It's time for a new list... I'm not 50 anymore, but I still look forward to new adventures. And, I've been a bit bored and need a new interest.

Coming up in the next year and some goals!

1. Trip to Paris and other stops round about Europe - Feb/Mar
   
   
   
2. Girlfriends trip to the Olympic Peninsula - Sept
3. Say Cheese... a cheese making class - this Sunday
4. Excursions to Pacific Northwest Ballet
5. Excursions to Seattle Opera
6. Train and run the Vancouver Half-Marathon again for the 4th time- May
7. Train and complete the Trek Triathlon - August
8. Go to gym 2x a week
9. Run or Walk on Sundays
10. Ride bike on Saturdays
11. Fundraise for Sarah
12. Make my spare room into an inviting guest room
13. Eat well - most of the time I will choose healthy options, with an occasional treat. 
14. More to come...

Survived the Winter and then... off to sunny Spain!

Ah..... Spain - Madrid, Seville, Granada and Barcelona. Traveled with my friend Sara, a great traveling companion. We picked up a young caballero in Toledo and he spent the rest of the trip with us. He was so easy to get along with... His name is Diego.

Some brief thoughts on Spain - 

A good restaurant for BEEF!

• The food can be muy fantastico (flan, paella, gambas and various tapas) - or muy mal (fried tapas and Iberian Jamon)

• The drinks are so fabulous - cafe con leche, sangria, mojitos, wine, Alhambra beer 

Diego loves mojitos
(and Sara too)

Cafe con Leche

And the art... we saw works by Picasso, Velasquez, Miro, El Greco, Dali, Goya and many more. Did a trip through The Prado... and we can't forget the Museo de Jamon.

Museo de Jamon

Guerinica, Picasso

Fresco in a Cathedral

Salvidor Dali

I believe this is Gala, by Dali

Sculpture by Joan Miro

And the Cathedre's -

Madrid

Toledo, I now know where the expression "Holy Toledo" comes from!
This is one of the biggest in Europe and construction took 250 years. Begun in 1227.

Toledo

Toledo Cathedral

I fell in love with Seville, my favorite city on the trip... the people, the cathedral, El Alcazar, the tapas! Orange trees, cobbled streets, narrow lanes... but no barbers!

Seville Cathedral, 3rd largest in Europe.
Built 1402-1506- a mere 104 years.

Columbus tomb (DNA tested... he's in there!
Makes me wonder where they got the DNA)

This made us laugh... the original "Got Milk?" perhaps?

Tapas - just point and see what you get!

Journey to the peninsula....

I just returned from a lovely trip with my friend Sara to the Olympic Peninsula. We stayed in a Victorian bed & breakfast in Port Townsend at Holly Hill House.

Visited a lavender farm in sunny Sequim.


























And went up, up, up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park.

Also, booked our flights to SPAIN! I'm so excited and looking forward to a nice long journey and visiting Madrid and Barcelona, among other places. Now it's time to work on my Spanish!

What I will do for bragging rights and a medal...

The medal says "Finisher"!

So, today was the day I've been waiting for since August 2010 when I completed the Danskin Triathlon... today was the day for my second triathlon and bragging rights that I am a triathlete, not someone who just did one TRI as a thing to do for my 50th year. I blogged when I completed Danskin about how emotional I was through the whole thing and was tearing up and so moved that I was even doing it at the age of 50. Now here I am at the completion of The Seafair Sprint Triathlon, my second Tri.

Jim and Joseph

The race had two levels, Olympic and Sprint and I was doing the Sprint. The Olympic waves started at 6:30 am and we were told that everyone needed to clear the transition area by 6 am. WHAT? but my race doesn't even start until 8 am. So once I got my head wrapped around this new plan, meaning that I needed to be at the park by 5:30, in order to get a good parking spot (about 1/2 mile straight UP the hill) and have my stuff set-up by 6 am, I  settled in and spent time with Joseph and Jim, my training buddies who were doing the Olympic, until they headed out at 7 am. Joseph was so kind as to tell me tales such as the possibility of having goggles ripped off my face during the swim and be sure not to get water in my mouth when I first headed out, since that is where everyone pees before they head out. WHAT??? Ah well... it calmed my nerves.

My wave at 8 am was for everyone 50+ both men and women. They were great to talk to while we waited for all the youngsters to go and there really weren't that many of us and only one wave was behind us.

Transition and bike racking

So... at 8 am I headed out for the swim and seemed to have forgotten how to swim properly. I stayed well in the back to avoid the confusion... and having my goggles ripped off! Well in the back became further in the back as I plodded along with one arm in front of the other, finally past the buoy 1 turn, then the lifeguard at buoy 2 asked me if I was ok... oh yea... lovely day for a swim! Then the guard at buoy 3 yells at me... green cap! are you doing ok? Did I look like I was about to drown? I was fine, I just forgot how to make my stroke work. Pretty soon I'm passed by most of the last wave in the red caps and continuing on. As I round the final turn and I'm getting closer, I noticed that the life guards are now following me in. WHAT? am I the last person in the water? The guard assured me that there were lots of people behind me. Anyway, as I see the finish for the swim in sight, I suddenly remembered how to swim properly by rotating as I moved through the water... that would have come in handy a bit sooner! I had a big smile for the camera... I was so glad to be heading for the bike next.

As I headed out on the bike, it seemed that no one was going my direction. hmmm.... lots of people were coming in, but not out. So, I'm pedaling along and eating my Jelly Beans for fuel. I head up the hill to get on the I-90 bridge, and I soon hear a motored vehicle behind me and I turn my head slightly to see why there is a car behind me and I see a flashing light. I have a motorcycle cop on my tail.... was I speeding officer? He follows me the full way across the bridge and through the tunnel, the turn around. The thoughts going through my head went along these lines... am I the last person out here? Seriously? Hmmm.... can I turn around and tell him to get off my ASS? OK, positive, positive... I must be the last person out here... but I'm out here and that's a good thing and it means I'm faster than all those who stayed at home and I'm only racing myself. Then I remembered that when I was doing the 1/2 marathon in May, that when the fastest elite racers for the marathon passed us, they had a police escort! So, this was probably going to be the ONLY time I would get a police escort. I did get to the turn around and was feeling better and recovered from the swim and was actually enjoying the ride. I did wonder if it was difficult for the officer to make his motorcycle go that slow as I was heading up the hill. Evidently, I wasn't concerned enough to go any faster though. As I was almost back to the transition area, I caught up with one other rider still on the trail and we came through the bike end together.

Now on to the run... I have to say that I didn't have much left for the run. I ran a bit and wanted to catch up to Donna, the person who came in on the bike at the same time. I finally did catch her and we did a walk/run for the rest of the race. Chatting and sharing stories. She was more of a walker and it was so nice to have someone to complete the race with.

It was so great to get to the finish line and see Alisa, Parrish and Jim waiting there for me. They were so excited that I'd finished and I'm sure were wondering where I was. Saw Joseph shortly after smiling as usual! And we got this great picture from the chocolate milk people.

We all had milk moostaches, but it seems only mine showed!

I do have to say that it was HARD. Doing a Triathlon is not something easy for me. I earned that FINISHER medal I'm wearing. I'm still amazed that I get to call myself a triathlete at 50+ and 50+

I couldn't continue to train without my training buddies, Jim, Alisa and Joseph. I absolutely love that I have such truly amazing friends and daughters to train with and be encouraged by. I really appreciate all the coaching and encouragement I've gotten during the past couple years from Jim Bowers, friend, trainer, and coach! I aspire to be fast enough to draft behind you.

Next up... Danskin in 3 weeks with my pal Noelle!

50's List completion

Well, I made it to 51 and did most of the items on my 50s list. Some of them I just decided weren't all that important and some of them were added as the year went along.

Here's a few that I really had fun with:

Mexico with Alisa & Case - May 2010

Parrish's graduation - June 2010

My trip to Glacier Park with Taylor - July 2010

Training and doing the Danskin Triathlon with Noelle - August 2010

Olympic Peninsula with Parrish - December 2010

Bellevue Botanical Light Gardens with ALL the kids - December 2010

2011 Vancouver 1/2 Marathon with Alisa - May 2011

Training with Jim  - ALL YEAR

Training with Alisa and Case! and now they are engaged

Growing my hair long - pic take May 2011

Tattoo - May 5, 2011... just in time!

Race Line-up for 2011

Little did I know when I started training for the Danskin Triathlon last year what an addiction I would create for myself. As addictions go, it could be worse. Shortly after completing the Tri, it was suggested by Jim, my trainer/friend/workout partner that we could get a group together and train for the Vancouver 1/2 Marathon. So... the training began. Some days it's great and some days it's a slow walk. Today was 3 laps around Greenlake totaling 8.4 miles (first lap with my friend Linda and then high-5s for Dan as I passed him going the opposite direction) and tomorrow will be a short run with Jim and maybe Mary.

Then, my friend Olivier said, "Let's do the STP!" And then, the same week my friend Kristen said, "I just got a new bike and it's time to start long rides on Saturday mornings for STP!" So, I then added the Seattle to Portland 200 mile, 2 day bike ride to my plans. We've been riding on Saturday mornings beginning in late January through mostly rain, but an occasional sun spot.

And... I already had the Danskin Triathlon on the schedule. The bike training for STP and run training for the 1/2 marathon I'm hoping will really help with my finish time for the TRI. Lately the only problem has been to put the bike training on hold so I can do more run training, since that race is first.

And Oh the equipment I've collected so far. When you do triathlons, you need equipment for ALL three sports. The back of my car looks like a sports store. Meaning a swimsuit and training devices for training, wetsuit and Tri-suit to wear under the wetsuit for the Swim portion, then Bike, helmet, bike shoes, pedals, bike shorts and shirts to train in, to say nothing of raingear, bike computer, water bottle. For the running, it should just be shoes right? Well no, cause I needed pants with pockets, shirts that dry quickly, jackets that have pockets, shoes and special socks. And the best equipment was the new iPhone, so I can use the Nike app for GPS tracking to see how far, how fast and mile gauges. And when I finish a run, I can upload the run to Facebook. The food and hydration portion is still in the discovery phase also. I've learned that Nuun tablets dissolved in water help with recovery. Jelly Belly sport beans help for sustaining during a run. My best breakfast before training is oatmeal with a little protein.

My training addiction has also turned into my social time, since I'm usually running, biking or spinning with friends. What works for me is to send a text to my workout partners the night before saying, "Still on for running? or spinning? or biking?" That way when the next morning arrives and I want to sleep, I've already committed to meeting someone and I can't back out. This does not work so well when I've been out the night before having fun and checking something off the 50s list!

One of my very favorite things about all this is that my daughter Alisa is joining me to do the Vancouver 1/2, so we've been training all winter in the wee hours of the morning (5:30 am) and then adding long runs on either Saturday or Sunday mornings in the not so wee hours of the morning.

Most days I enjoy my training, some days not so much... I'm usually sore after, but the high of the exercise is worth it!!

Holidays - ah... some nice time off

As I was nearing the end of the year and evaluating my time off work, I realized that I still had  more than 2 weeks of vacation time to use. So I decided to take off several Fridays in November and December and also to add a couple days to my Christmas holiday. I'm so excited to have 12 days away from the office and go back refreshed in 2011.

During Fridays off, I've had the opportunity to re-connect with friends I don't often see and that has been so pleasant and relaxing to hear what they've been doing, excursions they have taken and mutual friends we know.

In November, I went to Mazama in the Methow Valley with Alden and experienced my first snow and cold weather of the season. Alden has the sweetest log cabin and we had such a great time relaxing, walking in the snow and I was knitting while she prepped the cabin for winter.

Washington Pass...beautiful!

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Alden's cabin from a previous visit, thus no snow in the picture

Me walking the labyrinth

In December, I had a chance to visit my friend and former colleague, Donna at her new "shack" in Snohomish. It sounds like the transformation on her place has been extensive, 'cause it's really cozy now. Her labor of love since she moved there has been to build a labyrinth. It's beautiful and amazing and I took the time to walk the labyrinth and ponder time and nature and rocks and the cold, crisp day. I was also treated to a lovely lunch and we made the commitment to do a 5 k walk together sometime in the spring. It's great incentive for her to rehab her foot!

View while walking

Each stone specifically places with frost on the path

Eating, eating, eating.... all my social visits seem to include some really great food. I've had so much fun reconnecting with great people from my Texans in Seattle meet-up group. We collected Toys for Tots donations and then sat down to some great grub at Sonrisa in U-village. This is a really fun group where it's OK to say, all ya'll, and everyone knows what you mean.

Reconnecting with another friend and former boss, Ruth include lunch at icon Grill and hearing about her trip to Italy, Spain and Portugal. It certainly stirred up the wanderlust in me and reminded me of my trip to Tuscany. I always enjoy her company and the connection we have and she's been a great mentor over the years since she retired.

Most days I walk it's dark, so it's a treat to see the path

Green Lake sunrise

Another lovely Green Lake view

Walking at Green Lake with friends on Saturdays is always a treat and I especially love when it's a lovely day. We are seldom rained out!

So many friends and so many more events coming up in the next 12 days.... I'm looking forward to re-connecting and preparing for the New Year ahead.