The week leading up to the Vashon race our 2 Bing Cherry trees ripened and were bursting with delicious cherries! So..... the Norland crew turned into Cherry farmers for the week... picking and sorting, then selling our "crop" at the end of our driveway. What begun as an exciting and fun happening ended up becoming quite a large and stressful chore. We picked morning and night for 7 days, and although we had a ton of fun selling, gifting and processing our cherries, the task spread us thin. Mama (now that's me), got just a little bit sleep deprived and stressed out..... not exactly how I like to go into my first race of the season.
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| My little entrepreneurs braved the rain, and served their customers well. |
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| I wouldn't say it was always "helpful" to have the kids' help, but....... |
We decided to wait until Saturday morning to leave, which gave us until late Friday night to pick the trees clean. Trevor was INCREDIBLE to say the least. He stood high up in those trees and picked every last cherry while I sorted, boxed and set them out to sell. It is moments like this that I realize just how lucky I am to have Trevor as my life partner. Without any words of judgement, he senses my stress and jumps right into help. He knew that I would be up in that tree until the job was done, thus making our departure that much more stressful and delayed.
Until nearly 11pm I stood in the kitchen and made muffins and puff pancake batter for our morning breakfast. Preparing food is one way that I deal with stress. I knew that I needed to start thinking about my race, but I just could not quite begin to pack until I had our food taken care of. I laughed at myself here, seeing the ridiculousness in how I operate and I encouraged Trevor to laugh along. It was well past 11 before we got to bed, still not yet packed, but I was so tired I did not even care.
I woke up at 6 and first began packing for the race. Just one day, one night and one race to pack for, AND it was FINALLY SUMMER!!!! I did not have to pack any rain gear or extra anything, and this felt so easy! We have the packing down to a science and this went really fast. We all sat down for a breakfast of pear-puff pancake and exchanged our excitement for this adventure.
At 8:30, our travel buddy Lizzy Gruber arrived and after loading her gear, we were off. We were out of town by 9:15. Liz entered our family so smoothly, and helped to buffer the mama duties that come with traveling with children. The boys enjoyed reading to her in the back which gave me an opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep. I woke from my nap and felt amazing with an overall sense of calm. This was going to be a good trip.
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| Alleck, Lizzy and Keller get silly |
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| Checking out the Jelly's |
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| Its a beautiful day to be on the water |
After setting up camp, we headed to Dockton Park to check out the course. The water was cool, but really felt amazing. There was quite a current and yes, BIG jelly fish to swim with. Luckily, the race director was there to put our fears at ease but informing us that the big, flat white Jelly's don't actually sting. Phew! It was just the orange ones with the long tentacles that we'd have to avoid and there were plenty of those too!
Liz and I rode a lap of the bike course and both felt pretty confident that it would go well. The course was beautiful, with views of The Puget Sound and Mt. Rainier that called our attention but plenty challenging with pitchy climbs and tight corners.
Trevor brought his road bike and explored the island while Liz and I took the kids back to camp. We made dinner, played soccer with the kids and did some final race-day prep on the bikes. Finally, Mat Signoretty arrived and we all enjoyed catching up with him. We were in bed by 10:30 and agreed on a 6am wake up.
I put off waking until 6:30, and by the time I got up Mat and Liz had already eaten and were eager to get going. I wanted to give the kids as much time as possible to sleep, but in doing so, again put my morning routine off a bit too long. We arrived at the race site in plenty of time to get warmed up, but my breakfast did not feel digested. I was surprised that I was not the slightest bit nervous, but merely excited to be out there on such a beautiful day. The water looked amazing. Very clear and calm, and with a swim at only 800 meters, I was feeling confident.
I ran for about 15 minutes, rode my bike for about 20 minutes, stretched and went to the bathroom one last time. I had hoped to get a little swim in before race time, but that did not happen. The race director called everyone over to the dock for a pre-race briefing, and it was start time! I found Trevor and the boys and gave them all kisses. Alleck insists that I wave to him before I jump in so he can find me in the sea of yellow caps. I love that my family enjoys watching me race. Without the support of Trevor and my kids this just would not be half as fun.
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| The water was so calm at 8am! Here we go! |
Luckily the men went off 5 minutes before the women, so I had a chance to get in the water and acclimate to the cold. I positioned myself on the far left and behind one woman. My swim plan for the day was to draft off of someone, and swim straight. As the gun sounded I was off. Although I found myself vering to the right, I sighted enough to correct myself before it became too problematic, and I kept myself calm. I brought my head out of the water a couple of times, especially right before the turn around when I found myself tangled in sea weed and yes, a jelly! I think I screamed pretty loud, splashed around a bit then put my head down. I was now around the boats and was headed home. I would say this was a breakthrough moment for me. I was as calm as could be, and pretty much swam straight the entire way back to shore. I was pumped! Even better, was hearing Trevor say as I exited the water that my time was 14:10, nearly 5 minutes faster than last year!
My wetsuit came off easily, but I fumbled a bit with my helmet and shoes. I stuffed my gloves in the front of my tri-suit top, figuring that I could put them on easier once my hands dried, and my Hammer Gel flask in the back. Mid-way through the race I regretted not taking the time to put my gloves on, as my hands were wet and slippery. I stopped on the 2nd lap and put them on. I'll have to play around with where to keep my flask. Without any pockets in my tri-suit, I am left with few options. I thought that my suit was tight enough to tuck it in the back, but soon it was slipping down my right leg. I'll have to work on that one.
I was surprised at how erratic my breathing was once I was on the bike and was not able to make the first climb. I was bummed since I practiced this climb the day before and knew I was capable of doing it. I focused on calming my breath and riding smoothly and did not worry about having to walk the climb. It was not long after this I passed frustrated Jo Markham stopped along the trail who had just taken a wrong turn. The course was marked well, but some of the markings were torn down making navigating a bit tough. I ended up taking this same wrong turn on the 2nd lap, and when I finally caught back up to Jo on the 3rd lap she greeted me with surprise. We laughed about how now that we both took wrong turns it was a fair race. I left her saying "Lets do this Jo." After dropping my chain, taking a wrong turn and finally stopping to put on my gloves, I still beat my bike split from last year by 4 minutes.
I came into transition with Jo on my heels and the race director approaches me to ask how the bike course was. The course was great except that there was not one course Marshal anywhere. Since the course resembled a cyclo-cross course with many intersecting trails and tight twisty turns, there really should have been many people out on the course directing people. Trevor mentioned hearing talk from other participants that also had similar experiences out there. It has been a long time since I've taken a wrong turn, and although a bit frustrated to lose my position, I was able to get back into the lead by the time we left for the run.
Although my run is not as strong as it could be right now, I still managed to beat my run split from last year by nearly a minute. I felt great, and tried to keep a steady rhythm. I counted to myself 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. The run course was just a 5k, with two small laps on a beautiful twisty trail. On the second lap, I looked over my shoulder to see Jo close behind. I felt good and told myself to just keep on moving and keep a steady pace. My lack of trail running lately caught up with me here as I either tripped over a root or twisted my ankle a bit and went flying. Luckily it was a soft landing, but I was stretched out on the trail arms extended. I quickly got back to my feet and started out slow to make sure I was ok. I soon was able to get back into my rhythm and although I desperately wanted to know how close Jo was, I resisted the urge to look back. The pavement section to the last trail actually felt good this year, and I opened my stride a bit. I was excited to enter the last trail and could see Jo coming from the corner of my eye. I pushed it as hard as I felt comfortable, and felt strong. As I popped out of the trail, there were cars coming from both directions. The course marshals seemed confused about whether to let the cars keep passing or to let me cross. I bit my tongue, hoping that they would figure it out as I stood there, feeling Jo getting closer and closer. Finally a spectator took some initiative and ordered them to stop traffic and let me through. I made sure to express my gratitude as I passed him and flew down the hill into the finish.
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| Corvallis girls finish strong! 1st and 3rd |
Trevor and Alleck were there cheering me on as well as Louis and Catherine Signoretty, Mats parents. I was the first overall woman with a time of 2:03:51, nearly 10 minutes faster than last year. Jo finished nearly 2 minutes behind, and right on her heels came Lizzy! I was so excited to see her and knew that she must have killed the run. Sure enough, she was 2 minutes faster than I on the run.
Watching me finish first was both Trevor and Alleck's favorite part of the weekend. I have only placed 1st overall two other times and both times they were not there to see.
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| Top 3 women! |
Lizzy, Mat, the boys and I went to the swimming dock to cool off. We had so much fun watching Liz and Mat climb high on the pylons and throw themselves into the cold water. Liz is so confident in herself and kind and gentle with everyone she meets. It was a joy for me to watch her inspire a little 9 year old girl named Alex to also climb up 20 feet or so and jump off. Alex was beaming. This was my favorite part of the weekend. We were all silly, laughing and enjoying each other.
We realized that we had just enough time to hit our favorite coffee/ ice cream shop and get to the "bike tree", the inspiration behind Berkeley Breathed's book The Red Ranger Comes Calling, a must see Vashon Island tourist attraction. We were told that it was right behind the Sound Food restaurant so off we went to find it. We eagerly jumped out of the van in search for the bike tree, which turned out to be more of a scavenge than we had anticipated. We all spread out, taking different paths and yelling from time to time, "have you found it?". Of course it was Lizzy, who ventured where no one else would have thought and found the tree. So much fun.
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| The "bike tree" behind Sound food |
We arrived at the Ferry dock a half and hour early which gave us an opportunity to check out the tide pools below. This was incredible. There was so much going on down there, and we were able to find sea anemones, star fish, an eel, hermit crabs, and sea crabs. The boys were in high heaven and Liz impressed us all with her tactics of finding new treasures.
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| keller found the biggest crab! |
We made the trip back to Corvallis from Tacoma in record time and enjoyed yummy burgers at our favorite local spot Block 15.
With full bellies and happy hearts we arrived home refreshed from our time spent together.
I must be honest when I say that it is not easy being a full time-mom with high athletic goals. I have questioned recently just what in the heck I am trying to do. However, each and every time we go away to an event, and arrive back home with new experiences and another chapter full of memories, I am reminded just why. We come away from each journey learning about ourselves and about our family as a whole. We see new things, go to new places, meet new people and together we learn. I guess I conclude that the stress and exhaustion is worth these moments of clarity and closeness. At least for now.
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