travels, races, and other musings

I had a serious PR today at Frosty's 5k. Now, admittedly, the course was pretty flat, however, I did have a bit of a headwind in a couple of places which slowed me down in those spots. Headwind aside, the flat course helped and I did it! I don't have the official chip time yet, but my watch says 29:56 (9:39/mi pace) which smashes my previous PR by over 4 minutes! (Edit: The chip time was 29:50, so a few seconds better than I thought.) My goal for the coming year in the 5k was going to be to get it under 30 minutes. Looks like I need to revise my future goals! Splits: Mile 1 9:28 Mile 2 9:51 Mile 3 9:38 last .1 :58 (9:37/mi pace) When I saw that I ran the first mile in under 10 minutes, I got really worried that I went out too fast but I was actually feeling pretty good so I just decided to keep the same pace. I slowed slightly for a small hill and headwind just after mile 1. When I passed mile 2 and realized I was still running at under a 10 minute mile, I figured I

I'm not sure how, but I made it through the Turkey Trot 5 miler. The McMillan running calculator thinks I can do a 5 miler in 52:57 which I definitely think is doable. However, with my being sick and the tough course (whoa! hilly!) I ended up coming in at 55:21. I'll take it. While I was waiting in line for the port-a-potty, I saw Amy who asked me how I was feeling and I explained that I decided to go the cold medicine route. Running half asleep seemed more appealing than running with a fit of coughing and hacking. As soon as she walked off I realized I forgot to ask her how she was feeling since she also has the plague. Then I felt like a dork for being so rude as not to inquire and decided to chalk it up to the haze of cold medicine. I emerged from the port-a-potty (OMG, grossest port-a-potty ever, that includes the icky one outside RunTex) in time to hear the national anthem start. I was feeling grouchy and ignored the dirty looks from those standing tall and patriotic w

A 10k PR I ran a race this morning. I hadn't really planned on it, but I knew there was going to be one and I went back and forth about doing it. Yesterday morning when I got up and saw 8 miles on my training plan, I assessed my body and it told me it didn't want to go 8 miles. So I decided 6.2 miles fast would even out to 8 slow so I headed down to Run Tex and registered for the race. We did a really short (5 miles) and easy bike ride yesterday to spin my legs out a bit. This morning I woke up several times: 4 AM, 5 AM, 6 AM, of course, going back to sleep at 6:15 so that my alarm could go off at 6:30. Luckily, with Daylight Saving Time ending, it was actually just about my regular time to get up. My stomach was feeling weird and I was a little concerned. I ate my normal pre-race breakfast (small bowl of Rice Krispies with a tiny bit of soy milk, half an apple with the peel removed, and a small glass of juice) and headed out. I arrived at the race site and did a warm up

The Happiest Race on Earth... I awoke at 4:00 in the morning. I took a quick shower to wake myself up. I was running a little behind and feeling a little sluggish. I was going to meet Dru at the hotel's continental breakfast (which they were running early for racers) 4:30, but I didn't head out the door until 4:35 or so. My feet weren't as sore as the day before, but I felt a little tight in my muscles and draggy. I couldn't eat. I didn't really want to eat anyway. I ate a few bites of an apple and we headed to the race site. We walked along with a lot of people on their way to the race. Once at the start area, there were people everywhere and there was a huge screen showing people walking about and a very loud announcer. I'm sure people in the nearby hotels that weren't running the race were not excited about this situation. We found a port a potty line and got that out of the way, then made our way out to our corral. There were five corrals (A throug

Tuesday was a fairly lazy and uneventful day and my last day in California. We hung around and caught up with one another. We also took the bug out for a romp around the desert. Mimi has a 1965 VW bug. It has the top chopped off so it's a permanent "convertible." My dad drove and we checked out the extent of the fire damage. We also drove into the nearest town, Yucca Valley, and ran a couple of errands. Later in the day I went for a short run. I ran down Mimi's "street" (narrow dirt road). It was nice running in another setting for a change and I enjoyed taking in the desert scenery. I saw the two houses burned down on her street. Well, I saw one. The other had already been removed and the site was ready for rebuilding.

Monday morning we were a little bit sore, but nothing too bad. We hopped on a shuttle back to the Disney parks and did a little shopping in the Downtown Disney area. Dru bought a shirt and I got a Mickey pen for my niece. I bought myself a shirt at Disneyland the day before (it's a Jack Skellington Nightmare Before Christmas shirt). We left Downtown Disney and headed back to the hotel to get Roger's luggage and take him to the airport. After a couple of wrong turns, we dropped him off at the Orange County airport. We headed back to the hotel, picked up all the rest of our luggage and made the drive out to the desert. We made good time to Mimi's (that's what we call my grandmother). My dad and his wife Kip (her real name is Karen but she goes by Kip) were already there when we arrived. Dru dropped me off and then she and Dave headed for Desert Hot Springs for a relaxing evening in the springs. Recently, there had been a large wildfire in the vicinity of her home. H

Saturday morning we left my mom's and boarded the Pacific Surfliner train in Oceanside and headed for Anaheim. Dru picked us up at the train station in Anaheim and we checked into our hotel. After checking in, Dru, Roger and I headed to the Disneyland Hotel so Dru and I could pick up our race packets. The race packet was fairly disappointing, but the race shirt was quite nice - a white long sleeve technical (moisture wicking, breathable, etc.) shirt with the Disneyland Half Marathon logo on the front. The walk to and from the Disneyland Hotel was much longer than I had anticipated and we were already feeling a little tired when we got back to drop off our stuff. Roger and I soaked our feet in a tub full of ice water before we grabbed Dru's boyfriend Dave and walked all the way back to the area to go to Disney's California Adventure theme park. We began with a little lunch. After lunch we rode some rides. I have to say that California Adventure was sort anti-climactic. The

Our flight left Austin around 9:30 in the morning. With the time adjustment, that meant that we arrived into San Diego around 10:30. My mom and her husband Steve picked us up at the airport. We headed up to north San Diego county closer to mom's house to have lunch. We ate in the harbor in Oceanside and walked around a bit. We went back to mom and Steve's place and Roger and I took a short nap. After that, we went down to Carlsbad where I went for a short run (about a mile and a half) on a paved walkway along the beach. It was a beautiful run. I really enjoyed the cool weather, breeze and sound of the waves. I watched the surfers and the kids playing in the ocean as I did my last run before the race. That evening we ate dinner and celebrated my mom's birthday (Sept 17th). All in all, it was a pretty low key day. It was nice to spend some time with my mom. Click here for Day 2. 

I had a really good race yesterday at Jack's Generic Triathlon. I did quite well on the swim, had a super bike and a nice solid run. Roger also did well on his first triathlon. He had a bit of a difficult swim, but he did really well on the bike and the run. I think he's decided he's more of a duathlete (bike and run). Pre-Race Dru, Roger and I woke up super early (I guess I'm getting accustomed to it) and headed down to New Braunfels. We arrived and Roger and I set up our transition areas next to each other. We then went off to get body marked and pick up our timing chips. (They didn't mark our thighs in this race which I thought was strange.) We went back to transition and applied some sunscreen (I've learned the secrets of spray on sunscreen - it doesn't rub the numbers off). We then lined up to use the port-a-potties. According to the website they would be using pretty much the same courses as the Rogue Women's Triathlon. There were two differen

Last year we ran the race in a very silly, non-serious (not race-like and untimed) manner. We stopped at the crazy stops (ice cream, etc.) and even took a break at Secret Oktober to hang out in the A/C and shop. This year we ran it for real. The course was different this year and had we done the silly, non-serious, not fast running, it wouldn't have been as fun as last year. However, the course was a lot more flat and much less challenging. It was fairly hilly last year. This year it was an out and back style course which was slightly downhill on the way out and slightly uphill on the way back.  Unfortunately, I really would have preferred downhill on the way back. I went out way too fast. I was also using a lot of energy trying to escape the throng of people and dodge all the walkers, strollers, kids and dogs that somehow decided they would start at the front. Usually they make those folks start at the back, but nobody was announcing that. It was sort of lame and irritating.

I had a good race today at the Rogue Women's Tri! Here's the short version: I kicked ass on the swim, was a little too conservative on the bike, but had a really good run. My transitions were fast and smooth, there were no major mishaps and I felt great afterward. Pre-Race Once again, my day began at 5 AM. Usually I have the "What the hell am I thinking?" line going through my head at 5 AM in the morning before a race. Usually that voice goes away while I'm getting ready. This morning it didn't go away for a long long time (just about until I hit the water at the start of the race). We arrived at the site a little later than I had wanted. We parked and I found a place in transition to rack my bike (though slots were filling up fast). I set up my stuff and then headed out to get body marked. After being marked upon, we waited in the long line at the port-a-potties, then I got my timing chip. After that, I took a quick dip in the water in an attempt to w

This was the race that started it all. I went back a year later to run it again. Like last year, my morning began at 5 AM. It was slightly easier this year, since I'm getting used to waking up early for training and events. Again, I met my teammates at Apple at 6 AM and we headed down to the race for a start time of 7 AM. Only two of us from last year's team returned this year, which is for the better since this year's runners were a much faster bunch. The weather was much better this year than last year. It was still humid, but it wasn't as hot. It was overcast for the first couple of legs of the run, then part way through our third runner (the second 10k leg) the sun came out. The sun came and went a bit, but unfortunately, when it was my turn, the sun was out and it stayed out through most of my run. I did a better warm up than I have been doing recently at races and I think it really helped. I didn't go out too fast and I kept a pretty good pace through th

I'm getting slower How is it that I'm running slower and slower. Geesh. I did the Sunstroke Summer Stampede 5k tonight. This is my third race on this same course. My PR for the course is 35:42 (which prior to the Daisy 5k was my PR for any 5k). I guess it just wasn't my night. Tonight it was hot (around 95 - although there was a slight breeze and it wasn't too humid which helped), I'd worked a full day at work so perhaps that contributed. I don't have my official results from the chip, but my GPS said 38:49 which is a 12:29 minute mile. Yuck. I ran it up until mile 2 where there was a water stop. I walked the water stop and drank some water (drinking and running don't mix for me). After walking, I just couldn't pick it back up again and walked most of the last mile. Here are my splits according to my GPS: Mile 1 11:23 Mile 2 12:27 Mile 3 13:39 Last .1 mile 1:11 Official chip time: 38:47 12:26/mi Why am I getting slower? How come I could run

Pre-Race My alarm didn't go off. I goofed and set it for 4:15 PM and not AM. Was it my subconscious telling me something? Perhaps I should have stayed in bed. Roger's alarm went off, luckily and we got up. I ate breakfast, showered, put on my outfit and we were on the road on time. We made good time getting to the race site, but about 3 miles from the site we were in a huge traffic jam of spectators and racers trying to get into the race site. Luckily we were 10 minutes early. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the parking lot for the race site until about 30 minutes after I wanted to be there. It took us nearly 40 minutes to get through the jam up. It was 6:40 when I jumped on the shuttle from the parking area to get to the race site. Transition was supposed to be closing at 6:45. There were tons of people in traffic behind us so there was so way they were starting on time. Roger and I were separated getting on the bus (athletes were given priority) and I rode over th

My First Triathlon I did it! All in all, it was way way easier than I thought it would be. I'm extremely happy with my results. I had three categories of goals: good, better and best. I did the "better" time for my swim and "best" time for both run and bike. Yay!! My transitions were a little long, but I had a long way to go to get to and from the bike in/out so I wasn't surprised. My final results: Swim 11:10.3 - pace 2:48/M (78th out of 210 men and women) T1 5:14 Bike 24:26.8 - pace 15.2 mph (108th out of 210) T2 4:09 Run 36:41 - pace 11:45/mi (150th out of 210) Total time: 1:21:42 (122nd out of 210) Pre-Race We got on the road a little later than I would have liked. In the end that was fine because they started my swim wave later than originally scheduled. We found some free parking, although it was a bit of a walk and headed for body marking. My race number was written on both upper arms, both hands, and both thighs. My age (at the end of t

My First Open Water Swim  My morning began at 6:15 AM. I ate a quarter of a pear, quarter apple and a small protein smoothy. My friend Tom (who has been helping with my swim coaching) arrived at my house at 7 AM and we set off shortly thereafter. We arrived at the race site (Mansfield Dam Park) at around 7:30 and picked up our race packets. Then we walked a long way into the park and to the water. We milled about, checked out the course (two 400 meter laps) and picked up our timing chips. The timing chips are about the size of a quarter. In a running race, you affix the chip to your shoe with a little plastic tie. In a swim or triathlon they use a velcro strap around your ankle. I put mine on pretty tight because I was worried about it loosening when it got wet. As it would turn out, the timing chip was my achilles heel. More on that later, though... Around 8:15 they started herding everyone down to the water. We each had our race bag with our number on it so we could walk down t

I woke up at 6:00 this morning to run the Daisy 5k. Still battling a cold, I rolled out of bed, donned my running gear and headed downtown to run in the longest running (no pun intended - running as in number of years) 5k race in Austin. I arrived about 30 minutes early, picked up my timing chip and made a final pit stop before warming up. They got started a little late because of some road blocking issues. A little after 8:00 they started all the chip timed women (my group). Five minutes or so after that, the chip timed men got to go, then after that everyone else. I started off well, actually, a little too well. I probably went out too fast, but at the time, it didn't feel too fast. Mile 1 came quickly and I remembered to lap my GPS at exactly the mile one mark - 10:14. Yay! I tried very hard to concentrate on my form and I heard Karen's voice in my head shouting "floppy feet!" I did my best to keep my feet floppy which seems to be the main thing that helps alle

Yesterday was not my best race ever. It was hot, the humidity was near 100% (though it never rained), the course was very hilly, and I had just gotten over a cold. Even so, I only finished 4 minutes over my previous 10k time so all in all it wasn't awful. My shins were bothering me a bit and the weather was so oppressive that I walked a lot of the race but I finished in 1:16:50 at a 12:22 minute mile. I had some glitches with my technical stuff. My GPS was acting up a bit - it was cloudy and so it thought I was inside. It finally got going, but it was already about a quarter mile into the race before it started keeping track. Then there was a little matter with my iPod shuffle. For some reason, it would only play the same two songs over and over. :( I ran the entire race (well, except for the first 10 minutes or so while I listened to those first two songs) without music. I was going to start training without music and wean myself off the thing since I can't wear it for t

5k with a cold I came down with a cold on Saturday night with a scheduled 5k race on Sunday morning. Sunday morning I was feeling a little crummy, but not too bad so I decided to go for it. Besides, I had talked Roger and Dru into this one so I didn't want to bail out (plus I already paid and picked up my race packet). We arrived and picked up our timing chips. I'm really horrible at sticking those things on my shoes. They always flop around. How many races at this point and I can't get the stupid timing chip on right? It was pretty cold (about 45 degrees) so we were all wearing long sleeves. Dru and I wore capri type pant things. Basically ankle-length loose running shorts. She didn't have warmer running gear so I loaned her some of mine. We tried to keep warm by doing some fast walking around the track where the race started, then we stretched a bit before heading to the start line. I had a hanky stuffed in my pocket that I had to keep pulling out to blow my nos