2007 Season Boards

The time has arrived: for the first time EVER (not like I had a blog last year...) - but for the first time EVER (ahem), I'm going to show the world my 2007 Triathlon season boards.

What are these you ask?

Great question.

I'm one of those sappy, creative types who likes to collect things, including race memorabilia, race numbers, wrist bands, race posters, cards I receive from family and friends about races, etc etc. I'm one of "those" people that you'll see two days after the race still wearing her silly wrist band. Think what you may, but for some reason or another, I form emotional attachments to onjects and things.

Not in a scary my-house-is-cluttered-and-packed-full-of-junk kind of way. And also, not in the way that I've saved every single paper or project I've ever done (leave it to my Mom for that - it's all stuffed away in the attic. Leaf booklet and all). But each race that I do is such a phenomenal opportunity, and I just don't think that it's right to throw everything away. So I'll save the race numbers, at least.

When I was in high school and used to Nordic ski, there was a local shop we skiers would all trek to to gear up on skis, supplies, wax, and that sort of stuff. Finn-Sisu was run by a really friendly family, had great staff, and had a ton of really great stuff for skiing and outdoorsy, wintry type stuff. One of the things I loved about the shop, is that the ski owners (former Finnish National Team Members!) had creatively arranged their ski bibs all over an entire wall's worth of space. There were bibs from races throughout Europe, from races across the US (the Mora Vasaloppet and the Birkibiner being my favorite), and nearly everywhere in between. The shop keepers had also accepted donated bibs from Minnesota high school state champions, along with US Ski team members, and famous skiers from across the globe.

It was a ski mecca collage!

Then and there, staring wide-eyed as a mere 14-year-old at the ski-bib hall of fame, I decided that one day I would do something similar with my jerseys - whatever sport I participated in.

Last season I made a huge board of race numbers, as it combined 2006 with bits and pieces of races from 2005 and even 2004. I didn't find all of the old numbers, but enough to make a pretty respectable board.

This year was different: to Nathaniel's dismay (but also to his credit - he never uttered a single word about the excess papers piling up at times), I saved a ton of stuff from each and every race packet. Rather than dump everything in the garbage, like I've done in year's past, I painstakingly went through it all, decided what to keep, trying to picture how it might look a la collage, and then worked from there.

Mid season, I had a 2 month break from racing. I had just raced 70.3 California, a local race (the Mullet Man! triathlon - named for the fish, not haircut...which I found out race-day), St. Anthony's, Gulf Coast Half, and another small sprint. Along with the Pensacola Marathon, and L'Archie Mobile half marathon, I was pooped! Much of June was spent recovering, getting over being sick, and starting another build.

The second half of my season was geared towards Clearwater: I raced about once a month, on average, and unfortunately, had 3 races cancelled due to bad weather (Gulf Coast storm swell, and such) and in one case, an uncooperative left hamstring. It left me with the Chattanooga Tri, Timberman, Santa Rosa, Clearwater, and finally the Timberlake half marathon.

I'm really happy with how my season went: although not every race went as planned, I still learned a heckuva lot along the way. And had a whole hell of a lot of fun (most of the time). So here are my race boards: be inspired and create!


First half of 2007 Board.



Second half of 2007 Board




"Holy Bright Colors Batman!" Clearwater 2007 Board

And I figured I would add two more photos, just for fun. I should explain first: Tabbitha hates my bike. No, I take that back... she hates my bike when it's being used on the trainer. Usually she'll sit in the corner of the room, scowling at me as I ride. I can feel her "bad vibes" that she sends my direction. Sometimes she'll even streak by my side as quickly as she can. She just doesn't likely the wind my cycleops trainer makes. I love it (as much as someone can truly love a trainer). It's a great alternative to training in the rain, or getting struck by lightning. Tonight, while I was writing, I found Tabbitha - curled up asleep under my bike. So the cat does, after all, like my bike. Or at least the bright towel that it's stationed over.


Oh - and in case you're wondering... The books that I've got under my front wheel are twofold: one is the local Pensacola area phone book... but that wasn't quite thick enough. The second is my Anatomy and Physiology Textbook. Fitting, huh?

And last, but not least, I'm going to include a picture of Yours Truly. Nathaniel and I got back from a great dinner of Sushi (I had THE BEST rolls ever - they were Colombian with this amazing sauce... I would be willing to do my bike workout over again just to have as many of these rolls as possible... they were great!). But because we got back around 10:30 or so - I was pretty tired, but I wanted to get my blogging done. I really really enjoy writing - just about as much as I do reading. I like to stay up late and write. For me it's just a lot of fun; a great creative outlet. When I don't write, I feel as though part of me wants to burst, either with energy, thought, or feeling. So here's what I look like, full of sushi, Colombian rolls, and as much "energy" as I can muster around 11:45 pm.



There were two things I immediately though about when I saw this photo (after I got over my initial laughter, of course :)
1) No matter how much sunscreen I use, my Minnesota genes will never adapt to the Florida sunshine. My nose is perpetually sunburned.
2) I am in sore need of a brow wax.

So with that - I'm off. Either to bed for a good read or to watch a bit of the bube tume. Tomorrow we're flying back up to Minnesota and Wisconsin for the holidays. I thought briefly about not bringing my bike, but decided against it: my training for IM Arizona is just too important at this point. So me, my bike, and my wonderful trainer will become very good friends for the next 12 days or so.

Tomorrow will be busy, as I've got my morning workout, and then I'll have to pack. Hopefully it'll go by quickly, and before we know it, we'll be back up in snowy Minnesota.

Let me back up for a sec, though... I should probably attack my eyebrows before anything else, as they've been in need of grooming for a while. I knew I had forgotten something...