internets, its been so long

that's a lie. actually, the ability to come up with something interesting to tell the internets has been my problem. lets see, what has happened since the last post? oh, i guess quite a bit actually!
a few days before xterra blackdiamond i decided i didn't want to do it. not only did i not want to do it, i decided i didn't want to do any xterra racing. and not really that, i just realized i didn't want to ride my mountain bike at all. so i canceled my registration for xterra worlds and almost begged to be taken back when i got their reply saying they took me off the start list. :( but then i changed my black diamond registration into a relay and then did not register for portland.
the relay at blackdiamond was SO MUCH FUN. i decided to go out on the swim and actually try to race the swim. it was a crazy swim start, the whole field together at once, guys and girls, nutty. it was tough but i didn't get kicked at all so that was good. i think i raced it but looking at my time, it wasn't any faster than any previous swims, so who knows. my friend rick was my biker and he headed out. he had been xterra and tri curious for some time now, but he doesn't swim. he has become quite the runner though. he did a killer job out on the bike and i was headed out on the run. so i felt like i was cheating every time i caught someone and then when i heard someone ask if i was the first woman as i ran by. but i had the big R on the leg so there ya go. i did run all of the hills which was the first time i had done that on an xterra but seeing as i didn't do the bike part, i better have run the hills and i managed to get stung at least 3 times by bees or some other stinging like thing. once in my lady parts and it really started to hurt so i went to the paramedics. later tho wow, it totally swelled into a horrible welt, itched like a mo fo, turned dark purple, all kinds of horror. after about a week, the itching and swelling calmed down, thank goodness but the big purple spot was still there. yuck, gotta see what's up with my bee reactions these days. the two on my feet however didn't bother me.
the following weekend we drove down to hagg lake for xterra portland. eric went to pre-ride, i went for a run. we had dinner with mat,. i had a beer sampler, and something for dinner?? i think?? after a few cookies back at the hotel, a good nights rest, we got up so i could volunteer at the race site and eric could get ready to race. i was parking enforcement, one might call it. i had my giant volunteer shirt on over top my puffy coat. i looked good. once the race started i headed out on the course to make sure the one place where there was two way traffic that the biker heading back stayed on the sidewalk so they wouldn't crash into the other peeps. it was quite fun being out there, i liked seeing the racers and watching them and all of their different racing personalities.
eventually i was done and jumped in the lake for a swim, then headed out on a 9mile run. eric managed 4th overall despite breaking his chain and having to fix it, mat was 3rd overall, beating eric for the 2nd race in a row by only 30 seconds. it was a pretty fun day i'd say. volunteering is good.
but then we got in the car for 4hrs to go to yakima and that was bad news. uuuugggh!! my back! by the time we got to yakima i could barely move. so the next day we went on a alsmost 3hr ride by acciendt and i took seamus out to run with me since i ws hurting a bit. ow my back! then back in the car again for 3hrs.
monday i could barely move so i went to the chiro. i love him, he is awesome. i skipped my run on tuesday but did swim and then on wednesday we did the swim for life, 2.5 mile swim accross lake washington! it was SO different than last year since it was a) warm, b) sunny, c) no white caps, d) we had eric as our kayaker! i was so relaxed this year compared to last year when i was pretty sure i was going to die. although the swim was totally fine last year, this year was so awesome. we went to fast, not because we swam fast but because we should have just floated around in the lake more since it was so beautiful. it made me want to do more swims like that!!
then thursday i went back to the chiro because i am a complete mess. he strapped me into the stretcher, ya know, the ancient torture device they use where they pull you into pieces. yeah, one of those. the whole time he was strapping me in i was just like, dude, yeah, so uh, is this going to hurt? this is really weird. i don't know about this. yeah,. no, don't turn the light off, and yeah, keep the door open. will you be able to hear me if i yell for help? oh, ok, emergency shut oswitch. that's great, thanks. good fun!