Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Norfolk YMCA Triathalon
This past fall I decided to try some swimming over the winter to keep myself in shape when it was too cold or snowy to run. So of course to keep myself motivated I had to have a goal to pursue. Enter: A sprint triathlon. Josh and I entered the Norfolk YMCA triathlon, a 500 yd swim, 10 mile bike, and 2.5 mile run.
This was a pool swim we had to wait our turn to get in the pool. It was based on your registration date so we were a ways down the list.
I set a personal best of 10:58 on the swim and then rushed to pull on my socks, shoes, shirt, and jacket (it rainy and windy and fairly cold). If I do more triathlons, my transition must improve because it was horrible.
Josh finished the swim shortly after me because he started later.
I biked in my running shoes and Josh had his biking shoes so I just hung up my bike and ran off while struggled to change shoes. We managed to come into the transition area together.
Josh also flew through the run and placed 1st in our age group.
I also had a decent run time and finished with 1:08:20 for everything. I was 4th in our age group. I was happy with my times but compared to everyone, I was quite slow.
This was a pool swim we had to wait our turn to get in the pool. It was based on your registration date so we were a ways down the list.
I set a personal best of 10:58 on the swim and then rushed to pull on my socks, shoes, shirt, and jacket (it rainy and windy and fairly cold). If I do more triathlons, my transition must improve because it was horrible.
Josh finished the swim shortly after me because he started later.
I biked in my running shoes and Josh had his biking shoes so I just hung up my bike and ran off while struggled to change shoes. We managed to come into the transition area together.
Josh also flew through the run and placed 1st in our age group.
I also had a decent run time and finished with 1:08:20 for everything. I was 4th in our age group. I was happy with my times but compared to everyone, I was quite slow.
Abby and Elise came to cheer us on. Elise was showing off her Husker hoodie along with her cute baby looks.
She's a 'steak and potatoes' girl
Caleb grilled some of the most beautiful steaks for dinner - Elise evidently wanted to be part of that action!
... And was sorely disappointed when Daddy didn't share.
Maybe Mommy will share?
Hah! Not a chance :-)
Driving Home
Caleb got a little tired while driving home on Sunday. So he enlisted a little help from the back seat :-)
Somebody was overjoyed to lend a hand!
Day... (Oh, dear - I think I lost track!) - Trip to Washington D.C.
The last Saturday we were in D.C. Dan came up to spend the day with us.
Saturday was alot brighter than the previous few days had been :-)
Caleb - bless his heart - went to stand in line at seven in the morning to get tickets to go up in the Washington Monument. Dan and I met up at the house where we were staying and took the metro down town to meet Caleb. We hung out until our tour at ten.
The view was great - we saw Marine One and it's two escorts come to either pick the president up or drop him off... No one could quite tell - although, heaven knows, we certainly watched long enough :-)
When we'd had our fill of heights, we set off to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence. That was the longest wait we had in a line anywhere. Well over an hour to file through the room where they kept the documents. Elise kept herself occupied watching the sparrows with the greatest fascination. 
One of my personal favorites that day was walking down 'Embassy Row' - a large portion of street totally occupied by various countries' embassies. Caleb could look at the flags and tell us which country was represented - he even knew the obscure flags that belonged to countries I had never even heard heard of :-)
Greece had my favorite embassy.
On our way home after a great day!
Elise enjoyed the Metro as much as we did!
Day Seven (or was it Eight?) - Trip to Washington D.C.
It's tradition that when ever you're in D.C., you have to talk the walking tour of the monuments. Caleb had never been to all of them, so I had the very rare pleasure of knowing more about where we were going than he did - for once in my life!
We came out at the Metro station next to the Smithsonian Castle and walked down the Mall, past the Washington Monument to the new WW II Memorial.
We walked down to the end of the mall to see the Lincoln Memorial...
Despite the beautiful sky in the pictures, it was less than beautiful temperature-wise! When you were out of the wind it was great, but other wise the chilling breeze cut right through your layers, making you wish you'd decided to stay inside and rent a movie :-)
Elise was in layers and layers of blankets - she was our little pink cocoon!
We walked all the way around the beautiful Tidal Basin, stopping briefly at various small gardens and monuments dedicated to soldiers and great statesmen, but the Jefferson Memorial was our goal, and we finally reached it, despite all the distractions :-) A fitting end for our tour...
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