Chrissie, and some other things, but mostly Chrissie

As everyone is well aware, Kona was this weekend. I had some friends racing (Travis and White Hot) as well as knowing some other people out there as well (Cait Snow as a USA Pro and Pat Wheeler from QT2). Add Chrissie Wellington in there and you have the 5 people for whom I was actively rooting.

I don't know why I am so emotionally tied to Chrissie Wellington. When she pulled out of Kona last year, I was devastated and lost my motivation to watch the race. This year, she crashed her bike 2 weeks before the race and (thankfully) only sustained minor injuries, but still, that's enough to ruin you for an upcoming Ironman. (I know, I am truly just happy that her injuries were not life-threatening, unlike what happened to Jordan Rapp a few years ago). As I sat in my apartment streaming the live feed on Saturday, and Chrissie came out of the water several minutes slower than usual, I started to worry. When she didn't make a big gain on the bike and as Julie Diebens continued to pull away from the field, I started to worry more. But when Chrissie hit the run, I started to believe that she could pull it off. (I never REALLY lost hope, but it wasn't looking so good for a while there - apparently I forgot how truly amazing of an athlete that she is). Her and Rinny were running through the field at almost the exact same pace, separated by ~3 minutes. Chrissie took the lead, and I was literally on the edge of my seat wondering if she could hold off Rinny.

And she did.

And as much as I love seeing Chrissie run away from the field, as she has done sooo many times, it was exciting to see her challenged, fight back, and win. ALL while feeling less than 100%.

It was also crazy to see her looking as shelled as she did after the race.

I truly believe that Chrissie is THE spokesperson for triathlon. She is always humble, she takes everything that happens to her in stride (flat tires, bike crashes, being sick, etc) and always comes back better, faster, and stronger. She is an amazing athlete and an amazing woman, and I truly admire her in all aspects. Which is perhaps why I am entering a race (Timberman) next year JUST for the chance to meet her (oh.. and race a 70.3 - no biggie).

Anyways, enough about Chrissie. I am very, very happy at the outcome of Kona, to say the least. Congrats are also in order to Crowie who obviously won the men's race and broke the 15 year old race record, and one of my other favorite pros, Cait Snow, who I met in Coeur D'Alene, landed myself on her blog, and who had a phenomenal race yesterday which I believe resulted in a PR for her and the only top 10 finish for the USA in both the men's and women's fields! Also to Travis, who had a great day on the lava fields and finished in 10:08 which is a PR for him I believe. His finish line video is truly inspiring (I wish I could share it with you all). Same goes to White Hot and Pat Wheeler - who we watched cross the line as well.

In other news..

On Friday night, I went to a haunted house in the city (The House of Pain) with my friend Ari. We were both excited to go, and we both view ourselves as.. not too girly. Ari is a hardcore mountain biker, I do Ironman, we're tough chicks! Yet, 5 minutes into the haunted house, we were shrieking our heads off, holding hands, and sprinting through the rooms, away from the creepy actors that were jumping out as us. I guess we are women after all!

Then on Saturday I was forced to clean in the morning for my Kona party (which was me, Solveig, and Matthias) that afternoon. The good news is: my apartment is the cleanest it has EVER been and I am loving it! I am going to make a huge effort to keep it this way AND get going on some organizational projects that need to be started!

I also drank almost an entire bottle of wine at the party and definitely felt the effects the next day, especially when I tried to run. I made it 57 minutes, but it was not pretty, and we'll leave it at that.

My god, I love life!

a little bit of everything, a lot of links!

Yesterday (or Wednesday if you want to get technical because overnights mess me up) I did this thing called "running." I'm not sure if you've heard of it? It's this form of exercise where you put one foot in front of the other, quickly, in order to move from point A to point B. I have not done this thing known as running for 2.5 weeks. I ran for 30 min on Wednesday and 30 min on Thursday. I am all sorts of sore now! Jeez.. I only took 2.5 weeks off! What's up with that? I would very willingly take weeks and weeks more time off, however I have a fear of turning into a porker. Seriously, I am legitimately afraid of getting fat. The fact that I am fairly fit is one of the big things I have going for me and I don't want to lose it!

I need to add some swimming and cycling into the mix, and probably some lifting too.

I have a few races on my radar for November. One is the Red Baron Half Marathon in Corning, NY. This race is on Nov. 7 and it doesn't start til 1 pm which is awesome. This was the first half marathon that I ever did, which I ran in 2008. The other race that I would like to do (I'm still unsure of the Red Baron but this one I DEFINITELY want to do) is the Run for the Diamonds in Berwick, PA. It's a 9 mile race on Thanksgiving Day. Berwick is a small town between Bloomsburg, PA and Wilkes-Barre, PA but the race is enormous and draws a very, very competitive crowd because the awards are actual diamonds. I have wanted to do this race for years but something always conflicted (or I wasn't in good enough shape to throw down a 9 miler). I think the stars have aligned for 2010!

And now for some  complete and utter randomness..

I ran into my new downstairs neighbor as I was leaving for work at 10:30 pm. Despite the fact that I was carrying my lunchbox, he told me to "enjoy my evening" as if I was running out for a quickie (I wish!) rather than heading into work for an overnight.

Last night's episode of The Office was one of the best episodes I have seen lately. I am a huge, huge fan of this show but since season 4 I think it's been slowly going downhill. And with the departure of Steve Carell at the end of this season, I'm not sure if I will even have the heart to watch anymore. However, this week's episode was hilarious.

KONA STREAMING LIVE STARTS AT 11 AM EST ON SATURDAY!!! (hmm.. I am not excited or anything). Currently I have plans to watch this with..... my cat...... in my pajamas...... with a whole bunch of junk food.

Also, I like to read important news articles lame dating articles on msn.com and I stumbled across one titled "What his favorite sport says about him" and OF COURSE triathlon was on there (woohoo!). Here is the excerpt:

As its name suggests, this is actually three sports – swimming, biking and running– merged into one excruciating but highly gratifying event. These competitors are driven, thrive on challenge, and they like variety. So does that mean they’re unable to commit? Who knows, but if you’re going to date a guy into triathlons, be prepared with a wetsuit and comfortable running shoes.

Oh boy.

Also, here are some more links for your enjoyment.

The Crawl (Youtube Video)

A really good ESPN article about athletes pooping themselves (seriously, read it).

And lastly, here is an updated photo of my healing M-dot tattoo!

hot for Chrissie

The story of the hour is: KONA is this weekend! I am super excited to stream it on Saturday! I cannot WAIT to see Chrissie dominate! If you know me, you know I am a huge fan of Chrissie. I would go lesbian for Chrissie. I think that she absolutely epitomizes what every pro athlete should be like. This is a great article about the women pro competitiors at Kona this year. I wish I was going to be at Kona! Gonna have to get a LOT faster to make that happen!

My credit card bill came in the mail over the weekend. I am a little scared to look at it. IM Wisconsin is on it! But once I pay for that, I can concentrate on next year because I am done with big purchases this year. Anyone who regularly gets Christmas presents from me, expect a hug. :)

I have been.. moody for the past few days. I try not to make excuses for my moodiness because I think that everyone has the ability to change their own attitude (excluding people with mental health disorders). But my moodiness turned into a full blown meltdown today which was not enjoyable.

PMS + lack of sleep + an incredibly stressful night at work + no exercise + other extenuating circumstances = lots and lots of crying

I am fine now. Sometimes, I just have to get it out of my system. Sometimes, I just need to talk to someone and secretly hope they don't think I'm nuts.

It did not help that when I went to Wegman's to buy some food, they did not have my favorite pumpkin cookies!

Some of the things in my life I cannot control - such as work being stressful. It is what it is. Last night was so horrible (I was alone at work on an overnight) that at one point during the night after having to redo a test 3 times, I looked down at my hand and it was shaking, and I was sweating profusely.

Some things I should be better at controlling - like making sure I sleep on Sunday before going into work. It's hard to do when everyone else is out doing things, and I want to be doing things with people that I care about, but in the back of my head I know that I need to sleep. What usually happens? I skip sleeping and go to work with a sleep deficit. Takes a few days to catch up after that.

Also, my 2 weeks of mandatory rest after Syracuse 70.3 are up. They have been up since Sunday but I have yet to work out. I want to run. I want to go outside and run (not in the city) and look at the changing leaves and feel the crisp fall air! But.. it has been raining for 2 days straight here in western NY which puts a damper on my motivation to go running. I might even ride my bike this weekend if it is nice out! Exercise makes me feel good and it makes me happy. I need to get my butt MOVING.

I really don't mind getting out of shape during off-season. There is some push and pull when it comes to fitness and I understand that I can't maintain A+ fitness year round. However, I do have a gigantic fear of getting fat. I don't like gaining more than 5 lbs over the winter. I NEVER want to reach the point where my pants will not zip up!

I promise I will have some workout/triathlon/fitness related blog posts coming SOON! It's hard to do when I am not doing anything. I don't want to rehash this past season. It's over. Time to move forward.