Triathlons and Fall Beginnings

I did a sprint triathlon two years ago down in Houston and my goal for 2014 was to compete in an olympic triathlon up in Alaska! I had my sights set on Tri the Kenai down in Soldotna (a small town in the Kenai Peninsula, a couple hours south of Anchorage). I chickened out the last couple weeks before the sign up deadline and decided I wasn't in good enough running shape, so opted to do the sprint distance instead. I convinced some of my girlfriends to do it as well!

The triathlon was on Sunday, Sept 7... so Emily, Bethany, Lindsey and I rented a hotel room on Saturday night so we could get into town early enough for bib pick up the day before, which was hilarious! Bethany has the same last name as another competitor and their bib numbers got switched. Really not that big of a deal except that Bethany was given number 6, which is part of the elite athletes (Numbers 1-10). So for the rest of the weekend we bragged about how we were among the elite with Bethany :) Our friend Kristina also came along for the weekend fun and acted like the team mom! She was so sweet and made signs, cheered us on, and had plenty of snacks and treats before and after the race. Since we got there in the afternoon we decided to have a little weekend fun and hit up the cutest little lunch spot at Veronica's Cafe. They had lots of gluten free options for me and even gluten free cookies so I could carbo load like everyone else. Then we familiarized ourselves with the triathlon course and enjoyed the remainder of the beautiful sunny day.

Veronica's Cafe for pre-race day lunch

The next morning we got up early and headed over to the race after a nice big breakfast. The tris in Alaska are different than what I'm used to down in Texas; due to the cold, the swim is held in a pool versus open water. All the racers were spaced out to 2 people per lane and given an approximate start time to show up. Once someone finished their swim, the next person in line went to that lane to start. I don't think I really liked this style because the participants were consequently very spaced out versus the mass start and the constant competition of people around you. On the other hand, I didn't get kicked once :) and it was fun that I got to start within seconds of Emily and Bethany so we got to swim together for a bit!

Transition zone ready to go

Emily and I pre-race rocking our tri suits

All of us gearing up for the swim

Here we go!

Bethany and I in lanes next to each other

I finished 2nd in my age group for the swim (so close to 1st boo) and then headed out to the bike. Luckily I grabbed my windbreaker bike coat because there was a chilly wind that day despite the sunny skies. I passed a handful of people on the 10 mile loop bike ride, but I was a bit nervous to ride too fast since we were biking along the shoulder of the only highway that runs down to the Kenai Penisula so there was a bit of traffic and lots of small gravel rocks. I actually kept my thicker tread tires on my bike because of the road conditions, so my time wasn't amazing. But it was still a wonderful ride with a spectacular view of Mt Redoubt volcano along a quarter of the way.

Bethany is excited to bike :)

As I was switching into my running shoes, Kristina and Matt (Emily's husband) were right there cheering me on with their signs! I needed the extra encouragement for the 5k run along the cross country ski hills since running is by far my worst sport of the 3. I managed the first lap fine and caught glimpses of Kristina and Matt again to get me going on the last lap. Again, it was kind of odd running through the hilly trails and not seeing many other people at all. I think I passed 2 runners and 2 others passed me. Besides that it was just me and the trees haha.

First lap of the run done

Coming up to the finish line

Finished!

Yay! Another tri in the books

Tri the Kenai finishers

It was such a great feeling to cross the finish line and say I'm now an Alaskan triathlete! And what a wonderful weekend with the best cheerleaders and friends. It was a small event with only 300 athletes total, but I ended up 6th in my age group and felt super accomplished!

Snack time

We did the tri on the last warmish weekend of the year and I was excited for the change of seasons. Fall really is a beautiful time in Anchorage. I'm not used to bright colored falls, so the range of yellow and orange brightness here is spectacular! Especially when the beautiful summer flowers linger into fall as well. To get in the fall spirit, I obviously decorated my house and decided to bake a fall pie. Emily and Matt have a cherry tree in their backyard so let me come over for some cherry picking. The cherries were perfect tart pie cherries and I labored away depitting them all for a pie. I even had enough to put more cherries in the freezer for another pie down the road.

Fall time

Bright summer flowers handing around

Emily's cherry tree

De-pitting my cherries

Cherry pie from scratch

Jodie plans an annual girls trip with our coworkers at the end of summer / early fall and this year we went to Seward. I was so excited because the Harding Ice Field hike was on my Alaska bucket list and my friends Katie and Patrick did it earlier in the summer and said it was definitely a must do. Jodie, Erin, Jenna, Kristen, and I started off our weekend at a crepe restaurant where I was lured into the rhubarb crepe which was delicious! I ate the entire thing. And I was obsessed with their awesome long Polish pottery stoneware with beautiful blue and yellow patterns. I've been on the hunt for my own and will for sure be registering for some on my wedding someday :) Flash forward to the future since I'm so far behind on my blog... Erin ended up finding me an incredible Polish pottery piece for christmas at a specialty store in her home town in St. Louis! I guess I made a big enough deal that she remembered! It is amazing!! And so is Erin :)

After scarfing down the crepes we headed out on the beautiful day for our hike to the Harding Ice Field. It was a tough 4 mile hike up with 3500ft of elevation gain, but it was stunning and I couldn't wait to get to the top. After lots of scenic photo /rest breaks, Erin and I finally made it behind the others to the incredible ice field. Essentially it's like an ocean of glacier ice as far as you can see. In the ice ages, the whole world was covered with ice fields and as we are exiting the ice age, the glaciers are receding, but several are still connected on top of mountains by these giant ice fields. We stayed at the top for a celebratory glass of wine and spotted two black bears! I had my bear spray ready to go though, just in case. After hiking 4 miles back down, it was nearly the end of the day so we essentially passed out back at the hotel.

Getting ready to hike

Beautiful day in Seward

Porcupine in the path

Erin's longest hike ever

Exit Glacier

Getting close to the ice field

Erin and I

Harding Ice Field!

Cheers at the top

Jenna and the ice field

Goes on for days

Black bear sighting

Trekking back down

Fireweed turning bright red as it dies

Last fireweed flower of the year

The leaves are changing

Such a pretty hike

The drive back to Anchorage was oh so pretty, and I made Jodie and Erin stop a couple times for me to take some photos along the highway. What can I say, it's one of the prettiest drives in all of Alaska and to see the changing fall colors makes it even more incredible.

On an unrelated note, I have to mention that I tackled a huge life fear this year. Anyone that knows me, has most likely seen me around dogs... I'm terrified, absolutely terrified. I'm perfectly willing to admit that this is an irrational fear I have, but its one that I can't control ever since I was really young and my neighbors dog knocked me to the ground. My blood pressure / heart rate spike, I stiffen up, and I am very visibly uncomfortable... I swear dogs can sense it and come straight to me. And as much as people insist that their dog is different and so sweet and wouldn't hurt a fly, I'm very used to having to explain that their dog is actually just like every other dog I encounter and I'm terrified, don't take it personally.

Anyway, I was getting tired of the pestering by family and friends that didn't understand my irrational anxiety, one of them even suggested I go to therapy. So rather than that, I turned to the trusty internet for help. I read all about cynophobia - fear of dogs, and surprisingly there are plenty of adults that share this same fear and experience the anxiety and dread of social situations involving dogs. The interesting thing is, almost everyone can admit their fear is excessive or irrational. I read one particular blog of a man that went to see a therapist who suggested immersion therapy and he was cured of his fear in just a couple weeks! I decided that I would give his method a try, what did I have to lose?

First step was to find a trusted friend with a dog that was willing to work with me for several weeks. I decided my friend Emily would be perfect because she has a somewhat older dog, Sasha, that could be my training dog. Emily was so very patient and I can't thank her enough for helping me in this endeavor. Our first meeting was about an hour where we sat outside in Emily's backyard with Sasha on a leash and me about 10 feet away. The whole purpose of this exercise is that I was always in control and only did what I was comfortable with, Emily never brought Sasha towards me or unhooked the leash. A couple days later I went over again and got within 2 feet of Sasha for about 30 minutes, still not quite ready to pet her. By my third "therapy session" I pet Sasha very timidly on her back and Emily kept the leash tight to have her head away from my hand. This continually progressed until I was comfortable enough to be around Sasha off the leash and even feed her treats for sitting and staying. I think the pinnacle of my training was when I held the leash myself! Yes you read that correctly, I walked a dog! We even encountered a moose on our walk, which distracted Sasha, but I was able to remain calm enough to get her back on track.

Dog therapy in progress - walking Sasha

Moose sighting on the walk

I'm still pretty sure I will never get a dog myself, but I'm now much more comfortable around dogs and my anxiety doesn't spike when I go over to a friends house with dogs like it used to. It's a wonderful feeling :)