devil's challenge: yes, it was

swim.bike.run.sleep.

Once upon a time, my next door neighbor, Lindsey, was my BFF (complete with friendship necklaces and a baton duet). But then, my BFF moved away, went to a new school, and I didn't see her very much for a very long time. 

Lindsey & Anna, c. mid-1990s

Then, just recently, we found out that after all these years, we have an awful lot in common. For example, we both like triathlons. She is sponsored by Now Bikes and does lots and lots of races each year (with the goal of doing a full Ironman in two years- woah!), while I'm much more of an amateur. So, we thought it would be fun to do a race together, and to make it into a weekend trip. She arrived Saturday morning, and we spent the day at an apple orchard out in the country (complete with petting zoo and baby goats-- cuter than you'd think), and the Greenwich Village Art Fair in downtown Rockford (fun to look, but not like we could afford anything). 

Lindsey & Anna, 2011

We headed to Thunder Bay Grille for an early dinner/carboload, which was modeled after the city in Canada, whose lawyers' hockey team I honorarily play on each spring. My amaretto sour and our chips and guac would make a trip back well worth it. Then, we got our cars all packed for tomorrow, and carved the mini pumpkins from the orchard (I know it's still quite a few weeks until Halloween, but they were too cute to pass up). Lindsey wanted to create something along the lines of Loves Park, but instead carved stars and hearts--apparently she didn't have enough room for the unicorns and rainbows ;) I carved "illinois" on one side (fail. my 's' looked more like a 'g') and XXV on the other (how old I'm turning- and straight lines were much easier on a pumpkin this size than the curves in a 2 and a 5). We also tried not to drop pumpkin seeds through the slits in the deck down onto my neighbors patio...though I don't think we were entirely successful. Bedtime was 9pm sharp.

stars and hearts and roman numerals

Today was quite an adventure. And I think it's better understood/visualized with a timeline (keep in mind this is all AM):

4:07: my alarm goes off, disgustingly early

4:29: we hit the road

5:03: arrive at Starbucks in Janesville, WI-- they hadn't even unlocked the doors yet. tall skinny vanilla latte, please.

6:15: seeing some sign of the sun...but no sunrise yet

6:34: pulled into at Devil's Lake State Park in Baraboo, WI, at the exact same time the sun officially rose.

6:45: checked in for Devil's Challenge Sprint Tri, visited body marking and bike tune-up, and found out we were in wave 12--the last wave-- meaning we weren't starting until 8:45. Proceeded to spend the next 2 hours trying to stay warm.

our transition area!

8:35: the rain starts...(and the temp drops...)

8:45: the gun goes off! 

8:46: I've already been rocked by several whitecaps. this water was insane. really wondering what I got myself into at this point.

the swim!

8:53: out of the water! (won the swim in my age div by almost a minute!)

9:15: ok, now it's pouring. I'm a few miles into the bike, on my 4th or 5th climb, and for the second time today, wondering what on earth I got myself into.

9:20: it's STILL raining. and windy. and cold. and I'm in a tank top and shorts. And wondering if I had the sense to cover up my iPod and Garmin at the transition area to protect it from the rain...
9:36: I pass a guy sitting in his driveway blaring music to help motivate us to get up yet another hill, which would be all fine and dandy except that his entire yard was decked out in Wisconsin red and white. I yelled "Go Gophers" so that he could hear me over his music.
9:37: I regretted showing my Gopher pride and wished I had saved my energy to get myself up the rest of that stupid hill. 

9:55: off of the bike, completely drenched, and averaging 5 mph slower than my last race. those hills were flat out ridiculous.

9:57: with some shaky legs underneath me, I start to run. but I ran pretty well compared to my last tri, averaging under 8 minute miles (which I was happy with after that bike course). Pitbull, Rise Against, and Shinedown got me through the 3 miles.

10:20: done done done. Completely soaked and utterly exhausted, but I made it-- and finished 2nd in my age group, and 17th out of 142 women overall! Not bad, considering I hadn't swam since July, and had only biked a few times this past month. I'll take it! {Lindsey--what a pro--won her age division (25-29, which I would have been in had the race been a day later), and got 4th overall for the females! ow ow!}

I got a snazzy plaque :)

11:50: Cheers! We hit up a sporty Baraboo bar, found a table amongst the waves of green and yellow (we were deep in the heart of Packer territory) celebrated our first--but definitely not our last-- tri together, with a Fat Tire for her and a Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat for me. 

The drive home was also a challenge- my legs were crying, and I was struggling to stay awake--luckily I still had some latte left. I dug into the chocolate chip pumpkin bread that Linds brought down (which, by the way, is divine)-- in addition to a selection of fresh veggies to cook with!--and turned on football. 

my birthday basket from Lindsey!

Thankfully, my weekend isn't over yet...Dad arrived at 6, and I just had to show him Thunder Bay, where we had a lovely dinner that I managed to stay awake for. I doubt I'll stay awake for much else tonight, though, so he's on his own. Thank goodness for Sunday Night Football, eh?