Race Report: Huntington Sprint Triathlon, 2013

Happy.

I am so ridiculously happy.  Folks, we have made PROGRESS.  Like, real, quantifiable progress.

Not my highest placing:  2nd in AG, and by a few seconds, too.  At first glance, this may seem not good.  But I tell ya what--the best part about this sport is that ultimately, you're really racing yourself.  And self from last year?  From 10 YEARS ago?  You got schooled.  You got annihilated.

I've done this same course the past three years.  On one hand, part of me says, really Sara?  The same race three times?  I think you need to get out more.  To which I answer, I know. But I'm cheap, and this race is in my backyard.  So yeah.  This is what I do now that I'm 36 with two small kids.  I do a very local race three times, and I FREAKING LOVE IT.  So there.

The other nice thing about this is that it's the same course, so I can really measure my progress.  Aside from Lake Erie who is a total brat and decides to be a washing machine sometimes (like during this race), everything else is constant.  So, looking at that, here's some simple numbers:

2011: 1:16.47, 1st AG
2012: 1:15.21, 2nd AG
2013: 1:12.52, 2nd AG

4 minutes in two years on a sprint course. See I'm giddy just typing that.  I went off in the "old lady" wave this year, folks.  I am becoming more and more aware that I am not getting any younger.  But my old butt is kicking my younger butt's ass.  And yes, that's three references to my butt in one sentence. Top that.

WELL, the results were JUST posted and...there are no splits.  I love it.  This is a local race and there are often mistakes, so I'm gonna have to roll with it.  But I have no clue what my T1, T2, swim, or run times are.  Kinda blows.  I'm gonna have to do some investigating on my Garmin and will hopefully come up with some better numbers soon. For now, I'll go with what I know!

First off, couldn't be more proud of my girls Krystal and Kate who both did their first sprint triathlons today and ROCKED IT with big smiles on their faces.  I do believe they are hooked.  Mission accomplished!  New training buddies. :)

YAY, Krystal! That is the face of one tired, happy triathlete

I am also super proud of my girl TG, who is a supermom and a super woman and juggles and balances her beautiful daughters with her husband's travel schedule and still does it with style and grace.  She wasn't going to race and at the last minute decided to, and I am so happy she was there.  And she did a fabulous job, too!  She makes me smile. Awesome race to all three of you ladies!

The swim: somewhere in the range of 10:40 or so when I hit the beach. Boo.

Ugh.  I know I say that every year but UGH.  Lake Erie had some serious PMS this time.  Not only that, but I was in the "old lady" wave which was the last to go, and I swear that the waves got even worse.  I watched the waves ahead of me get thrown around like rag dolls. Finally got in and of course, had a rough time getting a rhythm.  Just when I was about to make the last turn the guard stopped me and said, "Stop! You are ON THE ROCKS."  And I was like, crap, I am!  Somehow I was on the breakwall's waves and about to hit my head.  Awesome!  Finally got to the beach and knew once again my swim blew.  It's so frustrating.  Whatever...all I could do was just move forward from there.  Ran up to T1.

And then I saw a surprise: Matt with the kids!  I really didn't expect that.  There's this running joke that although we go to all the kids events (of course) and most of Matt' soccer games, for the ONE TIME A YEAR I RACE LOCALLY, my kids generally are cranky, throw tantrums, won't smile, and scream in general about how FREAKING UNHAPPY THEY ARE TO BE THERE CAN WE GO HOME NOW I WANNA WATCH BACKYARDIGANS THIS IS TOTAL TORTURE.  Yes.  Once a year mommy races.  ONCE.  It's a disaster every time.  So to see Matt there with them knowing how hard it was to get them there that early (with a bedtime of almost 10pm the night before) really meant a lot.  I was expecting them grouchy at the finish for 5 minutes...not at the whole race.  Love all three of them so much.  Even got a smile and a big high five out of my Emmy.  That gave me a huge boost!

The bike:
2011--36:19, 2012--36:23, THIS YEAR: 34:42!  21.5mph YAY

Okay, so I haven't been riding all that much, but I feel like it's been good quality and I've been producing numbers I like.  So I was going to hammer the heck out of it and try to catch some of the top girls.  Passed a bunch of people immediately, then came up on who I thought might be my friend Beth. I yelled, "HEY SEXY LADAYYYYYY!" as I passed her, only to realize it wasn't Beth.  Awkward.  Started laughing and tried to explain myself to this poor girl, only to say, "Well, you're still a sexy ladayyyy!" and take off, mortified.  And now we're officially introduced--hi, Michelle! I swear I'm not a serial killer/harasser!  Nice to meet you!

Anyway, I know this course so I turned it on.  I had my average speed up to 21.8 at one point.  I can't say enough about how much I love my Quintana Roo CD0.1.  I feel like the fit is just dialed in perfectly and I was flying. I also heart my CycleOps PowerTap as it's really been a great way to see my progress since with my irregular heartbeat, heart rate training just seems to do nothing but make me angry.  I think dropping a few pounds has helped with my cycling output and seeing the numbers improve on the PowerTap is always motivating!  On the way back the road is a little rough and I think there may have been a teensy tiny little headwind as I slowed down a little bit, but I kept thinking, "this is it:  this is the ride of my life today."  Finished back at T2 with a humongous course PR and an average speed of 21.5mph and 172 watts.  Last year I went 20.1! Huge improvement for me.  Me likey.

Super happy with this effort! Now time to RUN

The run: to the best of my graph analyzing ability, I believe I went 23:43!

FINALLY I am pretty darn sure I went sub-24!  I am so so so sad the timing company does not have ANY splits.  Of course, the race of my freakin' life and I forgot to hit "lap" on my watch.  I figured, no problem! That's what chip timing is for!  FAIL.

2011-- 26:11, 2012-- 25:17. THIS YEAR: 23:43! Yahoooooooo

Now, I went into this thing saying I wanted to see at least a minute off my run.  I really wasn't expecting the huge gains on the bike that I saw, so I was pretty freaking pumped.  I wanted to have an equally surprising run.  My goal was to go sub-24 for the first time ever in a sprint tri.  I knew that I may even have a snowball's shot in hell at making the top 5 or so women at this rate and had a good gauge on who was ahead of me.  I got to see everyone as I headed out and it was as I expected.  I saw my girl Allanjel running like a boss at the high school and cheered her on.  I thought maybe I might be able to catch her, but she's a tough chick and I was back pretty far.  Time to turn it up.  Over the course of the next 1.5 miles I really tried to dig deep and focus, and I chipped away at the distance between us.  My mile splits were benefitting, too--this was definitely the fastest 5K in a sprint I've ever raced.  In the end, I got pretty close but ran out of course to catch her.  The fact that I even got this close made me happy:

About 20 yards from the finish line, heading straight uphill!  Allenjel is in the green and black kit.  I have the obnoxious blue shoes. We're basically Macca and Raelert.

Trying so freakin' hard to make it up that hill fast

Gave it all I had.

Props to Allenjel on a solid race and big thanks to her for making me run faster!  It's always good to have strong competition to bring out the best in you, and she didn't let me have it easy.

The 1-2 girls!  And guess what we both ride?  The super awesome Quintana Roo CD0.1!  

Overall time: 1:12.52

2/12 F 35-39

7/74 overall females, 38/200 total racers

I'm elated.  That word is probably too weak for what I am.  I'm really, really happy folks.  See, I already admitted last year that I'm not training as much as you are or really anyone.  Sometimes I feel like I have no business lining up next to people who train way more than I do and thinking I have a shot at hanging with them.  So when I do, and I can even remotely be in the same breath as them?  It makes me happy.  It makes me think I must have a little talent somewhere in here.  Now, of course I wonder what I could do if I did have more time to train, but I don't and I won't and that's the way I like it so that wonder is fleeting.  I do, however, know that I keep dropping myself every single year and getting better and better versus me.  And at the risk of sounding like an after school special like Duffy Moon or something (who else out there from the late-80s knows what I'm talking about? HOLLAAAA) that, ultimately, is the best prize ever.

Throw in the fact that tantrums and all, I still got a smile out of at least one, as evidenced here:

The best part of the day was having Matt and the kids there and seeing lots and lots of my multisport friends, too.  Like I said: I don't get out much, people.  Seeing everyone smiling, racing, and enjoying themselves just rocks.  I even had a few former students there doing relays, too!  I love to see young people getting into the sport.

And now, onto the next one, where I'll be a teensy tiny fish in a very big pond: Age Group Nationals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 10th.  It's gonna be a little interesting training for this given what I have going on here over the next week, but here goes!

Happy Training!

On the Playlist

Here's to the underdogs.

Older and...Faster?

I decided to try a new race this year: the Bay Days 5-miler.  Well, it actually isn't new.  It's 39 years old.  And I have spent darn near every 4th of July of my life in Bay Village, Ohio (one in Germany!) and somehow I have never ran this race.  When my local tri club announced they were doing a "ride/race/ride," I thought: perfect!  Right down the street from my house = no excuse not to do it.  Plus, I could get in some good training and earn myself extra brownies at our cookout later that night.

I haven't raced 5 miles in quite some time, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I used to do that distance quite a bit with the Turkey Trot downtown and the St. Malachi race in the spring, but I haven't done them in a few years.  The best I had ever done at a 5 mile race was breaking 40 minuutes ONCE: and barely.  I think I was somewhere in the 39:45 range.  I know I've been running well lately and had a super big goal of a 37:30, but with the humidity I wasn't quite sure if I could pull it off.

Met my fellow Cleveland Tri Club members at 6:30am and pushed off for a nice easy 1 hour ride.  It was fun to ride with ACTUAL! HUMANS! for a change.  We got back, I hit the port-o-potty twice (standard) and lined up ready to race.  And we were off!

Now, all the fast kids come out for this race, literally.  It is free to high school kids, which is awesome, so every single fast high school kid runs this race.  It was kind of cool to see all these kids whizzing by and, as it turns out, to keep up with a few of them!  My first mile was a blistering (for me!) 7:10.  Oops!  Classic Trisaratops move.  I started to wonder if that meant imminent death, but I was actually feeling...good?  Bizarre!

Miles 2 and 3 I slowed down a bit but was still holding steady in the 7:20s.  In fact, when I clicked over to 3.1 on my Garmin, I was at 22:50...a two second PR for the 5K!  You know what that means, right?

(That means my 5K PR should NOT be 22:50.  You are not supposed to be able to keep going after your fastest 5K....you're supposed to almost hurl.)

Ran around my old neighborhood and then through a friend's sprinkler she had set up on her lawn (thanks, Kary!  I needed that!) and then it was time to enter the stadium at the high school.  That was a cool way to finish, too.  There were a lot of spectators out in their yards and on the course, which made it lots of fun!

Kicked it as hard as I could around the end--here's a CTC guy, Jeff, flying by me and I was admiring how freakin' fast he was going, so I tried to pick it up, too!

Hit my watch and it said 37:18.  About exploded with awesomeness and excitement.  Official race time says 37:25 so I'm not sure how I was so far off, but whatever.  This?  This was one of those perfect races where everything went right.  I blew my old PR out of the galaxy and even did better than my pie-in-the-sky goal.  So, let's review what I did to prepare:

1.  Ate a hamburger, hot dog, and lots of cake at a birthday party the night before
2.  Rode an hour before I raced
3.  Generally did not ever really imagine it would go as well as this

Reminders, all, that THIS IS ALL IN MY HEAD and when I take the pressure off myself, I kind of kick a lot of ass.  Gonna have to file that away and remember it as I approach Columbus, where I am definitely putting the pressure on.  Goals are good; obsession is not, and I consistently do better when I chill the heck out.

Snapped a pic with some local tri club buddies after the race and then headed off for an hour ride solo (the group was going 1:30 and I was pushing it with our party that night):

Headed home and made some tasty burgers some patriotic treats, and had a blast at our party.

Then woke up and turned 36.  To those who told me that I'd have to "give up all that racing stuff" once I had my first baby (remember that?  that was pleasant), and to all the experts that say that you slow down in your 30s and whatnot, I say TAKE THAT, 36.

Have a feeling this is going to be a fun (and fast) year.

Sometimes I miss it, sometimes no

So I've been reading lots of great IM CdA race reports and it kind of makes me miss Ironman.

But then I remember that I'd have to spend hours and hours and hours on my bike.  That's the rub.  No can do, people.  Just not going to happen.  Even making a 3 hour ride happen takes an act of divine intervention these days with all the storms we are having.

Yesterday?  I snuck out for a 2 hour ride and it was fabulous.  But a little bit lonely.  Because I have to ride when I have to ride, not at any scheduled time and certainly not with a group of people.  How on earth can I get a group of people to coordinate with my random schedule that follows no schedule?!  So alone is nice, but a little....lonely.

Being the best ring bearer and flower girl EVER last weekend

Right now, there is nowhere these guys want to be except with me.  And for now?  I'm gonna just gladly accept that role.  Pretty soon, they will want nothing to do with me.  And maybe then I can start a ride that doesn't leave from my house and start at 2:37pm on a Wednesday afternoon.

I am all registered for the Columbus Marathon and I'm super excited.  We had to predict our time for corrals so I had to officially type, "3:39.59" and YES I know I have until 3:40.00 but I'm gonna aim large here and go for that extra whole second.  I think this is a very difficult but very doable goal for me.  Time-wise, training for a marathon is not nearly as many hours as training for an Ironman, yet it really beats up your body a LOT more.  I'm trying to be really proactive about injury and balance the running with cross-training.  Instead of waiting to get injured, I'm trying this thing were I go to ART now and have him spot me some problems before they turn into full out achilles tendonitis or other such nonsense.

I'm also looking forward to hammering a little sprint tri in July and then Nationals in August...where my big goal is to crack the top half!  It will be kind of fun being a very tiny fish in a HUGE pond.  I'm looking forward to hopefully rising to the level of competition there.

So the long slow 5 hour rides will wait...and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure I really miss them. I think I just miss the idea of the finish line. :)

On the Playlist

YES.

YESYESYES.

This and my other tune of choice got me through 20 minutes at 7:40 pace at the end of my long run yesterday morning.

Raise those hands, this is our party
We came here to live life like nobody was watching
I got my city right behind me
If I fall, they got me. Learn from that failure gain humility and then we keep marching ourselves

Here we go back, this is the moment
Tonight is the night, we’ll fight 'til it’s over
So we put our hands up like the ceiling can’t hold us
Like the ceiling can’t hold us

I Think it's Time to Admit Something

So I've always sort of believed that Boston was on the high end of what I could accomplish and that it would take me a minor miracle to get there.  Or, more time than I'm willing to give at the moment.

But then, this happened:

Now that's not all of my runs, but it's probably a good 60-70% of my miles since early in the season.  So when I took a good look at it the other day and realized what the average pace was that I held for the past 53 runs with my phone, I had a bit of an epiphany.

I can absolutely, without a doubt run a 3:40 marathon.  It's not even a question anymore.  If I do not run a 3:40 marathon, it will be because of one of two things: my head, or an injury.

So I need to work on those things. Because that limit I thought was impossible?

It just isn't anymore.

Way back in the day, like 10 years ago, my buddy Coach Kara told me that I "haven't even come close to hitting the times I'm capable of."  She's kind of an exercise-phys genius and stuff and I really should have listened, but I really didn't think she had that right.

Now I'm staring down the barrel of Age 36 with two kids, and holy crap, I'm the leanest and fastest I've ever been in my life.  Ever.

I certainly would NOT have called that 10 years ago.

So Operation Get My Head Out of the Way and Don't Get Injured Too is in full-effect.  Along the way, I hope to kick some ass in a few tris, too, but my eyes are looking toward October with great anticipation.

It's time to do what it's pretty obvious to me (finally) I can do.

Now if I were only allowed to SWIM...

Ugh.  This 10-14 days of no swimming is KEEEEEELING me.

I am finally done with these ridiculous painkillers and the complete fog of passed-out-ness they put me in.  It's the last week of classes and I have about 1,356,894 projects coming in, so I need to be able to function!

Aside from Jumper's explanation of "the dickens" (Thanks, Jumper! :) and Kathy's suggestion of my elbow issue (thanks, too!) it was awfully quiet on that last post.  I'd like to pretend it's because I'm just that awesome and there's nothing to say, but I think it may be more that no one had time to read or comment.  And hey, I feel you!  But luckily for me, Coach Emily DID have time to tell me what I need to work on, and in case you don't know, she's kind of a big deal.  Like, swam at the University of Michigan big deal. (This is where Matt would say, "Go Blue!" and I would reply, "Go Bucks!") Or Olympic-Trials big deal.  And of course, pro-triathlete big deal.  So I take her comments VERY seriously.

Here's what I already knew:  I am only finishing half my stroke--especially at race pace.  I get tired/lazy and just figure "eh, halfway's good enough" and take my arm out without pulling all the way back.  I've been practicing following through the entire stroke and already can tell a BIG difference in my efficiency.

On top of that, Emily told me that I am entering the water at 12:00 and really that should be 11:00 and 1:00.  Because if you notice on my video, once in the water my hands move there anyway.  Wasted movement = inefficient stroke.  The other thing is that my elbow does, in fact, suck.  She pointed me to this video which does a pretty awesome job of explaining my problem:
And then these two that are of some *kind of* good swimmers showing what I'm really going for.  Oh, and my kick stinks, too, but I knew that.  These guys show how to keep that kid where it should be. Sigh.  What I really want to do is go back in time to 1983 and tell the people teaching me how to swim that THE STUPID "S" STROKE IS NOT THE RIGHT WAY TO DO IT so please STOP TELLING THE SIX YEAR OLD TO DO THAT.  Totally not efficient at all.  Do you see Phelps or Thorpe making an S?  No?  But I am, right?  So clearly I am setting the right model...NOT.

Anyway, this is all fabulous stuff.  I really want to get in the pool and try it!  I've been trying it a lot in my kitchen but all that really does is get me really weird looks from Matt and the dog.

I told Emily that it's funny--I've been swimming almost as long as I've been walking, but I feel like I have the most to learn here!  It's truly a technique-driven sport.  I'm excited to at least get back in the pool and tinker with my stroke a bit.

I Be Strokin'

So currently I'm a) on a Z-pac for bronchitis, b) sitting here with a head (kinda) full of bright blue stitches and crunchy neosporin hair c) all of the above.

If you picked C, you're the WINNER!  Of my most anti-climatic post-race letdown week in HISTORY!

Okay, that's a *bit* dramatic.  But seriously...had a little surgery on the head today that involved removing two non-threatening-but-very-annoying cysts that were in my scalp.  Had this done 4 years ago for 5 of the lumps.  It's a nuisance and it hurts like the dickens.


GIFSoup

(Did I just say "like the dickens?" What does that even mean?  And, am I 80?)

Anyway, since I am not allowed to swim for (gulp) at least 10 days AND can't do any physical activity until TUESDAY (let that sink in for a moment...and think about how NOT fun to be around I'm going to be), I figured I might as well ask the interwebz for some swimming advice.

My teammie RobbyB had this badass underwater camera thingy in Chattanooga and got all kinds of cool shots while we were running (in the rain, too!) and swimming. I asked him to send me some so I could send them to Coach Emily.  He did more than that--he made me the star of my very own "Mediocre-Triathlete-Swimmer" video!  Yippeeeeee!

Seriously, though--so "real" swimmers, I know my stroke could probably use some tweaking. I already asked a few of my "real swimmer" students and they gave me some advice. I won't say it yet because I want to see if you out there give me the same advice, too!  I will say that I am aware that I don't completely follow through in my stroke and push all the way down towards my legs--I kinda cut it off halfway.

And that butterfly?  There are no words.  I actually feel WAY worse than it looks--it doesn't look nearly as bad as I thought it would, but I do have a weird little hesitation in there and I'm not sure what's up with that.

If you ever have the chance to have your stroke taped like this, DO IT DO IT DO IT.  There's so many little things you can catch with a camera that you just don't really know you're doing.  I've already been practicing pushing my stroke all the way through and notice a huge difference.

So I'm throwing it out there to you, internet!  Give me some more advice.  What else should I tweak in my stroke?

A "Pace" Report: Cleveland Half Marathon, 2013

On Sunday, I paced the sub-2 hour group for the half marathon in Cleveland!  It was as much fun as you can possibly have with 20,000 or so of your closest friends while being a sweaty, hot mess.  I loved every second of it, and hope to do it again sometime!

The short version: I made it in right on time at 1:59.49, and so did a lot of my crew!

The long version:  here you go!

I wanted to pace Cleveland for a few reasons.  A while back, I paced the 4:45 marathon group and LOVED it.  It was a lot of first-time 'thoners, and even though I only did the first half I really enjoyed helping them reach their goal.  In my quest to not be so stupid set realistic goals in the spring when life is really really crazy, I knew I wanted to have a race-day and that atmosphere minus the injury that has plagued me the past two Mays.  My good buddy Sarah wanted to break 2 hours in the half marathon while raising money for our friend Stacy's charity to fight pediatric cancer, and I thought it was a perfect fit for me!  I emailed Coach Kara (who is in charge of the pace teams every year) and she thought it was a great idea since so many people have that goal and the "4 Hour" Marathon pace team is so huge and full of half marathoners.  She even had a special sign made for me to carry, which I did the entire race:  "1:59.59."

The thing about carrying said sign?  Um, you'd better do it.  Because LOTS of people are counting on you.  And nothing is worse than putting your faith in a pacer who blows it, right?

This is why I was a little nervous on Saturday morning.  My allergies were HORRID last week, but I still thought everything was "just allergies."  I had no voice when I woke up Thursday or Friday, but Saturday was exceptionally bad.  My energy level was fine and I felt fine otherwise, so I knew it had something to do with these massive amounts of green pollen-filled nastiness that are falling from our trees and literally need to be shoveled/leaf-blown away daily.  I diligently took my Claritin and hoped for the best.

Race morning: still no voice.  WHAT?!  Who paces a Pace Team with no voice?!  I drank a ton of water and a bit of coffee and hit the car at 4:55am, hoping for the best.  I figured in an hour or two, I'd have my nice loud obnoxious voice (you know, kinda my trademark) back, just in time for the Pace Team.

Me and super awesome buddy, LJ!

Me with Debra, in from Chicago and trying a sub-2! Former BHS Rockets :)  

The 2013 Pace Team

I met all the Pacers and Coach Kara (who no longer is in town--sniff, sniff) and made some new friends, too, including 4 hour pacers Michele and Angel and another half-pacer Denine.  I sported my ridiculous sparkly skirt and carried my sign to the start line!

Carrying my sign

Heading to the start with Angel, who smiled the whole race!

And then we were off!

Go-time!

Right away, I knew it was HOT.  It was hot at 5am when I first got in my car, and all I could think about was, "Man, am I really glad I'm not running this full--or pushing this half too hard."  Of course, I didn't say that to my pace team, because they WERE pushing hard.  So I did focus on reminding them to DRINK LOTS.  I sort of yelled at them to drink like every 5-10 minutes.  They probably got a little annoyed at me, but it was HOT and I know what heat and humidity can do!  I also told them to keep those arms low and "don't run like a T-Rex!"  I figured the more reminders I could give them to stay hydrated and relaxed, the better.

Around mile 6 or so, it started getting pretty tough.  My group was getting smaller; the sun was shining, and it was hot hot HOT.  I kept telling them that it was going to start getting hard now, and to remember to trust their training and stay in the moment.  That they could do this.  The crowd support was great this year, and the crew in Tremont was nice and loud.  I did my best efforts to keep the crowds yelling for our "Sub-2 Crew!"

Me and the sub-2 crew, hamming it up

At mile 10, I told them there was "just a 5K left!" and that if they felt good, to take off and leave me.  No one took me up on it yet, even though there were a few who I thought looked really strong and wanted them to go ahead.  I said if you're NOT feeling good, just hang on, count your steps, and zone out--I'd get them there.  At this point, I could feel the crunchy nastiness of my sweat all over my face and even my arms.  The humidity was what was really killer; it was arguably our hottest day to date in Cleveland.  Even though I was running one of my slowest half-marathons to date, it felt really tough.  I knew for my pace team who was attempting a PR, this was a very difficult day to do it.  I tried to keep them as positive as I could and remind them that at this point, it was all up to their mind.  Around mile 11-12 I said, "Okay, who's gonna win today: the body or the mind?" One guy who had looked strong all day finally took me up on my suggestion to take off and leave me, and he looked great!  That was good to see.  We ran on, and finally it was time to head to E. 9th street.  We passed Jacobs Field okay fine whatever Progressive Field, home of my first-place Cleveland Indians (#RollTribe) and the crowds here were fantastic!  I knew on my watch we were cutting it close, but that was my job: to get as close to 1:59.59 as I could.

And as we turned the corner to the finish, I picked it up just to be extra safe:  1:59.49!

FINISHED! And hot.

I turned around and gave a BIG holla to all the crew that was still with me!  They looked exhausted but had that happy look in their eyes--the one where you're too tired to say anything and are panting like a dog, but KNOW you just did it.  And you're so happy.

Sarah had finished about 30 seconds ahead of the pace team, so I was super happy for her!  She went on to fulfill the Cross-Fit part of her fundraising: for every $5 she raised over her asking donation of $13.10, she did a burpee.  She went and finished 168 burpees, and Stacy and I cheered her on!  Overall, she raised over $1,400 for Roc4NB which goes directly to families in the area who have children fighting neuroblastoma.  I am so proud of Sarah--she worked so hard!

Sarah and her hubby, Rob, who both had great days!

True to her word: doing her burpees

Afterwards, I headed home to attempt to recover--as well as you can with a 3 and 5 year old.  So I turned on the sprinkler and headed to the park and got some ice-cream, and called it "recovery."

Spiderman Sprinkler

Super proud of Sarah, my neighbor Krystal who finished her very first half in 2:30 and is HOOKED (yay!), my other buddy Joanne who ran a 1:38 in that heat and set a massive PR, and my new running friend Katie who ran a 3:38 in her VERY FIRST marathon EVER.  How anyone can do that in that heat is beyond me.  Every single finisher earned that finish big time!

All in all, I got that finish line magic feeling without getting myself injured, which is a win-win in my book.

I do, however, have bronchitis.  Oops.  I guess my allergies morphed into bronchitis, and I finally did something about it yesterday.  So I guess I ran a half marathon with bronchitis...?  Who does that?  Oopsies.  Oh well!

Can't wait to shift into tri-gear for summer and continue to build upon my running fitness to hit Columbus ready for a 3:39!  Happy running, everyone!

Almost Pacing Time!

I am so so SO excited to be a Pace Team Leader for the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon this Sunday!

I figured I keep getting myself injured with early season races (I'm looking at you, past two years) so I needed to mix it up. Pacing is not only a super awesome way to give back to the running community, but it allows me to enjoy the race without setting a ridiculous goal that gets me injured while attempting to get my students to the AP test and raise my kids and actually see Matt and not lose my marbles.  When it comes down to it, April and May are just not the times for me to attempt A races.

(this only took me 11 years to really accept)

Plus, my buddy Sarah is attempting a sub-2 hour half and I get to be her Pace Bunny!  I am so excited for her.  She has raised lots of money for my other buddy Stacy's charity that she started in honor of her daughter who is a strong, healthy survivor of pediatric cancer.  You can learn more about it here.  It's a fabulous cause and Sarah even threw in a CrossFit twist--for every $5 she gets over her $13.10 asking donation, she will do a burpee at the finish line!  She's up to, like, 100 burpees!

And I will cheer her on! And NOT do burpees!

Because CrossFit scares me.

But seriously, she is awesome.  So I'm excited to help her out and get her there in 1:59.59.

I'll bring my phone with me to tweet updates and crazy pictures!  Oh, I think I'm somewhat figuring out twitter, so if you are a twitter person, feel free to follow along @trisaratops2198 or follow me for realz this Sunday if you want to break 2 hours!  I'll be wearing my pacer shirt, a ridiculous yellow sparkly skirt, and holding a sign that says "1:59" for the entire race.  Yippeeeeeeeeeee!

Best of luck to all the racers in Cleveland this weekend and at IM TX, too!

On the Playlist

Awesome 5 miles tonight.  I headed out cranky, tired, and generally unpleasant.  I came home still tired, but not cranky.  Very smiley and ready to tackle the laundry/dishwasher/papergrading/chasegigglingkidsaroundintheirbigplastictruck/bathtime/bedtime/march to when I finally get to rest.  Which is, like now.  But before I go, here's a Cleveland boy who has definitely gotten a lot of rotation on my playlist lately.  Definitely diggin' this song.

Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) Ft. Ester Dean // "Invincible" (Dir. Isaac Rentz) from More Media on Vimeo.

A New Spark

Oh, hey!

It's been (almost) two months.  My lack of posting has never gotten quite this bad, but I am really hoping to update here more frequently if at all possible.  For that, I'm going to have to make some new rules:

1.  Quick posts are better than no posts
2.  Lack of proper formatting is now okay
3.  Keep it real, yo

I have been occasionally throwing up stuff on twitter and facebook, but I think this ol' blog is still good for something.

I have some exciting new goals and news and I think it will be more important to just get stuff down and worry about the "pretty" stuff later.  So here goes unfiltered TST!  Hold onto your hats, kids!

First off: Mother's Day is pretty much awesome.  Woke up to breakfast in bed with my two kiddies and their awesome daddy that involved many different combinations of chocolate chip pancakes and lots of coffee.  I'm off to a Mother's Day spin class at Psycle (my fave indoor studio) soon.

What have I been doing lately?  In no particular order:

1. Being Mommy and Wife as best as I can
2. Being friend as much as possible
3.  Teaching my butt off

The APUSH test is Wednesday.  I will be very, very happy when it's over.  Possibly even happier than them.  They don't believe me, but I swear I worry about it more than they do!

What else have I been doing?  Here is a sample:

Mr. "Doc" Unger, a WWII-Veteran and former P.O.W., speaks to my students about his experiences

We heart play-doh

Bug and his little buddy Norah race for the ball

Hambone

Mom's Day

Easter Morning

Bean on her balance bike

Sunny girl

My homies in the 'Noog

Lots of fun training at CAMP this year!

 We are also in two weddings coming up soon:  my brother and my brother-in-law in June and July and Ohio and Mexico, respectably.  It will be ridiculously fun!

So things have been busy, but mostly good busy.  A few challenges thrown in for good measure, of course.  I've made a few decisions on racing that are still of course subject to change based on the way the wind blows, but right now, here's what I'm looking at.

Next weekend, I'll be leading the Pace Team for the sub-2 Half-Marathon group at the Cleveland Marathon!  I am super excited about this.  I love pacing and it's been a few years since I've done it.

I also am in the process of getting my Evotri Mommy Tris Too group going again.  I'm in the recruitment process right now so stay tuned on that!

Finally, I know I mentioned I lost a pretty big chunk of weight.  With that has come faster running times with the same effort.  I've been looking back through my log and its pretty remarkable and exciting, too.  Who knew, right?  This old dog might have a few new tricks up her sleeve.  So aside from racing a few local tris and attempting not to embarrass myself at Nationals this summer, I have officially changed my mind on Rev3.  I just, quite simply, do not have the money to race a 70.3 this year.  It is absolutely not possible.  So what's cheaper than a 70.3 but still a challenge within reach?

Here is is: you heard it here first, folks:  I will be racing the Columbus Marathon in October.  And I bet you can guess what my goal is.

I'm feeling really confident on my run lately and have been shocking the heck out of myself.  For example, last Tuesday, after Bug's soccer practice, I did a tempo run and beat a 5-mile PR I set at Malachi probably 7 years ago.  On a Tuesday night.  After dinner.  And soccer practice.

My long runs shock me almost weekly.  Yesterday I ran 12 miles with 4 of them at sub-8.

So the fire has been lit again for one more go at it.  The time is the same for me now that I'm in the 35-year range--back at 3:40--kind of wishing it was 3:45 like it used to be, but whatever.  Bring it.

It's good to be back, and I hope some of you want to come along for the ride.  Giddyup!

Green Beer Day, 35 Year Old Style

Ack--it's been a LONG time!  Sorry about that!

Coming up for air now--it's APUSH season, people, and that means every second I have that is not spent with my kids and Matt is usually grading or planning or copying or teaching my APUSH kids.  And the World ones, too--no disrespect to my World kids....they just don't have a massive test this year to worry about.

The OGT (Ohio Graduation Tests) are next week, and T-2 months until the APUSH test.  I need to take them from about 1940-2001 in 2 months.  Hang on for the ride, kids, cuz it's about to get all crazy Cold War-ish up in herrrreeeee! Mind you my sophomores were born 4 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, which is both hilarious and quite scary to me all at the same time.

So my alma mater, Miami University, has this tradition called Green Beer Day.  It's the Thursday before Spring Break.  Basically, the bars open really early--like, 5:30am--and the beers go up by 10 cents an hour.  I was only 21 for ONE Green Beer Day at Miami (the downfall of being so youthful, says old me now) and I was NOT GOING TO MISS IT THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Except that I had not one, but two exams that day.  One at 8, and one at 9:30.  And that's just mean.

So here's what I did: met my friends out at 5:30, celebrated until approximately 7:20, stopped at Bagel and Deli for a bagel (might as well follow up liquid carbs with more carbs, says chubby college me!) grabbed a coffee, studied for 15 minutes, took Political Science Exam #1 (something on the EU, methinks) and then Political Science Exam #2 (I think this was comparative systems or some other such nonsense) at 9:30.  Came home, slept until noon, and then woke up to my best friend Sammy jumping on my bed telling me it was time to go out again.

College.  Sigh.

And I got an A on the first one and a B on the second!

So today, I did the 35 year old version of that.  Taught all week, which means Friday I'm usually a zombie.  Went to dinner with Matt and the kids, which is a three-ring circus in and of itself.  Drank a delicious Hoegarden.  One Hoegarden now equals about 5 green beers in plastic cups from 14 years ago, or something like that.  Got home, layed down and watched 5 minutes of Backyardigans (gag) and then realized if I didn't run now it wasn't going to happen.  Changed.  Sleptwalked to treadmill.

Started at an 8:49 pace and dropped it down every 5 minutes so the last two miles were at tempo (just about 7:41).

NAILED IT.

Then did bedtime, and now am in mismatched pajamas and drinking some tea.  Blogging.  On a Friday night.

BECAUSE I'M THAT KIND OF ROCKSTAR.

Somewhere, 21 year old me is staring, jaw to the floor, plastic cup of green Natty Light in hand going, "Seriously? That's what growing up is?"

And as I kissed both kiddies in bed tonight, still smelly from my workout and burping up a little Hoegarden, I smiled and answered (Phineas-and-Ferb-Style), "Yes.  Yes it is."

Run for Regis Trail Half Marathon Race Report

ACK!

Hi, I'm the worst blogger ever!  Almost a month went by?!  How did I let that happen?

Oh yeah--it's called LIFE.

Anyway, sorry for the delay here.  How about a race report that's been sitting in my post list for 2 1/2 weeks?  Because I couldn't find the time to add the pictures?  But I just did?

Cuz that's what you're going to get!  Happy Groundhog Day to YOU!  It's a present.

Anyway, life is awesome but busy as usual so I'll keep the rest of this short and post more later.  After all, it's a BIG year--I just registered today for the Age Group National Championship, so it's ON!  Yahoo!  And today was a snow day, which was amazing.

Anyway, here's the report!

__________________________________

Oh, hey!

I ran a trail half marathon this weekend.  That I found out I got into about 2 1/2 weeks ago.  Without running on a single trail since, maybe early November.  And not running more than 8.2 miles at once.

And somehow? I had an awesome day!

I definitely have some little weirdness in my left foot which I'm ON IT LIKE WHITE ON RICE that I am 110% sure is related to running on trails in trail shoes for 13.1 miles straight.  But other than that? I felt pretty freaking amazingly awesome the entire time, and even ended up kind of negative-splitting it.  I also set a course PR for me--the first time I ran this the snow was so bad I bailed at mile 8, and then last year was super cold and I finished somewhere in the 2:47 range.  This year, my run time was 2:28.50 and my total time was 2:35 with my potty stops. 

I am extremely happy with this, especially given my completely comical utter lack of preparation!

A little background: this is one of my favorite races as the time of year always ensures it will be challenging, both to stay motivated and to finish the run.  The trails are in the beautiful Cuyahoga Valley National Park which guarantees lots of hills, rocks, roots, and steep grades.  But the trail race scene is pretty sweet--SO much more laid back than any road race, as all you trail peeps know.  The RD, Tanya, gives a hilarious pre-race speech where she reiterates that ALL distances count.  There are two loops of the course: one is a little over 8 mile and one is a bit over 4 miles.  So, you can do any combination of the loops.  On the finisher's list there were people who only did the 4.8 all the way up to the 50K'ers like my girl DaisyDuc who is a complete and total trail badass and my hero. 

This year, we had a warm spell the week before so not only were the trails a TOTAL mud and muck-fest pretty much the entire way, but we all were running in shorts and tank tops!  Yay for global warming!  Not really...I keed. But I'm not going to lie...it was nice to wear short sleeves and tights.

TIGHTS?  Why did I wear tights when it's 62 degrees?

See, people, I have a bad track record of trail races and falling.  As in, I DO EVERY TIME.  And with the mud being as bad as it was, I really didn't want to be a bloody mess like I was at Dances With Dirt.  I knew if I wore tights, I wouldn't fall, but if I didn't, I would fall instantly.

For the first few miles, I ran nice and easy. I chatted it up with a girl named Hannah who was home from college doing her first trail race.  Then I caught up to TriEric's wife Aimee and ran with her for a bit.

I saw ESpeed, Allenjel, Super Trail Girl Mel, and a few other cool people there, too!  The volunteers were awesome.  I spent a good 3 minutes or so in the potty (too much coffee! ha) and grabbed some HEED, an endurolyte (hilarious that I wanted this in January, but I'm quite the sweaty hot mess) and a handful of M&M's because YES.

Then we were off again!

Aimee told me she was only feeling one loop and urged me to take off, so I did.  I felt really strong and picked up the pace a bit.  I came in to get my tag marked at the end of the first loop and took off for the 2nd.  It was pretty solitary out there but I loved every second of it!  Mile 10 was my quickest mile at a sub-10, which given the mud conditions I was way happy with.  I loved seeing signs that said "Steep Grade Ahead" as I knew I was in for some fun.  I splashed through the muck and mud quagmires throughout most of the 2nd loop and totally gave up any hope of not getting my shoes completely covered and filled with mud.  In fact, Sunday evening I was still trying to get mud out of my toenails despite socks, shoes, TWO showers, and an afternoon taking my kids to the pool.  Yeah, it was that muddy.

Not resembling anything remotely close to a trail runner

SERIOUSLY.  Look at that picture, and how NOT a trail runner I am.  Do you see the dainty fingers?  WTF is that all about?  I was so afraid of falling that I think that is probably how I ran most of the race.  HA!

Why do I look like I smell something funny here?  Oh yeah, it might be ME.

Anyway, I smiled as much as I could, said hi to everyone I ran by, thanked all the volunteers, and in general just had a blast.  My finishing time had me just about in the top 1/3 of all half marathon finishers (male and female) which is HILARIOUS.  But I am way happy with that!  I think I have some great fitness on the run right now and it's nice to see it pay off.  Now I just need to keep it and NOT get injured like I have the past two springs. 

It was SO fun to see all my trail buds and some of my tri buds, too.  Everyone seemed to have a ton of fun and great days.  And of course, the weather helped! 

I definitely felt like I could keep going and going and just had a great day.  I think some of this may have to do with the fact that I'm down almost 14 pounds now since September.  I feel like that is something that definitely helps me on hills and hopefully that will help me on the bike, too. 

But the trails sho' are fun

All in all, two enthusiastic thumbs up and a great day!  Can't wait to do it again next year.  Now, if only I can actually train on trails...sigh.  :)

Happy 2013!

Well, here we are...2013!

Otherwise known as the year in which I will have been writing on this blog for 8 years.  EIGHT YEARS.  Yeah, I can't believe it, either.  Is anyone still out there that's been with me since the beginning?  Can I hear it from my O.G.s in da HIZZOUSE?

Anyway, a lot's happened in 8 years.

But one thing remains the same: on New Year's Day, I shall taketh the ridiculous Polar Plunge into Lake Erie.

I mean, it's seriously less than a mile from my house.  How can I pass this up?

Although I have to admit that this year, I thought about it.  The air temp was 25F with a wind chill of 11, and the water temp was 38.  Not to mention the copious amounts of snow we had on the ground.

But man up, I did!  And although this was probably the coldest/most miserable Polar Plunge I've done (I think it ties the other really cold one) it was still fun.

Me and some of my other equally bat-$@#t crazy friends

I'm pretty excited about what 2013 will bring.  First off, remember that whole thing where I was trying to drop a few pounds?

I'm down 12.  TWELVE POUNDS!  Yippee!  I feel great and my clothes feel much better.  I am almost to the point where I may need some new pants.  Mostly it's just good to be a little leaner.  I am at a weight that I don't think I've been at since maybe 10th grade or so.  Hopefully now I can work on adding a little muscle.

Someone needs to PUMP ME UP

Mostly I'm just so darn happy NOT to have a huge running race on the horizon.  After two rough injury-laden springs where I've pretended I'm a runner, I decided to stick with what I do best.  Training has been fun and I've really been looking forward to workouts.  I am definitely a triathlete at heart.  I hope to hit June raring to go this year instead of hobbling around and swearing a lot and saying "has anyone seen a pool lately? cuz I haven't" and just in general kicking lots of triathlon ass this year.

Happy 2013, everyone!

Major Award

I got a MAJOR AWARD in my email inbox today!

No, not that kind of award.  It's not FRAGEEEEELAYYY.

I got IN to the Run for Regis Trail Half Marathon that I was previously waitlisted for!  Me so happy!  Me so happy!

Now, um, here's the problem though...I haven't run on trails since my pancake trail run with my buddies, like, 2 months ago, and I haven't gone more than 8 miles in forevah.  Um, I guess I'd better get on that!

Yippee yahoo--it's a Christmas miracle :)  Can't wait to run with all my friends on the beautiful course!

This sums it all up

I always enjoy Christmas, of course, but there's something pretty amazing about celebrating Christmas with your 5-year-old and almost-3-year-old.

I think magical is the right word.

Merry Christmas, and I hope Santa was good to you!