I am very happily married in the little town of Stewartville, MN. My husband and I work together as photographers for our company Midwest Lifeshots Photography. Go to www.MidwestLifeshots.com for more infromation and to see some of our work. We also do virtual tours and still photography for Realtors in the area. We recently had our first child, Emily Mae born April 11th 2009. Te've been enjoying her so much!! We feel very blessed with all the people in our lives and our relationship between the two of us as well as the excitement of our little one. God bless.
It's my husband's birthday today! Just wanted to wish him a happy birthday. This morning I made him a huge breakfast. By huge I mean eggs, bacon, grits, pancakes, hashbrown casserole and biscuits and gravy. All from scratch. Well semi-scratch :)
We spent the weekend in Tuscola, IL for Scott's dad's "surprise" birthday party. Well of course he found out beforehand so it wasn't much of a surprise anymore. The day of the party was spent mostly preparing for it. Setting up the bounce house, cleaning chairs, making food, getting tables set up, cooking the hog etc. Then the party started. Lots of family and friends were there. Tuck even put a pretty big ad in the paper inviting the entire town. Luckily we had enough food. It was my first hog roast and well, the meat kinda turned me off a little since I saw it actually getting cooked over the fire. This weekend was also the first time we got to meet the newest member of the family, Lucas James Elder. We had a great time taking pictures and cuddling with our new little nephew.
Look at all the food!
Spence waiting patiently for the Bounce House
The hog over the firepit
Tuck and Scott watching the hog
I actually ate some of this...gross
Scott's cousin Liz and her boyfriend Adam
Jennifer with Lucas at the party
The ad in the paper
A closer look at the ad, we loved how he offered a ride home to people
So about a year ago I got together with my friend Jess. I had just finished my first 5k and was talking about it with her. She mentioned that she did a triathlon and that it was so much fun and encouraged me to participate the following year. I talked with my friend, Suzanne about it and she became really excited to do it also. So we decided to go for it. Over the next year we both trained for the race, sometimes together and sometimes on our own. I wouldn't say the training was intense, or at least I wasn't training intensely. But we would swim about once a week and I did mini-tri's here and there if I had the opportunity. Then of course we did much more once summer rolled around. There were several evenings where we'd meet at the local pool, swim for our allotted time and then go on a bike ride. It was great to be able to train with someone and also have a goal to work towards.
So finally the race weekend came! I had butterflies in my stomach for a few days straight before the race. The event was a big one, about 4,000 women competing!!
When we first get to Illinois on Friday we just went right to the hotel and found a place to eat. We ate at this amazing little buffet place called Sweet Tomatoes. It has a huge salad bar with lots of really fresh ingredients plus tons of soup and baked goods. Yum!! I highly recommend it if you have one in town. Sadly we have none in Minnesota :(.
Saturday morning we woke up and went straight to the park where the race was being held. We were strongly encouraged to bring our bike that morning and leave it in the transition area. Before doing this I decided to wait in line and get a free inspection of my bike since I really haven't done any maintenance on it at all. Well the lady came around to pump up our tires. She checked mine and told me that my pressure should be about 80 or so and definitely no lower than 40...mine was 25!!! Oops. That may explain why everyone was passing me no matter how hard I pedaled at the Duathlon. After the inspection and putting my bike in the transition area, I met up with Suzanne and we got all our registration stuff, got our numbers written on our arm and picked up all sorts of goodies. Then it was time to listen to a speaker (who was very helpful by the way). After that I bought some sunglasses and Scott and I waited for Sue (Scott's mom) and Angie (Scott's cousin) to meet up with us. I wanted to drive the bike course to see how long and hilly it was. Not too hilly but pretty long it seemed. A nice ride though. Then, Culvers :) After that we went to the free Jelly Belly factory tour. That was a great bonus of the weekend!! After Jelly Belly I wanted to get some new workout gear, leave it to me to leave it to the last possible minute! Well actually what I had bought before was made out of cotton and I got a heat rash from working out in it. So I wanted something a little more breathable. Luckily, there was an outlet mall minutes away. After that we went back to the hotel to clean up and then went to Sweet Tomatoes again...told you we liked the place :). That night I was actually feeling really good. You'd think I'd be nervous...well I guess I was a little...but I honestly was more excited than anything else. It was just going to be so much fun!
Sunday morning finally came and it was an early one. We had to be at the race no later than 6:30am because the transition area closed at 6:30 (and you need to put all of your stuff in there for the transitions like tennis shoes, socks, towel, bag and whatever else you need). I liked that part, getting everything ready in it's own little place. Then all 4,000 of us walked to the other side of the lake. We were all in different waves. The first wave started at 7am. Mine didn't start until 8:28am. So we just waited and talked. Jess and Lindsay (another friend from college) were both there too and we were in the same wave. We spent most of the time in line for the bathroom. Just before we headed to the starting line we practiced swimming in the water...the temperature wasn't too bad. I was a little nervous about swimming in open water. Afterall we had practiced in a pool for the last year. It was much different but not too bad. Then....the time came!!
Go!!
1/2 Mile Swim
The swimming part is a little chaotic although less than I expected. I loved the swim, it was a lot of fun for me. You basically just have to keep looking up to make sure you don't get off course. And also make sure you don't kick someone in the face or get kicked in the face.
12 Mile Bike
Then it was off to bike. I ran to my bike and started taking off my cap and goggles on the way. The bike was also a lot of fun. It was soooo much better than the duathlon!!! I think the ride was just better, not as many hills and more scenery.
3.1 Mile Run
Then it was time to run. I don't enjoy the running very much. It's just not very fun for me. I can't stop thinking about how much I just want to be done! I did pretty bad with my run time this time but I guess not horrible considering I swam and biked first.
Overall the race was great and I really hope to do it in the future. This is a wonderul starter race if you ever want to get started. Go to Danskin's Triathlon website for more information. It's kind of bitter sweet, the ending. It's sad because I don't get to workout with my friend anymore and don't have something to work towards. It's kinda nice though because I don't feel guilty for not getting in a workout. I'm sure I'll find something else to work towards :)
Here are my stats:
Jennifer Elder bib number: 3009 age: 27 gender: F location: Pleasant Prairie, WI (Chicagoland) overall rank: 1744 of 3655 class rank: 216 of 311 swim: 17:39 swim rank: 1445 transition 1: 3:31 bike: 50:58 bike rank: 2232 MPH: 15.3 transition 2: 2:23 run: 34:17 run rank: 1953 pace: 11:03 final: 1:48:50
Check out my other races I did earlier this year and last year.
Here's a video I put together. Thanks for the pictures and video clips Scott, Angie and Lindsay!!
This year for the 4th we went camping! Of course since it was a holiday and a weekend we had to camp a minimum of 3 nights. We went to Chester Woods again, I just love that place! I rode my bike from my parent's house (6 miles) the first night because 1. I didn't want to pay to get in with my car and 2. the triathlon was only a week away so I needed to practice all I could. The first two nights were spent with Eric and Leah at the campsite.
On Friday we went down to the lake and Suzanne and I practiced swimming in open water for the tri. Very helpful!! Then it was just a day of hanging out. Oh and we bought a "boat". We love going canoeing so we figured it's probably profitable to buy a little kayak than to continue renting over and over. It's the greatest little kayak, blow up so we don't have to worry about storage. We love the back rests on it....very comfy. So we got back from buying that and went right on the water with it. Then my mom brought us some awesome fresh food from their garden. We had barbecued chicken over the fire, fresh salad with homemade dressing, potato salad and mulberry cobbler for dessert. It was fantastic!!! That night for the fireworks we didn't want to leave our campsite so we ended up just walking around listening and partially seeing some of them in surrounding towns.
Saturday Suzanne and I practiced the tri again. This time we swam for 20 minutes, then timed our transition to bike. Then we biked 14 miles!! I was so proud of us. It was hard work but I think ultimately helped us in the tri. Then my sister and her family came and we hung out with them until the next morning. Abby and Ryan liked riding their bikes around the campground and they both got a ride in the kayak. Ryan especially liked this but mostly because Scott let him help.
I've been meaning to put some things on here for a while but hate when they're out of chronological order. Afterall I would like this blog to be some sort of scrapbook of my life. So I've added two entries and here are the links:
It's my husband's birthday today! Just wanted to wish him a happy birthday. This morning I made him a huge breakfast. By huge I mean eggs, bacon, grits, pancakes, hashbrown casserole and biscuits and gravy. All from scratch. Well semi-scratch :)
