Santa Barbara Triathlon....

So...my trip I took a week ago might come at you a bit out of order. Because it was broken up between three beautiful cities and 6 days, I think each portion may need its OWN post, ( and because that's just how my brain can function these days...!)
So, SB Tri. YES!!!! It was wonderful I was competing in this team style. As a team, we had to conquer a 1 mile swim, a 34 mile bike, and a 10 mile run. My sister conquered the massive 10 mile run, and did AWESOME.....! Only the second time she had run that distance ever! I competed in the 34 mile bike and met my goal of doing that distance in under 2 hours, and a friend of Megan, the wonderful Carolyn, killed the 1 mile swim! Did fabulous!
Now, everyone says, well HOW REALLY DID YOU DO? And I say back, we did fabulously. The competition in SB is tough. REALLY tough. We were very obviously surrounded by amazing top notch athletes, iron men and women, some olympians, or just those super fit peeps that are very inspiring to me. So, we hung in there and finished in the middle of the pack amongst women teams which I was proud of!
It really is so amazing to race against people like this, even to hang on to them going up a hill in Montecito, on a beautiful sunny day, (as in my case, doing the bike!) and completely blow yourself out TRYING to keep up with them, standing the entire 2 mile climb, and then being a bit "toasted" for the rest of the ride but still pulling through.
It was fun, the kids went with the flow, (which was a feat in itself! Thanks to Katie, sister Meg's great friend, babysitter on the spot extroairdinaire!!!!) and we were very happy we accomplished our goal.
Enjoy the little video....

And the Adventures just keep on coming....

So, Forrest and I had big adventure numero dos today.
Yep, did we ever. And this one involved travel by bike, car, (a really COOL car at that!), boat, and foot. It also might have involved a crash, but we all lived to tell about it.
It all started with the trip this morning to drop our truck off at the bridge down river as the goal was another float down in the kayak. We were tagging along with our neighbors who were having a family reunion and tubing with 12 + people.
But, we wern't just going to leave the truck at the down river bridge and get a ride back, no sireeeeee. We were going to RIDE back!!!!

And we did. A whopping 2.6 miles, but our first real ride on a paved rode and to get to any distance or destination. Forrest loved it and I got a helluva work out for the 18 minutes I was pedaling as Forrest is still figuring out that whole legs turning the pedals concept....
After we did our whole truck drop off-ride back to the house up steep dirt roads- dealio Alex helped me get the kayak down to the river and I hiked down to the beach with Talin so he could have a "venture" too with Dad, as this adventure stuff is big time now in our Fulton family, (evidently, from our little parrot's mouth).
Alex held down the home beach with little T boy

Pure suffering I tell ya....but really, thanks honey :-)

 While Forrest and I headed down river, quick like, to catch up with the neighbors.......

 And indeed we did, all dozen of them. Then the pace dropped off, I quit my personal race, and we floated leisurely down the river, stopping to have little beach adventures along the way.

Forrest under the Salyer Bridge

Exploring on the rocks

Watching cool guy Luke doing cool dives off the rock

Our kayak float was awesome. We swam and played and floated and all too soon on this near 100 degree but amazingly clear afternoon, (the smoke magically left for a wee bit!) we were done!

At the take out, we all huff it back up the trail with our tubes and kayaks in tow. Now comes Forrest's favorite part, where we got to ride in Luke's COOL car, just a mile up the highway back to our truck, as we were having so much fun we decided to go farther on our kayak trip than we had anticipated. Forrest LOVED Luke's car. Oh boy, did he ever.

That is one happy boy there, with neighbor Jerry beside him. To ride in the back seat of the COOLEST car ever, no carseat, with Jerry's cool river hat. Well, that face just tells it all!

What an adventure!
And, it wasn't over yet! After a movie/quiet time break, Forrest requested another bike ride....!
So off we went for a berry picking evening ride.

Did you notice that no nap was ever mentioned in this adventure story????Hence the crazy Forrest faces starting to show....;-)

Unfortunately this also led to an adventure in falling. We had our first dirt road tumble, all my fault. This is the first time in a while little brother hasn't been tagging along in the kiddie trailer, so I took F on a road we don't normally go on. It was a bit rutted out and I got caught in a divit going down hill. We fell to our left, ended up with skinned knees, (me), and Forrest with a story to tell.

war wounds

 He's now convinced we need to buy super cool soft pads to cover our knees and weiners, (hmmmmm) and is convinced his helmet has a purpose.....

Weird face number 47, bedtime is coming fast!

Worth my skinned knees I'd say! What a day. We'll both sleep well tonight!

The next Tour de France riders in the making...

Or perhaps not. But this is awesome so who cares! Take an early birthday present to myself, (the ride along mini bike trailer Forrest is on,) and add our tow along bike trailer Talin is in, and add a very peeved little brother that really wants to ride with his older brother and mama and Viola!!!! You have a riding masterpiece! 5 miles down today and no carnage. We need to work on the helmet factor a bit. My kids heads are so big...they don't fit in toddler helmets or little kid helmets for the matter. Adult sizes are a bit too big, I need to keep looking!
Here's to many off road adventures on our bike train extraordinaire and to more days where Forrest complains about his "sore buttom...." ;-)

The final 80 miles of the 230...

The final 80 miles was spent riding in the Salmon River Classic, a new ride, that started from Nordheimer camp ground out by Forks of Salmon. For most, if not all of the blog readers, this would really mean nothing to you as I would bet it is THE most rural town in California. But what an awesome community it is! Friends of ours were helping organize it as a fund raiser for a community center they are trying to build in the coming years. Our friends have two kids about our same age and the rest of the community is filled with awesome people of all ages who have a love for natural beauty and rural living, because this town is 2 1/2 hours really from any city! The thing that struck me about this ride is the friendliness of EVERYONE, how tight-nit the community was, (talk about everyone knowing everybody!), and the incredible beauty of the ride. I would bet just about anything that this is the most beautiful ride in the country. I know we have a beautiful country to live in, but between the impeccable views of the Salmon River and the surrounding mountains, the amazing paved roads without a pot hole to be found, which made you feel like you were on your own private bike path, and the lack of ANY people really, oh my goodness, BIKER HEAVEN!!!!

So, now for the ride. Again, an amazing 5 hours of pre ride sleep, (I seem to be good at that, with little T baby helping me by doing some good middle of the night wake ups...) 1 hour and 45 minute 5 am drive to the start where I was hit again and AGAIN with views such as this....

And so the ride starts. I think only 50 riders were in it. Again this is the first year this ride was held, but oh boy it was well supported. As I rolled along the route, I met up with a couple of great girls who had toured on their bikes in New Zealand...WOW! Again, back to my first ride, the conversation you can have on your bike is quite good! There were stops along the way where community members had set up tables with GORP, Hammer Head powdered super drink mix, water, Almond butter and honey sandwiches, fruit of all kinds, granola bars, power bars, everything you could need. The organization of the ride went like clockwork...and mind you...all WITHOUT CELL PHONES!!!
Yep friends, no cell service for miles, with the exception of at the top of the highest pass in the ride, Carter Summit, 6,100 ft. I'd be lying if I didn't think about this fact. I really wouldn't have ridden way out here without a supported ride given lack of cell service or at least a group to ride with. Wussy maybe but smart in other ways. I really think that this fact impressed me most about this Somes Bar/Forks of Salmon community is that they were incredibly organized, tight nit, close, and were being successful at this great community event as well as being most likely life long friends without what all of us consider an absolute necessity...our cell phone!
I think there is something to this, but for now, back to the ride!

the first 24 miles of the ride involve gentle rollers, moving upriver, so you gain altitude but don't really know it except in that way that says, "Wow I feel slow today..." which is what I was thinking. At the 24 mile stop I joined up with a group of guys that also lived out in Forks and explained they had ridden for years and wanted to support the ride to show the rest of us just how amazing riding out here was....very cool!
The next section was where we did the rest of the climbing for the entire 80 mile route. I was warned that it was a 17 mile hill....a WHAT? 17 mile hill???? crazy. But in reality you were climbing probably only 12 or 13 miles of that 17 miles and none of it was the "oh sh#% my legs are going to explode this is so steep" which is very nive living in the mountains like we do. So a gentle hill for a LONG time. A really long time, as in it took me almost 2 hours. First I went one hour before stopping. As I stopped some guys passed me on mountain bikes that I had passed. I got going after 2...eghhh ummm, 20 minutes of rolling around on the ground stretching and passed them as well as another group taking a break, all guys. 30 minutes later I stop again. I was using my iphone meter to guage how far I was traveling so I had some clue how much farther I had to go, but my battery was dying and I wanted to take that one picture at the top, so off the Iphone went. Just me and the road. One more stop 20 minutes later, and again leap frog with two different guys passing me, and me passing them back, one particular one flying passed me. I was told only one more mile, two more miles maybe. thoughts of me turning around were staring at me. Who would know? I could just coast down back to the rest stop and enjoy a great lunch. But I rode on, hoping it was close and it didn't get steeper. And you know what, it didn't get steeper and it WAS close! Carter Summit was conquered! Only 10 of the 50 riders made it up and I was the third person and the only female. It was so amazingly beautiful up there, snow capped peaks, brisk wind, a lone support table with a cute family of three handing out homemade GORP, more great sandwiches, and lots of smiles. I took my picture....

and rolled around on the warmish pavement a bit before getting back on my bike and decending back down the amazing hill, (so fun riding down a 12 mile hill, though a bit cold!) to the lunch stop.

And the lunch stop! Can we say this happened to be the grand opening of a bar recently built in the super remote town of Cecilville! So that meant a great band was playing, a build your own buritto bar, all the dessert you wanted, drinks a plenty including beer if you so desired. All seemed heavenly...except I had 23 more miles to ride and was a bit worried about it. So down went the burritto and juice. But I left the beer for later and enjoyed the music.
The ride home had me worried. My legs felt like jelly. I was hoping that food would revive them. But a full stomach also had me worried as I think I ate a bit heavy!

Local resident enjoying the view he calls home, Limestone bluffs above the Salmon River

Little did I know that the ride home was blissful! I rode with two other riders and it was mostly down hill along the same epic Salmon River I had rode up that morning. At one point we all stopped and just stared at the amazing scenery, the sheer cliff with the river below.
I felt like I was riding in a dream, along my private bike path, and then the guy I was riding with started blasting his stereo the rest of the way home. Everything from Sting to Shanaya Twain. It was great and seemed to fit the surreal experience quite well!
The last  miles flew by and before you knew it I was home, with the other riders following closely behind. They went on to have a great meal of chicken or vege mole by the river, but I drove home to my wonderful family who was amazing enough to let me go on this great ride.
The best rider EVER!
If you have ever thought of riding a bike, and have a desire to see the most beautiful and rural part of California consider this ride! They have shorter distances as well, plenty of kids, and daycare was offered! The kids, (not mine this year, but Forrest and Talin will be there next year!) looked like they had a great time!

I felt so energized after this ride, and all the riding of this past month! Good for the mind, body, and spirit :-) Alex has been awesome realizing how this was so important to me and going with my needs and wants with the kids. My fish head honey will hopefully get his bliss full moments here soon as well :-)

The Middle 70 of the 230...

The 2nd Ride, the rather infamous Tour Of The Unknown Coast! This year the ride fell on May 11th, my little Talin's 2nd birthday. We made it home by the afternoon but most of his day was spent with me pedaling and Talin doing some serious play time with his super wonderful Dad and brother ;-) I figured that T and I swapped days this year, I spent May 11th riding my bike as my Mother's Day treat and he got his ice cream party on Mother's Day Sunday. Well, whatever the date was, this was a GREAT ride! This is our hometown ride, starting in Ferndale which is 20 miles south of Eureka.
This year I was lucky enough to do it with my Dad and his good Eugene, OR friend Rob.

My Dad, in front, and Rob, enjoying the first 10 miles

Cresting the first of three "sisters" or hills. Short but steep!

 We did the metric century through the beautiful redwoods, along the Eel River, and even added on a few miles to make it an even 70.

 

Those two pieces of wire are NOT supposed to be there....

During the "extra" miles I even decided to make it a bit more exciting and break two spokes during some massive potholes which shook my frame pump loose, throwing it into my front wheel, and causing the entire thing to make a loud crack and shatter over the road. A bit dramatic for the middle of nowhere which is where we were and needless to say my Dad was a bit surprised I was still sitting on the bike and hadn't been thrown off of it! (Thank goodness!)

Dad, making it all better :-)

So, shortly there after, my McGiver Dad expertly fixed my wheel, even with two broken spokes, and got the big bend out of it, at least so I could make it home. We were lucky enough to have a tandem biker loan us his spoke wrench as well.
This ride includes amazing scenery through my home town "area" which is awesome to show off to friends and family.
Equally as amazing was the fact that I got to share it with my own father. We had a great time riding fast, with me drafting off of him, (he is FAST!) through the tallest trees you could imagine.
Very incredible.
We all made it home through a pretty good headwind to a great meal with the other finishers. It's always so satisfying to chow down and share stories with other riders about what they exactly went through during the day. It really is all an adventure. Looking forward to more great rides with my dear 'ol Dad, (and dear FAST Dad!)

The first 80 of the 230 mile Saturdays

The past 4 weekends have yielded 3 bike rides that have all been amazing in their own way. Not only in the athletic accomplishment of the event, being two 80 mile rides and a 70 mile ride, all that left me exhausted, but also in the people I met along the way, and the wonderful family and friends I did the rides with.

Ride Number One:

Chico Wildflower

This was the first Chico Wildflower I had done. 4,000 amazing riders do this ride. It was my first long distance ride of the season and a HOT one it was. 95 was the temp to our tender still stuck in spring bodies and boy oh boy did we feel it. The Wildflower is known for its masses of people, great support, and flat last 20-30 miles. It's also known for its hellish 5 mile hill at mile 50 that happened to be in the heat of the day! It started with me doing a super carbo load with a scoop of delish mocha almond fudge ice cream in Redding and getting an awesome 5 hours of sleep that night, oh yes, preparation at its finest! It made the kiddie pool at the top used to soak our bodies in all the better! Despite the sickish feeling the heat gave my gut the ride was great in the friends I rode with. It started with me doing a super carbo load with a scoop of delish mocha almond fudge ice cream in Redding and getting an awesome 5 hours of sleep that night, oh yes, preparation at its finest! I started the ride with Jess Irwin, super hepatology PA extraordinaire at CPMC and fellow PA school classmate and her great husband Joe.

It was great chit chatting about life in the early morning hours riding out in the Chico early morning light. Riding your bike lends itself to good conversation as long as your not looking to go all out physically, which I like. In the early part of the ride we made our way up to Paradise while it was cool. My favorite part, really, of the entire ride was going up the climb to Paradise and passing a guy pulling a big stereo just blasting the song Clocks. It seemed to fit the mood well!
I lost Jess and Joe, as they were on a different course, doing the metric century. I was on the pseudo 100 mile route, (as you already know, only 80 happened,) so I separated from them and soon after the separation I met up with the infamous Dr. Palmer. Michael Palmer is my cohort in my PA profession. Without him I would not be where I am today. We had initially met over years ago while I was still in PA school, and then a year later on another bike ride, The Tour of the Unknown Coast, where he offered me an interview for the job I have now. Again, riding your bike gets you places people! He is my mentor. I often work side by side with him for up to 16 hours at a time in the OR, (on our longer days!) and my life would not nearly be as enriched with vascular and general surgical knowledge, nor filled with dirty old man humor and noxious fart gasses without his presence, (if you only really knew...)
Now, back to the ride. I passed him at mile 40. He is my alter human. 6 feet 5 inches tall to my 5 foot 2 inch frame 61 years old to my 32, and here we are. We have not often rode bikes together, because , well, often he is working and doing nothing but, and I am often working or child rearing I guess. The last half of the ride was tough and hot. We rode together, and I passed and rode ahead as he was waiting for his riding buddy Scott Sageman who happens to be one of our hospital's Intensivists, (needless to say if a medical emergency happened to me I was in great hands!) These two guys are great, sarcastic sense of humors, and, well, being passed by a 30 something female PA got to them, but not really enough to catch me, just enough to throw plenty of jokes around.

The only picture I have, but here is Palmer dousing Dr. Sageman with water, as well as myself. All I could really think about is keeping my recent food down as this was at the top of the 50 mile hill in really bad heat. But we made it!

So, to end it all, we all finished 80, with me leading the 3 man paceline at the end with my 6'5" mentor riding my wheel to make it home, (he really does work more than any person I know, thus was a little out of shape... ;-)

Chico Wildflower 80 DONE!

This was all great because????Well because we were all out of the hospital sharing experiences that did NOT have to do with someone's life on the line, or hospital politics, or the mental fatigue of working 20 hours straight. I work no where near the amount of time these other physicians do as I have set limits due to my kids. But I did at one time and I know what it feels like.  I was happy for them. And I was happy and humbled to help at the end. No I'm not using it as an ego trip, more of a positive experience to hopefully continue in the future. 

'Papa turns Grrrrrandpa visits!!!!

The title is in reference to Forrest suddenly deciding Papa is now Grrrandpa, with the hard r and all. He actually says it pretty well, we'll have to see how it all sorts out :-)
My Dad came for Mr. Talin's festivities as well as a much anticipated bike ride with me and his Eugene friend, Rob. We had a blast! The ride was awesome, and my McGiver Dad even saved the day and was able to make my two broken spoke wheel into something rid-able at mile 35 which was our little adventure of the day. We also took some great walks and the weather was great. I'll put up the bike ride pictures in another post. Enjoy!

Forrest and his crazy eyes...

stroller vs. 4 year old, guess who won?

“Bicycles may change, but cycling is timeless." -- Zapata Espinoza

63 miles.....

 

It's not 100, not the infamous "century" but this mama found her biking legs today and pushed out 63 miles. It was a blast....literally in the last 20 miles a BLAAASSSTTT (of wind that is, right in the face, and often from all sides just to make it hurt that much more!!!)
But really I am so glad I did it. I've been on my bike, actually on the road, a grand total of two times for a total of 40 miles in the last year....yes, the last YEAR. I have ridden quite a bit on my trainer...while the kids take baths, naps, etc, but it just isn't the same as an actual ride on the road.

So, now you can see that this 63 mile ride probably FELT like 100 miles to these out of shape legs. 

Yes it did. A lot of self talk happened.

 A few curse words, primarily at the wind, and a LOT of sore muscles.

And, along with that, a great ride happened! Had great conversations, joined some great and FAST pace lines to remind me of my faster days, enjoyed some of the MOST beautiful scenery in our big state...redwoods, rivers....you name it. And, of course, got that great high that comes with finishing an event or goal like this. And yes, I might have even passed a few people too....;-)

This all couldn't have been done without my amazing partner in crime. Alex had his own hurdle to tackle....our two little rugrats, one sick, and Alex himself having the voice of a prepubescent boy and being under the weather. He succeeded in his goal as well, with only a few blowups and fireballs, (right honey???!!!) and let this mama have her day.

 

I love you SOOOO much :-)

The Massachusettes Sister Extravaganza...sneak peak...

So, my vacation is currently going strong, but I couldn't HELP but take some time to post into the WWW the excellence of my sisters and I in our triathlon today.
We WON!

Megan and I after Meg finished...happy but tired girls!

In a team time of 1:21 we won the female team division of the Massachusettes state Triathtlon! This was BIG. Like over 700 participants, most of course doing the entire triathlon, but team format was perfect for us. Nat swam, I biked, and Meg ran and we did it fast enough to win a "medal" of sorts...a winner's pint glass!!! Sweet! Goes along with our vacation quite well....
Lots more soon about the fun times and crazy places we've been...and hope to go...

A sprinkler park and some good times on the Charles River are in the future...
And, a quickie post about butterflys and some delish fro yo to come....

Freezing spring and other thoughts

Rain, rain, and more rain. This spring is WET! And COLD! This household is ready for the hot and steamy summer temps...and yes, I know, before I can send this into cyber space the 90+ degree heat will be around the corner. But, when your HIGH is 49 and Memorial Day is next weekend, the OFFICIAL kick off to summer, it just doesn't feel right. I think our garden broccoli is the only happy camper...it is "broccolling" up a storm, getting ready for our bellys!
Mr. Forrest is lamenting in the crappy weather as well. He's got his 4th cold in as many months, and I do believe he has been a sick kiddo more days than well. I guess I can thank daycare for that. This most recent bug brought us the croupy barking seal cough and all the snot along with it. His little immune system I'm sure is on over drive, as he also recently had his 1 year vaccinations...but other than that, he is wonderful, starting to imitate and perhaps even talk, and is as active as ever. He's pushing through his molars and grinds his teeth on occasion, drives us up the wall! And he has got an arm on him! The kid can throw just about anything more accurately and farther than most...just remember to duck!

Hi favorite foods, garden fresh STRAWBERRIES!!!!! (we've got tons!) and farm fresh eggs, (we've also got tons!) Makes feeding him easy...or at least easier...
His most recent stats, at 14 mos...22 lbs, 30 inches tall. And still has a huge head.
Here he is playing on the front steps in our showery weather with my trusty stead...a future rider?