Long Run

I know it's all relative because some people reading this may think, "She thinks that is a long run?" While others may think "I don't even like driving that far!" But for me, 12 miles is long, and that's what I did this afternoon at Umstead. To be really honest, I have no idea how far I went, but it took me 1:50+ on single track trails, bridle trails, and steep hills so I'll just be conservative and call it 12. I felt pretty strong until the very end where Marty wanted to go back in one of the single track trails and my legs were pretty tired -- and having to navigate roots and rocks was tough. But at least I didn't do a face plant. Oops, I said I wouldn't tell anyone, so forget I said that.

Yesterday we had another successful swim clinic. After running so many of these, we've really gotten the schedule and planning down. There does always seem to be a little blip (like double booking the room we were doing presentations in) but we always handle them well and everyone walks away with a lot more knowledge than they came in with.

Better get to that laundry pile I have...

F-L-O-R-I-D-A S-T-A-T-E!!!

What a night yesterday! We got tickets through the FSU Alumni Club for the NC State/FSU game held (obviously) at NC State. This Thursday night game was shown live on ESPN and I tried not to make any silly faces just in case I happened to get on tv again! Unfortunately, the game coincided with the opening night of the NC State Fair which is a HUGE deal and right next to the stadium.

We left the house early so we would have plenty of time to park, walk, and tailgate a bit before kickoff. We ended up parking in a lot (cow pasture) that had free shuttles running to the stadium. This would’ve worked out great except the shuttles all got stuck with everyone else in game/fair/rush hour traffic. And our bus DIDN’T HAVE AC! It was straight out of 1972. Don’t let me fail to mention that it was almost 90 degrees yesterday (I have no idea what is taking Fall so long to arrive this year). So we are all stuffed on this bus, with some drunk but loveable FSU fans, who were from Lexington, NC (try and find that one on the map). After sitting on the bus for about 30min and making it 1.5 miles, everyone just up and left – I think the bus driver knew he was about to have a major mutiny on his hands! We quickly found the FSU Alumni tailgate and had some beer and made some friends before the game. We also ran into our triathlon friends, Tim and Angela Gautreau – Tim’s a huge FSU fan, but Angela went to NC State – they still sat in the FSU section. She’s a good sport.

We sat in the FSU section and everyone was pretty pumped – we stood a lot during the game. I felt like we were in the student section! There were some FSU superfans (probably college students who drove up here) that never seemed to tire of doing the tomahawk chop or jumping up and down for their team. It was a close game and in the end the FSU kicker was the hero, making a 53 yard field goal with less than 2 minutes to go (right near us!) It’s so fun to go to someone else’s stadium and beat their team ;) Now, I didn’t go to FSU, but Marty did so I cheer for them by default.

Marty wanted to leave after the 3rd quarter so we wouldn’t hit any traffic but Bill and I (Bill flew up from Orlando to go the game) were like, No Way! But he had it in his head and wasn’t budging. So we finally compromised and he was going to walk back to the car and come and get us along the way once we left. So Bill and I stayed and got to see the exciting finish and then left to start our walk back. We saw the line for the shuttles which was a million miles long, and all the shuttles were stuck in traffic and said, screw it, we’re hoofing it. I couldn’t get a hold of Marty and then all of the sudden I get a call from an odd number. I answer and it’s Marty – he had gotten lost trying to find our car and ended up who knows where before deciding to just go back to the stadium and get on a shuttle! He was luckily already on a shuttle and didn’t have to wait in that line we saw. In the end, he still got to the car before us and picked us up along the street and we got out of there before hitting any backups!

At one point during the game I went to the bathroom and had to laugh at what was painted behind every toilet – “Please do not throw liquor bottles down the toilet.” Ha! Only in North Cackalacky!!

Totally on a different topic – the Philly half marathon and marathon are sold out! I had sent my entry in through the mail because I didn’t want to pay the Active fee (which is such a ripoff) but I didn’t know if my stuff got there in time (I’m not sure when exactly it sold out). When I checked, I wasn’t on the confirmation list. I emailed them and a few days went by before I finally got confirmation that I was in – probably just barely. Pheww!

Non-Triathlon Related Sports

It’s the off season! Time for a new topic!

Wow, can anyone believe that the Rays are so close to being in the World Series? Does anyone who reads this blog pay attention to sports other than triathlon, swimming, biking and running? ;) My family are sports connoisseurs – 11pm news at night? P-Shaw, it was Sports Center! So here we are on the cusp of something very neat; a scrappy low-payed team almost in the Championship.

10 years ago, the Rays (or the Devil Rays as they used to be known) were atrocious. I know because I went to many games that summer while I was home from college (they play in St. Pete). My parents had season tickets so we sat with a few other people to cheer on this expansion team in purple and green in the huge cavern that is Tropicana Field. Under 10,000 fans was the norm (and this count included season ticket holders that might not have even been there). So I am not jumping on any bandwagon. We’ve been there since Day 1. And it’s very neat to see this team do so well. The payroll for the Rays is roughly $44 million. Compare that to the Yankees who have a payroll of $209 million, or the Red Sox (who they’re playing right now) at $133 million. MLB Salaries
You can pay for players, but you can’t pay for a team. Instead of trying to bring ‘stars’ to the team, the Rays management have worked on making their farm system top notch. Good on them.

The Tampa Bay area suffered from many bad teams over the years – but we’ve finally grown out of that. The Bucs have won a Super Bowl. The Lightening have won a Stanley Cup, and now…just maybe? Even if the Rays don’t win it all, what a great season!

And just to tie this all into triathlon so I don’t lose any readers (haha), if you ever are near me in transition, check out my transition towel. It’s always a Rays towel (okay, there have been a few occasions when I couldn’t find it and I resorted to Scooby-Doo), but for the most part you will either see a weathered towel with the mascot Raymond on it or the old Tampa Bay Devil Rays logo. Told ya I’ve been a fan for a long time :)

Oh Yeah, the Leak (thanks for the reminder, Becky!)

In case you wondering about our leak on Friday, the plumber came out and it was a broken t-joint in the crawl space under our house. So luckily, no damage or anything and an easy fix ($100+ later...). All was good.

Until Sunday afternoon, when I got a call from Marty while I was at the mall with my mom, sister and Scott. He went to turn on the sink and the water pressure was way low. When he went to look at our meter it was spinning at a very high rate and he quickly found one of the connections to our hot water heater had broken and water was gushing out everywhere. The hot water heater closet doubles as our bike closet, so luckily we have fairly inexpensive bikes! They just got a bit wet really. But Marty couldn't find our water shut-off so he ended up calling our town's emergency hot line to get them to shut it off. In the meantime, he maneuvered the hose so it was at least spraying into our yard. Anyways, this was completely unrelated to the other incident; we just had some bad luck with our water this weekend! The plumber came out this morning (because it was a lot cheaper than him coming out on Sunday evening, still another $100+ later!) so we were without water, but had some bottles to at least allow us to brush our teeth. No chance of me skipping out on swimming this morning since I needed to use all of their facilities :)

Just so you don't think Marty is a complete do-do, the plumber also couldn't find our water shut-off! Later on, Marty finally found it in our front coat closet. Exactly where it should be??

I'm not so sure I want to see our water bill for this month...

UNC v ND

The day started early with an easy run before heading to my sister's so we could all carpool to the tailgate. We were under strict instructions to be at her house at 10am. The game was at 3:30pm. These were some hardcore tailgaters. We did your typical tailgate activities: cornhole, beers before noon, chips, cupcakes, tailgate golf, etc. My mom, Marty and I all sat in the Notre Dame section and had a lot of fun rooting on the Irish before being bested by the Tarheels. Ah well.

And please beware, if you ever find yourself at a televised football game, there is a chance you might be caught live making a very stupid face...

Conserving Water

Last summer we had a very bad drought here in North Carolina (and in much of the south). I tried to do my part by changing little habits: not leaving the water running while I soap my hands up after a bathroom break, quick showers, use Tassie’s old/dirty water to water the plants, stuff like that. Nothing huge or anything, but they all formed new habits that I still do to this day. At work they changed the flushing mechanisms so if you pull up it flushes liquid and if you push down it flushes solids (poop, hee hee. I know, I’m so mature). So you can imagine my dismay when I got this email from Marty a little bit ago:

"The town of Cary came out to let us know we have some sort of water leak going on, without anything running we're going through about 10 gallons an hour. I called a plumber and they're coming out today."

GEEZ! 10 gallons an hour?! So much for my weak conservation attempts! I sure hope they find that leak quick and it’s not too expensive to fix.

NC Drought 1 Year Ago

NC Drought Today with our House Leak

Fall is here

A lot of blogs are filled with Ironman updates and pictures from Kona. It’s hard to believe it’s been 3 years since we were there! I see the pictures and totally remember all the scenes and feelings…and I wasn’t even racing! It was so much fun to be out there and cheering for everyone (and of course, my Marty) – definitely an event that is worth going to even if you never race it (if you have unlimited funds, that is).

I had a nice run at Umstead yesterday after work. I had originally planned on running Turkey Creek but realized as I set out on Loblolly that I had been in quite a rut of always doing bridle trails, so I turned around and did Company Mill instead. Company Mill is much shorter than Turkey Creek, but it’s a different type of workout since you are constantly avoiding rocks, roots and going up or down. It works all sorts of different muscles and I felt that was a good decision and something I needed to get back to. Anyways, I felt good out there flying through the trail on my own and turned in a time that is usually reserved for when I am in good shape. Hmmmmm.

This weekend we’re going to the Notre Dame v UNC game here in Chapel Hill with my mom, sister and sister’s boyfriend. For those of you who know my family from LONG ago, you of course know that we’re huge Notre Dame fans (my dad went there). We grew up singing the fight song, having Irish named dogs, and watching many, many games (live and on tv). I was even in the stadium when they filmed the final scene of Rudy! I did apply and get accepted to Notre Dame, but this Florida girl probably would’ve made it about a month in that lake effect South Bend winter. Shana, my sister, went to undergrad and is getting her PhD at UNC, but I’m sure she will still be secretly happy if Notre Dame comes out on top. Cheer cheer.

One last thing, I didn't watch the Presidential debate last night. I figured I would just watch the recap on SNL this weekend.