Missions Accomplished

September was a busy month for me and Eric. He was busy hunting for a bull elk and I was training for my first triathlon. I really wanted Eric to do the tri with me, but he was too busy hunting to devote any time to training. The last two weekends, Eric and I both accomplished our seperate goals! Eric was thrilled to put more meat in our freezer and I was thrilled that the elk was small enough to keep it from being mounted on our wall.

Once elk season was done, Eric was available to come with me to Montrose for the triathlon. I was so excited to have my own personal cheering section! I didn't think they were in the aquatic center to watch me swim since I left them in the car with 20 minutes to spare before my heat began. But as I was walking up to the doors, I heard them call the two heats after mine to prepare to swim. I ran inside (frantic that I had missed my heat), borrowed some lady's cell phone to call Eric, and jumped in the pool. Since I had to leave a message on Eric's phone, I didn't think they would get there in time, but they were cheering me on the whole time!

The swim (500m) was my weakest event, but it went much smoother than I thought it would. I was actually surprised when I saw the orange marker indicating my last length, and had wished I had pushed a little harder during the race!
The bike (15.5 mi) was really fun, except it was kind of lonely since the racers were so spread out due to the limited number of contestants in the pool at one time. I was hoping I could do some drafting (j/k), but I was all alone!
The run (3.2 mi) was hard! It was an out and back course and the whole first half was a steep climb. The second half was nice, but the uphill killed me!
Overall, I felt great and was happy with my time (1:38). I learned some things that would help my transitions and can't wait to do another tri. Next time, Eric better do it with me!
A friend of mine from Denver, Jen Groves, was doing the tri with her sister (my pediatrician), her brother, and a woman from my church, and was the one who told me about the race. Thanks for training with me Jen!
After the race, we planned to drive to Ouray (the coolest little moutain town) to rock climb and go to the hot springs. But on the way up, Mason started complaining that his stomach hurt, and shortly after arriving at the climbing spot, he threw up. Not wanting to give up entirely, we plopped him in a chair and set up the climbing ropes.

Eric tried to convince Paige that climbing was fun...
But she was not a fan of the harness!
Logan did some climbing, but he is not the monkey that Mason is. In fact, I think he was even a little more timid now than he was a couple years ago.
Despite having to cut the afternoon short and miss out on the hot springs, we saw some beautiful fall colors and had a fun day as a family. Now that our goals have both been met and fall is here, we're going to have some free weekends - so I guess we'll be grilling up some elk steaks and eating apple pie!