Tuesday, September 30, 2014

End of September

How about just some September photos? For once I've actually uploaded my camera on the last day of the month, and there are surprisingly few pictures. At least compared to Hunter's first year or two of life, when I had literally a thousand per month. 

Please Mom. The camera again?

Wildflowers I brought from New Mexico

Who is this grown up kid?!


Oh yeah, just my sweet baby


Deep convos with Nana

Birthday celebrations with Mammo

"Sheep eating grass"


Bearded Daddy (who blogged!!) He really is the best.
 

Friday, September 19, 2014

CATS sprint tri


One more race for the 2014 season (really my last race, husband-who-registers-me-for-races) was up in Conway last Sunday. I raced there a couple of times back about 15 years ago, and even met my future brother-in-law there. Race day started out similar to that last time, with low morning temperatures but (questionable and questioned) water temperatures that made wetsuits illegal. As a side note, what is with this group and their thing about swimming? The swim courses are always long and they get excited about measuring the water over 78F. Must be a family of swimmers?

Anyway, I still can't make myself swim more than every couple of weeks, so I was slow even for me. Ah what's a few minutes lost to the front girls? Turns out, those 2 and 3 minutes may have cost me a win, but whose fault is that? My arms'. 

I was determined to have a better bike than my other two races this year, and going behind two waves of men, and having dozens of girls to catch after that swim, gave me points to focus on and catch. 


I'd say it was a much better bike leg than previous races this year, but then I got into transition and fumbled with putting my bike on the rack, whose available space had shrunk somehow with the rearrangement of the men's bikes around me. And then I knocked one off the rack. Poor kid, it was his second race ever and he seemed to have done well in everything but reracking. I made quick work of some reorganization and finally got out of transition. 

I saw a girl coming into T2 who I had just passed in the last mile of the bike, but was surprised when she flew by me a half mile into the run. I kept a very slowly increasing distance behind for a bit probably just out of fascination, but soon enough she was gone. She was 22, just like 95% of the other competitors I saw out there. I have no idea what made this race so popular for that age group this year. And hey, wasn't I...yep, 22 last time I did this race?! I decided my 22-year-old self would've passed me on that run as well, since I wasn't going very close to any speed I could maintain just a few years ago. How has my half marathon pace from less than a year ago become my 5k at the end of a sprint pace? These are things I contemplate when I should be focusing on running a race. 

I assumed the speedy runner had not caught the one other (22-year-old) girl ahead of us, but I was wrong. In fact, if I'd gotten my head together or my feet thawed out before the last few hundred yards, maybe I could've caught her too. The run was a bit long, but I needed it and the bike to both be a bit longer still. Seems my swim split was 22nd among women, but I had the #1 bike and the #2 run. Not bad for the old chick in the crowd.