I Tri-ed it, and I liked it!

Last year I met my goal of completing a half-marathon under 2 hours! I'd been training for months, and made my first go at it in the Seawall Half-Marathon in Galveston in November and I failed miserably. Those might seem liked strong words, because hey, I did complete another half-marathon, but I was not even close to meeting my goal, and I even had Cory and some friends there to cheer me on, so I was really disappointed. Everything that could go wrong for me that morning did, and I finished in 2:16:44.
So I tried again in December at the RunGirl Half-Marathon at Alexander Deussen Park north of Houston and finished in 1:58:40 - I did it! I was and am still so excited about that! I knew all along that the goal of interval training and fartleks was to make me faster, but it was amazing to see it actually happen! Here's my results from all my half (and one whole!) marathons that I've done:

So with that goal accomplished, it was time for a new fitness goal. I'd been thinking about doing a triathlon for a couple years, and with the encouragement of my friends Lisa and Melissa, I finally decided to do it. I joined a pool in January and started swimming with Alicia twice a week. I was surprised how much I really liked swimming! I borrowed a bike from my neighbor/former-coworker/friend Randy in April and started riding around our neighborhood and doing bricks (a bike followed by a run). The bricks were the hardest part for me. I thought the running would be the easy part, but getting off that bike and running was tough!
On May 8th I completed my first triathlon in under an hour! It was a super sprint distance, with a 200 yard swim, 8 mile bike, and 2 mile run. It was so much fun and I was so proud of myself! I finished 20/55 in my age group (30-34), 101/330 overall, in 56:29. I also finished 5/55 for my age group in the swim, which I was really proud of. The rest of the results are here TriGirl Super Sprint, and here's a pic of me and the girls, pre-race:
The next weekend Lisa went with me and I bought a triathlon bike which I am slowly learning to use. The first time I tried to clip into the pedals, I promptly fell over on my driveway and tore up my hand and knees (and cried). I got right back on the next day though and am slowly conquering my fears! I even went out on an actual road with cars and traffic lights with Lisa this past weekend for my first 'real' 10 mile bike ride, where I successfully clipped and unclipped multiple times without falling. Next up, getting down into those aerobars! And here's a pic of my pretty new bike:
I realize I could have called myself an athelte after training for and completing multiple half-marathons and one marathon, but I never thought of myself that way. At age 30, I finally feel like I can call myself an athlete - and that feels great! I can't wait for my next triathlon!

Eating with Erin

I know, two blog posts in one day, I can hardly contain myself either! Here's a collection of all the yummy treats I've been baking since before the holidays, all courtesy of my IPhone camera.

Catch-up Post: 30th bday

Wow I am a bad blogger! I probably shouldn't admit this, but one of my New Year's resolutions was to blog once a month. I obviously didn't do that, but I'm here now with a renewed effort!

I turned 30 in February and had an amazing birthday! My good friends Beth and Lisa have birthdays near mine, so we had a combined birthday dance outing with the girls and it was a super fun night! Here we all are dressed up and ready to party:

My wonderful hubby got me a LeCreuset Dutch Oven that I have been coveting for some time now. I've used it a bunch already and I love it!

Then in March, me, Heather, and Carolyn, PSU Besties for life, went to the Dominican Republic for our much anticipated 30th bday bash. Carolyn's birthday is the day before me and Heathers, so we've been talking about doing something BIG for our 30th birthday for years, and I'm so glad we did! We stayed at an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana - it was beautiful, the food and drinks were great, the beach and ocean were gorgeous, and the weather was perfect. We had an amazing time eating, drinking, tanning, swimming, zip-lining, dancing, and talking our faces off. It was great to be able to spend 6 days together; we haven't been together that many days in a row since college. We have a ton of great pictures, but here are a couple of my faves:

Time to start thinking about where we're going for 35 ;)
Thanks for making my 30th bday so great everyone!