STIHL Champion!!! Another crazy few weekends in the books. Where to start? I guess I could start with the most exciting news... I am the first STIHL Timbersports Series Boom Run champion. Gold Medal. Right here. Holy crap. To do this I had to do the impossible: beat Mandy Erdmann. Maybe she was having a really bad day and I was having a really good day, I don't know, but I actually pulled it off. Not a huge amount of prize money, but a really big smile on Shana's face. :) For a brief description of the competition visit: http://www.stihltimbersports.com/current/2005/dailyrep_vabeach2.html The rest of the weekend was also a blast. I finally got to go surfing after over a year of deprivation! Everybody was watching, and I was so scared I would be able to catch anything... but I did, and it felt GREAT! Total kid in a candy store. Virginia Beach is absolutely beautiful, minus some of the skeevy locals. Oh, and don't try to get any henna... you'll end up with a purple stomach. After competition on Saturday, we went on an AMAZING dinner cruise (sponsored by STIHL) on the Spirit of Norfolk. After the amazing dinner (diet took a break for a night) everybody seemed more interested in drinking than that dancing. Luckily Mandy was willing to tear it up on the dance floor with me. I went to bed early that night to catch my flight the next morning... but I'm pretty sure the other folks partied it up all night long. Alright, let's jump back a weekend. The UW Vet School Dog Jog! I managed to talk my boss Joe into letting me run with their dog Zeus. He's a GREAT dog, super friendly, just a bit on the heavy side. But that's okay. I only needed him to make two miles. No problem right? So we get there, and after sniffing every dog butt in the area, Zeus decides to lay down and didn't even want to go to the starting line. Luckily Ken's friend had her dog Louie ready to go. We did a doggie trade and I ran the race with Louie. I actually got second place! Even with Louie stopping twice to go potty! Ken also had a great race, but he had much tougher competition than I did. It was such a fun time. If you're in the Madison area and have not participated in the Dog Jog, put it in the schedule for next year! Today is Wednesday, and next weekend is almost within reach. I'll be working at the Planned Parenthood booth on Saturday, then Ken and I will probably do some camping and hiking. I haven't gone in SO LONG, so I'm really excited about it. Pretty soon it will be too cold to go out! Yikes! I just signed up for a NPC sanctioned Fitness Competition on October 15th. That's only about two weeks away... yikes! It will be good practice for Fitness America Nationals though. I need all of the stage time I can get! The diet is going so so... lots of cheating. Luckily I've stepped up the workouts a bit, so the cheating won't totally kill me. Well, that's about it for my updates!

Cleanest Aid Staion! Yeah!

Ironman has come and gone for yet another year. This year it went smoother than ever! I had an AMAZING group of volunteers... and we actually won cleanest aid station! Yeah baby! Way to go guys! The day started around 7am with getting stuff together, finishing music, etc. We finally were packed up and home by around 1 or 2 am. Talk about a long day! I felt like I did the whole race! Okay, maybe not quite that bad... but I was pretty tired and sore. My lifesavers for the day were Ken (he stayed all day and did most all of the lifting), my Dad (he was there all day too!), and Ben Barwick (he picked up garbage for 8 hours straight!). Rumor has it Madison will have Ironman for 5 more years... hopefully one of those I'll be in it! Ken and I were talking about the possibility of doing the race together. I think that would be so fun! I just have to wait for a time in my life when I'll get some time to train. That's a LOT of work those folks go through all year. The race itself is NOTHING compared to the training that goes into it. Congrats Ironman of 2005. You guys are amazing.

This weekend Ken and I are running the Dog Jog... supporting the UW Vet School. I get to run with Joe and Stacey's dog Zeus. I'm so excited! If you are in the Madison area and are interested in the fun run, visit: http://www.dogjog.org

Tubby Squirrels

As I was running this morning, I noticed a large number of very fat squirrels. Summer is over and they are stuffing their faces with as much food as possible for their long sleep this winter. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to sleep the winter away… and wake up when the leaves are budding again? I’m in double envy of my fuzzy friends because I also just started dieting down for Fitness America in November. No more fattening up for this gal. This time of year is always very rough. I’m sad about the end of another awesome log rolling summer (my best yet!), Ken goes back to school (I hardly ever get to see him during the school year), I can’t (well at least I shouldn’t) eat anything that tastes good, and my days of playing outside are limited.

On a more positive note, the summer actually ended very well. I competed at the STIHL Timbersports Series down in Lake Charles Louisiana two weeks ago and took a sweet third place. I finally beat the super-fast-and-unstoppable Abby Hoeschler! The town of Lake Charles wasn’t much to write home about, but we did take a drive through coastal Louisiana two days before it was destroyed by the hurricane. We visited with many shrimpers and saw several alligators. I sure hope all of those folks got out of there in time.

Last weekend Ken and I spent more time working on our apartment. We have so many framed pictures… it’s great! We still have a few more projects, but the place is looking really nice.
Saturday we worked at the Planned Parenthood booth at the farmer’s market, and I had my first run-in with an anti-choice protestor. It took us all of our guts, but we were able to remain calm and not argue with the man. Little does he or any other anti-choice critic know that only about 1% of Planned Parenthood’s dealings are with abortions. We spend most of our time educating women about their health, reproductive safety, and contraceptive options. Despite these services we provide, I was still told that I’ll be rotting in hell. Super.

This weekend I am once again captain of volunteers for Ironman. It’s such a blast, but quite stressful! We’ll be getting there around 9am, and be done about 1 or 2 am the next day. But man oh man is it inspiring to watch those amazing athletes. Our theme this year is “A Day at the Beach” which will hopefully help us cope with the 87 degree heat that is being forecast!

Alrighty, back to my busy busy work week!