Mara's Website

And now, let's start with my races.

I was supposed to do my first ever olympic distance triathlon on August 16th. It figures that Colorado had REALLY hot weather all summer long, had cooled off just perfectly the week before the race and then poured rain the weekend of the race. But, I went anyway, packed all kinds of attempts at warm clothes and started the race off decently enough. You know it's bad when you have an open water swim and the water feels warmer than it is outside. But, I finished my swim (only got kicked by other people three times), got on the bike (wearing completely soaked clothing because while I had put a raincoat over my stuff, there was a small river flowing through the transition area). Then it started to hail. At this point I couldn't really feel my legs, but chugged along none-the-less. About 7 miles into my ride some guy who had FLOWN past me all of a sudden up ahead pulled over and started putting his bike in a van that had pulled over with its window down to talk to the rider. Turns out, the race got canceled due to lightning. ARGH! So, after confirming this really was true, based on the fact that I couldn't feel my legs at all, I bummed a ride off the nice van guys (Air Force cadets) back to the start. So yeah, no olympic distance tri completion for me this summer. Means it will carry over as a goal for next summer. :)

So, since I couldn't complete that goal (it was the last olympic distance tri in Colorado this year), I set a new goal. A half marathon. :) I had never run longer than about 7.5 miles before, but figured that it was do-able with some training. And it was. Though it was long and tiring (and my knees have decided that I shouldn't do anything longer than that). :) So yeah, I completed my first half marathon in October in the Denver marathon. It was "fun", I guess, but mainly exciting to have achieved a personal athletic goal!

So, the rest of my Summer was busy as well. After the failed attempt at the Olympic-distance tri, I took off 3 days later on a road trip to the Pacific Northwest to visit friends in Portland and Seattle for 2 weeks (while attempting to work remotely as well. Many thanks to my friends there for being so understanding as I used their phones, offices, internet connections, etc.). :) On my drive back I got to stop into Idaho to visit my grandparents as well, so overall a good trip, but I was definitely tired and ready to be home afterwards. I've learned my lesson to either work or have a vacation, but doing both doesn't work well for me!

Elisa, Marcy and Anika at the Farmer's Market

"She Who Watches" petroglyph off the Columbia River Gorge

A view of the Columbia River Gorge from the walk with the petroglyphs

Waterfall off the Columbia River

Dennis and Cheryl's kids, Ella and Alex hanging in the rain like typical Seattle kids!

I met up with my friend Kurt from Rice who happened to be in Portland at the same time.

Had dinner and some FABULOUS cakes with Stacy and Seth

A photo with a troll under a bridge in Seattle. Bizarre, yes.

I spent a lot of September catching up with friends, seeing concerts and musicals, and training for the half marathon. Plus we spent Will's birthday hiking up at St Mary's Glacier in Colorado. Anika was quite excited that there was snow!

Will, Anika and I at St Mary's

October actually slowed down socially but picked up at work, so it didn't feel like it slowed down much. :) Will and I got to fly to Idaho to visit my grandparents for a long weekend. It was nice both for him to get to meet them and vice versa. And luckily, he passed the test! :)

For Halloween, Will and I dressed up as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. We were quite entertained (though some people just thought we were an old couple).

We thought we were so original until we went to a party on Halloween evening (a wedding reception for some friends of mine) and there was another Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac there! Sigh... But, we did one-up them, of sorts, when we performed the full Michael Jackson Thriller dance. :)

What's been nice is the cats and dog have been co-habitating well!

Other than that, not much to say. Obviously a busy few months!