Baltimore Marathon... Race of all Races!!!

All year long, well more like for the past 18 months of saying I would never do a marathon, here I am in Baltimore flipping my half marathon to a full... I could never have done it without the help of my team who stayed by my sided and pushed me along the long runs. And although I really would've loved to have them there with me, it was great to have Rich, Beth, Christin and Dave to celebrate with.  I was also happy to find Sid before the race to help calm my nerves before the start.

It's race time and I'm so excited. Dave said I should finish in 5:45 5:50, and I was ready for that, actually gave myself 6 hours to finish.

The race was a lot of fun. The first half was new to me and I found it quite interesting and not so challenging. Running thru the zoo was fun, and I had no choice but to stop and look at the polar bears or take a picture of the penguin.

Once out of the zoo, we hit Fall's Point, then off to Domino Sugar Plant and Under Armor Plant.  I was way ahead of schedule to meet Dave's predictions.  Once I hit the half way point I had PR'd on a half marathon. I couldn't believe it. But I didn't let it get to me because I remembered the second half was a challenging one... Rolling hills... YIKES.  It felt as hard as last year, but I made sure to have fun thru it all.  I found people to talk with, I smiled for the camera and I grunted when i saw a rolling hill... WOOHOO! I saw the colored overpass bridge and I knew the end was near.  Once I reached the gate of Camden Yard I knew I only had about a quarter mile to go... Time to smile for all the cameras and hoping Rich was at the finish to see me... Leaving Camden and running thru the parking lot of M&T Bank I saw the finish line, and just beyond it I saw RICH!!! WOOHOO!!! I couldn't wait to finish. Part of me wanted to cry part of me wanted to pass out... I did neither and finished strong.  I beat Dave's predictions by over 15 minutes... I did it!! I am now a Marathon Runner!!!

After getting my Medal's and food, I finally found Christin and Dave and there was my Guinness!!! Yes what a way to finish a race!!!

 

   

Official Time: 5:31:51

Tri the Creek ... But there was a coupon!!

Who can resist a coupon, and $20 off registration at that... Well looks like several of us were crazy enough to jump on this triathlon.  :)

This was a sprint and olympic triathlon out in Potato Creek Indiana... And what Tri-tator can't resist to go there, it's like a given we have to be there !!

Anyways, I opted for the sprint and boy am I glad I did.

To start, we all headed out on Saturday to check out the area and to get a bike ride in to know the route.  It had rained most of the day so we didn't know if we could get the ride in.  Finally after everyone checked into there hotels we headed to Potato Creek to see about getting in the ride.  And luckily it cleared up enough and we were able to ride... Little luck thou, on the ride back we got hit, and hit bad. Riding in the rain was a challenge, but in ice cold rain was grueling. Part of me was hoping to that someone, Dave, would come out and look for us and pick us up, another part of me just wanted to find my car.  Well it turns out that Dave did come out, but at that point we were about a mile away and I just looked at Helen and was like Screw this, lets finish this, and we did.  We all made it back alive and wet but now we were hungry and wanted to shower and get some food.  Dinner with the team was good and relaxing... Back to the hotel to get some sleep, hopefully.

So it's race day and it's FREEZING!!! There was a low lying fog over the water that just showed that the lake was warmer than the air... DAMN!

We suited up and waited around for our starts,waited in our nice warm cars that it.  Once we went to the lake to wait on our heat, we tried to get ready for the cold cold water!! Burr!!!  And we're off... The swim wasn't too bad once we got started. I did my best here in staying straight and on target with the bouy's. The run out of the water sucked. The ground was so hard on our frozen feet that it hurt to run to our bikes.  Once on the bikes I had trouble warming up and getting really moving. It sure felt harder than last nights ride.  After the ride it was off to a not so fun run... A trail run, mud, muck, roots and rocks, groomed trails my ASS... Really this is what we get for a coupon.  At one point I just hear "Hey Sandy" as Bill runs past me just leaping from side to side like it was nothing. After rolling my ankle on one of the roots I decided I didn't need to kill myself here and I walked.  On the way out of the woods, once I hit the clearing I started to run. I wanted to give up but Stephanie I found me and she ran with me and that helped me get myself into gear so I could finish strong.  Definitely a different experience when it comes to tri's and jury is still out on the whole idea of Trail Runs.  But it was a great way to finish up tri season :)  Oh and I even 3rd placed in my age group, we just won't say how many were in my age group :)

 

Official Time:
Swim:       10:41  
T1: 5:11  
Bike: 45:05 
T2: 1:31  
Run: 40:07 
Overall: 1:42:33

Hell Run - Muddy Fun!!!

OMG this run was so much fun.  This is definitely something different from what I've done all season long. No chip time, no having to be first, it was all just fun! It was great to run with my sister, Helen, Amanda and Erica.  We got so muddy and laughed so much I LOVE IT!!

The obstacles were a blast, running thru mud crawling up walls and watching Carol belly flop into one of the pools of mud were way too too funny.  There were some girls who were like oh no i'm going to get dirty.. We were like... HELLYEAH LET'S GET MUDDY. We didn't hold back at all.

We were clean... in the beginning :)

 

Damn... We Got Dirty!!!

 

 

Naperville Sprint Triathlon

If swimming in Lake Andrea wasn't challenging enough, lets try it out in Centennial Beach.

For this triathlon it was Lou, Stephanie I, Stephanie B and myself.  Dave, Judy, Wendy, and Rich came out to cheer us on.  It was great to hear the cowbells and hear Rich yell my name at the finish :)

Well this race wasn't too bad.  The swim start was a bit of a challenge as they let us go 4 at a time and seems a lot of people didn't seed themselves correctly and I was climbing over people and weaving to get by. But from the looks of my Garmin map I was a little bit more straight than Pleasant Prairie.  The bike was a 2 loop ride going down 75th... OUCH that was a pain. Trying to pass was hard and if you keep to much to the right you ran the chance of hitting a grove and getting into an accident.  I took it pretty easy, but the heat of the open road was grueling.  Never realized how hot the pavement could be.  My transition wasn't bad, and I felt great on the start of my run.  I pretty much ran all of it except for a little stretch where the heat just hit me hard.  As I was coming around the corner to hit the path and hit the finish, who do I see but DAVE!  Yup... he's yelling at me to keep going, asking if I want him to run with me. I just kept yelling NO!! It was kind of funny but a nice break and it really pushed me to move to the finish.  Just before the finish I hear the cowbells and I see Judy and Wendy and then at the finish I hear Rich.

Official Time:
Swim:   9:42
T1:       3:42
Bike:   51:07
T2:       2:39
Run:   36:09
Overall: 1:43:18

Chicago Rock N Roll Half Marathon

So I'm gonna try another RnR event.  Mainly because Leslie wanted me to do another race with her.  Let's see, the last 2 races we did were killer... The 2011 Women's 5k/10k, it was boiling hot out, something like 80 degrees with almost 100% humidity at 8am. Then the CARA 10 miler was cold, wet and just plain icky. So really how bad could this me... Um spoke too soon.

Well it turns out that this race was during our Release weekend (R6). So here I am coming to a race after working until 7 pm on Friday night and then working from 8 am until 2 pm on Saturday. We decided to get a hotel for the night, which seemed like a good idea but we stayed out too late (since we went to the movies that night and a late dinner) that I couldn't sleep that night.

So here we are heading to the race and I could start feeling the heat and humidity on a rise. I knew already it wasn't going to be a fun race. I managed to get to my corral and waited to start. At least the wait wasn't as long as it was for Las Vegas RnR. Once my corral kicked off, I felt pretty good and started running. I knew already that I was going to do my 5 min run/1 min walk and overall I was doing well. During the run, I got to meet/run with one of the Mom's from The Biggest Loser.

And then a little later, I realized that I did forget something. I forgot was my knee brace. By mile 6 I was starting to feel some pain and by mile 8 I was ready to give up and I stopped at medical and had my knee taped up.  At that point I switched to survival mode and just looked to finish.  At least they didn't run out of water, unlike Vegas RnR, but it was definitely hot and hard to keep moving.  The one thing that really sucked was that they had us run on LSD and go up the ramp to Roosevelt (unlike the overpass on Roosevelt from Michigan) and that was around mile 13... I knew I only had a little more to go, and although PR'ing was out of the question since mile 8, i just walked up the hill and cursed the whole way... I still don't get why they do that on race. Not like we're ready to die by then, so lets just throw in a hill to really kill us :(

Leslie finished way before me (like I expected anything else) but once I finished, I found her and she was already with Louis and the girls. We rehydrated and then went to the hotel to pack-up and head home.

Official Time: 2:52:55

Pleasant Prairie Sprint Triathlon

Now this is a REAL sprint triathlon, and I think I'm more prepared that Leaning Tower.

We drove up Saturday for packet pickup and to attend a lake swim. Yup no pool here, we're in the lake, and as Wendy says, with lake monsters.  It was weird to swim with a wetsuit and my arms felt really tight. I think doing weights the day before was a big mistake :( Anyways we got thru the lake swim, and instead of swimming back we (Stephanie I, Lou, Wendy) decided to walk back. A guy in a van offered to drive us back so we jumped in... UMMM YEAH... A plain white van with no seats in the back and we couldn't open the door from the inside, how smart are we.. HEHE

Well after the swim we grabbed some lunch, well at least Judy, Wendy, Stephanie and I did. Somehow during the conversation we started to think about a name we should give our team... And since we were all about the tater tots on the menu and on our plate, we came up with

TRI-TATERS

And that is how we Tri-Taters were born.. all from our lunch plates at Chaser's :)

I stayed up there for the night, as I didn't want to drive back and forth the next morning and so did Lou.  We met up later on for dinner, grilled cheese and potato salad.. um yum and then it was time to turn in. I couldn't sleep. I kept wondering if I left something behind or if I was even ready for this. I was up by 4am and said fuck it, I'm gonna start getting ready and head off to stage my bike and gear. I was so nervous, my stomach was in knots and I couldn't eat anything. I just wanted to get sick. It seemed like forever before they got to my heat and I was so worried about swimming straight.

Well the swim went pretty well. I swam as straight as I could, got kicked a few times but I'm sure I kicked some plus I know I swam over one or two people to start. Once I got out of the water it was a wobbly run thru transition to my bike.  I had trouble getting my socks on and just wanted to get going on the bike.  Once on the bike I started to really push... Oh did I mention that this race I was on my new road bike, Roxy. Wow what a difference that was from Leaning Tower. We had a single loop, where the Olympic had to do a double loop.  It was kind of funny during the end of my loop, Dave catches up to me and asks how I'm doing and all I can think of was "Roxy is kicking some ass!!" :)  After peddling so hard for the bike section, my legs were definitely jello when it came to the run. I had trouble getting moving, I had to walk. After the first mile, I finally felt somewhat normal and I started running.. Not fast, but I was moving.

This was a great experience and I really loved it. I know had the tri-bug and couldn't wait until the next one!!

Official Time:

Swim:   16:54

T1:         3:23

Bike:    45:08

T2:         2:37

Run:     38:33

Total:1:46:33

Bike the Drive

So yesterday I was running down LSD, and today I get to ride along it.  This has become our yearly tradition with Kathy and I really love it.  Being able to just go as fast as you want on LSD without the worry of cars is awesome.  Since I've been training for triathlons on my mountain bike, this year felt so much easier. I felt like I could go faster and was stronger. I really loved it.

This year was so much better than last year.  It was sunny and beautiful, compared to the cloudy, muggy, icky smell from last year. We just had to stop for some photo ops with the skyline as our back drop.  We couldn't have asked for a better day for this ride. Sure hope next year is as good :)

Soldier Field 10 Miler

For this race, Fleet Feet Elmhurst was providing transportation to and from the race, plus a tent to store our gear at. I couldn't resist, even thou I'm with Runners Soul. But this way I was able to snooze on the ride out there and back and didn't have to deal with traffic.


Besides half marathon's, this was gonna be a challenge. It was cloudy out and at points there was some drizzle.  We heard the storms were staying south of us and that was all that mattered.

It felt like forever before the we got to my corral (next year I'm jumping ahead so I don't have to wait as long). I really enjoyed hearing the stories of the soldier there to run the race. It was very heartwarming and emotional, I teared up at times.

The race wasn't too bad. I walked when I had to and ran when I felt good. I tried to keep to my 5 min run/1 min walk and overall stuck to it.  Since I had run several Lakefront races last year, I had an idea what to expect at the start and end of the race, it was the longer distance and actually running on LSD that was kind of interesting.  Also they key highlight was finish on the 50. I got to see myself on the jumbotron and then wandered around the main concoarse looking for the blanket we got for the run.

Definitely coming back next year, especially since it's the 10th anniversary and falls on my birthday :)

Official time: 2:03:58

Leaning Tower Sprint Triathlon

This is all I really wanted to do when I started running last year.  Little did I know that the path I chose meant that I would be running so much more.

Leaning Tower was a great way to see if I really wanted to go further in my triathlons.  This was a good race for a first race and we had a great group out for this race.  (Wendy, Helen, Stephanie I, Stephanie B, Lou, Nancy and I race, while Dave and Judy cheered us on.) It's a 400m swim, 18K bike, and 5k run.  The swim was a breeze, I had no doubt about that. The bike was a little hard.  Getting my legs going on the bike and the heat starting to raise was not fun. 5 loops of that and I was happy I was off that bike.  Then it was off to the run.  OUCH!!! My legs felt like jello, I couldn't get myself moving at all. That was the worst feeling ever. Then it started to get really hot. And worst of it all they ran out of water.  I walked so much more than I wanted to but I went into survival mode once I hit the about mile 2 of the run.  I just wanted to finish and down some water.

The worst part of the race, if you can count it but I did, was that we were to get finisher medals and we got NOTHING!! I felt like I got robbed. We all were pissed because it was our first triathlon and the medal would've been a topper.

But overall a great experience with a great group of friends!!!

Official time:
Swim:      9:19.30 
T1:        1:55.75 
Bike:     48:04.15 
T2:        1:33.75 
Run:      41:56.95 
Overall 1:42:49.90

Frederick's Half Marathon

Nut Job Medal... HERE I COME!!!

Like I really need a medal to prove that I'm a nut job when it comes to racing, but this does prove it.  A 5K the night before and now a half marathon... what am I thinking :)

Well I decided to join a pace group and see if that helps me keep on track. The fact that I know the end of the race, thanks to the twilight, I felt I could tackle that pretty easily. It was more in having that team mentality that I searched for and go it with the pace group.  I chose the 2:50 pace group and it was really great. They had us walking during the water stop and the uphills. The kept us interested in the run and they said it was the first time that everyone stayed together (not falling behind) in the pace group.  When we got to the final hill, a nice steep hill before we turn into the race track for one final loop to the finish, I took off. I could hear the pace team yelling my name telling me I could do it. And guess what, I DID!!! And I even PR'd.  It felt so great. I knew I could do it, but the pace team helped me out so much I really enjoyed it :)

Official Time: 2:50:09.95

Frederick's Twilight 5K

This is probably the craziest idea I ever had.  Let's do a 5k the night before a half marathon.. Why would I do this??? For a medal, the Nut Job medal :)

It was great having a weekend away with Christin and Beth.  Frederick, Maryland is a cute little town and we found the Irish bar pretty easily.  Running this race, and then the Baltimore Running Festival in October means I will be able to get the Maryland Double medal.  WOW I can't wait to see if I can do this.

The race was fun. I managed to find Sid and hung out with him a bit before race time.  The 5k started at dusk and took us thru the end of the half marathon we would be racing in tomorrow. Overall not a bad race and helped me feel more comfortable for what was in store tomorrow

Official time: 37:37.40

CARA 10 Miler

As I continue on my journey towards my Spring Half Marathon, this race just fit in perfectly.  Just wish the weather cooperated. Leslie chose this race to run with me, and I thought it would be fun. But with the rainy ickiness, it didn't surprise me that she was ready to bail even before the race started. But since I was use to running in some of the crappiest weather it didn't really bother me. I just wanted to finish and then go home and veg... Plus it meant another medal to add to my collection.

So we started the race, only to have to deal with wet conditions from the rains that passed. Then we had the hill... Cricket hill as they call it. Oh that was not fun. I really wanted to just lay on my side and roll down the hill like a little kid in order to avoid rolling my ankle. Even thou the rain didn't start back up, we had the winds, and oh damn those sucked. I walked a little more than I wanted to but soon enough I realized I was coming towards the finish.  I texted Leslie to know I was coming and she was already changed and sitting in my warm car. She did come out to help bring me in and cross the finish. That was really nice and felt great to finish strong.

Official time: 2:12:34.5

Egg Shell Shuffle Half Marathon

Ok, so since I have to do 13-14 miles this weekend, I might as well just run it during a race and get a medal for it. So when Julie suggested we do the Egg Shell Shuffle I figured why not, I'll just do my thing and finish no problem. Little did I know that my "thing" would result in me PR'ing for the half.  YIKES and WOOHOO!

Race time was chilly so I opted to keep my jacket with me, but soon I realized it got pretty hot in the open when the sun hit and I had to tie it around my waist. It was definitely a long run. I had this walker dude next to me that just annoyed the crap out of me. Then my i-Pod crapped out and I had to switch to my i-Phone for some tunes. Who knew the hills we would have at Busse Woods but we did and can i say DAMN!!! I had fun during the run at least. I walked when I wanted ran fast when I could and just enjoyed taking pictures of the mile markers and sending them to Julie saying I wanted to be finished :)  But in the end I was happy I did it and I even got my picture taken with the Easter bunny!

 

Official time 2:52:05