More Fashion Advice

When I first (re-)started this blog, I asked for advice on picking out a tote bag, which, by the way, I never picked out. There were just too many choices! Anyway, I'm having similar issues with picking out a pair of low-top Converse All-Stars a/k/a "Chucks." I currently have two pairs of tennis shoes to wear with jeans--one is bright orange the other is white with red stripes. I want another pair of casual, comfortable shoes that are versitile, but still fun and colorful.

Any thoughts? (Source: Zappos.com)

Month of Purification*

As promised, my monthly post of resolutions.

But first, let's recap January:

Goal: Unpack my suitcase from winter break before MLK day.
Result: Success! I made it in just under the wire, finishing Sunday of the holiday weekend. Also, this small task inspired me into a full on cleaning frenzy.

Goal: Purchase a Metro Smartcard.
Result: Did it. Love it. Can't believe it took me so long.

Goal: Lift weights 1-2 times a week.
Result: Yes. I lifted at least once, and probably twice each week this month. When school (and group exercises classes) started again, I started going to a muscle conditioning class on Mondays for low weight/high reps. Wednesdays I've been using the machines. Also, we always do about 10 minutes of weights at the end of my step class on Thursdays. I plan to keep this routine up. Supposedly, now that I've done this for 21 days it should be ingrained in me as a habit, therefore eliminating the need for me to formally resolve to this again.

Goal: Have at least one day in January where all of my clothes and linens are clean, dry, and folded or hung in their proper place, save only the sheets on my bed and the clothes on my back.
Result: Not quite. I spent several evenings in a row watching Alias DVDs while doing laundry, and made huge progress on the doing of the laundry, but not so much progress on the putting away. The upside is that it's in laundry baskets, rather than in piles on my futon. Part of the problem is, you know in the movie It's A Wonderful Life when there's a run on the Building & Loan and George Bailey has to explain that the money isn't all in the back in a safe, it's in your house and his house . . . Anyway, my clothing storage system depends on a certain amount of clothing being in the laundry hamper. Also, I need more coat hangers. (Wow, that's a nice segue!)

February Resolutions

1. Purchase coat hangers.
2. I haven't gotten around to finding a dentist since I've been in DC, so I resolve to finally get around to that and make an appointment.
3. Find a place where I can donate an old cell phone and an old lap top, and donate.
4. Apply to an average of one job a week.

*Just in case anyone's interested in the etymology and history of February.

In Praise of Cereal

crunchy with whole grains
late night; spoon splashing cold milk
satisfied, shortly

Dishevelled Lady? Me Thinks Not!

Just wanted to report that I am making good progress towards disposing of my formerly dishevelled self. Last night, I even managed to cook myself dinner. (Thanks, Mom--the can opener worked great!)

Something came up at work around 5:00pm on Friday (which is always fun), so I ended up having to stay late, until about 9:30 or 10. While I was working, I got it into my head that, since I didn't have any plans for the evening, it would be fun to cook as opposed to ordering out or heating something frozen up. I was thinking back to an episode of the Take Home Chef, which I happened to catch several months ago where they made turkey meatballs. For whatever reason, that just sounded really good. So I googled an easy-looking recipe for low fat turkey meatballs and spaghetti and headed to the grocery store on my way home.

There is one grocery store between work and home, which is small, and another one only two blocks away from my house, which is smaller. I got to the store a few minutes before it closed (I forgot this would be an issue for the small, family-owned places) and grabbed a few things I needed. One of my classmates from law school said that every time she tries to cook, she just ends up calling her mom every five minutes asking for help with the directions. I didn't think I was this bad (my position has always been, that it's not that I can't cook, it's that I CHOOSE not to), but I did briefly consider calling my mom from the store to ask if there was a discernable difference between crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes (I could find the latter, but not the former.) I finally did find "crushed tomatoes," but it looked more like tomato sauce/tomato paste and I wanted something a little chunkier. Luckily, I found a compromise--chunky crushed tomatoes. Unluckily, the store had no ground turkey, no ground beef, basically no anything in the meat department.

Undeterred, I decided I was on a mission. The corner grocery store by my house was closed as well (and even if it had been open, I doubted it would have ground turkey) and my car wasn't working so I couldn't drive to the 24-hour Safeway. So, in my infinite wisdom, I decided at 10:30 at night, in 30 degree weather, I'll just run to Safeway! As it turned out, however, there was another corner-ish grocery store a few blocks away from my corner grocery store that stays open until 11. I went to the meat section, and there was exactly enough ground beef for the recipe. I did debate going on to Safeway anyway so I could actually get turkey, but decided there were many good reasons to just go with the beef in the hand. (Probably a good decision considering (1) my Safeway's nickname is the UN-Safeway, (2) I didn't eat dinner until 12:30 as it was, and (3) I was cold enough just walking home five blocks with groceries and Safeway is a little over a mile away.)

Anyway, no major cooking disasters and I enjoyed both the meal and the satisfaction of cooking for myself. (I even remembered how to separate an egg!) Now that I have my fancy new can opener and a new car battery, I may try this more often. Fodder for future monthly resolutions, perhaps....

You say you want a resolution?

My friend says she doesn't believe in New Year's resolutions because there's no point because everyone gives them up by February anyway. I propose that's because most people aim too high and resolve to do things that are somewhat vague. Any good personal trainer will tell you, the only way to reach your goals is to set some that are realistic and measurable, as opposed to "I want to lose weight and improve my fitness." Therefore, I propose to set a few bite-sized monthly resolutions. My only New Year's resolution is to do so here on this blog each month, and the next month, I'll report back on how I did.

January Resolutions

1. Unpack my suitcase from winter break before MLK day.
2. Purchase a Metro Smartcard so I don't have to worry about having change for the bus or slowing my friends down when I have to purchase a new metrocard and they can just quickly swipe on through.
3. Lift weights 1-2 times a week. (I'm aiming for two, but one is sufficient to meet my resolution. If I end up doing it twice weekly, next month I'll consider upping it to thrice weekly.)
4. Have at least one day in January where all of my clothes and linens are clean, dry, and folded or hung in their proper place, save only the sheets on my bed and the clothes on my back.

UPDATE: I'm already 3/4ths of the way there! I just purchased a Smartcard online.
UPDATE II: Resolution #5. Improve math skills. I meant to say, I'm 1/4 of the way there, and only have 3/4ths to go.

How do you measure...?

The best advice I've heard about taking stock of those 525,600 minutes was from Ally McBeal (but then again, I only take advice from television shows about quirky lawyers). Anyway, if I recall correctly, Ally's mother used to say something along these lines: "A year is only wasted if looking back on it doesn't make you both laugh and cry." Check. And check.

Happy New Year!

A Benihana Christmas

As any of you who have had a conversation with me in the last month will know, I have recently become obsessed with NBC's "The Office," the hilarious un-sitcommy sitcom with wacky hi jinx, a lot of heart, and a sometimes tragic depiction of the human condition. I don't just watch it because John Krasinski is smoking hot, but let me state for the record, John Krasinski and his character, Jim Halpert, always leave me satisfied and smiling.

I started watching the DVDs over Thanksgiving, and have since finished two seasons, and am currently jumping into the third season mid-stream. After I watched an episode called "The Client," wherein boss Michael Scott holds an important business meeting at Chili's and continually interrupts things by ordering appetizers and several "specialty drinks," I emailed my brother and suggested that when I come home for Christmas we should go to Chili's (as we often do) so and order "an Awesome Blossom, EXTRA awesome," just like Michael did on the show. Then I tuned into this season's Christmas episode, and the chain restaurant featured there was Benihana, where a few of Michael's co-workers take him to help heal his freshly broken heart.

Tonight my parents went to a Christmas party, and my brother and I had planned to hang out--go to a Yoga class and then have dinner. As I was intent on an Office-related food option, we decided on Benihana, as neither of us had ever been there and both of us would probably chicken out from ordering something "EXTRA awesome." Also, Paul informed me at dinner, he will be gainfully employed at the Kerrville Chili's next semester, so he'll probably have his fill of Awesome Blossoms soon enough.

Anyway, our Benihana Christmas turned out to be lots of fun (and lots of food!) (Note: Nog-a-sakes were conspicuously absent from the menu.) Paul was surprised how much he liked sushi with freshwater eel and I was surprised how many puns one grill-master could make. (The word eggroll will forever evoke a different image for me now.) We enjoyed our experience so much, we filled out the comment card with the words "Awesome, extra awesome."


Michael and his "bros"

Me and my bro

Merry Benihana Christmas, everyone!

Finals are Here! Part II

A slightly more thoughtful analysis of the differences between working long hours as a student and working long hours as a lawyer...

When you're a student studying for finals and you suddenly decide that you'd rather sleep/go out/get a mani-pedi/drive to Pinole to get Krispy-Kremes/go see a movie at the Parkway than outline your Fed Court notes, you can if you want. If slacking on your studies has any repercussions when it comes to the exam, the only person it will affect is you. Maybe you'll get a low grade, maybe you won't make law review or get a clerkship, or maybe you'll flunk out altogether--you are the only the only person those things really matter to. But, when you're working on a brief and representing a client, you can't slack off as a matter of professional responsibility.

That said, you still have to make the time to relax and recharge. I've been pretty busy these days, and intended to work a good portion of last weekend, but I just couldn't. By refusing to concentrate on anything work-related, my brain was insisting that it needed a break (or so I justified).

When I was a student, I was pretty conscientious about being good and doing my work, though I did always make an effort not to get too bogged down in the law school minutia. When given an opportunity to blow off studying to do something fun, I often told myself that I'd be more likely to remember that in ten years than, you know, that day I was really prepared for class. That philosophy probably didn't have much of an impact on how I did in law school, because it's not like I was constantly being bombarded with wild social invitations and because of my aforementioned tendency to be conscientious about doing my work.

I guess the reason not to slack off when you theoretically can, is to train yourself for the times that you can't. Like Justice Breyer said in a talk he gave at Georgetown last year, "If you're good student and do your homework, the reward is that you get to do homework for the rest of your life." :)

Finals are Here!

Even though I generally feel pretty removed from the goings-on at good ol' GULC outside my clinic, I can definitely tell that the palpable anxiety of finals has settled upon the law school. My first clue was my difficulty in finding parking on Saturday, and today when I went down to the cafeteria for an evening snack, I noticed that the content in the vending machines has been decimated (well, more like 70-percent-imated) and the hot chocolate machine is woefully low on syrup.

I guess I'm glad not to be studying for finals and frantically finishing up papers, but it's not like I have a shortage of work to do these days. And, at least when you're a student, you have all of winter break to relax and recover. If only being a lawyer came with a month-long break every December...

I have dishevelled life and a ghetto can opener

"Dishevelled" Lady. Bosse, 1640.

In addition to the unfolded laundry, the dishes in the sink, the cluttered piles of junk mail, etc., etc., my valient attempts to (semi-) cook the last couple nights (i.e. heating a can of chili on the stove as opposed to microwaving a delicious frozen treat) have been hindered by a can opener that doesn't actually open the can all the way around, but only allows two crescent moon shaped slips on either side, and requires me to use a knife to pry the Hormel goodness out.

Items to purchase this weekend? One of these. And perhaps, this. Maybe if I clean and organize my apartment, I'll treat myself to a trip to IKEA.

P.S. Don't worry, Mom. I do best to drink juice and eat vegetables at work so I won't get scurvy.

Interview-een

I’m happy to report that I've scheduled my first interview this job-hunting season for the first and only job I’ve applied to so far – a tenure-track teaching position in the Southwest Indian Law Clinic at the University of New Mexico. It’s a thirty-minute telephone interview on speakerphone with the entire hiring committee, which sounds super-scary, and it’s on Halloween, to boot! My co-workers have offered to crowd into one office on speakerphone and call me in my office for a practice round, so hopefully that will help.

I’m nerve-wracked about the interview, but excited about the position. Wish me luck and go lobos!

Half-Assed, but not Half-Bad

As my final race of 2006, I ran the Baltimore Half-Marathon last Saturday. I had originally planned to run the Army Ten-Miler, but when an opportunity to party with my girl, et al. in NYC presented itself, I (rightly) decided to bail. (Technically speaking, "Emma Garrison" did run the Army Ten-Miler with a time of 1:24:04, but that wasn't actually me. It was some chica named Courtney who is training for the Marine Corps Marathon and who I allowed to impersonate me for the day.) Since I knew as early as mid-summer that I wouldn't be able to run, and I thought it would be good for me to do one last long-run race before year's end, I registered for the half-marathon instead.

Though it sounded like a good idea at the time, once fall arrived, things got busy and I started to lose interest in going out for long training runs. I figured all I had to do was one 10-mile run before the race, and it wouldn’t take many runs to ramp up to that as I can run 5-6 miles fairly easily. The problem with an easy training plan, however, is that it’s also very easy to blow it off. And, boy did I. I did make it out for a couple (literally two) 7-9 mile runs about a month before the race, but mostly my training consisted of lounging around the house, going to pilates and spinning as per usual, and sneaking out for the occasional 3-5 mile run during the week.

The main motivation I had for actually going through with the race was to not let the $80 registration fee go to waste, in addition to the registration fee I had already wasted on the Army Ten-Miler. I got kind of annoyed with myself for the self-imposed pressure to do race after race after race. As a compromise, I decided to go through with the half, pledging to walk or do whatever I had to do just to finish, and then I would take a break from races and not even considering doing another before the Cherry Blossom Ten-Mile Run next April.

It’s seems silly, because it’s not like I was even training that much, but something about feeling like I should constantly be running, swimming, biking, or doing some activity that supplements my training efforts was getting to me and starting to take away from the enjoyment I usually associate with exercise. I thought it would be good for me to forget about what I should be doing and give myself the freedom to do whatever I feel like doing. Lift weights, go to kickboxing, try out Zumba and Hip-Hop.

The Thursday before the race, I actually ended up going to Step, which I haven’t done since law school, and, I have to say, it was tons of fun. Probably not smart, because I was definitely still sore on race day, but it reminded me of the benefit of getting back to basics. What initially got me into making physical activity a regular part of my life was group exercise classes, the fun music, the peppy instructors, and getting to know the other regulars in the class. That’s always something I can go back to whenever I get sick of training alone.

Anyway, long story short (too late!), I had a BLAST in Baltimore, and I’m so glad I did it. Baltimore is one hilly city, but I ran the entire way and even beat my marathon-time-cut-in-half by a good 20 minutes. (My time was 2:23:03, which means I ran at a 10:55/mile pace.) The crowd support was also great. My faves included a woman dressed up like a pirate holding a sign that said “AAARGH you ready to run!?,” a pee-wee football team called the Longhorns, and various locals offering runners free beer.

In conclusion, the excitement of the Baltimore Running Festival reminded me why I love participating in these kinds of events and why the training bug bit me in the first place. I’m still going to take that break, but I’m glad to end the season with a positive impression of races. It will be all the more exciting when I get back into it.

Why do awesome job opportunities keep popping up in not-as-awesome places?

I must say, Grand Forks, North Dakota is starting to make Tulsa, Oklahoma sound pretty darn appealing.

Tulsa v. Grand Forks

Population: 382,457 v. 56,573

Distance from Austin: 452 mi v. 1,396 mi

Average Temp. in January: 26 low/47 high v. -4 low/15 high (degrees Farenheit)

Number of America's Next Top Model contestants produced: 1 v. 1

Number of America's Next Top Model winners produced: 0 v. 1

If my head weren't screwed on, I would probably leave it at the gym

First it was a hair brush (my keroppi hair brush that I've had since high school). Then it was another less exciting hair brush from CVS. Then it was a pouch with little bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Then it was two full-sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Then it was a plastic bag of sweaty clothes, including my fun yellow shorts from Target.

The times I've asked to go through the gym lost and found previously, I've never recovered anything. Today, I went in to search for the sweaty yellow shorts, et al. A gym employee took me down to lost and found proper, but the bag of clothes was nowhere to be found. Then he took me around to a few other places where lost and found items might be. During this trek, I found the aforementioned lost pouch of shampoo and conditioner lying on a random table in the lifeguard area at the pool! After more poking around, we went back up to the front desk. He decided to double check to see if my clothes were there. And they were.

So, yay to the return of shampoo and shorts! You are welcomed back with open arms. Now that I know what a treasure hunt it is to recover lost items, I'll try to be more careful about not losing you in the future. Well, I can't promise to try. But I'll try to try.

Should I Move to Tulsa?

Everytime I start a job search, I get this overwhelming "the world is my oyster" type of feeling that I can do anything and move anywhere. This is, of course, closely followed by intense, anxious thoughts along the lines of "but, if I move there, I won't know a soul and I'll have to find a new person to cut my hair!" I'm not searching in earnest yet, but I am keeping my eyes open and am starting to see opportunites that might interest me. In Albuquerque. In Chapel Hill. In Charlottesville. In Tulsa.

Since I've been in DC, my thoughts have run the gamut in terms of what to do and where to go next. I've gone from wanting to stay in DC, to wanting to move home to Texas, to wanting to go back to California, to wanting to blindfold myself, point randomly at a map, and move wherever my index finger leads me. If I had to limit myself geographically, I'd say I've narrowed it down to DC and the western half of the United States. But I'm pretty much open to whatever, or, more accurately, wherever. I feel like Shakira.

Would I be happy in a place like Tulsa? I'm definitely not a geographic snob. I'm a firm believer in "Wherever you go, there you are." As long as you have friends, a good job, and something to do for fun, any place is bearable, right? I felt hesitant about moving to Corpus Christi, but ended up really liking it there, and was sad to leave. The idea of picking up and starting all over again is scary, but also exciting, like starting a new adventure.

The original focus of this blog was a log of my job search during my clerkship. It seems that things have come full circle and a similar theme may well pervade many of my future posts. :)

Bag Lady: Emma's Dilemma

One of my students this semester has the cutest tote bag ever. I asked her about it and she told me that you can customize your own on the LL Bean website.

I've sought advice from Evita and over at Global Wage Slave, but I thought (on the off chance that anyone is reading this) I'd pose my dilemma here as well. I've decided I want a small tote with a long strap, a zip top, and a front pocket, but when it comes to picking a color scheme I can't decide on the right permutation.

Color options I like: yellow, natural, cocoa, olive green, blue, red. Color options I'm so-so on: true teal, mulberry, dark green, cayenne. Color options I'm vehemently opposed to: black and foliage.



Any thoughts?

Transition to Blogspot Bloghood

Apparently myspace is out and blogspot is in.

Sunset Triathlon: Not Sunny at All

Around 5 am on Saturday, I hurried about shoving my pajamas and toiletries into my duffle bag, grabbed my bike, and opened the door to my hotel room only to reveal a torrential rain storm. Though definitely not ideal race conditions, considering that I had already spent time and money to get to Bridgeton, NJ (well, actually I stayed the night in Millville), and that the race was clearly advertised as a rain or shine event, I figured I might as well go to the race site to see what was what.

The drive there was not particularly fun. I hate driving in the rain, especially since I'm still recovering from the trauma of driving back from my visit with Lauren in Delaware during the huge storm a few weekends ago. But I arrived safely and by the time I did, the weather had cleared up a little. It only sprinkled intermittently in the time between packet pick up and the race start. At the race meeting, the officials announced that they had checked with whatever authorities youre supposed to check with, that the swim was a go, and that the storms would be cleared out within the half hour. One of the race organizers joked that he was going to check with the USAT officials to see if we could get a few minutes off our time for showing up in bad weather.

When we (non-elite women 44 years and younger) stood there in our pink caps waiting to start, the thunder started. And it started raining again. There was lots of yammering about whether we would still be allowed to go, whether there had been lightening, etc. We were the second wave starting five minutes after the first. The aforementioned race official leaned in and said, "Ladies, if you want to know your time, subtract five minutes from the official race clocks. And, if you want to subtract more time, just let me know." Hee. Soon enough, the race started, thunder, rain, potential lightning, and all.

The swim was a good course--basically a straight shot out and back, with calm water. Basically the closest you could get to a pool swim in open water. The bike went fine as well. I was probably more cautious (i.e. slow) than usual (if that's possible) because the ground was slippery in places and my brakes were wet. It was a good scenic route--not how you picture New Jersey, but this was quaint farm country. I rode by a sign next to someones mail box: "Fresh brown eggs--$1.25." I wondered to myself if that meant $1.25 per egg. Whats the going rate for fresh brown eggs? Or, non-fresh brown eggs for that matter? This is the kind of thing I think about during these races.

I was chatting with a woman before the start and we agreed that rain during the swim and the run would be ok, but we were hoping it wouldn't rain during the bike leg. Luckily, that wish was granted and it did not rain at all while I was biking. It did start to rain again lightly during the run. It was a pretty course through the woods and eventually across a baseball diamond (the race is put on each year by a local high school). I even ran by some adorable fuzzy yellow ducklings. About two minutes after I crossed the finish line, the torrential downpour started again. Luckily it was only a one and a half mile walk back to the car in the pouring rain with my bike and all my gear. J

All in all, Im glad I weathered the storm. It was an adventure and the race was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it was the third triathlon in a row where I had to rush back to DC to spend the afternoon and evening working. Everyone cross your fingers that this won't be the case when I do the New York Danskin with the girls in September.

Results: 184/221 overall; 62/88 woman's division
Overall time: 1:58:16; 1/2 mi swim: 17:29; 16 mi bike: 1:02:22; 5k run: 32:41 (note: the run time includes a detour at the port-a-potty). What was that again about getting time taken off for showing up in bad weather?

Race Review: Two thumbs up. Well organized, pretty scenery, flat course, fun and homegrown. Definitely on my list for next year's race season.

I'm Breezy!

So I went down to the Breezy Point Triathlon last weekend and . . . (drumroll please) . . . I finished all three events! I rode to victory on my brand new fancy front tire. (And by victory, I mean I finishing 39/63 in my age group and 440/593 overall with a time of 1:43:07:30.) My favorite part of this tri (besides NOT panicking in the swim and NOT getting a flat tire on the bike) was wearing my new DC Tri Club uniform. People who don't even know me would yell things like "Go DC Tri!" It's so much more fun when you have people to cheer you on.
My swim time was 20:49:80, which actually is a vast improvment from my 19:38 time at Luray. The swim course there was only a 1/2 mile (750m), while this one was a full 1K. According to this swim pace calculator, my time for a half mile would have been about 16:00 minutes. Additionally, I paced myself and sited properly this time so I didn't panic and actually felt good when emerging from the water.

In my age group, I finished 30th on the swim, and was ranked 40th on the bike and 47th on the run. Since my final rank was 39, only 9 fellow female 25-29 year olds passed me once I got out of the water. I guess that's not too shabby.

I remember chatting with a woman I worked with briefly in Corpus Christi right before I did my first race in Austin last year. She was a hard core triathlete -- she started doing ironmans on a whim and didn't take long before she qualified for Hawai'i. Anyway, she coached swimming before going to law school, so the swim was obviously her best event. She totally cracked me up when she was telling me that during her first ironman, as she was starting the bike ride everyone who passed her would yell "Nice swim!" She said that she must have been really slow on the bike ride (well, comparatively) because at Mile 75 people were still yelling out "Nice swim!" I always think of that when the usual hordes of people pass me as soon as I get on my bike. So whenever someone whizzes by me at mile 8, I think to myself, "Wow, I must have really kicked your ass on the swim if you're just now passing me!"

Small world report -- this hardcore ironwoman triathlete, Heather, worked for one of the magistrate judges in CC and left around the same time as I did because her husband was in the service and was transferred to somewhere on the East coast. Anyway, when I checked the results for Breezy Point, I noticed that she was there and won the open women's division!
Next race: Sunset in New Jersey on July 22, 2006.

See Emma Tri

This morning I competed in my first triathlon of the season, which was kind of a bust (literally) but definitely still good fun.

I registered for the Luray Sprint Triathlon, a race nestled in the heart of the Shenandoah, about a month and a half ago on the suggestion of my co-worker Kristi. Despite our original grand plan to spend the weekend camping and hiking before the race on Sunday, we ended up just driving down there for the day, departing DC at 4:45am.

I've been really busy at work lately, and only finally decided to go yesterday afternoon. On the drive down, I was reflecting on the difference between doing this race and my first triathlon last June. When I did the Austin Danskin, I made sure to go to bed early two nights before the race, I spent the day prior carb-loading and hydrating, and even took Monday off of work so I wouldn't have to drive the three and a half hours back to Corpus Christi following the race. This time it was just like, can I squeeze in a triathlon to my schedule this weekend if I work 11 hours on Saturday and go straight to work after the race on Sunday? I also didn't really have much riding on this triathlon, nor had I really been gearing up for it. (Apologies for the cycling puns.) Rather, I thought of this race as a beginning of the season diagnostic.

See Emma Swim

Swimming is definitely my strongest of the three events, but I was a little disappointed in my performance this time. I started out swimming way too fast and got tired before I even swam past the first buoy. In other races I've done, it was difficult to swim quickly at the outset because tons of other bodies are around you and on top of you. This race was not as crowded and I easily pushed ahead. Not only did I swim too fast, but I also got disoriented and had to swim extra to get back on the right course. Because of this, I spent a significant portion of the first quarter mile in panic mode and had to stop frequently to do an easy breast stroke. Luckily I calmed down and pulled it together in the second half. I think my time was about 18 minutes, which is about 2-3 minutes slower than my usual half-mile open water time. I am a little disappointed, but at least I learned the value of pacing myself.

See Emma Bike

My bike got a flat a couple weeks ago when the innertube in the front tire randomly exploded when my bike was in the back seat of my car. (A friend suggested this was likely due to the tire's rapid change in temperature when I put it in the hot car.) When I replaced the innertube last night, I noticed a small tear in the tread of the tire itself. I read on the internet that you can prevent a puncture in the tube by placing a piece of fabric or a dollar bill in between the tube and the tread. I did this, using some left over fabric from IKEA, but I was definitely nervous about my tire holding up during the race.

Sure enough, the front tire blew out around Mile 3. I didn't have an extra innertube (I had used my last one the night before), and assumed that the problem was with the tire itself and replacing the tube wouldn't do much to prevent another flat. I started to walk my bike back to the transition area, but stopped at Mile 2 where another woman had stopped and was fixing a flat on her bike. Shortly after this, a woman rode by and declared that the she was too tired from the swim to finish the bike ride, and offered to help us with our tires. The three of us pooled our resources and did our best to fix the two tires. The woman who stopped to help was really fun -- a lawyer who works in Reston and a fellow member of the California bar. She was cracking me up the entire time. We used her patch kit to mend my tube and tire, but to no avail. The tire deflated immediately after it was inflated. The other woman wasn't able to fix her tire either. I finally hitched a ride back to the transition area with a friendly local in a pick-up truck.

Going back to my earlier comparison between this tri and the Austin Danskin: if I had gotten a flat during my first triathlon, I would have been devasted! But since I was doing this race just to do it and the preciousness of my first race was not at stake, I wasn't too disappointed by the turn of events. Even though I didn't finish the bike ride, I actually had fun attempting to fix my tire with my new friends. And, at least I got some exercise and got to spend time outdoors (in the Shenandoah, no less!) I also learned that in the future, it's probably best to carefully inspect my bike sooner than 7pm the night before a race.

See Emma Run

Even though I didn't finish the bike, I decided to pick up with the run. I was most likely DQ-ed for failing to complete the bike, but the race volunteers let me keep my chip so I could still get my split for the 5k. The run course was actually really pretty -- around Lake Arrowhead, through the woods, with the mountains in the background.
When I was training for the marathon, I had to slow my pace way down in order to handle the distance. I'm worried that in doing so I some how programmed my body to always go that slow, regardless of the distance I'm running. I'm eager to see what my time is and will be ecstatic if I was able to get back into my usual 10 minute mile-ish pace.
Work permitting, I'm going to San Francisco to run Bay to Breakers next weekend (yay!), so I'll probably devote my work-outs this week to running and work on improving my speed.

My next triathlon is in Norfolk on June 4.
If at first you don't succeed, tri, tri again. :)

UPDATE

The results are in. My swim time was 19:38, my "bike" time was 1:29:40, and my run was 33:07, meaning a 10:37 pace per mile, and an overal "time" of 2:28:42. Even though I should have been DQed, I ranked 11/15 in my age group, and 55/71 overall. (Had I actually completed the bike, my time probably would have been a little faster, but not much.)
Kristi suspects that the run course was actually longer than 5k, given how many people's run split was just around 30 minutes (unusual). Similarly, I'm wondering if the swim course was also a little longer than a half mile. In other races I've done, the top swimmers all clocked in at around 11 minutes. Here, however, although one woman finished in 11:47, the other top swimmers' times ranged between 14 and 17 minutes. Heh! Blaming the course instead of my own performance is fun!