Ironman, yikes

There are fruit trees everywhere in this country!   We had already picked every single apple from the little tree in our backyard, so we got excited when one of our English neighbors popped a sign in their front yard: “10 pounds apples for 1£”.  Chris, our corer/peeler/slicer gizmo, and I spent the better part of an evening working on the 40 pounds of apples we bought.  Haha!  The vast majority of slices went into the freezer for future crumbles/cakes/pies (if that’s not motivation to visit us, nothing is), but some were used in a gingery butternut squash and apple soup (yum), some roasted with winter root veggies (yum), and some just eaten plain or given to neighbors. 

Toasted Stilton cheese bread with gingery butternut squash and apple soup.

Please call us ambitious instead of crazy (debatable); we committed to the Ironman distance triathlon in Regensburg, Germany next June 17^th.  Not two months ago I said I’d “never do an Ironman” but then something clicked and it was all I could think about.   Chris didn’t want me to suffer alone, so signed up as well with the intention that we’ll go through the whole thing together.  Our goal is to finish in 15 hours, although really the goal is to just finish, period.   We’ve truly spent most of our free time these past few weeks obsessing over every part of the race, buying race-related equipment/books, and talking to any and everyone about racing and training.   Oh yeah, and starting to train!  We’ve actually been really blessed with great support groups here:  a running club with great trainers, a really strong cycling club, and other active duty families who are so, so welcoming and sweet.  I’m biased, of course, but the wives especially are fantastic!  They’re always throwing parties, brunches, cookouts, etc. 

Maybe it’s the (completely relative) lack of traveling these past couple weeks but I’ve been so, so homesick for Little Rock.  The Big Dam Bridge 100 bike ride is a huge part of Little Rock cycling culture and it (oh so selfishly) stunk to see all our friends’ Facebook updates about how great of a ride it was and to know that life really does go on without you.  This is a perfect opportunity (for the millionth time) to apologize to Cara and Sarah for my terribly snide remarks about Arkansas when I met them my first year of optometry school (lesson is: know thy audience).  Now they just think it is hysterical that not only did I end up living in Arkansas because Chris was stationed there but I absolutely fell in love with it.  I can just picture other people reading this blog who have never lived there thinking “my God, what could she have loved about Hicksville” but am pretty sure that Arkansas natives actually spread those rumors so no one from California tries to move in! 

We are about to start an absolute traveling BINGE that goes from tomorrow until Thanksgiving, so lots of blogs to follow.  We leave for Marseille and Nice, France tomorrow!  Exciting!