MN Wedding Weekend

Another one in the books. This weekend college friends Kayley and Nick got married in Fergus Falls, MN. I flew into Minneapolis on Thursday and met college roommates Kari and Katie and Katie’s husband Phil. They rented an Xterra so the bike could fit. 🙂 Made it to Fergus and headed out for the bachelorette party. Spent a good portion of the evening at Zorbaz, where everything iz zpelled with a “z” inztead of an “s.” Here we all are on the dockz on Otter Tail Lake. Gorgeouz evening.Katie wanted to take a shot…so the bartender asked us if we had 2 more friends. So over come Kayley and Kari and we end up taking a “zhotzki”…which is a old children’s wooden water ski with 4 holes for shot glasses. So funny…Kayley stood up when he yelled zhotzki (enough with the z’s already!) and Kari and I couldn’t reach! We failed and had to have a 2nd attempt. Hilarious. Following Zorbaz we headed to the town of Elizabeth for some fun at a local hick bar, the Silver Dollar. It was a rather young crowd. What do people in small towns in Minnesota do for fun on a Thursday night? Bean Bag toss tournament. No joke. Kayley’s sister signed her and I up. Double elimination. We lost bad our first game 21-0. Second game was a nail blighter…we lost 21-20. All in all a fun weekend catching up with the Pink Ladies, and getting to know Kayley’s high school friends.
Friday was pretty chill, so I took my bike out of the box and assembled it. Took her out for a ride in the 53 degree windy climate of Western Minnesota in my tri-top and shorts. Burr! Bridal luncheon and more relaxing followed by the Groom’s dinner at the local golf course. Good conversation, food and okay wine made for a fun evening. Janice, Nick’s mom, made us all purses as Kayley’s thank you gifts. They were all so unique! Made me miss crafting a little. 🙂
Saturday was the wedding. The ceremony was perfect, although the rain prevented them from getting as many outdoor pictures as they would’ve liked. The reception was also beautiful, yummy food and good dancing. I hit the sack around midnight only to be awoken at 4am to head down to Buffalo for the triathlon. I’m sure my parents loved that!

Made it there, set up transition, found Nordica (high school/college friend) and Jesse (old friend) and got to see his wife and new baby, Ethan Jon. Found my brother and gave him the borrowed wetsuit. Headed down to the lake and by the time I knew it we were off!

I’ll keep the race report short: Weather report: crap. Freezing. Drizzling. Overcast. Cold. Raining. Dreary. Any other nasty adjectives I could add? Swim felt good…and short. 5:37 and I was out. Headed onto the bike and felt alright. Later I found out I didn’t tighten the seat enough…so it was all the way down…oops! I found myself distracted and not pushing (18.8mph average with some hills). Headed into T2 feeling like I was on a training day. The run was crap. I didn’t expect anything better. Haven’t ran in almost 6 weeks?! haha, so yeah 25min for my 5k. Wow. I was 5th overall in the swim out of 800 participants. One girl passed me on the bike, and four during the run, so I was 5th overall in my AG (of 64). My back felt fine, but I had some tightness in the hamstring and pain in my right hip…where this all started.

I need to get back into it. Frustration is not the way. I know I need to be careful, and ease back into it. Not sure on International at this point. I don’t want to have a crappy attitude during that race…and I know I’m going to want to race it harder.

Sunday afternoon my family went to Uncle Al’s house to visit cousin Harper and Aunt Claudia. Such an adorable child. On the way to the airport Amanda met my dad and I at Culvers for a quick hello. She was at the Blue Mounds Minnesota Climbers gathering, camping in the rain all weekend. Of course, flights were delayed. Toronados in Denver? Awesome. Made it to Denver and connecting flight waited 45 min for a couple of us to make it. Got into San Diego around midnight (2am central time…after waking up at 4am…long weekend!) only to find my bike didn’t make it.

Still haven’t heard back. It wasn’t on the first flight into San Diego this morning. ARGH!!!

Back to reality. Normal work week. Club race this weekend. Trying to get the training back on track.