Monday, October 27, 2008

Cinco Ranch Triathlon

Ingrid, Kim and I have been planning to do the Cinco Ranch Tri as a relay since early this summer. I would swim, Ingrid would bike, and Kim would run, we'd all get to do our best of the 3. We have been looking forward to it for a long time. Kim decided we should all wear matching crazy socks and when Ingrid and Kim were in Austin, we ended up getting matching "Hey Cupcake" shirts for the race too. Cinco Ranch was originally scheduled for the end of September, but after Hurricane Ike, Dave Rainey decided to reschedule to October 26.
I got in to Houston on Saturday afternoon for packet pick up and Ingrid, Chris, Kim and I went to Lisa's party that night. Kim ran 21 miles on Saturday morning in preparation for the San Antonio marathon in a few weeks. I couldn't believe she ran 21 miles and was walking around and planning to run 3 more miles at the triathlon! If you ever get invited to a party at Lisa's you should go. She had tons of food and drinks and everyone had a great time. Ingrid, Kim, Andrew, and I ate cupcakes (what's with this cupcake thing??) from Sugarbabies, YUM! When Lisa, Rosie and some of the others started doing tequila shots, we decided it was time to go home and get some sleep before the triathlon.Ingrid and I got to the race site pretty early. Kim decided to sleep in a little since she didn't have to set anything up. It was COLD Sunday morning! At packet pick up they said the water temp was 77, I figured I'd bring my wetsuit and decide if wanted to wear it. I asked the USAT official what the water temp was and he said when they measured it Saturday the sun was beating down on the surface and it was 77, but he thought the actual water temp was between 71 and 75. I said, "great, that decides it for me" He made some comment about it being a short swim (only 400m) and time taking off the wetsuit. I told him I was in a relay so I didn't have to worry about taking it off. He goes "Oh, well that's a no braniner! Go put that wetsuit on!"

Relays were the last wave to start. I didn't do a warm up swim because I didn't want to stand around wet waiting for my wave to start, I was already cold enough dry. I had to wait barefoot in just my swimsuit and wetsuit for about 45 minutes. Did I mention it was cold? (if you know me, you know I don't tolerate cold at all) I was shivering and my feet were numb! I kept telling myself the water will feel warm compared to the air, and it actually did! David and Gillian came out to watch the race and came over to say hi just before I got in the water, I gave them both a hug and David told me to "go smoke them bitches" thanks for coming out to watch guys! I got in the water and was happy it didn't feel too cold. I started swimming and it took me about 150m to warm up, too bad since the swim was only 400m, but the last half of the swim went really well, it was crowded, but for the most part I was getting around people and I was sure I had beaten my time of 11:18 from last year. I wanted to finish the swim in under 10 minutes and I knew I didn't quite make that. My swim time was 11:23, I was disappointed when I saw it, but there was a lot of talk that the swim was long...who knows...but I really did feel like I swam better than last year.
I got out of the water and ran up to transition and handed our timing chip to Ingrid, she took off and was back in about 35 minutes! The bike was 11 miles and she averaged 21.6 mph on her awesome new tri bike!
Ingrid coming in to the finish, notice the crazy socks
Kim took off running and of course we assumed she would be a little slower than normal since she ran 21 miles Saturday, but she finished in about 22 minutes! Wow! Kim said lots of people on the run commented on her crazy socks.
Kim waiting to start the run
After the race we hung out and talked to everyone, there were lots of Houston Racing people there. Steph had a great swim! Luanna had a good race too. Jess and Max had a great race, Stacy had a good swim. I think everyone I talked with had a good race.
Max, Ingrid and me
We waited for the awards ceremony, we'd been hoping all along that we could win the female relay division. All summer we've been saying "we have to be fast at Cinco, it's our only chance at hardware!" We were super happy when Dave Rainey announced us as the 1st place female relay team! Woohoo!!! We ran up and got our plaques and got pictures taken. Of course Dave was laughing at us all excited in our matching crazy socks and shirts. Jess and Max also got first place in the 2 person relay division. Congratulations team JIMMY!
We all decided we want to hang our plaques up in our houses or offices with a picture of all of us from the race. We have been talking about this race all summer and how much fun it would be. It was even more fun than I expected it to be!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Matthew A. McLaughlin

This is not fun to write about, but it's been on my mind a lot this past week so... My 22 year old cousin Matt, died in a car accident on Oct. 19th. Matt had a great sense of humor and loved to make people laugh. I think he would have been a great comedian.
When he was little, Matt loved going to my mom and dad's house to play in the wilderness. We (Mark, Jason, and I) would take him on short hikes and he loved finding frogs, fishing, and exploring with us.
I moved to Texas when Matt was 13, so the last few years it's been kind of weird to visit and see Matt all grown up. He was becoming a really cool adult. I was visiting this summer and Matt and I were both really busy and didn't have a chance to see eachother. Of course, now I really really wish I had taken time to visit with him, even if it was just for a few minutes.
I love you and miss you Matt.

Kayaking on Town Lake

Jeff and I went kayaking on Town Lake again, and this time we remembered the camera!
We saw all kinds of cool wildlife, including these swans
I was able to get pretty close to them, but I'm not sure they liked it.
We also saw geese, ducks, herons and baby herons, and turtles.
and some really big houses around the lake.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Longhorn 70.3

First of all, I want to say Thank you to everyone who came out to spectate. Jeff, Ingrid and Chris, David and Gillian, Larry, and Ross all came out early in the morning and stayed late. You guys have no idea how much I appreciate you cheering for me. Seriously, it really means a lot to me. Thank you so much!!

Ingrid was Super Longhorn Fan all day long, with foam horns, signs, cowbells, and tons of encouragement all day long. I have no idea how she has a voice today.
Chris, Ingrid, me, James, Cassie, Kim, Alan, and Matt getting ready for the start

Wow, I don't even know what to say about this race, it was so awesome and so hard, but fun at the same time. I have been training so hard for this race since the spring. I am not really fast, so I knew it would take me close to 8 hours to finish the race, but I was pretty sure I could finish.

waiting for the swim start

For those who don't know, an Ironman 70.3 is half of a full Ironman, so it's a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run, for a total of 70.3 miles.

Richie Cunningham winning the race in 3:49:45, wow I can't even imagine going that fast!
We got up at 4:15 and got to the race site at 5:15, which was perfect timing, by 5:30 there were huge lines to get to the parking area and also long lines to get on the buses to the race site. I set up my transition area and ran into Kim and Gillian and Ross. Then I went over to the HRTC tent and tried to relax for a little while. Penny, John, me, and Larry relaxing before the startThey made fun of me for getting so relaxed before the start, but I also did a short warm up swim before the race started.
The sunrise while I was doing my swim warm up
the swim start
We went down to the water to watch the start, I was in the 10th of 13 waves to start, so I actually saw most of the pros finish the swim before I even started. My wave getting ready to start, I'm in the pink top

I got in the water to start and saw Kelli right in front of me, we had meant to get together at some point before the start, but it just hadn't worked out. Kelli also lined up right by me at the Austin Tri. We got started and the swim went really well for me. I felt great and had no problems at all. When some of the 30-34 year old guys started to catch up to me, I just tried to draft off of each one who passed me as long as I could. Before I knew it, I had rounded the last turn bouy and only had a little way to go, my watch only said 30 minutes and I thought I might finish in less than 40! My goal was 45-50 minutes for the swim. My official swim time was 37:55. I was so happy getting out of the water! I saw Jeff and David as I was running up to transition. My transition went smoothly, I double checked to make sure I had everything and I was in and out in 4:41.
leaving transition with my bike

I have been agonizing about this bike ride for months, mostly because of the hills, but after riding the course I was feeling good about the hills. What concerned me yesterday was the wind, Saturday had been pretty windy and I could see the wind picking up before I even started the swim. I got out on the course and felt really good the first few miles. The first few miles are very hilly around Decker Lake, but I was doing well. Then I got out onto the first long straight road, and I realized I had a pretty strong headwind. I kept telling myself that it was ok, because I'd have a strong tailwind in the second half of the ride. My average speed kept going down little by little and my legs were more tired than I expected them to be. I turned down Monkey Road and it felt like a wind tunnel! There are a couple of short steep hills on Monkey and it was all I could do to get up them. My back was hurting a little by about halfway through the bike, but I didn't think too much about it. I thought I'd have a tail wind for the last half of the ride, but I was wrong. Lisa Bentley, the pro female who won the race, said she thought there was a headwind on about 90% of the course. I think she was right! There were definitely times on the bike course that I was really enjoying myself and having fun and other times I was really struggling. I drank all 3 bottles of Infinit on the bike and some water from my Camelback. In the last mile of the bike course there is a long fairly steep hill. My strategy was to build up as much speed as possible on the downhill before this hill. It didn't really work with the headwind, so I fought hard to get up that hill. I was so happy to be finished and get off my bike! My goal was to finish the bike in 4 hours and average 14 mph, I finished in 4:08:02 and averaged 13.5 mph. The bike course was definitely harder than I had expected, and I used more energy than I had wanted to, but I was happy to be starting the run. T2 also went well, I slowed down and relaxed a little as I changed shoes and socks, then headed out to run. T2 was 3:59.
The beginning of the run went well, then on the first uphill I realized my back was definitely hurting. I tried to just ignore it and keep going, my first 2 miles went well. I slowed way down on mile 3, thinking that maybe taking a little break would make my back feel better. Mile 4 was right by the HRTC tent so I ran by and everyone cheered for me like crazy, that was definitely fun!Kim running by the HRTC tailgating area

Matt running by the HRTC tailgating area

As I went on, I realized that my back hurt really bad on the uphills and not so much on the flats and downhills. So I started running the flats and downhills and walking all the uphills. There were a lot of uphills, so I was disappointed to be walking so much. Today I'm pretty sure I pulled or strained a muscle in my back while I was biking. I ran into Kelli at about mile 3, we walked up a hill together and ran together on a flat section for awhile. It was really nice to see her and talk with her a little. As I finished the first loop, I was pretty tired and my back hurt, but I was really happy to only have 6.5 miles left and I was pretty sure I could finish! The second loop was definitely tough, I felt ok mentally and nutritionally, my legs were tired but didn't feel too bad, but my back really hurt. At mile 8 I remembered I had put 2 advil in a baggie in my fuel belt, I took them and hoped they would help. As I came back into the park at about 10.5 miles I was not feeling good, but then I saw Ingrid, cheering for me like crazy! She ran with me for a little while which was so great! She had perfect timing. Then it wasn't long until I passed the HRTC tent again, everyone cheered for me and I knew I only had 2.5 miles to go from there. Jeff and Ross ran with me for awhile, which was really nice, I really needed it at that point! I passed David and Gillian and they said Cassie was just ahead of me, I could catch her. I just thought, yeah right I can't catch anyone at this point! My last time up Quadzilla (the huge hill at the end of the bike was also on the run course) was really tough, I was walking and my back hurt. I just kept thinking about Jeff and all my friends who supported me through training all spring and summer and how they would be so happy to see me finish in just a couple of miles, and how I never would have even made it to the start without everyone's help and support. As I came to the top of the very last hill Ingrid was there cheering for me. She ran with me almost to the finish chute and then I ran in and finished! It was the most exciting and emotional triathlon finish of my life! I have never cried at a triathlon before, but I gave Jeff a big hug at the finish and started crying, I looked up at him and he was crying too. I guess it wasn't just emotional for me. Even Ingrid was crying a little when I hugged her. Wow, it was so amazing!
David, Gillian, Chris, Ingrid, James, Cassie, me, Larry, and Ross just after I finished
Alan, Cassie, Ingrid, me, and Kim post race at the HRTC tent

My goal for the run was 3 hours, I came in at 3:04:46, for a total finish time of 7:59:26. I guess if my back hadn't hurt I could have run faster than 3 hours. This race was a lot harder than I expected it to be, but I'm so happy I did it and I already want to do another one next year.

Jeff and I went to the post-race party at Hill's cafe with Matt, Kim, Andrew, and Jeremy.
Kim and Andrew
Jeff and Matt
Jeff took pictures of these Liatris flowers for me

Longhorn Pre-race

I have been so excited about Longhorn for so long! I couldn't wait for Kim to get to town on Friday so we could go to packet pickup. We got there right when it started and the lines were really long. We got our packets, and looked at the expo, then we took Kim to get a cupcake at Hey Cupcake. By the time we dropped Kim off, Ingrid and Chris were already at our house, so we got home and went to North X Northwest for dinner. Lisa and Thomas came to dinner too. We had a great time. Ingrid and Chris stayed with us Friday night.
We got up on Saturday morning and went to the pancake breakfast at Jack and Adam's Bicycles. I thought it was great of them to host a free pancake breakfast for everyone.
We had about an hour of just hanging around before Jeff and Chris went to a bike garage sale and Ingrid and I went to the pro-panel. I'm glad it wasn't any longer without things to do. I loaded my bike in the truck and we went to the pro panel and then the pre-race meeting. It was really cool to see the pros and listen to their strategies. The pros at the pro panel
At the pre-race meeting Keith announced that the swim would be wetsuit legal, I was shocked, I expected the water temperature to be in the upper 80's but he said the official measurement was 78. No big deal for me, I only wear my wetsuit when it's cold, but a lot of people like to wear them for extra bouancy. Ingrid only likes to do wetsuit leagal races, so I think she was a little sad that she had decided not to do Longhorn. Keith Jordan at the pre-race meeting
As soon as the meeting was over we went out to the lake to check in our bikes. Kim and I put our bikes in transition and Jeff, Ingrid, and Chris set up the HRTC tailgating area. I went for a short swim too. I felt like the water temperature was just about perfect. Putting my bike in the transition area
Decker Lake
The HRTC tailgating area sign

We got home and started cooking for the pre-race dinner. Jeff and Chris were in charge of the chicken and Kim and Ingrid were a huge help with everything else. I felt like I barely had to do anything. Thanks for all your help guys!
Jeff cooking chicken
Ingrid even did some chalk art in the street in front of our house it says Longhorn 70.3 with swimmers bikers and runners. and a big longhorn head.
We put some of the race signs out in the yard
Our neighbors Jim and Sarah, and Cassie, Penny and John
Matt and Ingrid
I think we ended up having 22 people here for dinner. It was so much fun! I'm really glad we did it, it kept my mind off counting the minutes until the race.
Chris, Loanna, Steph, and Ross
Thomas, Lisa, and Rosie
Kim eating her pre-race cupcake
We ordered cupcakes from Hey Cupcake for dessert. We wanted whipper snappers but they couldn't do that ahead of time, so we got some rediwhip to make them ourselves. I think the highlight of the night was Chris making whipper snappers! He was hilarious and I think a few people ended up with more whipped cream than cupcake.

Loanna had a Whipper Snapper blow out!
David and Gillian got in a little late because Gillian had to work Saturday. Gillian showed up, ate a little, then did all the dishes! Thanks so much Gillian! I hate doing dishes.
Gillian and Ingrid eating whipper snapper cupcakes
Larry got in a little later too and stayed at our house Saturday night.