Shawnigan Lake Olympic Triathlon

I think that I will remember this event as the coldest thing that I’ve ever done. It was my second ever triathlon and first Olympic.

Us. About 1 minute after my finish!

Thanks to Rich’s parents, who are babysitting our kiddos, we’ve been on the island for a few days. We’ve been getting regular updates of the adventures back in Bellevue.

These extra days gave us a chance to look around and preview the swim, bike and run.

Us out for a light run on the day before.

This preview included talking to the race organizers (including the director and transition guy) which gave me a good grasp of the course and how things were laid out. I liked being familiar with all of these details. Triathlon-wise it was pretty quiet around Shawnigan Lake until about Saturday afternoon when all of a sudden fancy time trial bikes and riders appeared. It felt like we overtook a quiet and sleepy town normally catering to students from the local private schools.

On race day, we woke up at 5am. I was happy that I hadn’t heard rain during the night and the sky looked promising.

 

View from the resort at 5am. We had a good breakfast and walked to the shuttle. Logistics note: no parking at the main park.  After arriving, we got marked and picked up our timing clip.

At 7am, we watched the Half Ironman wave leave and I took a survey of neoprene swim caps. I was still debating two swim caps or the neoprene and the race cap. We got our transition area set up. Went out for a light jog. Legs felt good. I felt good. I’ve been fighting a cold all week, never to the point of being a cold but always that lump in my throat/sore throat/tired. Wasn’t noticing any of this. Thankful for that. Got back to transition and got the wetsuit on. Talked to some other racers. One girl told me how she got hypothermia last year at Lake Stevens while on the bike. I decided to go with the neoprene cap. Got down to the water. We had somehow run out of time and didn’t do a warm-up swim. Water was so cold (15C)  I didn’t really care. I filled my suit and worked my arms as best as I could. Rich and I looked at each other and I said to him, “Happy Anniversary”. (This trip is our ten year anniversary celebration trip. A week on Vancouver Island for a race and some biking).

I was not nervous. I was calm all morning. Yesterday, I was on-and-off nervous but not today. I was ready and excited. I am surprised that I was not more nervous.

The swim was a cannon start with all the Olympic competitors going out in a single wave. I tried to stand without any men behind me. Or men that looked like they could run me over. I hadn’t done a real mass swim start or anything like what was to follow. It was what I heard about: people, feet, arms, etc. Thankfully, no one swam over me.  I had my head up for too long trying to navigate the confusion or avoid it. This was not helpful. I finally got my head down and it instantly got much better. It took a while for the chaos to sort itself out and to find a groove. Rich had kindly agreed to swim the swim part with me. Before the race, I was a little concerned about how it would go since the water was 15C and this was my longest open water swim ever. I should have practiced the full distance before this but didn’t get the chance.  I had been for a few open water swims this season and practiced in the pool but this was it. A year ago I wasn’t swimming and open water was not something I liked doing.

The swim itself was totally fine. I eventually got into a semi-groove. I didn’t swim super fast but I had no worries on the swimming part. But before the first lap (of two) was over though, my feet were frozen like bricks. I was extremely thankful for the neoprene cap. Rich stayed around me and I could spot his dark green/fluorescent green swim cap combination every so often. Turns out I didn’t need him with me but it was sweet to see him every so often. I did get a little off course at times and need to work on sighting. I took the advice from the swim clinic and tried to just follow the bubbles ahead of me instead of spending the time putting my head up to sight where I was going. That is fine if the bubbles ahead of you know where they are going. I need to work on sighting. By the second lap of the swim I was cold. My feet were REALLY cold. I touched my nose at one point and it was just numb and tingling. I had planned to speed it up on the second lap. The cold got in the way of that plan. I didn’t worry about it though. I was excited to see the end. I ran up and was a fair amount dizzy coming out of the water. My swim time was 29:30 for 1500m. Not so happy with this. When we got in the water a few days ago, I told Rich that I honestly wasn’t sure I could do the swim based on how cold the water was. At that time I dropped my expectations for the race and just focused on doing it. So I’m happy enough.

T1- Transition one. My time for T1 is merged with the bike time. So it is part of the 1:33 listed for the bike. I was in T1 for way too long. I’m betting over 5 minutes. Easy. I’ll need to check my Garmin and see if I can pull out the information. Everything in T1 took forever. My wetsuit didn’t want to come off. I was so cold. My arm warmers were a mistake because they took forever to pull on. The lens to my glasses fell out. I was just feeling SLOW. Two girls in my age category got ahead of me here, until later in the bike. In the midst of this, Rich, who was stacked diagonally and on the next rack, said goodbye, told me that it was raining now (I hadn’t noticed) and took off! My super sweet guy!

I was pleasantly surprised that I could run in my bike shoes and made my way up the carpeted hill to the road. Yes, uphill. Got on my bike and didn’t stumble with my shoes as I expected. Rode off.

The bike. This is where things did not go well. I rode semi-strong. My bike felt good and all the TT bikes weren’t sailing past me as I was expecting. I played cat and mouse with several guys. The 10M no-drafting rule was annoying. But my big problem was that I got REALLY cold. As soon as I got out on the bike, I noticed that my legs and knees were blue/red all over. My quads were all red. They hurt. I expected that I would warm up on the bike. I had practiced swim to bike and this seemed to always happen. Not today. Maybe it was the rain. Maybe it was the 15C swim for half an hour. I’m not sure. The air temperature was cool but not cold. I had practiced in this.  I should have taken some extra time in transition and put on knee warmers or the 3/4 pants that I had! I didn’t know that I would need them. I wish that I had toe covers on my shoes. My feet were FROZEN and hurt. My legs hurt. I tried to stand when sort-of-required just to move the different muscles. My first lap was in somewhere near 40 minutes and I was happy with that. The second lap didn’t go as I thought. I did not warm up. I started to shake. A couple of times, I felt unsafe on the bike because of the shaking. Descending the hills was AWFUL as it made the cold even worse. I started to worry about finishing the bike. I started to debate the run. I kept going though. I took some more nutrition. I drank. I told myself it would be better on the run. My bike time, oddly including (a very long) T1, was 1:33 for a freezing 40km/27 miles. I think that my actual bike time was under 1:25.

I will point out that in keeping with my racing tradition, the bike was in the rain. My first triathlon, my first bike time trial and my first road race have all been in the rain. We woke up today to sun but it didn’t hold for the whole event. Rich says that his biggest concern on the bike was the wet roads. Not me!

T2- Much faster. No real issue. Took off my vest as I expected to warm up. Ran out on the wet grass mud/loop that led to the real trail. Dropped my watch while smiling to a women who was complimenting me on my arm warmers. Ran up out of the park again. My legs were talking but not screaming. But my feet were massively numb. During the first one mile or so, I seriously checked about four or five times to see if my feet were on my legs. They felt horrible.

You run up a muddy path (above, taken the day before) and then run along a flat gravel trail. It was actually a little boring because it was so flat. It was an out and back which was nice. I even saw some guy on the Canadian Olympic Team who I think was doing the sprint race. Eventually I saw this cute guy wearing a jersey that I happily recognized. He was running really strong! (He ranked 20th on the run!) At the water station, I took mouthfuls of water but did not stop. I had planned out with Rich where to put on the gas. I just couldn’t feel the pedal. There was no extra gas.  I just stayed steady and was happy to be doing the run. My run time was 47:29.

I came into the finish area and could hear Rich cheering for me. That was cool. I ran to the end. Some 20 year old girl passed me during the final loop but I had left it out on the course. I let her go. I crossed the line. Someone wanted my chip. It was over. Just like that. I walked over to Rich and smiled. He asked me how it was. I answered “COLD!”

Me about 10 seconds after crossing the finish!

My first Olympic Triathlon. My legs were pretty tired. Pretty humming. Someone took our picture and I quickly went to put on everything warm that I owned. I learned this from the first race that I did where I didn’t have proper post-race clothing.

Lessons from this race…

I like the Olympic distance. Seems perfect. On the run, I was thinking that I just couldn’t have imagined doing anything longer.

Don’t ever do a triathlon, at least a long one, in water below 60F/16C. Not my cup of tea.

Look for ways to speed up transition. Hard to do after a really cold swim. My T1 was horrible.

Your feet are always there. You just can’t feel them.

Here’s the overall information for my day.

Couple of points: Oddly the T1 was included in the bike time. I need to check my Garmin. I know that my T1 was long.

I’m including the top female of the day. She happens to also be from Bellevue. Most of the people were from Canada. We did meet a few Seattle area folks including Samantha, the top female finisher. She was really nice and is on the Canadian Olympic Triathlon team! Wow!

OA Place * Place In Sex * Place in Division * Participant Name * City * Prov *  Final Rank/Time *  1.5 km Swim Rank/Time *Pace/100M * Bike Rank/Time * KM/H * Run Rank/Time * KM pace *

20 * 1/62 F * 1/7  F2529 * Samantha Mazer * Bellevue WA * 20 2:30:56 * 20 24:46 * 1:40 * 25 1:24:47 * 31.1 * 11 0:41:24 * 4:09

74 * 16/62 * F 4/7 F3034 * Annie Richardson-Lander * Bellevue WA * 74 2:49:59 * 67 29:30 * 1:58 * 74 1:33:01 * 28.4 * 57 0:47:29 * 4:45

First Olympic. I’m done and happy enough with that, all things considered!

Shawnigan Lake Olympic Triathlon 2010 (by Rich)

Annie and I headed out to Vancouver Island for the 2010 Oly Tri @ Shawnigan Lake – May 30, 2010. This was the kickoff to the 2010 Western Triathlon Series, of which I am a Season’s Pass holder. Wahoo! This was also part a 1-week 10th anniversary get-away for us, so definitely had extra special meaning. In addition, this was one of the very few events that we get to do together due to having two little ankle biters to worry about!

This race is both Olympic and Triathlon (in general) number 2. The first/last one was Black Diamond, last September. I knew that I was in a pretty different position this time around, having: bought a new bike, nearly a year of solid pool swimming under my belt (as opposed to 2 months), 3 road-races (cycling) in 2010, 1 super-solid 16km trail race in 2010, solid training at the Vo2 Performance Center, and just having a much higher fitness level. Sweet!

We arrived a few days before. We were able to ride around the bike course a number of times, run the run course, and swim in the general vicinity of the swim course. If you ever wanted a swim course where you could subject yourself to water better suited to penguins and polar bears, then this was it. Ouch! The water was *really* cold – apparently 15C or 59F. Double ouch! Isn’t that temperature outlawed by the Geneva Convention?

We did the normal race morning stuff. Got to the course about 15mins before the half-iron folks took off at 7AM, allowing us to get marked and chipped before watching the show. Canadians apparently do it in style. The Navy was there with a Howitzter, with a 3M+ gun. Damn! It was LOUD, and provided the half-iron folks with every indication that they should start moving.

Annie and I did a quick jog on the run course. We were familiar with it, and our legs seemed to be in working order. We returned to transition, got our B70 suits on, and headed to the water. The start was 1M out, so we hopped right in. Unfortunately, we hadn’t counted down our time too well, as we had just 5mins left before our show time. Oh well. I let some water into my suit, did some arm movements vaguely resembling a swim stroke and waited for the gun to go off. And, it went off!

Annie and I had decided to do the swim leg together. I swam in front, and periodically watched for and waited for her. I would then start swimming again, placing my feet in front of her, for her to draft from. This worked pretty well, except for the 90% of the time that she seemed to pick someone else’s feet to follow. In any case, the goal was to make sure that she was comfortable in the frigid water at the Olympic distance, and we achieved our goal. As many people as there were and the similarity of the caps, I was able to spot Annie w/o much trouble; I know her stroke pretty well, too. We completed two laps (1500M) in 66 and 67th place. I felt *a lot* better than I did in Black Diamond. I had a lot of gas left in the tank, and felt very comfortable with the water this time. Clearly, Ben (my swim coach) has been doing good things! 3 open water swims in 2010 also helped.

We headed to transition, touched hands, and then split up for our separate races. I’m still definitely not efficient in transition. I need to shave off some time there. I got my bike and me ready, and headed up to the road (up a carpeted dirt path). I got on the bike, started moving and quickly popped in some GU chomps for nutrition. I was quite familiar with the bike course by this point, and knew exactly what to expect, which was really nice. My legs screamed for the first lap, not due to exertion, but due to cold. My toes were also very unhappy. Ouch! I passed a ton of people on the ride. Other than by some super-fast Half-Iron guys, I never got passed on the ride. Turns out that the Specialized Tarmac is a fast (road) bike. I’ll eventually hit a glass ceiling with that, but I’ve still got a healthy serving of other fish to fry. I completed the 44KM ride in 43rd place. I wasn’t too happy with that. There was no T1 time, so that’s part of the bike split. The 29th place, for example, was just 2mins faster, which I could have had with a more efficient T1. Next time.

I futzed in T2 too, due to forgetting a race belt. Fortunately, this time wasn’t added to either the run or bike time. I felt good off the bike and wanted to finish this thing strongly. After getting my legs firmly under me (~1KM; much of which was climbing), I transitioned into a strong tempo. I picked up a lot more people, and was passed just by 1 or 2 half-iron guys. As we neared the turnaround point for the 10km route, I noticed a guy that I’d passed on the bike. Another indicator of bad transitions for me. I passed him 100M before the turnaround point, and then stepped up the pace. I hit the turnaround at 22 something and then finished in 43:09. Nice.

Being the first one in, I had the distinct pleasure of cheering Annie into the finish. She finished really strong, and looked good. In talking about it afterwards, she really struggled with the cold. Apparently, she’s not made up for life as either a penguin or a polar bear. I’m not sure I am either.

Another highlight for us is that we saw some Canadian Olympic/ITU Triathletes competing in the race. It was pretty obvious given that their names were printed on their one-piece custom uniforms, just above “CAN”. Wow! No Simon Whitfield, however. Given the lake temperature, he was definitely smart to stay south, in balmy Victoria.

Shawnigan represents a very strong start to the season, for me. The half-iron distance for the Victoria New Balance race seems like a pretty strong challenge, however, with a little extra training, I’m feeling confident. The swim, anyway, isn’t going to be an interesting component. Maybe it will just be the transitions ;)

My splits (best overall time was 2:10):

OA Place * Place In Sex * Place in Division * Participant Name * City * Prov *  Final Rank/Time *  1.5 km Swim Rank/Time *Pace/100M * Bike Rank/Time * KM/H * Run Rank/Time * KM pace

40 * 33/103 M * 7/17 M3034 * Richard Lander * Bellevue WA * 40 2:39:41 * 66 29:24 1:58 * 43 1:27:08 * 30.3 * 20 0:43:09 * 4:19

Full results: here.

A Before-Race Email to Friends and Family

Hello All!

Us before heading out of town!

Well, we have arrived in the beautiful area of Shawnigan Lake. It is a pretty darn peaceful place and I'm happy that we settled on it for our trip. Well, minus the fact that the lake is REALLY cold. 15-16 C. I'm a little worried about the swim for Sunday! I have a new goal, to complete the course without hypothermia. I'm serious about that!

We arrived yesterday after having a fun stop in Victoria. Went to the Rebar Modern Food Restaurant for dinner.

It is an awesome vegetarian/vegan, whole-foods spot. That was a treat. Last time we were there was around six years ago with baby Mina and Jenny! We have the cookbook. I got a little run down before the trip and have been fighting a cold so I was sure to dip into some garlic and a hearty smoothie. I'm hoping to feel well enough to race on Sunday. I wasn't expecting to spend so much energy on getting healthy before the race.

This area feels like a sleepy summer destination spotted with fancy private school campuses. It is pretty amazing. We passed a group of roughly 100 students on bikes today. They were with their teachers, on mountain bikes and going for some sort of a ride. We both would have been happy to do that when in high school!

This morning, we went to the triathlon headquarters (West Shawnigan Lake Park). Luckily we met the transition coordinator and I think the race director. The transition guy gave us a ton of helpful information. The race director wanted to know if the water was bearable. I told him that I did have second thoughts about the swim. :) It is COLD. But we have our wetsuits and I'm going to be wearing Rich's neoprene cap. We will swim again tomorrow which should help to ease the shock on Sunday morning. We did a short swim, came home and got warmed up with lunch, shower and a nice nap. Went back out and did one lap of our two lap (27 mile/40km) bike ride. The road quality is low. The transition guy warned us of that. The road piece will require keeping our eyes on the road's edge. It is a rolling course, so there is a lot of up and down but only one or two hills to remember. The bike is very pretty. We bike around the lake. Came home and went out the door for a light run. The area is pretty and lush with trees. Tomorrow we'll check out the actual run course, do the bike again and check out the pre-race festivities. There are somewhere between 500-600 people expected. 430 something have for sure registered on-line. Last year's weather was apparently much friendlier and the lake was much warmer.

We are staying at a resort right on the lake. It is so quiet. Has made for good sleeping so far! After the race, we plan on doing some longer bike rides, heading over to the race course for Rich's Victoria race next month and riding that, and swimming in that race lake (Elk Lake). We are enjoying trying out the BC wines and just taking some really nice unwind time. It is going to be easy to spend a week here total!

Thankfully the kids are having fun with Grandma and Grandpa Lander. Miles and Mina both transitioned really well which put our hearts at ease. I think that the goodbye might have been the hardest on me!

Please hope for good race vibes for both of us and good race weather for Sunday!

With thanks and joy,

Annie and Rich

Soon-to-be participants of the Shawnigan Lake Olympic Triathlon 2010

Pedal Dynamics TT 2010–aka My First (Outside) Bike Time Trial (TT)

A time trial or TT is an all-out effort. Swim it, bike it or run it, just do it as fast as you can. I’ve only become familiar with this term since Tour de France 2009. I would have had no idea what you were talking about before that. Perhaps maybe no interest. A year ago I wasn’t riding a bike either. I had no idea that I was totally missing out on a sport that I really love. Thankfully Mina took off her training wheels and we started biking around town. Thankfully a friend took me on a bike n’ brew.  Thankfully that same friend challenged me to try something out of my comfort zone (triathlon – a race in front of people!) and here I am. I’m on a triathlon team. I’m sad if I don’t ride my bike for a day or two. And a couple of weekends ago, I just did my first outside TT. I had done several inside but this seemed more real and more daunting to me. And I did it!

After a week of Miles being sick and up at night, then ending up with the same cold, I wasn’t feeling totally up to my first TT. But I was signed up. I felt okay enough. I loaded up on decongestant. A biker friend told me not to worry about the results if they weren’t what I wanted. I appreciated that later.

I really didn’t know what I was doing. I was just going to ride 12 miles as fast as my sleep-deprived/sick body would take me. I was going to bike in front of other people. Oh yes, I was also going to go for the first ride on my sweet new pedals/shoes. Not being one for late change, that is Rich’s influence on me.

The whole family came. We got up early. I ate a reasonable breakfast. Porridge, flax oil, some kind of nuts. Americano. Water.  We drove out there and knew we had arrived when we saw parked cars and tents along the road. I saw a bunch of people on very fancy bikes wearing very fancy gear and thought what the hell am I doing. I should drop off the road shoes and go home. They would be fine on their own.

I went and signed the paperwork, got my number. The bathroom line was not friendly. I was short on time. So I got on my bike and biked back to a port-a-potty that I had seen as we drove in. No one in line. I was happy. I went back to the car, got out the trainer and started riding. I didn’t really have that long of a warm-up and that wasn’t so smart. I ate some other food and drank a bunch of water. I knew my start time was coming and put the trainer away.

(check out the dude’s helmet). I’m 53.

One lesson I learned was, when you get to the TT,   match your watch to the race clock. Mine was off. I was warming up on the road and should have been in line. I got into line in a hurry. (Sometimes being at race with your husband and two little kids adds a level of complication. But it was nice to have them there.) As expected some guy was waiting to hold my bike. Thankfully there was no ramp like on t.v.

Here I’m basically fumbling with my left cleat. Did I mention new shoes? That is why I’m looking down. I’m not deep into some zone, fiercely focused. They send you out in thirty second intervals and as I’m fumbling, I can hear the clock counting down. Thirty seconds goes quickly. But I clip in and am oddly calmer than I expected. My start time 9:26 comes up on the clock and I’m suppose to fly off. Instead i crawl off and take another note to NEVER start a TT in a high gear. Idiot! I felt like such a newbie at this stage. I had been distracted with getting to the start in a hurry and didn’t even think about that helpful detail.

So I fly off…

My breathing was all out of whack. I could tell that right away. I tried to calm it down and get into a groove. I just tried to push.  Unlike a road race, you ride solo. There is no pack or group to follow. You just push. I’m still easing into road racing. TT is another type of racing. It probably won’t help me for road racing but it will for triathlon.

In keeping up with Northwest tradition, not too long into my first ever TT, it started raining again. It had been raining on and off all morning. It was cold and wet. So my new shoes were now soaking wet and I didn’t have any booties on. I need those. Shoe covers. 

What sucked was getting passed by people! Mentally defeating. Am I that slow?  You have no idea who is riding behind you though. Could be any category (quality) of rider. That is what I told myself when anyone passed. I had three people pass. One guy actually did not pass but BLEW BY ME IN A FLASH. I remembered his number and checked later. He was Cat 1-2. WOW. Happened to have a nice bike and gear too. I guess I should have been paying more attention to myself but it made you notice.

My garmin was REALLY helpful and helped me know where I was in the course. I really need to learn pacing though. I find it really hard to know exactly how to push for these things. That will come with time/practice.  When I finished this race, I felt like I could be sick but I didn’t feel the empty tank feeling. My throat killed and I think that my body was just upset at me because I was sick.

I’m that dot, way out there. Coming this way. I saw the 1Km sign, the 200 m sign but  the end…? I didn’t realize that the end was marked by a tent. I don’t think that I even noticed the tent or the mark across the road. I have no idea what I was looking for.

So unknowingly, I finished! Sick, cold and wet, I rode the 12 miles in 32:19. Nothing fancy. That ended up being a 23/37 th place for the Cat 4 women. I wasn’t so happy about that. My bike friend’s advice was like a gentle hug when I saw the results. 

Couple other lessons for me to remember:

I realized afterwards too that I rode way too much over on the shoulder. I need to borrow some of Rich’s aggressive biking nature here. He’s totally right. That was also silly of me. But I might as well make all those newbie mistakes in one race.

I also could use to work on cornering. There was ONE corner and I didn’t ride it well enough. I would like to sit and watch people corner at a TT. Given I’ve only been riding a road bike since late last summer, I’m not too upset.

I saw a bunch of people brick the TT. So they got off their bikes and put on their running shoes. That is smart. I’ll do that in the future. Instead, which was also fun, I biked and cooled down with a rider, Tina, from the CycleU team. She’s been doing all sorts of races and events. Inspiring!

Compared to an indoor TT, which I’ve done several of this past winter, during an outside TT you find the real-life road challenging you (cars, debris, etc) and there is the scenery to watch. No one is directly beside you, encouraging you or pedaling away. Outside you have real weather. You are not just a little biker on a computer screen. But an inside TT is a really good workout. A little more controlled and since I don’t have a powertap on my bike, you get a lot of information which is motivating. Inside or outside, I really like TT.

Did I have fun? Absolutely. Will I do another? Absolutely! Would like to ride one of those fancy TT bikes? Absolutely!

Northwest Trail Runs – Soaring Eagle Park 10 miler- another report from my guy

Last Thursday, Annie mentioned that there was a NW Trails run coming up on the weekend. I’ve never done one of these before, but was aware of them. So, heck, why not? I had some friends doing the 10 miler, which is what I signed up for too.

Morning of, I decided that I would ride to the race. I didn’t really have time for that, but decided to do it anyway. Turns out, that riding from Bellevue to central Sammamish both takes longer and requires a lot more hill-climbing than I expected. Suffice to say that I arrived at the race with 10mins to start, FULLY warmed-up! Taking in some nutrition at that point would have been a good idea, particularly since Annie sent me with some, but I wasn’t thinking about that. I picked up my number, locked up my bike/backpack, and met up with my friends.

The course (map) was pretty fun, and varied. It included some trails that were 4-5 meters across and others that were <1m across, flat areas and significant climbs and descents, and a lot of mud! The race organizers stated during the pre-race talk that our feet would get wet and dirty. He was right. My shoes are still a disaster. I should probably think about cleaning them.

As stated, I’ve never done a trail run before, at least not since XC in high-school. I attempted to run XC in University (more on that in a bit), but was injured. Anyway, running on single-track trails requires a different style of running than track/road. I figured it out during the race, and look forward to taking advantage of that for next time. I can see that folks that are really good at trail running can distance themselves from the crowd more than their fitness-level would normally allow on the road. I wouldn’t say that I’m a super-great trail-runner, so largely relied on the fitness aspect. As evidence of that, I turned my ankle during the run. I let out some choice words for the forest at that point, and had to hobble-jog for about a minute before I could resume my pace. My ankle was happy to remind me of that later that evening ;)

My favorite part of the race was heading down a really long and steep-ish hill. As I headed down the hill, I saw the first place guy passing by me the other way. I then hit flat earth and soon headed up a super steep hill, which was fortunately not nearly as long. The guy in front of me walked up part of it. Just as quickly as we got up that steep hill, we came back down another side of it, were back on the flat part and then had to climb back up that really long hill again. I saw the same guy again, ~15s ahead of me.

Later, I passed (~ 8 mile mark) the guy I saw on those two hills. I continued to push forward as hard as I could. I was starting to lose energy at this point, but largely kept up the pace. The last bit was pretty hard since it was slightly up-hill and largely through deep mud. I also had no intention of getting passed. Soon enough, I saw the “800m left” sign. At that point, I gave 90% of what I had left for those last 800m. I managed to pass through in 3^rd place. Woohoo.

At that point, it was fun to watch my friends come in, and cheer them through the finish line. Great work folks.

Next, I had to get myself home. Wow. My legs were done. I haven’t felt that kind of fatigue in my legs, pretty much ever. I love it when your legs yell back at you “don’t do this; we’ve had enough today!” Oh well, they got the climbing on the way home anyway, and eventually gave up on the yelling.

I mentioned something earlier about University XC. I didn’t run it, but Annie did. I ran track, and spent a fair bit of time with the XC team. Unfortunately, we learned this past week that our XC coach, Terry Goodenough, died (super untimely) of complications from routine surgery. Wow! RIP Terry. We’re really sorry to see you go.

Cooking in Blue

We bought some new pots for our ten year anniversary! To me this is exciting. I'm cooking with two of the three, making a 101cookbooks Red Indian Carrot Soup as well as Dr Andrew Weil's broccoli. We'll have this with some sweet potatoes baked with garlic, fresh rosemary and olive oil. On the side, a nice sourdough loaf picked up on Whidbey Island served with goat cheese. We don't eat a ton of goat cheese but the author of "A Homemade Life" has inspired me. And why not a glass of belated birthday wine from a sweet friend. Cat Power is singing and adding soul to the food.

I celebrate everyday. Thank you Monday.

ten with two

Celebrating ten on Whidbey Island. Rainy but awesome.

Location:Main St N,Coupeville,United States

An April Trip to the Farm

My Dad turned 70! So I flew back home with the kids to celebrate this milestone. Actually it was a trip that focused on the circle of life- a birth (Mara Lander), a milestone birthday (my Dad turning 70) and a passing (the death of my Great Aunt Roberta, who was very special to me). The trip was the first time I’ve flown home for a funeral. It was a lot of “food for the thought” also mapping closely to our ten year anniversary of marriage and of living in the States – and the strong feeling that time is really zipping by.

I’m so glad that we were there to celebrate with my Dad/Grandpa. We flew in on his birthday and went out for a nice dinner!

My bro Ian and Rebecca and boys came to also celebrate 70 and Easter.

It was a sweet trip where my children were old enough to start to take in more of the fun memories that I had when I was a little girl in the country. Like playing in the hay mound,

or playing in the barn with kittens,

or going for carriage rides,

or hanging out in the back field,

or sitting on the front porch and taking life easy,

or playing in the garden,

or running all over and everywhere,

.

The farm is magical. Full of memories that I am loving sharing with my children.

A bunch of the crew was together for the party. There were eight grandchildren to help Grandpa with his candles.

It was rather sweet to see the east coast section of the family. I really enjoyed going for a long run with Rebecca,

Rebecca and I also took the kids on a really long and hot walk. It was a bit too long for the little ones but I loved it. I loved walking through the forest with them. It was spring and everything was wet, muddy and coming to life. Expect for us and nature, it was peaceful and quiet as always.

The conservation area remains one of my favourite places on earth. I ran there several times that week. I ran in water that covered the trail. I ran over medium-sized sticks that acted like a makeshift bridge. I ran in mud. I ran with a very big blister. I ran on trails that I’ve run on for 15 years. I thought of life then and I thought of life now.

More to come!