Posts Tagged With: wilmington

Beach 2 Battleship 140.6 Relay Recap

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Running Boston and Beyond

Team “This was her idea” completed the Beach 2 Battleship 140.6 on Saturday. I did the 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike, while my husband ran the 26.2 miles to the finish.

Four score and seven years ago…ha, just kidding. My alarm rang at a bright (it was actually really dark) and early 4:00 am on Saturday. I had a list of things I needed to get done before my sister picked me up at 5:15 and took me to T1, where I would drop off the special needs bags, T1 bag, and got my bike all pumped and ready to go.

They passed inspection.

The time flew, and it was time to head to the swim start via trolley. I was lucky to find my friend, Alisha, who I’ve ridden bikes with and was doing the full 140.6 on her own. And spoiler alert, she finished in a screaming fast time of 12:45! When we got to the start, we came upon several others we knew, so it was so nice to have company while we waited.

Ready to go!!!

I’m so tired of peanut butter. It’s definitely my go-to sandwich topping and I normally eat two pieces of bread with peanut butter before long bike rides. Not Saturday. I hate a BUNCH of small pancakes before I left home, then some Clif Shot Blocks and an Uncrustable at the swim start, probably 20-30 minutes out. My nerves never really hit, even as we made our way to the start line, during the National Anthem, prayer, and as the countdown began with “Lose Yourself” playing in the background. It was windy, and I was nervous about that part, but I was ready to go. I couldn’t believe what 750ish people all ready to swim 2.4 miles looked like. That was a LOT of people to swim with.

B2B start

After the horn sounded to start, I let many people start and walked across the sand into the water, jogged, then dove in. The sound of so many arms and legs working through the water was cool. We would be swimming down Banks Channel for quite a while, then hang a left into Motts Channel, a right, then head to the finish. I knew the current was strongest in the middle of the channel, and I tried to get to the middle as soon as I could. When I was, I noticed we were flying. The swim was going to be fast. That’s when my head started hurting. Damn. I bet my goggles were too tight. Well, nothing I could do but finish the swim and let the headache go away, as it always did. But first, I needed to experience typical “mass start” swim inconveniences, such as getting kicked in the face by a moron who was cutting across all the other swimmers, probably because he wasn’t sighting. I called him a name, readjusted my goggles, then went back to it. In the meantime, I was kicked, hit, and had others hit my legs and feet while swimming. Nothing major though. Good. I needed to know what that felt like, because I know for sure that Florida is going to be about ten times worse, or more. I stopped several times from a strange sort of bottleneck that emerged where two people were blocking me and I felt it would take more energy to go around them than just keep going and let itself sort out. Soon, we passed by the half start. Then I saw the turn buoy, and it was coming fast. As soon as I passed the orange triangle, I took a left and angled a little left of center since I knew the current would bring me right. Once we got into Mott’s Channel, we flew along again, and the navigation marker pole came up so fast, I think someone actually ran into it. I aimed towards the finish ladders, and was soon there, but stopped kicking to pee 🙂 Twelve years later, I was ready to get out. My friend, Stacey, was working the medical tent at the swim finish and I was so happy to hear her cheer for me as I got out of the water. One thing that made me surprised and happy was that there were tons of people left in the water. For someone who freaks out about being last all the time in group swims, I was just thrilled to be in the main crowd of people. Whew!!! Swim time: 1:05.02 (my normal 2.4ish mile swim is 90 minutes, so that’s how fast the current was).

From swim finish to T1, about a 300 meter jog.

Two words: Wetsuit Strippers. Then we went through warm showers to get as much as the salt water off our bodies as we could and headed for a little jog to T1. I heard my name called out so many times, I saw my sister, and it made me so happy. Do crowds really know how amazing they make athletes feel? I felt like a rock star as I ran with my wetsuit slung over my arm, dripping wet, and grimacing from the pavement hurting my feet. I grabbed my bag and went into the tent, changed my clothes, put on arm warmers, applied sunscreen and chapstick, said hi to my friend Rebecca, and got ready to bike. I put food in my bag, but I had no time for that and wasn’t hungry. Damn. I had to pee again. But I had already started towards my bike, so figured I could wait until the aid station at mile 21 to go. I found my bike and was headed out for a nice 112 mile ride. I went to turn my watch on, and damn. Battery dead. Oh well, I had my bike computer to go by. T1 time: 9:26

Bike traffic was tricky for several miles. I didn’t want to get a penalty, but I didn’t know how to handle the bottleneck since everyone was pretty much drafting. The vehicle traffic was not blocked off, so it was weird and I wasn’t sure what lane the bikes could be in without getting run over. Hmmmm. Ok, I just followed the people in front of me. Finally, several miles (or what felt like it), the bikes thinned out and we headed out on I-140. We had a good tail/cross wind, so my speed was good. Honestly, wasn’t sure what it was, but I felt good and strong. I did my best to stay back and be sure I could pass the person in front of me before any attempt, and I did a lot of passing. I got passed quite a bit too, but I didn’t care. That meant I beat them on the swim, so I soaked up that feeling while I could! I came upon a few girls chatting side by side, so finally, after a guy tried to pass on the left and hit rumble strips that made his water bottles fall off his bike, I yelled at them to move over and stop blocking. I could have done that in a nicer way, but really, how rude. It’s not like they couldn’t see all the bikes piling up behind them. Another irritating thing was that my headache hadn’t gone away. In fact, I had a raging headache at this point, and no ibuprofen.

Another interesting thing I noticed during this early part of the ride is the “violation police” on a motorcycle going by marking people’s number down for rules violations. They were out in force. The last thing I wanted was a time penalty, so I did my best to not violate the rules, but with the bottleneck, I didn’t know how to actually follow the rules. Something to talk to coach about for sure.

The miles clicked by, and I wish I could have found my “zone”, but I couldn’t since we were using the left lane of an interstate and the right part of our lane was coned off with cars zipping by at 60-70 mph in the right lane. One wrong move, you hit a cone, and bam. Done. When I saw the very large bridge come into view, I knew we were at mile 20 and the bathroom was coming up. Thank goodness because I sure had to pee! I refilled some of my eFuel, went to the jon, and was on my way again. Right into the wind. I’m not sure what the wind speed was, but I felt like we had a straight head wind of at least 10 mph. Someone said it was maybe 15, but I don’t know for sure, but it wasn’t a “light breeze” by any means. I put my head down and pedaled. And pedaled and pedaled. I sometimes get random songs in my head when I bike. I can’t remember the name of the song, and it’s not one of my favorites by any means, but all I know is that part of the lyrics have “when the wind blows”, which I thought was appropriate for the situation.

I am familiar with this route, so I knew of some landmarks along the way. I’m not positive of the speed I was going, but I wasn’t pushing too hard. My legs ALWAYS feel tired when I start out on a bike ride, and they were feeling it at this point. I think we were into the wind for 30 miles? Not sure, but we turned left, where I thought we would find relief from the wind, only to find very minimal relief. Damn. All I know is that I didn’t want it to switch around so we would have a head wind on our way back!

I thought I saw on the map that our special needs was at mile 51 or 53. We passed 53 with no special needs, and I wondered if I missed it? What happened? I didn’t understand, and I was thinking of the Coke I had in there and was anxious to drink it. Along this ride, I learned that I like to eat on the bike. I’d never really done that in training, and I’m not certain why, but I was like a biking food truck. I pulled things out of my bag, put them in the pocket in my bike shirt, and would eat a little here and a little there. Energy beans and shot blocks was what I had first, then I remembered I had some baby yellow potatoes. I dug them out and slowly ate them. Delish! Thanks for the idea, Angela!!

Finally, I saw a commotion ahead and came upon special needs at mile 58. One of the volunteers brought me my bag, and lo and behold, it was a friend of mine, Michelle. That was so cool! Another friend yelled hi to me. So awesome! I was half way through the bike and tired from pushing into the wind so long, PLUS my headache still hadn’t gone away, so I was sort of out of it. I didn’t want to eat the sandwiches I packed to practice with, so that’s one thing learned. I grabbed my Uncrustable, more shot blocks and beans, noticed the line to the bathroom was too long, and headed on my way. A mile or so later, I realized I didn’t even see or think about my Coke in the bag. Damn!!!

We had some tail wind mixed with head wind and side wind the next several miles. My headache was pounding, so over every bump, it radiated up to the top of my head. Oh, it hurt so bad and I could do nothing about it. Mental training was all I could think. A few miles up the road, I passed a biker holding his bloody face while the EMT’s helped him. I said a little prayer for him – that’s nothing anyone wants to see, ever, but especially on someone’s race day. I found out later he was ok and wants to do the race next year, but has no recollection of what happened and why he crashed.

Between mile 70 and 80, I struggled. The road was rough, so every big bump we went over, it felt like someone was stabbing me in the head. I know this is a tough part of the bike anyway, so I let myself cry. Then I sucked it up and carried on, stopping to pee and to get water somewhere along in there. Four stops was all I was going to allow myself.

With about 20 miles to go, I was on a smooth road and the miles clicked off. My legs felt strong, so I started to push a little more. With 12-13 miles to go, we turned south, and had the most amazing reward in the form of a tail wind. I headed towards my finish line, where I would hand off my timing chip to my husband and be done racing for the day. I pushed, I passed, I reveled in our delicious tail wind that was helping me maintain speeds of 21-22 mph. I had my cell phone in my bike bag just so my husband could track me to know when to be in the relay exchange zone (yes, I know I’m not supposed to have a phone, but I didn’t touch it during the race, only having it with me for tracking purposes). He noticed I was coming to the finish pretty fast and got ready to run.

When I headed over the big bridge that takes us to downtown, I got emotional. I did it. My longest bike ride to date, and it was a good one, despite the wind. I had no idea the time, no clue to my average speed, but I learned a LOT, and I had a great experience along the way. Two support crews stuck out in my head – a group of girls dressed as Wonder Woman were following someone, but always had cheers for other racers. There was a HUGE group of people dressed in blue t-shirts out supporting their person at many points. Wow. Those people were amazing to see, the amount of support they provided their person, and they also helped me too. I couldn’t imagine that kind of support!

Coming into T2, where the relay exchange was.

I rode into the transition, gave my bike to a volunteer, and quickly found my husband waiting for me. I quick gave him a kiss and the timing chip, and he was on his way. I laid down because my head was pounding, and knew I needed to get something for it before I did anything else. The exchange zone volunteer asked if I needed anything, and actually went and got me some medicine so I didn’t have to get up, even when I told her I could go get it when I got some food. The meds came with a medical person who had to clear me before he would give me anything, which is cool and annoying at the same time, but I got my Tylenol and within minutes, my headache cleared. Bike Time: 6:25:27. Crazy fast for me!!!

Wow. I did it. 2/3 of an iron distance on my own. It wasn’t easy, but was filled with a sense of relief for the things I learned along the way and of pride and of confidence for Florida, three short weeks from that very day. I went to the finish line to see if they would let me have food, only to find tons of people I knew, including my coach. I chatted with her for a bit, grabbed some grub, and headed back to get my bike, change clothes, and watch my husband as he ran his race. Things took a lot longer than I planned, but along the way, I noticed that I felt really good. My legs didn’t even feel very tired, and I knew at that point, I got my nutrition and effort level right on my training ride. I knew I could run after that and that I would be super tired (who isn’t?), but that it was doable.

I’ll leave the rest of the details out since this is long enough, but I knew people about three miles from the finish who were watching for my husband. They alerted me when he was on his way back, so I was ready and waiting for him at the finish to cross that line with him. He wasn’t having a great race and didn’t feel great, but he did an amazing job, and we finished the 140.6 together.

We did it!!!

B2B Iron Distance Relay Time: 12:09:57

Categories: beach 2 battleship triathlon, go for your dreams, half iron distance, iron distance, ironman, ironman florida, marathon, running, swimming, training for triathlon, triathlon, Uncategorized | Tags: b2b, beach 2 battleship, beach 2 battleship iron distance, bike, biking, iron distance, ironman, ironman florida, open water swimming, run, swim, swimming in a crowd, training for ironman, training for ironman florida, triathlon, wilmington, wrightsville beach | 7 Comments

Beach 2 Battleship 140.6 on the Horizon

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Running Boston and Beyond

I’m sitting here writing and looking at my Training Peaks with a pseudo-taper workout schedule for the week. Wow. Ironman Florida is less than four weeks away. I have a hard time deciding if I’m totally freaked out or just ready for this thing. Going in to big events like these brings out my inner beast “I CAN DO ANYTHING” and my “I WANT MY MOMMY” sides. From my marathon experience, it’s normal to feel like you aren’t ready but really are, and that there’s no way you can complete the distance at the pace you want but you really can. I’m glad this feeling is normal, and part of me remains extremely calm as the calendar marches on. Part of me is hanging off the roof with a whiskey and cigarette.

Let’s rewind to this past weekend first. I know there are so many who ran the Chicago Marathon. Chicago is on my bucket list, I think (training through North Carolina summers is NOT fun), so I’m so thrilled to live vicariously through so many who got to be there and experience this epic race. My coach, Sami, completed the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawai’i. She worked so hard over so many years to qualify, and it was quite the experience to watch her as she completed her goal and fulfilled a dream. Another training buddy, Angela, and her husband completed Ironman Louisville yesterday, and I was so proud of her as I watched her tracker tick along. She has the best positive attitude and was a great influence during some of my “bad patches”, specifically with my 7th flat tire. Way to go, Angela!!!!

After having a light training schedule last week and sort of half way wondering why, the weekend was full. Friday was supposed to be my day off, but since we couldn’t open water swim last week, I decided I needed to get one in. Long story short, the 1.7 mile swim was good, AND I learned how to jump my truck. Yay for batteries that die randomly! I’m glad Melissa was there and was able to help me figure it all out, especially since my phone battery was on its last bar and I didn’t want to use it to call my husband or Google “how to jump a car”. The rest of the day was spent eating, dealing with the truck, and taking my cat to the vet. Eh, who needed any money for the weekend, right?! 🙂

Melissa and me after successfully jumping my truck.

I started my Saturday by running 4 miles, then raced a 5k that was postponed from last weekend because of the rain, then finished running in bits and pieces to make 2.5 hours or almost 17 miles. I was sort of disappointed in my 5k time, but I’m disappointed that I’m disappointed. I mean really, I’m not training for short, fast races by any means, so what the heck do I expect on a very warm, humid morning with a long run???? Really. My time was 22:34, which isn’t slow AT ALL, but I really wanted to be close to the same time as my last 5k, and preferably not ending with another master female fly past me at the end.

I’ve used this before, but it suits.

I stopped looking at my watch a little less than half way through, because it served no purposed and I need to run on feel, not time. See, I KNOW it’s ridiculous to be anything but happy about the race. I ended up with 3rd masters and won some money and A PIE. I WON A PIE. Hello, PIE. And MONEY. Whohoo!!! The rest of the day was filled with my kids’ ball games and then we headed to a Clemson viewing get together. That was a long day, and we got home just in time for me to prepare for Sunday’s brick workout.

A medal, a prize, and PIE!

On Sunday, I started off with a 1.2 mile swim in a very choppy waterway. I felt discouraged and had a lot of negative self-talk during the swim, since I was the slowest one there. I questioned my ability to complete the Florida swim course again and again, and I have to admit, it’s the one thing that scares me if the weather is bad and the waves are big. My friend, Erin, told me I’ll be FINE, and I know I should be fine, but it’s still something that scares the bajiminy out of me. After the swim, we headed out for a 3 hour bike ride in some gusty wind coming from every direction. It was weird, as we were biking into a head wind that suddenly turned into a cross wind that turned into a head wind then a tail wind, all in a few miles. We drafted from each other as much as we could, but some were faster than others, and I found myself alone some of the time. Let’s say my legs were tired, but I did my best to keep up, and we ended up going over 18 mph average, even with the squirrely winds. I even pulled for several miles 🙂

On the way home, I was jazzed up, but tired in a good way. Twenty minutes later, I felt wrecked, so I took a shower and went to bed as soon as I got home. Oh, after eating of course. After an in-and-out nap for about 90 minutes, I finally joined my family and placed myself on the couch, which is were I was found for the remainder of the day until I could get up at 9:30 and go back to sleep for the night. I was just beat. My muscles felt great, no soreness, but tired in a good way, but I was tired in general and just wanted to sleep.

Today was a well-needed rest day, and my body feels strong despite the overall fatigue.

I know what’s going to happen this weekend though, and I’m very nervous and excited about it. This will be my last big push to prepare me for Ironman Florida on November 7th. My husband and I are Team “This was her idea” for Beach 2 Battleship Iron Distance Triathlon. I am completing the 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride, while he completes the 26.2 miles of marathon madness. We planned this so long ago, and I can’t believe it’s here.

My goal for this race is to nail nutrition. I have to practice fueling so I know what works, and almost more importantly, what doesn’t work. Hopefully the lessons I have learned through training will serve me well and I will devise a plan that works well. The weather looks perfect so far, so I’m hoping for a fun experience! Beach 2 Battleship is a great race, and I look forward to being a participant as well as a spectator!

After B2B, I will be in real “taper” mode, although I know there will still be some big workouts to complete in those three weeks. I’m anticipating a lot of time being spent in prep and list-making mode for the BIG race.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods! What have you been up to this fall? Is it actually fall where you are, because it sure doesn’t feel like it much here!

Categories: beach 2 battleship triathlon, iron distance, ironman, ironman florida, marathon, open water swimming, swimming, Uncategorized | Tags: beach 2 battleship, beach 2 battleship iron distance, beach 2 battleship triathlon, biking, iron distance, ironman, ironman florida, kona, marathon, racing, running, swimming open water, training for ironman, triathlon, wilmington | 2 Comments

Spring Really IS Here

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Running Boston and Beyond

You know it’s officially spring here in Wilmington, North Carolina, when the Azalea Festival arrives. It’s a time when everyone in town can 1) Party like it’s 1899, 2) Eat fried anything, 3) Go to concerts that would never normally come to a town this size, and 4) Watch a 3 1/2 hour parade.

There’s the parade, carnival, craft shows, garden parties, a bunch of stuff I’m not invited to because I’m not a belle, more stuff I’m not invited to but is put in the paper, probably to make everyone NOT invited jealous and WANT to be invited, which makes the entire Festival one of those “I really want to be a part of this thing but I really don’t know how or why”, and concerts. Alan Jackson was in town last night, and tonight, it’s the rap god, Nelly (and my son would have said, of course it’s not the rap god, THAT’S Eminem), who will be donning the “big” stage. There was plenty of “wha?” when it was announced that Nelly was the festival headliner. I mean, this Azalea Festival is all about southern belles and gentlemen, spring flowers, and fried oreos, so what does Nelly have to do with THAT? Because he brings in a LOT of people, that’s why, and there’s no way in gold teeth that he would ever come here at any other time. Hey, maybe he likes azaleas…

It hasn’t gotten too hot because he still has his clothes on.

So last night, when everyone was donning their cowboy hats and boots way down yonder by the Chattahoochee, I was at a home run derby, getting eaten alive by flying jaws. Tonight, when what I suspect will be a different set of people will be getting hot in here but hopefully keeping their clothes ON watching Nelly, I will be at a different field, yet again getting eaten alive by flying jaws, watching my son play soccer.

THE Azalea Queen

Last year, we went to what we now call “the longest parade in world history” on that beautiful Saturday morning, which was three and a half hours of watching five floats go by, followed by ten minutes of watching the people across the street because there was nothing coming down the street, followed by five more floats, followed by ten more minutes of watching the people across the street (repeat no less than twelve thousand times), and then finally, finally, FINALLY, the Azalea Queen float comes down the street, which is when we went to the carnival and spent $20 for a glass of ice water with a cup of sugar and a lemon’s worth of juice in it and resisted the urge to buy a fried tenderloin on a stick with Kurly Fries for a “great deal” of $75. All served with a smile. This year, we will be at the soccer and baseball fields for our entire Saturday, which is part of the deal when you have two kids in sports. In honor of the Azalea Festival though, I just may have to spring for a $2 hot dog.

So in my last post, I had mentioned that word “cry” and I was upset about something. Simply stated, I was sad about my marathon goal. I’m over it, but get bouts of sadness every once in a while. I’m allowed. I STILL have a post to post on that one, but there’s been a lot of stuff cooking here in my house, and it ain’t the Food Network’s fault this time. And it’s not actual food cooking. Except for when I make dinner of course. So sometimes, when there’s a lot going on, I do this:

Yes, the proverbial deer in headlights. It’s all good, and I really CANNOT wait to share what’s going on, but I need to get my ducks in a row first. After I get done staring at the wall and going buh buh buh. Let’s say that this youth coaching thing is getting bigger and my vision is now a very distinct possibility.

As for my workouts, I’ve ridden my bike the last few days, simply because 1) that’s the workout I planned and 2) I had no choice yesterday. Storms rolled through the entire morning, and as much as I like to bar-b-que, I do NOT want it to be me, so the only option I had was to ride my bike indoors. I absolutely LOVE storms, or at least not the ones where you head for the basement, and yesterday’s was like therapy. Rain, thunder, more rain and thunder, for hours at a time. I kept the house perfectly quiet while I cleaned, and it was perfectly soothing. My version of a bath in lavender.

Anyway, I’m headed to the pool today, which is almost like going to get my teeth extracted, because it’s PERFECT outside. BUT I know what I need to work on and my legs are tired, so I don’t want to do too much, plus I have a brick planned for Sunday. You know you’re tired when you walk up the stairs and need to pause and take a breath. Yeah, I need a day off. That will be tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend, every one, and I hope you are enjoying spring!

Do you enjoy spending your weekends getting eaten by flying jaws? Does this make you think of sharks like it does me?

Categories: being epic, coaching, follow your dreams, ironman, ironman florida, marathon, swimming, training for triathlon, triathlon, Uncategorized | Tags: alan jackson, azalea, azalea festival, azalea festival parade, biking, concerts, fried food, nelly, north carolina, parade, running, storms, swimming, training for triathlon, triathlon, wilmington | 10 Comments

B2B Tri Race Recap – Part III – The Run and Post-Race

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Running Boston and Beyond

To catch up on my race recaps, check out Part I recap HERE and Part II recap HERE. I like the word recap.

I know, I know, everyone wants to know if I FARTED yet! Let me clear something up. Thanks Christina, for sending me this:

Just so ya know.

NO! I hadn’t yet as I set out on the run. The thoughts that crossed my mind were “I’m doing this!!! I’m on to the best part! I get to rrruuuunnn!!!! Where’s my family?” I didn’t see my husband and kids as I came in on the bike and was sad. My youngest had a football game so I didn’t know if they got held up and didn’t make it down town to see me come in. I didn’t have any idea what time it was or where I was at in my overall race time since I’d reset my watch at each sport and didn’t even really pay attention to the times. Isn’t that the best thing to do anyway? Oh well, I knew they’d be there at the end. D’oh! I came out and there they were, right where they said they’d be!! I smiled at them and honestly, have no idea if I said anything to them. I was so happy they were there!!!!! My kids had even made signs for me the night before.

Awesome signs my kids made.

I had a baggie with blocks and stinger chews in it, and munched on a few as I left transition. But I had a delimma. I wanted a picture in the same spot as last year, but I didn’t want to be holding a bag of chews. Heh heh, a bag of chews. You know what I mean. So I threw a few blocks down the hatch since they had more calories than the stinger chews and they don’t bother my stomach, then ditched the rest of them in the bushes. I knew I had a nice-sized gas bubble in there and was just hoping it wouldn’t hurt me as I ran. NOTHING CAN RUIN MY RUN!!!!! That’s what I had done all that swimming and biking for!!! This was supposed to be my reward!! At the time this was going on, I had to set my watch after it funkified itself inside the convention center at T2. So my watch was off distance and time, but all I really wanted to pay attention to was pace. I knew I wanted to start out at a nice, easy 9 minute mile pace so I could finish strong. And because I am who I am, I did have a time goal for my run: sub-2:00. Could I do it?

This is the picture my son got of me on his iPod. Pretty good I’d say!

Temps were forecasted to be in the low to mid 70’s, and I think that was pretty much right on. It was warm. I was sweating a lot very quickly, so I knew that I needed to be smart. Oh, I also carried two endurolyte tabs with me (the third disappeared – I haven’t a clue where it went as I looked everywhere after I dropped it in the changing room). After I passed my family, I made it to mile one and the first aid station, so I swallowed the tabs down with some water. I needed to be smart. I was NOT going to salt bonk for the 2nd time in the 2nd biggest race of my life in the same year!

The course was one tiny little loop at the beginning followed by a big loop around a lake. The unfortunate thing for some people, probably more the full distance runners, is that you have to pass the finish line to go out on the big loop. It was a crazy, fun scene to run through and it was where I wanted to return in just a short amount of time. I paced myself the best I could in the race finish hoopla, and as I headed out, I choked up. I’m doing it!!!!! I think I even made one of those gaspy noises too, but I was just so happy to be doing something I had never imagined I would do!

My run felt strong. The bubble was still there occasionally poking me with a stick, and now and again, my knee made some noise to let me know it was there too. The road leading to the park was super boring, but unlike last year, there were speakers playing music attached to posts along the way. How freaking cool was that?! That continued for quite a while, and finally, I got to the lake where we were to hop onto the sidewalk for the out-and-back. I saw several people I knew, which was way cool, and I tried to smile or give thumbs up to any camera that was pointing at me. Some of the volunteers took their positions very seriously. One kid was screaming at everyone so loud with his unique words of encouragement, he was already losing his voice. What energy! I saw one of the Stride boys at his aid station, and touched a sign for “extra power”.

Thankfully, there was a good tree cover, so the temps were pretty good along the lake. It was refreshing. I was stopping at every aid station to have either water or Heed, because I was covered in salt and sweat. I felt good, but I knew I needed to be careful and not start picking up the pace until closer to the end. I never felt hungry and honestly, I didn’t think about eating anything at all. We kept going. And going. And going. I ran this course last year for the relay, and I remember feeling like it. would. never. stop. One of the girls running by me asked her friend as she passed if we were EVER going to get to the turnaround, to which her friend replied, “not as soon as you want”. Ugh. Gas bubble was behaving and I was able to will the knee pain away, but every once in a while, I did have a little squeaker escape. It didn’t provide the relief I was looking for, but hey, at that point, I was happy for anything. I heard a LOT of “self-propelling” from other runners, which made me giggle.

Finally, we got to the turnaround point. I am HORRIBLE at running math, so I had forgotten that we have a mile or so loop before we pass the finish line, so during the time before the turnaround, I was perplexed at how we had gone over half way without turning around yet. Dur, it eventually dawned on me, but anyway, it kept me busy. My watch showed that at 7 miles I was at just over an hour, so I knew I was headed for a sub-2:00 half if I didn’t crash. When I had 5 miles to go, I started trying to pick it up a little. My Garmin and trees to not play well together, so I had to go by feel, and I honestly don’t know what pace I was going. I knew I was passing a lot of people and that comments like, “you’re looking strong” were frequent. I felt strong. And I was ready to be done. Pick it up, pick it up, pick your knees up, just keep going was going through my mind. I was doing it!!! I smiled a lot. Then I stepped off the sidewalk onto the street, which meant I was headed back down town. I’m almost there!!! I ran by my favorite little hangout, Satellite, saw a few running peeps, waved, and pushed through the “boring but at least there’s music” part.

I have to hand it to the police officers directing traffic. There was a LOT of traffic that was stopped to let the runners cross, so as soon as there was a gap, they would get some cars through, stopping them just in time to let a runner through without breaking stride. I was ready to just let a car plow into me as long as I didn’t have to stop or slow down, because I was ready to finish this thing!

Must. Watch. Feet. No. Trip. On. Face. This was right before the finish line.

There’s a pretty short, steep hill as you get down town, and I knew I had to be careful not to trip and fall on my face. But after that, all bets were off. As you make the final turn, it gets loud. You hear the announcer, you hear the crowds, see the crowds, and it’s impossible not to absorb their energy. I saw my friends, my sister and brother-in-law, the finish line, my husband and kids, and I (wow, I’m getting teared up thinking about this as I write), and I crossed the finish line while hearing my name being announced with a smile on my face and a feeling of victory I’ve never felt before.

Beast Mode. In Endurance events like this, you really have to zone in on this, or you can lose your mind. I was well acquainted with The Beast and she really helped keep me going and reminded me it was all about having fun.

OFFICIAL RUN TIME: 1:53:25 (8:39 pace)

I collected my metal, water, and about fell over the lady who wanted to get my timing chip. I sat down (mistake) and my knees didn’t want to allow me to get back up. Finish line volunteers are used to this, so I got a little assistance up so I could find my family. When I saw my husband, I don’t know if anything else was said, but he told me I finished in just over 6 hours. Wha? I figured it was about 6 1/2 hours but I was rounding up with all my events, so hey! Wow.

OFFICIAL FINISH TIME: 6:03:10

So you may ask, did you ever fart???? NO!!!!! And that’s when it really hit me! Ugh. I felt horrible. My stomach was cramping so bad and all I wanted to go do was lay down so I could get some relief. I found a place to sit, which would have to do. I hurt so bad, but just a few minutes later….. ahhhhhh. I FINALLY FARTED!!! I’d waited HOURS to do that. Now you may ask, why do you keep talking about that? Why won’t you just let that drop? Well, really, it’s a part of endurance. Poo, farts, eating, drinking, puking, spitting, going pee, it’s one of those things we talk about and is a big deal. And when your body hurts because of one of these, it’s in the forefront of your mind. Now that I mention it, it’s sort of like having an infant. All those things are VERY important 🙂

You can see me leaning over tryin’ to take care of business.

After I had a little relief, I walked over and got some food that I didn’t want. But something usual caught my eye – a Coke. I don’t drink regular Coke, but I knew the sugar would be good for me, so I grabbed the coldest can I could get and started drinking it. It was like the nectar of the gods. It was just what the doctor ordered. I had no appetite so just carried my plate around so I could get another picture with the actual battleship in it and went to the beer garden to sit down. We chatted with friends, hung out, basked in the sun, and yes, Roxanne, I was totally farting as I talked! Haha!!!

I’m trying not to step on the children at my feet who wouldn’t move over even though they knew I wanted a picture with the battleship. The adults just looked at me.

We hung out there, let the boys play with a friend’s kids, and about as the awards was to start, I was ready to leave. A big group was going to the lovely Satellite, and I wanted to go there and relax and watch the runners go by.

Stacey, my swim buddy, and me in front of Satellite.

Once we got there, I started feeling pretty good. I did eat the pizza I got at the finish, but didn’t want anything else. I had a glass of water and my husband got me an Allagash Wheat. Mmmmmm good! An bonus, it comes with an orange so it’s a health drink! Two beers and a few hours later, and after cheering on so many runners, some going strong and some struggling, it was time to head home. One thing I kept yelling at the runners was “You’re doing it!!!” because I think, in events like that, you can lose sight that every single step you take gets you closer to where you want to be. No matter how slow or fast, these people were doing it. We stopped for another beer and pizza at Slice of Life, and at that point, my energy was fading. I don’t know what time it was and it doesn’t really matter, but I think I was in bed, lights out, at 9:30. What a day.

The next morning, I got up and was surprised to find that I wasn’t that sore. My knees bothered me more than anything, but it wasn’t bad. I was sort of in a fog, but happily thinking about the events from the day before. I certainly wasn’t with it though.

We don’t normally put the coffee in the fridge but I guess that’s where my husband found it.

It was such an awesome experience. I think about the journey over the last year, the time to prepare and train, the people I’ve met and gotten to know better. I will really miss that!

What’s next? Well, I’m off training this week IF I can go that long. I have to really be careful because of my shin splints to see if I can get those things repaired as I recover. They’re feeling good so far, so if I do anything this week, it will be swimming or a very very very easy light run.

My marathon is in January and I’m shooting for a sub-3:40. I know I have it in me, just need the stars to align and have everything come together at the same time.

I’ve learned a LOT from doing this triathlon, so I’ll be putting those thoughts together here soon, but honestly, my house is a total pig sty so I need to concentrate on that. I do have words of advice for ANYONE who is even considering a triathlon. Just because you don’t know how to swim or don’t have a tri/expensive/fancy bike doesn’t mean you can’t do this. One step at a time, one goal at a time, it’s reachable. All it takes is work and a positive attitude. Come on, you won’t know if you don’t tri. Tri it, you may like it. Just give it a tri. Ah, now, I’m just being punny.

B2B 70.3

Categories: beach 2 battleship triathlon, half iron distance, iron distance, marathon, open water swimming, running, running with friends, swimming, training for half iron distance, training for marathon, training for triathlon, triathlon, Uncategorized | Tags: 70.3, beach 2 battleship half iron, beach 2 battleship half iron triathlon, beach 2 battleship triathlon, biking, half iron distance, open water swimming, running, swimming, wilmington | 17 Comments

B2B Tri Recap – Part II – The Race (well, just the swim and bike – I got wordy)

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Running Boston and Beyond

Here’s Part II of my race recap. To read Part I, click HERE. I did forget to mention that the night before any big race or training run, I eat a big burger. So I had a burger and then the morning before, I had a bowl of Grape Nuts. Yeah, lots of fiber, but it seems to work for me!

I was all ready to go. The trolleys were leaving T1 to take us to the swim start, so I figured I might as well bid adieu to my sister and get on with it. I had my wetsuit over my tri onesie, my goggles, swim cap, and really, I didn’t need anything other than that. I had socks and flip flops and a sweatshirt on to help keep warm. I saw many of my teammates and we all wished each other good luck. I had just gotten in line to the trolley when my friend, Jack, stole me away to ride to the start with him. I was ok riding by myself, strangely calm, but it WAS nice to talk to someone. Much appreciated, Jack.

Jack, Me, and Joanne

It was a gorgeous day! The sun was rising, music was blaring, and it was a great atmosphere to be in. We saw the full distance swimmers fly by (I swear the first place guy had fins on but he was actually staying with my sister and found out he is a world class endurance swimmer), and was impressed with the current. Time quickly passed, I ate my peanut butter sandwich, and soon it was time for the waves to start. I was in Wave 7, 24 minutes after the first wave was to start. It was very organized, and I was still surprised I wasn’t nervous!! Off went Wave 1 and, at that point, I was regretting giving my heavy coat to my sister! I was fffreezing! The announcer called the wave to be ready to go, the wave to get in the water, and the wave to be waiting. It was a smooth process. Soon, it was time to get in the water. I had to have a “hair strategy” since I have long, fine hair that can tangle itself without even trying. I had a low pony tail that I braided and would fit through the straps in the back of my helmet. The water wasn’t cold, but it certainly wasn’t warm – I think it was 74 or so. But I was so cold! Shivering and teeth chattering. I worried that I was wasting energy shivering. I worried about what I was about to do. I had to pee soooo bad! Ahhhh…. The enormity of the entire thing was slightly overwhelming, so as I had all week, I just broke the race into bits. The swim was first.

It was time for my wave to start, so we swam to the start “line” (it was invisible although he kept telling us not to cross it – ??). Then the current pushed a bunch of people across said invisible line, so he made everyone swim back, which made me in the front of the pack. Hells no on that, so I swam to the back of the pack. The horn sounded and I took off. I knew that the current would be fading, so I headed to the middle of the channel where the current is stronger, so I could swim mostly straight until our big turn. I was surprised to find myself pretty much alone, so I concentrated on being slow and steady. The sun was blasting straight into my eyes as I breathed (I only breathe on my right), so that was slightly annoying, but otherwise, it was pretty uneventful. I felt like we still had a good current pushing us as we turned left, and I was able to avoid getting kicked or kicking someone else. I don’t know why, but I ended up swallowing a lot of water. I don’t remember exactly where, but I even gagged under water (a year ago I’d have started to panic), swallowing even more. I just hoped that it wouldn’t cause me GI distress for the rest of the race. I did NOT want to be one of those athletes with an unfortunate poo. 🙂 It was breezy (it wasn’t supposed to be so I was already mad about that but then again, it IS the beach so all bets are off on an accurate weather forecast -see, this was my stream of thought), so the water was a little choppy because of that and with the hundreds of swimmers hashing through it. I thought that it could have been much worse so was happy with our conditions.

I was going with the flow of the other swimmers, not really seeing or noticing the sight buoys, but swimming towards the channel marker where I knew I could start turning again. I felt the current wasn’t as strong right there, or maybe I was distracted, but I did a lot of sighting to make sure I was going in the right direction and wouldn’t run into anyone. Soon, I saw the flailing arm of the finish. OMG, I’m doing it. I’m going to finish the swim, and well under my allotted time. At that moment, I sort of laughed and thought to myself that Gary was indeed correct, I overreacted for nothing! Silly me! I heard the music or some noise at the finish, I heard the volunteers on the docks, and I noticed that many of the swimmers were blowing by the get-out point. I actually stopped and let a few criss-cross right in front of me (should I have tugged on their feet to tell them they were blowing by the dock to get out?) and then stopped again so I could pee and save time in transition/bike.

I started climbing up the ladder out of the water and was freaking thrilled. I ran up the dock on wobbly legs and got my wetsuit down past my rear and sat down on a bench for the wetsuit stripper. I have never been stripped before, but it was pretty fabulous. 🙂

My sister snapped this pic. Haha!!

I got up and started running towards the transition. We crossed the timing mat to where there were nice warm showers. I rinsed as much as I could and enjoyed the warm water falling on my cold skin. There was a few hundred yards to run to transition, so I went as fast as I could without ~~falling on my face~~ risking injury. There was a nice crowd there and their cheering made me smile. OFFICIAL SWIM TIME: 38:23

Heading into transition.

In transition, I rinsed my feet and stood on a towel, dried myself the best I could with another towel, put a t-shirt on, spread sunscreen on my arms and legs (forgetting my face), and started eating my big meal bar I had in my bag.

Getting ready for a nice bike ride!

Chapstick, gum, 3 salt tabs. On went my socks, shoes, and sunglasses, and I was ready to go. I’ll never know what happened to the ibuprofen that I thought I put in my bag… I assume they never got put in there, but they were crossed off my list, so I really have no idea. Good thing I had taken three before the race had started. With my helmet on, I hugged my friend Stacey and was off. OFFICIAL TRANSITION TIME: 8:39

Ready to roll!!

I was off on the bike! We slowly wound around the side streets of Wrightsville beach to be able to exit the island the safest way. I had planned to get off my bike to cross the metal grated bridge since I knew other bikers had fallen there before. Everyone seemed to be doing fine and the volunteers steered us to the dry side of it, so I went for it. A few wobbly seconds later, I was over the bridge. Whew! I was getting into the groove as we headed out of town. I wanted to take it relatively easy with the car and bike traffic, and soon, I was going probably 16-17 mph. The time seemed to fly, and all of a sudden, it had been 15 minutes. I knew I needed to eat a little more of my nutrition, so I got it out and started chewing on it. Blech. Chew, chew, chew, chew, I felt like it was rubber and that I was a cow chewing cud. Hmmmm, this chewing thing, that seemed to be fine in the planning stages, just wasn’t working out in reality.

Car traffic along this road was a nightmare. For them! Haha! I thought they were kind of stupid to be on that road anyway because everyone should’ve paid attention to the signs the past week telling them of traffic issues on triathlon day. Oh well, we bikes just whizzed right by them. Miles and miles of cars. We headed to the interstate and when we got on, I was surprised that we were in the left lane. We were to stay to the right in the left lane, which left us fairly close to the traffic going by at 70 mph. That’s all good and fine unless some moron driver decides to pick their ~~nose~~ phone up and ram their Hummer into one of us. As you know, I’ve never done a triathlon before, so I’ve never ridden along a race course before. I didn’t know if there would be officials out looking for rules violations. I didn’t know I’d see so many dropped water bottles and empty Gu packets on the road. I only saw a few bikers getting help, so that was good. We followed this interstate until about mile 20 and turned north onto Hwy 421, which is where I have ridden many times before. It’s flat. Very flat. I kept drinking my water and had a few squirts of the concentrated EFS, but I just didn’t want to eat the bonk breakers at all. Too much chewing. Two miles after we turned onto 421, I found the first support station. I had to pee, so I knew I had been drinking enough. I had warmed up, so I decided to stop, pee, and take off my extra t-shirt. I rearranged my little food bag by taking out one baggie of the thick bonk breakers I knew I wouldn’t want to eat, which freed up room to bring the chomp block things up to the top. I also topped off my water bottle, which wasn’t very far from the top. Crap, need to drink more! It was warm.

I started out on the bike again. According to my Garmin, my average pace ranged from 16.6 to 17.5 mph. I paid special attention to cadence and kept it between 85 and 95. The one thing I was really thinking about was if there was wind. Since I’ve been on this road several times, I knew it was tricky. There could be no evidence of breeze in your face, but you can feel a resistance. Then you turn around and it’s obvious there was “wind”. I really had no idea what was going on with the wind or lack thereof, but I felt good and strong. Then my knee tweaked. I actually made a noise, because dammit, it hurt. What the hell? I didn’t know what it was and why it decided to show up during the race, but I just dealt with it and pushed through. It was on and off, so I ignored it the best I could and kept going.

Random thoughts went through my head. Of course, I watched the people fly by and me fly by others, and I really did try to pass legally. I wondered if I should buy a friend’s newer, nicer bike. I wondered how the race was going to end. I wondered if I would want to do a full iron distance. Which one? Should I do this one? Should I do an IM? Should I do this race again next year? I can’t wait to marathon train. How am I going to take a full week off? I need to drink. I need to fart. Yes, I started getting stomach cramps. Not the “I need to poo myself” cramps, but “I really need to fart” cramps. All I wanted to do was lay on my side a few minutes and let it go, which is what I do at home when I get that feeling, which is fairly often, especially during training season. They were stuck. And it hurt. So my knee hurt and my stomach hurt all the way up to my shoulder. Wow, how am I going to run with stomach cramps? Maybe I can just lay down a few minutes in transition and fart a little….

I kept at it as we went along the course. I just thought about this, and I thought about that. I made sure I kept eating and drinking. I said, “I’m doing this. I am really freaking doing this!!!” many times to myself. Then at about mile 40, here comes this biker going so fast it was like Blueberry Road was the autobahn. Amazing. Maybe what, 30 mph?? It was the first place guy from the FULL iron distance along with his motorcycle escort. Wow, my brush with fame. The volunteers were awesome. There were many as we turned, and I really appreciated the one who told me to not be in aero when turning since it was a right angle turn. I think that saved me some skin.

We turned south and I was on my way back to town. Wow. Close. I’m DOING THIS!!!! That’s when it hit that the “wind” was BEHIND me. I was pedaling at 19 mph, 20 mph. Holy crap. I couldn’t do the math to actually figure it all out until I got closer, but all I really wanted was a sub-3:30 ride. I kept passing people. I still don’t understand why, but I knew I was less than 12 miles away from the finish, so it was time to go while I had energy and we had a little push. Fart (or lack thereof I should say) and knee pain aside, I pushed myself. Garmin said I was going between 19 and 20 mph the last 15 or so miles. I remembered to eat and drink, especially my EFS, because baby, it was hot out!

I soon saw down town. Wow. Holy shit, I’m really freaking doing this!!! I choked up a few times and was just happy. This is MY day! If I could just fart….

We came over another metal grated bridge and weaved our way to the convention center, which is where T2 was. We passed some runners in our last few blocks, and the vibe was electric!!!! We headed down a fairly steep hill, turned a corner, and were to immediately slow down and prepare to dismount.

Coming into T2

Ready to dismount.

I didn’t see my family at that point, but was hoping they were there. I handed my bike off to a volunteer and walked about a hundred miles to get my transition bag. OFFICIAL BIKE TIME: 3:15:08

Now for the FUN part – THE RUNNNNN!!!!!!!

I changed into my comfy running clothes, put on my shoes, peed, put my hair in my hat, took out my braid, grabbed my chomps, handed my bag to a volunteer, changed my Garmin to the run function, wound around the whole entire inside of the convention center toward the exit, and took off. CRAP! It funkified itself! WTH??? Eh, gotta go, so I pushed start and headed out to my 13.1 mile run. OFFICIAL TRANSITION 2 TIME: 7:36

Because this is turning into a novel…. I’ll post the run and post-run in my next post. This is so cool. Everyone who does a race should have to write a recap. It’s so fun to think back over the entire thing, piece by piece and re-live it. Let me just say that post-race euphoria hasn’t hit, but I feel a squall moving in….. (honey, hide the credit cards!).

Out of transition and off on the run!

Categories: beach 2 battleship triathlon, half iron distance, iron distance, marathon, open water swimming, running, running with friends, swimming, training for half iron distance, training for marathon, training for triathlon, triathlon, Uncategorized | Tags: beach 2 battleship, beach 2 battleship half iron triathlon, beach 2 battleship triathlon, biking, doing something new, new challenge, no fear, open water swimming, running, training for marathon, triathlon, wilmington, wrightsville beach | 19 Comments

B2B Triathlon Race Recap Part One – Pre-Race Stuff

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Running Boston and Beyond

The Beach 2 Battleship Half Iron Distance Tri is done. Mission Accomplished. What a whirlwind! I really don’t even know where to start, so I guess I’ll start from the real tri prep last week to paint the full picture of the race experience. This is long, but I didn’t want to leave anything out, partly because it’s nice to be able and look back at this and partly because it shows how much you have to friggin’ do before a tri!

I started making a list of things that I thought I would need in transition two weeks before the race. I did this for Boston and it was really good to have a notebook where I could just add items when I thought of them. There’s things you may not think of, like sunglasses and chapstick (an absolute essential for me), so when I thought of something, I just wrote it down. I revised the list a few times the week of the race, and ended up with a nice, complete pile of things that I would need. I thought marathon list-making was tedious, but with triathlons, there’s just a lot more to think about. By the time Tuesday had rolled around and I got all the groceries I would need for the week, I totally shirked all my other responsibilities around the house. Had it been a few more days, mayhem would have ensued and the dust bunnies that are primarily composed of cat hair would have probably taken over the entire house.

On Wednesday, I started my pre-race partial carb loading like I do for marathons. I don’t do pure carbs like many do because I get the dreaded carb crash “they” talk about and end up hungry and jittery. I have to mix in a lot of protein, so basically, I ate a LOT of well-balanced meals. I had lunch with two other half distancers (not sure what else to call us besides “participants also doing the half iron distance” or something long like that) and our coach. Her main advice was this: SWIM – know where you are at all times. BIKE – drink, drink, drink. RUN – don’t go out too fast, pace yourself. We talked a little more specifically about the bike hydration/nutrition and I got totally confused on what I was going to do. I have an aero bottle that holds about 30 ounces plus two other bottle holders on my bike, and I knew I needed close to 25 ounces an hour, some water and some with my EFS in it, but I didn’t know how I was going to coordinate it all. Coach also said we needed about 300 calories an hour total and not much more to overwhelm our systems, so my mind started blacking out and I think I actually short circuited my brain. I had a plan already in place in my head, and this was just too much for my fragile mind to wrap itself around.

I went home and wrote my requirements out, then found the calorie content of my energy bars, chews, and EFS. Then I ignored it. My mental state, other than the bike hydration/nutrition stuff, was fine. I was getting excited, but I wasn’t nervous. I was calm. No big, right? Just an event I haven’t done and 70.3 miles to cover, right? Yeah, I was excited to just get on with it!

On Thursday, I had brunch with an experience triathlete friend of mine to see if I could get any other information she deemed necessary for my race. The theme was how important it is to hydrate and eat during your bike. Basically, you’re riding 56 miles to run a half marathon, so don’t be stupid! It was nice to talk to her, and she is in taper mode for her first full Ironman this coming weekend, IM Florida. Good luck, Renee, you’ll kick ass!!!! One other VERY good tip I got from her was to put a tiny drop of Johnson’s Baby Shampoo in my goggles, rub it around, let it dry, then rinse it out. This was to hopefully prevent them from fogging up considering it was cold and my body was not. After our lunch was over, and I was TOTALLY jacked up on coffee and diet coke, I went to the grocery store and got some baby shampoo to at least hedge the probability of my goggles fogging over, which is a huge pain in the ass.

After the shampoo stop, I headed to the bike shop to pick up an extra tube so I would have two, because I just knew the tire would be flat when I checked on my bike before the race on Saturday. I was CERTAIN it would be dead as a door nail, so I wanted to be prepared.

I headed down town to packet pickup, so I could digest everything and not rush in getting my transition bags ready. There were a lot of people already there, and it was very fast and easy to get all my stuff for the race. I thought the expo was nice and the music was good and loud, but also sort of lame. For one of the best iron distance triathlons in the world, I figured there would be more vendors peddling their wares, sucking me in to spend money on things I don’t necessarily need. I enjoy looking around and seeing cool stuff. There weren’t many there, so I walked and got sucked into the compression sleeve zone and bought a set. I refused to buy a 70.3 sticker since I hadn’t done one and if something came up and I had a DNF, I didn’t want the thing whispering “you failed” at me. Near the exit of the expo, they had a chip check, THANKFULLY, and it registered just fine. But that’s when I realized I didn’t have the ankle strap the chip is attached to in my packet. I wound myself around to the actual packet pickup area and got one. One of the ladies casually said, “Oh I guess we missed one”, which I was HORRIFIED to hear, because what if someone like me didn’t know you were supposed to have one and THEN WHAT??! Gasp. Well, I guess most people have been to triathlons before so they knew what they were doing. I got one and wound through the expo again, picking up a small purple PPD football for my boys along the way, also confusing some of the people selling stuff because they were looking at me like, “you look familiar”.

I headed home and started to get my transition bags decorated before the kids got home from school. I spent the rest of the night organizing, checking things off my list, eating, and just hanging with my older son while my husband took the young one to football practice. I didn’t know why, but I was way mellow, and I didn’t know if/when the nerves were going to hit. Thank you to Kecia from PushMyLimits for her words of encouragement that ended up on my transition bags.

I decorated the back of the bags so they would be easier to find in transition.

On Friday morning, I had a mini tri workout scheduled and had arranged to meet a friend at the beach so we could do ours together. The swim was a little weird since I hadn’t been in the water for about a week and a half, but once I got into the groove, it was fine. We swam for about 12 or so minutes, then we headed out on our bikes for about 15 minutes. After our bike, we had a 10 minute run. I felt good. This was the first time I’d ever done a swim, bike, and run all together, so it was good to at least have a mini practice before the race.

After that, I went home and got my gear ready to drop off. I had to head back to the beach to drop my bike and T1 bag off, then back down town to drop my T2 bag off. Because I didn’t want to be alone, my husband came along with me. Thanks, Andy! It was really good to see so many people from my running group, too, so I did get in a good amount of gabbing at our stops.

In front of T1

Daphne all tucked in for the night. Would the tire be flat when I found her the next day?

Daphne all tucked in for the night. Looking good at about 15 years old, ay?

A little drinky drink at the expo/bag drop. I was so tired.

I hadn’t eaten much and we didn’t have time to eat down town so we could be home to get the boys off the bus, so we stopped at Whole Foods and got one of their huge chicken pesto sandwiches. Delightful! I started to really feel like shit at this point, and didn’t know why. I wanted to take a nap but knew that if I did, I’d never sleep that night. I was worried I’d wake up with a sore throat, the flu, or ebola. I didn’t know what the heck was going on, but I was nervous. I felt like complete crap the entire week before Boston, so I figured it was just part of the game, but still, was worried.

I FINALLY decided on my bike hydration/nutrition late Friday evening. I would have one 24 oz bottle with concentrated EFS to keep the entire ride, my aero bottle would be filled with water, then one additional bottle of water. I would try to drink two of the aero bottles and the EFS bottle, if not more, but I knew from past experience, I probably wouldn’t drink more than that. I cut up my bonk breaker bars into pieces so they would be easy to grab out of my pouch as I rode, and I took out my two packages of blocks and honey stinger chews and put them into a baggie so I could eat them at the end of the bike in preparation for the run.

I went to bed around 9:30 with two alarms set for 4:00 am and 4:05 am. I slept like a rock! I wasn’t really thrilled at getting up, but I woke up without nerves and got ready to race. I had taken a bunch of extra clothes to Goodwill a few weeks ago, holding back one pair of shoes that I could have at the swim start. There’s no bag drop there, so anything you’re wearing that doesn’t swim with you, you do not get back. I bought an Ohio State jacket and had an extra sweatshirt and my shoes, so was good to go. Until I tried to put my shoes on. D’oh! I saved two lefties, so I ditched that plan and brought a pair of flip flops I didn’t like instead.

This wasn’t going to work.

Things were “working out” the way they were supposed to, and my sister picked me up at about 5:40 so we could get to the beach before the traffic hit. Things were so smooth, and I had to wonder if it was going too well. The forecast was perfect. No wind. It was going to be slightly warmer than what I prefer for the run, but I knew that I needed to just be smart, and be careful. I couldn’t salt bonk for two of my biggest races in one year, so I was determined to be smart about it.

When we got to the transition area, which is where we were to catch the trolley to the swim start, it was abuzz with energy. It was so cool! I love the pre-race vibe! I checked on my bike -THE TIRES WERE FULL OF AIR!! YIPPEEEEEE!!!!! filled them to 120#, and got body marked.

I. Was. Ready.

My outfit is just “delightful”, isn’t it!?

Getting body marked.

I’m going to keep writing as soon as I post, so stay tuned (if you made it this far!) for the actual race recap!

Categories: beach 2 battleship triathlon, half iron distance, iron distance, open water swimming, running, swimming, training for half iron distance, training for triathlon, triathlon, Uncategorized | Tags: 70.3, b2b, beach 2 battleship, beach 2 battleship half iron, beach 2 battleship triathlon, half iron distance, half marathon, no fear, open water swimming, preparing for triathlon, race, running, swim bike run, tri, triathlon, try something new, wilmington, wrightsville beach | 11 Comments

My Triathlon is Saturday and I’m NOT Freaking Out

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Running Boston and Beyond

Here we go!

It’s heeerrrreeeee! My very first triathlon is Saturday. I will be racing in the Beach 2 Battleship Half Iron Distance Triathlon. My swim wave starts at 8:54 am and I’m hoping to finish the race within 7 hours. I would offer for you to track me, but if it’s anything like last year (and my WordPress the past few days) you’ll see my results after I post them on here. Seriously, it’s like dial-up this week, which is one reason why I haven’t posted. And it’s typing at the speed as if I had a manual typewriter. So frustrating!!!

This week has been full of emotions. It’s been full of lists, preparations, more lists, and some working out, of course. While part of me wants to just huddle in the corner in the fetal position quietly rocking back and forth muttering “mommy”, the other part wants to rip thick phone books apart and eat nails for dinner. I’m tough, but it would be a lie to say that I wasn’t scared. It would also be a lie if I didn’t think that I could complete this race in good time AND have fun. To me this week, FEAR is like an annoying fly. It’s there, but I bat it away. It goes away, but it comes back. It’s annoying, but it’s not distracting. I’m able to focus. Mostly on the fact that on Saturday, I’m going to do something that a year ago would have been nearly impossible. And I’m thrilled. I’m in a little bit of disbelief. I’m happy. I’m excited. I’m nervous.

I’m treating this race like a marathon. I’ve got a race plan. I’m going to carb load (or at least my version of it). I am dividing the race into bits, each section a little piece of the entire puzzle. I’m visualizing me accomplishing each goal, little bit by little bit. I’m watching Accuweather like a stalker. I’m thinking about each piece and how I’m going to execute it. I see myself crossing the finish line. And after Tuesday’s short brick workout, I feel like I can do anything. Maybe it’s the cooler weather, maybe it’s the fact that I’m going to be marathon training soon, maybe it’s something else, I don’t know, but I’m truly excited for this race. I’m planning for the best, preparing for the worst.

Just as in running marathons, things are “strange” the weeks right before the race!

I’ve had some wacky shit go wrong these past few weeks too. Then the problem mysteriously disappears. I get my bike on those bike days and the tire is flat. But I’ve never had a flat during a ride. My gear shifter wouldn’t work right on Saturday, but Tuesday, it worked fine. I’ve had some bad runs. I’ve had THE runs. I’ve had some bad bike rides, too. My shoe clip was slipping around last week, but it isn’t this week. My cadence sensor went funky on me, so I took it in and it was the smallest issue. I felt like a big dope, but the bike guy sees this stuff all the time, especially the week before a big race. I’m just glad he didn’t laugh at me. My shin splints are bothering me this week too. So with all this, I’ll just do what I’ve been training to do: Finish the 70.3 and have fun!!

Anyway, I’ve done what I can to prepare myself in the best way. I must now rely on my training. I’ve asked tons of questions, I’m having a pre-race meeting with my coach and an experienced triathlete friend. And I’m getting my race gear a day early so I have time to digest everything. Bonus is the weather forecast. Low of 50, high of 73, sunny, light breeze. Couldn’t ask for better conditions!!

So what my plans are at this moment is to be smart about the race, do it with purpose, and by all means, SMILE! Oh, and kicking a little ass is always acceptable, too. Toodles!

Categories: beach 2 battleship triathlon, half iron distance, iron distance, open water swimming, running, swimming, training for half iron distance, training for marathon, training for triathlon, triathlon, Uncategorized | Tags: beach 2 battleship, beach 2 battleship half iron, beach 2 battleship triathlon, biking, half iron distance, my first triathlon, preparing for triathlon, running, swimming, triathlon, wilmington | 10 Comments

The WILMA Dash 5k

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Running Boston and Beyond

It’s starting to get a little swampy here in the hood. Humidity levels are rising, as to be expected, and from how I’ve been running lately, I’ve acclimated to the increase in temps and swamp levels pretty well. Surprise for me since I loathe running in warm, sweaty weather. Give me some 40-degree running and I feel like I can go all day. Not the situation anymore, unfortunately. Case in point was last night’s WILMA ~~Sweatfest~~ Dash 5k.

I had a busy afternoon yesterday. I had to pick the kids up from school early so my oldest could get his eyes check and we could find out how much more blind he was getting. It’s still not terrible, but I hate seeing him have to wear glasses to see. I’m extremely lucky and have 20/20 at 40 years old. My husband is virtually blind as a bat. I didn’t appreciate my good vision as much until he told me that he would just love to open his eyes and be able to see. That would totally suck. Boy, I’m rambling a lot today already. ANYWAY, the appointment took forever and then my son had to pick out new frames for his new, more powerful glasses, so we didn’t get home until 4:00. I wanted to leave the house at 4:30 to get to the 5k early, which was to start at 6. I didn’t leave the house until 4:50, but it turned out fine. I got there in plenty of time, and I was happy that my sister was able to join in and go with me.

Oh, now I remember why I brought up that I got home late…. I wanted to eat something close to 4:00 so I didn’t run with a bowling ball in my stomach, but I didn’t eat until 4:30, and I chose a banana with peanut butter. Come to find out, it was way too much peanut butter as it felt like a bowling ball anyway, which is what I really wanted to avoid. It wasn’t too hot, I think upper 70’s, very humid, but cloudy. I was at the start about 15 minutes early and the race started on time.

The WILMA Dash 5k is an all female race that is all about getting active and healthy. It is for runners and walkers of all ages, sizes, and fitness levels. Almost 800 women and girls finished the race this year, it’s 6th year. I’ve never done an all female race before, so it was really cool to see people decked out in cool costumes and just banding together to have fun.

I wasn’t feeling the best before the start and I wasn’t sure if it was the peanut butter or nerves. There’s something about races that always makes me a little nervous. I knew a PR wasn’t going to happen, and I was ok with that, but I did want to run a good race. I told my sister that I was expecting between a 22 and 23 minute finish. The air horn sounded right on time and I took off. The course took you right up a short steep hill and the rest of it was more of slight inclines and declines. My pace stayed fast and steady between 6:30 and 7:00 pace, and it crossed my mind a few times that “hey, I could possibly get a PR in this thing after all”. That quickly subsided at mile 1, when I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold the 6:50 pace for two more miles. Thankfully the bowling ball feeling went away, but then I got the sweats. The course had a lot of turns in it too, which I don’t particularly enjoy, but really, it was a nice course as long as you really paid attention to your steps due to sections of cobblestone streets and the boardwalk at the end.

I felt myself breathing really hard somewhere in mile two, but really, it was probably 90% humidity and upper 70’s, so what would I expect, especially at that pace. For a bit in there somewhere, I thought I might hyperventilate, but thankfully, that feeling stopped. I knew I was running well, and was happy that the three miles ticked by relatively quickly. Don’t you hate it when a 5k feels like a half marathon?

I tried to go a little faster the last quarter mile, but there were several more tiny turns, so I wasn’t able to gun it or anything. I saw my personal cheerleader, who happens to also be my sister, at the corner right before the last turn, right before the finish, so it was nice to see her there cheering for me. I turned and crossed the finish in 22:09. I was really happy with that!

Then the sweat deluge started. Holy cow it probably took me 20-30 minutes of walking around to stop pouring sweat! Yuck. I haven’t race in conditions like that in a long time, and thankfully it was only a 5k.

We meandered to the Wilma Nights Health Fest where we got a drink and some food. I wasn’t a big fan of the food, but it sure looked good! The Front Street Brewery Kolsch was worth the sweating though. My son’s baseball game was to start soon, but I saw I was going to win an award, so I wasn’t sure whether to stay for my award or leave and get to his game…. My husband and sister said I needed to get my award since I hadn’t missed any of my son’s games all season, so we hung out what seemed like forever for the awards to start. During that time, I met a girl who complimented me on my Boston tattoo and said her dogs’ names are Fenway and Tessie. I liked her immediately.

Finally, the awards started and I got to collect my medal and prize for 2nd place Masters and even 10th overall. I wasn’t too far behind 1st place and it was within my PR time, so of course I had to think the “what ifs” but slapped myself and was happy to finish where I did. And I’m not on a scheduled plan either, just doing my own training. Not too shabby if I do say so myself, especially on tired legs.

2nd Place Masters

My sister and I quickly left as I was delusional enough to think we could make the tail end of my son’s game. On our way, my husband texted that the game was over, so I dropped my sis off and headed home to get some warm water for my shower before the boys stole all of it.

So after doing this “girl race”, I think it would be a lot of fun to run one with a group of friends, complete with tiaras and boas (although those might get a little annoying), and possibly even wine glasses on our hats like the “Run Now, Wine Later” team had.

I’m not sure what I’m doing today, if anything, with regards to running, but I know I’m off tomorrow and doing lots of yard work. On Sunday, I’m planning to run with my friend who’s near the end of her marathon training, and has a “vomit” long run. You know those, right? Run some easy miles, run more really super fast miles, run easy, fast, vomit, that sort of thing. It has been a lot of fun to run with other people, just going with the flow, and getting in some good tempo workouts along the way.

Monday is my .9 mile open water swim, the last with a wetsuit, so I’m actually looking forward to that, assuming the conditions are good.

Have a great weekend!

My newest medal and gift certificate

Categories: beach 2 battleship triathlon, boston red sox, half iron distance, marathon, open water swimming, running, swimming, training for half iron distance, training for marathon, training for triathlon, triathlon, Uncategorized | Tags: 5k, female race, racing, running, training for triathlon, wilma dash, wilmington | 5 Comments

I Didn’t Get Eaten By A Shark Last Night

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Running Boston and Beyond

Mostly because sharks don’t normally go into the waterway, but still, they DO.

On Monday evenings, a group of people get together and swim in the intra-coastal waterway. I was one of them last night. Last week, my wetsuit came in the mail, so I knew it was time to face my fears, and get ‘er done. It was a really pretty day, so I suggested to my husband that he come along and take the kids to the beach while I swim. Maybe it was a small comfort knowing that if he heard sirens or about a “swimmer in trouble” he would at least be there and not sitting oblivious to “an urgent situation” while at home.

I got my wetsuit on and my kids were nice enough to remind me NOT to fart in it. Heh, heh, of course they would say that. It seemed fairly tight, and when I mentioned it to another swimmer, she basically said “that’s how we all feel”. I let it go after that. Turns out, it felt great in the water and I’m very happy with it and it’s buoyancy effect on my body. Wetsuit + salt water = floaties.

The tide was steady and low when we got in, the water wasn’t cold, and the breeze had died down, so it was pretty close to perfect when we went out, just after 6 pm. One of their friends was on her paddleboard, so it was nice there was someone watching out for us.

View from the finish where I dropped my shoes and a towel.

I thought the swim would be about .6 or .7 miles, and that made me slightly nervous. When swimming in the pool, I stop every 25 meters, if only to grab the side and turn (I have not yet mastered the flip turn, or any turn for that matter), but it does give you some time to come up for air. They told me where to sight to, which was pretty much useless on me, because I’m just trying not to end up turning in a circle and going in the opposite direction.

It’s strange going from a pool to open water. You can’t see shit. Then when breathing (because I can only breathe from one side at this point), the sun was glaring off the water, so I couldn’t see shit in or out of the water. Once we started going, I got into a rhythm of sorts, and it felt pretty good. Then all of a sudden the warmish water got cold. Then warm, then cold. It sort of freaked me out, so I stopped and realized I was headed for the docks. Oops. If I could figure out how to load my information from my Garmin, I would probably find my path something similar to this:

Not a straight path to my destination.

It made me laugh and I thought that it was too bad I couldn’t have a “sighter” on shore who could speak directly into my ear telling me “a little left, a little right”, you know, like the NASCAR drivers do. I’m sure the USAT would consider that illegal though.

The other swimmers knew I was a green novice beginner, so they stopped often and asked me if I was ok, doing all right, and that, which made me feel really good and less like a doofus. There was absolutely no pressure for performance, which is pretty unlike any running experience I have, ever. Especially when I’m alone.

There were three things I didn’t like: the water changing temperatures abruptly and often (ISN’T THAT A SIGN OF SHARKS OR OTHER SEA CREATURES?), boaters, and the dark water under the bridge. These are all things that I will get used to, and I was happy that I didn’t freak out or panic when what I assume was a seaweed thing got caught on my hand and when “something” touched my foot. I didn’t even stop to get it off as I knew that it would come off itself, which it did. At the end, there was what looked like the head of a venomous snake poking out of the water, blocking me from coming to shore. OMG WHY WOULD A SNAKE BE RIGHT HERE??? I took my goggles off and alas, it was just a piece of Styrofoam. A very scary one.

I made it to the shore and I was surprised to see that, per Garmin, I swam .93 miles in 33 minutes. Hmmmm, if I can do THAT, what can I do in October? A sense of relief came over me, and I know that I can do this triathlon thing. No, the conditions won’t be easy like they were last night, training for and doing the thing won’t be easy, but I have many days of practice ahead of me, so I will be able to handle whatever happens that day.

I’m going back out on Wednesday evening to swim with another group, headed by my running coach who just happens to be a total kick ass swimmer, where she is going to help beginners like me learn the ropes of open water swimming. I’ll eventually learn to sight, how to breathe on both sides, and how to deal with less-than-perfect conditions. I’m on the couch-to-5k swim program. It’s interesting and I could really like this open water business. As long as the sea creatures and Styrofoam snakes stay away.

The icing on the cake for last night was finding my boys hanging out on the beach on a beautiful evening.

Post-swim.

Trying something new isn’t bad at all. It can open up a ton of avenues and possibly bring you joy along the way. Last night was a clear reminder of one of my favorite quotes:

“If you want something you’ve never had, you have to be willing to do something you’ve never done.”

I took my first step.

Categories: beach 2 battleship triathlon, half iron distance, open water swimming, running, swimming, training for triathlon, triathlon, Uncategorized | Tags: beach 2 battleship triathlon, cross training, half iron distance triathlon, open water swimming, running, training for triathlon, wetsuit, wilmington, wrightsville beach | 5 Comments

If Every Long Run Was A Race, I’d Have More Medal Than Flavor Flav

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Running Boston and Beyond

I had a 14 mile run yesterday, including hills, so I went back downtown where I went two weeks ago. Thankfully, I wasn’t grumpy this time; in fact, I have been in a pretty good mood despite having a cold and being very tired. It’s amazing the difference your mood can be when you look at things from the positive instead of negative. Really, I could have whined and complained (which I admit I did a little) the whole week but really, I was thankful my cold wasn’t worse and that it didn’t move into my lungs. I was really tired from the cold, from the race last week, from a lack of sleep, and from training in general. But I’m very thankful that I can run and train and that I have a family to take care of. The sun has come out this week too, so the seasonal depression seems to have lifted.

I grabbed some gloves before I left for my run and found that I did not grab mine. I had to chuckle a little bit, but I went ahead and wore them anyway; I mean, they’re gloves so why not? I’ll have to grab the Superman or Spiderman next time. Suppose people on the street would find it strange for a runner to be imaginary web-slinging? That would be good practice for running into spider webs in the summer and doing the ninja moves on them. I digress.

My X-Ray Glove.

So random thoughts filled my head while I ran my 14 miles. Of course, my random thinking centered mostly on running. I thought about the race last weekend, about my friends running the full Quintiles Wrightsville Beach marathon in just a few weeks. I thought about Boston and how surreal the entire thing still is. Only EIGHT weeks – holy $shit! Then I thought it was funny that in this part of training, the buildup to a marathon, that many of us spew out mileages like it’s nothing. “Oh, I’m “only” running 14 this week.” “I have 18 easy miles this week.”. You know the speak. Once we get into the higher mileages, running 13 miles is almost like a walk in the park. Workouts below five miles are few and far between, and physically, it doesn’t seem like much of a workout. I wondered how many “half marathons” I’ve run. I mean, a half marathon is 13.1 miles, no matter how you look at it. It is what it is. I ran a half marathon yesterday and I’ll be running one every weekend until the end of ~~time~~ April.

It’s no Flavor Flav, but a pretty decent collection.

We run these long runs without any hoopla, without medals and t-shirts, without crowds, and without being able to say, “I ran a half marathon”. TECHNICALLY, I’ve run 9 half marathons, when in fact, I’ve run about a hundred of them. I can’t fathom how many other marathoners have done, especially ultra runners. It becomes just a long run to many of us, and we tick them off week by week, month by month. I’d be pretty cool to get a medal for each one, and I’d love to come home and have someone put a nice shiny medal around my neck, then feed me chocolate milk and oranges and say “great job”. Oh, and when we do full marathons, we would get a bonus medal for doing a double half. Ok, maybe that’s a little much, but I don’t think we should lose sight that we, in fact, ARE running half marathons all the time. It’s time to celebrate! Bring out your Flavor Flav during your next long run – put your arms up at that 13.1 “finish” line, just to celebrate another marker in your running career. Maybe, just maybe, when you get home, someone will be waiting with a medal, some oranges, and a pat on the back.

Flavor Flav – My long run bling could kick his bling’s ass.

Categories: Boston Marathon, marathon, running, training for marathon, Uncategorized | Tags: bling, boston marathon, flavor flav, long run, marathon, race medal, running long distance, training for boston marathon, training for marathon, wilmington | 7 Comments

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Posts Tagged With: wilmington

Beach 2 Battleship 140.6 Relay Recap

Beach 2 Battleship 140.6 on the Horizon

Spring Really IS Here

B2B Tri Race Recap – Part III – The Run and Post-Race

B2B Tri Recap – Part II – The Race (well, just the swim and bike – I got wordy)

B2B Triathlon Race Recap Part One – Pre-Race Stuff

My Triathlon is Saturday and I’m NOT Freaking Out

The WILMA Dash 5k

I Didn’t Get Eaten By A Shark Last Night

If Every Long Run Was A Race, I’d Have More Medal Than Flavor Flav

Bits About Me

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