Esprit de she Triathlon

Two weeks ago, on May 4th, Caitlin and I did the Esprit de she triathlon. Around the end of March, Caitlin posted on Facebook that she was signing up so I decided to as well.

It was a super sprint with distances as follows: .23 mile swim, 6.64 mile bike and 1.69 mile run. The distances weren't long and I think that is the reason I didn't really train too much. Kept up with my regular weekly running routine (5-10 miles per week), got in the pool twice and did under 800 yards each time, and took one ride on the bike two nights before the event.

The swim was in Tempe Town Lake. I thought it was going to be really cold, but it actually wasn't too bad.

My group (ages 39 and under doing the super sprint distance) was assigned silver caps. I was the first silver cap out of the water. I felt great during the swim.

Next was onto the bike portion. I knew going in that this was going to be the most difficult leg of the event for me. I borrowed a bike (thanks Heather), but it was just a hybrid bike and was not a road bike. I got passed big time on the bike.

Caitlin taking off on the bike portion. She has an amazing bike and passed me pretty quick.

Caitlin coming in from the bike leg.

I was so happy to be DONE with the bike portion. I was excited to get to the run (or so I thought I would be).

Caitlin finishing - she had a great event, finishing 5th overall and 1st in her age group with a time of 54.23.

Coming around the last turn of the run. I thought the run would be easy as the distance was pretty short, but my legs (mostly my quads) were fried from the bike and they were on fire the entire time during the run. After the first mile, I did a run-walk to the finish line because I was in so much pain.

Happy to be done.

I finished with a time of 1:04.41 which was 4th (out of 11) in my age group and 28th (out of 80) overall. My splits were broken down as follows: 8:20 swim, 2:30 transition 1, 31:33 bike, 1:15 transition 2, and 21:04 run. 

Celebrating with some mimosas.

I would definitely do this event again, next time with a little more training. I am also going to invest in a road bike, and have already been out looking and doing some research. I know that will help my bike portion as well as the run portion - the last tri I did was longer than this one, and I felt great on the run (but I was also on a $3k tri bike). Who else is in with Caitlin and I next May???

Chihuly in the Desert (A picture only post)

Kellyn's Baby Shower

We had Kellyn's baby shower this last Saturday, April 26th. Since mom hasn't sold Grandma Hazel's house, we decided to do it there…we were definitely missing having her there with us that day.

I did a little picture area - this is Coby and Kellyn as babies.

Kellyn loves the color yellow, so I made it a rubber duck theme to incorporate the yellow with the blue. I floated rubber ducks on the water, and we also had Pellegrino and blueberry sparkling water from Trader Joe's.

The food table. Since the shower was at 2pm, we just had snack type food.

I saw these marshmallows on Pinterest so decided to make them. No one ate any (I didn't expect that they would), so Kellyn took them to her first graders.

We let everyone chat for a while as they ate, and they also worked on the travel book. Mom bought a scrapbook and I took a picture of each person with Kellyn at the shower. I asked each person to write where the baby should travel and why he should travel to that location. I am going use the Dr. Seuss book "Oh the Places You'll Go" as the theme for the scrapbook when I put it together.

Gifts were next. While Kellyn was opening gifts, everyone wrote down when they think baby Hiatt will arrive. Have to wait to see who wins that game.

This baby will be born at home (hence the shirt).

Jessica made this cute height tracking chart.

A "Little Prince" piggy bank.

I found these Vans at Nordstrom Rack and couldn't not get them.

Since we had a lot of people at this shower who were more on the healthy side, we decided to do a blueberry smoothie bar for dessert instead of a cake.

The smoothies consisted of blueberries, banana, honey, coconut milk, water and ice.

They were a hit and everyone loved them.

The traditional homeschool picture that we do whenever we all get together. We were missing Rita and Aaryn here - they had already left.

The homeschool moms. Or grandmas I guess we should call them now :)

Kellyn with her homeschool friends - this group of friends has known each other since the late 80s.

Kellyn and the 2 new grandmas.

Grandmas and Aunts.

Me, Kellyn and Mom. Thanks mom for all your help with the shower.

Mom made these "brewing" teabags to give to people when they left.

Now we just wait for a few more weeks :)