Oh my dear blog; I've missed you. It's felt far too long, although I am doing well.
I have two major athletic accomplishments to catch you up with.
Last Sunday was my Olympic Triathlon, the Boulder Sunrise. And I finished. It was hard, so so hard, in the end, although honestly it felt great for much of it. The swim was the start, with 1500 meters, out, around the 2 buoys, and back from the Boulder Reservoir swim beach. I remember thinking as I started running into the water, "ok, this is happening, I'm doing this." And I didn't think much again until the end.
The swim went well, my bike ride (26 point something miles, because yeah, I still haven't bothered to remember the exact distance) went well. I averaged a bit faster than I expected on both.
My sister, Audra, came to do the run with me. In transition between the bike and the run, Nasser was there on the other side of the fence to cheer me on and give me a kiss. He told me I was doing great and that I rocked the bike.
Then we started the run. And it was really tough. The transition for my legs to start running instead of their comfortable cycling was really tough. I started faster than I should have. And I realized how tired I was after more than 2 hours of exercise. And I remembered I forgot to fuel in transition. And I realized how hot it was.
We walked a lot in the first half of the 10k. And we went so so slow. At some point before the turnaround, we turned away from the Reservoir and along this weird, not super well maintained, path along a stream. And I started jogging again and kept going. Audra commented that I had been doing a lot better after turning on the path, and I hadn't even realized it. I think the path was a little less exposed to the sun, although not really shaded. And I think I realized we were close to the turnaround, which usually improves my running.
You know, thinking about it now, I think I do better in a single loop run rather than "out and back". I'm starting to think about my run today, but more on that in a minute.
I finished the run, with lots of support from Audra along the way, and Nasser, who walked out a ways to meet us, closer to the finish line. But he still walked/jogged with us for a good bit. (I have a very foggy perception of distance on much of this run).
It was hard, it was slow. I wasn't the very last person to finish, but I was close to it.
But I finished.
They gave me my medal, took my timing chip, and I almost cried with Nasser and Audra standing there after the finish line.
I finished.
It was my goal, and despite a blister, I finished it injury-free. With a smile on my face.
After the triathlon, Nasser and I had to rush to the airport to get our kids, who had just landed with Grandma. Luckily my mother-in-law had a bit of a layover and was super awesome with getting our kids lunch in the airport while we drove.
Then Monday we flew to Seattle! We drove north right away to the house we had rented near the water and near the border with Canada. So far the trip has been awesome. We went to the North Cascades on Tuesday, had a beach/lazy day on Wednesday while some of the group went to Canada. (We are staying here with my sister and their families as well as my parents. My brother and his son fly in tomorrow evening).
beautiful drive through Mt Baker-Snoqualmie Nat'l Forest
lots of snow!
walking around on the snowfield
Mt Shuksan
D made a handheld snowman
the kids loved wading in Mirror Lake
Wednesday's beach day
So a few months ago I signed up for this virtual half marathon, the She Power Half. The actual race was on Sunday, same as my triathlon, but you can do the virtual on your own a different day. I had kinda envisioned doing it sometime in August perhaps, so I could do a bit more training. But Audra mentioned a few weeks ago doing the half on this trip. I was a bit non-commital about it, but my other sister, Vida, decided to sign up for it too. I packed with the intention of "seeing how it goes".
This morning as we were finishing up breakfast and starting to talk about what we would do today, Audra said, "well, should we do the half marathon today?"
It actually was a great day for it, although we would have maybe done a little better had we started a little earlier. It never really got hot, but the overcast morning definitely turned into a sunny early afternoon.
The run went pretty well, although I rolled my ankle at about 11.5mi and Vida's plantar fasciitis aggrivated her a bit. We all finished though, tired and sore, but finished. We run/walked it and walked a bit more towards the end.
So yeah, maybe it's a little nuts to do an olympic triathlon and a half marathon all in one week, BUT I did it.
And that feels amazing.
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