of that fish! #, 20 hours ago
- Now that I've run out of Swedish Fish, I make no guarantees on how remainder of trainer ride will go. http://t.co/wXXoumPygd #, 23 hours ago
-
5 Easy Steps To The Site
In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
Read My GPS Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent gadget recommendations guide (2012) – covering almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day to day? I also just put together my complete 2012 ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
Understand technology and sport in the How-To Guides.
I enjoy explaining new things to folks – especially showing people how to get the most from their gadgets. Here’s an ongoing list of “How to” guides.
Read my Top 25 most useful posts.
It turns our I’ve written a fair bit of stuff over the past few years – and after it disappears from my front page, a lot of it never really sees the light of day again without Google’ing skillz. Or a photographic memory…which I don’t have. I’ve taken a look back and found stuff that…continues to find a trickle of readers via web searches or forum links.
Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
Monthly Archives: April 2010
Pushing the envelope
It finally happened, almost 6 years to the day from when it first started. What happened you ask? Well, first, some history. I moved from Seattle to Washington DC on May 1st, 2004 (6 years ago tomorrow) – and when … Read More Here
Averting disaster in the Dark Hills
Anytime you have 2-3 hours of workouts to do on a weeknight, you have to plan a bit. Most of that planning for me falls into two buckets – scheduling of the actual workout itself, and scheduling my caloric intake … Read More Here
Understanding the importance of Garmin firmware updates
One of the more common questions/comments that I answer on many of my review posts are technical in nature – and often times covering specific issues or problems a person is running into. As a result I end up doing … Read More Here
A meaty weekend
This weekend was full of all assortment of activities – from the usual swim/bike/run to cooking up a storm on Saturday night. We start with a 10 mile run on Saturday morning along the Potomac river on the Mt. Vernon … Read More Here
Weekly Mailbag – April 24th, 2010
Here’s this week’s edition of the weekly mailbag. This is a weekly series where I feature a handful of the e-mailed questions I received from the previous week or so. I try and pick a wide variety of questions. Some … Read More Here
The Rumpass in Bumpass 2010 Race Report
If there was ever a race to do based on name alone, this would be it. I mean – really – how many races have the ASS word not once – but TWICE in name of the race? The RumpASS … Read More Here
Thoughts from a (new) USAT Referee (or…what I’m looking for)
In addition to racing this past weekend, I also became a new USAT Certified Official Referee. The process involves wading through an extensive 91 page manual (very in depth by the way, but also fairly well written and easy to … Read More Here
Adventures in triathlon RV’ing
I have officially discovered there is no better way to do local or semi-local race weekends than renting out a little RV and going full tilt at the race site. Let’s do a not-so-quick recap on how it all goes … Read More Here
Weekly Mailbag – April 17th, 2010
While I was sitting on my flight back from Seattle a few weeks ago I was working through the small pile of questions from folk just like you (well, actually, specifically – some of you). While doing this I realized … Read More Here
Free National Park Access for a week, starting Saturday! Wootage!
As many of you know, over the past few years I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time up on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, which…is part of the National Park System. Not only is it probably the best cycling … Read More Here
Sous Vide Awesomeness
You may remember a fair while back I started a little project to build my own sous vide machine – more properly known as an Immersion Circulator. As I mentioned then, using an Immersion Circulator isn’t something particularly new, it’s … Read More Here
Choosing your Garmin device data fields
When you first get your new fangled Garmin Forerunner or Edge device you’ll probably be using the default data field views that show commonly used metrics like pace and distance. After all, these are some of the key benefits of … Read More Here
101 Runs on the Wall
This weekend turned out to be pretty darn busy, lots of running, running around, and everything in between. It started early Saturday morning with a run with the Pacers group. The plan was 10 miles easy, but somewhere along the … Read More Here
A list of cool tri/running/cycling wallpapers
Back a bit ago I was stumbling around Garmin’s site trying to find something or other and I bumped into their nifty collection of wallpapers that you can download. From there I got curious and started poking around other companies … Read More Here
Troubleshooting your heart rate monitor/strap HR spikes
For those who train with heart rate monitors often, you probably know all too well know the tell-tale sign that your little device is lying to you about your heart rate. It starts off fairly innocently with a gentle rise … Read More Here
Someone left a floater
Due to a flip-flop in the weekly schedule of runs, both the Girl and I were in position to be able to enjoy a nice 10 mile run with our friends on Saturday morning. Normally the 10m run run occurs … Read More Here
A whole lotta updates
It’s finally the end of the week, and I’ve got a bunch of little tidbits from races schedule updates to technology stuff to toss out into the wind, so without too much more babbling, let’s get on with it. Schedules: … Read More Here


















