I Am Still Here

A lot has happened over the last month or so. I will start at the beginning. On July 28th I did my second triathlon in Wauconda, IL. It involved an 800 meter swim, 15 mile bike and 5k run. The hubby and I went the day before to scope out the course. The swim was across a lake, and the bike and run courses were hilly. I didn't let that bother me. We got up at 4 something a.m. the day of and headed off to Wauconda, about an hour away. We were some of the first people there and I got to pick a pretty good transition spot. This race only had one transition area. so I set up my area and waited. The start of the race was across the lake so all the participants had to hop on a bus to get to the start. I get to the start with about 15 minutes to spare and begin my pre-race stretching and restroom using routine. The first wave of swimmers goes off, then the second, then the third, then mine. We are in the water and swimming across the lake. I am going at a steady pace trying not to get run over. Nothing dramatic happened and all the sudden I am across the lake. I am out of the lake. I am running to my bike. Now I am on my bike and riding like Lance. The bike course was hilly but fun. I didn't pass a lot of people and didn't get passed by a lot of people. At mile 13 I remind myself I still need to run and should save some of my legs. I get back to the transition area, put on my running shoes and I am off. On my way out I see the hubby and high five him as I go by. The run was hard. Running is not my strong suit and did I mention the course is hilly. I allow myself to walk twice for 1 minute only and suck it up the rest of the time. I finished strong, sprinting to the line, running like a Kenyan. My final time was 1 hour 44 minutes, 174 out of 251 and 10th out of 18 women in my age group.

Then I went to Texas. In the middle of summer. When it is like 120 degrees there. But who cares. I went to see my friends and go to the women's mountain bike camp that I go to every year. Camp is at Lake Bonham in Texas. It is three days of mountain biking, eating and being goofy with my friends. On the agenda: karaoke, all surface ping-pong, launching stuff off the teeter-totter, teaching a wheelie clinic, floating in the lake and general mayhem. You should know we do all this without alcohol. It was a great weekend involving very little biking but lots of free bike stuff.

My friend Sherry took me to girl camp, so I went home with her to hang for a couple more days. Sherry is the woman who will become my wife if anything ever happens to our husbands. She is my goofy counter part. The best analogy is when we are together we are like 3rd grade boys that egg each other on until we laugh so hard we pee our pants. The details of our time together are classified.


My plan was to leave Sherry's and visit my bike shop guys, my friend Jennifer, my friend Lori and try to get to see my old co-workers at the Medical Examiner's Office. I was able to accomplish most of this, but in the middle of my visit with Lori I received some bad news from my family in California. My 13 year old cousin was in a tragic and fatal mountain biking accident. If you would like to read about her you can do so here but I will not give any more details about her death. I left Texas to go to California to attend her services. When I got there I was told by my sister that my father had been in the hospital, and within 24 hours of my arrival he would return to the hospital and remain there for three days. After some tests and scopes he was diagnosed with diverticulosis. He is required to quit smoking and eat more fiber, but he is okay.

In all I was gone three weeks. It was a good and bad trip. School will start in 2 weeks and I will be back to the grind. I plan on continuing to train and have picked out some triathlons for next summer. I will continue to post through school when I can, but thanks for coming along so far.