Tri, Tri Again

Well, we did it - our first Triathlon in Taiwan (my first ever)!!! We headed over to the Eastern coastal area for the Miaoli International Triathlon with FLASH - our team from Howard's bike shop near Tony's work  - on Saturday morning for a weekend of recreational companionship - just us and a couple thousand other people!!!

Saturday's race was a Sprint Disance Triathlon - 750m swim, 20km (very loosely measured) bike, 5km run - so this was my race. Thankfully I was in the first group with most of the other women, so we were able to swim without running over the top of everyone (or getting run over the top of)...

I completed the swim in a decent time, though I really felt so slow and couldn't seem to find my regular rhythm... so next it was on to the bike - my NEW beautiful road bike (which you can't really see here, but you'll see someday I'm sure)...

Here's some of the other team members - aka our fan club... it was really nice to have friends cheering for me through this event... it did make a difference.

So here I am... at the last 2 minutes of my run... phew... a bit of the run was uphill... a fair bit was uphill (after we'd ridden uphill too) so I was hurting... but there they were - Tony & the gang up the hill hollering for me...

and then it was all done!!! I made it in 1:48:17 - 13th in the women's division (only 38 of us) but only 21 minutes slower than the fastest woman - so I thought that wasn't too bad for my first try!!!

Justin was our buddy we met on the last race!!!  Well done, buddy!!!

The kids were real troopers through the whole thing - it was not always that exciting for them, but they were happily cheering us along!

My friend Karen also completed the race... she had a few things go wrong right as the race was about to start, but she was able to conquer the circumstances and make it!!! I find her quite inspirational... she's willing to give it a go!! Great work, Karen!!!

After a quick shower, we finally made it to the banquet meal held at a sports stadium. Thankfully we had a few friends who arrived early enough to save us a table with some food... it was a feeding frenzy for about 20 minutes til the food finally hit our heads and we all laid off a bit. There was a live band and it was all rather buzzy, but we had to get the kids home to sleep and the others still had their race the next day!

We stayed in a comfortable 'minsu' about 20 minutes from the venue, so we didn't have to get up at a ridiculously early time... however, all four of us in the same room meant morning came all too early for Tony who was gearing up for his race.

So, Sunday was the Olympic Distance Triathlon - 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run - twice the fun I had the day before (I think I'm gonna stick with the shorter ones for a bit til I get used to it a bit more). Julianna was proud of her mountain bike and was not going to let anyone tell her differently... you go, girl!!!

Wu Kong - he's the manager of the shop - he's always making sure everyone else is settled first before taking care of himself...

Karen's husband, Bob, also participated so it was fun to see him again... we first met them at a swimming event last year and now Karen & I are in the same BSF discussion group so we see each other every week.

The kids and I stayed to watch all of our friends complete their swim... poor ole Helena, though... had to be strapped in her stroller for this part and this was the view she had the whole time... lots of lycra!!!

Wu Kong psyching himself up for his pre-swim wait...

Michael, the blur, came past on his way to the cycling... he came in 2nd overall in his division and I'm not sure what his overall time was - maybe 9 or 11th... I can't remember but he was pretty darn fast.

Julianna was a fast swimmer too... she motored past...

but here's the guy we were really looking for!!! Good job, baba!!! He did his swim in just 31 minutes... nice pace!!!

Helena was like the rest of us athletes - eating our bananas...

After everyone we knew made it out of the water, we headed over to the finish line area so the kids could play a bit (and make sure we caught Tony at the end).

We had great 'seats' for watching the athletes come in to the finish line... the kids were pretty patient, but really - it was hot and they were tired - I was so impressed that they did as well as they did.

And there he is... Tony!!! Yahoo!!! He made it in 2:33:46... 31st out of 177 in his men's division (the 35+) - WELL DONE!!! He was pretty pleased and we were very proud of him!!!

 

This was great... as tired as the kids were we waited around to collect a prize for our buddy Michael who placed 2nd in his division... and the best part was that Tony got to collect the prize!!! Maybe next time he'll be up there collecting his own prize... may it be so!!!

When it was all said and done, we went back to the minsu for a shower and a somewhat relaxed meal together before hitting the road for our 2+ hour drive back to the city...

What a blast... I think we'll do it again sometime!!!

Happy Easter

Easter has already come and gone ... but it didn't pass uncelebrated, you can be sure! On Thursday, April 1 our apartment was buzzing with excitement as 19 kids and 16 adults decorated eggs, sang songs, heard the Easter Story, made baskets then went outside to hunt for eggs and eat a dinner's worth of snacks!!! Phew... it was a blast and Hunter still recognizes "Aaaaaaleeeeeluuuuuuuuuia!!!!" as "our Easter song" when he hears it on his cd. Thank you, everyone for making it a special occasion!

You'd be surprised to know that the decorating portion went off with very minimal mess...

Prudence and Jay - working out their color schemes.

The colorful lot

Kristie & Vicky led the kids in singing a couple classic Easter songs - "Christ the Lord has risen today... Alleluia" and "Rejoice, Rejoice"... the kids got into it (more than the photo shows).

Then they told the story of Jesus' death and resurrection with the help of some really cool graphics they'd put together...

Next it was on to 'craft time' where the kids made Easter baskets with pipecleaner handles and decorated them with heaps of stickers... thanks Karen & Cynthia!

Tupe & Telesia came over to join the festivities and check out our house as a possibility for them to move to when she takes over Tony's job in June.

Conrad & Rita were pretty pleased with their baskets.

"Look up just a little higher..."

I think colored eggs are just so cool looking, don't you?!?

Lorelai's eggs looked just as dainty in the basket as she looked in her Easter dress,

but I think her sister, Eries, had the right idea skipping the egg hunt in favor of the snack table...

and Tilly enjoyed the fruits of her find!

Happy kids equal happy moms... and vice versa!!! I think we all were particularly happy to be able to celebrate such a special holiday together.

Cheeky, Cheeky

These two kids are cheeky... one day while Dad and Lynne were here I caught Hunter in my room under the covers with my camera. Thinking he was only fooling around with it trying to look at pictures, I confisgated the camera and gave him a stern talking to, and figured he'd learned his lesson about not touching my camera. So, you'd be as surprised as I was when I was looking through the photos on our night out with Dad, Lynne and Tony to find a whole series of pictures that neither Tony nor I had taken... the culprit - HUNTER, the accomplice - HELENA.

It turns out the under the covers incident was not just looking at the photos, but trying to take photos... here's the map on our bedroom wall with a bit of blanket (or hand) in the way!

These next are a handful of I kid-you-not about 30 photos he'd managed to snap off undetected!!!

One of those moments when you know you should be angry and the children should be disciplined for touching a forbidden object, but still so interesting that the 3 year old boy could manage to get such decent pictures and angles, etc... he'd actually tried to improve angles, etc as he worked through the pictures - it was somewhat artistic... but still, cheeky. You can be sure my camera now lives in a higher up home... as do daddy's sunglasses (after a broken pair the other day), mommy's jewellry, and any other item of significance or convenience... these two are little climbers and diggers - I guess we can say they do work well together.

Ten Days In Taipei...

Arrival - Friday, March 19
So Dad and Lynne arrived in the evening after a longer than expected bus ride from the airport... by the time they got to our place the kids were bathed and ready for bed. So they said good-night to them and the four of us enjoyed a quiet meal at home and a bit of a catch up from their trip to Singapore on the way over... then off to bed in preparation for our 10-days of fun!!!

Day One - Saturday, March 20

After a healthy breakfast at home, we dragged them out to the City Hall area to see a bit of the reason why we love living in Taipei... the Tour de Taiwan bike race was making their last stop here in the city so we went along to watch these super fast cyclists ride circles around our town (literally).

Helena enjoyed the view from Grandad's arms much more than from the stroller!!!

Hunter made a new friend after the race - he knows how to pick them!!!
But Helena wasn't fooled by those angel wings...

 

After the race, we took a walk to our local bike shop for a potty break and a chat, then off to lunch at "Omelet to Go" - where we sat on the patio and enjoyed a delicious western brunch (we were trying to ease them into life here in Taiwan)... along the way I stopped to buy some things and was impressed by the method of delivery... really, this is another thing we love about living in Asia... interesting ways of doing things!

 

Tony was preaching at church on Sunday, so he had to head home to practice. Dad & Lynne took their books to a cafe and I took the kids home for a nap. We had a home-cooked meal together with Rachi - Tony's interpreter - then the kids & I took Dad & Lynne out to our local market to buy fresh fruit and veggies - which of course they got a total kick out of!!!

And morning and evening were the first day!!




Day Two - Sunday, March 21

We met up with Tony at Torch Church for a great morning of worship and a message about being part of God's Community and how we can create community for other people. It was a good message (I am biased) - practical and insightful. Tony did a great job of communicating these important truths from the Bible.

This was Tony's 3rd time preaching at Torch... Rachi's been his interpreter all three times... and she always does such a good job of really following his actions and keeping his enthusiasm...

She even got down on the 'mat' with the paralyzed man and got lowered through the roof to see Jesus... what a friend!

Here's half of the view from Tony's vantage point... we're there in the front. Hunter even made it through the whole service and despite Tony's scratchy throat and duck-like voice, people's hearts were touched!

After the service we went out to luch with our pastors and a few other friends... Hunter & Edu were part of the white shirt club today.

It was fun to be part of this community - and oh boy was it a feast!!! Dad and Lynne really got a good sampling of what Taiwan has to offer!!!

We were all so zonked after church and that amazing meal, we came home to rest. Then went swimming downstairs before another home-cooked meal (I mention this because I think this was the last dinner I cooked for the rest of their time here).

And morning and evening were the second day!