Hallelujah and damn it all to hell!

It is FINALLY summer (as EVERYONE you see will tell you).

Oh, I feel like I have been waiting forever. And the arrival is just in time. It wasn't terribly nice on 7/4 but the weekend was a good one anyway.

My sweetie and I ran a midnight 5K. We ran this together last year and so we chose to stick together this year too (he had one chance to redeem himself for the finish line pic last year).

It was a good time. It is so much fun running on the streets at night. Drivers look confused and amused. I had a near miss when I tripped on a road divider. I was so close to being flat on my face...I was almost proud of myself for the catch (once I got over being embarrassed).

We ran it in and got a really good pic. I may actually need to buy it!

The 4th was good and quiet. We made an awesome taco night spread which worked out well since it was raining.

On Monday we did a long bike ride.
It was a good weekend.

then it got hot. Which, truly, I love. It was 75-90 which I love. Sun was shining and I got to go for a walk at lunch and soak in the sun and watch the poor Seattle children as they began to remember what the hot, glowing thing in the sky was.

then I went for a run.
I had to do 4.5 miles (Oh, I am on week 7 of HH's novice halfM schedule).
HOLY HELL! I was dying. (see the little red flag, that is a "severe weather warning, hehe)


I forget, I was born and raised in SoCal but my running self was cultivated right here in the damp and cool climate of the PNW.

It sucked quite a bit. I basically wound up walking the last mile.

So, bottom line. I am glad to have the sun. I am thrilled. Ecstatic. Overjoyed. (but I need some help in the hot running department)

Disappointed and rebuilding our relationship

Sometimes you get let down, totally out of the blue. What you'd imagined was dependable and reliable let's you down and all of the sudden it seems like you should have seen the betrayal coming. What stinks is that I'm left wondering what I did wrong? I thought I gave enough love, though, if I really analyze my actions I can say that I haven't always given my all.

I am, of course, talking about my bike and I. I thought we were friends and I took care of it so it would take care of me.

That's why I'm sad to report that it let me down on race day!

Guess I ought to start with the beginning:

I had forgotten that in the summer here Dark O'30 is not really all that dark! And, despite weeks of ugly/wet weather, it was tentatively looking like a nice day. I was all packed and had out just my tri-shorts, bra and singlet. I had 2 pieces of toast w/PB and ½ a banana which is my every day breakfast. The Captain dragged his party animal booty out of bed with me and we headed down to Lake Sammamish.

The day was continuing to clear up and life was good, MUDDY, but good. I was in flip-flops and walked over to pick up my packet losing a shoe to mud puddles with nearly every step. I got my body marked and headed into transition where I proceeded to set up as streamlined a process as possible.

The Cap and I waited on the beach while the first sets of waves took off for the swim. I'm not sure if it was my wetsuit or the early time or nerves or what but my tummy was giving me a bit of a hard time. It may have been that I was laughing about The Julie Moss Incident the night before and this was my payback. Whatever it was, I had to use the restroom twice before my swim wave; and knowing how much I hate messing with the wetsuit once it is on shows how necessary it was.

The Swim:

A sign by the starting mat said water temp 59. BRRR. When my wave walked into the water I was concerned, when the whistle blew and we were off (and my face went into the water) I was panicked. It was COLD, I tried swimming normally but it wasn't happening. I opened the neck on my wetsuit to help my erratic breathing and tried swimming with my head out of water. When this seemed too hard I tried a combo of breast stroke and fly kick but this was very slow. Finally, around the first buoy, I was able to swim with my head down. By the middle of the long straight I was in the groove and I feel like I really picked it up between the 2^nd buoy and the finish.

T1:

My feet were frozen! It was really hard getting my socks on because my feet were totally numb. Otherwise, T1 was all good and I headed out onto the bike.

Bike:

I was so grateful for the weather as I headed out on the bike. I am definitely skittish on wet roads so the clear skies and sun were a very welcome sight. I got into a really good groove on the bike and was building a decent pace (avg ~17mph) on the way out. I was impressed with myself and my ability to shift around and maintain speed on the mainly uphill course. As I was going up one of the small hills I pulled out my water bottle to hydrate a bit. While trying to use my mouth to open it the entire cap pulled off and the bottle and its contents spewed behind me. I tentatively yelled back to see if I'd splashed anyone but the rider behind me just laughed.

I thought this little anecdote would be my craziest story from the ride and was satisfied with that as I hit the turn around and headed back to the park. I was feeling great about the ride. Around mile 11 there was an unmistakable thump-thump-thump feeling in the rear. I resisted because I didn't want to have a flat but a few feet later I pulled over.

A flat in the rear. During a race. UGH! I was proud of myself for staying calm and assessing the situation. My rookie/stupid mistake was that I first tried just filling the tire with one of my 2 CO2 cartridges. DUH- it went flat again. So then I set about the business of changing it. This went off fairly well even though I somehow only had 1 tire lever. I was almost set to go when a race official came up; I was getting ready to fill my tire and realized I didn't have enough CO2 (the stem on the new tube was short and I didn't hook it on tightly so I lost a bunch of air). She didn't have a pump. She left me to go tend to other breakdowns (although, without any gear was she really just giving moral support?) promising to stop by on her way back if I was still there. I was a bit stumped, I cleaned up my tire changing mess and tried to figure out how to proceed. Then, like a beacon in the dark night, a cyclist came riding down the trail below the road. I yelled to him to see if he had a pump. He did!

I was saved!

I pumped up, thanked him profusely and was on my way again.

Slowly

I hadn't pumped it up enough and had to stop about a mile later and borrow a pump from a family out for an afternoon ride.

T2:

I was just glad to be back. This was pretty quick.

Run:

Issaquah is a semi-trail run and it had been raining for the past week pretty good. The giant mud puddles by the registration table were representative of the run course. By this time I was pretty giddy just to have made it through my little bike incident and decided I would just splash through the mud puddles like a kid in…a mud puddle. When you stepped down on the trampled grass a spray of mud would fly up. I was glad for the core strength I'd built up on my 26/30 days of shredding, since I think it helped me avoid slip sliding on the small and slippery footbridges scattered throughout the run.

I finished! My sweetie was waiting for me at the finish line where we enjoyed Brats and homemade cookies and chocolate milk.

Not my best performance ever but I came away from it with a different sense of accomplishment.

I am SUPER leery of my bike now which is unfortunate since we are riding the 25 mile course of Cascade's Flying Wheels ride. This will be my (and The Cap's) first ever cycling only event. i was very excited, now I am waiting for my bike to apologize (I did buy it a mechanical pump and some new tubes as a conciliatory gesture).

~~~~~

Amber 1:59:22 Swim:0:08:11 T1:2:58 Bike: 1:20:30 T2:1:04 Run: 0:26:39

My Seafair-ing colleagues (Seafair Tri relay race report)

Grrr…it has again been too dogone long since I've posted here. Not much training going on (at least in a coherent sense) but lots of racing and even more just general life happenings.

Where did we leave off? 4^th of July.

Issaquah Tri spurred Bosslady to get my whole company to form relay teams for the Seafair Triathlon; I had planned on doing the individual event but finding swimmers for the relay wound up being too tough so I was signed up as swimmer/biker for one of our 4 teams. We wound up short a runner when Bosslady had the great idea of asking The Captain. I felt bad asking him to step into one of these teams when I wasn't sure what the team dynamics would be like but he was an easy sell and seemed genuinely happy to step in (isn't that so sweet).

All of this happened before a shit-storm at work. We got insanely busy and there was a lot of tension. This made training tough and didn't really put anyone in the mood for our big team event. A swimmer for another of our teams hadn't done any open water swimming and the first chance we had to take him out to the lake was only 1 week before the event. I guess it is lucky we did; he was not lake ready to swim ½ mile. My brilliant solution to the lack of a swimmer was that I'd wear his timing chip and mine and tag off his teammate (my BIGboss) before heading out to do the bike leg for my own team. It was just sneaky enough that I thought it'd work.

In all, I was semi-dreading how it all would go down.

The day before the big race the Cap and I went to Mt. Rainier for the day. It was gorgeous out and the views were unbelievable. We did a short hike in less-than-adequate shoes and there was snow on the ground. This meant I got to see The Captain's version of outdoor figure skating...new Olympic sport (Vancouver 2010?)? Went out for yummy Indian food and hung out with friends until semi-late.

Now, having read all of the above circumstances take a guess at how the next day went:
A. There is so much tension between work peeps that nobody is ready for the race…it does not go well

B. Amber had Indian food the night before and knowing the GI issues she battles with during endurance events…it does not go well

C. TheCaptain's figure skating training and his late hours ruin him for the run, the run blows his prospects at 2010…it does not go well

D. It goes great!

______________________

Got out there the morning of the race and Bosslady had all of our numbering paraphernalia (bib, bike, helmet, etc.). This was the first relay I'd ever done and I think it was done strangely. They gave everyone the entire packet including their own: timing chip, bike #, swim cap (wasteful, no?). I thought it was semi-odd but it worked out since we'd decided the Captain and I would be on one team and I needed to surreptitiously swim for another team.

I tried to just set up my transition as though it were a normal race but there was one BIG difference…all the newbies were there unprepared so there were many questions and a bit of hand holding (I'm mainly kidding but I did have a little pre-race meeting with my company's CEO to discuss how the Bike-out/run-out worked). We were in a 7:30a wave start and they said they were clearing transition at 6:45 (sorry Cap, I have to pick on you here) and the Captain was anxious to follow the rules and get out of T. I dawdled there for a few reasons, one was we were still missing a cyclist and a runner and the other was that there wasn't anything for us to do outside of there. Eventually the swimmers (Bosslady, her hubby and I) wandered toward the swim beach to stand around waiting for the swim start.

And after that LONG preamble, the race:

1/2mi swim: 0:14:31 (1.39/100yd)

I was SO pleased with my swim. The relays went out with M40-49 and it was one of the rougher swims I've experienced. I felt like I never got fully clear of people and I tousled with (I think) the same girl throughout most of the swim. I started closer to the back since I got surprised our wave was leaving (there were dark and light green caps and I am a dumbass) but I was all the way left. I stayed on track for the first few buoys; I was staying really close in (actually touched the first buoy…a first for me)and felt like I had a good rhythm. When I went for the short OWS I focused on staying calm and trying to lengthen my stroke. I tried this on race day too and I think it worked out pretty well. The only spot I got a bit off course was between the penultimate and the last buoys, I was supposed to be veering in toward the shore but wound up staying straight and needing to correct.

T1: 0:02:18

This is actually slightly disappointing to me; I'm usually a very speedy transitioner. J I tagged off my BIGboss and he headed out to the bike for team #1. Then I got my helmet, shoes, shades and kissed the Captain goodbye before heading out to bike for team #2.

13mi Bike: 0:43:23 16.60mph (Garmin said 18.1mph avg but it tweaked out at one point…one flat point so I don't think I could have slowed THAT much but whatevs)

I wanted SO BADLY to catch the BIGboss and to ward off Bosslady. I know, stupid and petty competition, but I wanted to. Alas, I couldn't. I felt fairly stable on the bike but not terribly strong. I tried gearing down a bit to get my legs warmed and moving, this worked pretty well. We got to ride on the I-90 bridge on a beautiful day but getting on and off the bridge was a task! There was a very steep climb where lots of folks were walking entering the bridge and a gradual climb to get off of it. I saw the BIGboss on the other side of the turnaround but he was pretty far ahead and I didn't wind up catching him, darn it! Miles 10and 11 were hard for me. I just couldn't get my cadence up and was getting passed left and left.

They put the relay teams in the CRAPPIEST T spot which meant lots of running with my bike.

T2: Tagged off to the Cap and he headed out.

Run: No official time

I stuck around T2 and grabbed my hat and water and talked to the BIGboss for a sec before heading out after Cap. I had a weird shin pain and was hoping to catch up to him quickly and in time for a walk interval. But the dude was booking it! I saw the mile marker and still no Cap, the 1/2way and no Cap. I finally caught him on the gnarly hill in the last mile. He was doing great and we got down to the business of finishing up. We saw a few of my co-workers/our teammates coming up and down the hill and had a fairly unremarkable final mile. We ran it in together (with The Cap turning in a whopping PR for a 5k).

It turned out to be one of the most fun races I've done. It was cool exposing my coworkers to the excitement of these fun run type events, it was neat to race with my colleagues and it was awesome teaming up with the Captain and getting to be there for such a big PR for him!

So the answer is D.

There is so much more to blog about…if only this silly "job" didn't take up so much of my time.

Sigh

My New training plan (Iss. Sprint Race Report)

Issaquah 2008 was the first Tri I ever did.

The difference between this year and last? Last year I had trained for 4 months with TNT and was raring to go, this year I have slacked off and bitched about whether or not to do this race*.

I guess slacking and bitching work for me!

I managed to take 10minutes off my Issaquah time!

Issaquah 2009
Overall	Swim (1/4mi)	T1	Bike (14mi)	T2	Run (5K)
1:26:25	0:06:37	2:18	0:47:59	0:01:10	0:28:20

Issaquah Race Report

Spent the night before hanging out with the nephews at their new house and before I knew it, it'd gotten very late. So I got the kids in bed and hit the sack myself. I slept great probably more out of exhaustion than out of assurance of my race readiness.

I woke up at what I thought would be dark-o'thirty but it was light out and the day was looking to be a good one. Due to events of the night before I hadn't been able to pick up anything for a pre-race meal so I foraged through my Mom's cabinets thinking I'd go for the standby of PB&J. What house with kids does not have PB? I settled on 2 mini bagels toasted, one with cream cheese and one with jelly. This felt like nothing and there were still 2hours until the race started so I was hoping to stop by the store to grab a banana or other additional grub. But the clock was ticking and I wanted to set up transition, find old friends and meet up with the Captain who was sweet enough to drag his booty out of bed at some ungodly hour just to cheer me on and hold my boss' stuff ;)

So straight to the park I went. The day was perfect! I had picked up my packet the day before and was all body marked so I just strolled into transition. Setting up my transition area came back to me just like riding a bike. My rack was full of amiable speed demons which was cool; they were low key and had fancy bikes that I could ogle plus I knew they'd be out of transition by the time I was there.

I bumped into a few TNT friends who were all having prerace issues (needed a pump, forgot her bike shoes, etc) and then found my boss at the prerace meeting. It was her first tri and she was adorably nervous for someone who swims 3 times a week, has ridden century rides and consistently pulls out sub-30min 5K…I didn't doubt she'd do fine. Her weakness though was her vision, she wanted to have her glasses with her on the beach but didn't have anyone to hand them off too. Enter The Captain to save the day, he graciously agreed to Sherpa for us.

The Race

Swim- I was VERY nervous about the swim. I hadn't been swimming much at all and figured I would be toast in OW. This early season race has a short swim (1/4mi) which was great except it meant we were almost back before the pack of bodies thinned out. I had a goggle malfunction right away, with water getting into my right goggle, and then tried to swim one-eyed. Sighting went well after one mishap at the first buoy where if I hadn't looked up, I'd have swum into the open lake.

T1- Getting out of the water was good, wetsuit stripped halfway and cap/goggles off. I got my land legs pretty fast and was out on the bike.

Bike- Maybe it was the short swim or maybe the Shredding I've been doing has strengthened my core but I didn't feel as wobbly as I had in previous races when I got on the bike. I tried to follow Coach Jill's advice for the bike and was REALLY happy with the results. According to my Garmin my average speed was 17.5mph with a high of 33.5. I got tripped up on one hill where I was barely moving but otherwise a great ride.

Had a near miss on the bike, I was shifting down on the above mentioned hill and my chain dropped completely off. Rather than panicking I shifted further (kind of just tried shifting around frantically) which miraculously picked up the chain!

I had promised myself I'd drink at least half of my water bottle (containing 50% water/50% Gatorade FIERCE) but I only managed a few swigs.

T2- Almost flawless except I tried racking my bike backwards and had to do it again.

Run- My legs felt great right off the bike, it was hot and I was a bit worried about hydration but luckily I was still a bit wet from the swim. My goal had been keeping ~9:30min/mi pace. I clocked the first mile at 9:38 (not too bad) and the next 2.1 were avg 9:58 (whoops).

High fived the Captain at the finish line and we got to watch some of my friends and my manager come in. I tease him about being a total social butterfly (CAUSE HE IS!) but I felt like one on Saturday. There were TNT folks out in force and I am always so happy to catch up with them.

It was a great race and I can't believe I was able to cut so much time off but that wasn't the highlight of the day. I got to introduce Multi-sport to 2 newbies (BossLady and The Captain). It is such a fun environment and, especially this small race, is really supportive and encouraging to the "everyday athletes ."

The Bosslady is already talking about how the whole company should do Seafair in July. As for Cap, I think I may have sold him on the idea of at least a Du and he, DSF

and I could totally do a relay now that he has a bike.

*to be fair, in between last year and slacking off I’ve done 1 Oly, 3more sprints, trained for and ran a marathon

_______________________
Issaquah last year
Swim 00:07:54.4 T1 00:02:07.7 Bike 00:55:44.3 T2 00:01:04.2 Run 00:28:30.4 Finish 01:35:21.1

Awesome Saturday (Run for your rights 5K race report)

I completely TORTURED myself about the decision to not run the Kirkland Half (which goes to show how important it is for me to just sign up for races early…when I've invested I feel like the decision is made). I was excited however that it freed me up to do a really fun run for an organization I love. I ran this race in 2007, it was the 2^nd 5K I ever did and the first time I ran the whole distance. My time was ~35:00ish (not chip timed and I only remembered to note the whole minute).

On Friday the Captain and I went to see the StarTrek movie with some of his friends at a supercool movie theater at 11pm. The movie was good, and his friends are great and I was happy to have cleared up the fact that the "Cinerama" in downtown Seattle was not a decrepit crack den and a nuisance to the city. I didn't hit the sack until after 2am. But here is why this is the race for me…Step off was at NOON!!!

I slept in, ate some breakfast, prep'd my bike for a ride later in the day, got some M-day cards in the mail (I know, I suck), and finally headed to the race.

Run for your rights is a fundraiser/awareness raiser for NARAL and I just love being around my pro-choice peeps! They are always so positive and dedicated…these are two traits I admire in runners too so this event combines some very upbeat/hardworking people. It was the epitome of a fun-run; people young and old, dogs, strollers, rollerskates, wheelchairs, all ready to run, trot, roll or otherwise traverse the 5K.

Where there is NARAL though, there are protesters with GIANT signs. The race on Saturday was especially special since there were a large number of protesting kids- including one especially adorable little future clinic bomber. They were hilarious; one pro-choice runner (early 20's?) was changing into a short sleeved shirt for the run (and thus exposing her jogbra!) and an Anti-choicer came by and told her how it is being slutty in that way that leads to unwanted pregnancy. HILARIOUS

There was a rally and excitement until it was finally time to run. I lined up with the runners and started my timer as I crossed the start line. I was trying to push fairly hard early on but after not too long I was feeling awful. I thought I must still be sick, or worse, must have lost any mediocre running ability I had when I was sick. I thanked my lucky stars that I didn't have 11miles or so more to go in a half marathon feeling this way. I looked at my timer as I crossed the approximate 1/2way point. 14:28…hmmm, maybe I feel crappy cause I'm running hard? So I tried to keep where I was. The result:

28:06 BITCHES! (I never like using that word like that but it was the thought that ran through my head)

That is a 9:03 mile! For the whole 5K, and if my timer was right at all I eeked out a small negative split!

I felt really tired after this and was scheduled to go for a bike ride around Mercer Island with an old TNT buddy at 1:30. I refueled and hydrated (and caffeinated) and got on my bike.

What a fantastic ride! We dangerously rode 2 abreast for awhile, catching up, talking about boys ;)

It was absolutely beautiful out; not a cloud in the sky. I attempted to take some pics.

We did once around the island (~14miles?) and I headed out to the next event. Kite Flying with my sister and nephews. We totally stunk at kite flying but Gasworks Park is THE place to be on a sunny day- kites, water, seaplanes, sailboats, and the works! Those boys are the funnest…

From there I headed out to The Captain's for tamale making. He has mad knife skills and the man can mise en place like nobody's business! I think we were a pretty good team in the kitchen and we wound up with some yummy if funky looking tamales (at 10:30pm). It was fun trying the different combinations we had made and I never knew before that masa expands in your stomach because we were so full.

He may think I am a nut job because when we were grocery shopping I couldn't stop telling him what a great day it was; to do so many things I love with so many of the people I love. It was awesome!

Are they drunk or just stupid? (St. Pat’s Dash report)

Just stupid.

Over 1month since my last entry…almost as pitiful as my "training" has been in that span of time. I am SO meandering but that will be my next post (possibly in a month). This is a race report.

______________

St. Pat's Dash

Seattle, WA

3/15/2009

Distance: ~6K

Time: I don't know! (they posted results that have the clock time and it is really bugging me)

This is the 2^nd anniversary run of what was my first race ever in 2007. I didn't do it in 2008 and they changed the course for this year so it was different in this way but it was different for so many more reasons.

I was cajoled into running this by my new boyfriend; we'll call him The Captain (although he and his friends don't seem to do the blog nickname thing I will anyway to protect the innocent.). Captain was running his first race ever and I wouldn't have missed that for anything.

Wardrobe is always tricky but especially so for this race. I wanted to be festive but I was going to try to run hard so I needed to be functional. This is also when I should mention THE WEATHER SUCKED. It was snowing/raining when I woke up in the morning. I also have the added complication of needing a pocket for my iPhone. I went with a St. Patty's day t-shirt & socks for the festivity, my fave Capri running pants, a windbreaker type jacket, arms warmers and disposable PJ pants for warmth before the race.

The Cap and his running buddy came by my place where we met up with his friend/running mentor (I have to work on names for these guys…I'm not clever enough for this). We all piled into my car and headed to the race start.

It was nasty out. The snowflakes were huge and blowing sideways. UNCOOL. This was however the first time I've had someone I could huddle with for body heat; this was awesome and I selfishly hope he keeps running just for this perk! Speedy and I are close but we try to stay appropriate.

I was sad for him that it was such crappy weather cause we missed all of the race day excitement. Bottom line, we were ready for our wave to start. It did. I ran. I felt really good for the first portion (I had no gauge of distance, I didn't see any mile markers and had no helpful technology). There was a lot of bobbing and weaving. The first half was slightly uphill and this seemed to really stress my ankles. I was getting concerned about my ankles and cursing myself for not being warm/stretched when blissfully I saw the turnaround. I tried to pick it up since I was going downhill. I have no idea if that worked.

One big, exciting difference between 09 and 07 was that 2 years ago I was dying at the finish, I started walking towards the chute. This year, I was also dying in the lungs but I pushed harder. The finish chute was a disaster; it was getting backed up to the point where people almost couldn't cross the finish line. The Cap's running mentor must have finished pretty close to me, and we went to watch him and his running buddy finish.

I was so happy for him and I hope he was proud of himself. In my life there have been few things as personally satisfying as crossing the finish line at St. Pat's 07 and I just hope he got that same sense of satisfaction and I'm so glad to have been there.

Post race festivities should have been super fun but it was freezing and we were soaking wet. So we made it quick and headed out to breakfast.

All before 11am, not too shabby.

World's longest race report, part 2: running

Marathons are butterflies and sunshine (miles 1-4)
A few steps into the race, I remember looking over to Speedy and saying with excitement and fear in my voice "We just started a marathon!" Carrying my iPhone was going OK so far and at 8am I got a reminder from my calendar that I was running the Tucson Marathon (it made me chuckle). The sun had just risen and the desert glowed in the morning sunlight. There were a few locals out and we waved and hammed it up for them. Around mile 3 there was a garage sale. They were selling a bike and I asked Speedy how much she thought it was going for (hindsight later made me wish we actually had bought it). We were holding around 10minute/mile pace which Speedy kept reminding me was too fast for us and for the first half but I FELT GREAT and just couldn't fathom why we would slow down.

Running is fun! (miles 5-9)
I honestly just felt in the groove here. The course was beautiful and I was just picking off the miles. I felt sort of hungry/rumbly in the tummy but I decided it was just nerves and I needed to relax and enjoy the run. Speedy and I were able to have intermittent conversation and wound up running with a woman who was also doing her first full. We all chatted for a bit which I thought was great since it meant we weren't pushing too hard in the first half (as per GuySmiley). Then I sighted the first porta-potty. I was happy to see it UNTIL I stepped in and saw that it was (so as not to be too graphic) left out of order by the previous user. Hmmm, OK, I said to myself, I'll use the next one. We had slowed a bit to a 10.5 min/mile pace which I was happy with.

Training has done me good (miles 10-16)
These miles were starting to be tough but I could feel all of the miles I'd put into training. My legs felt strong and I was THRILLED to be through the halfway point. The temperature was still pretty comfortable but I had heated up enough to the point where I had to ditch my fave fleece running vest. My stomach was feeling...heavy and a bit gurgle-y but otherwise I was having a great run. At this point Speedy tried asking me about my job and I could not for the life of me answer. I was looking forward to seeing some spectators at mile 18. This may be a time to mention the hills. This course was advertised as a downhill course but they failed to mention that there were PLENTY of rollers to contend with. I was also feeling the pavement a bit since I had been training on a mix between pavement and dirt, the slope of the road was also a bigger deal than I expected and the sligt curve was making me a bit uncomfortable.

Why I should never listen to SpeedyDMD (miles 17-18)
Mile 17 is where my stomach started yelling at me. I was so sick to my stomach. My feet were performing fine but my innards were rebelling! I didn't know what to do. Speedy wasn't feeling too hot eaither, her legs were hurting and she wanted to walk. My idea was that we try to get to mile 20 running and then figure out our next move but in teh middle of mile 17 my stomach was so upset I had to walk. Speedy was glad for the break but we were both slightly freaked. We made a plan: we would run to the mile markers for the marathon then walk the 0.1mile between the marathon and half marathon marker.
So we did...

1st Marathon DNF (mile 19)
Mile 19 I was SO SICK. I didn't know what to do. I used a porta potty again and tried to breathe through it a bit. I was scared though. As much as we joked about not finishing I honestly never thought I wouldn't. I always felt like I would cross the finsih line on my own two feet. As much as I joked about dying on the course I never really thought I'd have to be driven back. But at mile 19, I did. I just didn't know how to make myself feel well enough to run anymore.
But Speedy started running at the mile marker and so did I and once I got running I could maintain it. So we carried on like that, I would keep us running then we'd walk that 0.1mile and she would get us going again. I have never needed a friend as much as I needed her that morning and I felt like she needed me too. It helped a lot.

Why I should never listen to SpeedyDMD, part 2 (miles 20-23)
Here is where I started getting mad. I was pissed at the freaking race. the was NO WAY I was going to let it defeat me...I am WAY too stubborn for that. I wanted to just get it behind me because it was really annoying me to no end. I was mad that I had spent so much energy being sick to my stomach when my legs were performing exactly as I wanted them to. I was mad that I couldn't get myself back on track physically or mentally. I was just mad.

Si Se Puede (miles 24-25)
Here is where we realized it would take a miracle to finish under 5hours. For me this was deflating, fopr Speedy it motivated her (we would have had to do the last 2.2miles in 18minutes in the condition we were in). But I did relish in the fact that the home stretch was in front of me and I had come WAY too far not to just figure out a way to finish. Speedy's bpyfriend caught up with us and ran with her, which mad eme smile and gave her a bit of a kick and we seperated for the first time that day.

Did I accidently sign up for an ultra? What if mile marker 26 never comes? What if I throw up and die with less than 1/2mile to go? (mile 26)
OK, I started feeling defeated again...WHERE WAS MILE 26? I started walking around 25.7miles and was inconsolable until I saw mile marker 26.

HOLY CRAP (and please don't pass out right after crossing the finish line)! (mile 26-26.2)
Jubilation, I ran that mother in. Speedy had finsihed ~1minute ahead of me and we smiled and took breathless pics. We did it! It wasn't perfect and it wasn't pretty but it really did feel sweet.

Stats and deep thoughts to come tommorrow.

World's longest race report, part 1: pre race

**the focus on food will become clear later
Thur, 12/4/08: Left work at 4:45 for my 6:30pm flight to Pheonix. Grabbed a burrito at the airport and hoppend on a plane to get my marathon adventure started!
Saw Buddy1 for the first time in a year. SO GREAT!

Fri, 12/5/08: Bagel for breakfast then spent the day shopping and hanging out with my buddy and her girls. We got costco for lunch (which is my FAVE!) and hung out waiting for buddy2 to drive in from CA. We held dinner for her and by the time the tortilla soup was served I was FAMISHED.

Sat, 12/6/08: Up, grab a bagel and ready to head over to Tucson. Before we left I was saying goodbye to buddy1's girls. The 2 year old asked me where we were going. I told her that I was going to be running REALLY far the next day. She thought for a second and then said, "maybe you can borrow my mom's car!" Ah, from the mouths of babes comes true wisdom.

I bought myself and my 2 college buddies tickets to the pasta dinner where we were going to meet up with Speedy and her man. As per usual at these events the pasta dinner is an early bird special and started at 5pm. My friends wanted to skip lunch and wait until pasta time before eating; there was NO way I could make it that long so I insisted we stop and I grabbed a bagel and latte at the 'Bucks.

We found our hotel which was super nice, a great pool and sauna (which we did not use) and fire pits outside the bar area. Then it was time to see SpeedyDMD and meet her new beau. She looked great! And, even better, she felt good. Her foot wasn't hurting and now we could focus on the sheer terror of running a marathon.

We hit up the expo and chattered about our fueling regimines. I said these words "I think I have come to the conclusion that fueling is not as important as it seems, I did my 18miler without anything and felt fine."

Then came the pasta dinner. We LOVED our pasta dinner experience from last year so we went into it with high expectations.
IT ROCKED! GuySmiley, the M.C. was there again and there was a guest speaker. We sat at a table with a creepy old guy (we both thought so) and a creepy younger guy (although I think he was just hard of hearing or uninterested in our witty banter). Then we got showered with love and a door prize for being 1st time marathoners! There were games and questions and a lot of emphasis that on this course you MUST take it easy in the first half and try to have a negative split (cue music indicative of something important). As the place cleared out we got personal good wishes from some hottie Canadian runner boys and I thought, "too bad they'll be finished and home and showered before I get to the finish line...on 2nd thought, better that they don't see me post marathon."

My Buddies wanted to rush back to the hotel to do nothing which bummed me out and made me sit around being nervous. I pinned my bib on, attatched my timing chip and laid out my clothes. Then we decided to go sit around the cute fire pits at the hotel to kill time before I went to bed (SpeedyDMD slept at her own place). Sleep was good and I sprung out of bed at 4am, threw on my clothes and went to the lobby to wait for Speedy. But instead she called me sounding frantic! She lost her timing chip! She was freaked!

We SEARCHED her car and all her bags and I emailed the race director in vain hopes that she has a fancy pants phone too. But alas...nada! The line to park was a mile long and not moving so she dropped me off and I jogged (ugh...just shows I love her cause I was NOT planning on doing a warmup mile!) to find a race official. When I did he basically told me she was screwed. We boarded the bus, dejected. I was sad that Speedy was sad. We attempted to make the best of it and decided to run together and then my time would be her time. I was scared about this plan. She had finished the 1/2M 25minutes ahead of me the year before (I was ~2min/mile slower than her...hence her nickname) but I felt like we could give it a try and if she needed to leave me she was free.

At the start line we went to the stage and Pam Reed herself relived all of our stress by getting Speedy a new chip and a new perspective on the day.

We were ready!

We hit the porta-potties (where sadly I had performance anxiety) and dropped our gear.

As I ran I kept rewriting the tittle of my race report, so I will break the report down into those discreet segments:

Pulling a Britney and other genius moves of the day

So, I only mentioned a few of these in my race report but I had some serious Dumb ass moments.

1. Trying to use the porta-potties I must not have locked the door and totally got exposed to the world (I am consoling myself by saying it was too dark for anyone to see anything)

2. I decided to wear a long sleeve tech shirt on the bike and run so i pinned my number on it. Luckily i decided to try it on (mainly to see if it was placed correctly) but I struggled putting it over my head because...I had pinned the shirt together.

3. Got DQ'd for not having handlebar ends which made me SO MAD at myself because I have extras because I know this can be an issue but they were in the car.

4. I lost my phone, socks, sports beans all in the span of ~15min. (Luckily I found the first 2)

5. My timing chip was cutting into my left ankle fo rthe last few miles of the bike and for teh whole run. Probably should have tried to fix that in T2.

Oh well, at least most of these things were remedied and not overly embarrassing. And 2 of these things could have been remedied with small purchases like a race belt and a chip strap.

Peer pressure=impromtu race report

So, i wasn't planning on racing this race. But my TNT peeps were going to do it. And some of my Thur night cycling folks were doing it. And it was the last one of the season. And I had been getting bored of running.

WHAT THE HECK...Let's doooo it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Race Report: Kirkland Triathlon at Carillon Point

September 21, 2008

Total: 1:36:15 S: 0:15:47 T1: 2:42 Bike: 0:49:52 T2:1:09 Run: 0:26:44

Age Group place: 21/74

Overall: 417/899

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sign up/packet pickup: I was volunteering in the Campaign for Change Bellevue office during the day and ran over to packet pick up with the intention of registering and possibly racking my bike but it was POURING and COLD. I was having some serious second thoughts about the whole thing and honsetly considered not registering. (Un)Fortunately my cycling buddies saw me at the registration spot and further coerced me. So, 80 bucks and a cotton T-shirt later I was committed.

I couldn't access the handy dandy "tri-checklist" that my TNT coach had given us and I had to pack my gear on my own and pray I had everything I needed. I slept better last night than I ever have before a race. Start time was 7am, T closed at 6:30. I had set my alarm for 5am and managed to go to bed at 8:30pm(!) and woke up naturally at 4:30am. This was actually great since I hadn't decided what I was going to eat for breakfast and needed to stop and get something.

This being the least planned out race I have ever done (well there was a 10K that I wandered into once but...) I ran into the gas station and bought the breakfast of champions: Poptarts and a diet pepsi.

It was pitch black setting up transition and since this was my first rainy weather race i had to figure out the wardrobe of the day. I finally got settled and wandered around to find old TNT buddies. When I got back to my bike I had been DQ'd! I got busted for a missing handlebar plug and (with ~15min before start) had to remedy it.

With that all taken care of it was time to get going...

Swim:
The wave starts were VERY spread out so we stood out in our wetsuits for a very long time. Finally my wave went out. I positioned myself towards the front and outside of the group. This worked out fairly well. My goal was to just stay consistent on the swim and not push overly hard. i wound up in one small tussle. In the past I would fall back and let the other overtake me but I felt like I was in the best position to do the overtaking. I had a soft goal of finishing under 15minutes (which I missed) but I haven't had a swim durinng a race where I felt as in control so that was good.
S:0:15:47

T1:
Since I was only wearing a jog bra and tri shorts under my wetsuit I was too shy to start stripping the wetsuit which was LAME since transition was pretty far from the swim out.
T1: 2:42

Bike:
Didn't start off great because I had to stop to fix my bike computer sensor which was hitting my spokes (see lake Padden post). This ride was pretty hilly the first half and then it leveled out. But yikes if I didn't very nearly fall off of my bike on the big climb.
Bike: 0:49:52

T2: Uneventful
T2:1:09

Run: I was VERY optimistic about the run. I mean, sheesh, I just did a 15miler. I have been running like crazy. But the run felt somewhat hard. I wanted it to feel great and, while I did recover slightly in the 1st mile, I didn't feel like I could really pick up my pace like I would have wanted. My run time however was AWESOME. I almost don't believe it was an actual 5K. Becaus eif it was, then that was sub 9min miles. Who, me?!?!
Run: 0:26:44

Now for the very imoprtant, the post race food/swag. The food was really yummy. They did fruit parfaits with nilla wafers, YUM! Swag was minimal but oh well.

Take home Lessons:
1. I need to sign up for races beforehand so that mentally/equiptmentally I prepare.
2. I need to hydrate on the bike, even during a sprint tri
3. Get my prerace breakfast figured out well before 4am race day.

Multiple Choice Quiz

Which of the following things occurred at this weekend's triathlon?

1. I got off course and went 9 extra miles on the bike
   
2. I swam without a wetsuit in a lake that is rumored to have leeches
   
3. I won first place in my age group
   
4. All of the above
   

For answer read below (but the answer is D…it was a wacky race)

Race Report:

Work-it-out Triathlon

Maple Valley, WA

July 27, 2008

 

I had been looking for an Oly to do in July since Padden was not really a full Oly distance (only ½ mi swim, 21mi bike, 5.6mi run) but I couldn't find a race to do. So when my mom suggested I do a sprint in her neighborhood I thought, "What the heck!" So I signed up and signed up my 10 year old sister for the kids tri.

Night before the race we rode down to the lake from my Mom's house (~3mi) to get in a quick swim. I wanted to try swimming without a wetsuit open water (a first for me!) and I wanted her to practice swimming some distance (a first for her…even the 75yards that the race was turned out to be a stretch). The lake was pretty and super warm; even pretty far out you could see the bottom.

The next morning we got there at the crack of dawn for day of registration and while I knew there was going to be a late fee for me I was a bit miffed that the fee was the same for the kid's tri (so my late fee was 16% and the kids was 50%). But, in normal race day congeniality, I smiled and paid the fees and went to set up my transition. It was a VERY small race (<100 people) that seemed to be divided into 2 tribes: the teams of trained and experienced age-groupers and first timers. I realized this because there was still a lot of space left near the bike-out/in. So I set up there and ran into my first dilemma. Since I wasn't wearing a wetsuit I couldn't wear my number in the swim but I didn't have a race belt so I'd have to fumble with safety pins. Ugh.

We went out in gender waves and the swim sort of sucked. I missed my wetsuit and my new tri-top had gotten really loose in the water. I swam really wide on the outside and felt like I was totally off course. When I got out of the water my top had fallen way down and I was flashing the crowd (my jog bra). T1 went surprisingly well. I even safety pinned my number without problems!

For the bike I only brought one bottle of water and no food; it was only a 14 mi ride and from my previous experience with sprints I don't do well with trying to fuel too much (insert ominous, foreshadowing music). The bike course was semi tough, I hadn't seen it before and kept being surprised by the lack of flat regionsL. It seemed like we were always going slightly uphill unless we were going seriously uphill. But I was doing OK, I wanted to try to average 18mph for the ride and was really trying to shift efficiently on hills and not just crank up them. I was about to pass a few folks at mile 8 and a freaking Ford Explorer drives up beside me and starts asking me questions (are you sure you're on course was the main one)! WTF?! I was so grouchy with them because they scared me and told them to stop talking to me…but we were at mile 9 now and didn't seem to be heading back. Hmmm….

I rode nearby 3 other women for some 3 miles when one of them (a local) said she was sure we were off course and helped us find a roundabout way back to the lake. 23 miles instead of 14…I was mostly worried because I didn't want to be just pulling in from the bike when everyone was finishing the run (not to mention I had only taken water and now had just nearly doubled the bike) but I needn't have worried about the first part. It seems as though ¼ of the field had gotten off course before they realized there was no indication of the turn-around. So my bike adventure buddies and I parted ways and headed for the run.

I had a pretty great run on a pretty funky course. One portion had us scrambling down a little hill from the trail to the streets. But I felt pretty good and was carrying my ½ Melon Gatorade Fierce/ ½ water.

I finished, pretty bummed/pissed about the whole bike debacle but I hadn't missed the kids tri so I was happy. The kids tri didn't start for quite a while because there were still sprinters out on the bike course (YIKES!). The kid's Tri was a logistical nightmare too, they had the kids biking in the parking lot which was fully open to the public. So we were watching as these kids had to dart around moving vehicles. It was like watching a bizarre game of Frogger. Really bad!

But bizzaro day is not over yet. They do awards and I am sort of half polite-listening and clapping when I hear MY NAME. I won 1^st in my age group (20-29…there were only 3 of us in this race). What! I was cracking up; I guess I got rewarded for getting the least lost? It was flipping hilarious. I won a gift certificate for 25bucks at a bike shop, so at least I recouped my late fees J

Swim 8:51.3

T1 1:23.9

Bike 1:13:08.4

For 23mi 18.9MPH

T2 0:21.6

Run 26:50.9

WOW! 8:57/M

1:50:36.1

 

Will race for cookies

Lake Padden Triathlon,

June 28, 2008

Bellingham, WA

http://www.trithecookie.com/



Race Report

After 4 months of training the week long taper leading up to the race really got to me! I got so anxious about my bike working, my jersey being too small, my shoelaces not being triathlon ready (they use lace-locks…it is very high tech and professional) and etc. Then I got to the pre-race pasta dinner. Here some of our honored teammates stood up and talked about their experiences with blood cancer and how hard those battles were. Each of the women who spoke was diagnosed in a different decade (1976, 1991, 2001) and the difference between their stories was astounding! From Sue (Dx `76) who had 5 subsequent secondary cancers to Jonelle (Dx`01) who was able to finish school while getting treatment, I finally saw the reality of what research can do. It directly shaped the cancer experience for these women and hopefully will continue to break cancer down into the category of understandable/treatable (and dare I say, curable) diseases. After the pasta dinner my pit crew (My mom and Emily) helped me lay out my clothes and made sure I sacked out early.

The race itself was great. It was an unfamiliar 80 degrees and sunny the morning of and we got started bright and early. The TEAM set up our transition areas nearby each other and chatted nervously until it was time to head to the swim.

I actually would have to say the swim was my most eventful leg. I started out in the front of my wave and close on the inside. I went out strong and actually wound up kicking and fighting my way through people a bit (Now I think it was just Steve, a TEAMmate and mentor who was bossy all season and probably deserved it!). After the buoy turn around I found myself headed back strong until I looked up to spot and saw that I was heading into traffic from the other direction (Steve then took the opportunity mid-swim to laugh at me which makes me wish I had been able to kick him harder). I finished the Swim and ran to the transition area. My one snag I need to work on happened here. I HAD to get out of my wetsuit so I stopped right inside the transition area and tried to step out of the wetsuit without getting in other people’s way.

My T1 was pretty quick and I had remembered to get into my smaller chain for the immediate hill. Got out on the bike course and felt pretty winded and disheveled but otherwise OK. Until my one bike snag, during the first mile I kept hearing a clicking noise coming from my front tire. I stopped and investigated but it was just the bike computer sensor was hitting my front tire. Fixed it pretty quick and was off again. The ride was great, I felt good and was surprised at some of the speeds I was able to maintain even on some hills. The big hill at the top was tough but I was glad when I reached it because it meant I was almost 2/3 done!

My T2 was super fast! Since I don’t have bike shoes I had no reason to lollygag so I headed off for the run. This is when I realized I had done a pretty poor job of hydrating and fueling on the bike. It was ~85 out and I probably should have taken that into consideration. The run was hard and I slogged through (which was disappointing). Oh, and my one shoelace came untied.

Crossing the finish line was nice but having my TEAMmates cheering me on and watching my TEAMmates cross the finish line was amazing!

It was a good race and, for the sake of this blog I am going to try to come up with top 3 take home lessons I learned from each race:

1. Don’t stray from your hydration/fueling plan
2. Stay out of people’s way when removing wetsuit, practice that maneuver a lot!
3. Figure out the shoelace issue




Swim 00:14:09.9 T1 00:01:31.6 Bike 01:18:19.0 T2 00:00:44.7 Run 01:00:41.9


Finish 02:35:27.1