Rio Rancho All Women's Sprint Triathlon Aug. 27, '11

Saturday I competed in my second sprint triathlon. This one was much different from the first. I was hoping for a flat course like the first one, but not so. It was really hilly! And part of the run was on SANDY hills. I was not expecting it to say the least. However, I trained really hard this time around. I pushed about 55 pounds of cargo (my kids) in the jogging stroller on my runs and pulled the same amount behind my bike on my rides and I swam once a week. I was probably about as well-prepared as I could have been, and I was grateful for that. That being said, it was still not easy.

This time around, there was a fat tire (mountain bike division), so I registered for that since I don't have a road bike. It was so neat participating in an all-women sprint tri. There were 300 total women. They body marked us as usual with our bib number and age after we picked up our packets and timing chips. One woman that I saw was 72. She is my idol! I hope I am fit enough at 72 to still compete in sprint tri's. It is my goal.

Two BYU graduate women headed the event. It was so nice to actually have one on a Saturday since most are on Sundays. The proceeds went to a charity called Camp Butterfly for children with Special Needs. I love running for a good cause. The event was a great success and it will be an annual thing. Yay!

A big thank you to my friend Bri and her husband for fixing up my bike before the event! I am so grateful to them. It was really fun to do another sprint tri with her. She is quite the athlete and did amazing despite not feeling well.

My hubby supported me from home while watching the kids. Thanks Rob!

Here are my stats: I came in 11th out of 44 women in my age division. My 5k run time was 24:16 (slower than I wanted, but whatever), my 10 mile bike time was 42:19, and my swim time was 11:58 (slow, but definitely much better than last time, so I'll take it). My overall time was 1:21:01. I came in 2nd place in the fat tire division. My place overall was 53rd.

I trained hard, and I prayed hard. I know I had Heavenly Father's help. I was able to push myself to my limits and perform beyond my own abilities, and I felt amazingly well afterwards. Here's to many more sprint triathlons! I really enjoy them. Hopefully one of these times I will have a road bike to compete with.

Catch-up

I keep telling myself that things will slow down when.... and then they don't. Life is just busy, but yet it's so fun.

Blake is at a really cute age. He has so much personality, and he's talking a lot more now. The words I can think of that he says are: bath, baby, ba ba, mommy, dadda, ewe, bubbles, dog, go, bye (but he says it with a southern accent), and night night. He is obsessed with all buttons. Every time we come home he has to press the garage door button to close it. And he's always climbing on furniture to turn lights on and off. He's still my little mess-maker too. He's shattered at least two (that I can think of) of my nice glass cookware pans. The one day he poured out an entire bottle of laundry detergent. That was fun to clean up. I could spend my whole day following him around and cleaning up his messes, so I try to let the little things go. It's been good for me.

Natalie is still our cute little princess, but we have been trying to teach her to act like one lately. :) Like most kids, she struggles with sharing and being nice to Blake sometimes. For the most part, incentives and rewards work, but we're still trying to find a punishment that does. She is also still really, really picky and every meal is a struggle (I dread feeding time!). She will start preschool in a few weeks (I can't believe I have a preschooler!)

As for me, I have been training hard for my sprint triathlon, which is next week. I have been crafting up a storm and trying to keep my new obsession under control.

It's basically a place where you can "pin" images onto your board that represent ideas and things that you like from the internet such as recipes, cute outfits, crafts, quotes, home decor, etc. You can "follow" other people's boards and "repin" things that you like to your board. I have found so many fun craft ideas, and it's actually quite overwhelming because there are so many things I want to do now and not enough time to do them and be a good mom at the same time. :) But I love it!

Rob keeps pretty busy with work, but enjoys his time at home with us.

So these are out of order because I posted them later, but see the caption below the yellow couch pillow below for an explanation. This design has a bow, but you can barely see it from the picture.

Too cute for words-Blake in his daddy's shoe. I'm pretty sure that I have a picture of Natalie at this exact age doing the same thing in the same place.

Natalie is all girl. She will only wear dresses and the frillier and twirlier the better.

Our family rule board. This was a big project, but I love how it turned out. The design phase takes the most time. I love my Silhouette machine!

My last couch decor pillows were pretty hashed, and I decided that rather than buy all new ones, I wanted to re-cover them. Well, seeing how I don't sew, my wonderful friend came to the rescue. She made two ruffle pillows like the one shown above, and with no pattern, I might add. She is amazing. I chose the fabric and design. It was not an easy task, so thanks so much Michelle! I love how they turned out!

We have LOVED bowling this summer. We've gone at least once a week with Natalie's Kids Bowl Free program. It's been great.

Natalie is an AMAZING bowler! She bowled a 103 last night! It's so fun to watch her do it. She knows how to position the ramp and the ball just right, and she's even got the ball push down to a science. She's able to pick up of her spares too!

Blake for the most part is good for us while we bowl.

Natalie likes to dress up as a bunny with her towel and then push around her bunnies in her cute pink stroller. It's so funny because when she finally takes it off, her hair is all matted and sweaty underneath.

Blake loves when his daddy comes home. He becomes a little shadow.

Our latest home project has been putting knobs and handles on all our cabinets. I measured and Rob drilled. Rob says he's done with my honey-do list for a while, but there will be lots more to come if I can help it!