and a few more

one thing that i am so sad about is that seamus now pronounces icecream correctly. for a long time it was asscream and it always made me laugh.
and next, i don't care if the kitchen sponge is the dirtiest thing around, dirtier that the toilet seat or money (two of the other top 5). know why? because its unlikely that any of the dirty things they picked up on the sponge had to do with arse, while the other two, you totally know were covered in it.

and another one

oh, yeah, and to emphisise the universe's message to me, it all actually started a few weeks back when i was at the 7 store pulling jeans to try on. the sales guy came up to me and offered this "we usually suggest jeans with a wider leg to women who are uh, taller." at the time i thought he was trying to protect me from getting jeans that were too young for me, but now i think maybe he was trying to keep me from making a horrible mistake.
onto other things, yesterday sirus and i were standing in line at eddie bauer getting ready to buy the warmest most awesomest puffy coat ever. i decided that maybe i would retire the puffy vest but when i told eric he said i should keep it, at least for a while since getting ride of it would mean it was an end of an era. and leslie showed me her awesome new coat and even let me try it on and i totally loved it so i had to go get one. while we were in line there was a little blonde girl running around who was probaly not even 2. sirus kept an eye on her, following her everywhere she went. when she and her family left, sirus said in a very serious voice "i fell in love with that little girl." i was just like, excuse, me, what did you say? and he repeated it. later in the car i told eric and then i asked sirus how he knew he was falling in love with her and he said "i don't know." we then did some more shopping and stopped to get batteries. sirus was holding the batteries in the car, and eric offered up the hypothetical situation to sirus "if you were in a burning buidling with the little girl and the batteries, which would you grab as you ran out?" sirus thought long and hard and decided on the batteries.

is someone trying to tell me something?

"move sirus, mommy needs to see if she looks fat in those jeans!" - seamus at the nordstrom dressing room this afternoon. (for the record, i did not!)
size of jacket that was xmas present: XL, apparently because i have "long arms". its better than the size XXL shirt the same peeps gave me once because I am "so tall".
overheard the other evening: "those girls at the liquor store made Carrie look fat."
i know i haven't been training much and the holiday sweets have been plentiful, but is it really that obvious?

wow, and i thot i was gross!

i was at the gym today, doing a little stairmaster. i realized i've run like 3 miles in december or something like that and i am OK with it. this stairmastering is going to get me an arse like a teenage girl again, so i am totally stoked. not that my teenaged arse was ever that great, but my old lady arse is really no good. i told my coach that my arse shape is one of the things i want to work on this year.
but yeah, so the stairmaster will kick your ass all up and down the gym. i use the one where the stairs move under you. and i sweat a ton. but today there was a guy next to me. he was older, maybe like 50s or so, and he was making all kinds of noises. a few times i had to look over to make sure he was ok because he sounded terrible. he was moaning and groaning like nothing i have ever heard before at the gym! he was working hard, his cadence was higher than mine but geez! and then when he was done i looked over and his whole stairmaster was drenched! like puddles and stuff, all over it. like someone sprayed it down with a hose. totally gross. he did do a good job cleaning it up and right away some other dude jumped right on it with his gf or someone on the one next to him. he normally doesn't come to the gym on the weekend since he always goes mtn biking and the stairmaster that he is used to has tiny steps and his foot is hurt and they are thinking about taking a walk to the pcc tomorrow. she'll skip the gym she thinks since it will be a few miles of walking.
then i did some assisted pullups. and a friend signed me up for masters starting jan 4! dude, that is going to be one rough monday morning! 5am alarm, outdoor pool, monday, and first day back at work after almost two weeks off. yikes!!!

now scoot

mama's hung.

good grief, its been a long time. luckily, its not too bad.
so we went to a party last night. i was happy to wear my new 100% pink sequin dress. LOVE IT. since it is SEE THROUGH i wore it over a black tube dress, yes i own a black tube dress, tights and boots. fancy. it was fun. we brought our own lemon drops and i drank probably 40 of them.
this morning i was feeling a little crappay. i had some breakfast and drank some coffee and while i sat on the couch i felt pretty good. so we decided to take a family trip to the gym. that is where it all started to fall apart.
we got to the gym and parked next to the red cadilac that was running, had the key in the ignition but had no one in or near it. i took a photo of the license plate and gave it to the front desk. the girl joked - sweet, i'll go take it. but alas, the car was still there and still running when we left almost 2hrs later.
eric and i got on the stairmasters, only this time i brought a bottle of water and a little towel to join me.
i was dying. i started at the same level as last time but it was killing me. i eventually had to drop down 2 levels while eric on the otherhand was sprinting up his stairs. i was sweating out the booze but it wasn't making me feel very good.
then we went to go to some pullups! i took the assistance a little higher and managed 2 sets of 10 but then i wanted to throw up so i went to the locker room and lounged in one of the lounge chairs for a while.
we did some quick shopping then headed home where i went straight to bed for a few hours!

check it

check here

went for a ride out in the rain today. it was the first time i have been outside in a bike since maui. wore some sweet new gear that totally kept me dry in the rain. i was warm while i was riding but now am shivering up a storm.
i also went swimming! it was pretty fun except my shoulders, or some part of them were pretty tight. maybe it was my totally huge pectoral muscles.
the other day i decided to see if i could do a pull up. i was at the gym at work, getting ready run on the treadmill, so i gave it a try. i had palms facing away and got to where the bar was about eye level. i thought that was pretty good. then i did my run and i decided to try it again. this time i had my palms facing me and i did a full pull up!! yes, only one and the easy way, but that is way more than i thought i could do. i was prety stoked. the other day eric and i were at the gym falling off of the stairmaster and after we went to the assisted pullup machine. i did 3x5 at various levels of assistance. i am totally going to get this down so i can just whip them out whenever i want. but i do think this was partially the cause of my peck discomfort. my forearms are sore,too. yikes! the stairmaster wsa gross. ok so i looooove to sweat. like give me a hot day and a run and let the dripping happen. its also part of the reason i like the treadmill. but this stairmaster adventure was almost too much. i had pools of sweat forming on my hands. i had rivers of sweat dripping down the sides of the machine. i had to hold on to the railing since i was tripping so much, but it was nasty. thank goodness it was my own juices because i dont think i could have handled someone elses. i did try to do a good clean up job on it when i was done, so hopefully that was ok.

2009 stats

i did a 2008 stats so i thot maybe i would do a 2009 stats as a follow up. of course it won't be all of 2009 since its only the 6th, but i am so excited i just can't wait until 2010 to do it. so here goes.

906 visit and 1208 pageviews (compared to 801 and 1220 in 2008).

visitors came from all over the place, i put last years ranking in ( )
United States (1) - visits came from 18 different states!
Brazil (11)
United Kingdom (3)
France (12)
Japan - new!
India (4)
Canada (2)
Columbia- new!
Czech Republic- new!
Taiwan- new!
Poland- new!
Australia (10)
Germany- new!
Spain- new!
Malaysia- new!
Mexico (5)
Denmark- new!

People from these countries hate me and decided to not visit this year:
Singapore (6)
Portugal (7)
China (8)
Jamaica (9)
Indonesia (13)

no suprise, most of the visits came directly, probably because most of the visits were ME. but some came from referring sites and some came from keywords.

Here is the 2009 list, interestingly lulu pawpi, versions of "wanting his toenails painted" and arse massage all made the list again. at least this time there is no "maxi pad" +pee squirt

lulu pawpi
"wanted his toenails"
sparklinglady blog
"blogspot.com" "footie pjs" "2009/2"
"cottage lake triathlon", september 2009
"wanted his toenails
"wanted his toenails "
"wanted his toenails painted"
arsemassage
completing in my first triathlon afriad of the swim
eric stoltz
lake stevens ironman parking
site:blogspot.com/2009/06 peeing wetsuit
whidbey mudder
xterra portland timing

yahoo!!

santa claus

sirus and i spent the day together, just the two of us. we went shopping. we got there earl and the stores weren't open yet so we went to the play area. sirus was standing on top of the maydenbauer when the jungle bells started ringing. i saw sirus start waving and looked over to see santa over by the elevators waving back. none of the other kids noticed but sirus jumped down and ran over to let me know he saw santa.
later at dinner seamus was telling us how santa was going to know that sirus was crying about a remote control car he wants because santa knows these things. yeah, so then i told her santa knew all about how she was saying just yesterday how she hated me. to that she replied that santa was sleeping when she said that and didn't hear it. she went on to say that santa actually sleeps quite a bit. NO HE DOES NOT!
sirus and i had a fun time shopping though. after the play area we went to a bunch of stores and he flirted with the sales girls. then we went to the apple store. sirus really wanted to play a game on the computer there. we had already discussed that we would go to the play area again so i told him that he could either play the game or go back to the play aread. he said he wanted to play the game. after a while we were done and i said we had one more store to go to. after that one store sirus suggested that we go to another store and then another. he then said, how about we go to a few more and then to the play area. he was totally playing me. but we did it. it was a loooong day of shopping and we had fun, little guy totally passed out in the car on the way home.

hot so hot

thanksgiving was the other day. on tuesday sirus went to pre-school. his teacher asked him what he is thankful and without even thinking, he said he was thankful for Seamus. i love those kids. seamus was screaming not too long ago how she was so mad at me and that she would't ever cuddle with me again. then in like 2 minutes she was cozied up against me pulling my arm around her. we had a low key thanksgiving for us. eric made the best turkey i have ever had. we are trying to figure out why it was so good. we imagine probably because it was pumped full of hormones and saline and crap, but damn it was good. it was tiny, too! we had some stuffing, i made some homemade apple sauce that seamus said tasted funny, and the kids helped me make some homemade cranberry sauce. it was a little not good at first, but after sitting in the fridge all day it was damn tasty. we also made butter!! the one thanksgiving staple that we didn't have was mashed potatoes - and no gravy either. it was just the 4 of us this year, grandma was in vegas visiting uncle rick, grandma and grandpa were in vegas visting aunt tacy, and aunt xtie was in portangeles with jon's fam. it was nice and mellow, but we did watch waaaaay too many movies and played waaaay too many video games. and check out the sweet homeimprovements going on behind sirus in that photos. what a mess. ugh, now i am trying to decide what to do. should i do the duathlon on th 13th? it involves a 7.2 mile run followed by i dunno, 4 laps of some course. it could be fun, but it also could be a really long run, or it could be raining, or it could be cold, or it could be all of those things combined. there is also a 5k coming up that might be fun to do, too, but we went running yesterday and we went slow but i was dying. ok, not dying just not going very fast although i was sweating like a pig despite it being 40 degrees out. by the end of the run was in just my knickers and a light longsleeve. apparently i should have just had that on to start with, or something. i have actually been swimming about once a week since maui. i had originally intended to take a month off from swimming, or maybe even two, but allie suggested not doing that. i don't know if i mentioned her very wise words of breaks from swimming can be addictive, so to keep from that, i have gone at least once a week. its been nice since the pool is indoors and warm, but its also been killing me. i struggle to get through 1500meters. struggle. this morning i had good intentions of going for 2000 but yeah, after about 200 i was like, ok, maybe just 1500. i have been told that this actually isn't that bad considering how warm the water is and stuff. i am going pretty fast when i'm actually swimming but i'm just not going for very long at any given time. we are so going to get sucked into some longer term membership there though because the kids love going so much. this morning we asked if they wanted to go and i haven't ever seen the kids get their shoes and coats on so quickly! after, eric went for a bike ride but the kids and i went for a walk to you guessed it, mcdonalds. its a little over a mile away, so we bundled up - i had on a longsleeve-T, a longsleeve fleece, a sweatshirt, my puffy vest, a scarf and a hat, and we walked on down. we had a 100% all natural, unprocessed meal of chicken nuggets and apple slices and then the kdis played for about an hour while i read my trashy celebrity gossip magazine. we did have two potty breaks while the kids were playing, too. then we bundled back up, walked to the bike shop to talk to matt about flip turnes then walked the mile home. seamus wanted to race up the hill, but sirus's legs hurt, so i picked him up and ran uphill chacing seamus. that did not last very long. right before we turned into our neighborhood, eric came riding up on his bike, which explains why he didn't answer his phone when i called him in hopes that maybe he would come and pick us up. yesterday, seamus and i raced through the trails behind the house and by golly, she legitimately beat me, i couldn't beleive it. she totally blocked me while were were going up the hill, too, everytime i moved over to pass her she would move and block! and then she just let it all out on the downhill! and she was wearing clogs, i was in running shoes. unbeleiveable. i would have passed her if we would have kept going though. :)

the kids

we took them to an indian resturant yesterday. when we lived in seattle there was a good indian resturant that would deliver to the house. and when i worked in renton there was a good indian buffett that we would go to for lunch. but since we moved out east of two lakes i have not had any tasty indian food and yesterday, damnit, i was going to have some. and eric agreed!!
we walked into the totally empty resturant at like 5:20ish or so. there was 1 guy there.
sirus immediatly ooohed and aaaahed about how good it smelled and announced that it smelled so good because they were cooking there.
ht then told the waiter that he wanted a kids menu and chicken nuggets. seamus wanted the indian hotdog which was some fried potato like tube thing. i told her a hundred times before it came to the table that it wouldn't be like a normal hotdog. she loved it though.
eric and i gluttonized and ordered our normal selections but then we also ordered lamb biryani. seamus wanted to try it which was suprising to me. but she tried it and really liked it. she went on and on about how it was such a wonderful resturant. and even told me about it this morning. sucess! one might say!

nyc

missed flight because i can't read an itinerary so instead of getting there at 2:30 i went to atlanta and didn't get to nyc until 8pm.
ordered room service soup. the lady said it would be bigger than a cup but smaller than a bowl. it showed up as a big pitcher that filled the big bowl twice.
couldn't sleep.
in the am went to the gym. recumbant bike for a little and treadmill for a little.
find directions to conference, only .3 miles away.
wear fancy NYC outfit with high heeled boots.
leave hotel and head wrong direction. find myself on my iphone and make another wrong tunr going even further away. finally get to where i am going.
conference all day long. schwag= red bucket hat, coffee mug and golf umbrella.
taxi to see jen and new baby and brian. love them!!
"car" to hotel, can't sleep.
in the AM had alarm wars with the neighboor. alarm was set to go to gym but screw that my feet were killing me. and good grief, so are my quads from some squats i did the night before just for fun. WTF.
room service oatmeal and giant cup of berries.
NY office. lunch with LIZ!! and smorgas chef - SWEDISH MEATBALL APETIZER. waaaaay yummy.
more work. Dinner - clamari salad and mango margaritas.
lose iphone. call resturant, call eric telling him to call resturant, call ATT to cancel service.
can't sleep. alarm in the morning, confused into taking "car" which was actually big black SUV to airport. felt like jennifer aniston.
got on plane, finally things going better in that flight was totally full except the middle seat of my row! horray!
window shade broken so sat in scorching sun whole trip. itinerary said arrive at 12:01, actual arrival time 10:40. Worried i was on wrong flight but wound up in right place.
forgot new golf unbrella on plane. :(
got home, giant 8ft long, 2ft diamater logs in garage, family not home.
nap on couch, hugs and kisses and cuddles when everyone gets home.
bed time for the kiddos.
i love you beth cooper and lemon drops right now.

things

two things said at the conference i went to today that made me panic:

Drop a pixel on your users.

and

Decrease cookie size.

Good gracious, what are they trying to do to me????

i got this idea

from Steve in a Speedo. dude, he makes me laugh. but this was just funny and provided me with a ton of entertainment today.

Google Suggestions!

Apparently people want to know about Laday Gaga

A lot of the "when"s are about pregnancy or greys anatomy, or school.

Why - so many things to ask why to in this world

I want to know why my cat(s) stare at me, too. This is likely such a popular search because of all of the times I have asked that same exact question. i could care less why they keep peeing on my bed with diarrhea.

I didn't know people wanted to own Canadians.

I can tell you why!! because he was probably stung by a jelly fish.

the gym

after worlds i took almost a week off to do just nothing at all. well, ok, i had to go to work, but i didn't run or bike or swim or anything like that.
we had halloween which was fun and sirus dressed as superman again and seamus as a black cat. halloween was actually the first time back doing anything active, so it wasn't even a week!
i did not swim however since i was healing from the road rash and really i just didn't want to go. i did get two new swim suits tho! and when i finally did go swimming on monday i got two compliments from people i don't even know, so that was fun. the running has been good, although all on the treadmill and the biking has been good, but all on the trainer. i did do a 10 mile trail run outdoors with some of the girls and it kicked my arse, i had to come home and nap.
but i like the treadmill. i like the trainer. when its cold and raining, i can't help but like being indoors and sweating like crazy.
the road rash was a pain for a while, and then it started to itch like crazy. it was crazy, uncontroulable itching. i am pretty sure it might be a little infected or something but we'll have to see.
i did eventually go swimming and by golly, it actually felt good and i kept good timing without even going that hard. my shoulder hurt though the next day in a different should and different place than it has hurt in the past.
so, i like to ride my bike on the trainer and watch the tudors. i also like to run on the treadmill at work. and then there is the gym. the gym is good because there is good child care and the kids love going. they were there for almost 2 hrs today and when i picked them up sirus asked why i was coming to get them so soon.
the gym is weird though because there is crazy no parking, there is always a ton of hair stuck to the shower walls - grooooosssss!!! and then today i used an Expresso bike. i was walking by them and was like - hey, whats that? so i got on and started pedaling. you can sign up for an account and you pick a course and then you ride, and the funny thing is that you have to stear, too. its like a video game! not totally action packed or anything but still you pass riders, you go up and down hill and i got a good workout. if i had signed up for an account i could have saved my progress and continued on tour or something. real weird but pretty fun. although two women showed up while i was on there and they seemed a little aggitated and they both weren't able to do their workouts. and then some dude was totally hovering waiting for me to be done. so after my 1/2 hr i swapped to a normal bike and then there was a woman who got on one and just pedaled along to the login screen.
the gym is weird.

Xterra World Championships

October.
A lot has happened since nationals. For some reason work didn’t get less stressful as I was hoping it might but maybe that had more to do with the excitement of the upcoming trip to Maui than anything else.

I think I was to have two weeks of build and then sort of a taper and then a rest week or something of that nature. Everything was going well, and I did some crazy hill workouts, one of which eric joined me on, pushing the kids up the highlands 3 times!

I did my very first cyclocross race which turned out to be pretty fun but also hard and I’m not so sure I will do it again. Eric was feeling crappy so he didn't race but as we headed to the race site, the whole time I was telling Eric i didn't want to race. at the line up there were 12 of us which i was happy about, apparently the other weekend there were 30 and I wasn't so sure I was up for that. we were in the 3rd wave heading out and we started on the road. i couldn't get clipped in and was last heading into the grassy part and turns. ugh. i quickly passed a few girls, got caught up in the barriers but managed my way into 4th by the end of the first lap. 2nd time through the barriers two girls passed me but later that lap I passed one back on the climb. i held her off for the 3rd lap and that 3rd time through the barriers but then on the last lap, bam, i dropped my chain going over the barriers and she got me. by the time i was back on my bike she was too far ahead. i tried to close the gap but couldn't and wound up in 6th. i was happy with my race for a few reasons - i didn't crash or fall at the barriers, i actually rode in my drops on the road sections, i didn't use my brakes on the big long descent and hardly used them any other times, i worked really hard, i didn't get caught by any of the junior boys that started after us nor did I get lapped by any of the men who started ahead of us. i was unhappy with my race because i didn't do so well remounting, but that will just take practice. the whole race was 36 minutes and i was pretty beat after. i had to take a nap.

The next day we headed out to belingham for a duathlon and it was COLD. low 30s. neither of us were excited about that but the bright side was that there was no rain and it was a DU so no swim! That would have been terrible. it was also fun to see charity there since we don't ever get to see enough of her. the start came quickly and we were off. i ran hard and was 3rd woman back to transition, only a few seconds off 1 & 2. once on the bike i went really hard and passed those two ladies and a bunch of the guys, so I was in the lead. the bike course was all up hill and all downhill. the uphill was steep and just went on and on, the down was super sketchy with crazy drop offs and just totally nuts. i got through all but 1 of the switch backs which i was happy about and i think i got off twice to run down some of sketchy stuff. I was pretty happy with my riding but the 2nd time I got off my bike, not to far from the end, one of the ladies passed me back. since it was only 6 miles it was super quick and back into transition right away. i was sloooooow mostly because i couldn't get my running shoes back on my feet very well. the first place lady was headed out as I was headed in and then someone who came in after me was faster in transition and beat me out. i could see her up ahead the whole time but couldn't catch up to her. with about 1/2 mile left she looked back and saw me there and she picked up the pace. i didn't have enough to go get her. i finshed 3rd overall, 1:30ish back from first and like 15 or so seconds off of 2nd. i was suprised by my run paces, the 1st one was 7:38 and the 2nd was 8:10. I sure felt like I was going harder than 8:10. i guess there were some hills, the garmin said over 500ft in those 2.6 miles. I was pretty excited about the sweet new pint glass I won!

I was pretty darn tired so I slept in and then went swimming at the gym the next day at lunch, I think with Leslie? I can’t remember for certain but I am pretty sure that’s what I did. Later that day I started getting a sore throat. On Tuesday it was so bad I went to the drs. Other than the throat thing I felt fine. The dr said I was fine, too. Then later that day I got really sick, it all hit at once. Wednesday I had a fever, but went to work for just a little bit but then totally went home and slept. What a mess. Thursday I thought I was feeling better maybe and hung out on the trainer for a few minutes but really I felt like ass, so much so that I went back to the drs on Friday. What a mess. I told the dr my dilemma and he gave me antibiotics for 10 days, then prescribed all kinds of other crap that I didn’t get filled. Friday was also fun because Allie came to visit! When I got home from work she was there and we all headed out for dinner. I hadn’t gained back the 2 pounds I had lost in Ogden and then this week of being sick made me lose my appetite and I dropped another 2. We went to the Pinelake Ale House and I so wanted a totally delicious BBQ burger but it just wasn’t that good which totally bummed me out.

Saturday Allie went with me to the gym. She ran on the treadmill and I sat on a bike and then some on the treadmill. It was dreadfully hot in there but I sweated like a pig and felt better after. I was shooting snot all over the place, but what’s a girl to do? Later we took the kids to see Cloudy with a Change of Meatballs which was pretty good. Sirus was very funny during it that is for sure.

Sunday, Eric and Allie ran the NWTrailruns.com 10 miler. I was originally planning on doing the 5 miler but due to being sick and leaving for Maui the next day, my coach suggested I not do that. I felt like I could have run it, just not raced it. Instead the kids and I went to go watch and they took some photos with the camera. Xtie and Jon came over and then Eric’s mom came, too. We had some salmon that Xtie’s boss caught and then eventually it was time for peeps to go and for me to take Allie to the airport. It was so fun to have her here for a visit. I hope she will come again someday. It was definitely a treat for me to hang with one of my best gal pals.

Travel Day:
We woke up on the earlier side, before the kids were up, finished loading the car and headed to Toby’s house. He was gracious enough to take us to the airport and hang with our car while we were gone, I can’t thank him enough for it.

We had no real issues checking our bikes and our one suitcase, getting through security, or anything. We got on the plane on time, sat next to a tiny baby that didn’t make a peep the entire trip, shared a grody sandwich and landed without incident. We got off the plane and it was HOT. It was also not quite noon. All of our stuff got off the plane quickly, Eric picked up our sweet minivan (the same make and model we had in Ogden) and we were off. We were both starving so we made a run for the border and hit the taco bell. We hit the star market and then hit the condo only to be told we couldn’t check in for a few more hours. Yikes! They held onto our eggs and milk, we changed into our swim suits and we hit the beach.

I was supposed to do a 20 minute swim, but it turned more into an hr of trying to get used to the ocean. Its way different then a lake. The waves were HUGE. HUGE I tell you! and not just the breakers, it was all choppy and oh no I was thinking it was going to be one loooong swim. And OMG did it taste terrible. I was gagging all over the place pretty sure I was going to hurl. That getting to know you period in the ocean proved to be crucial. I think we went to Fred’s for dinner! I like Fred’s mostly because they have some awesome pina coladas (no rum!) but also because last time we were in maui, after the trail run when I was laying in bed being sick, eric and seamus went for a father/daughter dinner there and I think that is pretty cute.

Dude, we were so tired that we went to bed at like 8. Every night. OK, some nights we made it to 8:30. I was still feeling sick, bleck.

Tuesday
We went to the race site and did a 20 minute ocean swim which was waaaay more successful. The water was way calmer and I felt way better about it. I was starting to get a little concerned and my self esteem was being tested. I think I look pretty good and somewhat fit, but damn, not compared to the people who were out an about this week. Everywhere I looked there was someone who was fitter, tanner, more muscular! The good thing was that it was a beach full of flat chested women just like me! We followed the swim with a 60 minute easy ride south of Makena down through the lava fields. We hadn’t been that way before and it was so amazing. After we went up to Lahaina for the afternoon, had some ok hamburgers, another pina colada (no rum!) and just walked around some. I was beat, I had to go back to the condo and nap. Later that evening we went to Pizza Madness which is THE BEST PIZZA EVER in the whole entire world, forever and ever. It was so good. Eric ordered a beer and I had to have a sip. Ah, it was tasty.

Wednesday
Easy run then off to get our registration stuff. We also picked up some snorkeling gear and headed out past the lava fields. The place where we went was pretty nutty. The water was pretty rough and I was thrown around a bit trying to get in since it was pretty rocky. There were quite a few people there, the snorkeling was cool, we saw a ton of fish and some crazy clear blue tube fish things. I was a little freaked out though since the water was as crazy as it was. Eric headed out to ride the practice course and I took a nap. Later we went to Sansei for sushi. We held back and didn’t totally gluttonize the way we normally do. What was up with us?

Thursday
We met up with Jeff at the race site for a 30 minute swim. We swam out a while, swam across a while and then swam back in. On our way back in we totally went head to head with a turtle. I was less than 5 feet away, just treading water with its head out of the water looking at me. Finally it swam away, I was pretty sure it was going to bite me or something.  After we got on the bikes and headed up to the practice course. There is a long climb up and then you turn onto the jeep road. There was a fun descent that was a little sketchy and then some other stuff and you just ride along. It was pretty short and we did two loops of it before heading back down. The guy that won Worlds last year crashed the following day on the practice course and wasn’t able to race on Sunday. While the course was fun and not that challenging at the pace I was going, it’s a totally different story if you are actually going fast.

Eric then went out on a run and I went back to the beach. I saw Shonny as she was headed out for a swim, she looked awesome and totally fit. I lounged on a chair until Eric showed up and then we got in the water for a bit, that is until I was stung on the arm by a jellyfish. I was like, what is that, akkkk, owowowo, what is that?? WTF?? So I got out and so did Eric. He wanted to pee on my arm and I was pretty sure that wasn’t appropriate. He kept saying that was what he needed to do, even when we went to the life guard who just laughed when she sent us to first aid. Apparently it was a Portuguese Man of War and really the sting wasn’t very bad at all. It left some red bumpy marks but really nothing much else. They put some stuff on it which very well may have been pee in a bottle and it started to feel better.

We got in the car to head back to the condo when not 5 minutes on the road when I was replying on facebook to a comment about the jellyfish sting I was screaming because a deer had jumped out of the side of the road and as eric told the insurance people, it totally t-boned the car. On my side! It was so damn scary. I told eric to pull over right away, it kind of was like this: Pull over! Pull over! Pull over! So he did. the deer bounced off the car and seemed to run away. Hopefully it was ok but really who knew there were deer in Hawaii? Oh, I guess the people who put the deer crossing sign up right by where we pulled over?? Most of the rest of the day was spent at the car place, exchanging the car and filling out paper work. Nice!

We made a trip to the beach. And had dinner probably at Freds again and missed the sunset once more.

Friday
We got up and headed out for some snorkeling first thing. We went to this lovely cove that we had ridden our bikes past and had driven past on the way to the last snorkeling place. We were the only people there although we had seen a bunch there the day before. The place was so amazing that as you stand there with water not even up to your knees the fancy fish come swimming right up to you. There were so many and it was so amazing. The water was pretty shallow in the cove so you could see all of the colors really well. It was almost a little creepy. We also saw a turtle that came swimming right at us and passed right by eric. Not too long after eric pointed to something along the bottom - a shark!! I immediately mumbled no way and turned and went the other direction. Apparently there had been two shark bikes somewhere around Maui in the previous week. Seeing that little guy, although we were told many times that he was pretty much harmless to us since we weren’t dead or anything, really freaked me out and I wasn’t so hip on being in the water very much more. We did continue to swim around but the more amazing, more beautiful stuff was right off shore, so that is where I went until it was time to get out.

Later we went for a quick run, probably went to Pizza Madness for lunch and then later had dinner at the condo. We may have gone to the beach again but we did miss the sunset once more.

Saturday
As the race gets closer, I seem to forget more, but really, do you want to hear again that we went to Pizza Madness or Fred’s again? We met up with Jeff to do a swim. The buoys were out so we swam around them. I wore the hamburger suit! I think it was this day when there were crazy swells in the water. it was actually kind of cool to swim up and over them, but pretty crazy when you looked up to site and you couldn't see anything but a crazy wave coming at you. My swimming confidence is way up because of this race for sure. I'd say some of the swimming was more intense than Idaho. Then we did an hr road ride with a few bursts of intensity which was really a lot of fun because we went south of Makena again through the lava fields. It was windy!! We passed the cove with the shark and saw that despite a sign that says “do not enter the cove here because you will damage all of the lovely wildlife, please enter the other side” a ton of people had their lawn chairs set up right there and were walking all over the wildlife. This reminds me of the dude we saw one of the other days peeing right by the no hiking sign on the lava fields. His friends were off hiking around the lava rocks taking photos of each other. What is up with people?

Saturday was exciting because we went to the race site for the race briefing at which the race director said that they would be putting a bunch of pigs blood in the water in Kihei to keep the sharks away from us. I don’t know if he was joking but I was and still am very concerned by this anyway. Later we had dinner and caught up with Ashlie and Luke and Jeff. It was a good dinner but I wasn’t quite sure I got enough. Eric drank two beers!! But I was ready to go back to the condo and get everything situated and ready for the morning. We were up a little later than normal, but I was able to fall asleep pretty easily.

Race day!!!
After Friday's run, I was totally beat, which was weird since it was only 1/2 hr but I just remember thinking, oh no, this isn't good. But after Saturday's swim and especially the bike ride, I felt great and was pretty excited to get to race day.
I slept ok but woke up at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. Totally rediculous. I was very happy when my alarm went off and I could start getting ready to go. I had my normal PB&J for breakfast and we were off to the race site.

We found easy parking, and set up transition pretty quickly. I like this whole alphabetical thing because they rack the As right by the pros where all the action is! Eric was able to rack right next to me. Ashlie should have been right there, too but I don’t remember seeing her but I did see Jeff a few racks down since he is a B.

Eric and I then stood in line to get numbered. I love that they use the giant numbers with the stampers so everyone’s numbers are consistent. We were in line behind a super tall dude with the skinniest calves in all the land. He went up, got numbered with a 2. He was a pro who apparently did pretty well last year and finished top 5 this year! After I put on a TON of sun block all over. The Xterra TV dudes even came by to watch.

There is a Hawaiian reverend woman who does a race blessing but then also will bless each of the racers. I got in line, she blessed me then told me to be careful of the rocks. I was just like WTF!!! Rocks? What rocks? I felt better after I heard her give the same message to Ashlie. Whew!

Down to the beach for a warm up we went. I was totally freaked out by how big the breakers were. But I got in and swam around for a while. Then I got out and hung around waiting for a bit. They penned us in when in the past they let the racers spread out. They also tried to get everyone onto the beach and out of the water but were having a time of it. Everyone was so anxious to get started that no one wanted to give up their spot.

The Swim - 1.5k
It was weird because we were just hanging around and then all of a sudden the cannon went off. I don't remember hearing a warning or anything. I jumped in and swam along. I felt pretty good but did swallow some water and had to stop and gag for a bit. All week I had been working on blowing out only my nose because i had to do everything i could to keep that water out of my mouth. As we got closer to the 1st buoy everyone started converging in on me and swimming on top of me. I got a little freaked out and backed off. I was able to start swimming again pretty quickly and was happy to see the divers under the water. I also liked seeing all the fish along the crossing there, too. Coming around the 2nd buoy i was thinking that it was going to be a really long swim and i was getting tired. But that is the most fun part of the swim because you get to ride the waves and it goes really fast. I jumped out of the water for the 100 meter run across the beach to start the next lap. I had not been caught by any of the pros!! On the beach I tried to run as much as i could but was worried about getting back into the water breathing too hard. The 2nd lap went quicker. The water seemed rough and the swim seemed slow. I am ok with my time but think it should have been faster.

I liked that the announcer called out my name when I came out of the water and even called out that Eric was not too far ahead.

Swim time 38 minutes and some seconds.

T1
My t1 wasn't the fastest but better than some i have had in the past. i had my glasses on my helmet and my gloves on my handlebars - and I left them there. eric had tossed a water bottle onto my area so i rinsed off my feet and I put on socks. since I had gotten sick I hadn't had the chance to really test how my feet might do going wet into my shoes and then putting socks on just for the run. i'll try that next season.

The Bike – 19 miles
I ran out and hopped on my bike. i started out at a decent pace but fiddled with putting on my gloves once I was on the pavement. since i can't go no handed I'm not sure if it was faster or not but if I practice I'll get better at it.

i was working pretty hard on the climb, harder than i did in ogden. i was pretty confident that i wasn't going to hit anything i couldn't handle, so i stayed in my middle ring for a good portion dropping into my 22 to get up the steeper stuff but then also getting off for the really steep stuff. it seems like i got off a lot though but i was happy when i was riding stuff that other people weren't. i also was super psyhed, but also kind of freaked out with the first downhill section that had all the big rocks and was super sketchy! i got down it ok despite people stopped all over the trail! whew!

the course has places called Valient Park, Heartbreak Hill and the Water Tank. i had taken a big bottle and a little bottle of discontinued LUNA Sport Pink Grapefruit and was through the big bottle and some of the little by the time I hit the Boneyard which was the first water hand off and I think like 8 miles in. yikes! i was happy to see that either Shonny or Danelle had pitched a LUNA bottle on the side of the trail but sad that I had to pitch my lucky big water bottle I have used at all my races. But the cold water was so awesome and I must have downed at least 1/2 of it instantly.


I rode along with a guy who is blind. I don't know how he does it, he can see some, but instead of going into darkness, i read that his world keeps getting painfully brighter. he had a guide with him who would ride a head a little bit and shout to which side of the trail to stick to. I have no idea how they did it, but it was amazing.

Next through Crossroads and up to Neds climb. i was just trucking along up that hill, i felt good. i probably slowed down some but was still working pretty hard but i think i could have gone harder. There were some amazing views as we climbed along Haleakala where they say we go from sea level to 1200 ft then down and back up to 1400 ft. Of course, me with my horrible, intense fear of tsunamis, as I was riding up there, checking out the view every once in a while, the thought did cross my mind, what if there was a tsnunami while we were racing? would they signal to us to not come down the mountain? gosh, the whole vacation was a bit of an exercise in not panicking about something like that happening, all the way to being happy we were at least on the 2nd floor of our condo, asking the front desk when they did their tsunami warnings that last time we were there gave me a heart attack and working out my escape route.


eventually at the top of ned's climb, you take a right hand turn and head down hill. 20 seconds in was where i crashed. i have no idea what happened. it was dusty and gravely and i was on the left side of the trail but fell to the right. i felt my head hit pretty hard and slid through the dirt and gravel. quite a few people passed and a few asked if i was ok, which i was but i stood there for a minute wondering if i should go back to the top of the climb. i felt ok so i got back on my bike and headed down again. i didn't however check my bike to see if it was ok, luckily it was. i know at least one or two girls from my age group passed me here.


i was instantly worried about "the plunge" which is a steep, fast, sketchy part and what that would entail and i knew that a lot of the rest of the course was downhill. the plunge however was the most fun part of the entire course. not sketchy at all. granted i wasn't going super fast but it wasn't scary. i did take it easy on all the downhills and came to almost complete stops going around the turns. i figure i must have lost at least 20 minutes after the crash by just riding along through all that downhill and faster stuff and pretty much no longer racing.

3rd water stop by the Oil Tank, i took another bottle and then the bike was almost done. i wound up going through my big bottle and then 2.5 little bottles and 3 clif shots on the bike. thats a lot of fluid!!

Bike time - 2:41

T2
when i got to t2, i changed my shoes. i was totally covered in dirt but i could feel the sun burning me so i grabbed some sunblock and headed out. i had to stop by a volunteer for help with the sun block to make sure i didn't put a big glob of it into my new wounds...

The Run - 11k
i did not go fast. i felt fine but i was hurting some from the crash and i just was looking forward to enjoying the run, not hurting during it. i ran some and i walked some, i walked through the water stops pouring one on me and drinking one at each stop. eventually i had to pee. i tried with all my might to just pee like the pros but couldn't do it. i really really did not want to stop in the bushes more because the thought of pulling my shorts on and off was killing me, but i did it and instantly thought of high school chemistry class when they say that if you spill the boiling acid on your jeans, the teacher will come and yank your pants down instantly otherwise your skin will cook to your jeans. thats what it felt like.

this first part of the course, almost 3 miles was all up hill on some road and gravel sections. i continued to run and walk and just do my thing, trying to give encouragement to people i passed or who passed me.

i traded places with two guys, one from alaska and another from SF. i ran the downhill, not fast but at least i ran it and the flats for the most part. once back to sea level, you head out onto Makena Beach, aka Big Beach for almost a mile. I was excited for big beach because it is so beautiful. i was a few steps back from the big guy from alaska and just used his foot prints which were awesome. i passed some guys who were lounging on the beach and still had numbers on their arms. they cheered for me and told me to not give up. i was just like - hey! i'm not giving up! I'm just running along!
Good grief I was dirty from that crash!!

you then head into what they call spooky forest and is really the only real trail running we do. There are logs to hop and branches to duck under. It was fine but i had a hard time running most of it, and then we hit black sand beach. i came off of some rock only to find the TV guy was there getting ready to film me so I had to run the beach. he ran along next to me and then in front of me for a while and then he turned away. i kept running for a bit and then i can't remember what happened. i should have kept running but i didn't.

on the rocks right before you jump onto the golf course a spectator told me there was another girl behind me. he said he'd check her age for me and as i was a little bit further along i heard him yell out that it was going to be a show down since she was in my age group. that was exactly what i needed because i was not going to get passed any more. i think 2 had passed me on the run already. i was fine with it at the time, but now its a little irritating, but i was glad i had it in me to get off my ass and run hard for that last bit and not let that girl pass me. i should have been at least 10-15 minutes faster on that run. I stopped racing and decided to just have fun instead. That's ok I guess. I had fun, and am proud of my race for sure, and when I crossed the line i felt like I had accomplished something big. heck - i finished top 20, actually 18th.

Run time: 1:34, whoah that's pretty slow!

Total race time: 4:58

Eric had an awesome race, coming in a little over his goal time but still good for 15th place and 135th overall. He did awesome!!

after crossing the line, i immediately went to the medical tent and they immediately told me to go take a shower because they didn't want to deal with me as filthy as i was. when i came back the dr. gave me a shot of lidocaine in my shoulder then another dude got out the brush and started scrubbing. i asked for a bin because i was pretty sure i was going to hurl, but i never did. the guy with the scrub brush was was so nice, even as he poked my shoulder with his thumb asking if it hurt. it was funny though because when eric came, the guy said that eric should finish it and i begged him not to let him! eric would have done fine but i was worried that it would hurt too much.
the medics tent was weird - probably 20 or so cots for those needing IVs and then all the people with wounds that needed to be cleaned. it was kind of funny because they were scrubbing all the people and then hosing them down out back. real weird.

we finished cleaning up and then headed to the condo. we showered and changed and then you guessed it, we went to Fred's. Not too long later we headed to the awards dinner and caught up with everyone and chatted about the races. It was a pretty cool deal. They also played this highlights video which we were pretty excited about since we both made it!


Later we got dressed in our costumes and went to the party. i clearly didn't work as hard as I could have because i was able to wear my crazy boots and my feet and legs felt ok. i couldn't finish my beer but i had fun dancing with eric. we stayed only an hour or so then had to go. we got to bed around 1am which was nuts since every other night we had gone to bed at 8:30.

we woke up on monday and went right to the kihei cafe for breakfast!!! later we went to the beach and for a walk. i was sad because i couldn't go in the water but was still happy to be there. we eventually went to pizza madness for dinner, of course.

i've never had road rash before. i am a big wuss. i have had a ton of brusies and cuts and whatever but never road rash. and can i just warn you, if you ever have road rash, DO NOT used any tea tree shampoo or anything that makes your scalp tingle. I used it this day when I showered and was brought to tears as my whole right side burned beyond belief!! it was horrible and wouldnt stop for probably 1/2 hr or more.

We went up to Lahaina for some shopping and some tasty shave ice, although I think it should be called shaved ice. eric got the pretty mama.


tuesday we came home to the cold and rain.

Xterra USA Championships, Ogden Utah

Week leading up to the race:

The Sunday before the Xterra I did the Capitol Forest XC race. It was 18 miles with lots of uphill and lots of downhill. It was a great race and a lot of run. It started with a Le Mans start where we had to run around for a bit then jump on our bikes. I won! Which was an added bonus and Eric told me last night that my time would have placed me in 5th among the Sport men.

Then started the week before the race. I was super busy at work with a new employee starting and another new employee from an outside office visiting and needing training. I was happy to have a lighter training load because if this. I did bail out on the cyclocross race on Wednesday because I was feeling the start of a sore throat happening and despite some good rest that night, I did not do the short swim I was supposed to on Thursday. I did manage to do the run.

I was a little nervous about heading out to Ogden but mainly excited and it really affected my sleep on Thursday. I don’t know why I was so anxious but I could not sleep and maybe got about 4 hrs.

Travel day:

Woke up early. My swim coach, Matt, and his dad picked me up and we headed off to the airport. Once there we met up with my mom and my sister. We boarded the plane but then sat there for a long, long time due to a mechanical of some sort. With each passing minute my anxiety about getting everything done went up. 45 minutes later we were in the air and in practically no time we were on the ground again in SLC. We rented a sweet minivan and headed up to the race site to pre-ride. But alas, there was road construction and we were stopped. Matt called and said they were going to registration first, so we made a quick change of plans and decided to do that instead, too. Packet pickup was easy, I was #107! They used the big giant numbers for body marking and the guy asked me if I was a pro before marking my leg. I thanked him and said no. I stopped by the LUNA tent and had a quick chat with Chris Mathis, mechanic extraordinaire and then we loaded up again and headed up to Snowbasin.

Shonny had given me the inside scoop as to where to pre-ride but we took a wrong turn and went up the wrong side of the mountain. We saw some trail markings but none of it made sense so we kept going. This was good because it took us up to Snowbasin and then over and down the road we were supposed to go up. We found the trail head, which was quite obvious because of all the other cars and bikers there.

I started to unload and put my bike together. What a mess. As I was doing this pro racer Damien Gonzales and his buddy David rolled up and started chatting with us. Eventually I just flat out asked them to help me. Thank goodness I did because I had messed up my headset and would have never gotten it figured out. They also gave some advice about the pre-ride and suggested I not do the top part since I was starting out so late. They also said to look out for the moos but I didn’t understand what that meant.

Finally I was off and riding. I jumped in at about the 7 mile mark and the trail was all downhill. It was really beautiful. I came across some people on horses who asked me to take their photo. I was pretty sure the horse was going to bite or kick me but it all worked out ok. The guy saw the giant 35 on my calf and asked if it was a tattoo. I was like just like, dude, if I was going to have my age tattooed on my leg, it sure wouldn’t say 35. I met up with Matt who had also gone up the wrong road and was putting his bike together. I rode on, and saw some cows right on the side of the trail, just chilling. The reference to moos now made sense. Matt caught up with me not too long after. And then the trail started heading up. Nothing too bad and we both said that wow, if this is what the whole course was like, we should be ok. After 4.5 miles we were at Snowbasin and I headed over to meet up with my mom and sister, and Matt went on to do the rest of the course. His dad was doing the run and he said he’d give me the scoop later.

We drove down to Ogden and checked into the hotel, got cleaned up and then went to the Dinner of Champions. I was starving. While waiting in line I saw Jamie Whitmore. I have been reading her blog about her battle with cancer and how she is now pregnant with twins! She looked great and had a very cute belly. I was across the buffet line from her and wanted to let her know I had been keeping up with her blog and congratulate her on her pregnancy, but at the same time, I wanted to respect her privacy and leave her alone. Since I don’t know her, I wasn’t sure what she’d prefer.

We sat at a table with April and Geoff and Matt and his dad joined us later. The food was good and although I cleaned my plate, I still felt a little hungry. Matt told me about the rest of the bike course and how it went straight up and how the run had 3 major climbs.

We stuck around until Matt was called up as regional champion so we could take his photo with his lei and regional champion shirt, and then we headed to the hotel. I can’t remember what time we actually turned off the lights.

Day of:

I slept horribly. I was awake every hour and was pretty much just miserable. I wasn’t really nervous, just not sleeping. I was up so early and not going back to sleep so I hid under the covers and played with my iPhone a bit. I was so happy when my alarm went off at 5:30 so I could turn on the lights and just get going. I had brought the fixings for a peanut butter sandwich with me – I had to pack the peanut butter in my bike box since I think it’s a liquid? But no jelly. Christie and I discussed if I should put a Clif Shot on there but I decided to pass on that idea. I got dressed, we packed up our stuff and we headed out the door.

We headed up to Snowbasin to set up T2 first. As we were headed by the lake the wind was blowing like crazy. I started to freak out a little because it gave me flash backs to Idaho.

It was pitch black out still when we got to Snowbasin. We found the transition area and I was excited to see that my space was in the same row as the pros. Not many people had been there yet and it felt so weird to have just my shoes, my hat and my race number there. So I left a Clif Shot, too. Just in case. I then saw Conrad Stoltz set up his area. After he left I went to check it out and he had everything all spread out, so I decided it must be ok to just leave the stuff there like that. It was weird.

We got back in the car and drove down to the swim start and T1.

The sun was starting to come up but it was cold. The crazy winds didn’t seem to be happening so I was happy for that. I thought it was odd that they didn’t have the racks in T1 marked and as long as you weren’t a pro, you could rack anywhere you wanted. So I picked a rack two over from the entrance and set up. They did limit it to 6 bikes per rack which was nice since that gave us lots of room.

At registration they gave us a bag that we had to put all of our stuff into when we were done in T1 and they would transport it back to the race finish for us. This whole two different transition areas and bag thing was new to me but I went along with it. It seemed ok. I then went to go get my swim cap and over the loud speaker I heard that there were no timing chips for the event. I hadn’t even noticed that I didn’t have one but when I heard this, I did think it was odd that at a national championship event there were no timing chips. I figured they must have it all under control and didn’t give it another thought.

After I was set up I went and sat in the car. I was on the verge of falling asleep. Those two nights of no sleep were starting to catch up with me. As we sat there we saw Matt and his dad drive in, and in the back of their truck was the guy who helped me build my bike and his buddy. That was kind of funny to us.

With about a ½ hr to race start I went to the bathroom one last time and then put on my wetsuit. Chris Mathis, the LUNA mechanic stopped me and said he’d be out there cheering for me, and that made me super happy. I then asked him to guard my $1 flip flops that I was leaving at the water exit. He laughed. I had no intention of stopping to get them on the way out of the water, so I hope someone is wearing them with pride now.

I met up with Matt and we went in for a warm up swim.

The water was on the chilly side but wasn’t too bad. We spent maybe 5-10 minutes in there, probably closer to 5 and then jumped out. Christie took some photos and then we went our separate ways as we lined up for the start.

I staged next to an older man completely on dry land. A bunch of people were already in the water up to their knees and we discussed how we both thought it was supposed to be a dry land start. He said that they would probably all be disqualified and then at the same time we both went “whoopee!! We win!” and we congratulated each other.

Then we were off!

Swim (0.93 mile)

The swim was a clock wise, triangle shaped, two loop course. I really didn’t know what to think because I was very afraid that it would be super aggressive and I really didn’t want to be near anyone. Probably 20 strokes in I saw someone turn around and head back to shore. I didn’t bump or get bumped by anyone except the occasional foot that I touched. I was happy with my spacing and even managed to draft! I got all the way to the first buoy and did a little breast stroke around it and then started up again. I saw a guy next to me with no goggles and wondered what that was about. I later found out that Danelle lost her goggles not even 10 seconds into the swim and swam the rest of the way with the concern about her contacts floating away.

I came to the 2nd buoy and did a little bit of breast stroke around it and started up again right away. I was swimming along and feeling really good. I don’t think I was going necessarily fast, but I was swimming and holding my own. The drafting was also a lot of fun and helping me quite a bit. At one point I looked up to site and I saw crazy waves. I stopped and panicked right there, having flashbacks again to the Idaho swim. All I could think was I still have a long way to go, this is terrible. Then I got my act together and realized I had already been swimming in it for quite a while before I noticed so I just started up and lo and behold, it was way easier to just swim in it than to just float in it. I was super proud of myself and also super excited that I could pull it together.

I got to the turnaround buoy without getting lapped which was super exciting for me. Floating right there at the buoy was a camera man who looked miserable. I think he was treading water or something and I don’t think he had on a wetsuit. I don’t know how he managed but I swam right by him.

I kept swimming along and at the next buoy when I stopped to do a little breast stroke to get around it I realized that breast stroke really kind of sucks, it doesn’t get you anywhere and I was more likely to choke on the water splashing in my face, so I started swimming again right away and swam for real around the last buoy and the rest of the way in. At some point during this time I was caught by the swimmers in the Sport race who were doing one lap and who had started 20 minutes after us. I was a little afraid of them since one of them did give me a giant shove and I was kicked by one, too. None of it was too bad but still a little unsettling since I was just swimming along so happy with my race.

I was pretty darn happy with my overall swim but especially that I got through those waves and that I came to this whole breast stroke realization. It had always been my crutch, but I am ready to give it up. Hooray!

I jumped out of the water and ran up the boat launch. I saw my flip flops there but just ran past and I waved at my mom. I found my bike right away and was excited to see a few other bikes still on my rack. A volunteer was standing right in front of my bike and didn’t move as I came running towards it. It actually took him quite a while to move so that was weird.

My transition was sooooo slow. Although I had totally lubed up with body glide, I couldn’t get my left foot out of my wetsuit. Then I had some trouble getting both socks on. The shoes went on fine, and the gloves were only so-so. Helmet was on and out I went.

The swim and T1 times were combined into one time: 38:33. I wish I knew what my swim time was because I know it wasn’t 38 minutes. I thought my watch said 34 but Christie said she timed it at 32. Both of those times meant I had really, really slow transitions so who knows.

Bike (18.9 miles)

I was off on the bike! I ran to the mount area and once I was on the grass my Clif Shots fell off my bike! I couldn’t go on without them, that would have ended in disaster, so I laid my bike down and back tracked. Christie later told me that there was a woman standing next to her getting very upset wondering why I had laid my bike down. I picked them up, quickly realized they fell off because I hadn’t taped them on the right way and then for real I was off on the bike.

Since I had only pre-ridden a very short portion of the bike, and knew that this first 7 miles or so was up hill, I wasn’t sure how hard to go. I didn’t know how steep it was or if it truly was all uphill or not. I would say I rode conservatively. We started out riding on the dirt shoulder of the road for maybe a mile as we crossed the dam. I saw Matt’s dad stopped in traffic! Then we went right onto the course. I wouldn’t say that the trail was technical, but it was different since there were so many people on it. By now, plenty of people from the National race but also the Sport race were on course so I had several people in front of me, next to me and behind me the whole time. It was actually pretty fun, since I was passing a lot of them. Some would pass me, too, but I kept passing people, too. The trail had one good line and then lots of other lines that weren’t so bad either so it made for good passing. It was a little weird though because everyone was dead silent. I wanted to chat with some people to lighten the mood (clearly I wasn’t working as hard as I possibly could have) but I stayed quiet and just kept going.

About 3 miles in there was a particularly rocky patch that was a little bit steeper, too. A bunch of people were off their bikes or falling, but I managed to get a good line and make it through them. At the same time my left calf totally cramped! AAAK! Only 3 miles in and I am cramping? This could be a very long race if that continues. I settled back in and the cramping subsided. I was going to be ok!

Eventually we got to the 4 mile mark that we had driven by when we tried to find the pre-ride route, and then we made it to the aid station around the 7 mile mark. I was happy here because I knew there would be some downhill and that the trail was a lot of fun.

I did get passed by quite a few people who are better descenders but I was still happy with how I was riding and working hard to get to the next part of the trail. This was also the part of the trail where I noticed some really bad rider behavior. One rider in particular kept yelling at people to get out of the way and to let him pass. Then something would happen and he’d fall back again, so we had to deal with him a few times. One time in particular he was directly in front of me, with two riders in front of him. The girl directly in front of him went to pass the guy in front of her on the right, and at the same time, the sketchy guy tried to pass them both on the left. It was horrible to watch. The girl wound up backing off and the guy being passed said something to the sketchy guy who then yelled back “I don’t know what your problem is, I’m not even in your class.” Ugh, it was so aggravating and totally dangerous. Then again, not too long after that something happened and he was behind us all again.

At one point I passed an older guy who was wearing some super fancy bright white Sidi shoes. I told him I really liked his shoes when I passed and he looked at me like I was crazy.

Eventually we got to the part where I had ended my pre-ride so I knew there were some hills coming up. The sport riders turned off and then for the last 6 miles it wasn’t quite as fun anymore. As I was riding up through the ski area I saw Victoria and Mary cheering on the side. I was so happy to see them! A few short feet away from them I bobbled and had to get off my bike to start the long steep climb up.

As I was pushing my bike up, I thought about Geoff who was originally planning on riding his free-ride bike but managed to get a fancy Specialized bike to race on. A little later I heard Matt call my name as he was coming up behind me since he was already on the run portion. Not too long after that I saw the men’s leader, Nico Lebrun, come running down, followed not too much after by Conrad Stoltz. I also saw Ashlie headed down the course on her bike and I had hoped to see Shonny come running down, too, but apparently I was just too fast and we never overlapped. ha! The hill eventually got a little less steep so I started riding again and rode the rest of the course.

With less than 3 miles to go I was getting pretty excited. I came up on a girl who had just endo-ed. She said she was so excited to be almost done that she lost her focus and went over the handle bars. The fact that we were almost done and that the views on the course were so amazing had me almost lose it a few times, too. This descent was more technical than anything else we had ridden and there were some switchbacks, too. I rode everything except a little dab on one of the switchbacks so I was pretty happy.

Overall on the bike I had 3 Clif Shots and almost two full bottles of LUNA Sport Electrolyte Splash in Pink Grapefruit.

I rolled into T2 and heard Christie cheering for me. I saw her standing there with some LUNA girls from SLC and heard them quickly introduce themselves for a moment then they all started cheering.

I ran up to my rack and stopped dead in my tracks.

Where were my shoes? I had left them right by the sign, right on the edge and now all that was there was empty space and bikes and helmets. I panicked a little and then looked one rack down – there they were! I backed up and started with my helmet and shoes and everything. I think T2 went ok, it was definitely faster than T1 but who knows for certain.

Total time for Bike and T2 2:30:33. I was happy with that!

Run

I already knew what the first part of the run was going to be like since I had already pushed my bike up it thinking how it would be considerably easier without the extra 20+ pounds of bike. Yeah, so it was still pretty hard and I walked a good portion of this first part of the race. A volunteer at the bottom even said to me “it’s a nice day for a hike!” Not sure if he was dissing me or not, but whatever.

Whenever the trail flattened out for even just a few steps I tried to run those few steps but as soon as it started up again I walked. I saw the photographer on the side of the course and told him I would run just a little for him. He laughed as I ran and then let me know when he was done and I walked again. Can’t have photographic evidence of the walking!

I got through that first climb without too much trouble since I was walking most of it but knew there were two more substantial hills to get through. I ran when I could, but on the flats and even on the down hills my heart rate would spike. So I walked a lot. I passed a few people and got passed by a few. I was struggling but having fun anyway. I mentally prepared to be out there for 1:30 so I took water at the aid stations. The Gatorade, even when diluted with extra water was making my stomach slosh. I had one Clif Shot at some point, too. It was probably over kill but whatever. Once again the views were beautiful and there was a funny bridge that when you ran over it, it bounced up and down like at a kid’s playground.

I came up on a guy and we discussed how we thought we were on the last of the hills. I was a faster walker than him and got to a flat spot that then turned into more of a hill. Right before we got to the top of the hill and the last aid station, I was passed by a woman in my age group. I couldn’t believe it, but I didn’t have it in me to chase her down. She wound up beating me by 28 seconds! At the aid station, the medic there asked me if I was on my 2nd lap. I was like, what?

The rest of the run was downhill. You make a right turn and it was down down down. I was so happy to be almost done and happy that I was able to run that last mile and ½ or whatever it was. I crossed the finish line and felt like a super star with all the photographers and tv cameras there.

Once across the line Christie found me and I was like, hmm, Ok, now what? While I was happy to be done, I was also kind of sad.

I hung out for a bit, met up with the SLC LUNAs, April, and then also with Damian who had put my bike together. I met up with Danelle and gave Shonny a big sweaty hug. We met up with Ashlie and Matt, and ran into Jeff. It was fun to hear about everyone’s races and just to see everyone knowing they had accomplished something great that day.




Evening

After the race we went back to the hotel and cleaned up. We had dinner at a little Italian place along the main street. I was starving but couldn’t eat my whole dinner. I knew I’d want it later but I couldn’t take it with me. Later there was the awards ceremony where they announced the pros and the new national champions. Not many of the actual winners showed up which was kind of disappointing, but whatever. We stood in the beer line for forever and determined that 3.2% beer actually works because we had some rowdy drunk motorcycle dudes in line behind us invading our space.

We joined up with the LUNA crowd to listen to Savage Henry, the very loud band that was playing. I sat next to Danelle and we talked about her race and Worlds and the Canadian speed skating team. She was so nice and answered all my questions!

Finally they played the slide show of photos from the day followed by a video highlight, too. I love those kinds of things and it was cool to see it on the big screen outside like that.

Shortly thereafter we headed to I-Fly for some indoor sky diving! I was nervous because I had seen it on America’s Next Top Model and they weren’t very good at it. We all got suited up and then it was time to fly. It was nuts!! You go in a minute at a time and the instructor is in there constantly adjusting your positioning. They say to keep your chin up and stay still and I made sure to do that as best I could because they didn’t really say what would happen if you didn’t. I kept falling to the floor because my hands and arms were too close together or something, but he kept pulling me back up. At the end, he grabbed me and spun me around and that made me a little sick. I sat on the bench with the rest of the group waiting for my next turn. This time you go in, they work on your positioning a little and then he grabbed me by the handles on my suit and we flew way way way up the silo! It was crazy! And then bam! We flew down super fast, going round and round the whole time. We did that two more times and then he had me stand there and helped me do a flip which was crazy and threw off my balance totally. And then!! He had me on the far side away from the door and told me to walk across to the door! It was so hard! I couldn’t do it! I took a few steps and he pulled me back, joked that I had been drinking then sent me again! My legs kept catching air and he kept trying to push me but it was so hard. Finally I reached the door and used all my might to pull myself out of the wind. It was so crazy!

Travel Day

I was starving when I woke up on Sunday. I still had to put my bike in the bike box, which proved to be scary and frustrating because I forgot to put in my wetsuit and couldn’t fit my helmet. My jar of peanut butter fit though! I couldn’t get my pedals off either. Oh I really started to panic then. Luckily Eric had packed the long handled alen wrench set so I was able to take advantage of the extra leverage!

Once we were all packed up we went to Jeremiah’s for breakfast. I had some crazy huge helping of eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and French toast. It was so good. I probably could have kept eating but there was no more there. We saw the drunk motorcycle gang there, too, which was funny.

We jumped in the car and went into Salt Lake City to see Temple Square and visit the Mormon Tabernacle. That was all fine and dandy but not something I would have probably gone to see on my own. After all, this was my 4th time in Utah and I hadn’t ever gone before.

Then airport and home.

I want to thank my mom and sister for coming to the race with me. That was super great of them to make the trip and it was great for us to have a girls weekend. It was pretty hectic but at the same time, it made it much more relaxed. Also, it was super cool of eric to be totally supportive and let me go to the race without him! I am sure he would have kicked some ass had he gone and raced, so hopefully next year he can come too!