A Smattering of Duehrings

Yesterday, Damon and I did the duathlon I have been itching to do all year. I had wanted to do it last year, but quickly realized that it was just going to be too hard to train for it with a 4 month old baby. I determined way back then that I would do it this year.

It is called the Prairie Punisher for a reason. It is during the hottest time of the year. It is out in the country in Kansas where the wind is always terrible. The entire run and ride routes are hills. Huge hills. In fact there are really no flat roads on the course at all. There is one hill we call heart attack hill. It would probably be faster to run it than bike it. Anyway, all of that put together it is a very challenging duathlon.

I talked my sister, Susan, in to doing it with me this year. My other 2 sisters have done it before. One of them is pregnant and one just had a baby. Otherwise, we would have all probably done it together. We are already talking about doing it next year.

It was supposed to be thunderstorms on Sat morning and I was a bit nervous about that. It ended up raining all night Friday night and stopping in time for the race. When we woke up in the morning it was humid and hot, but at least it wasn’t raining.

My mom came up to watch my kids since Damon and I were both doing the race. She spent the night and brought all the kids to the race to watch. She had all my kids up and ready and to the course by about 7:00am. Not bad!

The race began at 7:00. The first 3 mile run was really hard. I run at least 3 miles a day almost every single day, but somehow with the humidity and probably going faster than my normal pace it was a tough run. Then it was onto the bike. I have been riding this 18 mile bike route at least twice a week all summer so I wasn’t worried about the biking part. That is definitely my favorite part. Then the last 3 mile run which was awful. I wanted to run fast, but my legs wouldn’t cooperate. I finished the whole thing in a little over 2 hours.

When I came around the second to last turn on the last run there were at least 15 kids standing along the curb waiting for me (my kids, all my sister’s kids, and a friend’s kids). They all ran with me the last few stretches which was pretty cool. I am sure we had the biggest cheering squad at the race. It was so fun to be able to see my kids every time I came through the transition area and be able to wave at them and hear them cheer me on.

Eli was up again at 6:00 this morning and had his “number” shirt on. He was going to go biking and running with mommy and daddy today.
Here are some more snapshots that were taken at the race.

Susan and I strategizing

Damon heading out on his 2nd run obviously still feeling pretty good

coming in from the biking part

Running to the finish line with my favorite person in the whole world beside me to encourage me

Daddy and his future little duathlete leaving the race

You can click on Lanker Landings under blogroll to see more pictures on Susan’s blog.

Who needs to go to the water park? This little set up has kept the kids busy outside in the morning hours when the water park isn’t open and on days when we can’t go. They go around and around and around for hours.

We officially have one more out of diapers. Eli was almost potty trained last month, but I held off because of the Colorado trip. When we got home we started up with it again and he has been out of diapers for over a week. He is even staying dry at nights. A couple of times he asked for a diaper and I reminded him that diapers were for babies and that is all it took. He is “big” now and he is proud of it. Since Evan potty trained so early (at his 2nd birthday) it has been 3 years since we have had to go through the potty training thing.

Also, Eli had some more eye appointments this week. He failed his eye exam with his glasses on Friday. On Monday they dilated his eyes and found that both of his eyes have gotten worse. We are having his lenses replaced this week and we have had to start patching his left eye again. We are supposed to patch it for 6 hours a day. It is very obvious he can hardly see when we have the patch on that eye. When he gets his new glasses it should make it a little easier. This morning he came to me after one hour and told me he just couldn’t wear his patch anymore because he was just too sick to wear a patch. Poor little guy. At least it is a little easier than it was a year ago because he can talk to me about how he feels.

Yesterday, he wore Evan’s clothes all day because he wanted to be big. He asks me all the time, “am I big?” He also tells everyone he is 4 years old. He just wants to be a big boy. Part of me can’t wait until he gets a few years older but another part just doesn’t want him to ever change.

For all of you that wonder what youth groups do in Kansas during the summer, here’s a pic of me from last week:

Yep, we play mud volleyball, like everybody else! And for some reason, the kids all think it’s hilarious to monkey-pile certain sponsors. Like me. Yeah, pretty funny, hey? What was really funny is that after youth I went over to a friend’s house and played basketball–still muddy. Nobody wanted to guard me, so I made some pretty sweet shots!

I just wish they were always this happy when they are in close quarters like this.