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

 

Wurst Tri Ever 2011

This race is held in Landa Park in New Braunfels, Texas and it's super fun.  First off, you get to start the swim by sliding into the water from a huge slide!  Then you do a swim around a natural spring enclourse before exiting the spring and running to an Olympic length pool to complete your swim.  Very untraditional but a lot of fun.

I went into this race this year as a spur of the moment decision.  It was the Friday before the race and my training partners were out of town and my husband was doing his own training that I did not want to do.  So after looking around and debating I decided to just sign up for this race.  Best decision ever!  I ended up placing 3rd in my age group and, with this race, qualifying for the National Olympic Distance Age Group Championships in August of 2012 in Vermont!!  Never in my life would I imagine that I would qualify for something!  Unfortunately I was unable to sign up for the race because it's the weekend before my husband competes in Ironman Canada.  But just having that e-mail with my name saying I qualified is good enough :) 

Swim:  400m in 12:42
Bike:  14mi in 49:43 (16.9 avg/mph) - I would have been faster I think if the officer at the very last intersection would not have stopped me to let traffic through!  Yes, I'm still upset about that!
Run:  3mi in 27:21 (9.06 min/mi)
Overall:  1:32:00

I guess I had the advantage of all the fast people in my age group not being there, but sometimes those last minute decisions are the best ones! 

The Austin Tri

This is one of my favorite races.  It's held at the same venue as The Capital of Texas Tri but for some reason I always seem to do better at this race.  I don't know if it's because the bike and run courses are slightly different or if it's just because it's later in the year and I've had more training time going into this race.

Swim:  1500m in 38:42
Bike:  40k in 1:24:00 (17.6 avg/mph) - One of my fastest bike times :)
Run:  10k in 1:01:00 (9.52 min/mi) - Again, one of my fastest 10k times
Overall:  3:09:49

I have yet to break the 3 hour mark on an Olympic distance race, but I hope soon I will be able to do it!

Gator Bait Tri

This is one of my favorite sprint triathlons around.  It's at Boerne Lake where I do a lot of my training and it's just an overall fun race.  I had high expectations coming into this race having raced it the previous two years.  This was the challenge I needed to see if all my training was going to give me the results I wanted.

500m swim:  10:12
I was right on goal with my swim.  I usually allow for 2 min/100m and I was only 12 seconds above it!  Extremely excited about that!  If I am remembering correctly (and this is the problem with not getting my thoughts down right away) they had marked the course differently (like a straight out and back) and I think the wind had picked up by the time the race had started and the markers were being blown around in the water causing some of the swimmers to almost swimming into each other.  I had an okay T1 of 1:05.

13 mi bike:  48:44 (16 mph)
I was aiming for at least averaging 17 mph on this course but with the wind picking up that slowed me down a bit.  After looking at my previous two attempts at this race, I have improved on the bike portion in each one so overall I'm please with the result.  I had an awesome T2 of 0:42!

4.1 mi run:  40:10 (9.47/m)
Again, I am pleased with my run in this race.  I managed to stay under a 10 minute pace and I really can't ask for more than that. 

Total time:  1:40:55.  I only knocked 1 minute off my overall time from the previous year but it was enough to place me 6th out of 18 girls in my age group!

Greater Gator Tri

So this race is an Olympic version of one of my favorite Sprint Tri's, Gator Bait Tri.  I was so excited when it was announced at the beginning of the season and had been looking forward to it since the beginning of the season.  Of course, I didn't realize it was just two weeks after my half-ironman in Boise.

Going into the race I was super tired.  I didn't feel like I had the energy needed to really compete at a level that I wanted to.  I decided to just do my best and just finishing would make me happy.

1500m swim:  33:37
Now for a swim of this distance, this was actually a pretty good time for me.  No gator sighting thank goodness :)   I had a decent T1 of 1:11.

24.5 mi bike:  1:38 (14.9 mph)  
This felt like the bike ride that would never end.  My legs were pretty much done at the beginning of the ride so I decided just to save most of my strength for the big hill at mile 6 and enjoy the scenery.  After I climbed "Gator Bait" hill I cruised to the turn-around.  On the way back I picked up the pace a little bit and really enjoyed the downhill that most of the way back to transition is.  I had another decent transition with T2 being 0:52.

5.6 mi run:  0:59:14 (10.34/m)
This may be the one thing that stops me from doing the race in the future.  The run is through a very rugged landscape and I was not wearing my trail shoes!!  Besides the course not being marked extraordinarily well and the grass to be overgrown, I managed to stay on course and not twist an ankle.  For being as tired as I was I'm actually not too disappointed with this run.  I did have to walk some of the hills but overall I'll take that 10 min pace any day! 

My overall time was 3:13:43 (first time to finish last in my age group!)  Not fantastic by any means but it was another race under my belt, and I made a profound decision as I was racing:  I definitely was not going to race in the month of July!!  I was going to give my body a month off to rest and train.  Sometimes the hardest races are where you learn the most.....