Ski to Sea

We went to Bellingham, WA (in the far northwest corner) for a big team race over Memorial Day weekend and, we're relieved and happy to say, the trip was a success!! The race went well but by "success" I actually mean Kate's behavior! We were more worried about that than the actual event because the logistics were not really baby-friendly. We had a long road trip over on Saturday (hence the photo of her in the carseat with her yummy road trip snacks!), a night in a hotel, had to get up at 4 Sun. morning, travel up Mt. Baker, wait hours for the race to start, pick up various teammates, drive and drive and drive some more, etc., etc. Through it all, she was fantastic!! We definitely didn't give her enough credit for her capacity to just roll with all the circumstances. She didn't melt down in the car, slept well in the hotel and seemed to really enjoy watching all the race activity. It helped that the weather was absolutely perfect. The race itself was really fun, and we got to see some country we haven't been to before. We were a team of 8, the race consisting of a cross country ski, downhill ski, run, road bike, canoe, mountain bike and kayak. We each did one leg, except for a tandem canoe. Ryan kicked things off with the skate ski and, despite the complete mayhem of over 400 racers jockeying for position, he finished in under 30 minutes (very fast). Our downhiller was fast as well, then I ran the 8 miles down Mt. Baker (my shins and quads are screaming today). After our road biker, we were in 37th place overall! We ended up a bit farther down, but we weren't in it to compete. Of course, since we were doing well, we're all now thinking "if only we had actually trained for the event...." It was a logistical nightmare but we're glad we did it, and everyone's already saying "well, NEXT year......" I think Kate would be up for it!