Bittersweet

I miss my little guy. I'm pretty blue without him at home. Doesn't really make me feel like blogging. I'm blessed to love him so much.
Hopefully I'll still feel this way after he comes home and destroys the house :)

1st Day of 1st Grade

Walking to School with Daddy

I Like it Salty!

The Salty Dog Triathlon has come and gone once again. As always it was so well organized and fun, well...that depends on who you ask and your definition of fun. I had fun.

Pre-Race. Me and Kenton. My Dad and pals Dennis and Adam.

The alarm goes off early for this race. Since it's about a 45 minute drive to Hutchinson and the race begins at 7, it's tough being too chipper, but I managed. I actually had a wonderful morning. Laughing and giggling with Kenton as he met an hour of the day he hasn't seen in a year.

We got to Carey Park in time to park our bikes and lay out our stuff. We headed over to the 6:30 AM race meeting and then over to get "marked." It's always weird letting complete strangers write on your arms and legs with permanent markers.I feel the need to chit chat as they're crouched down writing on my thighs. Not sure if that makes it less awkward or not. 

There were 200 entrants in the triathlon and I was #141. So even with the 7AM start, I had a while to wait. Salty Dog does a individual start every 5 seconds.

So Kenton, my Dad, and I spent a good deal of time chatting as we waited for our time to get closer.

Serpentine Swimming

We all gave it our all. We ran wet and happy for our bikes as soon as the swim was over.

My Dad's just happy the swim is over and he's breathing!

Kenton's thinking, "I should have trained for this!"

I look like an idiot. But at least you can tell I was happy! Good thing too, because my swim time stunk! 10:41 for 400M!

I really goofed on my first transition. I spent way too much time fumbling with things that don't matter like my wet hair and my ear buds. My transition 4:30, that made me really mad later. 
The bike course is 5 laps around the golf course. It was an awesome morning. No wind and cooler temps. I had a blast on the nice road bike I borrowed from a friend. I never saw my Dad. I smiled big when I passed Kenton and told him that he shouldn't have encouraged me to borrow the bike! It made a world of difference!

My Dad rockin' his antique Peugeot!

Kenton rolling out for 10.8 miles

Best decision of the race was to borrow friend's Giant OCR2. I passed Kenton within the first mile!! Never ever beat him on the bike before! 10.8 Miles in 34:14. Fastest ride recorded ever!

Thankfully, my 2nd transition was much faster. I just had to hang my bike and dump my helmet. I hit the run course and still felt really really good. I ran and fumbled with my Garmin, switching it over to Run Mode. But once I got that squared I got my head in the run and just tried to get my legs used to the new activity.
Thankfully I don't have to think about running, I just go. About a mile into it I could see my Dad up ahead. He smiled big when he saw me coming and said, "I wondered when you were going to catch me!"
We exchanged highfives and encouragements and I pressed on pass him.
Clouds had rolled in and it had become just the perfect day for this race. I rounded the last corner of the new run course and saw my Mom waiting. I once again smiled for the camera. I was just so so blessed to be in such a great mood, I didn't care what I looked like.

Waving at my mom. She said, "Where's your Dad?!" (He started the run before me) I hollered, "Behind me!" 5K in 21:29. Fastest Female run time!!

My Pops finishing up! He told my mom to smack him if he ever wants to sign up for this again. He did great, he'll be there again!

Bringing up the rear. We tried to start the wave, but there were only three of us doing it.

Several people from Wichita. Apparently I wasn't important enough to wait for. I was just getting water! Sheesh!

Kenton was a whipped dog and accepted his defeat to me once more. But he started his diet today and his training plan for next year!

My Final time was 1:12:01. 2 minutes faster than last year. 2 minutes too slow to place in the top 3 of my age group. I'll be honest, I'm used to placing and it kinda burned to not have done well enough to at least claim 3rd. But, 'thems the breaks.'
And to be even more honest, I have had such a terrible time learning to balance my running, my rest, my son, my marriage, my motivation, and my passion for running this past season that to feel this joyful and excited about an event was all the treasure I could ask for. I've been battling major burnout since last August. I had hit a major funk at the last Salty Dog and I've been forcing myself to participate in many events. Even in Boston I was a burntout wreck and I didn't fully enjoy that day.
So, this race served as a placeholder to look back at a year of hard emotional training. I couldn't have been more pleased with the joy I felt about using my gifts and passion to accomplish another challenge.
Lord willing we'll be back next year with even bigger victory stories to tell!

 My "Trophy." I won a door prize to a kitchen store. I stopped in on the way out of town and scored an Oil Mister!! Now I can spray olive oil on my beloved popcorn!

OFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: http://www.hutchrec.com/ecc/wellness/page.php?id=64

My Two Dads

I was caught off guard when I saw this today. I thought it was going to be cheesy right down to the Josh Groban song.
I quickly found myself sobbing like a baby.
I'm lucky to have a renewed relationship with my earthly father. I'm also blessed to have found faith in a heavenly father.
Running was used to teach me about their love for me.

In 2007 I ran my second marathon. My Dad ran the last several miles with me. I had a rough race. I had hit the wall early after a bad start.
He stuck by me until the finish. As I struggled and wavered. He helped me finish my race.
Only later did he tell me,
"All I wanted to do was pick you up and carry you."

I can finish any race because I know my Fathers will carry me if I need them to.

A Day In The Life

I've often seen other's capture moments of their days. I love to see what a real day consist of for others. No one asked me, but I thought I'd share one of our days anyway.

A Day In The Life

Tuesday, August 3, 2010.

I was already up, but hadn't turned the alarm off. I also wanted to take a picture. So as the 3rd alarm of the morning blared I finally got a picture. (I had been up since 7)

First thing is first. Finally. After claiming to be a Christian for 15 years, I've only had a solid year of finding quite time daily. I'm so glad I start all my mornings this way.

Waking up the troops. I took this only after I completely uncovered his body. He sleeps with his feet on the pillow and his head buried deep in the blankets. He's afraid of monsters and feels safer this way.

Making Kenton's lunch. This picture looks horrible. But I make a fresh salad every morning to go with his lunch. We both agree regular carrots taste better than baby carrots. So, you will hear the chopping of vegetables every morning. 

The Filling of the Waters. 64 oz. + bike bottle for me. 24oz. bottle with name written on it for little man.

Who needs Body Glide? I have to use Vaseline to keep my narrow shoes from rubbing.

Quickly loading Steve Runner's newest episode for listening pleasure.

Time was ticking. Needed to leave by 8:15 and the Bret Michaels headband wasn't folded yet.

One Mommy, one kid, and one bike. Loaded and ready to roll.

And we're off.

Arrive at the YMCA, just in time to be typically late for the start of Judah's 8:30 class.

Ready to ride.

Rolling downhill is my favorite part of a bike ride!

Cheap bike drink break. My water bottle cage is too small to safely pull out my water and attempt to put it back in mid-ride.

I returned from my ride. Saw a swim lane was opened. I ran to the locker room, threw on my suit, hosed off, and rushed to the pool. The one lane was now occupied by a swim class. Awesome.

My only thought was to use the 20 minutes I had left by running on the track. I rushed back in to the locker room, threw back on stinky clothes and ran to the track. I squeezed in 2 miles in the remaining 13 minutes.

On our way to the car, we had to rescue a caterpillar. Naturally.

Pit stop at the library. After just completing his summer reading goal (226 books), he was eager to get some DVDs to bring home.

HOLD THE PHONE! Diet Dr. Pepper is on sale and we were almost out. I haven't purchased Cheez-It's, well, possibly ever. However, if you bought 3 12 packs, they were free. We both were happy.

Home. Loading bike miles via Garmin 405 ANT wireless technology. LOVE IT!

LUNCH TIME! Judah's lunch of choice this week. Cheese quesadilla, carrots, strawberries, and oyster crackers. He just discovered sour cream this summer. He's in heaven.

Half of my lunch. Kenton and I both have a "big salad" every lunch. (Notice the wash rag napkin? Yeah, that's our 'green' solution to paper napkins. They're cheaper than cloth napkins and work just as well. But, when company comes over we're too embarrassed to offer a wash rag, so we'll pull out old birthday party napkins.)

The rest of lunch. Looks appetizing? Doesn't it? Kind of not. This is Kenton's accidental recipe. Tuna, Italian dressing and curry. It's my favorite!! And on a rice cake. No gluten for this kid. Plus an orange to round it off. All while I check the "Twitters."

Ah...finally! The 1st Diet Dr. Pepper of the day!

So gross. I hadn't showered yet.

That's Better.

Special day! We were off to my massage therapist.

Judah had to come along. He was loaded with DVDs and earphones.

Post massage hairstyle. Oh well, it's totally worth it!

He did such a great job, a frozen drink from Quik Trip was deserved!

Cheap drink summer! 49 cent drinks are addictive, especially when it was 108 degrees!

10 minutes later it reached 109. New record high.

Daddy's HOME!! He had to check the "Twitters" too.

Judah had VBS and we had a quiet car once he was dropped off.

Tempted to go out for spring rolls, we wisely went home and attempted to make our own.

Verdict: we need more practice.

After a frustrating ride home, (apparently, Judah was making fart noises during the lesson at church), I dug out his dirty clothes. Only newbie mommies leave stickers on the dirty clothes. It should only take one ruined shirt to learn that lesson. I'm so glad I remembered. This is my favorite shirt he has.

The movie I put in the queue arrived!! It was awesome to revisit this movie as an adult.

Favorite line: "If I'm not here when you get back, I'll either be at the gym or the gun club." 

         Bowl number 1. A girl's got to carbo load some how!

So there's a day in my life. I thought it was funny to do this project yesterday because it was such an abnormal day. Oh well. That's life.

What did you do today?