Journeys of a mountain bum...

Xterra World Championships 2011

2011-10-29T16:56:00.003-06:00

I have been looking forward to this all year! I qualifiedback in April and have been building for a strong performance on the world’sbiggest stage for off-road multisport. Drew was unable to make the trip to Hawaiiwith me this year but my brother-in-law so kindly used some miles to get mysister a ticket and we had a mom’s getaway, oh, and race! We flew on the Thursday before the race and Iwas hoping to get over and get out on the bike course for a pre-ride. However, by the time we got bags and got throughthe line for our car and got over to the race venue I only had about 10 minutesto get on the course. That was notlikely to happen, so we just checked into our place and I went out for a littlerun to get my body going after all the travel. I was a little disappointed because I wouldhave rather done the pre ride 3 days out rather than 2 days before. Fridaymorning I headed to check out this new bike course. I had heard all kinds of reports so I wasn’tsure what to expect. There was a lot ofclimbing but it was nice because it was shorter climbs with a lot of differentstuff in between including all sorts of environs and terrain. The longest sustained climb was about 7 milesin bringing you up to the high pointof the course and then sending you down a long fast descent. I liked the course and was pretty excited forthis change. Saturday was a prettyrelaxed day, I headed over for a swim at DT Fleming beach. The water was calm and I was hoping that itwould remain that way and the storm with the 7ft swells they were calling forwould hold off till after the race. Aftersome pointers from my coach and a few practice ocean starts with Michael Stone,I headed back for big breakfast then checked out the bike to make sure it wasdialed and ready and then it was just resting up and preparing for the big day.

Sunday Oct. 23 XterraWorld Championships

Got up and had my nice pre-race breakfast (eggs, with sweetpotatoes, a fruit smoothie and, of course coffee) and headed over to transitionon my bike to get my legs spinning.

Set up transition waited in the long line for body markingand got ready to go! Jumped in the water for a little swim warm-up and thenfound my spot on the beach and waited expectantly for the cannon to blow. BOOM!

Swim- 30:54 63/170Women 11/25 Age-group 38 /145 Amatuer

It is always fun to run into the ocean and start swimmingwith 650 people. A lot of bumping andkicking and pretty much chaos, but the nice thing about the ocean is there is alot of room to spread out, that is, until you get to the buoy. I thought I was getting into a good pace andgroove and going right toward the first bouy but when I got out there I waspretty far inside because of the current. I came into the mass of crazy swimmers and an angry lady on a surf boardyelling at everyone to get around the bouy! I had to join the mass chaos oftreading water to get around it. Afterthat I felt like I was able to find a good rhythm again and I felt pretty good.You have to do two 750 meter laps with a short beach run in between. The whole first lap I was happy to find thatI could see pink caps (pro women) right in front of me the whole way. I pushed a little through the second lap andthought that I had a decent swim. I wasannoyed that my goggles had leaked a little so my eyes were burning with saltwater the whole time! I exited the waterand ran up to transition to find out how things really had gone.

Bike- 1:45:20 19/170 Women 2/25 Age-group 4/145 Amatuer

Hot climbs!

I didn’t have a very fast transition but I wanted to makesure that I was ready for a hot bike ride! I headed out and found that I was in the train with tons of people! I did expect this and knew it was going to bea little frustrating because the first three miles have some spots that I knewwould get clogged up with riders having trouble. The course was not technicalby my standards but it is mostly single-track leaving little room to get aroundall the people who it may seem more technical for. One comes off, and then everyone gets backedup and comes off! This is where bikeskills really come in if you can do it all really slow behind everyone! This is also when I realized that I must nothave had a great swim after all because I was passing a lot of girls right awayand continued to the whole time! Everychance I got to scoot around people I took and then I hit it hard on the lastlong climb around mile 7 knowing I had a great downhill to follow and I reallydidn’t want to get stuck behind anyone because this is where I am able to gainsome more ground. Some sections herewere a little scary because you would be bombing downhill and then into a cloudof dust and could not see a thing! I made sure to get in plenty of water and nutrition. I had two flasks of EFS for bike and run and it was great! Allin all I had a good bike I felt good and was hoping I gave it enough. I knew I would have to dig deep on the runand I started preparing my mind in the last mile of the bike.

Run- 56:34 26/170 Women 3/25 Age-group 13/145 Amateur

After another fairly slow transition I came out right behinda girl in my age group who I had just passed at the end of the bike. I tried to focus in on my run form and tellmyself that I can run and I can pass people! I have found I lack confidence in my run and I have to change my mindsetat the beginning. I started a little conservatively to get the legs rolling ina new way and was surprised to find that I was feeling pretty good. I passed the girl right ahead of me and setmy sights on the next female up the way, a pro. Very soon I caught her as well. I was so excited to be passing people on therun! I just continued like this and keptpassing more men. The run course prettymuch goes up for 3.5 miles and then back down to the beach and is filled withtwisty turny trail through tight forests. Right at the top of the run Maia (champion for my age-group) caught me. We had a short friendlyexchange then she raced away like it was nothing. She is a fantastic runner and I was justtrying to keep her in my sights as long as possible. Shortly after a short climb a nice guy gaveme a little push as I passed and encouraged me on that I was “3!” I was hoping that meant 3^rd andnot 3 in front of me. I raced down thecourse with the fear of being caught again by the last girl in my age groupthat I had passed. I did not want a repeat of last year when I lost 6 places onthe run. I hit the beach and knew that Ihad to keep digging near the end I got into the cheering path of KathyTank! She cheered me on like no otherand then I hit the last grassy hill a grueling final climb to the finish andgave it all I had. I got passed right onthe last corner by a 15-year-old, grr. This was, however, by far my best run in an Xterra yet! I was very happy with my race.

Grueling long slow run up the beach

Finish 3:16:19 21/170 Women 3/25 Age-group30-34 8/145 Amateur Women

Nice and dirty

I was pleased to find that I had made my goal of a podium finishat World Championships! I was third inmy Age-group, 8^th amateur, and 21^st woman! Not bad. I amvery happy with how things turned out but I am a competitive athlete so Ialways want more. Now I keep thinkinghow I will be faster next time.

Too bad I kept looking somewhere else and not into the lights.

Season Wrap

It has been a good season! I won all but one of the mountain bike races taking the overalltitle. I took a number of 2^ndplace finishes at Xterra South Central Championships, Mountain Championships, Moab,and Indian Peaks. A very strong and close race at US Nationalsfor a 4^th place finish and now culminating the season with a podiumfinish at World Championships. It hasbeen good but an Xterra win has again eluded me. I’ll be back.

I have so many to say thanks to this season! A big thanks to my coach, Jared Berg, whohelped me make huge improvements this year! My brother Erik for helping push methrough those hard runs. My sponsorsReal Estate of Winter Park for the Epic Single Track Series, Winter Park Competition Center helped me get to worlds and they put on the best mountain bike series in Coloradothat has helped me develop my bike racing skills. I had an awesome time racing with MORF racingthis season, the first team I have been on. Thanks Newton for theamazing running shoes, Maxxis tires, Redstone Cyclery and First Endurance. Huge thanks to Dave at Bolle Eyewear for theawesome shades! Marie Koepke is amazing with reflexology and Mara Pacyga thebest PT! Also, thanks to Amy at BellaVita. There are so many friends to thankfor your encouragement and support those who come out and cheer and those whojust give words of encouragement. Special thanks to Sarka for helping me with some equipment,amazing! And thanks Keith for the bikebox.

Most importantly I need to thank my family for theirsacrifices. My husband and daughter areamazing and they put up with all my training and weekends racing. My mom, for all the hours she spends withAshlyn making it possible for me to get out for some quality workouts. You are the best!

*If you would like to see more results you can check it out here.

*Go take a look at the course for yourself in the highlight video here.

Xterra US National Championships

2011-10-02T20:42:00.006-06:00

Heading into this race I have been feeling good and motivated and ready to race! I had high hopes, looking for a win! My season has been full of 2nd places in Xterra and I was ready to change that.

My race crew (Ashlyn, my mom, my niece, and I) headed out on Thursday morning bright and early for our long drive to Ogden. It went alright but I had hoped to arrive about an hour earlier than we did but it was no big deal. We drove straight up to Snowbasin on the way into Ogden so I could hop on the bike and ride the new section of the course. It was a good ride. I was feeling great and having alot of fun thinking it was great. But then I realized that they took anything that had been remotely technical for the mountain bike course out to make it even less technical than before. This generally does not bode well for me. I like a course that requires some bike handling skills. When I got to the top I had to make myself slow down and take in the amazing views because I knew I wouldn't do it the next time I was there. I love riding here this time of year!
After the ride we went and got some dinner and made some stops which put us checking in a little late. But we did get upgraded when I checked in which gave us a great room at Ben Lamond which is right next to the race expo area. Perfect location and very nice and comfortable!
Friday we enjoyed the wonderful breakfast included at the hotel then I headed out to get in a little swim and a quick run. Friday was race day for Ashlyn, after registering and getting a hair cut with Paul Mitchell I had to get her over for her race. However, she was sleeping pretty late and almost missed her race. It would be okay but she had been so excited about racing for over a week! She made it just in time and had a great bike!

"This is what Xterra is all about"

Race Day
Race morning came with a lot of extra hype surrounding the race because Lance came out to play. Yes, that is right, 7-time Tour de France winner himself decided to give Xterra a try. It wasn't hard to find him all day. It was fun to have so many more people around lining the course.

Swim -- 26/89 women 12/72 amateur women 5th Age-group
The water felt good even a little warmer when I stepped in than it felt outside. For the first time in this race the pros got their own start wave 30sec ahead of us. I found a spot to start my swim which was similar to what had worked for me last year. The swim was difficult on the way out you have to swim directly into the sun and it is impossible to see anything. I felt pretty good besides the jam of jostling and kicking around the bouys I felt like I was able to find some space and swim at a good pace. I know my swim has improved alot this year but it is hard to know where you are coming out. When I got into transition I was happy to see some ladies I knew were faster than me just getting in too. I sped through and hurried to my favorite portion.

Bike 15/89 women 4/72 amateur 3 Age group
My game plan was to get the legs moving on the road out and then find my best climbing and hit the bike hard the rest of the way and hopefully catch some of the pro women ahead of me. It seemed like it took my legs a little longer than I would have liked to really fell good but I was passing people in no time and figured I must be towards the top of the women based on peoples cheering as I came by. I definitely favor a course that takes some skill on a mountain bike which this course did not have. The course was beautiful though! We climbed out from the swim at 4900 ft up to the top of the Sardine peak trail topping out about 7300 ft and then a fun fast descent into transtion at 6400. So very little downhill which I consider a strength! I was feeling strong but was chagrined when a girl in my age group passed right near the top. Didn't see that one coming. I was able to catch her on the descent but she pulled away on the short climb back to transition. I knew then that I had my work cut out for me on the run. This course convinced me that I would love to have a 29er in my race tools. Every amateur that beat me on the bike was on a 29er and this course was perfect for one... smooth gradual climb.

Run 25/89 women 12/72 amateur 4 Age group
As I headed out on the run I knew that I was going to have to push it. This has always been my weakness. I had a good transition as I slipped on my Newton racers for their first race! I could see the two girls ahead of me and just wanted to catch them. On my way up the first big climb on the run I was told that I was the 5th woman. Really? So, I ran. I did notice that all the camera men on the run where scuring around in front of me and really into taking pictures of the man in front of me. They would click and then pick up and run without taking my photos. I thought it somewhat interesting. Then I passed him and realized why...It was the bachelor Ryan Sutter. I could see the girl in front of me the whole time but could not quite muster enough to catch her. All I knew is that Maia, who has beat me all season was behind me and I was just hoping to hold her off. As, I descended the new part of the run which used to be on the bike I was feeling excited that I was almost there. I came to the end where we rounded the single track to climb about 50 meters up the steep road and then down to the finish. Right before I rounded the turn Maia passed me and I had nothing more to catch her. She got me by 10 secs. knocking me into 4th for my Age group.

Overall I came in 6th Overall, 4th in my Age-group. Not quite the win I was looking for but it was a great race. I knew that I raced strong and it was just amazing that we were all so close. I was less than 4 minutes out of 1st overall on a 3 hour course. That is tight to have the top 6 women that close! The next amateur woman was 5 minutes behind that. Now that is some good racing in the top women!

So now I sit with a mix of emotions being happy with my improvement and performance but also disappointed that it wasn't just a couple minutes better. This is the first time I look at the results and feel like my run time is comparable with the top girls. Thus, I am now fired up for my final push of the season as I gear up for Worlds in Maui on October 23th.

Below (other post) is the fun highlight video of the race and I made the cut! About 6:09 into the video you see me.

Xterra Highlight video

2011-10-02T20:39:00.001-06:00

Check out 6:09!

Getting Ready

2011-09-15T16:43:00.000-06:00

Well we have been trying to make the most of the warm days we have left! It has gotten pretty cool here in the mountains but we did have some fun. On Labor Day we took Ashlyn out for some singletrack on her Strider. We weren't really sure how it would go. Well...she loved it! She was a natural and took it right up over rocks and balancing down the hills. She really didn't want to stop.
Posted some video of the riding on my facebook page.

She is also getting ready to run, run, run. There is a kids bike and run event at Xterra Nationals and Ashlyn is pretty excited. She is also excited for the trip to go and cheer for Mommy.
As for me... it is about a week out and I am feeling pretty good. Ready to race! Also, jsut found out that we will be racing with Lance Armstrong that should make it a even more exciting!

Epic Series Finale!

2011-09-04T12:38:00.001-06:00

Well, last weekend concludes my mountain bike races for this season. Saturday was the King of the Rockies Tipperary race which is the final race of the Epic Single Track Series. This has always been one of my favorite courses too! I had been leading the series with 4 wins and 2 second place finishes. This series overall takes your top five finishes so I was hoping for another win today so I could take the overall with a perfect score.
It was a beautiful morning for a race and I was excited to get going. We started out good and I got into a good climbing pace on the lower part of Tipperary. Once I got to the point I knew I could pick up the pace for the top part I finished passing the last couple Expert women that I was following and then it was time to try and work my way up in the Pro field. I was able to pass a few more and ended up 5th overall and won the Expert field by a decent margin.
I was very happy with my season here in the Winter Park series! Looks like I will be bumping up to Pro next year for the series...yikes.
Just wanted to send a huge Thank you to my main sponsor for this series Real Estate of Winter Park and also to Bolle Eyeware for providing me with some awesome shades!

Xterra Indian Peaks

2011-08-20T14:56:00.000-06:00

Okay, I know that I am a little behind and this race report is a little overdue!
I raced Xterra Indian Peaks in Eldora on Aug 6! I have to say that this is one of my favorite Xterra courses! It is a time trial swim start which makes it feel so much nicer! It is hard to know where you stand the entire race but it is so much less hectic. This year the wind did not start whipping like last year either and that made for a wonderful swim around the little lake even though I found myself swimming really wide and probably a little further than I wanted. Upon exiting the swim you have to throw on some shoes and run quite a ways up to the transition area. This is not the reason this is my favorite course, but I do it to get to the next part.

I had a good transition and jumped on my bike, this is the second and biggest reason I love this course! Alot of fun fast single track! This bike course favors my skills a little better than most Xterra courses in the fact that it is mostly single track and there is a small technical downhill section. I was out there having fun on the bike and was able to burn through my two laps and find that I had caught one of the pro women that started ahead of me and I was able to put down the 3rd fastest bike split, fastest amateur! I threw on my Newtons and headed out on the run with another good transition. Unfortunately it didn't take too long for the pro to pass me again on the run. The run course is also very fun with great single track but that also means it is rough making me slightly weary with my still healing ankle. My running is just still not up to par after my early season injuries and the training lost. I was able to maintain a second place Age Group finish and 6th Overall despite losing 6 minutes to many people on the run.
Now I am trying to get that running pace going for Nationals!
My in-laws also made there way out to Colorado to visit for a little while and there showed up here and were waiting at the finish with big smiles alongside my mom and Drew! Of course, Ashlyn is always there with a big smile and hug too after cheering hard. I think she actually gets it now when I pass and I have been able to hear her sweet little voice, "Go, Mommy, go!" That's a great pick me up! It was a great day with some relaxing in the grass post race!

Crankworx

2011-08-18T08:27:00.000-06:00

Yes that is right, I won!
My season has been going well this year especially in the Epic Single Track Series but I still had yet to win the expert field overall. That was my goal heading into the Crankworx XC race. After Beaver Creek I had some mid season time off for recovery so my legs were feeling nice and fresh.
At the start the Pro women start ahead for this race so I quickly moved to front of the pack and was leading the pace up the first climb. At the road I wasn't sure how comfortable I was with setting the pace that was new to me. I had two girls pass on the lower part of Upper Elk climb and I just climbed my pace and regained the lead on the way down. For the most part I kept the lead the rest of the race until the final climb up Arapaho when the other girl passed me. I just hung with her through the climb because I knew I would put time on her as soon as we started down. I ended up putting 3 min on her in the final miles of single track! I was very happy to take a win here I was 9th overall so I still have room for improvement on those pro women!

Ashlyn got to bring her bike up to the race this time too. She went right over to the little pump track on her Strider and had a blast. This seemed to be when she started to really get it. Now she is loving her bike and wants to go all the time!

Xterra Mountain Championships

2011-07-19T10:47:00.000-06:00

This weekend was Mountain Championships in Beaver Creek it is the final race of the championship series before Nationals and is also known to be the most difficult of the series. Going into the race I was feeling excited to race because I know I have made some big improvements this season but also a little apprehensive about trail running on my still healing ankle. I had to keep telling myself I am already qualified for Worlds so the goal here is to still race hard but not re-injure my ankle!
It was a very nice weekend. Drew and I left early on Friday so he could go and pre ride the course (just so he knew what I would be going through ). We were able to leave Ashlyn with her cousins and my brother-in-law. She was very happy to have a weekend at their house and wasn’t sad at all to say goodbye. It definitely made for a more relaxing race weekend just the two of us. Had a great hotel location right at the start and seemed like everyone was staying there! Went out and found a perfect pre-race paleo dinner across the street and Bob’s Place.
Saturday brought a beautiful race morning as I set up transitions and tried to get my ankle all warm and ready. I got a great spot in transition right next to the pro rack. The race starts in Nottingham lake in Avon. It was a nice 66 degrees for the two lap swim. I tried to start smooth and then get into a good pace. I felt good and actually was able to find some room which I have had trouble doing here in the past. When I stood up out of the water I was excited to see that I was exiting right alongside my teammate, Vanessa, who is a great swimmer. This boosted my confidence because I knew that I had made a big improvement on my swim. I fumbled through transition which was a little slow. I chose to take the time to put on a brace for added support for my ankle. I jumped on my bike and got my legs spinning on the short pavement section before we start climbing. The bike course consists of about 3600 feet of climbing and much of that is right at the beginning. I got into the train of people on the climb which was slightly frustrating but was probably good because it held me to a good pace at the beginning, forcing me to not go out to hard on that climb. I was feeling strong and passed a few ladies on my way up. However, I got passed by one girl near the top. So the chase was on and she is a really great climber. I wasn’t able to catch her and was about a minute and a half behind as I came into T2. Another terrible transition and I was off running trying to get myself psyched for this run course that as always kicked my butt with another 1600 ft of climbing! I had some slight quad cramping on the first big climb but felt that I was able to hold a better pace than in the past. I got to the last single track section and stayed focused on not rolling my ankle. I was still able to cut my run time by 10 minutes.

Success! No rolled ankles and I was able to take 2nd in my age group. I cut my time from last year by 29 minutes! I am happy with the day and now I am looking forward to some more gains by US Nationals in September and then World in October. I know there is room for improvement and also hopefully a strong and healed ankle.

Hill Climb

2011-06-12T17:16:00.000-06:00

Mountain Bike racing has begun in Winter Park! The Hill Climb Kick-off is always the first race in the Epic Singletrack Series. It is also my least favorite of the 7 races. It starts at the base and climbs over 2,000 ft of elevation in 5.3 miles up the mountain road to the top of Mary Jane where the finish line is. I had numerous small issues throughout the race not feeling the best but I was able to push it out and win Expert 30-39. Love you Winter Park but glad the Hill-Climb is behind me! I do much better when there is a lot more to do biking besides climb.

Big Thank you to my main sponsor for this series Real Estate of Winter Park!

3 Grand County Triathletes Perform Well in Moab | SkyHiDailyNews.com

2011-06-02T12:12:00.001-06:00

I was recently featured in an article in the local paper. Check it out.
My ankle is doing alright. Much slower going than I would hope. Building up to run very very slowly. argh!
Also, here are a few fun photos that my friend took in Moab.

3 Grand County Triathletes Perform Well in Moab | SkyHiDailyNews.com

Xterra Moab

2011-05-17T16:10:00.001-06:00

It was so nice to get out of town this week into some sunshine. It was snowing yet again the two days before we left for Moab. Needless to say we were ready to get out of town and actually ride our bikes. Drew, Ashlyn and I left on Thursday and drove till we hit sunshine and warmth! We arrived a little later than we hoped but we did get a great camping spot at Ken's Lake where the triathlon was being held. Our spot was actually right on the run course! Because we got in late we weren't able to get riding that day but we did manage a post dinner hike up to Faux falls which was the run course.
Friday morning, Kim and I set out for a little pre-ride. At first I was a little worried when we climbed the road for awhile and I knew that it was out and back double track. I was hoping it would be a good technical bike course. We got on the Steelbender trail or "Flat Pass" and it turned out to be a very technical bike course. I had a fairly relaxed afternoon with Ashlyn and getting thing ready and nice camp dinner.

Race morning came and it was a little chilly as we rose early. I wasn't really pumped on jumping in the 58 degree lake (glad it wasn't 55 like out in Santa Cruz!) I got a little warm up in and was feeling pretty good my sprained ankles were not feeling bad and I was ready to race. I allowed plenty of time to get in the water and get my feet and face used to the freeze.
The swim went pretty well, I felt good and was about the 6th woman out of the water!

I hit the bike hard to try and catch those top girls! Felt pretty good all the way out and saw that I was 4th at the turnaround and then I had a little bit harder time on my return. Had a few small crashes but also stopped for a fellow racer who went down hard just ahead of me. I stopped to see if there was anything more I could do he hit his head pretty hard. Continuing I came to the end of the bike and out the last little climb both quads cramped really bad but I pushed through I tried to fill up on water and nutrition down to transition. I was really excited to use my new Newton's so I slipped them on and headed out onto the run course feeling pretty strong. My shoes felt great! Light and fast and my ankles felt good however, I was getting some occasional cramps during the run and had to keep taking shot blocks. I felt good going into the second lap. I made it to the water fall and was on the final couple miles when I rolled my ankle all the way over again and went down in a heap. I was so mad that I just re-sprained my ankle (mix of fatigue and over confidence in it) but all I could think was "get up and run quick before the pain sets in!" So that is what I did. I grunted my way to the finish and ended up winning my age group! It will be really great to actually be able to run a race with out and shot ankle!

So the rest of my time in Moab which was supposed to include lots of time on my bike turned out to be just some quality time with Ashlyn while Drew got some good time on the bike. I wasn't allowed to ride at all in case I came off my bike on the rough stuff. Ashy and I had a great time though and enjoyed the warm whether and some ice cream!

Now I have 2 months to focus on rehabing my ankle I only have bike races until Beaver Creek on July 16. I am really hoping to get this ankle strong by then and have a strong race!

South Central Championships in Waco.

2011-05-05T17:41:00.000-06:00

I decided to make a trip south to race in South Central Champs this April. I really wanted to get an early season race in this year and I also wanted to have a chance to qualify for worlds earlier in the season. I have family about an hour and a half from Waco, TX so this race made sense.
It was a long road trip with a two-year old but I brought along my crew (mom and my 12 year-old niece, Alyssa). After a night with Grandma we headed to Waco on Friday to pre-ride. It was a super fun course! I had heard it was a good course but I didn’t have high expectations for TX. The course was really fun and twisty single track through the trees with short steep climbs and it suits me well even though I have only been on bike a handful of times. Saturday I was feeling good and excited for the race on Sunday. I went to the venue listened to the race brief for tips on the course and all then headed out for a little run. About 20 min into my run I rolled my ankle pretty bad. I was really upset as I made my way back. I found some ice and talked with the man in charge of the med stuff for XTERRA, he was really nice. I iced like crazy that night, but I have to say my confidence was not real high.
Race morning I got up extra early to try to stretch my ankle and get some of the stiffness out. Set up transition and tried to prepare myself to race through some pain. The swim was in the river which is something I have not done before. My plan was to swim hard so I could get on the single track early. I felt pretty good on the swim but felt I was all along alone only to look and find that on the upstream portion I was swimming way inside of everybody which would be more in the current and that isn’t fast. I didn’t feel too bad though. I got out made a good transition and hopped on the bike but when I looked at my watch I was not impressed.
I love the bike portion and as I said I knew this was a good course for me. However, being from Winter Park, where everyone is still skiing, I haven’t had much time on my bike yet. I hit the bike hard and felt good with only a few minor “oops” one over the bars and one to the side. I tend to do that on the bike I get to amped and I make silly mistakes. I made some passes but felt pretty alone out there so I had no idea where I was in the pack. I did turn in 9th fastest bike split (including pros). I finished strong and prepared myself for what I knew would be the hardest part. My run has always been my weak link so that didn’t help. I slipped on my Newton’s and headed out. As soon as I started I just tried to change my mindset and tell myself that I am not a bad runner and I can pass people on the run. I was surprised at how strong I felt despite the ankle. I knew it was hindering me some but I felt good. That early season focus on my run is paying off, big shout to coach Jared. The last part was hard mottled clay and that was the worst. I made it through the finish and went straight to the med tent for some ice. I still had no idea where I had finished then my mom went and got my time card and I found that I was 2nd in my Age-group which means I qualified for worlds!
I ended up 12th overall 4th Amateur. Not a bad end to a roller coaster weekend.

Big thanks to everyone who helped.
• Newton, the shoes felt great even with a sprained ankle, light and fast.
• Marie, my reflexologist who helped with oils on my ankle.
• Jared, my coach, obviously all the run training has paid off so far.
• My support crew, my mom and niece Alyssa who not only take care of my crazy two-year-old but help me out a lot.

It has been too long!

2011-05-04T08:45:00.001-06:00

Sorry about the lack of blogging. I guess I am not very good at this. However, I am going to reclaim this blog and try again. I am hoping to make this a good place to share life including updates on family and race reports!

Ashlyn's First Birthday!

2010-01-19T02:50:00.001-07:00

Wow, it has been a long time since I updated this! Oops! I was going to be really good about it and keep posting about here in India for anyone that might read this. Sorry about that. Well...I did want to post a couple of videos of Ashlyn here for the grandparents. This was Ashlyn's first birthday. We had some yummy pancakes for breakfast and then some onion pakhoras and cake for lunch! She got chocolate cake (thanks to the lovely and talented Amanda baking wonderful cakes over our wood stove) sans frosting (that is hard to come by here in Kaffer). It was a pretty good day. I can't believe that she is 1!!
I will try to post a little catch up post here soon!

On our way!

2009-11-17T20:42:00.003-07:00

Okay! Christmas with the family has been celebrated as well as Thanksgiving. felicity has been watched. We have packed and repacked our 5 bags at least 3 times. They are now loaded. Carry-ons are ready. Passports on the desk. E-tickets are printed. Good-byes have been said. Ashlyn has taken her last bath. Christmas cards are almost ready. The house has been cleaned. The 'to-do' list is officially all checked off. I think we are ready. Now I am sitting down to relax and watch one more movie with my parents.
I can't believe that tomorrow we head over the ocean to spend the next 6 months in India. There is, of course, a whole mix of emotions that go with this. Mostly excited but also worried about the next four days of traveling with a 10-month-old who doesn't sit still. This includes 24 hours of flight time, 20 hours on the train, and additional 5 hours in a jeep.
Now I am exhausted as I sit down to write one last post before we leave. I know it will be a week till we get settled and have a chance to update.
Farewell Winter Park. See you on the flip side.

Clapping, Climbing and Walking

2009-11-08T16:02:00.003-07:00

We had a big week last week. Ashlyn started clapping which is fun whenever you say yay! Then we went down to Colorado Springs for the weekend. We had fun seeing friends and we went to Old Colorado city on Halloween for a little bit. Ashlyn got to borrow a lady bug costume and it was pretty fun. Later that night she got brave and took her first steps. She is getting a little better at it everyday but she still only takes a handful of steps at a time. She did decide, however, that she still likes climbing the bast!!

One Month

2009-10-18T16:35:00.004-06:00

The countdown is on! We have one month from today until we leave for India. Where does the time go? It flies...that is why I feel like I have been blogging but it has been a long time since I posted.
Anyway, one month! There are so many feelings that go with that but I think mostly it just feels surreal. Are we really moving to India in a month! I have to really set my head to it and think about and then it hits that we probably have a million things to do before then. I guess the big things are pretty much taken care of but there are all those little things that go along with leaving the country for 6 months. Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed.
It is really exciting though after so many years of talking about going overseas it is finally happening. It is hard to leave family and friends at the same time.

For anyone who reads this and doesn't know, we are on our way to India! This summer we started a small non-profit organization called ECTA. ECTA means unity in Nepali and we use it as an accronym, Empowering Communities to Transcend Adversity. Our first project is in the Northeastern part of West Bengal India. We are going there to serve and train villiage Health workers and start a small clinic and dispensary and eventually help to establish and Emergency respoonse system. This is a very rural area in the Himalayan foothills that don't have much government aid as far as health care etc.
Well, that is it in a nutshell. If you would like to know more about ECTA you can go to our website: ECTA International

Little mover

2009-08-30T12:22:00.004-06:00

So the crawling excitment didn't last too long. As soon as Ashlyn started crawling she decided to start pulling up and climbing on things! And now here we are and she doesn't do bad with this little walker.

Summer

2009-08-04T11:07:00.004-06:00

Wow! How did it get to be August already!?! I guess I need to peice together an update of the last month!
I have been doing well! I finished my third Xterra triathlon of the summer on Saturday. This one was a little shorter and I did alot better than the first two! I am having fun doing them. On Saturday at the Indian Peaks Xterra I placed 5th in my Age-group and I think that I qualified to the USA Championships in Ogden, UT at the end of September! So now I am into some serious training for the that race! Here are some fun pics at the races.

Ashlyn is growing so fast! I can't believe she is 7 months old now! She has been crawling for about 2 weeks now and she pulled herself up the other day! I am not ready for that. I think she really would rather walk she crawls but then she always gets up on her feet. She sure is alot of fun!

Yep she did this one all on her own.

In other news we have decided to go to India in the fall with our new non-profit ECTA. I will post more about that later.

6 months old!

2009-07-05T15:11:00.005-06:00

I can't believe my baby is already 6 months old. I was playing some photos and I tried putting together a little video for the half birthday. This is Ashlyn's favorite song! She smiles everytime I sing it for her.

Birthday

2009-07-01T13:18:00.003-06:00

Yep today is my 28th birthday. Wow were have the years gone. I just remember turning 20 and thinking that what crazy and reflecting on that much of my life and now all of a sudden it is 8 years later and I don't even know how that happened! not really doing anything special today everyone is working so Ashlyn and I are just hanging out together having fun! I have re-entered the world of racing this summer. I did my first Xterra post-Ashlyn on the 20th. It was good but I was slow. I am not used to being that slow but I also knew that I couldn't have high expectations with what I have done this year. Then I did the bike race for the Winter Park series on Saturday, I was pretty slow in that one too but I had fun and still got 3 that is only because there are no girls my age that race in my category. Okay that is all I have on this Birthday post! Here is a cute video of Ashlyn. Apparently her cousin Alyssa is the only one who can make her laugh.

Ashlyn's Tribute to Michael Jackson.

2009-07-01T13:04:00.004-06:00

Trying to crawl

2009-06-19T09:05:00.003-06:00

Wow, she is really working hard on these skills and wanting to crawl. Maybe this is why she decided she doesn't want to take her nap in the morning anymore... she has too much to accomplish.

Fun Things

2009-06-18T09:42:00.005-06:00

Ashlyn got to start on her first foods last week! It was pretty exciting for her. those first couple bites were a little strange but by the end she was loving her rice cereal! She loves that stuff.
Getting an early start on her Climbing magazine.

Also, a little video on one of here favorite things Bouncing and moving!

Watching

2009-06-10T11:13:00.003-06:00

Here is a little video. She really never stops wiggling.

Texas

2009-05-27T09:19:00.005-06:00

Last week we had a whirlwind trip to Texas and a jaunt to Oklahoma to see both of the Grandma Greats. It was good but also packed and went so fast.
While in Arlington at my aunt and Uncle's we were able to spend some nice mornings by the pool. Ashlyn went swimming for the first time, I think she had fun. We also got to go to the Rangers ballgame. Jim got a suite for everyone. That was fun, I haven't ever been to a game in a suite! Our trip to OK was very short but sweet. we got to ride up with Drew's parnets and spent the night and his grandmother's house. It was very quick but good to see her and Uncle Kent and Michelle. Here are a couple of fun pics from the trip I will post some more when I get them off of other people's cameras like pics with the GG's.

At the ballgame!

Fruita

2009-05-09T10:30:00.006-06:00

Last week on Drew's four days we decided we had to get out of town to do something! We went to Fruita to get some warm sunshine and ride our bikes! It was a great time. Our friend Brian met us over there so that was good then Drew and I could take shifts going for rides. Brian even took a turn with Ashlyn and had a party! It was a lot of fun. Ashlyn is a great camper so far, good thing since she is our daughter I don't think she has much choice. :) I think we wore her out the first day she couldn't make it to bed time. Yum! Thanks, Brian, for the Elk stake! In other news, my title got taken from me at the Spring Splash! broke my 6 year streak. Maybe only skiing twice this year and still having 20 extra pounds had something to do with it. Lame... oh well I still got some money!

Catching Up

2009-04-14T12:36:00.008-06:00

Oops! I guess it has been a little while since I posted on here. Since we have a new little girl all are pictures have her in them so we will just do a little photo tour of the last month and a half to catch up with what has been happening.

Ashlyn took her first plane ride to go see her Grandmommy and Papa Sullivan in TX.

In March she got to have a party with daddy in the Crowne Plaza while I went to the Phantom of the Opera with my mom and sister for their birthday.

Later in March she took her first camping trip to Moab. It was fun going to Arches and camping in the desert.

Early April we got to take a trip down to Colorado Springs where she got to hang out and meet all our friends there!

And then, yes, we celebrated Easter dress and all! What a fun day!

"Does this diaper make my butt look big?"

Snowshoeing!

2009-02-25T15:12:00.004-07:00

Ashlyn went on her first snowshoe trip this weekend. You can tell from the pictures that she loved it... or maybe she just loves the babybjorn...she couldn't stay awake in it if she tried. Anyway, I had fun getting out in our spring February weather.

Ashlyn all ready to go out

Then a cut pic of Ashlyn on the couch like a big girl.

Smiles and Football!

2009-02-04T12:26:00.005-07:00

Wow! I can't believe that Ashlyn is already a month old. It has been a hard month for me. I didn't expect the recovery to take so long. It has been hard to not be able to do anything cause I am still so uncomfortable. I just want to go for a run!! However, the last week has been sooo much better. I feel like I woke up one morning a couple days ago and everything was better. Ashlyn is sleeping better and we have figured out our routine, while not 100% I am feeling much better, physically and emotionally. I even was able to clean the house the other day!
Motherhood is such an adjustment and while hard it has been so fun. Ashlyn is always changing and she is just so adorable. It is amazing how much you can love this little tiny person even when you are mad and exhausted.

Here are some of the latest pics!

Here is Ashlyn all dressed and ready for the Super Bowl. Oh wait...the broncos didn't play? Oh yeah, they pulled off the amazing feat of losing a 3 game lead and didn't even make it to the playoffs, which is why Ashlyn hadn't had a chance to wear this yet. So, we rooted hard for the Cardinals but at heart we are still Broncos fans.

This is momentous!! Ashlyn started smiling 2 days ago. I love it!! I caught one on camera this morning. Of course it is much cuter in person...

2009-01-21T12:36:00.001-07:00

Ashlyn's arrival!

2009-01-10T12:42:00.011-07:00

Okay so here is the story for those of you who want all the gory details be careful in reading too far if you don't want it all :)
So like I said it took awhile for our new bundle to arrive. I was just over a week overdue and really at my wits end. I didn't think she was ever going to come. So my post about all the things people say to do. I tried them all! I mean all and multiple times nothing did anything! I had been having contractions for over a week but they where just like braxton-hicks ones that would never actually turn into anything more. So, I decided that she was never going to come out and we had to evict her from that cozy home to bring her to ours. We were able to do this just over week overdue because we live up in the mountains so they will induce slightly earlier (don't want to get stuck in a snow storm in labor). I think the final straw too was that my friend who was three weeks behind me in her pregnancy went into labor on the First! I couldn't believe that Alena beat Ashlyn out!
So being emotionally drained I decided I couldn't handle another 4 days when they would have to induce she needed to come now.

Here is me on my last day of being pregnant before we headed to the hospital.

We went to the hospital on Friday the 2nd I was having contractions that morning and was scheduled to induce that night anyway they didn't seem to be anything crazy yet but they said to go ahead and come in since we would be there that night anyway. So of course on the way the contractions petered out so they checked me and then gave us a four hour pass to leave and told us to go and do something walk around eat a good meal and such and then come back around 8 or 9 to get going. We chacked in that night and they give you something through the night to get the cervix ready before the pitocin she told me that it hardly ever works that this just gets labor going they almost always have to do the pitocin which I wasn't too keen on. Anyway, first dose nothing much changed so I got the second dose at 2am. I woke up at 5am with real contractions that were less than a minute apart. At 6am I was about 2cm. Well that never stopped so I didn't have to get the pitocin. But I also decided I wasn't that tough because those contractions were right on top of each other so I decided to spring for the epidural. Well, that took over an hour and a half to come and then I was 10 cm and Ashlyn got a little stressed cause it went fast. So they gave the epidural and something to slow it down just a little and let us both rest. The nurse sent Drew to go get breakfast so he had energy for the hard part. Well, we had to call and tell him we were waiting for him to get back to start pushing. My midwife said "you will probably push for awhile since this is your first... an hour or two is ver normal." Then she said lets just see how things are give me a test push on this next one. So we did and she was like "good... wow okay Stop! Okay you wont be pushing that long" Then she hurried away to get ready.
Dad got back and she came back and we started pushing it took a little bit about 20 or 30 minutes to get here all the way through. Yeah!! My 8lb 4oz bundle of cuteness finally came! I am still convinced that she would still be in there if we hadn't done something.

New arrival and she loves those fingers!

The proud Nana B

A happy sleeper with her dad

Ashlyn has arrived!

2009-01-08T19:27:00.001-07:00

Yes she is here and is now five days old. Just wanted to put a quick update but I am too tired at the moment to post any pictures so maybe I will do it tomorrow.

Ashlyn was too comfortable in there so we had to evict her she arrived on Jan 3 at 12:09pm weighing 8lbs 4oz and 19 3/4in long.
I will put details and pictures soon!

Do what...?

2008-12-22T15:16:00.002-07:00

I find it interesting that an impending due date makes everyone think that they need to tell you the "tricks" of going into labor. This started for me as soon as I was 37 weeks!! Seriously! 37 weeks!! that is barely inside a month away from my due date. Yes, I know that I am full-term at that point and definately ready to be done but seriously, if she was going to come then I think it would happen and nothing was really going to be the magic trick.
What is with all these tricks anyway? It is almost as if everyone thinks that because they happened to do such-and-such right before they went into labor, that makes it the secret to inducing labor. I'm pretty sure that you were really just ready to go into labor and it would have happened wether you drank your raspberry tea or not.
There are so many of them too! Here are just a few...
You have the usual... glass of wine, bounce on a ball, jump up and down(that sounds like something I want to do right now) drink raspberry leaf tea, and of course sex will make it happen. But I have also gotten some that I hadn't heard. Message the magic pressure point inside your ankle about 4 fingers up from the ankle bone, don't drink to much and get a little dehydrated (interesting concept), push pressure on the roof of your mouth while sucking your thumb, eat pizza, etc. I am sure there are more that I can't think of right now. But all of these I have heard at least once in the last 3 weeks. Pretty sure they are all a bunch of wives tales, I have now tried many of them over the last two nights and nothing...just as I expected.
I find it interesting though that people have such a need to tell you the secrets of going into labor or to tell you how it is going to be labor, motherhood and all. Really?!?
Anyway, I will get off of my ranting now! I am ready to have this little girl! Only four days! I wouldn't mind at all if she came today but I really don't want to spend Christmas in the hospital so if not today she has to wait until after and based on my level of comfort today sounds fantastic!!

Here is the latest pic! Taken 38 almost 39 weeks in all my hugeness of pregnancy!

Christmas time

2008-12-09T18:07:00.002-07:00

I am loving the fact that I have a little time this week to relax and get the house decorated. I was fighting off getting sick last week and am still a little bit. So it has been good to take it easy. I need to get better and get some energy back before this baby can come.
Yesterday we decorated the house for Christmas. I love doing that it always feels so cozy. Maybe I will curl up and watch a Christmas movie and nip this cold. Drew is on shift so I am all by myself.
Also, I pretty much got the nursery cleaned up and Ashlyn's bed made so I am ready to go. Oh...except for that whole packing for the hospital thing. I have that half done. Not really sure what to do. I probably should finish that since I really don't have much time left. Any tips from those who have done this?

I got tagged!

2008-11-22T18:02:00.006-07:00

I got tagged by the Poores

Here are the rules:
1. choose the 4th picture folder on your computer.
2. choose the 4th picture.
3. explain the picture.
4. tag 4 people to do the same.

This is a picture of my niece, Alyssa on Christmas morning in 2004. She is holding the doll that we gave her. IT is a barbie type from India.

I tag:
Amy Porter
Susan Sullivan
Valerie Bauman
Jill McFarlane

Latest and greatest!

2008-11-18T13:10:00.002-07:00

Wow! Only like 40 days left!! I think I just hit that point where I am now ready to quit being big and have a baby. I am suddenly feeling rather large lately. While time has flown I am ready for these last 6 weeks to go really fast.
Here is my latest preggo pic.

34 Weeks of belly!

That was fun....

2008-11-10T10:30:00.003-07:00

Thursday I went to Denver to pick up Drew from the airport after his trip to Bhutan. He had a really good trip they didn't end up meeting the king because he got called away by the head religious person (Je Kenpo) for some stuff before his coronation in the 6th. However, the queen of the fourth King had read the proposal and was very excited about our ideas. She set up a meeting for them with her staff for the Taryana foundation. They had a very good meeting and they all seemed very positive. Now it is a wait and see kind of thing.

So, that wasn't the fun part though. I had a Dr appointment and my blood pressure has been going up since the beginning of my pregnancy. Nothing else has really benn happening but the midwife seems to be a little concerned about Pre-Ecclampsia or pregnancy induced hypertension. My blood pressure is still not at the point where they say you need to be tested for it but because it has risen enough from my starting point they wanted to test me more. So, guess what that means! I got to do a 24 hour urine test and give more blood! Yes, that is right I got to keep all of my pee for a 24 hour period. Fortunatly we were already planning to spend the night in Denver but we weren't planning on staying until 2pm. Well, this is one thing to save your pee when you are in the comfort of your own home with your bathroom and such it is entirely another when you are staying at some friends house and running around Denver. I put an old Nalgene to good use :) Now we will wait and see if they find anything.
Well, I decided I needed to find out a little more about Pre-ecclampsia if this was a possilbe issue. Pretty much all the information says that there really isn't any prevention for this and there really isn't any treatment besides getting the baby out. Wikipedia says that pre-ecclampsia (toxemia) can be an immune response to some of the father's genes and some studies have shown that continued and frequent exposure to the baby's father's semen has been shown to reduce the risk. Interesting...

What does that say!

2008-10-22T10:17:00.002-06:00

Holy Crap does that ticker say 68 days! I can't believe it is sneaking up on me. The snow the last two days made it even more real that "it's snowing...we're going to have a baby soon!"
Well, this weekend we went to Colorado Springs and I had my first baby shower. It was alot of fun to get to see all of our friends and catch up. That is definatley the more pleasant part of being pregnant. I got to marvel that last couple days at how much weight I could gain in 4 days. It is amazing I will be slowly gaining or holding steady and then BAM I gain 4 pounds in about 4 days! The doctor will love that one tomorrow. Its so much fun...
In all actuality though I am still feeling pretty good. Of course I am getting bigger and it is getting harder and harder to move things around. My baby girl is getting stronger and stronger in my belly which cause for some uncomfortable kicks at times.

The Name...
Speaking of which I think that we did decide on a name!! I believe that we are going to go with Ashlyn Brooke. However, as my friend Jamie says I do reserve the right to change my mind at any time.

I am going to do it even thought this is getting scarier and scarier to post these pictures. I know there are some who want to see these things. :) So here it is....

30 Weeks!! Only 10 to go.

26 Weeks!

2008-09-23T16:27:00.004-06:00

Yep I am now 26 weeks and almost into my third tri. I guess I have to keep putting up the pictures now. I actually think I am looking pretty big now.

Also, being the indecisive person I am I thought I would get a little input on the name! So I am putting up a poll! Please place your vote in the upper right corner!!

So long sweet summer....

2008-09-09T10:45:00.005-06:00

I can't believe it is already well into September. You can certainly tell up here. IT was like September hit and it got cool right away. You can tell that fall is in the air.
So Pikes peak came and went this year. I had a friend that did this year. we were supposed to train together. I was sad that I couldnt' do it this year. but the fact that that was the weekend it snowed helped lighten the dissappointment a little bit. There is always next year! It is just crazy to think how much pregnancy changes you. Right now I am actually okay with the cooler weather coming because I want to put on sweats and big comfy sweatshirts.:)

I am so excited that the football season is finally here. It has been hard though having a whole new team! The first game last night went well. I am wary of making any judgements on how well they will do just based on the fact that the Raiders were terrible.

Well, here it is my 24 week belly picture with a little Bronco spirit.

...and this was a year ago........

Really?

2008-08-20T10:44:00.002-06:00

We had our Ultrasound on Monday and we are having a Girl!! Yep thats right she is a girl and I was wrong. Now I am having to change my thinking a little for a girl. I just thought it would be a boy so I had boy names that I liked but no girl names and now I can't even think of any. I'll get there though. Of course we are excited and I am happy to know. She gave us a very good view too! There wasn't really any doubt. Good baby! I was so nervous that she might not cooperate and we wouldn't find out. I finally feel like I can start planning somewhat. I already have a whole box of clothes too. There are all 6-12 months but my sister held on to them for me when she found out I was pregnant. I think she was pretty happy to get those out of her house.
Since we found out I have spent alot of time looking at girl names and Nursery bedding. I hadn't really done any of that yet, now I sense some urgency or something because I only have 19 weeks and I think it might be gone before I realize especially since part of that is November and Decamber which always seem to fly by.

Here it is!

That's me 21 weeks and our baby Girl!

Welcome to Winter Park

2008-08-16T19:09:00.004-06:00

Yep, you gotta love Colorado. This is the view from our front porch and yes that is snow! It was hailing this morning as we headed to work which means, with the long cold winter, we didn't even make it two full months without snow this summer. Yes, I guess there are those down sides to living in the mountains.

In Other(pregnancy news) I am over halfway! That is crazy to me. We have an ultrasound scheduled for Monday and that is when we will hopefully find out what we are having! Then we can serious about this business. I am so excited, just praying that everyone cooperates. I will keep posted wit hthe exciting news.

I'll be brave

2008-07-15T20:57:00.002-06:00

Okay so I guess I can put up some pics of my baby bump. It has just started and for the past weeks it hasn't begun to look like a pregnant belly yet but like I was just chubby. That is so much fun

So there it is my begining baby bump at 16 weeks.

WHAT! Him!!!

2008-07-02T13:07:00.002-06:00

Apparently I can't watch the bachelorette while I am pregnant. Okay, first a little bacground. This is a show that I don't usually watch anyway because I hate the concept of everybody getting mad and all butt hurt about opening up and about hte bachelor being with other people. Hello, idiot, you knew that was what the show was about in the first place when you went on! The problem is sometimes if I do watch I get hooked by the absurdity.
Anyway, I have watched ONE episode this season but then I was bored and ended up watching the last two weeks. Well, I ended up bawling during the end of the show when she had to let the guy go. I guess I was kind of shocked.
I just thought this funny and absurd that I can cry at a show that I don't really like and I haven't even watched much of....
ah pregnancy...

Mt Hood

2008-07-01T11:11:00.003-06:00

Well I made it! I survived 10 days of summer ski camp. I find that summer camp is exhauting normally but being pregnant made it really exhausting. Getting up at 5am and skiing from 7 to 12 then having dryland in the afternoon makes for a full day. If I didn't use my hour between lunch and dryland to sleep I never would have made it. That hour was my sanity. Aside from a few days that I got tired and crabby (sorry girls) I think I did alright for most of the trip. It came down to the last four days when I had afew emotional breakdowns. These swings from just being tired to walking through town bawling were all brought on by minor things from other coaches. :) It is good to be home. We did have our share of exccitement too. One of the girls got stung by a bee and had a mild allergic reaction making her hand swell like a balloon. Then on the way home we had one pass out in Subway because she doesn't eat and they called the ambulance. She was okay. I definately don't get paid enough! All in all it was a good trip I don't want it to sound all negative.
Its good to be home now.

So today is my birthday! I can't believe I am 27. I feel old. :) I am now the same age my dad was when he moved here to Winter Park. He never left. SO, I am now 27, been married 5 1/2 years and I am 14 weeks pregnant. I think next year will be very different.

Silly reasons to cry.

2008-06-05T12:04:00.002-06:00

So I fugured it might be fun now to blog about all the great things of pregnancy. I have a good story. Of course the hormones are going crazy these days and I find I may have a huge mood swing over nothing in particular.
Well this, so far, is the winner for the silliest reason I have cried.
We were in Denver not too long ago for my first prenatal appointment. That was lots of fun I got asked all sorts of crazy questions examined and then they took all my blood (five vials!) As we were driving home we were both hungry and needed to stop and eat before we left Denver. Drew asked me where I wanted to eat, as usual, and I said I wanted Arby's with curly fries. If you know me at all you know that I am normally not opinionated at all about where we eat and I will go anywhere because I am not a picky eater and am very easy to please. Drew seemed slightly surprised, that didn't sound like the most healthly choice and we discussed for a moment if that was really what I wanted. YES. So, we are driving west through denver with no Idea where an Arby's is on our route. We drove up and back on some roads that looked promising to no avail. At this point Drew said that he knew where a Goodtimes was and that he really enjoyed that and I would too because they have good seasoned fries as well. If we did not find an Arby's by the time we got there we were going to Goodtimes. As we neared the exit I searched frantically for an Arby's but didn't see the beautiful sign. As we pulled into the parking lot I felt devastated and the tears welled up. Drew looked at me astonished not really knowing what to do. I think at first he thought I was kind of kidding but then he saw the tears. "Are you seriously going to cry?" Well, I did but also laughed a little at how absurd the whole thing was. I cried over Arby's.

Yes, its true

2008-05-22T17:27:00.001-06:00

If you don't know already... you did see correctly my new ticker at the top.
I am pregnant! We are due on December 26th. I can't beleive all the changes already in my little baby.

Hot in AZ, Cold in CO

2008-05-01T19:33:00.002-06:00

"Good morning here are a couple inches of snow for you on this first day of May, just in case you hadn't had enough of it all winter" Welcome to spirng in Colorado. by the way... did I miss April???

April

-Drew came back from the Grand Canyon refreshed and ready to go back
-I finished up the ski season strong with the athletes
-I did race the Spring Splash again and win $350 but I was a little disgruntled about the fact that the male winner won $800! What is up with that!!
-The ski area closed with a base of over 100 inches! so we decided to get out of town.
-I got a new bike so that I can race fast this summer and beat everyone!
-We went to fruita and spent a couple days biking and then we had to take it easy so I could rest up for my upcoming race. so we went down to Zion and did a hike there and then headed through Sedona AZ and then went down to North of Mesa so I could run my spring kick-off Xterra triathlon.
That went pretty well I knew I wasn't race ready yet and I would get worked some. Well, It was stinking hot on race day!!! I thought I was going to die but I pushed through and made it. I ended up taking 3rd in the age-group and 15th overall. kind of middle of the roadish.

Now it is May and it decided to greet us with snow! Currently unemployed for the off-season and I need to find a summer job... ugh
Lots to catch up!

Spring!

2008-03-25T17:53:00.002-06:00

Yay! It has actually gotten warm out this week. It has been crazy this winter it just keeps snowing and then it is still cold when I go to work and I wonder what month it is. But the last two days it has actually been really warm! It is so exciting. It is at the end of the season now when I am kind of fried Junior Olympics are over and I am ready to ride my bike now. The problem is, I know the ski area is going to close and then there will be about a month where I go crazy. Skiing is done but there is still snow everywhere so I won't be able to bike and it will be muddy and gross an it will probably snow!

Anyway, things are good. I have races for the rest of the week and I am just hoping that it stays nice and doesn't rain. Right now I am bachelorettin it (like my made up words) cause Drew is down kayaking the Grand Canyon until April. I hope he is having fun. That makes it a little quiet around the house but I have been so busy I could barely notice until yesterday when I finally had a day off. It was great, I cleaned my house.

Qualified

2008-02-21T10:26:00.002-07:00

Well, I just finished a week of hard training and racing with my athletes and I am wiped out. You would think I was the one doing it all.
This weekend we had the J3 Junior Olympic qualifiers here at Winter Park. It turned out to be a great weekend. 5 of my athletes qualified for JO's in two weeks in Vail. All of them did a great job at the races.

Now I am sick because I never rest and I am outside all day coaching so I have this cold that has been barely hanging on for a month and now it has flared again. I am trying to lie low and just get rid of it now. But, you know me and that is very difficult especially since it is getting nice out.

Well, that is all right now sorry it is nothiing too exciting.

February?

2008-02-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

Can't believe it is already February! Sorry to my few readers for not posting in so long. winter has been a little crazy.

I got back from India expecting to work this winter with J4's on the weekends and then help my boss, Jeff Burrows, during the week with the ability women. Well, I came back for the first week of the season to find that the head Age-class/J3 coach had been let go and arrested. Well, that put a kink in the whole plan and I became the J3 full-time coach. This was going fine then we had a series of serious circumstances and the other coach, Fred, who was pretty much in charge of the J3's communication and scheduling etc, was taken out of the picture. His wife had a serious stroke. So, now my responsibilities got bumped up and now I am the head J3 coach which pretty much makes me the head age-class coach. I know many of you don't really know what all I am talking about, but basically I have a lot more responsiblity now. I think the hardest part is it is really challenging my decision making skills. If you know me you know I hate to make decisions. Now I am challenged with decisions on training and which races which athletes should go to and all sorts of things. That part is really difficult at times but also I am loving it. It had been a little crazy. Last weekend was the first weekend in a month that I was in town. I had been traveling for races quite a bit. Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, Aspen, then I got to be home and train and Free ski.
So, the winter is going well. My athletes are doing well and we are getting ready for the junior Olympic qualifiers at Winter Park. It should be exciting to see who
qualifies.

So there isn't really much else going on right now. I am back though and will try to keep up on this again. For my three faithful reader. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

Yes we are back now. Sorry to any readers for taking so long to let you know.
We came back on a Tuesday with jet lag and I started working Friday and didn't have a real day off until this week.
It has been a little tiring. So now we are back and we are right into the swing of things for this winter. The problem is that there is hardly any snow around here and it has been so warm they have been having a hard time even making snow! So now it is past Thanksgiving and there are still only 2 runs open at Winter Park. It has been so weird. Let me tell you my athletes love doing drills on the same run for 2 weeks...
Anyway, I updated the posts from our trip with the photos pertaining to that post so make sure you scroll back through to see some pics and here is a little slideshow of the whole thing.

There"s a place in India.....

2007-11-02T07:43:00.000-06:00

where you can't see anyone! I know it sounds crazy but it is true. We went for another short trek the last four days it was to a place called Dodital (trout lake).
It was a beautiful hike and there was hardly anyone and long periods where we would not see a soul. This was much more my idea of trekking than what we experienced in Nepal. If you want to look on a map Go north of Delhi till you find DehraDun then go further north to Utterkashi then a little further from there is where we began the trek. We only had limited time so we made our first day a long one with a 23k hike to the lake. then we went up to the Darwa pass, a little over 13,000 ft. It felt like home!

Right now our trip is winding down. Tomorrow morning we will leave the Himalayas and head to Agra via Delhi on the train. We will spend our last two nights there and see the Taj Mahal, something have have wanted to do for a very long time. I hope it lives up to its name. Then Monday it will be back to Delhi to begin the long flight home. When we get home I will give the Bhutan portion and also add some pictures!

Stop the bus already!

2007-10-26T06:06:00.000-06:00

We made it back to India to Moosurie but only after a long journey.
I had been thankful so far. Almost all the roads that we have been traveling on in this part of the world are very windy and I always see throw up on the sides of share jeeps and stuff like that but, thankfully, I had remained relatively naive to the experience being part of my journey. Well, that has changed. We left Pokhara on a bus bound for the border town of Sunauli. This is a 6 hour journey and we started with a very comfortable load of passengers, but....we are in Asia so along the way we continuously stop to pick up more and more and even more. So the bus is very packed which is fine but then all these Nepali people are getting sick! First the lady right across the aisle from Drew is throwing up into a little plastic bag, then some kid in the front is throwing up out the window and they are passing out bags. I could handle it for awhile and it even seemed like we got through the worst of it. There were no really bad smells because most of it made it out of the bus it was the sounds that were bad. Well, we weren't done. People continued to vomit later on. I can't even count how many people vomited during this trip but now it is strewn all down the sides of the bus and you can smell it when the bus stops and you don't have the breeze.
Apparently the bus driver is very used to this sort of thing because he just continues on the way. This was the most difficult bus ride to date. At least 20 pukers.

Nepal and other things....

2007-10-22T01:41:00.000-06:00

So other than the part when I decided to head but a rock we have been having a really great time in Nepal. First, we went to The Last Resort and went bungy jumping on the second highest bungy jump in the world. Yes, I finally got to go bungy jumping. It was soo crazy. Wow that is quite the feeling!

Anyway, we were really interested in checking out this particular resort to see how they had done things for our ideas in Bhutan. The place was great. The next day we went rafting on the Bhote Kosi. Drew kayaked that one and I rafted and yes, I made it through the whole trip. After that we spent another day in Kathmandu and then made our way to Pokhara. Then, as you know (if you read this at all) about our trip on the Kali Gandaki. The last 4 days we went trekking in the Annapurnas. We did a trek called Poon Hill. It was very fun. I was actually surprised by how nice the tea houses were. You could order all kinds of food, they had hot showers... Not quite how I picture trekking but maybe that is because I think more backpacking. We have another day to rest here in Pokhara and then we are heading back to India. The Last Resort Poon Hill with our guide Fish Tail I am glad to know that the Broncos finally had a better game this weekend. I was beginning to think I might be glad I was missing all those games. The Rockies....wow what is going on there? They finally are good and we are missing the whole thing! My mom has been keeping me up. My uncle has the connections so he got tickets for them. So my parents get to go and enjoy the World Series with my aunt and uncle in Denver. Ane the snow! I am missing the snow. Apparently it has snowed a couple of times now. I know it is going to be a shocker anyway coming from India and start skiing the next couple of days. Okay, I will try to tell all about Bhutan soon. Stay tuned.

I was rafting in Nepal

2007-10-16T23:30:00.000-06:00

Yep, that is the answer... When people ask about the new scar I will have on my forehead, that is the answer.
On the 15th we bagan a 3-day rafting trip on the Kali Gandaki river near Pokhara. I got to raft about 10 minutes when we came to a Class 4 rapid. Right before the guide told us about the rapid and what we needed to do not to get stuck in the hole where there was a big rock on the left. As we were floating into the rapid we watched the raftin front of us flip and then proceeded to do exactly what the guide had said we should not do. A very large reactionary wave on river right sent the boat straight down into a big rock on the laft effectively splattering all the people on the left side of the boat right into the rock. I, apparently took the brunt and got a large gash on the forehead just above my eye. Not as much blood as the last time and thankfully not the force of impact. I had to get out and we hiked up the small town that was nearby. There was a small clinic right there on the main road.
I got about 4 sutures for a cut that is about and inch.
Quite the experience. We hiked back down to the camp and stayed that night but the next day I had to head back to Pokhara, being that you are not supposed to raft with stitches. So, I am fine we got an extra day to relax here in Pokhara before we go on a short trek and then head back to Inida.

Stitches

After Stitches

"Get the heck out of Delhi"

2007-10-16T23:22:00.000-06:00

Okay, I know I am back tracking. since I didn't have a chance to blog early on I am catching up now. This should have been the first one of our trip.

We arrived in Delhi after our plane out of Denver was delayed over and hour and we only had a half hour layover in chicago to begin with. We barely made our flight to Delhi so needless to say our bags had no chance. we decided it would be easiest to just wait for our bags and then go on from there. Well that laft us in Delhi for three days rather that overnight. Traveling in Delhi is very difficult and we thought somewhat miserable. Anywhere we went people saw the white skin and it was attack time! How much money could they get from us. So, we decided our new phrase was "Let's get the heck out of Delhi". We went to see a couple of the sights but would get so sick of peopl all over us we were tempted to hide in our hotel.
We did, however find a very great guest house that was a reasonable price. The Wongden House in the Tibetan colony... very nice people it was a refuge.
And then we got the heck out of Delhi and escaped to the mountains of Darjeeling. What a contrast traveling here was ten times better!

Indian Idol

2007-10-13T22:22:00.000-06:00

Okay, I know it has been awhile since I blogged but it has been really hard to do so through India. The internet is a little slow by the time I get through my email there is no time. So, I might try to do a few catch up blogs.

I begin with Indian Idol.
I just had to tell you about Prashant Tamang who invaded my life for weeks. Well, Indian Idol is a very big deal here. Especially when you are in the hills of Darjeeling district and one of the finalists is a lowly Nepali from Darjeeling. Everywhere we went there were "Vote for Prashant" signs. On our way in they even would stop all the share jeeps on the road to collect money to send in more votes. "This is unprecedented" people would tell me as they frantically sent SMS votes in during the final hours of voting. It came down the the final show starting at 9pm 3 hours after the voting closed. Everyone was wathcing waiting for the verdict, Prashant or Amit. Just after midnight it finally came Prashant you could hear all the screaming and cheering all over the city of Kalimpong. Fireworks were going off everywhere! Prashant Tamang the Nepali Gorkha is the new Indian Idol!
Well the following day consisted of all the school kids parading through the streets and dancing and celebrating in the middle of town. The bad part was the following day we were going to try to go to the river to raft but everyone took a holiday! The were no taxis to go anywhere and no restaraunts to get any food. Thankfully we were able to find a small little shop to get bicuits and juice and the equivelant of Raman noodles to make it through the day.
If you want to see more you should definately go and google Prashant. He's a big deal!
Posters everywhere!

The party the next day

3 Days!

2007-09-08T09:21:00.000-06:00

We leave in three days for our trip! Where has the summer gone? I cannot believe that it is September already and then when we get back I will be skiing almost the next day.
In case you don't know, we are on our way to Asia for two months. We will be traveling in the southern himalayas beginning in India. We are going up into Sikkim and then we will travel across Bhutan (so excited) and then back into India and make our way back towrads Nepal. We are going to go up into Nepal for a few days so we can see Kathmandu, bungy jump and go rafting on the Bhote Kosi river. Then we will go up north of Delhi, to the Taj Mahal and then home in November. We will probably be doing some more rafting on some of the rivers. Drew really wants to get on the rivers up there. So that is our tentative itenerary in brief. We are really excited to go and we leave on Tuesday (we're not scared to fly on 9/11 and it was cheaper).
I don't know how many opportunities I will have to give any readers an update on here but I will try at some point.

"Glutton for punishment"

2007-08-30T11:19:00.000-06:00

Yes, that is what he called me! One of my old coaches from ski racing and former Pike's peaker called me a gluttton for punishment after seeing me at the bike race on Saturday. I know, I know it is possibly partly true. Most people do rest after doing the Pikes Peak Marathon rather than going out to do a bike race six days later. I had to do it though! I couldn't hold myself back. I was in second in the series and if I didn't do the race I would have been taken out so I had to hold off the girl behind me. I didn't go out to win or anything I figured I wouldn't do very well, it was the King of the Rockies: Tipperary classic race, which is almost 26 miles of mostly great single track riding. However, I started up tipperary I started slow and continued to feel surprisingly well! I ended up 3rd in my division and held onto my second place overall for the series. Also, I won the "road rash award" and got a $50 gift certificate to the Wild Creek/Untamed. Yes, that does mean that I crashed again. Don't worry I have not bumped my head at all. Now to add to my skinned knee from Pike's I have a skinned elbow and side, I am a little bit of a mess.
Here are my pics.

I Did It!!

2007-08-20T09:03:00.000-06:00

Yep, that's right I successfully completed the Pike's Peak Marathon! I took 3rd for my age-group! I had one crash on the way down but I took Matt Carpenter's advice and got right up and ran really fast on the drenaline before the pain set in.
I was surprised the whole time that my head didn't hurt any worse than it had in the last two weeks and probably even felt better (or maybe I just had too many other things to worry about) Well, I made it to the top in 3:50 which was 5 minutes ahead of my goal time and I finished in 6:05. I wanted to break 6 hours but considering that I didn't even know if I was going to be able to do it a week ago I was very pleased. I ended up 24th overall. Here are some pics of the day.

This is me climbing right near the top...

And now we get to run down! Feels so much better!

This is my third-place award.

Yes

2007-08-16T18:01:00.000-06:00

Well, the doc said I could run! Under one condition, that I am very prudent and if I experience any vision/balance problems or headaches I must call it and not push. I just really hope that I don't have any problems and I feel great by Sunday.
I just am so darn competitive that it is my downfall sometimes.
So, up up and away I will go...only 2 Days 12 hours and 55 minutes to Pikes Peak.

Oh, today was my first day back on the river as well!

Pike's

2007-08-14T17:33:00.000-06:00

Yes, I suffered some other sort of brain disfunction back in March (other than concussion) and I signed up for the Pike's Peak Marathon. Yes, that is right...in less than 4 days I am going to run up Pike's peak and not only that I am going for the round trip and running back down to make it a full marathon.
I don't really think I have trained enough but I am still excited and nervous and wondering about my sanity all at the same time. Also, now, there is this whole concussion thing. I think I should be okay to run but I am getting so many different opinions from people. Some think I should not try to do it 2 1/2 weeks after my concussion and others think I will be okay. I am going to the Doc tomorrow for my follow up so we will see what he says. I can't not do it!! I have to do Pike's and it has to be this year!
I know I may be crazy....please don't tell.

Only in Colorado

2007-08-06T21:41:00.000-06:00

So I had to post this because Drew and I found so much amusement in it. When I was in the hospital they give you all these papers...you know so you know what happened to you and how to take care of yourself and all that stuff. Well, they gave us this sheet on concussions. What is a concussion and what you need to know and all that.

Yeah, sorry it is a little blurry... If you can't read that it says
--Avoid any activity (including skiing) that could cause a blow or jolt to your head for at least one week.

Yes that is right they had to include in perenthesis skiing. We laughed and thought only in a Colorado ski town like Vail would they have to clarifly that in the things not to do.

Ambulance!

2007-08-04T11:21:00.000-06:00

Wow it has been awhile since I have written in here sorry I have been so busy working. Well, I have some time now because I have a few days forced off of work.
Yep, Thursday when we were throwing boats onto the trailer at the end of our trip apparentlly I didn't duck enough and it took off my head. Well... at least it slammed my head into the trailer and then to the ground maybe. I don't really know I don't remember any of it. They had me on a backboard and an ambulance almost there by the time I remember anything. Apparently I didn't blackout but I was only A&O x 1 which means I was only alert and oriented to who I was. I didn't even remember the last 20 minutes of the raft trip or the fact that it was August until about the time we got to Vail Medical clinic. Well, there was a lot of blood for a very small cut of course, I only have two stitches in my head but it is very bruised and hurts. So, because of secondary concussion possibilities I am not allowed to do much for a few days, which meant I couldn't do the bike race today and I have missed a couple days of running for Pike's.
I am okay if anyone was concerned. My head hurts!

Aunt!

2007-06-30T06:15:00.000-06:00

My sister had her baby! I am an aunt for the fourth time. It took me awhile to get this post up. She had another beautiful baby girl on Monday June 25th. She beat out her brother and sisters weighing in at 8lbs 3oz and 20 inches long. I have had the privelage of being present for all but one of the births and that was due to a winter storm and we didn't make it till the next day. I am going to post some pics soon.

2nd!

2007-06-17T06:31:00.000-06:00

Yep, I got second in the bike race I did yesterday. I was very happy with this improvement over last weeks last place in the hill climb. Apparently I do much better when it is single track and I get to race up and down. Yesterday was the mountain circuit race in the Winter Park Mountain Bike series. I had been planning on doing my second Xterra yesterday but when I wnt to register for the race I couldn't get in because it was full. So, I did the bike race.
The really great part was that I actually won something in the raffle! I am one of the people who never wins anythiing. So they were getting down to the last three prizes and I finally won! Guess what I won...
A half-day raft trip with our competitor guide company. Oh, the irony. So, being that I spend close to every day on the river and I have done that trip at lest 13 times in the last 3 weeks. I traded the girl behind who had one a gift certificate. She had never been rafting and really wanted to go.

Well, in other news the guiding is going really well especially now that the weather is getting nice. I have actually had 3 really warm days on the river now!

Time...?

2007-05-25T07:45:00.000-06:00

On Saturday I had a great day it was almost perfect. I got up and went to my swim class. We had a really good workout and my stroke has really improved. Then I came home relaxed a little got into the Word then I went for almost a 3 hour bike ride. I got on some of the trails that are almost clear now. Still some snow but they are looking pretty good, wont be long. By then I hadd made it home before the weather got real ugly so I showered up and finished my book while it rained and relaxed for the afternoon then I went for an evening movie. I was a great day. But I was thinking the whole time... ahh, I have to start working on Monday and be a real working person so i won't get many more of those. :(
Well, as you can see I did start training and haven't even had a moment to get on here and post anything since then. I am having fun though. We have been on the river everyday. Yesterday we did three runs on Clear Creek and I got to get on a guide the bottom part. It went really well for my first time on the stick. they gave us a couple of hours off this morning before we head to Ft collins for the weekend. I will be doing swift Water rescue training. Hope things go well and the weather is warm cause that water is NOT.

Ouch!

2007-05-08T08:35:00.000-06:00

Well, I made it. That is all I can say. The marathon did not go as well as I would have liked. It was one of those where within about the first 5 miles I knew that it just was not going to be my day. But I tried to get on pace and hoped that I would just run throuhg it a little and start to feel better... didn't happen. my stomach was hurting most of the way, my calves cramped like crazy and it just kind of hurt. So, I did not get my qualifying time :( Oh, well... I think I like the variety of triathlons better.

I am so sore. yesterday I could hardly walk because my calves are so tight. I definately wasn't this sore the other two times, i don't think. not even after the first one.

Kayaking

2007-05-04T12:41:00.000-06:00

I now have already two days on the river this season. We went and ran Fraser canyon on tuesday. It was actually alot of fun even if it did rain on us a little. It was alot more fun than our Saturday run on the Colorado which was mostly flat with a few little rapids. I am enjoying it quite a bit. I don't know that I will be quite as crazy about kayaking as Drew but it is alot of fun. I think as I become more and more confident with my roll it will be even better. I rolled in the river for the first time in Fraser Canyon. I don't know that I would even call it a roll though. I got flipped over because I hit a rock sideways and then as I was upside down I was thinking I needed to roll but instead, because it was pretty shallow I pushed of my hands on the bottom. Ha!

Also, I am running my third marathon on Sunday. Yes, I am running Ft. Collins marathon again. So, today I am trying to do nothing but be lazy. It is actually kind of a perfect day for it because it is all dreary and trying to snow outside. That makes it easier for me to just sit inside and read or watch movies.
Well, my goal is to run a 3:40. So we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck.

Vacation?

2007-04-25T09:17:00.000-06:00

Yep, we are back. We came back early because the weather is lame. But, I suppose I need to start from the beginning.

Springs
We left last Tuesday and went down to colorado Springs. We had some meetings at navigators headquarters. We met with the Asia director to talk about some of our dreams and it went very well. Lets see what happens in the future there are so many descisions.
The best part, however, was getting to see all our friends. We saw Jake & Jamie, Aaron, Janice, & titus(what a cutie), Matt, Tye, Sheryle, LeighAnn... and Of course we stayed at tim and Amy's and stayed up too late talking. Miss all you guys.
Next day we headed down to New Mexico and stayed with Samuel, Susan, Meagan, Sam and Eleri. That was another great time getting to spend the evening with everyone. I can't believe how big Eleri is already!

Arizona
We took a leisurly pace over to Arizona and stopped at some cool ruins. Of course, I like that stuff being an Anthropology major. This is the pic of Montezuma's Castle. these were ruins of the Sinagua people.

Xterra Triathlon
I know, I know the most exciting part... Well, we finally made it down to Mesa and the race venue and got the last little cabin right there at the sight. Mostly because Drew didn't want to drive all the way back in to mesa. So, have to say that I was a little nervous. Let us count the ways: 1)first triathlon ever 2)only trained about a month 3)first open water swim 4)hadn't ridden my bike outside yet...
5)Its a race!!
Well, when all was said and done. Things went well and I am hooked! I think I should be a professional and take on Jamie Whitmore and Melanie McQuiad :)
but really, it wasn't too bad for my first go. I got 14th over all and 4th in my agegroup. Now with some hard training and experience I should be able to imporve on that. Actually the bike portion was the best part of my race I 7th overall in the thta. So I am pleased. I guess I will put up some pics but they aren't very good. I am racing!!

Cheese! I am ready to go!

Swim, bike, run (after the takedown)

Well, after that it all went downhill. The plan was to go up and take an overnight into the Grand Canyon. But when we got up it was snowing on the rim. We didn't really want to hike.

That's us trying to look happy anyway.

So we just continued on up to Canyonlands where we were going to spend some time. woke up to a sunny day...an hour later, big, wet, snowy blizzards! So...we continued on the Moab...pouring rain. We were very upset by this time. The whole point was to go away somewhere warm. so much for that. Being utterly depressed and defeated we just came home. Next day, winter storm warnings and a foot of snow.

The Real Plunge

2007-04-16T22:09:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the annual Spring Splash at Winter Park. This has become an end of the season tradition for me as it is for many. I had to race to defend my title. I am a 4-time champion.
The Spring Splash is a race held on closing day at Winter Park. Competitors are pushed out of the start gate backwards then they turn around and rush into a bamboo jungle, then they race down through an obstacle course to the bottom where they fly into an icy pond and try to make it as far as they can (or not). The finish line is about 3/4 of the way across the pond.
This was pretty exciting. Rather than the normal small lip that you ski off right into the pond it was built way up. So, my regular method of just skiing right into it would rather drop me at least 7 ft. probably more which only allows sinking and not skimming. As Erik (brother-in-law and 7-time men's champion) and I stood on the launch we decided the only way to go was to pop the jump and try to fly as far as possible, then he tells me that I am his guinea pig. Great! I was the last girl to go and, of course, none of the other girls went for it or did anything but crash right into the water. So, I came guns blazing and launched! Crowds went wild because that was the first big one they had seen. you should have seen the faces. I did make it past the finish line aiborne and was only about 4 ft from the end of the pond.
I defended my title well and won $350 and a season pass (not sure what I can do with that since I am an employee). It was a fun day. Erik won as well, we like to keep it in the family.
Here is a little video clip. Unfortunatly it is not the best (not sure what my dad was thinking where he was standing). make sure you look hard when I go over the pond I kind of blend in with the snow and the crowd...

Well, tomorrow we are off to the south for a little warm vacation fun. We are heading to Albequerque first to see Samuel and Susan (Drew's brother) then it is over to Arizona where I will take on my first Xterra triathlon. Just a little nervous.

I took the plunge...

2007-04-13T19:46:00.000-06:00

Okay, I got my hair cut yesterday. I got a little daring and they cut a little more than I might have wanted. Still deciding how much I like it. So, here are the before and after pictures.

Before

After

So today I also did my longest run for my marathon now I get to taper! That is pretty exciting. My legs were hurting alittle at the end of my 20+ miles. But now I am feeling good relaxing after a good long run.

This weekend is the end of the ski season for all of us here in Winter Park. My athletes have their last race, the Loveland Derby. I will be going to that on Saturday and then on Sunday I willrace in the Spring Splash, an event that takes place at Winter Park on closing day every year. I have to defend my title. I will update you all after the events!

Oh, I almost forgot to put this up! This is the view from our front window...

Welcome!

2007-04-06T09:25:00.000-06:00

Okay, here it is. I have been persuaded by a few friends to come back to xanga or to blog again. So here I am. I am taking over this blog that never really worked for both of us and making it my own fresh blog.

So, first I better rewind to tell you all what has happened this last year. Drew returned from Iraq in October and we decided it was a good time for a change to something we have always wanted... So, in December we packed up our house and moved up here to Winter Park in a week. Kind of funny how things just fell into place for us. We are living in the condo that I grew up in till I was about 9. I love being back home in the mountains!
Before we moved I knew that I could have a job coaching, so that is what I did. This winter I was an alpine ski racing coach for JIV's (11-12 year-olds). It has been alot of fun. I had a great group of kids and I love coaching! The only hard part is it makes me crazy because I want to race again with them...argh! Anyway, the season is pretty much to the end. We only have one day left that is a family party thing and the the end of the year awards and Derby next weekend. I can't believe how fast it has gone!
For the summer we will be staying here and working on the river as whitewater guides for MAD Adventures also known as Rocky Mountain Adventures. I am also looking forward to testing my competition skills in some Xterra triathlons and on Pikes peak. Thats right!! you heard me I got in to the Pike's Peak marathon! I am excited but some days when I am out running I wonder if I really am crazy. Oh well.

So there you have it. I am going to try to be better about keeping up on this kind of thing this year.

Oh. and if you stopped by please leave my a comment because I usually feel like nobody reads this thing anyway and that is often why I don't write. Later

Finishing Strong

2006-05-12T12:23:00.000-06:00

Yeah!
I ran my second Ft Collins marathon on Sunday! I dropped 15 minutes off my time from last year and ran it in 3:57. Not too bad, if I just drop 17 more I'll qualify for Boston... Really, I felt so much better this time around. Even in those last miles when it was difficult it doesn't compare to the first time! We'll have to see what is next.

My summer news: I will be going to Wyoming for a month to become a Wilderness EMT. I am excited that I have the opportunity to do this. It will be really good but I know the course will be pretty intense as well. This seemed like a very strategic time to go ahead and take the course.

Advance is officially over... kind of crazy they have finished their time here with us and are all headed out for their summer trips this week. It has been a good first year and I think we have some good input on how to continue to improve the program. We still need students for next class.

Drew's birthday was on Tuesday! He did get to call so I wished a wonderful birthday! He is doing well. He recently was helping out with a recruiting drive for the Iraqi army. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

Fun times...

2006-04-22T12:11:00.000-06:00

It is a beautiful day. Some great people are getting married today and I get to join the fun!

I have decided to go and take my Wilderness EMT through NOLS. I will be going to Lander, Wyoming for most of June. This should be really good. I think it will be very valuable with all of the things that we do even with Advance but also when we go to crazy places in other countries. I am excited but I know that it will be an intense month.

Drew is doing really well. I got an email from him yesterday. He switched jobs. Rather than doing prisoner detention he is now on a Military Transition Team working with the people to train up the Iraqi police. I think this is really a good change for him that he feels is much more valuable and strategic. Keep praying for him and me... I miss him alot!!

Not Bad...

2006-04-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

4th place is not too shabby for my first solo adventure race. I finished in 7 hours and 3 minutes and that was running my bike the last half mile due to a flat tire and passing a checkpoint. Areas for improvement, right. I had alot of fun! I am now putting my energy into getting ready for my marathon on May 7.

Well, I have talked to Drew twice now since he made it to Iraq. He is doing well but he is a little bored on his 12 hour shifts at work. Apparently prisoner detention is not too engaging. Boy do I mis him!!

Here are a couple picks from my race. (You have to click on the blank ones, I don't want to pay lots, sorry)

Gone

2006-03-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

Well, Drew is off to Iraq. He finally left California the other day. I spoke to him for the last time while he was on the plane. That was hard. But Ijsut got word that after much travel they have arrived in Kuwait. Things are good and I am hanging in there. I think these first couple weeks may be some of the hardest.

I am keeping busy and gearing up for my Adventure Race this weekend. I am doing the Moab Adventure Xtream on Saturday. I will be doing the rae solo since my usual teammate is in Kuwait. Exciting but a little nervous not bad. I know it will be alot of fun! Wish me luck!
I finally found a support crew too. My wonderful parents are going to go with me. Yeah!

Doing well

2006-02-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

Things seem to have been a little crazy lately. Not too bad, just a little. I have now more thouroughly defined my role with USIMG. My new title there is the Mobilization and Recruiting Project Manager. Basically I am just going to be in charge of a lot of the small yet strategic projects for recruiting with the Navs. Right now I am working on recruiting for the next class of Advance. I think it will be good.
Things in the bookstore are going really well and our Reliv business is also getting going. I went to a Reliv conference last weekend and it was so amazing! I was so encouraged in the way that the Lord is using this company and met some great people.

Drew is doing well, I just talked to him. He is on light duty right now because his back has been giving him a little trouble so that is a good prayer request.

I feel like I really don't have a lot to say and that is why it has taken me so long ot post in the first place. But anyway, things are great!!

Anniversary!

2005-12-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

It's our 3rd Anniversary today. I can't believe its been three years!

Hope everyone out there had a great Christmas. We had a good one. We spent it with both our families. Drew's parents came out and we all went to Winter Park to enjoy Christmas with my family. It was fun and good that we got to spend time with everyone.

The last couple days we spent at a Beautiful Bed and Breakfast in Manitou Springs for our Anniversary celebration. We had fun there and it was good to get away and enjoy quality time together.

Drew is shipping off on Monday, Jan 2. The "Send off" will be at 4:00pm. It sure will be hard to say goodbye. I will get to see him one weekend in March.

We would covet all your prayers for us during this time. Pray the transition would go smooth, I would be able to keep busy, and for Drew through all that he will experience in training and in Iraq.

Well, I thought I would post a couple family pics because we love our families and Thank them for all that they are and all their love. WE LOVE YOU ALL!!

We were happy that the Sullivan's could make it for a white Christmas.

And here is the clan from the Woodbury side.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Its Been awhile...

2005-12-05T15:14:00.000-07:00

So sorry we haven't posted on here in forever. Where do I begin to catch up.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving visiting Drew's side of the family in Oklahoma. It was a crazy week because we did alot of driving to different places.
We had to return a little earlier because we found out the Drew was getting activated 4 days earlier in order to do a language course in California.
Yes, that is right Drew has begun active duty. Thankfully he will get a break at Christmas so we will get about 8 days together before he ships out.

Please keep us in your prayers and I am really going to do a better job now at keeping this updated.

:)

Ouch...

2005-09-20T11:17:00.000-06:00

We finally had a weekend off! That was good since things have been a little crazy since Advance began. However, the weekend off was tainted for me (Debby) I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled on Friday. So, my time was spent trying to recover. I am doing better but still sore and swollen, I can't just eat regular food yet and that is really frustrating.

Advance things are going really well. Everyone right now is feeling a little pressed for time as the schedule is kind of busy these first weeks. Yesterday and today they are doing a personal contribution assesment with the People Resources Team here at headquarters. They go through personality, spiritual gifts, roles and values to help them discover their design and fit.
Also, you could look at the blog of one of our interns, Carleen, and see what they have to say.

Short-term things are going well too. We finished and made the big mailing of our new summer brochure. Being in charge of getting this done this year was a little scary for me at first but I have been really encouraged by positive feedback about this year's brochure. Check out the new trips, (the link on the right for usimg).

~

They're here...

2005-09-07T19:24:00.000-06:00

The Advance interns are finally here and we have hit the ground running!

We got back on Saturday from our week backpacking in the wilderness. We started off with this trip to help the group bond quickly, teach them some life lessons about trust, perseverance, and teamwork. A week in God's creation is also a great way to center their focus on God and His glory. It was great to spend a week outside again like our old Eagle Lake days. It is also a lot of fun to have a group of people who understand what your teaching them and grasp the concept behind what you are doing. We really enjoyed being able to apply things to missions as well.

We have a great group of interns for this first year! They all have diverse personalities and are all unique yet all drawn together this year by a passion for the nations and the lost. It should be an interesting and exciting year. The group has come together really well in our first week and they really pulled together through various trials and challenges that we put them through last week. They all have great attitudes and passionate hearts.

Pray that the program would be effective and that we would be able to invest in their lives throughout the year.

PS. Notice that we put a link for more Advance Photos on the right.

love

We Are Off!

2005-08-29T10:04:00.000-06:00

Just thought I would leave a quick post before we head out. We had our welcome orientation last night and things went really well. Everyone made it in safe and they are all really excited to be here for the year.

We head out in just a couple hours for our week in the wilderness. We will be doing some group initiatives, ropes course, climbing, and then some backpacking to kick off. We are really excited because we know this to be such an excellent way for the group to really bond quickly and learn to work together.

Please pray for our trip, most of the people aren't used to the altitude yet. Pray that there will be great bonding and community. Pray that the Lord would go before us and set the tone for this coming year in the program.

love

Craziness!

2005-08-22T20:26:00.000-06:00

Wow! It took a little while for us to put another post on here. Sorry.

Things have been a little crazy and busy lately, but it is good. The people for Advance arrive this week! We cannot believe it is here already. Almost everything is in place for the first few weeks and we are busy doing final touches this week.

Also, I (Debby) am working part-time in the bookstore in the castle at Glen Eyrie. That is going well.
The brochure for the summer trips should go to the printer tomorrow! It will be a relief to have that huge project done as well as it is exciting to have a new brochure.

Please pray that this first week of Advance will kick off well. Pray that the Lord would be in it all and we would have a good start and some great teambuilding during our wilderness trip the first week.

Kids to Peaks

2005-07-19T20:14:00.000-06:00

We had a good week. We had kids! My niece(6) and nephew(5) came to visit us for about 3 days. It was fun but tiring I think we'll wait a little longer :) We did go to the zoo and also did alot of swimming. We took them back home on Thursday when we went to Winter Park to visit one of the Navigator Summer Training Programs at Snow Mountain Ranch. We went to talk just a bit and recruit for missions. It was a good evening and we had some great contacts and conversations.

For the weekend we went to climb some peaks and camp. On Friday we climbed Torreys and Greys and on Saturday we climbed Democrat, Lincoln, and Bross. All of these are 14ers (mountains over 14,000 ft. tall). We had a great time and we even made it back to watch Lance in the Tour de France.

Here are some pics of our adventure...This is Kelso Ridge, our route up Torreys

Our friendly Mountain Goat posing for me.

He's Back!

2005-07-05T14:39:00.000-06:00

Drew is back from Advanced training with the Marines!! Yeah!! We are very glad to be together again. It was great timing too. He got home on Friday, my birthday, and then we had the whole holiday weekend to relax before coming back into work.
Things are going well. Right now I am working hard getting things together for the new brochure and trying to get trips set up for next summer. Drew is starting to do a lot more the the new training center program. Advance starts on Aug 28th, less than 2 months away now!

Welcome

2005-06-29T15:58:00.000-06:00

Here it is... We now have a blog so that we post what is going on and hopefully keep in touch better with all our friends, family and supporters. We love you all. Hope that this works out well... :)