This past week things were supposed to start getting busy
again for us. We had a K-Life board meeting Monday night. So I got dinner ready
early so we could eat quickly and get the kids to my parents’ house. It was our
last meeting with Kevin and Chelsea and our new leaders were there too. We hate
to see Kevin and Chelsea go but know they will do a wonderful job at K-West,
just as they have done here. We were supposed to have baseball/softball
practices Tuesday and Wednesday night but they all got rained out. Ellie had a
field trip planned on Tuesday where they were supposed to walk to Truman and
got to the Planetarium and the herpetology lab. I was going to join them for
most of it until I needed to pick up the twins from school. But that got
cancelled because of the rain too. And we were supposed to have a lunch with
the new K-Life leaders that was cancelled. So my morning opened up and I
convinced myself to go out for a very quick ride in between the rain. I stayed
close to home and just did the hills on Shepherd a few times to get used to
working my gears since the TriZou course has some big hills. And soon after I
got home, the storms started. I did just a few last workouts, including a swim,
and spent some time working on my transitions throughout the week. But then
there ended up being rain in the forecast for the triathlon so all of that
practice may had been for nothing if I was going to have to throw all of my
stuff in trash bags to keep it from getting wet. I wasn’t looking forward to
that at all.
So with all of the rain, our busy week turned out to be
not as busy. The kids did get some time outside to play though which was good.
Lincoln and his friends were working on their fort. At one point they had some
long handled pruning shears from the Vincents and came to get a bucket from our
house. Andrew told them to give his bucket back and put the shears away J. The girls had the
twins over to jump on the LaBeth’s trampoline and they loved it. Then they all
came over for popsicles before another storm came. Miles came running in when
he saw the dark clouds saying, “Something terrible is happening.” That night
they managed to sleep in my room. They had been planning it all day and set up
their blankets and pillows in there earlier in the morning.
Jackson had MAP testing this week and decided he may like
that better than school. But then we both decided if you had to do it every
school day it wouldn’t be as “fun”. And he had his last Little K on Thursday.
Next year he will move up to the Middle School Club after 6 years and he is
excited about it. And I’m hoping they can get a good group of 6th
grade boys to form a small group. Speaking of small group, we had our family
barbecue Friday night. I spent part of the day getting ready for that. The
other part I spent trying to research on how to do triathlons in the rain and
figuring out what I would need to pack for that then start packing up some
stuff. I also had a meeting with the guy that is building our new kitchen
cabinets. He came by to pick out a paint color that would match our trim, go
over a few details and have me pick out the hardware. Andrew came home early to get his stuff ready
for the barbecue. He worked on getting a fire going in the fireplace (it ended
up being a cool, cloudy day), making the hamburger patties and getting the
grill ready to go. While he was doing that, I got all the tables covered and
set up outside along with all the plates, serving dishes, cups, etc. I also had
stuff all ready to go for s’mores but wasn’t going to bring that out until
later or else the kids would just eat all the candy bars. So just about the
time Andrew started grilling and I had everything ready to go outside, it
started sprinkling. I didn’t think there was any rain in the forecast so I
looked at the radar map and there was a large mass of rain coming towards us.
Andrew tried to say we were fine but I decided to move it inside because I
didn’t want everyone sitting outside in a cold drizzle. I tried to use some of
the larger tables for people to sit at but we didn’t have enough chairs. So we
just put up one extra table and others helped me rearrange things as they
arrived since it was all having to be done very last-minute. Plus, I didn’t
exactly have my house ready for people to be inside. In the end it all worked
out though. The kids played downstairs mainly. I’m not sure what they did but
they were loud. I went down one time to find one of the twins and Ty with their
shirts off. Most of the boys had swords of some kind and Ty also had a cowboy
hat on. The adults stayed upstairs and
were able to visit. We were even able to get a picture of all us, which we have
never done. It was also a little going away party for Tyler and Danielle since
they will be moving soon. We are all sad to see them go. I did play Friends by Michael W. Smith for them as
a little joke J.
And in the end, the house wasn’t as big of a disaster as I thought it was going
to be. Andrew worked on doing baths while I started cleaning. Jackson even
jumped in to help with the cleaning without me even asking…such a good boy. I
tackled the basement last and it wasn’t too bad. Jackson and Ellie helped me
clean it up and it went pretty quickly.
The next morning came quickly though as I had to be up at
4:50 to start making dining reservations for our October Disney trip at 5. My
mom and Molly were doing them too. Then we all had trouble getting through on
the website plus I was having trouble being able to book further dates.
Thankfully my mom and Molly were able to and about ½ hour later we were good to
go. I tried to go back to sleep but it didn’t necessarily work. I was close but
then Lincoln came in around 6:30 followed by the twins, so I gave up. Jackson
had ball practice at 8:30 and even though it had rained overnight and looked
like it was going to rain again, they hadn’t closed the fields so practice was
on. Until they got there and decided the fields were too wet and practice was
then canceled. Eventually the city closed the fields which meant Ellie and
Lincoln’s practices were cancelled too. I guess the good thing about all the
rain is that I haven’t had to water my new plants on the side of the house.
Ellie had decided to pass her time by looking up words in a dictionary and
writing out the definitions and finding some long division worksheets online to
print off and work on. I told her I had to record this as a reminder in future
years if she no longer likes doing school work J.
That afternoon I finished packing up everything I needed
for the triathlon and our overnight stay in Columbia. Andrew’s mom picked up
the kids around 2 and then Andrew and I headed out. We got there in good time
and our first stop was a quick run to Sam’s to pick up on order I made online.
Thankfully I did it that way because they were really busy. Next we went out to
Missouri Furniture so I could look at some fabric choices for a new couch and
then we ran by the Missouri Orthopedic Institute to pick up my race packet.
Cycle Extreme had some bikes for sale out in front and one of them was Andrew’s
old one. I think he was happy to see it again J.
Then after we got my race packet, we ran by the hotel to check in and drop off
our stuff. Next we were off to meet up with Kaitlin and Zane for dinner. They
were in town for a baseball alumni event for Zane. We were a little early and
it was beautiful out, so we just walked around downtown and then went to
Glenn’s Café. We had a great dinner and great conversation before we decided we
needed to get back to the hotel and get to bed. I got my bag all ready to go
and called Molly to check on her and the kids. She took over for Mary and
stayed with the kids at our house. They were trying to decide what movie to
watch and weren’t agreeing on it. It was about nine and I think Molly was ready
for them all to settle down for the night. I eventually got to bed about 9:40
even though I was hoping it would earlier. And, of course, I didn’t sleep well
and neither did Andrew. But I guess that is to be expected.
I was up at 4:30 the next morning, a few minutes before
my alarms went off. I think I was up at least once every hour. I started
getting ready while Andrew tried unsuccessfully to get a bit more sleep. We
headed out to Stankowski Field, which was the transition area, around 5:15.
Andrew dropped me off a little from the field and I rode my bike in while he
parked the car. I was able to set up close to where I was last time and the
rack started filling up. It was a damp, foggy morning but I was so thankful the
rain held off. I hung out in the transition area for a while going over things
and visiting with some of the other racers. There was a girl next to me that
was several years older than me and she has been doing triathlons for 20 years.
She loved sharing her knowledge and helped a college kid doing his first
triathlon adjust his bike seat. Then she offered him some snacks she had and
also said she had individual packets of chamois butter (you use it under your
bike shorts to help with chaffing). His response to the chamois butter was that
he doesn’t like to eat before races. She then had to explain to him what it was
for and that is isn’t meant to be consumed J.
Eventually I made my way to the pool. We still had about 45 minutes before our
group started so I didn’t even mess with warming up. I finally found Andrew
with the spectators and was able to talk to him for a bit before we started
lining up according to our swim time. I talked to a couple guys that were
waiting in line by me. We were commenting on all the multisport clubs there and
how we are just kind of on our own where we live (he was from Rolla). We
watched the Elite groups swim and then it was time for us “age-groupers”. The
swim went pretty well. I didn’t have to pass anyone and I didn’t get passed. I
think I was about 10 seconds faster than last year which I didn’t really expect
since I haven’t focused too much on swimming.
The fog had lifted a bit when I got out from the swim and
it wasn’t as cold as I thought it was going to be which was great. I thought my
transition went okay but it was still longer than I wanted it to be. Actually,
my transition times are what kept me from getting third in my age group. One
problem I had was when I decided to just ditch my jacket, I threw it on the
ground and knocked down my number belt (has my race number on it that we are
required to wear) and almost forgot about it until Andrew yelled at me from
behind the fence to get it. I was so thankful he was there. We are supposed to
run our bikes out to the mount line and then get on but there was a guy riding
his bike on the track as I was running mine and one of the organizers started
yelling at him telling him he could get disqualified. So I got on my way (and
of course it takes me a little longer than others to get clipped in). I tried
to eat my gel I had taped to my bike at the beginning which maybe wasn’t the
best idea since there were a lot of turns before we got out on Stadium. The
ride was okay. I was just a tad bit faster than last year but I was hoping to
be quicker than that. I did have a few little issues including coming up on a
guy who I believe wasn’t even in the race and was just out riding the route. I
didn’t see an ankle strap or a number on his bike. But I came up on him at the
bottom of Stadium as we were turning onto Old 63 and I had to slow down more than
I wanted to since he didn’t allow enough room for me to turn at the same time.
And then there was a big hill as you go up Old 63 and I had lost my momentum at
that point. Then on the second lap my chain got a little loose while I was
shifting and I was afraid it was going to fall off. So I tried not to panic and
slowly worked through the gears until it caught and I was all good. I was
nervous about shifting too much after that though.
Andrew said I looked a little spent when I came in from
the bike and it was true. I don’t know if it was two nights of restless sleep
and having to get up early in the morning or any number of things, but I felt like
I should have been able to do better on the bike portion. So I ran my bike into
transition, took off my helmet, grabbed a drink and changed my shoes before
running half of the track to get out to start the run portion. At that point, I
was wishing I could just quit after the bike. The run is the worst part for me
and that first mile is especially hard after you get off the bike. If I could
get a little faster on my run, it would definitely help my time but it just
didn’t happen this year. I was about 30 seconds slower than last year but I
knew my overall time to beat from last year so I just kept going and was able
to beat it by about 30 seconds at 1:22:36. And Andrew was cheering for me the
whole way. I wish I could have had pictures of him running around to different
spots cheering me on while getting pictures and video of me (sometimes at the same
time, talented). He wasn’t really able to get too far out on any of the courses
since it was pretty spread out, but it was nice to see him now and then.
After I finished up, we ran back to the hotel so I could
shower and get our stuff. Andrew was excited to see that they still had
breakfast set up, so he got some while I went up to the room. I got ready
quickly and then we headed back to the race site to see how my time was
stacking up to the others. We were excited to see that I was placed 4th
in my age group (there were only 15, so not a huge deal) and they gave out
medals through 4th place. Even though I am 39, they put your age at
what you are at the end of the year, so I was moved up to the 40-44 age group
and they are fast J.
We found out during the announcements of the 35-39 age group awards that my
time would have gotten me 2nd place if I was able to stay in that
age group. I have never really stayed around for an awards ceremony and would
just receive any medal I got (not many of them J)
through the mail or just not even worry about it. But this time I convinced
Andrew to let us stay even though he was ready to head home. And wouldn’t you know
they had some difficulties and the ceremony was later than scheduled. But eventually
they got to my age group and I got to receive a big medal and go up on stage.
The girl that was set up next to me was third and she told me that the girl who
won our age group actually was the overall winner but they messed that up too.
So that meant we would have moved up to where she was second and I was third. So
overall it was a good day, a good race. I wish I could have been a little
faster but then I remember that I had my bike wreck less than a year ago, so I
should just be happy than I was able to do it. And then when I Facebooked
stalked my fellow competitors (yes, I did J)
I saw that these were some women who were very serious about the sport and they
have done a lot of triathlons while this was just my fourth. Plus, you can tell
they train a lot while my training is just what I can fit in while the kids are
asleep and if they are awake it is usually interrupted for multiple reasons
(for example, I had a text on my phone after the race from Molly that Miles had
diarrhea and should she give him something). And I know it will stay this way
for a while. I doubt I ever put that much time into training and I’ll be happy
with where I am now.
We left as soon as I got my medal and made our way home.
By this time, Molly had left to work on some of her final projects and Mary
picked up the kids and took them out to eat at La Fuente. So they were all gone
when we got home and I jumped right back into everything-cleaning up, unpacking
and going through mounds of laundry even though I did a few loads before I left
the day before. When the kids did get home, they were excited for me and loved
my huge medal (at this moment I have no idea where it is, so maybe one of them
stole it...actually they just told me Bennett put it under his bed J).
I was so thankful for Molly and Mary helping us out. My parents were in
Louisville for a weekend of festivities including a party for Colton and
Carolina along with Carson’s First Communion. The weather was dreary-cold and
rainy-so Andrew gave up his plans to go for a ride and went to the office while
I finished up everything around home. Ellie wanted to go through my basket for
dollar store crafts and found a couple things to work on. And she decided to
leave on of them for me on my night stand as part of my Mother’s Day gift. I
think she was half joking though.
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