This blog has laid dormant for quite a while, and with good reason: I went to college! Back in 2012, after completing my first Ironman, then the Bridger Ridge Run, and then the SuperTri, I followed up by jumping into the much longer, slower race of going back to school. I finally crossed the finish line at the UW this past June, graduating summa cum laude and with departmental honors in Environmental Science and Resource Management: Landscape Ecology and Conservation, with a minor in Urban Ecological Design. Phew! What a mouthful.
In any case, studying all-the-things-all-the-time meant I had steadily decreasing amounts of time for training, races, and race reports. Here’s a quick recap of what I believe I missed:
- 11/17/2012: Mustache Dache 5K (24:23): fun times, great costumes, PR
- 02/24/2013: Lord Hill 10mi (1:50:15): gorgeous, muddy, WICKED hill climbs, great fun!
- 03/16/2013: Chuckanut 50K (7:59:56): not quite dead last, but damn close. Looking forward to tackling this beast again some day (during which I will most definitely partake of the Jamesons station)
- 05/26/2013: OnionMan Oly Tri (2:52:36): ummm… yay? I remember we locked the keys in the trunk of the car and had to crawl through the pass-through trunk to retrieve them, but that’s about it. Nice venue though.
- 07/02/2013: Whiskey Dick Oly Tri (3:43:57): I managed to pop my shoulder slightly out of socket just before the swim start, but Alida helped me pop it back in and off I went! Wicked long hill climb on the bike and ridiculously hot weather made for a slow run, but it was altogether a great event with fantastic volunteers.
- 07/19/2013: Ragnar NW Passage: Mortal Wombats!!
- 08/10/2013: USAT National Championship Oly Tri (2:43:48): WHAAT? How did I qualify for champs? Turns out the SuperTri was a qualifier, and since I was the only one in my age group dumb enough to try that absurd distance (there were only 7 of us total, in fact), I won, which earned me a ticket to the age group olympic distance race. So, we flew all the way to Milwaukee and had a blast. We even got to meet Chrissie Wellington!
- 06/07/2014: Lake Wilderness Oly Tri (3:13:46): Despite being a little out of racing form, I still had a great time, and I look forward to returning some day.
- 07/18/2014: Ragnar NW Passage: Ultra Queens of the Stone Age and Wilmas
- 08/24/2014: Lake Meridian Oly Tri (3:04:18): Well, at least I beat my time from two months before. Woo!
- [09/12/2014: got hitched! Woo!]
- 08/29/2015: JBLM Deuces Wild Oly Tri (1:05:06 for swim & bike): the wind was so horrendous that the race got called, right as I was finishing the bike portion. Rats!
- 10/18/2015: Dawg Dash 10K (57:57): My goal was to beat 1 hour, and I did! Woo!
So, there you have it, all caught up. Training right now consists mostly of strength training and long, easy runs, slowly burning off the 20lbs I packed on during school. I’d like to build a base of conditioning that will eventually let me go even faster and further than before, while staying free of injuries. We shall see!