Goodbye, Four Eyes!

Tomorrow is the day. 9:30am. After that, no more contacts, no more glasses. I'm getting laser eye surgery, baby!!! Wahoo! Everyone keeps asking me if I'm nervous. I guess I probably should be...I mean it is surgery. On my eyes. There is a possibility something could go wrong and my vision could end up more screwed up than it is now. But really, I'm not nervous. I'm excited. For the first time in almost 20 years I will be able to get up in the morning and be able to see clearly without glasses or contacts. And that is very exciting to me!

For those of you who are more curious about the details, I am not having LASIK surgery, I'm having the "flapless" eye surgery called Advanced Surface Ablasion (ASA). There's really not a lot different in terms of the outcome of LASIK vs. ASA, there's just a difference in how the surgery is done and the risk of complications after surgery (although not a substantial difference in risk). I talked quite a bit with the surgeon about the two procedures and just decided given my active lifestyle, that it made sense for me to have ASA instead of LASIK. If you are interested in learning more about the differences, here's a link to a document that talks about ASA and the differences from LASIK: http://www.dmeyemd.com/pdf/ASAFinal.pdf

Ok, off to finish up some last minute work stuff so I can be off the rest of the week recuperating!! Wish me luck!

One Time...at Tri Camp...

Last weekend I went to a triathlon camp in Sarasota, Florida. Not just ANY triathlon camp, mind you. This was an all-chick triathlon camp AND it was hosted by 5x Ironman winner, Heather Gollnick. I signed up for the camp way back in like November, when Jen first posted about it on her blog. So I had plenty of time to get very nervous and very excited. I was nervous because I had been sick pretty much from Christmas through mid-January. Which meant no training whatsoever. I was worried I would go into camp way behind everyone else and not be able to keep up (which turned out to be semi-true). I was also very excited because this was great opportunity to learn about the sport from some very talented pro and elite triathletes. And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I was also just plain excited to spend a few days in sunny Florida!

Overall, camp was an unforgettable experience. All of the campers and coaches were amazing in their own right. I really enjoyed getting to know everyone and I look forward to keeping in contact with them in the future. As for the camp itself, I learned so much not only about triathlon the sport, but also about myself and where I am in my triathlon journey. The biggest thing I have learned is that I have a lot of work to do to get ready for these half ironman races this summer. Not just physically, but also mentally. I need to push myself to train harder and more diligently. I need to find ways to continually go outside my comfort zone to get stronger. And I need to find ways to get over my “bad self” when I get frustrated or discouraged. All in all, realizing these things about myself and changing the way I think/feel/train will only make me a stronger person and triathlete.

Camp was also filled with many firsts for me, including:

• Biking over 45 miles in one day
• Taking apart, packing and re-assembling my bike – TWICE
• Flying with my bike (Southwest ROCKS!)
• Riding in a paceline (scary, but fun)
• Seeing an alligator outside of a zoo
• Seeing a live armadillo (YAY!! FINALLY!)

While all the other bloggers from camp have posted many, many great photos from the camp, I decided I’d be a little different and hand out some fun “Camper Awards”. The recipients of the following awards were selected purely on the basis of my own personal experience at tri-camp. Some of you may have handed these awards out in different ways, or given different awards, based on your experiences with everyone. But here’s my version of Camper Awards:

• Miss Congeniality – Melissa Schwartz – Pure goofiness that had us cracking up all weekend long. Raise the roof!
• Miss Photogenic – Molly McNamara - Perfect smile in every picture. Even underwater! And there are lots of pictures of her. This girl even ran with her camera.
• Best Swimsuit – Courtney Dewees – Love love love the “I will swim every day” Splish.
• Most Determined – Sondra Houhoulis – This girl is serious about getting better in this sport. And she absolutely LOVES every minute she spends training. The harder the better.
• Best Attitude – Sherry Lynn LaBree – Fought through some serious calf pain on Saturday and Sunday, but she buckled down and got through her workouts. And all with that huge smile of hers.
• Best Dressed – Aimee McCaa– From her Louisville IM cycling jersey, to her jammies at pancakes and PJs, this girl rocks her style.
• Hottest Bike – Heather Gollnick – I have to say, that pink camo QR is suh-weet! And TINY!
• Best Draft – Monica Murphy - She was so kind to let Rachelle and I ride her wheel for 30 miles. Without Monica, I think I’d still be out on that second loop somewhere.
• Best Taste in Music – Jennifer Cunnane – Vanilla Ice, Tone Loc, Ice T, Public Enemy. Word to your Mother.
• Best Fish Impersonation – Cheryl Stine. This chick can swim. FAST. If I could only swim half as fast as she does.
• Best Moon – Elizabeth Waterstraat – Those shorty shorts make for easy elf-mooning.
• Best Travel Buddy EVER – Rachelle. This goes without saying, she put up with me for four days. Although I did contemplate giving her a Stinkiest Feet award….
• Most Intense Camper – Jen Harrison. And I’m not just saying this because she’s my coach. I honestly think Intensity might be her middle name. Could have also won Most Likely to Fart While Laughing award.
• Best Conversationalist – Holly Ball. Holly can and will talk to anyone about anything. So personable and genuine. She made the run on Sunday so much more enjoyable. Thanks, Holly!!
• Best Swim Lane Partner – Kate Oliver – This girl doesn’t make a splash. At all. NO waves when she swims. Poor thing was probably getting sea-sick from all the chop I was sending her way.
• Fastest Blogger – Todd Gollnick – He had the trike race pictures up before we even got back to our hotel rooms! Molly was a close second for this award...
• Slowest Blogger – Me. The proof is in the pudding.

And so I will close my camp recap with some photos from the last afternoon in Florida…it was colder than it looks!