A Racing Weekend

This past Monday was the kids last Monday off school. I don’t think they’ll know what to do having to go to school all week until school is out in May.  It was a beautiful day to be out of school. The kids played outside quite a bit…riding bikes and scooters, jumping on the neighbors’ trampolines, coloring with chalk and several water balloon fights. Around home we washed bedding, vacuumed and freshened up the mattresses, cleaned rooms and then Jackson mowed the yard while I did the weed-eating. Jackson also helped me bring up the patio furniture. Andrew was in trial all day but got done just before dinner. He was home for just a bit and then went out for a quick bike ride. I kept wanting to get a run in all day and waited until the last minute to do it. So then I was very rushed trying to shower, get ready and make dinner before needing to get Ellie and Lincoln to soccer at 6:30 and Jackson to baseball at the other end of town at the same time. I was also taking the Vincents to soccer and everyone got dropped off by 6:30. I didn’t get a chance to eat, but Andrew quickly made a plate for me and covered it in foil and I took it with me and ate after I dropped everyone off and before I went grocery shopping. I was rushing through my shopping to get back to the soccer field by 7:30, but then Leah texted me and said she would be able to get them. So, I got my shopping done and got home to unload it. Andrew had cleaned up after dinner and was outside playing with the twins.  He would pick up Jackson at 8 while I finished putting everything away. Then it was time for baths/showers and to get ready to go back to school the next day.

I had some pretty tired kids Tuesday morning. They played hard the day before. Andrew had to head back to trial, so I took all the kids to school. Then back home I used my dad’s extend-a-rod to try to scrape off wasps nests that were up in our peaks. I had sprayed them the night before and didn’t notice any wasps flying around them. Then I went on a quick bike ride before picking up the twins. Back home, the twins played outside while I cleaned the car out. Later that afternoon, my mom and Cheryl stopped by because she wanted to see the kitchen remodel. That evening, Lincoln had his first baseball practice, but there was some confusion about which team he was on. He was originally placed on one team and we thought he was going to be placed on the same team as Alex. Leah had offered to help get him to practice and games since we may have times where the others have games at the same time. We didn’t know anyone on his first team, so we looked into getting him switched and we found out 20 minutes before practice time that he was able to switch teams. Leah actually took him to practice that night and then our women’s group all met up at the Health and Fitness Center to go to AJ’s together. All but one were able to go and it was a really enjoyable evening with some great conversation and some great food. My parents, Molly and Cheryl ate there too, a little later. And back home, Andrew got Lincoln picked up from practice and then he ran his own practice in the backyard with the rest of the kids.

We had some storms early Wednesday morning, but thankfully it all cleared out before I had to head to the pool . I also spent some time getting ready for bible study the next day by cleaning, reading and prepping discussion. The twins had a pretty lazy afternoon while I was working on that stuff. Jackson had weights after school and then Andrew picked him up and they got haircuts before heading to the football field to take a picture for a kid that was on their football team who is battling leukemia. The rest of the kids and I went over to my parents later in the afternoon and visited with Cheryl for a bit and ate dinner before getting the kids to their practices. Andrew took Jackson to baseball while I took Ellie and Lincoln to soccer. The twins stayed at my parents and I went back there for about an hour until it was time to go back to soccer. Again, Lincoln was done earlier, but the twins just ran around and played with all the kids while we waited for Ellie to finish up at 8.

Thursday morning, I had our bible study and then got some office work done before picking up the twins. Then we met Andrew at the Italian restaurant for lunch. After lunch, Bennett wanted to go with Andrew to the office and Miles wanted to go home with me. Kind of crazy. But they met back up when Andrew came home to ride and I took the twins to pick up the others from school. Then we were off to the bank and the accountants before heading home. We had Alex with us the rest of the afternoon since Leah was helping her parents move. After dinner, Andrew, Jackson and Ellie went out back to practice some baseball while the other boys played around outside and I went to the store. As I was checking out at Wal-Mart, Ann was there and we got to talking. I hardly ever see her and it is always a nice surprise. Then I went to my parents to pick up the twins’ cleats we left there the last weekend after their practice. I talked to them for a bit and then got home around 9:30 and everyone was still up watching Indiana Jones. So it was kind of a late night for them. Then Jackson was up even later doing homework. And it showed the next morning when Jackson didn’t get up until it was about time to go.

Friday was kind of a bummer of a day, mainly because my Garmin watch quit working and I spent a lot of the day trying to get it to work again since I had the TriFAHL the next day. I was packing up all my stuff, when I decided to turn it on and make sure it was ready to go, when it seemed to start up and then would just turn off. I tried working on it and spent time talking to Garmin. I would get it working and then it would quit. The last time I got it working and got everything set up, I just let it go into standby mode instead of turning it off and hoped it would work the next day. I feel like I got hardly anything else accomplished that day.  Andrew picked up the kids from school because these two fell asleep.

When the kids got home from school, Jackson and Gage got to work on their treehouse they have been wanting to build. They drew up a plan at the beginning of the week and worked on it a few afternoons during the week. I got some spaghetti sauce made and simmering quickly before I took the twins to baseball practice. It was another cool, windy day and Miles was not liking it at all. Bennett got out there and practiced, but I ended having Miles stand by some bleachers for the practice and told him he could get in on the practice anytime he wanted to and if he didn’t, then he had to stay standing there. He was a stubborn one and didn’t move, so he also got to spend his evening up in his room. He only came down to eat supper and take a bath. I don’t think he really thought I was going to actually do that to him. And Ellie finally got to go to Smoothie King. It was actually the night of the Daddy Daughter Dance and Ellie doesn't like to go anymore and we dropped the ball and forgot about setting it up for them to go out for dinner. But she was super happy with the outcome.

Saturday morning I didn’t rush around as early as I normally would with a race. I didn’t have my alarm set until 6:10, although I woke up a little earlier than that. I knew that it wasn’t a huge crowd signed up and since they weren’t timing transitions, there wasn’t much of a reason to get there early to get a good spot for my bike. I ate a small breakfast and made sure I had everything ready to go. Andrew aired up my tires for me and I headed to the natatorium, set up my transition spot in the parking lot and got checked in and marked just in time. Andrew and the kids showed up just a little before the race started. The race started at 8, so we lined up a little before that according to our estimated swim times. I went in fourth and although my swim time ended up being just a few seconds faster, it wasn’t as fast I had hoped. As I got out, I was really not looking forward to heading out into the cold all wet. I actually sat a towel near the exit for the pool and started to dry myself off a little as I ran. I think it was around 45 degrees at the point with a decent wind. I put on a couple shirts and planned to put on leggings, but decided it would take too much energy and just went with my wet trishorts. I’m not sure my legs ever warmed up on the bike though. The bike was a little over 9 miles-2 laps of the course. On my first lap, I was able to pass the girl that left just before me and then I passed the first girl out on the second lap. There was one poor girl that was walking up Shepherd Street with her helmet on. I couldn’t figure out what had happened because I didn’t see a bike. Come to find out, she got two flats right at the beginning and the volunteer near her, called for a replacement and told her she could walk/run if she wanted to stay warmed up.

I was the first in off the bike and all other bikes were gone. Again, since transitions weren’t timed, I took my time getting ready for the run. I switched out my shoes, took off one of my shirts, took a few drinks and went on my way. The next girl was coming in on her bike just as I was leaving for the run. I was kind of slow going at first, especially since there is a decent hill early on. But the last part of the run was either downhill or flat, which was really nice. I kept thinking the other girl was going to pass me, since running is not my strong sport, but she didn’t and I was able to cross the finish line first with Andrew, the kids and my parents there to cheer me on. I still wasn’t sure at that point if I had actually won though, since we started at different times and transitions didn’t count. We stayed a little bit longer, but since times weren’t going to be announced until later in the day in an email, we went ahead and headed home as I started getting colder.

Back home, I started shivering more as I was looking through pictures, so Andrew offered to start a warm bath for me and it did help. The results of the race came out later that afternoon and I did end up winning again. My overall time was about 40 seconds faster-I had hoped for more of an improvement, but was still happy with it. Andrew went to the office for part of the afternoon. The was pretty decent, so the kids played outside a lot. They found two huge frogs at one of the ponds. They loved them but I thought they were gross. They taped up some boxes I had set out for recycling to make them a little home and colored all over them with chalk.

When Andrew got back from the office, he took Jackson, Gage and Zach with him out to the ranch and the boys did some fishing while Andrew did some work. And before they did that, they rode their bikes uptown and to McDonalds.

My parents came by in the afternoon too because Ellie kept asking them to come get her and take her to their house. The twins ended up going too. We laid low the rest of the day…I was actually more tired than I expected to be. But the kids entertained me with a dance party that night.

Sunday was race day for Andrew. His race was at 9:30, so we missed church. It was warmer and not as much wind as the day before, which was nice. Andrew left earlier and we got there just before his race started. Gage joined us in cheering him on.  The race this year had been moved to starting downtown near the bank and doing a lap around the cemetery, which included a decent hill. They had a decent turn out for this race and half of them were more serious racers. Andrew hung with them for a few laps, but just couldn’t do it anymore. He kept going though and finished strong. We were all proud of him.

At that point, no one had signed up for the women’s race which was after lunch. We went home to get the kids lunch and let Andrew change before we had to head back for the kids’ race. Andrew made them all some pb&j while I did laundry and gathered my biking items I needed just in case I was going to race. I totally left with the mindset though, that I wouldn’t be racing. Gage went with us again and we brought his bike because he wanted to race. When we got back to the race site, four women had signed up for the race at this point, so I signed up too. But first we had to get the kids off, so we got the older three and Gage signed up. Their race was just once around the loop and it was a wide range of ages. Jackson and Gage were in the first group to come around and up the hill, followed soon by Ellie and Lincoln. Andrew and I were pretty impressed at how Lincoln conquered the hill. Andrew had told that if it got too hard, to start riding back and forth serpentine-style. He said he remembered that and it helped him. And once he was up, he was able to pass Ellie as she was trying to figure out her gears. He was pretty excited, but we didn’t let him boast too much.

I changed into my biking clothes in the car, grabbed my shoes, drink and helment, got my bike and headed to the starting line. None of us had actually done a bike race before and were more of the triathlete variety. I think three of us had done the TriFAHL the day before (the other two were on a relay team) and one lady had done a marathon the day before. We were all there originally for our husbands, but decided to race last-minute. And then there was as 12-year-old that came to do the juniors race, but no one else showed up. We were all joking about not going too hard and not being serious racers. The poor race official had to explain all of the rules to us. Then they noticed one of the girls had aero bars on her bike, which wasn’t allowed, so they made her leave the race. That left us with just 4 racing. We took off at the whistle and by the first corner, I picked up the pace a little bit and thought the others would join me. I didn’t think I was going too fast or putting out too much effort, but I guess I was. We were supposed to be at this for 40 minutes, so I knew not to get in too much of a hurry. I just kept at a steady pace and that darn hill showed up on every lap. At one point in the race, they do what they call a “preem” lap and the winner of that lap wins a prize…so I got that because I had no idea where the other three girls were on the course. At one point, I lapped one girl. She said later that she ended up dropping out a little after that because she just had her regular tennis shoes on and was having a hard time getting up the hills without the clip-in shoes. She was also a mom of five kids, but I’m guessing she was close to 10 years younger than me 😊. As the race went on, I did have the thought that the other two were maybe just playing it safe at first and were going to come back strong, so I picked up the pace too (there was $50 at stake 😊). And then I saw them up ahead of me and eventually lapped both of them a little before the last lap bell was rung. So, I ended up winning and had a wonderful cheering section along the way. Then I had to get up on the podium and receive my prize of a pint glass, $50 and a Road ID gift certificate for the preem. If there were actual racers there, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been standing of that podium, but the laid-back feel of the race was nice.

We stayed to watch a little bit of the next race, which was the group of the fastest guys. They went for an hour, so we didn’t stay that long. Andrew and Lincoln went to the office and the rest of us went home. Actually, Jackson and Gage rode their bikes home earlier. Ellie wanted to, but we wouldn’t let her. She did make a friend at the race, the sister of the young girl I was racing against. The kids were outside most of the afternoon while I worked on laundry, getting dinne ready and editing pictures from the triathlon so I could get them uploaded to their Facebook page. And the TriFAHL director brought my medal by and we chatted for a bit. She doesn’t have any kids yet, so I think all the kids riding around in the street in front of our house made her a tad nervous. Once Andrew got home, he went out back with the kids to play some ball and then grilled hamburgers. We ate a relaxed dinner and then I went grocery shopping before we called it a night and the kids went to bed exhausted with little sun-burned cheeks.