Timberman Ironman 2011 AKA Amanda The Rockstar!

Andrew and I woke up in the wee hours on Sunday - I'm talking 4 a.m. (yikes) to drive up to Gilford, NH to watch Amanda compete in the Timberman Ironman, which is half-Ironman triathlon.  We're talking a 1.2 mile swim in Lake Winnipesaukee, 56 mile bike ride and 13.1 mile run - 70.3 miles in one day.  That's incredible when you think that most people get tired after driving 70.3 miles!

We were trying to time our arrival to catch Amanda before her wave hit the water.  We parked at the Gunstock Resort without a problem, hopped on a shuttle right away, and walked around the site to figure out where the swim start was located...turns out, it was on the other side of the beach, separated by a fairly deep inlet (see people wading through in the picture?)

There apparently was a pedestrian bridge set back from the site but it would've taken us another 20 minutes to find it. So we missed Amanda entering the water but could see her wave (age group) in the water, identifiable by their white caps.

After a failed attempt to cross the bike path (inept crossing guard wouldn't let anyone cross) to get back to the swim finish, we positioned ourselves around the bend from the swim finish so we'd be able to catch Amanda coming out of the water.

This turned out to be a highly entertaining place to stand, we were right in the area where the triathletes transitioned from swimming in their wetsuits to getting on their bikes.  The organizers had a team of people (including some young kids) to help the athletes get out of their wetsuits as quickly as possible.

The triathletes would start getting out of the wetsuit by unzipping the suit to their waist, which left just the bottom half still on.  They would approach this area, drop to their backs, and then the team members would spring into action, each grabbing a side of the wetsuit and pulling it off (most times) in one smooth motion.

I can't tell you how vigorously the kids were tackling these wetsuits - the word that comes to mind is gusto - they would yank with gusto, get splashed with water and were cheerfully anticipating the next person to drop down in front of them.

Finally, our first glimpse of Amanda (my only clear shots showed Amanda in awkward poses/expressions, so I settled for a blurry shot) - for most triathletes, swimming can be the toughest part (which is why triathlons are organized with swims first, so participants aren't too tired, thus decreasing the likelihood of drowning).  Not for Amanda, she kills this category and was ranking around 50th in the her age group when she came through.

I didn't take pictures at all the transition points, since it was an option to either take pictures or hold a sign and cheer, so I alternated between the two.  I did catch Amanda coming in at the end of her 56 mile (incredible!) bike ride and she was still looking cheerful and fresh as a daisy. 

Sidenote: Apparently a piece of advice that triathletes share on the bike rides is that if you've got to pee while you're on the bike, remember to move your water bottle first. Words to live by!

At this point, all that was standing between Amanda and the finish line was a 13.1 mile run - I certainly wouldn't have been smiling at that point but Amanda was pumped and ready to go!

What did Tom, Charlotte, Andrew and I do to entertain ourselves for the hours between Amanda's transition? We did enjoy homemade ice cream complete with jimmies for lunch to help beat the heat!

Due to Timberman's excellent online tracking system, we were able to see when Amanda hit certain checkpoints, which gave us a good sense of when we needed to be positioned by the sidelines to catch her running by.  We got a little worried during the last six miles of her run, because the triathlon organizers had announced that severe thunderstorms were an hour away and they would start pulling runners from the course for their own safety. Imagine being within miles of the finish line and being told that you can't actually do it.  Luckily for Amanda, she made it in the nick of the time - she's the second woman you can see in a red shirt/black shorts that is slightly to the left of the woman in front.

It was incredibly exciting to see her cross the finish line and the surrounding crowd was amped and cheering loudly for everyone that made it through.

As the sign proclaims, Andrew and I are truly in awe of Amanda's athletic prowess, endurance and competitive spirit - she is truly a rockstar in our eyes! Andrew played the role of proud brother all day, convincing people on the sideline to help him hold the sign so it was positioned in a way that Amanda could see it clearly!

Even though she was sweaty, we were both glad to give her congratulatory hugs after the finish.

Thankfully, Tom, Charlotte and Amanda were able to give us a lift back to our car before the heavens opened up - we're talking sheets of water that dropped visibility down to almost nothing.



We made it home by 7 p.m. after experiencing a little end-of-the-weekend summer traffic in NH and taking a shower never felt so good!

Highlights From Philadelphia

In another catch-up post, Andrew and I had the opportunity to visit Philadelphia for a whirlwind weekend last month. When I say whirlwind, I mean that we arrived around noon on Saturday and got home to Boston around 8 PM on Sunday, which means we spent a good chunk of our time driving the whole weekend.  I honestly can't remember the last time I was in Philadelphia so I suspect it was a good ten years ago visiting Breena while we were both in college!

Andrew went to Penn State undergrad, so needless to say, most of his friends from college (all?) still live in Pennsylvania! We were fortunate enough to stay with his friend Pete and his fiancee Nikki in their Philadelphia condo, which gave us an opportunity to catch-up and try some of their favorite neighborhood joints (pizza for lunch, Italian for dinner) for meals.  I think it would be tough for Andrew and I to downsize to a city condo (although Pete's and Nikki's is decently roomy) but I must say, it's awesome to walk out your front steps and have access to so many neat things within walking distance!

For example, while walking to the parking garage around the corner from their place, we spotted the Magic Gardens:

This what it looked like from across the street, and it immediately drew us in, even though our hands were full carrying overnight bags. 

By this, I mean that I dragged Andrew across the street so I could take pictures close-up

From researching the place after the fact, apparently this is a public art installation featuring the work of mosaicist Isaiah Zagar. It features "found objects and contributions from the community" and is a "labyrinthine mosaic collection". It was closed when we peeked in but you could see walls just covered with the most random assortment of things!

Bicycle wheels, anyone? We were bummed that it wasn't open (it was 6:30 in the morning, after all) but we'll definitely have to make another trip back to see it, especially since it's located so close to Pete's place

So why were we up at the crack of dawn? To watch Amanda compete in the Philadelphia Triathlon, which was the main reason we made the trek down to Philly. Unfortunately for us, while parking was readily available for spectators by the "Please Touch Museum," the triathlon's route was very poorly planned for people to be able to see the triathletes transitioning from one stage to another. Which means we spent the whole morning hoping for a glimpse of Amanda. We waited by the bike transition area but missed her out of the water (due to the crowd, it was impossible to pick her out) and missed her again on the bike route, even after standing an hour in one place. I'm positive we did see her (since the route looped twice, so chances were good that she passed us at least once) but the riders were going so fast down the hill, we couldn't be sure.

Finally, we staked out the finish line, determined to catch her running the last leg of the triathlon.  This is where we got lucky.  We caught a lucky break when we spotted one of Amanda's friends (whom we had met the night before at dinner) going through the finish line.  Javier joined us afterwards, and it was his sharp eyes that caught Amanda going by in the distance to begin her run. Andrew yelled her name repeatedly until she saw us, and we hoped that would give her a little boost to get through 6+ miles.

We kept on watching and finally, we saw Amanda!

Seconds away from going over the finish line

Amanda and her crew of fellow triathletes, who drove a fleet of Zipcars down to Philly from NYC

Amanda flashes us her "I got a medal" look as Andrew examines it admiringly

Some of you may remember the day-glo orange sign from last year, we saved it since we knew Amanda would be competing in more triathlons and it came in handy once again

We just need to buy Amanda a matching orange jersey so it's easier to pick her out from the crowd!

Hello, Midtown Manhattan!

One reason for my blogging silence over the weekend? Andrew and I both took a day off from work (it was my first vacation day of the year, believe it or not) and drove to Manhattan on Thursday night to visit Amanda.

Did I mention that Amanda recently moved and now lives in midtown, one block away from Madison Square Garden, Penn Station and amusingly enough, Koreatown! That's her building (modern one) peeking over the top:

And, did I mention that her building is a new construction? There are actually still floors being finished but fortunately for Amanda, the spa and gym levels are already complete. As in, she can sit in the hot tub and look out at the New York City skyline!

The funny thing is that I have no photos of the interior of Amanda's apartment - it's a studio, so when Andrew and I arrived with all of stuff and you add in an air mattress and our clothes strewn everywhere, it was too messy to take a nice picture. Let me assure you that Amanda has been hard at work decorating and even had some pieces arrive while we were there.

One of my favorite things about her new place (besides the stainless steel appliances or the in-apartment washer and dryer) is the view - it's simply amazing. She has a corner unit, floor to ceiling windows on two sides of the apartment and this view right outside.  We arrived around midnight on a foggy evening, and the Empire State Building just looked amazing.

I was amused to see that the building changes colors for different occasions. Can you guess which baseball series was in process while we were visiting? You guessed it, the Empire State Building stayed impartial by honoring the Yankees on one side and the Mets on the other.

And yes, that's the Chrysler building peeking out in the distance. Again, just picture sitting in a hot tub looking at this fabulous city scenery!

So that was basically our first night there - more NY culinary adventures and explorations to follow!

The Lost NY Weekend: Birthday Dinner at CraftBar

We accomplished a lot on Friday but Saturday was truly amazing! To mark her 30th birthday, Amanda chose Craftbar for dinner. As in, one of Tom Colicchio's restaurants. Anyone that has watched every season of Top Chef - like Andrew and I - knows Tom Colicchio. I expected a good meal because of this association but dinner was amazing - I'm still salivating at the memory of it.

As a group of seven, we scored a very comfortable booth that was offset from the main part of the restaurant.

From L to R: The birthday girl; Carli, a childhood friend of Amanda's; Adam; childhood friend Laura and her husband Mike; and Andrew and me:

We went a little crazy ordering appetizers for the table and had basically one order of everything and two orders of things like the Pecorino Risotto balls and the Pecornio fondue with honey and hazelnuts (yum!!) and full charcuterie plate - half the table was drinking bottles of Malbec wine and the rest of us (including me) were enjoying G&T's:

After the deluge of food, Andrew and I wisely decided just to split an entree - on the urging of our excellent waiter, we went with the pork special (I can't remember what it was called). He was telling us that the chef for Craftbar buys one organic pig a week from a farm in upstate NY and tries to use as much of it as possible in crafting the menu for the week. I also have to say that I was incredibly impressed by the service - knowing that Andrew and I were splitting the entree, our waiter brought us individual portions that were plated beautifully - it consisted of pork belly wrapped around a pork sausage. I'm not doing it justice on the basis of that description but it was incredibly good and filling. On the side, the most amazing and flavorful broccoli I've ever tasted. Little kids would be begging for broccoli every day if they tasted Craftbar's broccoli:

Amanda and Adam seemed very happy with their wine and meal choices:

What is a birthday without something bubbly to celebrate it:


Laura and Mike were adorable - in fact, the whole table was great at keeping up a lively conversation (including a debate on the artistic ability of Lady Gaga):

Then it was time for dessert - Amanda's "birthday cake" was an olive oil cake with orange-cardamom ice cream, pear and spiced walnuts:


I loved my dessert and was very satisfied with it - a butterscotch pot de creme with caramelized apple and creme fraiche. It sounds simple but think of a very decadent, thick, rich butterscotch pudding. And I could eat buckets of the crem fraiche:

We linger at Craftbar for over three hours and enjoyed every minute of it. It was easily the most expensive meal I've ever had, but was so worth the experience!

The evening didn't end there - for those who live in the Northeast, this was the weekend that a HUGE snowstorm hit right before Christmas. So as we dined outside, it was snowing like mad outside and we were about to walk right into it.

The Lost NY Weekend: Friday

Andrew and I spent a fun weekend last month in NYC to help celebrate Amanda's birthday - unfortunately, I'm missing most of the pictures from Friday morning to Friday afternoon, but Andrew's dad pulled a Christmas miracle and managed to recover most of the pictures from the weekend directly from my camera's memory stick. Here is my attempt to describe what the missing pictures captured, and what the recovered pictures show!

Driving up on Thursday night left us with enough energy to fall asleep immediately, which had us rising bright-eyed and busy-tailed on Friday morning. We walked over twenty blocks to meet Andrew's friend from college (and groomsman) Eric for lunch at his office in mid-town Manhattan. I had a great time observing and taking pictures of Christmas decorations New York style, which means they were literally larger than life! I had a great shot of Eric and Andrew posing by UBS gigantic nutcrackers that I am still mourning, along with a shot of Andrew and I in front of gigantic ornaments. That shot was special because of the woman who took it - she got very excited when she saw my engagement ring and told us to savor this special time together and, hysterically, to soak it all in and walk very slowly down the aisle as she did! Judging by her southern accent, I don't think she was (or acted like) a native New Yorker. :)

After catching up with Eric, Andrew and I played tourist for a bit since we were right around the corner from Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall. Insert more pictures of these touristy sites. We then hopped on the subway out to Brooklyn to meet up with Camie (one of my bridesmaids). We got to a first hand look at the high school where she teaches, including the amazing architecture. Insert missing pictures of her gigantic classroom. We walked across Park Slope to meet up with Camie's husband James back at the apartment (as well as get some play time in with their dog Frederick) and then we headed around the block for some authentic Brooklyn pizza (complete with fresh mozzarella, yum!) before heading back to Manhattan to meet up with Amanda.

Andrew's brother Adam flew in that evening and surprised us at the apartment door with a celebratory bottle of champagne to toast Amanda's 30the birthday (yay, the pics are back!):


Here is a nice shot of all three siblings together - something that only happens a couple times a year!

A shot of Andrew and I enjoying champagne with Amanda, with Adam manning the camera:

Andrew and I were stuffed from our pizza dinner but joined Amanda and Adam at an Argentinian restaurant around the corner as they ordered dinner and we enjoyed drinks. As full as we were, we did take the opportunity to try the bread (fresh baked and great!), the fabulous crispy calamari with an incredible dipping sauce (which Adam added into an impromptu sandwich with some of the meat from the meat plate and the bread):

For the life of me, I can't remember what Andrew and I ordered, but Adam was drinking Argentinian beer and Amanda had her usual wine:


A close up of my delightfully fruity drink:

Amanda hit the hay afterwards to rest up for her big birthday night next door, while Andrew, Adam and I headed to Auction House (a bar around the corner from her place). We fondly have nicknamed this bar "Vampire Bar" due to its dark atmosphere, velvet curtains and paintings on the wall:

Andrew and Adam were having a great time, especially after we received a free round of drinks made with the latest, hip vodka:


I was tired enough to appreciate scoring chairs halfway through the night, although they put us in uncomfortable proximity to a couple that was in a full blown makeout session (and no, wiseguys, that couple was not me and Andrew!)

We had a great time catching up on each other's lives and the hours just sped away:

Finally, we tore ourselves away from the bar knowing that we also needed to get a decent amount of sleep to participate in the birthday festivities the next night.

Support Amanda!

Speaking of Andrew's sister Amanda (that's obviously her in the middle), be sure to check out her new blog: http://amandacharlotte.wordpress.com/ which will chronicle her life and triathlon (!) training. Through the triathlon, she's committed to raising $4600 for a great cause, the Leukemia & Lymphoma society so be sure to donate if you can! :) That's it for my plug!

Brunch in NYC

We're having a fabulous time kicking off my birthday weekend in NYC. Andrew's sister Amanda is graciously hosting us on the Upper East Side.

We just had a yummy brunch at Panorama - the prices were comparable to a diner but the food was so much better!!

Amanda enjoyed a mushroom omelet with salad on the side, and Panorama's delicious grilled bread that serves as toast:



Andrew was kind enough to share a bite of his french toast with strawberries, and proceeded to demolish the last half of my bacon and cheese omelet with fries:


Can I say that my omelet had the best bacon ever? I've never had crispier, crunchier bacon in an omelet before.