The weekend after we returned from New Hampshire we headed to southwest Missouri to visit my grandmother. We hadn't seen her for over a year and decided since it was also my great-aunt's 80th birthday it would be a good opportunity for a visit. We picked up my brother and our niece for the trip. This was our first personal experience with traveling with a toddler. She was quite the trooper of a traveler. We were all kept fairly happy with snacks and books to read in the back seat. Arthur and my brother were also kept happy with their own snacks and discussions for the drive. At the party there was no end to the great spread of food. It was also good to see several other great aunts and uncles. After the party we went to my grandma's house. Our niece, being a two year old girl, is slightly obsessed with Frozen. My mom had recently made her an "Elsa dress". She put on her dress and danced around the room to the song "Let It Go" providing the evening entertainment and great-grandma was all smiles. We spent the night at a little motel on the old Route 66. The next morning we started for home with a few stops-- historical Fort Scott and Mass Street in Lawrence. Arthur had never been to Lawrence and we felt bad about tainting his purity with this stop. However, we ate at a restaurant called The Mad Greek and Arthur was eager to dive into their Sunday buffet. After dropping our other passengers off, we motored on home.
The next week we took off in the opposite direction of the state to northwest Kansas. The occasion for this trip was the Phillipsburg Rodeo. In Arthur's family it is tradition to go to the rodeo. It started with his great-grandfather taking his dad to the rodeo. The tradition has continued through the years. We joined Arthur's parents and his sister and brother-in-law for the outing. We had dinner at the Chubby Pickle-- another family tradition. Next we headed out to the rodeo. This rodeo is billed as the largest in Kansas. The grand entrance included horses and riders spanning multiple generations of ranching families in the area. Another feature of the rodeo was a herd of 20 head of longhorns. My favorite event was the barrel racing. Arthur was a fan of the steer wrestling. We had a great time at the rodeo-- it had been years since I had been to a rodeo. I wish I understood more of the rules or how rodeo worked better. As we have mentioned in previous post, we really enjoy watching talented people do what they do best-- athletes, dancers, musicians, and this evening it was cowboys and cowgirls as well as their horses. After the final events of the rodeo there was an exhibition of motorcycle jumping that also involved impressive feats of athleticism. My thought about both the rodeo events and motorcycle jumping was 1. who was the first person to say, "I think I'll jump on an angry bull just for the heck of it," or "I think I'll jump off of a horse going at top speed to grab a steer's head to wrestle it to the ground," or "What happens if I jump my motorcycle off a ledge and try to do a back flip in the air at the same time?" and 2. how do these people practice these things when they are just beginning-- do bucking broncos come with training wheels?
In between our weekend excursions we have been training for the Salty Dog Triathlon again this summer. It seems that most of our time recently has been training for one thing or another. We enjoyed our triathlon so much last year we made sure we got signed up again. It's a great event to train for all summer since you can cross train between biking, running, and swimming and since it is later in the summer we have plenty of time to train. Friday night after work we headed to Hutchinson. We met one of my friends and a family she knew who were also in town for the race. Arthur's one request for the weekend was to eat at Olive Garden and it was delightful. The family we were eating with is also hosting an exchange student from Italy. We not quite sure what she thought of American Italian food. Another friend's family was out of town so she offered for us to bunk at their home which we appreciated. We decided to head to bed early since 5am and jumping into a pool were going to be an abrupt way to start the morning. Saturday morning at this early hour it was hard to gauge if Arthur was excited to compete or was just there because his wife drags him along.
I was a little nervous since my goal was to place in my age group this year. To give myself an advantage I somehow talked my brother into letting me borrow his road bike which is lighter and faster than my hybrid. He made it sound as if he was going to greatly miss his bike the few days I had it but when we picked it up both tires were completely flat and he hadn't ridden it all summer. I took it out twice before the race to practice. It took me five miles to figure out how to shift gears. The morning of the race I practiced getting my feet in and out of the straps on the pedal without landing on my face.
The triathlon consisted of a 400m swim, 10.5 mile bike ride, and 3.1 mile run. It was a full race of over 200 competitors again this year. To start the swim everyone lines up single file and one person jumps in every 10 seconds and snakes his or her way across the pool. Swimming was my best area in training but it had been 3 weeks since I had been in a pool and I did not put forth and impressive swim performance. Arthur on the other hand jumped in and said that he knew right away it was going to be a good race and swam almost a minute faster than his predicted time.
After swimming we jumped from the pool, ran to our bikes and put on helmets and shoes as quickly as possible. I think the biking portion is the easiest and the most fun portion of the race. It is also my weakest event. It was a huge advantage to borrow my brother's road bike since I cut several minutes off of my time and actually passed a few people. It is during the biking that those who do triathlons frequently stand out. They fly by and everyone else just appears to be out for a leisurely spin around the neighborhood.
After completing the loop 5 times we jumped off our bikes and took off on the run. My feet get slightly numb while biking and it is such an odd sensation to switch from legs spinning at about 80 rpm to having to push your body forward at a trot. It felt like I was running through cement. For me this is the worst part of the race. I had already been competing almost an hour and still had three miles to run on legs that were a little stubborn and unresponsive. By the end of the first mile this wore off and then I could "enjoy" the running more and lengthen my stride.
I finished the 5K in my goal time but was about a minute slower for the overall time than I wanted. I grabbed some water and then was waiting to cheer on Arthur. Much sooner than expected I saw Arthur rumble around the last corner with a quarter mile to go. He looked strong, almost like he enjoys running-- I was so proud and excited. With about 75 yards to go there is a sharp turn to the finish line and the last two years Arthur has been able to find something deep within and finish at what appears to be a dead sprint which is always a crowd-pleaser at the finish line. We grabbed some fruit and were recovering waiting to see what our final times were and for the awards ceremony. As it turns out, in the 25-29 age group the top female and the 2nd place male happen to have the same last name. Their last name also happens to be Latin for "to conquer". We felt like conquerors-- we survived with less training than last year and even improved our times by several minutes. Omni Vincit Amor.
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