Busy weekend

We did it. The first annual North Dodge Athletic Club Indoor Triathlon was yesterday. By all measures, it was a great success. I guess I am a little surprised that it went as well as it did. There were a few bumps along the way but those issues will be filed away and dealt with for next year. I haven't looked at our final figures but I know that we will be able to donate at least $100 dollars to the Ronald McDonald house. That may not be much but it is a good place to start. Next year we will be able to donate at least double that amount because the place we got our race shirts printed said they would sponsor us next year and give us at least 50% off the cost of the shirts (our biggest expense).

Brenden competed in the race and did well. He traveled a total of 12.4 miles in the one hour he had to race. I am very proud of him. Racing is difficult and he steps up and gives it his best each and every time.

Amana, Iowa Winterfest 5K Freeze Run

A year ago my friend Stephany mentioned this race in Amana, Iowa. I thought she was crazy and said to myself I'd never do that. However here I am 1 year later and I ran the race. It was 16 degrees out with a windchill reading of 3 degrees. It was so cold that both of us dressed in multiple layers. I had dri fit long running skins on, with long running pants over them. Sports tank, with a long sleeve Under Armour shirt and then a long sleeve dri fit jacket and then my inside of my winter coat on. Then I had my warmest gloves and scarf with me. Lastly I had my headband on. Stephany had several layers on as well.

Before the race I screwed screws in the bottom of an old pair of running shoes since I would be running on ice and snow and didn't want to fall.
I got that idea from one of Jason's Triathlon magazines.

Here is a picture of Stephany and I before we received our race number.










This next picture is of us before the race with our race number on.

Here is a picture of us taken within 5 minutes after the race of us completely exhausted. The cold weather was super difficult to run in. I felt like I had asthma all over again. I was breathing weird the entire time and thought I wouldn't finish.

The post race food was fabulous. There was water, power aid, hot chocolate, apples, oranges and lots of home made goodies from the community.







My time was 29:30 and I was 9th out of 25 for my age group of 30-39 which was broken down in 10 year increments for this race. I was 38th out of 80 Females. 94th place out of 151 finishers. My mile pace was 9:31 so it wasn't my best race. However this was the coldest weather I have ever ran in. I finished and I wasn't last!

Just a couple things

On January 8th our local gym, North Dodge Athletic Club had a ZUMBA party

We have 6 instructors, from Left to Right
Kim, Holly, Sandra, Jason, Me and Allison

What a great group of instructors. We had so much fun dancing that night. There were over 65 in attendance and we danced for 2 hours. There were prizes, food and tons of fun. Afterwards people were saying that we should do this every month.



Alyssa has a Wacky Day at school and she wanted her hair to be really different. So she asked me to french braid it in a zig zag. I did the best I could. I think it turned out great. It actually looked better in person.





















A view from the top of her head.















It's negative 15 degrees out today. I don't want to go outside. Our house guest Anton is in Key West, Florida for 6 days and I have to say this:

I'm super jealous.

I'm a race director - kind of

For the past 6 weeks or so I have been working on putting together my first race. Finally the pieces are starting to fall into place. The North Dodge Athletic Club Indoor Triathlon is set for Jan. 29 (http://www.ndacgym.com or http://www.runningwall.com). I have changed the typical format a bit to make the race easier to handle from a logistical standpoint. There will be a 10 minute swim in our pool followed by a 30 minute spin (on a spin bike of course) and finally a 20 minute run on the treadmill. Winners will be decided by total distance traveled within the time limit. So far, I have been able to get several sponsorships from local merchants and am hoping to reel in the final ones this week so that we can get t-shirts printed. Any money we make over our costs will be donated to our local Ronald McDonald house. We are also giving each participant an opportunity to help by donating any amount of money they wish on top of their registration fee.

The race is only about 25% full right now but I am hoping that we will fill all of our spots in the next 10 days. Wish us luck.

Starting the Year out Right!

Here is a link to a blog post I wrote about a race I ran on New Year's Day.

http://managingthewaist.blogspot.com/2011/01/first-on-first-columbus-ohio.html

New Hair

We have had the awesome opportunity to have a man from South Africa stay in our extra bedroom in our home for 3 weeks.

He is here visiting his daughter in Iowa City and we found out about this opportunity from Church when an e-mail was sent out a few months ago.

I talked to Jason about having a guest in our home. I mentioned to him that it's just my office in that extra room and I would put my office in the basement, so we could share our home. After Jason spoke to some higher up people in the church that knew Anton, he decided it would be a great idea.

Anton owns a Salon in South Africa and he has over 15 years experience doing hair. He has done hair in New York, London and many other exciting places.

Yesterday was my turn to get my hair cut, colored and styled. So fun for me!!! I love it. I may even have him cut it again way shorter before he leaves! For now I'm loving these highlights and my new cut.

The boys love having him here and learning all about his country, the way he does things, hearing the beautiful way he talks, learning a new language and having an extra sister around. He has his daughter Emerson (age 6) living with us too. Scott and Emerson just play so well together.

Below are a few shots of my hair: