I survived the rapture, it's name was Onionman.

lets start with jury duty. as per the last post, it kicked my ass.
it was exhausting. listening to the witnesses, all the testimony, all the waiting around, all the not being allowed to talk about it was utterly exhausting!!!
and then we started with deliberations. good grief! that was even MORE exhausting. but we finally were done with it before lunch on friday. after lunch we read the verdict and then we were dismissed, but only after receiving our participation certificates???

saturday morning i got up and did a 50 minute trainer workout and 15 minute run. then we packed up the car with my mom and the kids and started on our way to Walla Walla.
i've done this race 4 times: 2008, 2009, 2010 and then this year. last year was a disaster so i was looking forward to kicking some ass this year.
the week had been so exhausting, and the drive was long. i slept for an hour when we got there and then had dinner then went to bed. i slept terribly that night but got up pretty easily.
i headed out early to get a good parking spot and it started to rain on the way there. :( i put a bunch of my stuff in a garbage bag and took it into transition to mark my spot. when i came back with my bike, SOMEONE HAD PARKED THEIR BIKE ON MY SPOT. WTF, who does that??
so i picked up my bad of stuff and moved. lame. i still got an end spot but whatever, it was lame. it was so cold but i was going to go out on a warm up on the bike - first time i had ever done that! so i put on the knee warmers, the arm warmers, the fleece jacket, the vest, the jacket and the gloves and headed out. i got rained on but the warm up was pretty good, but it was so cold i barely broke a sweat. when i got back to transition, the guy across the rack from me said he had to turn several people away who had tried to take my spot, even though my stuff was RIGHT THERE!! the stuff i was wearing was all wet, but i shook it off and put it into transition. i got on my wetsuit, put on my booties, two swim caps, ear plugs, you name it, i put it on. i was surprised to feel that the suit was a bit loose around the middle, but pleased at the same time! it still fit perfectly everywhere else. the pre-race meeting took forever. it wasn't terrible, just really long although i was there for the part where they said they consulted with the medical staff and agreed with the recommendation of cutting the swim in 1/2 because of the water temp and air temp. i said hooray and then started to leave and head down to the water because i wanted to at least get in the water for a bit before the start. i put my feet in and a shiver went right up me and i couldn't stop shivering! so i got out and started to panic a little, trying to figure out how i was going to get out of doing this race. i had already called eric hoping he would talk me out of it but he didn't answer his phone. the men went first and then the women. i waded out to waste deep and kept looking back wondering what could i do to get out of this, just pack it up and go back to the hotel!!!
but then it was time to start.

The Swim:
30 seconds before the start i splashed the water on my face and that did the trick. actually getting in after that was ok. the water wasn't too bad, cold yes, but tolerable. there was some pushing and shoving. i saw some feet, i did a lot of http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsighting. i was happy with how i was feeling out there in the water. it was turning out to be a pretty good first open water swim of the season! i passed a few of the men before we even got to the first buoy and then passed a few more on the way to the 2nd and then on the way back into shore. my shoulders were getting tired but i kept sighting and kept swimming, all the way to shore.
My time was not awesome, but i was happy with how i swam and how i felt.

T1:
i got out of the water and easily ran up the boat launch to transition. it was crazy in there. people were all over the place, they were sitting and all sprawled out. i looked around and it seemed to be because everyone was putting on extra layers. i struggled through knee warmers, arm warmers, a vest and jacket. i even put on gloves. i could have possibly skipped the gloves but was not sorry at all that i had everything else on. i did not want to relive cascade edge 2008. i headed out on the bike and right away started to pass some people. it was raining but it eventually stopped. i was enjoying the bike and happy to be on my sweet new argon 18 tri bike. i felt good in the aero position and was riding along well until i discovered i couldn't shift into the big ring up front. i tried, i tried and fiddled and tried some more. i eventually came to terms with the fact that it wasn't going to shift so i did what i could with what i had. this made the fast, fun part on the way back not as fast as it could have been. i was still catching people but i got passed by a few on that fast section. i caught some of them back when it flattened and started up hill again, but my overall bike time was slower than the previous two years, even when i got all injured last year. :( i was disappointed but then also realized had i had that big ring this likely would not have been the case.

t2:
longer than normal since i had to take all the cold weather gear off. i kept the arm warmers on but took everything else off.

the RUn:
i headed out feeling not too bad. but i couldn't resist the call of the porta potty. i jumped in there and took waaaay too long. my left foot felt funny, i thought my orthotic might be in my shoe crooked then i wondered if i left a clif shot in there or a hair rubber band. it was really bothering me so i stopped and took off my shoe. there wasn't anything in there, my foot was just frozen solid. i started up again. i was keeping a pretty good pace those first two miles on frozen feet, about an 8min pace. mile 3 was 7:47. then my left calf started hurting. right behind my knee, down a little. biatch. it was hurting. i hit the turn around and slowed down, but was still chugging along. the last part of the run is hard. its trail and up hill and then you can start to see the parking lot and hear the finish line antics and they make you run on this uneven grass and its terrible. but i gave it all i had for that last little bit. my run time was not impressive and i'm ok with it but not super proud. i need to figure out how to not feel the need for the potty breaks. plus i would like to work on working hard on the run instead of just chugging along.
all in all the race was ok, not my best but not my worst. i'm happy i started it! and i was happy that i headed out onto the run before the first place guy finished.
i came in 4th in my age group but got bumped to 3rd and on the podium since the 1st place girl was 2nd overall. More Onionman bling hanging around the house now!

after the race i headed back to the hotel, took a nap, then we walked around walla walla some and then headed to pioneer park to see the birds. we saw some bunnies making more bunnies and then went to a playground. my mom and i met a nice guy who was there with his grandson. he's a cattle farmer from oregon and he answered all my questions about being a cattle farmer. everything from how do you get more cows (do you encourage certain cow relationships or do you let them pick their own up in the pastures?) to when you go to check on the cows out there, how do you get to them? and do you brand them? and when they have their babies do you make them come into the barns, and how does the whole slaughtering thing happen? turns out a lot of his cows go to whole foods. he told us all about it but then mentioned that if the cows get sick, or need any medication or anything at any time, they get tagged and then they go to safeway instead since they will have then had steroids or hormones or something. he was awesome and i was so happy to hear all of his stories. he seemed good with me asking, too.
after we went to dinner and then hung out some more. we stayed up late watching iCarly. I slept waaaay better, seamus was super cuddly during the night, too.
unfortunatly i did not sleep IN like i would have like too, but the kids went swimming and then we headed home.