Time To Get Excited

...and maybe throw up a little bit.

On June 24th, 2012, I will be here doing this.

(!!!)

Just Another Rainy Sunday

whoa-oh-oh.

(Anyone singing that Manic Monday song now? Anyone?)

Almost exactly one month ago, I rode my bike for 100 miles. In a row. Through the mountains. In the rain. Oh my.

America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride took place on June 5th starting and ending in the town of South Lake Tahoe. The ride circumnavigated the 72-mile perimeter of the Lake and included a 28-mile out and back to Truckee, CA to make it an even 100-mile event: the cyclist's coveted Century Ride.

This also marked my seventh event with Team in Training (TNT), and my first event with the cycle team. Put that together with two full marathons and four triathlons and you've got yourself a TNT Triple Crown (completing three separate sports with TNT). My good friend Audra and I actually both earned our Triple Crowns at AMBBR and were recognized at the Inspiration Dinner the night before the event.

In the days leading up to the ride, my whole team had been watching the weather forecast like hawks, desperately hoping the meteorologists were wrong (sorry, Jerilyno). The chance of rain slowly climbed from 40% to 50% to 70% and up. Our practice ride the day before was cut short due to the rain. Things were looking bleak. And sure enough, my alarm went off at 5am on race day and the first thing I heard was the whoosh of pouring rain in the courtyard outside my window. "Awww, crap." said I. Then I got out of bed, put on many layers of clothing, and met my team downstairs to begin our 100-mile adventure.

As we stepped outside, we were greeted with 40-degree temperatures and, of course, the steadily falling rain. But we're nothing if not stubborn and all those 60-, 70-, and 80-mile training rides in the Arizona heat were not going to be in vain, and so at 6:15am we began the wettest, coldest day of our lives.

The course starts in South Lake Tahoe and after about 10 miles reaches Emerald Bay, the first big climb of the day. This 5-mile climb involves a series of switchbacks, which means it's...rather steep. And at this early point in the (cold, rainy) day, it was a bit of a shock to the system to begin tackling the beast. Oh, and the altitude. Let's not forget the altitude, which started at 6300 feet above sea level and went up from there. But up the hill we went, all the way to the top, where we were greeted by spectacular views of Emerald Bay (which was more gray than its trademark emerald color, but still gorgeous). From there, we continued on through Meeks Bay, Tahoma, Homewood, and Sunnyside into Tahoe City where we took a left turn off of the lake to begin the descent out to Truckee.

A note about cycling in the rain - especially cycling in groups in the rain:
bike tires kick up a lot of water off of the road. And by water I mean filthy, dirty, road-grime-laced water. And if you happen to be following someone, you end up getting covered in the spray from their rear tire. Observe: this was me at our rest stop in Truckee, 47 miles into the ride. (click to enlarge)

My crew that I had been riding with all season regrouped at Truckee and we began the long climb back out together. We made our way to King's Beach (mile 71) and hit up the lunch stop. Bountiful sandwiches, fruit, chips, cookies and brownies awaited us, as did my parents and their friends, who had flown in from Nebraska to cheer me on. Seeing them was a great boost (as was the food) and we embarked on our last 30 miles with a new lease on life, even knowing that the majority of the day's climbing still awaited us. Thankfully, by this point the rain had become more sporadic and the sun even peeped out here and there.

We rode on for another 10 miles covering some smaller hills and seeing some amazing houses along the lake. And then, at mile 81, we hit Spooner - the BIG climb. 8 miles of constant uphill gaining over 1000 feet of elevation. We pedaled. We pedaled some more. We admired the spectacular views off to our right. We kept on pedaling. And finally... finally... we were at the top! The next six miles were the best part of my day. We had a wide shoulder and a whole lane to ourselves, the rain had stopped for the moment, and we were able to open it up and just FLY down this winding mountain pass. It was glorious.

Once we hit the bottom, we had about 5 or 6 miles of rolling hills to conquer before we made it back into South Lake Tahoe to the finish line. It seemed like every hill we came to, someone would holler out "You can do it! This is the last hill!" and then, of course, once we reached the top we'd see another hill right up ahead. It made me want to shove someone. But I didn't. Then we crested this one last long, winding hill and all we could see in front of us was a valley and the hulking outlines of the casinos where the finish line was located. And so, after about 8 hours of tooling along through the mountains and the rain and the cold and the altitude, we crossed the finish line of America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride. It was amazing.

After celebrating with Francheska and Sue and some other teammates, I headed back out to the last turnoff on the race course and waited for Audra. I had promised her many months ago that, even though we ride at different speeds, I would cross the finish line with her. So for the next hour or so I had a blast cheering on hundreds of other riders as they neared the finish. It was so fun. I saw lots of my other teammates go by. And then I saw Audra and Marian flanked by our coaches coming my way. I hopped on my trusty Freeze Ray and rode that last .6 miles in with Audra and watched and cheered as she and Marian finished the ride.

It was a day that could have been horrible, but instead it turned out to be one of the most fun and rewarding days I've had this year. Hooray for cycling! And hooray for our team of 27, who raised over $175,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. An amazing group of people I'm proud to call my friends.Go Team!

The Good Life

and simple solutions.

I've spent the past few days on a whirlwind of adventures with my family. So far I've seen my sister, brother, sister-in-law, niece, mom, dad, one uncle, two aunts, two cousins, and three cousins-in-law. I've been to Denver, Fort Collins, Denver, Boulder, Denver, and Omaha. I've visited with old friends, run the BolderBoulder 10k, and seen Wicked for the third time. All of these things have been wonderful and memorable, but my favorite moment of the trip occurred at 2:30 this afternoon.

After spending the morning and early afternoon helping my brother pack and load his family's belongings into a giant flatbed trailer, pickup truck, and SUV in preparation for their move to a new house, my parents, brother, 2-year-old niece and I went to eat a well-deserved lunch at a local sandwich shop (my sister-in-law had to work, thus her absence). Emma was a good two hours past her regular nap time and was in a delightfully, dramatically foul mood. We were all sitting outside eating our sandwiches and trying not to laugh at Emma's over-the-top proclamations, when a preteen boy with Down Syndrome who was sitting on the other side of the glass began tapping on the window and making faces, trying to cheer her up.

Eventually the kind-hearted boy came outside, walked up to our table and asked Emma her name. Emma barely spared him a glance and continued to huff and pout. My brother explained that Emma was just very tired and we chatted a little bit with the boy. He continued to try to cheer Emma up as we finished eating. Finally, it was time to go and my brother folded up the rest of Emma's potato chips (she had been eating chips all morning and had had more than enough, even before lunch) and oh. The rage, you guys. "MY CHIPS! ME BACK MY CHIPS! CHIIIIIIIIIIIPS!" Full on toddler meltdown.

This continued for a good minute or two, with the addition of tears-on-demand and escalating screams, until the boy, who had been worriedly observing this from a few feet away, sidled up to my brother and advised in an urgent, helpful tone, "Dude. Just give her the chips."

:)

It Has Ruined Me

Pretty sure I'm only going to be able to run triathlons on tropical islands from here on out.

A month (a month!?) ago, I ran the Lavaman Triathlon on the Big Island of Hawaii and oh, what a glorious race it was. The fact that I can say that despite an upset stomach, howling wind, wretched run course and subsequent busted knee is proof of the beauty of the surroundings. Free beer doesn't hurt either. So: on to the race!

As is typical for endurance events, we were up dark and early to make it to the start line. We lugged our gear via bike from the hotel (oh lovely, lovely hotel) over to the race transition area about a mile away. As we were getting things set up in transition, the sun began to rise over the volcano to the East all pink and awesome and the crazy-ass island birds began their morning cacophony of sound; a pretty great way to start the day. The temperature was perfect, the atmosphere was festive, my fellow teammates were excited for the day, and I felt like crap. But my wave was the first wave of the morning, so what are you gonna do? Suck it up and hop in the ocean, that's what.

At 7:30am the race started and my wave took off into the salty blue. You guys. Swimming in the ocean was so. much. fun. It wasn't as clear as it usually is thanks to the tsunami from the Japan earthquakes a couple weeks beforehand, but you could still see all the way to the bottom. As I swam my 1500 meters I saw beautiful colorful fish darting around the coral. I saw an eel making its creepy way through the water far below me. One of my teammates saw a small stingray flapping by. SO cool. But also a little dangerous; the tsunami had changed the water levels of the bay so we were swimming right over some large, shallow coral, which is very sharp. More than one guy came out of the swim with a chest scratched and bleeding from an unfortunate run-in with the coral. Yikes. The waves weren't as big an issue as I thought they would be. It was a bit more of a struggle to swim out away from shore against the waves, but then they helped push you back in a little.

This was also my first open water swim sans wetsuit. The water was 77 degrees, so I definitely didn't need one for the warmth, but they really help you float and are a huge advantage time-wise, especially if you're not the best of swimmers. But, surprise surprise, I managed to clock almost exactly the same time as my (wetsuit-clad) swim at the Nation's Tri last September. Woo!

T1 went fine. My transitions are still relatively slow but I do take the time to re-douse myself in sunscreen, which adds a couple extra minutes. Totally worth it to avoid the heinous sunburns I experienced at my first couple tris.

The bike was... ok. The bike course heads out from the Waikoloa Resort to the Queen K Highway toward Kona, which is part of the Ironman World Championship course. The minute I turned onto the highway, I was met head-on with a lovely 30mph breeze. Oh man. I was pedaling like a maniac and going 14mph. DOWNHILL. Ugh. However! The beauty of an out-and-back course means that headwind became a super-awesome tailwind the whole way back. And of course, we had gorgeous views of the ocean and lava fields the entire ride.

T2 breezed by and I headed out on the run. Ohhhh the run. It was hot. And humid. And hilly. But that wasn't the worst part. A large portion of the course (including the entire last 2 miles) consisted of broken up lava rock, crushed coral, and deep sand. There was even a section of the course where we were running on a rocky, narrow dirt path with a drop-off down to the ocean on the right. So, you know - you trip, you die. FUN.

We all stumbled and slogged our way through the miles, although it was hard to get too upset when your view was lush tropical vegetation and the blazing blue and crashing-waves of the ocean. I did manage to take a tumble, thanks to some of the aforementioned lava rock, and scrape the heck out of my knee (I did you proud, htd. I did you proud.). But that meant I got to have blood running down my leg in my finish line photo, so I look all badass and whatnot.

And run across the finish line I did. In 3 hours, 21 minutes and 24 seconds. Yeehaw! I was hoping for under 3:30 and boy did I ever manage that! I beat my previous fastest time (from Nation's) by 27 minutes. Granted I did have those two flat tires... in the rain... at Nations, but still! I will take it.

Post-race I met up with Phil (who had finished about five minutes ahead of me) and we stood and cheered on other runners coming in and watched for our other three teammates to finish. Everyone did really well and met or exceeded their goal times - all in all a great day! And the race held a huge finish line party right there on the beach. They had free food and beer for the participants and an awesome live band that played everything from Muse to Jack Johnson to David Bowie.

That night we had our typical TNT victory party, which was extra-fun. We ate delicious Hawaiian foods, drank delicious Hawaiian cocktails, and danced to Lady Gaga and whatnot by the light of the tiki torches and the DJ's laser show.

Monday-Wednesday: Relaxation. Three whole days of glorious relaxation. That was honestly maybe my first vacation in the last five years where the entire goal (you know, after the tri, of course) was to do nothing. To just enjoy myself. I wasn't visiting anyone, I wasn't obligated to do anything. And it was delightful. I spent many an hour reading in a cabana by the ocean, snorkeling in the lagoon, browsing in the resort shops, watching the NCAA championship game, enjoying some microbrews at the Kona Brewing Co., eating amazing sushi, driving around the island, visiting the macadamia nut plantation, checking out some volcanoes and black sand beaches, and generally just enjoying the island life.

Mahalo for the memories, Hawaii. I'll be back.

Run, Drive, Sleep?, Repeat

AKA The Ragnar Relay

Ok, yes, this happened a good two months ago. But it was a rather kickass event, so I think it's worth mentioning. Plus, you know, this is MY blog (of which I may be the sole remaining reader) and I want to be able to look back five years down the road and fondly reminisce and whatnot. So. Here goes.

It all started back in July of last year. The friends I had trained with back in 2009 for the Dublin Marathon wanted to put together a team for Ragnar. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm sure most of you [See? See how I made it seem like there are a lot of you out there? I'm a wizard with the words.] are thinking to yourselves "what the frak is Ragnar?" Let me esplain. ...No, there is too much. Let me sum up:

The Ragnar Relay is a 200-mile relay race that occurs in various locations around the country. Here's how it works: [I just spent 20 minutes typing out a description. It was long, you guys. So very long. So I just stole the description from the Ragnar website. Enjoy.]

Your relay team will consist of 12 members (or 6 for Ultra teams). During the relay, each team member runs three legs, each leg ranging between 3 - 8 miles and varying in difficulty. So, from the elite runner down to the novice jogger, it's the perfect relay race for anyone.

How do you cover 200(ish) miles? Only one runner hits the road at a time. The rest of your teammates are on support duty in your race vehicles. Teams require 2 vehicles, with runners 1-6 in van 1 and 7 -12 in van 2. Van 1's runners will cover the first six legs. It's a relay, so as the each runner begins, the crew in the vehicle can drive ahead, cheer their runner on, and meet them at the exchange point to pick them up and drop off the next runner. After the first 6 legs, van 2 picks up the slack and starts putting in the miles. A day, night and day later, you'll have made it all the way from start to finish!

So anyway, the emails were fast and furious and by August our little group had decided to go for it. But we had one problem. Our little group was just that. Little. There were six of us and we needed 12. So J got us hooked up with the team he had run with last year and we were good to go. But then life happened and everyone started to bail (including J!). By the time registration rolled around, there were only three of our original six people left. But we stuck it out and stayed with the team where we didn't know 75% of the people. Adventure!

ANYWAY. The race started at 8:30am on a Friday up in Wickenburg. Both our vans drove all the way up there and all of us were on hand to cheer on our first Runner as he took off from the start line with the other 30 or so teams starting in our wave (there were more than 300 teams overall). My friend Karen, my cousin Cassie, and I were in Van 2 (runners 9, 11, and 12 respectively) along with Kam, Karrie, and Karyn. That's right. Kam, Karrie, Karyn, Karen, Cassie, and Kristen. I know.

So since we were in Van 2 and since the first legs of the race are almost always the longest, we had a LOT of time to kill. It was a little weird getting all pumped up for the start of the race, cheering as the gun went off, and then...going to get some breakfast. Kind of anticlimactic or something. But we ate some delicious food and then drove along the course cheering for the Van 1 runners for awhile and then booked it to the first Major Exchange Point, where our first runner (Kam) would take over. Van 2 started our journey at about 2pm. We were definitely running on the side of a highway through the middle of nowhere, but it was all desert-y pretty and whatnot.

Since I was runner 12, I had the last leg before we turned it over to Van 1 again. So my first leg of the race started around 6:30pm, just as the sun was setting. Ragnar is big on safety, so any runners on the road from twilight to dawn had to wear a headlamp (or carry a flashlight) and a reflective vest, and affix a blinking red LED light to their back. As I took off on my 6-mile journey into the night, all I could see for miles in front of me was a string of blinking red LED lights. It was pretty awesome.

My run went really well in spite of the hills, cars, and darkness. As I approached the exchange point, I started to get the baton ready for the swap. Now, you'd think the baton would be a... baton... right? No, no -it was a neon yellow slap bracelet straight out of the 1980's (you know, if the 1980's were sponsored by Nathan Hydration Systems). So I got the slap bracelet all straightened out and ready to slap onto Dave's wrist so he could take off on his second leg of the race. I could see him ahead of me. I could hear the cheers of my teammates as I ran to the exchange line. Dave stretched his arm out for the exchange, legs bouncing in anticipation. I lifted the bracelet high and gave it a good *thwap!* on Dave's wrist and *ZING!* the bracelet bounced off his wrist and hit him directly in the face. [Note to self: hold onto the bracelet a little longer next time.]

At this point we had about 5 hours to eat dinner, drive to the next Major Exchange point, shower in a community center (one that rivaled Forever Fitness in its luxuriant beauty. Unicorns aplenty at this place.), and try to get some sleep. In a van. In the cold. With six other people.

About midnight:thirty we started the rotation again. Around 3:30am in the pitch black and frigid cold (we were on a mountain and it was February, so don't give me any of that "but you live in the desert" garbage. It was cold.), I started my second leg of the race, a 4 1/2 mile journey UP the mountain. Hoo boy. That was something. The field of runners had really spread out by this point, so the entire time I saw maybe three other people. The rest of the time it was just me running on the side of a highway heading up a mountain in the middle of the desert. I could only see the crescent of light cast by my headlamp and about a bazillion stars shining in the inky black sky. It was pretty great.

After Dave and I made the (uneventful) bracelet swap, Van 2 headed straight to the final Major Exchange point to get some sleep. The exhaustion had really set in by this point and we knew we only had a few hours before we had to start up again. This exchange was located at a high school and we made use of their (sadly ordinary) locker room/restrooms and then curled up in the van for a couple hours of sleep.

By 8:30am of Day 2 we were off for the last time. My final leg--Leg 36, the last leg of the race--began around 12:30pm at the edge of the park HTD and I used to gasp and wheeze our way around way back in 2008 when we decided to start this whole crazy running thing; it was pretty fun to think back on that as I started in on miles 10-15.5 for the day. I was definitely feeling the lack of sleep, the seat belt buckle I slept on, and the previous miles, but knowing that the 11 other members of my team were waiting for me near the finish line so we could all cross it together kept me plugging along.

And finally... I was there. With the finish line in sight, my teammates all fell in behind me (in what my cousin later described as a Flying V formation (Mighty Ducks ftw)) and we crossed that finish line, 197 miles and 27 hours after we started.

We took this picture.

And got this medal (why yes, that IS also a bottle opener).
(and no, that is not my man-hand)

And then we went to IHOP.

My March Madness

now with significantly fewer basketballs

What's the deal with March, you guys? For the last two years, I've just completely fallen off the (blogging) radar for the entire month of March. Last year it was due to extreme busyness and a heinous, far away volunteer fundraising gig that simultaneously depleted my gas tank and my will to live. This year it was due to...well, also extreme busyness, but most of it was the good kind.

My dad was here for all of March this year. He had been having excruciating, unrelenting sciatic nerve pain for months on end and it wasn't responding to any of the non-invasive treatment options. That left surgery. And, wouldn't you know, he just happened to know someone who works for a world-renowned neurological institute. (...you know. Me.) So he flew from the frigid plains of Nebraska to the lovely spring warmth of the desert, where our Chief of spinal neurosurgery proceeded to fix him right up via a four-level lumbar laminectomy. It was a little bizarre experiencing my workplace from the patient/family perspective, but it definitely made me (even more) proud to work for such a great place.

And even though the reason for his visit wasn't all rainbows and kittens, it was SO nice to have my dad here for an extended stay. One of the huge drawbacks to living here is not getting to see my family very often. I love my family. Seriously, they are the best. And only getting to see them for a few days once or twice a year is rough. So to have my dad here for five weeks and my mom here for the last week of his stay was pretty wonderful. And, not to get all sappy and whatnot, but to be able to give a little bit back to my parents, who have done SO much for me over the years, was a huge bonus.

Also: my mom brought homemade cookies for the neurosurgeon and resident who did the surgery. I love it. That's how we roll in the Midwest.

Topics for future posts (you are SO EXCITED!)
-The Ragnar Relay
-The sublimely glorious train wreck that is casino Bingo
-The Lavaman Triathlon and other Hawaii adventures
-Maybe a book review or two?
-

...yeah, that's probably plenty of pressure for now.

A Beautiful Valentine's Poem

pamie-style

When I say

I love you

I don't mean

Until you don't believe me anymore.

When I say

I need you

I don't mean

Until you run out of money.

When I say

I want you

I don't mean

Until you think I'm letting go.

My heart

is chained

to yours

like a feral hippie

latched to the last

oak tree

in Berkeley.

-Pamela Ribon

Oh man, I love Pamie.

And you guys.

Happy happy.