A day in Red Wing

I really enjoyed my time with my dear old friend, Katie Wells. We met in Red Wing to spend the day together and she got to meet Emily! I also received lovely gifts from both her and her grandmother. I love her family! We spent the day chatting and laughing over coffee, then went downtown to a not so great restaurant :) And then ended it with more catching up and a walk around the lake. It was a gorgeous day!

The 4th

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.  

Leah fanning the fire

Scott with the new purchase

Our boat and tent

Abby

Ryan getting real excited for smores

Auntie and Abby

Devil's Lake State Park

We had a very interesting time with our good friends Shannon and Jeremy on this camping trip in Wisconsin. First of all, Devil's Lake is a beautiful park with lots of hiking trails and a wide variety of camping spots. Before the weekend started we were a little leery of the weather. There had been horrible storms the night before and Wisconsin even had a tornado watch on Friday. But I wanted to go anyway because if we don't the whole weekend would be perfect of course and we would kick ourselves for not going.

So we went. The good thing about the weather being bad was that there were tons of cancellations, so we were able to reserve a way better campsite. So we camped the first night, enjoyed our hobos (S+J are no longer hobo virgins...and I just realized that S+J are our initials also...I wasn't talking about us) "enjoyed" some wine and some good conversation. The night was perfect!!

Then the next morning was also really nice outside. We woke up, ate our yummy oatmeal and decided to go canoeing. Now I had opened the windows to our tent because I wanted it to vent out and I was thinking we'd be back after canoeing to change into different gear to go hiking. I think you know where this story is going. Anyway, we walked to the main area (about a mile away) to go canoeing only to find out that the water was too choppy and they wouldn't let us go. So we decided to hike instead. Gorgeous hike! It was such a nice day and it wasn't too sunny so it didn't get too hot. We ate lunch in the hills and really enjoyed our time.

Well a few hours later we came down from our hike and overheard the ranger telling everyone there was a tornado watch for the next 15 minutes. so we decided to wait it out until it was over. Well that watch turned into another watch and became longer and longer. Pretty soon the sky was looking very ominous and we were starting to get worried. Our campsite was about 1.5-2 miles away and of course we had no way to get there but by foot!! So what do we decide to do? Walk on the railroad tracks right by the water and head right towards the storm of course. Shannon and I were a little skeptical about the whole thing but Jeremy and Scott assured us that if the tornado came our way we would just take cover in the nearby ditch right underneath gigantic falling rocks and power lines. Ok, the rocks weren't falling but they sure looked they were about to. Then the rain. It POURED!! And I mean poured. We were walking towards this green sky with the wind blowing like crazy and the rain falling hard. And what did we do? First we walked a little faster. Then we ran. Then we took cover under some trees for a minute. Then...we walked slowly in the rain and savored the moment. "There's something sexy about the rain" is what comes to mind...a song by Kenny Chesney. There's just something about it that's so romantic and unguarded. We of course were dreading going back to see the damage of our newer tent but we had a good mile to walk so we did nothing but laugh and literally jump in the puddles like kids.

Yes our tent and almost everything in it was pretty much drenched so we decided to hunker down in their tent and play some Settlers and eat brats until we were ready to pack up. We were planning on staying another night but we didn't have dry anything so that would not have been fun. It was sad to go early but the storms kept coming that night and hard...so I'm thinking it was better we left early. See, it's a good thing I didn't close the windows :)


Views from hike




Don't look down!

Devil's Door

Heron's nesting...didn't know herons nested in tall trees...fascinating

Poor Jeremy had to carry all our stuff

Me and Scott

Shannon and Jeremy

Man vs Storm

Bad storms always bring beauty later, this was a gorgeous rainbow we saw so had to pull over and take pics. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Do the Du, I Did

I'm officially a Duathlete! Yesterday my friend, Suzanne, and I raced in the 1st Annual Oronoco Duathlon. What does the Duathlon consist of you ask? We did the short course and this is what it was:

2 mile run
13 mile bike
2 mile run

I had never run 4 miles in my life! And man, the biking was a lot harder than I expected plus I need some serious help in that area. I did pretty well on the runs but biker after biker kept passing me. I passed one biker...she was walking :) And after the second transition (from bike to run), that was difficult for a a few minutes. My legs were numb! But once you find your pace and are comfortable it gets easier. I'm feeling it today. So I didn't rank the best but I finished and I didn't walk at all!! I'm proud of that. Plus it's my first Duathlon ever and I'm apparently not a biker...yet :) Looking forward to the Tri in July. Here are my stats:

Jennifer Elder
bib number: 4624
age: 27
gender: F
location: Stewartville, MN
overall place: 85 out of 92
division place: 5 out of 6
gender place: 40 out of 48
time: 2:01:03
run 1: 21:59
transition 1: 1:12
bike: 1:11:33 (yikes!)
transition 2: 0:52
run 2: 25:29

Summary
number of finishers: 92
number of females: 45
number of males: 47
average time: 01:39:44

Here are some pics, thanks for the awesome pics, honey!

Suzanne stretching


Before the race




Me and Suzanne


Me and Erin (a friend I met at the race)


Go!




1st Run




Eric and Leah showed up for support


More family support


Suzanne's mom and Mikayla




Random biker, cool shot


Start biking!










Bike graveyard


My legs hurt!


Ouch, I have to run AGAIN?




Almost there!


Victory!




Go Erin!


Finished at last!


To view more pictures you can go here: http://209.23.153.221/webgallery/duathlon/index.html

Now it's back to training...