Race Report: Run for Regis Trail Half Marathon

Or, "The It's Really Nine Degrees?! Half Marathon...

Or, the "This Sounded Like a Really Good Idea in October" Half Marathon...

Or, "Trails are Hella Hard But Pretty Amazing" Half Marathon.

So Saturday night, I had an amazing time with some super awesome people.  It was so fun to hang out with some friends and very much needed after a really busy last-week-of-the-semester.  The alarm clock went off WAAAAY too early for a Sunday, but it was go time!

Whoa.  MORE snow.  We got dumped on this week, which I was actually kind of excited about on Friday.  Because, see, I attempted to run the trails with Ana, Laura, TriEric and Aimee, Dale, Patty, and Tina last weekend, and let's just say it didn't go so well.  Poor Laura slid down a hill with all the mud and was COVERED.  A few of us bailed and just decided to run on the roads since we were mostly walking through swampy mud, and the thought ran in my head of, "How the heck am I going to do this next weekend for a HALF MARATHON?"  I was pretty sure it scared Ana off big time and she was going to join the Witness Protection Program on race morning if things didn't change.

So freezing temperatures and snow?  Very much welcome by me on Friday and Saturday.

Not so much on race morning, though.

This is my "what the HELL was I thinking" face at 5:57am as I opened the door to let Mugsy out

We headed out and due to a BIG mistake on my part, we got a little lost.  DOH!  No worries, right?  It's a laid back race, right?

Um, yeah, but you still need to be there IN TIME FOR THE START.

We arrived literally three minutes before the start.  We frantically jumped out, grabbed our schtuff, peed, and made it by about 10 seconds to the start line.  I found Brandy and the four of us:  Ana, Brandy, Jen, and I, set out for a nice little "Happy Birthday Winter Hike With Friends" which is what I was calling it since it was Jen's birthday (yay!), I was grossly undertrained and hadn't ran more than 8 or maybe 9 miles, it was NINE degrees according to Jen's car, and we were all there with friends.

So we took off on our little winter adventure!

It was beautiful.  Really, seriously beautiful.  Here is a link to the official FB page of all the pictures, so HUGE props to the volunteers like my buddy Lloyd who I saw snapping away on the course!  His photos can be found here--thanks, Lloyd!  The volunteers were seriously amazing--stocking the aid stations with "hot and cold" tables full of everything under the sun, making sure the course was clearly marked, and just being awesome.  It really made this run super fun.

And hard.  And not as bad as I thought, and then hard again.  And with some killer hills and technical trails.  Garmin says 1,130 feet of elevation gain.

(OUCHY.  That's the sound of my quads ripping apart and my right hammy barking at me.)

I saw tons of snow covered trees, lots of snow covered running buddies, amazing volunteers, and a few signs that said "STEEP GRADE" which meant, oh yeah baby it's ON in about 12 seconds.  And then ouch!  But in a good way.

The last time I attempted this course, the snow was so deep and it was my first long trail race so I made the decision to bail at the first loop's end at mile 8.  So if I could finish this one, I'd be pretty happy.  And finish we did!  Brandy, Jen, and Ana killed it and I dragged along about a minute behind as my legs and lungs revolted a little bit on the last climb out (yeah--forgot my inhaler AGAIN.  me=stupid).  Ana has officially been introduced to the world of trail running and did AMAZING.  So proud of her!  Jen and Brandy killed it as usual, too.  It was so fun to run with these girls!

Ana, Me, Brandy, and Jen at the finish!  My face was pretty much frozen into a smile

I finished in about 2:40 by my watch (not counting our approximate 6 minute stops total for 2 aid stations) for an average pace of just about 12 minutes/mile, which I am SO happy about considering I had to walk most of the uphills.  And there were quite a few of them, too!

Afterwards I had a bowl of delicious vegan chili provided by the volunteers and some conversation with good friends!

And now, it's almost time for this:

So get out there and play in the snow!  Remember, there's no such thing as bad weather....only bad gear.  :)

Huge congrats also go out to my girl Daisy who tied for first overall in the 50K!  50K in those conditions = HONEY BADGER.  Amazing.  Well-done, Daisy!  And I KNOW she's drinking a cold one tonight, cuz that's how she rolls.

What?

No really.

WHAT?

Are you serious?

Yesterday, I am pretty sure I just beat my previous 5K PR by a second or two.

This is insane on many levels.

1) I am pretty much the least in 5K shape of my life. Or so I thought.

2) I am running MAYBE 15 miles a week.

3) I am not very good at 5Ks anyway.

This time that I set back in 2002 (I think--it's been so long I can't even remember!) which I believe was somewhere around 23:48 or so (again--so long I gave up really trying since I don't do these much anymore) and haven't been able to beat ever since....

I just busted it out yesterday.

According to my watch, 23:47. We'll see what the final times were (UPDATE--They have me at 23:46! Yippeeeeee): this wasn't a chip race, and I was back a bit (now I'm regretting that! DOH!).

To top it off, I even snuck into 3rd in my age group--which means you know it was a small 5K field! Ha ha!

Anyway, I should back up. So this race was literally in my front yard. It didn't run through it but came close, so the Mom and I signed up. Mom had to head out of town due to a last minute family emergency (it hasn't been the greatest 2 weeks in TST land, unfortunately) so it was just me, myself and I. My plan was twofold:

1. Run as hard as I possibly can.

2. Try not to hurl.

I had absolutely NO expectations about this race. I even told my buddy Shannon how NOT in 5K shape I was. I lined up kind of near the front but still pretty much in the middle of the pack. If I could average just under 8--like 7:59 or so--I'd call it a victory, given my lack of mileage. The good thing is that although I don't have many miles, Coach Emily has been giving me some good intensity and I've been doing some hard fartlek stuff. But I had a HORRIBLE run on Monday night. Awful awful awful. I could barely hold low-8s for my TWO MINUTE PUSHES. Ugh. So I really didn't expect much.

The first mile I was going hard, but comfortably hard. I kept looking at the Garmin in a bit of disbelief because it didn't feel that fast. Made it to the first mile marker in 7:23.

The second mile, things got a bit harder and I was laboring more, but the wheels weren't coming off as I expected them to. I tried to follow a few people in front of me who had a good pace and just zone out on them. The second mile was around 7:43 or so. Slower for sure, but given my lack of miles, I knew that would probably happen.

But I still felt pretty good.

It was about here that I realized that if I could hold it together, I might PR. I felt good, and it was hard but not too terribly hard.

Was this really going to happen today? TODAY? Nine years of trying to do this and I don't give a crap and it happens NOW?!

Around 2.5, I was regretting my decision to have coffee. That works really well in my short races for me, but started to make me froth at the mouth and feel nauseas. I let out a fabulous, classy, loogie-spit to the right and put on my big girl panties. It was here that I looked at my watch and knew it would be close. I was slowing down and it was starting to hurt, but I didn't want to get that far and blow up in the last half mile!

Mile 3 was 7:57. Uh oh. Time to turn on the gas!

My last .1 was an average pace of 6:36, which means I had entirely too much gas left in the tank. And when I crossed the line, it said 23:47. And I about freaking laughed, except I was doubled over and wheezing from my lovely allergy-induced asthma. So I just smiled instead.

23:47. And I would say this was the LEAST prepared I'd ever been for a 5K, or really any race.

WOW.

Okay, so what did I do differently than I haven't done in the past? How did I actually pull this off?

1. Hats off to Coach Emily for working with my insane schedule and giving me just the right amount of intensity. I definitely respond much better to low-volume, high-intensity training. This further solidifies that. My best marathon time came on my lowest mileage, and now this?! Geez.

2. I had ZERO expectations. NONE. Therefore, my head was not my worst enemy as it usually is. I just ran as hard as I could, period, the end. No drama. No ridiculous obsessing. No nerves, even. Just run hard, try not to puke, run harder, done.

3. I have been more consistent with strength training. I worked really hard to get my core back after Bean and it's still a work in progress of course, but it's a big focus. I've also worked on large muscles like glutes, hammies, and quads, and kept up with my upper-body stuff. Maybe that helped me not die? I dunno.

Now, what did I learn?

1. This is clearly not even CLOSE to what I am capable of. If I were to have some decent mileage along with intensity, I should be able to do much better than this. Of course now, I'm wondering.

2. This 5K PR bar was set very low.

Me, Anne, and Laura after the race

Okay, so I'm thinking there's really no reason I can't drop down into the low-23s and maybe even get into the high 22s. Yes, that's a dare. You hear me, head? THAT'S A REASONABLE DARE. If I can pull this out of my bum, then I should be able to do better. There's no reason why I can't.

Shannon snapped this one of me getting my medal!

So, I have two more 5Ks on the books that I was doing "just for fun" between now and January 1st. And they will still be for fun. But they might just be a little dare to myself, too. TST, the 5K underachiever, is going to try and drop that bar a bit lower where I know it should be.

Giddyup!

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Done

The hardest thing I've ever attempted is being a working athlete mother. And I even have quite a bit of help, in the form of an amazing husband and family. But for some reason this past week seems to have been particularly tough. Tough physically, and especially emotionally.

Because, and I realize this is a good problem to have, there is simply too much for me to love and not enough hours in the day for me to fit it all in. I would never NOT want to work where I do. I would never NOT want to spend every waking second with Bug and Bean. And I can't even wrap my head around not working out at least 4 days a week.

So, by the wayside goes the unnecessary.

My beloved lengthy race reports, filled with pictures, for a start. Followed by all remnants of a clean and orderly house, dinner that involves more than a protein, a veggie, and brown rice, and afternoon workouts. I actually thought I could run after school today. Ha! Silly me. I know better. Even if I could somehow get that in (which it was literally impossible), all I ever want to do after school is spend time with Bug and Bean. And Bug's totally NOT down with the jogging stroller (yeah...he's been done with that for a while now).

Here it is, with random pictures and thoughts and I've got 15 minutes here so that's what you're gonna get:

Lorain Sprint Tri

I came, I did not have my heart in it, I tried to put my heart into it as much as I could, I still did pretty darn good.

Swim: Awful awful awful, but I didn't panic, which I take to be a result of me swimming in pretty rough conditions a few times this summer. So sucking is not good, but at least I didn't suck AND panic. Lots to work on here. I lost it in the swim on this race, and could have had a better finishing position with a better swim. Took a wrong turn in T1 to boot and had to turn back around. Awesome. Arg. 3/6 AG (<-----boo.)

Bike: Just didn't really have my head in the game here. Official results have me at 21.4 crazy miles per hour, which sounds awfully purty but is just not true. The course was a little short and I had 20.3 on my Joule, which is just about on par with what I did at Huntington. But only 160 watts?! Boo. I can do better. Held back a bit due to fears after a derailleur malfunction the night before, so kept it in pretty much the same gear the whole time. I should have trusted it a bit more, but wanted to have a good run so just kept on in the same gear. 1/6 AG

Run: Very proud of this. 25:05, which is an entire minute faster than Huntington. And I felt pretty awful! I could swear I was crawling. I need to take at least 90 more seconds off here. Work to be done, but definite progress! (1/6 AG)

All in all? Work to be done, but isn't there always and ain't that why I love this stuff? I muddled through after a challenging week and I didn't have my head in the game like I did at Huntington. So to finish where I did felt awesome.

5/52 overall females (a few seconds out of 4th--poop sandwich!)

1/6 Age Group (small field, but I finished just shy of 8 minutes ahead of 2nd, so pretty happy!)

Here are a few pics at least, courtesy of my awesome Mom:

And now I'm going to collapse. Goodnight!

Race Report: Huntington Sprint Triathlon, 2011

As I explained in my previous post...I was very excited for this race.

It's a mile from my house. How cool is that? So I still didn't sleep well the night before (standard), but at least it was easy to get to! Plus, a lot of my local tri buddies were going to be there, and that rocks.

I felt like I needed to redeem myself a bit from Lifetime--I know that I did the best I could there, but I felt like it just wasn't good enough. I could do more. But I never know what sprints can bring. I sort of have one speed, and it's 70.3. I can dial that speed in, no problem. But a sprint? It should hurt. You should be gasping for air at the end. And that's not a race pace I'm really used to.

So I decided it was time to dial it up a notch.

I wanted this to hurt.

Despite crazy nasty storms, the lake was NOT choppy! I was pretty stoked about that. It was pretty warm and I wanted to go hard, but not totally blow it. I definitely felt like I needed to push it, though, especially after my pretty rotten swim at Lifetime. So push I did. I found a few legs, drafted for a bit, passed, and went comfortably hard. I knew I could have gone a little harder, but I didn't feel like I dogged it like I did at Lifetime. I was happy with my effort.

Swim Time 9:57

Place 6/19 AG

Got out and ran the almost 1/4 mile up to transition--sheesh! Tried to stay calm and collected and remember that I was about to embark on what's become my best leg. My buddy Ken was there and told me there were some girls to catch. I had a rough time getting my right leg clipped in but then I was off.

One of my former students and I leaving T1! She was doing her very first tri and finished 2nd in her age group--yay, Megan!

OFF OFF OFF.

Long story short--I killed it. I felt FABULOUS on this ride and my watts were high but I felt good. I picked people off left and right and got especially excited when I saw a leg that had a "U" on it, as that was my age group. I passed 4 or 5 girls with U's, and didn't see any U's pass me, so I was excited. I knew I was near the front of the age group and felt awesome.

And then I took a wrong turn.

About 1/2 mile from transition. SO STUPID. I even knew it was wrong. I knew we were supposed to go straight, but the police officer was waving right. Turns out, he was waving the cars and not us, but I saw a fast chick turn and stupidly I followed like a lemming. She really let the police officer have it and yelled, "I was winning this!" at him, but I silently turned and chalked it up to not trusting my gut and knowing the course better. I knew better than making that mistake and turning, and was mad at myself for doing it.

I probably lost 30-45 seconds.

But I hoped that I had built up a big enough cushion to still hang onto an age group place. I was not sure what this run would bring as my hamstring has been much better, but I haven't really tried to go that hard on it. I put on my brand new birthday racing flats, Saucony Mirages, that are obnoxious blue, grabbed my visor, and took off hoping for the best.

I was kind of being the Chris Leito of the average-Jane 30-34 females in NEO. I took his strategy of hammer the hell out of the bike and pray you can hold on. I felt a bit like a hunted/wounded animal, but I tried to just focus on the run ahead.

Bike: 36:19

1/19 AG

20.2 mph

I felt SOOOO slow. The first mile, I expected U's to pass me left and right. I certainly must have been running 10 minute miles.

Except I wasn't.

My pre-race dream goal was to hold 8s, and it appeared that I was doing relatively close to that. I don't know because my little Nike kid's watch doesn't take lap splits, but I did time my 2nd mile and it was just under 8. Could this be true? One of the volunteers told me at about 2.5 miles that I was "the fourth female, and you can catch those other ones if you hurry." I knew that wasn't true because of the wave starts--I knew for SURE there were some SMOKIN' fast 40+ masters females behind me that were actually "ahead" time-wise. But if there were only 4 ahead of me, and I knew two of them I knew for sure were masters, then that meant maybe one more that was possibly in my age group.

Or not.

Or it was me, in first place.

I knew then, with about .6 miles to go, that this was going to be my race to lose. And I sure as hell was NOT about to lose it then. There would be NO U's passing me, and if one did, and this turned into a Raelert-Macca thing, then I WOULD BE MACCA.

(*of course, both Raelert and Macca could beat me while running backwards wearing stilettos blindfolded, but you get the point, right?)

This was a huge mental victory for me, because usually at this point in a race, I am talking to myself and saying things like, "Hey, 3rd place is pretty good" or "well, I had a great bike today," but there was NONE OF THAT in this race. I knew coming off the bike that I was probably in first, and I made up my mind throughout most of the run that it was going to stay like that. End of story.

I knew those girls behind me might be fabulous runners, and I was hoping for maybe a 25 minute 5K at best, and can I really win this thing with a 25+ minute 5K?

The answer today was YES.

I dashed up the hill, kicked it into high gear just in case, and finished in 1:16.47, just 10 seconds ahead of the 2nd place girl in my age group.

Thanks to my awesome friend, Anne, for taking these pics for me!

She almost got me, but I was NOT going to have that today. No way. I finished the way I wanted to--gasping, almost puking, and smiling.

Run 26:05

Pace 8:25/mile

5/19 AG

Met my two kiddies and Matt afterwards and got to hug them lots and lots.

1/19: 30-34 Females

9/115: Overall Females

72/292: Total Finishers

And THAT is how I rang in my next decade of triathlons.

Lifetime Fitness Triathlon 2011

Whew--I am back!

And it was super fun! And I have been told I will lose my Midwestern card because I didn't know what cheese curds were. And also, Minneapolis is HOT! Who knew?

Whirlwind weekend with Team Evotri this weekend in the Twin Cities! We headed out to do the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon. I had signed up for the Olympic waaaaay back before I had my stupid hamstring issues. I have to admit I was a bit nervous for this race, and definitely regretting not signing up for the sprint. But who travels to Minneapolis to do a sprint? That's not a very high mile-t0-race ratio. If I have to pack up the bike, I need to make the distance worth it, right? So the plan was to get through the swim, hit the bike hard, and somehow make it through the run.

Friday afternoon I touched down and we hit the expo and then had a tasty dinner at the Italian Pie Shoppe (yum!). I watched my teammates eat ice cream (since dairy does not do well with me the night before a race--especially if it's a hot one) and then we turned in.

The next morning Rural Girl was up and at 'em early so I was, too. We had some coffee and I tried to ignore the possible thunderstorms that would be hitting us. The heat and humidity was definitely not good for me, but I figured it wasn't a 70.3, so I could probably get through it without it being too much of a factor.

I lined up for the time-trial start and, hey! I've never done one of those before. I really liked it! I demand a personal start time for every race I do now.

(I keed!)

The Swim: Goal--get through it in a respectable time

Reality: Embarrassment.

So the lake was 83 degrees which made wetsuits illegal. That didn't bother me too much but I didn't have much open water training in so I was a little concerned if it was choppy. Nothing I haven't had in Lake Erie, I figured. What ended up happening was I muddled through, drank lots of water, had horrible form and dropped my legs every time I tried to sight, seriously thought the yellow triangle buoys were messing with me and started swearing at them, and came out in a very disappointing time. It's gotten to the point where I'm embarrassed to admit I have been swimming since I was 3. What was once my strength is totally my weakness. Arg. I'm not sure how to change this except swim more, which I know is not possible now. So, I'm going to have to make peace with being mediocre (at best) in the water, which frustrates me because deep down I know I'm better than that.

Sigh.

T1: I couldn't find my bike and ran down the wrong row, but that only set me back a few seconds I think. Other than that, I got in and out relatively smoothly.

Bike: Goal--break 20mph average and keep my watts up

Reality: 19.4mph average but I think watts were good! ( I'm having a problem with the software on my Mac and really need to call CycleOps for help--note to self, DO THAT TOMORROW.)

I had heard this was not necessarily a PR bike course but tried to kind of block that out and go for it anyway. Sure enough, the potholes were pretty rough in parts. I am used to that as I live in a city that gets a great deal of snow, too, but I gotta say it was pretty rough in parts. To my NEO peeps, it was like the Rocky River Valley Parkway, but worse. I could tell it was a pretty course but I didn't get to look much because I was so focused on the road. It was also a pretty technical course--lots of hairpin turns which zapped some of my mojo in places. For some reason, all 4 of my teammate's PowerTaps said that it was about 25.8 miles, which was odd.

But I really had fun out there. Once upon a time, I was early out of the water and then dead last at T2, getting picked off one by one. I gotta say I had an absolute BLAST on this course reeling people in. I picked off quite a few girls in my AG and only got passed by a few. Looking at my splits compared to the rest of my AG, I had a pretty good ride! I've really made serious progress here.

T2: Nothing too eventful--I found my rack faster this time, yay me!

The Run

Goal: Get to the end, hopefully somewhere around a 9:15 average and ideally not walking

Reality: 9:18 average pace

To say I'm disappointed in my running this summer is an understatement. But I have to face the music: I am injured. It sucks. I hate it, and I'm trying to fix it, but I don't want to shut down this season so I'm just going to keep going the best that I can. Normally a good day for me is to do an olympic race 10K in around 50-51 minutes. Today I was pleading for 57. I told Matt it would be a miracle if I was holding 9:15s, so to finish close to that is good. I guess.

(It still stinks, but whatever. I know I'm my own harshest critic.)

I haven't ran more than 5 miles since the marathon. I wondered how badly this would hurt, but figured I'd just HTFU and get through it. I didn't fly all this way to walk.

The first loop wasn't TOO bad--I was holding around 9 minute pace, actually, and was pretty happy about that! But then it started to really hurt, and I felt my stride get shot to hell. I took my wee little baby steps and just counted the steps to focus on something else besides sucking. I did kick it at the end and then was toast. I don't do well in humidity and heat and it was definitely pretty hot and humid, although arguably could have been MUCH worse! I was so happy to have a nice cold towel from the volunteers. Best idea ever! And my awesome teammate Rural Girl WON her age group! She's a machine, people. A MACHINE.

Time: 2:55.00

Place: 21/47 AG

Significantly off my PR. That's okay, I guess. I would have loved to have a better race but I knew I was not really ready for that.

What I Need to Do:

1. NEVER a spring marathon again if I hope of having a decent tri season. I'm not cut out to only run run run run and stop all things tri, and then beat the crap outta myself in May, and still be able to hammer hard in the summer. LESSON LEARNED. Half marathon in spring = OUTSTANDING. Full marathon in spring = BUNK.

2. More open water and either make peace with my swimming situation or change it.

3. Get over this injury somehow so I can have decent runs in my next two races. I'll be doing a sprint in 2 weeks and was hoping to do an olympic in late-August. It would really be nice to go faster than my previous easy-long-run pace.

Last night we had SO much fun at an awesome place called the Chatter Box Cafe--I got super excited because they had old-skool Nintendo games! Bonus! And I got to hold Baby Henry, who is so cute I wanted to eat him up. I also got to see quite a few of my teammies which is always SUCH a blast. I really wish I got to see them more often! And we even topped it off with some Izzy's Ice Cream (YUM!) and I got to see Mike and Rachel, two super cool people. Wish I had more time to see more of the Twin Cities Tri peeps--there are so many of you out there! Loved your cities. It's really nice up there!

Oh, and I had some fried cheese curds. And also discussed the merits of Greg Gagne and Kent Hrbek. And said "that's what she said" a lot. And pretty much laughed for 48 hours straight.

Back home and snuggled lots with Bug and Bean! Time to get ready for the next race. It's good to feel like a triathlete again!

Race Report: Rev3 Cedar Point 70.3

9/15 UPDATE: Just checked the results again, and my swim and finish times are different, in a good way! Not sure what happened, as that's what I get for racing without a watch. But I'll take it. So now it's a 16 minute PR...even better. :)

___________________________________

The short: I PR'd, by 16 minutes. I'm still in awe, I love my family more than anything, and my teammates are the biggest rockstars EVER.

If you want to keep reading, here's the long version. You know I like to ramble. Don't say I didn't warn you. ;)

_______________________________________

At our team meeting, a paper was sent around. For us to put our estimated times. It was just so Wil and Steve could know when we'd exit, so they could get pictures. But I really didn't want to write my times on there.

I still felt like I didn't really deserve to be there.

What business did I have being there? Who was I kidding? I still have a backpack on. It's smaller, but it's there. I'm not sure how much, because I was afraid to know before the race. Ignorance is bliss, right? Regardless, I hadn't run more than 9 miles in training. Most of my rides were no longer than 50 miles. I was lucky to get to the pool twice a week, and lately, it's been more like once.

I didn't feel like I was really in half-ironman shape. I know I trained a lot, especially given the circumstance. But I didn't train as much as I would have before.

What do I write on this paper?

That I might crash and burn? Admitting that was just something I didn't want to do.

My best race ever would have been Steelhead, but since it was turned into a du and the bike was a little short, I really don't know. So I guess my best was officially New Orleans, which really didn't feel that great. And it was a 6:00.42. I know that, because I remember cursing those 42 stupid seconds.

Go hard or go home. Maybe if I wrote it on the paper, it would come true.

Swim: 40 minutes. Because I always seem to come out around then, even though I should be a good deal faster. Most of that is my fault. I know I can just wing it, and I sort of do. And I just pulled my wetsuit out of the garage for the first time since....wait for it...NEW ORLEANS 70.3 IN APRIL OF 2009. I didn't even know if it would fit me. That might be the dumbest thing ever.

Ride: 2:50. That was pie in the sky, since Steelhead was a 2:45 but it was a little short. The wind would be bad tomorrow, and I knew that was aiming high.

Run: 2:00. I've never gone 2 in a half ironman. I think the best I have is 2:03. I felt REALLY dumb writing that, given I hadn't ran more than 9 miles. Who was I kidding?

Factoring in what I knew would be super slow transitions, and I was writing down that I hoped to go 5:35.

I then came to my senses and realized how stupid that was, so I put a big question mark and wrote "NO CLUE." Because I felt like an idiot saying I would be attempting to do anything UNDER 6 hours. But I was afraid to admit that I couldn't. I know what I'm capable of, if I was at race weight and had put in the miles, and it would be lower than that. But I'm not, and I hadn't. So even 5:35 seemed absolutely ridiculous. Like I was suggesting that I could turn Chuck Norris into a ham sandwich by hopping on one foot and casting a magic spell. That kind of ridiculous.

I passed the paper on.
________________________________________

That night on the way to an awesome dinner with my teammates, I decided I was going to do what it took to come as close to those numbers as I could. I felt like I really owed it to Matt and my Mom, for all the help they gave me all summer so I could train. I felt like I owed it to myself, to see just what the head and the heart are capable of. Because, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm no natural at this. Some can get by on a lot less training that I can and do MUCH better. But I almost cracked a few times training for this race. It was a little more than I could chew six months after having a second baby. So I needed to make all that worth it.

This would be my fifth time at this distance. I just had to come under 6. Even if it was just by a minute, I needed to. I had to make this one count, and I had to go out on a good note. I hoped that my imperfections like my backpack and my lack of as much training as I had hoped to do would be overshadowed by the fact that I just knew I could. That's really all I had going for me. That, and knowing my family was going to be at the finish line.

This race was a true test of my head.
_______________________________________

THE SWIM

I decided I was sick of coming out midpack or worse at the sport I've been doing since I was 2 years old. For crying out LOUD. Seriously. I knew I wasn't in any shape to do what on paper I should do, but I just really was due for a good swim.

I zigzagged all over the place.

I'm pretty sure I swam more than I needed to, since the pack was often WAY to my left. But I just kept thinking, "formformform, pull, reach, PULL" as much as I could. I didn't even have a watch on. I totally swam blind. I managed to catch a bunch of the guys in the wave ahead of me, so I knew at least I wasn't having too bad of a day. I felt like it was a decent swim. Hit the beach and saw Iron Sis Wil, which was super awesome. I got to T1 and the jaw dropped in my brain--there was only one bike gone in my rack. Considering the trek to T1 took a little bit, I figured I must have finally come in under 40 at least. Still nowhere near my best time, but better. A good note to leave on.

Get this: I can't make this up, folks...Time including the run up to the beach?

39:07. Under 40--yahoo! I must have come out around 38. Still not my best, but I did come out 13/39 in AG. I'll take that, for sure.

TI: I'm pretty sure I could have knit a lovely sweater for you in the time I spent in T1, and T2 for that matter. Over FIVE MINUTES. I know. Stupid. But I am so rusty on those--I just never really got time to practice, and getting the wetsuit that I hadn't put on in a year and a half while also putting on arm warmers I hadn't tried to put on wet since Ironman Wisconsin in 2006 was a comedy of errors.

THE BIKE

Of all three disciplines, this is the one I felt the best about. I had a great last long ride that really built up my confidence. I knew I still was carrying around my backpack, but I also knew this race didn't have really any hills to write home about. Hopefully, the backpack wouldn't hold me back too much.

I passed quite a few people, and I noticed a few were in my age group. That always feels good. My heart rate was SUPER high, even by my standards. I tried to just spin easy on the causeway and get it down while getting in some nutrition. I was trying to hold my watts right between 140-150 or so. I knew the wind would make things tough, but I knew the tailwinds would hopefully give me a little back.

True story: somewhere in the middle of the ride a girl pulled up next to me and said, "Have you ever peed on the bike?" WHY YES! I replied. I have! Once, and only once. "Is it faster?" DEFINITELY, I said. I then gave her a few pointers on how to successfully urinate all over yourself while riding. She sincerely thanked me, and we parted ways.

I felt really, really good for most of this ride. There was a part in the middle where I doubted things a bit, but looking back it was just the wind messing with my head. I knew I could still call this a good ride--not my best, but given the wind I was happy to see what the Joule said when I got back to T2.

Here's the Joule's stats:
Ride time: 2:57.43
Miles: 56.32
KJ 1477
Temp: 68 F
Avg Watts: 138
Avg Cadence: 97
Avg MPH: 19.0
Avg HR: 169 (that's actually low for me--I have the heart of a hummingbird)
Max Watts: 511
Normalized Power: 148 (Very happy with that--basically hit my goal dead-on!)

The race results say basically the same thing, except that I'm an idiot and can't figure out their splits. One thing is for certain, though--I moved up to 8th in my age group. BOO-yah.

T2: Seriously. What is wrong with me? I read War and Peace, baked a batch of cookies from scratch, and then apparently decided to start running.

THE RUN

So I just got my Garmin out now to look at the splits. I really hadn't even done that yet! That's not like me. And I kinda LIKE it. :)

Anyway, I started running and felt surprisingly good. I've been running well lately, even if it hasn't been that many miles. I knew I'd be good for 8 miles for sure. After that, well...it was going to hurt. I knew that, and I accepted that.

Right about a half mile into it, I met my running buddy for the day, Randy. Randy is pretty much awesome. We realized we had the same goals--we were both going to try to hold 9s. So we set off on our quest for 9 minute miles.

Everything was going fine for a while--a little too fast at first, even though I felt fabulous. I knew that might hit me later, and it did.

Randy and I talked about our kids (he has twin two year old boys! I gave him BIG UPS. That's gotta be busy!), jobs, the wind, and when I couldn't talk anymore I apologized and told him that I'd reply with one-word answers. We zig-zagged all around Sandusky. Around mile 5, I saw the Jackson Street Pier, which was a nice little boost. I thought of Jackson at the finish line--they were probably there by now.

It started to get hard around mile 8 or so. The wind sucked the life outta me at parts, but then we'd turn a corner and get a little relief. At this point, we were on pace for a 1:57 or so, and I was in a bit of shock. However, I could literally feel my legs filling up with lactic acid...they were getting SO heavy. I kept telling Randy to leave me, but he wouldn't. He kept me from walking, and I'm really thankful for that. Once I started walking, I was sure I wouldn't stop. I had done the math in my head. I didn't know by how much, but I knew I'd probably come in under 6. That kept me shuffling a little faster than I would have otherwise.

The last 5K was a full-out suffer fest for me. Looking back at my splits, what felt like 12 minute miles were really high 9s/low 10s. It could have been worse, I know, but it really, really hurt. I was ready for it, though. The Causeway was beautiful, but windy as hell, and I realized that I was about to run out of steam. The only thing keeping me moving at that point was knowing Jackson, Emery, and Matt would be at the finish line. That was IT.

In the parking lot of Cedar Point, the wind was INSANE and I might have said loudly, "F THIS WIND!" except not just with a letter. And then I apologized. Because poor Randy didn't even know me and I really shouldn't be dropping F bombs like that. But he didn't seem to care.

I told him to GO and finish strong, and we thanked each other. Randy took off--he had a great kick and totally could have left me, but didn't because he's just a nice guy. Reason #246,831 why I love this sport: good people rock. I eventually thanked him after the race about a million times.

But for now, I headed to the chute.

Christine Lynch of New York, NY, although I don't know you, I have to say, you had a smokin' fast run according to the results, and I give you mad props. However, despite that, any other day and I would have blasted down that chute, and you, my unknown friend, would have eaten my dust. You ran by me in the chute and I let you go, so you technically finished 3 seconds ahead of me. I would have been 8th out of 39 in AG, and 35th out of 267 overall. But I let you go...because of this:

All photo credits to my amazing Mom--thanks so much for being there, Mom!

Nothing can really replace my first Ironman. I won't say that this means more than that. But I will say that this race means just as much. This race showed me just how far your heart can take you. I had no business finishing in the time I did, but somehow, I did. 7 months after Jackson, I ran a half marathon and that was difficult enough. When I crossed this line with Jackson's hand in mine, I truly felt like I could do anything. They make it all worthwhile...all three of them make it all possible.



Total time: 5:44.38 (16 minute PR)
9/39 AG
36/267 Total Females

Somehow, I've gone from barely faster than 7 hours at this distance and decisively back of the pack, to top fourth of my age group and even remotely in the same breath as top 10% of females. And to do this, on this date, given these circumstances, has left me utterly amazed and so happy. I know I can walk away now from this distance for a bit...I still have a lot to learn, for sure, and I'd be lying if I didn't say that since crossing the line yesterday I have wondered what I could do next season with another 15 or so pounds down. But I know that to do this distance the way I want to do it would require time that I just don't want to give right now. I think a year away might do me some good. And I feel comfortable walking away now.

My team is awesome, but that's another post. I am so lucky to be in this group of amazing people, and I can't wait to race with them next summer at our team race. Having them there this weekend was really the icing on the cake.

Overall, this race was quite the experience. I think I'll remember this one forever and ever and ever. And I have decided that if I can take 15 minutes off my 70.3 PR six months after having Emery, then there's no doubt in my mind I can take 18 minutes off my marathon PR next year. So you heard it here first: I will be qualifying for Boston--either in the spring or in the fall.

Thanks to all who have managed to read this far, and to those who have encouraged me through all of this: especially my family, my superawesome Coach Emily, and my teammates. It was a bit of a crazy ride, but somehow, I made it.

And I couldn't be happier.

A HUUUUUGGGGGGGGEEEEE PR!

Huge being ME, of course.

So I ran the Reindeer Run 5K FASTER today than I ran the Turkey Dash 5K 10 days ago! WOOT! Not sure how I pulled that off, as I thought I'd definitely need to do LOTS of walking. I think yoga is really helping with my back and strength, though! That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

It was so fun to be at a race again--I wish there were a few more but the next local 5K isn't until the Chili Bowl which I'm pretty sure is, like, the week before I'm due. And going into labor on the course might not be the best idea.

Pretty darn proud of myself for running through 30 weeks. I'm going to keep on keepin' on here until it doesn't feel good and isn't fun anymore, and then I'll stick with walking, yoga, and swimming. Although I must admit, my choice of suit to replace my extremely low and borderline indecent 2 piece is...um...interesting. I'm too cheap to get an expensive maternity suit, so I ordered a cheap one piece in the biggest size I could find for $25 on clearance at Dick's. The only trouble is that they didn't have black. So I got my favorite color, red.

And now, folks, I look like the most horribly miscast actress on Baywatch EVER.

Basically, I look like this. EXCEPT NOT AT ALL.

But whatever. 2 more months, right? I can look ridiculous for 2 more months. I'm pretty sure I look ridiculous often, anyway, so no big whoop.

Here's a few pics from this morning...

All the crew at the Original House of Pancakes afterwards! ESpeed not only PRd today, but WON THE RACE! Yay! And, technically, there are 13 people in this picture... :)

There were actually 5 of us running who were pregnant! I am the farthest along, but JenC's not too far behind me!

Me and JenC

Hooray for running buddies, and especially hooray for my preggers running buddies who paced me to a blazing fast PR today! :) You guys rock!

Race Report: Turkey Dash 5K

I know, I know...it's been since May around here that I've had a race report! This one was definitely a different kind of race, fo' sho'. It was kinda funny to get ready for a race knowing it would be your slowest ever. I did do a 5K when I was about 18 weeks pregnant last time around and it was slow, but I was pretty confident that this one would include many walk breaks, so I'd be lucky to finish in 45 minutes or so.

Went to the doc's yesterday for my appointment, and there was good news. All is well with baby, and so far I'm not measuring particularly big for 28 weeks. This is very good, as from what I hear and what doc says, second babies tend to be bigger. And given that Bug would have been over 10 pounds had I gone to my due date, this is troublesome.

(And by that I mean that this kid MIGHT BE ABLE TO DRIVE ME HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL kind of troublesome.)

I'm once again hoping to avoid a C-section if possible, and a baby of a bit less-gargantuan size (but just as healthy, please!) would help me out there. Doc's ordered an ultrasound on December 18th and one again when I'm 37-38 weeks to "see what we're working with." Then, we can make some decisions from there, regarding inductions (boo--now I know what that means, and it's no fun) and C-sections (which I hope to avoid like the plague. Or at the very least the swine flu).

So I was happy to hear all was well and that so far baby isn't a sasquatch. But I am pretty big, and I knew this would still be a slow race.

All picture credits to TriSaraDad!

Karen Nakon lost her battle with breast cancer on her 38th birthday. She wanted to start a foundation to raise money to help support families that are going through breast cancer, since the Komen foundation does such a great job at research. And that's how her foundation began. Karen was diagnosed with cancer while pregnant with her 3rd child, Madison. My mom taught Madison in pre-school while Karen was fighting the disease. From what my Mom says, Karen was just the kindest, most caring parent around and a wonderful person. It's always our favorite race to do every year in her memory, and we are so happy to see how this race has grown over the past few years! With my cousin Judy being a breast cancer survivor, it is especially meaningful for me to give to such a wonderful cause.

Got all decked out in my black yoga pants, one of Matt's long-sleeve tech tees, and of course my favorite pregnant running shirt, and got ready to start with TriSaraMom.

Caption on my shirt reads, "Does this baby make me look fat?"

My BIGGEST fear this race? That I would have to pee within 8 minutes of starting and be forced to grovel, beg, and plead to some random homeowners to use their bathrooms. Or bushes. Or whatever I could find. Lately my runs have been up to the library, peeing, and then back home. So I wasn't sure if Baby would let me actually go for 3.1 miles without making me pee my pantalones. Sometimes when I run it's fine, but other times, Baby decides to use my bladder as a trampoline. I crossed my fingers and headed to the start...after 3 potty breaks in the 20 minutes leading up to the race.

TriSaraMom pins my number on The Bump while I'm waiting for my 2nd potty break BEFORE the race

I got to see a few buddies at the start, including my friend Peter, and my awesome running/tri buddies TriEric and his wife, Aimee, with our running friend DS Racer. TriEric suggested I should change my shirt to say, "Does this baby make me look FAST?" Too funny! And DS Racer said, "You know...you really should stick to Bud LIGHT." Made me laugh!

DS Racer telling me to stick to Bud Light! Buddy, I wish I could have a nice cold ANYTHING right now...!

TriEric, Me and The Bump, DS Racer, and Aimee before the start

It was a nice 45-50 degrees or so which was PERFECT for me as I tend to overheat anyway. I settled into a little shuffle pace and my Mom was nice enough to run with me despite my protests. I didn't want to hold her back!

My iPod made me laugh several times (yes, I wore an iPod for a 5K...I was afraid it would be a long, lonely run, okay?) by playing SexyBack by Justin Timberlake and Bigger Than My Body by John Mayer. First of all, I am most definitely NOT bringing sexy back right now. So that made me actually laugh out loud. Second of all, if "I'm bigger than my body gives me credit for," than I am THE SIZE OF GREENLAND.

That's me on the far left. As if you couldn't tell which one of these runners was not like the other ones....

I kept waiting to either pee my pants or have to walk, but neither one seemed to be happening! Score! My pace must have been just about right.

We got to the two mile marker and the volunteer said, "25:40." And that also made me laugh, because of every 5K I've ever run in my life, be it at the end of a sprint tri or a standalone race, that was slower than ALL BUT TWO. My first 5K ever, when I was a chubby and very much out of shape senior in college, and the one I ran 18 weeks preggers with Bug. Hee hee! I was gonna do this up in slow style, alright. Instead of trying to pick off runners in front of me or glancing at everyone's calves to see what age group they're in, I found myself trying to pick off panting golden retrievers or people pushing jogging strollers with multiple children in them. Hey, whatever works, right?

But the funny thing is that there were plenty of people around me. I thought I might literally be last, but that was so far from the truth. Lots of people were running with their kids, run/walking, or just running slow like me. So my fears of being alone never came true, which was nice. We were all out there, supporting a great cause, and enjoying the sunny Thanksgiving morning.

I thought of how many people sacrifice this Thanksgiving, like all our men and women serving overseas. I thought of people who didn't have their health to even be able to walk a 5K, let alone run one 28 weeks pregnant. And I thought of my mother-in-law, who will be starting chemotherapy next week to battle Stage 4 cancer. All of that made every single step seem easy.

TriSaraMom and I running to the finish line...I was so excited that I didn't have to walk at all! Victory!

Before I knew it, we were at the end! The clock said somewhere around 39ish minutes. I was very happy with that! A far cry from my PR of 23:33, but as far as I know, I was First Overall Female in the 28 week-pregnant division.

I patted my belly and gave my Mom a high-five. We all did it!

And for once, at the end of a 5K, neither one of us felt like puking. Bonus!

Thanks, Baby, for letting mama have a great race! You will be rewarded with massive amounts of carbs and pumpkin pie today. Feel free to kick away. You've earned it.

Race Report: Cleveland Half Marathon 2009

Well, no pics of me yet, so you'll just have to hear me ramble. :)

Anyway, let me first say a huge shout out to all my Second Sole and CTC peeps who ran yesterday. I've run this race (half and full) several times and I think despite it having several bugs (like, um, THE FREAKING PACE CAR FOR THE 10K GOING THE WRONG WAY THREE YEARS AGO) it IS getting better. And I really do want my hometown race (which is 32 years old!) to do well, ya know? This year the atmosphere was awesome. You could tell they had really worked to embrace the Rock and Roll theme, and it showed. The course was full of spectators for most of the way which was nice. It's come a long way since I hobbled down a lonely, uninviting path and had to beg for a finisher's medal in my 5:14 marathon back in 2002.

Also, a HUGE shout out and thank you to Coach Emily. She's been amazing and knows just how hard to push me so I don't pansy out, while at the same time understanding my crazy insane time constraints. Thanks for everything! :)

So my super goal was 1:45. This was the upper limit of what I knew was possible, given that I'm 6 weeks past New Orleans and didn't really get many long runs in. My speed's been kickin', but I wasn't sure how my endurance would be or just how long I could hang on for dear life. So the plan was to go with the 3:30 pace group and hang as long as I could.

Race day was COLD (44 degrees) and clear skies. Which means PERFECTPERFECTPERFECT! for me. The poor guy next to me at the start line was from South Carolina and was shivering as I stood in my tank top and shorts. He asked me if I was crazy and/or cold. I told him, no...see...this is what I call KARMA from New Orleans! I put in my suffering death march down in the Big Easy. Now it's time for this YANKEE to kick some booo-tay in the cold!

The gun went off and I just KNEW it was going to be a good day. I knew even before then, actually. I knew I would PR (my previous PR was 1:50.06 from last year), and it was just a matter of how much.

I'll let my mile splits tell the story...

1--8:14.

Kinda crowded and crazy, but felt nice and easy. We ran down by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and around Cleveland Browns Stadium.

An evening shot of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

We got a nice little climb back into town and then ran down all the fun little establishments on West 6th in the Warehouse District where I used to cause trouble on a weekly basis. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny morning, and after about 3 blocks I was nice and warm like I knew I would be. Today was going to be a good day; I just knew it.

You can see where we ran around the stadium and back up to the city here. Oh Browns...so much to say. There's always next...decade?

2--7:55.

My mind's jaw dropped a bit--I guess I didn't expect to see any sevens, which is crazy when you're going for an 8 minute/mile pace. Did I think I'd be all 8s? Still, it felt a little scary for me to flirt with disaster at a pace that used to be just a few seconds slower than my 5K pace. We ran by Jacobs Field (or Progressive Field--whatever. Still the Jake.) and The Q, where Game One starts again Wednesday. I was feeling good.

All hail the King.

3--7:48.

Are you SERIALLZZ?

4--7:53.

At this point, I realized I just beat my previous 4 mile PR of 32.11. Nice!

5--8:04.

Okay. Seeing an 8 made me feel a bit more at ease and a little less like I was walking a tightrope over a swirling pool full of ill-tempered sea bass. Broke 40 minutes and another PR of 40:02, my previous best at 5 miles.

6-- 8:01.

Hit the 10K in 49:40, which beat my previous record of 51:30 that I set in this very race last year. As an aside, I wonder what I could do in a short race now? At this point, I'm feeling so good that I high five a few kids. The pace felt SLOW. Since when is THIS MY REALITY?! WHO HAS HIJACKED MY BODY?

7--8:04.

Easy-peasy. I could do this shizz all day. We were running through my old neighborhood and Matt's old neighborhood at this point, so I saw all kinds of fun memories on the street corners. Lots of great crowds...it was at this point that I knew I was going to blow 1:50 away. No question. Just a matter of by how much. I couldn't help but wonder how long I could keep this up. Things were just too perfect.

Aaaaaannnnnnndddd....NOW.

8 and 9-- 16:20.

I missed the 9 mile marker, which was totally messing with my brain. I started to struggle just a bit catching up with the pacer after trying to suck down a Gu. My legs started to not respond to my brain quite as well. I knew this was it. Here comes the pain. I watched the pacer slowly creep away and his balloons bounce down the road ahead of me, creeping away slowly. "Run your own race...don't worry about it...one foot in front of the other..." I hoped and prayed my Gu would kick in soon, and I feared the worst at the next mile marker.


10--8:03.

Wait! Okay! I'm OKAY! What felt like 10 was really 8! Now we were turning onto the Shoreway along the lakeshore and I knew this could get hairy. It was a long, steady, gradual climb up the bridges back into the city. Could I do it? The Gu kicked in a little bit, but I could feel it. My legs were slowing down BIG TIME. I started a little mental war in my head. Most of it is not fit to be printed on this nice PG-13 rated blog. Let's just say I was screaming at myself and using lots of words that rhyme with duck and grass and Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt and Ice Road Truckers.


11--9:08.

Oh POOOOOOOOOOOOOOPSANDWICH. That was horrid. And it wasn't over yet, either. We weren't to the top yet. I did everything I could to make my legs keep up with my heart, but I was running out of steam.

12--8:45.

THANK YOU ALMIGHTY. We are at the TOP of the freakin' Shoreway. The guy next to me said, "It's all downhill from here...we're almost there." And I managed a weak smile. We were. I looked at my watch and I knew. 1:50 was gone. Demolished. It was just a matter of how much, and that was still up to me.

13 and .1--8:56.

Finish time: 1:47.06.

A three-minute PR to the second.

Average pace 8:10/mile. 34th/394 in Age Group; 169/2368 females. I left everything I had out there. Nothing, and I mean nothing was left. I've never finished one of these--including a marathon--feeling like nothing was left. I've always held back a bit, so it was painfully fun to see what happens when you go all out and do something crazy risky.

It was sooooooooooo fun.

I got a bit verklempt at the finish line. If Bug and Matt were there, I would have lost it. I knew what this race meant, and I knew what I just capped off.

One solid year of 2 half marathons, 1 olympic distance triathlon, 1 marathon, and 2 half ironmans...ALL PR'S. Every. Single. ONE.


I had many fears when I was pregnant. Mostly having to do with the baby, its health, and my ability to raise it being a clueless person who was never into arts and crafts (seriously--I got a C in 6th grade art. Who gets a C in 6th grade art?! It remains my lowest grade ever to this day); who was completely overwhelmed and intimidated by Parent Magazines full of artsy ways to make a peanut butter sandwich, and who is repulsed by the color pink and felt WAAAAYYYY out of her element at Babies R Us. Then, with a few exceptions, all I seemed to hear when I was pregnant was how much "things would change" and how I'd have to give up "those races" I liked to do. Or how I would need to have "pre-baby PRs." And it petrified me. I knew I just could not sit home and do crafts. No way. That is not me...that has never been me, and I refuse to believe that is what a "good" mother has to be.

It doesn't. I know this now.

I owe everything that I've done in the past 12 months to Matt and to my Bug. Every PR is because of them. We've been very creative in our training and our lives. And we've made it work. Not just work, we've made it spectacular.

I feel like I barely recognize myself anymore.

Here I am now, 31 years old. I've been writing here for almost four years. And at this point, I can truly say that my life is full of more joy than I ever could imagine. It's busy and crazy, and I don't make three-tiered forts out of Cheerios or even really read the parenting magazines. But we laugh and smile all day, and this home is full of so much joy.

And I can race. Faster than I ever could before; faster than I ever thought I would. And I'm not done yet.

Not even close.