My BIRTHDAY!

Well Tuesday was the day.... my birthday!!! I'm now 27, wow! Sometimes, I feel like I just graduated form university. I've done so much since graduation, sometimes it's hard to believe I'm only 27. Although, here, when I tell someone I'm 27 they are shocked and think I look like I'm about 21 or 22. :) No complaints there!! I had a fabulous birthday! My day started with an excellent 25k cycle. After my morning class at school, one of the boys gave me a candy bar. The teachers all sung me happy birthday and we all had cake for breakfast. My co-teacher gave me a really nice house plant! One of my co-workers gave me a mini-cake! Also, I was lucky enough to not have to teach any of my regular classes for the day! In the evening, I met with a few of my friends in Anseong, we had wine and real cheese!!! Cheese here is either rather fake, or imported and very expensive! My friends are awesome and were kind enough to give me some cards and gifts! It was a great birthday!!! :)


On the weekend before my birthday, I did something I never really thought I would do - or would enjoy doing... I took part in a 12hour bike race!!! The race was up in Seoul and all along the Han river. The race began at 9pm and went through till 9am. The goal was to complete as many KM as possible during the 12 hours. I had a riding partner, and about an hour in, we added 1 more to our group. We had picked a good pace and decided to stop every hour, on the hour, for a short rest to have a snack and drink/refill water/Gatorade. At about 3am, we had already completed 75 miles. The 3 of us stuck together till about 4:30am, where myself and Dan slowed down a bit and Michael speed up! I hit the 'century' point at about 6:30am! I had to stop and take a photo of my Garmin because I was so excited. At that point I had a goal in mind and about 4 hours to get it.... so I began my chase... took a bit of it alone while Dan rested... then he joined me for about the last hour. I hit my personal goal, of 140 miles, at 8:45am. I choose 140 because it's the distance of an Ironman race. Our original goal was 150 miles, but the last few hours I was quite tired and had lost my pace. I was very proud to only miss our team goal by 10 miles and to hit my personal goal. I was really surprised what I could do - a 12 hour race thought the night! I did a total of 224km in 12 hours, which put me in about 6th place! Micheal who sped ahead only beat me by 20k. All of the races were between 200k - 243k! I wasn't far behind the leader, and wasn't last! :) Quite pleased with it! 


This coming weekend, I've got another big challenge! Myself and 2 others are taking the bus down to Busan on Friday night, and Saturday morning we begin our cycle journey to Seoul! :) Not sure if we will make it, we only have 3 days, but it will be one fun, beautiful, and challenging ride!!! 


At this point I have 31 days till my Ironman70.3 and I'm feeling very confidant in my abitilty to reach my goals. My goals are: To finish, To finish with a smile on my face, and To have FUN! :)