Chili Challenge October 2012

On Friday afternoon, we drove the travel trailer up to Erik's cousin's place in Pennsylvania for the Chilli Challenge.  The Chilli Challenge is a triathlon (kayak, running, biking) that Uncle Bobby and cousin Karen do every year.  Most years, Uncle Bobby does the kayaking and Karen runs and bikes.  However, after not the greatest experience a couple of years ago, Karen decided to just cycle (as if riding 20 miles isn't enough?!).  This year they were short a runner, so they asked me to do it!  I was so excited to try this new type of race, especially with members of the lovely Ort family whom I have really enjoyed since living in this part of the country.

Oh boy this girl's love for Yo Gabba is still as strong as ever.  She will tolerate Backyardigans, Barney, Sesame Street, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse occasionally, but as soon as she sees D.J. Lance walking across the screen, it is over!  Luckily, we have a couple of shows stored on the ipad and phone, to keep the peace in the truck. :)

It's nice that the boys are happy with playing with little toys  in the car.  They like to play on the screens too, but they don't need it all the time during a car ride, like they used to.

So we got to Hughesville, PA around 5:30.  We set up the trailer on their beautiful piece of land and then I went with Karen and her 12 year old son Gage to Williamsport.  On the first Friday of every month, Williamsport has some open air musical concerts going on.  It was awesome because almost all of the bands were teenagers from a local music school.  Erik's cousin (Karen's brother) Willy, teaches there and Gage is a student.  It was so much fun to see Gage's band play the blues-- they were great!

While I was away, Erik, the kids, Hannah (Karen's 16 year old daughter), and Greg (Karen's husband) had a fun campfire. They roasted hot dogs, and made smores, and I guess Wyatt and Anna pigged out on fruit snacks :)

The next morning, Karen and I left for the site of the race.  It was pretty rainy, but luckily it turned into a drizzle by the time the race started.

Biking was up first.  Since we knew Karen would be about 1 hour and 20 minutes, we headed over to the visitor's center that was a lot of fun for the kids.

Apparently I forgot to pack Anna's sweatshirt!  Oops!

Back at the race, watching for signs of Karen. 

Wyatt was enjoying some White Stripes on the speakers :)

Here she comes! 

Next up was Uncle Bobby on the kayak.  He is super fast!  I think I would be terrible at kayaking, but Erik's uncle was seriously impressive.

After Uncle Bobby was done, I started my run.  I think this picture is hilarious, this girl was probably wondering why Erik was taking her picture, haha (can you see me in the back starting my route?)

It was fun to look through these pictures that Erik took while I was running.  Love my boys!

. . . and I returned!  It was a 4.75 miles run and super duper pretty!  I was worried about letting our little team down, because I am so not a fast runner.  10 minute mile is my usual M.O.  Without music in my ear too, I'm a little slower.  However I was happy to see once it was done that I was running at like an 8:45 pace . . . then I saw that most of the runners were like at a 7 minute or 8 minute pace and I was one of the slower runners!  Oh well, I ran about as well as I could have and I had fun, which really was my goal. :)

We're all done, woohoo!

Karen was happy to give Erik's arms a rest holding napping Anna.

And this is what I was very excited for: the chilli!

After we ate our lunch, we found out that we placed third in co-ed teams!  I'm sure if they had had a better runner they would've been in first or second, but I was still pretty happy to ride their coattails! :) 

I'm pretty excited to eat out of my new bowl.

We had such a great time.  It was a quick trip, but well worth it.  Karen and Greg were the best hosts and were always concerned with what our kids would need or want.  We're excited to have Karen at our house on Friday, because she has decided to run the Freedom Half Marathon that I'm doing.  Yay for family!