40+ I am Officially Called a Master's

I would never say I am a Master at anything, more like a Jack of All Trades Master of none, but here in the Sport/Athlete world as I continue to race I fall into the Master's division. I remember when I was in my 20's racing thinking, "man...that's old. I sure hope I'm that fast when I'm that age" I laugh now that I said that. I am actually faster than I was in my 20's and definitely a much stronger and hopefully smarter athlete.

Since Thursday, I have been very busy. Friday started as usual but, today Grandparents were here!! YEAH!! I got Cameron off to school and really just relaxed with my In-Laws for a while after I cleaned up. My In-Laws and Rob were acting kind of strange and kept going out to the store, across the street, whatever. I thought about it but, I had to go get Cameron, everyone was so busy.. This is my Mother's Day present!! So Sweet!!

I had to go to South Austin to coach a client on his swimming at 4:30 so I headed out at 3:30. We had a great training session, I called Rob and headed home..I decided to just hop in the car and leave rather than take the time to change clothes. We had planned to have sushi and I was in a hurry to get home to clean up.

I arrived home at about 6:50 to find my house full of some really great friends.. SURPRISE!!!!! WhAT?? I'm still in my swimsuit.. I look out on the patio and see new furniture, Rob built me a patio set and it is AMAZING. He built it with Scott one of our very good friends. My jaw dropped.

You fold the benches up and it makes a table.. Seats 6 -8 adults.. So Super cool and a fire pit. We had a yummy dinner out on the grill with some really amazing friends. Balloons were everywhere and I just was totally surprised.

Next on the list was ED.. Now ED made a bet with me that he could beat me at a 10k, for one..I was not about to let that happen, but he did push me to go harder. So, the bet was U had to kiss his check 40 times if he won and if I won, he had to drink 40oz of beer in 40 seconds. I was definitely going to win this one. Today was the day he had to pay the piper. AND... He did.. :40 seconds EXACTLY!!!
Now that's funny stuff and what Triathletes are made of.. I think he switched to water after this though and had some dinner.

This was nit the end of the surprise though, Rob made my Birthday cake as well... a 6 layer Rainbow Cake.. OMG.. you're kidding.. Nope.. here is it...

We had a ton of FUN!!!

After a great evening of fun, it was time for me to go to bed.  Before I head to bed though, I ask about a few of my missing friends, some, he just totally forgot to tell.  It was last minute and he was working as fast as he could to get the word out and he just missed some people so, he wanted to send his apologies, he tried... 

I have a race in the morning 5k but, it's going to be FAST!! I know, this is my third year to race this course.
I head off to bed past 11pm thinking, really I have a race in the morning...I just want to sleep.
6am.. time to wake up.. Race time is at 8:15 but, it's pretty far drive. I leave by 7:15 I arrive at about 7:45 so I have about 30 minutes to warmup.
I head over to get my race number and packet and run it back to the car. On the way I run into one of my girlfriends I have known since middle school, I think maybe even elementary school, Katie. Some of you will recognize her. She lives here in Austin as well and we have run together before. She's Adorable!!!
I get to my car drop off my packet and start my warmup. My back is very tight this morning and I am a little stressed about it. After my warmup I lay down on the sidewalk to stretch it out. It feels better but, it can go either way. I pray for the best and head to the starting line. I had a late night and hope I am ready for this. I see quite a few of the girls I race against and I know this is going to be a fast start.
We head out and my first mile is under 6 minutes, thankfully the temperature is cool so I am feeling good. I hit mile 2 in a little over 6 minutes still on pace to break 20 minutes, I remember thinking "I have 1.1 mile left, run/puke or die but DO NOT SLOW DOWN" I pushed through a wave of nausea and crossed the line in exactly 19:20. I was 11th overall female and competed against some super fast athletes on this day. Felt good!! I am more of a distance runner so these super fast starts can sometimes blow me up. Today was a good day for this distance.

This is me with Katie and some of the amazing teachers she works with and students as well as her son who ran the 5k in I think 34 minutes!!  GREAT JOB!!

Me getting my award from Elvis. Rock, Rattle, and Roll BABY!! My first Master's Award :o)

I head home to hang out with the kids and my In-Laws. I was hoping to get a ride in but, my In-laws had to get on a flight back to Chicago and Rob was riding so I would wait until later.
At about 4pm I ended up riding my spin bike to loosen my legs up and get some kind of ride in for the day. I was good with that. I need the recovery time. The rest of the evening is playtime...
iSwim,iRide,iRun,iPlay...i40

Day..1..4-UH-0

Day1 or zero.. whichever.. It's May 6 and I am, by standard...Over The Hill.. Haa.. I don't think so, I am just getting warmed up.. 40.. has never felt so good. I am happy with who I am and where I am and what I have ahead. I don't really know exactly what that is, but I think/know it's going to be fun!!

I am by nature an adrenaline junkie as most of you have seen. I am highly functional under stress and thrive on staying busy and active. So... on that note, for today...

My intent was to be running by 6am and back by 6:50 to get Cameron to school.. That did not happen. I slept in until 6:30.. missed that early run opportunity. BUT, I did get to kiss my son happy birthday and he got to kiss me happy birthday.. First thing. We went to get cupcakes for his class and headed to school before 7am. I walked him in and talked to his teacher, then off I went.

His Birthday Balloon

I was already in my running clothes. I had 5 miles to run to reach my 40 miles in 4 days +1 to grow on:o).. ALWAYS... I got home and off I went.

I was still short on time. I had Mom's and Muffins at Morgan's school at 9am.. I had exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes to run, shower and get out the door.

DONE!! with my miles done, I felt great. Next was Morgan's school.

It was only going to last about 30 minutes. I got the most adorable picture book of her ever..
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I will post pictures and video tomorrow. (all video is at bottom of page)

I got home and into my cycling clothes.. 40 mile ride into some crazy wind.. and I am not exaggerating.

It was time to stay completely Aero in my position and just push through. I had to be back in time to get Morgan.. Time was not on my side today but, I would get ahead. I rode hard and made it back for shower #2.. load the car for Cameron's party to drop off at pool, and get Morgan.

I drop stuff off at pool and go to get Morgan.. I get her home and load the car. I also need to eat at this point.. Quick sandwich and back out the door to get Cameron.

Cameron's Birthday Crown...

We leave quickly and head straight to the pool. My plan since this was a fireman's ball was to have pretend fire pits, which I used tissue paper in buckets..

etc.. WELL.. that darn wind was making me CRAZY!!!!!

All my hard work was blowing everywhere. As I kept trying to get things decorated, Cameron and Morgan kept pulling at me. I was about to snap.. Then I thought.. They don't care, they just want to swim. Rob finally arrive to help. No, my decorations did not all make it up. I planned on having balloons etc.. everything was blowing away so, I just gave in and joined the party.



Birthday cake time..

Drats, I forgot the candles.. I head to the store. I get candles and head back to the pool.. drats again.. I need a lighter.. run back to the house. then back to the pool.. Candles?? in this wind?? what was I thinking. his 6 candles never even got burning. He got 1.. the wind got the other 3 and 2 never even got that far.. again, the kids don't care. They just want cake!!

Everyone gets cake and it's back in the pool.

I between we had a VERY SPECIAL VISITOR...

 At the end we open presents and Cameron is happy as.. you know what I am going to say, a CLAM :o)..

A few pictures of some of his guests..

We pack up and at this point I just want to throw everything away.. I am POOPED. We get home and 1 minute later Rob's parents pull up. Yes, I know they were just here but they went back to Chicago, Sunday/Monday and came back for mine and Cameron's birthday!!

I unload the car and start to clean things up. After that I head inside to unwind. Rob orders PF Chang's, and he and his dad go and pick it up. YUMMY..

I get the kids to bed and... here I am. I had a great day, it's past 11 and I am off to bed.. I will post pictures and video tomorrow, as well as spell check and whatever I need to correct on my writing. I am fading quickly.. Have an amazing night...iSwim,iRide,iRun,iPlay... iThank

Europe - The Final Countdown

Day 2... Yes, less then 3 hrs...

Day 2... In less than 3 hours it will be day 1.. the Day I turn 40...

I'm going to start by saying I got lots of needed rest last night, and woke up bright eyes and bushy tail to start my day. I have a lot to do. I dropped Cameron off, and headed right to the store, I was out of bagels for my normal morning breakfast..

Morgan and I head home, I got ready for my run. Rob's home so Morgan can stay home.

 I decide I'm going to run 8.4 so tomorrow I can finish off with 6 and make my 40 miles the day I turn 40.. So since Monday I have run 40 miles. Goal reached. I will be running the final 6 super early tomorrow, just to make sure I get all the other stuff I want to accomplish in. Including the fact that Cameron also has his birthday tomorrow and we are having his party at 3:30 in the afternoon. So, I have a party to set up.

OK.. Done with my run for today, I take a quick shower and Morgan and I are now off to order a cake and to Costco. Normally I make the cake, but this year I just don't have time. I found a cool fireman cake at Walmart of all places.. Happy about that.

Costco here we come. Cameron has early release today so, I am in a hurry. We run in get our shopping done and out we go. We go straight to pick up Cameron.

I call to see if the outdoor pool is open for the kids to swim so I can get my swim training in. It is!! Yippee!!

I head home drop off all the goods and we head to the gym.. We change and go SWIMMING!!!

Check out these cool swim caps I got at Old Navy.. Cameron.. the SHARK!!!!

 

We are keeping our goggles on today!!  No Burning eyes!!!

I swim my laps and the kids play.  We are done by 3pm and heading home.  Veanne is coming at 4 so we can ride!!

Yes, my third workout for the day.  I have to say though, I really thought it was warm all day.  I looked on Facebook and one of my dear friends Karen posted that it was 101 degrees today here. WHAT??? No wonder I was hot!!!

He was out a little soon for me today! My water bottle on my aerobars could have been used to cook noodles.. YUCK!! 

Thank God for the Used Car Sales place the has water for riders!!  I was super thirsty and in need of water!!!

Yes.. desert in my mouth!!  It was HOT!!!Now I know why. 

We got back fully soaked in sweat, my MO for today is seem.. and I start cleaning.. I figure why not, I don't want to clean much tomorrow, it's my Birthday!!  So, I vacuum, mop, laundry, cook dinner, clean outside and now... I need a shower!!!

I take a shower and the kids are next!!  I feel so much better and now, I am ready for bed.  I get the kids to bed.  Finish laundry and... here I am.. looking around at what else needs to be done and thinking about my day tomorrow.  iSwim,iRide,iRun,iPlay...tomorrow i40..:o)try and keep up!!

Day 3...trying to stay ahead of the game...

Day 3 started VERY Early with only 4 hours of sleep... I think I fell out of bed and into the car. Diet Dr.Pepper in hand, I headed to Barton Springs to do some swim coaching. The chilly air felt good on my face.

After the coaching session, it was my turn to train. I stayed downtown to run Townlake.. My goal was over 10 miles ... I had a great run and the weather was perfect...Well, if I wasn't awake before the water in the face... I am now.

After my run which ended up being 14.40.. I hopped into Barton Springs for a bit of a chilly cooling off.. Burrrrr was chilly water. I do not know how these people swim with out wetsuits, it's too cold for me.

After my cooldown, I headed over to PitaPit for lunch...YUM!!

Went home for a minute, then off to get Morgan. She was so happy to see me. Haven't seen her since Sunday. At this point I am getting super tired.. We head over to pick Cameron up and we are early so, I actually take a quick catnap to re-boot. Cameron comes running and we head home.

I park and they decide to wash my car. Nothing could possibly make it more dirty, so I gave them a bucket, soap, towels and let them go to town.

Then they asked for $20 bucks.. HUH?? I don't think so. I laugh and walk back inside. I have training programs to write and lots to catch up on. They come in, and I go out to finish the cleaning process. Nice clean car. Lots of dead bugs from the drive back and forth to Dallas.. YUCK!

I cook dinner, they shower and get to bed. Cameron tells me children need 10 hrs of sleep, he learned that in PE.. I laugh, we say prayers and they are asleep.

I finish up and now, beyond tired... I am heading to bed.. Sweet Dreams...iSwim,iRide,iRun,iPlay...iTired...

Day 4... they start of 40 miles in 4 days

Day 4... WOW I slept until 7:20!!.. Woke up pretty rested from the weekend but, a tad sore. I still had an absolute BLAST!!!

Today is the day I am bringing more shoes to the ShoeBank. As well as donations. These are some of the shoes I have had help collecting over the last 40 days. I am happy to say this was a success.

After I left my parents shop, I'm heading to Flowermound to do a trail run. I am taking my Guava with me today. This is Rick and Whitney's yellow lab. Rick is Rob's Brother. Guava starts crying and following me the minute I walk in. I take her running with me every time I am in town and she LOVES it. She loves trails almost more then me.


She is whines until we get to the trail head. Cracks me up every time. My plan is to run 10 miles but, we usually get lost somewhere along the way, only to find our way back.
Here is some footage from our run...Swim and all...

.. And we are still going!!



Bamboo forest..



Total mileage was about 12 miles... Now it's time to head back and get a shower. I have a meeting at 4:30 with a new athlete I am going to be coaching.

I get ready to leave and it starts raining. Head to coffee shop... I will not promote mass coffee shops, I like the little guys.. so no name here.. but, it was convenient and no, I didn't get the coffee.. tastes burned to me. Meeting went well and I am looking forward to helping this athlete succeed in his racing and reaching his goals and final goal of a half and full Ironman!!!

Now it's pouring and traffic and I am heading back to Austin. Traffic is horrible by the airport but was somewhat short lived. I head out through Ft. Worth. Right before Hillsboro, this is what I see...

And a double rainbow.. Once again I am reminded of God's Promise..

I arrive home shortly before 10pm.. And I am wiped out but, I have work that needs to be done... I get busy.. iSwim,iRide,iRun,iPlay..iDrive

Day 5... I am ALIVE!!!! I am WARRIOR!!!

Day 5... I am actually at my parents house using my mom's computer... I'm going to keep it short and hopefully have access to add my pictures and videos tomorrow.

Let's just say today ROCKED!!!! I did the Warrior Dash this evening in Forney and was 2nd OVERALL FEMALE and won my Age Group.. Let me tell you how happy and cool I think this is considering I rode my bike 100 miles yesterday and ran 6 miles this morning, Drove to Forney from Austin to start a race only 30 minutes after I got out of the car.

Also, this was the last heat of the 2 day event so the course was completely destroyed and a big mud pit... I just did what I could so, I was super excited about my finish.. It was a very cool day!!! I'll go into detail tomorrow... iSwim,iRide,iRun,iPlay...iWarrior!!!!

Now about the day.... I actually slept in a little if you call 7:20 sleeping in.. I got up and got busy cleaning the house up a bit and then I cooked breakfast.. The favorite Spooner Pancakes. Now that everyone had full bellies, I am going for a run.. 6miler with a few strides. After I am done, I get in the shower and start packing up the car. I also have a good amount of shoes going to Dallas for the shoe bank.

Before I leave town I head to Buca de Beppo to give Gustavo a Happy Birthday Hug and HI...

I am leaving straight for Dallas, Forney actually. It's 1:30 and I am about 30 minutes behind schedule. I am following the directions on my iPhone. I get to Forney at about 5pm. I can't find Cousins Paintball or the High School and keep re-routing.. At this point I start to get a bit stressed. I have 1 hour before my starting wave. At about 5:30 I see the High School which is where they have shuttle busses running to the race site.. I park and get my dry clothes bag ready. I have 4 different pairs of running shoes in my car, I have to make a decision on which pair I want to do this muddy crazy race in. I talk to 3 guys who were leaving and asked them about the course. They were covering in mud. They said the mud was crazy and very slick.

I decide to go with my New Balance 904 trail running shoes, the shoe is light, tread is low and they are pretty old, so if I lose one I won't cry. But, I do love these shoes. I pack up and get on the bus. We head over to the race venue.

These are all videos before I started the race... I was still nice and clean and had NO idea what I was in for and I was a little nervous...

This was another mound of shoes I saw as I was walking to the start..
Nice!!

Now for my start!!My start time was 6pm

First Obstacle was a Crazy wind fan that could almost blow you over. Then straight into my first mud pit... That was tough and very slick. I had my phone so I was going to try to video some of this. The only problem was some girls were in front of me and I was not gonna let that happen so, I had to focus on getting the lead at least in my wave start. They had waves of 500 people starting every hour for 2 days. that means about 19,000 people went before me on this course and it was completely destroyed and even more difficult.

After the first mud pit it was a nice run, long enought for me to take the lead and start passing people in the wave that went an hour before mine. NICE!! I have to be honest I don't remember the order of the obstacles so I will just run throuogh what I remember, my next obstacle was more mud then I had to run across a plank over a app 5 foot trench. Next was a 20 foot mud slide into another mud pit that I actually then had to run down a muddy river and climb out of which was more slick mud. I dug my hads into the side of the trench and clawed my way out.

Now back into a muddy river of sorts for about 100 yards.. That was super hard. You could hardly move your legs much less run. Next was swimming in muddy water over logs.. there were about 7 I think. and it was full on swimming. I jump on that quickly all I could think about was my phone getting ruined.. I had it in a ziplock bag in my race belt pouch. I knew it was trashed.. I thought " that's gonna suck" But, I was already in and nothing I could do about it, I was now in it to win it. I got through that part and I was all washed off but only for about 3 minutes.. another mud pit and after 19,000 people go through the same part that many times, the whole get huge and deep. I went in deep and shouted to the guys behind me to go the the right to miss the ditch. I got out and took off.

Now I had to scale a hay bale wall about 10 feet high and ... More mud pits. I was still running full speed ahead and I could hear we were close to the finish, just then I see the double fire pit we have to jump over. one then 10 feet and another one, they were about 3 feet high. got over that and there was the finish. Only problem, I had to crawl under barbwire through, you guess it, more mud.. Thick sticky mud.. I crawled on all fours, and was thankful for my size. I ran straight through the mud and into the finish... 22 minutes and 43 seconds!!!

Now this is what I call glamourous!!!! WAS AWESOME!!!!

I am getting my Mud Spa...

Now I get the hose down... Great!!! Now after the brutality of the course I get the brutality of this hose.. Whatever, just get me clean... I dry off and head to the bathrooms to change. Well, let me just say, I can go through some serios mud and dirt and whatever, but the porta potty's almost made me vomit. I was not going in there to change. I hit in the trees behind the bathrooms and stripped out of those crazy wet clothes and into some dry clothes. At this point I really didn't care but, thnkfully no one was paying any attention, and I was super quick. I came out all fresh:o)

all clean with my shirt on and my furry helmet...

At about 7pm they start awards. I'm actually just people watching and hanging out. All of a sudden I hear my name called.. I was second overall female... WHAT????

I gave this girl my phone so, this is what you get. I went on stage to get my helmet!!! WOOHOO!!!

Considering what I did Sat and Sunday morning add in the drive, yes, I was a bit shocked. I wish I would have know the winning time before I started.  Because we went in waves, you never knew who was where and this was going on all day.  SO I had absolutely no idea how fast I should or could go. 

My very cool and VERY HEAVY helmet.  Some guys stop me to congratulate me and we start talking about training and swimming.  All of a sudden, my name gets called again.  I won Age Group as well... another super cool trophy.. They guys cheer and take my picture...

Super cool.  I talked a bit more about training and went over some swim techinque with these guys.  They are training for triathlon.  If either of you read this.. your going to do great.. Let me know if you have any questions.  I am sorry I don't rmember their names. 

So now I won my Princess Warrior Helmet.. I had a smile a mile wide and I was now an official Warrior!!  Now it was 8pm and time to get the bus back to the school.  This took another 30 minutes and I was ready to go. 

I am heading to my parents for the night and the drive is sbout 45 minutes to North Dallas.  I get home and my mom and dad greet me with a hug and a huge laugh, I walked in with my helmet on my head.  They could not wait to hear all about it.  I take out all my muddy stuff to dry, I will wash it off on the morning.  My parents can hardly believe I actually did this race, much less compete and place 2nd.  I thought that was funny.. "Yes, mom and dad, your daughter is a little crazy.. and tough." I said.. they laughed.  Now it was time for me to go to bed... I hope you enjoy the pictures and video, I had a BLAST!!! and like I said...iSwim,iRide,iRun,iPlay,.. and iWarrior!!!