Windy Possibilities

Ironman Cozumel 2011 Race Report

2011-11-30T07:12:00.039-06:00

Pre-race
I woke up race morning with a sore throat and tons of congestion, I did NOT feel good and I was NOT happy about it, definitely not the way I wanted to start my race morning. I told Jeff and Kristen that I felt sick and they both said "you'll be fine" so I tried to just go with it, but I was nervous. I mean, is it even safe to do an Ironman when you're sick??
My awesome Sherpa crew! Jeff, Linda, Kristen, Melissa, Katherine, and Ramona
Cindy cheering!
Kim, me, Ingrid and Del heading into transition

I aired up my tires, and put Infinit in all my bottles and went to find my crew. By the time I found them, I felt like I needed a nap, and of course that made me even more worried. If I was tired already how in the world could I do an Ironman?
still smiling for the camera, but really worried about my race. Check out Jeff's cool shirt!

I went back through transition and then handed Jeff my shoes and extra clothes over the fence. I started to cry, yeah I was that unhappy but I knew there wasn't really anything I could do (I had Jeff pretty scared at this point), I got a final hug and headed toward the swim.
They made the athletes stay back near T1 this year instead of letting us crowd around the pier. I walked up to the front of the area and sat down on a rock. I knew I needed to find a way to turn my attitude around. Even though I didn't feel good, I needed to find a way to race happy and enjoy the day even if it didn't turn out the way I wanted.

I started to think about THE BOOK. Emmie wrote:
"'in every sport there comes a moment when a spell of bitter weeping seems like a fair recess from whatever tough work is going on. It's only the steeliest among us who can fight the urge to turn negative...call it grace under pressure...' ...You are ready! The one unknown is what the race day is going to give you to contend with...when all is exhausted it will be your determination that puts your foot across the finish line. You are strong! If the environment overwhelms you or your physical strength fails you, cling to your determination..."

Wow Emmie! talk about giving me just what I needed! I thought about those words over and over all day long.

I also thought about what JoAnne wrote (it was really sweet and inspiring, but long so I won't put it all here). I told her a few months ago, "everyone has a bad race, it doesn't mean you're a bad triathlete, it just happens" I really didn't want my "bad race" to be Ironman Cozumel, but I also realized I didn't want to give up before I even started! I could feel my mental attitude shifting! I decided I was going to race happy and pay extra attention to my body, if I felt like I was truly hurting myself I'd stop, but otherwise I'd try my best and see how the day unfolded.
While I was having my mental pep talk the spectators were watching safety divers get in the water
Then we all listened to the Mexican national anthem
The pros started, and then they let the age groupers onto the pier. I walked along the pier hoping to find Jeff and my Sherpas, I really wanted to let them know I was feeling better mentally.
Hey! there you are! I know they were all SO happy to see me smiling and feeling better (mentally at least!)
Jeff told me to race safe and be careful out there, he's never told me that right before a race, so I know I really scared him when I was crying in transition.
I got a great big Mama Mudge hug! I could tell from the hug that she was also SO happy I had my smile back! I thought about that great big hug and Katherine's encouragement a lot through out the day too.
I found Del, he was easy to find in his new swimsuit! and we got in the water together again this year. We chose almost exactly the same start position, along the pier to the right. We kept wondering when the dolphin show would start, last year we watched it before getting in the water and while we waited in the water. This year they didn't start the dolphin show until after the age group swim start, probably to keep the athletes from gawking at the dolphins instead of getting in the water!
Swim
The gun went off and I started swimming, I felt like I was getting pushed and hit quite a bit, I think I swam closer to the buoys this year than last which is probably why I had more contact. I took advantage of open space whenever I could and tried to push through or get around people when I could, next thing I knew I was at the first turn buoy! wow that came faster than I thought! I checked my watch, 15 minutes in. My throat still hurt and my nose was stuffy and a little runny too, sometimes when I exhaled I could see snot floating through the water (disgusting, I know), but it didn't seem to be affecting my swimming! I made the first and second turns and it really seemed like I could feel the current pushing me along. I had more clear water at this point, but still quite a bit of contact. Whenever I had open space I watched for cool fish, and enjoyed the beautiful water! I saw a safety diver at one point and waved to him, he waved back and gave me a thumbs up! I kept trying to count people I passed, like Sandra told me, but I kept losing count. At one point I sighted and the submarine looked forever far away! but again I was there before a I knew it, checked my watch, under 1 hour! I knew I had a good chance at a swim PR. The stretch from the submarine to the swim exit seemed to take the longest. I saw a blue tang (Dory) during that time and sang to myself "Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming" all the way to the exit. I climbed up the steps and saw 1:20 on my watch, a swim PR by 1 minute! YAY!! I was SO happy! Official swim time is 1:20:20
High fiving my IronSherpas as I run down the pier to the changing tent.

T1
T1 went pretty smoothly, I rinsed off well in the showers, grabbed my gear bag, easy to find with Linda's red ribbon on it, and ran to the tent. I really really needed to blow my nose, I didn't have any kleenex so I used my towel and I kept thinking how gross that was going to be after the race, as if my wet swim stuff wasn't going to be gross anyway! I got some help getting my bike jersey on and getting sprayed with sunscreen by a Mexican volunteer. I grabbed the rest of my stuff and jogged out to my bike, put on my race bib/tracker and my helmet and took off for the mount line. There were people everywhere yelling "Animo" "GO, GO" "Si Se Puede" "Vamos" etc. I smiled and thought this is exactly why I wanted to come back for Ironman Cozumel again! I stopped just past the mount line and Jeff was right there! He yelled "I love you!" as I was pedaling away I yelled "I love you too!" T1 was 12:06.
Bike
I started pedaling and I didn't feel super fast and great but I didn't feel too bad either. There were lots of very animated spectators so I enjoyed them and hoped that my legs would warm up and feel great soon. I hit the first headwindy spot about 6 miles in and my legs felt tired and heavy, I knew that was not a good sign, but I didn't really get upset about it, just kept pedaling waiting to make the curve and see the waves crashing on the far side of the island. Ingrid came flying by me just before I made the curve, I knew that meant she had a good swim! I made the curve and felt the crosswind, but enjoyed the view, it's so beautiful out there! I wasn't going as fast as I had hoped in the cross wind, but I knew in 12 miles I'd make the turn to head back into town and get the awesome tailwind! I also saw a plane flying a banner, all I could really read of it was Vamos but I assumed it was a good luck to the racers banner. Later Martin from our hotel said there was a "really rich guy who paid someone to fly the banner with his name on it" Oh well, at least during the race I thought it was for everyone!
I made the turn to head toward town and I felt the tailwind, but I didn't feel like I was going fast with little effort, instead I felt like I had to work super hard even though I had a tailwind. But I knew there would be lots of spectators out cheering so I decided to work as hard as I could through that section and really feed off the awesome spectator support. It worked well, there were tons of people out chanting "Si se Puede!" and shaking their homemade noise makers. Even though I wasn't going as fast as I had hoped, it was really fun! By the time I passed by my Sherpas in town I was really happy! They thought I was still on pace for a bike PR and assumed everything was going great!
As I started lap 2, my legs felt really tired and I felt like I needed a nap. I was happy to stop and mix Infinit for the next 2 or 3 hours (my stomach never felt great on the ride, but it never felt too bad and I followed my nutrition plan pretty well). After stopping for a minute I felt a little better. I decided I needed to not worry too much about my pace and just concentrate on finishing, I was only 39 miles into a 112 mile ride and I was pretty worn out already. I loved passing the resorts and getting cheered for and I even loved being passed (and passing the few people I got to pass) because most racers were really encouraging and nice. I hit the headwindy section and felt exhausted, I wasn't sure I could finish the bike, let alone make the cutoff time! I decided I'd stop at the aid stations and rest for a minute (and blow my nose, which I was doing into the front of my bike jersey so I had a jersey full of snot by the end- disgusting!). I usually felt better when I started again, so that seemed to work. Kim G. had written "when you move those arms and legs in Cozumel, you're actually powering our smiles in Austin" for THE BOOK. At one point I thought "wow, I'm moving pretty slow, I bet they don't have very big smiles in Austin right now" and for some reason I thought that was hilarious, I may have even laughed out loud thinking about it.There were at least 4 or 5 big "seaweed signs" on the beach on the far side of the island, I loved seeing them!

Kim E. passed me on the cross windy section and she was having a really tough ride too. I told her I had to average 12 mph to make the cutoff time and I wasn't sure if I could do it. Yikes! But I kept moving and finally hit the tailwind again, this time I didn't try to go fast, I just tried to regain a little energy and draw encouragement from all the spectators. I rode through town to tons of cheering and finally saw my IronSherpas! Smiling because everyone is cheering so loud for me!!
This time Jeff was worried, I was pretty far off pace and as I rode by he asked if I was ok.
This is me replying "yeah I'm ok...well mostly" with Katherine and Melissa cheering their hearts out in the background.

It had rained a little during my second lap, but it rained quite a bit during my third lap, there were hardly any turns on the course so I didn't feel like the rain slowed me down. I still wasn't sure I could make the cutoff and I have to admit there were a couple of times I thought it wouldn't be so bad to miss the cutoff and get to go take a nap instead of run a marathon! But as I kept going I felt more positive that I could make it. I didn't really get any headwind on the normal headwindy section, but then I turned onto the crosswindy section and got straight on headwind. It didn't even occur to me to be upset about the headwind, I just thought about Emmie's words- "cling to your determination" and "grace under pressure" and even though it was windy and rainy, it was still beautiful out there.
I watched for all the seaweed signs and really appreciated the spectators who came all the way out there. There was a big group of extra enthusiastic spectators from Team Z (a DC area tri team) and they must have all stayed out there until the cutoff, and they cheered like crazy for me (they cheered for me on every lap, but it was extra special on lap 3!). I also met and rode with a guy from Shreveport for a few miles, it really hurt my throat to talk to him, but I appreciated the company so much that I didn't care. When I made the turn toward town, I got no tailwind at all, but I knew I only had 9 miles to go and I was going to make the bike cutoff! I actually passed at least 4 or 5 people on that last section and I tried to be super encouraging and tell them they were easily going to make the cutoff!
Sherpas Jeff, Linda, Melissa, Katherine, and Ramona- with the Spirit Stick on the bike course
Super happy to have finished the bike in time! Bike time was 8:17:28 and I actually finished over 30 minutes before the cutoff time.

T2
I got to transition and Jeff, Katherine, and Clara from the dive shop all cheered like crazy for me. I told Jeff I didn't know if I could finish the marathon, but I was going to try and it would be close. I really felt like I did NOT have a marathon in my legs, but at the same time I knew I didn't have 112 bike miles in my legs and I managed to do it anyway. I walked into the changing tent, sat down in a chair and took my time changing clothes, I was SO happy I had planned on a full clothing change, my bike shorts were soaked and already starting to chafe a little and my socks and shoes were also drenched. T2 was 9:45, which seems fast considering how long I felt like I was taking.
Run
I got onto the run course and saw that it was a couple minutes before 5:00, I had 7 hours to complete the marathon, under normal circumstances that would be easy, but on this day, I didn't know if I could make it. I did some triathlon math and figured I needed to average 15:30 minutes per mile to finish. My legs felt completely trashed, but I hoped maybe I could keep a 13:30 pace for the first half and slow down if I needed to for the second half.
Starting the run. My plan to be super visible for my Sherpas in my yellow hat and orange trimmed shorts worked perfectly!

I was able to keep to my 13:30 pace for most of the first lap (8.8 miles), there were tons of spectators on the course, even way out at the north end where it was a little lonely last year. I saw our divemaster Mariano (the one who asked about my bike shirt), when he saw me he jumped out into the street and yelled "Go Heather!...Vamos!!"

It had been raining a lot and a one point on the course there was a huge puddle (more like a lake), it was at least 6 inches deep and I couldn't see any way to avoid it, so I sloshed through knowing I'd have to do it 5 more times and knowing that it was very likely to cause some major blisters.
It's hard to tell from the picture but this flag is HUGE, it's one of the fun things to see each lap, when you can see it coming into town, you know you're less than a mile from the turn around.

Toward the end of lap 1 I started to feel really awful, my stomach hurt, my legs hurt, my head hurt, my throat hurt and I was SO tired. I knew there was no way I could keep my 13:30 pace much longer and I wasn't at all sure I could keep a 16 minute pace to finish. As I passed by my Awesome IronSherpa crew they had this sign for me! It was the BEST sign of the day!
They asked how I was feeling and I don't remember what I said, but I know it wasn't good something like "not good" "terrible" or "like I'm going to die" They were pretty close to the turn around, so I saw them again just a few minutes later and Kristen came out to walk/jog with me for a little while. She listened to me whine for a few minutes, then I asked her to figure what pace I needed to keep to finish by midnight. I'm usually really good at triathlon math, but I was really tired and I just didn't feel like figuring it out right then. She didn't say anything after I asked her, so I looked over at her and I saw her fingers and lips moving :)- normally I would make fun of her for that, but I was too tired. I did make a mental note to remember it though :) She finally came up with 16 minutes per mile and right then we were doing 18 minute miles. That made me really nervous! I told Kristen I felt so sick I didn't know if I could run much more at all, but if I didn't run I couldn't finish!

That's when she said "you know you have nothing to prove Heather. I'm really proud of you and you know everyone at home is proud of you too, no matter what happens" I really needed that! Finally I started running again, Kristen ran with me for a minute, then decided I was good and she turned back. Less than a minute after she left, I got a horrible side stitch, and I was walking again- ugh! I ran for most of the first 9 or 10 miles, but after that my body rebelled every time I tried to run.

Then a guy from North Carolina passed me, he was walking too, but walking really fast, I talked with him for a minute, but I couldn't keep up. Then I decided that maybe if I could walk super fast like him, I might be able to finish. So I started walking faster and I caught up to that guy! I kept walking super fast (and passed that guy) and checked my Garmin after each mile, I was walking at about 15 minutes per mile- I just might make it! I definitely felt better walking, my stomach settled down, my legs felt a little better, even my throat felt better since I wasn't breathing as hard. I passed by my Sherpas again and told them "if I can keep this pace, I think I can finish!" It was obvious to them that I was feeling significantly better.

Kristen came out to walk with me again and she had to jog to keep up with me. I told her "I'm not slowing down!" she said "you shouldn't!" I made the turn around and started my third and final lap, it was really late, but there were still lots of athletes on the course and still tons of spectators out! All the volunteers were still super enthusiastic and encouraging, and the music and parties were still going strong at every resort on the run course! Team Z had groups of spectators dressed in costumes at some of the furthest out points on the run! It was also getting crazy windy (like 30 mph windy!)! I knew a Norte was blowing in, so I was impressed that everyone was still out there!

I knew as long as my stomach held up, I could finish, but my stomach kept feeling worse and worse. Every time I ate or drank anything I felt worse, Infinit, Coke, oranges, even water made me feel worse. I have a fairly sensitive stomach anyway and I think between not feeling well in general and being out there SO long, my stomach had just had enough! With about 6 miles to go I decided since everything made me feel worse, I just wasn't going to put anything else in my stomach, it was only 6 more miles- although 6 miles walking takes a LONG time! I got to the turn around and only had 4.4 miles to go! Then I realized that 4.4 miles was going to take me an hour and 15 minutes! Yikes! ok, don't think about that just Keep Moving Forward (it's a line from Meet the Robinsons, one of my favorite Disney movies) and "when your physical strength fails, cling to your determination" Thanks again Emmie!

About a mile after the turn around I started to feel a little dizzy, I knew it was from not getting any calories or water, but I knew if I put anything in my stomach I would get sick and have to stop, so I just kept moving. Every time the wind gusted I was afraid it would knock me over and I started noting the people and ambulances along the way. Thank goodness there were still so many people out cheering! I was getting more dizzy, I knew I was in bad shape, but I also knew that mentally I was fine (I could still do triathlon math), and if I did collapse it wouldn't take any time for someone to get to me and help me. I tried to decide if I should go straight to medical at the finish or go find Jeff and my Sherpas and let them decide if I needed to go to medical. I finally only had a mile to go and over 30 minutes to do it!

With a little over half a mile to go I saw JEFF walking toward me! I can't even describe how happy I was to see him! He said I had slowed down so he was worried. I told him I felt dizzy and if I fell he should catch me (I did say that right Jeff? um seriously, you handled that REALLY well, I'm pretty sure if YOU said that to ME, I'd totally freak out!). I told him I wasn't sure I could run across the finish line, but I was so happy I was going to finish! When the barricades started, Jeff went to the spectator area and I kept walking, high fiving every one along the way. I turned into the finish chute and was super impressed to see there were still tons of people there cheering like crazy! About halfway through the chute I passed my sherpas and I decided I'd try to jog to the finish line. Wow! When I started "running" the crowd went insane! It was one of the coolest things ever! I made it!! Just before I started "running" in the finish chute

Run time was 6:47:35 and total time was 16:47:14, almost 13 minutes to spare. Obviously it wasn't the day I had hoped for, but I'm 100% happy that I was able to finish! I said all along that I'd love a PR, but if the day turned tough, I'd be completely happy just to finish no matter the time. I'm still not sure if it's safe to do an Ironman when you're sick, but I know it's possible- not pretty, but possible. This was easily the hardest thing I've ever done physically and I really feel like I pushed myself to my absolute limits to finish. Obviously I had some pretty low moments, but I feel like I mostly did "race happy" and enjoy the day, and I feel like under the circumstances that's a huge success! I'm proud that even on a tough day I was able to appreciate all the great things about this race, amazing spectator support, having my awesome Sherpa crew there for me, the beautiful bike course, the gorgeous swim, the support of so my other athletes, etc.Post-race, not looking so good. I think I'm either saying "Oh my god that was hard!" or "Oh wow my legs don't work anymore!"

I thanked my IronSherpa crew for being there. It was pure determination that got me to the finish and without my awesome IronSherpa friends and husband there encouraging me and believing in me and without the words of my friends in my head from THE BOOK I would not have finished. So THANK YOU to ALL of you!

I'd also really like to find that guy from North Carolina, I don't know his name or number so I'll probably never find him, but I don't think I would have realized I could walk super fast if I hadn't seen him doing it and I'm pretty sure if I had continued to try running I wouldn't have made it. I never saw him again after I passed him, so I don't even know if he finished.

Post-race
As soon as I stopped moving I felt my legs cramp like crazy! I shuffled through the finisher area, got my shirt and found my Sherpas. I congratulated Mohamed (he had a great first Ironman!) and Ingrid. Ingrid went with me to get my bike, then Kristen, Linda, Ingrid, Katherine, and Melissa pretty much carried me home while Jeff dropped my bike off at Tri Bike Transport. Ingrid, Kristen, and Linda carrying me home.

My legs were completely giving out when I tried to walk, and my feet felt like they were going to explode (I had nasty half dollar sized blisters on both feet). I was sure I wouldn't be able to walk at all the next day. After about an hour I was able to drink my recovery drink and eat a little. I woke up at 6 am (why does that happen?) and surprisingly didn't feel all that bad. My legs were sore, but I could definitely walk. I was still super congested, but my throat didn't hurt much anymore. The blisters hurt more than anything else.

My Sherpas took extra good care of me post-race too. Kristen and Linda went to the finisher store for me (and sweet talked the guy into letting them buy stuff for me) and got me a post Ironman care package. The Mudges set me up with the best blister band-aids in the whole world!My Post Ironman Care Package included, a cute fishy swim cap to make me happy, little bananas for potassium, chocolate milk for recovery, orange juice for my cold, soft cushy socks and band aids for my blistered feet, and Oreos cause they're yummy. Jeff also got a clown marshmallow pop and chocolate milk.

Ironman Cozumel Pre-race

2011-11-30T06:32:00.017-06:00

We got to Cozumel on Monday and this was the view from our balcony, so happy to be in Cozumel!
Ironman signs everywhere!

Since we were there so early Jeff and I went diving on Tuesday. We walked into the dive shop and one of the ladies said "good morning Heather. Are you ready for the Ironman again this year?" I hadn't seen her since last year, I couldn't believe she remembered me! It's really awesome how nice people are in Cozumel!

Just keep swimming!
arrow crab up close
shark just for Kristen!

Our dive boat at the Aqua Safari pier, right across the street from the hotel. One of our divemasters was very excited that I was going to be racing. He asked my number and what color "bike shirt" I'd be wearing so he could watch for me.
gray angelfish looking at me

On Wednesday we went to the Cozumel museum, we've always wanted to go, but never did until now. It was really interesting.
Mayan artifacts
Then on Thursday it was time to get ready for Ironman!
banner at our hotel

Unfortunately, Jeff woke up on Thursday feeling like he was getting a cold. We walked over to the Mega and got him some Mexican drugs and I started pumping myself full of vitamin C, EmergenC, lysine and using hand sanitizer like crazy hoping I could avoid getting what he had.

He didn't feel too bad, so he came over to packet pickup with me
packet pickup, I'm #1333, seems like a good number
Love my new jacket too
and they have the hat I wanted so much last year- so happy! (last year they had similar black visors, but I don't wear visors and they didn't have good hats)
found Mohamed in the crowd
Del set up a coffee date at Starbucks with pro triathlete Sonja Tajsich. She and her husband Thomas are super nice and we sat and talked with them for over 2 hours!

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were pretty low key, lots of resting, so Friday felt like a busy day with practice swimming, meeting the Austin sherpas, athlete meeting, and gear bag packing.
Del and I went practice swimming at Chankanaab Friday morning, check out his new swimsuit!

Then I went back to the hotel to meet Kristen, Linda, Katherine, and Melissa my official IronSherpas!
Kristen gave me a gift as soon as they got in. It was the coolest thing ever! A book of inspirations from all my friends! Thank you so much to everyone who contributed!

My sherpas were hungry after traveling so we headed out to the 2 for 1 margarita place.
Jeff came to lunch with us, but he wasn't feeling good.
The sherpas started with some margaritas
then had some more! They had food too, I promise!
while they were drinking, I started reading THE BOOK.

We dropped Jeff off for a nap and the rest of us headed over to the athlete meeting.
Kristen, Linda, Kim, Mohamed, me, and Melissa after the athlete meeting. Next was the expo, when Jeff and I went on Thursday they were still setting up, so we thought there wasn't much there, but when we went after the meeting there was a lot more cool stuff.
Linda, Kristen, and Katherine bought cool tri necklaces
Linda checking out the Ironman jersey
Kristen with her new swim, bike, run shot glasses
Friday dinner was at Del Sur Argentina Empanadas- Yum!

My throat was a little sore when I woke up on Saturday. I still felt fine, so I hoped it was just from taking in salt water swimming or from laughing and talking with the sherpas.
Saturday morning, getting back from my last pre-race run, and I saw a rainbow!
Linda and I with the rainbow.

We went out to Chankanaab for one last short practice swim
Katherine, Ingrid, me, Kristen, and Linda on the pier at Chankanaab
Linda, Katherine, Kristen and me swimming

After a short swim, we relaxed at Chankanaab for awhile
dolphin at Chankanaab
Chankanaab Lagoon

We had a long relaxing Italian lunch at Sorrisi, I had soup and risotto and I felt like it was a perfect pre-race lunch.

Then it was time for gear bag and bike drop off, and body marking.
gear bags ready to go!
Spinnaker ready to go!
taking my gear bags to the drop offs
I'm #1333
We saw this car on the way back from transition!

Then it was nap time for me while the sherpas went to the store, based on the pictures and stories I kinda wish I had gone with them! When they came back and I saw this:all I could say was "what were you thinking?? Are you moving in now?"

Pre-race dinner was at La Mission, same as last year, it worked well last year so I figured why change. Katherine ordered Sexy Coffee for dessert and it definitely wins the Best Food Presentation Award. There was lots of alcohol and fire involved!The Sexy Coffee set up, the video is much better, but it's about 8 minutes long.

After all the rumors that Coach Cindy was coming to Cozumel, I knew she might make an appearance at some point. She came over to give me a pre-race pep talk and say good night! LOL!
Cindy saying good night!

I went to bed about 8:45 and fell asleep right away, but I woke up at 10:30 because I couldn't breathe my nose and head were so congested, and my throat hurt worse- oh no!! I had a really hard time sleeping after that, my nose was super stuffy and of course I was worried. I think I only got about 3 or 4 hours of sleep.

2nd Annual P-ville Century

2011-11-09T16:34:00.005-06:00

I enjoyed the Pflugerville looped century ride so much last year that I thought it would be fun to repeat it this year. So I posted it on facebook, and got quite a few friends to come out and ride. Maggie emailed and asked if she could bring a couple of friends- umm yeah, Of course!!!

Just like last year, ride morning was the first really cold morning of the year. I really hate being cold so I wasn't too happy about it, but I put on all my clothes and decided it would be ok. For lap 1 it was Denise and Charles (some of Maggie's friends, there were way more than "a couple" :) ), Nydia, JoAnne, Jeff, Kim, and me. Denise and Charles took off right away, but I had a lot of trouble warming up, my legs felt stiff and I was really cold. I was getting discouraged, but Kim & Jeff did a great job of cheering me up and keeping my mind off the cold.

Lap 2 was Mohamed, Jenny, Jill, Gayla, Maggie and her entourage (Kathleen, Becca, Alisa). I had a great lap 2, it was still cold, but the sun was out and I felt much better! It was fun to ride in a big group and everyone chatted along the way- it wasn't even very windy- yet. At the end of lap 2 Alisa pulled out her Magic Pumpkin Bars, they were yummy and great fuel for the rest of my ride- Thanks Alisa!The lap 2 group, with Alisa's Magic Pumpkin Bars!

Lap 3 was Mohamed, Annette, me, and Jenny and Gayla for just a few miles. At the beginning of lap 3 Annette had some issues with her gearing and I got worried she might have to bail, but she got it worked out and I really enjoyed her company! The wind was picking up so we couldn't talk as much. Did I mention this ride was on Halloween weekend? After turning a corner onto Cameron Rd (I know, everything is Cameron Rd in P-ville) I passed a car with a life-sized doll with a Zombie head hanging out of the backseat window! It seriously startled me, but then I laughed. I tried to ask Annette if she had seen it, but the wind had picked up and she didn't hear me, somehow she hadn't seen it. At the end of lap 3 Maggie was still hanging out at Lake P-ville, she had locked her keys in her car, so she made the best of it and decided to be cheerleader extraordinaire! She put fun encouraging sticky notes on my car and cheered us in when we finished.

For lap 4 we did 2 laps of Coach Jen's time trial route, it was Mohamed, Camilla, Jeff, and me. It was definitely getting windier and my legs were getting tired, but it was fun to ride with Camilla since I hadn't seen her in awhile. And Jeff and I found the Kuempel-Murchison House where Elvis and Annabelle was filmed. Maggie got her keys out of the car and drove out to cheer us on some more! And she was even back at the lake when we finished!

Me, Denise, and Charles after finishing 100 miles!

After the ride I ran a lap around the lake with Mohamed.

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who came out to ride!!! I really appreciate it, these long rides could easily get boring and lonely, but instead you all make them fun!

Kerrville Half Iron Triathlon Race Report

2011-10-03T18:07:00.028-05:00

Pre-race
The alarm went off at 4:45, we planned to leave at 5:45, but we were ready at 5:30 so we just left then. It was COLD out, I had a jacket and Jeff's watch cap, but I took a big heavy blanket too, the jeep ride over was really cold, but once we got to transition I wasn't too cold as long as I stayed wrapped in the blanket. I got my transition stuff taken care of and hung out with all the Tri Zoners and Del. Jeff and I pre-race
Theresa in her pajama pants and me wrapped up in a blanket
Me, Del and Julie pre-race, Del put his wetsuit on early since he didn't bring a jacket

I went up to Julie's hotel room instead of waiting in the porta potty line and borrowed the spi belt she wasn't using- Perfect, Thanks Julie! (I planned to use my spi belt for the run, but I couldn't find it, so I was just going to use my race belt, but I forgot to pack that, so Kristen was going to bring me one to use, but Julie's extra spi belt was even better) I stayed wrapped up in the blanket until it was time to put on my wetsuit, but I kept my jacket, hat, wool socks, and shoes until just before the start, luckily I had Jeff to hand that stuff off to at the last minute. Getting into my wetsuit while still wearing a hat, jacket, wool socks & shoes

I lined up to get in the water and Kim E was right by me! Then I realized Emmie was videoing us getting in the water so I hammed it up for her a little.Swim
I usually wear a digital watch in the swim, but I forgot that too (anyone counting how many things I forgot for this race?) So I was just planning to swim at a moderately hard effort. The water felt great and was clean and clear! I started toward the outside, but still had a lot of contact at the start. Within the first few hundred meters I felt a sharp pain in the top of my foot, I was pretty sure someone had scratched me hard and probably cut my foot (it looks like that's exactly what happened, I have a fingernail sized chunk of skin gone from my foot). I thought once I got around the first turn buoy it would clear out and I'd have more space to swim, but one girl kept running into me (she's probably saying the same thing about me) I just couldn't get away from her, I'd pass her, or slightly change direction and get away from her, but a few minutes later, there she was again! The last time I saw her was right before I turned to go in to the finish, so she was with me off and on the entire swim. Other than that I had a really good swim, I felt great, the swim was beautiful, I really enjoyed watching the sun rise as I was swimming toward the dam. I feel like I probably could have pushed the pace and gone a little faster (might have been an easy way to make up a minute). My swim time was 42:58, my second best swim time for a half.Pretty swim course

T1
I got dragged out of the water up that steep ramp by the awesome volunteers and before I realized it I was at the wetsuit strippers and I hadn't even unzipped my wetsuit yet! They did it for me, pulled the top down, I plopped down and they yanked the bottom off and handed it to me as I jumped up and jogged up the big hill. I saw and heard the entire Tri Zones More Cowbell Corps as I went up the hill, it was great motivation for getting up that hill! I got into transition and saw that my feet were covered in mud, I sat down on my towel and cleaned my feet before putting on my socks & shoes, it took FOREVER! I looked at my arm warmers and decided I didn't need them since I didn't feel too cold standing there in transition, so I shoved them into the gear bag too. I got the rest of my stuff on and took off. I was sure it was a super slow transition, but when I got on my bike I saw that swim + T1 was under 50 minutes, so I was happy with that. T1 ended up being 4:33, which is actually really fast for me (I think faster than I usually transition at Decker) so I was shocked (in a good way)!

Bike
I was originally worried about the bike course, in Kerrville, they could have made it really difficult, but Shayla and I drove the course a couple months before the race and saw that it was definitely doable. There were a couple of steep hills that concerned me, but I knew I could do them. My biggest goal for this race was to have a good bike ride and come as close to 16 mph as I could, I knew that would be tough for me on a slightly hilly course, especially one I hadn't ridden before.

I started the bike and immediately I was FREEZING! I rode by Jeff and yelled "I should have worn my arm warmers, I'm FREEZING!"Starting the bike and telling Jeff I'm freezing.

Even though I was cold, I felt strong and fast, it was a great feeling! My shifting seemed to be working fine. Del passed me and I wondered how he had gotten behind me, I'm still not sure, but it was good to see him. I flew down highway 27, my average speed was 17.5 mph even with a few rollers, that's amazing for me! I assumed I had a major tailwind, but I kept looking at the grass and leaves and they didn't seem to be bending with the wind. Some of the road was nasty chip seal, but for the most part it was smooth or there was a narrow strip of smooth road between all the chip seal.

I turned off highway 27 and thought I'd get more hills, but it stayed pretty flat with a few little downhills. Then I turned and saw the first river crossing and knew I was about to hit the first of the steep hills I was worried about, I downshifted like crazy before the hill so I wouldn't get bogged down on the steep part especially if my derailleur decided to have issues right then! I heard someone yell my name and talk to me from behind, but I couldn't tell who it was. I started up the hill and realized it was NOT that steep at all and I had NOTHING to worry about! I don't know why I make hills so big and bad in my head! Just past the hill Kathleen passed me, it was her behind me on the hill.

Around mile 20-something a guy in arm warmers passed me and I thought, "yeah, I still wish I had worn mine, I'd still be a little happier if I had them on", but I wasn't so cold that it was a big issue. The view in this area was beautiful- similar to our campsite, I could see the river and all the trees. I couldn't believe how much I was enjoying this ride! Then a bug flew into my mouth! Hack, cough, spit- YUCK! Ok, so maybe it wasn't the perfect ride :)

At the U-turn of the out & back I stopped to fix my speedfill straw, I have only used the speedfill for a couple of rides, and Jeff and I put it on last minute before taking my bike to transition on Saturday so I didn't realize that something was messed up making it almost impossible to suck Infinit through the straw! I had my aerobottle too, so I had been fine so far, but I needed it for the rest of the ride. I pulled on the straw and adjusted it in a couple of places and it seemed better, so I took off again. It worked perfectly the rest of the ride (I'm not even sure what I did that fixed it).

The big hill on Wharton is the one I was most worried about, when Shayla and I drove the course I had said "ok, maybe I don't want to do this race!", but again, it was no where near as bad as I made it out to be. It was tough, but totally doable. There was a family cheering halfway up the hill which was perfect! I thanked them for being in the perfect place! I got out onto hwy 173 and the chip seal was almost unbearable! I knew it wasn't very far, but wow, it just hurt! Just as the chip seal ended, Coach Gina was on the course NOT cowbelling, but she did cheer for me :)Coming into town after lap 1

Coming through town was great with all the spectators! I started lap 2 and saw that I was still averaging just over 16 mph- awesome! I got out onto Hwy 27 again and felt a little headwind, not bad, but enough to slow me down a little. I tried hard to keep my speed up. I leap frogged with a few other girls and even rode beside one and talked for a few minutes. I knew where all the hills were and what to expect on lap 2, which is part of why I love multiple loop courses. On the short out & back, I finally saw Kim E. I knew she had to be behind me out of the swim, and she's a faster cyclist than me so I knew I'd see her eventually.

This time when I passed Coach Gina on 173, she saw me coming, ran to her car, pulled out her cowbell and ran after me cowbelling like crazy as I rode by! Highly entertaining! Thanks Gina! Kim was right behind me when this happened and on the run she asked "who was that woman chasing you with a cowbell?" Kim finally caught me at mile 53, I was pretty proud of myself for staying ahead of her for that long :)Coming into town after lap 2

Riding into town was awesome the second time too, still lots of people out cheering. As I passed Jeff and Kristen, Jeff yelled "Kim Evans is right in front of you! Kim Evans!!" I said "I know, she just passed me" so he said "Well Go Get Her!!" I pulled into transition right behind her. Spinnaker did great, not a single shifting issue! I guess I must have a good bike mechanic :)

My official bike time was 3:31:43 for a pace of 15.9, my garmin said 16.1 mph, I have it set on auto pause, so I'm pretty sure the stop to fix the speedfill made the difference. Still it's my fastest bike pace at a half by over 1/2 a mph!! I guess antelope really does make you faster!!

T2
I got into T2 and couldn't find my spot at all!! I knew where my rack was, but there was no opening! I asked a volunteer what to do, she asked if my bag was tied onto the rack, Yes! I found my bag, someone had racked their bike right on top of my bag! The volunteer found some space a couple of racks down, so I put my bike over there and went back to get my bag. Ugh! I chilled out, got my stuff together, put on my compression socks and stuff and headed out. Kim was still putting her shoes on, so I asked if she wanted to run with me. Normally Kim is a MUCH faster runner than me, but she had an ankle injury and was planning on doing a slow lap or 2 and DNFing. Sandra cheered for me on the way out! T2 was 3:31, a lot faster than it felt!

Run
I decided to try running without my Fuel belt and Infinit for this race. It's a pain to mix Infinit along the way (especially in a full Ironman) and the fuel belt chaffs my back. So I was going to experiment at this race, and if it worked out I would think about Ironman without the fuel belt. I had some Honey stinger gummies and planned to use water and if I needed it Pure sport. I knew things could go badly, but I didn't think they'd get too bad since I used Pure Sport and water on the run at the Austin Tri last month.
Over half the run course was on trail, it was a little harder to run on, but it was really pretty.

I started the run, and Kim caught me pretty quickly. We chatted and enjoyed the run, we got to the trail section and decided it was not "a very technical trail" as Kim had heard, but it also wasn't a groomed crushed granite trail like Lady Bird Lake Trail. There were a few steep hills, but it was really pretty on the trail. I'm not really very good at trail running, but I don't mind it either. The trail was harder on my feet, but easier on my knees, it slowed me down a little, but it was pretty. Overall I guess I was indifferent about part of the run being on trail.
I finished my first package of Honey stinger gummies and decided my stomach wasn't 100% happy with them, I've used them before, but not during a race and my stomach is extra sensitive during races, so I switched to Pure sport. We saw everyone out on the course, I kept having to interrupt my stories to Kim to yell "Go, Theresa, Red, Kim G, Julie, Nicki, Laura, Jill, Andrew"etc, etc. It was really cool to see everyone so much! I think every time we crossed the bridge we saw Mohamed! We ran the first lap fast (maybe a little too fast) and Kim decided she'd do a second lap. At one point I looked at my Garmin and saw we were doing a 10:20 pace, that's WAY too fast for me for a half marathon!
Near the end of each lap Katherine, Kelly, Linda, etc were cheering, they had a white board and wrote messages for me each lap. I think the first one said "you ROCK Heather".

Jeff and Kristen had come out to the trail to spectate so we saw them before the turn around, after the turn around Julie passed us, then saw Kristen with the camera and told me "hey come up here so we can get a picture together" Instead, I decided to run right past her! So I really was faster than Julie for about 2 seconds! Look, I'm faster than Julie!
I even stayed ahead of her for a second or two! As Julie said, I must have eaten more antelope than she did!

At the end of lap 2 Katherine's sign said "Heather, Cozumel is Calling". Kim stopped after lap 2 and I kept going. I knew if I could keep up that pace I'd definitely PR! But, I noticed I was more salt crusted than normal and started to think...my Infinit has almost double the sodium of Pure sport and those gummies had almost none, this could be bad. I wasn't feeling too bad, my stomach was getting just a tiny bit upset from the Puresport and I was slowing down, but nothing major. I saw Del and I think I actually said "how are you not finished yet?" Come on Heather, have a little tact! He was having nutrition issues and feeling awful- Sorry Del!Me giving Kristen a hard time for standing at the top of a steep hill taking pictures of people walking!
Proof that I started running again a the top of that hill

Almost halfway through lap 3, Kim caught me! She said "the race staff wouldn't let me quit" cool, I got some company again! :) Toward the end of lap 3, I encouraged Kim to go ahead, I knew she wanted to be done, and I knew she could run a lot faster than I could at that point (she ended up finishing 10 minutes ahead of me). My legs were feeling heavy and my stomach was getting a little more upset. I still felt good enough to have fun, but I was definitely slowing down and my breathing was getting bad. Without my fuel belt, I also didn't have an inhaler- oops!

At the end of lap 3 Katherine's sign said "Almost BEER Time!" so I said "you know I still have another lap to go, right?" And with major "Momma Mudge Attitude" Katherine replied "I KNOW THAT, HEATHER!!"Turn around to start lap 4

I made the turn around and started lap 4, I passed Katherine and company again and this time the sign said "We Know you have a Lap to Go HO!" hahahaha! Jeff was out on the trail (without Kristen this time) and I ran by and said "I thought you were going to be at the finish?" he said "don't worry I'll be there too" I had no idea there was a little bridge that made it easy and fast for them to get across the river from the finish to that spot on the trail! I got close to the turn around and saw Connie, I walked with her a little and told her how happy and proud I was for her, she was going to finish her very first half iron!

I saw Jeff one more time and he asked how I was doing without my fuel belt, "not so great, I really need my Infinit" Experiment Failed! I will be using my Fuel belt and Infinit for Ironman Cozumel! By this time I was super salt crusted and getting a little dizzy, I had less than 2 miles to go, so I wasn't really worried, but I was ready to be finished. I knew I was really close to a PR time, but I just couldn't force myself to go any faster. I knew if I finished by 3:00 pm I would PR by over 3 minutes, it was 3:03 when I turned to the finish chute! I was so close that I had no idea if I PRed or not, I had to wait for the results to be posted. Turns out I was 57 seconds off! My run time was 2:52:57 and my overall time was 7:15:53, just 57 seconds slower than my best half iron at Longhorn 2009.Post race
I got congratulations hugs and high fives from everyone and drank some of my Ultragen. I couldn't eat or drink anything else, my stomach took awhile to settle down. I was very happy with my race, I told Jeff I definitely want to do Kerrville again next year! I had a really fun race, I liked the course, I loved the spectator support, and I enjoyed the weekend in Kerrville.

***I forgot to mention how nice all the volunteers (and spectators) were at this race! Obviously all the volunteers and spectators from Austin and Jack & Adam's staff know what to say and do and as always I really appreciate it. But some of those people from Kerrville were out there, probably at the first triathlon they'd ever seen just killing it with awesome encouragement and support and it made the race just that much better. So THANK YOU to all of you!

*** all pictures by Kristen Carey or Jeff McMahan

Kerrville Weekend

2011-10-03T17:51:00.016-05:00

Jeff and I borrowed the coach from Adrian for Kerrville weekend, it worked out perfectly. This picture is from Longhorn last year, I can't believe it, but we didn't take a single picture of our campsite or the park this weekend, which is really sad because the park is beautiful! The pictures of the park below are just some I found on the internet.We got to Kerrville about 1:00 pm on Friday, we got the coach set up and walked down to the river, we couldn't believe how beautiful it was! Lots of water, flowers blooming, and butterflies flying around. We let Connor and Katie play in the water for a few minutes, then we headed in to town. We had to eat, grocery shop, and do packet pick up. As we drove into town we passed a place called Grape Juice and I noticed it was a wine bar and cafe- what a cute name! Then I saw they had painted in their window "Swim, Bike, Run, DRINK" I LOVE that kind of stuff, it reminded me of Cozumel where almost every business had signs and specials for the triathletes, it made me happy and gave me a great feeling about the weekend.Jeff and I went to packet pick up and it felt just like Austin since we saw so many people we knew! Kristen, Katherine and I decided we wanted to check out the swim ramps and transition hill we had heard about. The ramp was super steep and I wasn't sure I could climb up it out of the water, I hoped they'd have a lot of volunteers to help us out! And that transition hill!! It dwarfed the transition hill at Decker, all I could say was "never mind about trying to have a faster T1, oh well"A small portion of the cheering section that got me up that big transition hill on Sunday!
A little more of Sunday's awesome cheering section!

We spent the rest of Friday chillin' at the coach, Shayla came by and had dinner with us. Jeff worked on my bike, Spinnaker's been having some issues with shifting which has never happened before. Jeff had been working for awhile so I asked "is everything ok?" He replied "No, it's not! Your rear derailleur is about shot." I didn't say anything, Jeff just tuned up my bike a couple weeks ago and said I'd need a new derailleur soon. Shayla asked "will it get her through the race?" Jeff said "I hope so" YIKES! He worked on it some more, I did a test ride and it seemed fine. The rest of Friday evening was more relaxing, the dogs played by the river and we watched a movie, I don't even remember what movie.

Saturday we got up at the civilized hour of 7:30 and went out to spectate the bike and run of the sprint race. I hadn't checked out the sprint course at all, I assumed they'd have a 1 loop bike, but we saw Kristen ride by as we drove in and after we got to our spot I saw Andrea Fisher ride by. I was sure Kristen wasn't ahead of Andrea Fisher so I asked a volunteer how many loops they had to do. She replied, "either 2 or 3, we're not sure" Then she asked if I had friends racing and if I was racing tomorrow, then she gave me a "downtown dollar" (actually $5). I had seen something about them in our race packet so I was excited, she saw how excited I was and handed me another one. I wasn't exactly sure how they worked, but if I had realized at the time that she had essentially just handed me $10 I would have been even more excited!

We had accidentally found the perfect spot on the bike course, we got to see everyone go by 3 times, the course was 2 loops, but they went by our spot 3 times to get to T2 after the second loop.
Emmie having a great ride!
Me cowbelling
Kristen flying around the corner!
Scat in T2 resting after his awesome ride
Kelly running
Emmie hugging Linda after her finish

Most of the Tri Zoners had a great race, we had a lot of fun spectating and I got to meet Amy from Houston, she'll be in Cozumel with us doing her first Ironman, so I was excited to get to know her a little. I got a recon report from Kristen about the trail portion of the run, it didn't sound too bad.

We headed back to the coach so I could pack my gear bags and get everything ready, I hadn't done any race prep yet, so I had plenty to do. First I took Spinnaker out for a quick spin, and her gears were acting up again- UGH!! Jeff worked on the bike while I did a quick run and packed my bags. I did another quick spin and everything seemed fine, but I was still a little concerned.

Shayla came over and we decided to eat lunch in town. Jeff saw that our Downtown Dollars were accepted at Grape Juice so we went there. They had another window painted that said "Eating Antelope Makes You Faster!" As we were sitting down Julie and Richard walked in, a few minutes later Emmie walked in. She was waiting for Kristen, Katherine, Linda & Laura, but waited with us. They all ended up sitting behind us. Halfway through our lunch Ron & Roger walked in too- talk about Triathlete Central! Julie and I were enticed by the claim that "antelope makes you faster" so we both ordered antelope burgers and they were delicious! Jeff had quail tacos that were also really good. I'm getting hungry just thinking about that food, if Kerrville wasn't 2 hours away, I'd go there tonight for dinner!

We dropped off my bike and my run gear bag and went back to the coach to nap and be lazy the rest of the day.

I had never really been to Kerrville before this weekend and I was really impressed with what a cute, cool little town it is. and I was super impressed by how nice and welcoming everyone was, they seemed genuinely excited to have the race in their town. I think that really helped make the awesome atmosphere of the race weekend. I can't wait to go back, we may even go back before the race next year.

The Austin Triathlon

2011-09-06T16:03:00.011-05:00

Photo by Tom Marek

This was my 4th Austin Tri, it's one of my favorite races. I was extra excited about this race because I've had kind of a tough year with injuries and illnesses, so this was my first healthy race of the season! My pre-race routine was pretty normal. When I dropped my bike off at transition on Sunday, it was crazy windy, and since it's been so dry, the transition area was a dust bowl! I could barely breathe and I knew my just cleaned bike was going to be covered in dirt by morning. I hoped the wind would die down, but I knew based on the forecast that it probably wouldn't.

Sandra got to my house at 4:50 (on time!), we picked Julie W. up on the way, got a good parking spot, and got to transition before it got crowded. E-beth body marked me, I said Hi to Tom, Carolyn, Andrew, Sarah, and Big Adam as I went into transition. Then it was the typical hanging out with other Tri Zoners waiting for the start. I decided to try First Endurance Pre-Race before this race, I've used it in training before and decided this was a good race to try it since it wasn't too long. I mixed 1 full scoop of pre-race into a very dilute bottle of Ultragen and started drinking it about 6:40. A little after 7 I walked down to the start, said hi to Ron & Roger and a few other Tri Zoners, and got ready to start, I wasn't feeling a rush from the Pre-Race, but I didn't think too much about it. As we waited for the wave in front of us to get in the water and start, the girl standing beside me laughed and said "I'm excited too!" I looked at her and realized I had been snapping my fingers, clapping my hands and jumping up and down, maybe the Pre-Race was working!

I got in the water and the temperature felt perfect. I decided I'd start a little to the left to avoid some of the traffic, but I realized lots of people were hanging on the dock, I assumed they were slower swimmers, so I didn't want to start near them. I started to push my way through the crowd to the right just as the announcer yelled "10..9.."crap! I do NOT like where I'm at! I kept trying to move to the right until he got to "4" then I got ready to swim. Somehow I ended up in a great position, very little contact, no one starting slow in front of me, it worked out! I started off fast and felt a little out of breath, but then I remembered we didn't get to do warm up swims, so that feeling was normal, I just had to get through it, after a couple minutes I felt great! Every time I sighted I was in perfect position, I felt strong and happy! I passed a lot of guys in the 2 waves before me, but I knew I was swimming about my normal pace, so I wondered if a lot of guys were doing their first Olympic tri, and were a little slower swimmers. I really enjoyed the swim and continued to feel strong and happy. After the final turn buoy I just had to swim back to shore. I didn't really feel like I should be finished already, but I got to the swim exit and got pulled out of the water, really PULLED out, I didn't have to use my legs to get out of the water at all! Swim time: 33:59, a minute and a half slower than last year, but not bad considering last year was wetsuit legal this year was not.

I was a little nervous about the bike this year, with 20 mph winds I knew it would be challenging for me. I got out on the course and up the Congress hill the first time, not too bad (but that was with tailwind) I made the first U turn and started down the hill, not nearly as fast as last year, but not scary with the wind gusts, so I was happy. I got to the false flat section to the Capital and tried to stay in a harder gear but quickly realized that was not going to happen, I could only push so hard against the wind. I hit the second U turn and got to fly down Congress to Ceasar Chavez, I knew I'd have cross wind on that section, but it wasn't as bad as I'd expected. I was actually feeling really good about this ride in the crazy wind! I started to see people I knew on loop 2, that's part of why I love a loop course. There were lots of spectators out too, I looked for people I knew and heard my name quite a few times, but rarely saw who was cheering for me, except for Jeff on Cesar Chavez. My butt on the bike, I guess I was too fast for Jeff to get a picture from the front :)

There were a couple spots where the wind gusts really picked up, but I handled it fine. There were definitely some people weaving & getting blown around by the wind. I had fun and encouraged people as I passed them and said hi to people when they passed me. My average speed was edging up overall, but that headwindy section on Congress slowed me down each lap. On the third lap, I couldn't believe I was on the last lap already, I kind of wished the race was a little longer. I pushed hard through the headwindy section and started to get a cramp in my foot, it slowed me down a little as I tried to stretch and reposition my foot so it didn't turn into a "searing pain have to stop" kind of cramp. It eased up, but never completely went away. I also started to feel a slight twinge of hunger, I was only a couple miles from the finish and I had drank all my Infinit, oh well. I didn't realize it at the time, but after the race, I remembered that Pre-Race makes me hungrier (I think it increases my metabolism). I didn't account for that when I planned my race nutrition. I loved the bike course this year and I was really afraid I wouldn't with the windy conditions. I was really happy with my ride even though it was about 5 minutes slower than last year (when there was almost no wind). Bike time was 1:36.

In T2 I looked at my swimming watch which I hadn't stopped, I thought it said 2:11, so I figured if I ran the same pace as last year, I could PR (obviously that doesn't make any sense, I knew I swam a minute slower and biked 5 minutes slower, I didn't think about it then, but I'm pretty sure the watch actually said 2:17 or maybe 2:19). I saw Jess and Peylin come in as I left transition.

I got out on the run course and realized I was Hungry! I decided not to wear my Fuel belt with Infinit, but I forgot about the Pre-Race hunger thing. I got a cup of PureSport as I left transition. I usually do ok with PureSport as long as I'm careful not to drink too much and walk a little after I drink it. My legs felt pretty tired from pushing so hard on the bike, but I was having so much fun that I didn't care. As always there were tons of spectators cheering on the course including lots of Tri Zoners. Red cheered us up the only hill on the course, Tri Zones Central was near the team tent, and Jeff was on 1st st.
Blowing Tom a kiss at Tri Zones Central, right after letting all the kids soak me with the water guns! Photo by Tom Marek.

I also saw Julie W., Jess, Peylin, & Katie on the course lots of times. I played tag with Katie over and over. I walked and drank PureSport at every aid station, while Katie passed me, and I'd pass her after I started running again. I had so much fun talking with the Tri Zoners and the other athletes on the course. As I ran up the 1st bridge the second time, the guy beside me said "what a beautiful day" and I said "it really is! Aren't we lucky to be able to do this!" and he said "we really, really are" So true! I ran by Jeff and through Tri Zones Central for the last time and across the finish line! Run time was 1:08, total time was 3:28, about 8 minutes slower than last year, but with the Wind on the bike and the no wetsuit swim, I'm happy with that.How can you not love this race, what a beautiful course and look at all that crowd support!

I haven't raced as much this year as I have the last 3 or 4 years. And the 2 races I did were not quite as much fun as usual (I had a painful Achilles injury at Lonestar, and bronchitis/sinus infection at Couples). I'm so happy I did this race since it was everything I love about triathlon! I think I was smiling every minute of the race, even though Alysha said she caught me not smiling on the run, but only for half a second :)Peylin and I at the finish

Ultraman Canada Crewing Day 3!

2011-09-01T16:48:00.012-05:00

Day 3 was a cold morning, about 40 degrees. Ingrid was excited, but a little nervous. The start line was in the middle of nowhere! Literally, we drove down a country road and the only way we knew where to stop was this start banner in the middle of the road!
Ingrid looked great at the start and the scenery was gorgeous! Unfortunately, it seemed like a few of the other athletes were really feeling the last 2 days. In the first few miles we saw most of the athletes and cheered for everyone, but quickly they spread out and we started to only see those close to Ingrid.

The plan was to stop, get out of the van and cheer, support, hand off drinks, etc. every mile and then to wait long enough that we passed Ingrid (and usually rolled down the window to cheer) shortly after the 1/2 mile, so we'd pretty much see her every half mile. This meant we had to estimate her pace, which changed based on uphills, downhills, etc. So it was a little challenging at times. Didn't help that we were stopping on miles and the van odometer read in kilometers. Jeff used my Garmin to mark the miles, which worked for awhile.
Ingrid had an awesome first 13 miles!
Running with Ingrid just for a minute to see how she was feeling and what she needed.

Between miles 15 & 20 there was a little country store, it was the only business on the entire 52 mile route, so of course all the crew and many athletes took advantage of it. Unfortunately the 2 little old ladies working there were NOT prepared (in their defense, I'm guessing they normally see about 10 customers a day, and they had more than 30 of us, all in a hurry, in about 2 hours, I'm sure they were very overwhelmed). Jeff and Ramona went into the store while I ran back to let Ingrid know where we were and that we hadn't abandoned her to run up a big hill alone (which meant I ran up the big hill with her). We got to the store and Ingrid continued on, while I went inside, on my way in Jeff said "don't even bother!" We had just over 4 minutes til we had to take off to catch Ingrid at the next half mile, so I didn't have time to ask him what happened. I ran in, found the blue gatorade Ingrid wanted and got in line, there was just one couple in front of me, so I had plenty of time.

The couple in front of me was ordering breakfast, but they were talking in slow motion t..w..o...e..g.g..s...s.c..r.a..m..b.l..e.d, and the lady behind the counter was writing in even slower motion so they had to repeat what they said at least twice, and they each ordered about 7 different things! This was taking FOREVER! They were about halfway through their order when Ramona got in line behind me, obviously we decided to pay together to save time, we had less than 2 minutes til we needed to go catch Ingrid now! Finally it was our turn! The lady had to find a price sheet and look up the price of Ramona's brownie, then she asked if she wanted her muffin warmed up..."yes..actually no, we don't have time for that" then she walked to the back to get the other lady to scan our gatorade, she scanned the gatorade in super slow motion, it didn't take, she scanned it again, and again, and finally it took, but we had 2 bottles of gatorade, so she had to go through that process again. At this point Ramona and I were quietly freaking out, looking at each other with wider and wider eyes. We had definitely missed the half mile time and we'd be lucky not to miss the mile stop! "your total is $6.97" Ramona handed her a 10 and I said, "you can just give us the $3 don't worry about the pennies" The lady stopped counting out our change, gave me a not so nice look and said "PATIENCE!" wow!! If you know me at all, you know I have no patience in the best of circumstances, but I held my tongue and waited while she counted out $3 and 3 pennies. We ran outside, jumped in the van and took off. Of course, Jeff said "I told you..." apparently he had a coffee incident and told one of the ladies "so I guess if you wait your turn in line here, you don't get helped?" Yikes! We caught Ingrid just before the mile mark and a little later we were sharing Ramona's brownie and Jeff said "I'd like to be mad at those little old ladies, but they really know how to make a brownie!"

Around mile 23 was the only rest stop of the race. A friend of the race director owns a cabin on the course, so every year he and his family set up a rest stop. They had watermelon, trail mix, M&Ms, drinks, etc and they were super nice. Ingrid was in a hurry to get to the 1st marathon point, so she didn't stop, but I got some watermelon and stuff for later. Aside from the athlete's crews, they were the only spectators on the course.

Ingrid had a great first marathon and looked and felt strong. Everyone had said the second marathon was harder than the first, but according to the elevation profile, the second marathon had a lot of downhill and not much uphill, but in reality the second marathon included climbing up mountains! and it was mostly on dirt/gravel road.
Ingrid climbing up the mountain

We had lots of things to keep Ingrid from getting bored or discouraged.
tic marks on the van for each mile completed (which became a little difficult after we doubled back on the course and our mileage was off!)
the Ultraman Spirit Stick, not as fancy as the Ironman Cozumel Spirit Stick, but considering what we had to work with, I think we did ok :) Ingrid was excited to see a Spirit Stick, even if it was an actual stick decorated with junk from the van and stuff we found in the woods!
There was a BIG hill coming up, so Ramona made me dosey doe and sing "she'll be comin' round the mountain" WAY out of my comfort zone! But I'll do anything for Ingrid, and she loved it so it was ok (and how is it that Jeff got a picture of that, but couldn't get a good shot of Ingrid running up the big mountains??). Having to dosey doe at the post race awards banquet in front of everyone was a little less ok...but I'm over it now and the picture is pretty funny, so I guess maybe even that was worth it.
The "Coach Tracy Live Easy" look. Ingrid loved the Coach Tracy look so much that she asked to wear the hat & boa for the finish!
the second marathon was beautiful, but it was tough!
lots of hills and some really long steep mountains! Jeff tried to get pictures of Ingrid on the longest steepest hills, but it never really worked.
Ingrid got to pass quite a few other athletes on the run.
I was supposed to be Ingrid's pacer, originally I told her I could run up to 15 miles with her, but I got really sick just before Ultraman and I wasn't sure I could do more than 6 or 8. Ingrid was very careful about only letting me run when she really needed me, which meant I ran mostly uphills! Near the end, Ingrid let me run some downhills too :) She really didn't need me to pace her much at all, I have no idea how far I ran, but definitely less than 6 miles. I think she really only needed me when she was "almost done" around mile 40 but still had 12 miles to run. We (the crew) felt it too, "only 12 miles to go!" but then I'd think, 12 miles is still a long way to run! We got closer to the finish and the gravel turned to pavement and we got pretty steady downhills for the last few miles (that's when I got to run a few downhills too). We were all so excited! About a mile before the finish, the crews split from the athletes, we parked, got Ingrid's finish stuff ready and met her outside the finish chute. At Ultraman, the crew runs across the finish line with the athlete! Pretty cool considering I didn't actually do the race!
Ramona, Ingrid, me, and Jeff crossing the Ultraman finish line! Congratulations Ingrid! You even made Ultraman look easy!
Ultraman Ingrid enjoying her post race coconut cream pie!

Crewing for Ingrid's Ultraman was a very cool experience. It was a lot of work (in and out of the car a few hundred times, testing the limits of my triathlon math, hardly any sleep, trying to anticipate Ingrid's needs, etc), but it was so, so much fun! I don't know how she did it, but Ingrid stayed happy and positive pretty much the entire race. I expected to have some really low moments, I expected to see Ingrid get upset, or even angry, but none of that happened. Instead, she constantly reminded us how lucky we were to be together in such a beautiful place, she thanked us for doing a great job (even when we messed up), and she even encouraged other athletes and thanked other crews. I guess all of that is what makes Ingrid Ultra Awesome! Thanks for such an amazing experience Ingrid!

Ultraman Canada Crewing Day 2

2011-08-24T15:27:00.011-05:00

Day 2- 171 miles on the bike for Ingrid!

Check in was at 5:30 and the start was at 6:00, the crews took off before the athletes to keep the narrow road as clear as possible for the first 10-15 miles. So we drove out to the main road and found a spot where lots of other crews were waiting for their athletes. We hung out and talked with other crews about how their athletes were feeling. I think that gave us all confidence about Ingrid's race, some athletes were feeling good, but quite a few seemed to be having some issues (mostly stomach issues), so we felt lucky that Ingrid had gotten through day 1 so well. When she rode by, she had already passed 3 or 4 people and was close to a couple more, she seemed happy and excited! Yay!!

It was a cool morning, but I had talked her out of wearing her cycling jacket (I know, ME saying she wouldn't be cold??), I was worried that was a mistake, but she said she wasn't cold at all! Whew!!
Ingrid rode by orchards and vineyards, and we stopped and jumped out of the car to cheer her on every 6 miles. This part of the course was mostly flat, Ingrid looked great, and we were having fun! We saw other Ultraman athletes and crews along the way, which was fun and reassuring, since we didn't really see any of them on day 1.

The first really tough part of day 2 was The Wall, it was a mountain, with switchbacks going up and at the end was a very steep section! We knew Ingrid could do it since she had pre ridden it, but we knew it would be tough and even after The Wall, she had to keep going mostly uphill for about 10 miles! The Wall was on narrow roads so it was another "No Feed Zone" so we had to drive to the end and couldn't stop to cheer Ingrid up. But announcer Steve King was on The Wall announcing and encouraging the athletes up the steep climb. We stopped a couple of miles past The Wall and saw a family out spectating, they were some of the only spectators the entire race, so everyone was really happy to see them!
This is actually on Richter Pass from day 1, but The Wall was this steep or more so!

White Lake
Past The Wall, but still climbing. Astronaut Alvin Drew gave a pre-race presentation and the Q&A after quickly went to "how do you go to the bathroom in space?" We all found it funny and a little weird, so we made a sign for Ingrid on the front it said "Astro Al says shoot for the stars" and on the back it said "and pee in your pants!" Ingrid laughed when she saw the sign and later told us that she loved it.

By this time, we had been in the car for a long time, my triathlon math skills were starting to get blurry, and we all started to get a little silly. I heard "woof woof" from the back seat. I turned and saw this:
and Ramona with the Pringle still hanging from her tongue said "look I'm a dog!" Of course I laughed and laughed!
Then Jeff had one too. "I'm a duck! Quack!" Sadly, I don't have a silly Pringle trick.

I think this was about the time Ingrid passed Fausto. Fausto was a very strong looking athlete from Florida who owns a bootcamp business. He looked fast and from the time we met him we assumed he'd be impossible to beat.

At our next stop we got everything set up, when Ingrid pulled up she seemed stressed and in a HURRY! She exchanged camelbaks, grabbed some gels, took a 5 hr energy, and maybe a pb&j and took off in way under a minute! Just after Jeff pushed her off Tour de France style, Fausto rolled by and said "WOW, she's GOOD!!" His crew was right in front of us, so we saw his stop, change of clothes, drink, leg massage... interesting contrast!

Since Ingrid seemed so stressed and rushed, we were a little worried. Has she had too much 5hr energy and/or pre-race?, Is she just in "race mode" after passing Fausto?, Should we remind her she has to run a DOUBLE marathon tomorrow?...We didn't know what was going on or what to say to try to bring her stress level down (or really if we even needed to bring her stress level down). pretty bridge along the course

A stop or 2 later Ingrid yelled "how far to Princeton and how long til the cut off?" WHAT?? Why is she thinking about the cut off, when she's SO far ahead and doing so well, and there isn't an official cut off in Princeton anyway! The race director had suggested that if you got to Princeton much after 3pm, you might want to cut the course and not do the last 45ish mile out & back section, since it could take up to 3 hours, and there was no point in going all the way out there if you were going to miss the real cut off at 6pm. For whatever reason (I blame pre-race) Ingrid had that unofficial cut off in her head big time! I pulled out the map and figured it out. At our next stop, I told her "less than 30 miles and almost 3 hours to Princeton" Seriously, I'm pretty sure even I could make that "cut off". Turns out she had done her triathlon math a little off and really thought she was cutting it close (it makes perfect sense in her race report, but when she explained it to me after the finish I was 100% confused!). So THAT'S why she seemed stressed earlier.pretty views along the Similkameen River near Bromely Rock park

We got to our next real stop in Princeton and Ingrid was back to normal- fast, efficient and relaxed, thank goodness!!
She seemed to LOVE the out & back to Lake Allison, she was flying and we were so happy for her!
Jeff and I on the out & back to Lake Allison

Ingrid FINISHING day 2!!! The announcer said she had moved up quite a few places in the standings after such a great ride! And during the run on day 3, he said she stayed in her aerobars more than any other athlete he saw!

Ingrid was super happy at the finish again and wanted to hang out and talk with everyone, she also had to wait a really long time for her massage. Since the day 3 start is near Princeton, everyone stayed in hotel rooms in Princeton provided by the race. Jeff and I went to check in while Ingrid and Ramona hung out at the finish line. Dinner was also provided by the race, we carefully planned and brought our own food since we assumed the post race dinner would be pasta, and who wants to eat something new (especially from an unknown restaurant) the night before a DOUBLE marathon!! As it turned out we all (even Ingrid!) ate the pasta dinner provided by the race (I don't normally eat much wheat, but spaghetti looked & sounded SO good!).

I think it was almost 8 by the time we got to the hotel and got the van unpacked. Jeff and I had to run to the store to pick up water, ice, etc, and look for a finish line treat for Ingrid. I saw an individual sized coconut cream pie in the deli/refrigerated section (Ingrid had told the race organizers that if she could have any dessert at the finish it would be coconut cream pie- PERFECT!). We stopped and got root beer floats on the way back to the hotel, I was in serious need of a sugar rush, I knew I still had at least an hour's worth of stuff to get done, and I was EXHAUSTED! Jeff looked more tired than I think I've ever seen him too. After getting all the necessary stuff done, Ramona and I decorated the van with blue painter's tape (thanks Coach Cindy!), we were both super tired and could barely think enough to spell Irongrid! I also uploaded a few pictures and updated facebook for the fans at home, since we hadn't had cell service most of the day. Again, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow, but so HAPPY! Ingrid had pretty much the perfect ride, and was feeling good about the DOUBLE marathon tomorrow!

Ultraman Canada Crewing Day 1

2011-08-17T14:41:00.013-05:00

An Ultraman is a 3 day ultra endurance event. Day 1 the athletes swim 6.2 miles, and bike 90 miles. Day 2 is 170 miles on the bike, and Day 3 is a 52.4 mile run. Way back before our first half irons in 2008, Ingrid found out about Ultraman and thought she might want to do it someday. At the time none of us realized that Ultraman is completely different than any of the triathlons we were used to. Ultraman doesn't have aid stations and lots of volunteers to support the athletes, instead each athlete brings a crew to support them. Ingrid asked her mom, Ramona and Jeff and I to crew for her.

There was tons of planning and preparing, which for the most part worked out well, of course there were a few things that changed and some things we couldn't figure out until we were thre, but all the pre planning definitely made it easier. Ingrid is very detail oriented (come on, she's an engineer!) and I can be pretty detail oriented too. Ingrid had everything planned out and printed in a race plan, and I had further clarified many of the little details (down to 1/8 of an inch thick layer of peanut butter on the pb&j sandwiches :) ), so there wasn't much guesswork.

Day 1Swim start, nothing like the triathlons we're used to! Only 29 athletes and other than athlete's crews, not much of a crowd.They did have an announcer, Steve King, who was at the start and finish each day and at a few points on the course. He did an awesome job, his British accent didn't hurt either, made us feel like Phil & Paul were announcing at Ultraman!
Ingrid and Ramona pre-race

I was excited and nervous for Ingrid's swim, I knew she could do it, but I also knew this would be her longest swim ever! Jeff and I didn't really need to do anything for the swim, Ramona was kayaking and we just had to go to transition and set up her stuff before she finished swimming. Swim start

We drove to a few points on the road where we could see the swimmers across the lake (really we could only see the kayakers, they were really far away), and watched for Ramona's yellow and white kayak and red shirt. Ingrid was doing great! We got to transition and even though there were only 29 athletes, there were way more than 30 cars parked, so we had to park pretty far from the transition area, no big deal, we had plenty of time. We got her transition are set up and watched some of the other athletes finish the swim. Joni Moore of Salado TX wore Jack & Adams gear all weekend and made us feel right at home!

We borrowed binoculars from another crew and watched Ingrid swim strongly around the last buoy (there were only 2 buoys on the entire 6.2 mile course!). I was so excited for her!! I had watched other crews practically carry their athletes out of the water and into the transition area, so I grabbed a towel and expected to really help Ingrid into transition. She finished and gave me a great big hug, then ran over to her mom getting out of the kayak and gave her a big hug too! She was super happy and didn't seem tired at all! She even said "I think I prefer swimming 10K to running 10K!" Most of the athletes took their time in transition, at least 10-15 minutes, but Ingrid was ready to GO! She hurried through transition and didn't really need anything from me. She took off on the bike looking great!
Ingrid finishing her longest swim ever!

We planned to leapfrog Ingrid every 10K, even though we knew she probably wouldn't need anything at most of the stops, we stopped to see her, cheer for her, and give her anything she might unexpectedly need. We had a lot of fun, even though, really, we were just driving a little way and stopping and waiting over and over. We didn't see any other athletes or crews, everyone got really spread out on the swim. But we did see lots of other riders out on the course, most of them training for Ironman Canada. It got a little stressful when Ingrid would fly by and yell out something, it was hard to hear, but between the 3 of us, we usually got it figured out.

On Ritcher Pass (the longest climb of day 1), Ingrid passed us and yelled out "how long to the top of the climb?" I wasn't expecting that question (I'm not sure why not, who doesn't want to know how far to the end of climb??), but I had just been looking at the elevation maps, so I yelled back "just under 5 miles" Ingrid gave me a dirty look as she rode by- uh oh! We got back in the car and I confirmed with Jeff and Ramona, yep, looks like at least 4 if not 5 miles to the top of the climb...about a mile later we were descending! Sometimes elevation profiles make me want to scream! Ingrid had driven that part of the route the day before, so I'm sure she knew it was no where near 5 miles to the top when she asked me, hence the dirty look!Ingrid climbing Ritcher Pass, before asking me how far to the top
The view from Ritcher Pass

With about 20 miles to go, an official (there were only 2 for the entire event) stopped at our car and told us "you need to encourage her and get her moving or she may not make the cut off time" I said ok. But then I told Jeff, she has 20 miles to go and almost 3 hours until the cut off, she doesn't need to hurry at all! When Ingrid rode by she seemed upset and yelled about having to speed up or she'd miss the cut off, so I yelled after her "don't listen to him! You only have to go 7 mph to make it!!" There was lots of talk in the car about "how dare he stress Ingrid out unnecessarily!" and finally we decided maybe he'd looked at his watch wrong or something and we should give him a break, we didn't want to bring any bad karma our way.

Ingrid finished looking happy and strong! I had expected her to be really tired and want to go home right after finishing each day, but that wasn't the case at all. She was happy and wanted to chat with everyone at the finish, it was super cool to see her feeling so good at the finish! I felt bad when I finally suggested we needed to get going since we still had to eat dinner and get ready for day 2. We got back to the house and I realized I was EXHAUSTED! Why?? I hadn't done anything all day except get in and out of the car about 30 times (and used my triathlon math skills to their fullest)! I wasn't dehydrated, but I realized I had barely eaten anything all day- oops, that was a stupid mistake! So I made sure to pack more quick and easy to eat food in the crew food cooler for day 2. About 10pm I knew that I wouldn't be getting much sleep, I still had to finish some of Ingrid's day 2 food, pack my stuff for the overnight in Princeton, and make a poster or 2 to entertain Ingrid for the LONG day 2 ride. I think I got to bed about 11 and I'm pretty sure I was asleep before my head hit the pillow!

Canada

2011-08-17T14:22:00.009-05:00

Just a few observations about Canada first.

1. The Okanagan Valley is beautiful

2. People are super nice

3. The views are really dramatic, especially mountains behind the huge lakes

4. Orchards and vineyards everywhere

We saw salmon jumping in the river, I asked some of these fishermen what kind they were- sockeye, that's the good stuff! I saw they had caught at least a dozen, so I asked if they'd sell some- yes. We bought 2 and grilled them for dinner, best fish we've ever eaten!

Jeff and I got to go hiking one afternoon, we went to Skaha Bluffs Park. It was beautiful and we got to see some really different areas. We took lots of pictures out there.Can you see the person climbing? Look near the bottom between the trees.

It was a "long weekend" while we were there. A few people mentioned it, so we asked if it was a holiday, someone replied "yes". We thought it was weird that no one said what the holiday was. After swimming one morning, I was chatting with an older man walking in the water, he mentioned the "long weekend" so I asked him what holiday it was. He said "it's a civic holiday" What does that even mean? We decided that it must be some super secret Canadian holiday that they didn't want the Americans to know about. Finally Ingrid found out from someone that it was British Columbia Day, I don't think we ever did figure out the significance of British Columbia Day!

Now on to the Ultraman race!

Couples Triathlon "Race" Report aka "Breathing is NOT overrated"

2011-07-11T16:11:00.015-05:00

Connie and me post race. Photo by Tom Marek

I had been feeling major sinus/allergy and breathing issues for a couple of weeks before Couples. I went to the doctor today and it turns out I have bronchitis and a sinus infection (no wonder I've been feeling so crappy). I kept hoping it would get better, but if anything I was feeling worse the weekend of Couples. Cassie is taking a break from racing this summer, so I posted on the Tri Zones forum asking if anyone needed a Couples partner. Connie replied and we raced as "Heather & Connie's Excellent Adventure". I had never really met Connie, so we met at packet pickup and had lunch at Blue Dahlia on Saturday. We had a great time and decided we'd make a great team for Couples!

I slept great on Saturday night (I guess that might be the one perk of racing sick!). I had packed everything the night before so I was ready in just a few minutes. I got a good luck kiss from Jeff and headed out to Decker. I got body marked before I saw that Tom and Carolyn were body marking! I saw Julie W. right away in transition, then Connie saw me and I racked by her. We had lots of time to hang out with the other Tri Zoners pre race, which is always fun.Connie and I pre race. Photo by Tom Marek

Goals for this race- Just to have fun and finish! Based on how I was feeling I knew I couldn't PR, and even if I could, I probably shouldn't try. So I planned to take it easy and have fun.

At the swim start, wonder what I was saying to Jess to make her do that? Photo by Tom Marek.

Swim
I lined up where I usually line up for swims, just a couple rows back from the front, in hindsight, that might not have been so smart. The gun went off and just like always, I took a few fast hard strokes to get out of the choas of the swim start, but wow, every time I tried to breathe I wheezed and felt like I couldn't get any air! I felt like I was about to have an asthma attack, I never have asthma issues in the water so that was scary! Post race Katherine told me "Breathing is NOT Overrated!" Very true! I stopped and treaded water for a minute to catch my breath and get my heart rate under control. Ok, lesson learned, if I say I'm going to take it easy, I really should Take It Easy!! I started swimming again, extra slow and felt better, after the first turn buoy I picked it up to a moderate pace and passed lots of people. I felt good getting out of the water and slowly jogged up to transition. I didn't see Amy, but obviously she saw me!Coming out of the swim. Photo by Amy Gawlik

I saw Katherine and Linda, Jody, Brian and a few others on my way up the hill. I didn't want to walk all the way up the hill, but I was breathing really hard by the time I got to my bike, so I sat down and took my time wiping all the mud and dirt off my feet, might as well make good use of my extra recovery time! :)

Bike
I felt good starting the bike, but I knew the hills would feel tough, my legs have felt super tired biking and running lately, something about not getting enough oxygen to the muscles, again, "Breathing is NOT Overrated!" I could feel it on the small rollers on Decker Lane, so I knew the bigger steeper hills would hurt, but I had fun saying hi to people who passed me and people I passed (but there weren't too many that I passed!). Photo by Tom Marek
I really like the Decker bike course and I hadn't ridden it since Longhorn last year, so even though the hills were tougher than they should have been, I had fun. My legs were on fire by the time I got up Little Tard, but I made it. I took it easy the next mile or 2, knowing I still had a couple of hills and Big Tard left. I made it up Big Tard fine too. Then I saw Annette, Linda, Katherine, and Tom on Hog Eye just before the bike finish. I took my time in T2.Almost finished with the bike! Photo by Tom Marek.

'Run''
I'm pretty sure I walked more than I ran, but I'll call it a run anyway. I started off at a super easy run pace, ran down the first little hill and saw Linda and Katherine near the fence. Linda yelled for me and I heard Katherine (who was sitting with her back to me watching the bike course) say "that's not Heather, she already came by" and Linda reply "No! Behind you, she's running!" It may have just been my hypoxic state, but I thought that was really funny! I watched for Connie coming in on the bike course while I ran/walked along the fenceline, but I never saw her. At the 2nd water stop I was very happy to see Elizabeth, so happy that I considered stopping and chatting with her until Connie came by and finishing with Connie. But I only had a little over a mile to go, and there were plenty of people to chat with along the course, so I decided to keep going. I walked all the way up MOFO and even a little of flat past it, mostly because Breathing is NOT Overrated! But I picked it up and jogged in to the finish!Running to the finish. Photo by Tom Marek

Post race
I had a really hard time catching my breath and getting my heartrate to come down. I walked over to chat with Katherine, Linda, Laura, & Becky, but I couldn't say more than a few words without having a coughing fit. That's when Katherine told me "you know Heather, breathing is really NOT overrated!" You're so right Katherine!

Connie and I had planned to finish together (so whoever finished first had to watch for the other and run in to the finish with them). I walked out to where Tom and Carolyn were taking pictures and we watched for Connie, when we saw her coming I walked out to where she was and ran to the finish with her. Connie and I finishing together. Photo by Tom Marek
Connie and I blowing kisses to Tom, thanks for being out there and taking awesome pictures Tom! Photo by Tom Marek.

Thanks for letting me finish triathlon number 4 with you Connie! And thanks for being an Awesome Couples partner!
Tri Zones post race. Photo by Tom Marek

I hung out post race for a long time, watched awards (Congrats Little Pam and Julie W!!) and then helped with tear down. I had committed to tear down before I started feeling crummy and I didn't want to back out. So I put my big girl pants on (as Amy would say) and helped with tear down til about 1:00 pm and then went home, showered and slept through the first 2 hours of Stage 9 of the Tour de France.

Bike to Work Day 2011

2011-05-20T13:28:00.005-05:00

This year it was just Linda and I biking to work from my house, and Linda didn't even have to work! Kendra was working one of the breakfast stops, and Annette and Laura had to back out at the last minute, totally understandable given the circumstances. We took off from my house early so we'd get to The Peddler just after 7 and have plenty of time to hit our other stops. As we rode past Peidmont, Linda asked "that's Jenny & Joe's street right?" "yep" and she told me that once she was riding down Woodrow and heard "Heather! HEATHER!" She looked around and saw Jenny waving at her, so she stopped and Jenny told her that I ride by her house all the time, so she just assumed it was me. Haha! Of course that spurred some discussion about Joe and we both cried a little. Jenny, in case you ever happen to see this, again, I'm so so sorry. We recovered and had a fun Bike to Work Day despite the circumstances.

First stop was The Peddler on Duval, we opted for just coffee there since the next stop was just a few blocks down the road. We chatted with some other cyclists for a few minutes but didn't stay too long.
Stop #2 was Dolce Vita, this hasn't been a stop before, so we definitely wanted to stop even though it's just down the street from The Peddler, coffee and KIND bars here. We laughed at the volunteers trying to get the little kids riding to school to stop for coffee, I'm sure the teachers would love that!
Stop #3 was Thunderbird Coffee on Manor and finally some breakfast tacos! Good thing, I was already getting jittery from 2 cups of coffee, but I love T-bird's iced coffee, so I had to have a small glass. One of the volunteers told us "hey, I remember you guys from last year" There were a lot of people at T-bird this year and last, so I'm not sure how or why she remembered us specifically, but it's kinda cool.
The last stop for me was Freewheeling with more breakfast tacos and this time I opted for orange juice instead of coffee. The guys from Freewheeling remembered us too, but that's understandable since we were interviewed for the news there last year. No news crew this year though. After Freewheeling, I went to work and Linda went down to Mellow Johnnies and Whole Foods for a little more Bike to Work Day fun.

Hill Country Ride for AIDS

2011-05-04T13:14:00.011-05:00

First of all, THANK YOU to everyone who donated so that I could ride. I had a great time, but more importantly, many people in the Austin area will get the help they need because of your generous donations!

Ride morning was cloudy and cool, but I knew it would be a beautiful day to ride. Del and I got to Reunion Ranch right in front of Roger & Ron and just a few minutes before Shayla. They had a huge variety of breakfast food out for us and right away we saw people in costume, Superman, Batman & Robin, etc. This was going to be fun!As we were getting our bikes ready, I realized I had left my Garmin charging at home. I'm completely addicted to it and I don't even know the last time I rode without it. I was not happy! But I knew this was just a fun ride, so it wasn't really a big deal. Shayla and I planned to start early with the century riders. We figured it would take us about the same amount of time to ride 70 miles that it would take Roger & Ron to ride 100- yeah they're fast! We lined up to start and Shayla pointed out the ominous looking clouds, weather.com said 10% chance of rain, so I didn't think it would rain.We started the ride with lots of people cheering for us, we rode out the same way that cars were coming in for the later start, I thought that was weird, but whatever. Then about a mile into the ride a car comes zooming up beside me and the passenger yells "they took a wrong turn at the start! You have to turn around!!" That was a first! I lost Shayla in the wrong turn mess, but I wasn't worried. Soon, Del came up behind me and told me there had been an accident when some people turned around- ugh! I hate hearing about bike accidents, especially when I'm riding!

Between making a wrong turn, a little rain, chip seal, Del telling me about the accident (and he had told me about another one that morning too), and not having my Garmin, I was not very happy. This was not starting out to be the ride I wanted.

Luckily, after about 10 miles I was feeling much happier! I'm not even sure what happened, guess I just came out of my mental funk. I was still driving myself crazy looking down where my Garmin belongs constantly, but it had stopped raining, I had found Shayla and Del and I was having fun! Just a few miles before the first rest stop I hear "ring ring ring ring" behind me- it was Roger & Ron! They had stopped to help at the accident at the beginning so they were behind where I thought they would be. This also meant Shayla and I had a good chance of finishing our 70 miles before they finished 100! We all got to the Lube Stop rest stop about the same time and hung out a few minutes.
Del, Roger & Ron at the Lube Stop

me at the Lube Stop with...well I'm not sure but he/she was entertaining!

We were 20 miles into the ride and I was feeling great! I was concerned that there would be some very steep hills as we got close to Burnet and rest stop 2, but I was pleasantly surprised with mostly rollers and a few longer climbs, but nothing really long or steep. It looked really west Texasy with lots of catus, rocks, and cedar trees. Rest stop 2 had a tikki theme
Porta potty said "volcanic sacrificial virgins apply within"
They had pineapple and coconut at this stop- I was happy! We should have gotten pictures of the volunteers dressed in grass skirts.

We were already halfway! I got distances from Shayla and from signs posted on the road, otherwise without my Garmin I would have had no clue how far we'd gone. I was still expecting some big hills, but Shayla told me that according to the elevation profile, the second half of the ride should be mostly downhill, and like clockwork we hit a section that was mostly downhill for a few miles.

The lunch stop seemed to come really fast but I was ready for it. Lunch had a Mardi Gras theme with beads on the tables and more dressed up volunteers. Even the porta potties were decorated with beads and flowers! They had sandwich boxes from Central Market for lunch- a big sandwich, chips, fruit, and a cookie. As long as I don't eat wheat, I can pretty much eat anything and feel fine riding, so I gave my white bread to Shayla (she had some kind of whole grain bread with nuts that she didn't want), and ate everything else but the cookie (I had a bite of the cookie- it was yummy). These guys were volunteering in a SAG truck, they told me they were dressed as transvestite pole dancers!

We were about 50 miles into the ride and with all the stops, I barely felt like I had been riding at all. The first few miles after lunch went by quickly, then we hit a section with lots of uphill, it might have been the toughest section of the entire ride. Shayla was a little behind me at that point, but I knew she was going to be annoyed with the uphill, since we were expecting mostly downhill and this was her longest ride ever! I saw a sign that said "Cold Treats Ahead" I knew it was way too early for our last Andice rest stop, so I didn't know what that meant. Then a few minutes later another sign said "popsicles 1 mile" I Love popsicles, so I was excited! They had put in a surprise rest stop just after the hilly section with popsicles! Yay!! Shayla pulled up to the rest stop and said "this rest stop came at just the right time!"

From the popsicle stop it was only about 5 miles to Andice and the royal wedding rest stop. Volunteers were dressed in wedding gowns, and they had this cutout.
Shayla and I at the royal wedding rest stop

From Andice, it was only 5 miles back to Reunion Ranch and the finish! There were tons of people at the finish cheering and when I stopped, they gave me a medal. I don't think I've ever gotten a medal from a bike ride before. Shayla was right behind me and we got cleaned up, got more to eat and started looking for Del, Roger & Ron. We had spent lots of time at rest stops, so I was sure they had finished before us. Turns out, they finished an hour and a half After us! I guess they spent just as much time at rest stops.

I felt great even after finishing, no tiredness in my legs, no sore shoulders, nothing! Maybe if the Ironman ride was a rolling buffet with lots of rest stops, I'd feel great then too!
The SAG trucks were also decorated, this one was the Village People, the driver was a cowboy, the guy standing in the back of the truck was an Indian, and I bet the passenger was a cop!

We stayed to see the final finisher and the awards ceremony and didn't leave Reunion Ranch until about 5pm. I have done a lot of really fun bike rides, but this was probably the most fun. I'm really lucky to have great friends and family who will support me in doing this kind of stuff. Thanks again!!

Lonestar 70.3 2011 Race Report

2011-04-12T13:33:00.023-05:00

I know it’s now the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas, but like I said last year, to me it will always be Lonestar. I’m also still really sad they retired the armadillo logo I love so much (so I just used the one from 2 years ago here). This year was my fifth Lonestar in a row and 6th Lonestar overall and my second time doing the Lonestar half iron distance.

I was feeling much better about my training for Lonestar this year. I felt great about my swimming, good about my biking, and well, not so good about my running. I have an Achilles issue from someone stepping on my heel a few weeks ago and my running has been ok, but not great. The original goal for Lonestar was a PR, although in Galveston that always depends on the weather. After the Achillies thing, the new goal was good swim, good bike, and hope for a decent run, and of course, have fun!

Pre-race
We (we was me, Jeff, Adrian, and the dogs: Connor, Katie, Abear, Riley, & Bonzai in the big coach towing the Jeep with 3 bikes on its rack and Del's brand new bike still in the box in the front seat- Glad I didn't have to drive!) left for Galveston after Jeff got off work on Thursday at about 9pm, which meant we got to Galveston at about 1am (avoiding all the Houston traffic!) and got to bed around 2am. Del had invited me to swim Friday morning at 7am with his new friend and pro triathlete Sonja Tajsich (who has won 3 Ironmans!), but since I had gotten to bed so late, I opted to sleep in- huge mistake! I had no idea the race officials weren't allowing practice swimming at Moody Gardens this year and from what I could tell, Del and Sonja were the only people who got in a practice swim at Moody Gardens!
"Big Nasty" the only hill on the bike course. As Shayla says "it was nothing for Austinites" photo by Shayla Neris

I started Friday with a bike ride, Jeff came with me we rode out on the seawall, as always, there was wind, but it didn't seem too bad. I did packet pick up and spent the rest of the day relaxing by the coach with friends. Photo by Shayla Neris
Del brought Sonja by to meet us, she and her husband Thomas were super nice! Sonja and Thomas actually stopped by the coach 3 or 4 times over the weekend, it was definitely cool to hang out with a pro triathlete all weekend!!
me, Adrian, and Del with pro triathlete Sonja Tajsich
Ingrid, me and Del telling Sonja "you're #1!" her husband Thomas is in the foreground

Ingrid and Shayla really wanted to get in a practice swim, so I went with them to a little park a few minutes from Moody Gardens, it wasn't the best place to swim, we had to be really careful not to cut our feet on barnacles and sharp rocks and we had to watch for boat traffic, but it felt great to get in the water and know that the temperature was actually really comfortable.
me, Ingrid, Shayla, & Del relaxing by the coach

Saturday morning I got up early to watch Shayla and Elle do the sprint race, they both did great! And Ingrid, Del, Kim H. and I had fun spectating. The rest of Saturday was more relaxing by the coach and race prep.
Shayla getting on the bike and Ingrid cowbelling her heart out!we had lots of company at the coach on Saturday!
Coach Gina, Amy, Jess & Adrian relaxing by the coach on Saturday

Saturday night I dreamt that I woke up at 9:30am and missed the race! I woke up from the dream, looked at my watch and it was really only 3:23am, so I tried to go back to sleep, but when I woke up at 5am, 30 minutes before the alarm, I just stayed up. Transition closed at 6:45, and my wave didn't start until 8:30, plenty of time to watch the pros come out of the water and cheer for Sonja, Kelly Williamson, James Cotter, Richie Cunningham and lots of other pros we recognized.Sonja coming out of the water Photo by Shayla Neris

Then it was back to the coach to finally get ready for my race
Good luck hugs from Connor and kisses from Katie pre-race. Photo by Shayla Neris
Amy and I getting our wetsuits on Photo by Shayla NerisHanging out with Ingrid before our start
Finally almost time to start, talking with Bonnie and Jess just before heading out to the pier. Photo by Shayla Neris

Swim
I walked out to the pier to start the swim with Bonnie & Jess, then I remembered Cassie is in my age group now too, I found her and we talked for a minute before we got in the water. I jumped in the water and swam over to the start buoys, the count down, and finally the start! There was the typical contact for the first 100 meters or so, but nothing crazy. Until I got elbowed in the eye! Ouch! My goggles were leaking and I stopped to fix them and saw that it was Cassie who elbowed me! Maybe it's not so good we're in the same age group now! :) Unfortunately my goggles leaked the rest of the swim and my left eye stung and burned from the salt water. But leaking goggles aren't that big a deal, even in salt water and I felt pretty good swimming. After the first turn buoy it seemed like the wave action picked up and I was inhaling/swallowing a lot of salt water when I tried to breathe. I know the wave action wasn't as bad this year as last year, but I feel like I swallowed more salt water this year- yuck! I also felt chaffing starting on my arms, even though I body glided them this year. When I made the final turn, it was easier to breathe again and I picked it up to the finish. After the last turn we swam toward the Colonel paddlewheel boat.

As I got out of the water I heard Richard yell "Go Heather". Swim time was 44:13 (8 minutes faster than last year), not a PR, but considering I got elbowed in the eye, had leaking goggles, and swallowed half the ocean, I'm happy with that.

T1
I was worried about running up to transition barefoot with my Achillies, but Jon had set me up with some kinesio tape and it didn't hurt running up to the wetsuit strippers. Then I ran through the showers and saw Jeff and Shayla cheering for me. Shayla loves to get pictures of all of us getting out of the swim when we look our worst! Thanks Shayla!
I got to my bike got everything together and took off for a windy bike ride. T1 was 4:59 (39 seconds faster than last year). Photo by Shayla Neris

Bike
I got out onto the seawall and immediately felt a head/cross wind and it felt stronger than it did on Friday or Saturday when I rode. I tried to push hard into the wind since I really wanted to have a good bike this year, but I quickly decided if I pushed too hard I wouldn't be able to finish the bike let alone run after, so I slowed down to a comfortably hard pace, I wasn't really happy with that pace, but I knew it was smarter. Starting the bike

A few miles into the ride I started feeling really nauseous, so much that I thought I'd have to stop and throw up, I definitely swallowed more salt water than at any race before and my stomach was not happy. I was getting behind on my nutrition, but there was no way I could drink anything. I thought about stopping and trying to throw up, but honestly no one wants to stop during a race, and no one ever wants to throw up! I kept going, hoping my stomach would settle down. I got passed by a lot of people but they were all super nice "Hi Heather" "love your license plate" "this wind is brutal, at least we'll get a tailwind on the way back" Tri Zoners yelled "Go Heather" and "great swim!". Ingrid passed me, slowed down and tried to have a conversation with me, I couldn't really hear her because of the wind, but I did hear that she was happy with her swim- Yay Ingrid! I was actually happy that people were passing me and talking to me since it kept my mind off throwing up!

By the time I got to the San Luis Pass my stomach was finally feeling better. I tried to drink some extra Infinit since I hadn't drank anything for about an hour. I was super happy to see the turn around and feel the tailwind that came with it! I had a much better ride back to Moody Gardens, not awesome but definitely better. My legs were more tired than they should have been, not sure if that was from the headwind on the way out or the lack of nutrition, probably both. But I was still able to pass quite a few people on the way back and I hope I was as friendly and encouraging to them as others were to me on the way out. Bike was 3:56:58 (6 minutes slower than last year), not what I wanted, but it was a tough bike for me and at least I finished.

T2
I got into T2 and took my bike stuff off and sat down to put on my compression socks, yeah it took a little while, but after not wearing them last year and having an awful run, and with my Achillies issue there was no question, the extra time was worth it. I got up to run out of transition and the first step hurt. T2 was 4:44 (1:11 slower than last year).
Definitely not my typical "Heather Smile" this is the look of "wow my Achilles really hurts and I have to run 13 miles now"

Run
I started running and my Achilles really hurt, but I hoped it would warm up and feel decent after a few minutes. I made it 5 minutes before I couldn't stand it and took a walk break for a couple minutes, the searing pain went away after about a minute walking, then it was just a dull pain, so I started running again and it hurt worse again. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, I wasn't really sure I could make it 13 miles running or even walking at that point, but I didn't want to quit either. I thought about walking the entire 13 miles, but that would take forever! After a few more run/walk cycles, I figured out I could run for about 2 minutes before it really hurt bad, and if I walked for 2 minutes that was enough of a break that I could run for 2 minutes again.

Starting the second lap I saw Jeff, Shayla and Adrian, they cheered for me and encouraged me to start running and I said "no way", they all felt really bad for me, but by then I had decided I could finish even if I had to walk the entire thing, I was doing ok with my 2/2s so I was just going to suck it up and do it.
I think this is when I was telling Jeff, "this is going to be a long painful 'run'" photo by Shayla NerisAfter telling Jeff my Achilles was killing me, Adrian walked with me asking "what do you need, what can we do to help" I couldn't think of anything that would help and I told him, "there's nothing you can do, I just have to deal with it"

Definitely not my best run, but at least there was tons of crowd support and encouragement from other athletes. That's why I like the 4 loop course. I saw most of the Tri Zoners running, I saw Kim Evans and Ingrid and I walked with Kathleen who wasn't having a great run either after having a mishap during her flying dismount and putting her knee through the spokes of her wheel! I saw Nicki at some point and told her I was having a terrible run, she said "you wouldn't know it to look at you, you look happy"thanks Nicki! The volunteers were super enthusiastic and lots of spectators cheered for me, which was pretty cool since there were only a few Tri Zones spectators out there (thanks so much Jeff, Shayla, Camilla, Bob, Richard and anyone I'm forgetting). On my first lap I was walking when I saw Bob H. and he heckled me for it, so from then on, I made sure I was running when I got to Bob's spot! Jeff, Shayla and Adrian missed me at the start of lap 3, which is probably good since I was planning on making them get me some Advil when I saw them and in hindsight that was a bad idea, but I saw them at the start of the last lap (by then I had decided Advil was stupid) and they walked with me for a few minutes.

When I finally got to the finish, Logan was announcing and said "Out of Tri Zones Training, Heather Herrick from Austin Texas" and I raised my arms up and smiled big, even though it wasn't my best race, I was still finishing and I was really happy! I haven't seen my finish picture yet, but I bet you can't tell I had a tough race. Run time was 2:49 (believe it or not that's 2:37 faster than last year!) And my overall time was 7:39:54 not what I was hoping for but still 3:35 faster than last year.

Jeff says that after 2 tough years in a row, Lonestar is my nemesis race now!

The Achilles is feeling a little better now and with some time off and therapy it should be good as new in a couple weeks.

Turkey Tacos 2011

2011-03-15T15:12:00.006-05:00

We're going back for Ironman Cozumel 2011!!

When I told Jeff I would "definitely" do another Ironman right after Ironman Cozumel 2010, I didn't really consider whether I'd want to do an Ironman race again in 2011, but I definitely do!

I asked Jeff if he wanted to go back to Cozumel, he said "of course! but is there a different Ironman race you'd want to do this year" No, I think it will be hard to beat the Ironman Cozumel experience. Of course I'd love to do Austria, Brazil, and New Zealand at some point (and I'd love to do a Rev3 iron distance race if they ever do one somewhere cool like Costa Rica), but this year I'm 100% happy to go back to Cozumel.

Jeff also asked "will you be upset if a storm comes in and you have horrible wind on race day?" No, I know I'm taking that chance in Cozumel in November and as long as I finish I'll be super happy, and even if I don't, I'll be disappointed, but I don't think I'll be devastated like I would have been last year.
I just hope I have as much fun this year as I did last year. I still can't believe how much FUN I had racing Ironman Cozumel! Based on that, I think my goals will be the same this year as last year.

Goals for Ironman Cozumel 2011
1. to finish!
2. to have fun and take it all in!

Of course I would love a PR, but there are so many things to consider and so many things you can't control in such a long race and they pretty much all went really well for me last year, so I'm happy to just train hard, hope for the best, and see what race day brings.

Zilker Kite Festival

2011-03-08T11:08:00.006-06:00

I wanted to go to the Zilker Kite Festival the last 2 years, and missed it both years. I thought it was March 13th this year, so when Ingrid texted Del about traffic on Barton Springs due to the kite festival, I immediately changed plans and decided to go (my only plan before that was a short afternoon bike ride). Del decided to come with me and so did Shayla and Kendra. First we had brunch at Romeo's then walked over to Zilker Park discussing whether it was really windy enough to fly kites.
It didn't seem very windy, but there were definitely lots of kites in the air, and lots of people on the ground! None of us had kites and I thought I'd be happy to just watch and take pictures, but after we got there I really wanted to fly a kite! They had stands to buy kites, but they were expensive! Soon I found an abandoned Star Wars kite, it's string was completely tangled, so I tried to untangle it and wrap the string around Del's yogurt spoon (my dad would be proud), it worked fairly well, the only problem was with all the tangles the string was too short. It was definitely fun trying to fly it!
Del decided if I could find an abandoned kite, he could too, his was cooler than mine, but eventually the owner asked for it back- oops!
This was a really cool kite, a helicopter with twirly tails
I had good luck with abandoned kites, I found this blue one that flew a lot better than the Star Wars kite, I actually got it high enough to have all the string out a couple of times.
The wind was definitely sporadic, at times there were tons of kites in the air and at other times Kendra or Shayla would tell me, "there's no wind, you can't fly it now, look around there are no kites in the air"
They had all kinds of homemade kite competitions that I wanted to watch, but we were having fun trying to fly our found kites and we never went over to watch the competitions.
Kendra with the Star Wars kite, I think she's trying to look tough like whatever character is on the kite.
Shayla flying the blue kite
Kendra, Del, me, and Shayla with our found kites. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. I definitely want to go again next year and Jeff really wants to go too, maybe we'll even make a kite for a competition.

Spectating at the Austin Marathon

2011-02-28T16:30:00.012-06:00

I decided to run only 3M this year, which meant I could spectate for all my friends at the Austin Marathon. A few weeks before the marathon Kristen, Kendra, Shayla and I decided we would spectate together, and try to hit as many spots as possible to support our team. I was in charge of mapping out our route, our stops, the runners' paces, and our stops for coffee and snacks along the way. I came up with a perfect plan so we would not miss any of our friends running and see most of them 2 or 3 times, even though we had a really wide range of paces. As you can imagine, a perfect plan is rarely executed perfectly...

Everyone got to my house on time and we got our duties clearly lined out: Driving- Kristen, Navigating- Heather, Heckling from the backseat- Kendra & Shayla, Cowbelling & cheering- all of us. We got to our first stop at miles 2 & 8 early and had time to get some coffee, but we couldn't find a coffee shop open at 6:40am! Really? After walking around looking for an open coffee shop for about 15 minutes, we realized Austin Java had opened early, probably because there was a crowd of about 30 people outside whining that they weren't open!

We found Rita and chose the perfect spectating spot near mile 2, soon the first runners were coming by! We saw Jon, Eva, Cindy, Carol, Del, Andrew & Peylin (Ingrid saw us and yelled like crazy, I think Kristen and Rita saw her but I missed her) at mile 2 and we waited and waited but missed Elizabeth. Darn! I thought for sure we'd see everyone at mile 2! We moved over to mile 8 and saw Jon, Eva, Del, Andrew & Cindy and again I missed Ingrid! I knew we would miss some of our runners at mile 8, but we needed to get to mile 11, where hopefully we'd see all but our very fastest runners.

Some of our group needed a pit stop so on the way to mile 11 we stopped at Cafe Medici. We were all starving and I was happy for the stop, but it seemed that not everyone (or maybe no one) had carefully inspected my timing sheet. I felt like a drill sergeant "Move, move move!! Let's go or we're going to miss them!" We got to mile 11 got a perfect parking spot and ran down the hill to the marathon/half marathon split. Kristen talked to someone who told her Cindy had run by less than a minute ago! Really?? We missed her by less than a minute? I figured we could still see Jimmy, Carol and Elizabeth at mile 11. Then Ingrid surprised us and ran by, and even stopped to talk for a minute! I guess she really meant it when she said she was taking this one easy (of course she had run a 100 mile trail run 2 weeks earlier!). We waited for Jimmy, Carol and Elizabeth, but after awhile I was afraid we had missed them again, and Kristen wanted to get to mile 18 before we missed the full marathoners again! We tried hard, but in the end we missed a lot of our half marathoners and didn't do as well spectating for them as I had hoped.

We got to mile 18 and had a little time to wait before any of our Tri Zoners came by. Cindy had given Kristen a couple of popsicle sticks for vaseline. We weren't sure if she was afraid they wouldn't have any or if germaphobe Cindy didn't want to touch the popsicle sticks everyone else was touching. We assumed it was a germ issue, so we all pretended to lick Cindy's vaseline popsicles.Soon Kim G came running by looking great, and just a little behind her was Cindy. She stopped to hug us all and sing "I Feel Good nah nah nah" We all laughed while she applied the vaseline we had ready for her. She told us she felt good but it was pretty warm for marathon running and she felt like she was drinking a lot of extra fluid and needed extra sodium- good thing we had salt tabs ready.

After mile 18, we dropped Shayla and Kendra off at my house so they could get to swim class. Kristen and I planned to see Kim G and Cindy at mile 25 then double back to mile 18 or 20 to see Carol. We figured we still had extra time so we went to go hang out with Jody at mile 20. Somehow we didn't find Jody, but as we were looking for her Cindy ran by and threw her sweat soaked spi belt to me. That seemed like a faster pace than I expected, so Kristen and I hurried over to mile 24.5. We got there and a few minutes later, Cindy came running by still singing "I Feel Good" and even dancing this time! Super impressive for 24.5 miles into a marathon! Kim G. was just behind her and having some calf cramps, I offered to run to the car and get her some salt tablets, but with 1.7 miles to go she decided to just keep going. Why didn't we have salt tabs ready this time? I have no idea...sorry Kim!
After we saw Cindy and Kim G. we headed back to mile 20 and this time we did find Jody, and GG who was working traffic control. Soon Carol ran by, she looked good, but we wondered how she felt, it was a pretty warm day for a marathon. I decided to run with her for a minute and see how she was doing. I had to sprint to catch her and when I did, she seemed perfectly fine even though it was a warm day. She ran the Austin marathon as a training race for the Boston marathon in April, I think she's going to have a great race at Boston!

In the end we saw most of our friends on the race course at least once and we had a lot of fun, so even if it didn't go exactly as planned, maybe it was still a perfect day of spectating.

With our spectating finished, Kristen and I went to the finish line to meet Cindy and find some lunch, we were starving!
Lunch and mimosas at Galaxy Cafe with Cindy to celebrate her marathon success!

When I got home I told Jeff "I think I only ran about 2 miles today, but I feel like I ran a marathon!" Spectating is hard work :)

Dirty Dozen 12 hour mountain bike race

2011-02-28T16:03:00.005-06:00

This was Jeff's very first race! After we went to the 24 hour race at Rocky Hill in October, Jeff thought he might get a team together for the Dirty Dozen in Warda. In this type of race, you have a team of 2-5 people (or you can go solo) , a team member rides a lap of the course (in this case about 10 miles) then gets back to the start/finish area and tags out the next member to ride a lap. Ideally, a member of your team is riding at all times during the 12 hour race. The team that completes the most laps in the least amount of time wins.

Jeff put together a 5 person team, but life got in the way and the 5 person team turned in to just 3, 12 hours is a lot of mountain bike riding for 3 people!

Jeff, Adrian, Kendra and I headed out to Warda on Friday in the snow! It was really cold, but Jeff and Adrian wanted to get in a practice lap. When they got back Jeff said it was "really hard, but fun". Saturday morning the sun was shining, but it was still COLD! Chris started the race for the team and Jeff and I went out to watch the start (sorry no pictures). Jeff rode the second lap for the team, and when he got back he said it was fun! Josh was the third rider.Josh and Jeff waiting for Chris to get back

By the afternoon when Jeff did his second lap it was a little warmer

Chris tagging Jeff to start his next lap
Jeff starting his second lap

After Jeff finished his second lap, he wanted to show me some of the coolest spots on the course. So we walked out to a big downhill called "Gas Pass". And we got there just in time to see Chris ride down.
Chris riding down Gas Pass
Chris's picture doesn't really show how steep it is, so I took one of a random rider that shows the steepness a little better.

The team completed 11 laps for 13th place in their category, really good since 2 of the 3 were first time racers!

I think Jeff and Josh have already decided they want to get a team together for the 24 hours of Rocky Hill in October!

Hill Country Ride for AIDS

2011-02-01T13:24:00.004-06:00

I decided to do the Hill Country Ride for AIDS this year. It's a one day 100 mile ride through the Texas Hill Country to raise money for local Austin non-profit organizations that provide services for people affected by AIDS.

Since this is a fundraising event, I have signed up to raise $500 by ride day – April 30, 2011. This is where you come in. I need your support! You can go to my personal rider page and donate online.

As a little incentive, each person who donates $25 or more will be invited to a pre-race dinner on April 16th, the evening before The Rookie Triathlon. It'll be a relaxing evening of good, healthy food, and much more fun than sitting at home worrying about the race.

I didn't make Shayla do it, just strongly encouraged her!

3M Half Marathon

2011-01-31T14:28:00.010-06:00

I went in to 3M knowing it would be a different kind of race for me this year. Early in January I got a sharp pain in my lower back, Dr. Olson at Performance wellness said, probably caused by too much sitting at a desk (along with some muscular imbalances), seriously? I spent all summer and fall Ironman training and never had more than a couple very minor aches & pains; then I spent December being LAZY and I got injured! Sheesh! Dr. Olson said I could run 3M, but I had to "be smart about it". Ok, I can do that- it's not like I'm Red or something ;)

So 3M goals:
1. be careful and make sure to not aggravate my injury
2. Have Fun!

Kendra picked me up and we got to the start early, which gave me a chance to use the restroom before anyone else and even before a line started (later the lines were insanely long and some people missed the start because they were in line)! Getting there early also gave me a chance to socialize with all my Tri Zones buddies, which was awesome! I've been having withdrawl because I'm not in the training group this winter so I'm not seeing everyone 2 or 3 times a week (I'm telling you, being lazy really isn't that great).

A few minutes before 6:45 we all headed over to the start, Kendra and I lost everyone else and then found Tom. The gun went off at exactly 6:45 this year (no crazy delays like last year!) and we crossed the start just 3 minutes later. Becky found us almost immediately, and Coach Tracy cheered for us just a few feet after the start. It wasn't really cold, but it was drizzly and the roads were wet, I was glad I had decided to wear arm warmers.

The first 6 miles flew by. Becky, Kendra and I stayed mostly together. We saw lots of Tri Zoners spectating along the course. I was taking my planned walking breaks but I kept catching up to Kendra and Becky, sometimes without realizing it until one of them said something. I was feeling great and really happy I had decided to run! Somehow I missed Coach Tracy spectating on Mesa even though she yelled my name "FOUR TIMES" as she told me after the race! Oops! It's really rare that I miss people on the course spectating for me.

Let's see if I can remember everyone I saw out there spectating (sorry if I miss anyone!), there was Coach Tracy, Carolyn, Adrian & Kenneth, Laura, Sarah R., Matt, Drew, Annette, Tom, E-beth & Beth, Leah, Colleen, Jody, and some guy I don't know on a bike who was super excited to cheer on all of us Tri Zoners, at one point he said to me "by now you've already swam, biked and transitioned twice!" Thanks to everyone who came out to spectate- you all make it so much more fun!

Somewhere around mile 6 I felt like maybe my back was getting a little tight, definitely not hurting just maybe a little tight. At that point I wasn't even sure it was real, maybe just a mental thing since I hadn't run more than 6 miles in 3 weeks. Kendra and I got to the relay exchange point at 1:12, I knew if I kept that pace, I could come really close to a PR, but I also knew that would probably be a pretty stupid thing to attempt, being undertrained and slightly injured. By mile 7 my back was definitely feeling a little tight so I slowed down quite a bit. It didn't hurt, so I was still having fun and seeing lots of Tri Zoners out spectating! Linda caught me on Burnet and we ran together for awhile.

I turned onto North Loop and slowed down for the uphill section planning to run the long down hill faster, but when I got to the downhill, running faster didn't feel so good, so instead I took it slower and took the next uphill even slower, yeah that pretty much means walking. I love running down Duval but obviously this year I had to take it slower than I wanted. No big deal. I got to high five more spectators and talk to Jody for a second when I saw her.

A little before mile 12, I was ready to be done. My back wasn't feeling so great and I was starting to worry I was making it worse. Good thing I only had a mile or so to go. Of course, when I got near the finish line I forgot about all that and just had fun! I finished in 2:37:18, definitely not my fastest half, but that wasn't really the goal this time.

I got to congratulate lots of Tri Zoners on their first half marathons and on PRs. Michael from Performance Wellness did a little massage work on my back and made it feel much better, so I wasn't worried about the race making it worse anymore. When I went to Performance Wellness on Monday, Dr. Olson said the muscles felt a lot better. I guess that means I should run a half marathon every weekend!

Pictures coming soon, as soon as Coach Tracy puts them up on the site ;)

Connor turns 11

2011-01-05T18:29:00.004-06:00

Hard to believe this little baby puppy turned 11 today!
Connor with his first frisbee
and with his favorite bunny toy
the bowl was bigger than him!
and this Christmas at almost 11 years old

What an awesome dog! I can't really imagine what the last 11 years would have been like without him. Happy Birthday Connor!

New Year

2011-01-01T19:58:00.016-06:00

We started off New Year's Eve with a swim at Barton Springs BRRRR!
Lots of Tri Zoners showed up so it was fun even though it was cold.

Then lots of shopping and prepping outfits for the 1.1 Underwear Run on New Year's Day. Including making Ingrid's "I see London, I see France" underpants!
We had a really fun dinner at Suzi's with Ron & Roger and a couple of their friends. And they pretty much convinced all of us that we need to do the Hill Country Ride for AIDS this year. Then it was time for the Wii tournament, ok not really a tournament but Del and Shayla went all out boxing!New Year's morning Jon and I did our long runs while Ingrid and Del rode. We all met back at Jack & Adam's for the 1.1 Underwear Run. Del's Hello Kitty underwear was a big hit!
Del and Java the great dane
The route was from Jack & Adam's to the Capital and back.
Yes, people stared (mostly at Del, I think), people stopped their cars in the middle of the street, rolled down their windows, took pictures and laughed, pointed and yelled at us. And I laughed more than I have laughed in a long time! I think we all had way more fun than we expected!
Colleen and Batman
Superman and Batman announcing winners, and Del won!
We went to Cherrywood Coffeehouse for brunch to celebrate Del's big win. Yes, Del and Ingrid are still wearing their underwear at Cherrywood!

Ironman Thank Yous

2010-12-18T13:44:00.005-06:00

I've been slow on this one, but I definitely wanted to thank a few important people for helping to make my Ironman experience such a great one.

First, I need to thank Ingrid, she sent me this email on Dec. 1, 2009:
"OK, I know...you were thinking, maybe Ironman in 2011, maybe... But just in case you could be persuaded to think otherwise, consider IRONMAN COZUMEL 2010!!!! Kim and I are signed up. Turkey Tacos!!! Come on, you know you want to!!! And you and Jeff could dive while we're there...it's going to be awesome..."
At first I said no way! But after that email, it was all I could think about! So thank you Ingrid for putting the idea in my head and giving me a gentle push toward Ironman. I don't think there's any way you could have known then just how awesome it would be.

When I got back from Cozumel everyone asked "how were you able to have such a great first Ironman experience" and I answered "Coach Jen!" I definitely couldn't have done it without her coaching. Thank you Coach Jen for your coaching and encouragement through my entire Ironman year.

Obviously I couldn't have trained for or done an Ironman without Jeff's support. But he was an extra super supportive Iron husband! He biked with me on a few tough runs and even SAGed me through the last half of a tough ride in Corpus Christi. I don't think he ever complained about Ironman training, which included me hardly ever being home in the evening, a lot of extra laundry, me not always doing my share of household chores, and water bottles all over the kitchen all the time. With a hint of pride in his voice, he told some friends "this is what the house of an Ironman in training looks like" when they stopped by unexpectedly and the house was extra messy. Thanks for everything Jeff!

Sandra and I trained for and ran our first marathon together in Feb. 2010 and shortly after that she told me "I'm going to train with you as if I'm going to do Ironman Cozumel, and maybe if things go well, I'll sign up and actually do the race" I jumped up and down with joy when she told me that! Thank you for training with me through the ups and downs of Ironman training, and congratulations on an awesome Ironman Cozumel Sandra!

Coach Tracy often talks about the support of "our Tri Zones family" and I have never felt that support more than I did during Ironman training. There are way too many examples of this support to list, but I think my favorite was our 4 lap Pflugerville Century Ride. Even though it was a really cold morning, Tri Zoners came out in big numbers to ride with Sandra and I, we had different people to ride with each lap and it made what might have been boring, a really fun ride with friends. Thank you to all of my Tri Zones family!

My parents decided kind of last minute to come spectate at Ironman Cozumel. They had never been to a triathlon of any kind before, but they did a great job spectating and ecouraging me throughout the race. They must have told me a hundred times during and after the race that they were proud of me. Thanks for being there for my first Ironman Mom & Dad!

When I signed up for Ironman Cozumel, I knew I wouldn't have my "Tri Zones More Cowbell Corps" for support in Cozumel. But I knew with Ingrid, Del and Kim also racing it would be fine, I don't know why, but having friends racing with me makes me feel better. In the end there was a pretty big group of "Houston Friends" racing or spectating, some of whom I met for the first time in Cozumel, others I knew but hadn't seen much or at all since I moved to Austin, and of course- Ingrid, Del, and Kim. Thanks to all my Houston friends (and my new Croatian friends) for being there and making the race and the trip so much fun.

I also had some great support from "virtual friends" through online forums, email, and facebook. I may not have met most of you in real life but I really appreciate your support.

Looking forward to Ironman number 2 in 2011! Who's with me?

Post race Ironman Cozumel

2010-12-07T14:38:00.018-06:00

I felt better than I thought I would after the race. I wasn't tired at all, I stayed up until 4:30am and then finally slept a little until 6 am. I was pretty sore on Monday, mostly just my legs, and my feet were definitely still hurting. I got a massage on Monday and that felt really good and took away a little soreness.

Monday night we all went out to dinner at Guido's a nice Italian place, they actually have a few good Italian places on Cozumel.
and by about 8pm I was TIRED!

I didn't go to the post race party at Senor Frog's, I was just too tired. In the middle of the night Monday I woke up with a fever and felt awful. Looking back I'm 99% sure this wasn't race or Mexico related. Wilmer got sick before the race (and heard that a lot of people at his family Thanksgiving got sick too), then Kim got sick, then me, and later Del. I think it was some kind of 24 hour bug or something.

I didn't feel great when I woke up Tuesday morning, but I didn't feel terrible either, so I stuck with the original plan of morning diving. I was still fairly sore and Jeff carried my dive gear out to the boat for me.
We saw a lot of cool stuff and really enjoyed the dives!
Diving actually felt really good. I had worried that it might not be the best thing after the race, but if anything I think it may have helped my recovery. My soreness was almost completely gone after the dives on Tuesday! Sandra mentioned that maybe the extra compression of the water was a good thing, maybe she's onto something.We had dinner at Sorrisi with Kim, Del and the Croatians- Goran and Lovro

Wednesday morning we woke up to the windiest conditions I've ever seen on Cozumel! They canceled diving for the day because the harbor master had closed the harbor!
We hung out on our balcony and enjoyed our coffee while we watched the wind and waves. This seagull landed on the pelican's head 3 or 4 times while we watched! The next day I saw the same thing happen again.

Since we couldn't dive we went out to Mr. Sancho's Beach Club with Del and Kim.
Del and Kim, notice the ominous looking cloudsJeff and I hung out and played in the water for awhilewhile Del did some yoga on the beach
but the clouds started looking pretty bad, so we grabbed a table under the big hut just before the heavy rain started. We had a snack and waited for the pouring rain to let up!
We went back to town when the rain let up. We had dessert at El Coffee, I hadn't really had a big dessert to celebrate yet and I was ready for it!
4 layers of fudgy chocolate cake with chocolate sauce and whipped cream and strawberries between each layer and on top- YUM!! and they were generous with the portions too.Kim couldn't finish hers, but I enjoyed every bite of mine!

For dinner my parents joined us at Del Sur Argentina Empanadas and my dad ordered the mixed grill, which was a personal grill filled with different meats, so much even my dad couldn't come close to finishing it!
We hung out a long time, but didn't get free dessert like we did before the race.

Thursday morning we woke up to wind and clouds again. So Jeff and I rented a jeep and drove to the other side of the island where it was still windy, but sunny.We would drive a little way, then stop and walk along the beach for awhileSome areas were really rocky and the waves were crashing in!
At one point we got out and were swimming at a more sandy beach. We saw some people down the beach and Jeff wondered if they were looking at a sea turtle nest. So we walked down the beach and a guy who appeared to be a volunteer with the sea turtle program uncovered the sand from a nest so we could see the baby turtles! Then he pulled one out and let me hold it!He didn't speak much English, so I didn't get a lot of information about the program, just that they were going to release them.
We really enjoyed the other side of the island. We hadn't been over there in our last few trips to Cozumel and even when we went years ago, we didn't take time to really enjoy it like we did this time.

We went over to Scuba Club and did a night dive with my parents that night and had dinner with them. Great diving and a good dinner too.Parrotfish blow mucus bubbles around themselves when they sleep, tough to see the mucus bubble in my picture.

We saw 2 seahorses and my dad got some great pictures of both of them

and one of this stingray. There were a lot of stingrays in the area on this night dive and their eyes glowed when we shined our lights toward them.Friday morning we got to go boat diving, even though it was still colder and windier than normal
long sleeves and jackets in Cozumel?!?!
sting ray swimming away
gray angelfish
splendid toadfish are endemic to Cozumel and really cool looking!this turtle let us get really close
so close I even got to touch it!
scrawled cowfish look pretty cool too
nurse shark
intermediate (like a teenage) queen angelfish. I love these and was mad that my picture was blurry.

Sadly, on Saturday we had to say goodbye to Cozumel. If things work out, we're hoping to be able to come back for Ironman Cozumel 2011!

Ironman Cozumel Race Report!!

2010-12-01T09:23:00.027-06:00

Goals for the race
1. to Finish! 16:59 would have made me ecstatic! (I did some math and figured if everything went perfectly I might come in close to 15:30, but I didn't really think that would happen)
2. to have fun and take it all in!Chankanaab pre-race

I woke up race morning with my stomach in knots, I assumed it was just race nerves, but I took the Imodium that Carolyn had put in Jeff's Sherpa care package just in case. Thanks Carolyn! At 5am the Vista Del Mar contingent (me, Ingrid, Del, Kim, Wilmer, Goron, and Jeff) left for Chankanaab. We got there early and I had plenty of time to turn in my special needs bags, put bottles on my bike, turn on my GPS tracker and anything else on the list Jeff made for me :) We got to use the restrooms inside at Chankanaab and the lines weren't even long! I met up with Jeff and my parents before the race. We watched the pros start and the dolphins jumping. Then I went into the huge mass of athletes to get ready to start.

I found a girl named Adriana and talked with her, then I actually saw Ingrid, Kim, and Del! Del and I ended up walking down the pier and getting in the water together. steps that Del and I used to get in the water

We said we'd draft off each other the entire race. When we got in the water we lost each other but we had both followed Coach Jen's advice to start off to the right, I saw Kim walking down the pier and yelled her name, she didn't hear me but Del did and yelled my name, he was only about 3 feet from me! So we hung out together and watched the dolphins jumping until the gun went off.

The gun went off and I started swimming, I was afraid I'd get swum over and knocked around, but it never happened. Actually from where I started I had a pretty easy mass swim start, less contact than any Splash & Dash! Swim start from my dad's point of viewand a close up from 2digital

I swam along looking at cool fish and corals under the water, I barely had to sight since there were people on both sides of me I couldn't be off course. When I got close to the first turn buoy I saw it was super crowded, so I swam wide around it and completely avoided the pile up. Same with the second turn buoy. Then I had the current with me and felt like I was swimming really fast back to the pier, past the pier and all the way down to the submarine. I saw a couple of small stingrays in the water, lots of fish and some safety divers. It was the most beautiful swim ever! I turned around the submarine and buoy and didn't really feel like the current was slowing me down. I got close to a guy breast stroking on that final stretch, I kept trying to get away from him, but kept ending up near him. He never did kick me. Before I knew it Chankanaab looked really close and then I could see the steps where we got out. I got out with no issues, but Scott said at times the steps were so crowded that people were standing on top of each other! Guess I got lucky! HAPPY getting out of the water!

I jogged through the HUGE crowd toward the bike bags and changing tent. People were screaming and cheering like crazy, but out of all the noise I heard my dad yell "HEATHER!" clear as could be! He has a really distinctive voice. I also heard "we're so proud of you!" and I knew it was my mom! I saw Jeff and Jon as I went by too. Swim time was 1:21:49. I was hoping for around 1:30 so I was super happy! I know I was grinning from ear to ear as I ran through to the changing tents. I pretty much expected the Ironman Cozumel swim to be the best and most fun swim of my life and I was not disappointed!Just after the best swim of my life!

T1 actually went a lot better than I expected. I was assuming with a complete clothes change and everything it would take me about 15 minutes and when I saw how far we had to run from the swim exit to the tents, I thought it might take closer to 20. I got to the showers and rinsed off the salt water, grabbed my gear bag- thanks for the red ribbons Cindy! made my bag very easy to find! I lost my goggles along the way, but I didn't even consider going back to get them. I ran to the changing tent and changed clothes with help from an American volunteer, she sprayed me down with sunscreen, I got a piece of gum- Thanks Carolyn! and my bike stuff and took off to go get my bike. I got my bike and ran through the HUGE crowd again! I couldn't stop smiling, it was absolutely amazing! I heard "Animo" and "GO GO" and "Si se puede" and "VAMOS!" and then I again heard my dad yell "HEATHER!" I looked for him, my mom and Jeff but couldn't see them. the crowd at T1
getting ready to start the bike

They later told me they were 4 or 5 rows of people back, that's all the closer they could get to the fences. T1 was 10:15.

I got on my bike and was SO happy! I started riding and I'm not sure if I had a tailwind or I was just super happy and excited, but I was going 17+ mph without much effort! Some of the slower swimmers/faster cyclist started passing me and I got lots of "Hi Heather from Texas!", "how's your race going?" "Great Job!" etc. from other athletes! Lots of people said they liked my license plate too, good thing Julie got me a new R so people didn't think I was HEATHEP! There were crowds of people spectating at every hotel and beach club along the way. I started to get some headwind after a few miles, but it wasn't bad at all. I stopped at the second rest stop to get water and mix my next 2 hours of Infinit, the volunteers were super nice and helped me fill bottles, and put lids back on for me, I was back on the road in less than a minute!

Just after the rest stop I made the big curve and could see the ocean, it was SO beautiful! Not too much later I heard "Is that my Heather?" from behind me, I knew it was Ingrid! As she passed me she said "this is SO Amazing!!" I completely enjoyed the far side of the island, the view was amazing and the wind wasn't even that bad! There weren't as many spectators, but it was so beautiful I barely noticed. I made the turn to head back into town and immediately felt a strong tailwind, I felt like I was flying and it was so much fun! There were groups of spectators along the way and they were all cheering like crazy! The closer to town I got the more spectators there were, until there were thousands of them all screaming and cheering like they were there just for me! I thought, even if the rest of the race ends up being completely awful, it was totally worth it for the swim, T1 and lap 1 on the bike! I couldn't believe how many people were out there or how loud they were cheering! I just kept thinking "this is SO Freaking Awesome!!!" I went past T2 and soon passed Scuba Club, my parents' hotel, they were sitting out front in lawn chairs with signs and cheered like crazy when they saw me!My dad took this picture as I rode by

Just after passing Scuba Club I saw Jeff, Jon, Tommy, Kristy etc. walking back toward town from Chankanaab. They all cheered for me and I yelled "this is SO FREAKING AWESOME!!" I rode by Chankanaab and finished my first lap in 2:25, I had thought that if everything went perfect and there was no wind the fastest I could go per lap was 2:30, so I was super happy! Lap 2 was pretty much a repeat of lap 1, the wind had picked up a little, but I was still having so much fun! The volunteers were super nice and really seemed to want to help me, I rarely needed anything since I use my own Infinit. I said "no gracias" a lot as I rode by them. They always cheered and encouraged me as I rode by. At one aid station I told a boy, probably in high school, "no gracias" for a gel and he replied "You are beautiful!" hehe! I started to wonder if I had been going too fast and it would make lap 3 harder. When I got to the head and cross winds, I tried not to push too hard, but when I turned and got the tailwind and the huge crowds cheering again, I couldn't slow myself down! I passed Scuba Club again and my parents cheered and my dad took pictures.
I passed Chankanaab right at 5 hours into the bike and started my last lap! I usually have songs in my head during long rides, but this time I had the chant "Si Se Puede!" in my head, I heard it millions of times through the crowded areas, so it stuck in my head for the not so crowded areas. It made me happy because it reminded me that soon I'd be back in the area with all the people cheering.

The wind had picked up quite a bit for my third lap and I could really feel the headwind, but I also knew I had less than 32 miles to go! I had kept up with my nutrition perfectly, I was starting to feel a little tired, but I knew I could do it! I thought about all my friends at home watching my little GPS dot move around the island and I thought about the final lap of my windy P-ville ride with Cindy, Kendra, and Elizabeth. The cross wind on the far side of the island was also stronger on my last lap. There were painted black lines on the road and I had read that each black line marks a turtle nest on the beach, so I tried to count black lines, I got over 300, but there were too many to count.

I was definitely getting tired before I made the turn toward town. But finally I hit the turn and got the awesome tailwind! I stopped at the aid station just after the turn, I added some concentrated Infinit to my aerobottle and a volunteer filled it with cold water. I stood there for a second to stretch my legs and back, and a sweet volunteer looked at me and said "You can do it!" She was obviously super excited for me! I took off and thoroughly enjoyed my last time riding through the crowded streets of Cozumel. I saw my parents and Jeff just before I got to T2. Jeff was supposed to give me my running hat at Vista Del Mar, and he told me "Jon has your hat for you"
Still really happy after riding 112 miles! It was definitely the BEST bike ride of my life! Total bike time was 7:42:15.

I got off my bike and handed it to a volunteer. I walked to the changing tent and they already had my gear bag ready. I started changing clothes and a couple of girls ran over and shielded me with big trash bags so no one would see me naked, I really didn't care and thought it was kind of funny. A volunteer tried to put my second compression sock on while I was doing the first one, also pretty funny, but it worked. T2 time was 7:46.

I ran out of T2 feeling good, again there were HUGE crowds of people all cheering like crazy! Vista Del Mar was less than 1/2 a mile from transition. As I got close I looked for Jon. I had forgotten to put Nicki and Drew's "good luck on your first Ironman run" hat in my T2 bag so Jeff was going to hand it to me, since I hate running without a hat and I obviously wanted my good luck hat! Jeff and my parents had made it back to Vista Del Mar so Jeff handed me my hat as I ran by.
trying to put my hat on, while everyone at Vista Del Mar is cheering for me
Ingrid's mom had the Inspiration Stick out all day, this picture is from the swim start, but I didn't really see it until the run. She had put something for each of us on the stick, my good luck charms were a fish necklace and a dolphin necklace, what a cool idea!
Our cheering section at Vista Del Mar. The people who work at the hotel were also out there cheering and the people who work at our dive shop next door were there cheering too. Ok, really I'm pretty sure everyone on the entire island was somewhere on the course cheering! There really weren't many places on the course that weren't crowded with spectators and everyone yelled my name as if they knew me! It was like running through the Tri Zones Team Tailgating area for an entire marathon! I'm pretty sure I high fived every person on the island of Cozumel during the run! It was SO much fun!! I saw Ingrid and Catherine during my first lap, they both looked great! I felt great for my first lap, I had told Jeff the absolute fastest I might do the first lap was 1:50, I did it in 1:47! After my U-turn, I passed Vista Del Mar again and my dad ran with me for a minute, he told me he had mistaken some other girl for me, he had yelled "Heather" and she had yelled "DAD!" so he took pictures of her, thinking everyone else had missed me go by, he showed the pictures to Jeff and Jeff laughed at him for not recognizing me!

I tried to slow down a little during lap 2, but I got to 13.1 miles in 2:45. I really didn't think I could keep up that pace, so I walked a little more on the second half of lap 2. I had a hard time running at a slower pace, so the only way I could slow down and catch my breath was to walk. By the end of lap 2 I was starting to feel tired and I couldn't drink any more Infinit. It didn't taste bad, I just really didn't want to drink it anymore. Coke and oranges sounded really yummy and I knew if I drank a lot of Coke I would have to walk more so my stomach wouldn't get upset. As I ran by Vista Del Mar again, I told Jeff, "I'm going to walk more this lap, so don't worry that I'm slower, I feel fine, just need to slow down a little". I made my U-turn and heard Ingrid! I told her I was feeling good. She had just finished, had an awesome race and a 13 minute PR! I handed her my fuel belt since I had no intention of drinking any more Infinit.
Starting my last lap of the run! I was so happy to start my last lap! I knew that I was going to finish! I checked the time on my Garmin and it wasn't even 8:30 yet! I did some math and figured if I kept a 15 minute per mile pace, I could finish in 15:30! Wow!! My feet were starting to hurt, especially the ends of my toes and the balls of my feet, they felt like they were getting rubbed raw. I definitely slowed down, drank a lot of Coke and ate some oranges. The volunteers were super nice on the run too. I almost felt bad not taking something from them. At one point a boy started going through the list of stuff asking if I wanted anything, I told him "no gracias", he said, how about some support? I laughed and said "I never turn down support!" So he gave me a great big high five and cheered extra loud as I went by.

On the first half of lap 3, I caught Del, he was having some nutrition issues, I walked with him for a minute and told him he could walk slow the rest of the way and still finish. I felt bad when I started running again and left him. I finally saw Sandra the first half of lap 3 too, she was going the opposite direction, so it was just a quick hi. I started to feel really hungry, so I took a powerbar from an aid station, I never eat power bars and now I know why! Yuck! After the turn around I checked the time again, I had less than 5 miles to go and it wasn't quite 9:30 yet! I only had to do about 16 minutes per mile to finish by 10:30 pm (15:30)! I was SO happy!! My feet were really hurting by then, but I knew the sooner I finished the sooner I could take off my shoes!

There were still tons of people out cheering, all yelling my name like they knew me and offering high fives! I also got lots of "love that smile!" As I got into town I saw the Croatians had come out to cheer for me! Then I got to Vista Del Mar and saw Kim and Wilmer on one side of the street and I assumed Ingrid, Ramona, and Jon on the other. They were all screaming my name like crazy! I wanted to get rid of my headlamp before the finish chute so I took it off and just as I threw it toward them, I realized that the 3 people were not Ingrid, Ramona, and Jon, they were complete strangers! Kim and Wilmer must have told them my name. The last half mile from Vista Del Mar to the finish was completely crowded with people all screaming and offering high fives! It was absolutely AWESOME! I high fived everyone as I ran into the chute, I looked behind me and saw no one, so I knew I had time to take it all in before anyone else came up behind me.
coming down the finish chute high fiving everyone!

I expected Jeff and my parents to be close to the finish line so I didn't look for them until after the turn in the chute. They were right at the turn and I completely missed them. I kept high fiving everyone while looking for Jeff and my parents, then ran up the ramp and across the finish line as the announcer was saying "Heather Herrick from the United States, Heather you know what's coming! Heather YOU are an IRONMAN!!!" SO FREAKING COOL!! my dad got a picture of me finishing on the big screenRun time was 6:01:38 and final time was 15:23:43! Wow!! Faster than I thought possible and way more fun than I expected!

My catcher asked how I felt and I said I felt pretty good, so she let me go, I got my medal and shell necklace and a bottle of Coke. I was super happy and really wanted to hug someone, it was all I could do to not hug the volunteers!
Then I saw my crew, they were outside the fence and I didn't know how to get out to them! My dad gave me a "finger hug" through the fence. I got my finisher shirt, my post race picture, and some pizza then found Jeff and my parents.
I got my bike and stuff and we walked back to Vista Del Mar. While we were walking toward the hotel Jeff asked if I would do another Ironman and I said "Definitely! This was the BEST RACE EVER!!!" Dad took some pictures, then I decided I wanted to sit in the swimming pool for a little while. When I took my shoes off, I saw that the bottoms of my feet were rubbed raw (maybe from sand in my socks) and the ends of my toes were raw and blistered, no wonder they were hurting on the last lap!
LOVE the medal!!!
and the shell necklace!
Ingrid and Jon came down to the pool too and Ingrid and I shared our race stories. She asked what my favorite part was, I thought for a minute and said "Surprisingly, I think it was the bike, I expected the swim to be awesome, and I knew there would be tons of people spectating for the run, but I didn't expect the bike to be so much fun!"

Ironman Cozumel Pre-race

2010-11-27T10:37:00.009-06:00

The week before we left was uneventful, but still pretty stressful. I was worried about forgetting something and Jeff was worried all our bags would be overweight. Jeff and I made lists and packed and repacked during the week. We had triathlon gear, Scuba gear, and stuff for 10 days. We ended up with 3 bags weighing 49.5 pounds and the bike box close to 70. On Monday, Jeff called me at work and told me while packing my bike he and Adrian found that my rear wheel was completely out of true, they tried to fix it but it was too bad to be fixed, so they had already decided I was going to borrow Adrian's Easton wheels and everything would be fine. I was not happy, I wanted MY wheels, I didn't want anything new or different for the biggest longest race ever! But I knew I had no choice and was really happy that they had figured out a good solution. After a couple of hours I was able to convince myself that it would be fine. Besides as Shayla said, "all the cool kids use different wheels on race day". While I was still unhappy and freaked out about the wheel situation, I went to pick up some antibiotics just in case I had tummy issues. The pharmacist told me "there's just one side effect, it's not common, but some people have ruptured their Achilles tendon while taking this" I thought "you must be freaking kidding me!" but I said "I'm doing an Ironman on Sunday, can you change this out for something that doesn't have that as a side effect?" She was super nice, she made a few phone calls and got it switched out for me. I think that was the last of the drama before we left, we drove to Houston and hung out with Jeff's parents on Tuesday. The flight on Wednesday was no big deal, almost everyone on the plane was doing the race or going to support/spectate.

Jeff and I got to Cozumel on Wednesday before noon and I was immediately SO happy to be here!
There were Ironman signs everywhere! This was taken from our balcony

Thursday morning Sandra and I went to swim at Chankanaab, beautiful water! I swam along looking at cool fish and corals in the water!Jeff assembled my bike
We did packet pick up Thursday afternoon and ran into Ingrid, Del and Kim on our way back Love our jackets!!

Early Friday morning Sandra, Del and I rode out to Chankanaab and back about 10 miles total. Adrian's wheels were fine, except that his magnet and my Garmin weren't quite getting along. My Garmin info would look normal one minute and next thing I know I'd be riding along and it would read 0 for speed and auto pause itself. It happened about 10-15 times on our 10 mile ride. Jeff did some adjustments and we hoped it would work properly for the race.

Jeff went out on the dive boat Friday morning and saw a shark and a lot of other cool stuff diving. I went back to Chankanaab for a second practice swim. Another awesome swim and I was pretty sure that the race would be the best swim ever! The only thing I was unsure of was the mass start, but you can't really practice that.

After swimming we watched the "dolphin encounters"
and Ingrid, Kim, Del and I hung out on the beach at Chankanaab until about noon. 2 Croatian guys took this picture for us and then we realized they were staying at our hotel, right across from Jeff and I!
On the way back from Chankanaab, we stopped at the bike mechanic area, Jeff had told me to get a new magnet if I could, Del needed skewer springs, and Ingrid needed something for her aerobottle. Ingrid got her stuff, but they didn't have what Del and I needed. Our cab driver was super nice and she told us there was a bike shop a few blocks back from the water front. We had lunch and walked back toward the bike shop, it was fairly far back into the "local part of town" where I had never been. We found the bike shop and just had to laugh! They had mopeds, old mountain bikes and kid's bikes, but not a road bike and certainly not a tri bike in sight! I knew they wouldn't have a magnet, Del asked about springs, but they didn't have those either. Oh well!

Friday afternoon I started putting together my bike and run transition bags and got really nervous. Jeff tried to make me feel better but it wasn't really working, then I remembered I had printed an email Kristen sent me just before we left and I pulled it out and read it and it put me right back in my happy and excited about the race mood. Thanks Kristen!

Getting ready to go for my last run before the race!

Saturday at lunch

Saturday afternoon was bike and gear bag check in
They put all of my bike info into a computer
I went to rack my bike, turn in bags and get body marked, and I ran into Sandra and Del!
Saturday pre-race dinner was at La Mission, one of our favorite restaurants in Cozumel. They were giving 50% off to athletes and 30% off to athlete companions! My parents got to Cozumel on Saturday and came to dinner with us. Ingrid's mom showed us the "Inspiration Stick" and all of our charms on it. She got a fish necklace for me.
The racers after pre-race dinner, Del, me, Kim, Wilmer, and Ingrid

Texas Tri Series Party

2010-11-15T15:05:00.008-06:00

I had been looking forward to the Texas Tri Series party for a long time. I knew it would be hard to beat last year's party, but I knew it would be a lot of fun! The Tri Zoners decided we all wanted to go early and have a pre-party drink, so Kendra (my date) and I got there around 6 and met everyone in the lobby. We scoped out the awards, hats, and t-shirts before anyone else got there, I love the shirts and mine fits perfectly- Yay! First thing I said when I saw them was "this shirt is totally going to Cozumel with me!" I made sure I was at the front of the line to pick up awards and stuff, then went into the party room and saved us the two best tables, right in front of the stage!
Annette, Kristen, Kendra, Julie, Eva, me, Cindy, Vanessa, Carol, and Kim. Photo by Miguel Ortiz
Tri Series finisher award and t-shirt! Photo by Julie Wolf
Eva with her award

We enjoyed lots of free beer and wine and watching the slide show, while we waited for dinner time. Of course every time a Tri Zoner came on the slide show we all cheered. did I mention there was free beer? Photo by Miguel Ortiz

I don't know if I was extra hungry or if dinner was really that good, but I really enjoyed it! But I took forever to eat, I was too busy talking to everyone to finish eating, so they started the prize giveaways before I even finished eating!

The entire party is always a blast, but the prizes are the best part, because, honestly, it's fun to win anything, even if it's just a $1 coupon or something. They give away tons of small prizes at the Tri Series party, to the point that almost everyone wins something. Then they move on to the bigger prizes, I'd say valued between $100 and $400 and there are more of those than you'd think. Then the biggest prize of the night is 4 entries into the entire Tri Series for the next year- that's 5 triathlons and worth well over $600!! So you know we were all WAY excited!!
The first big Tri Zones winners were Cindy winning a bag and Kristen winning a bookThey both ended up trading for visors. Photo by Miguel Ortiz
Then I won a visor- yeah I got pretty excited about it. Photo by Julie Wolf
Eva won a visor that matched mine. Photo by....no clue, but it was on my camera
Vanessa and Miguel won matching hatsThen Vanessa traded for the book. Photo by...ummm ME, with Miguel's awesome camera!
By the end of the small prizes, every Tri Zoner had won something, most of us had won the visors like mine, Julie won a huge bag of Shot Bloks (which is on her head in the picture). Then they moved on to the bigger prizes- we didn't all win those prizes but Kendra won a swim speedsuit worth $300! Based on last year and this year, it looks like being my date at the Tri Series party is good luck!**

They give awards for the winners in each age group over the entire series and both Julie and Kim won their age groups! Then they recognized the volunteers who had volunteered at every event, including Annette and Tom & Carolyn who didn't get to come to the party.

Then they did the Grand Prize drawings. Last year Ingrid won and put my name down (cool story here), and Julie won too. We were all on the edge of our seats hoping Logan would call our number! He called out a number that was about 8 higher than mine and I knew it was someone from the second Tri Zones table, so I immediately pointed toward them and started screaming and cheering, it was JULIE again!! What a lucky lucky girl!!
At the end of the party with all our cool Tri Series winnings! Photo by Miguel Ortiz
Julie was the BIG winner of the night! She posted this picture on FB, notice the huge pile of Shot Bloks under the plaque and the pile of money that says "2011 Texas Tri Series"

** it turns out the speedsuit doesn't fit Kendra, but it does fit me, so that's actually 2 years in a row that my "date" to the Tri Series Party has won a big prize and then given it to me! Do I have the greatest friends or what?!?

Ironman Florida Watch Party!

2010-11-08T17:52:00.011-06:00

Shayla named my house the "Virtual Ironman Viewing Headquarters" during the Buffalo Springs 70.3 watch party and I love it! My house is officially on 4square as the VIVHQ! So she even made signs this time! So cool!
People started showing up around 6:30 am to watch Coach Jen, Red, Nicki, Tom and Peggy race Ironman Florida. I put the coverage up on tv as soon as it started! Everyone was so excited to see our Iron Tri Zoners begin their race!!!

Drew did a pre race video of Nicki and a swim start video, we loved them and watched facebook constantly for more videos, he kept them coming all day!
We thought there was a lot of food for breakfast, but this was nothing compared to what the table and really the entire kitchen looked like by dinner time!

The swim started and in no time Coach Jen was halfway, soon everyone else was halfway and I was amazed at how fast everyone was swimming! Their final swim times were crazy fast!! Once everyone was on the bike, we could watch the trackers and see their progress, way fun! The trackers worked really well and even when they switched over to the new Beta version, Shayla figured it out quickly and we realized the new version was better anyway. I think the only scare we had was when Coach Jen's tracker stopped working for awhile, we worried she got a flat or something, but after a quick text to Kristen we knew it was just a tracker issue.
Shayla brought posters so we could make a sign for each athlete and everyone could sign it.

Kendra making baked potatoes for lunch- yum!

It seemed like everyone was off the bike in really good time, I think they all rode so well that they could have crawled the marathon and still beat the cut off time!Once our racers started running more people came over and things got more exciting!
We had 4 laptops and a huge tv to track our athletes, watch the live coverage, post to facebook and the Tri Zones forum, and download pictures and video.
Coach Jen was first to finish!! I can't even imagine being that fast!!
Waiting for the rest of our Tri Zoners to finish.

Everyone else was pretty close together, Red first. Shayla decided to take a video of us cheering and going crazy as Red finished.
then I had to take a break to eat dinner while we watched for Nicki to come in. Shayla had to leave and put Jeff in charge of videoing the finishes, we had a false alarm for Nicki, and the video Jeff took is pretty funny. Then we actually got to see Nicki finish!
Next was Tom
and then Peggy! although we had a false alarm for Peggy too, it's pretty tough to recognize people coming down that dark finish chute!
All our Tri Zoners were in in less than 14:30! Wow!! I had planned to be up until midnight watching but it was only 9:30 and they were all already finished!!

They all did so amazing and made it look easy! I'm sure it wasn't easy at all and I can't wait to hear all their individual stories!

Congratulations!!! You all did awesome!!!!

My fridge FULL of leftover food! Jeff and I will be eating well all week!

P-ville Century

2010-10-30T20:05:00.006-05:00

Sandra and I needed to do another long ride and I wanted to make it fun, so I decided we should do 4 laps of the Hell Ain't This Hot course and invite all our Tri Zones friends to join us. I figured if we were lucky we might get different people for each lap which would really keep it interesting.

On the way to P-ville I saw tons of police cars, fire trucks and there was traffic at 6:45 on a Saturday! I had no idea what was going on, but soon got a call from Amy B. She told me she and others were stuck in traffic because a tanker truck crashed and caught on fire- YIKES! Luckily everyone make it to P-ville, a little late, but safe. It was also super COLD! 39 degrees!! So I was bundled up like an Eskimo! Sandra and I waited until everyone looked ready to ride and then took off, assuming everyone would follow right behind us- we were wrong. We kept thinking they would catch us any minute but we never saw Tom, Amy B., Laura, or Leah. I was sad that we didn't get to ride with them, I was really looking forward to Amy, Laura and Leah's awesome company! Especially since I have never ridden with Amy or Leah and every time I ride with Laura she keeps me highly entertained!

I was cold most of the first loop but not excruciatingly so. I don't think I whined to Sandra too much. We were riding along on Manda Carlson (before the wind picked up) and I heard a noise, looked behind us and saw a dog chasing us! We sped up, but the dog kept following! At first it was scary, but soon we realized the dog had no interest in biting us, she just wanted to follow us. I didn't want to give her attention because I assumed it would make her more likely to chase bikes or even cars, so we kept going. She followed us for over 2 miles!! Later, Tom, Amy, Laura, and Leah saw her too and Tom and Carolyn decided to adopt her! How cool is that!!

We got back to the parking lot and had Kim H., Little Pam, Jeff, Clint, and his friend Brent waiting to ride with us- cool! I took off with Kim, Clint and Brent. The wind was already picking up, but at least I wasn't freezing anymore! Clint and I chatted and I told him who I was since I wasn't sure if he remembered me. He said "oh yeah, I know you, I just didn't recognize you in the ninja mask!" LOL yeah, it was that cold even on lap 2! I rode most of the first half of lap 2 with Kim and we talked all about Ironman training, then the second half I rode with Little Pam and Jeff. I told Jeff I was going to be really tired of the wind by lap 4, he replied "maybe the wind will get tired of you first!" I wish!!

For lap 3 we had Kendra, Peggy, and Jody waiting for us and Little Pam and Jeff again. I rode part of lap 3 with Kendra and Peggy and then the rest with Sandra. Sandra and I had new fun things to talk about since we hadn't ridden together in a lap and a half. I was definitely getting tired of the wind, but still having a good ride. Catherine finished up lap 3 with me.

Sandra decided she was going to have to skip out a little early to get some work done (party pooper!, but I love you anyway Sandra!!) So we decided to make "lap 4" 2 laps of Coach Jen's time trial route so that Sandra could do 1 lap, not have to ride it alone, and be finished 45 minutes or so earlier. For lap 4 we had the "dream team" of Coach Cindy, Kendra, and Elizabeth H. The Dream Team- Kendra, Elizabeth, & Coach Cindy

E-beth has a sprained ankle and was really worried about unclipping so she was super excited when I told her we switched the route to the TT loop and there were no stop signs and all right turns so no unclipping til the end! They kept me chatting and laughing the entire time and even the hills and head wind on Cameron Rd didn't seem that bad, (ok, it was still tough, but made seriously better by good company!) We decided Coach Cindy needs her own fashion TV show and episode 1 will be "Roadside Underpants", episode 2 is "Topless Chapstick", and episode 3 "Antarctic Polar Sunglasses" I know you had to be there, but it was seriously entertaining at the time! Cindy's "Antarctic Polar Sunglasses" Very fashionable!

At one point, Kendra and E-beth fell behind, when Kendra finally caught up I asked what happened, she said they slowed down on purpose to make me feel really fast! LOL! I yelled out "100 miles" when my Garmin hit 100 and they all cheered for me like only Tri Zoners can!! I ended up riding 103 miles! And I think it was my most fun century ride yet!Still smiling after 103 miles!

THANK YOU so much to everyone who came out to ride with Sandra and I today! We really, really appreciate it!! You all ROCK!!!

How Did I Get Here?

2010-10-27T14:14:00.016-05:00

An online friend of mine who will be doing Ironman Cozumel too just wrote a "How Did I Get Here" post, I thought it was a pretty cool idea- so I'm stealing it! Thanks Hassan! He also said "This is a moment I will NEVER (this is one of very few times I CAN say NEVER!) have again. I will NEVER again be 4 weeks out from my FIRST Ironman." WOW! 4 weeks!?!?! Deep Breaths!

So, how did I get here? I was never an athlete, as a young adult, I always worked out just enough to not get too overweight, I was an overweight kid and didn't want to be there again. In 2002 I was finishing grad school and had just started my first "real" job at Duckworth-Cole, Inc. I wasn't walking all over campus anymore or swimming at the A&M rec center. I needed to do something to stay in reasonable shape, so I joined Aerofit gym and started swimming a couple mornings a week. My swims coincided with the triathlon group's swims. They were all really nice (and REALLY fit) and kept trying to talk me into swimming with them. Finally I gave in and told them "ok I'll work out with you, but I'm never (that's right I said NEVER- Ha!) going to do a triathlon, that's just crazy!" I started swimming with them, then doing a few spin classes and eventually a little running. I held to my "I'm never going to do a triathlon" thinking for months, honestly I was afraid. My go to excuse became "I don't have a bike" I must have used it a few too many times, because that year for Christmas Jeff got me a bike! I didn't know whether to be happy or scared! I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was 16 or 17 and I had never ridden a bike like that! I had to learn how to shift all those gears and use the brakes (I had only ridden bikes with coaster brakes!). I had no excuses anymore and everyone in the triathlon group assumed I would do a triathlon that spring. YIKES!My first road bike, a Specialized Allez

The first ever Brazos Valley Triathlon was on April 6, 2003. It was a sprint with a 1000 meter swim, a 15.7 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run. I was scared to death I would be LAST! Turns out I was last in my age group (of 5) but far from last overall. Even though the water was only 55 degrees, the bike course was fairly hilly, and the run was partially on a trail, I had FUN and I told everyone in the tri group that I'd do sprint triathlons "but never (that's right, I said NEVER again!) anything longer because running more than 3 miles is just dumb."Running at my very first triathlon

I did the Splash Triathlon at Sea World that fall, this time I wasn't even last in my age group! In 2004 Jeff and I got married- so no races that year. In 2005 I did 2 triathlons including my first race longer than a sprint- the Galveston International Triathlon, which later became Lonestar. No races in 2006, but in 2007 I did the sprint at Lonestar and as I was running through Moody Gardens in the pouring rain I thought "This is so much FUN! I really need to race more!" I did 4 sprints that year and somehow got it in my head that I might, maybe be interested in doing a Half Ironman someday!

I signed up for the 2008 Austin Half Marathon (since the Houston half sold out) just to see if I was actually capable of running 13 miles. That was by far the hardest training I had done, all my long runs were tough and I expected the race to hurt. But somehow, my "Inner Runner" broke free during that race and I had a BLAST! I hadn't run any hills during training, but I loved running the hills and I loved the race atmosphere in Austin!Finishing my first half marathon in 2008

The Austin half gave me confidence and I signed up for Longhorn 70.3 in the fall. I also joined HRTC and met Ingrid, Del, Cassie, Kim, Matt, David, etc. and trained for Longhorn with them all spring and summer. I still had no interest in doing a full Ironman, although at least I had learned not to say Never! We talked about Ironman races a lot that summer and at the time I think Cassie was the only one who definitely wanted to do one someday. Longhorn 2008 was probably the toughest race I have ever done, but I loved it! As soon as I crossed the finish line I knew that I wanted to do an Ironman someday!Running at my first Longhorn 70.3 in 2008

Jeff and I moved to Austin in 2008 and about a week before Longhorn, I joined Tri Zones. Structured workouts and real coaching helped me a ton and I had an awesome 2009 tri season! At the end of November (after her first Ironman in Florida), Ingrid emailed me saying she and Kim were signing up for Ironman Cozumel 2010 and asked if I wanted to do it too. Since the race is over Thanksgiving weekend the subject line on the email was "Turkey Tacos!!!!" At first I said no way, but after talking with Jeff, Coach Jen, Ingrid, Cassie, Nicki, David, etc, etc! (thanks to all of you!!) I decided to go for it!!

Hard to believe that was 46 weeks ago!! So far training and racing this season has been a lot of fun. I got to do my first marathon, 2 half irons, and a few shorter races this year. When I signed up, 50 weeks seemed like such a long time, but so far it has flown by! I have a couple more long training weekends, a taper, 3.5 weeks of work, and a lot of packing to do before we leave for Cozumel and Turkey Tacos Baby!!!!

Longhorn weekend

2010-10-18T19:26:00.008-05:00

When Adrian got the new coach, he told Jeff and I that he wanted to use it as much as possible, so I suggested we take it out to Decker for Longhorn and just stay out there all weekend. He thought that was a great idea, and wanted it to be at the Tri Zones Team Tailgating area, so I got all the oks to have a huge motor home out there and Jeff and Adrian took it out there on Friday while I was still at work. I got out there around 6pm after they had done all the hard work! We picked up our race packets and within an hour the Expo area was pretty much deserted. It was really cool to be out there by ourselves, we let the dogs run and play and watched Office Space on the outdoor TV.
Saturday morning Jeff had to go to work for a few hours and Adrian and I did our short pre-race workouts. Kendra was first to show up and Julie and Sandra were just behind her. They all wanted the pancake breakfast, I knew that was a really bad idea for me and Adrian was making eggs, veggie sausage, avocado & fruit so I had that- YUM! Definitely going to be my Saturday pre-race breakfast in the future!
Kendra, Sandra, Julie, & Amy all came back after the pancake breakfast and hung out for awhile.
Kendra, Amy, & Adrian relaxing at the coach. It was a completely lazy day! We sat around in the cool coach chairs with our feet up ALL day! Most of the Tri Zoners who would be racing stopped by. The expo area stayed pretty crowded all day with people picking up packets and everything and we were just off the main walk way to the expo center. We had fun people watching all day and that definitely went both ways. Tons of people actually stopped and stared at us! At one point Adrian said "this must be how zoo animals feel" haha! Funny but true! It was so nice to not have to worry about timing packet pickup, lunch, bike check in, dinner and everything else, we were right there! When we got hungry we went inside and ate something, when it was time to exchange shirts I just walked over and did it in less than 10 minutes.

We decided to go over and check our bikes in around 4:30, I knew bike check in was open until 7, but we wanted to do it before dinner. We drove the Xterra the mile or 2 to T1 so we wouldn't have to walk all the way back. I was surprised that I got a really sweet parking spot. We were leisurely walking our bikes toward check in when some guy said "be prepared for a lecture" I said "what?" he said "for being LATE!" I was completely confused. But when we got over to check in Carolyn and all the other Tri Zoners were pointing at their watches and saying things like "it's about time!" "we wondered where you guys were!" Apparently bike check in actually closed at 4:30! I would have sworn it was 7! Guess I better read the packet more carefully in Cozumel since it won't be Carolyn and all my Tri Zones friends in charge of bike check in there!! I felt really bad because I know Carolyn and everyone had been out there ALL day and I was one of THOSE people making them stay later than they needed too- SORRY guys!

Back at the coach, we had dinner and hung out with Carolyn, Tom, Del, and Kristen, then watched the stars and played with the dogs until bedtime.
Bonzai being a lap dog
Katie being a lap dog
Connor chillin' out
Abear being silly

Longhorn 70.3 Race Report

2010-10-18T11:10:00.019-05:00

Photo by Tom Marek

This was my third year in a row to do Longhorn 70.3. Goals for this year: 1. to have fun and not get hurt, Ironman Cozumel is just 6 weeks away! 2. maybe a PR 3. if conditions are perfect and I feel great, maybe a sub 7:00. I knew 2 and 3 were both stretches especially since I didn't taper for this race. But they were still in the back of my head.

Even though we were staying in the coach at Decker we still got up early on race morning since Kristen was coming over to set up the Tri Zones tent, we still had to put stuff in T2 and I knew if we didn't get on the buses early, we'd have to wait in line forever. Julie, Sandra, & Kendra also stopped by the coach early and we all bussed over to the lake together. I was disappointed that nothing says "Longhorn" this year, it's all "IM 70.3 Austin", when I saw Julie had a Longhorn temp tatoo from last year I remembered I had some too, so Sandra and I put them on our faces. I love temporary tatoos! I got my T1 set up and had 2 hours to wait... sigh, I was in the 15th of 17 swim waves. It wasn't as cold as last year, or maybe I was just better prepared, but we found a picnic table and hung out. Coach Gina showed up fully prepared to be spectator extraordinaire! She had Tri Zones temp tatoos so Bonnie, Jess, and I (the only ones left to start) put those on too. Finally it was time to head down to the water.swim courseswim start photo by Shayla Neris

I knew the first few minutes of the swim wouldn't be great since I didn't do a swim warm up, but after just a couple of minutes I started to feel good and pass people. The entire swim seemed fairly crowded, I guess we had a big wave. I think the only really annoying thing that happened was someone kicked me hard in the calf, I actually have a bruise from it today. Otherwise I felt really good on the swim. Swim time- 41:45. I never saw Shayla when I got out of the water, but she obviously saw me and shot a great series of pictures of me getting wetsuit stripped!Photo by Shayla Neris
Photo by Shayla Neris
Photo by Shayla Neris
Photo by Shayla Neris
I ran up to the wetsuit strippers, didn't see E-beth H. so just laid down in front of some guy. Then as I was running off with my wetsuit in my hands, E-beth yelled and waved at me! Saw Jeff as I was running up the hill too and he got this picture. Into the T area and I realized my feet were a muddy mess so I took the extra time to try to wipe off at least some of the mud before I put my shoes and bike stuff on and headed out, got to see Jeff again as I was leaving. T1- 5:17 Bike course, photo by Shayla Neris
The first part of the bike course is the hilly loop around Decker lake, I've ridden it quite a bit and know what to expect. The only part I was worried about was the steep little hill after the turn off Lindell (aka Little Tard) It seems like there are always people walking, crashing, and weaving up that hill, but there are advantages to being one of the last waves to start! There were only a few people on the hill when I rode up it and no one was doing anything crazy- nice! By the end of the Decker loop I was happy with my pace and confident I could PR the bike if all continued to go well. My legs started to feel a little tired on the hills on Taylor, but I wasn't surprised since I did a 100 mile ride last weekend, and I still felt good knowing I had some good flat sections coming up. Unfortunately, it ended up being one of those days where the wind picked up about halfway through my ride, so I got a very slight tailwind for the majority of the first half of the ride and then a much stronger headwind for most of the second half. By the time I turned on to Webberville Road and felt the headwind there I knew I wasn't going to PR the bike course, but I also knew I wasn't too far off and if I kept pushing on the bike and had a good run I could still PR the race. So I pushed pretty hard and passed quite a few people in the last 15 miles. Bike time- 3:44:11, 4 minutes slower than last year (when I had pretty favorable winds).

Nutrition note- I drank 3 full bottles of Infinit, which really surprised me, I thought it would be hard to drink enough since it wasn't very hot, but with the wind and drier air I was really thirsty.
Photo by Shayla Neris
While I was on the bike course all our awesome Tri Zones volunteers and spectators headed over to the Team Tailgating area.

I tried to hurry through T2, still hoping for a good run and a PR, I did have to put on compression socks so 4:35 isn't too bad. As I ran out of T2 I saw Jeff and told him my bike was "just ok" Actually I had a good ride and I had fun, I was just a little disappointed to have not beaten last year's time.

The run this year was only 2 loops and would include the grassy trail section that was left out last year. I loved the 3 loop course last year because I got to run through the team tailgating area 3 times. The team tailgating area was just after the run start.
Photo by Tom Marek
I LOVE the Tri Zones team tailgating area! Best part of the entire race was running through, high fiving everyone and feeling like a total rock star! That's definitely the Spirit of Tri Zones right there!!
I'm actually laughing as I run just past the team tailgating area! Photo by Tom Marek Photo by Tom Marek
Who wouldn't laugh after running through that!?! Thanks SO much to everyone who came out to spectate, you all seriously made my day!
Photo by Tom Marek
One more of the Team Tailgating area. It wasn't just Tri Zone out there, Kathleen and some of the other T3ers and lots of strangers cheered for me too. Then I ran out of the Expo area toward the park, got to see Julie and Sandra on my first lap. I also saw Bonnie and Jess finishing the bike and cheered like crazy for them- so much that a few other runners looked at me like I was crazy! I really just concentrated on running aid station to aid station, there weren't many spectators by the park so it was great when the volunteers cheered and encouraged us! The grassy trail section was tougher for me, it's a nice change of surface, but it slows me down a little and especially this year I was worried about twisting an ankle. I was happy to get back on the pavement and be heading back toward the team tailgating area!
Photo by Tom Marek
Photo by Tom Marek
While I was out running some of the Tri Zones spectators/volunteers needed a well deserved break. Most of them were out there all day Saturday for bike check-in and back out by 5:00am to volunteer in T1 on race morning! Thanks so much! You guys are all AWESOME!!!

As I finished my first lap I knew that if I could even split the 2 laps, I would PR the race, but I also knew that would be really tough to do.
Photo by Emmie Carrigan
Back through the team tailgating area for lap 2 and high fives with Coach Jen and Kristen!
Shayla even took a video as I was running by on lap 2!
Photo by Emmie Carrigan
Adrian came out on the course to cheer for me on lap 2. He was insanely loud and crazy! I'm pretty sure that guy in front of me is looking back wondering "Did that obnoxiously loud noise actually come from a human??"Photo by Tom Marek

I ran pretty hard on lap 2 hoping I could make the PR. I saw Kendra almost finished and Bonnie and Jess finishing lap 1. I even tried to keep up my pace through the grassy trail section. By mile 11 I knew it was going to be really close. Near mile 12 Coach Gina came out on the course and ran with me up a big hill, I SO appreciated that- perfect timing Coach Gina! Thanks! I told her I was so close to my PR, it could go 1 minute either way.

As I ran into the arena I knew I was going to miss my PR by a few seconds, but it was still so much fun crossing the finish line! At the finish I knew I had really given everything I had, I couldn't talk, I couldn't reach down and pull off my timing chip or anything! Jeff was waiting for me at the finish, I told him I just missed a PR and then I started having a little bit of an asthma attack, luckily I had my inhaler in my Fuel Belt so not a big deal.

Run time was 2:39:57 and overall time was 7:15:45- just 49 seconds slower than last year!

At first I was a little disappointed about just missing my PR, but first Jeff and then everyone at the team tent was super impressed that I was so close since I didn't taper for this race, there was more wind on the bike, and the run was a little tougher with the trail section. I quickly decided they were right!
rehashing the race with Coach Jen, I think this is when she was telling me I'm a bad ass! Photo by Emmie Carrigan
Happy with my medal! Photo by Emmie Carrigan

I really love Longhorn, it might be my favorite race! Post race I cheered for the rest of the Tri Zoners, drank Kristen's sangria, and enjoyed hanging out with everyone. Later, Kendra, Del, Adrian, Jeff and I ate LOTS of pizza and Dr. Pepper at my house! Every single Tri Zoner had a great race this year- congrats to all of you! And again THANK YOU so much to everyone who came out to spectate!

7 weeks to Ironman Cozumel!!

2010-10-11T16:19:00.002-05:00

Actually it's 6 weeks and 5 days now!

This past weekend was a pretty serious training weekend. I guess you know it's serious when there are no pictures from the entire weekend! Sorry!

Friday was an open water swim at Lake P-ville. It was supposed to be 2 loops of 1.2 miles to make a 2.4 mile swim, but the loop ended up being 1.0 mile. I got there a little late after work and quickly realized the water was Cold! Then I realized Kendra (who can handle cold water better than anyone else I know) and I (the biggest wimp about cold on the planet) were the only ones without wetsuits! I was not happy about it, but I got in and once I got going I was cold but not miserable. I also didn't eat enough for lunch so I was hungry before I even started swimming. Kendra and I swam the first loop together, then she got out and I started loop 2. I had a few issues with my feet cramping but that's no surprise since I was both cold and hungry. My Garmin beeps every mile so I knew the course wasn't quite 1.2 miles so I planned to add on a little extra to loop 2. I was just starting my "extra mileage" when Carolyn kayaked over to me and said "time to head in, you've only got a few minutes of daylight left" I figured that might happen, so I headed straight in to the beach and ended up with a 2.1 mile swim in 1:20, at that pace I would have finished 2.4 in 1:32, I'll take it considering I was cold and starving the entire swim. The minute I got out of the water I was FREEZING! Red gave me a Power bar to eat on the way home and I cranked the heat in the Xterra.

Saturday morning Del and I got up early for the Outlaw Trail 100 in Round Rock. This was my third century ride of the season and my toughest. I think it was the hills that made it tougher for me. I know, I know... "Round Rock isn't hilly" but compared to Katy and Corpus, Round Rock is definitely hilly, there were lots of rolling hills through out the ride, nothing too long or steep, but still hills. The road surfaces were pretty bad for most of the ride, lots of chip seal (and lots of it was the really bad kind), some roads with big pot holes and gravel patches, and even a couple miles of gravel road- really?? YUCK!! It definitely didn't help that I had a small saddle sore going into the ride. I was hoping it wouldn't bother me, but by mile 2 it was already hurting. I really felt every inch of chip seal on the route! I even got chased by a Doberman! I was riding ahead when Scott had a mechanical issue and the dog came running after me, luckily I was able to out run him, or more likely he just lost interest.

But even with some issues I still had fun most of the ride. It was pretty cold in the morning but by about 9am it had turned into a gorgeous day to ride. Sandra, Scott, and I rode mostly together so I got to have great company for a lot of the ride. I think my favorite part of the ride was riding over the Granger Dam and looking out at the water. Near the end, Carolyn drove out to check on me, she found me at just the right time, I was afraid I had taken a wrong turn and would do circles around and around the park and never get to the finish! But she assured me the finish was just ahead. I rode across the finish and Tom & Del cheered for me! I was SO happy to get off my bike and be finished! 101 miles! Of course Sandra and I still had to run for 45 minutes, but I felt pretty good on the run. My legs were really tired and sore by the time we got home, so I made sure it was compression socks and feet up the rest of the day!

When I woke up, I knew Sunday's run would be painful, my legs were pretty sore. Sandra came to my house and we ran my 7 mile neighborhood loop twice. Sandra hadn't run it before so she enjoyed seeing the cute houses, nice gardens, cyclists and other runners, including Catherine and Julie H.! The last few miles were tough for me, my legs were really hurting, but I made it! So Del and I celebrated with brunch at Trudy's! I knew per Coach Jen's instructions I had to run another 30 minutes "later in the afternoon" I decided I was going to run at 5pm, and I was dreading it! Jeff and I went out for Amy's ice cream with some friends we hadn't seen in ages, which was really cool. When we got home it was time for me to run again...sigh. I talked Jeff into coming with me on his bike but I still wasn't excited about a short run that I was sure was going to hurt! I took off and the first few steps hurt a little but then, shockingly, I felt pretty good...then I felt even better! Wow! The 30 minutes went by quickly and my legs felt better running than they had walking around my house an hour earlier! The only issue I had was that the Amy's root beer float was not sitting too well, but no surprise there.

This was definitely my toughest training weekend so far, and tied for longest with the Corpus weekend. Hopefully it will help me feel stronger physically and mentally for Ironman Cozumel! Coming up this weekend- Longhorn 70.3!