More training and Duathalon National Championships!

The weeks following Augusta have been pretty tiring as they have included our longest workouts of the year.....

Breakfast of champions....Yum. Ready to work out!

That's what 4250m straight does to the fingers.... #waterlogged

I don't need sunscreen......ouch!

perpetual view from my bike, at least it's BEAUTIFUL!!

Soooooo, back in March Simon and I raced the "Du in the Desert" "Desert Classic Duathalon", a 5k trail run, 25k Mtn or road bike and then another 5k trail run....anyone remember that? Yeah, it was a while ago.

Maybe this jogs the memory...

Simon placed 2nd and I placed 3rd in our age groups respectively. Well, it was a qualifying race for the Duathalon National Championships. Since they would be held in Tuscon AZ this year, we HAD to go!!!

Got into transition 4 hours early (since Simon was racing first)....

Only bike racked for the sprint....needless to say I had to remove my bike, PROMPTLY!

Simon (Tri Scottsdale kit) ready to ROCK IT!

Rockin it all the way to the finish!

So did this guy, YUP 89 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!

Qualified for the World Championships in Spain!

We will be traveling to Spain in late May- early June, SUPER EXCITED!! Simon took a couple pictures (and videos.....) of me that I haven't confiscated off his phone. Will add soon!

Typical WILLMAN-style, we got up early Sunday morning. packed up, checked out, grabbed breakfast and headed to Eloy, AZ to....

Yup, had to get some skydiving in.

I only have pictures of Simon, but I did a tandem dive, my 6th, which was actually my FAVORITE dive of all time. Flips, turns, spins, stalls, pulled the chute, wore the altimeter, pretty awesome.

Happy, Happy, Happy!

3 weeks until the BIG SHOW!!

Last weekend on our 4 hour ride, we spent most of the time on what will be the IMAZ course. Saw a sign already up at Shea and the 87, which will be the turn around.....got some butterflies!!!!!

The Ironman t-shirts I had made arrived Thursday, no sneak peak of those 😁

Getting excited!!

ONE MONTH COUNTDOWN IS ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it's almost GAMETIME......

This was sent at the end of August....and I literally almost pooped my pants. Great motivational email sent by a friend who did IMAZ last year. It got me to thinking about the reason I didn't blog as much as I planned...because I feel like Wonka, IMAZ IS ALL I TALK ABOUT and people must get SOOOO sick of hearing about my workouts....

But, I know family/friends are reading my posts and enjoy, so I keep going!

August was filled to the brim with traveling and September arrived quickly with races.

Here are a myriad of pictures that describe a typical week in September (ok, for the last year......)

Sept 22nd Lifetime Tempe Tri; no podium for either of us, still fun! And we met Olympic Triathlete, Hunter Kemper!

Always steal the pics online.....

I was put in the wrong age group......Oh well!

The next weekend.... Sunday Sept 29th.....

IRONMAN AUGUSTA 70.3

Part of the reason we wanted to get into triathalon was to travel the world!

We started with traveling across the country.......to Georgia! We got to race with Casey Burt and see family friends all in one trip!

My traveling shirt, Thanks Cass, hope I always have it!

Bikes made it!!! Whew!

The sign lives on Ster! With a new addition of Simon's work profile.

Thank goodness for Simon's bike building skills and the Burt's house with a bike stand, tools, food and FRIENDS!!

Yeah!!!! Reunion!

All checked in!

Athlete band on!

Goodie bag!

Ready for bike check in!

Let's get racked up!

PRIME REAL ESTATE for me!!

Morning of the race.......dark and chilly!

Transition area all set!

Let's get this party started!!! Athletes in the water, waiting for our wave to start.

HOORAY!!!! WE MADE IT!

With THE BEST cheerleaders!

TEAM WILLMAN!

The "Hardware"!

Cleaned up and ready to relax!

No trip is complete without the traditional In N' Out stop on the way home from the airport!

You can only borrow it for a minute!

Profesh pics. SOOOOOOO happy!

WOW, September flewwwww by!

October! Already?!?!?

Got to cheer Kelly on in her first Tri! Mission Bay, San Diego!

Mommy's doing a what?!?!

Man that's a good lookin bike! ;-)

Buddies!

GREAT JOB KELLLY!!!!!!

Annnnnnnnndddddd......

More training..........

That's after a 3800m swim........a little water logged......yikes!

Typical pre-workout breakfast.

Strawberry shortcake from Horny Toad...yes please! reward for a loooooog run!

The view for 7 hours on the bike in AZ....4 Peak in the background!

I don't need any sunscreen.......7 hours later.......

EXACTLY ONE MONTH FROM TOMORROW WE WILL BE RACING IMAZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will try to post more leading up to the big day so the blog isn't 30pages long and takes me 2 hours to complete........