Retraction...woohoo!

I'm not sure a retraction of facts has ever been good but in this case it is. So i just looked more closely at our packet and it seems that three of the womens groups start together...SWEET! We get to start together, so exciting. We officially hit the water at 7:50AM!!

Thanks Caryn's aunt for the heads-up, I think we were reading at the same time.

Rock on!!

Ok so here are the pics Caryn referred to the other night. I put them up here so you guys wouldn't have to exhaust yourselves scrolling down...you're welcome!

Enjoying some delicious Brusters!

Caryn and Marissa

Fun in the grocery cart!

Bad News Bears!

Well it was bound to happen, a major set back! Yesterday I was looking around the Emerald Point website, trying to get any last minute info when I happened to notice the age group breakouts, 20-24 and 25-29... UH OH! Caryn is 24 and I am the ripe old age of 26...crap! So you ask yourselves, what does this mean? I'll tell you. It means that Caryn and I will start the race at different times b/c the start is in progressions by age group, oldest to youngest. There is a chance that we could meet up because I'm slow and Caryn could catch me but not sure how far about the groups start. We even tried to email the race director, Jim, to see if either of us could switch groups and he responded promptly with a "no, race in your own group or wave" and no he doesn't mean wave at me if you go by, he means throw all your training and hard work down the drain if you don't like how the age groups are set up. Fine Jim, we'll do what you want!!!

Needless to say this was a total bummer for us yesterday, after almost three months of training together every day, and now we must go it ALONE!! The fear that we had about the race and the transitions is even more amplified by this news. We are trying to stay positive and keep pushing toward the finish...literally but it's a real bummer.

One other small tidbit is that the temperature is supposed to drop tomorrow to the 4o's - 50's at night and early morning, that could make for a very cold swim but keep your fingers crossed that the water will be warm and the sun will be shining.

Thanks to all our friends and family who have plans to make the trek up to Lake Lanier to see us, I hope we make you proud!! Thanks again for all your support and inquiry about our training.

One Week Left!

So it's hard to believe but one week from today at this time, we will be all done with the triathlon. We've been training since July 9, and we've come a long way! Today, after we both had very long tiring weekend (I was in Athens for the GA/Bama game - I know, a TOUGH loss!, and Crystal was in Auburn for the Auburn/Tennessee game - another hard loss!) we set out in the afternoon for our last day of bricks. By the way, I found out where the technical term "brick" came from. It's because they say your your body feels like a ton of bricks when you're done! Glad I'm not the only one...

Anyway, I got in a minor tiff with my bike trying to get it down the stairs of my apartment and then we had some issues getting the bike rack on Crystal's car, but once we were done, we headed up to alpharetta and got started. We were both exhausted from our weekends but pushed through like champs. We rode the entire 14 mile bike length and then ran for a little while, and some exciting things happened along the way.

We found out not too long ago that no headphones (which in turn means no ipod) are allowed on race day. That is pretty much what gets us through our runs sometimes so we were quite bummed about that. But while we were biking we played a little game where you name a celebrity (we also played with characters - everything from miss piggy to george castanza) and then the next person has to name someone whose first name starts with the first letter of the previous person's last name. This, I think, is how we are going to occupy ourselves during our run during race day. Like Juli had suggested in one of her previous comments, games like these are great to do while running because they don't require a lot of talking but they're a great way to keep your mind occupied and distracted from thinking about how long we've been running.

Then, after 14 miles, we hopped off our bikes and hit the pavement to run. I had my ipod on shuffle, and I started the run off belting out "Roxanne". Crystal did what she could to drown me out using her ipod but no success because I was on a karaoke roll. I'm sure the other people at the greenway were thrilled to hear me singing. And then the coolest thing - we spotted two deer just a little off the path in the woods. They were eating off the trees, and weren't even phased by us. We think it was a mom and her baby becasue the second one was tiny and was following the bigger one around. It was SO cool - we wished we had our camera! They just kept looking at us and going along their merry way. VERY cool.

Then we had our usual Sunday night dinner with my family at my parent's house and then they took us out to Brusters for a little treat :). While we were there, there was this shopping cart (there is a Kroger in that shopping center too) that had a plastic outside to make it look like a race car and it was left in a parking space like someone actually planned to do that so we took a picture there. The pics are on Crystal's camera so we'll be posting those later.

Anyway - hard to believe we only have one week left! We're planning on taking it kind of easy this week so we are nice and rested for the race, but we'll keep you loyal readers up to date!

XOXO,
Gossip Girl.

(that's for all of you out there that watch the show, since it's on tomorrow night!)

Adultnapping

Oh yes, it is a real thing and it could have possibly happened to your two favorite tri-babies!! Last night Caryn and I headed up to the Greenway, a lovely trail in the burbs. I had just returned from Knoxville, no comments, I know we got destroyed and Caryn had just left her new BFF at the Bare Essentials counter at Lenox. We arrived in time to ride a mile or so with Caryn's dad, who I'm pretty sure thinks we are the slowest bikers on earth :) We broke off to ride the remaining 13 miles and got to about mile 9 and it started getting a little dusky, cut to 15 minutes later and it was totally dark, especially in the wooded areas. We rode as fast as we could the remaining 3 miles, while encountering two deer, one bunny rabbit, and two people (which were the scariest in the dark). We finally made it back to the car and discussed all of our fears as we were riding, everything from people jumping out of the bushes to someone acting like they were stranded to lure us in.

The moral of the story...don't be stupid, like we were, and try to get in the full time before it gets dark. Just turn around and save it for another day. All in all its a funny story but at the time we definately thought we were going to be written about in the paper.

On a seperate note, I want to give a shout out to Mom Mindy for making some delicious spaghetti, salad and bread last night. It really hit the spot and is great to have a real meal, especially while watching the Emmies!! Thanks Ellin family for taking me in!!!

Until next time.....

runners...take your mark:

GO! I apologize that it's been so long since our last post, but it's been a crazy week! I think i lost my sense of humor somewhere along the way on one of our runs, but I'll try and make this entertaining :).

So we had another successful run last night. We were kind of in a hurry because we had to go to our cooking club (a "monthly" get together with some girls from work where we pick a theme and everyone brings a dish and we get to catch up with people we don't see on a daily basis), but we were good and decided that even though we were pressed for time we were going to do SOMETHING.



We met at my house in the highlands and took off. It was business time. Granted, we didn't run for as long as we would have liked, but we ran faster than ever. With 19 days left until the big day, we have a ways to go, but I must say I have been noticing the progress we're making which feels really good. We've done a few bricks (and if you didn't read Crystal's post before this one, read it - it explains what a brick is) and we've done pretty well. The hardest thing we've done was Sunday. We rode our bike up on the Greenway and then put the bikes back on our rack and took off to go for a run. That was rough because we felt like we were running really hard but felt like we weren't going anywhere. It's an awkward transition because your legs are used to the smooth motions of riding a bike, and when you hit the pavement that smoothness changes real quickly. Despite that, we did it.



And we did another one this morning. We met at 6:00am at the Atlantic Station LA Fitness for our usual swim, and then added a bike ride on after. The pool was SO cold (probably pretty close to how the lake will be the day of the race) but once we got started we were done in under 15 minutes. Keep in mind that the swim in the race is 400 meters, and we're practicing doing 600 meters each time just to be on the safe side. After that, we had a quick wardrobe change and hopped on a bike. All in all I'd say we're doing pretty well! Although, I will say - we are quite a sight walking in and out of LA Fitness every Wednesday morning. Needless to say, we tote along a LOT of stuff. We have to bring our swimming stuff, a towel to dry off from swimming, biking clothes and shoes, shower stuff (and a clean towel for that), and then everything it takes for us to get ready for work (clothes, makeup, hair straighteners, etc). I think we need to invest in bigger gym bags so we don't each need to bring two...and then some!

Brick Chicks!

This week was the beginning of something new...bricks (combining two events in one). It was quiet the challenge but I think we held up to the task pretty well. Our first attempt was Monday when we went to our favorite spinning class, with our instructor Jeremy. Just a little background on this class, it's crazy hard and starts at 6:45pm. If you aren't there to get your name on the list by 6:15 - no dice on getting in. This particular day Jeremy decided to try and kill us all, which he almost accomplished. But, we made it through and then it was time to transitition to the running. We headed for the treadmills, definately not the same as outside, but still a worthy task. We ran for a little over a mile and were pretty proud of ourselves. I know, a mile, big deal but it was our first "brick"...back off!

The next day was just running since we had been so diligent the day before. We decided to try a new route in the Highlands and see how we did. Needless to say we did AWESOME!! I don't want to toot my own horn here but we ran the whole distance, a little over 2.6 miles, without stopping. The iPod is definately God's gift to the non-runner...thanks Snoop Dog for some running jams! We were so excited b/c this is by far the farthest we have ever run. I don't want to get too excited but it wasn't completely miserable this time. Here are some shots of how adorable (NOT!) we look after running.

Victory!!!

Fist Pump!!

This weekend we are going to take on the Silver Comet so we'll see how that goes. We also want to give a big Good Luck to Katie D. who is doing a tri this weekend in Nashville, it's an Olympic distance so she is hard core!! Good Luck Katie D.!!!

27 Days and Counting...

It's hard to believe that our triathlon is less than a month away! We've been working hard, but still have a ways to go before we get to where we need to be. We actually blazed a new bicycle trail yesterday that was good...and bad - the Freedom Parkway trail over in the Poncy-Highlands area. The ride was really good for us becasue it was pretty difficult. Very hilly. The only problem was that the path was kind of hard to follow, and there were lots of intersections with various streets so there was a good bit of stop-and-go. We also couldn't go much more than about 6 miles because the path seemed to come to an end. It's supposed to be a pretty long trail, but we may have been going in the wrong direction. That being said, our favorite is still the Greenway up in Alpharetta, and we want to try the Silver Commet trail in Smyrna as well. Either way, it was a great ride and we had a lot of fun along the way. We even had time to stop and take some pictures for all of our readers/viewers out there to enjoy. And thanks to my dad we even have a new bike rack to use! Thanks dad! :)

running is for people who are being chased.

One would think by now that we would be pro runners, that side cramps wouldn't happen anymore, that we could chit chat while we were running, and that 30 minutes would go by without phasing us. Key words - "one would think". Unfortunately that's just not happening for us. Sunday and Wednesday come around and we LOOK FORWARD to swimming. Monday (and now Saturdays) come around and we LOOK FORWARD to spin class/riding our bicycles. The rest of the days come around and we dread the running part. This has GOT to change. Not to sound like a Negative Nancy or anything, but there has got to be a way that running will come easier to us. Today's run did not go so well. Although I will say, I had a great run yesterday, so that makes me feel a tad better. But I was on a treadmill yesterday. I am fine running on a treadmill. It's when it comes to running outside that we're both having issues. I am still trying to stay positive because I so want to be one of those people who can just run a few miles without thinking about how long I've been running for. I keep meaning to try the "My Sharona" method (if you don't get it - reference a comment made on a previous blog post) but I suppose I need to learn more of the song than just "muh-muh-muh-myyyyyyy sharona" for that to work. Anyway, we'll keep on keepin' on and maybe one day it will happen!