Jam Packed (But Fun) Weekend

So we've been debating the best way to deal with the travel portion of the Giant Acorn Triathlon coming up at the end of the month.  The rest of our team has rented a house for the weekend but since we're just going for the race we decided to take a ride to Lake Anna (where the race is being held) to check it out.  But first, we needed to go to our morning work out with the team at Hains Point.  A double brick which was a nine mile bike then a 20 minute run, followed by a 6 mile bike then a 15 minute run.  Tom did even longer because he's an over achiever!

 So after the workout and showering we drove out to Lake Anna.  Beautiful drive and we figure we can do it in 90 minutes so rather than going Friday night (in horrible traffic) and getting a hotel we're going to get up early that Saturday morning and drive to get there by 7 am then come home after.  The park is really pretty with a nice beach so hopefully the weather stays nice through Sept.  Stopped at Dick's sports on the way home to look at bike racks and get me some new goggles then stopped for Mexican food.  Decadent treat for me!

Sunday was crazy busy at church as all the new interns come into DC as well as new students.  You can tell these young people are a little overwhelmed coming into the city and are so happy to get hooked up to a church where they can make some connections.  It makes it especially gratifying to be able to help them find a small group or someplace to serve so they can make some new friends and help them get over missing home.

Originally this weekend we were going to go to Harpers Ferry Saturday and spend the night to meet friends the next day but we knew they needed extra help at church so we ended up driving after the last service.  Another 90 minute drive from DC to MD to VA to WV and finally into Harpers Ferry.  

 We met our friend Chris and her new-ish husband Don at the visitor's center then hopped the shuttle that took us down into town.

Potomac meets the Shenandoah

 Chris has been an awesome friend and support through our kid's trials.  Her kid's have had their own so it's been great to have someone to talk to who understands the heartbreak and discouragement.  So glad to see her over the moon happy and to finally meet Don who is just a lovely guy.  We wandered the town a bit, crossed the bridge over the river, then headed over to Private Quinn's Pub for an early dinner.  Was SO nice to see friends and so glad they made time for us on their vacation.

Teri Gets A Trim

I may have talked about hating to find new stylists, or in my case....someone to cut my hair here in the East.  I was looking online for a good photo I could take to someone that would show how I wanted it layered and all when I came upon some YouTube videos about cutting your own hair.  Now I trim my hair all the time on my own but when I weighed the ridiculous amount of $ I would be charged here and an $8 pair of hair cutting scissors....well, I think you see where this is going. Hey, normally I use my paper/craft scissors so at least I invested in some proper tools.

Started with a little:

                                                      Then opted for more....and a little more....

This is how you cut layers in your hair people......

 

A little thinning on the ends (seriously, the sun, chlorine and salt water has wreaked havoc on my hair this year) and all is well.  Hmmm.  Still may have to go shorter.  Will wait till the end of the month.

Nation's Tri

Friday after work I met Tom and we metro'd to Dupont and then walked to the Washington Hilton to pick up our race packets.  It's always fun to get the swag and t-shirt.  We walked around to look at the exhibits and found some of the others from our group.  We attended the route clinic where they sort of haphazardly walked us through the day's events.  It was after 7 when we left so we decided to stop somewhere for an inexpensive dinner.  Found a restaurant that had an adjoining cafe where we could get a sandwich for $7 so we opted for that.  I SO wish we had taken a photo of our mini sandwiches that came out!  Seriously, a corner of a baguette that was about 4 bites total.  About 5 chips and 3 bites of a mini potato salad.  Ha ha ha!  The look we exchanged when they set it down in front of us was priceless!

Saturday mid-morning we met the group to take our bikes down to the transition area.  We had to drop them off the day before the race.  It was nice because it gave us a chance to see the area, the swim buoys were up and get a feel for the transition space.

Our car was parked at Fort McNair which we figured was a 30 minute walk from where we were.  However, it ended up being an hour walk in 94 degrees and VERY humid.  The last thing you want to do a day before a race is get wiped out by sun and this made us re-think how we were going to get to the race venue the next day.  It also wasn't smart to do an hour walk from the car to the venue the next morning.  A cab was going to cost us $75 so we decided to try out the City Share bikes.

RACE DAY!

Up at 4:30 AM.  Had all our stuff laid out so I made our protein smoothie and half a dry bagel, got our gear on and headed out.  We drove to Fort McNair, walked the couple of blocks to Waterfront where we picked up two of the Capitol Bike Share bikes.  Loaded our stuff in the little carrier in front and biked to the venue hoping that the bike share stand had some openings for us to deposit the bikes.  Lucked out and there we plenty of spaces right in the entryway.  Awesome!

Transition Area

 As we were going into the transition area to set out our bike helmets and things we heard the announcement that the swim portion had been canceled.  WHAT?  Apparently a pipe had overflowed at 10:40 the night before and 15 minutes worth of raw sewage came flowing into the Potomac.  Great!  So we were starting with the run from the dock and picking up with the bike and run.

 The Olympic race (longer than the Sprint) started about 2 hours before ours so we all had to wait around till those participants were all out on the course.

 Once we finally got out and going it was really fun.  There were some hills on the bike ride that went up through Rock Creek Park (where we had done our hill training) and then some more through the city as we rode 16.6 miles.  Those were tough but the other cyclists were calling out encouragement as we went along which was really helpful and motivating!

 I am always nervous about the run because I just struggle through it.  After I dropped my bike off and headed out I doubted I would really be able to do it.  I felt so tired!  Then I remembered in my reading that sometimes after a bike it can take nearly a mile to feel normal so I just kept going.  I walked when I took a drink of water then started running again.  When I went by the Holocaust Museum during both the bike and run Kristen, and both Daves were there shouting encouragement which was awesome.  I was the last one from our group so after they saw me they jumped on their bikes and rode along with me all the way to the finish line.  Plus, the rest of the group was waiting near there as well to cheer me through the chute!

 Everyone had a great race but we were disappointed about missing the swim portion.  SO, the other half of the group is doing the Giant Acorn Sprint Triathlon at Lake Anna in 3 weeks so Tom and I have signed up to do that one as well.  We hated the idea of a whole summer of training to just do one race....so TWO it is!

We all had a great time and wolfed down the sandwiches and goodies they had waiting for us when we got back to the finish line.  Tom loaded his bike back in the car back at the base and I took mine on the Metro and headed home.  A shower, a nap and basically just crashed so our old bodies could recover!

Dylan

So this is my new gig this Fall.  Our friends Rachel and Ernest were looking for someone to watch their baby Dylan 4 days a week and 3 weeks out of the month.  Rachel's mom comes the 4th week to spend time with him.  It was kind of a God thing where we had met them both casually at church functions and then happened to run into them on the Metro going home one night.  Long story short when I said "if you ever get in a bind and need someone to watch him, let me know"and her eyes lit up....that was kind of the beginning.  Daycare, like everything else here is crazy expensive here.  Since then we've spent much more time with them and this is the easiest baby in the world so he and I  are having a blast!

Labor Day Weekend

Tom took half a day off on Friday.  The weather was gorgeous so we decided to take advantage and head back to Sandy Point beach to do some more open water swimming.  Thought we would have to fight the holiday crowds but there were very few people there.

  Dave went with us because he'd had no open water training yet.  But of course because he's 23 years old, he took off and left us in his wake!

We took lunch and enjoyed a few hours on the beach just talking as well.  Dave works as a butler for the British Ambassador and lives in the British Embassy.  He has great stories (that he's allowed to tell) and has had a very interesting career path already.  He also worked in Buckingham Palace.  Anyway, he's a lot of fun to be with (his cute wife Katy was working then had something else that night) so when we got back to our place he and Tom checked their GPS times with the computer while I fixed dinner for us all.  A fun day!

We had volunteered to be in charge of the following day's workout as all our leaders were out of town or had visiting guests.  Tom drove with his bike and breakfast goodies so he could get his workout in early.  Dave decided to meet him and do his early as well. Dave can also apparently take photos while he's cycling!

I took the Metro into town then rode over to Hains Point to watch their bikes while they ran and to wait for the others who were arriving at 8 AM.  We had decided to do the full bike and run portion of the triathlon so we road 16 miles and ran a full 5K.

Nicole

Rick, Kelly and their son Ty

Rob

Jason, Dave and Angie

Holly

We brought along some post race nutrition (okay, I bought the Krispy Kremes from a guy doing a fundraiser at an intersection- not so healthy) so we sat around and had a little fellowship for a while after.  While we were cleaning up the food a girl we didn't know came up to us.  We offered her some food and she asked if we were there every weekend!  Turned out her name was Frankie and she works at the mini-golf right there in Hains Point.  We gave her the donuts to share with her co-workers along with some of the other food.  She told us to come and enjoy mini-golf for free sometime!

 

 I don't know if I've mentioned that Tom and I are now in charge of the Connections Table at church.  Sunday morning we had our first meeting with our team to go over training, best practices, questions and of course.....eat.  We have a great, fun group who are all awesome and who are great at welcoming visitors and new attendees.  Our job is to get the newbies plugged in to small groups and service opportunities.

Oliver, Ruth, Katy (Dave's wife) and Ursula

Tom, Jennifer, Sharla and Monica

 The past few Sundays we've been heading to Tom's office after church for him to catch up on some work.  I usually read or get caught up on paperwork but the past couple of weeks he had a ton of shipment items that needed to be gone through and inventoried.

Oh.  And I got to put together this awesome desk:

But it took a little bit of time........

 Monday we did a quick Metro ride into Chinatown to CitySports to check out their sales for a few things we needed, then back home, into the car and a ride to the beach.  We did run into many more people but still enjoyed our swim, lunch and time on the beach.