Change in Race Plans

This past week I have been looking over my race schedule for this year.  I decided that due to the plethora of races that I have in March/April with the Striders Winter Racing Circuit, as well as the SLC Half and Icebreaker Tri, I shouldn't abuse the support my husband gives me and take May off from racing.  I also saw that I would have an 8 week break from racing over the summer with the Little Red Century on June 1st, and then my next race not being till Spudman on July 27.  I hate going that long during the season without racing!  So I talked with my support crew (aka Ken) and told him that I wanted to sign up for another race that would be end of June to break up that 8 week period.  He agreed if I dropped the St. George tri that was scheduled for May.  Easy enough!  I hadn't registered for the STG one yet anyhow, so no harm there.

A few days later Ken was online looking at things to do in Big Bear, California where we are taking our family vacation this summer.  He called me into the office from the other room and said, "Look Katie!  There's a tri at Big Bear the weekend we are there!  You should do it!"

Me: (not believing HE said those words, and so excitedly, hesitates for a minute still in disbelief) Oh, really?  What distances?"

Ken (most amazing support crew EVER):  They have a sprint and an Oly.

Me: (still wondering who this man is and what he did with my husband):  That would be fun.  Are you sure that is what you want to do on our family vacation?  I wouldn't think you would want to have anything to do with racing that week.

Ken: But it is something you would love, and it would be fun for us to cheer you on as a family.   Just don't do the Oly so you are wasted the rest of the day.

I just ran and hugged him.  I LOVE racing, and the prospect of combining both our annual family vacation which I also love, with racing sounds like pure Heaven to me!  And the fact that he brought this up, not me, makes him even more of a keeper!  I looked at the website and the course, and it looks like so much fun!  The bike course for the Oly looks like a booger, so I have no issues with sticking to the sprint distance that day :)

For your information, Ken has always been AMAZING when it comes to my races and my addiction to them and training.  He has never told me I can't do something.  But as his wife, I can tell when he thinks it is getting too much, and I then back off.  I have tried to stick with just one race a month.  I have also tried tirelessly to make sure most of my training doesn't interfere with family time by sticking to super early mornings and right after work before he gets home.  I take Sunday off from training completely as not to interfere with family time there either.  I think that in doing this it has made him more flexible and supportive when race time does come around.  He genuinely sounds excited about watching and supporting me in a race while on vacation!  And, this is his vacation year, as we take turns picking our destinations, and this was his year to pick.  What a man!  He's definitely a keeper!

So, I am no longer doing the St. George Oly on May 18, and I replaced it with the Rock Cliff Oly on June 29th.  Then Ken added the Big Bear Sprint on June 15.  Sounds good to me!

I love how even when I think I have my race season planned, it always takes an unexpected turn for whatever reason, and in this case it is an awesome one!  So excited to do this race, which will technically be my first out of state race, as it does happen before Spudman :)