8 hours....

....until my flight for San Francisco leaves.  I have packed - although I am not confident that I have packed the right things.  My obsession with the weather forecast continues and I just can't decide if I I've packed warm enough/cool enough/enough enough clothing.  I am just befuddled by the whole camping thing!  Wish me luck!

can you tell I'm obsessed with the weather forecast?

Sunday, May 3

High: 64 °F RealFeel®: 63 °F

Cool with times of sun and clouds

accuweather forecast - fingers crossed!

Sunday, May 3

High: 63 °F RealFeel®: 58 °F

Cool with times of sun and clouds

the kindness of strangers

Today I reached a new goal - $6000!  

Thanks to many friends and, just today, a stranger - we broke the $6000 mark.  And oh yeah, one week from right now I'll be heading into my tent after completing my first triathlon.  A little hard to believe, but I can't wait!

My Fundraising Total

Raised: $6,023.00 | Goal: $4,900.00

 

122 %

Chuck's on a truck

I leave on Friday and race day is one week from tomorrow!  Woo hoo!

Last night I took my bike, now known as "Chuck", on the subway for the first time.  We did not enjoy that part.  Once far enough uptown we walked across Central Park to get to a bike shop on 87th St. and 2nd Ave.  Waiting for us was a giant moving truck.  That's right, Chuck got loaded onto a truck and is now heading cross country to Monterey where we will be reunited on Friday afternoon.

TERRIBLE BLACKBERRY PHOTOS:

That is not Chuck being loaded, he went on second and I didn't think of taking a photo until much later.

Th truck driver very carefully wrapped packing blankets around all 45 bikes.  He had no clue why they were going to California and was mostly concerned about getting a ticket.

send off!!!

One step closer.....!!!!!!  Tonight was our team send off event.  All 43 of us got together and met with TNT staffers Tyler and Robert and Coach Jay to go over the details of our trip.  We got our travel info and went over the weekend itinerary.  We're the only TNT team coming from the east coast so it will be us and a couple hundred west coast TNTers in our designated campsite, which - get this - is a 15 to 20 minute walk from the race start/finish!    Downhill, they said, which sounded good until I realized that getting back to camp after finishing my race will be UPHILL!! Do they not realize that I might not be able to walk?!  Actually, I'm still feeling foolishly confident.  Let's see how I feel by the weekend!

two weeks from now...

...it should be over!  I will have completed (promise!) my first triathlon.  I really can't believe it.  But I feel good.  I feel ready.  And now I can't wait!!!

I'd still like to hit that $6000 mark in my fundraising, so spread the word!  I am deeply humbled by and grateful for everyone's generosity.

(On a side note - I'm amazed at all of the wonderful comments on my quilt post!)

a brief departure to enter the quilt blog world

Okay, so excuse the brief departure from my usual training/fundraising blogging....but since this is the only blog I have, I wanted to join Park City Girls Quilt Festival - Spring 2009 and share a quilt that I made a few years ago.  It now belongs to the lovely Miranda Kennedy and family, but it was an unexpected design that I love.  I had purchased some Aunt Grace fabrics on  a trip to Denver that I had no idea what I was going to do with.  A bit later I took a class at the City Quilter in NYC which used a quilt as you go pattern.  I was in love!  Here is the end result:

34 minutes

That's how long it took me to swim a mile on Monday night at Asphalt Green pool with the team.  Woo hoo!

And then there's the time at Wednesday's Group Training session when I heard someone say that last year it got into the 90's at Wildflower temperature wise.  Uh oh.....

chuck and the rainy brick or...

...as I like to call it - Bike-Run-ICK!  Today was a wet one!  The workout for this morning was:

10 min run warmup

pushups to exhaustion (to simulate swimming, yeah right)

1 hour bike

1 hour run (or 6 miles)

It was dreary when we started and by the time we finished, it was downright miserable.  Wet, wet, wet.  But I did it!   

Three weeks from tomorrow it's race time!!!!  So I figured I'd better do this:

       I sharpied my name in my wetsuit!

And did I mention I reached (and exceeded!) my fundraising minimum of $4900 this week?  I couldn't be more grateful.  $6000 anyone?  Spread the word!

Oh, and "chuck?"  That's what I named my bike.  Don't ask me why.  I just thought my lovely blue bike (thank you, Jason) was a "chuck."

4 weeks from today!

I will be competing in a triathlon!! Yikes!  

Actually, I feel pretty good about it.  Yesterday's bike workout was basically a hill workout. Wildflower is notorious for being hilly.  6 Harlem Hills was definitely a smart move for the workout.  Total mileage was probably about 25.  Hmmm, kinda like race mileage!

A quick (or not so quick, depending on how you look at my time) 4-mile race in Central Park today and now I'm off to see a show!  Sounds like a perfect day.