Yard work

Lawn mowing time - mostly to get rid of the leaves!

 And time to trim the bushes

 Chris usually trims them a little more, but it was my first time, so I left them a little bushier hahaha

New garage

 It's a 2 car garage - it's huge & it's portable!  What can be better!!

Tis the season

 The bugs are almost gone -so we can go hiking again!  Yay - our fall favorite activity!  Bolts loves it too!

Formal IM Maryland photos

 Here's some photos that we purchased from the IM photographers on the course.  We really had some great ones to choose from.  No real good ones of us exiting the swim though, but some real good bike & run photos!

Chris on the bike :)

 Steph on the bike :)

 And just like that we are on the run - hahaha.  Wish it happened that fast on race day!

 When we were running together - good times!  I love this picture of us running around a corner.

 Finish line - yay!!

 Chris coming down the chute!  Great photo!

 And he's done too!

 Family picture time :)  Great day at the office!!

Spending time in southern Maryland

While we were in southern Maryland for the Ironman, we did a little sightseeing:

Ocean City, MD

 Nice beach!

 Restaurant view

 Harriet Tubman memorial

 Lots of corn and soybean fields in the area, which surprised me

 Hoopers Island - very rural

 It was fun visiting a different area - kept our minds off the race :)

Ironman Maryland!

Yep, we did it again - another Ironman in 2014!  A double header year :)  We headed to Maryland this time.  WTC changed it up a little, and there was no prize money, so no pro triathletes.  

 Hanging out at the Ironman village

 athlete meeting

 Cambridge, MD - right on the water - nice!

 The swim course

 and some of the bike course

 It was two loops of the Blackwater Wildlife refuge. It was flat and fast.

 The bike course basically went from Cambridge and down and around the wildlife refuge x 2; it was in  Dorchester County - where Harriet Tubman ran her underground railroad.  Pretty cool!  They had a lot of memorials around the area.

 Transition area

 Dropping off the bikes

 There were around 1,650 competitors - a little smaller than our usual IM race, but still a good crowd!

 Dropping off our gear bags.  Bikes & bags have to be dropped off the day before - keeps race day moving smoothly

 And here's some pictures of some final racers.  Only picture I took on race day :)

Race recap:  We weren't sure how we would feel completing our 2nd IM in a year.  We put the training in, but we never really felt super fit.  Race morning always comes sooner than we think :)  It was a wetsuit swim (thankfully as I had wrecked on my bicycle 3 weeks prior and my shoulder and hip were still sore)  They had us walk into the water - not a mass swim start, but it still seemed crowded.  The swim course was long though -more like 2.8 miles rather than 2.4.  No one swam under an hour, which is rare.  I came out of the water a couple minutes before Chris.  And he caught me on the bike really early - around mile 5.  He usually flies right by me, but this time, he went past me and stayed close.  So I hung on.  You have to keep 4 bike lengths between the cyclist in front of you, otherwise you can get a drafting penalty (4 minutes & possible disqualification)  It was such a great ride - keeping Chris in my sights - I had something to focus on.  The weather was good - nice breeze and 70's.  We cruised through the bike - passing each other every once in a while and chatting.  My favorite ride to date!  And  we had great times  - 6 hours.  Then it was onto the run.  We headed out pretty close together, and stayed together until mile 13.  It was a nice flat run.  Chris' stomach was bothering him, so he wanted to   run alone and deal with it.  He was only a minute or two behind me the rest of the run  My legs were so sore - no cramping thankfully - just sore quads.    But we still both managed to PR.  We had such great days, and it was my favorite race being with Chris all day :)

 The day after - we're still standing and smiling!

 it was a great race - loved the course and the area.  Chris' favorite run course to date!

Old Timers Car show

Our first official car show of the season - and it's September - wow!

 This is one of our favorite shows - all our good friends attend :)

 and they bring their awesome cars!

 We come with Chris' brother

 It was a warm sunny day - yay!  We haven't had too many of those this year.