tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91286662260033837342024-03-13T17:14:37.934-07:00Crazy Life of a Single FemaleMariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-64737486641723963652013-07-23T13:14:00.000-07:002013-07-23T13:23:01.184-07:00Hyde Park Crit<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Without going into details, near the end of May, I was doing hill repeats up <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Everett</st1:place></st1:city> and cracked my road bike frame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took a while, but the lifetime guarantee resulted in me getting a new 2013 frame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I received this frame exactly 2 days before my first race back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My first race back was <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tour de Grandview. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While last year’s course was tough with a significant climb on the loop, this year’s course looked more inviting, but in fact, ended up being way more painful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My heart rate before the race even started was in the 140s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Early in the race, I made a bad mistake trying to take a corner and ended up doing a header into a bush.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>O</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">f course there is photographic evidence, which left my boyfriend to ask, “what were you looking for in that bush?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To which I responded, “My cycling skills apparently.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fortunately, my bike held up, and I was able to get back to the start for a free lap and get back in the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Note: In crits, until about 3-5 laps to go, you have what are called “free laps.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have a mechanical or are somehow impeded, you can go off course to the START/FINISH and an official will push you back into the race).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>couple of laps later, some lady just walked out into the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I doubt she will make that mistake again as she softened everyone’s fall, but one racer was carted off in an ambulance, another girl’s $4K frame was a goner, and I was on the ground once again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got back up, they then neutralized the race for 20 minutes, and then re-started the race with 3 laps total.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ended up getting 12<sup>th</sup>, but it wasn’t the greatest race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a few cuts and bruises, a few muscles felt tweaked, but I knew that I wouldn’t really be able to assess the damage until the next morning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I then drove down to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cincinnati</st1:place></st1:city> to spend the night at a friend’s uncle’s house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I drove, I called my coach and told him basically that racing the rest of the weekend was completely dependent on how I felt in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also told him that if that race had been my first, it would have been my last.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He understood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I called my boyfriend who was about as sympathetic as possible, glad I was okay, and then I called my mother who suggested that I needed to find a new sport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">After driving around the apparently small town of <st1:city w:st="on">Cleves</st1:city>, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Ohio</st1:state></st1:place>, I finally found the house of said uncle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was a good hour earlier than all the other guys coming down, but I wanted out of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Columbus</st1:place></st1:city> in a bad way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually, everyone else staying there showed up, and we all found our little niches on the floor of the basement (note: fully furnished, super nice, comfy carpet floor).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think I have ever slept so well on an air mattress.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I woke up, I had that pre-movement realization that the next instance was going to make or break my weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would I be in lots of pain and be foregoing racing, or would my body have taken the blows with only minor stiffness?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I slowly moved to collect my glasses and low and behold, I felt pretty good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My left glut was definitely sore, but all things considered, I was shocked by how good I felt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Apparently, the bagel I had had for dinner the night before hadn’t quite been enough as I was absolutely starving when I woke up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went upstairs and ate my breakfast and some of Sunday’s as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sat and chatted with one of the guys I didn’t know, Jeremy, and discovered he was quite the accomplished cyclist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He offered to take a look at my bike as I told him of my coach’s concerns post crash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He noticed that the derailleur hanger wasn’t too bad at all, noticed what gears it didn’t like, but agreed that I shouldn’t be racing in them regardless so it wouldn’t be a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also went through the course we would be racing that day and gave a pretty accurate depiction of what to notice and which lines are optimal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After discussing things like Strava segments and recent rides I had done, he told me that he thought the course would suit me well and suggested that I should attack and see what happens.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">After getting lost a couple of times and struggling to find somewhere to park, I finally settled into a nice church parking lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had plenty of time, but wouldn’t really let myself getting ready until noon for my 12:50 race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My boyfriend had sent me a text and it simply said, “Give ‘em Hell !” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know why, but that stuck with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did my typical soft pedal warm up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had noticed that the 180 turn, of which I was fearful, was left to right, which is the opposite direction of anything that I had ever practiced so I took a piece of closed off road and practiced going left to ride or clockwise through a 180 turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got my heart rate up on a false flat and generally told myself to trust in my abilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then, with about 10 minutes to go in the men’s CAT 4/5, it started to rain and rain kind of hard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All I could think of was Jeremy saying how he hoped it wouldn’t rain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My socks were a little soaked, but I just told myself that we were all racing the same race with the same conditions, can’t do much about it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I rode a few laps of the course, and as always, women just flew by me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know why, but that always makes me feel okay, like, they look at me and think, look at that turtle, she won’t be an issue to beat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">They had us stage near the bottom of the hill and ride up to the start/finish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the women were a little nervous about the conditions and the words “safe” and “cautious” seem like appropriate adjectives to describe the attitude towards the race.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The course start/finish was about 30 yards before a flat and kind of wide 180 through to a straight away that was probably a third of a mile to a narrow left turn up a hill that had about 40 feet of elevation gain over .1 of a mile, a right turn up a little more to the top, then a right turn down the hill and a right turn at the bottom to the straight away that was about a quarter of a mile long to the START/FINISH.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am guessing on distances, but that seems about right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Our race was 30 minutes long with no primes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the whistle, I started my watch and jumped to the front of the group <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>so I didn’t get behind anyone through the 180.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had gone down twice the night before, and I wasn’t about to go down because someone else didn’t know how to ride.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I stayed in the front through the straightaway to the climb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I kind of wanted to see how everyone else handled the hill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was in front and only a couple of people passed me on the hill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took that as a good sign and was able to stay near the front through the turn and the straight away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe another woman was ahead of me, that woman and a couple close to me slowed down considerably as the group bunched up to go through the 180 for the second time, and as we made it through, I heard the sound of a tiring slipping and sure enough someone was one the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I kind of looked at the other girl who made it through before the crash to see her reaction, and she didn’t do anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I don’t know if I am proud or if I should have done it or what, but I took advantage of the crash and attacked through the 180.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t feel too bad as anyone who went down would get a free lap as we were right next to the START/FINISH so really it was the people upright who had to react.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I fully expected the entire field to catch me on the hill <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but I rounded the turn, and there was still a gap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sliced through the downhill turn and no one caught me, I got to the start finish line, looked back and had a gap of about 5 seconds, which might not sound like much, but when you are going 21-22 mph, 5 seconds is about a 50 yard gap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might not have been that big at that point, but it was noticeable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At that point, I had to make a decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was about 6 minutes into a race that would be about 30 minutes long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a huge field (at least for a CAT4 race) that, if they worked together, should be able to catch me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should I sit up and re-join the field, or should I try to stay away?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I opted to stay away from one main reason: my advantage was my ability to corner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Going through it solo, I could slice through the 180 taking any line I wanted as fast as I wanted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The field would have to slow down approaching that turn to take it safely, giving me probably a second or two advantage on every lap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also had my choice of lines through the narrow uphill turn and the fast downhill turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With 24 minutes left in the race, there are several things happening, the most important of which is that we are racing an undefined number of laps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a crit that is timed, the officials calculate the average time it takes per lap, then after several laps, they put up a lap count to determine the ultimate length of the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a double-edged sword, the faster I went, the more laps I would have to do and seemingly the longer the race would be, but the faster I went, the bigger the gap I had and the better the chance I had to win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, in a solo attack, the longer the race, the more of a disadvantage I had, if that makes sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Basically:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Faster </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">à</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Winning </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">à</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Longer<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">à</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Losing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For the first several laps on my own, there was no lap count, so I was literally racing to take up time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They finally posted a lap count at 6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe we did about 12-13 laps, so I probably did about 5 laps not having any idea how much longer I would have to try to keep my lead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">During the race, there was an announcer, and he was loud enough at the START/FINISH that I could hear the things he was saying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point, I recall hearing him comment on my form, down in the drops, very even cadence, that I looked exactly the same every time I came through the START/FINISH.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took that as a good sign as 1) CAT 4 women rarely get compliments on technique and 2) if I were starting to red line, then there were be cracks in my form. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think he added something like, “she is showing you how to win a bike race.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At later times in the day, I heard him say things like “see how the rider is looking back at the group to see how big of a gap there is, a sign that the effort is taking it’s toll.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I agree that I looked back because I was working hard and needed to make sure it wasn’t in vain, there were also times I looked back because it was just an impressive gap to have made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There were also spots where I knew people were cheering and while they initially weren’t cheering for me, I feel like my attack really excited the crowd and by the end almost everyone was cheering for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the hill, there were people cheering for Nicole, whoever she was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could tell how I was doing based on where I was on the hill when they started cheering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I no longer heard them cheering for Nicole, I knew that my gap was pretty significant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finally, I got to the START/FINISH and saw 6 on the lap count. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh thank goodness!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started counting down the number of times I had to climb the hill, that’s all I really wanted, a number of times I was going to have to climb that stupid hill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">During the race, I had about 3-4 people giving me time splits (how much time I had on the field).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the guys I trained with was an official for the race, and while he couldn’t really cheer for me over everyone else, I would look for him every time through, I knew he was cheering for me, and it helped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw one of the guys I used to race at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Westlake</st1:city></st1:place>, and he was really excited and gave me that bit of encouragement I needed when I was just wanting the effort to end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another one of the guys I train with was there with his wife and family, and he was cheering for me as well, giving me time splits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then, with about 3 laps left, I heard the announcer say that they were starting to work to reel me back in and my split had dropped from 12 seconds to 9 seconds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started doing the math and knew that I still had an advantage on the turns, so it was unlikely they had enough to catch me given 3 seconds a lap, but I opted to push a little harder on that next lap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I dug a little deeper, telling myself that hell or high water, there was no way anyone was going to catch me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Looking back, It kind of reminded me of when I first started riding, and my now coach held these Wednesday night workouts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was one person that everyone knew was my nemesis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we would do time trial workouts, someone would usually say “just imagine ‘insert name here’ right behind you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I used to joke that I would cut off my arm if that is what it took to make sure she didn’t pass me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s how I felt at the end of the race—I wasn’t going to get caught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I came back through, my split was back up to 13 seconds. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that point, with two laps left, that gap was going to stick unless I did something stupid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I came back through for the bell lap, the time was up to nearly 20 seconds, the chase had given up to conserve for the final sprint, the race was mine. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On my last lap, I smiled at all the people giving me splits throughout the race, and I told the people on the hill that I was happy that I wasn’t going to have to see them ever again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got to the finish line and gave an exuberate scream and arm pump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would have raised both arms, but I didn’t want to be that idiot who crashes a few feet before or after the finish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">After taking a cool down lap and seeing some friends in staging, the announcer called me over to interview me after the race, and I talked him through my race and why I was confident I could stay away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was interesting that, as I was talking, the 2<sup>nd</sup> and 3<sup>rd</sup> place finishers were standing there, and they nodded in agreement that my advantages were significant and that my thought process throughout the race was dead on in regard to how the attack could work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also gave my friend who was an official a hug.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some afterthoughts:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1. Even as one of the first races of a long day of racing, there were hundreds of people out along the course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was really cool to race with so much crowd support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, later in the day, I went to buy a cookie and some people stopped me and said, “hey, you were that girl who did the solo attack in the women’s race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was awesome!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was cool to know that not just my friends were cheering for me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2. My friend’s wife was saying how annoyed she was getting with the announcer, particularly when he said that they were reeling me in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess my gap wasn’t getting that much smaller, and she wanted to yell, “No they are not!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ultimately, I doubted there would be sufficient organization in a CAT4 race to do the work to catch me and no one was willing to do the work on her own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">3. I wonder if this race would have been so sweet if it weren’t preceded by such a miserable race the night before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was so excited to call my coach, and he was so ecstatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was kind of surprised, I even felt compelled to say, “you know Pete, it was only a CAT4 race.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To which he said, “it’s one of the biggest races in the state, enjoy it!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">4. It was probably about the best 30 minutes I have had on my bike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My average heart rate for the race was about 186, while it was starting to climb the longer the race went.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Below you can see the chart efforts, pretty consistent, although the heart rate started to climb the further the race went.</span></div>
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Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-84234421180680014312013-07-01T18:34:00.001-07:002013-07-01T18:49:40.981-07:00Maumee Bay Sprint Triathlon Race ReportI find myself spending too much time on the prelude, but here is a snapshot of the pre-race happenings. <br />
My boyfriend, his son, and I filled his car to the brim for a nice weekend in Oregon, Ohio for this race. The Cleveland Tri Club had a picnic on Saturday, the day before the race, and it was there that universe opted to let me know where I stand. I jokingly entered a drawing for a free entry into a half ironman, and the universe joked back by pulling my name as the winner. I haven’t decided whether or not I will use the entry, but I have a little bit of time. It was nice to talk to some different people and even get to hang out with a few people’s kids who were there for the weekend for Father’s Day. <br />
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Pre-Race: There was definitely some concern that the race would get stormed out or that it would possibly get turned into a duathlon. (Duathlon: a multisport race where they replace the swim with a run aka a race I NEVER intend on duing). <br />
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My boyfriend once again let me borrow his Zipp 404 (so SWEET of him). He put air in my tires and even lubed the chain for me. I didn’t really have a spare bag for my stuff for transition so I ended up using the dry cleaning bag from the hotel and another bag from a convenient store to take my stuff. We got there early so I had no problem getting body marked or getting my timing chip.<br />
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They set up transition long wise, and I have to say that I absolutely HATED it. Even before the race started, I had a hard time finding my bike on the rack. It was open racking so you could go anywhere, and I don’t think there was anywhere that would have been particularly easy for me to find my bike during the race.<br />
They delayed the race by about 15-20 minutes because of the congestion of people getting timing chips or going through registration. It was kind of fun, I had lots of teammates there so we all huddled together, along with people from other teams, as we got excited for the few hours ahead of us. Two of my female teammates were also doing the sprint distance race, and we all agreed that our team would be well-represented. I think we all had thoughts that it was possible that we would go 1-2-3 in the overall, but none of us were willing to jinx it. It should be said that one of the women is coming off a foot injury, and well, I have only been training in one discipline, so we knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park (even when I tried to make it one), but that it seemed a genuine possibility.<br />
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The Swim:<br />
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I have never been so undertrained for a discipline in a race in my life. I stared at the buoys and kept thinking “man, that seems like a really long swim for a sprint.” The horn went off, and I hit the start on my 310xt and ran into the water. When I first started, it seemed like there was some water coming into my left goggle. I just pushed the goggles tighter on my face and kept going as it didn’t seem to be that annoying or that impeding. <br />
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I got into a pretty good rhythm, but definitely struggled with sighting. I think I did significantly better swimming a straighter line than on the way back to the shore. I was happy to run into a significant number of men on the swim, figuring I couldn’t be swimming that slowly since the group of men ahead of us had a 2 minute head start, and there were several groups ahead of them. Think about that, even if I was swimming my normal swimming pace (1:30 for 100 yards), and I don’t think I am anywhere near that shape right now, it should take me at least half the swim to catch someone swimming even a 2 min pace and that’s if I were in the same swimming shape I was in 15 months ago when I actually swam consistently.<br />
Now, I have done sprints, Olympic, half and full Ironmans, and I have never come out of the water as tired as I did from this swim. As I jogged to transition, I saw my boyfriend with his camera out, thinking to myself “Duh! Who let him have a camera?” I asked him out far behind I was, and he said about 40 seconds. I thought to myself, “not nearly as bad as I thought” but I knew that I was already sucking air. Time: 14:28 (50th overall including men, 2nd AG)<br />
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T1:<br />
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It took me about a minute to find my bike. I ran past it, then I reminded myself to look for my aero helmet on my aero bars, but there was no black aero helmet anywhere near the vicinity of my area of transition. When I finally found it, I looked at my bike and didn’t see my helmet. I literally thought I was going to have to DNF this race as someone seemed to have taken my helmet. (Note: it’s not just that I don’t ride without a helmet, it’s also a USAT rule, no helmet is a DQ). Just as I was about to pull off the timing chip, I looked down and saw the helmet and sunglasses on the ground...I guess the wind blew it off the handlebars I got on the sunglasses, helmet, and shoes and made my way out of transition. Time: 2:12<br />
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Bike:<br />
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The bike course is really flat, but there was some serious 20+ mph wind. I knew the course was about 13ish miles so I needed to get the speed up as quickly as possible. My watch beeped for the first mile, I looked down and saw 3:06 and thought, “NOT GOOD!” but with the mounting and getting around people and trying to get out of the park, and the nasty head/cross wind, I knew it was going to be a slow start. Then the watch beeped again, 3:03, which got a mental “WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING MARIE!!!!” Simple math here: anything lower than 3 minutes is 20+ mph, anything higher than 3 minute is less than 20 mph. 2:30 is 24 mph, 2:00 is 30 mph. Seeing the second mile over 3 minutes was just not acceptable. After a time trial when I felt like I fell apart in a headwind, my coach said to me, "The moment you click into an easier gear because of the win, you just lost." I kept that thought in my mind, stayed in the aero position, and went on the hunt.<br />
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I passed lots of people, probably more than 50 people on the course including a teammate or two and many members of the Cleveland Tri Club. Going into the race, my strategy was and had to be to win whatever on the bike. I wanted the fastest bike split and knew I had teammates that would make me work for it. Having done a couple of time trials, I have also learned that while headwinds are hard, sometimes, people become too complacent with a tailwind as they look down and see a fast number and think they don’t need to push, they are already going pretty fast. It was in that stretch with the tailwind that I was yelling to a woman that I was passing left and apparently, she didn’t like my tone as she said something back about having the right to the road. I responded by passing her and not looking back. <br /><br />I ended up passing one of my two female teammates maybe a mile or two out before transition. I kept up my pace but knew there was no way I would hold a lead on her through the run, at least not that small a lead. I ended up working pretty hard and managed a time of 35:44, 1st overall female split, 12th including all men, average pace 22.5 mph. I should say I had grand thoughts of 24+ mph on this course, but two things prevented that 1) the wind and 2) my undertrained swim. <br /><br />T2: <br /><br />No attempt at a flying dismount, there were just too many people plus I had just gone through a puddle, and I was worried I would slip and fall. ran to transition, racked the bike, took off the helmet, grabbed socked, stuffed my feet in the shoes, and grabbed my water and my visor and took off. Time: 1:00<br /><br />Run:<br /><br />I have never worn a heart rate monitor during a race before, and my coach was more than peeved with me for not wearing one for my last TT. I felt like I would wear one just for information purposes. As I started, I saw Aimee out there cheering for everyone, and it really was appreciated. The rest of the run, I literally kept thinking to myself, “just run back to Aimee.” I started out and instantly felt that “maybe I shouldn’t have laughed at the guy who suggested I do a brick workout a few days ago,” quickly followed by “oh, they call a sprint a sufferfest for a reason.” Within probably the first quarter of a mile, my teammate passed me, and I was pretty confident that was going to happen, but was a little disappointed it happened that quickly. Oh well, I kept running, and as it was a down and back, I kept looking for 1) Durno 2) Martha and 3) how many women were ahead of me.<br /><br />I got to the 1st mile marker in about 8:17. I didn’t look, but that’s what my Garmin tells me. It was about that time that I first looked down and saw my heart rate—190, that can’t be right, that must be MAX heart rate, stupid watch default settings. A few minutes later, I looked again, and I saw 188. Clearly, 188 is lower than 190 so it can’t be a max field, that’s when I looked closely and thought absolutely nothing. It honestly didn’t make that much sense to me. I do actually run once a week, usually a 6-7 mile run. I shouldn’t be redlining it on this run, but that seemed to be the case. Oh well, I thought and just kept running. <br /><br />I saw Durno on his way back and then eventually saw Martha on her way back and in the lead. She wasn’t that far ahead of me, but it’s like it mattered, unless she fell or decided just to walk, it wasn’t like I was going to catch her anyway. Now, I should say that I did actually pass a guy on the run, not sure if I have ever passed someone in the run of a sprint before, and I would like to thank that guy for the opportunity.<br />I saw another woman who I believe was either out in front of Martha or between Martha and Heidi, but by my count, I was in 4th, unless that one woman was in the duathlon (which turned out to be the case). <br />It was right before the turn around that Ken Beech passed me, assured me (again) that I was doing well, but I think he could tell that I was hurting. It was around that time that I opted to walk for 10 seconds. I needed to get the heart rate down. I don’t know why I thought 10 seconds was going to be enough time to do anything, but I couldn’t let myself keep walking. I ended up walking at least two more times, one time actually taking the time to let the heart rate drop down out of the 180s, but it jumped right back up as soon as I started running. <br /><br />A little after 2 miles, teammate Mike passed me, and he looked like “eh,” and well, that’s all I could think. Slowly, but surely, I made it back to Aimee and to the finish line. I kept looking over my shoulder praying I wouldn’t see another woman behind me, not that I had a sprint in me to get to the finish line, but fortunately, no speedy women came up to pass me at the finish. My run time was a 26:23 for 3.05 miles at a 8:39 pace. I just read somewhere that there is no such thing as a good bike followed by bad run. I would like to point out to people that an 8:39 pace for me isn’t a bad run (as pathetic as that is).<br />Now, the cool thing was that my teammates and I managed to do something pretty cool: go 1,2,3 in the overall for the sprint. While there was no awards ceremony, we were pretty excited about it. It’s actually my highest placement in the overall, 4th a few times, but if there had been a podium, I would have been on it! I also won my age group by about 50 seconds, that woman was one heck of a runner, and I am just glad that run wasn’t much longer. This race did an excellent job of letting me know just how long I can stay in that pain cave. I posted these numbers of facebook, but they still blow me away. Average heart rates: 160 (swim); 181 (bike) 188 (run).<br /><br />I have awesome race reports yet to write, hopefully I will get them up shortly.<br />
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Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-37432955633413578752013-05-22T17:31:00.000-07:002013-05-22T17:31:09.949-07:00RATL #3As my first real bike race (I don’t like to count Barry Roubaix, well, because I don’t and CVNP is a different dynamic), I was pretty nervous, despite it being dubbed a training race in both name and spirit. The weather conditions were pretty good, low 60’s and some wind, but the course is pretty well protected making the wind mainly a nonissue. <br />
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Along with a teammate, Zac, I had pre-ridden the course a couple days before and got an idea of how the it would go down, where I would need to conserve and where I could potentially attack. I was uneasy with the uphill finish, but I was comforted by the number of 90◦ turns on the course, figuring I could either make up time or attack with some success in those areas.<br />
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Upon getting there, it was good to see fellow racers. Having missed the first two races, I was often greeted with the “oh, look who decided to finally show up.” Yeah, I had legitimate reasons not to be at this race, and to be honest, I was missing yet another family obligation to go to this one, but I was finally ready to race. People told me who was doing well so far and gave me a few insights into who to watch, other than the obvious. <br />
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We had neutral start and then 15 laps of a 1.3ish mile loop. There were a few prem laps, but I have a history of never going for a prem, I need to get over the belief that I cannot out-sprint someone. As expected, Sam and Sally traded off attacks until we finally let Sally go after about 5 laps. Unfortunately, a CAT4 managed to go with her. I had been in a few attacks, but the breaks were never successful. As is usually the case, I spent too much time in the front pulling, pretty pathetic since I had no teammates in the race. I did try to talk strategy with LB, but it just didn’t work out. In the end, as soon as the bell rang, I attacked and pulled through the entire lap. It was a strong pull, spreading out the field, but in the end, I let up at the sprint. I had 2nd in the bag and then started to let up as I was doing a Time Trial the next day and right at the line, I was passed literally within inches of the line to end up in 4th. <br />
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I am pretty embarrassed as a slew of obscenities flew out of my mouth. I was beyond angry at myself and had absolutely no one to blame but myself. I warmed down with Lorena, chatted for a while, then called my coach to tell him what an idiot I was. He pretty much agreed.Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-14172372356071763602013-05-21T13:34:00.002-07:002013-05-21T13:34:51.555-07:00CVNP Training Series #1<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This race was so much like a Westlake Crit that it doesn’t seem to merit it’s own blog post, but I will write one regardless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the moment I opened my eyes, I could feel the intensity with which my legs were trashed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only had I raced a fast (for me) 5k the day before, but I followed up the 5k with a sprint interval workout, doing 7x 1k time trials on the bike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was supposed to be 10, but after talking to my coach, he felt 5-7 would be sufficient given I wanted to race the next day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, Sunday morning, my boyfriend and I got into a fight that went something like:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Me: “I am not racing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My legs are trashed.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Boyfriend: “You said that Wednesday, and you did a 23mph time trial.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Me: “I know that I said that Wednesday, but I am in physical pain, not just tired.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Boyfriend: “You will be fine.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Me: “I don’t like going to races knowing I am going to suck.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Boyfriend: “Then don’t suck.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Guess who won the argument...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Like <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Westlake</st1:city></st1:place>, this race lacked a separate women’s field so a couple of women raced in the A group, the rest of us in the B field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Racing in a men’s field is completely different than racing in a women’s field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For one, we are just hanging in the field, rarely attacking each other (although it does happen from time to time) and usually only if there is a women's prem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other big difference is that turns are taken with higher speed and faster accelerations through them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a women’s race, I can create separation in a turn because I tend to corner faster than most.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a men’s race, I am often in the back sprinting to catch back up to the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are in the back, you have to get used to those turn accelerations, and you also have to deal with squirrely riders who lack handling skills or confidence in their handling skills sufficient to keep pace with the field.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Feeling the way I did, I started in the back of the pack with fellow female teammates, which was mistake number one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I should have just started with the front of the pack and kept myself from having to try to work my way through the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The roads were a bit narrower than <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Westlake</st1:city></st1:place>, which made moving to a better position in the field a bit difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was never all that close to the front, but I was able to get out from the back and away from those touching their brakes through the turns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The course was 4 of about a 6 mile relatively flat loop on roads that I ride multiples times a week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as we got to the first turn after the neutral start, it was business as usual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I talked to my male teammates offering my help if they had a plan in mind, but all of us seemed just to be hanging in the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At times, the field was going so slowly that I felt like I was back at the Tour of the Valley Road Race with the sounds of “Slowing” echoing through the air, but at other times, the accelerations seemed pretty hard and a little long because I was unable to hit many speeds on the high side of 27 mph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had no problem staying in the field, but there were two guys who almost got an earful from me about braking too much going into turns and the other about being fidgety in the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hold your freakin’ line dude!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Ironic given my latest race, but that will come later).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sure enough, on a perfectly flat, rather wide, no debris or pothole section of road, 2.5 laps into a 4 lap race, someone hit someone else and created a cascade crash in front of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I had had about three more feet, I probably would have been able to avoid it, but I couldn’t quite stop and ended up in the ditch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I quickly got up, checked that my brakes weren’t rubbing and got back on the bike trying to catch the field that was speeding away trying to take advantage of the crash.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is where I could tell the difference between normal Marie and sucky Marie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was about 20 yards from the field and just couldn’t bridge the gap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t have the time trial in my legs to get back up to the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to work with a couple of other guys, but they both petered out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, my teammate Zac passed me with a strong group of guys, but my failed attempt to TT it back to the field had left me completely depleted and unable to latch up to their line and ended up just waffling in the wind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few minutes later, another teammate, Oleg caught up, and with a little recovery, I was able to work with a few of those guys through the next lap and a half of the race to get to the finish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew that the two of the other women who had started in the B field were still in the field, and I was just bummed that I didn’t even have a chance to contest the finish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We did work pretty hard on that 4<sup>th</sup> lap, a few miles in the 25 mph range, but when it came to the finish, I just sputtered across the line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t like the fact that I made a stupid mistake of not paying more attention to where I was in the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know better than to hang out in the back, but that is where I was and that was what caused my finishing placement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t like losing, and I wish I could blame someone else’s poor handling skills, but the bottom line is that I know enough about racing to know that the safest place in a race is not where I spent most of my time in this one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I should look on the bright side: despite absolutely destroyed legs, I had no problem hanging in pre-crash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My bike is seemingly fine as is the brand new never had been ridden Zipp 404 that my boyfriend let me use for the race, but no one has ever accused me of being “Little Miss Sunshine” so don’t expect it now. </span></div>
Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-51271844244509444452013-05-05T02:10:00.000-07:002013-05-05T02:10:30.825-07:00Copley Speech and Debate 5K<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finally, a race where my two worlds collide!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After convincing my sister to start running, she agreed that a 5k has a possibility of being a good fundraiser for our team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> My sister is the head coach of the Copley Speech and Debate team so yes, it's a very big family affair. Like most cocurricular activities at Copley, we are not given money from the district, but raise our own funds throughout the year. This past year, a </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">few of the bigger programs opted not to attend our tournament, and we were hurting a bit financially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We tossed the idea around a bit of having a 5k, but I was a bit scared of the undertaking, particularly of the potential liabilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My sister, however, took the bull by the horns and did an absolutely amazing job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has absolutely no qualms about going door to door at local businesses to ask for donations or help with the event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was able to obtain substantial support from local businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heck, she did such a good job that we contemplated not even having the race, but we did manage to get 41 people to sign up for the event, and to be honest, a few very strong runners made the small field pretty competitive, despite some pretty cold and wet conditions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, the race morning itself was pretty hectic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First of all, I had many friends come down and support the race, and I felt it necessary to greet them all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> There were a few that I hadn't seen in a while, others who I just love to bug every chance I get. </span>I really appreciated <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While greeting people, I still had to organize the volunteers/students, straighten out the course with the timing company, then drop off volunteers along the course and at the water stop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since it was cold, I made these drop offs as close to the race start as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I got back, I made a mad dash to get ready for the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I went to put on my running shoes, I noticed that they had no inserts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had forgotten that I had taken them out for some reason and needed to get my other shoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran back to my car, gathered my old running shoes and started the panic that I wasn’t going to be there when the gun went off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went to the bathroom, got my water bottle, and nearly gave up on taking my phone with me, but managed to find it and the headphones just in time to get to the start of the race.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Because it was cold, my sister opted to start the race early.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had given the kids at the mile markers explicit instructions to start exactly at 9 so I was kind of like “dang it” when the horn went off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was kind of startling and one of those, I wasn’t ready so I felt rushed to get on the course and that rush didn’t subside until the race was over.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I started the race feeling that same rush that I had been feeling for the 20 minutes before the race. The course was a simple down and back on a business parkway that is directly across from the gym where I and many others run throughout the week. It's also pretty flat so feeling how fast I started, I knew I had the potential for a relatively fast 5k.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Just a sidenote: I have been running once a week for probably the last three months. I usually run somewhere between 5 to 8 miles, but my focus is almost completely on cycling. </span></div>
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<o:p></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I got to the first mile marker (student), I looked at my watch and listened to the times he was saying and told him to add 2.5 minutes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mile 1 split: 8:09</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As I continued down the way, I ran to the girl at the second mile marker on the other side of the street to add 2.5 minutes to her time as well. On my way to the turn around, I saw a good friend Steve in the lead followed shortly after by a couple of teammates. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Side note #2: If you have ever done the Akron marathon, you know that the first couple of miles are out and back on teh Y-Bridge. It's pretty cool as it's the only opportunity really that you can see the people actually racing the marathon. Almost every time I have done the Akron marathon, the first person I saw who I knew at the front of the race has been Steve. He's that fast.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I also saw that I was the 2nd overall female. Knowing that the woman ahead of me is a good runner, coworker of my sister’s, and the wife of one of my favorite trainers at physical therapy, I felt like I knew there was no way I was going to move up in the standings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s be honest, being 2<sup>nd</sup> overall is still pretty shocking, even in a small field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the water stop was my nephew and a couple of my debaters, I tried to say hi, but I was easily in Z5 and didn't have much oxygen to spare. As I made the turn, I saw Mentor nipping at my heels. I had an instant flashback to 2011.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A week before Ironman <st1:state w:st="on">Wisconsin</st1:state>, he and I did a 5 mile run up at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Crocker</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Park</st1:placetype></st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was miserably humid and hot that morning, and I crashed and burned, finishing a minute or two after him. Every time I contemplated letting up on the pace, I imagined him passing me, and I continued to push.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mile 2 split: 8:18</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At that point, the mile 2 is kind of down hill and had a significant tailwind so my pushing too hard at the beginning of the race was compensated by having an easier second half.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mile 3 split: 8:25</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">.1 split (actually says .13) 1:02</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Total: 25:57 (25:54 on my watch). I ended up 2nd overall with my 2nd fastest (I think) 5k of my life. I equate the faster 5k with a few things: having better fitness through cycling and being about 10lbs lighter, thanks mainly to my skin removal. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most people hung out after the race as we had a TON of food: a party sub from Subway, cookies from a local bakery, bagels from Brueggers, donuts from Leaches, and food left over from our tournament this past year. Nearly everyone there said it was one of the best organized and best fed races they have attended. Almost everyone there got their money's worth: a gift card, post-race food, and a coupon from Brueggers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The best part was that our team raised close to $1,000, which is a huge benefit for this coming year in terms of being able to compete. Not the best part: I won a gift card for my placement, but when I went to leave, it was nowhere to be found. I couldn't believe someone would steal it. But then, as I was chatting with people, I caught a glance from one of the kids I coach and just knew that the little punks had taken it. After about 5 minutes of "give me the gift card" they finally fessed up. It'a amazing, the same kid who got me on April Fools Day got me again (along with his co-conspirator). When did I become so gullible?</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As the 2nd overall female, I got a gift certificate to one of my favorite restaurants. As I was finally packing up after helping clean up after the race, my sister
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Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-83854027208207133982013-03-27T12:11:00.000-07:002013-03-27T12:11:19.298-07:00Barry-Roubaix DNF Report<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“I missed the turn for the second loop on the 100k.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was going back and forth with a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>woman who was better on the dirt, but I was a better climber.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I didn’t catch back up after three nice steep climbs, I knew something was wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She ended up in 7<sup>th</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect that is where I would have finished as her pace dropped substantially after the 1<sup>st</sup> lap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think this race is for me, too many close calls with either crashing myself or being taken out by someone crashing near me.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I crossed the finish line, I was absolutely frantic, where did I miss it, how could I make such a mistake… and here is my answer: I was paying such close attention to the road to prevent myself from crashing that I just didn’t have any attention to spare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s be honest: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Did I want to be finished? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Did I want to give up? Absolutely not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Was I having fun?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Was I scared of another loop?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Absolutely.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Did I contemplate DNFing during the race? Yes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What did I say when I thought about DNFing? I thought about my uncle Joe who never gave up on his fight to stay alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Could I give up because this race was hard? I just couldn’t.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">How did I feel when it appears that I did? Like I am weak.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Race Recap:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We were in the second wave with the 40+ men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had lots of cycling buddies in the crowd, the women from Bicycle Hub and the guys from Stark Velo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I worked a little bit with one of the Stark Velo guys, but I can’t recall if I couldn’t keep up or if I passed him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The race started pretty fast, I have the first mile over 24 mph, not bad on knobby tires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I stayed with the lead pack for the first couple of miles, but I got dropped on a set of three nice short steep climbs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew it was a race of attrition: the women who could hang with the men for as long as possible would win.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I saw EP crash and started to panic a little bit: she’s an amazing cross racer, if she crashed, what is going to happen to me?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This course was scary!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there wasn’t ice on the road, then there were frozen muddy ruts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The combination of those two conditions lent itself to the additional obstacles of fallen cyclists and many more ejected water bottles (a fact I had forgotten until reading someone else’s race report). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I ended up settling in with a group of guys, but I just couldn’t keep up on the dirt/snow/frozen mud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we had longer sections of paved roads, I tended to pass people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had this brilliant idea of pre-opening all of my shot bloks as I knew that it would be too hard to get at them with my lobster gloves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figured that if I had already opened them, that I would be more inclined to eat them rather than risk it and end up bonking. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a pretty hard time even getting to my food with my 2 pairs of gloves on so I tried to hold the wrapper with my teeth, which worked as long as I wasn’t climbing or on dirt and needed to breath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think a few photographers scrambled to get photos of this freak with a thing of shot bloks hanging from her mouth, but I haven’t had much desire to look.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When someone crashed right in front of me, I dropped them, glad to look like an idiot for no reason!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I should also mention that my water bottle was frozen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I intentionally started with 2, one insulated, one not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started with the un-insulated so that I would still have water for the second half the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good plan, would have worked too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I ended up catching up to another woman on a long false flat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some guy commented on the ensuing catfight and said he was impressed by how strong we both were, but apparently, seeing me gave her enough adrenaline to pick it up a little bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We chatted for a while, but I couldn’t get enough distance on her on the climbs that she couldn’t make up on the descents, and she ended up dropping me on the dirt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">After getting dropped by her, the long and the short courses converged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s in that mess that I went off course, or more to the point, went onto the short course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were a few pretty nasty climbs and when I didn’t see “Tori” I knew something was wrong…I couldn’t imagine that she dropped me by that much or that she had that much left in the tank.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I started seeing signs for the finish line and knew I was not in the right place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I crossed the finish line and asked someone about the turn off to which he responded that he had intentionally gone to cut the race short.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I went back to the car and called my coach, left a voicemail, then called someone else who actually did a good job consoling me until my coach called me back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sounded about as bummed as me and basically affirmed what we both had thought: I was riding well, would like to see how it would have shaken out, disappointing that I probably would have placed in the short race, but time to move on to the rest of the season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Interestingly enough, I told the coach I wanted to ride long the following day to which he begged against.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I went out to ride, it turned out that my legs and my sit bones were both rather sore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two hours was all I could muster.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I had a great time on Friday caravanning with some guys from Spin and a couple Snakebite teammates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a nice dinner, and we had fun crashing with the Bicycle Hub folks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many people were fascinated by my British/Australian breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wish I could be proud of myself for racing well for the part of the race I finished and not crashing while still riding aggressively, but it’s the score at the end of the game that counts, and I didn’t have one.</span></div>
Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-41679257787668325802013-02-21T04:54:00.003-08:002013-02-21T05:16:54.527-08:00Some Inspiration<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I would say that starting Tuesday, I was starting to struggle with this cleanse. Yesterday, I stared at a box of pretzel M&M's, which is kind of weird as I don't even like them (too much candy, not enough chocolate) so I felt compelled to dig deep for things that have inspired me in the past. I hope they inspire you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I was born and raised Roman Catholic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since I was in college, I have struggled with my faith, but I usually trudged along still going to mass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something with the semi-recent changing of the wording of the mass created a great disconnect for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I see the church as having some pretty tremendous problems, and it seems that they continue to turn a blind eye to them, but rather do things like change a few words that, in the scheme of things, don’t add substantial value to one’s faith, or at least not to mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe Jesus Christ was a very good man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I struggle with whether he was more the son of God than you or me, but whether divinely placed or just more actualized, he was a very good man who taught people to live a very good life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t get distracted with the fundamental word of the Bible, but taught in parables and metaphors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t care what people said so much as what they did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">With that said, there have been three sermons I have heard that have fundamentally changed my life or at least the way I see it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One was from Father McCarthy, I believe, who was the priest at my church, <st1:place w:st="on">Sts.</st1:place> Peter & Paul growing up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second was from a missionary from I want to say <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nigeria</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and the third was from Father Kramer at Guardian Angels.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Sermon #1 talked about a self-help lecture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some guy filled up a mason jar with big rocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he could put no more rocks in the jar, he asked the audience if it was full, to which they responded, “yes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He then took out some sand and proceeded to fill the gaps in between the rocks with sand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the jar could hold no more sand, he asked, is it full.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having learned their lesson, the audience said, “no.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He then took out water and filled the jar until it could hold no more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he finished, he asked again, “is the jar full?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To which the audience once again said, “yes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He then asked, what have we learned from this exercise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone said, “if you want to fill the jar, start with water.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To which the person said, “no, this jar is like life, if you don’t fit the big stuff in first, you will never find room for them.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Sermon #2 was not nearly as profound, but just as eye-opening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time, I believe I was in high school or college and had little understanding of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The priest got up there and talked about how rich Americans are…not exactly a new concept, but he talked about how in the United States, people can work one job, two jobs, three jobs if that is what it takes to support their family. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might be working at McDonalds or some other crappy job, but there are bad jobs to be had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his country, there were no bad jobs, no good jobs, there were NO jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had never thought about poverty in the terms of opportunity prior to that sermon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As someone who has lived in a developing nation, I can attest, Americans have no conception of the state of poverty that exists in other countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I promise you, spend a week in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Haiti</st1:country-region> or even the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dominican Republic</st1:place></st1:country-region> (outside of the resorts), and you will have a new definition of poor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Sermon #3 was some random Saturday evening mass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Father Kramer just told three stories about animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Story number one was about a science experiment some local girl had done where she had taught a goldfish to swim through a maze to get to the food at the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she put a guppy in the water, the guppy could not figure out the maze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The goldfish started prodding the guppy to get through the maze to get the guppy to the food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Story number two was about the Emperor penguins in <st1:place w:st="on">Antarctica</st1:place> and how they huddle in big circles to stay warm during large storms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The birds take turns so that those on the outside for one storm are then protected by the ones they protected in the previous storm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They constantly change positions from the inside of the circle to the outside of the circle with every storm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The final story was about how he had visited a local middle school and asked the students what was their favorite possession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said that the answer he received most often was, “my dog.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he asked why, the children would say, “Because it’s always so happy to see me.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The priest simply asked, is it right that we consider ourselves better than these animals?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Why do I bring up these sermons now?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I have started following the internet sensation that is chief Oliver from Brimfield Police Department.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s a big picture kind of guy, or for anyone I have coached, he is able to see the forest among all the trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last few weeks, he has had some pretty awesome quotations that I felt compelled to share.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">From the chief himself, “While doing some work last evening at home, I turned on the TV for background noise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While trying to find the suitable channel, I came across the show, ‘Amish Mafia.’ I watched seven seconds of it and lost 100 IQ points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a society, we may have jumped the shark.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” – George Horace Lorimer</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I guess that is always a good question, am I going to bed satisfied with the day I had?</span></div>
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Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-28785164196668826192013-02-18T16:47:00.001-08:002013-02-19T12:04:00.978-08:00The Cleanse - Near the Half Way PointOkay, a couple of weeks ago, a friend posted something on Facebook about looking for someone to do a cleanse together (misery loves company kind of thing). At the time, I was frustrated with my inability to lose weight like I have wanted and some concern with my general health so I figured that I should give it a try.<br />
My friend (and her sister) both sell AdvoCare products, and they sell both a 10 and 24 day cleanse. We opted for the 10 Day Herbal Cleanse. My friend gave me a plan for normal people and also sent me a plan from her sister who is a bodybuilder who, like an endurance athlete, needs more than the normal human being does in terms of calorie intake.<br />
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After a few minutes of deliberation, I told her that I would do it with her. Heck, I thought, I have done two Ironmans, I moved to a foreign country where I didn’t know a soul and didn’t speak the language, I can handle a 10 day cleanse. <br />
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The general guidelines are as follows:<br />
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Days 1-3 then 7-10 start with a Fiber Cleanse Drink. Now, I drink full pulp orange juice when I drink orange juice, and this fiber drink makes that look like drinking water. It’s definitely chug-a-lug as not a taste you want to savor. It works as an intake of fiber and also an appetite suppressant. I have to admit, after drinking this stuff, I didn’t feel like eating much. It wasn’t that awful, but I typically don’t enjoy chewing my drink.<br />
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Days 1-7 Fiber supplements (3 horse pills). I haven’t figured out what these are supposed to do aside from the obvious, but I impress myself every time that I can down them all with one big swallow.<br />
Days 4-10 Probiotic supplements. Like fiber, I think we all know what probiotics are suppose to do, thanks to Activa yogurt.<br />
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The cleanse still allows food: carbohydrates like hummus, whole wheat pasta, oatmeal, brown rice are fine, but the staple of the diet should focus on fruits and vegetables with protein coming from nuts and olive oil and lean meat like chicken and salmon and tuna. For someone like me who doesn’t really enjoy seafood, that restricts me to nuts, chicken and olive oil.<br />
The cleanse material really only prohibits two things: alcohol and salt. It strongly recommends avoiding white breads and sweets along with carbonated beverages and fried, fatty foods. Now, here we come to the “you get out what you put into it portion of the cleanse.” Anyone who knows me knows I am addicted to Diet Coke. Back when I had my second surgery for my abdomen, I had a caffeine withdrawal migraine so severe that even morphine didn’t kill it. It was so bad that it returned as soon as I woke up from my surgery. While many people would love to see me kick Diet Coke habit, I knew that, in order for the cleanse to be successful, I had to allow myself certain concessions, and one diet coke in the morning is really what keeps me excited for the next day. For me, one a day is still a remarkable feat. I would say that normally, I drink 3-4x as much as I am drinking now, and it used to be 5x-6x as much. While the cleanse would probably go better without this little deviation, I feel like giving it up cold turkey would have undermined the cleanse completely.<br />
Without going into much detail, the processed foods have been replaced with fruits and natural peanut butter as well as quinoa and brown rice. I have cooked chicken, brown rice, quinoa, and spaghetti in the last week, more cooking than I have probably done in the last six months. I have also been forced out of my comfort zone a little bit by eating foods like quinoa and naked juice (way better than anticipated). I have given up the sweets and satisfy the sweet tooth with a touch of peanut butter or maybe a couple of pecans.<br />
Now, other things I have taken into consideration on this cleanse would be the timing as it relates to my training. It just worked out that we started the cleanse as I was finishing a training block, which ends in a week of recovery. Actually the first four days were at the end of build week 3, but that only covered two longer workouts, and they were both more intensity over endurance so I was able to do them both without additional nutrition, but I am pretty sure that I will be using HEED on Wednesday night’s indoor workout as opposed to the shot bloks I normally eat. As my coach can attest, I am not very good at taking recovery, he actually called me out on it last week during his Wednesday night class so I am kind of looking forward to a week of recovery where I don’t feel guilty for taking it easy.<br />
The one concern my mother had was that in terms of coaching, it was bad timing, but I think it worked out pretty well. Big Districts was this past weekend, and while long, I managed to have sufficient food and snacks to last throughout the tournament without trying to kill anyone. I even resist the temptation of the miniature candy bars, cookies, muffins and bagels provided for those of us working at the tournament. I even managed to avoid the coolers with the free cans of diet coke. <br />
As of Sunday morning, the beginning of Day 4, I had lost 3.4 pounds, averaging over a pound a day, which surprised me as I had only had one big workout in that time. Thursday evening, I did 1.5 hours on the rollers. Friday I did nothing, Saturday I did a 45 minute z1 effort ride on the rollers, so that loss can pretty much be equated to the diet. I don’t expect to continue to lose that much a day, but even 5 pounds total would be a huge accomplishment and probably marginally difficult for me to maintain this early in the season. <br />
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My friend and I call/text every day both encouragement and updates. Just knowing someone else is going through it helps. <br />
Some things have surprised me, the first few days, I couldn’t believe how not hungry I was in part probably because of the appetite suppressors but also in part, I think, to the knowing that I only had so much food with me and that I had to listen to my body carefully to know when it actually needed and didn’t just want food. Something that is likely disappointing to me is that while I am consuming significantly less caffeine than normal, I thought it would be much easier for me to fall asleep. While my mother will attest I have never been much of a sleeper, I am slightly disappointed that I am not falling right to sleep. One thing that was reaffirmed is that Giant Eagle has and almost always has the best produce. I picked up a bag of Fugi apples, and they are amazing, you would never know it’s February by how good they taste.<br />
Yesterday was the first day where I could see myself entering the “bad mood” zone. I nearly let myself have an additional diet coke at dinner, but I managed to stop myself. I am dealing with it like I deal with everything else, I break the cleanse down into percentages and math. Like most workouts, the first 50% always seems longer, probably because you know you still have to do more than what you have already done. Once you get over 50%, you know you can do it because you already have. <br />
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Hopefully, the good results continue, and I can keep some of the changes to the diet that I have made, but rest assured, Sunday will be an enjoyable day!<br />
<br />Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-12678822427246189192013-01-18T13:25:00.002-08:002013-01-18T13:25:43.428-08:00Run for Regis Race Report<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">If ever a race was about the training and not the actual race, this race was it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe that I enjoyed training for this race more than any race I have ever done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Pre-race, the most notable thing that happened in the morning was that I couldn’t find the wrist strap for my garmin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I threw things around my apartment like…well, like an endurance athete who couldn’t find the wrist strap to her Garmin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I spent about 10 minutes scouring my apartment until I found it already packed in my workout bag.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love giving myself panic attacks before races, it seems to be a trend.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Usually, pre-race instructions are pretty blah, but the race instructions for this race had that incredible combination of being quite funny and very inspiring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often, while training for this race, I would make the comment that we are so lucky to live here, which is kind of surpring to hear me say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, I often say things like “moving to Australia, going back to the DR,” but the bottom line is that living so close to a National Park with all of its miles of trails and beautiful roads, we are just lucky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adding to that the story of Regis and his fight with cancer hit a little close to home and made me appreciate the life I get to live.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">The course had two loops: an orange loop and a green loop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The orange loop was about 8.4 miles the green loop was 4.7, making a half marathon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people running the full or the 50k started on the green loop, the rest of us started on the orange loop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In training, I had run the orange loop several times, but I had only run a very small portion of the green loop, so I didn’t quite know what it had in store for us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">As our wave started, I made my left turn and listened to the advice a friend had said before the race, “I am going to run so I can finish.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The course is 1) pretty hilly and 2) was extremely muddy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At times, the mud was so thick, I couldn’t help but walk, there were other times when I was running in the mud, and it literally sucked my shoes off my feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">For the most part, I ran flats and downhills, walked steps, muddy downhill steps, and places were the mud was just non-negotiable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This plan of attack seemed to work pretty well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often, the side of the trail was the easiest to navigate so I was usually running there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having been in the 4<sup>th</sup> wave, I passed quite a few people, something that still surprises me in running races.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would try to make jokes, pretty stupid and cheesy, like “Hey, I think you have some mud on your shoes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I always feel like it is important, especially in a race like this one, to say something encouraging to people either passing me or to people I pass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do this pretty much anytime I run: in a race, in a triathlon, or even when running on the towpath or Sand Run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Early in the race, I was on some pretty muddy stairs, and someone grabbed my arm to catch her balance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She apologized, and I said that it was no big deal, I made a joke about how I had grabbed a friend’s hips when I slipped on the ice a few weeks back, and that was much more embarrassing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as I finished that story, the hand of the man running in front of me hit me in a…let’s say more embarasssing location than the hips.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the mental, “oh geez,” I hurried out of there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Note to self: don’t stand around telling stupid stories, get out of people’s way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">There was one section that I knew was pretty flat and upon thinking about the course beforehand, I thought would likely have standing water, which turned out to be the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was slightly over-dressed as I feared getting too cold if it had rained, but I kind of found the water in the shoes refreshing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">As I approached the first aide station, I saw a teammate heading back to the trail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gave him a high five and made my way out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was pretty happy when I got to the first aide station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was surprised that I knew almost everyone there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Espeed, from cyclo-cross glory, grabbed by water bottle from me and filled it for me, and after posing for a from another Elizabeth and saying hi to a few others, I made my way out of there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although I probably could have used a bathroom break, I opted to get out of there quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I was feeling good, thinking I was running pretty well and continued around <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Kendell</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Lake</st1:placetype></st1:place> to make my way back up to the Ledges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, this portion of the trail has always been kind of a problem for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I have been trying to stay up with Janet and that crew, it’s about 5 miles into the run that my body reminds me that I am not meant to run with these people and start to fade (more than I already have).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started to notice that my pace was starting to slow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told myself that I needed to eat and while I feared how my stomach would handle it, I knew it was not a negotiation, there was still a long way to go and breakfast wasn’t going to last as long as this race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ate some citrus shot blocks (still from my winnings from Tour of the Valley), and my stomach let me know that a bathroom break would be in order at the next aide station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">A little bit later, there was a bit of confusion on the course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The course wasn’t marked, and I, along with two others, went to the right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After about a minute, they yelled that they were sure it’s the wrong way, and we all turned around…and I am glad they did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it turned out, many people continued down that way, including Jen P and fellow teammate Gary B.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Jen P then passed me around mile 7 or 8 and was pretty upset that she had indeed gone off-course, but man, did she fly by me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shortly after that run-in, I made it to the next aide station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw teammates Gary and Ben standing there, so I said hi as I got my final water bottle fill and made my way to the restroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, the stomach was officially unhappy, but the slower pace of trail running seemed to make it manageable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I got back out, Ben had already made his way to the next loop and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Gary</st1:place></st1:city> was still standing there.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">As we made our way on this loop, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Gary</st1:place></st1:city> told me about his frustrations of going off-course, adding a few miles to his day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Upon hearing that, I had two thoughts: 1) you have to be a steller athlete to be able just to add a few miles to an already long run and 2) THANK GOD that wasn’t me!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Gary</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> quickly ran up ahead of me, but then we got to another part of the course, and I had to yell at him as he had gone the wrong way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He righted the ship and off he went.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was pretty much in “get this done mode” but found it kind of cool that at one point, Gary was about 10 yards ahead of Ben who was then 10 yards ahead of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stayed that way for a bit, but I could tell that both Gary and Ben were running out of steam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About half way through this loop, I passed Ben, but I never made much ground on him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I would slow down and walk uphills and/or really muddy sections, Ben just kept on running, passing me a time or two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was about this time that Eddie P, who was officially lapping me, on his second green loop, flew past me like he was born to run in the mud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was shocking to see how fast he was able to move.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I was basically running with Ben when my watch beeped for the 12 mile mark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had told a friend that I had expected to finish between 2:30-2:45, hoping I would be closer to 2:30 than the latter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew I wasn’t going to break 2:30, but I knew I could still keep it close.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, I thought about my friend J. Mack who ran with me at the Cleveland Marathon 10k who said that he had a rule about no walking in the last mile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told myself that I had nothing else to do today other than finish this race and that running wasn’t going to take that much more energy than walking so I started running and stopped when I hit the finish line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ended up finishing in 2:33:40.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically enough, it is NOT my slowest half marathon, that title still goes to the half marathon at Musselman in 2011 when my stomach was oh so ticked off and the closest I have ever come to DNFing a triathlon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">It was a great way to start the 2013 racing season!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was kind of cool that I was kind of bittersweet the race was over as I had enjoyed the training for it, but then Joey reminded me that many of us had signed up for Barry-Roubaix in March and that we would need to plan training for that race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sweet!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Goodbye mud, hello gravel!</span></span></div>
Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-91026472868456500272013-01-15T17:28:00.000-08:002013-01-15T17:28:01.679-08:00Ramblings of a debate coachAs a cyclist and as a triathlete, 60 degree days in January are like finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow…so exciting that you can hardly contain yourself, unless you also happen to coach debate and find yourself trapped in the confines of a Middle School building listening to students talk about the dehumanization of rehabilitation. Yeah, it didn’t make sense to me either.<br />
While I did at least ride my fixie to and from the bus garage, the 10 miles only whetted my appetite to ride all day, but instead I would check Facebook to see more and more people bragging about their enjoyment of their day outside. I hated to you all very VERY much. <br />
I can’t really classify them as debatism, but here is what kept me entertained.<br />
During judges’ instructions, one coach felt it necessary to say:<br />
“Make sure to turn on the lights when you go into the classroom.”<br />
Upon reading the text that I sent her, my mother described this little nugget of wisdom as “pure genius.” I will say that sometimes teachers go into teacher mode and forget that they are talking to functional adults, but sometimes it is a bit demeaning to have someone feel compelled to give you such an instruction as though you would have walked into a dark classroom and have been completely perplexed as to what to do.<br />
I did have at least one round off in which I entertained the other judges by reading portions of an article from GQ titled, “25 Least Influential People of 2012.” While the article started with four different pictures of Mitt Romney, the one that made me laugh was “Jerry Sandusky’s lawyer.” Now, I am not mocking the horrendous crimes Sandusky committed, but instead, I agree with GQ’s description of the brilliance of his lawyer:<br />
“Let us take a stroll through the razor-sharp legal mind of Joe Amendola: ‘I know! I’ll have my client go on national TV prior to his trial to be grilled by Bob Costas so we can all witness him declare, ‘I enjoy young people,” after searching blankly for the proper response to the question ‘Are you sexually attracted to young boys?’ as if Costas just asked him where he put his car keys.’ How can this possibly go wrong?<br />
For this laugh out loud moment, I thank you GQ writer Drew Magary.<br />
I should mention that another judges’ instruction is not to give low point wins. In debate, we have what are called speaker points. They are kind of a misnomer as they aren’t really speaker points so much as debating points. Often, a student might not speak very fluently, but have a better handle on the arguments than his opponent. 999 out of 1,000, the student who won the debate should have higher speaker points. The 1 out of a 1,000 is called a “low point win” and has to be justified to those running the tournament. In the 10+ years I have been judging, I have given a total of 2 low point wins. The first was for a gross misuse of a theory seven years ago, the second was on Saturday…<br />
I was judging a round in which the Negative’s case had an inherent contradiction. I had noted it quite early in the round, but it’s not my job to debate the debater so it didn’t matter unless brought up in the round by her opponent. Debate has a rule that you are not allowed to bring up new arguments in rebuttal. You can advance an argument, but if your opponent cannot respond to it, then it is not permissible to bring it up. Well, the Affirmative, who has the last speech in the round, spent the entire last speech bringing up this inherent contradiction. While I felt that she was winning the round before going into this speech, she still had to respond to the points made by her opponent, but didn’t because she spent the entire time focusing on this inherent contradiction and why it should win her the round.<br />
I HATE ROUNDS LIKE THIS ONE. I opted to give the Negative the win with fewer points because the Affirmative had done a better job throughout the round, better case, better argumentation, better advancement, but she screwed up. It was a clear case of the Affirmative losing the round as opposed to the Negative winning it. Had it not been for this gross violation of the rule, it would have been an easy round to judge. As it were, I gave myself and the entire tab staff grief in order to justify my decision. <br />
My other debatism occurred while judging in a room labeled as the “Gifted Services” classroom. In this room, there were all of these small posters with prominent people from history: Amelia Earhart, Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon, Albert Einstein, etc. There were seven or eight of these posters around the classroom, and they had one sentence on them: “Think Different.” I wanted to put little post-it notes up on every single one of them adding an –LY. “Think DifferentLY” people, think DIFFERENTLY!!! Why are even gifted instructors dismissing the value of adverbs. How is that being different! Let’s adverbalize America people! You are not “doing good, you are doing WELL” unless that is you are helping the homeless or feeding the hungry, then you are in fact doing good.<br />
So while all of you were out there riding your bikes, I was enjoying the intellectual absurdism that is high school Speech and Debate.<br />
Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-2710514698612142642013-01-12T02:40:00.002-08:002013-01-12T02:40:52.445-08:00iBelieve 10k Trail Run Race Report<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">As you can tell, this crazy single female tried quite a few new things this year: road racing, cyclo-cross, and the latest being trail running. This past fall, I was, to use my high school student’s phrasing, “talking to” a guy who was an endurance trail runner. So, of course, on our first date, we opted to go on a trail run, and I have to admit: I absolutely loved it! My love for trail running has lasted longer than that particular relationship, especially as I have been gearing up to run my first half trail marathon at Run for Regis.</span></span><br />
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I feel like a little back story is necessary here. I ran my first marathon February 11, 2007 in Birmingham, Alabama. I trained for that race with a wonderful running group, particularly with a friend CL. CL has children my age, but despite a generation gap, we became very close through the training. There is a certain closeness that training partners develop, and there was no doubt that we helped each other out through the highs and lows both in training and in life. The four months that I trained for that race were the best running days I had ever experienced. I absolutely loved the power, strength, and confidence it gave me and then sadly, I was hit by a car less than two months later. I am not going to go through all the highs and lows of the accident, but the broken toe that I suffered created problems with my running gate and eventually led to problems in my hips that still require a great deal of attention. I recall one run in general, right after breaking up with the guy of the month, where I broke down, started sobbing on a run with CL and our close friend AV because I was just emotionally and physically broken. Although I have had some excellent running races after the accident, running had definitely lost its luster. <br />
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With that said, it amazes me how I find myself enjoying running again and am grateful to that guy for finding that in me once again.<br />
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Now...back to the race report:</div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Pre-race: I have discovered that if I eat my breakfast as soon as I wake up, I am more inclined to have a more agreeable stomach while I am running.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had also sent out an email mentioning the limited parking so I got to the race about an hour before the race start so I wouldn’t have a long walk before or after the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I picked up my packet, went to the bathroom, then proceeded to sit in my car until about 5 minutes before the race started.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It just felt too cold to stand outside and wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got out, went to the bathroom one more time, then got to my starting place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I chatted with the guy next to me, also doing the 10k, wished him luck, and thought to myself: it’s quite possible I will get dead last in this race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me explain my reasoning:<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">1. I believe that 90% of the people were doing the 5k, meaning the 10k was a pretty small field.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">2. It was a trail run, not a road race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my thinking, trail running isn’t really for the casual runner, so all the other women were likely actual trail runners.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">3. It was pretty muddy, and I had no trail shoes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Race: The race started, and I started making my way through the field, the first quarter mile was on road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got to the trail, and it was wet and muddy from the get-go, and I started slipping and sliding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This course lacked two big things: elevation and traction…and it kind of reminded me of a cross race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone know what a Proustian moment is?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, slipping in the mud was my version of the Proustian madelines, and I was instantaneously racing like I would a cross race and not like I would a running race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(If Mrs. Korosa happens to read this blog post, I almost wrote macaroons instead of madelines, throwing in a little Ibsen in there, thought you might appreciate that little slip).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyway, I was completely focused on picking the line that appeared to have the best traction, chasing down the people ahead of me, and feeling that z5, all-out race effort.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I also noticed a friend of a friend out there taking photos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I passed her, I tried to explain who I was, but I figured that it was probably a waste of energy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had worn what I thought was an appropriate amount of clothes, but I was pretty warm, ended up unzipping my jacket and wishing that I had worn shorts rather than tights, oh well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I passed several people on the first loop, made it back to the turn-around and noticed that there was only one woman ahead of me…but then, my stomach decided it was a little upset, requiring a stop in the POP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a waste of a couple of minutes, and I suddenly realized that my stomach was still pretty upset.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After about a half mile, I had to walk to try to calm down my stomach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In those moments of walking, another woman passed me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started thinking about how the race would play out if I continued to let my stomach control my pace, and in a Jens Voigt-like moment, I said to myself, “Shut up stomach, I am not losing because of you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a flashback of some of the bigger races in which my stomach screwed me over (IM Wisconsin) and opted to keep pushing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t take long, I quickly re-passed the lady who had passed me in my low moment, and I refocused by attention to the person about a hundred yards ahead of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took me about two miles to make up those 100 yards, but I finally caught the person and was kind of surprised to see that it was a guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know why, I knew there was only one woman ahead of me, but he and I started to talk as we had about a half mile left in the race, I had clearly spent way too much energy trying to catch him, and he was hurting just about as bad from trying to hard to fend me off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we neared the chute, he let me go ahead, and I finished the race in 1:00:12.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">After finishing the race, I felt about as spent as I usually do after a cross race and about as equally thirsty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lady came over to me and said that I was the 1<sup>st</sup> overall female, “HUH???”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could have sworn there was a female ahead of me…and let’s face it, I don’t win running races.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took the ceremic ornament and was through the roof excited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe the woman went off course?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe the woman hadn’t registered?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kept running?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know…but then the results came out a week later, and I was indeed 2<sup>nd</sup> overall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was a little embarrassed, but 2<sup>nd</sup> overall is still way better than the dead last expectation that I had set for myself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I have said from the getgo, there obviously weren’t that many serious trail runners at this first year event, but you can only compete against those who show up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I should also say, though, that I have never raced a running race before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have never chased people down and never thought about the efficiency of my cadence and of picking the right line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As much as I don’t particularly enjoy cyclo-cross, I can thank it for this race result.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Thankfully, I have done a few runs with Janet E and her crew in the last few weeks to keep my ego in check.</span></span></div>
Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-12064956428317778432013-01-05T02:55:00.000-08:002013-01-05T02:56:05.593-08:00Hiram Cyclocross Race ReportAfter some significant peer pressure, I caved and opted to do the Hiram Cyclo-cross race. The race was at the beginning of December so my memory is a little foggy, but here are some of the highlights.<br />
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The Weather: what else would it be except cold and rainy. <br />
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The Course: Cold and rainy, cold and MUDDY. The course was about 1.4 miles long had a narrow snake section with lots of turns in what turned into sloppy mud. There were turns around the Christmas trees, one curving descent into a pretty steep uphill followed by more turns around potential Christmas trees, another roller which led into an extended false flat. There was also a bump up to where the course was near the road that was 1) unrideable and 2) nearly impossible to run up while carrying the bike. There was also a lap around a small pond, which was the most rideable section of the course, but it had two barracades to break up any potential for speed on the course.<br />
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Game Plan: Sprint to get to the front so people couldn’t pass in the narrrow section then hold on for dear life! <br />
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What Happened: I managed to out-sprint everyone to the first turn after the start. I was in the lead for probably the first quarter of the first of two loops until I got to a turn in which I just couldn’t get my right foot clipped back into the pedal and was passed by eSpeed who was clearly frustrated by being behind me in the narrow course. I was just unfamiliar with the pedals and wasn’t able to get them to cooperate with me. I would say the inability to get clipped back in because of the mud was my undoing in this race. In the turns around Christmas trees, I dropped down to 3rd as I couldn't manage to get clipped into my pedals. I was never able to get the pedals to cooperate, most likely because both my pedals and my shoes were clogged with mud. The initial sprint also left me kind of fried. It was a horrible race, but I continued to race hard the entire time despite making no apparent ground on 2nd and 4th not being that close behind me. Because of the conditions, we only managed 2 laps, which was fine by me! It was miserable!<br />
Other things: it was in the 40’s and raining so I wore what I would wear for a road ride in the 40's. As it turns out, cyclocross is more similar to dress for how I would dress for a run and not a bike ride. I was wearing tights and long sleeves under my jersey, and I was roasting! With no water during the race, I finished the race and had horrible cotton mouth, and sadly, there was no water to be found until I managed to get back to my belongings where I had left a bottle of water.<br />
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I ended up getting third, a nice podium finish to end out the cycling season, but I didn’t feel like race particularly well. I did have fun heckling others as they dealt with the progressively worse conditions throughout the day.<br />
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I should thank Andrew Miller for giving me a ride, it was nice not to have to drive all that way for a race.Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-31022700668904258892012-12-22T04:15:00.002-08:002012-12-22T04:15:13.864-08:00Debatisms 2012I have been slacking quite a bit lately on my debatisms and race reports. I have done two races and have heard some pretty hilarious things and have failed to update my blog. I could go into a rather long-winded set of excuses, but I will suffice it to say that I have been busy. As most of you know, when I am not spending my Saturdays on two wheels, I am more often than not, coaching debate for a local high school. Unlike in years past, I am actually judging more often than not this year, which has some advantages and some disadvantages. As is the slogan of my group of work, “it is what it is.” <br />
I feel compelled to reiterate that I consider debate one of the greatest activities in which a high school student can participate. There is a non-exhaustive list of skills it develops, but while developing some of those skills, it often stretches students beyond their limits, particularly when it comes to abstract thinking. While many students are able to grasp these concepts and work their way through the difficulties, others misinterpretation often lead to what my mother refers to as “down the rabbit hole” where reality and the laws that govern it no longer apply. <br />
My first night of judging this season gave me some of my favorite “debatisms” that I have collected in quite some time. I don’t know if it is fortunate or not, but it was the last round of the evening, starting around 8pm (yeah, that’s what this crazy single female does on a Friday night). In Lincoln Douglas, you have a value, which is basically answering the question, “what value motivates the US government to provide universal health care to its citizens?” One of the very popular answers is the protection of life. Indeed, in this particular round, the Affirmative had a value of life. Like many novice debaters, the negative felt it necessary to disagree with absolutely everything the Affirmative said and stated:<br />
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1. “People commit suicide so OBVIOUSLY life is not that important, not nearly as important as my value of freedom.” <br />
How do you argue with that logic? I mean, it’s true, people do kill themselves, so how can life be that important? I often think of the great irony that you have the freedom to kill youself, but doesn't that put an end to freedom as well?<br />
This particular debater had a way of presenting her arguments that made it hard to stifle my laughter. Did you ever watch Let’s Make a Deal? Contestants would have to choose between three different doors, and more often than not, the person would say, “Wink, I think I’ll go with… door number three.” Well, this girl did the same thing, “so, in refuting my opponent’s first contention, I am going to go with…”<br />
2. She went on to say, “we can’t force people to do things that are good for them because it infringes on their right to freedom. For instance, we can’t force people to learn to read because that would infringe on their autonomy and that’s immoral.” <br />
What??? Apparently, this young student thinks going to school is not compulsory nor is “No Child Left Behind.” When I told another coach about this particular debatism, he simply said, “what kind of autonomy does a person have who can’t read?” As I have said, these students mean well, but focus too much on the disagreement aspect of debate and not on providing better arguments. In summary, the negative said to me, “the right not to learn to read is more important than life.” Yeap, down that rabbit was where we went.<br />
Sometimes, like many of my stories, out of the debate context, they just aren’t as funny or enjoyable if you don’t understand the culture of debate so don’t feel bad if you don’t want to read further.<br />
For instance, in a round with the eventual tournament champion, I heard one debater say, “the state of nature is clearly a more realistic thought experiment than the veil of ignorance.” Now, I have been in the debate community for 28 years and have a degree in philosophy (and Economics and Accounting) and still have no idea how a thought experiment is inherently “more realistic” than another. On the ballot, I wrote to this particular debater, “I don’t think anything you said in this round today is ACTUALLY true.”<br />
For my next stint of judging was in Public Forum on a very economics-based topic. I heard claims like:<br />
3.“The Department of Homeland Security is a waste of money.”<br />
4. “We will cut $300 billion dollars from the department of defense and have no impact on jobs.” <br />
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5. At the same tournament my mother heard, “Even with universal health care, people will die.” To which the opponent at least agreed, “yes, death is inevitable.”<br />
At the next tournament, I heard of a combination that blew me away. I have gone back and forth about posting this story, but here we go and hopefully it makes sense to non-debate folks.<br />
I was fortunate enough to judge a good round between two very good debaters on a Saturday morning after judging four rounds the night before. These two debaters were still debating whether the US government has an obligation to guarantee access to health care. The negative said that the US government does not have the obligation because it would harm human dignity. Ok, that’s fine, but then this debater supported this value of human dignity by quoting a pretty famous economist by the name of Thomas Malthus. You know in movies when the bad guy walks into the bar and the music comes to a screeching halt? That's what happened when I heard this in my head.<br />
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For those of you who don't know Malthus, let me explain. Let’s look up the definition of the word “Malthusian” in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary:<br />
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Of or relating to Malthus or to his theory that population tends to increase at a faster rate than its means of subsistence and that unless it is checked by moral restraint (i.e. limiting the reproduction of the poor) or disaster (as disease, famine, or war) widespread poverty and degradation inevitably result.<br />
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When I heard this combination of dignity and Malthus, I thought to myself, “I guess human dignity is only important for the rich these days.” After the round, I went up to the coach and mentioned to her that I found this particular combination ahhh…inappropriate and not in accordance with what the theorist actually wrote. To which this coach responded, “Oh, well you obviously have never studied Malthus.” <br />
I opted to walk away…and fume to my mother. If I would have said something, it probably would have been, “Sure, use Malthus for human dignity. Maybe you can figure out a way to use Hitler to support the value of preservation of life for the next resolution.”<br />
But alas, I am sure I have made myself an enemy, but in the debate world, that’s nothing new.<br />
For the final tournament where I judged, I judged Student Congress. To put it simply, I do not enjoy judging the event. However, I did hear some good debatisms.<br />
6. “Continuing to make corn ethanol will lead to the federal government subsidizing farmers.” Now, that would be a waste of money…oh wait, what’s that, the federal government already spends billions of dollars subsidizing farmers? Who knew? Crazy!<br />
7. The people of the country of Africa are poor, but it won’t cost us anything to provide them with food and better conditions because we can tax them.” <br />
8. “The African people won’t mind us re-colonizing the continent because we are going to help them.” … and if we help ourselves to a diamond mind or two, well, that won’t annoy them at all.<br />
I hope some of these debatisms made you laugh and not think less of me for finding some of the mistakes that students make funny, that I am laughing at the mistakes, not the students. Some of the best debaters that I have ever coached have said things that still make me laugh.<br />
Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-82973549439050062642012-11-19T17:34:00.000-08:002012-11-19T17:34:40.985-08:00Chagrin Cyclocross Race Report<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">For no tangible reason, I felt compelled to do a cyclocross race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I borrowed a cross bike from my friend Bill who broke his collarbone and was unable to race for the first part of the cross season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got it a little less than a week before the race, and I rode the bike twice: the day I got it for about half hour around my parents back yard and the next day on the towpath for about half an hour.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">The race I decided to do was a costume race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Feeling a complete lack of creativity and having the added restraint of it not wanting to limit my movement on the bike, I went to the old standby catholic school girl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite having gone to catholic school for eight years, I was unable to find a skirt or one I could borrow so I ended up going to a store and buying one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a sidenote, buying a catholic uniform skirt made me feel pretty sketchy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn’t even wearing the skirt to a party, and I felt a sense of guilt objectifying catholic school girls in a certain fashion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Anyway, the race was on the Saturday before Halloween, and it was cold and rainy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Racing CAT4 in cross has one big advantage and one big disadvantage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The advantage, and it was a HUGE advantage on that day, was that we got to race before the course was completely destroyed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The disadvantage is that we weren’t racing for money, but for medals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regardless, I got there, got my number, and opted to do a practice loop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it took about one minute to realize I was completely unprepared for this race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About 85% of the 1.5 mile loop was mud, there were some very technical turns, some standing water in ditches, and a few logs that required either jumping or dismounting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not a good feeling when you are riding your bike and see what is ahead and ask the question, “How the heck do I ride across that?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consequently, I fell twice during the PRACTICE loop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I estimated that it took me about 15 minutes to do one loop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our race was for 30 minutes, so I tried to comfort myself that the most I would have to do is three loops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">After getting back, I talked to some friends and gave my camera to a friend Gary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I opted to take off my rain jacket and tell myself that if I got cold, I just needed to work harder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The official didn’t like where I had my jersey pinned so with about three minutes before we were supposed to start, I frantically repinned my number onto my jersey (a liittle déjà vu from first crit this summer).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">They let the CAT5 men out about a minute ahead of us, then we started with the juniors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The beginning of the loop was a relatively grass straightaway for maybe a tenth of a mile to what narrowed to almost a single-track.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the start, I worked pretty hard to try to get ahead of the field to limit how many people I would be behind when the course narrowed, and it would be difficult to pass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found myself in 3<sup>rd</sup> as we approached the more technical section.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt like I was doing pretty well until I got to the second ditch when I went down, came up and fell over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I fell in the same spot on the practice loop so I had definitely been anxious about this spot and would remain so throughout the course of the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took me a few moments to get back on the bike, and by the time I got back on course, two women had passed me, including future teammate Michelle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I did a fairly good job through the technical section until I got to a section of close turns, and I fell again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was then some standing water over mud, and I just couldn’t pedal the bike through the junk so I basically walked through it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t dismount, so I was walking the bike like I had no concerns over time!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were also a couple of logs on the course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One I basically rode over every time, one I usually hit with my bike, then got off my bike and carried over it, then remounted after putting the chain back on the bike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was pretty ridiculous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe the line running through my head was usually, “Way to ride like an idiot Marie!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">After what felt like miles of techinical riding, the course opened up to a less muddy section with three logs, then the fastest part of the course on a gravel driveway before the start/finish line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that I was back in 3<sup>rd</sup> place by the time I got back into the single track section of the course on the second loop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, there are things that happen in races every once in a while that stick with me forever, and I think that on this second loop is one of those moments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were approaching the ditch where I had bit it on the lap before, and my competitor behind me yelled up some instructions how to ride through the ditch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did you read that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My competitor (and current/future teammate) Michelle HELPED me get through what was my biggest obstacle on the first loop without any problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Words cannot describe how I feel about this act of sportsmanship, humbled is the only one that comes to mind, and it doesn’t do her kindness justice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I pretty much struggled in the same places on the 2<sup>nd</sup> loop that I did the first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everytime I was starting to make progress, I would fall, or slide out, or forget to stop before the log, then spend a minute putting the chain back on the bike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seriously, I am kind of glad I was wearing a skirt as it distracted people from how pathetic my riding was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I know I was in 3<sup>rd</sup> going into the 3<sup>rd</sup> lap, and all I could think was, “WHERE IS THE FREAKIN’ BELL????<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>THERE IS <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">NO WAY</st1:address></st1:street> WE CAN DO FOUR LAPS IN 30 MINUTES!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘RING THE STUPID <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">BELL</st1:city></st1:place>, I DON’T WANT TO DO TWO MORE LOOPS!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think it was on the 3<sup>rd</sup> lap that I started to notice the friction caused by riding my bike with a skirt between the bike and chamois, that or Bill’s seat was really that uncomfortable (honestly, a possibility).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Once again, I made it through the water ditch on the 3<sup>rd</sup> lap without falling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe I lost a lot of time on the log on this lap, but was doing pretty well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because I can never make things easy on myself, I went off course when heading for the 3 log crossing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I nearly quit right there, I was so mad at myself!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, I keep falling, doing stupid stuff, and was still in 3<sup>rd</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What else can I do to sabatoge myself?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then I reminded myself that I am not a quitter and that there is still a chance I can get back on the podium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heck, I wasn’t even sure that podium didn’t go five deep.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I rode back to where I went off course and worked to get back into 3<sup>rd</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe it was the only lap that I finished not in 3<sup>rd</sup>, but still having another lap was definitely bittersweet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted the opportunity to fight back for 3<sup>rd</sup>, but I nearly cried at the thought of having to ride through that stupid ditch again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was also steaming hot and had opted to throw my glasses as they were just fogging up and just getting annoying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I thought I knew where I threw them, as it turns out, they have been lost forever).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I passed Michelle for what was either the 3<sup>rd</sup> or 4<sup>th</sup> time before getting to the single track.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I worked very hard and felt like I was making gains on getting distance, then would slip and lose time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I should note that by this 4<sup>th</sup> lap, the course was destroyed, riding through mud is hard work!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was reaching my anaerobic threshold trying to hold off Michelle to keep my spot on the podium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We approached the ditch, and I absolutely cringed, but I somehow made it through once again!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shortly after the ditch, I came up on a junior and had to slow down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to be careful when passing her as I didn’t trust myself not to hit her in a narrow section while trying to pass so I was stuck behind her for long enough that Michelle gained back some of the time I had put on her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">We were basically neck and neck coming out of the technical section, and I just pushed with everything I had left!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe I was maybe a second ahead of her reaching the three logs the last time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t remember if she passed me on the logs or not, but she probably did, but I was fairly confident that I could outsprint her, which was ultimately the result.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got third in my first cross race and was pretty excited about it except that I was completely gassed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">When I finally wiped the wad of mud off my watch, I noticed that we went for about 46 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do the math on that: 46/4=11.5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>46-11.5=34.5<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>34.5>30 minutes which was supposed to be the length of time we were supposed to race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was some of the hardest 46 minutes I have ever raced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an aside, there is dirt on my garmin that I believe will never come off the watch as it is still there nearly a month later. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Shortly after finishing, and I know it was shortly because I was still kind of panting, Bill asked me if I would race cross again, to which I responded, “I don’t know, that was really effing hard!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For anyone that doesn’t race, if someone asks you that question when you are still in the pit of pain the race created, and you don’t say no, there is no way you aren’t racing again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heck, for the last two hours of Ironman Louisville, I was singing “One and Done!” to myself and still did another Ironman so the answer to that question is completely irrelevant to reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">After the race, Michelle told me that “she was going to make me work for it” which is beyond what she did out there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I left this race feeling really happy, despite it being cold, I had a great time racing and spending time with friends.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-84614645155775913182012-11-17T02:56:00.000-08:002012-11-19T13:52:32.798-08:00Akron Half Marathon Race ReportI am pretty embarrassed by this race, but I am going to post this race report (although a few months late) anyway. Sometimes, we have to be proud of our failures as much as our successes.<br />
For the 3rd time, I opted to take advantage of the FirstEnergy discount and participated in the Akron marathon. Working in downtown Akron has a couple of advantages, and one of them is being able to walk to the race expo. I still don’t know that many people at the GO, but one of the few people I do know was also running the half, so we went over to the expo together. It was no WAC caravan of insanity, but it worked. <br />
As we walked to the expo, we came across a man wearing an Obama mask. Some woman was talking to Fake-Obama and asked my friend if he would take a photo of her with Fake-Obama. He said sure, took the picture, then as we walked away, he started venting about how he couldn’t believe this woman would just give him her camera. He then said to me, “I swear, if you weren’t here, I would have totally taken off running with that woman’s camera. What is it about me that looks like I am a safe person just to give your camera?” I think I said something like, “Sure, okay. Too bad you are literally the nicest person I have ever met.”<br />
We made our way through the expo with no real glitches. I ran into a few people at the expo, including cycling friend Pam. I have to say, Pam looks a ton different in a dress, kind of surprised I recognized her!<br />
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Race Morning:<br />
Pre Race:<br />
My mentor gave me a race strategy, which was basically run all out as long as possible, then just jog it in when I peter out. It sounded fine to me as I had pretty low expectations for the race.<br />
For breakfast, I had a PB&J sandwich and some crackers. I had no problems getting to the race, I did get off the highway to take city streets, and I parked where I park every week day for work. I walked maybe a third of a mile to the starting line. I was a little upset with the location with the clothes’ drop, but I dropped my clothes off and hit the port-o-johns. I tried to find my friend Bill who told me he would be at the 3:40 pace group. I stood there looking and waiting, and no Bill.<br />
I was starting to get cold so I went to the port-o-johns again. I was kind of grateful that there was so many as I was able to sit in there for a while and warm up. <br />
Eventually, I made my way to the 4 hr pace group, kind of surprised I had not found Bill and not seeing anyone I knew, that never happens at Akron! As soon as I said that, I ran into a few people from my hometown (one of which is the guy whose heart stopped at mile 2 and is luckily okay). <br />
I got to the 4 hour pace group, resigned not to see anyone, and looked to my right and saw fellow Cleveland Tri Club board member Marsita. We started the race together, but she looked much more prepared for the race, and I let her take off. <br />
Race:<br />
I have done the half twice before, and this year was the first year that I actually felt under-trained going into the half marathon. I did, however, actually taper for the race, and I was remarkably surprised by how good I felt running. The weather really was perfect, very similar to the conditions for my first marathon, and I just felt good. <br />
I was wearing my garmin, but I honestly didn’t look at it once for the first half of the race, I was just enjoying running and being in good enough shape that I can run a half marathon when I am not sufficiently trained for it.<br />
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Mile 1: 9:35<br />
I believe I ran into CTC-faithful Tiffany who was doing the full marathon. She looked great! She gave me some support, and I think I congratulated her on a great race at Rev3. I believe she went on to PR in the marathon, but don’t quote me on that one.<br />
Mile 2: 9:24<br />
While I wasn’t looking at my garmin, I was starting to gain a sense of my pace based on the clocks at the mile markers. It was clear that I was running a 9 something pace and felt pretty good about it. <br />
Mile 3: 9:01<br />
Now, my father has started volunteering at races in attempt to see his little girl out there racing. At Wisconsin, he volunteered in transition and never got to see me…he did get to see my bike as they took it back to its spot in transition, but no chance to give me a hug or a high five. Last year at Akron, he volunteered for a water station…at mile 22 of the marathon course. Too bad I was running the half. Then, at Cleveland, he did see me, although he missed his spot at the water station. So, this year, his assignment was volunteering in the 1st exchange zone for the marathon relay. I figured that it wasn’t directly related to my race, but I should be able to see him, right? WRONG! This year, they opted to place the first exchange zone under a bridge so that the relay people would be out of the way of the marathon and half marathoners. Sorry dad, one of these races, we will figure this plan out!<br />
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I do have to admit that I really liked the decision to divert the relay people from the aid stations. It has always been a source of frustration that people running either the half or full distance would get cut off going to aid stations by people that felt they needed water after running a few hundred yards. (Sad, but true). I don’t mean to offend anyone who ran or has run the relay as there are some serious runners who choose to do the relay, but you also have people who I think run once a year and consequently don’t pay attention to the runners around them. <br />
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I also saw high school friend Justin aka a coverboy model wearing a Cleveland Browns getup. I was kind of surprised by how I recognized him despite wearing a helmet and dreads. Sometimes, my brain actually works.<br />
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Mile 4: 8:59<br />
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Yeah, looking at that split, it even surprises me, I ran a sub 9 minute mile in the middle of this race??? I was really going by feel and apparently, some rest enabled my legs to function.<br />
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Mile 5: 9:07<br />
It was around this time that I saw friend and new teammate Zac by Goodyear/Firestone/Brown Street. He took a few photos, and then I assumed he was going to a cyclo-cross race. <br />
<br />
Mile 6: 8:55<br />
<br />
Seriously, 2 sub 9 minute miles in this race?<br />
<br />
Here is when the race started to divert from the excellent race I was having, to what ended up being a bad bad race.<br />
<br />
Mile 7: 9:10<br />
<br />
It is at this point that I started looking for a port-o-john. I was hoping that I could make just one bathroom break then be done for the day. Hahaha, silly Marie! Well, I waited a little too long and the line was pretty long, but I didn’t have much of a choice, well, I could have started asking random people if I could use their bathroom in their house, but that didn’t seem right.<br />
<br />
Mile 8.3 (sorry, I hit the lap thing): 14:21 <br />
<br />
Ouch, that hurt, it was then that I noticed my pace went from about a 9:10 pace to a 9:30ish pace. Yeah, that stinks.<br />
It was at this point, I started having flash backs to the marathon in 2010 where I spent WAY too much time in the port-o-johns. Instead of the stop in the port-o-john alleviating problems, it seemed to develop them even further.<br />
<br />
Mile 9.3: 9:42<br />
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I believe it was about this point that I started dry-heaving. I have experienced stomach issues more times than I care to admit, but I have never dry-heaved in a race. Apparently, peanut butter is a big NEVER NEVER AGAIN pre-race food.<br />
<br />
Mile 10.3: 10:49, yeap, I had to start walking around this point. Damn you stomach!<br />
<br />
Now, mile 10ish is where the course diverted from the old half course. Instead of heading down to the towpath from basically the University of Akron, the course went over the Y-bridge again and the half turned around like we did at mile 2 while the marathon and relay continued on Broadway to go down to the towpath on another, just as steep, hill.<br />
<br />
Mile 11.3: 11:17<br />
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Starting to get discouraged… <br />
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Mile 12.3: 12:12<br />
<br />
Beyond discouraged.<br />
<br />
Finally .9 (my watch was long) 9:18<br />
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Total time: 2:12:23<br />
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Post Race:<br />
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I ended not finding anyone I knew after the race in the post-race crowd so after finding someone willing to take my beer tickets, I made the way back to my car. I have to say that it’s the first time I have ever run half where my legs didn’t hurt because my stomach really hampered my ability to run well enough to make them sore.<br />
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As I made my way to my car, I ran into cycling Pam once again and talked to her for quite a while. I was starting to get really cold so I finally made my way to my car to grab my sweats and change out of my running clothes. <br />
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I then made my way back to the finish line waiting for Bill…and waiting for Bill and waiting for Bill. He ended up missing his goal by about 10 minutes. My favorite thing about this race (besides it being free) is listening to Bill talk about how he is never going to do this race again but then getting the eventual text that he can't pass up the big discount early bird registration. Ha! He has already signed up for 2013!<br />
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Not my worst half marathon, but nowhere near my best. It happens.<br />
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<br />Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-92121378917547421612012-09-19T17:31:00.000-07:002012-09-26T05:47:16.773-07:00Portage Lakes Sprint TriathlonPortage Lakes Sprint Triathlon Race Report<br />
I have raced at Portage Lakes three times before this year: two sprints and one olympic. I have only ever placed in the Olympic and almost always find myself in the toughest age group in the race despite being in a different age group since the last time I have raced. It is the only local sprint that I have done where I had never placed been in the top 3 of my age group.<br />
For some reason, I really wanted to do this race this year despite being completely undertrained for it. I have swam a total of about 5 miles the ENTIRE summer. Yes, there was a single day in January when I swam more than I did in the months of June, July, August and so far September combined. <br />
I had trained for the run for HTC, but I had done a total of 2 speed workouts, and I just forgot to run the week before this race. I could have run on Friday, but I didn’t want my legs to be tired. Any running right now leads to some soreness.<br />
Enough of the background and the excuses…<br />
Pre-Race:<br />
It was freakin’ cold. When I went to go get body marked, the guy laughed at me because I had on so many layers of clothes. Considering it was about 50 degrees, I didn’t think 4 layers of clothes was excessive. I was happy that I got there a little early as the body marking line got really long about a half hour later. I later heard that they stopped marking people’s calves because the line was so long.<br />
I had no problem setting up my transition area. I had convinced Mentor to come out and race, and by the time I got there, he already had his transition setup. I milled around for a while chatting with teammates. One had pre-ridden the course before the race, and he mentioned a turn where you need to make sure you are in the little ring. I made a mental note of it and continued to chat with folks. Little did I know that they had changed the course since the three times I had raced it.<br />
I talked to Tattoo Mike, who lent me his trislide spray to make it easier to get in my wetsuit and to prevent chafing. Apparently, he isn’t the biggest fan of being cold, so he switched from the tri to the duathlon and had no need for his swimming supplies. It worked great, and I was very appreciative! <br />
After Wisconsin last year, I was really paranoid about putting on my wetsuit too early for fear of calf cramps crippling my swim. With about 20 minutes to go, I finally put on the wetsuit and headed to the bathoom one last time. I think it was in that line that I had my biggest moment of panic as I had dropped my goggles. Fortunately, they were only about 10 yards away from the line so it wasn’t that big a deal. I had another pair, but I had done this swim before and not wearing tinted goggles would have been a big problem.<br />
I got down to the beach, and I noticed that the swim looked longer than expected. I guess I am used to these sprints where you basically get your feet wet and the swim is over, forgot that some sprints actually make you swim. Standing on the beach was absolutely torture in my sleeveless wetsuit. I was freezing and then standing on the cold wet sand was unbearable. I quickly wised up and stood in the water that was 72 degrees rather than on the 50 degree sand. <br />
I stood there with Mentor, and I told him a bad joke, kind of a habit of mine to try to break the tension. He laughed, but then he reminded me of my all-time favorite story of what he saw while waiting for IM Lake Placid to start in 2009, and I started laughing hysterically. I needed to be relaxed, and it definitely helped. I don’t think I can tell the story in my blog, but if you know him, ask him about it. Regardless, I haven’t felt that calm before a race in a very long time.<br />
The women were in the 4th wave so I got near the front and took off running when the gun went off. The course was a beach start, running in the water to a buoy then making a right turn to do a loop around the buoys. The first stretch of the loop was by far the hardest as it was almost due east, and with the sun, it was pretty much impossible to spot the buoy. Heck, I couldn’t even spot it on the shore before the race. After reaching that buoy, I got much more comfortable and fell into a rhythm. I didn’t think I was having a great swim, but I didn’t think I was slow as I feared. I knew I had caught up with a few guys in the waves ahead of mine, but not as many as I usually do. I do miss the days of colored swim caps. It was always a fun little game as to how many different colors could I catch on a swim. Oh well. I made a wide turn around the final buoy but kept swimming until I hit sand, then stood up and ran to transition.<br />
Swim: 14:39 (15th out of 107)<br />
T1:<br />
I ran up the hill and the long way to my transition rack. I stepped on my wetsuit to get it off my feet. I had my socks rolled down so they would be easy to slip on my wet feet. I put on my shoes, sunglasses, helmet, and I was off.<br />
Time: 1:32 (not bad considering it took some time to get the wetsuit off)<br />
Bike: I don’t have a mount for my Garmin on my tri bike so I carried it until I got on the bike, then put it on my wrist while exiting the park. I would say that I probably passed about 10 people before I even got out of the park. I realized just how bad a swim I had because I don’t ever recall passing that many women on the bike course, at least not in short course. <br />
This race was the first time I had raced in an aero helmet, and HOLY COW, I almost think they should be illegal! My Garmin beeps every mile, and I honestly thought something was wrong with it because it didn’t seem like I could be ticking off miles that quickly. I just didn’t feel like I was working hard enough to be maintaining the speed it was telling me I was going. I kept looking down at my computer, and even when I wasn’t pushing, I was going 20-21 mph. Granted, there were few instances when I wasn’t pushing. <br />
Before the race, Mentor told me to be nice out there, and I said I would try, except that I see myself coming off as a complete B**** on the bike. When you are a strong female cyclist starting after three waves of men, you are going to be passing LOTS of people on the bike. Some of these people know how and where to ride on the road, others do not. My throat was slightly sore from yelling at people to get over. I would say that I passed at least 50 people on the bike, and that’s probably a pretty low estimate.<br />
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As soon as we turned right out of the park, I realized it was a different course than the one I had done previously. I knew that the old course was considered pretty hilly so I figured, it would probably be similar, and I think that is pretty much the case. There weren’t as many rollers, but there were some slightly longer uphills, still too short to be called climbs, but still a challenging course.<br />
I recall getting to one turn, and I saw a steep uphill and realized that it was the hill that my teammate mentioned, and I quickly dropped to the little ring. I was grateful for the heads up because I might have tried to climb it in the big ring, then dropped my chain when I tried to go into the little ring.<br />
Any experienced triathlete should look at a Sprint triathlon as a z5 sufferfest, basically a time trial of all three disciplines. I can’t say that I was going as hard as I would in a TT, but I noticed that on a few of the climbs, my breathing was pretty labored. I think that the presence of slightly longer uphills made it necessary to take some recovery on the downhill. Even if I didn’t dwell on it, I knew I was running when I got off the bike, and I didn’t want to burn too many matches.<br />
I did notice that I did better on cornering on my tri bike. I don’t think a time trial bike handles as well as a road bike, and I have struggled adapting my handling skills to my Kestrel. I didn’t take the turns as sharply as I would on my Cannondale, but I definitely took more speed than I would have a year ago.<br />
The bike course was a little long as I heard my watch beep for a 13 and 14 mile, no problem for me, give me a long bike course anyday! I was hoping for the best female bike split, and that’s what I got. As I made my way back to transition, I saw Tattoo Mike on the 2nd run for the duathlon. He looked a little surprised to see me already, and I took that to be a sign that I was doing well. <br />
Bike: 40:18 (averaged 21.1 mph with about 950 feet of elevation gain in 14 miles 1st out of 107 by 1:40)<br />
As I approached transition, I told myself I could do it, so I reached down and unvelcroed my shoes and managed to get both of my feet out of my shoes before heading to the dismount line. I had never even practiced a flying dismount so I was really excited by the success I had on my first attempt. It definitely made for a faster transition as running in my socks was faster than trying to clop along in my cycling shoes. I got to transition, took off my helmet, stuffed my feet in my pre-laced shoes, grabbed my water bottle and visor and took off. <br />
Side note: Read Eric’s blog (http://trierictri.blogspot.com) if you want to read a good description of how to do a transition properly. I do believe I have read every race report he has ever written, and he is very methodical, and I tried to emulate him. What Would Eric Do? Apparently, Eric would also yell at you if you never practiced a skill and tried it in a race. <br />
T2: 0:45 <br />
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Run:<br />
I felt like I needed to pee when I started running, and I contemplated ducking behind the same building I ducked behind in 2007, but I just told myself it wasn’t that bad. The run course was different than it had been in years’ past, and I think it was confusing, short, and probably plagued by people cutting the course. The course turned right onto a down and back into a parking area on a little peninsula on the lake. The course then headed in the direction of transition but turned right on the road heading out of the park. The course had a turn around on that road, and then headed back to the first down and back before turning left across the parking lot to the finish line. <br />
I got passed by a woman coming right out of transition, and I don’t recall any other woman passing me, which is huge, I tend to bleed places on the run. There were two women ahead of me that I could see. The one woman wasn’t making much ground on me, but I wasn’t catching up either. <br />
The first down and back is a bit of an up and down so I was prepared for a slight rise at the beginning, then enjoyed the little descent. As I made my way out to the second down and back, I spent a lot of time paying attention to who was coming in the other direction. I didn’t see many women at all so I figured I was in 3rd or 4th place overall. <br />
It was in that second down and back where I started to wonder why I was going so slowly, and that’s when I realized that it was a nice false flat. I was happy when I saw the turn around, but it also seemed short at that point, that heading straight back to transition wasn’t going to be close to a 5k. <br />
I enjoyed the run back towards transition as it was a gentle decline, and I was able to assess how much space I had on the women behind me. I think the closest woman behind me was about four or five minutes, and I felt confident that I would maintain my position in the race baring a cramp or falling or something stupid on my part.<br />
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When we got back towards the transition area, we were informed that we had to do the first down and back again, which I thought was kind of weird, but expected as the run would have been really short otherwise. I think there was lots of confusion at this point, and it also made it difficult because I could no longer just follow the guy ahead of me, I had to know where to go. <br />
While I did pass a few people on this last down and pack (people I am assuming who were just starting on the run), I could tell my run was starting to get very forced. My pace went from an 8:08 to an 8:25 (mind you most of this was a false flat) to about an 8:30. I was getting very stiff, and I never really payed attention to keeping my arms loose. <br />
On the last turn around, I could see that there were no women chasing me down so I kind of put it on cruise control to the finish. <br />
Run: 23:29 28th out of 107 (yes, I am pretty sure it was still short)<br />
I am not going to lie, the results make no sense to me. I don’t recall seeing four women ahead of me on the run, not to mention duathlon women on the course, and there were enough down and backs that I should have seen them. I recall seeing two. I am not going to say it’s intentional as it was very easy to do, even unintentionally, but I am pretty sure there was some course cutting taking place. Regardless, 5th overall out of over 100 women is a good result. I was 3 minutes back from the winner, and I did manage to place in the sprint at this race, FINALLY.<br />
Total Time: 1:20:46 3rd in the 30-34 age group, 5th overall.<br />
End Notes:<br />
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I can't think of anything that went wrong in this race. I got my watch on while riding just fine. I had no problem working the multi-sport function on my watch. I had gum ready for the run. I didn't drop my chapstick. I honestly don't think I have ever had a race go so smoothly.<br />
The top 3 women in the 30-34 age group all did better than the 1st place finisher for the men’s 30-34 age group.<br />
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Mentor came up to me after the race and poured an ice cold cup of water over my head. He was so excited for me, he said he heard them announcing my name as he was in T2. He kept saying, “you crushed it!” For him to say that, it’s a compliment. It’s rare for him to do or say anything that might inflate my ego.<br />
I was wondering why HFP decided to change the run course, and my best guess is because they lacked the volunteer support to man a 3rd aid station on the run course. Maybe not, but I hope they change it back to a closer to a 5k run (even though I don’t really complain about short run courses), but I think there was plenty of course cutting going on at this race. In almost every activity, I am starting to get this realization that volunteers are really underappreciated. So, the next time you are racing, say thank you to the volunteers and consider volunteering for a race yourself.<br />
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Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-55560957615332774232012-09-14T05:22:00.001-07:002012-09-14T05:22:36.442-07:00Rev3: Volunteer Report<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Rev3 is a half and full triathlon hosted at Cedar Point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had lots of friends competing in either the half or the full, and I just thought it would be a fun weekend to go out and support them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> If </span>I am going out to cheer, I might as well volunteer!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">On a whim, I reached out to someone with whom I went to high school, and she offered to let me stay with her on Saturday before the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought she was doing the full, but she was just doing the half, feeling a bit burnt out after rocking out Ironman Lake Placid in July.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My friend John was doing the half and staying Sunday night, and he said I could stay with him that evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I wish I could say that Saturday was a smooth day, but it was anything but.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything took a little longer than it should, and what I thought was plenty of time to get everything done, ended up not being enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>End that with some personal frustrations with people and forgetting toothpaste, and I ended up unloading on a friend who was in the wrong hotel lobby at the wrong time, and I appreciate his willingness to listen to me despite facing a big race the next morning.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">It was cool catching up with Chantell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was a senior when I was a freshman, so we didn’t know each other that well, but we threw together, although she was a very strong shot putter, and I was a pretty good discus thrower so there was no sense of rivalry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She also knew way more about was going on in high school, and it just reaffirmed what a naïve twit I was back then.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I woke up Sunday morning at 5:30 to go for a run before volunteering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was hoping for 10 miles, but the more I ran, the more I thought about how much of the day was going to be on my feet and how anything over 6 would probably be good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to stop to go to the bathroom, but for once, my stomach wasn’t having many problems with the idea of running.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I opted to run from our hotel to Cedar Point via the Causeway and then around <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Perimeter Road</st1:address></st1:street> to Hotel Breakers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought that with all the traffic it would be rather safe…ahh, not the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s say that my ankle is still a little sore from the multiple jumps out of a speeding car’s way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess some people don’t do mornings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last two miles back on the causeway were nice as the course was already closed off, and I was free from the near death experiences that plagued the last 4ish miles of my run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did stop and take some photos of the sunrise, realizing it was going to be a beautiful day!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I got back to the hotel right around 7 and gave a mental well-wish to my friends starting the full length triathlon (same as an Ironman, just a different name).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had my breakfast, watched some television, packed a mini-supply bag and headed up to my volunteer post a bit early.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I was excited to see some CTC people as I walked towards transition!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Janet and Tiffany both looked ready to rock the bike course!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I was scheduled to work in transition from 9:30 to 2:30, but I ended up working from 9 to 2:17ish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At first, I helped in the changing tent, and I also helped re-rack people’s bike bags. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that job was basically finished, I helped to keep unauthorized people out of transition and making sure people didn’t randomly walk in front of the athletes heading into the transition area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was during this time that I saw a lady trying to get to peel banana, but as she finished peeling it, it slipped out of her hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thinking about how crucial the potassium is in a banana, I ran to the aid station table, grabbed a banana and ran after her to give it to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She appreciated it, and I felt like I had done my good deed for the day.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">After about 10:15, we closed down the “swim in” chute and rolled up the carpet and pulled it to the side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In case you were wondering, a long carpet soaked in water and wet sand is shockingly heavy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I did have some kid ask me if I had ever done a full.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told him that yes, I had done two, so like any kid, he asked, “so why aren’t you doing this one?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Ahhh…I didn’t want to” was all I could muster.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">After about 10:30, I spent the next four hours at the dismount line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My job was to point at the line and tell the incoming cyclists to dismount their bikes before reaching that line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I probably had a half hour before the job really started, and I enjoyed talking to a CTC newbie Krystal and fellow CTC member Tim (who was one of the guys in charge of the volunteers in transition).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">I would say that this spot was pretty exciting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was very cool watching all the experienced triathletes do their flying dismounts, talk about impressive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time they got to me, they had their feet out of their shoes, and their body on one side of their bikes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Krystal was awesome as she kept me company, and we also enjoyed talking to a couple of older ladies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point, I overheard one of these ladies say something, “oh that was nice.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I looked over and asked, “are you two enjoying the view?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To which one of them responded, “Oh yes!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may be old, but we’re not dead!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How awesome!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking at some very good looking men is definitely one of the perks of triathlon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Aside from Krystal, there were several people from team Spin/Second Sole, and it was cool talking to them for a little bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was during that time, that I looked down the road, and about 20 feet away, a little girl had meandered in front of some oncoming cyclists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good thing I wore my running shoes!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran down and swooped the girl out of the oncoming cyclists’ path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I came back to man my dismount line, I had all the spectators start to applaud me…it was a little embarrassing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The older ladies kept telling people that “I had saved that little girl’s life.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think that is as much, but I might have prevented a cyclist from crashing and potentially hitting the little girl.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">The other good thing about working the dismount line was that I got to see pretty much everyone I knew doing the half.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some were really excited to see me, others (Eric Gibb) were so focused that there could have been half naked stripers, and he wouldn’t have noticed =)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">At one point, Krystal and some other CTC people went and got food and offered to bring back some food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was hungry, but I had food waiting for me in my bag so declined the offer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did ask for Diet Pepsi, which they brought, and which did help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Krystal did buy herself some sweet potato fries and was unable to eat them all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every one and a while I took a fry as she just had them hanging in front of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a little while, they were all gone, thanks Krystal!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Around 1pm, it was starting to get slow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the people doing the half were either running or finished, and the full racers were not quite finished with the bike course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had several friends doing the full, and I expected to see about four of them before I finished volunteering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first person I expected to see was Ken, who had told me he expected to be back to transition at 1:30.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure enough, at 1:28, there he was!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After Ken, I got to see Eddie, Janet and Brandon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Around 2pm, I was exhausted and wanted some real food!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also wanted to meet up with Durno and go cheer for people on the run course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Krystal and I walked over to the finish line just in time to hear them announce my friend Mack’s name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw Gibb and Brad and talked to them about what awesome races they both had, but was really on the hunt for Durno.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After about 20 minutes, I found him, and we made our way to the watering hole on the run course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">On our way, we animatedly cheered for all the people we saw on the run course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we got there, Tim had drinks waiting for us (although he had to leave by the time we got there), thanks Tim!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">After a very odd conversation with a man at the bar in a Harley shirt, I remember very little, but here are the highlights:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">-They had a medal fence around the patio without a door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I kept climbing up and over that fence eveytime I saw someone I knew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would have to say that the tally reached double digits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I managed to sit on the one ince top for quite some time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My balance was apparently steller that day!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">-I had dropped my chapstick pretty early in the afternoon, and anyone who knows me knows that I am likely freaking out about that…fortunately, Eddie gave me one he found in his stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">-Janet came off the bike in 2<sup>nd</sup> about 6ish minutes back from the 1<sup>st</sup> overall female.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Slowly but surely, she made up that time and won the overall women’s amateur race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I always thought that Janet was just naturally gifted until I did a workout with her last year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only is she talented, but She works REALLY hard!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have nothing but props for this awesome accomplishment!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">-At one point, I looked in my bag and found 2 Rev3 visors, no clue, absolutely no recollection of receiving them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">-I recall seeing Ken at mile 19, and he had on his game face. Despite some very drunken antics, he would not be broken!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Great race Ken, it was awesome see you rock this course!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we saw him in the parking lot later, he looked more human, but still a little low on energy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">-I do recall winning a pair of running shoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have no clue if they are any good, but they were free!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">-Eric tried to get the announcers to play our HTC theme song (Das Racist anyone?), but I don’t think they had it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be fair, even iTunes doesn’t have it!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">-I ate a ton of pizza and Eddie’s cookies at the finish line, but I wasn’t hung over in the morning so maybe that is the perfect meal!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">-Oh, near the end, someone slapped me in the face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was black out kind of pain, but Joe (Janet’s husband) assured me that my nose wasn’t broken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four days later, it still hurts!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>-According to J. Mack, I reached a level of intoxication he didn’t know possible for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Having seen me get smashed in ’09 after losing a bet at the Columbus Marathon, he thought he had seen me at my drunkest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said that it wasn’t even close.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">-CTC had an impressive day at Rev3<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">-I will probably not drink again anytime soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only time in my life do I recall honestly drinking more than I did at this race was the infamous party bus in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Santo Domingo back in 2003</st1:city></st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-79959881707677186012012-09-11T17:35:00.000-07:002012-09-11T17:35:13.172-07:00HTC: Part 3Van 2 piled into the van, and, in vain, attempted to find a place for breakfast. As a general rule, I do not eat anything at least 90 minutes before I run, and after my 5 mile run, I was hungry. As mentioned, we didn’t exactly have the healthiest selection of foods, so I opted for a diet coke and to wait until we found a restaurant to eat…<br />
We were stuck in traffic, and we were slowly but surely getting passed by LOTS of runners. At this point, I had several thoughts:<br />
1. Surely, we will turn off the HTC course and be able to find a place to eat<br />2. If we are stuck in traffic, what is our van who is actually running right now doing to get to exchanges?<br />
3. Yes, those oreos look good, but I want real food…okay, maybe just one.<br />
I recall Bill saying somewhat confidently that even if it’s a McDonalds, we were going to get breakfast. (Side note: not the first time someone promised to take me to McDonalds and failed to find one) Well, with every passing exchange zone, even the hope of McDonalds vanished. What was one oreo became three, maybe four. I was sad, dejected and crying behind my Smith shades. We were stuck in that traffic for about 2.5 hours, and like everyone else, went to the next major exchange and ate at the concession stand set up there. <br />
The only good thing about this time in the van was getting to check out some of the runners. There was one guy with an amazing body wearing animal print tights, and I couldn’t help but roll down the window, stick out my head and scream, “NICE!!!!” I believe he nodded in appreciation.<br />
The last major exchange was definitely the most interesting of the trip. I made a B-line to the concession stand. At the concession stand, they had a grill guy, and they wrote up a slip with your order and you handed it to the grill master. Now, if there is one thing I have learned from my mother, it is the ability to be completely comfortable starting a conversation with a total stranger while waiting in line. This stranger just happened to be tall and handsome and felt perfectly comfortable joining the rest of my group as we sat and ate our coveted food. One of the first things this guy asked me was if the two vans got along with each other. In a kind of, are you kidding, we looked at him and said, “we all get along great!” Apparently, he was in a van with five other women and the other van also had one guy and five women. <br />
Okay, stop right there. I am female, and if you tried to put me on a team with nine other women, I would probably walk away before you finished the sentence. But, more power to this guy, more power to him for carrying on a conversation with yet another woman. They had some problems with exchanges, at one point, one of their runners had to wait an hour for the other van. I guess that hour long wait created some bad blood that was kind of ruining the rest of the trip. For fear of having more delays, he had to leave, but he asked for my number before he did. <br />
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I might have bragged about getting some hot guy's digits after running about 11.5 miles with no shower and less than 2 hours of sleep, now that’s game! (Oh, he does live in Michigan so it is entirely possible that I will see him again). I have a feeling it will be much like the guy I met at a bar in Houston, Texas who let me crash at his place 3 years later to run my first marathon.<br />
Back to the race...<br />
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Per usual, Josh came in running like a cheetah, and we managed to get Robin up there in time for the exchange. Because their van hadn’t quite made it through the traffic, I walked with Josh back to our van and gave him some powerade. We waited there until Katie came running up with the clipboard. We were once again unable to hang out with the other van as we were fearful of traffic. It was around this time that the inability of my, or my teammates’ brains, to function completely started becoming apparent. I recall getting the clipboard and Josh’s finishing time and couldn’t figure out his segment’s time. I sat there for a few minutes before I sucked it up and used the calculator on my phone to do the math. <br />
Throughout the race, we were constantly predicting people’s finishing times to make sure that we would be at the exchanges when they got there. When multiplying pace times number of miles becomes difficult, you know you are no longer operating at full capacity. Conversations also became more deliberate. At one point, I recall talking to Bill about something that seemed important. He looked at me and apologized that he hadn’t been able to register what I was saying. I then looked at him and said, “oh, I don’t know what I said either.” With little sleep, little nutrition, and some significant physical exertion, I was breaking down physically, mentally, and somewhat emotionally. <br />
The next exchange had one of the more memorable moments for me on the trip. As we stood there waiting for Bill, some guy finished running, and he, in all of his soaked sweatiness, brushed up against my back. “UGGGG!” I recall yelling. There are worse things in life, but for someone who 1) doesn’t like smells and 2) other people’s body heat, this brush of bad luck left me retching. <br />
Now, John’s last leg looked nasty! It was almost 8 miles, and there just wasn’t any shade. While it was my job to continue to give John as hard a time as possible, even I had to relent after he finished that leg. He didn’t look good (or worse than normal, JUST KIDDING). It was during that leg that I was driving, and I nearly fell asleep at the wheel. It became clear to me that it was time to hand the keys over to someone else, even if I was still quite capable of some impressive maneuvering in the parking lot. I did do a bulk of the driving, but that’s because I have a strong propensity to get carsick. There are few people, my ex being one of them, who have never made me carsick from his driving.<br />
This exchange was also difficult to navigate. The volunteers were being quite strict about not letting people past a particular line, and well, I was having a hard time 1) hearing the person announcing the numbers coming in and 2) seeing the people as they came in as well. Consequently, I had to stand in front of the turn so I could see Jen as she approached and ran forward to get to the exchange line. <br />
When I got the snap bracelet, I was definitely in this “get this thing done” mode. It started with a mile climb on a gravel trail. Even though I only run trails usually a handful of times a year, my focus on cadence and the general momentum of the race that faster teams start later and catch up to the slower teams, I was just picking people off on this hill. I hit double digits on the number of kills I had on this trail. After the trail, it was another quarter-half mile of climbing. There was a runner right ahead of me, and his van came up and asked him if he needed anything, to which he responded, “yeah some tunes.” They fulfilled his request and started blaring “Ice Ice Baby!” The combination of cheesiness and preference for any music rather than silence made it an enjoyable few minutes of music. <br />
Once we reached that little summit, it was a nice downhill for about a mile and a half, and that is when my side cramps, and my stomach let me know that these last few miles weren’t going to be easy. I got to the flat section after passing a few people on the decent, and I just kept trying to count down the number of minutes until I should be finished. <br />
I still had a couple of miles to go, and I saw my team walking to the beach from the parking lot. They weren’t cheering for me so much as yelling at me that I needed to stop. While driving to the finish, they realized that they had forgotten to give me the timing chip (only required for the last runner on her last leg). As soon as they realized I needed this chip and wondered how they were going to find me to get it to me, I turned the corner, and John was able to attach it to my shoe. <br />
I wish I could say that the rest of the run was uneventful, but it was anything but. First, we had to run over a land bridge that was about 30-40 feet in the air with a significant grade and with hand rails that only went up to about my waist. Like many people, I am scared of heights, but unlike most people, I also know that I am clumsy enough to trip over an imaginary line and fall to a horrific death. I maintained relative control over the freaking out and made it over it safely. <br />
After that, some guy who had passed me started to slow up. He was wearing an Ironman Coeur d’Alene hat and opted to slow down and ask if that was an Mdot tattoo on my neck. At this point, we had about a mile to go, and I was honestly scared I was going to crap my pants. I tried to talk to him, but I couldn’t muster much more than what races I had done. I felt bad, but it was at this moment that I spotted a public restroom and excused myself to relieve myself and my fears of being truly embarrassed at the finish line. <br />
My pace had slowed down, and I took only a couple of minutes in the bathroom, but I still had about a mile to go. With my body completely rebelling from the concept of running and having at least half of my team waiting for me at the finish line, I pushed myself through the physical pain to get to the finish line. With about a quarter of a mile left, I heard them announce our team name and that I was finishing! I heard my teammates cheer, and I pushed to get to the finish line. The finish line was pretty poorly marked, and there was a woman walking through the finishing chute. I never know what to do, do I run past her, or do I let her have her moment. Having been faced with this decision a couple of times, I have decided that I just pass them if they are walking. <br />
Final leg had a 9:50 pace including the bathroom break, pretty pathetic, but would have been about 9:30 otherwise for my 5.2 mile run.<br />
Post Race:<br />
So, van 2 (my van) struggled to get to the finish line. In fact, they weren’t there when I finished and probably took another 30-40 minutes to get there after I finished, which I kind of expected when I saw them with a couple of miles left. <br />
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Standing there, van 1 was asking me questions like, so how was your second leg today? I looked at them and stared blankly. I honestly couldn’t remember. After a few cues and several minutes later, the run started to come back to me. Man, that run was less than 12 hours earlier in the day, and I honestly couldn’t remember it. <br />
I asked them about their 3rd legs, and they talked about having to run to get to the exchanges so the incoming runner didn’t have to wait. We stood around and waited until the Van 2 people finally made it there. <br />
It was kind of a cluster at the finish, and your team has to get called by the announcer to go through the chute and collect the medals. The team recommended that I try to get the announcers attention because I am female and well apparently pretty good at getting guys’ attention, but I had no flirt left in my tank so we sent the next choice: our team Clydesdale Steve Thompson who got our number called basically immediately! (Look back at my Part 1 and you will see Steve modeling his compression socks, he knows how to get someone’s attention). He later admitted he told the announcer we had flights to catch. <br />
I had to go through with someone with the clipboard, and I received our teams’ medals, which I got to give out to everyone. After a few team photos, we opted to skip the finish line party and head out to get some dinner on the drive back to Portland. I was a little disappointed as tall and handsome guy had invited us to a party, but no one (myself included) was really up for it.<br />
The last final bit of the saga was the death march back to the car. I hadn’t eaten for about 2 hours before my run. I ran for about 50 minutes, and then I waited for Van 2 for about 30 minutes, then another 20 minutes of photo taking and plan making. So that is over four hours of not eating at all after about a day of barely eating. I was crashing and had to walk about 2 miles to the van. For the second time that day, I started crying behind my Smiths because I was so hungry. I recall Kate comforting me, telling me I would be okay. I think she prevented me from breaking down completely on the side of the road. When we got back to the car, I downed a diet coke and some Nutty Bars that held me over until dinner.<br />
By the time we got to dinner, we were all in good spirits. We had good food, good conversations and shared the various stories from the different vans. It was at this dinner that I heard the most annoying but ironically funniest song I think I have ever heard (Das Racist: Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell) that has made me laugh ever since. <br />
Some Post Scripts:<br />
HTC has a rule trying to make sure people don’t sand bag their times, that if you finish within 30 minutes of your predicted time, that you receive an automatic registration for the following year. Well, we were 50 minutes ahead of schedule, and no one was sad that we wouldn’t be getting that auto registration. <br />
Everyone, new members and old, had a good time and are excited for the opportunity to do another relay in 2013. I am grateful for Joe who sent out that email back in 2008 starting the ball rolling on this relay.<br />
Being the last runner was really hard, and I give James and Josh props for having done it in the past. I had a longer time with minimal nutrition and little rest, it was difficult.<br />
I do not like racing feeling this under-trained. While I am grateful that my team cares more about having fun than being competitive, I re-affirmed that I do not like racing under-trained. I can get away with it on a bike, but when it comes to running, I am just not strong enough to get away with it.<br />
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Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-81157635625673238792012-09-10T18:33:00.000-07:002012-09-10T18:33:25.719-07:00HTC: Part 2After finishing up our first legs and dropping off JC's and Bill's wives who were enjoying the shopping available in Portland, we headed towards our next major exchange location.<br />
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We had a hotel reservation in St. Helens, but because of a fire at a tire store, there was ample traffic preventing a quick entrance, and we probably spent at least an hour trying to get to the hotel that could have been spent either showering or sleeping. I had contemplated showering, but by the time we got checked in, we were looking at less than 2 hours of sleep. Now, I am not a great sleeper, but I was asleep by the time my head hit the couch. We had a 2:30 am wake up to get Robin to the next major exchange, so I didn’t sacrifice that measly 90 minutes of sleep for a shower. I did, however, take the time to brush my teeth. <br />
When we got to the exchange, we had our one and only encounter with a not-so-chipper volunteer. Because we were coming from a hotel, we were coming to the exchange zone in the opposite direction of everyone else. The volunteer tried to tell us we were at the wrong exchange. We started making our way to the next exchange, but the description of Robin’s leg and the roads we were on just made J. Mack uncomfortable. We called the other van and sure enough, we had been directed away from the correct exchange. With about 30 seconds to spare, we got Robin to the exchange, but we didn’t really get to see our pals in the other van, but we did get them the keys to the hotel room. Now, it was 3:15am, but even in that darkness, Robin’s leg looked nasty, mostly uphill and not fun at all. <br />
I kind of took over the responsibility over the clip board so when we got to the next exchange, I was out with Bill waiting for Robin, and that had to be my favorite exchange. We were at some farm, and the sky was as clear and brilliant, it just couldn't be ignored. There was a very energized dog who was playing fetch with whoever was in the front of the Honey Bucket line. And then there was a moment when I heard someone say, look how good she looks, especially in that jacket. When I looked more closely, it was a gray jacket with "United States of America" on the back. It definitely looked like one of the American olympic athletes wore on the medal stand. Of course, I didn't think to look for a number or anything like that, but I like to think that the only stars weren't in the sky at that transition.<br />
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When Robin came back to the van, he was completely energized. He said he had a realization while on that brutal leg. Some guy said to him, “we are almost to the end” meaning of the brutal leg, when Robin said to him, “When you get to be my age, you don’t want to focus on the end, you really have to enjoy the journey.” <br />
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Now, if I felt bad for Robin because of the difficulty of his leg, I couldn’t believe Bill’s leg. At our very first relay, American Odyssey, Bill had the single hardest leg of the race, with something like a 15% grade climb after 2 miles of false flat. To this day, when I climb, I think of Bill “Billy Goat” Everett. Not only was it all uphill, but it was on a very dirt road. The dirt covered his glasses and between the dirt and the steam, he literally struggled to see, but he rocked it out regardless. <br />
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It was around this time that we were literally in “the middle of nowhere.” There was no GPS coverage, no cell coverage, I mean, they gave longitude and latitude coordinates for directions to the next exchange. After dropping off John and collecting Bill, we did have someone come by asking for “toe clips.” Talk about a time and place you don’t want to be stuck in a ditch. Now, I let John know that his “I am just going to take it easy lies” were not appreciated on his previous leg. Well, it took us a while to navigate through the vehicles on the side of the road (the parking lot for this exchange was literally the road). When we passed John, he was nearly finished, maybe a mile left of a 5 mile leg. I yelled out the window to him something like, “I see we are taking it easy, huh????” <br />
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Because of John’s speed, Kate, our next runner, was in quite a hurry and when she got up to the exchange she realized she was wearing two different shoes, one was hers and one was Jen’s. In a mad rush, we got her the right shoe in time for her not to make John wait again. Now, both John’s and Bill’s legs were on a horribly dusty dirt road. See photos of our “white” van after these legs. Now, John was a little fussy over the state of the vehicle, and when he saw the dirt, he thought it was chipped paint and nearly flipped out. After calming him down, we got moving to the next exchange. <br />
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I was kind of grateful with the timing of things, slowly but surely, the sun was starting to rise, and I was confident that both Jen and I would be free of having to wear the vest again. I don’t mind the safety vest, but by this stage of the race, they start to smell, and well, I don’t do smells. <br />
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After picking up Kate and dropping off Jen, we headed to my leg. We pulled in and were somehow picked out from the crowd of vehicles to try to give a jump to a vehicle that had died. Man, talk about some bad luck, one vehicle stuck in a ditch, another vehicle refusing to start. Despite trying to give them a jump, the vehicle wouldn’t start. I had to give over the driver seat to someone else to prepare for my leg. Now, it was about 7:15 when I would start running so I opted not to wear a visor and go for sunglasses and headband. I have to be honest, I bought these really cool orange Smith shades, and I was itching to wear them! Before the run, I got some great motivation from my team, Bill said to me, “what stands between me and 3 eggs over easy is your run, the faster you go, the faster I get my eggs.” Little did Bill know…<br />
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As Jen approached, there was a runner right ahead of her, and I kind of willed Jen not to pass her… the next runner, ahh, let’s just say didn’t have the body of a runner, and I was confident I could pass her. Now, this leg was just a shade under 5 miles, and it was in the 50’s temperature wise. I would have been cold had I not worn long sleeves, but I was a little warm in my neon Green Akron half marathon tech shirt. <br />
Sure enough, I passed several people on this leg, and I was feeling great. There was a guy in green who passed me, but then he stopped pulling away so I spent most of the run trying to match his pace. The cant in the road was pretty round so I was having a hard time picking somewhere to run, but I was making good time. After about a mile, my van passed me, which is always fun to hear your teammates hooting and hollering. Because we had been in the Middle-of-nowhere, Oregon for several hours, there was some concern as to whether our other van would be there on time. Sure enough, about 3 miles into my run, I was treated by another van of teammates cheering for me. I am still curious how I am so easy to spot from behind amongst lots of other runners, but the cheers were definitely a pick-me-up, especially since I was suffering from side cramps. (I almost never get side stitches when I run, it was a very odd experience for me). <br />
The other obstacle of this run was that I was running through a cloud. My shades were fogging up like crazy. I was definitely kicking myself for not going with the visor, but that’s what I get for putting fashion over comfort, a blind run!<br />
I believe I was still positive in the “road kill” game for the first 4.5 miles, and then it’s like the flood gates opened, and I got passed by about 6 people. I would have been upset, but one of the guys who passed me was in tight black running clothes, pretty ripped, and well, provided an excellent view! I almost said thank you, but I thought I had seen a wedding ring as he passed.<br />
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Once again, I was happy to see James ready to go and passed on the snap bracelet. I did suffer through Eric taking photos of the dew on my face, but once again, Van 1 didn’t have lot to chit-chat as they had to get back to trying to collect James after his last short run.<br />
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Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-69232675170405809632012-09-08T04:28:00.002-07:002012-09-08T04:31:12.301-07:00Hood to Coast: Part 1Explanation of this race:<br />
Hood to Coast is a relay race starting from Mt. Hood ending in Seaside, OR on the Pacific coast. There is a pre-determined route with 36 separate legs. Each person has what we call their number on the team from 1 to 12. This year, I was the 12th runner, which means I was responsible for running the 12th, 24th, and 36th legs. For these relays, you typically split the team into two groups: van 1 has runners 1-6, van 2 runners 7-12. Consequently, most of the race is spent with your 5 van-mates, while seeing the people in the other van about 5 times at “major exchanges” before the finish. Every leg is a unique distance and difficulty, both are measured and ranked. My leg was considered the 9th most difficult with about 16.5 miles. I believe Eric, who had the most difficult leg, ran closer to 21.5. James, who had the easiest, ran about 13.6. The disparity enables people of all abilities to be on a team. The relay covers about 200 miles and can take as little as 17 hours (yes, those people are complete freaks) and to up to 36 hours (people who are really enjoying the scenery or doing a really bad job of making it to the exchanges on time). Our team finished in 27 hours and 10 minutes, which was about 50 minutes faster than the predicted finish and with an 8:11 pace average. But, with averages, you have people way above that and others significantly below that…I think you can guess on what side of that average I was. We were 167th out of 1068 teams who finished. Yeah, the Burning River Runners rocked!<br />
Some general thoughts on the race:<br />
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This race had more volunteers and port-o-pots than any race I have ever done and both were very greatly appreciated. I was going to title this blog post, Hood-to-Coast: My Weekend of Honey Buckets, but the honey buckets (as the POP’s were officially named) were definitely not the highlight of the trip.<br />
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The major, and I mean major, problem with this race was the traffic. We had been warned plenty of times by plenty of people, but the congestion towards the end of the race was unreal. In fact, the more speedy Van 1 people even got out and ran (sometimes up to 2 extra miles) to their exchange points because the van was stuck in traffic. Van 2, however, lost any potential for real food or significant sleep because of traffic. Some was just a fluke because of a fire, but some of it was really bad and quite frustrating. I have been told that there just isn’t anything out there, but there has to be some way to get the Van 2 vans off the course for the 3rd legs for van 1. <br />
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Pre-Race:<br />
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I don’t know what I was thinking, but I booked a 6:15 am flight for both legs of this trip. I slept through my first alarm for my 4am wakeup call. Wow, I am glad that I set another alarm! I don’t usually set 2 alarms, I usually set a 2nd alarm to remind myself of something I am likely to forget. In this case, I just forgot to wake up after the 1st alarm.<br />
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On the 6:15 flight, we had the flight attendant who had obviously been doing the job for a while. During her safety instructions, she made such comments as, “we have provided you with complimentary oxygen masks” and “ask Sara, she’s new to the job and still cares.”<br />
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After nearly the entire team got to the hotel, we congregated in the hotel lobby and opened up a few cases of local brews. Shortly after, we got kicked out of the hotel (lobby)! Apparently, some hotels prefer that you and a few friends don’t smash a couple of cases of beer in their lobby, but we were welcome to their gazebo outside. I was definitely in a good mood by the time we left for dinner, not just from the beverages but because I just feel lucky to be part of this group. I feel like I just stumbled in on this truly great group of people, and I am truly grateful for it every time we get together to race.<br />
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In 2010, this same basic group did a similar relay called the Bourbon Chase, which started in Lexington then went to most of the Bourbon distilleries in Kentucky. While doing some research, we discovered there was a Mellow Mushroom in Lexington. Mellow Mushroom is a somewhat national pizza chain, but’s it’s pretty cool with awesome food. J. Mack discovered that the only one on the west coast was in Portland…it was an easy decision for the team to go there. <br />
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I recall eating way more than I should have, but at least I only had one more glass of wine with dinner. We went to the brewery across the street, and instead of women’s and men’s their restrooms were “Barley and Hops.” I have no clue, even now while sober, how someone is supposed to figure out which one to use. <br />
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Do you know what happens when a bunch of drunk people go grocery shopping for a weekend of running, this:<br />
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Nutty bars, pop-tarts, double-stuffed Oreos, one bag plain M&M’s, 2 big bags of peanut M&M’s, jolly ranchers, and then the more reasonable bananas, bagels, peanut butter, and granola bars. And that was just van 2. I do recall making the comment that going grocery shopping while drunk might not be the greatest idea, but going beforehand just didn’t happen. <br />
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I woke up Friday morning and felt anything but fresh. I opted to use the elliptical in the hotel gym rather than go for a run because it wasn’t that warm out, and I needed to sweat out the alcohol and because of gym’s proximity to a bathroom. As I posted on facebook, I equated this as “pulling a Durno” except I am not even half the runner Durno is. <br />
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Leg 1:<br />
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I had the 12th leg, which meant that I was the very last person to start and finish running. Having come into the race feeling under-trained and knowing that everyone from the team would be at the finish of all three of my legs gave me some added pressure to at least look like I was still running at the end of each leg.<br />
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There were a couple funny stories. At the first major exchange, we got to see some of the more crazy vehicles. Now, our team name was the “The Burning River Runners,” an accurate description and homage to the great Cuyahoga. Well, let’s say that some team names were rated NC-17 and some had decorations that made me a little, well, let’s just say uncomfortable. <br />
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I would say that the some funny stories included me trying to convince Bill to moo at people while he passed them, for nothing other than the hope that I would walk by a van and overhear someone say, “some guy mooed at me!” Seriously, how funny would that be?<br />
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At what was our worst exchange we were parked in a baseball field at a local park. Now, HTC has strict rules about no drinking as drinking, driving, sleep deprivation, and thousands of runners on the road are not conducive to safety. HTC relies on other teams to enforce such rules. At the 10th exchange, a cargo van a couple of vehicles down opened up their back doors and a bunch of beer cans fell out. While a few of them tried to distract attention by ensuring the crowd, “nothing to see here”, a few others kept trying to shovel the cans back in their vehicle, and they kept falling back out. Ahh… oops! I think we were so distracted by the scene that we might not have been in a big enough hurry to get to the exchange area. As we walked over there, we heard a “team 471, your runner has been here a long time!” “OH MAN!!!!!” <br />
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Now, J. Mack is fast, and I always give him props, but he said he was taking it easy. Well, he ran a 7 min/mile pace and that is not an easy pace for 7 miles!!!! I blame him entirely for getting to the exchange before we did! I don’t really blame him (completely), but he has managed to have to wait at the exchange zone at all three relays we have done. I felt horrible even if it wasn’t really my fault, except I should have been hurrying the next runner along to the exchange zone.<br />
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Getting to my first leg was stressful to say the least. Jen P, who is pretty fast, had a short little 4 mile run, and while it was 4 miles in the race, it took us a good 20 minutes to get to the exchange point. I had enough time to hit a honey bucket (pretty sure someone smoked something other than a cigarette in that one) and make the 6 minute walk to the exchange zone. I literally got there about 3 minutes before she did, thank goodness. She gave me a few words of encouragement, and I was off! <br />
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Now, it was about 9:30PM when I started so yeah, completely dark. After I think 6pm and until 7am, all runners are required to wear a headlamp plus at least a reflective vest. I was wearing a headlamp and a reflective vest with flashing red lights. Most of this run was on a paved running path, and I was fortunate enough to have had someone start about 20 seconds before me so I could see his bobbing light off in the distance. It felt a little sketchy running on this path thinking of all the potential scary people who could be out there just waiting for some naïve twit, but was comforted by the volunteers cruising on bikes in the opposite direction every few minutes. I did have a volunteer make a suggestive comment about liking my red lights, but I am assuming he was just being funny.<br />
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The other van had a pretty fierce competition going for how many people they passed or as it was dubbed “road kill.” I was pretty confident that “keeping track of the people who I passed” wasn’t going to take nearly as much effort as “keeping track of the number of people who passed me.” At first, I was averaging getting passed by a person a mile, which became about two people a mile by the end. I told everyone who passed me, “great job” and was happy that most people responded with a compliment.<br />
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This leg had a few hills on it, but for the most part, it wasn’t very difficult, other than being my longest leg, a little over a 10k. I tried to focus on keeping my arms loose and down, trying to increase my cadence climbing those hills, and staying comfortable. I will admit that I went out too fast, but I had been waiting for hours to run, and when I finally got the snap bracelet, well, it was my turn and the adrenaline took over for a little bit.<br />
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Being at night and there not being that many runners around, the only sound I heard was that of my Garmin beeping every half mile. Headphones were strictly prohibited (and people followed this rule), so I really just tried to focus on running. The only distractions were the frequent volunteers, the occasional quick conversation with a passing runner, and the presence of a 20+ mph headwind. I think I have said it before, but I think I have come to peace with the headwind, just acknowledging it will always be there.<br />
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After about 3.5 miles, someone passed me and said, “good job, we are almost there.” Although I had quickly thought that maybe they had shortened the leg, I knew that wasn’t the case so I responded, “well, if by almost done you mean we still have 3 more miles, then sure, we are almost finished.” I think he responded back, “oh, thanks for letting me know.” I couldn’t stop thinking about that…was I the only person out there that actually knew how long I was supposed to be running, I mean, are there people who don’t care how long they are running, they can just keep going forever? Or, for some people (not including while doing a marathon, HIM, or IM) that 3 more miles is "almost finished"? <br />
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About fifteen minutes later, I came upon an epiphany: peanut M&M’s are a HORRIBLE pre-run food. While it was a controlled anger, my stomach was oh so not happy with that particular choice. I was able to keep everything in, but I was grateful that I was approaching the finish. The exchange seemed to be in a club area of Portland, and with about a half mile to go, there were a few drunk women who thought it would be funny to race me to the finish line. I didn’t find it particularly funny, but I think they thought the finish line (or exchange zone) was much closer than it was so they petered out (thankfully), and I was able to pass them before giving the snap bracelet to James. <br />
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The vans were quite a hike away from the exchange so only two of the guys from Van 1, Josh and Eric, were there to walk me back to vans. I averaged 9:25 min/mile pace, not exactly speedy, but much better than pretty much any run I had done in the month I prepared for this race. One of the really bad parts about being the final runner was that I didn’t get to hang out very long with the people from the other van. Because James, the 1st runner, had the easiest overall assignment, as soon as we got back, they were always in a hurry because he only had to run 4 miles. <br />
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Oh, I was happy to have my first and longest leg in the bag. Just a little over 10 more miles to run! <br />
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<br />Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-52720761825797810602012-09-01T11:39:00.005-07:002012-09-01T11:39:52.144-07:00My carWhile I have taken the opportunity to tell this story to many people, I feel it is necessary to share it with the rest of you folks who I haven’t seen in the last few weeks.<br />
On a whim, I decided to go up and volunteer at the 2nd Rev3 preview day. It was a week before Hood to Coast [post(s)] will come, and I thought it would be a nice easy long ride if I were to lead the “C” ride. Let’s just say that my original plan for this ride didn’t work out, and I was grateful that I thought ahead and rushed to the aid station to make sure that the Spin/Second Sole guys didn’t leave before we got there. (As I got there, they were packing up, it was taking that LONG). On the drive home, my car started to act up and with about 4 miles to go, all the dials on my dash dropped to zero, but my car was still working so I kept going. Like an idiot, I got to the exit ramp and didn’t let my car idle, but turned it off to see if it would restart. No was the answer to that question. Now, the problem was that NOTHING on my car was working: no hazard lights, no locks, nothing. I get honked out by more than a few people, and I got out of my car screaming at a few of them. It was not a fun evening!<br />
I opted to have it towed to my apartment because my brother, a bus driver mechanic, yes I have a brother, assured me it was the alternator and was relatively confident he could replace it. Well, when he got to my apartment on Sunday afternoon, he discovered that my alternator is below the engine, in a not so convenient place. After taking off the shield on the bottom of the car, he realized, he just couldn’t get to it. So, we watched some Shark Week and let the battery charge enough to get me the mile down the road to the dealership. We made it down there without much trouble, and my brother gave me a ride to my parents’ house where I would pick up my mother’s car and drive it until my car was fixed… or at least that was the plan.<br />
Around 9 am, I got a call from the dealership rattling off a list of items on my car that merited some significant attention. This particular phone conversation left me in tears as the money I was thinking of spending to go to South Africa would now be enabling my 8 year old car to function. With that said, the car does have nearly 150,000 miles on it, and it really hasn’t been that big a pain. But, here is what bothered me: If it was going to cost so much to repair, mostly in labor, how would it only take less than a day to complete? Questions without answers…<br />
Then, around 4:15pm of the same day, I get another call from the dealership….<br />
Car guy: “Miss Rote, it’s Montrose Ford. We have some bad news.”<br />
Me: “No, you had bad news at 9am this morning.”<br />
<br />
Car guy: “Well, we had a tech take your car out for a test drive to make sure everything was working on your car. Shortly into the drive, he heard a squeak and decided to pull into a parking lot to investigate.”<br />
<br />
Me: “Okay…”<br />
Car guy: “He got out of the car, leaving the door open and as he looked under the hood, someone hit your car.”<br />
<br />
Me: “Huh?”<br />
Car guy: “We are very sorry, but it was other guy’s fault. We are going to need you to come and pick up a rental as it is going to take some time to get the door and panel ordered and on your vehicle.”<br />
<br />
Me: “Ok, I will be in at lunch tomorrow.”<br />
When I went to pick up said rental, the rental company tried to give me a compact. For you fellow cyclists, if you ever want a free upgrade, talk about putting your pick and your greasy chain in the back seat, and those guys become much more accommodating about giving you a bigger vehicle…and a bigger vehicle I was given, the ulimate soccer-mom-mobile: a Chrysler Town & Country. The Enterprise guy even put the seats down for me. While the car was definitely well-accommodating for my bike, it was huge, easily 1-2 feet wider and longer than my beloved Escape. I am not going to lie, I did not enjoy this vehicle. I also didn’t like things like, “do you want to pay $20 a day for incident insurance.” “NO! ARE YOU F****** KIDDING ME??!?! I AM NOT PAYING A PENNY FOR A RENTAL THAT I ONLY NEED BECAUSE THEY HAPPENED TO GET MY CAR HIT IN A PARKING LOT!”<br />
On Wednesday, I called the dealership to ask about my car and to inform them that I would be going out of town and to contact my mother if they had any questions. When I called, they informed me that they were still waiting to receive authorization from the insurance company, and that once they get the parts, it’s a 3 day repair. For those of you would have not worked in insurance, let’s break this down for you. The big problem is that the authorization was/is contingent on the guy who hit my vehicle calling his insurance company and starting the claim process. According to the actuaries at my previous place of employment, the likelihood of someone filing a claim reduces almost exponentially with every passing day. To hear that it was now Wednesday and no claim had been filed left me wonder if Spot was destined to be forgotten in the back room of the Montrose Ford body shop(yes, my car’s name is Spot). But, it didn’t bother me too much as I would be in Portland driving a stripped-down version of the soccer-mom-mobile so my car would be sitting regardless of whether I had possession of it or not.<br />
Now, on Friday while in Portland, I received a phone call in the middle of the night, or 5 am Portland time. I was making my way to the elliptical machine in the hotel gym to sweat out some of the beverages I had consumed the night/morning before, and I decided to call them as I warmed up the machine. Once again, a little public service announcement, if you are hit by someone with State Farm insurance, just start banging your head against the wall! I knew this fact a long time ago, but they are infamous for nickel and diming people, and they will drag things out for as long as possible. Here is just a little tid bit of the conversation I had with the agent.<br />
State Farm Agent: “Miss Rote, could you tell how the accident took place?”<br />
Me: “No.”<br />
SF Agent: “It was your Ford Escape that was hit in the Home Depot parking lot on Cleveland-Massillon Road, right”<br />
Me: “Apparently.”<br />
SF Agent: “Ok, were you driving your vehicle when the accident took place?”<br />
Me: “No.”<br />
SF Agent: “Oh, was this Montrose Ford tech Christopher driving your vehicle then?”<br />
<br />
Me: “Apparently.”<br />
The questions continued…<br />
<br />
SF Agent: “Do you know what garage you would like to have take care of your vehicle?”<br />
Me: “I don’t know, where it is at currently.”<br />
SF Agent: “Oh, okay, they are a preferred garage so that will work.”<br />
Side note: This statement is approaching steering, which is illegal. I have the right to take my car anywhere I please to have it fixed, whether it’s a preferred garage or not.<br />
SF Agent: “Do you need a rental?”<br />
Me: “I have a rental.”<br />
SF Agent: “Oh, your car was still driveable so we are not covering the rental until the car is actually in the garage for repairs.”<br />
Me: “It’s currently sitting in the garage waiting for repairs.”<br />
SF Agent: “Oh, well, we aren’t covering that until it’s authorized then.”<br />
<br />
Me: “I am hanging up now.” <br />
I then received a call from my mother who informed me that Montrose Ford had called, asked her for approval to make the body shop repairs. They also said that the guy who hit my car was trying to fight it, trying to deny responsibility for the accident. Of course he is! Thankfully, police reports have been invented, and Montrose Ford was making sure this guy didn’t shirk his responsibilities.<br />
<br />
Fast Forward to Tuesday:<br />
On Tuesday, I received a call that my car was ready to go. Because of the Westlake Crit, I didn’t have time to go after work, so I went before work on Wednesday. <br />
Wednesday:<br />
After moving half of my stuff, I noticed that the liner my brother took off while trying to fix the car was still in the back of my vehicle. I asked them if it was possible to put it back on, and they said sure, but that they didn’t have a tech in until 8am. I said that it’s fine, I will come back at lunch.<br />
<br />
At lunch, I went back to the dealership. I put all of my stuff in my car (including my bike, pump, bike bag), then took a look at my new driver-side door and realized that the keypad was no longer on my vehicle. I don’t know why 1) I didn’t look for it in the morning or 2) I didn’t look at it before moving my stuff, but alas, I hauled all of my stuff back to my soccer-mom-mobile and off I went.<br />
Since I had a group ride that evening, I told them I would come back Thursday morning and pick my Escape up before work.<br />
Thursday:<br />
I picked up my vehicle, and everything seemed to be okay…the keypad was on the car, the liner was on the car. Finally, my car was back in my possession, and I was rid of the soccer-mom-mobile! As I drove to work, I started to notice that the radio didn’t sound quite right. After a little investigation, I realized that the speaker in my driver-side door was not working?!?!? Seriously!!! At lunch, I once again took my vehicle back to the dealership. They had already processed my rental, so I once again got a new rental—this time a Ford Fusion. No, I don’t want the insurance, no, I am not happy, but at least this car fit into the parking spaces at work.<br />
Finally, without drama and hoopla, my car was finally finished Thursday evening. No free oil change, no coupon, no discount on future service, just a “sorry about the whole accident thing.” <br />
In total, my car received nearly $4,500 worth of repairs. It’s a 2005 Ford Escape with nearly 150,000 miles. I can honestly say that I believe that more money was spent on it than it was actually worth, but I am hoping that I can keep it running for another 75,000 miles.<br />
Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-16765695392931795312012-08-14T05:39:00.001-07:002012-08-14T05:39:04.023-07:00Smith Dairy Milk RaceGeneral Overview:<br />
<br />
Like many smaller races, there was only one women’s race: CAT 1,2,3,4 race. As a CAT4, I find these races are a bit unsettling, knowing you are walking into the race as an underdog. This particular race was a circuit road race with 3 laps of a 10 mile loop. The course was pretty flat with one 1-2 minute climb almost exactly in the middle of the loop. <br />
<br />
Pre-Race: <br />
<br />
I was actually pretty cold before the race, I contemplated putting on arm warmers, but then I remembered a conversation or a voicemail or a text that I got from a friend before the road race at Tour of the Valley where he said just to work a little harder if I got cold. <br />
<br />
In a meeting at work on Friday, somehow this race came up, and I recall saying, “it should go well, but it really just depends on who else shows up to race.” As my coach predicted, the Cleveland Clinic squad was fully represented, and when they got to the line, you could almost see people retching from the shot in the gut seeing them at the starting line threw. Maybe because I am new to the sport and still pretty naïve, but the defeatist attitude that takes over the field at nearly every race frustrates me. I get that they are strong, and I get that they are pretty much stronger than me in every facet of cycling, but I appreciate the opportunity to learn from them and am hopeful that someday winning for them is not a simple function of showing up.<br />
<br />
Loop 1: <br />
<br />
Honestly, I recall the first loop starting off at a nice and comfortable pace. After a few miles, I saw Sally head towards the front, and I opted to follow. A couple miles down the road, I chased her down when she attacked. The field was large enough that getting blocked was a significant concern so I consciously stayed near or in front. I wasn’t thrilled with how much time I was spending in the front, but I think most of the time I was in the front was in relatively easy sections of the course.<br />
<br />
The hill caught me by surprise, not because I didn’t know it was there, but by how poorly I rode it. I suddenly found myself in the OTB having to bridge a gap to get back to the field. <br />
<br />
Oh, with about two miles left in the loop, I overheard some women asking me to lift up my jersey because they wanted to see the rest of my tattoo on my back. I quickly pulled it down, but once again, I found myself cursing my too long torso and too short women’s jersey! I was definitely embarrassed!<br />
<br />
I don’t think much else was eventful on this loop other than not particularly enjoying the last mile of the loop. It was an uphill finish with a headwind and there was no overhead indication of where the finish line actually was, making the eventual sprint to the finish harder to time.<br />
<br />
Loop 2:<br />
<br />
The second loop definitely got a bit more exciting. Cleveland Clinic started putting on an attacking display, one attacking right after the other. We would chase one down, the next would go. We would chase her down, and another would go. I finally said to another rider to let the rider go, let her dangle out front. Thankfully, I was right that once someone was OTF, they stopped attacking. She wasn't making any ground on the field, and I was fairly confident she would get roped back into the field eventually.<br />
<br />
Right before we approached the hill, I took the turn rather aggressively as I was front, and I found myself kind of in no man’s land. I hadn’t meant to surge ahead, but I was stuck in the middle unable to bridge up to the person off the front but significantl ahead of the field. I didn’t think it mattered because I hadn’t climbed the hill particularly well on the first time through, wasn’t likely to do much better the second time around the course. Eventually, the field swept me up, and we caught back up with the one woman out front. <br />
<br />
I once again managed to ride the hill quite poorly. I really had to work to catch back up, but back up I did. I think it was around then that Sally attacked but she was suddenly gone, and I don’t really recall seeing it happen. I wasn’t the only one because others didn’t realize she was gone either.<br />
<br />
Also at this point, one of the fellow riders said to me, “are you a triathlete?” I am not going to lie, it felt insulting. As a triathlete, we are well aware that we don’t “fit in” with swimmers, roadies, or runners. In cycling, we get yelled at for not holding our lines, poor handling skills, or not riding in a pace line correctly. So, even if it’s because I wasn’t wearing kit shorts and not my riding, I did not appreciate being called a triathlete.<br />
<br />
When we finished the second loop, I heard someone tell Sam that Sally had 45 seconds on the field. I am sure it was more by the time we finished as her team did an excellent job of slowing down the pace.<br />
<br />
Loop 3:<br />
<br />
At this point, I still felt very strong and was frustrated with the size of the field. I wanted to place in this race, and while the race director apparently changed how many places there were going to be, I wanted to be guaranteed to be “in the money.” In my mind, that meant top 5. There were 11 still in the field so there was a lot of work to be done, and I already felt like I had been doing more than most to keep the race together. I should say that Lorena from Snakebite, Jane from Spin, and two women from Competitive Cyclist (???) did a ton of work too, but there were plenty of others sitting in enjoying the fruits of our labor.<br />
<br />
At that point, I talked to a couple of people about when I wanted to attack and tried to recruit them to work with me. The one sounded up for it, but the other said that she didn’t think she had enough left in the tank. While good in theory, things never work out the way they are planned.<br />
<br />
About two miles into the third loop, there was an attack, and three went off the front. I thought that it wouldn’t survive through the hill so no one of chased it down. When we got to the hill, for the first time, I opted to stay in the big ring and grind it out. I was losing too much speed going into the little ring, and I just couldn’t afford to spin up the hill. Fortunately, one of the women that was in the break made a badly timed decision to drop to her little ring and consequently dropped her chain. She had to stop to put it back on. (Ironically, when I contemplated dropping to the little ring, I remembered dropping my chain at TOV by making a similar decision). The loss of momentum was enough to break those three apart, but the field took the hill pretty hard, and by the time we got to the top, the field was fragmented. <br />
<br />
The field had already given up on chasing down Sally. So, first was long gone. In front of me there were three women, followed by two more who were maybe 20 yards behind them, and then me followed by a couple of stragglers. Knowing that there were only about 4-5 miles left, I let the adrenaline take over and quickly caught up with the first two women, dropping the stragglers behind me. To say I had a bit of adrenaline pumping might be an understatement, I was really trying to encourage the other two to work with me, that if we worked together, we could get past the three ahead of us. The one, Lorena, asked me to pull up and pull as I apparently had some fire in my legs. I took over pulling and was in front when we made a turn. If you have read my blog posts at all, you know that I love turns in races. Like all other races, I took this one aggressively, which gave me a quick boost to the three women ahead of us. Unfortunately, the two women behind me weren’t able to follow my line through the turn and were stranded without me. I wanted Lorena to keep up because I thought she would work with me through the finish, but when one of the women saw her approach, she picked up the pace and made sure no one else bridged up to us. <br />
<br />
With about 2 miles left in the race, it was pretty clear that I was in the top 5. The two women behind were not catching up, only one other woman in our pack of four was willing to work, and I got stuck in the front pulling us to the finish line. <br />
<br />
When we made the turn, it totally blew as there were a few cars right by where we knew the finish line to be. Having pulled for way too much of this race, I just didn’t have much sprint speed left in the legs, not that there is much there usually. I managed to drop one of the women, but was several bike lengths behind the 2nd and 3rd place finishers. <br />
<br />
Post Race<br />
<br />
I was very excited with my finish, but I am slightly disappointed too. I had a fortune cookie before Tour of the Valley, and the fortune said, “We must not become complacent over any success.” Don’t get me wrong, getting 4th at this race is not a trivial accomplishment, but I am disappointed in myself for not fighting harder in the sprint. In that moment, I was complacent with placing, didn't matter where I placed.<br />
<br />
Post Race:<br />
<br />
I had several women ask if they could see my tattoo. Apparently, they couldn’t see the whole thing so were very curious what it was. I guess my ex isn’t the only person fascinated by the monkey on my back. Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-19671107119553877912012-07-30T16:43:00.000-07:002012-07-30T16:43:46.739-07:00Lakewood Criterium<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Wednesday night, a couple of way-more-experienced friends came up with a race strategy for me. I asked my coach what he thought, and he said, “they are not steering you wrong, that’s a solid plan.” <br />
<br />
<br />
Now, I have one of my biggest races coming up at the end of August, and it’s a running race, Hood to Coast in which I have to run about 16.47 miles in less than 24 hours. At some point last week, I looked at a calendar and realized it was a month away and thought, “oh F***!!!” While my coach won’t add run workouts to my schedule, he knows that I am running in the morning 3 days a week, and I even asked him if he was okay with me running the morning of this race, and he said it was fine so I did an easy 4 mile run in the morning, knowing I would have about 9 hours for my legs to recover.<br />
<br />
I got to the race way too early, but that is nothing new. I saw some friends at registration and talked to another woman racing. I then went back to my car and ate my snack and did some general bike maintenance. <br />
<br />
Here is why this blog is why it is called as such. In this parking lot, some older guy with his son pulls in and starts talking to me. He asked me if I am new to this stuff, and I gave the normal line about being about 2 months into the sport but that I have been doing Westlake ever week for the last 6 weeks. To which he responds, “Oh, I can’t believe I don’t remember you, my son does Westlake every week. I would think I would remember… those glasses.” HUH??? My Oakley’s are nice, I will give him that, but that’s the compliment I get, my glasses? He had to ask me at least 5 times if I needed help pumping air in my tires. I will admit I made a bit of a fumble, I safety-pinned my number to my jersey, and it was hitting my arm so I needed to take it off and re-do, and since he asked me if he could help about 10 times by then, I asked him, ‘would you help me with my bib… number?” To which he responded, “Honey, I will help you with anything you want.” I am glad he wasn’t there an hour earlier when I was lubing my chain. <br />
<br />
I ran into lent-me-his-jersey Andy as I waited for course to open up between races. It’s always nice to see him! I then did a few warm up laps while chatting with one of the strong CAT2 women racers about our thoughts regarding the race. There was still one more race before ours, but it’s good to get as familiar with the course as possible.<br />
<br />
While waiting for my race, I found my friend and running partner who I talked into coming to watch. I talked to him for quite a while. He kept asking me if I should be warming up, and I said I did a few laps, waiting for the current race to end before doing more. I did two more laps before our race and lined up with the 7 other women racing and wouldn’t you know who lined up right next to me: RUDE LADY from Twin Sizzler! She said hi, and I was polite, but man, if anything got my blood going, that was it. With the two best female cyclists I know in NE Ohio standing to my right in Sally and Sam and Rude Lady to my left, I knew it was time to ride hard!<br />
<br />
Side note: I have nothing but nice things to say about Sally and Sam. I have known them for about as long as I have been riding, and while I have never been in their league, they have always been encouraging and genuinely just nice to me and everyone else. I will never forget seeing Sally out running the Tuesday before I did Ironman Louisville back in 2010. She not only remembered that I was racing (because my coach had told her), but she wished me well and gave me confidence that I was strong and was going to do awesome. Nothing but respect do I have for these women.<br />
<br />
The race started, and I guess it was a pretty fast pace. Sally took over the front for most of the first lap, but I swept in front right before the only turn over which I had any concerns. I wasn’t concerned about the turn so much as I was more concerned about getting behind someone who was scared of the turn. I pulled through the false flat and most of the straight away, I do recall hearing one friend yelling at me not to work so hard so I pulled off the front. I was grateful that I had so many friends out there cheering for me. It’s a lot easier to suffer to stay with the field when you know people are watching.<br />
<br />
Pure and simple, here was my strategy: Let Sally go, follow Sam. I am not saying Sam is weaker than Sally, but that Sally is likely to attack and as a good teammate, Sam will let her go and try to stall attempts to reel her back to the group. Well, one of the other women, the one I edged out at the line at the Tour of the Valley crit, refused to let Sally go, she chased down nearly every attack Sally made. I might have chased down one, but I wouldn’t quote me on that. Since Sally didn’t escape, Sam would hustle back to Sally and Jane, and I worked my a$$ off to get back to the three.<br />
<br />
A friend told me that during the race, the announcer was making comments about all the racers because he knew most of them. He didn’t know me so I guess he referred to me as “the unknown racer who must be the smartest one out there because she is just sitting in the back letting everyone else do the work.” I am glad it looked that way, but I was fighting with everything I had to stay with those three women. <br />
<br />
Being that it was only 30 minutes, it felt like we had prems every other lap, and the sound of that bell nearly made me cry by the end as I had no desire to go for a prem and Sam and Sally just kept upping the pace on those prem laps. As we finished a lap, I would often look down and see the speed in the high twenties to low thirties on a flat straight-away. With no hill on the course, my max speed was 32.8 mph. <br />
<br />
Every once and a while, Sally would talk to me, encouraged me that I was doing awesome, yelling at me for riding next to her and not right behind her. She wasn’t really yelling, but telling me that I need to ride smarter, conserve my energy. Look at the photos, and the mistakes I was making were pretty clear.<br />
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The field dropped from 8 to 5 after the first lap according to the photos. One of the accelerations for a prem dropped it down to 4 as one woman just couldn’t get back with the field. I was pretty content with getting 4th figuring that on the prem laps I was getting left in the dust by the other three women. But, then, I saw some awesome teamwork by Sam and Sally. On the final lap, Sally attacked and Jane went after her and before Jane had a chance to recover, Sam counterattacked, and just like that, Jane was gone. It was down to the three of us. I knew there was no chance I was going to catch Sally, and I was about 10 yards behind Sam and felt like I was catching up to her, but I don’t think Sam was really worried I would catch her.<br />
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Getting 3rd in this race was awesome, staying with Sam and Sally was even better. As I was telling someone about the end of the race, I said something like, “Cleveland Clinic did the work for me” to get rid of Jane, but then I thought, well, they were probably trying to drop me too. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I realize that I wasn’t their concern, fine by me. Their strategy exposed the weakness to chasing down all of their attacks. I wasn’t chasing down anything except the end of the line. They were perfectly fine with letting me tag along with them.<br />
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As we coasted on a cool down, both Sam and Sally told me how awesome I had done, they even explained how they got Jane to drop. I thanked them for the kind words and for helping me get 3rd. It was an awesome race and a huge boost of confidence!<br />Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-86333079235774621612012-07-17T19:18:00.000-07:002012-07-17T19:33:04.532-07:00Tour of the Valley - Day 3: Criterium<br />
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After Saturday’s cluster**** of a road race, I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with my coach discussing potential strategies for the crit. I had no intention of riding this course at 15 mph. We discussed the possibility of a euro start, how and when to attack…and then I got to the race and saw the GC standings. (Note: GC is the general classification, or yellow jersey race. For our race, placing in the top 10 (15 for the road race) comes with getting points towards the GC. Because I had a relatively high placing in both the time trial and the road race, I knew I was likely high on the standings.) I was tied for 3rd in the overall classification. Mark’s parents and brother had come out for the race, so I spent a few minutes talking to them, and then a father of one of the junior’s racing gave me his insights into the course. <br />
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I got there plenty early because I wanted the opportunity to pre-ride the course, I learned my lesson on that one. Looking at the schedule, it didn’t look like there was going to be time to ride it between races so I got there with enough time to ride before the men’s CAT5 race. <br />
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I did a few loops and realized the loop was pretty simple. It started with a simple left 90 degree turn, a straightaway, another 90 degree turn, then a downhill ending in a 90 degree turn but with 4 lanes of road, then a sharper 90 degree turn on a small alley road with some significant holes with a short straightaway before the climb. The climb was a short power climb, manageable in the big ring, that leveled off to a false flat to the finish. None of the turns were very technical so I was pretty certain it was going to come down to attacking on the climb, not good for the big girl in the field. I then met up with my friend Tif, and we discussed strategy. She was willing to help me if she could, but she wasn’t sure how she was going to feel. We did a few miles of warm up, and it was pretty clear I was nervous. At one point, we were stopped at a light, and I looked to see my arms quivering. She wanted to warm up some more, but I needed to clear my head a little bit so we parted ways. I talked to one of the juniors who had just finished racing and who does the Westlake Crits, and he gave me his thoughts on the course then I went down to the race start.<br />
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After the men’s CAT5 race, there was enough time to take a lap before the Women’s ¾, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I just stood there. I then talked to another woman I know from the Westlake Crits, explained my position in the GC and asked if she could help me if she could. She said she would, but like all the women who have raced hard for two days, she just didn’t know how her legs were going to respond.<br />
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Now, this race was set up to take 45 minutes. After about 3 laps, they would calculate how long we were taking to do a lap, then post how many laps we had remaining. Unlike the day before, the race pace started fast. Despite about 35-40 feet of elevation gain on the course, and a headwind on the downhill, the pace only dropped below 20 mph for the field for one lap near the end of the race. Apparently, I wasn’t the only person who didn’t want a field of 21 in the bunch sprint. So, after three laps, they posted 13 as the laps to go. Man, that number was discouraging considering how hard those first three laps felt.<br />
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In one of the first few laps, I saw Angie, who I would consider Snakebite’s team captain go for an attack. I was pretty impressed by the effort, I am not sure if she was trying to escape, so much as tire the field out for her rider Lorena who had won the road race the day before. The field had no problem chasing down Angie, but I give her props for it. <br />
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As this race proceeded, here is what I noticed. The women in field were not taking the downhill turn with any sort of speed nor was anyone taking the tight turn aggressively. By the top of the hill, I was definitely near the back of the field, but even the women in the front were tired from the push up the hill so we all used the straightaway to the turn as a chance to recovery, except after preims when the push through the finish line pushed the pace up without the recovery. It was after the preims that I tended to yo-yo off the back pretty badly. Thankfully, Mark was standing right there at the turn, and he, and a few other voices, kept cheering for me with each passing lap. It genuinely helped me suffer to get back to the group.<br />
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(Note: preims are one interesting caveat of crit racing. To keep races interesting, they have cash prizes or sometimes equipment they award to the person who wins the sprint at the end of certain laps. They call out the preim laps by ringing a bell. Our race had 3 preims: cash, tires, and cash.)<br />
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As I said, I noticed the pattern in the race pretty quickly. I think the pace was high enough that no one was contemplating attacking… except me. I knew that there was no way I was going to out sprint anyone at the finish as I was struggling about as bad or worse than any of the other 11 women still left in the field on the hill. To get any GC points, I needed at least to outsprint 2 of them, and even that would not be enough to guarantee a podium spot. So, on the last preim lap, I opted to test out my strategy and attacked on the downhill so I could take the turns aggressively and see how much of a head start I could get on the hill. <br />
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I definitely hit the hill with about a 10 yard gap, but I couldn’t sustain the lead and didn’t get the preim. Truth be told, as soon as I saw another person, I backed it off because I needed to recover as we still had 5 or 6 laps to go, and I had just put in a massive effort. I yo yoed pretty badly off the back for the next couple of laps, but I was completely determined not to drop. I was working about as hard as I have ever worked to stay with a group on those next few laps, but I absolutely refused not to score in this race. I also had a sinking suspicion that what happens at Westlake frequently would also happen here, that with about 3 laps to go, suddenly, everyone wants to save themselves for the sprint, and the pace would slow down. Sure enough, with three laps to go, the pace slowed down to below 20 mph. <br />
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With that slowed pace, I was fairly confident that my strategy would work. I am sure that at some point I will either get burned by testing my strategy in a race or will get to the point that I no longer need to test my strategy to be confident it will work, but thankfully, testing my strategy didn’t seem to have any ill effects. So, on the final lap, I attacked on the downhill, took over the front for the downhill turn, spreading out the field. I stayed in front on the tight turn and hit the hill in front. <br />
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Small problem, the field of dropped riders hit the hill at the same time so it was kind of a cluster finish, and one rider in the dropped field got in my way on the climb, but that’s just part of racing. I took the hill with everything I had and kept the speed up. I even managed to edge the woman who was tied with me for the GC at the finish by about 5 inches. When I counted, it looked like I got 7th, which I was pretty sure would be good enough to keep me on the podium for the general classification, especially since the girl in 2nd had been lapped and the woman in 1st at least finished behind me if not out of any points at all.<br />
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I was right that I got 7th, edging out the other 3rd in the GC woman at the finish. I was so proud of the way I performed in this race. I was pretty confident that if I didn’t make a strategic move, I was not going to place in the top 10 and would kick me off the podium for the GC. I kind of feel like I stole my position, expect I know as well as anyone that the strongest riders don’t always win. I did well because I examined the race and capitalized on a weakness in the field. Now, considering my size and the sheer massive size of my quads, I need to get better at the bunch sprints, but as I said, bunch sprints is not even a skill I have considered practicing before this weekend. (Look at the photos and tell me that my legs aren’t twice the size of most of my competitors!)<br />
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So, for my first stage race, I ended up getting 6th in the time trial, 7th in the road race, and 7th in the criterium, good enough for a 4th and a podium finish for the general classification. I won a box of honey stingers (strawberry) and shot bloks (citrus) so at least I won’t go hungry riding my bike anytime soon!Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128666226003383734.post-4011535999986428172012-07-17T19:14:00.000-07:002012-07-17T19:14:40.238-07:00Tour of the Valley - Day 2: Road Race<br />
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As mentioned in the last blog post, I was kind of traveling with Mark, Eric, and Ken. Having my only, “oh man!” description of the road race course, they opted to wake up early to drive the course before the race. While I pre-rode the course the Friday before the race, I opted to head out at the same time, figuring a little refresher of the course wouldn’t be a bad thing. <br />
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After a wonderful breakfast prepared by Mark’s mom, we headed out for the road race that started at Columbiana High School. Mark opted to sleep rather than drive the course because he thought sleep was probably going to help him more than anything. I went with Eric and Ken and we drove the first few miles of the course, then cut across and did the last half of the course. It was good to see what the last roller looked like as well as a recollection of just how hilly the course was after the “rollers.”<br />
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I still had over an hour before my race, and I was starting to panic a little bit. The temperature was in the low 70’s, and it was calling for rain. I am fine with either one of those, but put them together, and I am a little nervous about what to wear. I went for a warm up wearing long sleeves to see how warm I felt, and I was definitely overheating. No long sleeves, no arm warmers, if I got cold, I would just have more of an incentive to work harder.<br />
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Because of some serious gravel at the beginning of the course, the first half mile of the race was neutral. They also started the juniors at the same time so we all kind of agreed to allow the juniors to get ahead before we started racing. Little did most of us know that the race really wouldn’t start until the bunch sprint.<br />
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Somehow, and I have no idea how, I ended up in the front. I didn’t want to be in the front, had no intention of working hard so I waited for someone to pass me… and no one did. I kept dropping the pace waiting for someone to pass me, and no one did. Finally, Gwen came up and at least started pulling with me, but when we got to the first slight uphill, I told Gwen I was going to noodle it, forcing someone else to take over the pace setting. I think I pulled the first 2-3 miles going 14 mph. <br />
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Here’s the thing: there were several teams represented in the field. They should have been setting the pace. The bunch of individuals that were scattered throughout the field had no reason to set the pace because they weren’t working for anyone other than themselves. I think a lot of people assumed that the toughness of the course would create significant attrition, but not at the embarrassingly slow pace that was set. Once some other people started setting pace, I sat in the back and couldn’t take it. It was absolutely pathetic! Trying to convince some people to go with me, I said something under my breath and attacked about 5 miles into the race. I was hoping that someone would go with me, but no such luck. I got about 20-30 yards on the field, but they quickly picked up the pace and swallowed me back up. It wasn’t really a case of wanting to escape so much as trying to tire out the field a little bit.<br />
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I cannot express how boring and frustrating it is to be in a race when no one is willing to work. No one was willing to attack. No one was willing to go with me when I attacked so it was just a very boring ride. Around mile 9, I got so tired of braking on the downhills that I just went to the right of the group. Someone called out “she’s attacking!” I screamed back, “No, I’m just tired of braking.”<br />
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At mile 11, the “rollers” started and lasted until mile 21. These ten miles were what made the course. Now, for most people, “rollers” are little hills that go up and down and that you can use the momentum from the downhill to coast nearly to the top of the next hill. These hills were not those kind of rollers. These hills were all at least a half mile long so at best, you might have been able to coast a third of the way up the hill. But, not in this race! There was no coasting up the hills, there was too much braking on the downhills. Literally, for nearly the entire 10 mile section, all I heard was the echoes of various women warning that they were “slowing” so prevent anyone from causing a crash in the field.<br />
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I think that the woman pulling for most of the race was trying to tire out the field by making everyone climb every foot of every hill. While in some ways, I agree with the strategy, the downhills were long enough that they gave most people adequate recovery. I am not lying when I say that I probably had at least 20 if not 30 pounds on nearly all of the women in the field so getting up those hills was probably harder for me than nearly anyone else, and I was hurting on the climbs, but recovering well on the downhills.<br />
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The one bit of excitement for me was that on one of the last rollers, I think there was one left, I opted to shift to the little ring a little late, and I dropped my chain. In a normal road race, that pretty much would have ended my race. I had to stop, and it took me about 20 seconds to get my chain back on before I could start again. Fortunately, the group was on a false flat, and I was able to hustle to get back to the group. I would say that I time trialed it to catch the group, but really, it wasn’t that hard of an effort to get back. When I got settled back into the group, I looked down at my hand and realized that I mashed my finger against the gears pretty badly as I was kind of gushing blood from my middle finger. It reminded me of SO who had blood all over his jersey after Calvin’s. In the middle of a race, there’s just not much you can do about it. <br />
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I think there were a few more attempts to break in front towards the end of the rollers, but they were more attempts to reduce the recovery time. The group was really good at catching someone and slowing down. <br />
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When we got to the turn, I knew we had about 5 miles with a few little rises, but nothing I would consider a hill. I tried to keep myself in the front of the pack to see how I could do at the finish. With about 2 miles left, I knew I was in a bad spot. I tried to follow others to the front, but I in the third row of the field and as desperately trying to figure out a way to get into the 2nd row. It was just about that time that I hit a hole hard. My handle bars jerked out of my hands and for a split second I thought I was done, but I must have hit the hole square because my handle bars jumped right back into my hands. Thank goodness! No flat, no crash, it was just a very close call.<br />
I tried to follow people up through the group, but the 2nd row seemed just impenetrable. Even at 200 meters when the road opened up, it didn’t matter because everyone pretty much stayed where they were. I couldn’t start my sprint when I wanted so I couldn’t get enough speed to move up significantly, but I did manage to get 7th in the bunch sprint. Considering there were 21 women in the field, 7th isn’t so bad, but figuring out where to be in a bunch sprint is definitely not a skill I have even contemplated practicing.<br />
I was a bit frustrated with my luck, but it was what it was. I was able to comfort myself by looking at the results and realizing that all the women who beat me in the time trial finished after me in the road race. While I didn’t stay for the postings, I knew I had a decent chance of being somewhere for the GC after the road race.<br />
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Okay, I have read this post several times, and I believe I come off as slightly hypocritical, but note the following: I did attack, I did pull, and I was probably the biggest woman in the field so the climbing was much harder for me than probably anyone else. <br />
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<br />Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02468931343698256060noreply@blogger.com0