Wilmington Race Recap and a Surprise!!!!!

I'm not sure how this week could have gotten any better. I am so happy and thrilled about how this week has turned out.

First of all, I had one of the most exciting races of my career on Saturday. I went down to Wilmington, NC for one of the collegiate series races. It was a sprint distance, but had a 1500m swim.

Swim:
The swim actually went with the current. I was pretty excited because I thought that would mean the swim would be very fast. I was wrong. My stupid goggles got really foggy so I had some trouble sighting. There were a few times toward the end of the race that I had to stop and lift my goggles up to see where the finish was. I wish the finish of the swim had been marked better. My time overall was 21:09.

T1 was a SUPER far run. I'd almost be willing to say about half a mile. It was pretty tough running that far barefoot and over the concrete. I actually got a rock stuck in my foot :( Shoutout to MEGAN B or taking that baby out that night! SAVED MY LIFE.

Bike:
The bike was super awesome. I was rocking a Reynolds disc wheel set courtesy of Cherie! (YOU ROCK!) This lady is actually so awesome that she is letting me borrow her 404s for Half Full! Such a sweetheart! Anyway, the bike course was very bumpy, but thats how a lot of the roads are in Wilmington. Also, we had to bike over a drawbridge, but they made it a "one lane no passing zone" for probably the first half (probably longer) mile of the bike and the last part. It was really annoying because I felt like I could only coast during that time. But, it was very flat!!!!
31:56

Run:
Only positive reviews on the run! I love this 5k course. I did a turkey trot a few years ago on this course. It is so pretty going over the channel on the way out and the way back. It is fairly flat but has a few bumps along the way.
20:38

I got 2nd overall and 1st in the collegiate category and my age group! Very exciting stuff. Overall time of 1:15:46
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Next awesome thing, I got a bid for the new Alpha Delta Pi chapter at JMU! I am literally beyond excited. I found out today and could not be happier. I know its going to be tough balancing training, job, school, AND a sorority... but this is exactly what I wanted... I just didn't realize it. My roommate and I actually both got bids. We have a retreat all day tomorrow starting at 10 until 6, so I'm going to need to get to sleepy sleepy since I'm going to be getting up early for a brick. I can't wait to meet all my new beautiful sisters. I love you all already :)

Me and the roommate with our doors signs!

WOO HOO! LAST HARD WEEKEND OF THE SEASON!

Then its just short but intense for this next week and then last race of the season on Sunday. I am definitely pretty sad to see the season wrap up. I feel like it went so fast. But I am ready to take a little bit of a break and go hiking and mountain biking! Definitely going to be doing a lot more trail running over the winter.


Anyway, its been quite a busy week and I am exhausted!

I am so happy to be where I am today and I know I couldn't do it without God. He's planned out this beautiful life for me and I couldn't be happier.

Picture time

I didn't realize it had been such a long time since I posted! So much has happened around here since last week. I guess school is super busy right now and trying to get in my last few weeks of training/racing before the season ends. And what better way to wrap up the season by throwing in one more spontaneous race in before regionals! I'm actually on my way to Wilmington, NC with my dad and friend from the tri team at school... shoutout to MEGAN! LOVE YOU.

Anywho, instead of trying to talk about all the awesome things that have happened since last week, I'm just going to add a ton of pictures!

First pumpkin spice latte of the season... from no other than Dunkin
on the way home from tutoring

Found a kitten! He's like center towards top. SO CUTE.

Had an awesome visit with my gorgeous, awesome, fun
lovely best friend.... little sis. Can't wait till she's at JMU next year!

Hill repeats in preparation for regionals!

Tyrone and Rover getting friendly in the back seat of my car.
Off to the races!

Or not a ton of pictures... but whatever. It's been a busy but way fun week. 

And now, we are almost to my Grannie and Papa's house! Courtney so hungry! WIll see you all after the race. Let's do this.

XOXO 

Race Recap- Patriot's Sprint

Well, I've known I needed to do a race recap of Patriot's. I was just kind of putting it off because I have been so busy with school and work and I know that school comes first.... I guess. So, I just got back to campus from tutoring and I have about an hour to kill before my macro class. I thought I was super prepared by packing my backpack last night before I went to sleep so I would be sure to have my computer and everything else I needed to work on some school work between my classes. I am all about making the most of my time these days! I sat down, opened my backpack, and the ONE book I need for my assignment isn't there! Ugh how frustrating. So I'm sitting down putsin around on facebook because I have nothing else to do, then I'm like brain blast! Blog post. And now that is what I am doing.

And for your reading pleasure, I give you, the story of Courtney and Patriot's Sprint Triathlon.

Many of you know that I am by no means a sprinter or short distance athlete. I guess a sprint triathlon is still considered by a lot of people to be an endurance event since it lasts about an hour. While most people are like Yes! Sprint Triathlon! I can do that, when I think sprint triathlon, I have very little desire to participate. For me a sprint triathlon is just pretty much going balls to the wall for an hour. I would so much rather put out a hard effort for 2.5 hours. Anyway, since Patriot's was part of the MACTC series, I knew I had to do it. Plus it was on the same course as Jamestown, and I loved that race!!!!!!!! 

Pre Race

I worked packet pickup on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning before the race. Since this race was a team race, I ended up traveling with my girl Erin (SHOUTOUT TO MY NAVIGATOR/DJ/BEST FRIEND) since she was racing too. We left on Saturday morning after a night full of sober driving, froyo, and Gossip Girl. We ended up hanging out at my house for a little bit before we had to drive to packet pickup. My mom needed us to clean out the fridge for her, NO PROBLEM! So we feasted. It was great. 

I actually didn't ride or spin or anything on Saturday, even though thats what I usually do before races. I just wasn't feeling it for some reason. I guess my legs were still a bit tired and I didn't want to push it too far. So we ended up spending the night at my house. We went to bed at 11 and had to get up at 3:30. UGH. Good thing I don't need sleep to function.

I got to the race in the morning, set up transition, and went on  a short warm up right before transition closed. I got super nervous because I did NOT feel good. My legs were heavy and I couldn't get my legs to turnover. Not the way I wanted to feel right before this race. But whatever, I couldn't get bad thoughts in my head. I had to do this and had to do it well.

SWIM

Oh my goodness. Now this was NOTHING like the Nationals swim, not crazy girls kicking me in the face. No punching. No wrestling. No 3 foot waves. But it was a tough swim. the current was really strong so I felt like I was constantly being pushed way off course. I was able to keep a pretty straight line... I think. I never looked up and thought "OH SHIT I'M SO OFF COURSE." The water was about 80 degrees and a lot of people were complaining about the water feeling like bath water. [Guess what guys, the water at the pool in the gym at school is like 83. EW! COOL THE POOL, COOL THE POOL!] Anyway, so it was a good swim overall. Just a little slow because of the current. I was so glad to hear that everyone else's swim was slow though. 

BIKE

So I come out of the water and I know there are a few girls in front of me. I am just not sure how many and how far. I passed a girl running up to transition and held her off. I knew I needed to catch some chicks on the bike and I didn't have a ton of time to do so. I also came out of the water with an guy from Georgetown. Long story short, we leap frogged like CRAZY the entire bike. I started to get a little frustrated/nervous about blocking/drafting. I didn't want to slow down. I had business to take care of and girls to catch.  My legs burned quite a bit for the first 3 miles or so. I just couldn't get to a place I felt comfortable, relatively speaking.  ****This is where the prayers kicked in, along the lines of, "God, please give me the strength to do this. My legs hurt. God why do my legs hurt so bad? Can you please just take away this pain?" And I'm telling you, God's the man. He takes care of me. He loves me! He wants me to be happy, but He also has a plan for me that I think is just amazing!***** Then I saw a girl, check. Then a little while later I passed 2 more girls. All I saw were boys in front of me! So then one of the guys from my team passes me right before the turn around. He tells me I have a Navy girl a minute back. Oh heck no. I am not backing down. I crushed it home. I knew I had to just go for it. Luckily my new saddle still rocks and I never want to get out of my TT position. I am extremely comfortable and happy with it (thanks Les and Connie for the recommendation!) One of my competitors from Tech passed me with about a mile to go. I know she's a faster cyclist than I am, but I'd say we could run about the same speed. So I saw her and someone yelled "you're the second woman!" Holy crap! No way. So I get this big stupid grin on my face and am like "Courtney, you have 25 minutes left. Leave it here." I promise myself I'm not going to let Tech out of my sight.

That's my "I'm on a mission" face.

RUN

I am in transition and the announcer is like "here comes Courtney! She is the 3rd woman. She's putting on her shoes, she's got her race belt, she's off!" I totally felt like a badass, but then I'm thinking crap, 3rd place. Not good enough. And now I have a terrible side stitch and I'm totally gonna puke. I have so many people yelling at me to go get these girls. My teammates, my mom, my friends. So, as soon as I saw Tech pass the girl that was in front, I knew I had a shot. I kicked it into gear and ran my heart out. I kept glancing down at my watch and I was in the 6:40ish pace. I can do this. I passed the girl that was now in 2nd with about a mile left. I was getting so nervous that someone was going to sneak up on me though. I am still lacking some confidence in my run. I'm definitely not as fast as I used to be. I just kept my focus in front of me, looking back doesn't help anything. I dropped my pace and went for it. Anyone can do anything for about 8 minutes. I saw my mom right near the finish line and ususally she tells me there's someone behind me and that I have to pick it up. She just said "Go Courtney!!" when she saw me. So in my mind I'm like holy shit there's no one behind me or holy shit there is someone there and she didn't want to freak me out. So then I started running even faster. Finally, I got to the finish line. I had come in 2nd! And I didn't puke!

This is me...leaving it on the course.

This race was a pretty big deal for me. This was the bestI have ever placed overall in a race. I am waiting for that 1st place overall finish. I know it's coming. But when? I know it takes time. Patience. I will get there some day. I have an amazing support group behind me. My mom, dad, sisters, doctor, coaches, and friends. Everyone is there one hundred percent. Even when I am a total jerk. So I thank you all for all that you do for me. I could not do it without you.

So where does this leave me with Collegiate Nationals? I just need to rack up as many points as I can. I will be doing a race in Wilmington, NC then the MACTC championship race. I am looking forward to my final 2 races of the season. I can't wait to go to Wilmington and stay with my grandparents! Definitely going to have to beach it up while I am there too! 

As always, thanks for reading and your support! It means the world to me:)

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." 

Colossians 3:17 

Happy Monday!

Today is a great day!

Why? BECAUSE 20 YEARS AGO TODAY THE WORLD WAS BLESSED WITH ME! Pretty epic birthday on a Monday. As one of my friends texted me this morning, "Happy birthday! Welcome to the longest year of your life!" Thanks Tyler. Anyway, so far today I woke up to a BEAUTIFUL promisingly sunshine-y sky (thats what happens when you're up for swim at 6:30am). It was so cold though riding my bike to the pool! It really feels like fall now. I went to class, enjoyed a nice warm bowl of oatmeal and coffee, went to class, and now I am home drinking a big ole birthday smoothie, yogurt, and some celery and peanut butter (aka the best snack ever) getting ready to tackle a stupid amount of homework and room cleaning with a nap in there somewhere.

Now you're probably thinking wait a second, why isn't she going on a bike ride or run? Isn't that her favorite thing in the whole world to do? And I would say, well I am taking a rest afternoon because I had a race yesterday! I did Patriot's race in Williamsburg, VA. I got my first ever 2nd place overall finish! I was SO ecstatic. Especially because it was a qualifying race for Nationals. So! I am pretty sure I qualified for Collegiate Nationals!

Pre race dancing! 

2nd place finish overall!!!

A race recap is definitely on the way, but right now I am going to finish some of this work and clean my room!

Peace and Blessins ya'll, PEACE AND BLESSINS.

Out of the Box

So I have been playing around with the idea of this blog post for a few days now, but I haven't actually gotten the chance to sit down and really concentrate on it. Why? Well because I have been watching a stupid amount of Weeds doing lots and lots of homework. 

"Thinking out of the box" is such a cliche phrase. I feel like it is a overused to enforce critical thinking. I hate critical thinking. Why can't everything just be black and white? Why do I have to know why something is true? Although this may be a cliche, annoying, overused phrase, it has so much relevance in life. I had a professor second semester freshman year for psychology that I got really close with. One of her big "things" was to have us think outside of the box. I am in a set of math classes for my major that are all about why math is the way it is. I am in the second of the series of three classes and I literally cannot stand the phrase, "Well why is that true, Courtney?"

I was on a bike ride the other day thinking about my comfort zone. I came up with a little analogy. Our comfort zone is much like said "box". We have this little area, physically or mentally, that make us happy and, well, comfortable. What defines the perimeter of this box is extremely personal, its as small or as large as you want to make it. But the bigger the box is, the more opportunities we have. The more we will grow. I say, the bigger the better!  

Many of you may know the bike is the most recent leg of triathlon that I picked up. I have only been seriously riding since last summer. I am still trying to get comfortable on the bike. Every time I get in the saddle I learn something new.  

In May, there was no way in hell you would catch me out on my bike if the ground was at all wet.  Monday I rode right after the storm ended. Was I uncomfortable? You better believe it. I was going over all the scenarios of what could happen with a wet road. However, it is so important to know how to ride on a wet road, what happens if it starts storming in the middle of a race and I haven't practiced riding in wet weather? What's my point? I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to grow a little bit. 

Today I again made my box a little bigger on the bike. I had a goal in my head. I wanted to beat my time trial time from last week. Last Wednesday I did a time trial on dry river (relatively flat, not busy road in the burg), I had another TT today. Last week, my time was 27:44. Side note: the first time I did a time trial on Dry River, February 2011, I did about 35 minutes!! Crazy! Well today, my legs felt tired just biking around campus so I knew I would have quite the challenge to beat my most recent time. But I threw my head down, dropped the hammer, and biked my heart out. I got my heart rate way up (though it was pretty humid, hot and I was tired... see Connie I remember your physiology lesson!) and my legs were on fire. I have never felt like this on the bike. I wanted to die. For real. Prayed for a car to hit me, okay no not really I wouldn't want that to happen at all, but you get the point. I was hurting. It paid off though. When I looked down at my stopped watch, I had managed to finish in 26:38. I took an entire minute off my time from last week! I was so happy, I think a f*** yeah! came out of my mouth. Oops. What else helped me drop time? I stayed in my aero bars and pedaled through all the "scary turns". Once again, I am really trying to get myself more comfortable on the bike. There is no way I can  pedal through a turn during a race if I don't practice! 

So where am I going with this? PUSH YOURSELF! Get out of that stupid comfort zone. Make that box a little bigger. I promise you won't be disappointed. I have a new goal, every workout, press that perimeter of that box just a bit bigger. It doesn't have to be a lot, every little bit counts. I'm not saying YOLO, but do something you think is scary. Do something that makes you uncomfortable. We grow from these experiences. Answer a question aloud in class, start a job that you never thought you could do (hello, me, a project engineer intern for a construction project? HAHA WHAT?! I'm an education major! I like kids not construction!), make your legs burn a little more than you're used to, whatever it is, learn from it! 

Anyway, enough motivation for now. I've gotta go shower and get ready for dinner/class. Have a great night everyone! Be on the lookout for a race post this weekend! I am racing Patriots Sprint on Sunday! 

 Here is a lovely picture from my bike ride today. The calm before the storm. Literally, started pouring as soon as I got home! 

Week 1 Round Up

Week 1 of Junior year is done! Man, it is going to be so, so busy, but I love it. Not only am I in school, still training hard, but I also got a job!

Reasons why this year is going to rock (in no particular order):

1. My classes are absolutely wonderful. I am so excited to finally be really getting into my major classes. However, 3 of my classes meet once a week for three hours, I'm not sure I like it those so much. Even though my teachers give us a small 10 minute break in the middle of class, but I still get ants in my pants! We made these in our "Children's Engineering" class on Wednesday night. They are name cards that have a picture of something we like to do. It had to stand up on its own and a part that moves. I hung a wheel on mine.

2. Living off campus. Though it has only been about 8 days of living in my apartment, I am so happy. My roommate and I get along swimmingly (SARAH! See what I did there??). We have so much fun together, probably too much fun... hopefully it stays this way. The best thing about the situation is that we pick up after each other. If one of us leaves something in the sink, the other will put it away and its sort of a rotation. For example: One day I made a huge batch of rice for us to share. I ended up leaving but I left the containers out on the counter, Sarah put them all away in individual serving sizes. It just works perfectly. I enjoy living off campus because it is nice to just get away from campus. It is nice to have somewhere to go home to. I never understood what upperclassmen meant by that until now. 

3. I will be working a few hours a week as the Project Engineering Intern for Skanska. Money in the bank! It appears that the job is going to be fun and good, hard work. 

4. MY NEW SADDLE!!!!! Nuff said. 

Cobb V-Flow Max. Not a great picture but its something.

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I am off to do a trainer ride here in a little bit. The plan was to ride long and run long this weekend, but unfortunately it is raining like crazy ALL day today. I am rather annoyed at the situation. 

Regardless though, I have a feeling that the rest of this weekend is going to be awesome and I can't wait.

I love crappy quality phone pictures

Also, shout out to Erin the Elf, because well, I love her.