Over It.

I'm so over it.

Pregnancy isn't horrible. Everything is fine (minus the excessive Braxton-Hicks, the mild swelling of my feet and legs, and the new puffy cheeks), but really, I have nothing to complain about.

But I'm over it. I just want to have this kid. I want to see him and smell him and hold him in my arms instead of my uterus.

I also want my body back. I mean, I get that I have to share my body, or my boobs anyway with the lil' dude and lil' dude's dad (hell it's the truth), but really, I'd like to have a little more control over my body.

Aside from getting thru daily life for the next four months plus, I have started having new dreams. I have now twice dreamnt of doing a figure competition. Hubs and I very briefly discussed it, and after making silly muscle man poses in our living room, he agreed that it will be a great and challenging way to get back in shape post baby, without taking the time away from Lil Dude and himself, like training for an IM would (or half IM, or anything that requires longish runs before it's warm enough to put Lil Dude in the running stroller... or bike rides off the

trainer). Soooo, me, next year, May-ish? :)

In other news, I went to watch KS 70.3 June 6th. It was a beautiful day for racing. Mostly overcast, not incredibly hot. Chrissie Wellington knocked another out of the park. She set a new course record of 4:07.49. Um, that's like FAST. .. crap, I was going to post pictures, but I just realized I left my camera in another bag.

Alright, back to worky jerky I go. Wooo hoo.

I Can Shout It!

Okay, so I've been holding something back for almost two months now.

One of my most beloved and dearest friends, Julie, is also impregnanted. YAY! Let me tell you how awesome it is to have a good friend along for the ride.

She unfortunately got the pukey part of morning sickness (BTW, what MAN came up with the term, morning sickness? Seriously, it's 24/7), and I got the headaches. I can't wait for her to get to the "better" part that I have reached (or so I am told). She's due Sept 6- which is my husband's birthday. I'm ever so oddly scheduled to go just about on her birthday. See, strange how things work out!

She and I conqured my first triathlon together (Where we met, what love love love), our first "long" bike ride (it was about 12 miles, and we had to stop at mile 5ish because I thought I was going to die), first half ironman, her first marathon, our first Ironman, and my first open marathon together. I'm so excited we get to share this part too. That means, we can run with baby bobble heads together in an Ironman branded running stroller (duh, of course they make those).

So excited. Congrats, Julie and Dan! Love you!

Decade in Review

I'm a member of an online women's forum- kind of like the Knot, but way cooler- and the decade in review came up. I thought I'd add mine here.

2000- Finished my Freshman year in High School! Dyed my hair purple for the first time. Became a cheerleader (omg, seriously!?). Buried a close friend from suicide. Had a crazy summer cheeering and traveling my little brother around from state to state for moto racing. Turned 15. Met my future husband!

2001- Won conference in Humorous Interpretation for Forensics in school, somebody found my storytelling funny. Stopped cheerleading, it never would have worked out, anyway. What I would consider my Swan Song year in swimming- did fantastic at state, and had two relays win gold at nationals (NSG's). Watched future husband and brother race motorcycles.

2002- Swam, but not well. Got distracted by a boy (oh that scoundrel). Started taking college credit courses while still in HS. Husband graduated HS. Became a car hop at Sonic. I wore roller skates and black booty shorts. Seriously, easiest job ever. Look cute, don't fall, smile. Made bank. Started Senior year.

2003- Kept working. Went to school only in early AM's for college credit. First time purchasing a vehicle. My dad thought I was crazy buying a new car when they got me a perfectly good one the year before. Future husband bought a boat. Started wake boarding, well struggled at it. Graduated HS. Started college full time.

2004- Paid off said new car. Between sonic and the bar, I made money. Not kidding! Started getting kind of good at wake boarding, began competing. The boat thing caught on. Started working at future husbands boat dealership. Decided I missed swimming. Went back to club swimming at age of 19. Had to start all over.

2005- Finally requalified for swimming nationals. Tore labrum in right shoulder. Cried a lot. Retired again at age 19. Started getting really good at wake boarding. Earned world ranking of 45 in women's open cable wake boarding. Began looking at homes with future husband.

2006- Bought home with future husband. Started big girl job at hell hole law firm. Graduated college. Thought about attempting triathlon. Purchased bicycle. Did first triathlon. Met some new best friends for life. Did a few more triathlons. Turned 21. Did a half ironman triathlon. Won my age group. Qualified for Triathlon Long Course World Championships. Signed up for Ironman.

2007- Devoted life to training for first Ironman. Busted my ass. Began to worry weather I would ever get married to future husband. Had terriffic year in triathlon. Hated my job. Got engaged- on the beach, at Ironman. Completed Ironman.

2008- Began planning wedding. On cloud nine. Got fired (or, as they so nicely put it, "position is being terminated, and you will be eligible for state unemployment") 7 weeks before wedding. Best thing that EVER happened to me. Got married to WONDERFUL at dream Halloween Wedding, 8 years to the day of our first date. Went on AWESOME honeymoon to Mexico. Came back to job offers waiting for me. Started at new job.

2009- Excelled at new job. Did first stand alone marathon. Got pregnant.

2010- Finally got new car. Had the mustang the whole time. Planning on baby date of July 24. Turn 25 in August. Probably going back to school part time. Maybe new house? Going to have a great life. On to the next decade!

There Will Be No Ironman in 2009

They couldn't pick a better time as that in life.

It ain't too early and it ain't too late.

Startin' as a farmer with a brand new wife.

Count me out. Cross me off. Take me off the roster. After much deliberating over the last few weeks, I've decided to removed Redman from my schedule this year. I started a new job in November as an aquatics director for two pools run by one of the largests associations in the country, and my work load has increased exponentially. From what I hear, it only gets worse. I have had some great training from January until the middle of March, when spring swim lessons picked up. In eight days I logged 68 hours on the clock, not including my commute. That's a lot of time taken away from my home, husband, and animals, let alone my training responsibilities. I've not been one to half ass things, and I have a true respect for the distance. I've done an iron distance event to finish one, and now I want to compete in one. If I'm not fully into the training, the recovery, and the nutrition both mentally and physically, I will not have a likely chance at meeting my goals.

This would be an expensive trip to set myself up for failure.

As we have all seen in the economy recently, our expendable income has become tucked neatly under our pillowcases. It makes it all the more harder to justify an expense at which I may not even make the starting line.

Instead, I am going to focus on a local olympic distance race, Kansas 70.3, and Steelhead 70.3. I will add in some August/September local sprints to keep myself occupied, and I am still planning to persue the Kansas City marathon in October.

As coach lady told me, "Going half the distance doesn't make it half as challenging."

I'm still determined to make this my best season yet.

Biggest Loser is RIGHT.

I'm pretty damn sure this is the same guy doing "Ironman" or what he calls an Ironman (per the Feb. 10 airing):
The contestant said it's "Over a 1.5 mile swim *wrong*, and 80 mile bike *wrong*, and a half marathon *right*"

Correct distances of a HALF ironman are 1.2 swim, 56 bike, 13.1 run.
Ironman distances are 2.4, 112, 26.2.

JEBUS. I'm pissed at that guy and at NBC now.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/02/the-biggest-los.html

"The Biggest Loser" -- or is that "Biggest Liar"? -- fabricates account of contestant finishing marathon
One of my long-longtime readers, David Kleeman, writes: "I'm a huge fan of 'The Biggest Loser.' Love the show and all that it stands for. I'm also big into the marathoning community and knew back in January that one of the members of the Black team (either Blaine or Dane) had attempted a marathon in Arizona, but did not complete it. Instead, he had been picked up by a van along the course and dropped back down somewhere prior to the finish and then he crossed the finish line and collected a medal a la Rosie Ruiz. He is not listed in the finishers results (it was the Arizone Desert Classic on 1/31).
"What I didn't know was how the producers at NBC would report it. I was so disgusted to see that at the end of the Biggest Loser last night they did the whole segment on Dane and his wife doing a marathon and then reported that Dane completed the 26 mile race in 3 hours and 53 minutes. What else is completely falsified???"
David -- whose integrity is beyond question, as far as I'm concerned -- also passed along this blog posting from someone else who ran the same marathon and wrote:
"Oh, and those cameras behind me? Those are for Dane Patterson, a contestant on The Biggest Loser. He was there with his wife, running the marathon, though J started calling him The Biggest Liar. He and his wife were several miles behind me throughout the entire race, but around mile 17 they got picked up by a van and driven to the end of the course, where they filmed the grand 'crossing the finish line' finale with all the family cheering. I'm hoping that they televise it as a half marathon, since I know he ran at least that far, which is truly a great accomplishment. It'd be a shame if he got coerced into being less than honest, poor guy, especially since he's LDS like us."
And then this appeared in the comments the night before the broadcast:
"Hi! I'm Carli Patterson wife to the biggest loser contestant Dane Patterson. I had herd about your post and wanted to give you an explanation of what happened. I am so proud of my husband and his accomplishments. This has been an amazing experience for our family and unfortunatly this marathon has been a little exaggerated. In this industry you are always on a time frame and sometimes it is out of your control. We had stopped along the way to film at a water station and to make up for lost time our producers drove us ONLY 3 miles up the road. I am sorry if this has offended you in any way, but we are still incredibly happy about the 23 miles we ran. We were not listed as completing the marathon. Dane is an honest LDS Dad and I hope that they do say he completed this marathon because had time allowed he would have!"
Unfortunately Carli is contradicted by her own husband, who says in the above video clip, "It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life to run side by side with my wife for an entire marathon."
Anyway, I have put in an inquiry with the NBC publicist on the show and hopefully we will have a response up here shortly.
(thanks to Melissa Vetricek for the original tip!)
UPDATE: In the comments, Jerry Nairn, another racer, says the Pattersons did not volunteer the information that they had van-aided times. "They were reported to the race director and disqualified," he writes, "not that they were honest about it."

Grim Reaper at HIM.

This was first posted on Steve in a Speedo, and then on Athena Diaries.

If feeling dead at the end of a Half Ironman (HIM) was only really this funny...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c68aWDi9Hz8

I can't figure out how to load a video on here, but, trust me, you want to see this.