try to ignore the weird

My second HIM race!  Yay!  Erk. I am still recovering.  I was sick, and I raced while sick, and now I’m still sick.  Sleep is helping. 

Drove down to G-town Saturday afternoon after an open water swim (my first since November – well I didn’t want the first one to be at the race!) and lunch with the book club.  Skipped seeing Hunger Games for a second time, which was a good call since traffic getting to the island was pretty awful.  The athlete check-in and village was an absolute zoo.  What do you expect with 3,000 competitors, all loaded down with bikes and gear and luggage and egos and such?  But, being an official Ironman event, it went pretty smoothly.  They had tons of volunteers.  Here’s my complaint about the expo: THEY WERE OUT OF SMALL SHIRTS.  HOW????? HOW?  I registered like 8 months ago, and I registered for a small shirt!  Why don’t they order the number of shirts that corresponds to the number of people who registered for that size shirt?  Beyond annoying, not because it’s a super awesome shirt, just because it should be so.frickin.simple.  It’s not, apparently. 

Inspiration dinner, always a favorite part of TNT events.  Then I started getting my stuff ready in my hotel room (at Moody Gardens – I was very psyched to stay there since I never had).  The best part of the room was the Keurig coffee machine (which I used exclusively for green tea).  I was still on a “try to not be so sick that you might die” regimen the night before – so I had 2 cups of green tea, garlic pills (ew), zinc tablets, and Ny-quil.  Oh, the other best part of the room was the free HBO, duh.  Bridesmaids was on! 

So an interesting part of an Ironman branded 70.3 (half iron) event is their transition set-up.  You MUST check your bike in the day before (as opposed to bringing it with you race morning), and you are not allowed a transition bag.  You have to put all of your stuff in their green “morning gear bag” with your number affixed and use that to take your transition stuff (bike gear, run gear, nutrition, etc) with you in the morning.  Then you put whatever you don’t want (warmup, flip-flops) in transition with you and do sorta gear check with it.  Seems like a lot of trouble, but hey, I don’t organize triathlons.  Don’t even get me started on the full 140.6 event – I have yet to figure out about morning gear bag vs. bike bag vs. run bag vs. special needs bags.  I think I am learning.  This might not go well. ;o)

I went to sleep at 8:30 and woke up at 4:30 – glorious amount of sleep!  It really helped, I think, because I felt like hell.  Made some green tea, checked my luggage since I wasn’t staying Sunday night, and had Honey Stinger waffle (it was only appropriate, LANCE was racing) and Clif Crunch Bar for breakfast.  Team photo!  Awesome Coach Liz on the bottom left.

We made our way down to the transition area, and I took time to fill up my bottles, pump my bike, heckle Lance (the pro rack was just on the other side of a barricade from where my setup was).  I hate when I’m setting up transition and hundreds of people are trying to take my picture, don’t you?

Instead of checking my “morning gear bag” (still don’t know what its purpose is), I left it at the TNT tent.  One really great thing (of the many great things) about doing a TNT event vs. doing one by yourself is that it’s like having your mom at the race!  I’m like, “Mom/TNT, can you please hold onto my morning gear bag?” and the staff is like, “Yes, honey, of course.”  Then I’m like, “TNT/Mom, I’m hungry/thirsty.” And they’re all, “Sweetie, just have a banana/bottle of water.”  And then there are like a hundred pictures of you after the race, and you don’t have to pay $30 for the digital download!  It’s clutch, people. 

We must have lost track of time, because we heard the gun go off for the pros, and my division was starting 10 minutes later and we had a short run to the pier.  We threw on our wetsuits and ran (really, ran) over there.  I like when this happens (cutting it close to the start) because it helps me not be nervous, waiting around for my wave to start.  I just ran down the pier, jumped into the water – saltwater, in Offats Bayou – and only treaded water for 2 minutes before we started.  

Swim – 46:06

While I somehow cut 3 minutes off my previous half iron swim time, it’s obvious that I need some work – especially in open water.  I time myself in a pool, it seems pretty good, and then it just doesn’t translate to open water.  The saltwater was nasty and messed with my stomach.  Also, I was clearly lollygagging out there.  I play a game where I count the number of buoys I pass and this game, it took forever – at least it felt like it.  I was thrilled when I spotted the “Swim In” arch and could see sand.  Oh, and some asshole from the fast division (M30-34) after me pinched me on the foot hard toward the end.  Dude, we’re not in a lane.  If you want to pass me, go around.  We’ve only got oh, I dunno, an entire fucking bayou to ourselves.  To that I say - what-ev-a. 

T1 – 4:20 (heh)

My bike was the furthest away from the swim in area, but closest to the bike out, so it was fine by me.  The wetsuit strippers had done did their thang, and I ran, guzzled some water to dilute the gallon of sodium I had just swallowed, had a volunteer help me with sunscreen (necessary and btw, KILLS on wetsuit chaffing), threw on socks and bike shoes, plus sunglasses and helmet and race belt.  Pretty speedy for me.

Bike – 3:32:45

I don’t really want to talk about the bike.  I will use these words – flat, boring, windy, assholes, hot.  For 56 miles.  It’s a straight shot on Seawall Boulevard, then you make a sharp U-turn and come back.  Snoozefest.  The only awesome part was seeing the pros headed back in on the other side of the road when I was going out.  Oh, and sorry Mom – I successfully peed on a bike for the first time in my life.  Sorry if this is TMI for most people, but this is pretty standard on longer courses.  Thanks for the encouragement, coach!  Hahah. 

T2 – 4:08

Kinda long for bike-to-run transition, but this includes a port-o-can stop.  Hey, I know when to go and when to be able to hold it, ok?  More sunscreen, running shoes on, change hairbands, wave to my AMAZING spectators (Shane and my mother- and father- and sis-in-law), grab Garmin that I left at home from Shane, potty break, then head out. 

Run – 2:40:18

Immediately notice the Garmin is at 0% battery.  Oh well. Time is not good, but better than my last half marathon coming off a 56-mile bike.  3 loop course, no shade, horrific sunburn despite the many applications.  Part of the run was by the small airport where Lance’s jet was waiting (and later took off with him inside).  It was desolate….I’ll say it again…NO SHADE. 

Sweaty, hot, happy….sorta.  How does my hair look?  Photo courtesy of a lovely TNT staffer.  I was kind of glad I was not wearing any sort of watch.  I know I would have pushed harder to get under my goal time, and my real goal was to not push myself to the limit (so that my recovery time wouldn’t be too long – I have a 100 mile bike ride on Friday morning, yall).

My mother-in-law had made the BEST signs though – this picture even made it on the front page of the Galveston Daily News!  Photo by Jennifer Reynolds:

Total time – 7:07: 37

7 minutes and 37 seconds over my goal.  And this is what I looked like right after.  I don’t know what to tell you – I’m extremely sexy.

Oh well. I can’t believe that in a month and a half, I’ll be doing double this distance.  This is easily the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.

….last race recap for awhile, promise.  I’ll be less boring.  Well…ok, I can’t promise THAT.

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Soaring from my 5K win, I started to get pretty pumped for the RNR 1/2 happening the next morning.  Silly rabbit.

After the Berry Family 5K, we all went home to shower and Mom made egg salad sandwiches!

The expo was at the Dallas Convention Center.  Parking was of course atrocious, so I paid $10 to park at a hotel across the street – time is money, especially when you have tickets to see The Hunger Games. 

I saw that I was in Corral 7, 2:15 projected finish time.  That simply wouldn’t do.  I was really hoping to go under 2 hours and since duhhhh I won a race that morning, I smugly went to Corral Change and moved myself up to 5.  Ironic foreshadowing.  Long story short, I spent money on some shit I probably don’t need (except those new booty shorts, I needed really frickin wanted those).  It was crowded, I was feeling claustrophobic, and had a mini-meltdown when I couldn’t find the exit… “DO I HAVE TO WISH MYSELF OUT?!”  

After Hunger Games, we played the “I’m so hungry I’m going to snap at all of you until you feed me,” Game.  Mom was nice enough to craft a veggie dish for snacks and procure carbs at the local Italian joint.  Again, slept poorly.

Woke up at 5:30, got dressed (Nike Pro booty shorts, as mentioned, TNT jersey, Puma socks, aaaaaand instead of the trusty Sauconys, I decided to use my Asics.  They’re much lighter shoes but I had never run more than 4 miles on them…..again with the foreshadowing.

Met up with K and her coworker Valerie (V was running her first half!) near the port-o-cans.  As evidenced by an awesome “waiting in line for the port-o-can” photo:

Started out with some fast miles – in the 8:40 range.  K didn’t want to know our pace or splits, she just wanted to RUN and well, I’m a slave to my Garmin at this point – except when it gets to the spot in the race where I can’t do basic math and figure out my projected finish time.  I somehow lost her around mile 2.5 (??? how?).   Saw my roadies (parents, Shane, Steph) at mile 3 and then again at the finish.  Around mile 5 I stopped to wait – I wasn’t sure if K was in front of or behind me but between the heat and the fatigue, I honestly thought I would quit if I couldn’t run with someone.  Luckily, she arrived after a few minutes and we ran/walked the rest of the way together to a 2:14 finish – nowhere near my sub-2 goal.  OH WELL. Valerie rocked it with 2:33!

Girls happy with our medals:

Went to Kristen’s place for a shower before meeting up with Jeanette and some Houston running friends – fun with Joe and Dana!  And Dana’s Def Leppard shirt is awesome.

We went to Ozona for brunch and had the MIGAS ENCHILADAS!!!!! – best ever – and a pitcher of mimosas, natch.  It was still hot out, I must say.

Foreshadowed – I probably should have stayed in Corral 7 and my Asics gave me blisters…tons of em.

That was last weekend.  One more race recap to follow and then it’s time for relaxation station….sort of….not really….

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Let’s forget the depressing/depressed stuff for a minute.  On to something a bit more status quo.

This is gonna be a long one – this is the only time this will ever happen, so I’m revelling in my glory and shamelessly bragging.  Here’s the deal…

Shane and I drove up to Dallas on Friday after work (with the dogs, of course).  I was flip-flopping on whether to go or not, even though we had all registered for a 5K and I was also set (and paid) to run the Dallas RNR Half Marathon.  But I REALLY felt like I should be on my bike, and all of my training friends were pumped for Bluebonnet Express 75 mile ride.  In the end, as you can tell, I felt like we needed a little break (??? this was not a break) and we made the trek.

Have you  heard the story of the Berry Family?  Please take a few minutes to read it. This race was benefiting a family here in Houston who suffered an enormously life-altering car acccident over the holidays.  I knew we had to help contribute, and I’m so glad my family went out to support this worthy cause.

We didn’t get in town til almost 11, and we slept poorly.  Thank goodness the race started at 9am, but it was in Plano and we needed to allow an hour to get packets, etc.  We picked up my sister at 7:15 and drove up there.  Turns out there was no need – everything ran super smoothly and we had packets/t-shirts/chips within 10 minutes.

My goal was to go under 25 minutes, but it was pretty warm out and I knew that on little sleep and a shaky stomach that it might not happen.   Nonetheless, I got pretty close to the start line and took off just after the gun.   Shane was talking all kinds of smack (remember, he had the fastest 5K time in Austin – forget that the rest of us were pacing for a half or full marathon) about how he was going to smoke me and I’d be eating his dust.  I told him to NOT try to keep up with me, that he’d blow up after the first mile.  Well…it didn’t take that long.  About half a mile in (6:49 pace at that point), he started walking.  I saw him still walking after I passed the first turnaround.  My dad and Steph looked extraordinarily happy to be running a 5K (Steph’s FIRST!  And the first time she had run in years!).  And Kristen was not too far behind me!

I will say that the most annoying part of this race was another runner – sad.  I came up on him at the last mile.  He was probably 17 or 18 years old and was desperately trying to avoid getting “chicked” – for non-runners, it’s when a girl passes you in a race.  I wasted so much energy trying to pass him on either side – he would NOT let me.  He would speed up as I tried to go around him, and then he would slow back down when I didn’t pass.  SO. ANNOYING.  When he did it for probably the fourth or fifth time, I said, “DUDE.”  He gasped, “What?!” And I said, “You keep speeding up then slowing down.  Run faster or get out of the way.”

I guess that did it for him because he took off.  He already looked like he was in pain though, so I hope his body paid him back for being a sexist prick.

I was trying to keep track of how many girls were in front of me – they were giving out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards for each division, so I was in the Female 25-29 group.  It was hard to judge ages though.  I think anyone 20-40 looks around my age, so it was tough.  It didn’t look like that many, though, so I kept a small hope that I would place.

I had slowed down in the last mile though and felt it.  I haven’t looked at my watch yet, but I guarantee I did not negative split.  I crossed the finish, and immediately my hands were on my knees – I did the best I could.   Here’s the part where I’m going to do my own pet peeve and mention watch time vs. chip time (I hate when people say oh, I ran XX:XX but the course was long so I really ran XX: XX).  But, I stopped my watch immediately as I crossed the finish, and it read 21:40.   My chip time says 22:00 flat – I thought it would get adjusted in official results, but it didn’t.  That is such a huge discrepancy to me!  How?  Anyway.   Sidenote – I guess it’s not like I was running anything super huge and technologically advanced.  This was a community race to benefit the Berry Family.  But still, c’mon D-Tag.  I’m one of THOSE people now.  So fine, my official time was 22:00 flat – blah.  But that’s a 7:05 pace, which shocks me – even when I’m on the track doing speedwork, I haven’t been able to do that.  I guess it was the adrenaline?  Also, speedwork apparently WORKS.  Who knew?

Kristen finished 24:46, my dad and Steph in 30:01, and Shane in 32:15.  First half mile did him in.  Shane – you’ve learned your lesson.  I thought you knew better than to try to keep up with your wife, literally and figuratively!! ;o)  He crossed the finish line and muttered, “You’re insane….you’re insane.”

I scanned the results and tried to see if any of the females were in my division.  I thought I at least got third, so I told my family excitedly, “I THINK I PLACED.”  Meanwhile, we were all devouring sno-cones, Tiff’s Treats, bananas, and other goodies.  This was only the 2nd time I’ve ever stayed for an awards ceremony!  Before, it was because a friend placed – and if it’s a marathon, well I’m still out on the course when they have awards, hahahah.

They got to my division and called the third place winner and I realized I had a better time than she did.  So I thought, “sweet, I got 2nd!”  Then they called 2nd place and her time was 22:46.  My mouth literally dropped all the way open – my sister said she wished she had video’d THAT!  I GOT FIRST PLACE IN MY DIVISION????????  I was grinning ear to ear:

Dad was pretty impressed – and of course we were all spreading some TNT love while we were out there!

Some fun family pics – I was very impressed with Steph’s first 5K performance – I can’t believe she had such a good time with zero training – awesome.  I hope my future kids have a knack for the sport – scholarship money, cha-ching! ;o)

Steph, Dad, Me

Steph was sore already and wanted a piggy-back…

My efforts and energy spent really showed the next day in the half marathon, however.  Oh well…

That race recap up soon.

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