What's Going On?

Once again I haven’t sat down in a long time to wright a blog post.

Like I said in my last post, we got my brother an allergy test. A few days ago in the mail we got a letter that told us what he was allergic to. Unfortunately it is EVERYTHING he loved, eggs, wheat, oats, gluten, and milk. This means no more chocolate, cheeseburgers, or pizza. But hey, we can’t change it.

Also in my last post I was talking about the robotics competition, and how we wanted to go to Texas. We didn’t make it to Texas, but we did come in 6^th place, which is awesome because we were competing against high schoolers.

Next week my family and I are going on a little trip up to Sea Island, Atlanta, and Birmingham for the second half of my winter break. I can’t wait at all!

I don’t have much to talk about this time, but I did want to post. Hope you are having an awesome winter!

Thanksgiving Week

Hey everybody!

I know it has been forever since Thanksgiving, but this is the first time I have sat down to write a blog post.

Over thanksgiving break, I went up to my grandparents house. We had the best time!! The first day we didn’t do much besides eat dinner, and play with my 2 cousins that are my age. ( I have 7 cousins in all).

The next day we went to the hospital that my grandfather works at to get a blood test for my brother Reis. Let me tell you that he is NOT good with shots. The whole week before we went up there he was making himself crazy thinking about getting a shot. He needed to take a shot because he has been coughing every night, and it is a super super bad cough. We think that he might be allergic to peanut butter, but have no idea. He got the shot after many breakdowns, but he did get the shot. Later that day I went shopping with my two cousins around my age. Who knew that two days before Black Friday the mall would be so crowded. We were hoping that everyone would wait until Friday to go shopping, but I guess everyone was thinking the same thing. It took us half an hour just to get into the parking lot, but once we got in it wasn’t crowded any more.

Thanksgiving day. The morning of Thanksgiving there was a 10k and one mile fun run near my grandparents house. I did the one mile fun run, because I wanted to see if I could get under an 8 minute mile. My mom, dad, aunts, and uncles ran the 10k, and almost all of my cousins did the one mile fun run. Like I said, my goal was to do under 8 minute miles, and my brothers goal was to run faster than me. What a brother! The morning of the race was FREEZING, but I still met my goal by 40 seconds with a time of 7:20!!! That was my best mile time that I have ever done, and I was so happy J . my brother got his goal with a 7:09, and my cousins got… Jake who is 10 years old came in third over all for the turkey run, he ran a 6 something!! Illan got a 7:06 I think, and Kylie who is 7 got a 9:45!! I was so happy for all of my cousins!! Thanksgiving dinner was awesome, and we had the best food, and the best time!

The rest of the week was a blast,, and can’t wait until next year!!

If anyone remembers me talking about the robotics competition in past posts, I just want to say that we made it to regionals, and are going up to Auburn next Friday!! If we come in top 4 then we get to go to Texas!! I really hope we can do it!!

Only 19 more days until my birthday!!! J J J

My Super Heros

Are you somebody’s super hero?

I have a bunch of superheros. And this post is dedicated to them! Each of them have helped me, whether they know it or not, with anything that has to do with triathlons. Swimming, biking, running, nutrition (my mom made me say that) and even blogging!

First I want to say good job to all of my IronMan finisher friends.

Mrs. Karen is a really good friend, and a really good runner…no joke her marathon time is around a 3:30! Her time last weekend was a speedy 12 hours and 51 minutes, and that is 9 minutes better than what she was hoping for. And her daughter, Olivia, kept me motivated during x-country because we were always trying to keep up with each other!

Mr. Brett, who overcame prostate cancer, and was the fastest local male finisher in the IronMan! His time was 11:39! Pretty amazing!

Mr. Jeff’s birthday was on Saturday (the day of the race), so he ran the WHOLE marathon with a birthday hat and also a sash that said “today is my birthday”. He has been racing since the late 80’s. I saw some of his old racing pictures, and I am glad that I started triathlons now that we have trisuits, and not just swim suits… way more comfortable! ☺

Mr. Burk is racing in IronMan Arizona in a few weeks. He helps my mom with, well, everything, but alot with nutrition. As you might remember, I also have a lot to learn about nutrition (see IronGirl Atlanta post if you need specifics).

Ms. Lisa helps me realize how fast someone can be (she’s been to KONA a few times!) and Big Chloe, better known as Running With A Bottle of Wine taught me a lot about blogging.

If you remember how I was telling you how I had dropped so much time in the cross-country season I had a secret! Every Sunday morning I was waking up at 7 a.m. to go run with Mrs. Tracy. We did speed work every time. It was definitely NOT fun while I was actually running, but afterwards I felt awesome. We are still going on with our Sunday practices even though cross-country season has ended! I have no idea what I would have done with out Mrs. Tracy’s Sunday morning runs! THANK YOU!

If you are looking for people to follow, or just want to check out another triathlon blog I have two for you. ONEHOURIRONMAN is always encouraging, thanks so much! FLATOUT JIM is also very good about leaving comments, and he is looking for more people to follow his blog. Please check out these blogs and/or follow them ☺ !

Thanks for reading!

Florida IronMan

This weekend was the Florida IronMan,

My swim team volunteered,. Our job was to clean up the beach after the start and finish. It was AWSOME! As we were on our way to the race my mom was like, Chloe, do you have the camera, and I was like… no I thought that you grabbed it, so no pictures from the morning, and then we went home after we volunteered, and on the way my mom asked me if I got the camera, and of course I forgot again!

Most of you know that there is a cut off for the swim. I think it is about 2 and a half hours. Enough time for some of us, but I sadly saw three people who didn’t finish. I felt so so so bad for those people. Doing all that work, and not even being allowed to finish the first leg…major bummer!

The bike was pretty cool. My mom, my brother, and I pulled the car over to a waffle house, and parked the car in a lot behind it, and opened the trunk and cheered on the pros!! It was soooo cool, and a couple of them smiled at us! Pretty darn cool to see the pros so close to you! One of our friends was a draft official, and she said that there were a lot of crashes on the bike L ! I hope that everyone is ok!

We went back to the race for the run, and my brother and I were going to dress up and cheer people on, but being Cat and the Hat and a bumble bee just didn’t make much since so we didn’t dress up. But oh well! We were cheering people on and dancing to the music that was playing! So fun!

Today was the kids IronMan, but it is so short that it should be called the Kids Tin Foil Man, because it is a very wimpy race. It was a 200 swim, a 6 mile bike, and a 1 mile run.

The swim was fun! I started out going 3^rd (it was one person at a time into the pool) into the water, and came out 2^nd. The girl that went first was this amazingly fast swimmer, and she is ranked in the country with her 5:47 mile run time!! I could have caught her on the bike, buttttt, I got a flat tire!! We had to do the bike loop 3 times, and I thought that I heard air coming out of the tire, but there was no way I was going to stop in such a short race! So I didn’t know that I had a flat until I felt my tire at the finsh, and I was so mad because I totally could have caught Cece (the amazingly fast girl!), but you can only do what your equipment lets you do : ) . the run was ok, I am not sure of any of my splits, but I think I did okay on my run! It felt good, but I had a BAD cramp in my side, but I ran through it!

Over all I got like 7 out of all the 13-14 girls and boys! Pretty good huh?! For the girls I got second, and I was not happy about getting second, but I was happy…I really wanted first, but that stupid bike J !!

If any of you raced in the IronMan I would love to know how you did, or any funny or good stories that you have!!

Thanks for reading!

The Weekend

Ughh, I can’t believe how fast this year us going by!!

Cross country season is officially over, and I am so sad! This years team was super fun!! I started out being so excited about getting an 8:47 for two miles, but now I can run it in 16:43.

Yesterday was Halloween, and I dressed up as a bumblebee! It was the warmest costume, and it was awesome because it was a little chilly down here in Florida! After my friends and I went trick or treating, we went to a haunted house, it was so fun! My group of friends had to split up into two groups, and my group went first. After we were done we had to walk through the woods, and we were just waiting to be scared again but we weren’t so we decided to hide behind a tree, and scare the rest of the group! They got scared, and they were mad, but it was totally worth it.

Before we went to the haunted house, all my friends went to the bathroom, and I of course went, but as we were leaving I hear “CHLOE, CHLOE”, in this (not scary) frantic voice. By this time of the night I was on a sugar high, and was just so giddy, that I walked out of the bathroom with toilet paper on my foot!! J! Luckily the town was dead, but I was just cracking up! Of course with my luck I couldn’t get the stupid toilet paper off, so I had to scrape my foot on the ground…ugghh it was very funny though!!

So next weekend is the kid’s Ironman, and it is the day after Ironman Florida!! I am so excited, because this is my first triathlon since New York. The race is super short. It is a 200 swim (short course), a 6 mile bike, and a 1 mile run. Can’t wait to see how I do. The winners bags are the best! Last year I got a pair of goggles, a towel, a IronMan watch, all in an IronMan bag. I guess the kids race gets all the leftovers, which is FINE with me.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

The Past Week

Hey everyone! Sorry about not posting in, well, FOREEVER! I have been away from the blogging network for quite awhile, but I am back, and back to stay!

This week has been kind of eventful!

Monday I was supposed to have cross country practice, but it was thundering and lightening a lot, so he sent us home to run on our own! I got in a good three miles, but it started to rain just a little while I was finishing! After my run I went over to my friends house to help her make student council posters and stickers. I couldn’t stay for too long, because I just HAD to go to the New Mexican restraunt across the street. Luckily she and my other friend met me there! It was awesome! Free food, and talking!

Tuesday, in school we were supposed to go clean up the beach, and then have a robotics workday, but it unfortunately got cancelled due to the weather. But, it all worked out anyway, because now the 8^th graders get to have a robotics workday, and the 6^th and 7^th graders have to go clean up the beach! J

Wednesday, I had a cross-country meet. And I had the best 2 mile run in a long time! When I ran the meets in 6^th grade I ran it in a slow 25 minutes, but now I can run it in 18.47!!! I was so excited, but I called my mom before the meet to tell her that I was about to race, and stuff like that, and the one thing that she told me to do was to pick up my feet and don’t trip (it had been raining ALL day long!). of course, I didn’t trip while nobody was looking, but at the finish line, yes the finish line. Ok there is this tape, and it is raised off of the ground, to show you where to run. Somehow one of my legs went on the other side of the tape, and the I was trying to get to the finish line, and I had to rip the tape, and it was so embarrassing!

Thursday, my parents went out of town, and I got the best babysitter!! We have Made sandwiches, brownies, and all yummy stuff!

Friday, was fun! After school I went to a robotics program, and I am on the fundraising committee! We have to make 5,000 to 10,000 dollars! Then I went to swim practice, and getting out of the pool I hit my leg on the side, and now I have this huge bruise! Ughh I am such a klutz.

Saturday, today I am going to go to swim practice, and swim with a level lower than what I am in, because there is no pre-senior practice today! WOO HOO for hour and a half practice, and not 2 hours!!

Stomach Virus

I feel like every time I post I am talking about something bad that has happened!

This post is no different.

This past week my brother got the stomach flu. It was awful for him, and even worse to be around (if you know what I mean)!

Anyway, my school has this robotics program, and we make a robot, and compete with other schools at a pub, and if we win 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd than we get to go to regionals, we have made it to regionals every time, and I hope that we make it again! I was supposed to go to spend the night with my friend Leah, and then she was going to take me over to the kick off, but I had to go home in the middle of the night because I didn’t feel so hot. Fortunately nothing happened until later Saturday night!

Ugh, I am not going to go into great detail about what happened, but I think we all know that having the stomach virus. Sunday I was never awake for more than 3 hours at a time, and sleeping for at least an hour every time my head hit a pillow. Luckily my fever was dropping all day long, and today I am much better!

Ok I am done talking about bad things,

I just finished the book Ultramarathon Man. It is about a man who runs an amazing amount of miles! He has done 200 and 100-mile races (running)! If you have a chance to read this book definitely do! Not only is it an amazing book, but it is also really well written!

Have You Hurt Yourself Without Knowing?

Have you hurt yourself so badly, but you don’t even know how?

Unfortunately I have.

A couple of days ago I was out waking my dogs, and I was running, trying to make them tired. Then I just stopped, and I rolled my ankle. I didn’t hurt myself at all. Just a little pain right after I did it.

Now I have always been a sleepwalker. I have done some crazy things, like one time I dreamt that my mom and dad got into a fight, and my dad came upstairs and told me to go sleep on the couch because he wanted my bed. I woke up on the couch the next morning! Another time I was on a school trip, and I got out of my bed and went into the bathroom to turn on the water, I have no idea why, but that is what my chaperone told me! When I sleepwalk I don’t remember doing it, but I just wake up in strange places. So anyway the other night I woke up on my floor my door, and I remember being in a ball think that my ankle was KILLING me. So I got up and walked to bed, witch killed my ankle! In the morning it was my turn to walk the dogs, and I could barley walk down the stairs, I came back from my walk absolutely crying my eyes out.

I sort of remember telling someone in my dream about walking the dogs and tripping, so what I think happened was that in my dream I was showing someone how I had hurt my ankle when I was walking the dogs, but this time I really hurt myself! Three days later my ankle is still throbbing. It’s to bad, because cross country season starts on Monday it looks like I will be sitting out the first practice!!

On a lighter note…

Not really though.

Yesterday when my dad and I were picking up my brother from school we were told that we couldn’t drive down the street because there was a Texas burglar with a gun, and the school was in lockdown. So we waited, and then they told us that they were loading the kids on busses escorted by armed police men to the high school ( about 5 or 6 miles away). We finally got my brother and headed home!

The bad thing is that they still haven’t caught the guy yet. I have the doors locked, and we aren’t allowed to go outside.

Has anyone hurt themselves while sleep walking!?

Last Day of Summer :(

Today was the Sandestin triathlon, and I did a relay with my mom! My dad was supposed to do it, but his back went out this morning at 4:30, so he couldn’t race, isn’t that a total bummer!? But, my mom and i had an awesome time, I did the swim and she did the bike and run.

 

The swim was pretty tough, because there was a strong current pulling you sometimes I the right direction, and sometimes the wrong (depending which way you turned). The cool thing was that I could see the bottom of the ocean the whole entire time! Sometimes it freaks me out, and I just close my eyes when I am under water, but sometimes I like it, weird huh!?  I think I came out 3^rd in the Relay/Clydesdale/Athena group. My time was 15 minutes flat for the half mile swim, it could have been better had I gone to swim practice more during the month of August. I think the two guys who beat me were collage swimmers. They had on their special fast skins, and I was in my super duper cute Splish suit on! I love Splish, because you can design your own bathing suit, or you can choose from their supper cute pre-made ones!

 

My mom did awesome on the bike and run, I don’t have much else to say, but she did do really well! She went an average of 20m/p/h/ on the bike, and had a super fast run! Her bike time was 57 minutes for a 20 mile ride, and her 4 mile run was 36 minutes pretty dar n   fast huh?

 

We came in 2^nd overall for the women’s relay division! I was super excited! Too bad in the relay division the awards are only for the first place, but we had to leave early anyway so my dad could get to the chiropractors!

 

When I was waiting for my mom to come in from the bike I was watching other people come in, and also looking out for people that I knew. While I was waiting there i found a friend of my parents, and I was standing with him, he kept saying how he wanted the bike dismount line to be more narrow so that there would be more crashes, and it would be more interesting! How funny!  So anyway, we were watching and waiting, and this man rode up on his bike, and then everyone heard this huge POP! If you could chose any time to have your tire blow out on the bike it would totally have to be the dismount line. Everyone sure got a kick out of that!

 

On a sad not, we had a friend that had an Awful AWFUL AWFUL crash, it was so bad that he doesn’t even know what happened. We all thought that he had a concussion, and he went to the hospital (unwillingly) and fortunately all he has is some MAD road rash! Unfortunately he was going to do Ironman Louisville, but we got an e-mail from him this morning, and he said that he was all drugged up so his road rash doesn’t hurt to badly, and he is still going to do Ironman! What a stud he is!

 

School starts tomorrow and I can’t wait. I am finally the oldest in my school, an 8^th grader!  I am just super excited, AND I finally get a top locker. 6^th grade was the worst, I HATED the bottom lockers... yuck!

 

I hope that everyone is having a good weekend, and HAD :(   a good summer! ”

To Clip or Not to Clip*

Before New York I told my mom that after I did the race I wanted to try clip ins. I haven’t gotten them yet, but I would really like to try them out, but…

This morning my mom and dad went for a bike ride, and I think my mom changed her mind about letting me try them! She came back into the house this morning, and said “do you want to see why you can’t have clips?” I am just like my mom, and she is, well…very klutzy! So, should I wait for clips?

Anyway, I haven’t been running at all since the big triathlon. I know that it is awful especially since school starts in a week, and cross country season is right after school starts! At least we only have to run 2 miles in the meets, it sure beats 6 miles!

A couple of months ago I found an AWESOME blog! If any one needs some cheering up, or would just like to see some very creative things, this is definitely the blog for you! It is called Color Me Katie. Check it out if you have time! It isn’t really for triathlons or anything, but it ALWAYS puts a smile on my face.

Two days ago I was looking through Color Me Katie’s comments on her blog and she had a link to another cool site http://trailertreasureblog.com, Erin’s blog, and she she had a contest I entered. Guess what? I WON! I'm so excited!! How wonderful to get an e-mail saying that you won some cool things! Especially on a rainy Monday. Thanks Erin!!!!

Have a great last week of summer!

Here is a cute video, hope you enjoy!

JK Wedding Reception

An Olympic Experience

I DID IT!!!! Nobody (at least in my

family) thought I could, and I

DID!! Oh, “it” is the NYC Triathlon Hip Hip Hooray! Ok, ok, it was on Sunday July 26, and it’s now August 6^th, I think,

but we are taking a very, very long road

trip home. Sorry for the delay, here’s the race report:

It was the longest distance I have done before, and to be honest I was kind of nervous, and so were my mom and dad, but I think my brother could have cared less! It was a little less than a mile swim, a 25 mile bike, and a 6 mile run, or in simpler words, an Olympic distance triathlon.

On Wednesday, July 22, my mom, dad, brother, my dogs and I piled in the car for the nice LONG trip! We dropped off the dogs with their real Mom, had lunch with a good good friend, Magda, and went toBirmingham, where we would spend the night with my mom’s parents, I love them, and there great big sweet German Shepherds. Then on Thursday it was off to Nashville to drop my mom and brother off at the regional swim meet. On to D.C. to spend the night with some friends, and it started lightning and thundering like a disco. To make the story short we got to NY safely, and then spent the night at my grandma’s house.

Now, really, the Race Report…

O n Sunday morning we woke up at 2:55, and I went to the bathroom (I was very happy about that so I wouldn’t have to go in a Porta-Potty—read about Atlanta if you want to see how important this is to me)! Then I ate some banana, and we were off. If you have never been on the street of NYC at 3:30 in the morning, it is VERY easy to get a taxi. 15 minutes later we were at my transition (my dad and I were separate), and the security man told us that transition opened at 4:30 not 4:00 so we would have to wait for a while. While waiting we met an 80 year old man who was doing the whole race, and he looked like he was only 60 and maybe even younger. I was so impressed and I hope that when I am 80 I can do triathlons!!

At the race start, we got body marked, and then we put our finisher bags into the truck. I kept having to go back to the truck, because at first I forgot to put my flip flops into the bag, and then I forgot to tie up the top, but luckily the volunteers did it for me! Then we went, and put on our wet suits, which I HATE doing, one because it hurts, and two because it is hard. We learned from the wetsuit instructions, that if you put a plastic bag on your foot, that the wetsuit just goes right on up your leg, or you can be like Big Chloe, and spray Pam all over yourself. Then in my corral for the swim start I met Regina Chiu (sorry about spelling!!) one of my blogging buddies. This is amazin

g because there are SO many people. NYC Tri is huge – 3700 people. But I was ok because it is so well organized. And that makes a difference so you don’t have to worry about anything.

I think that this race was the hardest swim start even though it was a wave start!! When you get down to the dock to swim in the Hudson, you jump in, and hold on to a rope, so you don’t get carried away by the strong strong current. I totally felt the current when I jumped in, and then this man ( my wave was 24 and under, and also relays) jumped almost on top of me. Then the horn sounded, and I was kicked and swam on top of, yuck, but I know it happens to all of us!

The swim was fine and not as bad as everyone joked it would be. Nothing yucky in the water at all! Then after the swim I had to run a MILE to transition, and I wish that it counted for the 6 mile run later, but unfortunately it didn’t.

My first transition time was SUPER slow, I had a time of like 7 minutes, and I have no idea why it was that slow, but oh well!

Then bike was cool – they closed down the highway for us. But for me 25 miles is a long way without music or just talking to someone, and I got really bored. And my foot kept falling asleep, and it really hurt! The

hills weren’t so bad (we have none to train on). And, every time I passed or got passed by a man I would hear a couple of bad words, and I don’t know if20it was because of my age or what, but I definitely wasn’t imagining those words). I saw my dad at mile 20, and he asked if I was ok, and I was, so he breezed past me like I wasn’t moving at all. I was super happy that it took him all the way til mile 20 to catch me even though he started like 10 minutes behind me, and I totally think that Heed helped me through the bike, it tastes better than any other sports drink, and I think it works better also!

My second transition was a whole lot better, it only took me like 1:45 to switch.

I was most worried about the run, but it was my favorite part. We went through Central Park and it was awesome. The first 1.5 miles people were cheering, and there were so many people! The whole run I felt like I was just breezing through it! Mile 4 was the hardest, because I knew that I was more that halfway through, but I still had 2 miles to go, and 1mile is ok, but TWO… Then the last mile there were people and people and people just cheering, and that helped so much! I finished with a time of 3:34.

This was the best race ever! I was in NYC, which is great and exciting, I did it all by myself, and I’m proud of my time.

I even got to be on the front page of the local papers’ sports section. here is the article if you are interested…. http://www.newsherald.com/sports/chloe-76396-mile-directed.html

Pretty cool, huh?! So sorry that it took me 2 ½ weeks to post this, but my family and I are on a m

ajor road trip, and we haven’t had Internet connection for the longest time, and I can’t post pictures until I get home ( hopefully will be home soon), so be sure to keep checking back!

Thanks for reading!

P.S. my mom had a Scott bike,and it was malfunctioning, so she got a brand new one for the price of....

NADA!! Crazy huh!? The Scott people just gave my mom the Scott Plasma! The brand new one! The deal is that if I can out bike her on my bike, then I get to get hers! Here is a picture...

Today I...

Today I ran a marathon…

Well, really I ran 6 miles, but it FELT like 26.2!!! For me, 6 miles is pretty darn far! Daddy and I ran from our house all the way until Daddy’s Garmin said 6 miles, but Mama and Reis were nice enough to ride their bikes with us part of the way and bring us cold water. Then we went to breakfast because I was starving. I tried something new since this was far for me: we ran five minutes, then walked one (then repeated it over and over and over). I would pick out spot where I thought we would start to walk, just to keep my mind busy, and that definitely helped a lot!

So, why did I run so far (for me?) Because, in 2 weeks my Dad and I are traveling to New York, New York for the NYC Tri. It is an Olympic distance, and this will be the longest triathlon I will have ever done, and I am so excited! My mom is very, very worried, but I’m just excited. She and my brother will be at his swim meet in Nashville, so she’s worried because she knows I’ll be out there alone. I’ll be fine, I know I will!!

Saturday I did a one-mile swim. It was at Deer Point Lake in Panama City Beach, and my swim coach, brother, dad, friend from the swim team, and lots of my mom and dad’s training buddies did the swim. My time was 29 minutes, my brother was 31, and my Dad’s was 38. My friend from the swim team (Carlee) came in first over all! She did awesome! Mrs. Karen and Mr. Jim (Mom’s training buddies) also did awesome, and Coach Sarah, of course, did really well! My mom had no interest in swimming with us. I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t she want to swim in a dark, murky lake that is rumored to have lots of alligators?

I usually don’t care about the time or numbers (just finishing and knowing I did my best is good enough for me), but I just did the math, and my one-mile swim was exactly the same pace as my three-mile swim! I did a 29 (like I said before) for the mile, and a 1:45 for my three-mile which is EXACTLY the same. How weird is that!? So my mom thinks that I should have gone faster, but I totally felt like I was sprinting!

Let me know if you are doing the NYC Tri and how your training is going!!

Pictures From 4th Of July

This time I did actually take the pictures! If you haven't read the post before please do... Thanks!

4th of July Race Report

I hope everyone had a fun-filled July 4^th, with

fireworks and tons of watermelon!

I started out my day yesterday by waking up at 3:30 in the morning. What a fun way to start your July 4^th holiday huh!? My brother, Dad, and I all drove over to Mariana to do the Freedom Springs Triathlon. For those of you who haven’t done that race before the swim is FREEZING (it’s a spring) and there are tons of weeds! It is the middle of the summer, and I had to wear a wetsuit top, and there were people who were wearing full wetsuits it was so cold. So at the beginning of the tri we had a pre race meeting, and they told us that the men were going to start frst, and the women would be following 3 minutes after. I was really mad that we were doing a “wave” start (and we never had at this race before), because I really don’t like passing people, especially through the weeds, but oh well. So I think I was the 4^th woman out of the water, and I got to see my dad in the transition area. Oh the bike felt awesome, even though I got passed by all the men that I passed in the swim J Usually by the time I get to the run I get mad at myself for going too hard at the beginning, but this time I felt awesome, and I met this really nice lady who was fast, but I really needed that! My time at the end of a 400 yard siwm 10 mile bike, and a 3 mile run was a 1:18, and I beat my mom’s time from last year, and I droped 12 minuets from my race last year! I have met the nicest people at all these triathlons!

My dad also did the triathlon, and he dropped 10 minuets off his time from last year, wich is HUGE!! My brother did the little kids triathlon, and it was a 100 yard swim 3 mile bike 1 mile run! I think it is a little short, but perfect for kids 10 and under. I think his time was 21 minutes!!

Then we came home, went to Seaside for bar-b-q, came back and watched amazing fireworks at the beach.

What a fun day! I forgot to take pictures though (I know how boring blogs are with out pictures so here are some funny July 4^th pics)!!

Thanks for reading, and let me know if any of you guys are doing the NYC triathlon July 26^th! I would love to meet you!

Ok there aren’t any funny 4^th of July pictures so I have to post plain old boring fireworks, because a blog can’t go without pictures!

Pictures From IronGirl

Hey everyone! Here are some pics from the IronGirl race... Sorry it took so long!

Here is my mom and I! I look pretty bad... don't I!?

This is the woman that I gave my tire and tube to! She was so nice, and I'm glad that I could help her finish her first triathlon!!!

Here is my mom, and she made it through the swim (WHOOO HOOO)!!!

Here I am pretty sick, after the swim. :(

Here is my hungry horse. :0)

Thanks for reading......looking!

I am an IronGirl... Well not yet!

Hello again! Sunday I had the Iron Girl race, just outside of Atlanta. Unfortunately I had a pretty bad race, but as my dad says “it happens to the best of us”.

The morning of the race I had a cookies and cream Luna bar for breakfast, and it wasn’t the best choice, because all of the sugar makes me kind of shaky L, and I hate being shaky!  I know, I know, my parents tried to get me to eat more because this was a long race.  But, I didn't.

So, I set up my transition, and then my mom and I went down to the porta-potties. On the way there I stubbed my toe, and boy did it hurt, but not as much as my tummy later (oops ruined the surprise)! My mom said that hopefully that was the worst thing that would happen today. I am so anti porta-potties that I didn’t go into them (and I should have)!! 

Then we were on our way to the start. When we got down to the start I was SUPER shaky and my tummy hurt. My mom took me to the restroom (yeah, not a porta-potty) but no success, so went headed down to the start, and did a little warm-up swim which felt great. Then the pros went off to an Aflac quack -- cute, huh, since Aflac sponsors IronGirl -- and they were going pretty darn fast!!  My mom went, and then I was standing in my wave.  I was with Big Chloe and Lisa W. We started our wave, and I felt good on the swim, I’m pretty sure that my time was around 10 minutes, pretty good for a hurt tummy.  My mom had her first swim in 2 years.  She had 1 bad swim and hasn't wanted to swim since then, and I like swimming for her.  But, she had a great swim - Go Mom!

I saw my mom in transition, then onto the bike… Yuck, was it awful (not the course, although the hills were tough). My stomach was a mess! I had to stop at mile 13, because my stomach was hurting so badly that I had to drop out. The weird thing is that Big Chloe also stopped at mile 13. Not because her tummy hurt, but because she got not one flat tire, but TWO. She also had a DNF, and I thought that was weird because both of the Chloe’s didn’t get to finish. But, some good came out of my 1st DNF: when the super-nice course officials picked me up to meet with my parents, and we saw a lady on the side of the road, and she had a flat tire L. I gave her my tire and tube, so she could finish the race because it was her first one. I hope that she had a fun first triathlon and congrats to her for finishing.  This made me realize that eating right really does matter, that I need to use porta-potties, even if they are gross!  

My brother and father did a great job of cheering us on.  And my mom had a great race (WooHoo Mom).   

And, Lake Lanier was a lot of fun, even though the race didn't go so well for me.  When we first got to the resort my mom said that we could choose one thing to do, and I chose to go horseback riding. When my mom was younger she was an awesome horseback rider, and I wanted to go with the whole family. We had scheduled it for Sunday, and by later that day I felt somewhat better. I got a horse who loved to eat, and I mean LOVED to eat. I had some trouble at the beginning to get him under control because all he wanted to do was eat! My mom got a horse name Buck, and it would get mad if any other horse tried to pass or got to near to him while we were on the trail. My brother got a horse name Melody, and my dad got a horse name Eeore, and he liked to get really close to trees, and he has a reputation of trying to make people get off, and he LOVES the water. The guide that we were with said that his horse once ran into the water with a person on the back! I thought that was pretty funny!!

I’ll be back online, because I have a race on Saturday in Marianna.  I'm going to try eating like my parents tell me to, and I'll let you know how it goes.  I may even use a porta-potty ;-))

Please let me know if you are doing the Freedom Springs race! I would love to meet you!

 

Thanks for reading.

Birmingham Blast!

Isn't this funny?  This is from one of my favorite restaurants in B'ham, where I spent this past week.  It's an old restaurant in a not wonderful part of town, but boy is it good.  Anyway, this sign made me really laugh!!!  Rollers?  You've got to be kidding, right?!

So, about Birmingham, this past week I spent in B'ham with my mom’s entire side of the family. It's a yearly thing that I love.  The younger boys went my uncle’s soccer camp at Birmingham-Southern, and the girls hung out, went swimming, and learned how to cook family recipes from my Aunt Marie. My nieces and cousins were so much fun.  Ellie, Gabi, Macy and Kylie are the best!  I drove my parents crazy talking about them all week. We had such an awesome time, and had some delicious food thanks to Aunt Marie and Mimi! One night when we went to dinner, I took a picture of the sign in the window. This restaurant is amazing (seafood and fresh veggies) but it must be old since this sign is crazy!

I also got to ride on my grandfather’s 3-wheel Harley (he collects motorcycles) and it was really fun! My mom even got to drive it. Maybe I will too one day.

My mom says I did great keeping in training while we were on vacation. I ran almost every day with her – hills and all. Too bad she slowed me down (just kidding Mama!). I hated getting up each day, but was SO happy to be finished before it was too hot. When I say hot, I mean hot too since it’s over 95 degrees now. And it’s also humid. Yuck. I don’t like to run too much, in case you can’t tell. But I really want to be able to do the New York City Triathlon

Today I did My First Tri at Eglin Air Force Base. It was awesome! We woke up at 5:00 this morning, so we wouldn’t be late. Of course we got lost! My mom said to go straight, and my dad turned. It was kind of funny, and we still had enough time to set up the transition area!

The race was a 200 yard swim, 8 mile bike, and a 2.3 mile run. When you do this race you don’t have to be a first timer, but it is an awesome race to start out on. The swim felt good, besides all the 45-50 year old men that were going crazy (the waves were set up really weird! It was 10-24 year old women with 45-50 year old men)! Then for the bike I thought that the wind was pretty hard going up the hills, but I got up to 25 miles per hour, which is pretty darn fast!! The run was ok, but that is my weakest part! I didn’t really like the run, but it is what it is.

I got first in my age group over all! Reis (my brother) got second in his age group. Olivia (my fried, and a first time triathlete) came in third in her age group. Can you believe that for her first tri ever? I hope she keeps doing them because I’d love to train with her. Big Chloe came in 3rd for the overall women, and Mrs. Karen came in second over all for the women! And today is Lisa W’s birthday! I hope she had a good birthday. Pretty awesome that we all got awards! And “Coach” Jim raced and is really, really fast (he’s our speedcoach even though we are out of town each week), but he is in a pretty darn tough age group!

Here are all the pictures of the week!  (Pics of all the girl cousins will be posted soon -- once I get the photos from Aunt Talia!)

Have a great week,  and check back for IronGirl Atlanta updates!

Chloe

Me and Reis at the start of My First Tri

"Big" Chloe and me (and no, we did NOT plan our outfits!)

Soccer Boys!  (Reis, Ilan, and Jake)

Me & Papa on his trike.  Cool, huh?