A Van Awesome Journey

Hi thanks for finding my blog! I am a wife of an awesome husband and proud mother to two amazing boys. I just quit my job to stay at home with our children and now have all the time in the world to play play play!!! Play with my children and play some games of my own...hence this blog. I entered a contest to be part of an Adventure Race something I have never done before. So I am required to blog weekly on my journey...so here goes..thanks for sharing it with me :).................So what has started out as a blog for reasons mentioned above has now continued into an on going journey that I have been asked to continue to share...and you with me! So thanks for coming along for the ride :)

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

He's Tri-ing on his own!! :-O

So it has been busy to say the least, hence not getting a chance to blog...GESH!! This weekend was totally awesome and I HAD to find a moment to share :) So it started off the the Meredith Hagan Inspiration Run. This is the run that came from my trainer that died in an accident 2 years ago. Her family and friends have made the Meredith Hagan foundation and they do the race to help raise money for different charities that Meredith supported. This race would make Meredith very happy and I can see her smile now. So I headed out early to help set up and then ran the 5k route which was a trail....it was, hard, hot and awesome! You can see the video I did of it here.
Mean while my hubby had to take the kids to get my 5yr race kit for his Triathlon for Sunday. So I notice when I got home that my sons race bib says that he is in the next age group up. Which means that he will also be doing a longer distance.....OH! So he was excited about the bike part being the longest, and he will get to do 1k this time. He LOVES the bike part and has talked about it from last year all year long.
Now what I didn't know was that I wasn't going to be able to do the race with him. So after he does his swim I pull him out of the pool and run around to meet him in the transition area (he got to put his bike in the transition area this year....SO cute!!) as I run into the area the marshals are yelling at me that I can't be in there and that they would help him. I told them that's fine but I just have to tell him that I won't be able to go with him, cause I prepped him that I was going to be there. So I run up to him and grab my stuff and say, "I can't go with you, they won't let me"....he says, "OK" and then heads off with his bike......well ok, no problem.
It was SO amazing to be able to watch him in the race this time. He bent down over his handle bars and stuck his elbows out and zoooom, gone!(later he told me doing that helps him go faster! LOL!) At one point he was so far out on the bike route that I couldn't see him...I felt like, OMG my little man is out there all on his own!!
He then came zooming in and the moment he was off his bike and they had his helmet off he was GONE for the run....in fact I only got a picture of his back! LOL! Then my husband ran along him to catch up with him and be with him....I love the picture I have of them running together :) xoxoxox
So I sat at the finish line waiting for him to cross. As he came running in he looked good,strong and fast and had a smile on his face. The race announcer even said, And coming into the finish line is NICHOLASSSSSS VAN EGMONDDDDDDD!!!" He crossed the finish line with such a smile of joy and got his medal.
With tears in my eyes I hugged him and told him, "OMG that was amazing!!! You did it all by yourself!"....I was just SO impressed with him. He told me that he liked doing it on his own and really had fun......awesome :-)

Monday, June 4, 2012

My first Conference

So this past weekend (Fri - Sat) I went to my first Personal Trainer Conference. I went because in order to stay a registered personal trainer I need to get 7 CEC credits. So going to this conference for the two days gave me 14...enough to be renewed for 2yrs. To tell you the truth I was feeling really intimidated about it. I thought it was going to be a tits and muscles show kind of show and that everyone was going to be sizing each other up. Think about those crazy fit, ripped people you see in the gym...that's what I thought I was going to be surrounded with for two days. But I was ready to go in and stand my ground for the 'normal' guy :) I am happy to report that it was nothing like that at all!!!....all different types of awesome people were there from young to old and fit to unfit! I looked around the room and was amazed at all the 'normal' people that were there. I felt like I fit in...not at the top or at the bottom but right in the middle. To me this was a sign that I am where I should be and am on the right path. It was great!! Everyone was SO positive and friendly...which I find most people who are into fitness and health are. I learned a lot of awesome fun things, the funniest class I took was where we did the exercise. And any of you that know me it won't surprise you to hear that I put all I had into doing the exercise, while others just went through the motions. I was lucky to have been paired up with a guy named Ross who liked to go hardcore just as much as I do. We had a blast!! We were sweaty, hot and laughing the whole class. As partners we had a belt around the person's waist in front and while they tried to run/side step/back walk & bear crawl across the floor the person behind would hold the end of the belt and try to stop them. It was hilarious!!! I was pulling that guy back across the floor as he tried with ALL his might to move forward and he did the same to me.....at the end we only had high fives/smiles and congrats on a awesome workout. One of the people watching even said to us, " You two were the best out there and SO fun to watch!" Anyone else that I partnered up with or eat lunch with, where all up beat, friendly and very helpful with tips and ideas and sharing their experience with me. After those two days I feel more confident in what I am doing, excited to learn more and positive I am headed in the right direction :)