I'm not in Kansas anymore...

...But while I was there, I had an absolute blast! It all started when I flew in and drove up to my weekend home: 

The house was 20times more beautiful on the inside...not only because of the elegant colonial decor, but because of the amazing family within. I can't even start to recap my race before saying thank you to the Patrick family. Scott, Lisa, Jordan and Sidney (also known as squid by her fam...or 'the little one' by me), from the bottom of my heart- THANK YOU for everything! (and how I didn't get any pics with them, I just don't know! I wasn't very on top of the photo taking this wknd. I guess I was too busy racing hard and having fun). But I did snap a pic of my neighbors: Mr. & Mrs. Zebra + their baby,

and Mr. Camel off in the distance

In case you were wondering, Kansas was HOT HOT HOT this weekend! Temps soared into the high 90's on Friday and Sat. I got in a few short workouts and then hibernated in the air conditioning. Thankfully there was no reason to use this:

Lake temps Sat registered at 81. I kept hearing promises of "accuracy and fair reading" for race day. I called B.S., as this is what they say before every warm water race. Sure enough early race morning I was informed that the race director called to report WTC's  reading of 77.5. Wetsuits would be legal for age groupers. WTF! Once again, the sport is catering to the weakest athlete on the course. Some may be offended by this, but I'm sorry- If you can't swim...either learn! or pick another sport. Seriously, do you train everyday in a wetsuit? They want age groupers in wetsuits so they don't have to make countless rescues. 78 is a ridiculous temp to begin with, but the inaccurate readings (or reading it from the deepest part of the lake is frustrating). But if I'm going to put on a wetsuit, I'm sure happy it's the Hurricane. My speedsuit was a bit jealous =(
Anyways, on to the race- race report to come tomorrow.... and it's a good one ;)