"Quick" Race Report from Augusta 70.3

Wake up: 4:45 from an actually really good sleep.

Meet the “Team” at 5:15 at the front lobby

Pictures with the “TEAM” at 5:30

On the shuttle bus by 5:50

At transition by 6:05

All set up by 6:20 (with lot’s of double checking)

Over to Swim Start by 6:40

Swim Start: 8:57 – rough sea weed, grabbing at you, but smooth swimming down the middle of the Savannah River with a beautiful current!  Yellow buoys lined the straight point to point course with two orange buoys marking the turn into the ramp out of the water.  Cheering from coach Bruce on my right, and Stephanie up ahead on the bank.  Wetsuit strippers ROCK! Finally over the timing mat  into transition.

T1- Wipe off feet, stick in socks and shoes, put on helmet, glasses, race number….off we go.

Bike: AMAZING!  Fun course.  Some flat, some rollers, a couple little hills and one grinder that was like 2 miles long but not very steep.  Couldn’t spread out, very congested, but everyone was friendly, and HAPPY (except the guy in SC who waved his sign for us all to go home, and get off the road). Some hairpin turns, all executed nicely.  Water bottle handoff’s were GREAT.  Fun times!  Beautiful overcast skies kept it feeling amazing in the Georgia heat.

T2 – Rack bike, take off helmet, and shoes (socks), put on visor, socks and running shoes.  Put on fuel belt and get frozen bottles out of the cooler and drop them in their spots, turn race number around….run out.

Run: HARD! HOT, the sun came blazing out and my body couldn’t handle all the heat.  I kept taking salt tabs, and drinking water, and taking in nutrition, and pouring water on my head, and putting ice chips in my bra….nothing would keep me cool.  Goosebumps all over, fingers tingling…slowing down.  Walking more.  Still moving.  Finally some relief in the form of a thunderstorm with beautiful rain, but my muscles were already stiff from walking so much.  Lot’s of stradegies to keep moving, run a block, walk a block, try to catch up to that person, walk here, run there….just keep moving.  Clock is ticking, 3 miles left, is this run ever going to end?  One hour to make it to my goal time.  Can I do it?  Just keep moving, one foot in front of the other, just keep moving.  I WANT THIS! 

Finish: 6 hours, 45 minutes and 57 seconds from the start I finished my first Half Ironman. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run, completed.  I DID IT!!  Me, the girl who never wanted to do an Iron distance.  The girl who WAS the lazy endurance athlete, took a season of training and worked really hard, and accomplished her goals!  Yeah, THIS GIRL DID IT!!

It's Official!!

I am half CRAZY!!  *smiles*  I finished my (1st) Half Ironman.  I did it in under my goal time, which was a pretty big window.  I had a great swim, and a great bike, but I ended up walking most of the run.  Ahh, but I knew this could happen to me.  More to come later.  Just happy to be finished!!

It's getting closer...

This week was AMAZING!  Of course, I almost always think that.  I mean, it's pretty amazing what our bodies can do...right?  I'm not heavy on my miles, but that's mostly because I had less cycling this week.

I actually was fighting a sinus infection and some low back pain at the beginning of the week.  It was a little (read a lot) bit humid out at the beginning of the week, with the hurricanes and tropical storms coming through.  It was wicked humid and body was not happy after already adjusting to our fall like weather from the last few weeks.  Cool morning with warm/hot afternoons with less humidity.

By Thursday I was feeling better, but I'm sure that was mostly to do with the weather.  I worked all this week (Tue-Thurs) at my "normal" dental office, because my co-worker was on vacation in London.  My dentist doesn't believe in cooling the office when the humidity is up for some reason.  I was sweating all day long.  Nothing like having wet hands under your gloves while working. My Thursday workout was an intensity bike, and I felt great doing it.  Tuesday and Wednesday I had to force myself out the door to get my workouts in.  Friday was a rest day...Thank Goodness.

Team Tri Tri Again

White Lake.

Friday I drove down to White Lake to race in a Relay with my girlfriends!  It was a fun race (International Distance on Saturday), that I wanted to do (the whole thing), but we just don't have the finances to add this race to my schedule.  When Dar and Jenn let me know they were switching their entries into a relay and wanted to know if I could swim for them, and that I could crash with them....I was in!  I had a bunch of friends who were down racing!  It was fun to hang out with everyone and see them before/during/after the race.

 I just did the swim for our relay (which got 4th place by 16 seconds).  After I swam and passed the chip on to Dar to bike, and went back to the room to change and go out for a 14 mile run!  That is 2 loops around White Lake.  My first loop around the lake felt AWESOME!  The second loop was wicked hot.  I can't believe how different the loops felt.  The first loop I was going along at a decent pace, I actually felt like I could go faster, but I felt really comfortable and wanted to be able to keep it going through the whole run.  Once I made it to mile 10 I had to walk to mile 11.  I had given out all my salt tabs to other people on the actual race course (when I was on it) because they were cramping up and I felt bad for them.  I didn't mean to give them ALL of my tabs, but that's how it worked out.  I could feel the sun baking into me, but there was nothing I could do.  There was NO SHADE on the route. The last 3 miles were tough, and I was happy to hear comments on my runmeter from friends on facebook...made me smile a few times.  When I was less than a mile away from the finish I kept getting texts and messages asking me where I am.  And friends trying to find me to encourage me the rest of the way in.  Somehow I missed Jenn M, who was looking for me, and Chris U who was out on a golf cart looking for me.  Ohh well...I finished the run.  I was crusted in salt (residue of sweat) and super sun burnt.  After sitting and waiting for the relay awards (we came in 4th) I went up and packed up my gear and then hopped in the lake for a nice cool off swim.  Then back to the room (P.S. I love staying right at the race site...in the lodge) to take a shower and hang out till Jenn M came to pick me up and take me back to Raleigh.

My Sunburn.

Scout on the pool deck.

Sunday was an early morning of volunteering for the Friesen 5K (run with the Carolina Hurricanes), I was at the race site (RBC Center) at 6 am.  I helped set up, keep things running, and break down the race.  I had some awesome friends who came out and volunteered as well (note: volunteers fundraising credit towards fundraising for Team In Training). Amazing.  After the race I went home and met up with my friend Kim for a bike ride through the neighborhood (recovery ride).  Sunday evening I took Scout out to Cary for the Pooch Plunge.  Scout had a blast swimming in the pool and trying to show all the other dogs how awesome he is at swimming.

Monday came with another crazy headache, and me feeling lucky that I have such a wacky schedule and was able to go back to bed and try to rid myself of the headache.  I finally felt well enough to go swim, and I did.  Of course the neighborhood pool is closed for the season so I had to head over to the city pool, which I had to get a new punch card for.  It was actually a great swim, even for a form swim.  I don't usually like doing drills.

Tuesday was a work day, and I was doing fine until I wasn't.  My stomach was feeling sick, and I was feeling a little dizzy.  Not the best feeling while working on my patients.  I took a little break between patients to try and evaluate what was going on.  I'm pretty sure I have a sinus infection.  My face is sore, and my stomach is gross from all the drainage from my sinuses.  It makes me feel bad, but hopefully I can beat this little infection in no time flat.  I ended up coming home and resting, and not doing my workout.  Sometimes a body needs some rest.

Today - Wednesday, I'm still not 100%.  I did do a short run at the Human Performance Lab (testing new earbuds that monitor heart rate).  I need to do a bike ride, but I'm not sure my head and stomach are going to be able to handle it.  But I'm going to give it a try in just a little bit.  I have a big fundraiser tonight at Cary Wine and Design, that I need to be feeling okay for.  We'll see how it all turns out.

Another Week in the Books!

106 miles of Training this week. WOW that's a lot, like a whole lot of active moving. Guess what though....I'll be doing 70.3 in one day....a day not to far from now. Eeeeeeeeeeee!!

The View from my Trainer

Monday was AWESOME, I got called to work at one of my favorite dental offices. I love the staff, and I finally got to meet the Dental Hygienist that I usually fill in for at that office. Her patients LOVE her, and I have to say, she's a pretty neat person. After work I had a swim on my schedule to do, but there was a big thunderstorm (or two) moving across the area, so instead of swimming I set up my trainer on the screened in porch and did my form bike workout. It was tough! I don't actually like riding on my trainer (as it doesn't have the feel of your bike on the actual rode), but this was what it was. Lot's of one legged drills in this workout....lot's to think about.

Tuesday was back to my "normal" office to work with all the "normal" stuff going on there. When I got home I wanted to knock my swim out, but had promised to get my butt over to Wine 101 to pick out wines for the fundraiser coming up in a couple of weeks with the owner Joe. So Jason and I drove over (Jason said he would pour the wine for me, so he wanted to know about the wines he was pouring). Unfortunately Joe was not the store when I got there. Because of Hurricane Irene, things got jumbled around a bit and he had to go and make deliveries or some such thing....it's like he owns his own business or something! He did leave us some wines (a case), and we switched out 3 bottles, but it's AWESOME to have someone believe in you and do something great for you! The wine, btw, is for the Wine and Design Painting and Wine Tasting Event that is happening on September 14th. After going out to Wine 101, I headed to the pool, in fact I had Jason drop me off...I swam, and walked home.

At Shelly Lake....pretty sunrise

After 13. miles and still smiling.

Wednesday I was up early, to do my 13 mile run. WOO HOO!! I haven't done 13 in awhile, and I was excited to have friends who wanted to come run parts with me. However one friend had to back out due to childcare conflicts, and another friend met me for 3 miles in the middle, but had to bail because of some injuries and such acting up. So 13.36 miles of mostly just me....and my music (which I will not have in the race). I started early because my one friend needed to get to work after the run, so I headed onto the greenway with my headlamp and a lot of courage. It's dark and a little scary on the greenway in the dark. Thankfully there are actually lot's of us crazy runners out there in early early....so I was only "alone" for a short bit. Plus the sun started to come up...YAY, so the darkness went away and scary was mostly gone. I had lot's of plans to do lot's of things after that run, but I can honestly say I didn't do very many of them. I did go have lunch with my friend Jenn, and I did make it to the bank. Everything else was lost.

Thursday was another "normal" day at my "normal" office. Exciting because of the long weekend, and the other hygienist leaving to go on a trip to London. I got home, and had to convince myself to go swim. I wasn't feeling it at all. I got to the pool and started my speed swim workout, with no one else in the pool. It was break time for the kids (10 minutes of every hour all the kids have to get out of the pool and the lifeguards come down, I think it's for the kids to have a potty break [not in the pool], and for them to eat something). When the guard came back up I was still the only one in the "lap" pool and so she ended up sitting on the edge of the pool "watching/stalking" me. A little bit later a family came in (Mom/Dad/Kids/Grandparents/Cousins....the whole shabang) and were in the lap pool (there are only 2 lanes actually set up). They were all speaking German, so it felt like I was on vacation. HA! Ohh and yes, of course everyone felt the need to swim through the lanes right in front of me. I'm consistently swimming back and forth across the pool. You can't wait until I'm not going to be in the spot, or better yet use the ladder at the other side?? Ohh and one of the teenage boys thought it would be fun to "race" me. As I'm swimming my 8 200's he decides he's going to swim next to me (on the other side of the lane) and see if he can beat me. Luckily it was one of the fast 200's (they were alternating between easy and fast), so I smoked him. Of course I did a flip turn and kept on going, where he did all of 25 meters. It was an annoying swim.....but it got done.

My Buddy...he's getting so big!

Jenn and the boys

Friday is usually a day off for me, and it was a day off for training, but I worked at my other office in Wake Forest. That dental office is faster pace, but I really like the people there. I found out that one of the doctor's is pregnant (I literally hadn't seen her in months). There are always (at least when I'm there) 4 hygienists working there, so it's fun to catch up with everyone. After work we had made plans to meet up with our friends for dinner. I hadn't seen my little buddy in awhile, and I heard tell he was missing me too. We went to Moe's, a kid friendly place and enjoyed our time together.

Another brick done! My eyes are a little wind burned!

Saturday I was up early and ready to go for my last long ride before the race. I tried to find peeps to ride with me, but only one person was willing to ride part of the ride with me. HEY, I'll take what I can get, and DzB is an AWESOME get. I started at the White Oak Church entrance to the American Tobacco Trail, and rode out to meet DzB around Jean's strawberry patch/ Martha's Chapel. We met up and went down the road to Pea Ridge, and then to Corinth, then to 42, and Christians Chapel, and finally onto Old US 1, where DzB left me to go back home, and finished up the rest of ride....to Sharon Harris, New Hill Holeman, back to US 1, up Daisy and Beaver Creek which turns into Farrington, and the onto Hollands Chapel where I hit a big headwind, onto 751 and back up Lewter Shop....with another big headwind (the flag and Jean's Strawberry patch was flying right at me). But I finished out the ride 60.18 miles, and got my running shoes on to go for my run. The plan was to descend my pace every 5 minutes so by the end I would be running a 5 K race pace. Only that my legs felt really peppy off the bike, and I happened to be running on a slight downhill when I started, which meant I probably went out to fast. I felt good though, even though I had to walk a bit more in the middle of my 30 min run than expected. I did sprint out the end. YAY! After my great workout, I came home to go get my car back from the shop and let Jason have his car to go out to UNC. I ate some lunch (it's crazy because I went and got lunch, and then I kinda forgot to eat it). I rested a little, took a shower...you know all the good stuff. My friend texted me to say another friend was in town (she lives in Atlanta for now....) and if I wanted to get dinner to tonight with them.....ahhh YEAH! We all went to dinner and got to catch up, and then we went to Yogurt Mountain for some yummy frozen yogurt.

Jeanne and I after the OWS

Sunday morning came too early! Up and at the lake by 7am, for another Open Water Swim...with the team. Then back in the hood, and waiting for Jason to wake up, then a one hour "Recovery" bike ride with Jason. Our neighborhood is hilly, but you can make it so it's not so hard and you don't have to climb the big hills, but I let Jason lead and he didn't get the memo that this was a recovery ride for me. Needless to say my legs were tired, although by the end of the ride they had finally started to feel a little better! *smiles* The rest of Sunday was lazy....lazy...lazy. With a couple of dog walks (taking care of my neighbors sweet dog while they were away for an all day soccer meet), a nap, and some lounging time.

Angela, Bruce, Jeanne, and Tripp at the Lake

Now it's Monday...LABOR DAY. I've been up since 5 am, as I think I may have my first sinus infection of the season and the amount of post nasal drip has me not able to breath well, or sleep well. I was waiting for there to be light so I can go get my run in. I did take Scout for a walk while it was still dark out. He uses his nose anyways. It's light out now, but I haven't decided if I'm going back to bed for a bit, or just going to go knock out that run. Hmmmmm.