Attack of the Helmet Nachos

Recently, my mom and one of my sisters flew up for a big Chicago weekend!  We spent a lot of time hanging out, and the big event of the weekend was to take them to their very first Cubs game.  Wrigley is one of the USA's most historic and famous ballparks, and any baseball fan wants to make that visit, regardless of the Cubs, who are really, really - really - good at biffing a win.

I must admit, it's completely obvious that we're related...

Ok, so Wrigley introduced a brand new concession item a couple years ago... Helmet Nachos.  Yes, you read that right.  It's $15 and is exactly what it sounds like:

Need a closer look? Ooooooooooook...

Don't be scurred, Billie Sue!

I am pretty certain that there's an entire bag of chips in that helmet.  One time, I was a part of a 12(ish)-person group at Wrigley.  We ordered ONE of these heart attack inducing numbers, and we couldn't even finish it - so our tiny group taking this on was a quite a feat, especially when my mom had to be all heart-conscious and refuse to help us eat it!  By the time you get to the bottom, the chips are all soggy, but you eat them anyway.  Hey, we're already gross by eating a freaking helmet full of fake cheese - might as well seal the deal! 

Here's Billie Sue's review of said Helmet Nachos.  Kindly ignore my highly annoying voice.

Now, I want to know... what's the grossest guilty pleasure at your hometown ballpark?

Race Report: Believe! 5k

Somewhere along the line, we became a family of athletes.  How a pizza and Coke guzzling family that'd rather heckle than run turned into triathletes, runners, and martial artists... I will never know.  Truly, it's a Christmas miracle.

So anyway, since I was going to be home for several days, my dad and I thought it'd be fun to run a 5k together.  My dad is much, much faster than me, so this would just be a fun run for him - not so much for me, since I've been off my training for several months!!

Here's the lowdown:

TOTAL TIME: 33:59

RANK: not sure

AVERAGE PACE: Also not sure, but Mile 1 (9:47) Mile 2 (12:13) Mile 3 (9:11), so do the math

As you might guess above, some of my stats are unclear.  The course was super hilly (at least for me!)  I am happy to say that I busted my booty.  Bigtime.  I took two 20-step walk breaks, but I ran the rest - I pushed it as hard as I could.  I am proud that I improved my time, even though the course was hilly!

I had a hard time reading the finisher stats from the race organizers, so I just had to macgyver them above.  My chip time was clear, but my group rank and average pace wasn't so easy.

The race took place in McKinney, TX, which is about an hour north of my house.  We got up at 5:30a, so that we had plenty of time to drive, grab Starbucks, and Whataburger breakfast (hey, I was on vacation!)  Our group was made up of my dad, my brother Nolan, and then my sisters Abs and Billie Sue.  And me, of course. :)  

My dad had no problemo getting up at the crack of dawn:

Billie Sue commandeered the camera - it was kind of nice for someone else to take over memory-duty for a few hours!

This is how us girls felt about it:

A lady (mister?) in a snowman outfit was the race mascot, so of course we had to snag a pre-race photo with him:

During the race, BOTH my shoelaces came untied.  I really need to get runner laces - those kind with the bumps that prevent that sort of mishap.

My dad and I had a great time.  He is an excellent running buddy because he isn't mean or pushy, but he doesn't let you off the hook either.  He is also fast!  I think that might be part of how I improved my race time on a hilly course.

Here I am dying on the home stretch hill and hellfire.  In Chicago, most all races end on a hill - it's a huge, sad joke around here.  I thought that maybe I'd be off the hill-hook since I was running a race in TX.  Mmmmm no.  This hill was the hugest of the entire course!  I wanted to fall over.

But that would have injured my booty.  So I didn't.

Then, I crossed the finish line!!!  That was an exciting moment after 30+ minutes of hill after freakin' hill.  There was a big crowd at the finish line, so I had to stop running immediately after crossing - never a good thing because then you pass out or collapse.  As evidenced here:

We had a great time at the race!  I'm really glad my dad and I got to run it together.  When preggo Tweets has given birth to the chick-let and she's recovered, then I bet the three of us will take on another race!

Not a sub-30 5k yet - but I'm getting there!  For you other runners, how did you score your first sub-30 5k?  (And if you have ALWAYS run a sub-30... well you can just shhhhhhh) ;)

The Night Before...

...Thanksgiving is always full of food prep, right?  Well, our house is no different.  Tweets has a long history of being in charge of the pies.  I am not sure if she really loves making the pies, or if it's a job that just claimed her.  In any sense, she makes dang delicious pies, so preggo or not, the woman is in charge of dessert!

Wednesday night, the following peeps converged on our kitchen for some old-fashioned apple corin' and pecan smashin':

We had lots of pies to make - Tweets is a good piemaster and bought us all Starbucks for our labor!  There are no pics of me, Sir Black Belt, or Billie Sue below, but we were there, I swear!

A Texas Thanksgiving

Soooo, I just came back from my first TX Thanksgiving in several years.  Holiday flights between Chicago and Dallas are HIGHWAY ROBBERY.  People, we are talking $400+.  Every year, I have to choose whether to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas in TX, and Christmas always wins, so I usually spend Thanksgiving in the Chi with friends.

Well, after missing many Thanksgivings, my parents put their feet down and so I was home for Thanksgiving this year.  :D  Meet the fam:

You want to know something funny?  This isn't even everyone.  We're missing a few up there because I couldn't get snaps of everyone in my limited time at home - so... there will be pickup shots come Christmas.  Also, Mr and Mrs Tweets' chick-let is busy being a fetus, so that got in the way of being photographed.

This was the first Thanksgiving in awhile that we all were home at the same time.  Some things hadn't changed:

We own more Volvos than the dealership...And other people came home with VERY BIG TATS!

My sister Ali has been thinking about getting this tat for over four years, and she finally did it!  It's a reproduction of a mother's day card that our grandmother (who is Ali's namesake) gave our great grandmother wayyyyyyyyyy back in the 1930s.  Our "Granny" gave Ali this card when she was tiny, and it's one of her most prized possessions.  I love it!

We had fun in the kitchen...

We ate lots of food and drank tons of fancy cider:

And of course, there was foosball and board games.  And cheating.  Lots and lots of cheating.  We didn't even fight!  Another Christmas miracle!

We had a great Thanksgiving.  How was yours?

Redman 2010: When Tweets Gets Me Good

Missed Part 1?  Click HERE

OK, so Redman 2010 was held under MUCH better conditions than Redman 2009.  When Tweets competed in Redman 2009, she was dealing with monsoon rains and mudslides, in addition to major stomach issues.  This year, we were relieved to see that the weather was mostly behaving itself.

However, as the day passed, my mother, sister Billie Sue, and I were both concerned and surprised by a number of factors. 

EXHIBIT A (cause for concern): The day was HOT. It had to have been over 90 degrees.  As a runner, I have difficulty racing in degrees over 80, so I was very worried for Tweets.

EXHIBIT B (cause for confusion): Tweets finished her 2.4 swim in two hours.  She finishes swims like this in an hour-ish.  Also, why is she smiling?  Last time I checked, 2.4 swims aren't really THAT fun!

EXHIBIT C (cause for confusion): Tweets was a lollygagger in Transistion.  She took 15 minutes to get up on her bike to head out.  This is a ridiculously long time, and Billie Sue and I even had a private conversation about it.  From Billie Sue: "Does she know she's in an Ironman?  Should she hurry up?"

EXHIBIT D (the nail in the coffin of confusion): Look at Tweets on her bike.  She's smiling.  She's waving.  She looks like she's on a Sunday stroll.  SERIOUSLY!?  At this point, Tweets should be crying at least a little, maybe even a throwup session or two.  Also, Tweets took six hours to bike 88 miles.  Tweets regularly goes out on long bike rides.  She recently banged out a 75 mile bike ride in four hours.  In 100 degree Texas heat.

Are you confused at her behavior yet?  We sure were.  Of course we stayed positive and kept cheering her on like she wasn't competing like a weirdo.  My mother even called my dad (also a triathlete) and asked him if he knew of any recent injuries or problems.  My dad was just as confused as we were.  I believe a direct quote might have been... "What!?  She should have finished her bike ride a long time ago!"

We asked Mr. Tweets what he thought might be going on.  His response "Well, she is NOT pushing herself like she was last year.  We don't want her getting sick like she did last time."

Welllll, ooooook.  I guess that's a good thing, of course.  But still, she should at least be breaking a sweat.

Finally, Tweets' slow pace meant she needed to drop out of the race.  She was NOT going to make the bike cutoff time.  (All races have a cutoff time by which you must have competed a particular race component.  Because Tweets had been going so slow, she knew there was no way she was going to make the cutoff.)

Tweets biked around the bend for the last time and as we cheered for her, she cut us off with a somber "Hey, guys, my race is over.  I'm dropping out."

She had completed 90 miles of the 140.6 mile race course.

We were totally devastated.  Mr Tweets, my mom, Billie Sue and I packed up our gear and waited for Tweets to park her bike and walk out of her Transition area.  We were all trying very hard not to cry so that we could make Tweets feel better for dropping out of the race.  Mr Tweets gave Mrs Tweets a big hug and they walked over to us out of Transition.

This is when Mrs Tweets dropped a huge bomb on us.

"Guys, I know you're really sad, but I need to tell you something.  I had a big reason for dropping out of the race, and it was a good one - it's good news.  You do NOT need to be sad.  I had to go slow today to keep my heart rate under 140... because I'm ten weeks PREGNANT!"

:O

Instantly, all of our sad tears turned into shock and excitement.  Everybody was hugging, and what was an incredibly sad moment turned into a great one!  Now, nobody cared that Tweets had to drop out!  Now, her strange behavior all made sense.  She took the race at a stroll so that she could keep her heart rate at a normal pace.  The heat elevated her heart rate, which is why she was going so ridiculously slowly.  If the weather had been cooler, she might have been able to finish the race on time, without even breaking a sweat.

I believe Mr Tweets response was a big sigh and "I am SO glad I don't have to keep that secret anymore!"

From Billie Sue "This is a GREAT DAY!!!"  There were many hugs and happy tears to be had.

About an hour later, back at our hotel, my brother Paul showed up.  He had been planning to watch Tweets' cross the finish line, but arrived after she had already quit and surprised the bejeezus out of us.  This was Paul's reaction to learning the BIG NEWS...

After our very emotional day, we decided it was time for dinner.  :)  The next morning, I headed back to Chicago, and my family headed back to Dallas.

Suffice to say, I AM SO EXCITED!!!!  The Tweets are going to have a chick of their very own, and we can't wait to meet the kid!

And now, to recover.  I need a Xanax.  And a drink.  Not at the same time.