Highlights of our weekend in Portland

Friday evening, we headed off to Portland. After many relentless attempts at getting Kelli & Laura to learn the words to my new favorite song (wadsyaname by Nelly), I finally gave up only to find myself laughing so hard I couldn't breath....and I just MIGHT have peed my pants-jury is still out on what actually qualifies as "peeing your pants". I'll leave it at that.

We got into our lovely accommodations only to be "shushed" by the hotel manager. Shocker, I know. Kelli parked the car, Laura took their two bikes up to the room (this was quite a feat for Laura to get two bikes moving in the same direction at the same time). My job was to get this luggage rack and my bike into the elevator and up to the third floor. Let me tell you folks, it looks a lot easier than it was. There was an art to getting my bike in the elevator and then the luggage rack without the door closing on me. After getting the evil eye from the hotel manager (because now I was laughing all by myself), Kelli saved me and helped with my tasks. I had to shush her so we wouldn't get three strikes against us and kicked out of The Sleep Inn so early in our stay.

We woke up bright and early the next morning to head out and cheer on our friends racing in the sprint. We loaded up our gear so we could get a little training in while we were there. After loading up, I chucked my keys up on the drivers seat and closed the back of the car. We all went to get in.....and um, the car was locked. WHAT? I have such incredible luck that when I threw the keys, they landed "just so" that the lock button successfully was pressed and therefor locked us out of the car. An hour later, AAA arrived and our buddy broke us in. All I gotta say is good thing it happened that day. Sad to say, we missed the swim start but were able to cheer Tim & Andy on and see their finishes.



Foof! Here' s Kelli & Laura in their cheering positions.


We headed out for a little pre-race ride and Steve got a flat. He changed it in 6 1/2 minutes....which is a lot faster than my flat change in Hawaii. We got out of helping him change it by convincing him that it's good race practice and that we should time him. Worked like a charm and he changed it fairly fast so we didn't have to wait around long. ;)

Laura busting some kind of dance moves. I wasn't the ONLY one dancing. Love the "sash" prop.

After we got some training in we headed out in search of a pre-race pedicure. If you don't like feet, skip these photos. Here's mine:


Kelli's:


and Laura's:

Here's me with my own gang-sign. This was adapted the day before when we were in the car driving and Kelli was taking my picture and I turned to her while driving and put three fingers up instead of the more common "rocker" sign (I must admit, this was not intentional, I just don't know my signs). This was one of the many causes of the rumored, peed-in-pants and now it is "my sign".

Kelli & Laura getting pedicures. What-no gang signs?


Me & Laura at dinner the night before the race.


The weekend Crew. Me, Laura & Kelli. Good times, good times.

We headed back to the hotel to get jammies on, read our important pre-race material (People, US and OK magazine) and eat some cereal. Here are Laura and Kelli eating their dainty bowls of cereal before bed.


Maybe I didn't get enough to eat at dinner. And yes, I did consume that entire bowl of cereal with the exception of the soggy bits at the bottom. In this case, my eyes were not bigger than my stomach. I wish I could say they were.


Photo documentation of the peeing-in-pants/bed.

After getting Tiffany to sign a waiver, I helped attach her aero-bottle and Trish was a pro with the velcro placement. What'd you need me for??? Here's Tiffany with her big mouth and Trish with her strong thighs. What a team these gals make!


Yes, my race number really was #69. Where's the content of my blog headed? I only report the facts.