Happy Friday...A post for my little brother

Happy Friday!

Try to figure out which specialty he has picked...

Toyota US Open - Last race of the season

My tri season is officially over and I am both sad and glad! Getting ready for a race and spending so much time preparing, packing, training, ensuring kids are taken care of, racing and then attempting to recover and unpack, clean up, etc. takes a lot of time and can become overwhelming if you already have a lot of demands on you...and don't most people have a lot of demands? But a little sad because it is a lot of FUN.


I raced the Toyota US Open here in Dallas. This was my last race of the season and my longest distance race so far. Some of my teamates were competing in the Olympic distance and some of us did the Sprint. The Sprint was slightly long as far as normal sprint races go - an 800m open water swim (at Joe Pool Lake), 25 mile bike ride (from the lake to American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas), and a 5k (on the Katy trail).

Mandatory bike drop-off and packet pick-up was the day before the race which made this a busy event. It was 50 degrees already. That's nice running weather, but fairly cold for biking. Especially when you come running out of a lake.

Here's most of our group at the expo getting our packets....

The packets were nice - with a tech shirt that finally wasn't white! Who thinks sweating through a thin white shirt is a great idea?? Not me. We attended the mandatory race briefing and then I got my bike all set up out at the lake. I kissed it goodbye and asked it to please see me through this last race with no flat tires. Then we headed to the store to pick up a few cold weather biking items - no one expected it to be this cold this early!

On race morning I woke up early, around 4am, and got another surprise...rain. It had rained overnight and was now a consistent drizzle. Oh joy - now it would be even colder.

I met up with the team at the American Airlines Center, where T2 was, and we all waited for the buses in the rain. And apparently next time I must remember a hat! We all headed out to the lake (and race start) on the race buses.

At the lake, it was even colder due to the wind coming off the water. Everyone put their wetsuits on very early just to keep warm. While I was standing on shore, I looked around at all the truly fit athletes and at the buoys out in the lake. They seemed very far out there. I kept thinking 'what have I gotten myself into?'.



Luckily, my teammates were there to remind me to have fun! Here is Deighton and I goofing around (check out all the peeps in the background bundled up with umbrellas!) :





The Olympic distance waves started off first. My Age Group wave was 23rd so I stood around freezing my feet and standing on rocks from the rain. In our wave, we were sent off 6 at a time. Here I am waiting in line ...(blue goggles, side profile).

This is the pro men's wave that started off the race first. This is what a start is supposed to look like. They were so fast!!



And here is my wave start...ready set go!

Um, yeah, that's me up front in the wetsuit just kind of wading in and talking to my friend in the wave with me. Those two gals in the back without wetsuits are about to regret that decision...

The swim was pretty choppy about mid-way out. I got a number of waves of face fulls of water. It was very difficult to see with the cloudy weather. Then my goggles fogged up and I really had a hard time sighting for the buoys. But I just swam steady as if this was a warm-up. I wanted to be fresh for the bike ride.

Here is the swim exit...and a hot guy (ha!). I like how this photo shows all the swimmers in the background coming in (the random hot guy is a friend of one of the teammates taking photos of the event for us). I'm out there in the water somewhere!

Finally I made my way in! I'm in the red cap making my way towards the mat...

Swim: 800 meters, 20:29.

I stripped off the wetsuit and took a little time putting warm gear on - I realllllly hate being cold. Arm warmers, jacket, ear cover, wool socks, gloves. I had toe covers already on my shoes. My face is red because I am cold and wet! It was still 50 degrees and solid drizzle.

T1: 5:20 (avg for this race)

I wasn't fond of this bike course because I did not find it scenic at all. Unless you like Williams Chicken. A few spots were pretty treacherous in the rain. Two of my teammates wiped out on the course (but both finished); one when a car pulled into the bike lane. There were some major cracks in this road and railroad tracks. I saw a few taken away from the course in ambulances! This was a very hilly course but I took it steady and did not attack the hills. I actually felt great this whole ride (aside from the cold!!)

Bike: 25 miles, 1:35:03

I felt great coming into T2 so I just took off most of my warm gear and headed out to finally get this race over. This was a very large race so I had a looooonggg run from bike in to my rack.

T2: 2:12

As soon as I headed out on the run I saw lots of friends and a ton of teammates and I gave them this weird wave. ha! I felt great as soon as I started out. I fell into step behind a guy I thought was running slightly faster than I wanted and just stayed with him. I ended up with a 5K PR for the season.

Towards the end the pace was noticably harder for me to keep up! I am obviously not happily waving in the photo above.

Run: 5k (3.1mi), 28:41

I was very happy to be completed! (Note the finish clock started when the first wave hit the water.)

Total race time: 2:31:44

In the finish chute I got my finisher's medal, towel, and food! I was never more happy to have a cookie! I had to change pretty quickly though since it was still 55 degrees and I started to turn a little blue.

Next year I will finish like this guy...that is awesome.

My finish earned me 1st place Athena. I received a plaque and they will mail me a personalized nameplate! That was a fun way to end the season.

More pics from the day:

Ouch...and other things

Last weekend I headed out to the lake for the weekly swim. It is getting darker and colder in the mornings and evenings, signaling the end of the summer. But the coloring is still pretty! The lake was nice and calm. Love. that.

Here is what my Toyota training group really looks like in the wetsuits (not super fast like the girl in my previous post). Most of us seem to have the same brand/type of wetsuit because they went on sale and we were all in the market at the same time. Coach Chuck said, "Oh I see you guys got a 'buy one, get ten free' deal." ha ha. Funny. Oh wait, we really do look matchy-matchy! (Deighton seriously where is your suit girl??)

In other news...and on to the post title...apparently I need more iron. I know I bruise easy, but this is getting ridiculous! (No Mom, I do not have leukemia or some other disease, just pale sad skin). I have something like ten bruises right now...let's see (WARNING - yucky bruise and scraped knee pics!!). he he. Each one is an ouch!

And they keep going! But I won't bore you with even more pics. Sydney has her own "ouch". My poor girl is soooo clumsy. If there is anything you can fall off of or run into, we try to keep her away from it! Last week she ran smack into a door frame at full-speed and was awarded a huge goose-egg on her forehead. Luckily I can call up my doc-in-training bro to get the low-down on the "is this something you gotta take them in for" information. We talked it over and did a little 'flashlight in the eyes test' and decided she would be ok so we gave her lots of love and ice. Note the band-aid on her head in the pic below of the two kiddos. (p.s. I find it adorable how Tristen hugs her).

In other fun times news, I went to watch a few of my good friends and teammates compete at the Stonebridge Ranch sprint triathlon over the weekend. The 750-meter swim was in a little, man-made lake. To start, the racers jumped off the dock below and swam over to the start line to tread water until the gun.

The swim course took up the whole of the lake. Huh, that looks far. It's hard to even see the turn buoys way out there. Below I marked them with orange arrows that are hard to see.

I was thinking about how far it looked since I have an OWS race in a little more than a week where it is 800 meters and I'm thinking to myself...why did I want to do this? No doubt I can finish it, but I really do not like swimming in the lakes. Blech. Here is the support crew...John, me, Gayle and Cory (one of the racers). I always look like a dork in pictures. Lame.

Also, Auntie Lizzie (my little sis!) moved in with us while she goes back to school to get her Master's degree. Liz is a great house-guest and frequent vacationer with us so it will be fun to have her in the house.

Us on the plane to Utah. Wish I was as cool as Liz.

Us in the car on the way to Tyler.

Us at Disney!

I just hope she doesn't freak out when she realizes how crazy our household is!

Whew! Off to find more ways to bruise myself and if they make a nerf material you can cover your doors in.