La Dolce Vita: Sunriver 2009

Well, I was finally able to upload our pictures from Sunriver (June 25th-30th). We all had a great time...and had a little more relaxation time as well. We extended our normal stay by a day and it was well worth it! I never want to leave this place. Since we took so many pictures, I've created several collages instead of individuals (just click to enlarge).

Saturday, June 27th: Lee and Jim ran the 1/2 marathon again this year....making pretty good time as well! Marilyn (Erin Edwards' mom) found us down here...she has a vacation house in Sunriver...so we spent a little time visiting with her. Ruthy is way too relaxed in the village. Grayson and Pop play in the sprinklers. We had the best house this year...and had our first lawn too. Hopefully we can get this house all the time!

Sunday, June 28th 8:15am: Grayson runs his first 1/2 mile race with daddy. (Remember, last year didn't count because mom carried a crying boy the whole time.) He was very proud of his medal and wanted to keep "running fast"! I think it was those fast running shoes that he had this year. Virinda ran the 5k race and did her best time ever....under 30 minutes. Which meant that she won a bet with her dad....and he had to buy her a shirt!

Sunday, June 28th late morning: I did my first Olympic distance triathlon...and finished...and didn't crash or die! The Olympic distance consists of 1.5k swim, 28 mile bike and 10k run. Overall it was a decent race for me...getting me 3:19:35 total time (39:35 swim time, 1:33 bike time, 58:52 run time). I placed 24th out of 57 in my age group. I was hoping for a little better of a time, especially in the swim...but considering this was my first Olympic tri and we were at a decent elevation...I feel pretty good about it. I did get terrible stomach cramps starting toward the end of the swim. It lingered throughout the whole rest of the race, but I just had to suck it up and deal with it. It wasn't so bad all the time...just right after the race was when I didn't think I'd make it. Once I got some food on my stomach, I was good to go. I think it was because I had breakfast so early (around 6am) and the race didn't get started till 9:30...so I had a fairly empty stomach. With all the energy chews, bars, drinks etc my stomach was just not going for it.

Greg did really well this year and took over 20 minutes off his time from last year. (By the way, I beat his time from last year too.) I was really hoping to beat his run time...and I probably would have if I wouldn't have stopped at every water station during the run. He only beat me by 40 seconds in the run! He placed 22nd out of 57 guys in his age group. (Overall time was 2:57:17).

Ruthy, dad and Jim (Team Jerryatrics) did the relay again. Ruthy had a personal best in her swim and knocked off about 4 minutes from her normal swim time! It was funny because her wave actually started 5 minutes after mine...but we ended up going through the swim finish line together. Towards the end of the swim I ended up right next to this gal who swam awfully close to how Ruthy swims. I kept my eye on her and didn't let her pass me. Sure enough, it was Ruthy. Out of over 550 people in the whole race...we meet up! Ruthy's time was 35:35.

I did end up passing dad on the bike early on, but he made up quite a bit of time and wasn't too far behind me. He had a really good race as well....his time was 1:47:57. Jim...well, what can ya say about Jim. He's just darn fast! That bugger passed me too! Jeez, the guy just ran a 1/2 marathon the day before too. He's an animal! His time was 46:33.

Monday, June 29th and Tuesday, June 30th: On Monday we all decided to go for a sort of leisure bike ride around Sunriver...all along the wonderful trail system that they have. It was really nice! We had lunch in the village and then biked back to the house. After Grayson's nap, we played a little tennis and then swam in the pool. Tuesday was time to say goodbye, but not until after we got our "racer photos" taken!