My First Marathon

Oh, geez. So, it's been a month and a half since I posted last. Yikes. Guess that's what being in your last year of your PhD, looking for a job, holidays, and training for a marathon will do to you!

Anyway....about that marathon...

I successfully completed my very first full marathon last Sunday night and I am very proud of my accomplishment. I'm a marathoner!

Post-Race: Half delirious, in pain, and really freaking cold. But happy.

Pre-Race: The nerves are written all over my face.

So, here's how it all went down. Awhile back I chose the Las Vegas RnR marathon to be my first full. Originally this race was chosen because Travis's birthday was the next day and my friend and I thought it would be fun to go to Vegas, do the race, then hang out and celebrate his birthday. Somewhere along the way my friend got pregnant (she had her baby this past week, so the timing certainly would not have worked out!) so it was just me. I was fine with that. My friend Shala ended up signing up for the half, and we had some other friends come out. It ended up being a fun weekend.

With my cardio base and my fantastic coach, Lindsay, the training went pretty well and I was prepared for this race. Mentally I had a tough time with the fact that my longest run had been just shy of 20 miles, but it ended up being OK. My long runs were all done at an 8:30ish pace, so I felt that I would be able to run at an 8:30-8:45 pace for the entire marathon. I didn't quite make it at that pace, but there were several factors at play:

1) I hadn't run more than 20 miles at that pace, so I was going into no man's land for that last 10K. I really didn't know what to expect.

2) Crowds! Crowds! Crowds! RnR is seriously going to have to change this race for next year. The second half of the marathon course was the half marathon course, and the half marathoners (38,000 of them) started an hour and a half later than the marathoners (4,000 of us). You do the math. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that it was a giant Charlie Foxtrot. The half marathoners were supposed to stay to the right, but of course they didn't. Oh well! It was fun anyway. (See picture below to get an idea of the crowds)

3) I was sick. I came down with a nasty cold the night before the marathon, and woke up with all sorts of congestion and an extremely sore throat. I medicated myself appropriately and tried to put it out of my head. I didn't feel so bad once I started running, but it did start to catch up with me around mile 22. I am still getting over it.

Crowds at the start of the second half.

With all of that being said, I still was very proud of myself and my time. I finished in 3:58:02, which was faster than about 2700 other runners (four and a half hour time limit my arse). It was an hour faster than Kate Gosselin :-). Me, competitive?? No....

I did a good job of keeping my speed in check for about 15 miles, then I tried to speed up. I even made a friend on that first half and ran with him for a good 12 miles or so. He checked up on me at the end when I was HURTING and then went on to finish a few minutes before me. He's incredible; he's trying to do a marathon in each state and had done one in Baton Rouge the day before. He also did one this past weekend with a 3:48 finish time. Incredible! I also did a good job of taking in gels every 35 minutes or so, but it depended on the location of the semi-scarce water stations. My stomach did start cramping at the end, which is sort of normal for me (or maybe it was the water contaminated with parasites?), but it did slow me down a bit. Let's face it, though, everything hurts at mile 24 of a marathon. According to my Garmin I had run an extra half a mile, too, which is mentally and physically painful. I only thought that the strip was HUGE when wearing heels; it seems even longer at the end of a marathon.

Honestly, though, the worst part was right after passing the finish line. CROWDS!! All I wanted was some water, my husband and friends, and a warm place to sit. Oh, it was tortuous. I was happy though when I reunited with my supporters. They were all so proud and it felt really nice!

The marathon finishers were over to the right, and that big huge cluster is the half marathon finish line.

Me and my supportive hubby :-). I had to sit down while we were waiting for our friends to get in on the next tram! It was heavenly to sit.

My friend Shala. She was awesome for coming out to support me!!

Afterwards we celebrated at the Sugar Factory (no, getting to the Paris was not particularly fun or fast) where I got a S'more martini and a cheeseburger :-). The next day we walked around the Strip. We even ran into a few notable people!

Ha. Not really. We just took advantage of the wax museum discount for marathoners!

All in all, it was a great experience! I'm so happy I did it. Thank you to everyone for all the support!

GU: A multi-purpose tool

During the Harvest Moon half-ironman distance triathlon this year, my last tri of the season, I was clipping along nicely. I was very happy with how I had been riding and it was looking as though I'd be able to drop about 15 minutes from my previous year's bike split, despite having crashed pretty badly two weeks prior. Then, at about mile 40, (one) of my worst fears happened: I got a flat tire during a race. I say this is one of my worst fears; it used to be my worst, but seeing as how I've crashed during two races this year, I think it's been replaced by the fear of crashing.

Anyway, I reacted rather calmly. I pulled over, dismounted the bike, and bent down to see a huge nail sticking through both sides of my back tire. I ride pretty tough tires (Gatorskins) even during a race (probably not the fastest choice), but nothing would be able to protect itself from a nail that size, at that angle. I naturally said a couple of curse words and then thought, "What the heck do I do? Do I wait for the Sag Wagon? Is my race over? Again??!!" Then, my mind flashed back to a maintenance clinic I had taken a couple years ago. I needed to put something in my tire to protect the tube a little bit. I had an empty GU wrapper on me. Perfect. I reached back and grabbed it out of my pocket, lined it up, put the tube in, applied the CO2 cartridge (my first time for this!), and got the tire back on. There was a nice athlete there who had stopped to put more air in his tire and he talked me through using the CO2 and putting the back tire back on. I had never changed a flat in a high-pressure situation, so I think I did pretty well. Adrenaline definitely makes us focus more! I had to stop a couple more times to fix the tire that I put on crooked, adjust, the brakes, etc., but I did make it back to T2, albeit slower than I thought I would be. My race wasn't really what I had hoped for because I later died on the run, but I was proud of myself for being able to react to a problem under pressure.

Post-race. The leftover GU was oozing through the tire. Blueberry Pomegranate Roctane, anyone??

Hopefully this situation never happens to you, but if it does, remember: keep calm and do what you know how to do (practice first, of course). Also remember that GU has more than one use!

The GU packet did the trick!

Post-race Team Trainright picture. I had too many blisters on my feet to go change clothes, clearly.

Crash Landing - Again

So, the Steamboat Tri did not turn out how I had hoped. I new that there was a chance I could podium at this event, so I was going for it. I felt like my swim was great. The time was 22:15, and that was good for 8th overall and 2nd for the women. I was only beat out by about 10 seconds by that woman because we were swimming side by side from the last buoy. In fact, she had apparently been drafting off of me until we hit that last buoy, when she decided she'd try to pass me. I refused to let her. Bam.

T1 was good (1:24), probably because I wanted to keep my good position and because my new coach had me actually spend 10 minutes practicing my transitions! I need to do this more often. That way I won't forget things like leaving my shoes untied....anyways, I was off to a good start on the bike. It felt good, aside from the awful chip seal they had put on a good portion of the road 5 days prior to the race which made it incredibly bumpy. Then, right at about mile 9, I hit a huge manhole and crashed. Hard. I didn't see it at all due to the nice concrete lip covering it, and there was probably a 3 inch drop onto the actual cover. I had no chance. I was so mad. It really should have been marked as an obstacle. Fortunately, the sheriff who came to help me after he had helped another woman who fell on a similar obstacle right before this one completely agreed. He said he couldn't believe they weren't marked and then went to his car to grab some cones to place on them.

I was so, so upset. How could this happen again?? At least I wasn't the only one. There was a guy ahead of me who crashed, broke HIS COLLARBONE, and still completed the race. Another guy after the race told me that his arm rest had snapped in half after taking on that manhole. Crazy! It really was the race organizer's responsibility to mark those things, and they had failed. I took about 10 minutes to get over the nausea and decide that I would still be finishing the race. I had been in a great position - only one girl in my age group had passed me, so I was in second place prior to the crash as far as I knew. After the crash I was pretty far back, but I was determined to not have another DNF by crash again this season.

The aftermath. Not really sure how I landed so that I bruised my tailbone AND have a huge raspberry on my shoulder...

The rest of the race was just a blur of trying to block out the pain I was feeling in my tailbone area. The run did not feel great, and was significantly slower than my other runs this season. I was being pretty hard on myself during the remainder of the race, but I shouldn't have been. I was hurting. I also had a nice rip in my shorts - it wasn't attractive, but it made me look bada**, especially with my brand new road rash and blood dripping down my leg. I finished. I toughed it out, mentally. I suppose I can be proud of that.

Now, time to heal up before Harvest Moon on September 11. Fingers crossed!!

Race Report: Boulder Peak Olympic

Last Sunday was the Boulder Peak Olympic tri. This is the largest Olympic-distance race around here and brought in about 1,300 athletes this year. It has been taken over by WTC and is now a 5150 series event. The organization of it was fantastic and I must say that I enjoyed this race experience. The race itself was really tough for me due to a few things that were kind of out of my control. First, I really haven't been sleeping well. There were a few nights in the weeks leading up to this event that I was lucky to get three hours of sleep, including the night before the race. I think it caught up to me. My stomach had also been a little iffy since the night before, and I couldn't eat too much going into it. It also started rebelling a lot around mile 3 of the race. Dehydration, maybe? Who knows. Enough excuses. I still had a great race and was pleased with my time.

1500 m swim: 22:03

A full :06 faster than my swim at the Boulder Sunrise. Though the course is the same, there's always some variability. Hopefully it was a little faster since I didn't veer off course, but it was also warmer and I got kicked more. Who knows. The swim felt decent despite my stomach not really being there. I tried to hang on to Katy Blakemore's feet, but lost them in the mix pretty quick. She went FAST. Not having to worry about the rest of the race will do that, I suppose.  

T1: 2:36 I think the run to T1 was longer, but this could be improved, for sure.

42K bike: 1:26:08

Holy hill! Olde Stage Road was tough. At least all the climbing was over within the first half an hour or so. My legs felt pretty good on the bike, and my stomach was feeling better. Managed to take in all 3 GUs. I did wish that I had put plain water in my Speedfil, though, rather than the GU electrolyte tabs. I was dreaming of plain, cold water out there! Dehydration? Yes, most definitely.

T2: 2:01 Ugh!!! So, so, so slow. I was a little disoriented coming off of the bike and to top it all off, I had forgotten to leave my shoes untied! Big mistake. Cost me a top 10 AG finish. Live and learn. Remember the speed laces.

6.2 mile run: 48:23 (7:47/mile pace)

The run felt surprisingly good for the first 3.5 miles. Then it hit me. Stomach cramps - bad. On top of that, I could feel water just sloshing around. Not good. Somehow I hung on, though. When Katy saw me she started yelling at me to catch the girl up ahead, which I did, but I should have waited. She had way more left in the tank than I did. Oh, well. Another lesson learned! 

Total time: 2:41:11 12/73 in age group, 52/461 women

I was absolutely, completely zonked after this one. I gave it my all under the circumstances and came up with some decent results. Everybody has an off day! Next up: Steamboat Springs Olympic Tri on August 28th. Can't wait!

Third Place AG Finish! Boulder Sunrise Race Report

I must say that I am extremely happy with my performance yesterday at the Boulder Sunrise Olympic Triathlon, especially considering that it was my third race in three weeks. I went into it on tired legs and with very few expectations. I came out surprised!

Race morning felt a little rushed. Transition opened at 6, and our wave was set to go off at 7:05. That leaves very little time to get all the gear situated, get warmed up, grab some GU Chomps, get a very small wetsuit on, get in the water to allow your feet and face to go numb, and be ready to race. My coach had prescribed a 30 minute long warm up run. That didn't happen - it was more like 10 minutes (sorry, Winston!). There just wasn't time. Or so I thought. It turned out that we had to wait 25 minutes for the paramedics to arrive, so we stood around for quite awhile. Fine by me. I, of all people, know that paramedics are an important race day fixture!

1500 m swim: 22:09
Once the swim finally started, I found myself out in front pretty quickly. This was only my second time swimming with a long-sleeved wetsuit, and I am really enjoying the Aqua Sphere Phantom. It's a little difficult to get on and off, but it seemed to be easier yesterday than it was the first time. The material in the shoulders is super stretchy, so I didn't even notice it while racing.  I caught up to the the back of the guys' wave pretty quickly and felt like I was having a great swim. A little ways into it, however, I had this feeling that I was heading toward the wrong green buoy. We had to head straight out to one green buoy, turn right, and turn right again at a second green buoy that was pretty close to the first one. I sat up, pulled my goggles up, and realized I was heading toward the second one instead of the first. Shoot. I re-adjusted my path and headed back toward the correct buoy. This totally played tricks in my head because I thought I was then having a horrible swim. I was pleasantly surprised when I came out and people were yelling, "You go, girl! Second woman out!". Sweet...while I'm pretty sure I would have been the first out had I not goofed up, I was still pleased. I ran into T1 (rough concrete hurts so much on really cold feet), shed the wetsuit, grabbed my bike, and was off.

T1: 1:41 Getting better!


26.4 mile bike: 1:21:35 (19.4 mph)
The bike course started out pretty hilly, especially over the first 8 miles or so. My quads were not happy with me, and I was worried I would be in for a long couple of hours. After the initial climbing, however, the rest of the bike course was pretty tame. There were some fast downhills and then some rollers toward the end. I took two GU's on the bike - one pretty close to the beginning and another at mile 20. That plan seemed to serve me well. I was also sipping on some diluted electrolyte drink - I dropped a GU Brew Tablet into about 36 oz of water. Looking at my bike split now, I can see that I was really feeling the fatigue and that I have some hill training to do. I also wanted to save something for the run...

T2: 1:17

6.2 mile run: 47:55 (7:44 min/mile)
The run completely surprised me. My legs were tired. My form was not good. Honestly, every time I glanced down at my Garmin I was shocked. I was keeping up a great pace (for me)! It was a two-loop out and back course, so I had plenty of opportunities to scope out the field. My Train Right teammate (and friend!) Malia passed by me a little past the halfway mark. She's very speedy. I kept expecting more women from my age group to catch me, but they didn't. I didn't really know where I was in the field, but I was feeling pretty good about my race. The last couple of miles were painful, especially because it was getting hot, but I finished strong, and with a 10K PR. This was the second 10K PR I set in a week!

Total time: 2:34:34 3/22 in age group, 10/104 women

After the results were posted, Malia came up and told me that I had podiumed! I was third in our age group. I've only podiumed once before, so I was extremely excited. It was, once again, a strong showing for Team Trainright. Malia was second in our age group, and Cameron was first in his! Though I haven't been training with CTS for too long, I attribute my sudden increase in run speed to the coaching I am receiving. I think it's a combination of the rest I'm taking and the few speed workouts I've done. I'm excited to see what I'll be able to do after a solid month of training with Winston!

Winston, Cameron, Heather, me, and Malia.

Cameron: #1 M20-24

F25-29 Podium

Me and Malia after the race.