Sportyone13

Real photographer pics from the wedding

Here is our photographer's blog post on our wedding. with much better photos than what I posted (i guess that's why she was the paid photographer. SOOOO worth it).

Wedded Bliss

We could not have asked for more. Our wedding was perfect. Starting with our rehearsal costume party (much more "us" than a formal rehearsal dinner) to every detail of our wedding day, it was a blast! We celebrated with our family and friends and that was really what mattered most to us.

The costume rehearsal:

"Chris" & "Greg" (Angela/Will)

The Edwards Wizards

Magnum PI and Dolly are in the house

the Seattle crew includes a grown man in boy's scout

outfit (poor kid that is now w/out) and
a couple've vegetarian Boeing nerds

Geriatric superheros can still save the world (just takes a little more time)

The wedding prep:

LRA was going to do her hair like this but it wouldn't stay

Mother getting her makeup did

Getting the dress to fit just right

Sarah needed a gel to keep her energy up for the wedding

The Wedding:

Gorgeous flowers by Gretchen at Petals, Ink

Sweet Emma

Jason walking Mom down the aisle

Dad & me (thanks Natalie)

Pinch me, I must be dreaming

I got the best wedding present ever on sunday. I won't be able to redeem it for a year but still, I am so stoked!

Sunday the Longhorn 70.3 played out like the perfect dream. Well, almost perfect. about 25 seconds from being perfect but now i'm just nitpicking. I should've known when I got the best spot i've ever had to rack my bike in T1, 2nd from the end, right near the bike out are. Beyond that, I didn't know how ready i was for this race and felt a bit unsure.

as my fellow training partners know, i don't generally make hard time goals before a race. I'd prefer to really have no clue what a good time is or where I am during it and race like I know how and see how it all pans out at the end (ignorance is bliss, right). With that in mind, my time last year was a 5:13 with a short swim course so I was thinking, if the swim course is spot on this year which it was and if I run 1 min/mile faster than last year, the best I could do is a 5:07/5:08ish. This was really the first time all season I have had a time goal in mind before race day. My real goal this season was to make it to clearwater (for those who don't have a clue what i'm talking about it's the Ironman 70.3 World championships. it's like qualifying for kona but not quite as tough or like qualifying for boston but a little more difficult because there are a lot less spots than in boston).

Starting with the swim, things went decently well.I am definitely no fish but I felt pretty comfortable the whole way (except when i got clocked in the head REALLY hard by some guy - he actually apologized so no hard feelings - and I contemplated for a few secs whether I had a concussion or not). I did not let my mind wander to far from the race and wasn't just dying to get out of the water like I sometimes am.

Transition wasn't too bad either. Cut my toe on a rock, which I found out once I put my feet in my shoes since there was blood on the shoe but my feet were numb from the cold so it didn't bother me at all during the race. Weather turned out great, I had prepared to put on gloves, arm warmers, an extra jersey and socks (hey i get cold easily) but scrapped most of it before the race and left just arm warmers out and decided last sec to scrap that as well. so it was transition as usual for a texas race.

Apparently the bike went well since I was in 1st place coming off the bike and had the fastest bike split in my age group. i am usually strong on the bike and it is obviously my favorite part of the race and what keeps me in contention but I have been having comfort issues on the bike since getting a power fit earlier this summer. the pressure is now all weird in the saddle (even got a new saddle) and i find myself having to reposition a lot but it didn't affect me much on Sunday.

the run was where I knew I had to stay mentally tough and determined - just stick to my plan and have confidence in my abilities for once. I knew I was probably top 5 out there but did not know i had the lead going out onto the run (i'm so clueless out there sometimes). I stuck to the plan though which was to run 8min/mile and ended up with a 7:56/mile pace which was an 18-min improvement over last year so even though I still need to get faster, that was a really good start to improving on the run.

Heading into the finish line chute, I finally looked at my cumulative time and saw that I was at 4:58 and some change. It never even dawned on me that I had a chance to go sub-5 hours but at that point I gave it all i got (while wondering if I somehow had messed up my timing and my watch was wrong), just a little too late, coming in at 5:00:24. That is a 13 min PR for me so even though I really wish I had broken 5 hours, i am super happy with that time.

Based on my 4th place finish, I decided to stick around for the rolldown, just in case i had a chance. People always say the rolldown can go farther than you think so i thought i might have a chance. It definitely made for a long day though and luckily Greg was kind enough to stick around and wait with me. It didn't start until after 5pm and I was pretty nervous. I had thought there were only 2 slots in my AG but when they got to us, Adam announced there were 3 spots. As you can guess, one girl did not take her slot, which left me. I did not hesitate to take the slot. this was really the perfect way to end the season. seriously, I couldn't ask for more. I am super excited for next season even if it starts with the super hilly Ironman St. George, it will culminate with Clearwater so what more could I ask for?

U2 (and Muse) live and up close

Went with Greg and friends Mike and Sally to see Muse/U2 at the new Cowboy's stadium. We had a little drama at first but it ended up awesome. Google maps failed me in a bad way. I initially mapped out hotels near the stadium and according to google maps (as the crew can be my witness - they saw the map) the hotel I reserved in FRISCO was only 2.5 miles away from the stadium in ARLINGTON. Not knowing the Dallas area, I took this as truth. Once we got there, we realized it was like an hour drive and we had planned on just cabbing/walking to the concert. Luckily we were able to cancel that reservation and get a hotel actually in Arlington near the stadium. But with traffic, we were cutting it close for Muse, which was more exciting to Greg than U2 (why, i'm not sure). So once we got there, the stadium is pretty large as one can imagine. There were ton of ushers helping us find the right entrance. Even guys selling beers outdoors that we could take inside. Once inside, it was a little more of a cluster. The tix had the section and seat numbers. it was just missing rows so we couldn't figure out where we were seated. 3 ushers and customer service booth later, we finally figured out we were on the field - open standing area right up front. Woo hoo!!! we were stoked. It was better than we imagined and U2 was just as good as they were the first 2 times I saw them in college. It never gets old. Seriously.

photo op between Muse and U2

Another Shower (of the friends and fun variety)

Not to be confused with the rain showers, our friends Sarah and Neil threw us a couples shower and it was a blast! We had a great turnout of good friends, delicious food and thoughtful entertainment gifts. It was colder than anticipated so no lawn games but much pool and ping pong (well on Greg's part).