There's No Place Like Home

I finally arrived back in Sleepy Hollow on Saturday evening! My parents and I left Denver around 1:30 p.m. on Friday, and after a quick stop for a flat tire in Sterling, CO and a good night's sleep in Lincoln, Nebraska, we pulled in the driveway around 6 p.m. Saturday. I am so happy and excited to be home!

On Halloween (when we stayed in the hotel in Lincoln) I checked my e-mail at the hotel and finally received my scores from the Illinois Basic Skills Test and I passed! Now I can schedule a meeting with my adviser at Roosevelt and officially begin picking my classes for January. I am also in the process of looking for a part time job during school working with children. Everything seems to be coming together here and I'm praying it all works itself out as things typically do... fingers crossed!!!

As for my Ironman training in Illinois, it has been great! On Sunday my dad drove the car around some farm roads in Huntley and I followed him on my bike. He showed me some good, safe roads to train on and let me just say they are AWESOME! There is no one out there - just me, the open road and, well, lots of corn fields and cows! I did a 91 mile ride that day, with a 50 minute run and I felt pretty good. It was windy, but nothing compared to last weekend. On Monday I did a run around Sleepy Hollow for a good two hours and then I swam at Lifetime. I still can't believe Ironman is less than three weeks away now. I do miss training with Laura so much and our inside jokes about stopping at the spa along our long ride in Colorado and our awesome bike speeds in the wind. I miss you Laura!

I started planning my TENTATIVE 2009 race schedule which you will see on the right of this blog. I am going to add a few running races in there, but it's a start. At least I have a couple races planned out and can enjoy a nice relaxing off-season after Ironman and before these races. I am most excited for the Spirit of Racine half Ironman because my entire family will be able to see me race. I am also looking forward to the Chicago Triathlon because I have heard such great things about it and I can't imagine how cool it must be biking through downtown.

Today I am taking it easy and will probably walk Hannah and swim after I run a couple errands and force myself to spend a couple more hours unpacking.. will it ever end!

XOXO
Cori