I'm a Mother in Law now!

My apologies for not posting in a little bit - and this is just a quick one as well - I'm spending days at work and nights at my parents house so I can spend time with out of town family while they are still here!

My older son got married - yup that is right - that son.... Here is me, Jessica the bride (so beautiful!!!), Matt my oldest son (so handsome and grown up!), The hubster and my younger son who didn't quite get the hang of picture taking....

The weekend was amazing! The wedding was so wonderful - "just enough" everything they did was great and not over the top - the food, the band, the amount of people and the ceremony... They did a wonderful job planning it and it was the best wedding I have ever been too and I'm not just saying that because I'm mom!

I am so blessed, I have a great family and with the addition of Jess it got bigger and better! She has a large family and they were all wonderful and welcoming!!

I will leave you with something that I'm sure you already know...

Cherish your children and the little ones in your life because you never know what is around the corner and they grow up way too fast!

I can now add Triathlete to my resume!

So before I start this post - I have to explain something here that those people who know me closely know, but I never mentioned on my blog. After I ran the Parkway half I had a serious lack of motivation to train - and then about the time I was getting it back I got sick. I wouldn't have minded a nice little cold to make me appreciate not being sick or maybe something else mild that I still could have worked out with, but that wasn't my choice - what I got was an upper respiratory infection that kicked my butt for two weeks! I spent three days straight in bed doing nothing while my wonderful hubby made sure I had what I needed and took great care of me. It has been a long time since I had been that sick - even after my body felt better my lungs took a while to bounce back (I also have asthma) and all training for the tri stopped. I did a one mile run on the Wednesday before the tri to make sure my tri shirt and shorts were not going to rub anywhere and than went well, but I was nervous about the fact that I had trained up to the mileages I was doing in the tri, but it had been sometime since I had done anything active and I was hoping my lungs were 100% - It turns out they were not.


Here I am on the beach of the lake ready to start - the pink cap was given to me by the race organizers - each wave had their own color and I was in the last wave that started at 8:25 (Women 40 and up and the Athena Athletes) I stood on the beach and looked at the bouys and they seemed so far out there and so far apart! I will admit my nerves kicked in and my tummy hurt! My dad was taking pictures of my and I wanted him to stop - that is why I look grumpy...

Here I am 33 minutes after my start - my swim took longer than expected because once I got into the water there were several things happening that I didn't expect since I did all my swim training in a pool - first 50+ people starting to swim at the same time causes a wake and tosses you around quite a bit. Secondly - the lake is very green and it is very hard to see where you are going. Thirdly - my lungs ended up not being 100% and I struggled to catch my breath from early on. I spent some time holding on the the kyacks catching my breath and was so happy to have those guys out there - they are so encouraging! What you can't see in the picture is just how much the swim had taken out of me, I was so tired already and knew I still had 16 miles on the bike and a 3 mile run ahead of me. My arms were sore and my lungs hurt and I was just plain tired... (notice there are only a handful of people still in the water behind me...)
This is me in my transition area. I got out of my wetsuit and sat down to put my shoes and socks on to get on the bike. The transitions both went well, I don't think I really spent too much time fussing with things and everything went smoothly (well except for knocking the rack over when I took my bike out, but some guy coming in did the same thing right after I did so I don't feel so bad..) Oh yeah, that was a weird feeling - I was getting ready for my bike ride and there were people who had already finished their swim and bike ride! Again the volunteers here in the transition area were amazing and encouraging - this series had something like 200 first time triathletes! I actually felt pretty strong leaving there on the bike, but that quickly faded and I decided that slow and steady would have to do...

The bike course was on a pretty busy two lane highway with no bike lane and it was not closed to traffic. I had cars very close to me zipping by at 55 mile per hour. Something else I hadn't really trained for was riding around traffic. I had a death grip on my bike and when I came in my arms, hands and shoulders were very sore and the rest of the energy I had was pretty much gone.
And here I am going out for the last 3 miles of the tri! I ran for a little bit, but most of it was walking for me. The few of out there still on the course were talking and encouraging each other and we were still having fun despite being very tired!
And here I am running in for the big finish! There were only about 5 people behind me at this point but still a HUGE crowd at the finish line! Again so encouraging and enthusiastic!

So would I do it again - heck yeah! I would train differently since I know what to expect now and I would try really hard not to get sick right before! LOL!! Do I have any regrets? Heck no! I can now be called a triathlete and like I once told someone - I may not be fast but I'm determined and I get the job done and I'm out there!

Role Model of the Year Contest

I was going to post my essay earlier but I was too chicken to do that - I had doubts that I would even post it at all - because I had decided that if I didn't win I wouldn't post it. My husband and I tossed ideas back and forth and I told him at one point I wanted to be the fairy princess in the story with the happy ending - so we came up with a version of my story that was just that and I decided that was the one I would submit! So here it is in all it's glory - my 1st prize winning essay for the Weight Watchers Role Model of the Year 2010!

There once was a young maiden who married her prince and was blessed with a son. This was when her battle with the Evil Gainer began. For 21 years she meekly battled the Evil Gainer until July 2007, when her wizard gave her potions for high blood pressure and depression. To defeat the Evil Gainer her wizard suggested joining the great Weight Watchers crusade.
Our maiden used weapons the Evil Gainer feared the most. Water, natural foods and knowledge from the Weight Watchers Sages became the weapons she used to battle her enemy.
Her first victory occurred when she eliminated 10% of Gainers power. She was awarded by the Sages and her wizard removed the cursed potions from her life. Her journey continued until she had reduced Gainers power by 50%. The battle raged on for another nine months before she emerged victorious by reducing Gainers power by another 5%.
To help in her battle she joined a group that performed rituals known as Marathons. She became an apprentice to perform the half-marathon ritual which she completed twice. She returned to her comrades and received the honor of Pace Assistant. She found great pleasure in seeing her apprentices reach their goals and overcome fears of their own. She was praised by her apprentices and peers for being an inspiration when times were darkest. In November 2009 our maiden completed the ritual known as Marathon and all was good. She is now an apprentice to achieve the coveted Triathlon. She has used a magical blog throughout her journey and many have praised her as an inspiration to them. She believes the greatest role models are honest, open and sincere.
In December 2009 our maiden vanquished Gainer. She reached her goal by removing the 98.5 pounds Gainer had shackled her with over 21 years of servitude.
Earlier this year our maiden’s son was taken to the wizards and placed in ICU. This was a horrific time for her son’s fate was uncertain and he could be taken at any time. Her battle with Gainer had given her strength that she had not had before. She became the pillar that others turned to for support where she would have needed the support before the battle.
Her son made a miraculous recovery and is more active today than ever before. She is looking forward to many happy memories with her family and friends.

I'm a winner!

My Weight Watchers leader (and several others) convinced me I should enter the 2010 Weight Watchers Role Model of the Year contest - so I wrote (with the wonderful help of my hubby) an essay - took some pictures (you may remember me posting those) got everything together and got the notification yesterday that I had won! - There were 106 prizes given out nationwide - 100 Macy's gift cards - and 6 Grand Prizes of a trip to New York for a photo shoot and to be in the magazine! I'm thrilled that I won anything! Only 106 winners nationwide!! I promise before the weekend is up that I will post my essay - but I wanted to quickly post this since I had already put it out there on twitter that I had won. I'm also thrilled for my leader and the receptionist of the meeting I go to - they also get a prize for encouraging me! I'm happy for them because they are part of the reason that I'm where I'm at today - The receptionist has taught me how to be a more active person and my leader has taught me to love myself no matter what and try to remain positive no matter what!

Mothers Day Weekend Post a Week late!

Time got away from me this week!

On Tuesday before Mothers day I called my wonderful husband from work and told him - "You know what I want for Mothers Day? I want to drive to the coast and watch the sunset into the ocean!" - so we started planning and quickly threw together a weekend camping trip. We woke up early on Saturday - I did stop by WW to weigh in and get my Sticker for May - another month at goal and then we drove to Fort Bragg - introduced my youngest to Glass beach and then drove to our campsite where it was very cold and windy! But this made it worth it!The next morning we woke up to rain hitting the tent and decided we would pack up quickly and drive down Highway 1 and see where it takes us! - we were out of the camp ground by about 6:30! We stopped at a beach and watched some crazy surfers surf in the rain (what do they care??). We made a stop at Tomales - running into both the General store and the Tomales Bakery where the sticky bun and chocolate devil were both so good! We also made a stop at Stinson beach where the weather was so nice again since the storm had blown over. Then we decided we would try to make it into San Francisco! While there we decided to walk across the Golden Gate bridge! We walked almost to the second "gate" before turning around and coming back - it was so beautiful and I was pretty amazed that I still had the energy to do that after everything else we had already done since Saturday morning! Then we went to Fisherman Wharf for some clam chowder, Ghirardelli square for some wonderful cupcakes and then to Golden gate park to let Logan play at the playground and we did a little walking around the park as well. Our trip ended with, to make a long story short, car trouble - we had to have it towed to a shop and leave it there and my wonderful parents drove the almost 2 hours to get us and almost 2 more hours to bring us home and then after the car was fixed my dad rode back with hubby to get my car! But it was such a great weekend even the car trouble couldn't ruin it - we just had a little detour and Mothers Day dinner was at McDonalds since it was the only thing close to the car repair shop we had to get towed to.

5 Months!

Today (May 6th) I celebrate 5 months of maintaining my goal weight! I celebrate my fitness. I celebrate my free seat in my Weight Watchers meeting. I celebrate fitting into really cute clothes. I celebrate running, swimming and biking. I celebrate my lifestyle changes. I celebrate me!

American River Parkway Half-Marathon!

So I edited this post to add a pic since my hubby and younger son came home in the middle of me writing it and I didn't get to put down everything I wanted to say!

I wanted to write this out yesterday but I was so beat! It was a very long day! The race got started a little late but it was a great run! I didn't beat my previous time - came up one minute 6 seconds short, but I'm happy with it. It got hot pretty fast and the last 3 miles is almost all sun - there were a lot of people having trouble because of the heat and one guy passed out right in front of me, I called the ranger (thank goodness as a coach I have my phone with me at all time and have the rangers number programed in!) and they got help out to him quickly. At the very end I has having cramps in my foot and my toes would curl under when I tried to run, so the last one and a half miles was almost all walking, but I finished! I was pretty much on the pace I wanted up until mile 10 then I started to slow a bit. but really like I said considering the heat I'm really happy with the way it went. My official time was 2:57:07 - my second half under three hours! Here is a pic of me and my future daughter in law - she had just completed her first half-marathon and I was privileged to watch her do it! I'm very proud of her for sticking it out through everything and rockin' it! My older son was there at the finish line with flower for both of us!
After the race I hung out with some friends and we cheered in some other runners and walkers that were still coming in and then me and a friend went out to get a family who were struggling and bring them in the rest of the way. They didn't dress for the heat and one had some really bad blisters so we walked them in the rest of the way. We then left and a group of us went to Willies burger place and had a great time eating and chatting and laughing! I left the house at 6AM and didn't get home until almost 4:30! I was tired, but not really sore too much - I can tell I'm getting stronger since I feel pretty good after races now and I'm actually able to function! This morning I was up and out the door for my Weight Watchers meeting and went grocery shopping as well!