Monday, May 21, 2007

Tieing The Knot, April 9th, 2007

Surprise!!


So Erhan decided to really surprise me this time…

As everyone knows, Erhan and I spent a glorious 7 days at the Allegro Papagayo Resort in Guanacaste, Cost Rica! And it was even more glorious than I could’ve imagined because of what I’m about to tell you! First of all, it was a battle to get there—my parents had issues with me going on a vacation with Erhan because of our standing before the trip—but then after Erhan had spoken with my dad a few times, they seemed to have come around and thought it would be alright. So off we flew from LAX to Houston and then Liberia…

When we eventually got to the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised with a bottle of champagne in our room! And the room was gorgous—we were on the top floor overlooking the ocean (Gulf of Mexico), the beach and the really beautiful swimming pool at the resort.

View from the room
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The room had a Spanish design and feel to it—so romantic! Well we spent the first couple of days getting to know the place, relaxing into it, enjoying the all-inclusive meals at the resort, the beach, pool and our view! We loved the view so much that we decided one night to sit on our private balcony and take it all in as we reminisced about our past 2 years together and how we still enjoy so much being together and sharing this life. We stared at the stars so far away, and thought how one day far away we could still be together….I took a moment to look down and suddenly Erhan was on his knee! And with a diamond ring in his hand—to my content, a diamond much brighter than the stars we watched!! He was asking me to marry him—I was in some state of shock because I couldn’t answer! I looked at the ring, then back at him, then at the ring then at him—believe me I wanted to also completely enjoy the moment. After making him suffer for a bit, I said yes! It was such a fun moment that we decided to take some pictures to keep that forever.



Knee Down
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We got to enjoy the rest of our trip as an engaged couple—as fiancee’s! We went to Nicaragua, Liberia, Coco Beach, Santa Cruz and Tamarindo as fiancee’s! It was a lot of fun. Well, I later found out that Erhan had asked my parents for permission to ask me, and told them that it would happen in Costa Rica, and they felt A LOT more comfortable with things after that.



Posted by Shirin

UVAS South Bay Triathlon XIV, May 20th, 2007

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After the disastrous Wildflower Half IM race, I had to get back on the saddle and put that one behind me. The UVAS South Bay Triathlon XIV was a great opportunity. It's a .75 mile swim, 16 mile bike and 5 mile run. I think shorter distance works better for me, at least it is easier to train for. Also, it's a local race so I can sleep in my own bed the night before the race.

The start of the swim
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I am wearing a ligh blue swim cap :-)

I had my best swim in a race so far, the lake was very calm and for the first time I was able to swim in a straight line.
0.75 Mile
Swim time: 28:24s

The bike course was a nice and easy 16 miles around the reservoir, It had a steep climb at mile 11 for about half mile, some rolling hills but mostly flat. No head wind this time, no wind at all!

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16 Miles
Bike time: 50:50s

Felt good on the run.
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5 Miles
Run time: 37:47s

This was a great race for redemption.

Finish Time: 2:00:07s






DNF -- Wildflower 2007 Long Course, May 5, 2007

This half Ironman distance triathlon was not fun at all! My worst race so far. I did not finish (DNF)

The Swim was in Lake San Antonio, the water was very choppy, that made the swim really difficult

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Swim time : 50 mins

After a long and painful swim, I started the bike in a bad mood. I got surprised by the first mile, very very hilly, then it was the headwind for 19 miles -- wanted to drop so many times. I painfully finished the bike course.

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only the beginning of the bike course

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Just trying to look good for the picture.

Bike time: 3:48 min -- That's a long time, even for me...

After the bike, I sat in the transition area for 10 minutes, I had nothing left, no energy.

I could not go on with the course, I did not do the run, felt bad about it for a while.
Lessons learned -- better respect the distance and will never DNF again!!!