and I want a skateboard, and I want a....

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Bad Blogger...bad BAD Blogger

I'm just about the worst blogger ever.

Ugh.

We had a super busy summer into fall. We enjoyed a full race season this year. Here are the races I participated in:

1) Wildflower Triathlon Mountain Bike Course

2) Kennedy Club Fitness Triathlon

3) San Luis Obispo Triathlon

4) Strawberry Stampede 5k

5) Talley Vineyard 5k

6) Rock to the Pier 10k (Morro Bay to Cayucos)

7) San Simeon Pier to Point 10k

Abbreviated race reports will need to be completed, but not tonight.

We have been preparing our house to sell. Holy crap, WHAT A HUGE JOB!!!

My husband had emergency surgery two weeks ago. We are just so thankful he's alive.

There is just so much to write about that I get overwhelmed and end up writing nothing.

Wildflower '07 Race Report

I guess the focus of this race report is to highlight the lessons I have learned. The biggest lesson learned, and the most expensive, was during Wildflower '06, my very first triathlon. Do not stand and crank on your pedals until you're certain your bike is in gear. OUCH! Lesson learned.

Coming into Wildflower '07 I really just wanted to have fun and cross the finish line in one piece.

It was such a gorgeous day. Thankfully we made it to the lake Friday afternoon this year and were able to pick up our packets the day before the race. This made for a much more relaxed race morning.

THE SWIM

It didn't take long to learn my second triathlon lesson: Have faith in your swim. Now last year we started in the water, waist deep. I guess because the water levels were so much higher? Well somehow last year I avoided the washing machine and was able to find my own space. Last year I had a great swim.

I wanted to avoid the washing machine again, so I let everyone else go first. This was a big mistake. The swim start is so narrow, and I got stuck behind a bunch of swimmers slower than myself. I ended up treading water and doing the breaststroke, waiting to get my own space. It was so frustrating. Now I have never been a particularly fast swimmer. But I am a good swimmer (I was a lifeguard and swimming instructor for 10 years). I am at the very least a middle of the packer, certainly NOT a back of the packer. My swim was actually 2 minutes slower than last year. Argh....

T1

I was feeling a little spun after the swim. And I had some trouble getting my wetsuit off, mostly my left leg. What I didn't realize at the time was the suit was caught on my timing chip. Now this leads up to my next lesson learned: Be aware of your timing chip when taking off your wetsuit. Yes, my timing chip came off with my wetsuit, although I didn't realize this until midway through the bike. So the only split time I received was my crappy swim.

BIKE

I was very cautious on the bike. This race is very fast and competitive. There's also a lot of newbies and kids in this event. Lots of opportunities for mishap. I really just wanted to focus on the beauty surrounding me, and have a nice safe ride. I really didn't push myself. I discovered my missing timing chip, and dealt with some disappointment there. I had memory flashes from last year going down the hills, especially the downhill after the first loop: It's fast and the ground is very loose, tricky enough while riding two handed. It was tripping me out thinking about how scary it was for me last year riding one-handed. I kept thinking about how crazy I was to do that.

T2

I remembered to look for my timing chip, but was unable to locate it.

RUN

It's a very fast course. One mile out, then back. Once again I just tried to focus on enjoying myself. I thanked the volunteers, encouraged the other racers and waved at the photographers. I held enough back to sprint down the finishing chute and was happy to pass about 4 other competitors, without noticing whether or not they were in my age group. They didn't call out my name in the chute due to the lost chip.

I'm not really proud of my performance here, and I've been struggling with what to write. I only shaved off 4 minutes from my prior year's race with a broken arm. I did enjoy myself though and that's what I really needed to do. I finished 17th out of 40 finishers in my age group. I really believe next year will be my year. I want to actually compete. I think I could get into the top ten if I were to really try. And try I will.

I would love to do the Olympic course in the future, but with the timing of this race it's highly unlikely. Unless I change careers.

Just because.....

Wildflower Reflections

It was a wonderful Wildflower weekend. I have spent the last few days reflecting on the magic of Wildflower. It's such an incredible experience to be surrounded by thousands of healthy happy people all sharing a love of triathlon. Kindred spirits.

This year held the promise of being even better than usual. I'm not much of a blogger myself, but I LOVE to read yours (and yours, and yours....). And I was so looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible. The tri-blogger alliance. Race Athlete. Triscoopers.

The place is just huge, and I had no idea where anyone was camped, but I had faith that at some point in the weekend I had to run into someone. I kept my eyes peeled.

Saturday afternoon, long after I had finished my race, I looked up and was pretty sure I was seeing Kahuna taking off on his run. "KAHUNA?", I yelled, and sure enough he turned around to see who the hell had recognized him. "It's Mama B!", I yelled. (too funny) He smiled and gave me the thumbs up.

We headed back to our camp to drink some beer and cheer on the long course people. What a blast! I kept hoping to see more familiar faces. Then Robo-Stu ran by. "Robo-Stu?" Sure enough, he turned around. I jumped off our truck and ran with him for a minute. He gave me a hug (or perhaps I was the hugger) when I told him who I was. What a sweet guy. I found out from him where the gang was camping, but we were too tired after the triathlon, sun, and beer to journey that far. I was a bit bummed (I'd had visions of singing by the campfire) but tried not to let it get me down.

And Sunday still held promise.

Whew! And what a scorcher it was. We felt sorry for the oly racers dealing with such heat. We enjoyed the sun for a while watching the swim waves from the upper lawn. That was so awesome!

Eventually we were searching for shade and headed up to the bleachers by the finish line. We were sitting there for awhile without even noticing that Trimama, Tac Boy, Kahuna, Iron Jenny, Bolder, and SimplyStu were sitting right beside us! Too funny. It was a thrill for me to meet you all. You are like celebrities, well actually better than celebrities to me.

And I even got to see Iron Wil and FE-Lady cross the finish line. They were both looking great.

And we found ourselves heading up the hill with Bolder and Roman on our way out. That was really cool, as I got the update on all the one-on-one competition, and I got to drool over a BMC TT02 up close. Holy Crap! those are sweet looking bikes.

Race report to follow. I'm still working through it all in my head. In the meantime, it's good to be home again...

Ready or not....

Okay, I am ashamed that it's been 3 months since I've blogged. Sure, I have excuses, the biggest one being TAX SEASON. Well, I survived and my family survived another season. It's tough on everyone involved. I am just so thankful for my wonderful husband who did so much at home, to help keep our son happy, and our house reasonably clean. I'm so lucky.

Now it's time for Wildflower again. I don't think I'm quite as ready for the race this year as I was last year, but at least I know what to expect. This will be my second official triathlon, and I feel pretty damn excited. I only have 2 goals for this race: 1) arrive at the finish line injury-free, and 2) HAVE FUN.

I just can't wait to just get on with it....