Patriot Triathlon Weekend

Saturday morning Sean and I got up at 5 am so we could go watch the start of the Patriot Half Triathlon. This was a half ironman distance triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) and the first of the Patriot Series for the weekend. We were both participating in the Sprint Triathlon which wasn't until Sunday.

We got down to the water a little before the 7 am start. There were quite a few of the approximately 600 participants in the water warming up.


At exactly 7 am they let the first wave go and they were on their way to swim 1.2 miles.


This was my first time seeing an open water swim in person, and it was definitely neat to see all of the different waves broken out by the different color swim caps.

After a few of the waves started we moved over to the swim finish so we could see them get out of the water. Once out of the water they had to run about a quarter mile to the bike transition area.

This was the first guy out of the water

My friend Emily, and fellow "race photographer"

First female out of the water

Our friend Brian

You can see the transition run from another angle below. It was definitely helpful to see how this transition worked for my race on Sunday.

Sean smiling for the camera

More participants

A para-glider enjoying the nice weather

Sean decided to head home and do some errands while Emily and I decided to hang out and see Brian finish.

Transition area

Brian dropping his bike off and getting his shoes

This guy was 2nd place, and was so excited to see his kids cheering for him at the finish.

Brian right before the finish

Emily and I stayed until Brian finished and then both headed home. It was a busy morning, and we were both getting up to do it again on Sunday. She was going to come cheer Sean and I.

Sunday morning was an even earlier wake up. My alarm went off around 4:30 am and luckily I was well rested from going to bed early on Saturday plus my 2 hour nap that I was able to take as well.

We found Emily right when we got to the race. She took our pre-race picture. It looks much brighter than it really was.

The start of our race, it looks very peaceful before any of the participants arrived.

The sprint distance (which was what Sean and I were both doing) started at 7 am. There were over 500 registered participants. The international distance started an hour later at 8. There were about 330 registered participants. Between all of the racers and the spectators, it was definitely a lot of excitement to start the morning.

Sporting my bright pink swim cap, I started in the second wave

I stick out for sure. Chillin' with the guys before the race starts. I was able to get a little warm up in that definitely helped my pre race nerves.

Getting ready to swim my 750 meters

and we're off...

After the swim we had to run the same transition that we saw during the half on Saturday.

Sean making the transition from the swim to the bike

I felt pretty good after the swim. I definitely didn't push it, not knowing how I would feel at the end. It was difficult trying to go faster because I was afraid to get kicked, and then I had one girl on my toes the entire race, so I was trying to speed up, but didn't have a place to move to. Knowing how I felt this time, next time I'll try and push it a little harder. I ended up swimming the 750 meters in 17:11. I had no idea what I would swim, I was just trying to swim under 20 minutes, so I'm glad I was able to.

Once the water was shallow enough to walk it was faster to do this than swim in.

I'm shortly behind him

Once on the bike I managed to pass quite a few bikers and managed to maintain a pace of about 17.5 mph during the entire 20K ride (12.4 miles).

Right before the turnaround I saw Sean and knew I had the potential to catch him. After the bike, I was able to take my shoes off and get off my bike as I had practiced. It made for a smooth transition.

Putting my bike back

The sip that cost me my goal...

Sean out for his run before I put my bike back

After putting my bike back I changed shoes and went out for my 5K run (3.1 miles). I felt pretty good and my legs were tired but didn't feel like jello. I was able to mantain a pace under 8 min/mile. I tried to keep it under 25 minutes, but I wasn't able to this time. Next time. Like the bike this was an out and back course. I saw Sean shortly before the turnaround point, and being that I'm a stronger runner I knew I could catch him. It took me until about a quarter mile before the finish when I passed him, but he was doing awesome and he looked good.

"Sean, I'm coming to get you"

Finishing the triathlon at 1:30:08 (If I hadn't taken that sip of water maybe I could have kept it under 1:30)

Sean finishes at 1:34:44 (although he crossed the finish line less than 30 seconds behind me, he started 4 minutes ahead of me)

We were given cold wet towels right at the finish and greeted by our friends Audrey and Emily who had woken up extra early to come watch us race.

Definitely a good way to end a weekend. We had so much fun and can't wait to do it again next year! Who knows, we may even attempt the international distance.

Homemade Sorbet

I just finished making homemade sorbet for the very first time. I got my ice cream/frozen yogurt/sorbet maker from Maria earlier this year as a bridal shower gift and I know I should have used it by now, but honestly I've been so busy.

I've been thinking about what kind of ice cream I should make and while searching recipes I found one for Mango/Orange Sorbet. I improvised slightly and made a Mango/Raspberry/Blueberry version. I was anxious to try it and probably stopped it a little early, but it didn't matter it was still a good texture and tasted SO GOOD! I was surprised by how easy it was, and Sean definitely agreed with me on the taste.


I'm now anxious to make some some ice cream. I saw a recipe for Rhubarb, and I think I might improvise and try Strawberry Rhubarb. My sister Stacy is known for her Strawberry Rhubarb pie, and I'm hoping this might taste half as good as her pie.

I'll keep you posted.

1st place overall

For the first time ever I finished first female overall in a 5K race. I didn't run fast, and I didn't have a ton of competition, but it doesn't matter I still got first place and I got a nice big trophy to put with my other awards.

Busy Weekend in NOVA and MD

This past weekend was a lot of fun. Friday night we drove up to Northern Virginia. On the drive up I really wanted some pizza and asked Sean to call a Pizza place 20 minutes away so we could order a pizza and it would be ready by the time we got there. He opted for just going to a random pizza place and hoping we could order single slices. He looked for a pizza place on his phone and found three on one street so we decided to check it out. We ended up going to Cici's Pizza.

We didn't realize it was a chain and it's a buffet pizza bar, all you can eat for $4.99. It definitely wasn't what we were looking for and although we stayed and ate our pizza it wasn't too tasty, next time we'll skip Cici's.

By the time we got to Sean's sister's house the kids were sleeping, but we had a nice time visiting with Amy and Scott.

Saturday morning we woke up early to play with the girls. It's amazing how much they have grown since we saw them last at our wedding.

Anna won't smile but she'll make her funny faces

Lucy showed me her baby doll named Baby of course

Such a happy girl

The Birthday Cake that Anna decorated for Sean's birthday, it was completely covered in sprinkles.

Anna is excited to sing Happy Birthday

Everyone gets to blow out the candles

Time to go to the pool, Lucy loves her Uncle Sean

Anna having fun in the pool

Got to love the pigtails

Last time we saw her she couldn't walk

Look at those thighs

Sean doing flips off the diving board

He had a fun time, this was the last jump before he fell and luckily only scraped his foot on the diving board

Modeling her bathing suit

After the pool we said our goodbyes and got on the road to Maryland. We had to go up because our tenants were moving out of the house and we had to do a walk through with them. We also used this as an opportunity to visit old friends and to see our O's play.

Camden Yards used to be our favorite place to go for a date. We hadn't been back since our engagement photos last September, and we didn't get to see the O's play then. It was great to be back and we ended up getting cheap tickets in the bleachers.

The view from our seats

Our BFF the Oriole Bird

Sean sporting his Orioles gear

Sean and I enjoying the game

It was a fun game and it was a nice date night with my husband.

Sunday morning was Sean's birthday. We woke up said our goodbyes to our Maryland friends and got on the road back to Williamsburg. Of course we got stuck in traffic. It could have been worse, but it still wasn't fun. Luckily I slept for half of the way and Sean drove the entire trip, even though he was the birthday boy.

Once we got home we relaxed and decided to open presents.

His first Son-in-Law birthday card

His Dad got him a signed photo of some retired Giants player that was autographed specifically for him

I love this photo, Sean was excited to get his Garmin for his bike

We relaxed for a little bit but then had to try the Garmin out. We took a bike ride, a little over 16 miles and had a fun time. We were able to talk for about half the ride, and I pushed it harder than I have ever done. It was a fun afternoon.

After our bike ride, we came home showered and we were starving so we went out for Sean's Birthday Dinner. We were originally going to go to our favorite restaurant Cities Grille, but when we got there, there was a note on the door that said they were closed every Sunday through August. We decided to go to our second favorite restaurant Bonefish. It was pretty empty so we got a table right away. We had a wonderful evening enjoying each others company and after dinner I made sure to notify the waiter that it was my husband's birthday.

Sean with his Birthday Key Lime Pie

Right before we left we had one of the waitresses take our picture. We were tired after a long weekend but it was a fun one.

I love date nights and being able to spend time with my Sean

Vineyard 5K and Bowling

Sean and I participated in the Vineyard 5K yesterday evening. With temperatures in the high 80's at race start time of 7 pm we made sure to stay hydrated all day. Well I stay hydrated, Sean just drank extra beer. This was our second 5K since the wedding, and I really wanted to do well. Usually the local 5K's bring out a little over 100 participants, maybe up to 130 or so. This one had well over 500 participants, probably close to 600. It was a great chance to support a local charity CDR.

We arrived early as I always like to do, and met up with Melissa, Cindy and Glenda, some of my old Virginia Gazette co-workers. It was nice to see them, although we didn't have much time to catch up before the race. We figured we'd have time afterwards, that didn't happen, I'll explain in a bit.

It was hot, but we both ended up with times faster than the last time we ran the race, which was 2 years ago. Although not our best times, considering the heat, we were pleased.

Here I come, speeding in with my fun blue shoes!

Sean speeding to the finish!

After the race we enjoyed our free food from Carrabbas and ice cream from Ben & Jerry's. It was great to have such great sponsors at the race.

Apparently the humidity was high, because all of a sudden it started pouring and the rain came down like no tomorrow. At first it felt good, but then there wasn't any place to go. We hung out under a tree trying to shield ourselves from the rain, but after seeing lightning and hearing some thunder Sean told me he'd get the car and bring it closer.

The organizers were trying to stay positive and started calling out the numbers for the auction items. Everyone's raffle tickets were soaking wet and they really weren't legible. I no longer cared to stay. Sean came back and I had to go grab our fleece blanket that of course was where I left it, and being fleece it was heavy and soaking wet.

Sean went to the car and I told him I'd meet him there. I decided to take a short cut down a hill and ended up going through mud, that was like quick sand. I got stuck up to my knees and couldn't move. I had to pry my feet out of my flip-flops and then reach my arm into the mud to get them out. I found the left one really easy, but the right one was lost, I eventually found it after digging. It didn't help that it smelt like sewage and I was carrying a heavy, wet fleece blanket. I got back to the car and was covered in mud, so I put my hand on the ground and "cleaned" off in some of the puddles. Sean was laughing at me, of course and I was anxious to get home and showered.

I never found out if I placed or not, and I'm still anxiously waiting for the results to be posted, I'll keep everyone updated.

After getting home and showering we went bowling with our friend Emily for her birthday. I hadn't been bowling in so long and I realize I should do it more often, it was a lot of fun!

Sean tries to show off

I have mad bowling skills too!

Tides Game!

Last weekend Sean and I met up with our good friends Cindy and Steve and their children Savannah and Sammy to go to the Tides AAA baseball game in Norfolk.

We had a fun time getting all of the baseball food and even watched the game a little. The kids were bored, or "boring" as Sammy kept saying, but they still had fun after the cotton candy, flavored ice, ice cream and whatever else we all shared.

We even saw the Tide Monkey. Well he's really supposed to be a wave, but I by mistake called him the Tide Monkey, and the kids kept yelling out looking for the Tide Monkey. I couldn't tell you who they played or what the score was but it was a fun time.

Before the game, Savannah and Sammy goofing around

Having fun posing for the camera

Finally a nice oneSean and Steve relaxing before the game

The Tide Monkey!

Cindy and Savannah