The statue of delivery

Yesterday the librarian was reading a book that had the Statue of Liberty in it -- she asked the kids if anyone knew what the name was when little Luis screams out "THE STATUE OF DELIVERY!" haha. Pretty funny. At least at the time.

Well, here's my weekly Friday update on life and the time trial...

First life:

Things are good. I'm feeling better for the most part. I've heard that I'll hear about my job as early as next week and as late as May 15th. I'm hoping for next week. I've started testing my kids on their end of the year reading tests -- it appears every kindergartener is AT LEAST on grade level. I've had three kinders test at an end of 1st grade level. I've got some smarties in my class! Soon we'll see how the 1st graders are doing.
Chris is in Iowa for his race. He e-mailed today and said he made it to Iowa ok. He left a message on the phone too and he sounds excited. His race starts at 4 am, I wish him the best of luck -- I will even set the alarm for 2:15 am so I can call him right before his race and psyche him up. I love him and know he will kick butt. He's ridden a gazillion miles in preparation and at the very least, I'll be happy that he won't have to be nervous about it and the weather any more after he gets back.

Time Trial #3:
I finished in 19:48. Too bad the course was only 6ish miles instead of 10ish like usual :) Terrential downpours the day before caused the course to be shortened due to a rushing river going across the road that we usually race down. I was so much more motivated this week than the past two weeks. The first week I was so nervous. The second week, I was not motivated and even more defeated by the wind. This week I was ready. I was psyched to be racing. My day went ok -- just enough stress to get me excited about getting out of work and burning off some steam, but not so much stress that I wanted to cry and hide in a hole. Things were good.
When we got down to Cherry Creek, Chris and I decided to cruise down to the bathrooms when we realized that the starting tent wasn't where it usually is. We asked around and were told that it would be a shortened course starting a good 10 minutes up the road. We cruised down to the new start together, all the while pleased that we'd decided to pee instead of rolling up to the line 1 minute in advance like usual. We cruised back to the car, warned the rest of the group to leave extra time to get to the start, and headed down to the course to warm up.

This week the course started up "The Hill", wound around the back, around the turnaround, and back up a HUGE hill (thank goodness we avoid that on the regular course -- ouch), back around and down "The Hill" and into the finish. I started off the line motivated and excited to race. I pushed up "The Hill" but slowed a bit on the second part of it, cranked up the speed in the back (where I got to see Chris and the boys heading the other way on the road so it was fun to cheer and be cheered for), cruised around the turnaround and saw Melissa and Jeanie around the same spot as the last two weeks. As is becoming my mental tradition, I see them and pick up my effort but then hit a little wall in my speed where I then feel terrible. I need to work on that. Michelle passed me around this point and I actually hung a few feet behind her going up the monster hill which picked my confidence up -- when we hit the flats/downhills she pulled away and stayed away but I was happy to have at least seen her for more than a fleeting second as in the past. I cruised down the hill and was finished. It was a great race and a great effort. I was downright giddy the rest of the night knowing that I'd given it a great haul. I feel like I really put everything on the line and stayed mentally tough at the same time... if I can do that every week I'll become a very happy Marni.
I did stay away from Melissa and Jeanie again which makes me happy... especially because both showed up with aerobars this week and Melissa also had an aero wheel on the back. Whew! Yesterday I ordered a Fast Forward seat post in hopes that it will bring me a little closer to my aerobars and make me a little more comfy in the saddle. We've talked about getting one since I bought my bike, the time trials just gave me a really good excuse. Thanks to Chris for my "mad-money" while he is out of town -- at least I bought a bike part with it!

There's my update. I'm off to have dinner with the girls tonight, possibly shopping/knitting store with my coworker tomorrow, and probably some sort of bike ride with Michelle on Sunday. Chris should be home Sunday night -- he's only been gone one night and I already miss him.