HRTC Christmas party and 30k (that's 18.6 miles!)

I had planned to go to Houston for the Houston Racing Triathlon Club Christmas party this weekend. I was talking with Ingrid trying to figure out how to work in my 14 mile run for the weekend. She suggested I do the 30k with her and Kim on Sunday morning, 18.6 miles isn't much further than the 14 I had planned. It sounded like a lot more fun than running 14 miles by myself on Monday morning.

I got into town and had lunch at Onion Creek with Ingrid, Kim, Matt, and Ross. We had a lot of fun and we talked Ross into going to the party. I wish Cassie and Steph had been able to make it to lunch, since they couldn't be at the party either, I didn't get to see them at all.

Jen Brown had a pre-party at her apartment. She has this cool triathlon wreath! She was making Candy Cane tini's with dry ice, very cool! Kim with her Candy Cane tini. Gillian, me, Ingrid, and Kim at Jen's
The party was at the Height Firehouse, it's an old firehouse that is now used for parties. The firepole is still in place. David did this crazy posting move on the fire pole. Wow! How does he do that??

Ross climbed up the pole
Gillian slid down the pole
Del! It's a fire pole not a stripper pole!

They did door prizes, I lost my ticket and I'm pretty sure they called my number, oh well. Ingrid won an itunes gift card. Dinner was good and I finally got to try the famous Zoe's chocolate cake for the first time!

Jen and Andrew

I had so much fun seeing all my Houston tri friends!

Gillian, David, Matt, Ingrid, and Ross

About 10:00 Ingrid, Kim and I decided we had to leave since we were getting up at 4:30 to run the 30k in the morning. When I was saying good bye to Kathleen she said I was crazy for doing the 30k in the morning. It's never good when Kathleen tells you you're crazy!

My plan for this 30k was just to treat it like a training run, go slow, and have fun. The weather was really nice in the 60's and 70's and partly sunny for the run. My stomach was a little upset before we even started running. I'm not surprised considering I ate a bunch of different stuff at the party. (the number one rule of racing is to never try anything new the night before or day of a race). The furthest I have ever run before is 14 miles. So this would definitely be a really long run for me. Before the start we ran into Rick who did some PoolSharks workouts with us this spring and summer. We hadn't seen him in a long time, so that was cool.

Rick, Kim, and Rick's friend Mark

The first few miles went really well. I had to make a porta-potty stop between miles 3 and 4, but other than that, I was feeling great for the first 10 miles. We did 3 loops of 4.2 miles (and a little more at the beginning and end) I saw Ingrid at least once on every loop. At the halfway point at mile 9.3 I thought "Wow, it's hard to believe I've run over 9 miles and I'm just now halfway!" Penny came out to spectate too, I think I saw her around mile 6. I thought I should see Kim at some point, but I never saw her.

I felt like I wasn't drinking enough water so at the mile 10 water stop I got 2 cups and walked while I slowly drank the water, sometimes drinking water fast while I run gives me a stomach ache. I started running again, but a few minutes later my stomach was really upset. I ended up taking 3 more restroom breaks and lots of walking breaks when I felt like I might throw up. Kim said she saw me at one point then I "just disappeared" I'm sure I "disappeared" into a porta-potty. There were times I felt fine and I just seemed to go back and forth between feeling ok and feeling sick. It's really not a big deal. It happens to everyone at some point, I'm just glad this wasn't a race where I was super excited about doing really well. I kinda deserved it anyway after eating whatever I wanted at the party the night before.

Around mile 13 I met Richard, we started talking and ended up run/walking the rest of the run together. He's doing the half at Houston (cool, one more person to cheer for!) and planning on the quarter iron at Lonestar and his first half iron at Longhorn. I was really happy to have someone to talk with, since I wasn't feeling too good.

Richard and I at the finish

I told myself all along that all I wanted from this run was my 14 mile training run, I could walk the last 4.6 miles and be perfectly happy. So I'm not at all disappointed about this run. The first 10 miles was great, and the last 8.6 was mostly fun, even though I wasn't feeling great for some of it.
Ingrid, me and Kim after the race

After the run, I had to get back to Austin fast for Nic's bike race. The wind had really picked up and I had to drive a little slower than I wanted, so I didn't have time to stop and get a snack and stretch my legs like I had planned. Ingrid gave me 2 mini bagels for the drive and I'm so glad she did! Considering that I ran further than I've ever run and then sat in the car for 3 hours, I'm amazed that my legs don't feel awful today! My quads and feet are a little sore, but not bad. It must be the magic Zoot compression socks!