soooo far behind and so much to do!

here's a quick photo of sirus after the snoqualmie 1k kids race! he was in awe over thelife sized trains and in the photo is telling us what a train sounds like.

i am now ready to write about the xterra. i was pretty stoked for this race. i had been doing some mtn bike racing and was feeling sort of fit. no swimming of course, but i was excited to get out there. eric and i got to the race start and saw amy, susan and a bunch of other people eric knew. we racked our bikes and got ready to race. the water was steaming since it was warmer then the air. you could vbarely see the buoys or the island. to get into the water you had to climb down a small rock retaining wall. the water was nice, too. it was a mass start. i was pretty excited for the first part of the swim because i was right up there in the action and we were swimming through the lilly pads! you got to the island and climbed up onto it. there was a small luau with tiki torches and music then back into the water. the whole island experience probably took about a minute. the rest of the swi was uneventful except that i had to pee so badly. everytime i would settle into the crawl stroke my stomach would slosh and i would get nauseated. i tried to just pee in the water but i couldn't. there were volunteers at the exit to help you up over the retaining wall. i ran right to the porta potty and peed forever and felt way better. but the only thing more difficult then dealing with a wetsuit is trying to pull up wet tri shorts! off to transition then off onto the mtn bike course.
i had heard it was going to be tough. at the start i asked amy, who had pre-ridden what she was thinking for time and she said 3 hrs. i went into this race thinking 1.5 to 2, so i was not prepared for 3. i crashed. and crashed. and crashed some more. then i had a nice fatty face plant. i just layed there with my face in the dirt trying to access my situation. it took everything i had to not just burst out crying. i got up, stood there and then started to walk. i was so shaken up and my wrist was hurting. eventually i came to come volunteers and asked them how i could drop out of the race. they said the easiest thing would be to just finish the lap although it was still a long way and there was still a lot of tough riding ahead. they said they could call the medics to come get me, but i wasn't that bad, i just didn't wantto race any more. so i started walking. after a while i started riding again. i started to feel better and actually thought, heck, maybe i could finish this race. then i caught my pedal and went down hard on some rocks. i was 100% done. i walked the rest of the way until i came upon some spectators who gave me directions to the road and then back to the race start. the whole ride back was miserable. i was so disappointed and frustrated. i thought i was tougher then that and i was just defeated. i was looking forward to the run and felt that i could still do the run but there was no way i could get through another lap. i got to the start and went to the medics tent. as i was there getting my wounds cleaned i saw eric come into transition to head out for the run. i was about to ask the medic if i could run over there and cheer him on when the medics instead told me that had to run off for a moment and take care of a guy in a blue shirt was bleeding all over. i watched them run over to tanstition and over to eric. next thing i know they are bringing him over to the medics tent. he had crashed a mile from transtiton and had a branch go right through his lip. his race was done. he was suprised to see me there, but all in all it was a good thing i had dropped out when i did. one of eric's friends helped me get his bike and clean up his transition area as well as mine and we headed off to the hospital. he wound up with 6 stitches to fix the hole then another 7 in his lip from where he had bitten it.
i took the next day off from work. i suspect that while i didn't wind up with any stitches that maybe i was more injured then suspected since i slept until 11am then got up for 2 hrs then slept for 3 more. i haven't done that since my drunk single days. meanwhile eric was out with the kids all day doing yard work. it turned out, too, that i had a flat rear tire on my bike.
the next weekend was the mtn bike race in greenwater. we had already planned on taking the kids camping up there. we went and got a massive 6 person tent. we took the air mattress and the thermarests and seamus brought her curious george sleeping bag and i made a Wall-E sleeping bag for sirus. they both wore footie pjs. when we got there i pre-road with sara and her husband and decided that it would be pretty fun but the bike felt squirrelly. eric changed out the rear tire and it made a huge difference. eric made up some spagetti on the camp stove and we had smores over the camp fire although sirus just ate his marshmallows without roasting them at all.
the kids and i got into the tent around 9ish, maybe later and after a bunch of moving around they both passed out by 1030. at some point i had to take seamus out to pee unsucessfully, i couldn't sleep because i was totally dehydrated, and every time i wuld doze off sirus would roll off the air mattress onto me. eventually eric came back but seamus would come and get into my sleeping bag then back out, we would all figtht over the pillows and move all over. eventaully everyone settled down though and i slept pretty well from about 330 to 6. when i got up i really wasn't up for racing but i went through the motions and lined up at the start. next to me was a girl who actually finished the xterra the weekend before. then we were off. the course was fun! i didn't dare try anything i though might be tough to ride, so i ran a bunch of it, but i stayed on top of it all. the girl from the xterra was off the front from the beginning. a bit later i was passed by a girl who was better on the decents. i wound up catching her on the big climb on the 2nd lap but knew she was faster on the downhill. i could have passed her then stayed in front on the downhill since there wasn't much passing, but that wouldn't be cool, so we just kept riding up the hill together then off she went. i finished 3rd and got a 6pack of fat tire. i was relatively pleased. seamus and sirus both raced in the kids race. they had been preriding all the night before and all morning the day of. they had two groups of kids - the kids with more then 2 wheels and then the kids with only two wheels. seamus won the overall for kids with more then two wheels! she was pretty excited. sirus on the otherhand was out for a joy ride which consisited mostly of eric pushing him. he was still pretty excited about his race anyway.
the following weekend was the danskin triathlon. i did this as a relay with my sister and mom. xtie did the swim, her longest one yet! i did the bike and then we all walked the run. i manageds the 26th fastest bike out of over 3700 people competing. i knew i was riding faster then most since i passed a ton of people, but i didn't know it was going to be that fast! where the course goes up onto 90 there is a short steep climb. there are volunteers at the bottom telling people to geer down and some people would stop and walk. others would try to ride and then stop in the middle. this was frustrating for those who could ride it but were blocked and then had to stop. i got off and ran through the bushes. it was silly since its not a competative race (although i did find out its a good one to use to qualify for age group nationals!) but i did want to try to finish as fast as i could. the bike route wound up being only 10.2 miles! we had fun on the run portion and all crossed the finish line together!
eric and the kids had come to watch, so we then went home, i took a shower then they took me to the airport to go to boulder for work. it was a short flight, but then i had an hour drive. but the hotel was nice and the conference was fun. monday i got a massage courtsey of one of the sponsors and then later saw a guy i used to work with at my old company. he was based in LA, but has since left that company, moved to NY but now is leaving there to go back to LA. he is 25 and is a VP at his most recent company. tuesday morning i went for a run up into the boulder canyon. at 5500ft i was dying. that afternoon i went mtn biking as an offsite activity from the conference. thank goodness the tour people had sunblock for us to borrow because i missed a spot on my back and it was the weirdest color i have ever seen. the riding was fun,there was a lot of up hill but it was mainly road and gravel road with a tiny bit of sort of technical downhill. all in all it was fun and i am happy i went.
and the conference continued and then i got a manicure courtesy of one of the sponsors. wednesday evening i went to dinner with a few folks, had a couple of margaritas then had some $18 shots of tequila.
i woke up thursday feeling a little yucky, but it was my last day. i woke up without the alarm and went for a run into the canyon. after checking out of the hotel i went to a local bike shop owned by a guy that eric used to race with waay back before the kids were born. after saying who i was he recognized me and we chatted for a bit. he is living the dream which is really cool.
then i went into denver which wasn't that fun although the demacratic national convention was going on and then off to the airport. the kids and eric were waiting for me at the airport when i finally got back to seattle. boy was i happy to see them!
next was the lake sammamish triathlon yesterday. i wasn't feeling up for it since i was really tired. but i got up and headed to the race site. xtie was there and some of her friends were there doing their first triathlons. marne was there, too! the swim start was good. i felt like i was keeping up and going strong. then about 1/2 way it all caught up with me and i had to do some breast stroke and then i was slow for the rest of the swim. i got out and ran to transition, passing 4 people on the way to that first timing mat! biggest accomplishment of the swim was not being caught by anyone in the wave behind me, at least that i noticed!
my transition felt like it took forever. it seemed like i couldn't get my socks on to save my life and everything just seemed to not be working. i ran out and got to where you get on the bike but i couldn't get clipped in. i kept stumbling but eventually got it together. then i was off! i was pretty fired up and feeling pretty good so i just pushed it. i passed a ton of people and was only passed by two people from the wave that started behind me. my bike computer wasn't working so i had no idea how fast i was going or how far i had gone. but eventually i got back to transition. i changed my shoes and put on my hat and went off for the run. i was really not in the mood for the run. i just kind of went on my way. i saw eric and the kids and slapped hands with seamus and sirus. then it was off onto the trails. i was passed by two girls from my age group, one guy and one woman from the age group that started behind us. i passed a few people alond the way as well. i was working hard but not killing my self. now i wish i would have tried a little harder, but the two girls that passed me wound up quite a bit ahead of me so i don't know if i would have been able to hold onto them at all anyway. i wound up 8th place compared to 14th last year. the swim i think was shorter this year but my bike was about 4.5 minutes faster (6th in the age group!) and the run was 45 seconds faster. its a 3.4 mile run and strangely, if that is true my pace was 3 seconds faster then the snoqualmie 5k at the beginning of august. all in all i was pleased with the race. i was hoping to break into the top 10 so thats good! i think this is my last race of the season. i feel slow as slow can be but i guess i'm not too slow. now i want to concentrate on the seattle 1/2 in november.
now, let me tell you about seamus!! after she won her mtn bike race she was looking to ditch the training wheels. the day after her race eric took the training wheels and the pedals off her bike so she could scoot around and work on her balance. in the afternoon he put the pedals back on but after a bit of frustration with eric trying to help her, she put the bike down and played in the yard. a little later eric heard "daddy daddy! i'm doing it!" and sure enough she was riding her bike with no training wheels! she only crashed into the baskeball hoop a few times, into the garage a few times and into sirus a bunch of time, but she practiced every day so she would be ready for her triathlon! seamus was very excited to race again. she put on her swim suit, her purple swim cap, and he floaties and went out into the water. she swam and swam waiting for her race to start. she kept going deeper and deeper and was all the way up to her chest but she was just paddling around! then she got out and was frozen solid. eric warmed her up and kept her on the beach until the race was ready to start. and then the kids were off! she swam 75 yards, but she will tell you that she hopped most of it. when she got out of the water sirus and i were there ready to slap hands but she turned to me and said that she wanted to go get on her bike instead. so off she went she put on her tri skirt, her luna top, her hello kitty sandals and her helmet. then off she went on the bike. she got so many cheers as she went out. we're not sure if it was because she was so little, her bike was so little, the fact that she didn't have any training wheels or that she still had her bike decorated from the parade a few weeks back. eric ran next to her and had a tough time keeping up! she rode the entire time, not once putting a foot down! finally, back to transition, she parked her bike. she got upset when eric tried to get her to drink some water since she thought he was trying to get her to stop racing. but she took off her helmet and started running. and she was running FAST! i went with her and several times i was stunned at how fast she was! i asked her if she was having fun and she said yes! she said she had fun on the swim and on the bike and now was having fun on the run but she thought we should have brought some water. she asked if there would be snacks at the finish! she asked to hold my hand so we did that a bit but every once in a while she would see another kid infront of her and she would drop my hand and speed up! the little kids were only supposed to do a .5 mile run but no one told the volunteer so we were steered along the .75 mile run and seamus ran the entire thing. about 1/2 way she caught up to a group of 4 seven year olds. she ran right among them and even passed infront of them at one point. she would just speed up and keep going!! she went into the finish shoot on her own, helped the volunteers take off her timing chip and got her medal. she is absolutly amazing! when we got home she wanted to ride her bike some more!!


i'm headed to nyc in september for work i think, so that will be exhausting but probably there will be some fun mixed in there, too.