picture pages

anyone remember? with bill cosby and his magic singing pen called Mortimor Marker? i loved that. i loved that i thought he was talking directly to me. i was five. what can i say.

i got an email the other day saying your race photos are now online. that email should instead say "dont open this link unless you want to see very unflattering images of yourself" really. twenty bucks for me squinting and fat? no thanks. but i did steal one. just because it reminded me of the agony of that race.that run. the worst 6 miles ever. i showed it to bobby and he just said "ohhhhhhhh". and cringed just a bit.

thanks again for all the love after that race. the hugs, the texts, emails and calls. meant alot. we decided not to dwell and as one friend put it "f*** the race and go drink." um ok


anyway. my alternative to writing crap in this blog today is this:

so aside from the allure of eating paste, its not looking so good. so figured i would purge my phone of its contents. pay attention. i move around alot.


while in burlington it is obligatory to stop at ben and jerry's. even if its at 9 am on a sunday. trust me, ice cream still tastes good.


we met up with bobby in boston. he spent a day there himself (probably loved it better than with 3 girls cramping his style). here we are after dinner in the north end. he is so happy to be near me it kills him.


the three lovely ladies. 2 out of three are science nerds with PhDs who regularly insert words like "fibroplasia" and "myocardial" into general discussion. guess which one of us doesnt.

we went on the duck boat around boston. where they tell you to quack at the locals. i'm not sure it was exactly quacking the locals were saying back...

but it was fun and informative. and i dont remember a single fact except that Sam Adams was pretty bad ass.


the freedom trail is cool. though i found it most entertaining when the guide, had to "break character" to silence his cell.


there is an amazing tribute to the victims of the holocaust. since visiting Dachau, it takes on a whole new meaning.


fenway. i'm NOT a fan of boston sports teams in any way shape or form. but the history there is undeniable.


view from our NY office balcony. (yep stay with me kids).


NO. this is not me. i dont know the sick puppy who did this. but i do know a legal department (mine) that will fret over the fact that the circle r is not visable.

i met sadie. such a gorgeous little girl. but still capable of very un-lady like behavoir. ha. (sorry M. had to put that in there, it was priceless hearing you and N with her!)



on the way home from the track tonight i got gas and a snack. oh pretzel sandwich you are so delicious.

new england

is an amazing place. so gorgeous. and probably holds the nicest people on the planet. here is a recap of the past week. i'm too tired to make jokes so anything funny i happen to say is not on purpose.

burlington is gorgeous. i was there years ago as a college student, all i remember from that trip is a diner and all the trouble we caused...

on the way up we stopped for dinner in NH near dartmouth. football was on tv. it was after all a sports bar. as i asked the guy to turn on the steelers game, it suddenly dawned on me i was in enemy territory.

it was so much fun to see so many familiar faces. Ange and Mary from recent Kona fame, cover girl Mary who doesnt just poke on facebook, Liz who was on call for any wheel drama, Wendy and Bob who we pal-ed around in budapest with, my fun teammates and some others who i didnt even know would be there.

the food was amazing. so fresh and some great combinations. lots of props to the local farmers.

did i mention how pretty it was. and cool? you think how amazing it would be to live there until the waiter tells us the average winter temperature is 3 degrees. yes. 3.

vermont is famous for two things. ice cream and cheese. how can that ever be bad.

my race started out great. PR in the swim (err well a PR for a well marked 1500 course). then it went down hill. i lost all my nutrition at mile 2 of the bike thanks to some divot in the road. i guess all the months of winter really wreak havoc up there. anyway i thought there was a water exchange but no. so i just rode hard and figured i would deal with it. got off the bike and was ready to tackle the run. excited for the course knowing it would be fast. after summiting the first and only (monster) climb i felt like i got punched in the stomach. i couldnt breathe and it hurt. and it didnt go away. everything just sort of seized up on me. so two things. first --TMS athlete Mollie - who is all of 18- was my biggest support out there on the run. here i was heaving in pain and she is encouraging me, trying to help, get me going - while in the race herself. the girl is what this sport is about. second- i ate a big plate of heartbreak. watching 30 or so girls pass me on the run was hard. really hard. BUT you gotta take the bad ones with the good ones. and move on.

a stop at ben and jerry's at 9 am on a sunday is not all that weird.

boston is amazing. we had the best time up there. did all the touristy stuff and just enjoyed the city.

i learned there were 2 other guys with paul revere.

and a good joke:

why does a can of boston baked beans only have 239 beans in it?
because one more would be "too faaaaaarty"

maybe if i think of fun things i will blog again. who knows.

oooops i did it again...

just as i cannot seem to hate traveling enough, a flight to boston looms in my future. this weekend my trusty side kick kern and i will travel to vermont (via boston) for nationals. should be fun. we'll see old friends, eat good food, try not to get lost, and oh yea race. bobby decided to skip that fun and meet us in boston on the tail end for a few days. nice. we've signed up for a duck tour. yes. a tour aboard some sort of WWII hum-vee. shaped like, well, a duck. i'll bring my fanny pack.

in other news, i got the nod to represent NC in the best of the us tri this year. cool. so more travel.. hmmm....

i saw "the help" this weekend. good flick. different from the book which i liked better, but still worth seeing either way.

madison has learned a new trick, or maybe just suddenly realized she has use of her hind legs, and is now jumping up to the counter to snag food. its taken her 7 long years to put together the knowledge and the know-how for this. i'm not sure whether to be mad or content with her achievement.

i'm still sick. boo hoo. perhaps i've become immune to thera-flu after ingesting several quarts of it. i'm changing tactics and hoping for the best.

and oh yea. foot ball started. the world is right again.

take pity on me

i'm sick.

WAH.

i had to go out to salt lake last week for work. what should have been a four hour flight turned into 17 hours of travel time. thru the day i held boarding passes to five, yes FIVE different cities. it was not fun.

i flew the red eye back and arrived yesterday morning. i have to say, having a head cold at 37000 feet is a bit unsettling. its a very strange and somewhat alarming feeling to not be able to pop your ears.

anyway. i might be a bit more chipper did i not have a 6 am flight to NY in two days. there are times when i do not like my job. at all.

here are some hi and low lites of the trip:



SLC has a beautiful out door LC pool. crisp mornings with the sun peeking over the mountains. as much as i'm not a fan of swimming this got me out of bed a few mornings!



99% of you have no idea what my actual job is. thats ok. neither do i. BUT this is where i spent my time, 10 hours a day to be exact. telling people how awesome cotton is.


this is what it all looks like.. hundreds of companies (columbia, brooks, clif, north face, merrel, prana, keen, etc.) all showing new product.


if you read Born to Run, then you know barefoot Ted. Caballo Blanco was also at the show. interesting guys. really nice.


last night we went to the bulls game.

thats all.

getting back up

this weekend my race buddy extraordinaire KERN and i headed out east to compete in an oly tri. we had the usual pre-race day hazards to contend with:

*getting a bit lost and relying on the blue dot (iphone maps) to get us right again
*making peace with our lackluster conditions. i didnt tell her i found a bug in the bathroom until AFTER we checked out
*finding a dinner choice that we both are content with. in this case we settled on microwave meals and quiet hotel time. but that involved navigating a wal mart that was not short on wacko-s.
*negotiating a wake up call.
*trying to convince our selves that even though the out side temp was 97 and our room temp was 92 (at 9 PM) we were not going to die the following morning - or that night!

but all in all, if you are going to spend a solid 24 hours with someone, kern is a good choice.

so race day morning. we both felt good. it was a low key race and part of the FS series and you know they just do a good job. we knew alot of the people on the staff and racing with us so it was just that homey good vibe.

though to say the day was disgusting was an understatement. it was HUMID.
capital H-U-M-I-D.

the water felt good at 82 degrees. refreshing! anyway. i swam pretty well. though by myself. too slow for the lead group but no one else around me. i felt pretty strong and moved up through the earlier waves well. thought my sighting was pretty spot on.

i'm getting good at transition finally. not a whole lot of fumbling around. off on the bike.

for the most part i was rolling. no one was passing me and i felt strong moving along. at one point a girl went by me and i made it my goal to keep her in my sight. about 18 miles in i hit a bit of a wall and had to fight pretty hard to keep things status quo. i'm still getting schooled on the corners. that kills me.

anyway, with about a mile left we turn back into the park. my "follow that girl" girl is about a minute ahead. i remember something that i read about - dont slow down when you come back in, the race is still happening with that last mile or so on the bike. so i keep at it. and from the left i see this white-ness. its a big van. he is pulling out ahead of me into the intersection. he comes out part way, stops, then goes forward to the middle and STOPS again. WTF. its too late. i ran smack into him. no brakes, no swerve. no time. jesus.

i wasnt badly hurt. nothing broken. the guy drove away. i peddled back into transition in a bit of a daze and put my shoes on and started the run. about a mile or so into it, i guess the whole ordeal hit me. that was the end of the day for me.

i'm thankful it wasnt worse-- as i've seen and heard about too many people being hit on their bikes and breaking legs and worse, losing their life. and i feel a bit silly for walking away and still being freaked out about the whole thing.

i plan to get back on my bike today and ride around a bit. we'll see.

thanks to my teamates and FS staff and heather (!) at the race for giving me some comfort (esp heather for telling that pesky "here's an ice pack!" lady to F off. ha!). and for the encouragement and patience these past 2 days from friends. i guess we all deal with this stuff differently.