Kathleen's Adventures

Hanging my medal on the Muscleman hook Karen and Ruthie gave me last year has become almost ceremonious after each race I do. CDA is on top. This post-it has been on my calendar at work for a few months now. It was pretty satisfying to be able to write a big "13:29" across it. It still stay on the month of June as I turn to July tomorrow. New goals are to come.

Click here for more pictures! Wow. What a day. I wish I could bottle up the awesome high you get during an Ironman to make it last just a little bit longer. Pre -Race Team W (my parents, Dr. Doug and Linda, Jon, and myself) did not arrive in CDA until about 1am Friday morning. You just don't realize (at least I don't...) how far across the country northern Idaho is from Houston! It takes a long time to get there no matter how you do it. Friday morning I did a quick swim before standing in line 1.5 hours to register. Note to self: get in line before 9:45am or after noon to register (opens at 10am). I got in line around 10:15 and stood in the cold windy rain for way too long - I guess it was good practice for braving similar elements that were to come on race day! Saturday was actually a fairly pretty day - the calm before the storm. Jill, Jon, and I did a quick 30 minute spin along the lake before our group met for a big group picture. After that I did a quick 15 min...

My little Kate is growing up. Upon returning from her first summer at Camp O, she is turning 8. Wow! She was so cute then! (But just as cute now too!)

"Every person needs to have their moment in the sun, when they raise their arms in victory knowing that on this day, at this hour, they were at their very best." -H. Jackson Brown, Jr. The sun might not have been shining on CDA Sunday night at 8:29pm, but it was certainly shining on me. For that, I am eternally grateful.

My super secret "would be cool but have no idea if I will do it" goal was to finish before the sun went down on Sunday... That's me - with a finisher's medal around my neck - long before it got dark outside!! I can't say "long before the sun went down" because I am not sure if it ever came up that day... Special thanks to Maggie for the great pic and for her awesome support and cheering on race day and for my super fun goodie bag before the race!

The full novel of a race report will be coming soon, but I thought I'd post something kind of funny (funny to me at least, or maybe funny isn't the right word...interesting?). When I hit the beach after the first loop of the swim, I was 35:xx on my watch. I was pleased when I saw that, but then as soon as I started swimming again, I realized the 2nd loop was actually going to be longer than the first because you had to swim a bit extra to get back to the start of the loop. I thought/hoped the time would be similar/faster to the first loop though because the crowds would have hopefully thinned out at least a tiny bit. Wrong. I hit the beach after the second loop at 1:15:xx, so the second loop definitely took me quite a bit longer. Val from Houston Racing made an awesome tracking spreadsheet he updated throughout the race, but looking at the difference between loop 1 and loop 2 on the swim for everyone else let me know I certainly was not alone! I hope you can read the graphic......

Holy cow!!! 13:29. Wow.