Triathlon Completed

Last month in October I completed my first sprint triathlon in Morro Bay California. This sprint version I opted for required 12 miles biking, just over 3 miles running and 1.5 miles kayaking. I came in 98th out of 104 people that competed in the sprint version, but I still felt very proud. You see 3 years ago when I saw this event happen in person I thought that only the toughest person could ever do this type of thing.

The process began about a year and a half ago after my initial introduction to this activity. I decided that I was going to see if I could do this. I started off with running. And when I say running I mean, walking for 45 seconds and running for 15 seconds at a time for 20 minutes total. Then I bought a new bike that was fast, and I started biking to work. Since I opted for the kayaking version I had to try this out as well. I first kayaked in February as a gift to myself, which necessitated that I face a fear of drowning. I slowly checked things off the list that would lead me closer and closer to accomplishing this challenging event. It was all tough and time consuming, but I developed a love of exercise through this process.

The hardest physical part of the triathlon was the beginning. We started with kayaking first, and I was holding my own until about 20 minutes in. I slowly started slipping to the last position. Then after 15 minutes went by and all the other kayakers were pulling into the transition area for the next component of the race. Then another good 30 minutes plus passed with the safety boat and I doing a dance. With my hands cold and cramping I slowed to a near crawl. I thought about stopping, but I couldn't figure out the logistics of that, so I just kept moving forward, slowly. I thought about James, my finance, worrying about me out in the ocean. I pushed on and somehow made it. The rest of the race from there on was much easier, especially since I had been biking and running regularly.

The other challenge of the race was mental. I was not use to training without music, and out there on the open waters it was tough to keep rallying myself to forge ahead. Like I said, I thought about giving up, but then I would miss out on the next part of the race, which I was really excited about. So at times I sang to myself. I took mental breaks to look around at the pelican flying overhead and the seals playing in the water around me.

There were 2 really amazing gifts that I received through this process that I couldn't have imagined. The first was realizing that my body was stronger than I ever thought it could be. Having lived with Rheumatoid Arthritis for 13 years now, I never thought I would be able to do something like this. It felt great to prove those doctors wrong that told me at 16 years old that I would eventually become disabled from this condition, but perhaps that only made me fight harder. The second gift of realization was that this hobby found it's self into my art practice. I found myself incorporating running into my social sculpture practice, and days before the triathlon I was in NYC performing a piece called "Save Yourself: Relay" that relied on me running for hours at a time.

Other things that I learned along the way was the importance of nutrition, discipline, the usefulness of routines, and that training for a triathlon won't necessarily led to the weight goals one wants--bummer. All in all I would definitely recommend this race and activity to others. And if all the exercise doesn't make you feel good, at least there will be free beer at the end of the race.

3 Year Anniversary!

This is an image of our second night of camping. This is the bounty of food that our camping neighbors gave us.


This is the wonderful restaurant that we had our anniversary dinner at: "Windows on the Water." An amazing meal, which was referred to us by the local wine tasting store downstairs.


This was our first attempt at kayaking. A ton of fun!

This year our3 year anniversary found us in Los Angeles. Last year we celebrated our anniversary in Boston, and the one before must have been Florida, I imagine. Given our flexible schedule we decided to take about four days--the first 2 for camping, and the next for our favorite spot in Morro Bay, at Bayfront Inn. We spent the first night camping in the Los Padres Forrest. THe following night we had planned to stay at a different camp site in the park, but this required a river crossing on the motorcycle. We attempted it, fell and then decided to head over to Morro Bay early. We spent the second night camping at the state park in Morro Bay. This campsite, though very crowded, ended up being one of the best camping experiences ever! That afternoon we made our way over to our hotel. The Bayfront Inn is a wonderful little hotel that has some great deals, and is right on the water. The first day we went to a small local music festival, the farmers market and walked around the little beach community. Later we kayaked, went to a wine bar and then an awesome dinner. It was a great couple of days that made me feel lucky to have James in my life.

Spring Break Trip - Part 1

During the second week of March I realized that I had a week of Spring Break coming up the following week. Time was wizing by, and I had been hoping to make it down to a friend's wedding in Florida. Unfortunately, between time and funds that trip was not going to happen.

So it was on March 11 that we decided that we would take a short weekend trip to start off my Spring Break, then come back, work on homework and James would go to his classes. We chose Paso Robles as a destination because of the wine county. We have not yet made it over to Napa, so this was our wine country warm-up.

On Friday morning we realized that while we had a destination we had no plans. And since we were traveling over the weekend we knew we needed to make arrangements for a place to stay. Since it is only March, which apparently means it is still cold many places, we chose to stay in hotel. My task for this trip was to find and book a hotel. I had about an hour to look at our options around San Simeon, Morro Bay and Paso Robles area for anything cheap, but not skeezy. This was a large area, and before James had left to class he suggested Motel 6 and said, "Honey, I know you'll find somewhere nice."

So the pressure was on to make this a nice trip, and the proper location of the accommodation was key to this. I decided that we could probably do a little better than Motel 6 and broadened the budget to $100. After looking at Google maps I realized that staying by the ocean would be a real treat. I figured it would be expensive, but also knew that it was the off season, so there were probably deals to be had. I made several calls, looked at the maps, and finally found a great little, independent hotel.

Bayfront Inn was the little gem that I found. It's an older building, but updated and clean, and right across from the bay. At $83 out the door, this was a steal. And on top of that when we arrived to check in our room was upgraded to the king-size bed, with private jacuzzi.

Morro Bay is a lovely little town to visit. That weekend there was a Chili Cook-off that was so popular they ran out of food and drink. We meandered around and found a lovely Farmer's Market where we picked up some snacks for the room. We head back toward the bay to find some food and found a great lunch spot called Hofbrau Restaurant. This is where we took this photo.

Later that night we watched the sun set over the ocean and walk around Morro Rock that you see in the photo.

The next morning we woke up and knew that we had to get over to Paso Robles to check out at least one winery. Before leaving we had breakfast at Frankie and Lola's, which had amazing, original, vegetarian selections. Our destination was Pipestone winery. A sustainable and organic, family-owned operation. This is one of the far-out wineries, meaning its not on the main drag, but totally a great find. We were the only ones there, which allowed us to try many wines and have a great conversation with our host.

It was 5pm already and we were hours from home. We knew that we would be driving through the dark, but were lucky that clocks had just rolled back that morning for Day Light Savings Time. On the way back we saw some amazing flower patches and drove for miles without seeing anyone else. The final last hour was of course the hardest and coldest, but we pushed through it and made it back to LA by 9pm. This trip was a major success.

Next weekend we'll be heading to Anza-Borrego to catch some more amazing wildflower patches.