I'd been toying with the idea of writing an article on how I thought running and teaching related. Tonight after a few hours of work, I published my article to Buzzfeed. Check it out! I don't really know where this will go, but I gave it a shot. Let me know what you think!
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This past weekend my mom and I completed in the Espirt de She Triathlon in Naperville, IL. We had a blast!! This was triathlon number 3 for me and number 2 for my mom. I did my best to keep track of the various parts so I could share them here. Here we go. My mom and I loaded up all of our gear and left our house a few minutes before 6AM, the race was to start at 7AM. Got to transition and got our spots in our waves. I was in Wave 21 and my mom was in Wave 9. I was surprised to find out that we didn't have assigned spots to put our picks. I must have had a confused look on my face because the ladies around me moved their stuff and helped make room for my bike and rest of my gear. I wish I would have snapped a picture of my set up, but I didn't have a chance before they kicked us out of transition area. First stop: Swim. Oh boy. The swim portion was slightly different from past triathlons I have done. They used what they called a 'Wave Start' where they send 70-75 swimmers into the water at once every 4 minutes. We knew this was going to be different for us since we were used to going in groups of four every 30 seconds. Before my mom and I were able to swim together. Here we were separated into our respective age waves. If you were doing the math you would notice that there was a huge gap between the time my mom's wave entered the water and when my wave went in the water. I was nervous, but in a good way. I was excited to get the race underway. I had a water bottle and a snack to hold me over until I needed to line up. I missed my mom going in the water as she switched up what she was swimming in. My dad was able to find her taking off on her bike before he watched me get in to swim. She is in the black and red jersey here. That bike is fast. Fast forward to when my wave started. I went in at the at the back of our pack to avoid the fast swimmers. It honestly didn't feel like I was in there as long as I really was. I stayed calm and just tried to stay float. Man, it wasn't pretty but I did it! I came out of the water and headed into transition into to get my bike and go. My dad was there looking for me, he was hard to miss in his neon shirt. He was able to snap a quick pic of me running in from the swim. Quickly got off the sand I could, but I didn't wanna take more time than I needed to. I added a shirt and shoes, stashed my GU and had Nuun on my bike ready to go. After strapping on my sunglasses and helmet was off I went! The bike portion started out fast and then once we went out and back it got a tab windy, I picked up speed were I could, but I was still trying to catch my breathe from the swim. Thanks to the pocket on the back of my bike jersey I had some fuel that I grabbed every so often. I followed the GU with some Nuun, Two laps around and I was heading back into my last transition. While I was bike my mom was off running and she sure looked like she enjoyed it! My mom was waiting for me when I got back as she was already done and was proudly wearing her medal! I did a quick change, added a visor and my Garmin and off I went! I was looking forward to the run the most because well, I'm a runner. I grab some water and took off. Slow and steady. The run course was great. It was party shaded and I saw some familiar faces on the run. I got close to the finish and could hear the crowd and announcer and picked up the pace, which apartly means do crazy things with your arms? But nevertheless I was feeling good and wanted to finish strong. Came across the finish line and got my medal. Few feet later was handed a chocolate milk. Like the ones from middle school. It tasted like a milkshake. So good. We walked around and checked out the different booths set up. Took a few more pictures and decided to call it a day. Things I loved about this race:
1. Close to home = sleep in my own bed. This is a huge one for me. I am a freak of nature and changes like hotel rooms never ensure my body is ready to handle a race the next day. 2. All girls. No I don't hate boys. This one was so friendly. Everyone was talkative and here to support each other. Ladies on the course were shouting words of encouragement. It was a great atmosphere. 3. The course. Loved loved loved it. I was really worried about the swim being longer than I was used to or the water being too cold. None of that was a problem. The bike course was nice and flat and I felt I had room to pass as I needed. And I loved the run course cause I loved to run and I knew the worst was behind me. Did I say that was going to be short? Well I guess I lied on that one. Thanks for sticking with me! I am turning in now as it is well after 1AM. I did have a 4 hour nap this afternoon sooooo I hit my second wind after dinner. I'll be taking it easy the next few days and then picking up where I left off in my training. Goodnight! What a great holiday. You better believe I laced up the running shoes today. I love reading about all the cool #NationalRunningDay meet ups and fun runs around the country. Very cool! Here's my reason I run. I got the image from Fleet Feet on Facebook and used the Over app to add my own text. I can't get over how well the orange matched. Things like this make me happy. The weather here was actually great for running. About 70 degrees, cloud cover and low humidity levels. Must have been something to do with the storms we had during the night last night. Let's just say I curled up in the laundry room with a blanket while I called home to have someone look up what was heading for me. My dad actually picked up the phone at 2:30AM and told me to come downstairs. He forgot I was 103 miles away in my apartment. We both laughed at that one. He stayed on the line for a few minutes to make sure I was okay. I went back to bed and turned on Nick. Around 4AM Full House came on. Barney Stinson was wrong, good things do happen after 2AM, like 90's sitcoms I love. (That's a How I Met Your Mother Reference for you guys that live in the stone age and have no idea who Barney is). #30SummerDays #4: Look up, what do you see? I see Kirsten Bell! Killin' it as the host of the CMT Awards. I realize this one is totally uncreative, but this is the best I have today.
I have a midterm tomorrow night so I'm doing my best to get all this terms hammered into my head. Wish me luck! The other day I came across a cute photo a day challenge on Peanut Butter Fingers. I thought it would be great to do something a tiny bit different over here. I'll jump on the bandwagon with #3: Who made you smile today? Sorry 'bout the repost, but this guy makes me pretty happy!
I'll be back tomorrow for #4! As I mentioned in my last post, I am currently enrolled in a summer class. We just started the third weekOn the first day, my instructor broke us up into pods and made us introduce ourselves first to our pods and then the rest of the class. She wanted to know what year in school we are, where we are from and what our specialty is. The past week I've really been thinking about the word "specialty" and what it means to me in my life. I guess up until now, I never really thought about what my specialty is. I always considered it a term that doctors use to discuss which areas of medicine they are in. Specialty sounds like a fancy word for area of study. Specialty is more than something you are interested in or a path you want to take. Specialty means that you pour hours into the little details that others might overlook. Like creating the ideal classroom layout to be inclusive to all students or finding a book you know your students will love. It's knowing what each of your students need at different times and teaching to them. As I look ahead on the years I hope to spend in the classroom, I have a few promises that I've made to myself and my future students.
1. Encourage all students. I had many cheerleaders over the years and they made all the difference in my life and furthermore my education. I know not all students will have the support I had, so it's my job to provide that in the walls of my classroom. 2. Everyone has potential and deserves a chance to be successful. I never want to leave school for the day thinking there was something more I should have done for a student. 3, Each students is unique in their own way. I have witnessed this first hand already and can't wait to see all the smiling faces I will get the pleasure to work with over the years. I think we all have our own passions and specialties that influence our daily lives. You might wake up in the morning just to get a hug from your son, a smile from a friend or volunteer at the Boys and Girls club. Keep doing those things that make you happy and stay true to yourself. |
AshlynI'm a college student pursuing my dreams of being a teacher. When I'm not in the classroom observing or writing lesson plans I love to run! Follow me along for the ride. Archives
March 2015
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