three-quarters of a year.

I guess I somehow deleted the beginning of this...So Jamie and I decided to do a 40km time trial out towards Cancun in the spring.  I got lots of good advice from Slowtwitch along with warmup and training advice and thought I might have a chance in the top 5 to 10.  They were only paying out top 3 though and I really wanted my entry fee ($200 pesos) back, so I was hoping.

We had gone out the weekend before to get a feeling of the road and thought we figured out the start and turn around and found that while it is pretty easy to average 32kph here (with and against the wind) out there seemed to be a strange vortex of energy or whatever that kept our HR up high and our average speed pretty pedestrian.  Very strange.  After our pre-race reconnaissance we were rather worried we would place very low (if at all) and I was hoping against hope for more women in my age category as I didn't think I had much of a chance against the young women.  The same organizers put a team time trial on later in the year but we never managed to put the energy into finding a 3rd person for our team.

 I killed myself, averaging 148 HR or so and with 3 km left completely died.  When I finally crossed the finish line I could barely stay on my bike and actually just got off and lay down in the road.  At least I left it all out there.  I somehow managed 2nd in my age group (25+) and 3rd overall.  Beat by a teenager (IIRC) for overall position!  :)  Jamie took his category by at least 15 minutes or more.  Kicking some old man ass. 

  

We'll definitely be back for the next event they have though.  There were very pro-looking teams coming from all over the peninsula.  Apparently, quite the event. 

On the kid front, Sissy's school participated in the millon a pie (can't remember what the engish version was) but a world-wide event, which involved one of her newly found loves (thanks to school), dancing.  Apparently the moms were also invited to participate.  They held the event just off the beach and it was really fun to watch them.  Plus they got about 1/2 a day off school!

Jesse's school then put on their 10th anniversary concert at a local bar and we all spent the day at the beach (such trials and tribulations :)) and had a great time listening to the music, watching the dance and getting a sneak peak at their newest performance, Les Miserables.  I had been very skeptical of this musical as i didn't think they'd be able to touch their amazing performance of All Shook Up but the entire family really enjoyed Les Miz once the performance rolled around.  That school continues to amaze me with the quality of their performances.  The girls ran the Ak Lu'um 5k again this year which Ellen topped with a 1K for the kids as she still had energy left over.  The girls don't really race it, they just go to support Ellen's school and have fun.

I'm have so many pictures I'm just going to have to post them separately.  This is going to get long now... :)

 

I decided to race a 10K at Father's Day and Jamie and I spent a lovely day in Akumal afterwards snorkeling and hanging out.  I was pleased with my time (56 minutes) and will definitely do this one again and maybe next time be able to entice the family to come spend the day in Akumal.  Such a nice spot to spend a Sunday and The Best way to recover from a 10K run.

Both girls had a horse competition the day of my usual sprint triathlon so I consoled myself with a sweet jersey from this year's event and had a GREAT time with the girls.  They both eventually decided to compete both days (instead of just one) and Ellen just missed out on medals.  Sissy took home some great prizes (AI certificate and plaques) as well as a first place on the 2nd day.  Both girls looked GREAT on their mounts and, more importantly, cheered on their fellow competitors and had a great time.  The biggest disappointment was that the paleta cart had no corriente so we had to scarf down enough paletas on the first day to content us for the entire competition.

I then set my sights on Bacalar for their yearly open water event.  Last year I somehow missed the date and the year before I was wicked sick with a chest thing.  I've been wanting to do this event for 3 years (even paid one year) and this was going to be my year.  We found a house to accommodate the dog (it is a small town and this event completely fills all the hotels there, so it wasn't an easy task) and headed down.

(a 3-hour tour.  this is why we need a van - to carry our MOUNTAINS of crap)  Actually we had planned to do some riding in unfamiliar lands while we were there but Jamie got sick and I decided to just hang with the kids and had to be content with my swim and then outsmarting the federales trying to fleece me for $3000 for imagined infractions.  I finally broke down and did the stupid tourist "I no speak espanish" (having used the subjunctive tense previously, I miraculously lost all ability to speak Spanish and could only speak English) and it worked.  From now on i think I no longer speak Spanish when it comes to cops.  We left super early in the morning and it about killed me to bypass this place offering coffee, but I managed to survive.  Barely...

We actually stayed out of town by 5km or more and had a great time there.  We walked to the river (that feeds Laguna Bacalar) and had a great time paddling around in the kayak.  Jesse managed to cross the river but also to lose his snorkeling mask.  I think Pike was the only one uninterested in the river, but we had fast internet and a massage chair at the house and those were hard to compete with.

We all really enjoyed hanging out in the house with the lovely view of the laguna and fresh breeze.  The girl ran about the GRASS!!! in the backyard when we weren't in the water, running from the law or swimming 5k.  It was a GREAT vacation.

fresh from kayak and swim

the kids room.  one each to a bed, sissy in the hammock and pike made himself a bed in the closet.  worked for them!

I had just, about a month before, started increasing my swimming, trying for 10k/week but failing miserably but hoped to just have a good time.  The first lap wasn't that bad but that second lap was trying.  The water seemed to have a good chop to it and the base of the triangle of the swim seemed to be very difficult to swim against current.  But I've never done a 5K in the water before and figured it was par for the course.  When I got out and noticed my time I was severely disappointed.  I guess I get used to being a big fish in a small pond (what with the infancy of the sport here and my age, I'm usually a shoe-in to at least place in most all events) and this was a HUGE blow to my ego.

It is SUCH a pretty event though that I know I'll be back next year - even if I have to downgrade to the 2.5 K.  :)  SO worth it!

 However, it really caused me to look hard at my swimming and put a much greater effort into it.  Luckily, soon after the event, the triathlon message board I frequent started a swimming challenge which soon got me to 10k/week.  But I first had to get over dengue, which I must have picked up in Bacalar.  That really set my training back and after my saddle issues last year at this same time, I'm beginning to think I need to dedicate a rest month to July or something will cause me to have a rest month one way or another. 

I'm going to have to put this past weekend's race in a separate post and maybe that will keep me updating more regularly.  Can't hurt.