Half Ironman

So things have been busy this semester, but if you read my blog then you know I have been training for a half ironman. The was my first half ironman and will probably be my last at least for a while. My official time was 5:27:02. This includes my about 3 minute bathroom break about 8 miles into the run and the fact that my front tire was going flat on the bike, maybe costing my 5-10 minutes and a lot of wasted effort. Oh well. This race was just long and not that fun for me. At least racing sprints, while painful, they are fun. This was just long and drawn out pain and not one part of it was fun. :)

I wrote up a race report on our Triangle Tri Team I am on. You can find it at 2007.elitetriangletriteam.org if you can to read it. Meanwhile I am back training a little. More high intensity stuff since I felt like I was always going long and slow. I got Eric out for a 1 1/2 hour mountain bike ride over the holiday weekend which was a different change of pace. And I have a short sprint race in a few weekends. Other than that, not much on the racing agenda. I am taking tthe rest of his year as a year to not focus on training, I have a lot going on and want to just stay in shape and train some and have some fun and not worry so much if I get in the right workouts.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the race:
This is before the race, Eric is getting my wetsuit ready and then my dad and I since he was super excited that I was taking on this challenge. I look good right now getting ready!




I don't have any good ones during the race, but here are two of me afterwards. One, right after I finished trying to cool off with a cold towel and one maybe 5 minutes later, after sitting down and trying to collect myself. I don't look so good anymore!

Happy Graduation

So I am working backwards a bit. I finally graduated last weekend, so am official Dr. Zack now. Yeah. The ceremony was long and exhausting, the speaker was terrible, and sad to say it won't be the last graduation. As a professor, I will have to attend many in the future years. At least at high point, this year they had Bill Cosby speak. Now that would have been interesting. Here is a couple pictures:
Actually getting my diploma:


My advisor and his other advisee and my friend Benz:

The Little One Has Arrived

I meant to give a little update about graduation and the half ironman, I will do that later this week. More importantly, I am now a new Aunt. My sister gave birth at 2:39am this morning to a healthy baby girl, and her name is Amelia Zeeh Scott.

Congrats!!! If you want to know more and eventually see pictures, she has a blog: www.riverbandit.blogspot.com with all the updates.

I won't be up to see her and the baby until the end of June and will stay up there for two weeks. I can't wait to see the little Scott. :)

Here is a photo from the hospital:

Winding down

Well, I am officially done teaching for the semester...although summer school starts up a week from Monday. :) Things will be pretty calm this week and next. My race is finally here (Saturday) and I am just about done with training. I am excited and nervous as I don't know if I am as fully prepared as I would have liked to have been. I have a goal but after my marathon disaster, I am too scared to set a high goal, as I don't want to be disappointed in myself. I just want to feel proud for finishing.

My parents arrive Friday and then Saturday after the race we are driving up to Jamestown/Williamsburg, VA for a few days with them. If I don't pass out in the car from the race! Should be nice as I haven't been there since I was little and I could use a little vacation. Then graduation is next weekend, yeah. I am officially done with school, so now I will be Dr. Zack. :)

No news on the house. It is still just a lot...they are waiting on some permits and then we will be back out there for a pre-construction meeting.

So happy spring is here! And Monica-I fully understand that teaching is a hard job. Not nearly as bad for me as it is for you. I don't think I would have ever had the patience to teach anything less than College. I don't fully get my summers off either (research), but I definitely don't have to worry about calling parents and lesson planning AFTER school. I can do it during the day inbetween classes!

Happy May to everyone!