Man down!

Yesterday I went to a bridal shower for one of my best friends, Jen Hovee. It indeed was a blast and included a 5 minute session of me... on the ground!

So, this is what my usual workout routine looks like:

Meg eats
Meg works out (and often eats during it)
Meg eats (a lot!) again SOON after getting home

Yesterday was different.

Meg ate
Meg ran

... and then I came home, showered, dried my hair, did some laundry, made Jen a card, and then was out the door in no time and heading to Mercer Island... extremely ready to eat some bridal shower BRUNCH!

Of course, we do not eat right as we get there and most are content with just chatting and drinking their delicious drink. Meanwhile, I am eyeing the beautiful food table hoping somebody will say "dive in!" When that finally happens, I am more than ready to eat. I'm ALMOST through the line, when I accidentally slice my finger as I'm cutting my bagel in half. Blood proceeds to spill onto my hand, bagel, and plate. Whoops! So, I sit down, look at my finger and the blood and realize I'm getting light headed. Then, Jen proceeds to tell me I'm profusely sweating. So the bride-to-be escorts me into another room where I essentially fall/lay on the ground... definitely almost completely fainted!

But thank goodness for dear friends like Jen and Stace who lovingly hand-fed me chocolate-covered strawberries to bring my blood sugars up and me back to life!

Lesson learned: ALWAYS eat immediately post-workout, no matter what kind of rush you are in, even if a large tasty brunch is promised you!!! You never know what will happen that could delay that food entering your mouth. And watch out for sharp knives! Combination of needing food + blood = not good :)

Ironically enough, my brother, Rob, ended up in the E.R. with twelve stitches in his hand from a sawing accident while installing a dishwasher. Not a good day for the Melchiors kids! I wonder if anything happened to Keith...

Ibulanku friends

Below are a handful of pictures during my time in Ibulanku when serving with Uganda Village Project in the summer of 2008. I will take some time over the next few months to share some memorable experiences. For now, some photos will have to do.

my ugandan family one of my favorites
always crowds at the well nutrition & medication safety seminar
hung out with these kiddos every day!

beautiful girl enjoying sugarcane
my best look... the gomes

waiswa with tim's teddy

this girl was named Happy =)

Bringing you up to speed

Well, here I am sitting on my comfy couch wrapped up in a warm blanket, sipping on Good Earth tea, and relishing some precious down time. As of today, I am officially finished with 1/3 of my triathlon training. So far, so good! My body is still in one piece, and I am more than excited to start raising money for Uganda Village Project. My official fundraising page on the UVP website will be up shortly, but for now I will get this blog going.

When that alarm goes off at 4:45 or 5:00 in the morning (more often than not), what gets me out of bed is the thought of my friends in Ibulanku and the work of UVP... and of course the thought of that finish line waiting for me on June 27th. God has faithfully brought me to this point, and I can not wait to see what is in store for the next 6 months.

You have missed out on my accounts of the last 3 months of training, so I will bring you up to speed. Luckily, I'm super-cool and have been diligently filling out my "Triathlete's Training Diary." Up to this point (just finished week 12 of 36 weeks of training), my totals are:

44 miles of swimming
908 miles of biking
213 miles of running

There you have it.

Now you can only imagine the number of loads of laundry of sweaty workout clothes that have resulted from those miles! AND top that off with my increased caloric intake involving LOTS of peanut butter, clif bars, bananas, pancakes... and banana pancakes, bagels, pasta, and of course a variety of weird sport "foods" like the infamous Gu -- with my most recent addition being jelly belly's 'sport beans' (that one goes out to my mama, lover of jelly bellies). It's been quite the experience :)

This is my first EVER blog post, and I think it is time for me to wrap it up. I will leave you all with a quote that is inspiring me in my training and helping me to run with perseverence this race marked before me:

"Before you accomplish something, you must expect it of yourself."

So that's what I'm doing. And doing so by the grace of God.