AZ, Mountain Man, Broken Computer

I have not written in a couple weeks because my computer finally died :(
I am very upset because all my iTunes, photos and personal documents were saved on it. I guess I have learned my lesson to always back up my hard drive.

Last Thursday we left for Phoenix at around 5:40 p.m. We drove throught the night, taking the 70 West, through Moab, Flagstaff and Finally Phoenix. We arrived at Brian's dad's house around 5 a.m. Hannah was such a good road doggie and she hardly squeeled the whole way down. The drive was eventfull - filled with rain and stormy weather, and on my last driving shift I had to let Brian take back over because I was so tired I was worried I would fall asleep on the 17 between Flagstaff and Phoenix. All in all though, it was a nice, scenic, beautiful drive.

Of course it was hot in Phoenix. 110 I believe! On Friday after I took a nap I took Hannah to my old work, the Ahwatukee Foothills News, and showed her off to everyone! It was so fun! I ended up staying longer than I had planned and Brian was a little upset with me because we were late to our lunch at Pink Taco with Keith. Good thing Keith is such a nice guy and understood! Thanks Keith! There are SO many people in Phoenix. I have never noticed it before, but the Denver area is definately not as crowded as the Phoenix area. There were people everywhere in that hot a** oven!!! I couldn't believe it! After lunch, I went to visit Luanne at her condo in Tempe. It was so nice to be able to see her and her pregnant belly! :) Then we had dinner at Brian's mom's house and I brought Hannah over there as well. She was such a good girl! Saturday morning we had pancakes at Brian's dad's house with his little brother and cousins before we headed up to Flagstaff for the race. There were so many people at packet pick up at Lake Mary around 2 p.m. on Saturday when we arrived! We saw everyone we knew there! As soon as I got their I saw Keith in line with his cousins and Jorge and Laurie and Adam too! It was so fun and I think Hannah enjoyed meeting everyone too :)

Saturday night we ate at Olive Garden by our hotel with Adam. I had linguini with marinara sauce and salad and breadsticks... mmmmm!!!!! Then I rode my bike around the parking lots to make sure the chain wouldn't fall off. Luckily Adam fixed it for me and I was good to go! Thanks!!!

We got up on Sunday at 3:30 a.m.... early!!! I had my jelly and banana sandwich and packed everything up and we were outta there by 4:15. Setting up transition with Hannah in one hand and my bike and gigantic gear bag in the other was challenging until Laurie showed up to take her for me! Thanks Laurie! Without her I would have never even been able to do the race! At about 5:50 we walked over to the swim start. Now that was the toughest part of the race! The road was so rocky I thought my feet were going to fall off! The swim went fine, I swam 35 minutes, which is an improvement from my last half Ironman swim of 40 minutes. However, when I got into transition someone had thrown all my stuff everywhere and put a huge beach bag on top of my transition stuff! I had to search for my biking shoes, gels, sunglasses and helmet before I was off on the bike. I was pretty ticked off. I took the bike easy, it was a lot of hills and I just wanted to get through it so I had a good run. In the beginning of the bike I was with a guy who was riding the same bike as Brian, had the same Zipp wheels as Brian, was wearing the same top as Brian AND who's name was BRIAN! It was funny! When I left the transition area for the run (which again was annoying because someone had thrown my stuff around again and a gel was smooshed and open all over my running shoe) it was 3:49. I was going for a slower time than my last half! I was mad, so I took the run pretty hard. I ended up having a great run and crossed the finish line at 5:37 - EXACTLY the same time as my last half Ironman. However, the last race was 6,000 feet lower elevation and wasn't hilly at all, so over all it was a huge improvement and I am happy!

After I crossed the finish line it was pouring rain, so Brian and I got our awards (both first in our age groups) and packed up the car, got Hannah from Laurie and headed back up to Colorado! The drive was long and my legs were stiff... we arrived home around 1 in the morning on Monday. What a weekend!

Today Laura and I went biking around the foothills for about 3 1/2 hours and then did a 30 minute run. It was a good day and the weather was great! I really hope I am recovered and feeling good in 2 weeks for the 5430 race in Boulder!!! If not, I will take it slow and just have fun! It's all for Ironman training anyway!

So all in all, life is good right now. My sister moves out here August 12, that will be fun, and I start teaching boot camp down town in August as well. Things are starting to feel normal up here finally :)

XOXO
Cori