Highland Lakes Challenge

On Thursday morning, I swam in the 6th Annual, Tex Roberston, Highland Lakes Challenge.  The annual event is organized by former Olympian, Sandy Neilson-Bell, and her husband, Dr. Keith Bell.  Sandy was a triple gold medalist at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany in the 100 meter freestyle.  She won three golds, one in the individual 100 free, one in the 4 x 100 free relay and one in the 4 x 100 meter medley relay.  My masters swim coach, Carolyn, is a swimmer on Sandy's master team, the Team Texas Masters and is basically responsible for getting me to put this event on my list for this year.  She will pay for this inspired me and made me believe that I could accomplish this, so lots of credit to her for believing in my abilities to complete this even if I doubted it from time to time.

The Challenge consists of 5 stages of swimming in Lake Buchanan, Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls and Lake Travis.  Swimmers can swim in all five stages or just one stage, swimming distances ranging in length of 1 mile up to 4 miles depending on the course and the day.  I chose to swim in the Inks Lake stage because it was the best day to fit into my schedule and as it turns out, it was the right choice because the weather turned cold overnight between Thursday and Friday. Originally, I was going to do a 1 mile swim, however there were only 4 other swimmers other than myself and they were all going to do the great distance.  Since I didn't want to create any problems for the organizers (or disappoint Carolyn ; ) ), I opted to increase my distance from 1 mile to 3 miles.

This particular leg of the event began on the docks of Camp Longhorn, a summer camp that was started by Tex and Pat Robertson in 1939.  Coincidentally, I had been to Camp Longhorn years before when I was a nanny for a family whose children attended camp over the summers there.  It has grown significantly over the years and I got lost looking for the docks because it was so different from when I had been there before.

Camp Longhorn Lazy River

Overcast Pre-race sky

My Pre-race companion, Hank

It is fitting that the challenge is named after Tex Robertson as he is a former Olympian in Water Polo and former swimming coach for the University of Texas who is best known for inventing the flip turn and coaching Adolph Kiefer who was a world champion backstroker.  Flip turns are only permitted during the freestyle and backstroke races while, in butterfly and breaststroke, regulations require swimmers to touch the end of the pool with both hands before turning back for another length. 

Tex's Olympic bag

Tex Pool Dedication

 

Tex Robertson's Medal Room

After meeting on the docks, we all climbed on a boat and Sandy drove us around a bend to begin the swim near a damn.  The water was fairly cold upon entry but since I typically get pretty hot during practice at the Y, I knew the temperature was not going to be an issue once I started the 3 mile trek.  We 'warmed' up a little before Sandy counted us down and we took off.  I was a little concerned early on because my left arm and shoulder were uncomfortable pretty quickly so I started alternating between freestyle and breaststroke to give other muscles a chance to kick in.  There was no choppiness for most of the swim and I am very grateful for that because the last time I did an open water swim, the small waves were hitting me to one side and I ended up getting really dizzy and nauseous that lasted most of the rest of the day after the swim.  The only regret I can think of was that I wish I had goggles that were shaded like sunglasses because the glare from the sun made it difficult to site the course.  Doing breaststroke did double duty, helping my muscles and helping me to site the course better.  I held my place in the middle of the pack for the entire 3 miles occasionally spotting Keith and Patty pretty far ahead and Bill and Paul a slight distance behind.  At one point, Sandy and Carolyn pulled up nearby in a boat to let me know I was pulling to the left and redirected me closer to shore.  As I got closer to the finish, the recognizable Camp Longhorn buildings helped to calm me down a bit as I knew that once I could spot them, I was coming to the end of the challenge.  The last 500-800 yards were pretty tough because the choppiness of the lake picked up considerably and luckily it was coming head-on instead of at an angle or to either side of my head.  When I saw the final buoy, I had enough energy to kick to the end to reach the dock and pull slightly ahead of Bill, as Carolyn told me after I finished. 

Carolyn said she felt like a proud momma for me and was impressed with my time.  I really didn't have any idea how I had done other than the time of 1 hour and 41 minutes because I had nothing to compare it to having never done a distance like this.  I was in the company of people who do this type of thing on a regular basis, Patty having just swam a 10 miler in Tennessee a couple of weekends ago for instance.  I am proud of the time and the fact that I pushed myself to do the entire 3 miles instead of the 1 mile but I am still recovering, several days later, and will play it by ear on whether or not I will do this event again. 

One final note, I was pretty surprised at how dirty my suit got, acting like a filter for the dirt floating around the top of the lake and was sure to take some Emergen-C to help prevent getting sick from the dirt and slime that I filtered through my nose while I raced.

Dirt filtered through my suit

 Tomorrow, I am running in the Run for the Water event downtown and will report on that early next week as well as do a recap of what is left on the list and how I hope to accomplish the rest before December 31!

The Shrew

A few weeks ago, I went with my friend, Margaret, to see the Taming of the Shrew ballet that was put on by Ballet Austin at the Long Center.  It was awesome!

Before the ballet, we decided to have dinner downtown at Bess Bistro on Pecan.  For those of you who don't know, Sandra Bullock is one of the owners of Bess Bistro in addition to Walton's Fancy and Staple that is across the street from Bess on the portion of 6th Street west of Congress.  Pecan Street is another name for 6th street because, like many of the streets in Austin, any street that is any street in Austin, has more than one name.  Just check out this list put together by one of the title companies I do business with below.

  

There were no Sandra Bullock sightings, however I have seen her there before.  Margaret and I enjoyed a really lovely, relaxing dinner finally finding some time to catch up on each others happenings.  We both had a fish dish and I ate everything on my plate because a) I was hungry and b) I couldn't take any of it home because we were heading to the ballet and there was no way I was leaving any of the yumminess on the plate!  For dessert, we had their dessert du jour that had a Nutella-like flavor and was so light and the perfect thing to have after dinner with some decaf coffee.

Both of us were a little apprehensive about the idea of Taming of the Shrew, that is seemingly Shakespeare-dialogue dependent, turned into a ballet and we were both in for a surprise.  The troupe was amazing!  They did such a wonderful job translating their emotions into movement that you could tell who was playing which character from the start and their was no confusion which ballerina was the shrew.  There were two lines spoken near the beginning of the ballet that honestly weren't needed, but it was fun to hear some spoken word at a ballet.

I really enjoyed the simplicity of the sets too, that through minor changes represented very well the various scenes in the ballet.  Many of the extras spent time easily moving props on and off the stage and a few pieces of the furniture were made of a translucent material that I really liked.  For some reason, the translucent furniture had a big impact on me because I think it served a really good purpose and yet it did not distract from the ballet.

 

Ballet Austin - Taming of the Shrew

I am winding down the year and will be doing on last list update this week.  I need to motivate in these last 12 weeks of the year to finish up the last of the Top 45!

Swimmin' in the Rain

On the list, I had picked to do the Austin Tri Rocks triathlon and had to make a switch due to lack of training time.  Without proper training, I am pretty concerned about injury.  I substituted the "World Championship of Texas 3 on 3 Swimming Tournament" that took place this past Sunday.   The tournament consists of a series of games where a team of three competes with another team of three in various races and a team is eliminated after two lost games.  The pairs of competitors swim along other pairs of competitors in order to add a little bit of excitement and to prevent the tournament from lasting all day and night.  The games were in the following order: Free relay, 50 fly, 50 back, 75 IM (no freestyle), 50 free, 50 breaststroke then IM relay (again, no freestyle).  I was somewhat concerned the event would be canceled (and half hoping it would be, too) due to rain.  For those of you who have been in Austin for longer than a month, you know we definitely welcome the rain.  For those of you who know me, I get EXTREMELY anxious before any competitive event and I was semi-hoping it would start thundering...we only got rain, lots of rain, but nothing that would cancel the event.  At least it was swimming in the rain and not running or riding a bike in the rain.

Pre-Race (Carolyn MIA because she helped organize the event)

My master's coach from the YMCA, Carolyn, organized two teams.  The team I was on included our coach Carolyn, Courtney and myself and was named The Naughty Narwhals (our team at the Y is called the Narwhals) and the second team had Brian, Mitch and Christy called Sparkle Motion.  Apparently, Sparkle Motion is from the movie Donnie Darko and when I searched the name on google, it came up in the Urban Dictionary defined as, "Phrase that can be used to describe something awesome," and "Originally from the movie Donnie Darko, where Sparkle Motion was the name of a dance group composed of little girls."  I would say the first definition is more appropriate because Sparkle Motion at the tournament kicked some booty!

Courtney, Carolyn & Me

Brian, Christy & Mitch

In our first 'game', Carolyn warned us that we were swimming against some pretty tough competition and we may end up 'bagging' the races to conserve our energy.  Sure enough, one of the team members of our first opposing teams was apparently named one of the 10 fittest people in Austin.  Yes, you read that correctly.  In a city that has Lance Armstrong as one of the other top 10 people on that list, one of our first competitors is in his league.  Needless to say, we didn't win any of those games in that heat.  I came pretty close to winning the 50 free because I said to my competitor that it wasn't fair that they win all of them, but I still didn't win that race.

***UPDATE: I looked up our competition and sure enough, Kristen Turner was mentioned as half of one of the fittest couples in Austin in the Austin Fit Magazine's February 2011 issue.
We didn't have a chance....

Our second 'game' was not until the fourth heat which gave us a little bit of rest time.  We swam against a set of tween girls and when I looked at them I decided it was probably a better bet that we could with this game.  I swam the same events as the first time and we actually won.  About half way through the game, I realized this meant we were going to have to swim again and we had no idea if we would get a break because of the nature of the tournament.  I was a little bit worried that I had pushed a little too hard against our opponents AND it had really started to rain pretty hard.  I know that we were wet already from the water, but it was pretty chilly and there was a breeze.  We found it was better to stay in the water as long as we could before each race to keep our muscles warm.

Pre-Race and no rain.

Rain during tournament.

We won our second match up but then we had to turn around immediately and start our third.  We just couldn't pull out another win.  The three of us were warn out, tired and cold.

The tournament was a blast and I plan to do it again next year.  I am also hoping to recruit Nicole and some of her teammates for a group of younger Narwhals.  Other than the sore that I developed on teh bottom of my left big tow from having to start so many times on some rough starting blocks, I did get to bring home a prize from our 'win' set of games.

3 on 3 Booty

 We didn't win much, but we sure had a blast trying!

Fly Like An Eagle

     There were many things that I _did_ do when I lived in San Diego for three years, and many things that I wanted to do that I didn't.  I worked at the San Diego Supercomputer Center for three years and it is located across the street from the Torrey Pines Glider Port.  For three years, I kept saying that I needed to go and check it out and I never did.  During those three years, my friend Greg, spent a good bit of time there, getting his pilot's license and spending hours learning how to use the equipment and fly on his own.
     When I was compiling my list of 45 things, I remembered how fondly Greg spoke about paragliding and how peaceful it was.  I told myself when I was making my list that it would not involve anything life threatening and technically speaking I guess paragliding could be borderline life-threatening, I had not heard about anyone dying from it.
     I called up the Gliderport on Tuesday morning and they said that conditions were right and the winds were favorable for flying so I put on a baseball cap and took off to fly above the cove.  My instructor/tandem pilot was Bob.  His description reads as follows:
"Bob Hammond is a lifelong resident of La Jolla.  Bob has been a Gliderport participant for over 40 years.  In the mid-70's Bob hang glided in the mountains, and in 2004 he transformed his dreams of free flight into paragliding.  Bob reflects a very patient and mellow approach to training newer pilots.  He works with students at their own pace to ensure that they receive a top quality learning experience.  Bob holds USHPA Advanced Paragliding Instructor and Tandem Instructor ratings."
Bob was definitely patient and gave me clear instructions on how the take off would happen.  He didn't just say, "Ready, set, jump off the cliff!," but it wasn't too much more difficult than that.

Jump!

      It is amazing how the gentle wind completely grabbed hold of the chute and yanked us into the air with barely any sensation of falling.  We turned toward the north and we were off!  We spent about 30 minutes gliding alternatively past the Torrey Pines Golf Course to the north and multi-million dollor homes to the south of the gliderport.  One home that Bob pointed out to me was valued at about $80m and was owned by the man who started one of the grocery chains in California. 

Torrey Pines to the north.

I wasn't going to tempt fate and carry my camera or iPhone with me and risk dropping it the 400 yards to the beach so I have to rely on the photos taken by the gliderport photog.  And here is as close as he got proving that it was actually me.

It's Me!

I really enjoyed the ride and the peacefulness of floating above the Torrey Pines Cliffs.  However, since I did start to experience a slight attack of dizziness due to inner ear issues so while I probably won't paraglide again, I am very glad that I have tried it at least once and it is tough to beat the view from these seats!

Fly like an eagle!

Coming up soon:
List update and UT Football!

World Champion

    A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to Southern California to work on two of my list items and get a little break from work and relax.   No, I didn't instantly become a world champion surfer, but my surf instructor Alisa Schwarzstein-Cairns _is_ a world champion and legend in the surfing world.  You can read about her here, here, and here.  Special thanks to my cousin, Fabiola for introducing me to Alisa because she was the perfect instructor for me.  Alisa didn't waste a lot of time grilling me on popping up on my board on the beach nor did she take too much time instructing me on how to recognize when a wave is good to catch because she was going to do that for me.  She either did none of the above because a) she knew I was a quick learner or b) she didn't think I had a chance of getting up and staying up and didn't want to waste our time.

Surf Kooks!

     After wiggling and giggling myself into the wetsuit and swim booties and the requisite (according to Christianne) photo in front of the 'kooks' sign we were off to the beach.  The biggest thing that struck me on the descent to the water, was the image of about 20 surfers floating about 10 yards out in the water gazing out to sea watching for the perfect wave.  They looked like sea lions popping up through the waves as bad ones rolled by them.  I must admit it caused me a little bit of anxiety thinking about trying get up on the board around so many people, but that feeling quickly passed when I remembered that I would be out there with Alisa.  She went over the key points again, including that when I fall, the best way to go down is with my butt first.  A round of hugs to Fab and Christianne and we were off.  Masters swimming practice definitely helped with the paddle out as well as the pull up on the board.
     On the first attempt, Alisa told me to turn and start paddling quickly.  I did as I was told and suddenly received a huge push from behind, tried to pull up on the board and promptly fell.  In my head I was thinking, "Man, I thought I was doing great paddling myself, but that Alisa is so powerful coming from behind to push me."  After a couple more tries and falls....

Hang Ten!!!!

....I GOT UP!!!!!
   I can totally see why surfing can become addicting and it is probably a good thing that I don't live on the west coast because I would be out there watching for waves to ride like those 20 others.  It was truly exhilarating and exciting and just so much fun.  I could have gone on forever, but after about 2 hours and several successful rides, my body just wouldn't let me paddle out anymore and we called it a day.

Alisa and Me after surfing

Thanks to Fabiola for introducing me to Alisa, for Alisa and for Christianne my cheerleader and photographer.  The end of the day was enjoying a glass of wine, watching the Olympics with Fabiola and Chuck, and getting to watch the sunset of Laguna Beach from the balcony chez Kinder.

Laguna Sunset

Which Came First

     We all know the line, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg," and of course, this post relates to my desire to get at least 1 egg from a chicken that lived in my backyard.  Many people have conjectured why I have this urge.  My friend, Alison, says that I am obsessed with the idea because of my impending menopause and that I want the egg from a chicken because I won't be producing my own sometime in the near future.  Thanks Alison.
     I believe that I have placed this on my list because of remnants of childhood.  I remember spending time on my cousins' farm as a child and also remember having a large garden at one of the houses we lived in when I was younger.  We didn't have chickens there, but at one point we did have rabbits, 52 at one time to be exact.   I had forgotten how many we had until I was watching one of those old home movies and in video from that time, there was a homemade "Vacancy" sign attached to the rabbit pen and I asked my mom how many we had and was amazed at the response.  I hadn't remembered that number but do remember that the fried "chicken" legs I ate from time to time looked a little different than I had remembered from KFC.
     Last year was a trial run with the chickens.  At Nicole's school, the 1st graders get eggs in the spring and place them in incubators while studying the life cycle of chickens and to observe the chicks pecking out of the shell and then get to have the chicks in the classroom for a bit.  My friend Susan had arranged for us to get some of the chicks and raise them in a pen in my backyard.  Since I was not a professional chick sexer a la Dirty Jobs and Mike Rowe (see the video below) it was going to be luck of the draw on hens vs. roosters.

     It takes about 5 months before you know the sex of a chicken.  Around the 5 month mark, one of the two white chickens started to crow.  Upon closer inspection, the two white chickens had spurs on their legs just above their feet, identifying them as male.  After a couple of weeks, I had gotten pretty tired of the crowing and also didn't want to annoy my neighbors too much.  I called a local farm store and they said they would take the two white roosters off my hands.  Since I didn't want the remaining, multicolored chicken to be lonely, I bought a hen from Callahan's when I dropped off the two offending roosters.
     The new chicken was multicolored like the 3rd of the original 3.  I could tell it was going to be trouble from the get go.  One morning while Nicole was letting them out of the coop to the chicken run, the new chicken got out and started to climb a tree attempting to escape to the greenbelt behind the pen.  We both tried to capture it and it just kept climbing higher.  I got the brilliant idea to try to use the pool net to snag him out of the tree and put him back into the coop, only the execution was not as smooth.  After using the 3-rung ladder that was close by to climb on top of the shed/coop, I couldn't net the chicken nor could I get down off of the coop.  Nicole had to have my neighbor, Suzy, rescue me with their tall ladder.  Nicole and I decided to take a short, breakfast break and we had to wait for Susan and her husband and son, Jon and Sean, to come and help us.  It took the three adults armed with a rake, long stick and swimming pool net and the two kids to capture the chicken and get him back to the safety of the chicken run.
     About a week after the new chickens arrival, the third of the first set of chickens decided to start crowing too.  As we were leaving on vacation, I didn't have time to take this rooster, disguising as a hen, to Callanhan's for an exchange, so I decided I would do so upon returning.  Unfortunately, last year's heat was brutal.  While in Savannah, I got a call from Susan who was caring for the chickens, that the third of the original batch had died due to the heat, which I have come to find out is pretty normal due to the Texas summers.  I didn't want to tell Nicole because I was worried that she would be upset but when I finally did tell her, her first reaction was, "Aw." then promptly exclaimed, "Friend chicken!"
     While trying to help the last chicken not perish from the heat, during the day I would prop open the door to the coop and attach a huge piece of 4X4 cattle guard to the doorway of the coop to let the air circulate even though the chicken also had a chicken run to the side.  One afternoon I had gone out to check on it and there were multicolored feathers on the outside of the cattle guard.  I felt horrible because I figured another animal like a fox or something had come from the greenbelt, climbed into the coop, and got the chicken.  Then, a day later, I saw the "hen" in the greenbelt just beyond the chicken wire the lines our property and it started to crow.  He tormented us for a couple of days walking back and forth along our property line crowing each morning.  I tried to help it come back by placing the chicken ladder that Jon had constructed over the chicken wire, but the chicken eventually disappeared into the greenbelt.  I did hear it about a week latter crowing deep in the mini-forest then the crowing ended.
     At first I thought I was not meant to have chickens, as did my vegetarian friend, Alison, then I decided I would not give up on this idea and put it on my list to get at least one egg from a hen in the backyard.   We eventually got some hens from a neighbor who was relocating and on the morning of Nicole's birthday...

Ta da!

Thanks to everyone who made this possible including Susan, Sean and Jon for helping build the chicken coop/run, my neighbors who put up with the crowing from last year and to Suzy for going so far as to buy some organic eggs to secretly place one in the coop in case this year was as disastrous as last year and being supportive of my goals.  Also to Kellyn who, as she says, "Does not do chickens" but has helped care for them from time to time.

List Update - End of Summer

Just a quick post to update the status of the list...I have had to change a few things in the interest of time and physical ability, but many things remain the same.  I am in the home stretch of the year and the list and truly hope to accomplish all of them.

  •    Get physical exercise 5-6 times a week for 45 weeks - Ongoing
    •    Austin 5k - Run for the Water
    •    Danskin Triathlon - June
    •    Highland Lakes Challenge - October
    •    135/8 - Ongoing
    •    Masters swimming meet/ 3x3 Challenge - TBD
    •    Diva Dash - April
    •    Change Hair - January
    •    Passport Vacation - TBD
    •    Trip to San Diego with Kim & Stacy and others – July/August
    •     Paragliding - August
    •     Surfing  - August
    •     Snowboarding/skiing – November/December
    •     Chicken S*&t Bingo - Fall
    •     Zip lining - March
    •     Make bed each weekday morning - Ongoing
    •     Plant garden/produce veggies and herbs - Spring
    •     Get an egg from hens - Spring
    •     Empty kitchen sink each weekday night - Ongoing
    •     Redecorate Nicole’s room for 10th birthday - June
    •     Blanton B Scene Art Party - November 30
    •     AMOA Opening - Janauary
    •     Lenoir Special Seafood Dinner – November
    •     Opera – Lucia di Lammermoor – February
    •     Broadway Across America – Wicked – February
    •     Ballet – Fall
    •     Paramount Theater – Summer
    •     UT Football home game -Opening game vs. Wyoming
    •     Symphony - December
    •     Volunteer for Thanksgiving or Christmas
    •     Texas Advocacy Project – Handbags for Hope became KW Red Day
    •     SXSW – Focus Movie – March
    •     Austin Film Festival – October
    •     One handwritten note a month to Nicole – Ongoing
    •     One handwritten note a month to a Friend or Family member - Ongoing
    •     Photography Class - TBD
    •     Art Class - TBD
    •     Top 45 at 45 Blog – Ongoing
    •     Courage to Change Blog – Ongoing
    •     The Artist’s Way morning pages and art dates – Ongoing
    •     iPhone Apple class – January
    •     Practice French – Ongoing
    •     Whole Foods or Central Market Cooking class became Le Cordon Bleu Class - TBD
    •     Organize Family Birthday Calendar
    •     Turkey Trot or Jingle Bell run 5K