Deep Creek Weekend Recap

Friday - Off to Helen's for a yummy dinner of lobster ravioli and roast beast. Ron (Steve's brother) and Missy (his wife) are in town for a few days from NM so we got to visit with them for a few hours.

Saturday - First 18-miler of the training season on the Leesburg/P'ville section of the W&OD trail. Showered up, spied on some baby birds, had breakfast at IHOP while we waited for Steve's sister Christine and her kids to finish up with a swim meet.



Hit the road, made it to Deep Creek Lake around 5ish, and spent a few hours hanging out. We all went to some bar for drinks but while Steve and I were ordering our dinner in the adjacent restaurant, the bar manager asked our entire party of 13 to leave the premises. Turns out someone - not to be named - had already had a little too much to drink and acted inappropriately toward one of the female bartenders. Ugh.

Sunday - Lounged around by the lake and were pleasantly surprised that Helen was able to rent a pontoon boat for the week. YIPPEE! Nothing like a day of boating with margaritas, music, and swimming.







Monday - Steve and I headed to a state park for an early morning run. After breakfast we all loaded back onto La Pontoon. Steve wanted to check out the bike course for the Savage Man Half-Ironman so we drove the course. For anyone thinking about doing this race, ya might want to think long and hard about it. The first 20 miles were completely downhill; and not the easy "coast and enjoy the scenery" downhill. It was the downhill with sharp turns and steep grade. The rest of the 30+ miles were all uphill. Never-ending hills. I know my old Toyota Tercel (may she rest in peace) would have struggled to make it up these hills so I have no bleepin' clue how people do this on their bikes.

Tuesday - Back to the park in the morning so I could run and Steve and Mike could swim. Breakfast, jet ski rides, and of course, back on the pontoon for one final spin before Steve and I headed back home. Good times.

Lake Placid Weekend Recap

Saturday - 7 a.m. flight out of BWI to Albany. From Albany it was a 2 hour drive to Lake Placid.

Spent the afternoon checking out the Ironman expo and strolling around town. For anyone who isn't familiar with an Ironman triathlon it's a grueling 2.4 mile swim, 128 mile bike, and 26.2 run. It's not for the pansies among us. After the expo, we picked up Al so that we could drive the bike course and check into our "kamping kottage". The cottage was surprisingly cute, clean, and had a great view.

Had dinner with Al and her pals before heading back to the cottage to meet up with Nina and Mary - our roomies for the weekend. After figuring out our gameplan for the next day, it was off to bed.

Sunday - Headed out for the Ironman at 5:30 a.m. The pros started their swim at 6:45 while the rest of the age groupers started at 7:00. The site of 2200 athletes in the water was something else. Rain started immediately after the swim start and it continued to POUR the rest of the day (3 inches of rain that day). Despite the crappy weather, both Al and Timra did great. Al was even smiling when we saw her finishing up her 128 bike ride. She ended up finishing in just over 16 hours. SIXTEEN HOURS!! That's a long a$$ time to be doing anything much less swimming, biking, and running in the rain without a real meal or rest. Al-mazing. Congratulations Al on a great race!

Monday - Steve and Mary woke up early to head back into town to meet up with the rest of the tri-addicts so that they could register for the 2009 Lake Placid Ironman. You have to register in-person the day after this particular race to get a spot. It looks like everyone we knew was able to get their slot for next year's race despite the long line.

For sale

Our receptionist/admin assistant puts funny little sayings, factoids, or quotes at the end of her e-mail messages. The one today read: "For Sale: Parachute. Only used once, never opened. Small stain."

I am the 12th apostle

I know. I don't go to church so I shouldn't make references like that. Anywho...

I just committed to running for a 12-person team in the Ragnar Relay on September 26-27. It's a 183 mile relay - about 18 miles a person - from Cumberland to DC. We'll be running all day, all night and pretty much living in a van when we're not running. I'm hoping it's the closest I ever get to living out of a car. It should be fun in a sadistic kind of way.

Barbe-poo & Other Weekend Happenings

Saturday - 16-miler on the W&OD where I ran into my former company's HR guy. Also ran into the owner of our gym who I was thankful to see was as disgusting and sweaty as I was. Trekked over to Gainsville to pick up Steve's race packet for the Montclair tri then off to Potomac River Running for a new pair of shoes that will hopefully get me through the rest of the summer's training.

Sunday - Steve had a triathlon in Montclair (near Woodbridge) on Sunday. While waiting for him to come in from the run, I saw this on the other side of the trail.

If you can't figure out what you're looking at, it's the remains of a port-o-potty fire. The trees behind the port-o-potties were also scorched. Being that I hold my breath or plug my nose anytime I have to go into one of these suckers, I'm glad I wasn't around to catch a whiff of that fire. My theory was that lightning hit the nearby powerline which fell on these unfortunate facilities. Other theories: explosive diarrhea.

Steve did finish the tri just fine even though the lake was too warm (82-86 degrees) for wetsuits. Spent the rest of the afternoon at Helen's pool and feasted on some crab legs and steak while the thunderstorm swept through Leesburg.

Grandmom and the Tattoo Artist

Free your inner grandmom. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have a little old person in us. You know - that part of us that likes or enjoys something typically reserved for the older generations. I have many hobbies that are typically reserved for grandmoms and I don't care what anyone thinks.

My friend and former co-worker Chris designed this graphic:

So I imported it into this PCStitch software I bought to get this pattern:

Which I then used to cross stitch this:

But I saved $15

Registration for the 2009 National Marathon is $60 until this Friday. I took the bait and registered. If I don't meet my sub-4:00 goal at the Marine Corp Marathon, at least I'll have another race to redeem myself. Now I have to figure out to convince someone else I know to run. Tracy? Mandy? Robby? Bueller?

No one took my lunch money

My first day at the new job was great. They're actually much more laid back than I expected. They described the environment to me as "relaxed" during the interview, but I didn't want to believe it until I saw it for myself. Lots of jeans and flip-flops (hip-hip-hooray for casual dress). No surprises with the benefits package. Free drinks and a game room with lounge chairs and a Wii. People are nice and helpful. Even though I'm now in cube-world, it's actually kinda nice to be able to hear life around me and the occasional Nerf gun driveby shooting. Of course I can't forget to mention that it's 2ish miles from home so that my future donkey will be able to get me there without any problem.