i have been absent

i have been a horrible blogger recently. really, who wants to hear about athletic events all the time? my friend shannon called me out on my lack of blogging....so this is for her. hopefully i'll do better now that the holidays are ending!

so, shannon and i met freshman year of college. unfortunately, that was before the digital camera age...and i don't have a scanner. many memories were made on the intramural football field and on the floor!

this is a famous picture from shannon's wedding....angie and i weren't really eating her wedding cake...but it looks like it! shannon married her high school sweetheart nathan. they moved to california and both got graduate degrees with the intention of becoming full time missionaries. they were both MKs (missionary kids) and met at Morrison Academy.

since going to CA, they have added a 3rd person to their family. Josiah is 2 now and i was able to meet him this April when i was in Michigan for merideth's wedding. they were in michigan while raising support to head to Hong Kong. when i want a little kid fix, i take a look at shannon's super cute blog about josiah! www.nsclifton.blogspot.com

the exciting thing is that they are at 100% of their financial support! yippee! i will soon have friends in asia (hint, hint shannon...you might have a visitor). more importantly, they will be equipping Christian pastors to reach their nation for Jesus. i'm so excited to see how God is going to use you all!

pictures!

here are a couple pictures from the weekend.

lots and lots of bikes were present!
my good friend april...i definitely needed her there for that tough race!
running, running, running....it felt like it would never end!

recovery...i don't know why i sat down. a little ice cream helped me feel better. look at those good looking legs though!

Ironman Austin 70.3

hi all....i have completed my triathlon season this year. i'll admit that i'm pretty glad to be done.

this past weekend was the austin 70.3 race. just a quick recap. this is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile swim. all in all, 70.3 miles. crazy! this was my 3rd race at this distance.

the weather was pretty great. there still was a high of 87 on sunday (welcome to Texas' fall!), but it was low humidity.

the swim

i knew that i wasn't super prepared for the swim. with the trip to israel, i hadn't been in the pool as much. my focus just had shifted from the swim to the run. the water felt great without a wetsuit and i kept a pretty steady place. no where close to my best swim, but it wasn't horrible. Time: 39:03

the bike

the first hour felt pretty good. i was keeping a great pace and getting up the hills well. very few women were passing me. about an hour in, i really started to get nauseated. i'm not sure why. at that point, my mind started going like crazy. in short, i was wondering if i was going to be able to finish the race. i've never battled with my head like that before. the last 25 miles were tough. i figure that i ate about 100 calories during the ride....not nearly enough. my goal was to bike in less than 3 hours. shockingly, i did. Time: 2:58.12 18.8 mph

the run

i was most excited about the run. my running has improved substantially this season. i'm consistently training at 8 minute mile pace or lower. now, it is always different after you've completed 57.2 miles.....the lack of calories and the heat started to catch me now. i was struggling. i was keeping a good pace and then would have to walk for a portion just because there wasn't energy...i guess that was my most disappointing leg, because i was expecting the most. Time: 2:10.38 9:58 min/mile

my total time was 5 hours 53 minutes and 1 second. it was an improvement on my first two, but i was pretty disappointed because of what i knew i could do as well as my difficulty getting any calories in during the race.

all in all, i got 20th in my age group out of 84. i got 135th of 533 women and 924 of 2134 overall participants. pretty good on the whole.

now i will rest for a week....and think nothing of competitions!

so, one of my patients is in the hospital. she is relatively newly diagnosed and has already grown through the first round of chemotherapy.

i went to check in with her and a phlebotomist came into the room. she raised the bed and turned on the light and said "sorry, i'm getting old". my patient responded offhandedly, "i would love to grow old".

so sad....

crazy start to a 28th year

so, i turned 28 a week and a half ago. it is so hard to believe that i am that many years old!

i was given a couple great gifts, but one really stood out.

on the way to work on Friday, i got a call from the physician i work with asking if i would be interested in going to Israel. of course, i said yes....and when? she said, "as early as tomorrow."

so all day friday was busy scurrying trying to get the details figured out. in short, one of the physicians was supposed to give a lecture in Israel but fell sick. i felt bad for him, but grateful for the opportunity.

i flew out sunday and came back on wednesday so it was a whirlwind trip. the lecture went extremely well. (it was on microRNA and cancer of unknown primary). i was also able to spend a day in Jerusalem touring a little bit.

it was just a crazy, incredible, unexpected gift from God for my birthday!

the city (although i didn't have time to take the variety of pictures i would have liked!)

you must eat a felafel

the quintessential Jerusalem picture.

goofy picture...but you needed to know i was at Dome of the Rock