Number Three

Another weekend in Seattle! On Sunday, Rita and I finished our third Danskin together. It was a blast!This year the registration period for the triathlon lasted only 11 hours! That meant that between Midnight and 11am, 5000 women registered to participate in this years event. I had talked up the danskin to several friends and I felt terrible when they had gone to the registration page on opening day only to find that the race had already closed! I will plan this better next year. One friend that did get registered was my friend Laurie. I met her through my research project and she really helped me get things going. She is an administrator at one of the research sites and she is also one of the funniest people I know. When we get together, Laughter is guaranteed. In the following pic, we are both looking a bit more serious. We were in route to the Swim/Race Start. It is weird how even after doing this race two times before I still get butterflies.
The swim portion and bike portion were great, but Laurie and I decided to spice up our run by wearing rockstar mullet wigs purchased from the party store the night before the race. I had no idea how much attention this would bring us! We were getting high fives and cheers from everybody. and at the finish line.... Let's just say we did a little dance and were so busy celebrating we stopped before the finish line. It was hilarious!
Megan rocked the wig. With poses like this, she really will continue to resemble her Auntie Beth.

Christian also came along to support the racers. As always, my Mom was there for moral support and this year she was joined by my friend Bree. Bree is the next unsuspecting participant of next years race, hehehe....

Below... Christian put on Megan's pink jacket. He's just too buff for his own good. What a stud!

We had a wonderful meal at the Pyramid Ale House downtown. I'm so predictable. The closest plate in this picture shows my favorite turkey burger. YUM YUM YUM. Also worth noting, Megan's plate. She ordered flank steak. She doesn't mess around.

This weekend started out rocky. On Friday I left my keys at work, which meant that I spent two and a half hours on the road on my motorcycle. Not sure how many of you are aware, but on Friday it was over 100 degrees in Portland. Motorcycles and 100 plus temperatures do not mix. So after getting to Laurie's very late, we were held up again for an hour because I-5 was closed due to a grass fire. Then on Saturday, we got a little lost on our way to the packet pick-up (props to Beth J. for her help on the cell!!) and then managed to get a $68 dollar parking ticket (along with a lot of other angry racers). I won't get into details because the parking lot was very poorly designed. What is important is that despite not really training for this event, there was no drowning and we actually did pretty well! So well I'm looking forward to next years race already. If you are interested, please email me so I can get you on my Danskin email list this spring. I will make sure interested friends and family do not miss the registration day.

Enough for now. I'm starving and about to make some Thai peanut crusted chicken. Delish!