January 1, 2010
My Time: 24:47
HAPPY NEW YEAR! There is no better way to start off the new year than by doing a little 5k! Last year my time was 25:20 with an 8:09 pace. I got 4th in my age group. Not to shabbt for my first race ever. I was determined to beat that this year. It was really cold out but I stripped off my jacket at the last minute anyways. This year I was able to pace myself and finally got comfortable in the last mile. I finished in 24:47 with a 7:57 pace. I FINALLY got under 25:00 for a 5k and under an 8:00 pace! GREAT way to start off the year! I stayed for the award ceremony and got my "medal". Hmmm... what shall the next race be?
Monday, January 4, 2010
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Rock N Roll Marathon
Nov 15, 2009
26.2 miles
My time: 4:57:41
My first and most likely my last marathon. 26.2 is just too far for me, plain and simple.
Ever since the Ironman my knee had been hurting me when I would run. Like an idiot I ignored this. Big mistake. I think some sort of brace would have helped dramatically.
I was exhausted before the ran start and that turned out to be detrimental to my race. My friend Rachel was doing the half marathon and I wanted to stick with her until mile 10. That quickly changed when I had to hit the port o potty at mile 2. Good thing too because I really would have held her back. She did really well. In fact she finished in 2:02:00. I wish I could have kept up but that was just the begining of the worst race of my life.
By mile 8 I was ready to quit. My stomach hurt and my knee was hurting. When 10 miles had passed and the half marathoners were splitting off I was so tempted to join them. I am glad I stuck it out, sort of. At least I have a finishers medal to show for it. My time at 13.1 was 2:15 so I already knew I wasn't going to get my 4:15:00 goal but I figured 4:30 was still good. By mile 15 my knee was really really starting to hurt. I called Jason and told him I was struggling and I was going to be a lot slower than I had planned. By mile 18 my knee was excruitiatingly painful. It hurt the most to walk and to attempt to get back into a run. I was hobbling along side the rode and crying for the remainder of the race. Several people asked me if I was okay and if I needed medics. I told them I was fine. I am such a liar. I have never felt anything like this pain before. My brain saying "run", well at least "jog" and my knee just wouldn't do it. My jog would quickly turn into a hop and skip before it came back to a limping walk. At 20 miles I sat down and cried. For the first time ever I thought I might not finish the race. I couldn't imagine going another 6 miles like this. I made it to a medic tent at 22 miles and a doctor asked me about my knee. He said it was some tendonitis and all he could do was give me tylenol and ice. I was hoping he had a hack saw and would just remove the whole lower portion of my leg. The tylenol helped a lot or at least it had a placebo effect. I was able to get back to a jog and I dared not stop because restarting was too painful. I did stop a few times for food and drink but at 24 miles I finished the thing out with a jog. At 23 miles I called Jason again and told him I was only at 23 miles and was moving pretty slow. He said "Your almost done!" Ya right. Longest 3 miles of my life. Most of the marathoners were walking after about 20 miles. It was hot outside and very humid. I was so miserable. Good thing I wore Brother's fanny pack :) I was able to carry food, Biofreeze and my pride all in that little bag.
Overall the course was not pretty. We ran along side some cemeteries which had pinatas on some graves?!?! And we ran through the ghetto. Not too scenic. All of the bridges we ran under reeked of urine. There were lots of port o potties for the runners but no toilet paper. Useless. There was lots of water and food along the way but the water was warm. The Ironman provided ICE COLD water and that was really refreshing. Of course warm water is much better than no water.
The finish line finally came up out of the blue and I was too tired to throw my arms up or do some kind of victory dance. I looked for Jason, Rachel and Paul and didn't see them. There were a lot of spectators out there. I felt terrible that Rachel had to wait 3 hours for me to finish :(
I went straight to the medic tent and got a bag of ice and sat down. It felt fantastic. I chugged some water and stretched a little and then head out to find my people. Lincoln had fallen asleep because I took to long.
I am glad I can say I have done a marathon but it almost killed me. I won't ever do one again. Haha, but if I do I won't run it alone. I need someone by my side to share the misery. Its too lonely out there for 5 hours alone. I'll stick with half marathons and triathlons I think.
26.2 miles
My time: 4:57:41
My first and most likely my last marathon. 26.2 is just too far for me, plain and simple.
Ever since the Ironman my knee had been hurting me when I would run. Like an idiot I ignored this. Big mistake. I think some sort of brace would have helped dramatically.
I was exhausted before the ran start and that turned out to be detrimental to my race. My friend Rachel was doing the half marathon and I wanted to stick with her until mile 10. That quickly changed when I had to hit the port o potty at mile 2. Good thing too because I really would have held her back. She did really well. In fact she finished in 2:02:00. I wish I could have kept up but that was just the begining of the worst race of my life.
By mile 8 I was ready to quit. My stomach hurt and my knee was hurting. When 10 miles had passed and the half marathoners were splitting off I was so tempted to join them. I am glad I stuck it out, sort of. At least I have a finishers medal to show for it. My time at 13.1 was 2:15 so I already knew I wasn't going to get my 4:15:00 goal but I figured 4:30 was still good. By mile 15 my knee was really really starting to hurt. I called Jason and told him I was struggling and I was going to be a lot slower than I had planned. By mile 18 my knee was excruitiatingly painful. It hurt the most to walk and to attempt to get back into a run. I was hobbling along side the rode and crying for the remainder of the race. Several people asked me if I was okay and if I needed medics. I told them I was fine. I am such a liar. I have never felt anything like this pain before. My brain saying "run", well at least "jog" and my knee just wouldn't do it. My jog would quickly turn into a hop and skip before it came back to a limping walk. At 20 miles I sat down and cried. For the first time ever I thought I might not finish the race. I couldn't imagine going another 6 miles like this. I made it to a medic tent at 22 miles and a doctor asked me about my knee. He said it was some tendonitis and all he could do was give me tylenol and ice. I was hoping he had a hack saw and would just remove the whole lower portion of my leg. The tylenol helped a lot or at least it had a placebo effect. I was able to get back to a jog and I dared not stop because restarting was too painful. I did stop a few times for food and drink but at 24 miles I finished the thing out with a jog. At 23 miles I called Jason again and told him I was only at 23 miles and was moving pretty slow. He said "Your almost done!" Ya right. Longest 3 miles of my life. Most of the marathoners were walking after about 20 miles. It was hot outside and very humid. I was so miserable. Good thing I wore Brother's fanny pack :) I was able to carry food, Biofreeze and my pride all in that little bag.
Overall the course was not pretty. We ran along side some cemeteries which had pinatas on some graves?!?! And we ran through the ghetto. Not too scenic. All of the bridges we ran under reeked of urine. There were lots of port o potties for the runners but no toilet paper. Useless. There was lots of water and food along the way but the water was warm. The Ironman provided ICE COLD water and that was really refreshing. Of course warm water is much better than no water.
The finish line finally came up out of the blue and I was too tired to throw my arms up or do some kind of victory dance. I looked for Jason, Rachel and Paul and didn't see them. There were a lot of spectators out there. I felt terrible that Rachel had to wait 3 hours for me to finish :(
I went straight to the medic tent and got a bag of ice and sat down. It felt fantastic. I chugged some water and stretched a little and then head out to find my people. Lincoln had fallen asleep because I took to long.
I am glad I can say I have done a marathon but it almost killed me. I won't ever do one again. Haha, but if I do I won't run it alone. I need someone by my side to share the misery. Its too lonely out there for 5 hours alone. I'll stick with half marathons and triathlons I think.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Longhorn Ironman 70.3
The beast has finally arrived.....
1.2 mile swim
56 mile bike
13.1 mile run
My time: 6:09:05
The National Anthem: Skydivers jumped out of a plane and held an American flag while they floated down. The National Anthem was sung and everyone watched the flag float down in the sky. It was pretty creative.
The 1.2 mile swim: The race started at Decker lake (my favorite lake from previous races) and it was wet suit legal. Jason woke up early with me and we went out to the race site and I got all set up in T1. He helped me get my wet suit on then it was wait time. When I saw the buoys out there I got a little freaked out. WOW that was really really far! Swimming laps in a pool looks totally different than, BAM, 1.2 miles out in a lake. My wave was the 8th wave. I was soooo nervous. The water was 75 degrees and the air was about 60 degrees, so it was warmer in the water. They did the count down and off we went. SEAWEED everywhere. Not the slimy kind. The kind that feels like Christmas trees? Anyways, if my body had not been protected by a wet suit I guarantee I would have freaked out and drown. I stayed calm and just waited for the deeper water to come and it finally did. I thought these girls would leave me behind but I kept up with some of them. And yes, I did breaststroke 99% of the time. My name is Laura, and I am a breast-stroker. And guess what? I stay going straight the whole time while the free stylers run into each other and get way off course. So, I think I may have the better strategy. My goal was to do the swim in 38 minutes which is a 2 minute pace. My time was 38:42... so things started out well. Question?: Is it possible to have 2 side stitches at once? Answer: Yes. I had 2 side stitches (one on each side) for about 3/4 of the swim. If that doesn't make you almost drowned then the seaweed will. I never saw Jason when I got out and he waited there for an hour and 15 minutes and thought I had either gotten out or drowned out there. So he called his mom and she had seen me exit the swim online. The wet suit strippers were AWESOME. The dude got my wetsuit off in about 2 seconds and it takes me about 2 minutes!
T1: Wet suit in hand I walked part of the way uphill to T1. So it turns out you feel naked after wearing a tight wet suit for an hour and then having it ripped off. I kept looking down to make sure I actually had clothes on! I seriously took FOREVER in T1. About 7 minutes to be exact. I dried off, put on my shirt, cleaned my feet and put on socks and bike shoes, etc etc. Then it was off for a 56 mile ride!
The 56 mile bike: The furthest I had ever gone before was 50 miles and my average on my training course was always around 14 miles per hour. I had a tune up and I don't know if he supercharged my bike or what, but I felt like I was flying. The first 24 miles FLEW by. My average speed at this point was 17.9 mph. That is my fastest ever by FAR. Thats when I sent a text out. I was pretty sure at this point that I was going to finish in under 7 hours and possibly more like 6.5 hours.
At the first water station my nightmare came true... I made another person fall off their bike. A girl and I hit tires when I was pulling over to get off my bike. She fell and I didn't. I was able to get my clip out in time to catch myself. She was super nice and thought it was her fault and clearly it was mine. We were both okay and went on our way. I still feel really really horrible about that.
I went to the port o potty and then was on my way again I stopped to get some Gatorade from a volunteer who attempted to pour it in my Design Profile bottle. Instead of squeezing the top and nicely putting it in my bottle, she top of the lid and basically just dumped orange Gatorade all over my bike. I stopped at the next volunteer and got water to "hose" down my bike. So, Gatorade girl totally ruined my chocolate chip cookies I had in my front bag. I had a nice soup of orange Gatorade, choc chip cookies, Advil, biofreeze, gu, and trail mix. I didn't care, I kept eating it. And the biofreeze really gave it an extra kick to wake up my mouth. I hope that stuff isn't poisonous to eat.
From here on out the miles stood still. I would feel like I had gone 5 miles and I would look at my computer and see I had only gone .5. Yuck! I started thinking.... some athletes came from other countries and states to do this race. If they had never been to Texas before they are totally gonna think people ride horses to school and all that stereotype - here's why: We rode out to Elgin and back on country roads. There were several people riding horses on the road and there were old hick farmers with hick teeth standing on their driveways telling everyone good luck. If that's not Texas, I don't know what is.
The wind starting picking up and my back and neck started getting tired. But don't worry, I only had about 25 miles to go :( . FINALLY 48 miles came and I sent out another message. My average speed had dropped to 16.9 and then stayed that way. (Hey, much better than 14 mph!!) I was pretty sure it felt like the race should be over after the 56 miles but of course the run was still to be done. But hey, 13 miles is easy, right? WRONG.
When I got off my bike I was so glad to see Jason right there. I had been getting lonely for the last 4 hours since I didn't see him after the swim.
T2: Well, I was on aisle "G" at T1 so thats where I went for T2. WRONG. My stuff was on aisle "I". So I had to turn around and go down another aisle. Don't worry.. Jason got this on video. I thought my T2 time was going to be like 2 minutes but it was 4 something. I got my running shoes, on blasted my knees with more biofreeze and started on the run. I had taken my advil previously on the bike because my knee was already bothering me.
The 13.1 mile run: The first thing we did was run through the arena and that was pretty cool. Then the real part began. It was hilly. But not steep/quick hills. Looooong and forever going uphill hills. The good news is that there were also "downhills". Whatever, flat would have been much better. My goal was to keep a 10 minute pace to finish the run under 2:10:00. I had no idea if I was doing that or not because of the hills where your pace obviously goes way up. Jason was there for each lap and that made it sooo much better. Clorissa was there for the start of the 3rd lap too. My pace dropped to 12 minute miles towards the end and I just didn't care anymore. All I wanted to do was finish. I didn't care about my time or anything anymore. Ok, that is totally a lie but all I wanted to do was sit down and STOP MOVING. Finally my 3rd and last lap came and I tried to take it up a notch. I was imagining the time of 6:09:00 and that became my new goal. I was exhausted and I actually have no idea if I started running faster or not. The end of the run was a lap through the arena and then across the finish line. I was so exhausted at this point I didn't even have the energy to look for my family among the spectators. But they were there and I heard them scream for me as I was passing them.
My run pace ended up being 9:17 and my time was 2:01:00. SWEET!
The finish: When my feet actually stopped moving I thought I was going to fall over. I have never been that physically exhausted in my life.
Thanks to Jason, my mom, Clorissa and Caylee, and Elizabeth* for being there at the finish line.
Elizabeth gets an asterik because she actually wasn't there in time because she was expecting me to finish in 7 hours and not just over 6!!!
Will I do this again? Not for awhile.
1.2 mile swim
56 mile bike
13.1 mile run
My time: 6:09:05
The National Anthem: Skydivers jumped out of a plane and held an American flag while they floated down. The National Anthem was sung and everyone watched the flag float down in the sky. It was pretty creative.
The 1.2 mile swim: The race started at Decker lake (my favorite lake from previous races) and it was wet suit legal. Jason woke up early with me and we went out to the race site and I got all set up in T1. He helped me get my wet suit on then it was wait time. When I saw the buoys out there I got a little freaked out. WOW that was really really far! Swimming laps in a pool looks totally different than, BAM, 1.2 miles out in a lake. My wave was the 8th wave. I was soooo nervous. The water was 75 degrees and the air was about 60 degrees, so it was warmer in the water. They did the count down and off we went. SEAWEED everywhere. Not the slimy kind. The kind that feels like Christmas trees? Anyways, if my body had not been protected by a wet suit I guarantee I would have freaked out and drown. I stayed calm and just waited for the deeper water to come and it finally did. I thought these girls would leave me behind but I kept up with some of them. And yes, I did breaststroke 99% of the time. My name is Laura, and I am a breast-stroker. And guess what? I stay going straight the whole time while the free stylers run into each other and get way off course. So, I think I may have the better strategy. My goal was to do the swim in 38 minutes which is a 2 minute pace. My time was 38:42... so things started out well. Question?: Is it possible to have 2 side stitches at once? Answer: Yes. I had 2 side stitches (one on each side) for about 3/4 of the swim. If that doesn't make you almost drowned then the seaweed will. I never saw Jason when I got out and he waited there for an hour and 15 minutes and thought I had either gotten out or drowned out there. So he called his mom and she had seen me exit the swim online. The wet suit strippers were AWESOME. The dude got my wetsuit off in about 2 seconds and it takes me about 2 minutes!
T1: Wet suit in hand I walked part of the way uphill to T1. So it turns out you feel naked after wearing a tight wet suit for an hour and then having it ripped off. I kept looking down to make sure I actually had clothes on! I seriously took FOREVER in T1. About 7 minutes to be exact. I dried off, put on my shirt, cleaned my feet and put on socks and bike shoes, etc etc. Then it was off for a 56 mile ride!
The 56 mile bike: The furthest I had ever gone before was 50 miles and my average on my training course was always around 14 miles per hour. I had a tune up and I don't know if he supercharged my bike or what, but I felt like I was flying. The first 24 miles FLEW by. My average speed at this point was 17.9 mph. That is my fastest ever by FAR. Thats when I sent a text out. I was pretty sure at this point that I was going to finish in under 7 hours and possibly more like 6.5 hours.
At the first water station my nightmare came true... I made another person fall off their bike. A girl and I hit tires when I was pulling over to get off my bike. She fell and I didn't. I was able to get my clip out in time to catch myself. She was super nice and thought it was her fault and clearly it was mine. We were both okay and went on our way. I still feel really really horrible about that.
I went to the port o potty and then was on my way again I stopped to get some Gatorade from a volunteer who attempted to pour it in my Design Profile bottle. Instead of squeezing the top and nicely putting it in my bottle, she top of the lid and basically just dumped orange Gatorade all over my bike. I stopped at the next volunteer and got water to "hose" down my bike. So, Gatorade girl totally ruined my chocolate chip cookies I had in my front bag. I had a nice soup of orange Gatorade, choc chip cookies, Advil, biofreeze, gu, and trail mix. I didn't care, I kept eating it. And the biofreeze really gave it an extra kick to wake up my mouth. I hope that stuff isn't poisonous to eat.
From here on out the miles stood still. I would feel like I had gone 5 miles and I would look at my computer and see I had only gone .5. Yuck! I started thinking.... some athletes came from other countries and states to do this race. If they had never been to Texas before they are totally gonna think people ride horses to school and all that stereotype - here's why: We rode out to Elgin and back on country roads. There were several people riding horses on the road and there were old hick farmers with hick teeth standing on their driveways telling everyone good luck. If that's not Texas, I don't know what is.
The wind starting picking up and my back and neck started getting tired. But don't worry, I only had about 25 miles to go :( . FINALLY 48 miles came and I sent out another message. My average speed had dropped to 16.9 and then stayed that way. (Hey, much better than 14 mph!!) I was pretty sure it felt like the race should be over after the 56 miles but of course the run was still to be done. But hey, 13 miles is easy, right? WRONG.
When I got off my bike I was so glad to see Jason right there. I had been getting lonely for the last 4 hours since I didn't see him after the swim.
T2: Well, I was on aisle "G" at T1 so thats where I went for T2. WRONG. My stuff was on aisle "I". So I had to turn around and go down another aisle. Don't worry.. Jason got this on video. I thought my T2 time was going to be like 2 minutes but it was 4 something. I got my running shoes, on blasted my knees with more biofreeze and started on the run. I had taken my advil previously on the bike because my knee was already bothering me.
The 13.1 mile run: The first thing we did was run through the arena and that was pretty cool. Then the real part began. It was hilly. But not steep/quick hills. Looooong and forever going uphill hills. The good news is that there were also "downhills". Whatever, flat would have been much better. My goal was to keep a 10 minute pace to finish the run under 2:10:00. I had no idea if I was doing that or not because of the hills where your pace obviously goes way up. Jason was there for each lap and that made it sooo much better. Clorissa was there for the start of the 3rd lap too. My pace dropped to 12 minute miles towards the end and I just didn't care anymore. All I wanted to do was finish. I didn't care about my time or anything anymore. Ok, that is totally a lie but all I wanted to do was sit down and STOP MOVING. Finally my 3rd and last lap came and I tried to take it up a notch. I was imagining the time of 6:09:00 and that became my new goal. I was exhausted and I actually have no idea if I started running faster or not. The end of the run was a lap through the arena and then across the finish line. I was so exhausted at this point I didn't even have the energy to look for my family among the spectators. But they were there and I heard them scream for me as I was passing them.
My run pace ended up being 9:17 and my time was 2:01:00. SWEET!
The finish: When my feet actually stopped moving I thought I was going to fall over. I have never been that physically exhausted in my life.
Thanks to Jason, my mom, Clorissa and Caylee, and Elizabeth* for being there at the finish line.
Elizabeth gets an asterik because she actually wasn't there in time because she was expecting me to finish in 7 hours and not just over 6!!!
Will I do this again? Not for awhile.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Run Austin Run Half Marathon
13.1 Miles
My time: 1:57:21
My very first Half Marathon
I talked Jason into doing this with me and that was the best thing I could have done.
My goal was to keep a 10 minute pace but I really really wanted to finish in under 2 hours. And I did the math over and over again to try to make that possible with a 10 minute pace. Darn math.... we had to do it in a 9:17 pace. Ugh. We didn't think that was possible for us.
The weather was perfect and the course was wonderful. Hilly, but wonderful. Jason was the pace setter and we ran fast! I can't believe how fast we ran the entire thing.
The rain: The last 2 miles we were getting poured on. It was FREEZING. We were soaking wet.
The last .25 mile: I told Jason to take off and finish and he did. As he was approaching the finish line he looked back to find me and possibly wait for me so we could finish together. Surprise, surprise I was right beside him! We sprinted to the finish and it was a photo finish. Too bad I started the race 1 second before he did at the starting line. So that means he beat me by 1 second!
My final time was 1:57:21 and that is an 8:57 pace! Faster than my fastest 10k pace.
I placed 15th out of 297 women
Hmmm... I didn't know I liked running.....
Dude Girl Tri Sept 20, 2009
1500m swim, 24 mile bike, 6.2 mile run
Olympic Distance Triathlon
My time: 3:04:47
This race only turned out to be 200 people! I thought it was going to be closer to 1,000. Wow. So my initial thought was "I am just going to try to finish this race and not worry about my time". As soon as I saw that my age group was really small that thinking went straight out the window. I clearly had to try to place. This race was at the same location as the Sweet and Twisted Tri a month earlier.
The 1500m Swim: The lake was still incredibly low despite all the rain we had. The swim course was 2 loops and very near the shore line. It didn't go out and back it just stayed along the "coast". Everything was going well until I was on the last leg of my first lap and saw people swimming to the shore and then running in ankle deep water. First thing that popped in my head: omg what is in the water?!?! I was so scared at first. I yelled up to the spectators to find out what was going on. The response: "Its legal to run in the water as long as your feet are in the water". @%*(#$% $%*Q*$% *%QW*#%*. Are you kidding me? I don't care if its legal or not. That is CHEATING. As soon as I saw that happening - and I mean it was about 80-90% of the people, I knew I had no chance of placing. Since I consider myself a respectable person and athlete there was no way I was "cheating". I stayed in the water and you know me, I hated every minute of it. But if I am going to say I did an olympic distance triathlon, by all means, I am swimming the swim, not running the swim. My blood is starting to boil just thinking about it and that was a month ago lol.
The Dash: Yet again another dash due to the lake being incredibly low. This time I ran it in tennis shoes and that was much better than flip flops. Don't get me wrong... it was still uphill and on rocks. Horray drought.
T1: Wow, now I have started texting during transitions. No wonder my time isn't great
The 24 mile Bike: It was 4 laps, so it was very spectator friendly. I had no spectators but thats okay. It was very hilly as I knew it would be. My speed was 1mph faster than it was at Sweet and Twisted so maybe there is something to clips after all :)
T2: Dreading the run with lead legs.
The 6.2 mile trail Run: My goal was to have under a 10 min/mile pace. I felt good and I passed a lot of people and only 1 passed me. I ended up with an 8:59 pace and I was THRILLED about that. That was my fastest 10k pace by far. The run was fantastic and felt really really good.
My final time was 3:04:47. My goal was 3:30 so I blew that out of the water.
I felt so good after this race that I decided I was going to sign up for the Half Ironman.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Dreaming of the Longhorn Half Ironman
This weekend I successfully ran (jogged) 10 miles on Saturday and then rode 46 miles on Sunday. It felt really great. For the first time I rode without my knee hurting. I am thanking, Karen, for fixing all my problems. I can just taste the Half Ironman and it tastes delicious! Better see if I can finish the Olympic distance Dude Girl Triathlon first. Being in the lake for 45 minutes does not sound appealing to me. BUT the good news is if I can swim a mile in the lake for Dude Girl then I can swim 1.2 miles in a lake for the Longhorn half. So my goal for right now is to do Dude Girl in 2 weeks, then run my first half marathon in early Oct. Then do the Longhorn Half Ironman in mid October and finish out the season with my first marathon on November 15th. Then I will never exercise again ;) Ya right.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wurst Tri Ever August 23, 2009
300m Swim, 14 Mile Bike, 3 Mile Run
My time: 1:31:50
Well I saved the Wurst for last, thats for sure. This statement is mostly true because I was sick. There is nothing like swimming 300 meters, riding 14 miles uphill, and running 3 miles on a Texas August morning while being sick. My original thought was "I paid for it so I have to do it but I won't go all out". Well we all know that doesn't work. Its go big or go home. So, I did my best. My lungs burned so incredibly bad and I could tell my oxygen consumption was very diminished.
The Swim: Landa Park Pool. YUCK. Never have I been in a pool where seaweed was my biggest fear. It was grabbing me from all directions. Landa Park Pool is a spring fed pool and lets just say its very natural. Naturally disgusting. There is so much algae and other disgusting things growing on the bottom of the pool that it was actually scarier than a lake. In all my lake races I never once had seaweed grab me. GROSS. The water was clear but I wished it wasn't so I couldn't see all the grossness. Also, this is part of the comal... that means the water was a nice 72 degrees. That was the least of my worries.
T1: Wow, like 5 minutes. I suck. Also my first time doing the bike shoes.
The Bike: So the clips and shoes were nice. I still had a hard time on the bike though. I wonder how bad I would have been if I did it in my sneakers. There was a hill so big on this course that they actually gave out an award to the person who could ride up it the fastest. I actually thought this hill wasn't too bad. There were about 3 that were worse on that course. Anways, I did not get that award but I actually didn't do too bad. I came in 22nd place on the hill out of about 150 women. After 10 miles, like an addict, I reached for my gel with shaking hands. I was so hungry. I squeezed it too hard and brought it to my mouth too quickly and got it all over my chin. oops. Not to mention a mouth full of raspberry goop. Gels are better in small doses, not one big mouth full.
T2: Under a minute. Thats more like it.
The Run: I didn't let anyone pass me on the run but I was still running at an 8:30 pace. I thought was going faster but it turns out I wasn't. On the run I finally caught up with the people I couldn't catch on the bike. And I experienced the meanest course yet. I was coming up to a turn and I could see the finish line and hear the mc announcing people as they crossed it. I keep following the course and we ran right by the finish line! It was a total fake out and I hated it. I had pushed myself and was going all out and then I found out I had another half mile to run. Thanks for the trickery, that felt awesome.
Overall I finished 5th in my age group out of 25. Eh. Not too bad for being sick and whatnot. Top 25%.. can't complain too much but I probably will anways :)
Thanks to my wonderful husband, my son and Pam and Paul for coming out to support me. That really means a lot to me :)
My time: 1:31:50
Well I saved the Wurst for last, thats for sure. This statement is mostly true because I was sick. There is nothing like swimming 300 meters, riding 14 miles uphill, and running 3 miles on a Texas August morning while being sick. My original thought was "I paid for it so I have to do it but I won't go all out". Well we all know that doesn't work. Its go big or go home. So, I did my best. My lungs burned so incredibly bad and I could tell my oxygen consumption was very diminished.
The Swim: Landa Park Pool. YUCK. Never have I been in a pool where seaweed was my biggest fear. It was grabbing me from all directions. Landa Park Pool is a spring fed pool and lets just say its very natural. Naturally disgusting. There is so much algae and other disgusting things growing on the bottom of the pool that it was actually scarier than a lake. In all my lake races I never once had seaweed grab me. GROSS. The water was clear but I wished it wasn't so I couldn't see all the grossness. Also, this is part of the comal... that means the water was a nice 72 degrees. That was the least of my worries.
T1: Wow, like 5 minutes. I suck. Also my first time doing the bike shoes.
The Bike: So the clips and shoes were nice. I still had a hard time on the bike though. I wonder how bad I would have been if I did it in my sneakers. There was a hill so big on this course that they actually gave out an award to the person who could ride up it the fastest. I actually thought this hill wasn't too bad. There were about 3 that were worse on that course. Anways, I did not get that award but I actually didn't do too bad. I came in 22nd place on the hill out of about 150 women. After 10 miles, like an addict, I reached for my gel with shaking hands. I was so hungry. I squeezed it too hard and brought it to my mouth too quickly and got it all over my chin. oops. Not to mention a mouth full of raspberry goop. Gels are better in small doses, not one big mouth full.
T2: Under a minute. Thats more like it.
The Run: I didn't let anyone pass me on the run but I was still running at an 8:30 pace. I thought was going faster but it turns out I wasn't. On the run I finally caught up with the people I couldn't catch on the bike. And I experienced the meanest course yet. I was coming up to a turn and I could see the finish line and hear the mc announcing people as they crossed it. I keep following the course and we ran right by the finish line! It was a total fake out and I hated it. I had pushed myself and was going all out and then I found out I had another half mile to run. Thanks for the trickery, that felt awesome.
Overall I finished 5th in my age group out of 25. Eh. Not too bad for being sick and whatnot. Top 25%.. can't complain too much but I probably will anways :)
Thanks to my wonderful husband, my son and Pam and Paul for coming out to support me. That really means a lot to me :)
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