Race Day

I've been fully enjoying my post-triathlon week of inactivity and margaritas, but am finally mustering up the energy to post a few pix from the race last Sunday. But first I want to send a huge THANK YOU for the generosity of all the folks who supported me and helped me raise $2,825 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and made this all possible. Our entire training team raised over $100,000 for LLS, amazing.

So without boring you with all the details, it went something like this: move your arms alternately in a circular motion through water...repeat for one mile; move your legs in a circular motion while perched atop a two-wheeled apparatus...repeat for 25 miles; put one foot in front of the other as fast as you can...repeat for 6 miles; raise hands in triumph as you cross the finish line...collapse. Very exciting, really.

It actually was quite fun, especially with 3,000 other folks along for the same ride. I had a stellar cheering squad camped out at the corner of Congress and 3rd St. who would cheer with abandon whenever I passed...my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and friends Mindi and Tashan, old DC friends from high school with whom I've reconnected since moving to Austin. Was happy with my time, 3:07, and will definitely be tackling more in the future.

Triathlon high: Running my fastest mile on the last mile of the race.

Triathlon low: Being perfectly situated to intercept the snot rocket of the man running in front of me on said last mile.

A flock of triathletes poised to swim down Town Lake

Biking through downtown

I promise I was not that cheerful during the whole race

The Gaskins ladies, post-race

Some of my most excellent teammates

T minus one week

T minus one week until the big triathlon event this Sunday! With just a week left, here starts my favorite part of training called “tapering”. It’s the part where it's actually sanctioned not to train so much so your bod can recover for the big day. Now I can feel good instead of guilty when I bail on a scheduled run to grab a beer instead. My mom comes into town in a few days to visit me and my sis and root me on Sunday.

Here is a shot of me and a few of my TNT teammates this weekend at a teammate’s fundraiser downtown…a rare moment in which we have seen each other not in exercise getups and sweating like pigs. The dapper young man with the outstanding handlebar moustache is one of our team’s Honored Heroes. Tom, a Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Survivor, had his last treatment of chemo almost exactly a year ago today. And did I mention he’s competing in the triathlon next week? And another member of our team who was declared cancer-free a couple years ago is about to tackle an Ironman...how's that for some inspiration?!

Life in Austin rolls along. Just had a visit from Nate, who some of you will remember as my better half from my trip-leading days in Central America as we traipsed around the subcontinent with our family of students in tow. He was in town to help teach a course on human consciousness and other such zen-master topics for a week. I got to check it out for a couple of days and learned lots…not the least of which is that I’m very far from zen-master status. Still working on that one.

A recent discovery (and now daily guilty pleasure) we made while he was here is the snow cone stand just around the corner from my apartment. As you can see, it’s a trailer set up in an abandoned parking lot sandwiched between two office buildings. But don’t let the ghetto-ness of it fool you, you’ve never tasted a finer snow cone in your life. And excuse me, is that a snow cone wearing sunglasses on the roof…what’s not to love?

And in spite of my love-affair with Austin, I leave in a couple of weeks for another summer of trip leading with Backroads in Yellowstone and the Tetons. Excited to be back in Jackson Hole, see some friends and not be a rookie at the job this year!

Rookies

Swim

Bike

Run

An amusing memory from my college friend Katherine, a seasoned triathlete: "I remember running with you once our senior year. It was a very short run, if I remember correctly, and there may have been some swearing involved.”

No, endurance sports have never been my bag. But thanks to great coaching and encouragement from my Team in Training (TNT) folks, I got to put three months of training to the test this past weekend. My friend Ana-Maria and I headed for the coast to hit a sprint triathlon in Corpus Christi to warm us up for the real deal at the end of this month. We checked into the hotel, carbed up on some pasta, woke up Sunday at the ungodly hour of 5am, chowed down some Power Bars (anyone else find these disgusting?) and headed to the race site like nervous little schoolgirls on their first day at school. It was a sea of spandex and swim caps. We assumed we'd be in good company as rookies competing in some small-time race in a po-dunk town, but we were wrong. In the crowd of 150, racers with Ironmans under their belts were aplenty, the rookies were few.

Not to be intimidated by these Goliaths, we donned our sexy wetsuits and orange swim caps, took a prelim dip in the ocean, and were off on a 1000 meter swim, 18 mile bike, and 3 mile run, a bit more than half of what we'll do at the end of this month. And are you ready for this? I placed 1st in my age group! A-hem...nevermind that I was the only one IN my age group (which I will remain vague about, except that it now proudly boasts a “3” as of earlier this month), that's neither here nor there.

Fundraising Update
As you know, I'm fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and would love your support! I've commited to raising 2,600 smackers and I just hit the $1,000 mark...only $1,600 to go! Please consider donating today, every bit counts! http://www.active.com/donate/tntctx/susiegaskins

Some pre-race pix of me and Ana-Maria

Heading West

In other news…just before Thanksgiving I packed my car with most of my worldly possessions and headed West like every good hippie should do at some point. My destination: Austin, Texas. My mission: to secure a permanent address for more than two months. Austin has been lingering on my radar for years as a place to settle down. It seemed we might get along well from what I've heard about the place and from many visits here to see my sister over the past 10 years. My sister and her husband were super-kind to let me crash with them for a bit before I settled into my little one-bedroom apartment close to the action of downtown just after New Years. I'm now the proud owner of exciting household items such as house plants, a welcome mat, a coffee maker and real grown-up furniture. My favorite purchase is a big red sofa, which incidentally conveniently folds out into a bed...so if you ever find yourself in the area…

I've loved being a nomad for the past six years, but having a place to call home and put down some roots feels heavenly right now. Although truth be told, I've still ended up darting about the country between Austin, Arizona, and DC quite a bit over the past several months. Nonetheless, my clothes are very appreciative of a closet to live in instead of a backpack, and my books are happy to be on a shelf instead of in a box. Baby steps.

I've been working remotely for Backroads (awesome travel company out of San Francisco that I've been working for) in marketing communications. I'll put my trip leader hat back on in June as I head back out to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone to lead trips for them.

Speaking of trip leading, I had a successful first trip of my own to Guatemala in September, an experimental little maiden voyage with a small group of family and friends, we had a blast! I've definitely neglected that endeavor for the moment and hope to pick it back up once life slows a bit.

Come see me in Austin!

View of downtown Austin from my apt. complex.

Swim, bike, run for a cure...

Many of you don’t know this yet, but I have officially made the move to Austin, Texas and have been busy settling into the Live Music Capital of the World, a move that’s been lingering in my background plans for years. A “life” update is long overdue, which is coming, but first...a huge part of my life for the past two months has been training for the Capital of Texas Triathlon, taking place here in Austin on May 25th. This Olympic distance triathlon has me training about 5 days a week to prepare for a 1.5k swim (about 1 mile), 40k bike (about 25 miles), and 10k run (about 6 miles). This is the first endeavor of its kind for me...perhaps I should have started with a 5k fun-run, you say? Nah.

I’m training and fundraising through a wonderful program, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training, whose mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma– and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. I have committed to raising 2,600 smackers and need your support in reaching that goal! While a portion of donations goes toward research for new life-saving cancer treatments, what I find even more appealing are programs that help cancer patients with the financial burden of cancer treatments. Chemotherapy is expensive. Traveling to and from treatment centers is costly. Not being able to go to work b/c you or your loved one is battling cancer presents a significant financial strain. Much of the money we raise goes to support programs that help ease these financial burdens for patients and their families.

Almost all of our lives have been touched by someone close to us who has battled this indiscriminate disease. Two close friends of mine from college, Anna and Patrick, survived bouts with cancer in their early 20s. Their stories are inspiring and hope-giving. And I also think about my close friend, Katherine, who lost her wonderful mom Ruth, a mother of four, to this devastating disease four years ago. Cancer does not discern between young or old, male or female, rich or poor, but strikes blindly. Defeating it is a cause that we can all unify behind.

To keep up with my progress and contribute to help keep me motivated as I rise for swim training at the ungodly hour of 6am, cycle those hills, and put more miles on my running shoes, please visit my website at www.active.com/donate/tntctx/susiegaskins. All contributions are tax 100% deductible. Whatever you can give counts!

Stay tuned for sexy photos of Susie in a wetsuit...