Lake Pflugerville Triathlon and An Update from Italy

This morning was the 2nd annual Lake Pflugerville Triathlon. I did it last year and I decided I will do it every year. Then in 20 years when they recognize all those who have done it every year, I'll be in that group!

With my spring devoted mostly to training for the America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride that I did on June 1st, I didn't get swimming in my schedule and my running decreased drastically. Usually starting in February I try to swim two times a week. This year, I only swam 5 times before today and it has all been in the last two weeks. And most of my riding was on my road bike, not my tri bike.

With all that being said, I got a new PR (personal record) today of 1:29:10. Not bad in my opinion. I was 14th in my age group and 170 overall (I think there were around 350 people in the tri).

Swim: 12:26
T1: 1:39
Bike: 45:29 (18.5 mph ave!!!!)
T2: 1:06
Run: 28:28 (9:29 per mile - slower than last year)

The winner in my age group came in at 1:19:xx. The top four places were all 1:19 and seconds. That's some tough competition.

A couple of guys from church did the tri today as their first triathlon. I didn't see her at the time, but Cortney was there at the finish and got some pictures of us all crossing the finish line. Head over to her site to check out the pictures.


After the tri, I came home and showered. Then around 1:00 we tried to call my daughter. They are in Italy today. When I got the hotel, it didn't sound like they understood English very well, but I got out of them that the kids were in the restaurant eating dinner. I forgot that now that they are in Italy they are only 7 hours ahead of us and not eight. So we tried back an hour later and he said 10:30. That meant we had to wait some more. When we finally got through later, he handed the phone to the leader who was helping to direct calls.

Once again, my daughter answered the phone in the room. I don't know if it's because we tell her when we are going to call or if she just answers the phone all the time. Anyway, she wanted to know if the boys (my husband and son) were watching the soccer playoffs between Italy and Spain. I told her they weren't at the moment because they were next to me waiting to talk to her! She had been watching the game in the lobby and was trying to find it on the tv in the room.

I first needed to get caught up on Greece, so I asked how the donkey ride in Crete was. She said it was so much fun, but "mom, donkeys don't listen like horses do". Of course not. I think she got a picture of her donkey. She said they had also gone to the Olympic stadium and got to run on the track. One of the leaders got pictures of them crossing the finish line. Now that's cool!!!

I asked her how Italy was and she said good. They went to a cheese factory today to learn the process of making cheese. She said it was interesting and she took lots of pictures. Then she said, "Dude, Italians eat a main course, and appetizer, then dessert, and then more food. They eat a LOT!" Well, of course they do!!!

She said she still had about half her money left, so I think she just went crazy when she got there buying souveniers, but then probably hasn't bought much since then (and Grandma J, I'm curious to see what she has bought as well!). I reminded her she still has a week and a half to go.

I told her we probably won't call again until Thursday and she is fine with that. I've seen emails from other parents about kids being homesick, but I'm not getting that vibe from my daughter at all. It is interesting, though, to see the emails from the other parents and see what their kids are telling them. One of the parents said their child mentioned something about picking up trash and wondered if they did a community service project. Some of the kids have gotten sick on the overnight ferries (I sent dramamine for my child but have no clue if she has had to use it or not). And they've also been to see a castle and the cave where Zeus was supposedly born. Guess the donkey was more interesting to my child!

I think they are headed to Sicily tomorrow and they are supposed to climb Mt Etna at some point this week. My husband said that he saw on the news that it errupted this morning, so who knows what will happen with that. The program won't let them go if they feel it is too dangerous, but how cool would that be to see fresh lava?

From Pflugerville to Italy, that's the news for now....