travels, races, and other musings

Pre-Race Roger was volunteering so he left before I did. I left the house around 5:15 and drove down to the parking area a little over a mile from the race site, parked and took the shuttle (we had mandatory bike racking the day before so I just had the rest of my gear with me). I got body marked by Roger and my friend Amy who also drew a smiley face on the back of my calf. :) I went in and set up my transition and chatted with a couple of the girls nearby. I applied copious amounts of sunscreen, used the port-a-potty, ate a Stinger gel, took two ibuprofen and one Imodium, drank a half a bottle of Ultima, and stared at my transition area. All set so I headed out to go to the swim start. Swim I was in the second to last swim wave - women 34 and under. This race had fewer waves than other races I've done so they were a little bigger overall. I still placed myself near the front. It was a wet start and the water was deep enough that we couldn't stand, but not deep enough t

At the Dilloman Triathlon Roger and I participated in a relay. I did the swim and Roger biked and ran. Being in the midst of crazy half-Ironman training, I didn't really want to push it and do another race. Plus, I'm always up for a swim and this gave Roger the opportunity to do another race without having to swim.  We arrived in good time at the site, parked, got body marked and set up transition. Which for me consisted of standing around and applying sunblock while Roger set his biking and running stuff up. We then milled around, waited in the port-a-potty line, then milled around a bit more before I sang the national anthem. Saturday was my first time ever singing the national anthem at an event. (I sang it at the offroad Dilloman the day before). On Sunday I felt more confident about it and sang it even better than I had Saturday (which is good because there were a lot more people).  After singing, I waited around for my wave. The relays were going with a wave o

This morning at The Austin Triathlon I had a great race. I exceeded my expectations, inexplicably set a 10k PR on the run portion of the race and best of all, I had a really good time! This was technically my first olympic distance triathlon. Lone Star Triathlon in April was sort of olympic - it was a quarter Ironman, which is close, but not technically, specifically olympic (aka "international") distance. CapTexTri in May was to be my first olympic, but alas, it was cancelled due to weather. (Something I'm still bummed about - almost more so after having such a good time today.) Pre-Race Roger was volunteering so he headed down early. I left about an hour later with Dad and Kip in tow. This was the first time anyone in my family had seen me race. We arrived at the site where I was bodymarked by Cam, then I set up my stuff. They decided to shorten the distance between waves so I started a little after 7:20 instead of 7:35. At around 7, made my final potty stop and ch

This was my first time this year racing the same course as a race I did last year. I ended up doing really well and came in nearly 10 minutes faster than my time last year. The only place I would have liked to have done better was on my bike. The bike is someplace I really feel like I should have improved upon more than I have. I'm not really sure what to do about that - I guess just keep training.  Pre-Race We got up at 4:15 because Roger had to be at the race site by 6:00 for his volunteer duties (on the bike course). We arrived right at 6 AM and Roger headed to the volunteer tent while I got my stuff together. Being so early meant that I had my pick of transition area, but it also meant that there was a lot of waiting around.  Swim I started at the front for the swim, as is my custom these days. The first 100 meters or so were pretty brutal. There were a lot of really strong women and we weren't thinning out. Finally, as we made the first turn, a girl that I was sw

I raced the Couple's Triathlon this morning. In this event, teams of two both complete the race, then the two times are added together for a cumulative time. Awards are given based on combined times and ages. They had female friends, male friends, mixed, etc. I raced with a friend I met in Texas Iron named Emily and we won our age group (females with a combined age of 59 and under)! I really have to largely credit Emily because she's really fast, but it was a great race and fun to be out there with friends. (There were a lot of Texas Iron folks out there today, including Coaches Jamie and Andrea.) I actually didn't feel totally fabulous about my race when I finished. I had difficulties finding a good rhythm on the swim and the run was hideously hard. But I did meet my goal. I wanted to come in under or around 1:30 and I came in at 1:30:08 so that was good. I don't have it in me to do a full race report. I'm physically and mentally a bit drained and exhausted a

Pre-Race Another morning that began at 5 AM. Oh. Yay. You know the drill: breakfast, load-up, drive, arrive, get body-marked, unpack, set up transition, use port-a-potty and wait around until my wave goes off. While I waited for my wave, I talked to cam_ray and some of the other TxFe people there. I might sing the national anthem at Dilloman triathlon. cam_ray even said she'd pay me. I ate a Stinger gel about 20 minutes before the start. I've found that as much as my tummy doesn't want it, a stinger or a few blocks before a race really does help it feel less ucky. Swim The swim was long. We all knew it because these distances are the same as The Rookie Triathlon and we knew how far we swam at Rookie. My time at Rookie was just about perfect for my usual race pace so I'm pretty sure that swim course was correct. We could actually see the buoys migrating around the small lake. Well, I guess we all (in theory) swim the same distance, even if it is long. We got i

On July 4, 2005 I ran my first race - a 5k. Last year, I went back and I ran a 5k again. It seems to be a tradition now because I ran another 5k this 4th of July. This year it was a different race (the last two years was the Marathon Relay, this year was the Freedom 5k). Luckily, the Freedom 5k used most of the same course as the Marathon Relay so it's a good way to compare my progress over the last couple years: 2005: 36:09 - 11:38/mi 2006: 34:53 - 11:13/mi 2007: 27:56 - 8:57/mi In two years, I've knocked over eight minutes off my 5k time. Seven in the last year alone. Not to mention, today's race was also a PR by almost 2 minutes. My previous 5k was in December at 29:50 (9:39/mi). I'm definitely improving! I don't really have much to report about the race. I made a conscious decision not to worry about going out too fast or negative splits. There was a recent article in Runner's World that a good 5k strategy actually appears to be to go faster for the

I had a great race this morning at the Lake Pflugerville Triathlon. Pre-Race Once again, my morning began far too early - 5 AM. I ate breakfast, showered, got ready and we were out the door at 6. We arrived at the race site around 6:20 or so and I set up my transition area and used the port-a-potty. As I was leaving to pick up my chip, I saw some friends. We chatted for a few moments and then parted ways temporarily. I picked up my chip and then headed down to the swim start where I stared at the water for about 10 minutes before I decided to get in a warm up swim.  Some friends got into the water first and I sort of doddled behind them. Getting in, it was really slippery and mucky and I slipped, catching myself with my right hand on a rock and taking off a patch of skin. Ow. My warm up swim was fine. The water was warm - around 78 degrees (definitely not wetsuit legal). We got out of the water and waited for the start. An elementary school girl didn't quite get up the nerve

This was the third in a series of three 1 mile swims I decided to do this year (Rogue 1, Austin Triathletes, and Rogue 2). My goal before the first swim was to finish in the top five of all finishers doing all three swims. The turnout was actually fairly low I wasn't sure how many women would continue on to the second and third swims. I figured I had a good chance. Only four women did the whole series as it would turn out. I came in FIRST PLACE for the series!!! Okay, so 1 out of 4 isn't terribly hard, but it's still first place and I'll take it! Plus, it looks like I finished in the top 5 women at each race (second place, fifth place and we think fifth place). I don't have the official results for the race on Saturday, but I'm very pleased with how my race went. In my heart of hearts, I wanted to come in first or second again in this one (like the first one), but then when I arrived and saw the field, I figured that wasn't happening. I was racing agai

We started our morning at 4 AM. I ate my usual breakfast and we got on the road around 5 AM in the rain. It wasn't pouring rain, just steady so we headed to the race in the hopes that it would subside. Heading out of the parking lot, one of my Texas Iron friends, Emily, caught up to us and we spent the rest of the morning with her. Emily and I swim at about the same pace so we share a lane sometimes at swim. (She's slightly faster on the bike and run, however.) We arrived at the site and got body marked at around 5:30 (when transition was supposed to open). At that point we were told that the race was delayed 30 minutes (and thus transition was going to open late at 6 AM) so we slogged through the rain to find a dry place under the 1st Street bridge. We hung out under the bridge and 6 AM came and went and the rain got worse. It was literally pouring rain and water was collecting everywhere. Some people had signed up for text alerts on their cell phones and so we were waitin

In case you haven't already figured it out, May is event month for me. I'm currently working on 6 weeks with an event every weekend. It's completely insane, I know. I started with a 10k several weeks back, followed by the Rogue Open Water Swim 1 in the 1 mile distance, last weekend was The Rookie Triathlon, this morning I race the Austin Triathletes Open Water Swim in the 1 mile distance, next Monday (Memorial Day) is CapTexTri and the following weekend I swim the Rogue Open Water Swim 2, again in the mile distance.  The two Rogue swims and the Austin Triathletes swim constitute a series if you swim the mile in each event, with awards at the end of the series. This morning's race was also an event in and of itself, with awards for the top male and female finishers and also 3 deep in each age group so I really wanted to do well.  They started the 5k people first (doing 3 loops of the mile course). Then the 800 meter folks were sent off in a big wave, doing a no

I kept trying to tell myself I was participating for fun and not really racing, but it's hard not to race at a race. I was feeling sick to my stomach off and on yesterday and it carried over today, except it was more about the on than off today. (In fact, I'm pretty sure everyone around me at the race this morning got tired of hearing about me being sick to my stomach.) Overall, I'm happy with my times. I wouldn't have minded going slightly faster in each event, especially given that the distances were so short, but I'm going to use the stomach excuse. I don't feel like typing up a blow by blow race report so I'll just provide some random thoughts as they occur to me. 300 meter swim - 5:21 1:47/M 4/78 in age group T1 - 2:08 11.1 mile bike - 39:10 17 mph 13/78 in age group T2 - 1:41 run - 18:52 9:26/mi 42/78 in age group total - 1:07:15 15 out of 78 in my age group, 264 out of 701 overall, 51 out of 310 for women I really wanted to finish the swim

I'm still in a slight state of shock at my performance this morning. I came in second place in the women's division and third overall (men's and women's)!!! I'm completely astounded and excited! Let's back up, though, and start at the beginning. I woke up this morning and my shoulder was feeling much better. I ate a couple apple wedges, some organic rice krispies with soy milk and a half a glass of juice, took a shower, put on my skeleton swimsuit and we headed out to the lake. At the race site, I picked up my packet and swim cap and we meandered around a bit. After a bit, I put on my wetsuit and we headed out to find a place where I could get in and warm up. The water wasn't too cold (a few degrees warmer than Barton Springs, I would say) and I felt good on my warm-up swim. The race started a little late as they got everyone together and explained the course. Some buoys seemed to keep blowing away. It was overcast and cloudy and I was a bit worried ab

I'm so proud of where I am as a runner these days. I really never thought I would be able to run as fast as I did yesterday. It was a tougher course than I was mentally prepared for and there were several times where I really had to put mind over matter and just push through. The end result was that I made my aggressive goal. I really wanted to come in under 1 hour and I did. The time on my GPS when I stopped it read 59:01 and my official chip time was even better at 58:44. (There are always a few seconds of disorientation on my part at the end of a race where I remember to hit the stop button.) Roger also set a personal best in the 5k yesterday, so I'm pleased for him as well. My splits definitely reflect the course, but I'm pleased that even with a HUGE uphill for the entire second mile, I kept pretty well on pace. When I was between mile markers 2 and 3, I seriously thought the hill would never end (heading southbound on South Congress between Riverside and Oltorf

I thought it might be nice to put down some of my thoughts and impressions of Costa Rica as well as provide some information regarding some of the things we learned while we were there regarding the language, food, animals and more. Language I already mentioned that the Costa Ricans are often referred to as ticos. Evidently this stems from some language differences in Costa Rican spanish. They are said to frequently use a diminutive ending of ito (as in poquito - the word for small) on some words, as a term of endearment. I only heard this used once (but my spanish isn't very good so it might have happened more often and I wasn't aware of it). One of the guides for our canyoning group called another one seniorito which isn't really a word in spanish (there is of course seniorita which is a young woman). There are evidently other minor differences and sayings unique to Costa Rican spanish but I noticed very little. I noticed two things worth mentioning, first is their

We woke up fairly early in order to get an early start on our drive back to San José. We were going to spend Monday night in the big city so that we could catch our 7 AM flight back home on Tuesday. We ate breakfast, got ready and finished packing and we were on the road by 8 AM. A little after 11, we arrived in San José and began the task of finding our hotel. Costa Rica is a little strange when it comes to street names and numbers. Some streets in the capital and larger cities have names or numbers, but most don't. Houses and buildings don't generally have numbers. How do they get mail? Generally by description. "The green house 100 meters past the large fig tree near the church."  This is fine in small villages, but it's starting to become a problem in the big city. Evidently, they're working on it. Our hotel was between Calles 30 and 32 on 2nd Ave (or something like that) but we couldn't find street signs so we were circling around for a bit. It wa