Some Love for the Little Races

Thanks for letting me vent on the last post, and thanks for all the very thoughtful and interesting replies. That was some good ol' fashioned virtual conversation, there. I hearts the internets.

Anyway, since I was Little Miss Pissypants in my last post regarding Ironman Wall Street (borrowed that term from a friend--I think it fits pretty well!), I thought I'd take a second to give some love to the little races. Local tris are really, for me, the spirit of triathlon. The ones where you can just drive right up and park next to transition...where nervous newbies rack mountain bikes...where the RD is walking around with you to make sure everything's a go. Aside from being significantly cheaper, these races just have a feel-good vibe about them that is, in my humble opinion, everything that tri should be about. I love love love that my teammate, TriCajun, puts on a local race in Louisiana, and really wish I could get down there. This is the first year in quite a few I haven't been able to make WIBA, which is another example of the spirit of triathlon wrapped up in the most fun weekend you'll have with friends. The spirit is still out there, my friends. Don't lose hope yet.

That being said, there's a few fabulous races here that I'm planning on doing. Rick puts on some great races at NCN and even has the coolest policy ever: volunteer for a race, and earn a free race entry. He even has a race transfer policy that is pretty much awesome: if you get hurt or sick, you can do another one of his races ANYTIME. So last year, right about this time, I had my almost-a-stress-fracture-holy-crap-now-what?! situation and I had to back out of the Huntington Triathlon. I was super bummed, but I knew that at least I could transfer my race entry to another NCN race. I was planning on cheering on the EvoKids anyway, so Rick said, hey, how about you volunteer and earn another race? Bonus! So I'll be cashing in on both of those races this year! I will be doing the Huntington Sprint and the Lorain Tri--probably the Olympic, but we'll see how things go.

(Side note: My hamstring issues are slightly better, but still not great, so I'm trying to take it easy. Lifetime should be quite interesting, seeing as I haven't ran more than 5 miles since the marathon! All in favor of rolling the dice raise your hands!)

Another super awesome top-notch race is the Greater Cleveland Triathlon. This race pretty much is everything I heart about triathlon. A kid's race, a sprint, and an olympic in a beautiful beach east of C-Town with a very hometown, newbie-friendly vibe. Plus, the RD Mickey is one of the coolest guys ever. The run is an out-and-back so you can see all your buddies, which is always fun. I did the sprint last year and am hoping to do it again this year, but it's the day of Matt and my 7th anniversary (awwww!) so I'm not exactly sure what our plans are. Nonetheless, it's a FABULOUS local race and another example of what the sport should be about.

This August is also my 10th anniversary of doing my first tri. I can now say I've been in this sport a decade. What started as almost a dare between two college buds became quite a lifestyle change that led to me dropping about 35 pounds, getting healthy, and meeting some of the coolest people in the universe. Although I may not be crazy about all the directions the sport is going, I give a standing ovation to the local races and all the triathletes out there giving it their all, no matter what they ride, what shoes they are wearing, or what compression socks they might have.

So even if you're doing a big huge race, be sure to give the local guys and girls some love. Volunteer. Race. Cheer. Bring your kids and show them what a triathlon's all about. Spread the tri-love. I look forward to being in this sport for at least 18 more decades and hope you will, too.

Ugggggghhhhhhh.

There's a reason I don't live in the Southeastern US, folks.

I. HATE. HEAT. AND. HUMIDITY.

Yes, that's right. I will take 3 months of snow, sleet, and blustery winds in exchange for my nice, temperate spring, summer, and beautiful fall.

So this 93 degrees and high humidity thing BLOWS. And not just when I'm pregnant. Pretty much all the time. I enjoy living in a city with very few 90-plus degree days, and I have not been a happy camper the past few days! Man, how do you guys that live in the south DO THIS? Ugh....

Anyway, we had a great weekend. I feel like Rae with our kitchen remodeling! It's about halfway and unlike Rae we are ONLY doing the floor. I will post some pics when it's done. I'm not much help though, since I can't bend over very well and am the most un-handy person alive. Good thing I married the most handy person alive. But, I'm good at organizing, so while he was working on the floor, I cleaned out and organized all our cabinets. Yay! I contributed. :)

We also have some bathroom remodeling going on--the last of our wallpaper infested house to go down! It's not going down without a fight. The shower stall with pink and black tile, I'm proud to say, is no more. But we still have the fugly wallpaper with butterflies and stripes. Our whole house was pretty much covered in wallpaper when we moved in and we've saved this little gem for last. Hopefully we can just finish the stall this year and tackle the wallpaper later, because......

The nursery is still a disaster.

Maybe I'm just worrying too much here, but sersly. Alls I got is STILL my jogging stroller. Uh oh. Good thing we have a room that's yellow and blue. Matt likes to say it's because Baby Z is a Michigan fan (ew). It was our old office, so going through everything has been a pain. We're getting there, but we need to get rid of some more stuff PRONTO. And, like, get some stuff we need. But, I guess we've got time for that.

This Sunday I volunteered for the Lorain Sprint Tri and Du. It was hella fun! I did bodymarking and then was the "pointer" for T1 and T2. It was REAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLYYYYYY hot though, and even though I drank a lot of water, I still didn't quite feel like myself even yesterday. Saw lots of CTC people kicking some butt, which was good. It's a great race for first-timers, too, so it was fun to see people getting bitten by the tri bug. And my buddy Marie was 3rd in Age Group, so she picked up some hardware! The best part? I get a FREE RACE VOUCHER for next year for ANY NCN race! Yahoooooooooooooooo! I might need to bail on the Chicago Oly for next year and just stay local and do the Lorain Oly...two trips to Chi-Town might be too hard to pull off, and I definitely want to do the marathon. Don't hate me, Wil....I'm still in for Muncie and the marathon though!

Today I'm going to do a 2000 yard swim and then maybe meet the Second Sole crew for a walk while they run. I don't know....I gotta see how this heat factors in. I might have to bail on the walk. Luckily, it is supposed to go back down to the 70s later this week.

And guess what? Tomorrow I am meeting a SUPER FAST and SUPER COOL Blogger for lunch! Super Fast Blogger is from quite a ways away and coming through on business, so I will leave you in suspense as to who it is...but don't worry, I'll get pictures!