weekend away

Just after Alex and I married, I started training for a marathon and Alex got into cycling. We laugh now about the progression of his bikes when we were in Chicago. He started out with a cheap girlie bike that might as well have had a pink basket attached to the front. (It didn't, but the basket wouldn't have looked out of place.) Then there was a mountain bike. Then into road bikes. When we moved to North Carolina, he joined up with a riding group. And then he was asked to ride for a team. I was pregnant with Elly and Alex didn't feel he could devote the time to training and commit to the amount of travel necessary to compete. Now he doesn't get on his bike nearly as much as he would like, but we still support cycling.

So...this weekend we made our way to Greenville, South Carolina for the USA Pro Cycling Championships. Superstars in the world of cycling show up for this race. I won't bore you with all of my photographs, but here is just one of cycling celebrity George Hincapie.
It was also nice just to have a weekend away...without the girls. In the car on the way down I got a call from my doctor confirming that the blood work I had done last week showed there is a medical reason why I have been so tired lately. (No...I am not pregnant.) So I used the diagnosis as an excuse to spend most of the weekend in bed. But I did manage to get out of bed for a few mojitos, dinner with Alex at a lovely Indian restaurant, shopping around Greenville, cheering for riders, and hanging out with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend.

And if I'm going for full disclosure here...I skipped the 5K race in order to sleep in. But I did run later in the day on the treadmill in the hotel fitness center. That counts, right?!