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?  

Girls Rule... well, almost

I’m back for my race report! The annual Buster Britton Tri in B'ham is our chance for a family challenge.

This weekend my family (boys vs girls) raced, and the girls were so so so SO sure that we were going to win by a ton!! We didn’t win and to make it more infuriating, we lost by only 38 seconds. I’m thinking of all the things that take only 38 seconds (typing a sentence, blowing a bubble, tying a shoe, LOSING – uggghhhh! Man were we mad, but we all got over it pretty quickly because there’s always next year!

At the beginning of the race we were super pumped because it was really pretty outside, and there were blue skies. Then about 1 hour later these mean clouds started rolling in, but we thought it was nothing, and then we saw it… a strike of lightning. And we all know what that means: a delay. Then it started clearing up a little, so my brother and I raced, and I beat him by 45 seconds!!

Then next was the bike and I don’t have much to say about the bike, because my mom and my dad did the bike portion, but they both did awesome! My mom was nervous (it was POURING) and her computer didn’t work. She tried to fix it, but it was raining so hard and she was heading down a windy, wet, hilly road. So she gave up and just pedaled!

Now on to the run…

On my team we had Aly, and she is an AMAZING runner. She’s in school at Birmingham Southern and runs track, the 400 is her favorite, and pole-vaults. She completed the 5k in 20 minutes, and the boys had an amazing time of 23 minutes run by my mom’s brother, Jon. He’s older than her and lots faster ;-))
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I’ve been running this week, even though we are on vacation with my mom’s family. It’s real hilly here, but I ran 3 miles on a track 2 days ago. It was so boring, but I ran fast on the long sides and slowed down around the curves to make it more interesting (and get faster, hopefully). Today, I ran +/-2 miles with my mom. It was nice and cool, so it wasn’t bad, although the hills were endless! Can’t wait for the flat beach again.

And today is the most fun day yet – my Aunt Marie (AuntMariesCookies.blogspot.com) is teaching some of my grandmother’s recipes and some of hers.  She’s an amazing cook and I love to bake!  Especially with all 4 girl cousins -  FUN!

 Here are the real official results…

    1    60 Reis’ Team       

  Jeff Gordon      Reis Gordon      Jon Goldfarb        

 Swim 5:14 transition 1:27   bike 40:51 transition 0:46    run 23:24 over all 1:11:40 

  2    59 Chocoholics          

Chloe Gordon     Kim Gordon       Aly Goldfarb       

Swim 4:39   transition 1:42    bike 44:07      transition 0:46 

Run 20:50   over all 1:12:02 

SUMMER (WOOT WOOT)

Finally summer is here! Friday was my last day of school, but I skipped so I could hang out with my friend Michaela, because she was moving (a couple of days ago L). I had so much fun! I hope she has fun in South Africa, but I am going to miss her like crazy!!

 

Over the past Christmas my family went on a ski trip, and we met this family on a van from the airport up to the hotel, and we have become really good friends with them! They have two kids named Alex, who is 11, and Michael, who is 6.  Yesterday was THE BEST day of summer yet!!  I babysat them yesterday and we had a blast!! Crabbing, skimboarding, bodyboarding... and the gulf was perfect!

Two days ago wasn't the best day of summer…  I went to swim practice from 7 until 9, and then I went to breakfast with my brother and dad. That was probably the most interesting part of the day! J !!!! After I got home I watched a little T.V. and ate a little, and then I started to get bored. I thought maybe the first real day of summer would be SUPER exciting and fun, but right now school doesn’t seem so bad! Anyway, I {accidentally} told my mom that I was bored, and that made her pretty mad. “Walk the dogs” she said, “ Fold the towels, make a summer menu, and work on your blog” she said/yelled.

 Next week I am going to be going up to Birmingham to see all of my mom’s side of the family! I can’t wait to see all of my cousins (ALL 7 OF THEM), uncles and Aunts, and my grandparent! AND my mom, my mom's cousin, and me vs. my dad, my brother, and my uncle in the Buster Britton Tri this weekend! It is going to be AWESOME!! And the girls will rule!

Today I went to swim practice, and it was so so so much fun! It was recovery day, even though I didn't have much to recover from. Anyway, we had 11 people in my lane (long course), and everybody except one person chose a set that equaled 400 meters! Man, it was awesome! My set was 50 meters of freestyle drill, 25 meters of tiger tumble (3 strokes of freestyle then a flip turn in the middle of the pool), and then sprint freestyle 25 meters (4 times through). It was really fun! Then after swim practice I went for a run, and I was all pumped because I just got new inserts for my shoes. I wanted to go really fast for 2 miles, but I got some mean blisters instead...ooooh do they hurt!! 

Here are some of my pictures of the week…

    My bro and I.

                                          Reis and Alex
     Alex
And last but not least the photographer Mr. Michael!! (only 6 and taking GREAT pictures)
All the fish we caught yesterday!

Thanks for reading!