17 Weeks

I decided to take another picture of me and my growing belly. Here I am at 17 weeks. I don't typically prance around in an outfit like this - I was trying to wear something that would give you the best look. I've also found that taking your own picture leads to some pretty ridiculous looking faces, so I conveniently cut my head off in this one :)

Beech Mountain 5K

Race Report time! Yeah, so I'm writing a race report for a 5K. Races are few and far between for me right now (or really, nonexistent) so let me have my fun. On a related note, I'm actually not that burned up about not racing this year. Probably because I've been racing literally since I was 8 years old with only a few short breaks for some minor injuries. Right now, there are more important things going on with me and racing is not something that's near the forefront of my mind. I do still enjoy going out and cheering for everyone, and of course working out. I don't think I could never not workout.

Anyways, onto the race! Marty and I would be up in Beech Mountain for part of the 4th of July weekend visiting some family. Where is Beech Mountain? Next to Sugar Mountain. Ha, helpful, right? Sugar is near Boone so we were near Boone. But that only makes sense if you live in NC. Bottom line, we were in the mountains, and it was N-I-C-E.

My mom sent me a link to this small race and of course I knew Marty would want to do it since he loves doing races wherever we might be traveling. Since we were on a mountain, we knew it would be hilly. I've been to Beech Mountain a lot and couldn't really picture where we might run a semi-flat 5K, but whatever. I went on the website and they had some nice pictures of the race so I thought it would be all right. There was 1/4 mile that was flat and they took pictures of that 1/4 mile.

Liars
We knew the pictures were an exaggeration when we drove some of the course the night before. It was HILLY. Like crazy, wicked hilly. I've done hundreds of 5Ks (no joke) and this was by far the hardest course I've ever seen.

I was under strict instructions to keep myself under control. No problem. I have not been running very much (a 30min run is my typical jog at this point, and that's only 2, maybe 3 times a week) and absolutely no speed, unless you count the strides we do on Monday night. I promised Marty I would go easy. The hills were going to make my heartrate sky rocket and my plan was to jog up them and then fly down the downhills (most people don't know how to 'let go' on the downhill).

So that's what I did, and starting off slow worked to my advantage as almost all the girls who started off ahead of me (a lot) died a slow death and I picked them off one by one. Seriously, I was not running fast, the course just took it's toll on everyone.

There was this totally stupid steep hill on the golf course that had to be about a 20% grade. I baby stepped my way up and caught the 2nd place girl who had to stop and walk. And she was fit! I didn't actually know I was in 2nd place now and just kept it at my cruisey gear to the finish line.

Here are the results. So you see, I got 2nd place in a blazing time of 23:53. Not bad for 16 weeks pregnant! 7:41 pace in the hills and I felt fine. Not that Marty believed me since he was none too happy to see me finish that high up. I assured him over and over that I didn't push it, yes my HR was high but that was only because of the stupid hills and I wasn't overheating (the temps were very nice there).

Even the finish was a slight uphill

After Marty got done reprimanding me

The runners (this was my 12 year old niece's first 5K! Poor thing)



With our other niece Ashleigh, and her blue monkey

Contemplating something while holding the blue monkey

With my nieces (and Tassie in the corner)

And triathlons, take note: post-race they had pancakes (3 versions: plain, blueberry, and chocolate chip), bacon and sausage, several different fruit toppings and whipped cream, oj and coffee. That's a lot better than a bag of chips and some banana's!

It was a fun race with some great sponsors. They gave lots of goodies and the organizers did a great job for this first year event.

That night we ate barbeque and watched fireworks on the mountain with several hundred other people. It was great to sit outside for the holiday and not swelter. I was actually in jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt! The fireworks were fun but the whole time I could only think of poor Tassie and how scared she probably was. This is definitely her most hated holiday.

Yeesh

Another week gone by. My lack of blogging is not in direct correlation with my life being boring. On the contrary, I've been too busy! So to recap:

I've had trouble with my motivation and getting up at o'dark-thirty to swim at morning Masters, but I did manage to get over to Jordan lake on Wednesday for some open water swimming with friends.

Marty and I saw The Green Lantern on Tuesday. There were some bad fires over on the coast and our air was full of awful smoke so a movie was a good option. We had no idea that our local theatre has a promotion on Tuesday's called "Super Stimulus Tuesdays" where we not only got the matinee $5 movie ticket price, but also $1 popcorn and $1 cokes! What a deal! Oh yeah, the movie? It was comic book silliness. Entertaining, yes, which is what I go to the movies for. But when I accidentally let it slip to Marty that I thought overall it was kind of stupid, he looked at me like I had two heads.

I was in FAR training for 3 straight days at work. What is FAR? Federal Aquisition Regulation. I know, it's hard not to be jealous.

The Kure Beach Double Sprint was this past weekend, and it was sad not to be racing but I still had a lot of fun hanging out and cheering for everyone. Marty and I ran another open water swim clinic on Saturday before gorging ourselves at a yummy pancake shop. The gang hit the beach all afternoon while Marty went into Wilmington to buy a stand up paddle board! Can't wait to try it out! We had a nice dinner that night complete with the world's dumbest waiter. Here was one of the exchanges we had with him:

Bobby: "Do you have any microbrews?"
Waiter: "Micro whats?"
Bobby: "Microbrews."
Waiter: "Uhhhhh. I've never heard of that."
Marty: "Small commerically made beer from the US..."
Waiter: "Huh! I don't know what that is and I'm a bartender!"
Me: "Craft beer?"
Waiter: "Draft beer! Yeah! We have draft beer!"

The waiter was quite good looking and has obviously gotten through life because of it, I'm thinking.

The race was good - it started an hour earlier this year so it wasn't quite as death hot as in years past and the wind was negligible so overall it was pretty fast.

Pregnancy is progressing. AKA, Bri is getting fat.

Here is Tassie - I wanted to take a picture of her before her summer hair cut. She would only look at the camera if I also held her paw.

Boone Camp 2011

Boone Camp was slightly different for me this year as I'm not really 'training' right now. Just working out depending on how I feel, and it's amazing how much I can excuse myself when I don't have a goal in sight. Someone mentioned to me that I'm still working out way more than the average American, but it seems like nothing most times!

Anyways, we rented an even bigger house this year that had gorgeous views and allowed all 19 of us to stay together. Marty and Steffen did most of the cooking (thanks Steffen!!) Most campers got there Wednesday night and much wine and beer was consumed - a theme for the week :)

Thursday was a ride to the Viaduct - which I opted out of since I didn't think I could actually ride that far in that hilly of terrain and be even remotely close to everyone. So I did a shorter ride by myself where I proceeded to get lost and ended up using my phone GPS to get me back home. I also did much more climbing than the original route planned for. Ah well - still a beautiful ride in nice weather.




View from the Viaduct

My view

In the afternoon we went to a greenway that is the flattest place you will find in Boone. I got to catch up with Brian who ironically I hadn't seen since Florida camp even though he lives only 20min away from us!

Someone's got bunny ears!
Thursday night - yummy burritos and card games. We ran through 2 big containers of ice cream, too.

Friday was a hilly ride where I sagged for the group. A few miscues where the ride leaders forgot about me (let's hit the greenway....oops, what about Bri?) and a bit of cyclocross for the camp before heading up a nice climb near Valle Crucis. I was sore and tired after sagging which got a lot comments from people making fun of me to which I replied, you go drive a car for 4 hours going 15 mph!

>I swear there used to be a bridge

A view from the Sag Wagon

A nice swim in the afternoon and yummy chicken parm/lasagna washed down with birthday cake. Not that we needed an excuse for cake, but it was convenient that Lori's fell during camp.

Saturday we went to Moses Cone Park (awesome place to run!) and then hit Kilwin's ice cream which is now a tradition after the long run. We ate ice cream and pizza in the park right in the middle of Blowing Rock. Another gorgeous day.

Marty and me at Moses Cone

View from the Manor House at Moses Cone

These girls are fast!

Unfortunately, a big storm blew through which kept everyone from doing another swim in the afternoon -- okay, let's be honest, I wasn't actually planning on going anyways! Dinner that night was cookout food before half of us headed to a bar in Boone.

Lounging instead of swimming

Camp like you remembered - horseback riding included

It was convenient for everyone that I'm pregnant because I have no idea how they all thought they would be getting into town - DD for 5.5 more months! Before we left we took several camp pictures, some of which are not fit for the internet to see.

The group

Arrrrrrrr!

The real action took place at the bar we ended up at. While googling directions it was discovered that there was a women's roller derby competition that night and both teams would be partying afterwards at the bar! Cue raucous screams. As we were pulling into the parking lot we saw our first derby girl and lets just say the amount of screaming and laughing and pointing that went on led me to think there was no way we were walking out of this bar without at least one black eye. Marty had to calm us all down.

Pictures wouldn't do it justice, and frankly, we were all a little scared to be caught taking pictures, but let me just say this subculture of people was AWESOME!! Kari, Alysia and I also got some great ideas for our Doughman outfits next year.

There was dancing, shots, karaoke and conversations that cannot be repeated. Marty, Lori and sober pregnant girl (that would be me in case you're perplexed) all left at 11pm. The rest of the crew closed down the bar.

Yup. This ain't your run of the mill tri camp! Can't wait for next year!

Who did this?

Someone sent us this awesome gift basket - but there was no name on the card. If this was you -- THANK YOU!! So sweet :)

In other news, I have started wearing a heartrate monitor. That's right, just started. I've always been good with perceived exertion and since I'm typically training for short stuff, the HR monitor just wasn't all that necessary. But now it sort of it is and it's annoying! It doesn't help that it's super hot which causes the heart rate to be even higher....beep beep beep beep...yup, that's me!

In other, other news, Boone this week!! Can't wait.

The Word is Out

So as I mentioned in my last post, I actually announced something worthwhile in the post before that. But it was buried and I realize that not everyone wanted to read the epic novel that was that doughman report.

I'm pregnant! 13 weeks now, so that makes me due sometime mid December. Marty and I are excited, terrified, insert every adjective you want. So let's get to this bulleted list where I have random thoughts to post:

• We actually found out in early April. So I technically did that swim meet the tiniest bit pregnant. But that was not it's only race...


• The Triangle Orthopedic sprint was done at around 6+ weeks. I knew that it would be a cool day and since it was a time trial start I could hold myself back a bit and not go all out sprint hard. So to that person that came up to me after the race and said, "Geez, Bri, I can't believe you didn't win" I now give you a virtual kick in the shin.


• It was hard to keep this quiet from a lot of people we see regularly. Particularly with races coming up and trying to explain my lack of race schedule.


• I wanted to do Battle of Buckhorn the other week but Marty talked me out of it.


• It seems that overnight I've gone from running pretty comfortably and near my normal pace to S-L-O-W. Seriously.


• Still swimming and biking. We have Boone camp next week and I wanted to bike until at least then.


• I am overwhelmed and confused with what we will need to buy for this little person. I don't even know where to begin and all the helpful books and websites seem to make me more overwhelmed.


• We will definitely be finding out if it's a boy or a girl. Yes, I like surprises, but I can be surprised at 18 weeks just as well as I can be surprised at 40 weeks.


• I'm already annoyed with people who after giving their congratulations, proceed to tell me how hard and annoying labor/pregnancy/lack of sleep/child always getting sick, etc. Yes, we realize our lives will be changing. Positive advice is welcome!


• I didn't really want to do the whole facebook status announcement, so we've pretty much relied on word of mouth for it to get spread around. That has worked well :)

• Everyone is always interested in how the belly is looking. Truthfully, mine is not very impressive yet. I can certainly tell that there is a protrusion compared to my normal self (never to be seen again self?), and my waist is going, going, soon to be gone, but here's the best I got.

Old School

Had you actually read my previous blog post, you would have come across a bit of news buried within all those words. Guess you'll have to read it to know what I'm talking about :)

Last night was the first ever Old School Aquathon. Marty presented his idea for low key aquathon's to FS Series and they agreed to help out with them. We like the idea of bringing fun and different events to spice up the training and racing schedule for multisport athletes. And even better, at affordable prices. $20 until the week of the race - and we got lots of compliments on the t-shirt and generic soda and white bread to make your very own pb&j.

Last night's event was well attended and we hope everyone had a good time despite the horredous heat and humidity! I can sympathize as I was sweating all my fluids out manning the registration table and then at the furthest water station deep in the woods during the event.

I was armed and ready for the horseflies that like to come out in the summer months.



The next one is at Jordan Lake and consists of a 300 meter swim/1 mile run 3 times! I think that sounds like a lot of fun - come on out and join in.