I am a tri-athlete!

Here is my quick race report – I was so nervous at the swim start and walking down to the beach. It didn’t help that we were delayed 40+ minutes, except that I got to talk to some of the other survivors which is always so inspiring. I was lucky going into the swim to be in the front of the pack, after the first buoy I found a good groove and was able to actually do some crawl. I was so happy with my swim time and felt good when I got out of the water. The transition was a little bumpy, I had forgotten to adjust my bike seat so I had to stop a few times and get it in the correct position. I have the least experience on the bike (I had to borrow one for the race) but with that in mind I just put my head down and kept pedaling. I did not get off that bike – went into granny gear for the hills and kept repeating “I am a gorgeous athlete”. The mantra worked and although lots of people passed me on the left I felt good about my ride. The ride to run was the hardest and my calves were stiff for the first mile. I am a very slow runner, but really enjoyed this part of the race. I was finally able to look around and feel the love from the crowd. Again, my goal was “do not stop”. I was able to run my slow pace the entire way up and down those little hills and by the last ½ mile was feeling so good that I even kicked it up a little! I am so smiling today!

Triathalon in seven days

I think that I will give in and officially admit that I am on summer vacation. The amount of driving this summer is quite horrible, esspecially given the $$ of gas. The kids are back and forth at different camps and the beach and the pool... and no time to blog!

The triathalon is on Sunday ... eeks! Ready or not...

Vacation post - The hike

We thought that we had a reservation to go kayaking on Monday except that upon arrival at the kayak store we found that we did not... hmmm... I am not very happy when events do not go according to my expectations... I got grumpy, Josh got grumpy, Teddy got grumpy, Lee walked us down the street to get ice cream.. all in that order.
During the ice cream ordering the idea occured to Lee to let the boys order whatever they wanted, adding up the miles which each "piece" of their order. Josh's went something like this;
Waffle cone = 2 miles, scoop of coffee ice cream = 1 mile, toppings = 1mile. Josh "owed" Lee a 4 mile hike and the biggest catch was - NO COMPLAINING would be allowed!
We consulted the map of the park and Lee immedialty chose the 7 mile hike to the top of Cadillac Mountain. I was uncertain of his choice but we all agreed. The boys of course only hearing "3.5 miles to the top" and not quite understanding that it also meant 3.5 miles back down.
We filled our water bottles and left a hot and sunny parking lot for the "death march" - with NO COMPLAINING!
It was a truly wonderful event. We marched and laughed and joked the entire time. There truly was NO COMPLAINING! It is hard for me to remember - it is just outside of my imagination, but I know that it happened. It became the highlight of the trip, here are the pictures. Note - although it was quite sunny at the bottom, most of the hike was in the wind and the fog. Definetly Maine weather,







The veiw from the top is quite spectacular!

Vacation post - Maine-ly flowers

I love taking pictures of flowers. In my next life I would like to be a landscape designer or own a flower shop, but in this life I can't seem to keep up with the weeds. Here are my pictures from vacation,