Chloe! You are NOT an Irongirl!!

WHERE TO BEGIN!?!? Lot's of randomness in this post - just to warn you!

Friday after work we all headed over to Helen's house to pile into the Honda and head to Atlanta. And yes - we did fit 4 girls, 4 bikes, and lots of stuff into one car! Kind of. Here is the view I had of Helen:

And we kept on hitting our heads on the bike - we acutally had the thought of wearing our helmets...


Anyway - we get to Atlanta at about 1:30AM! Way past everyone's bed time....but the house we where staying at was awesome and our hosts where VERY gracious to let us four pretty much take over the house!! AND the house was only about a 10 min drive from the race site! whoohoo!!

Saturday we got up and made it in time for Helen to go to her pro meet and greet. HOLY PRO'S !! :)


And Lisa somehow got Helen to sign her bib! :)


After that we ended up just wondering around the expo and grabbing the freebies! Not to mention sporting our SWEET shirts:



The next morning we got up and made it to transition in PLENTY of time to get everything set up in transition - and who did I run into in the back row party!?! MISSY!! Whoohoo!! I hooked her up with a sweet shirt - and she suprised me with a bottle of nothing other then Tennesses finest...Jack Daniels! Which I totally should have taken with me on the bike. Anyway - it was GREAT running into her and I can't wait to hopefully see her at another one!



Let me tell you real fast about transition - it was full of the most random bikes I have ever seen. Tri bikes, road bikes, mtn bikes, beach cruisers...congrats to those ladies who rocked out the 18 miles on those bad boys!! Anyway - the day before at bike check in - the lady running the check in said that there where about 300 people who knew what they where doing ant about 900 who didn't. But it was really awesome to see SO many ladies rocking out the sport!

Fastest race report ever - swim was great. The lake was beauitful - the water was a bit warm, but at least there where no waves forcing salt water down my throat. I was in the last wave which is always kind of a challenge when you run into the waves infront of you. Anyway had a great swim - hopped out of the water and ran up the 1/4 mile mountian (seriously - it was that steep) to transition. Jumped onto my bike and took off. What an amazing ride. Tons of rolling hills - loved it. I felt so strong and knew I was going to totally rock out this race. Until around mile 14. POP. Ugh. Flat. NOOO!!!

Out of no where the nicest lady ever (I LOVE TRIATHLETES) - offered to help me change my tire out...which I was MORE then thankful for!! She was so awesome - she was just getting back into the sport after having a baby and was using this as a training day for a 70.3 she had coming up. I could not have had a flat around a nicer person. Anyway - we both got back on our bikes. At that time I was just all about finishing the race. So we cruised and just chatted away. And then about a mile leter. POP. WTF!?! No more tubes - so I was just all about walking it in and then doing the run.

You know - you can't get pissed when things like that happen. It's kind of like when your luggage gets lost at the airport. Sure you can get mad - but why? There is not a darn thing you could do about it - except just accept it and keep on moving :) And that is what I did. I just walked along and cheered everyone on - not realizing that I had...oh...about 2.5 mile walk ahead of me (didn't have my computer on my bike). A volunteer drove up and offered me a ride in (telling me how far of a walk I had) so I accepted. And as he was driving in - we where chatting and he was in my hood not to long ago and even did a weekend ride with us! Small world!

As I was talking my bike up to transition - I ran into Marni and her friend!! They had rocked out 1st and 2nd place in our age group!! They where both super nice and I hope that I will run into the two of them again!!

All in all it was a great race - and even better to pull more women into the sport. I can't wait until next year to redeem myself and to hopefully bring more wonderful ladies up there for a good girls weekend! Here are a few more random weekend pictures:





I ended up riding back home with Lisa - she was driving back to the beach from an outdoor adventure camp in West Virginia. And I really don't think we could have fit anything else in her car...



And we where welcomed back to the sunshine state by these wonderful guys:


How do you like my steathly photo skills?

If you are interested in the cool tri shirts - shoot me an e-mail and I'll pass on the info :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Garmin UPDATE!

It came back to life!! Whoohoo!!

I can't express how excited that Garmin is still alive and kicking. Nine lives possibly? Has anyone else had their Garmin die and come back to life?

IronGirl - So, we are leaving tomorrow after I get off of work. Initially we where going to leave early Saturday morning, but Helen has her pro meeting at 11:45 - so we opted to drive through the night. Four girls - four bikes and one SUV. Pack light ladies!!!

I'm really excited for this race for many reasons - one is because I need a good girls weekend and two because there are going to be some AWESOME blogger friends there which I can't wait to meet! Hopefully this race will have some awesome shwag and a great expo. Also - Missy has some awesome shirts made up for us to wear. I'll have to post a picture once I get mine.

RIP Garmin

My trusty Garmin 305 has died. It had a good life and helped me through many races and tough workouts.

He was first purchased right after I had signed up for the Disney Marathon last year. He was very helpful in all of the trail runs that we do as well as keeping my ass at a good pace. Garmin has been with me through the tough times as well as the good. Even though the heart rate monitor was passed on to another training partner - I'm sure that he led a good life as well. Possibly that is why the Garmin died - he missed his 'twin'. Hmm. But I know his 'twin' is living a good life in Cali right now. Since that training partner has moved on.

Garmin, you will have a large place in my heart since you where my first major purchase in my quest with triathlons.

Rip, Garmin. Please. A moment of silence.

Can't wait for my new one to come in!! :)

Happy Thursday!!

PS - IRON GIRL ATLANTA this weekend!! Whoohoo!! More on that later...

ALSO - please, take your stuff off of the beach at night. The sea turtles will not lay eggs if there is a freaking tent, chair, cooler, or blow up toy in the way. They will just turn around. :(

Race Report - And Mrs. X

Eglin Air Force Base puts on this amazing race call, you guessed it, My First Tri. It's a 200 meter swim in the bay, an 8 mile bike, and a 2.5 mile run. It's a great race for first timers - which there where plenty of. It's so exciting to see people who are racing for the first time both young and old.

Anyway - I met up with Lisa, Karen, Jim and their two kids at 5am to head over to the base (I had no idea where it was - shocker - so I had to follow them). And at 5am it was already hot and humid...

So it was going to be a hot one. Anyway - Lisa jumped into the car with me and we headed off. As we where crossing the bay bridge - I saw Jim's brand new super sweet specialized bike drop. Yes. The front part of the bike dropped, and the back part was hanging on by a thread. I just about had a heart attack. All I could picture in my head was a very expensive bike fly off of the rack and flying into my car. So we tried to call them - ugh. Cell phone not on. As we pulled up to the toll, Lisa jumped out of my car to re-clip his bike securely onto the rack. As we where getting screamed at by one of the toll both guys to get back into the car. Come on now buddy. It's 5:30 in the morning - there are no freaking cars behind us!!! (sorry, no pictures, I was too freaked out to even think about a camera!)
We get to the race and got everything set up with the help of Karen and Jim's youngest - Matthew.

Matthew is a blast. He looked at Lisa (who was not racing yesterday) and said - "Miss Lisa, there are two ways you can tell I'm not racing today - 1. I don't have a number and 2.-ummm..I don't have a swim cap" Little kids are just too funny. And it was also Olivia's first triathlon - and she did awesome!


Way to go Olivia!!

Anyway - back to the race report. The swim was in the bay - swam out to a huge orange buoy and back. Being this was a short race - I new that I had to go out fast. Our wave was every woman 25+. So I made my way up to the font and just took off - swam my ass off to get a lead and to avoid congestion. Check. I'm pretty sure I was the 2nd woman out of the water for the wave. I wanted to rock out the transition - so I was in and out with in minutes. And took off on the bike.

The bike was an out and back 8 mile ride. A few hills, but pretty awesome. The only female that passed me was Karen - who I was expecting. She is such an amazing biker. But other then that - nothing too exciting on the bike. Came back to transition - threw on the K-Swiss (best shoes EVER!) grabbed my number and my hat and took off. (How do you like that?!?! Transitions are getting better!) I love the way there where photographers right when I was running into transition - as I was trying to get my hat on and number.

The run was a 2.5 mile loop. Mostly shaded. It was hard for me to really take off and realize that it was only 2.5 miles. So at the turn around I really kicked it in for the negative split. Unfortunately - the 1st and 2nd women where out of sight - so all I had was the watch to go against. Total time was 51.14. 3rd overall female.

Karen was out for the kill that day. There is a certain someone, we'll call her Mrs. X, who lives, eats, and breaths triathlons. Her and her husband are amazing athletes and their son who is like 13 - well, they where some of the people who where pissed when the age to do Ironmen was upped to 18. But Karen had her target and was going to beat Mrs. X. Needless to say - they had to go back to the photo finish to see who won - and Mrs. X beat Karen by .10. .1 freaking 0. BUT the thing is, Mrs. X did not have the right number on (she had her son's). And she was being a very sore winner about the whole thing. Just look out Mrs. X - you have a target on your back and Karen will not give up!!! And you know what else Mrs. X - if you where not such a sore winner - we might not be so worked up by this!!


Karen and her mean face

But all of the kids did awesome - Little Chloe rocked out 1st in her age group!! And no, we did not plan to wear the same outfits!


Lisa enjoying her post race birthday beers!

It was a great race and everyone had a ton of fun. Oh yeah - did I mention that the massage school was there!?! Oh yeah - free 20 min full body massage after the race!! Love it.

Random -
Our dryer is broken. :( No good.

Happy Fathers day!! Even though none of my Dad's kids are around - him and my mother will have a great Sunday. I love you dad - and I can't wait to see you in August!!

The 4am hour...

yes. It's that time of year. As Frank put it today "ohhh..the 4am hour". Why does 4:45am seem SO MUCH WORSE then 5:00am? It's only 15 minutes less sleep - just got to bed 15 minutes earlier right? WRONG. For some reason - it's so much harder to crawl out of bed when the first number on the clock is '4'. Anyway - today we met at 5:30 to do our normal Wednesday run. And it was a killer. My car said it was 84 our at 5:15. 84!! Who knows what the humidity was - and the heat index..I don't even want to go there.

Anyway - the run was a tough one. We got in around 6 miles - but it was just hot. Sweat just dropping off of us like - well - like we where running in hell. But we where troopers and totally rocked it out. Not every run can be perfect right?

So I think the 4am hour is going to start rolling in next week. Meeting at 5:15? Well, at least we are somewhat beating the heat. Unlike the poor tourists I see running when I go home for lunch. Crazies. There is a freaking heat warning outside people! Why are you running at the hottest time of the day?!?! Kills me.







This weekend is My First Tri over at Eglan Air force Base. This race is suppose to be a blast. It's a 200 meter swim (in the gulf I think) 8 mile bike and a 2 mile run! How much fun does that sound?!?! I know, it's not my first, but I had to do it. Plus little Chloe and a few other friends and their kids are racing as well. It is going to be so much fun watching the kids. I'm sure I'll have tons of great pictures to share!

Oh - and in case you where wondering (which I'm sure you where) masters practice is going very well. It's nice to have someone to tell you what to do instead of having my own workouts. And it also keeps me on top of my intervals...and..um..from just floating around and talking.

Hope everyone is having a great week - and congrats to everyone who raced IM Kansas 70.3 (and Amy who totally ROCKED IT OUT with a PR) and Sam who fought the rain in Ironman 70.3 Boise!!

Good Friend! Bad Triathlete!

So my girlfriends just left from a crazy weekend on the beach! I love my KC friends so much. Talking about the trouble we used to get into and just seeing where we are now is so much fun. I never would have thought 7 years ago that I would be living on the beach dating a fishing captain. We never would have thought that LeeAnn would be getting hitched to Eric and that Sarah would be engaged to a guy that we didn't even know back then!

But on the other hand we see how we change! My life here is SO much different then it was in KC. Instead of going to brunch on the Plaza on Sundays, nursing a hangover from drinking until 3am and then end up shopping at JCrew - I'm getting up, going on a 40 mile bike ride and then going fishing. It's fun going back and seeing the life that I used to have - and spending time wish such awesome friends. But I also think of what my life would be like if I would have stayed in KC. Would I be married to an account? Would I be working in a cubical 9-5? Would I have been introduced to triathlons? Crazy.







Anyway - lately I have been a VERY bad triathlete. Yes, I've been running and biking. Swimming..well, a few times since Orlando. But no long runs/rides on the weekends. I've just been too busy with travel, getting ready for my visitors that have just left, etc. And I miss my weekend warriors!! Hopefully they will forgive me and welcome me back with open arms next weekend!

So - my fellow bloggers, a question to leave you with. How have things changed for you the past few years? Did you take a huge risk, follow your dreams, and move out of your comfort zone? Did you quit the 'safe' job to head out into the unknown? Are you happy where you are now? But I guess that is life right? If you don't take scary step - life would be pretty damn boning! :)

Miles of Madness

Per a request from Judi (Miles of Madness) here is the low down on my speed workout from yesterday. So I get off of work and cruise over to South Walton High School hoping that their track was open (I've never been to this track so I had my fingers crossed). As I was cruising around to find a place to park I see this SWEET trail in the woods around the track. Jackpot.

I ran a mile warm up on the trail and then jumped onto the track. Per Coach Jim - I was to do 4X400 with a 200 recovery jog between each lap. I have not ran on a track forever. Just stepping on the track brought out my inner mid-distance high school track legs that have been hiding for so long. I think they where pretty happy since I shut them in the closet 10+ years ago Here is the break down of my 400's:
1: 6:28 pace
2: 6:30 pace
3: 6:35 pace
4: 6:23 pace

Coach Jim is not going to be happy with those splits. We where suppose to go our 5K pace. But it felt so good! I could not help it! My hidden fast twitch was so excited to be out - it could not help it's self! :) I'm hoping that this is a reflection of what the speed work will hopefully do for me in the long run.

I ended up doing this workout alone instead of with the group on Thursday because 4 of my BEST FRIENDS form Kansas City are flying in tomorrow! I can not freaking wait. LeeAnn is getting married in August - to they elected to have her bach party down here on the beach. Booze and beach for the next 4 days - well, and a bit of work for me. But it's ok :)

I totally forgot to post this picture of Lisa's bike (from Florida 70.3) - with Missy's disk wheel. HOW DO YOU LIKE THE FUN LOGO? Whoohoo! Wicked Fun!

And Jason - the best cheerleader of all:

Jim and Karen on the bus ride to check in:



Random Rant:
So we ride down 30A on Tuesday and Thursday. Lately we've have a pretty big group and it's been a great ride - it's social, but we also rock it out. Anyway - on Tuesday after the ride and before I took off for work I stopped at the Tom Thumb (aka - the best C-store in the world) to get some coffee. A hard core roadie who was obviously a tourists was in front of me to pay. I mentioned where and when we ride if he'd like to join us. We get excited when we have 'guest stars' for any run or ride that we do! But I'm going to lay it down that he was the rudest roadie, well, anyone involved in some sort of physical activity, I have ever talked to. His loss. :)

Not a rant - but I'm getting excited about Irongirl. There is a good chance that we are going to be riding to the ATL in an RV! Whoohoo! Why are RV's so much fun!?!?

Sweet Phone..

After reading this crazy post from Taking on the Ironman I just HAD to post this picture:



Just wanted to bring back a little nostalgia from back in the day.

I'm going to attempt to do three things I have not done forever after work today:
1: Speed work alone
2: On a track
3: After work
It's going to be a boring, hot ass run :) But I know it will pay off.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Wal-Mart

So. I woke up this morning - got in a great run. Came back to Jason's and decided to go to...ummm...wal-mart. This was a bad decision for 2 reasons. #1 I had missed my 6am to 7am 'ok to go to wal-mart' window and #2 it's tourists season. Ugh. So I go to Wal-mart to get stuff together for my girlfriends goodie bags who are going to be here on Thursday!! My best girlfriends from KC will be here on Thursday for LeeAnn's bachlorette party. Bachlorette party on the beach? Could it get any better?

Anyway - back to Wal-Mart. So the Wal-mart in Panama City Beach has it's own air brush station. Yes. It's true. And a huge section full of tourist crap (aka - shot glasses and snow globes that say PCB on it. If you ever come to PCB - let me know and I'll give you the 'non-crap' tourist places) So the place was FULL of tourists smelling like pina-coladas, talking on their cell phones and sitting in the middle of the isle with their carts full of coke, Doritos, and skim boards. I'm not going to lie - I almost had and anxiety attack. AND more then one person was asking me where things are. Are you kidding me? I'm dressed in my running clothes. Do I look like I work here?

Ugh. Made it out of there with out breaking out into hives.

I will not go to wal-mart outside of my window ever again!

So there is my rant about Wal-mart on Front Beach Road in PCB. Please note that I do not hate tourists by any means - but come on. Hang up your cell phone or at least move to the side!! :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Speed Work

Since Jim and Karen (who raced Florida 70.3 with me) moved down to the beach permanently last week, they brought something else with them. Speed work! "Coach Jim" held his first speed work session that evening. It was great.

The first workout consisted of mile repeats at our 5k pace. We did the workout after work - which was VERY different from when we are used to running. #1 most of us are sitting at work all day so we're kind of stiff and #2 it was freaking hot. Living in Florida we're used to running before the sun rises in order to avoid stroke. It kind of felt like track or cross country practice back in the day - sun beating down as you are sweating your ass off. Anyway, being so freaking excited about finally doing a speed workout, all of us went out a bit harder. Whoops. I was going to try to hit a 7:30 pace - 1st mile 6:58, 2nd 7:15. Hmm...well, at least it was not slower! But everyone did awesome and a few people ran faster then they ever thought they would! What great motivation. But I'm really excited about the speed workouts and seeing the results here in a few months!



So - after the session, we did what anyone else would do. Drink beer :) It was Karen's birthday -so we all celebrated but having a few. It was great. We really have the greatest training group ever.

Coach Jim

Little Chloe and Olivia



Ok - a few random rants. It's been awhile - so bare with me.
John and Kate plus eight. Seriously. I'm tired of it. We all knew from the beginning of the show that she was anal type a personality and had to be to keep that huge family in order. But I wish the media would freaking stop talking about them. Who cares what they do in their personal life? Just keep those kids happy and healthy. And don't even get me started on octo mom. Ugh.

Tis the season. The season of vacationers. Can't go out to eat unless you want to wait 2 hours. And don't even think of going to the store on Saturday (check in day) unless you want to play bumper carts with families buying 3 carts of full of vacation food. But I did see a guy come off of the beach still in his trunks at 5am with a dazed look on his face. Ha! Love it.

Back to the training group real fast - most of them are starting to train for either IMKY or IMFL. And what's my next long race? Um. Not so sure. So I'm kind of feeling like a slacker right now. But I know that there is NO NEED for me to train as far as they are. But on the other hand - I kind of want to :) BUT I did sign up again to be a draft marshall for IMFL - so IMFL 2010, look out!

AND I'm thinking of a new bike. I think I've decided on the Aeryn 1 Giant . Thoughts? Feelings?

Acting like a kid - and IronGirl

So, what did you do this weekend? Get a good long run in? How about a 70+ mile bike/brick out? Maybe a race? Not here! I babysat all weekend and it was a blast. Kids are so much freaking fun. I love it. Work has been really effecting my whole attitude and really bringing me down - so that is exactly what I needed. Time to hang out and act like a kid.

My sister let us borrow her underwater camera - and documented some of our pool time-




Who knew that an underwater camera could be so much fun?


IronGirl is coming up soon in the ATL - anyone else racing? We have a ton of girls that I train with who are heading up to race. It is going to be so much fun!