IMMD The year of the jellies

Ironman Maryland always ends up being a great little getaway for Jeremy and I.  Besides the race, it's just a quiet weekend spent in quaint picturesque towns.  This year we found an Airbnb in Oxford.  I think the town is only a mile long, tops.  It's tiny.  However, it was really pleasant.  One night we just walked through town and sat on the shore watching the sunset.  The colors of that sunset were beautiful!  

Another day we went shopping at a little boutique and antique store where we found the coolest old medical book.  We met some locals and ate some delicious ice-cream at Highland Creamery. I may need a refresher course, but there's a chance it was creamier than Aggie ice-cream!  (I can't believe I admitted that.)  Just hanging out down by the ferry.  We tried looking for sea glass but the tide was too high to find anything.

Pics for the kids at home.

The race had a different vibe this year for us.  Jeremy wasn't as trained as he likes to be because of Nice, and it changed how we approached this race.  There wasn't the stress to get that Kona slot, but we still hoped he would have a good race.  

Checking in down at the village.  

I have a couple favorite pictures of Jeremy and I from this weekend, but I think this one is just fabulous.  

One thing we noticed as we were hanging out down by the docks were the jellyfish!  We had heard rumors of jellyfish in past years but they haven't shown up in a really long time.  This year they were out in force.  Really there wasn't more than a foot or two between them all, and they were anywhere from two to four feet long.  Now the butterflies started setting in for Jer.  We touched the tops of their heads and found they were surprisingly solid.  I wasn't about the touch their tentacles.  I've watched enough Finding Nemo to know that!  

At gear check-in the athletes have the chance to swim in the bay.  I chose to sit and watch while Jeremy hoped in to brave the jellies.  I watched athletes coming out of the water with red marks all over their skin and horror stories of having jellyfish wrapped around the wrists or stuck to their faces.  Yikes!  Jeremy was out longer than I expected.  When he came back he said that he was both more and less nervous about the swim the next morning.  He said that he couldn't relax during the entire swim because he was always on high alert for running into jellyfish.  The worst part was as he'd pull his hand back and the tentacles would just tangle in his fingers and stay with him through the whole stroke.  At one point he had one hit his head, chest, hands, and feet all at once and had kind of a freak out moment because he was completely surrounded.  The stings weren't horrible, but they bothered him most of the day.  He came out with probably 20-30 stings.  Great, what awaited all those athletes on race morning?  

Race morning was pretty calm with not crazy hiccups.  We slathered Jeremy with vaseline to protect against the jellyfish and then he hoped in ready to go.  

I couldn't see him very well once he was in the water, but his splits were coming back like he was doing great.  I volunteered at the T1 sunscreen station and I watched as all the athletes came past in various states of misery.  Some of the athletes didn't get stung very much, but others asked me to be very gentle as I rubbed in the sunscreen to avoid their stings.  I heard of at least five jellyfish stuck to their faces, ladies who were in the change tent crying because of the stings, I watched as a couple athletes walked past me to grab their bags and bike because their race was done already, and saw other athletes who never even got in the water.  Wow.  When Jeremy came flying by he was in good spirits.  He was only stung once and it wasn't that bad.  Whew, one obstacle gone.  

This is not a very good bike course for spectating, so while Jeremy rode I tracked him on my tracker and visited with other volunteers.  The next time I would see Jeremy was once he was on his run.  I was set up at an aid station right near transition, and had a little adventure of my own as we only had two volunteers plus the captains at my aid station...gulp...to put this in perspective we normally have 20-30 volunteers to make these aid stations run smoothly.  Luckily we found some more volunteers but it was wild for awhile.  When Jeremy came through that first time (I was going to see him six times) he was smiling.  He was just off the bike and had a good time.  His watts were a little low, but he still made it with no problem.  When I saw him the second time he had slowed down and was walking.  That didn't surprise me too much, but he was still cheerful.  

The third time was much the same.  However he took nearly an hour longer to come back through on the fourth time and by then I was getting really nervous.  His splits on the tracker were really slow, almost slower than a walking pace.  I was worried that maybe he had stopped entirely or that he was having some serious physical pain.  For the first time I thought that Jeremy might DNF, and that worried me.  I was so relieved when I finally saw him come back through.  He was hurting pretty badly and was walking kind of funny, but he he still had a good attitude which is really important.  I watched him go wondering what his last lap was going to look like.  When my volunteer shift was over I started making my way towards the finish line to watch Jeremy come back through that sixth time.  When I finally saw him I didn't know if I should laugh or not.  He was running like an old man, all hunched over with teeny tiny steps.  He was laughing too, so my laughing was ok, don't worry.  His legs were giving out and I worried again that he might sit down, willingly or not, and not be able to get back up.  He made it though.  

My volunteer shirt let me into the finish chute where I saw him running down the chute, cross that finish line, and then I was able to give him his finisher's medal.  I was really proud of him for finishing the race when it was so miserable.  That takes guts and dedication.  

We learned that we'll never race undertrained again, which is a good lesson.  Even though it wasn't exactly the race Jeremy had been hoping for at least the finish line was beautiful at night!

Mustang Mile

It was Kelton's first Mustang Mile and he couldn't be more excited.  He's watched his sisters run the peanut every year for his short little life, and was stoked it was his turn.  He lined up with the kindergarteners and took off.  I knew from experience that he could totally handle the run on his own.  I went to a couple locations to cheer him on and loved seeing his super focused face with each pass.  He ran the entire way without stopping and was the third kindergartner to cross the finish line.  

McKenzie ran with some friends, she has so many I wasn't surprised, and just loved being there.  

After the run it was the typical crazy school carnival.  Even though my kids are lost half the night they always come back with huge smiles on their faces. 

Daxton's first day of preschool

It took long enough according to Daxton, but it is finally time for him to go to preschool!  These weeks with just the two of us have been fun, but apparently I'm not quite cool enough because he pretty consistently asked if it was a school day for him.  On his first day he was so excited he didn't even care that I put him in a collared shirt!  (We'll see how long that lasts.)  

He put on his little new backpack and it was just so adorable seeing him ready to go.  

The rest of the preschool kids started while we were in Nice, but I was happy to see that the teachers left the first day of school props there by the front door so we could have a chance at them too.  Silly kid wouldn't give me a real smile!  

I have been nervous about dropping him off at school, because he's normally a leg hugger.  I hoped that since he was familiar with the school from Kelton's year and because we were able to go to the open house, that he would go to class with no problems.  I couldn't have hoped for a better drop off for this kid.  We found his hook, hung up his backpack, and he started playing with the puzzles set out like it was no big deal.  He gave me a great big smile and a wave good-bye and I was out the door.  As I walked out I couldn't help but feel like it is the start of a whole new chapter, one where for at least a couple hours a week I have all four of my kids in school.  I had two and a half hours all to myself!!  I thought about the chores waiting for me at home and decided to do none of them.  It was time to celebrate!  I went on a run around the lake-in the sunshine-and enjoyed every minute of it.  I took a nice long shower, called my mom, and just generally had a relaxing morning doing whatever I felt like.  When it was time to pick up Daxton I met him at the front door and he was smiling.  He told me that he made a really big train track.  He got to color.  He made a picture for his brother.  He played outside on the playground.  And he sang a lot of songs.  He loved it and I was stoked for the kid.

Entrevaux

After days spent on the coast we decided to mix it up a bit and head to the mountains.  We didn't want to spend too long in the car so we chose a destination that wasn't too far from Nice and that was Entrevaux.  None of us had ever heard of the village or had any idea what to expect.  However it looked unique and that was good enough for us.  The forecast was for rain and just hoped it was a light rain instead of a downpour.  The drive up was wet and cloudy, but I felt like the clouds just added to the effect of the mountains we were seeing.  It's hard to get really good pictures through the windshield as you're driving through a canyon, but I tried.  

When we pulled into the village we could just see through the clouds, the citadel that was our destination perched high on the hill.  It looked rather formidable up there and I just hoped the walk up was more mild that our walk up to Eze.  

As we parked the car and started walking towards the village I felt like I was in a medieval film.  Everything about the architecture screamed medieval times.  I half expected a knight to come trotting across the bridge on horseback.  

Inside the lower village it was completely empty.  True, it was raining, but we didn't really see anyone.  We saw hints of people, laundry hanging out a window, window boxes with flowers.  We also saw lots of evidence that more people used to live there, boarded up windows, broken front doors, and empty apartments.  It was actually rather bizarre.  Because the streets were empty it felt like the plague had just come through and wiped out the population. 

 We wandered through the streets looking for a cafe that was open and managed to find the only one in the entire city that was serving food.  We huddled under the umbrellas on the patio as we enjoyed our burgers (which were delicious with camembert cheese).  We sat and waited for the rain to let up as we knew that the rest of our explorations were going to be completely exposed.  Ultimately we decided to just brave the rain and go up to the citadel any way.  Leesa had brought one umbrella, we tried keeping Daxton under it as much as possible but that was easier said than done.  

Kelton and McKenzie were incredibly creative and found two empty pizza boxes on the way which they used to protect themselves...at least until the cardboard completely fell apart.  

The trail wasn't steep and it was an easy walk.  

We found a ton of large snails that were worth stopping to admire.  

Up at the top we found the citadel.  Honestly I couldn't tell you much about the purpose of the structure since the few signs were strictly in French.  We found guard rooms, a chapel, prison cells, defense mechanisms, and even a garden up top.  It was kind of a free-for-all as we explored and it was nice just letting the kids run free.  

An aerial view from one of the informational posters.  I kind of like it better in the rain. 

The views from the top were expansive even with the cloud cover.  However we were pretty wet and cold and ready to go home. 

 It was a quick walk back down the mountainside and back to the car where we stripped off our soggy jackets and the kids wet shoes.  We had one last adventure in the car when McKenzie found a cricket in her seat.  All the kids went a little crazy before Bruce saved the day by catching it and tossing it outside.  Whew!  Glad we survived that one!