Volunteer Fun at IMAZ

So the big weekend was here – Volunteer at IMAZ so we could have first dibs at signing up for the big race next year.  My two girlfriends and I boarded a plane super early Saturday morning so we could get to Tempe by 9 am for the volunteer meeting.  We were going to be body markers!  This is a great place to volunteer because you get to interact with the athletes before they start and hear some of their stories of how they got there or why/who they are racing for.  It was a very emotional experience for me and I had such a blast doing it.  Also it allowed us to be in the transition area when the swimmers came out of the water and hopped on their bikes.  We literally had the best seats there to view everyone taking off for their 112 mile bike ride.

After our volunteer shift was over was continued to hang around Tempe and grab some food.  We were going to walk back to our hotel to grab some shut eye since we had been up since 3 or so in the morning but as we were walking in that direction we passed the bike course and saw one of our friends finishing her first loop of the bike!  We were so super excited we decided to stay and watch all our other friends and cheer them on.  All the other spectators were great.  We had a so much fun goofing off with them and cheering on their friends, while they also cheered on our friends.  We saw our coach Dawn come in off the bike and we quickly ran to a spot on the run course so we could help her keep track of her position in the race.  She was racing for a Kona slot we wanted to help her as much as possible. 

It was so much fun watching the pros on the race course as well.  We saw Leanda Cave, Linsey Corbin, Amanda Stevens, and Timothy O’Donnell to name a few.  Poor Tim was having a tough time on the run so when my friends and I saw him walking we yelled out his name and some encouraging words, which got us a little wave and then he started running again. It was so much fun!!

Our coach ending up with a 20 minute PR and a Kona spot by getting 4^th in her age group!

The next morning we were up early again to get in line for registration.  I’m so glad we got there early because the line was already long and just getting longer.  At 9 am they opened the tent and in we went with our credit cards and out we came with our slips of paper saying “Congratulations, you have just registered for Ironman Arizona”!!

RNR Marathon 2011

After the tri season wrapped up in Kerrville, I went straight into marathon training mode.  My friends and I had decided to do the Rock ‘n Roll Full Marathon here in San Antonio.  I was super eager to get this race under my belt since my last attempt at a full marathon ended up with me getting a stress fracture.  I also wanted to complete this marathon because I was going to be signing up for IM Arizona the weekend after the race.  I at least wanted to complete a marathon before I signed up for a race that ended in one!

The race went well.  I was running with my husband and another friend of ours, who was also doing his first marathon.  Unfortunately for my husband his stomach started going sour at about mile 11.  He decided to keep running but was forced to make many bathroom stops.  My friend and I went on without him and we held strong until about mile 18 where I started to get a cramp in my right calf.  It was a super warm and humid day and I had not been taking salt tabs on a consistent basis.  I quickly downed a couple salt tabs and continued running, but I told my friend to go on ahead of me at mile 19.  I didn’t want to slow him down, as he was feeling strong.  At mile 20 I called my husband to see how he was doing (I had my phone with me) and he told me he was at mile 19.  Since I wasn’t too worried about my time with this race I decided to slow my pace and wait for him to catch up to me. 

He was still struggling with his stomach but he persevered for those last 6 miles and we were able to cross the finish line together.  And considering all the stopping and walking I did, I was still able to go under 6 hours!

Total Time = 5:44:19

Kerrville 70.3 2011

This is a new race that High Five Events out of Austin, TX put on and I'm so happy I decided to do this one instead of Longhorn 70.3.  It's obviously a much smaller race than an Ironman race and I think that's what makes it so great.  High Five Events does a great job at all the other races they put on, so I was pretty confident that this would be a great race.

Kerrville is a nice little town in the Texas Hill County so I had some reservations about the bike course.  I wasn't sure if it was going to be too hilly for me, but my worries were for nothing.  The course was mostly flat with just a couple short, steep inclines.

The day before the race, my friends and I met up to pick up our packets and then do our pre-race ritual of swim/bike/run warm up.  This is just to get a feel of the course and make sure the bike is in tip-top shape before we checked it in for the mandatory bike check-in.  After that we got some food and then went off on our separate ways with plans to meet back up in the morning.

Swim:  0:51:36

This turned out to be the worst swim of my whole season.  About halfway through the swim I got the worst burning sensation in my chest.  I had to burp!!  I probably spent the next 600-800 meters burping as I swam.  I’m not sure if it was the Gatorade I drank or the banana I ate before the race but I made a decision never to do that again!  After exiting the water we have a humongous hill to run (shuffle) up to get to T1.  Luckily they have a nice carpet down so you can run on that instead of having to worry about stepping on stickers or anything in the grass.

Bike:  3:25:58

This turned out to be my best bike time in a 70.3 race.  I was super excited about it.  It’s a two-loop course that takes you from downtown Kerrville out to a little town named Comfort and then back to Kerrville on some back roads.  The first loop of the bike went great.  I was having a great time and was super excited to see all my friends out on the course.  As I was about the 20 mile or so mark, the lead male, James Bonney, came flying past me as he was finishing his second loop.  I tried to pick up my pace to hang with him, but that didn’t last long J  Heading back out for my second loop was a different story.  I started to feel fatigued and noticed my speed dropping every mile.  At this time, I realized I hadn’t been taking in enough nutrition and tried to eat something but it was too late, I was already spent.  I just kept pedaling away and when I got to 50 miles I looked at my time and realized that I could still have a PR.  This added some fuel to the fire and I beat my previous best bike time by 10 minutes. 

Run:  2:43:15

Oh, the run, what can I say.  It was a four-loop course that was on the street and then you turned and went down what looked like to me a creek bed.  It was a pretty rough trail that was mainly uphill on the way out to the turnaround when you went back onto paved trails.  The first two loops of this run where not kind to me.  My legs had nothing in them.  I was walking every aid station and every uphill.  I was barely shuffling on the flats and the downhills.  My friends looked like there were doing great and that kind of further deflated me.  I downed tons of Gatorade and took in some caffeine and by the third loop, lo and behold, my running legs showed up!  I was so happy they finally decided to join me.  My pace picked up and I was able to finish the race with a smile on my face. 

For all the ups and downs I went through on this race I still managed to PR by 2 minutes.  I was happy about that.  Still didn’t break the elusive 7 hour mark but I was 2 minutes closer!

Total Time = 7:06:44