This was my first Christmas separated from my family...I was very sad...I am already looking forward to 2014 when I get to spend Christmas in Germany. But with school and moving there was no way we could have made it to the motherland.
Lucky for me, I have the best friend anyone could wish for. Pam.
She took me to cool places and did a ton of fun stuff with me to distract me.
One of the things she said would be fun would be competing in a ski race. And right she was. I was so nervous the day when I registered. I don't ski!!! Oh well. I logged onto yahoo.com to check my emails and saw this:
Was it a sign?
Oh well, here goes nothing:
The race consisted of running up a hill, skiing down, running higher and skiing down.
Before the race I knew I could make it up but wasn't sure how to make it back down. All I remembered was "French Fries" but apparently I was supposed to remember "pizza".
Up up up...
I made friends with a lot of interesting people. Dynafit gave me a race set of skis to demo and they were light. The boots were as light as my running shoes!!!
I made it to the top and Pam and I decided to ski down together. We had a ton of fun, but unfortunately her binding decided to poop out on us on the second time up so we just went half way and back down. It didn't matter, we were hooked for the next race!!!
I needed to renew my BLS license and Pam needed a CPR card. So she sat in a 3 hr class with me, a class for health care providers, just so we could do this together. What a great friend!!! I think she should get a raise for knowing much more then she really needed to know.
Next shenanigans: Skate skiing.
And that can only lead to a 20 k day on skis in our crazy endurance world. Eldora turns out to have great skate skiing, but we are excited to try out all the ones around Estes Park as well.
Biathlon...
mhhh...
could we possibly...
even though Eldora spelled Biathlon wrong - it is NOT biathAlon, it is also not triAthalon...I forgive them...but they should really change it...
JR and I decided during our day at Eldora to go give shooting a try and see if we should do a biathlon...crazy, I know...
Ft Collins got more snow that night, but Ft Collians still ride their bike.
JR and I took the day to test out the Biathlon rifle. Seated and standing, the first time of real shooting. It was a lot of fun despite my no-no-attitude to guns. I have to admit there were some strange characters shooting a gun next to us and it wasn't a hunting rifle or a biathlon gun...
Also disturbing was that I anwered NO for have you ever shot a gun and I didn't get a tutorial, instead they just handed us a gun of our choice...mhhh
Biathlon target practice was a success and JR and I are attending our Biathlon Safety class in January, followed by a race. Super excited to try this out.
Christmas came fast and we spend a nice day at Pam's house with Macaroons, a yummy christmas dinner and lots of presents, including a package from Germany!!!
Even JR helped in the kitchen and made a German dipping sauce!!!
Jack was very excited about his new toy from Germany. He grabs it and shows it off whenever he can :-) Happy puppy!!!
JR and I started track practice again today, dusting off the rusty joints with 10X400 m. We had nice weather and having time off from school is perfect for training. I get to run 2 times a day OR ski once, run once. Tomorrow I get to try out my new race snowshoes as well as go backcountry skiing in the Ft Collins area. Ahhhh, this place is awesome.
As far as running goes:
New years eve 5 k - CHECK
Resolution run on the 1st - CHECK
PF Changs is still in the air, but IMS half is a GO.
In 2014 I will be part of BROOKS. RUN HAPPY.
I had a really great time with ZOOT and they are great. I am very thankful for their guidance and support in triathlon over the past 2 years, but since 2014 and the future will be a run focus, BROOKS is THE way to go. My feet love BROOKS shoes (the pure series especially). I ran my marathon in Brooks shoes and had 0 blisters or hot spots. To be part of their team is an honor and I cannot wait to race and even return to the track in 2014 :-) Steeplechase round 2? Maybe so :-)
