2011 Re"cycle", Friends and Fun Events!

I've spent the past couple of days reflecting on the biggest and best part of 2011. Everyone out there is reflecting and then stating their goals for 2012 and I don't want to be left out. During 2011, I didn't get a new house or a new car or a new life. I just used the ones I already had. And that's good for me. I firmly believe in recycling and reusing and composting.

I looked back over the past year and the best thing about the entire year was the recycling of my marriage to Robert. Yeah, well, recycling maybe doesn't sound too wonderful, but it has been. We've been good for the past 25 years. You know, we fell in love, got married, had some fun, had kids and then whoosh, the years flew by as we raised them and paid bills and muddled through the days.

This is us when we fell in love. This is actually from the weekend in Ensenada, Mexico when Robert proposed to me. He was 22 and I was 25.

This was our wedding 4 months later. We got married on July 2. I turned 26 on July 3. Robert still gets the dates mixed up. But since July 4th is a special day, too, we just celebrate for 3 days straight and it all is a blur.

2011 was the year that we kind of stopped and looked at each other and recycled our relationship. And I like the word recycle because it has the word cycle in it. 2011 was the year Robert and I really started doing a lot of cycling together. A lot. We even celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary by going to Sonoma and cycling and wine tasting.



Not only did we spend a lot of time cycling together, but Robert and I did our first triathlon together.  Not his first and not my first, but OUR first. Robert competed in several triathlons back when I was raising kids and I guess I didn't have a clue what he was doing. Yeah, I knew he was riding a bike. I vaguely recall helping him buy aerobars on eBay and I kind of remember him telling me about a triathlon in Malibu he was going to do. My family all recalls the laughs we had when we saw the pictures from the Malibu Triathlon and in one overpriced picture Robert was running next to Will Farrell, but Robert doesn't remember running next to the movie star. So Robert was having a "Tri-ing" life and I was having a "Try-ing" life with 3 kids.

Fast forward a few years and I was talked into getting fit and exercising and hiking and backpacking and then doing a triathlon with some girlfriends. Okay. I can shuffle my feet along for 3.1 miles and I can ride a bike for a bit and I can breaststroke across a pool. Okay that's fun and exhilarating and when you add in a hotel room and room service and a couple of girlfriends and a wetsuit, then it is a flipping good time.

 This is the first time I ever wore a wetsuit in a triathlon. The Women's US Triathlon in San Diego with a 750 m. swim. Yikes, I saw fish while I was swimming, but all I could think of was go, go, go.  I did most of the swim on my back doing the backstroke while looking into the sky thinking, "Oh, that's a pretty cloud. I love clouds. Look at that bird.  That is an awesome bird." And then I would have to say out loud, "Oops, sorry," because I had whacked someone with my hand because I was after all, backstroking.

2011 changed all that. Yes, I have still done some triathlons with girlfriends and with my new triathlon club, Triathlon Connection. But the best part is that Robert and I have competed in Triathlons together this year. 

The first triathlon we did together was Race on the Base. I had done it the year before (it was my first ever triathlon in 2010) and some friends were supposed to do it with me in 2011, but everyone bailed at the last minute and I was left alone. My guy stepped up and said he would do it too. It was so much fun to get up early and load up the car and set up our spots, then check out the layout of the transition area, then just hang out together. He hadn't really been training so really for him it was a pity triathlon. He didn't want me to have to go all by myself and compete. He even walked me to the bathroom for the numerous times that I had to go that morning.

I killed him in the run. He killed me in the bike. We were about even in the swim. It was fabulous. He had fun.

We still have kids at home, but they are older now and can stay home by themselves so Robert and I can go away for the weekend to compete in a triathlon or an event. Hey, it's a great excuse to leave the real world behind and escape to a hotel room with my recycled guy. Robert and I went to San Diego together and competed in the Rock-n-Roll 1/2 Marathon in June. That may have been a pity run on his part. He spent A LOT of money signing up at the last minute because he didn't want me to have to run by myself, or maybe he just started enjoying the whole experience also. It was a wonderful get away weekend - hotel room, room service, triathlon and well, you know.

Then we went back to San Diego later on and did the Tri-Rock together. This time we had some Triathlon Connection friends and athlete with us. We had a wonderful dinner the night before the event with a TC couple and we had a fabulous time.



Robert, my 2011 Best Friend!!!

Triathlon Connection at San Diego Tri-Rock.

One of the best times of 2011 was spending the day with Robert and some Riverside Bicycle Club friends and some Triathlon Connection friends training with the U.S. Navy Seals. Yes, at the age of 51, I got to spend the day with Navy Seals at their training base in Coronado. Thanks to GOTRIbal a group of triathletes (I was in that group) were pushed to our mental and physical limits training on the SEAL obstacle course and in the sand and in the water.  It was AWESOME!

From left - Barbara, Erika, Edith, me. Back row from left - Enrique and Robert. HOOYAH!

The Navy Seals kicked our butts. HOOYAH! But it gave me a big dose of fearlessness of pushing the limits and pushing myself, even in the (gulp) deep water.

Well, the SEALS and Paulene and Enrique and Barbara and Anna and Sinta. My TC friends are still (will still) be helping me with deep water swimming in 2012. Friends are important.

Another top of the list 2011 event was the Cool Breeze Century Ride. The 100 mile ride was gorgeous, fun and challenging, but it was the company before, during and after the ride that made it over the top awesome.

Friends are important. Even when not in a pool, or on a run or on a bike.

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Getting certified to ride the Velodrome in Carson....with FRIENDS!

Citrus Classic Ride....with Friends!

Okay, so my theme for 2011 is that the best of the best of it has been fun, athletic events and workouts with friends (the best being Robert).

I am going to add one more event that I did this year and it was a high highlight. It was not with anyone I have ever considered my friend because, well for the past 19 years he has been my son, and I have been his MOM...but now he is my buddy!

He is my buddy, thanks to a fun, athletic Muddy Buddy event!

Come on 2012...bring me more of the same and more!