Windy Possibilities: "Irongrid's" (and my) Austinacious Weekend

Ingrid came to visit this weekend to have some Austin fun and fill me in on all the details of her Ironman Florida race. Friday night we went to the Red Licorice Events "birthday party" Ingrid was a little disappointed that they didn't have cupcakes from Hey Cupcake since it was a birthday party and they have cupcakes at all their races. Ingrid says you can't have a birthday party without cake! We were however really impressed with the blender bikes! They were putting lots of tequila in the blenders and having races to see who could blend a margarita and drink it fastest to win prizes. Ingrid and I opted out of that since we hadn't eaten dinner. They also had very discounted sign up for all the 2010 Red Licorice races at the party. Ingrid and I had talked about doing a relay again, like we did at Cinco Ranch in 2008. We went back and forth about whether we wanted to sign up, but I finally told Ingrid, "if Kim can't run we can get Cassie or Del to do it, or David or Matt, or someone from Tri Zones" Ingrid said "ok, we have tons of options" and she signed us up. So team "Straight 'n Sour" (a play on the Sweet 'n Twisted tri that Red Licorice does every summer) will be racing at the Champions Tri in March! We were a little disappointed that we didn't win any door prizes at the party but we hoped we were just saving our luck for the Texas Tri Series party the next night.

Saturday morning we met Sandra and Nicki to run at Brushy Creek. As soon as Sandra saw us she said "Irongrid congratulations on Ironman Florida" Sandra is a writer so she's really good with words and Ingrid loved the new nickname!

"Irongrid", me, Sandra, and Nicki at Brushy Creek

Sandra, Nicki and I were running 10 miles and Ingrid did about 5. It was a great run except that my left quad kept hurting more and more as we went on, Sandra finally talked me into walking the last mile just to make sure I wasn't making anything worse. I wasn't happy about that, but I know it was the right decision so thanks Sandra!

After the run Ingrid and I planned to go to the Mellow Swap, but while looking up the times I found out the Austin Bike Zoo was making "pedal powered ice cream" so we decided to check that out first.

Ingrid with the Austin Bike Zoo's butterfly bike

We got there and tried some pumpkin ice cream made with coconut milk-yum! Jeremy and Sachi from the Austin Bike Zoo were really nice and they even let us pedal to make some ice cream.

I pedaled for just a minute since I was a little worried about my quad from the run.

Then Ingrid pedaled, and pedaled, and pedaled! It only took about 15 minutes total, that's faster than my electric ice cream maker can go!

You can see the set up pretty well in this picture. The coffee ice cream that Ingrid made was awesome! So yummy and much more frozen that most ice cream when it comes straight out of the ice cream maker. So we say pedal powered ice cream definitely wins over hand cranked or electric made! Ingrid is now obsessed with getting/making/or buying a bike that can blend and/or make ice cream!

The Mellow Swap was next, Ingrid got these great new sunglasses and I got a new running skirt.

We also got to meet Elliott of Austin on 2 Wheels fame, he was at the Mellow Swap with his Violet Crown Bikes. Elliott is really active in the Austin cycling community and I have read his blog for awhile now but hadn't met him until today.

Gordough's was next, I knew Ingrid had been looking forward to it all day. Gordough's is a doughnut trailer on South Lamar, but that really doesn't describe the gooey yummy goodness that is their doughnuts at all!

Ingrid created her own doughnut topped with peanut butter, chocolate, marshmallows, graham crackers, and grilled bananas. Look how happy she looks! and that was before her first bite!

I had the "funky monkey" with cream cheese icing, brown sugar, and grilled bananas. These were SO good! Definitely worth completely negating any health benefits from the 10 mile run I did that morning!

That evening was the Texas Tri Series party. This was my first year to complete the series but I had heard the party was really great. We were not disappointed.

Drew and Nicki at the party
All the tri series finishers got a tech shirt, socks, and a big metal finisher award- very cool. They had lots of beer, wine, and appetizers.

Julie and I at the party
They had a cool slide show of people from all the races going, we all loved seeing people we knew on the slide show. We all saw each other on the show and they had the cutest picture of Tom and Carolyn too. Dinner was salad and lasagna and they had cake for dessert! Ingrid was so happy to finally get her cake after Red Licorice didn't have a cake!

Ingrid, Annette, and Kim with their cake. Kim didn't really eat 2 pieces, I saw her give the big one to her husband!
They gave out awards for volunteers and tri series winners. Julie won her age group and got this award, behind it is part of the finisher award we all got.

They gave out tons of door prizes. Ingrid, Nicki and I won shirts, Julie won a visor that she really wanted, Nicki also won a pair of shoes and I think everyone won a water bottle or two.

Nicole and Sandra
The grand prizes were 4 entries into all the Tri Series races for 2010, that's worth between $600 and $700! Julie's was the second number they called, she was so excited that Dan said "now that's the kind of excitement we like to see when someone wins!!" When she sat back down I was hugging her and so excited for her! Then they called Ingrid's number!! Really? Wow Ingrid won too! I was so excited! She went up to give them her name and when she came back I hugged her and she said "When they asked my name I said your name, so YOU won!" I asked "Really? Are you serious?" She said "YES!" with the biggest smile on her face! I gave her a huge hug and said "I love you Ingrid! You're the best friend ever!!" I think I even cried a little! Later Ingrid told me "I was wishing in my head 453, 453 (my number) because I really wanted you to win, so when they asked me my name I just said your name" WOW! How many people can say they have a friend like that! What a selfless thing for her to do for me! I really hope karma repays Ingrid big time!

me, Dan of Jack and Adam's and Julie. Texas Tri Series 2010 here we come!!! I think my hands are still shaking in the picture from all the excitement!

Ingrid and I had planned to ride on Sunday morning, but I did a test ride around the neighborhood to see how my quad felt. It didn't go horribly, but it didn't go great and Ingrid informed me "you are NOT riding today!" So instead of ride then brunch, we just went to brunch at Chez Zee. Ingrid was craving creme brulee french toast so she got that and eggs sardou- yum! I got a crabmeat omelet-yum!