Well, it has been quite some time since I last updated this poor little blog. A few friends pointed out that it seems as though I died from the flu since that was my last post. I assure you I am not typing this posthumously as I did survive that awful virus. I must also apologize to my husband who was actually horrible sick with pneumonia, and not just lazy like I accused him of being. I know, he's a lucky man to have me.
My absence really had to do with a great lack of time. I was spending way too much time on the computer and way too little time on things that were less fun, but more important. Even my children were beginning to think I was spending too much time on the computer. Here is a family portrait my son drew.
See what I mean??? But I am back...at least for this post and no promises beyond that. I really wanted to give my race report from Tri for the Cure! But I haven't done this in awhile and I really couldn't write in the first place......so bullet points it is!! Here are the highlights in no particular order.
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| This picture, like all the picture in this post, is stolen. I have to give credit to Jill, Audrey, or Brightroom photography for the pictures. |
- I had my first ever blogger meet up! I met Jill from Run with Jill. I had never met Jill in the flesh but I read her blog and we are friends on Facebook. After making a post about open water swimming she commented that she had just done one too. Well, I immediately asked her if she was doing a tri because why on earth would you ever do an open water swim if you weren't getting ready for a tri? Seriously, why would you? They are awful and I can't image one would do them for enjoyment alone. Every time I finish one I feel as though I have somehow cheated death. Anyway, she admitted that she was doing Tri for the Cure and since I was doing it too, we were able to meet up for a OWS and the tri. And if you haven't met Jill before here are a few things I learned about her:
- She is just as nice and funny as she appears to be on her blog! After a few minutes I felt like I had known her for years. She is great!
- Jill is a big liar. Yup, that is right. She is going to tell you straight to your face that she sucks at everything. Oh I can't swim that fast, and I am really slow at running right now, and I still have training wheels on my bike. Don't believe her! She is an amazing athlete and I know she isn't where she wants to be right now, but her slow is still fast!!! Her first tri in 23 years and she did great!
- Check out Jill's race report here...it is a whole lot better than mine!
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| After the race in all our sweaty glory! |
- I put my face in the water!! That was my only goal for this tri. This is the third time I've done this race but the first time I didn't hyperventilate the whole swim. In case you haven't ever tried to simultaneously hyperventilate and swim, it is really hard. I felt calm before the start and swam that thing the way you are suppose to swim! I got out of the water feeling invincible.....fear conquered! I was over three minutes faster than I was last year. Who knew freestyle was faster than doggy paddling???
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Coming out of the water. I look so professional in my wetsuit.
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- I did this race with my friend Audrey, and she is actually the one who tricked me into doing this race the first time. I think the conversation went something like this, "I can't swim." "Oh you don't really need to know how to swim to do an open water tri." Um, yes you do. For the record, I am so glad I was dumb enough to believe that.
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- For the first time ever Audrey and I raced with wetsuits. We even had matching wetsuits and it made us look like a racing team. I named us Team Camel Toe. If you don't know why I named us that then you have never properly put on a wetsuit. On a somewhat related note, I told Audrey that if you tuck your tri shirt into your shorts it makes it easier (as if that is possible) to put on the wetsuit. So we did that and joked that we'd better make sure to untuck it after the swim. As I took my fuel belt off at the finish line I realized that yes, I had forgotten to untuck. What a way to make an already unflattering outfit look even worse. I considered contacting the race photographers and paying them off for not publishing my pictures.....but good thing I didn't because I got this gem of a picture.
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- What to say about this picture?? First off, I think it was really great of me to demonstrate how to perform a self breast exam during a race to benefit breast cancer. For the record, I am not actually grabbing my boob....or at least I don't think I was....I don't know, it was the end of the race, I was sprinting, and those tri tops are not the most supportive things in the world....maybe I was grabbing my boob, it certainly looks like it.
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| Before the race in the transition area |
- Overall I had a great race. It was really fun to race with Jill and Audrey and hang out eating Otter Pops with them afterwards. I was (almost) 6 minutes faster than last year (1:27:26). 154/1979 overall, 16/214 for my age group, and 59/1979 on the bike. By no means "elite" but for me it was great!
- Audrey and I will be competing in our first ever Olympic distance triathlon on Saturday and even threw around the words "half Iron Man" today. Will I do one? Uh, I think I'll just see how Saturday goes! And Jill, I hope you caught the tri bug and we can race again sometime!!
