IRONMAN

Eric completed his first Ironman on November 20, 2011

(almost exactly a month after the twins were born)

This is the only picture we have from the event. I was alone with both babies all day and never had a free hand to take any pictures of Eric as he raced the course. Most of the time I was nursing a baby or running from place to place trying to catch glimpses of him as he zoomed by. He was incredible and did an amazing job. Such a huge accomplishment!

utah half ironman

E raced in the UT Half Ironman the same weekend we were in Park City.  He rocked it! The goal was to complete it in under 5 hours and he came in at 4:56.

I love watching E race. Although this time, being 30 weeks pregnant with twins was a little hard on the body. But it was still great. I couldn't help but think of November when E does the AZ Ironman, the boys will get to see their dad race too.

Good job E, you inspire me!

nationals in lubbock

Our weekend in Texas was interesting. I'll describe it that way.

We drove all day Thursday {12 hours} and got to Lubbock in the evening and it was pouring rain when we got there. We ended up staying with our friends Nick and Natalie Sorensen {who happen to live down the street from the temple} and we went to dinner with them that night at Freebirds. It was GOOD. Friday started with lots more rain.We went over to the host hotel for E to check in for the triathlon and then we drove the course with the rest of the ASU tri team. We ate lunch at a local pizza place next to Texas Tech that was delish. Then E took a nap while I read. There was another tri meeting in the afternoon and then we headed back to the Sorensen's for the night. It poured the entire day.

Saturday started with no rain, which was great, but there was crazy 20 mph winds. The race still went on but it was so cold and windy. I was freezing... another spectator told me my face was purple. It was so neat to see all the different schools competing from all over the country. Seriously from all over... a ton from CA, also Oregon, BYU, Colorado, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia, Duke, Air Force, Stanford, Ohio, Boston, Illinois, Iowa, Georgia, Vermont, etc. It was awesome to see all the athletes race. E did great and every time I watch him race, I am inspired to be better. He is amazing. After the race we ate a late lunch at another local place, Triple J's, that was delish. Their rolls and honey butter were to die for. And then we made the long drive home and got back to our place on Sunday.

            

It was a cool trip. Great to see new places and have new adventures. Unfortunately I did not see any bluebonnets {I think they are farther south} and Texas is flat {at least the part we saw}. We drove across the entire state of New Mexico, which was cool. And the best part, we got to spend hours upon hours together. The bad part, E is at home today with the stomach flu.

havasu

it was so great to get away with E. we love ourselves a little adventure.

we got to havasu on thursday around noon and ate some lunch. after that we drove the bike course for the tri so E could check it all out. we were able to check into the hotel early and we took a little nap. then we drove back to the bike course and we biked it together, we went about 20 miles and it was AWESOME. i love biking with E. we were able to stay together most of the time because he was taking it slow and i was pushing it. so we were pretty even in our pace.

after we finished the ride we walked over to the lake and jumped in. it was freezing but it felt so good on my legs. there is nothing like jumping in a cold lake. i laid out on the beach while E swam some more. i was in heaven... it was so peaceful, perfect and beautiful. my body felt good, my mind felt good and my heart felt good. when E came out of the water, i proclaimed to him, "this has been one of the best days of my life." i couldn't clearly express why, it was just one of those feelings.

we went back to the hotel and ate pasta leftovers from the day before for dinner {brought with us in a cooler}. it was so good, we devoured it. and then we watched cable tv {we don't have cable, so it was a treat} and i read a whole lot. it was a good day.

friday morning we woke up and went on a light run together. it was super windy but a beautiful day. we ran over the london bridge and i told E about the london bridge and how it really is the london bridge from london. he didn't believe me, so we had to stop and read the historical plaque posted on the bridge. the founder of lake havasu city bought the bridge for 2.4 million and it took another 4 million to transport it to lake havasu. it's a pretty sweet bridge though. after our run we got a free breakfast at the hotel... eggs, sausage, muffins, oj, milk, oatmeal, etc. it was delicious.

we took a great nap after breakfast and before we had to check out of our room. then we drove around town some more and checked out the complete run course for the tri. we stopped at a park on the shore of lake havasu and hung out for a while. in the afternoon we met up with the rest of the ASU tri team and headed over to the info session and packet pick up. there were a bunch of teams from all over the conference in attendance {Colorado State, University of Colorado, BYU, University of Arizona, New Mexico}

we ate dinner that night at a local pasta place. E and i shared some lasagna and it was good. we spent the rest of the night with the team at the hotel prepping for the race in the morning.

the nicest thing about this tri {for me} was that the hotel was only half a mile from the race area. which means i didn't have to wake up as early as i usually do on race morning. saturday was a beautiful day, perfect weather for a tri.

E and the rest of the team raced and did really good. i took a million pictures. you would think that after years of taking pictures of E racing I would be better. but i'm not. every time i see him i just want to yell and cheer, so the picture taking takes a back seat. which is how it should be but i wish i could do both equally as well.

the course was hard and E wished he could have completed it in a faster time, but he did great. the team captain got 2 flats on the bike course and had to drop out of the race. E got the fastest time on the team.

we hung out and waited for the rest of the team to finish and then we headed to an amazing place for lunch, E and i both had great chicken enchiladas. we debated staying another night in havasu, but ended up driving home saturday afternoon.

one of the greatest things about this trip was that almost all our expenses were covered by the ASU tri team.

{i had to throw in a picture of the infamous lake havasu spring break partying}

it was such a fun trip and we had a great time. lake havasu is beautiful and making memories with E is even more beautiful.

but there's no rest for us in the near future, E and i are going swimming this afternoon. he's training for nationals in april and i'm still training for mine.

More

We loved the pictures from the race and we weren't sure if we wanted to put them in a slide show or not so that is why Tiff did that last post. So, here are some more beautiful pics that Tiff took and the details of the race.

The course was incredibly difficult. We knew there was a brutal climb at the end of the bike, that was an 8% grade for the last mile but the 4 miles before that were also steep. And we never got to go back down that because we rode up to the run transition. The whole bike course was very hilly and I was excited to get to the run just to be done with it, but the weather was beautiful. Once on the run I was feeling alright for the first couple miles, but then it had huge hills too. It was very hard but I enjoyed it thoroughly and feel good about it. My swim time was 39 min. which I am fine with. The lake was nice. I should have done the bike in well under 3 hours but my time was 3:20 my run was 2:20. total time 6:21. I beat my friend Stu who did it in 6:38. He has done a couple Halfironmans before and did his last one in 5:30. There were multiple people who said this was harder than the Ironmans they have done.

Half Iron in Vegas

Half Iron = 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run

The last race of Eric's season started out like this...

Half way through it looked like this...

And at the end it looked like this...

Malibu Tri

I did a triathlon in Malibu last weekend. It was cool. I did it on Saturday but they had a Sunday race as well. That was the big celebrity one. Jennifer Lopez, Mathew Mcconaughey and Anna Kornikova did it.

My time was 2:24