Many things have happened this week. We had two Meet the Teachers nights and things seem to be going fairly well with the guys. The teachers seem good, though I do have some reservations about Benjamin's teacher -- she just isn't the warm and fuzzy type. It may be that she isn't warm and fuzzy towards Benjamin, and that is alright, but she better not be mean to him. Andy's teacher is very reserved, but I think she will be good with him. Elias' teacher thinks he is just the absolute greatest kid she has ever had in her class, except for perhaps Benjamin, who she also loved. I really like this teacher.

Last week, I dropped by the cycle shop for a re-fit because for the last four weeks or so, I have been getting horrendous saddle sores every time I have gone out on my bike. Obviously, something was very wrong. So I went in to get everything checked and possibly a new saddle in order to fix that problem. While there, I noticed that the shop was getting ride of their Cervelo bikes (an R3) and that they had one that was my size. I decided that I would take it for a test ride and see how it felt to ride a bike with a double crank. Wow. It was an amazing bike – smooth, totally balanced, a wonderful ride. I even rode on Mt. Lemmon with it and did my usual hill repeat route – and that was a stunner. The best time I have ever had going from the zero mile marker to the one mile marker was 9:32. On that Cervelo, I did it in 7:25. This is a huge drop.

I took it back to the shop and decided not to get it because I didn’t want to spend that much money on a bike at this time (it was originally marked at $3800, but it was on sale for $2500). I spent the next 24 hours in mourning. The following day, Ron came home from work and told me that he had just bought the Cervelo for me. I was stunned. And thrilled. And overwhelmed. And totally surprised. But I called the shop and had them make the bike right for me, and swap out the standard double chain ring for a compact double chainring.

Friday, I met up with my friend Rose, who I met through the TriGirls, to drive up to Show Low where we were both going to do the Tri in the Pines, a sprint race with 625yds of swimming, a 12.5 mile bike (with a couple of those big Show Low hills), and a 3.5 mile run. I brought the Cervelo with me to do the race even though I hadn’t ridden it at all and it was breaking the big rule of triathlon: never try something new on race day. I couldn’t help it – it was so gorgeous!! So, we got to Show Low, went to pick up our race packets and had a terrific pizza dinner with a couple other TriGirls. Rose and I were sharing a hotel room and we went to bed and did our usual thing before a race: tossed, turned, tried to be quiet so as not to wake the other one up, and didn’t sleep at all. Neither of us. Not a wink. We got up at 5:30am, and went to the hotel breakfast bar to eat (by the way, eating real food beyond a protein bar before a race was also a new thing on race day), and drove over to the transition area with all of our crap.

This race was set up differently from every other race I have ever done. There were 21 waves of swimmers (yes, you read that correctly), with each wave going off every 20 minutes, with the race starting at 7am. Each wave had 12 people in it. If you are frantically trying to figure out how long it took to get everyone through the swim, don’t bother. The last wave went at 1:45pm. Yup, it was an all day thing. Worse, the city of Show Low decided to go against tradition and have the waves start with the absolute fastest swimmers, so those of us who don’t burn up the pool got to go later in the day. What this means to me, is that those of us who aren’t super fast, got to spend not only the most time on the course, but we got to do it during the hottest part of the day while those fast suckers got to have their race between 7am and 8am. This made me very unhappy. I don’t like being out in the sun after 11am or so.

Rose went around 9am; the other TriGirls went in waves before Rose's, and me, well, I got to cool my heels until 9:50am. Finally, my wave was called and we were off! By the time I hit 150yds, I realized that I had forgotten my inhaler at home, and I really felt the difference, but I kept going and I think I did alright on my swim; I think I did the 625 in about 12 minutes or so, but forgot to look at my watch once I was out of the pool. Transition went fairly smoothly, and I got on my new bike (turned on the bike computer) and headed out.

I was huffing and puffing big time because of the altitude, but the first two sides of the loop were mostly downhill, so I had some time to collect myself. At this point, I realized that I was going SO FAST! I turned another corner to the hilly part of the course and was steaming right along in a headwind! It was AMAZING!!! Who knew what a difference a new bike could make?! I even caught up with a guy on two consecutive hills!! I think he was slowing down because he could hear my breathing from about 150 feet away, but still! I caught up with him! At one point, I was pedaling up a hill and I glanced down at my computer and I was going 22mph UP that hill!!! I came back by transition in 21:37 – that was 6.15 miles done. I was breathing really hard, but I was pushing really hard too, and the Cervelo made it SO EASY!! I cannot believe there was such a difference between my Specialized and the new Cervelo. I am still stunned. I got back into transition (and Anne pointed out that I passed another guy on the way up the hill to transition), and switched my shoes and ran out for the run course. By some fluke, I actually remembered to turn off my bike computer.

The run, as you know, is my least favorite thing to do. We had to do three loops of the course and as I started off, a miracle occurred -- the sky became overcast and a wind started to blow. This made me so happy – you know how I feel about being out in the flat sun. All of the other TriGirls had finished their race, so they were all out there on the course cheering me on every time I went by (it was kind of like Groundhog Day, I just kept going, and they were always there), and it helped tremendously. I finally finished the run portion and was totally relieved to be done since by that time, my legs were complaining, and my foot was threatening to leave my body completely.

When I went back to transition, I packed everything up and checked my bike computer. I finished that 12 miles in 44:23. My average speed was 16.4mph. Before yesterday, my highest average speed for any ride was 11.9mph. I am in complete shock – and totally thrilled!! This Cervelo bike is just wonderful.

Rose and I went back to the hotel, where we had missed our checkout time, and had to get our room keys re-done so we could get our stuff (and sneak in a shower). Then we met up with the other girls and had lunch and then drove home. Today, I am sore all over, but it was such an exciting weekend!